Leadership Training

Leadership training is essential for ministry. It’s not only for the purpose of running a ministry we’d like to start up, it’s connected to discipleship. Our goal is to develop mature Christians who model and teach Christian living in any context. Just in case you missed it, this is a massive investment to make.

Most churches invest for NEED. If there is a gap on the roster then we fill it.  There is no guarantee of training and we don’t need to divert our eyes from preaching, pastoring or administration.

It’s incredibly short-term.

A conscious decision must be made to regularly invest in people. That requires time and intentional input.

1) Time.

I think ministers should be meeting with someone every day. To pull this off we need to schedule it.

Decide on whether it’s a breakfast, lunch, afternoon or dinner. Call people and organise it.

2) Intentional input

There are 3 ingredients that develop leaders:

* Knowledge

This is generally the area most ministers feel confident. You either work through a book of the Bible or work on systematics. Can I say that I think if that’s out goal then we’ve fallen short?

The goal of knowledge is to help them develop a Christian worldview. When they realise that Jesus is Lord over all, that a day is set for His return and that this time is for calling people to follow Christ, it shapes the way you live. A Christian worldview doesn’t come naturally. You have to teach it. And you can teach it by going through a book of the Bible or teaching systematic theology. What’s important is that you remember the goal

*Experience

Archie Poulos has a motto- take someone with you. To be honest, I don’t do this enough. But when you take someone with you they get to experience the joy of ministry. They also experience ministry on a larger scale than some entry point activity and realise the importance of prayer.

* Coaching

Proving feedback, encouragement and skills develops confidence that people need. Coaching also keeps people focused on the “Why?” of ministry. It’s easy to get caught up in activity. We need to remember the gospel of grace that changes lives and fuels our ministry. Our job is to cultivate grace as the motivation and source of our ministry.

So these are the key elements to establish leadership training. More nuts and bolts are to come.