In full disclosure, sometimes pastors preach on issues we haven’t mastered. The same is true of bloggers. Sometimes we write about issues we are still working to develop in the areas where we lead.
This is the case here. A work in progress for us as a church is leadership development. We do some things. We aren’t ignoring it. But, we simply haven’t mastered the process yet. It is one of our highest priority initiatives though, because, as we have grown, we have a huge need for more leaders. I don’t know of a church, which doesn’t.
Here are 3 reasons reasons why your church needs to take training seriously:
We are called to equip the saints.
Very simply, Ephesians 4:12 commands church leaders to equip “the saints in the work of ministry.” Sometimes, it’s easier and less time-consuming to continue doing all the world of ministry ourselves. Or we go the opposite extreme and hand off ministry responsibilities without actually training a person in their role. Scripture calls us to equip those under our leadership. Why? The second half of verse 12 gives us the answer: “to build up the body of Christ.”
Training is essential to equipping.
As I shared in a previous blog post, many pastors, including myself, can tend to “dump responsibilities on people inappropriately and call it delegation.” Instead, we need to provide them the proper training, resources, and coaching to equip them well. It’s not a one-time training meeting. Ongoing training and development is essential to helping someone grow as a disciple of Christ and in their ministry role.
Trained volunteers are more effective and empowered.
When we set up volunteers with the training and coaching they need, they feel empowered to serve and take on more responsibility. Unfortunately, if you are like our church, you know that training volunteers and leaders is harder than ever with busy schedules. On top of that, with everything else going on throughout the week, it is hard to find the time to put the training together.
I’ve been privileged to try Ministry Grid, a great resource that helps you overcome these challenges and train your volunteers, even when they can’t make it to your training meetings. Ministry Grid has recently been rebuilt with a mobile-friendly design to train your people on-the-go.
What I like most about Ministry Grid is the library of training resources. I wish I could spend a few hours a week filming training videos for our volunteer teams, but I just don’t have that capacity. Ministry Grid has already put together a library of over 3,000 resources including videos, PDFs, quizzes, and more for church leaders, like me, to use with my teams. I was amazed to see training in ministries from Preschool to Small Groups to Parking Teams, Deacons, and more. I’ve actually filmed a few videos for them as well.
If you have been looking for an answer to your church’s training needs, Ministry Grid has the content you are looking for. Check it out to help your church equip “the saints in the work of ministry.”
This is great stuff, Ron. I often write about the importance of training members as well. It is the most important job the church can do.
Good stuff, Ron. We’re laser focused on helping churches do better with the command in Ephesians 4:12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Not only does it make them better and more confident to serve others, it’s vital for scaling a ministry past what just a pastoral staff can do themselves. We’ve heard great things about MinistryGrid, but we noticed some difficulties with it, too. So we built http://TrainedUp.church for churches that can’t afford MG or want to have simpler tools to create and distribute their own training materials. Would love if you’d take a look at it some day!
its so encouraging and educative.