00 cmg chapter 16

Training Pastors and Church Planters

"And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others." 2 Timothy 2:2

Click the explanation you want now, of how God wants us to train leaders:

A. Train Pastors and Church Planters in the Same Way that They can Train Others
B. Train New Pastors on the Job by Mentoring them the Way Jesus and the Apostles Did.
C. If There Are Few Experienced Workers, Then Name ‘Provisional Elders’
D. Chart a Church’s Progress in Developing the Ministries that the New Testament Requires
E. Apply what you Teach to the Life of Your Apprentices’ Churches or Ministries
F. Build Up Your Apprentice Pastor’ Churches, Not Just the Apprentices
G. To Train Pastors on Another Field, Get the Skills You Will Need Before You Go
H. Use Progress Charts as You Train Leaders
I. Help Your Apprentice Pastors to Train Newer Pastors
J. Help Participants to Make Commitments Needed For Churches to Multiply
K. Follow Biblical Guidelines for Mentoring Leaders-in-Training
L. In Training Sessions, Respond to Each Apprentice’s Needs
M. Assign Reading That Supports an Apprentice’s Pastoral Work
N. Use Materials on the Apprentice's Level, that Deal with His People's Needs
O. Evaluate Training in Terms of Apprentices’ Current Ministry Effectiveness
P. Be Creative in Communicating God’s Word
Q. Demonstrate Skills for Your Apprentices
R. Use Equipment that Is Available to Those for Whom you Model Skills and Methods
S. Avoid Modeling Values Rooted in the Paganism of Your Own Culture
T. Develop a Caring, Long-lasting Relationship With Pastoral Apprentices
U. Augment Mentoring with Teaching in Larger Groups
V. When Planning Ministry Activities, Keep Apprentices of the Same Level Together
W. Reviewing a Church’s Activities Helps to Connect Doctrine and Duty

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16A. Train Pastors and Church Planters in the Same Way that they can Train Others

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

The purpose of this chapter is to explain how God wants us to train pastors, evangelists and church planters.

Mr. 'Traditionalist' asks, "Why train so many leaders for our congregation? They will challenge our leadership. Then we will lose out to those who can gather a following!"

Mr. 'Foresight' disagrees, "Let us lovingly mentor new leaders as Jesus did. Then they will be loyal to us current leaders. But if we distrust them as you say, then they will be suspicious and disloyal."

Find in Titus 1:5 principles for mobilizing a church planter:

To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. (NIV)

Find in Acts 18:24-28 an example of mentoring behind the scenes and the results:

Meanwhile a Jew named Appalls, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. When Appalls wanted to go to Ache, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. (NIV)

Find in 2 Timothy 2:2 what we do to keep the training chain reaction reproducing itself, to start many new churches and cells:

"That which you have heard of me among many witnesses, commit to reliable men who are able to teach others also."

Who among those you train should be training others? What do you need to do to make it possible?

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16B. Train New Pastors on the Job by Mentoring them the Way Jesus and the Apostles Did.

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

There are two training efforts that can help leaders to mature. First, new churches or leaders need intensive, time-consuming mentoring with much personal attention in regular, frequent meetings. But this is only during their beginning phase. As they mature, you can replace or supplement mentoring with larger classes or conventional courses, while you keep mentoring new workers.

To help churches to multiply in pioneer fields, train local men as pastoral leaders within the movement itself within the churches. New churches and workers require much personal mentoring. As churches mature, however, they will need less attention. Jesus left his twelve apostles on earth to serve without His personal presence, as Paul left Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete. Likewise mentors should taper off their intensive, time-consuming, personal help to a worker as he matures. More mature workers for well-established churches can benefit from more formal, classroom training.

You should require new pastoral students to serve in a serious shepherding ministry during their training. They must lead and disciple others, edifying their small groups or congregations as Ephesians 4:11-16 requires. A leader might start by leading his family. Then, as they mature, also train them in a more formal way. Thus church multiplication requires two training efforts, one for new trainees, and another for mature ones.

Patterson observed problems in training programs on a pioneer field that relied exclusively on formal institutional teaching. In developing countries with few churches, when missionaries sent potential pastors away for training, few of them would return. The few who did return made these errors in their ministries:

Most of them failed to relate to their people because of a condescending attitude.
Most insisted on the same unrealistic training for other pastors.
Most failed to build the Paul-Timothy relationships with those whom they taught, trying to repeat their own "classroom only" experience.
Most failed to help local believers to use their gifts. Their churches neglected mercy ministries, church planting and disciple making.
Most came back with a domineering leadership style acquired in the classroom where their teachers had often ruled with total control.

