Seminary is where my head got filled with facts. Hinson Church is where I learned the skills of ministry. From the one school I received a degree. But it was the other that I would call a ministry prep school.
When I went to seminary I had as my goal to prepare to become better equipped to pastor, to shepherd, to help people. I didn’t have a desire to become a theologian, to be trained to be a professor. There is a saying about grad school. If you can’t do it, then teach it. I had no desire to fall into that trap.
So I chose a shorter program than most, one that would allow me to study New Testament Greek. I avoided the M.Div program and the Th.M programs, because I didn’t want to study homiletics and Hebrew and a whole host of doctrinal courses that I was convinced would only sit on the shelf in the back of my brain and be of little use in helping people with real problems in a real world. That’s just me, though.
While at seminary, back in the 70’s, we attended Hinson Church. In the three short years that we were there I plugged my self into as many programs and training situations as I possibly could. Many of them Carol was right there along side me, even though she was finishing up her nursing degree. We were in the choir for awhile. We helped with the discipleship classes for a while. Then I went through the evangelism training program. Then we worked with the Junior high program. Yes, junior high. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!
Many of those pastors I would consider my mentors – Larry, Brian, Dick, and Dave. I learned from them the heart and how-to of ministering to people.
Perhaps one of the least understood concepts of church leadership is the art of mentoring -- leaders reproducing themselves in others and trusting them, encouraging them, empowering them, and then releasing them. Rather than preparing others to serve, to teach, and to reach out, too many pastors do it themselves. And then wonder why new leaders don’t develop. Why they are so burnt out. Why church growth is so elusive.
“It was he (Christ) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up…” (Ephesians 4:12)
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Amen!
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite books is "The Master Plan of Evangelism" by Robert E. Coleman. He talks a lot about self-replicating discipleship where we can learn to follow Jesus' example of growing disciples who can extend and further his ministry and teach others to do the same!