Effective church growth requires building a ministry team to assist you in ministry. You simply can’t do all that needs to be done by yourself. But few can afford to hire people experienced and trained in each area of ministry. So the responsibility to select and train leaders falls upon the pastor. It is a well-known truth that no ministry will grow beyond the ability and gifts of its leader. If you want your church to grow, then your departments and ministries must grow – and this necessitates the leader of that ministry to grow also.

There are two areas of leadership training that you should focus upon. First are basic leadership skills: goal setting, planning, organizing, managing, motivating, people skills, etc. There are many excellent books on leadership. Select one and work through it, chapter by chapter, with your leaders. The best time to teach this material is at your regular monthly planning session. If you have yet to starting a monthly planning council, start ASAP and make leadership training a part of the monthly sessions.

The second type of training should focus upon their particular area of ministry. Select a good book for each ministry leader: Sunday School, Youth, Outreach, Music, Guest Follow-up, Ladies, Prayer, Bus Ministry, etc. and give it to them with the challenge to read it by a set date and then meet with you to discuss what they learned that might be applied to their ministry.

A third suggestion is to provide your leaders with good articles on their area of ministry. Subscribers to AIS receive 20 articles every month that are carefully selected because they contain great information to help Apostolic church leaders.

Leaders are readers. Pastors should be continually reading to enrich their skills in personal growth, leadership and preaching. Departmental leaders should be readers as well. But they will only grow if you, the pastor, challenge and encourage them to grow. The end result will be a growing ministry and a growing church.