If you work in a pioneer field, someone in your church planting task group must have the skill to train pastors to lead the kind of churches that can multiply. A church-planting task group should have at least one worker having the gift of teaching by mentoring and who was also trained on the job. He should plan to stay on the field as long as it takes to equip national pastors to train the newer pastors.

Mr. 'Traditionalist' complains, "Training by mentoring is only for lay leaders. To keep real theological students’ undivided attention and train real pastors, you must have an ivy-covered campus separated from the evil world and its distractions."

Mr. 'Foresight' asks, "Do you want us to take pastoral students outside of the Body of Christ and away from the community where real life goes on, to shelter them?"

Patterson discovered the need for pastors to mentor newer pastors on the job in a pioneer field:

Our new Honduran churches urgently needed pastors. For a missionary to train all the pastors on the job was too slow. So, we arranged for more experienced pastors or elders from nearby churches to train others. When we yielded to tradition and imported pastors from the outside the region, they slowed things down. Some of them had excellent Bible schooling, but they lacked ideas and skills to train pastors on the job for church multiplication. Most of them resisted starting daughter churches. They argued that converts from other villages had to come to their churches, even if the converts had to walk many miles.

Some also argued that the available funds would be spread too thin, if we started more churches.

Others argued that they would lose control if new pastors worked beyond where they could supervise them. They said that they feared that they would teach false doctrine.

In reality, the only serious doctrinal problems occurred in churches led by those formally trained pastors that resisted church multiplication. Not satisfied with our local, non-formal training resources, they sometimes read the wrong books.

More significantly, they hindered their churches from reproducing. Whenever a new pastor came from the outside, we had to fight the same battle again! We learned the hard way that, to multiply churches, you must train leaders within the movement. Do not import them!

Scoggins also discovered the value of training leaders on the job:

One of the first responsibilities of our church planters is to seek out those men who are already leaders, then to mentor them in the skills of pastoral leadership. Usually, the church planter starts by teaching to potential leaders the basics of the Christian walk. Next, he helps them to pass it the teaching on to other newer believers. The church planter must immediately set up such discipleship chains from the moment there is more than one male believer. The same is done with women; older women teach the younger. Leaders must be trained to shepherd others by doing it, as opposed to studying about it only in books.

If we are starting a cluster of house churches in a new area, and there is already another house church nearby, then we often will ask the leaders of the existing house church to train the emerging leaders who serve in the new house churches. In this way, the churches themselves will develop strong relationships and greater stability over the long term. Thus, we develop leaders on the job; more experienced leaders mentor newer ones, who begin at once mentoring even newer believers. (Their difference in spiritual age may be more one of character than actual duration of their faith.)

Churches in pioneer fields can grow and reproduce more rapidly if you train leaders on the job. Bible Institutes and seminaries have their place, but that place is not on most pioneer fields that still lack well established churches with mature, experienced pastors. Formal training should be provided only to workers who are experienced and know what to do with their training. Formal training should be offered only if the economy is affluent enough to allow mature "elder types" to leave their jobs and go study. In poor economies, men will often send their teenage sons to Bible school and the schools therefore train youths that are too immature to meet the biblical requirements for a pastor. Also, the students’ level of education should be high enough to receive intensive training.

New churches often grow out of small evangelistic groups or home Bible studies that have an evangelistic thrust, provided their leaders receive pastoral training in the process. If a church will train leaders of evangelistic studies who will shepherd those who come to Christ through the study sessions, then it is far easier to grow and reproduce churches or cells.

To reach a large urban population, an inner city church often needs to reproduce many small groups or cells. These should be tiny churches within the larger one, rather than isolated house churches. It is easier to multiply cells within the people’s own ethnic group, economic level, and subculture. In a multi-ethnic area, people are also to witness for Jesus in their "Samaria" (a different ethnic group nearby).

To work with another ethnic group, it is normally better to plant a separate church or cell having its own elders. If one ethic group meets in the same building with another ethnic group, then they must have a clear agreement for its use, and they should be sure to discuss their arrangements with people who enjoy working cross-culturally. Otherwise, the potential for misunderstanding is so great, that one cultural group will start bullying the other. Offended people may not complain about it; they will simply stop coming or stop bringing their friends.

If you bring people from a different culture into your congregation, then conflict will often arise from their cultural differences. Inevitably, the more dominant culture will cancel out the other. This is why the apostle Paul complained so vigorously in his letter to the Galatians. To require converts of one culture to assimilate into a different culture would make it impossible to have a strong movement for Christ in their original culture. That is because the methods of evangelism done by the other culture are so different that it creates a wall and arouses suspicion. You must not extract people from their culture, but help them set up a sister congregation that can reproduce within their culture.

