By Apostle Andre Pelser  

 

Protocol begins at home. A husband loves his wife, the wife submits to her husband, the children honour the parents and obey them in the Lord, the parents raise the children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

A family could use mealtimes to eat together and to have fellowship, especially if there are guests in the home. It is not advisable to discuss problems at meal times. It is not good for digestion!

Hospitality begins at home. Every home should be able to harbour a guest from time to time. One practices hospitality. It is good to have your home to yourself at times otherwise it can become exasperating to always have people in one’s house, unless of course, they lodge there and pay for their rooms. Students who come to Bible College need a home to open up to them so that they can have a place to stay while studying the word. It is also an excellent way of making disciples.

The father and mother of the home should set the tone for kids and guests regarding prayer and the word. They should be known as men and women of prayer and Bible study.

There should be certain house rules that help with the distribution of labour in a home. Everyone should know what is required of them. A meeting of all who live at home, now and again, is a good way of keeping the house rules. If someone should come and look after your home when you are away on holiday the house rules can be written out and posted on the wall in the kitchen.

There are times when the garbage van comes around, there is electricity bills to be paid, mail to be collected, alarms to be set, neighbours to take into consideration, emergency phone numbers, animals to be fed and a certain standard to be maintained in every home.

Homes should be open to become Harvest Household home where other people can come once a week to study the Word together and to have fellowship as well as do outreach together. In other words, every home is a small church!

 

Any CEO in a company is respected for position in the company. If a staff member talks to a junior staff member and the CEO walks past and gives an instruction, the staff member should ask the junior staff member just to excuse him/her for the moment to hear what the CEO has to say.

Approaching a CEO also has its protocol. One does not barge into a CEO’s office or home. Make an appointment first. Be briefed on how to address the CEO and how to speak, what to speak about, and learn how the CEO likes to operate. This shows respect. 

When going to an Ambassador of a nation, you are briefed by the secretary about the meeting before you go into the Ambassador’s office. You are given a certain time and after that time has expired you are ushered out of the office.

Do not overstay your time in the presence of a CEO they have much else to do and to take care of.

When in public address senior elders by their respectful title. If a friendship has developed over the years you may, with their permission, use a first name basis in conversation. This is a privilege and not the norm.

CEO’s should also treat employees with respect. Respect breeds respect. There is time for fun and games, but sometimes it is necessary to be serious about things. Learn the difference.

Do whatever you do as if unto the Lord. This is the best advice.

 

Ok, here we go! We had a staff meeting, family meeting and HIM meeting about protocol and it is a whole new field of discovery! There is much more to it than what we originally realised.

I think it is important to get it right now before the ‘Harvest’ that was prophesied by Nola.

Modern technology has opened up wide fields of communication and we need to set the desired protocol there as well.

For instance: we do not want other ministers to ‘pastor’ our assembly via internet, facebook or SMS’s. The ones who lay their lives down for them have that privilege. So it is something you will have to taper from your side as well. Minister to the ones under your concern. When you are here you can prophesy, but not constantly via the media. That has to pass through permission from area leaders or senior pastors.

There was a minister that caused a lot of upheaval in our church and I think the Protocol will eradicate such future disasters. He was obnoxious and came to disturb the church so that he could become their counsellor. He got everyone’s details and gave his details to everyone. Some members were heavily influenced by him.

In one counrty I visited they do not allow visiting ministers to hand out their business cards nor their email addresses to anyone – without proper submission to authorities. They do not allow visiting ministers to collect email addresses or facebook addresses from people in the church.

When I told the Minister that I like the idea he smiled and asked me, ‘Andre, how do you think we learned all of this? Through much pain and suffering!’

When I ministered in there I got a protocol statement giving me proper boundaries for ministry. Please don’t try to give a new revelation but preach Jesus Christ. You can only sell your books where you minister and not have it on display all the time. So you need to pack it up and take it with you every time. We will accommodate you but every offering taken will not go to you but to the HQ to pay for your accommodation. You may eat with the staff but you are not to discuss any ministry issues or counsel any of them without permission from the Pastor.

When you preach somewhere or hold a seminar you will please submit to the person in charge of the meeting. We have trained them to do what is required. If they are younger than you, it does not matter. If we trust them then you will have to submit to them. If they ask you to do something or not to do something, please comply. They know what is required.

You cannot attend any staff meetings or staff prayer meetings. They are for the staff.

We believe that you came to bless us and hopefully we can be a blessing to you as well. May our relationship be a long term relationship that is mutually beneficial.

Every staff member knows their responsibility. Please don’t interfere by prophesying anything else to them to confuse them. Do what you have to do while you are here and things will be fine. Do not overstep the mark of authority.

Someone will be assigned to you to assist you, to help you with transport or to answer questions you might have. If they cannot help they will refer it to someone who has more authority.

May the Lord bless you and give you more open doors and may you open doors for our ministry as well.

 

It is important to have a financial management system in place. One person should be responsible for the finances in the end. It is necessary to have a good treasurer who is also a book keeper. In apostolic circles we always work in teams. So a finance manager or treasurer should have a team of helpers. The protocol of handling finances in a church should be written down so that anyone else can step in and follow instructions.

There should be a regular reporting back to authority. Financial matters should be handled with the utmost care and accuracy. Every cent should be accounted for. The church should have an accountant (preferably outside the church) and an auditor to ‘give Caesar what is Caesar’s’.