Are You Trained To Fail?
Donald Bryan
“Have you been trained to fail?” You have been trained in ministry to fail if you have been taught to do the ministry rather than to train other for ministry. I am grateful to the teachers who taught me to perform the functions of ministry: visiting, counseling, marrying, burying, teaching, witnessing, and a host of other duties. All are needed. By themselves, however, they help us only to maintain, not to maximize ministry. We can never be effective ministers until we learn what it means to be a leader and how to function as a leader. The following are five common ingredients in growing churches:
(1) The pastor and the congregation understand their God-given gifts and use them in ministry.
(2) The pastor’s hands-on ministry decreases and the congregation’s increases.
(3) Both the quality and the quantity of ministry increase.
(4) The pastor’s ministry influence increases as he shares ministry responsibilities with the congregation.
(5) A biblical philosophy of ministry is established. That is, leadership plus lay ministry equals growth.
How can you build a leadership team and maximize ministry in your church? The following six steps are proven and effective.
1. Identify the leaders in the church. Who are the influencers? These persons may hold formal or informal positions of leadership. They are the ones to whom others look for decisions. Write down their names and rank them on a scale of 1 to 10 as to their leadership and influence within the church.
2. Intentionally take time to build relationships with your current and future leaders. Do not ignore or exclude the others, but focus on developing leaders.
3. Select and recruit people with leadership potential. Look for humility, teachableness, willingness to serve, loyalty, and responsiveness to spiritual authority. This small group will love God and man and will be developing godly character.
4. Orient them toward leadership in general. The objective is to help them understand the dynamics of true leadership, to catch the vision, and to be challenged by it.
5. Involve them in ministry. As you assess their spiritual gifts, place people in apprentice positions to observe and practice ministry. They will begin to assume responsibilities as they are trained.
6. Release them in ministry. After people have been oriented, equipped, and involved in ministry, deploy them. Permit them to take the full load as leaders and ministers.
Jesus took a handful of men and transformed the world He did so by pouring Himself into them and training them. Then He sent them out to do even greater things than He had done. Jesus knew the secret of minimizing maintenance and maximizing ministry.
This article “Are You Trained to Fail?” written by Donald Bryan was excerpted from: Apostolic Sentinel. August 2009. It may be used for study & research purposes only.
