Regardless of
position (how high or how low)
tasks (how minor or how major)
experience (how long or how short)
training (how prepared or how unprepared)
Regardless … we all have something to learn. None of us have arrived … in our personal walks or in our ministry service.
“Not that I have already obtained this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” –the Apostle Paul (Phil. 3:12)
Perhaps we resist training everyone because of past reactions. People don’t seem interested. They don’t attend. They don’t need one more thing to do.
Not interested? Perhaps they aren’t finding it relevant and therefore lack a reason to be interested. When we use a one-size-fits-all approach, meeting the needs of ministry workers is hit or miss.
Don’t attend? Perhaps the time doesn’t suit. Perhaps they find it hard to sit through a meeting. When we fail to provide alternative means of training, gaining their participation is an uphill battle.
Too busy? Perhaps the real issue is that they don’t view it as a priority. We tend to find the time to do what we view as important. When we make training simply about doing a better job, getting people on board might be all the harder if they feel they are doing a good enough job. When we make serving more about lining up with the Almighty God and working in cooperation with Him, people just may find themselves thinking twice about equipping.
At minimum, we should be giving everyone in ministry a big picture perspective of the area of ministry in which they are engaged. What does God want to do through that kind of ministry? How can we line up with Him and work in cooperation with Him?
The Ministry Manuals published by Ministry Tools Resource Center can help you with that. They are available individually for eleven different ministry areas as downloads or books or as a download bundle deal.
If you haven’t been training everyone for ministry, think and pray about it. It may seem a bit overwhelming, but what are some first steps that can be taken toward that objective?
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
friendfeed
iGive
I have been going through this website and I find it very useful. I believe God wants our Ministry and Church to train more Christian leaders in many directions and aspects of Ministry, but I find overwhelming on where and how to start. I trust God for wisdom and would appreciate some insight on the resources we can start with.
I praise God that you have been finding the MinTools.com site useful. And, I am also glad to read of how you see the need to provide training.
Perhaps your starting point could be to look at the big picture rather than individual ministries, unless you have already done this. The goal in this is to make sure you have a coordinated effort among all leaders toward the accomplishment of your church’s overall purpose and are living out God’s design for the church. If you click on the links in this paragraph, they will take you to the ministry manuals useful to this end.
You might also want to take a broad look at leadership. The Leadership Ministry Manual could help with that to enable them see how their various styles of leadership are needed to work toward that big picture.
As suggested in this post, the Ministry Manuals based on the content of this site could be helpful for some of the training for leaders of the different ministry areas of your church. They would provide a broad look at the various ministries. At some point, however, you would need to provide training that would be tailored to your specific ministries and leaders’ needs. Perhaps you would find useful resources to help with specific needs on the different ministry resource pages.
Remember that ministry leadership training is more than holding an instructional meeting. There are different elements to incorporate in the process of training people for ministry.
If providing training for ministry leaders of all ministries of your church is too overwhelming, start with the greatest areas of need. As you are able, provide training for other areas. Sometimes you just need to start small and build on that.