MEET THE PASTORS OF WORLD VICTORY

Outpour Magazine: Tell us a little bit about yourselves and World Victory Church.

Pastor Shandi Starks: We are Bishop and Shandi Starks. We have been married for 23 years and have been pastoring for 18 years. We have five daughters and in addition to ministry and parenting, we have a home-based business that I started 14 years ago. We’re really passionate about that and I fully immerse myself into marketplace ministry. And we do just about everything together and he supports me like I support him. We started in a small rural church out in Pleasant Garden called Anderson Grove. In less than two years, we packed that place out and moved to Fisher Park downtown [Greensboro]. We were busting at the seams there and that was when we merged [with another predominately white church]. It was my husband’s dream and desire - his vision - to always have a multicultural church. And God did it….

Bishop Adrian Starks: ….in a most unexpected way.

SS: Yes. Our children were at a Christian school in the building where we are currently. [At the time] we were looking for a church - we wanted to build - but the Lord just gave me this vision one day that this was going to be our property. We had no idea at the time that they were looking to downgrade and go to a smaller building. Another church was actually renting the building but I just knew the Lord told me that this was where we were going to be. I would even find myself laying hands and praying when I was at the school. And one day Adrian had a letter in his hand, points to me and says “now what have you been saying about that church?” And I was like “why, what happened?” (laughs). He says “now tell me again what the Lord showed you about that being our property?” So we found out that the deal with the other two churches had fallen through and the building was on the market. Now this was when the 2009 [financial] crash happened and churches were the last places that were receiving any type of loan. Long story short, the Pastor came to my husband and said, “I know a way we can work around the bank situation. If yall will assume the church and the mortgage, this will be yours.”

OM: Wow! Look at God!

AS: Yes, it was an interesting way of achieving a goal - multiple goals - that this one decision was bringing to fruition. Isn’t it like God when He says “my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9) to do things in a most unexpected way. So we merged the churches and instantaneously we became a multicultural church beyond what we had been on both sides. The other pastor stayed on for seven years and then he retired. And we are still in that facility. The school did not survive beyond a three year window, as it too was facing some challenges. But I’ve always felt that the Lord had a calling for our church to the educational sector. We’ve always had a number of teachers, collegiate level teachers, superintendents, assistant superintendents, and it’s always been a passion of mine to have a school. So even when I had to make the tough decision to close the school because financially it would not be feasible to continue to operate, I still felt like we were called to education. And two years ago we started a charter school. That school has done well and we are going to start a second one in two more years. I believe that this is a space that this particular church is called to fill in the community. I’ve had numerous conversations with people who’ve said that the church has to be more than just Sunday morning. And I agree a thousand percent. They see our church as unusual, doing things in a space that many churches don’t go. While it may not be the pathway that another church should go in, I do believe that the church is called to impact the community in tangible ways, well beyond Sunday morning alone.

OM: You mentioned many things here - multiculturalism, which is what heaven will look like. And affecting the community - “we were created for good works.” When we get so caught up in “this is our church” we forget that we - as the body - are called to be salt and light and affect the community and those around us, outside the “building.”

SS: Right. And we’ll be very candid and say that it’s our desire to be multicultural but it has been a challenge. But God’s heart is still our heart. And we are able to be a bridge and connectors elsewhere in the city, community and in our business. It is still the most challenging place to do it in the church.

AS: One of the things that I’ve learned over these years is the heart of God is not racially based. The bible says “there’s neither Jew nor Greek” (Gal. 3:28). But the children of God don’t have it as clear as God does. And a lot of non-brown and black Christians struggle with submitting to non-white leadership. Yet when we reverse that, we as people of color are very open and willing and have demonstrated strong capacity to submit in

the name of Christ to leadership of different ethnicities and colors. And I believe that in this end times season that this is going to be one of the indicators that Christ is ready to unleash tremendous revival, when we begin to see that reversed; when people will be spirit led and humble themselves no matter what the leader looks like, who has been anointed and called to lead His end-time church.

OM: Bishop, the mission for your ministry is “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Please talk to us more about your mission and what it looks like to be “prepared for the Lord” today?

AS: This is taken directly from Luke 1:17b - the Lord is saying I’m coming back for my bride and I want you to make ready my people to be prepared. If you look in scripture, you’ll find the theme of preparation in so many different places. But one most notably is in Exodus the 19th chapter where God is dealing with Moses, saying I need you to prepare the people. He told him actually a few chapters before, when they left Goshen. Why? Because tomorrow He was getting ready to do great signs and wonders in their midst. He was going to deliver them. And then in that particular chapter 19, God tells Moses to prepare them because He is getting ready to visit them at Mount Sinai. So the idea of us preparing before a wonderful move of God is continually repeated throughout the Old and New Testament scriptures. And I think that is the call of the church. In 1 Corin. 12:11, God is giving gifts to men severally as He wills. He’s made some to be apostles, and others pastors, teachers and evangelists for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry until we all come into the unity of the faith and become mature (Eph. 4:11- 13). And so the call upon the church is to that of preparation. People are not invited to come to church to just exist and be entertained. They are supposed to come into the body of Christ in order that they might be prepared to do a work and to be called into the kingdom eternally.

