I recently exchanged some correspondence via Evangelicals Now’s letters to the editor with John Brand, the Principal of Edinburgh Bible College). You can read his original letter here, my response here and his comeback here. I was tempted to respond in detail and in fact, drafted something but realised there was little benefit in a letter war where views were no doubt already entrenched. Suffice it to say, I’m far from convinced that he engaged the issues raised by me and others. I might also observe that if you are 68, retired from pastoral ministry and write in your capacity as a Bible College principal then yes you are an elder statesman writing from a parachurch perspective.
However, what I think will be more beneficial will be to think a bit more about two related issues and try to offer some positive thoughts. So, in this article I want to talk more about how we train people in church contexts in this article and how we support revitalisation which I will cover in a further article.
I’m starting with training because I’ve been doing some further thinking on this. I think that a lot of our thinking and methodology regarding in church training starts from the assumption that we identify people as potential leaders, that ideally those who are going to be paid leaders and called pastors should go to Theological College to be taught how to do that but that there are others who for various reasons cannot do that so we need to provide for them. Additionally, we identify people as unpaid leaders or elders and sometimes we think “should they get some training too.”
Now, I think there is a place for identifying people, appointing them and giving training relevant to the appointment. However, it risks still focusing on the “blokes worth watching” approach and thinking of things in terms of a pipeline into ministry, the kind of approach that I think leads to ministry trainees who go to Theological College before taking up assistant pastors’ jobs and then senior pastors’ posts. I am also not convinced by the model of taking people out of college and giving them assistant’s jobs then promoting them to their first senior post and sometimes after that to step up to the big church role. I’m of the view that if you appoint someone as an assistant then they will learn how to be an assistant. They can only learn to do the job of being a pastor by being a pastor. That may be an area where John Brand and I might have something in common. My advice to someone fresh out of Oak Hill or Union would not be to get a three year assistantship at one of the big churches but to go and take up a post at a church where you are the sole staff worker. Thar’s perhaps getting us off track.
My point here is about how we train in house. What I think the emphasis should be more of is that we seek to train the whole church so that every member is equipped and growing in their gifts in order to build up the body. That incidentally is one reason why I don’t think your priority Is to preach three sermons a week. Rather, there should be a diet which provides for the whole church what they all need together and enables additional opportunities to learn and grow.
So, every church member needs to be rooted in God’s Word. Make sure that you are doing that through your preaching and Bible studies. Let’s call that Biblical studies. Find ways to supplement what you can’t cover in talks and studies with articles, blog posts, podcasts etc. Don’t worry about getting a wider international readership. Write and speak for your own church first of all. We shouldn’t just be thinking about Bible knowledge. Sermons, talks and discussions should lead to application. You can call that pastoral studies if you like. All church members should exercise pastoral care through one another ministry.
I also think it is helpful for the whole church to gain an awareness of doctrine. Again I’d use a mix of blogs, podcasts, teaching days, theology breakfasts etc to do this.
I do think there’s a place for further training and growth in gifts. In a charismatic context like ours I’d want to see training around prophecy. It’s helpful to have training around worship and music too. What I also think it is helpful to do is to offer training around Bible Communication. Notice, I call it that and not “preaching”. This is useful for those leading worship, kids clubs and Bible studies too. I’d also give time for more detailed training around pastoral care. Finally, we want to help people with evangelism and apologetics.
The key thing is this. There would be a lot of stuff that everyone would get. Most of everything else would be available to all. You would let people opt in if they wanted to learn more about how to give pastoral care or how to study and communicate God’s Word or share the Gospel etc. There wouldn’t be any promise or expectation that this would lead to a specific role. You wouldn’t be being prepared to be an elder or youthworker. However, it would help identify where people’s interests and priorities lie. This would also give opportunity for people to test and develop gifting.
The result would also be that instead of looking out for one or two people worth watching, you’d be looking at everyone and seeing how they might be able to serve best. This would naturally include identifying people who could serve as elders in your church, go on to full time pastoral ministry in another church or your own, head up a church plant or serve on an overseas mission field.
Faithroots 