OM: Pastor Shandi, can you talk more about World Victory’s vision of how people can use their “God-given gifts and talents to help everyone become victorious,” and for the edification of others, even outside of the church walls?

SS: This is my passion. I love helping people not only discover and find their gifts but also equip them and activate them because in Eph. 4 that my husband was just talking about, it talks about the body being fitly joined together and every joint supplies (Eph. 4:16). And I never knew that. For so long I thought that certain gifts were for certain people or that the gifts were for the five-fold [ministry]. But my passion is to teach those in the pews that you have the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. It resides in all of us. So we all have gifts and when we come together as a body….like I have a hip and a knee issue in the physical. And one of the reasons why my hip is like this is because my knee is not supporting me the way it needed to. And so I have a little bit of a limp. This is exactly what happens in the body of Christ when [people’s] joint isn’t supplying. That’s why you have a bunch of limping churches because people are not operating effectively in their gifts. God has something for each of us to do. And most of us have more than one [gift]. The bible says that “He gives them severally as He wills” (1 Corin. 12:11). We show people how to use them and not just in the church. Yes, we should use our gifts in church to edify, but I love showing people their gifts in the marketplace or outside of the church. If everybody starts operating in their gifts, there won’t be any need that’s not met. Unfortunately the church isn’t doing what it is called to do fully because one, some pastors don’t want people to have gifts that are stronger than theirs. This is one of the things that I’ve always said about my husband - one reason we have so many women ministers in our church is because he believes that God can use everybody. I mean He used a donkey in the Old Testament (Num. 22:28). My husband doesn’t care if someone sings better than him. He has a beautiful voice. I remember talking to our worship leader, who I could tell was holding back. I told him, “why are you not doing what you are capable of doing?” And he said that in other churches he had been suppressed - like “you can use your gift, but only this much.” And I had to tell him that if you do your best, it might take [Bishop] up a level. You are to use your gift and use it fully! This is not a competition. And that’s why so many people, especially women, feel suppressed. That’s a problem in the body. Another reason that people don’t fully use their gifts is because they don’t really know who they are and what God has called them to. So they end up allowing the devil to stir up jealousy and envy. But if you knew who you really were, you wouldn’t be envious of my gift because God doesn’t put rank on them. It doesn’t matter if you are ministering to the parking lot or you are ministering in the pulpit. It’s all important to God.

OM: You both are well-known and sought after leaders in your community and have a heart for developing leaders in the church and in the body of Christ. Can you please help us understand the role of leadership in the church; how to develop leaders in the body of Christ; and why “a true leader is more interested in the people they lead than themselves.”

AS: The reason why that quote is there - I shared this in a sermon. The fact of the matter is senior leaders are called, by God, to develop other leaders. And in doing that you are never diminished. If you look at the life and relational dynamics between Saul and David, you see the most dysfunction that was completely contrary to the heart of God. Saul was afraid of David taking his place. And that’s how many leaders lead. David only wanted to serve. David had no appreciation that God was going to use him to ultimately replace Saul. But Saul understood that God had rejected him and therefore he loathed David. He tried to kill David. For some [leaders], they may not be trying to take your life but they certainly want to kill your gift. This happens when [leaders] are broken, out of the will of God, and are completely thinking about self. As my wife just alluded to, there is nothing that anybody who I am leading will be able to do to take away from my gift. The bible says “the gifts and the calling are without repentance” (Rom. 11:29). You didn’t give me the gift; it was God that gave me the gift. So as long as I am pleasing Him, I don’t have to worry about you.

SS: We are supposed to be fruitful and multiply in everything. So a leader that is not fruitful and multiplying is barren.

AS: Paul says that “there are many teachers but not many fathers” (1 Corin. 4:15). He’s showing a distinction between two tremendous functions in a community. You need teachers but you also need fathers. They don’t serve the same role but they are working to bring underlings into their maturity, into their full expression. God gives children to parents to raise them, and parents entrust their children to teachers to teach them. Ultimately, we are trying to get those kids to be all that they can be. But a father is supposed to do something different than what a teacher is supposed to do. It’s to leave a legacy. The bible says that a good man, a good father “leaves an inheritance for his children’s children” (Prov. 13:22). If you look back at the story of Saul and David, Saul took David from his father. He was saying to Jesse, if you give him to me, I’ll love him like you do; I’ll bless him like you do. In other words, I’ll father him. But instead what he did was he tried to kill him. And that’s because he was worried about himself. A person that’s leaving an inheritance lf h ’ l i i h i is never focused on themselves alone. They understand that I have been blessed with all that I have but I can never eat it all myself. That’s where we see Boaz. Boaz told all of his workers - don’t glean the field entirely (Ruth 2:16). You must always leave something behind for the ones who are coming behind you. That’s why a leader can’t be focused solely on themselves.

OM: Pastor you posted something on Facebook recently that I grabbed a hold onto: You said “If we are going to fulfill our ultimate calling, we cannot be distracted by everything that God and other people are doing. God is doing wonderful things, but it’s not possible for us to be involved in all of them! You must know what is for you.” Wow! That spoke directly to my heart. Can you speak more about that?

SS: Comparison is the thief of joy. Especially in this digital age when we can peer into other people’s lives. We’ve got to know what God has called us to do. Scripture says “all things that are lawful are not expedient” (1 Corin. 10:23). One of the biggest ways that the enemy robs us is when we are focused on somebody else’s blessing and can’t even see what God is doing with us.

AS: Focusing on the will of God for somebody else’s life.

SS: Yes, yes! And especially for women, who are driven and high achievers - we can allow the enemy to pervert our ambition. God gives us a desire to succeed and do well; but when we use it for the wrong purpose, it becomes perverted and a tool in the hand of the enemy. You’ve got to know what’s good for you because everything isn’t expedient. And it will

get us off course. I’ve learned how to say no more because if it’s not in line with the things that God has for me - and just because I can do it doesn’t mean I’m supposed to. It is a trap, especially in the social media world. I just really believe that anything that God gives us, it is our duty to steward it and steward it well. We can’t be so anxious for the “more” and not take care of what we have.

OM: Let’s talk a bit about worship. Why is worship still essential in the life of every believer?

SS: It makes us look up and look inward. It keeps our eyes focused on the right things. Sometimes when I pray, I just get so overwhelmed that I go into worship and I pray in the spirit. It’s like a direct connection to God. And that’s when I hear the Lord speak to me more. In prayer, sometimes I have an agenda (laughs). But in worship I can focus on the main thing.

AS: The objective of worship is to open you up. Look in Ezekiel 28 where it talks about the physiological attributes of Lucifer and everything that is in him. He was a worship leader. And worship opens you up - there is an opportunity for what is inside of you to bless the Lord. And what is in you that doesn’t bless the Lord becomes exposed and released. That’s why it’s so powerful. Many people don’t understand that and they reject or run away from [worship] when actually that’s what God wants more. And for those that say, just give me the Word, read Psalm 119. If you understand David’s posture, he uses worship to approach the Word, melding the two: the Word and worship.

OM: And lastly, Bishop in a recent sermon you talk about the need for the church to “wake up” and help those who have fallen asleep in the body. What did you mean by that and what is God saying to His people right now during this particular season?

AS: God is inviting the church to wake up; He calls us multiple times “Oh sleeper.” Or that we are drunken with the wine of the world. In one sense we are asleep at the wheel and in another we are asleep because we are inebriated with the intoxicants of the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). God is calling us to wake up because the encouragement is to be sober and alert. Look at the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25). The reason that the five were commended was because they were prepared versus the others who at the last minute were trying to get prepared. But all of them were asleep and they had to wake up to answer the call. The combination of preparation and alertness is something that every believer should never underestimate because Paul writes to the church of Thessalonica and says that even though some of us die, we’re not asleep in the same context as the world sleeps. In that it’s talking about literal death. Even when we die, we don’t die the same - in the context of anticipation and expectation. People who are asleep are not waiting with an expectation. And that’s how you draw a line of distinction between the believer and unbeliever. We invite the church to “wake up” - to come out of your stupor, come out of your slumber, come out of your intoxication - and be sober and alert. See and focus on the things that God would have us to see. Isaiah 62:6 says “I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem...you who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest.” That’s saying we have forsaken sleep because of the watchful expectation and commissioning of the God who’s faithful. The church must do some things that it has not been doing; the church has got to respond - the many members fitly joined together.

SS: It is our time, as Isaiah 60:1 states “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.” This is the hour that the church has been made for - to be light in the darkness. We all have to do our part. -OM “We invite the church to ‘wake up’... See and focus on the things that God would have us to see...The church must do some things that it has not been doing; the church has got to respond - the many members fitly joined together.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT WORLD VICTORY, BISHOP ADRIAN & SHANDI STARKS, AND VIEW THEIR LATEST SERMONS AT: WVICC.ORG

FOLLOW THEM ON YOUTUBE AND FACEBOOK.

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