The need of more experienced leaders to train many apprentices, becomes obvious when one seriously tries to reproduce himself. As you organize to train leaders, aim for their church to grow not only by addition, by bringing converts into an existing body, but also by multiplication, by starting new bodies. Let each trainee form a small nucleus or core group to which converts can easily be added. Converts are far more likely to follow through, if they are assimilated at once into a new group or church with other new Christians with whom they readily identify.

As you train leaders, help them to work closely with others leaders whose spiritual gifts are helpful for enabling churches to multiply. These include:

Faith—for the vision to see churches multiply.
Evangelist—for personal and family evangelism, like the evangelist Philip who presented Christ to people on a personal level,
Apostle—for cross-cultural church planting, like Barnabas the "sent one" who equipped leaders in other cultures (Acts chapters 13 - 14)
Pastor—for elders to shepherd the flock,
Teacher—for disciple-makers who equip the saints for the ministry.

Whom should you mentor now, and whom should they mentor? Pray for help.

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16C. If There Are Few Experienced Workers, Name ‘Provisional Elders’

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Find in Acts 14:21-23 how soon Paul established leaders in new churches on pioneer fields:

They preached the good news in that city (Debra) and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconic and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. (NIV)

Find in Titus 1:5-9 how Paul delegated the naming and establishing of elders, and what kind of man an elder was to be:

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. (NIV)

In pioneer fields, missionaries frequently serve churches that lack experienced elders and need to be protected from wolves. The Apostle Paul also had to name relatively new believers as elders and quickly to train them in the new Galatian churches (Acts 14:23). Some churches call such new leaders "provisional" elders, meaning that they are temporary because they have not yet been proven, as Scripture requires.

Scripture warns not to lay hands suddenly on new leaders, that is, not to name someone to a position of pastoral leadership while he is still weak in his Christian life (1 Timothy 5:22). To define the word 'suddenly' let us recall the practice of Paul whom God inspired to write it. He commissioned elders in Galatia where there were none yet, far sooner than would have been prudent in his mature home church at Antioch that had an ample number of experienced leaders (Acts 13:1).

Naming provisional elders is appropriate for churches or fields having no experienced leaders available. Remember, spiritual responsiveness can be seen in persons whom the Holy Spirit has prepared even before they know Christ, such as God recognized in Cornelius in Acts 10:1-5.

Do your new churches lack experienced workers? If so, whom might you name as provisional elders?

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16D. Chart a Church’s Progress in Developing the Ministries that the New Testament Requires

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

To train pastors to be shepherds, it helps to use a Progress Chart as a checklist to record vital church activities that their people are practicing. The elders of a new church in a pioneer field should normally mentored behind the scenes by members of the church-planting task group, by a pastor or by an elder from a mother church. A Progress Chart for a new church might include the following activities:

Witness for Christ and call people to repent and believe,
Baptize converts and receive them in a loving way into the body,
Celebrate the Lord’s Supper and worship as a body,
Pray and develop personal and family devotions, intercede for the lost, the sick and the needy, and wage spiritual warfare,
Give and practice joyful stewardship of all God has given to you—your time, talent and treasure.
Teach the Word of God, and also church history and doctrinal studies that help interpret and apply the Word,
Cultivate loving relationships among members of the body.
Cultivate loving relationships with other churches and cells.
Show love to needy neighbors in a practical way,
Organize ministries in a way that all members can easily serve with their spiritual gifts,
Form special ministry groups when needed as ministry opportunities arise,
Watch over the flock, drive off wolves, correct the unruly, and rescue straying lambs,
Administrate with order. For example, set up a church budget and authorize a treasurer to pay monthly expenses,
Start new churches,
Counsel those with personal or family problems; bring reconciliation, healing and forgiveness to limping lambs,
Strengthen marriages and family life,
Send missionaries to neglected fields.

Which of the above items need more attention now, so that your church--or the churches of those you train--will be doing all the ministries that the Lord requires for a church?

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16E. Apply what you Teach to the Life of Your Apprentices’ Churches or Ministries

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Scripture requires that you apply the Word to your work. Workers must both hear and do the Word (Matthew 7:24-27; James 1:22-25). Teachers can apply the Word at once if they:

Listen first to those whom they teach, to learn the needs and ministry opportunities of their churches. If a teacher does not have time for this, then he must name helpers who will do so.
Select teaching content that supports your apprentices’’ churches’ current needs and opportunities, which you heard about when you listened. Jesus said that you are to bring forth from your treasure of knowledge things old and new (Matthew 13:52). That means that you do not use the same lesson plan with every apprentice as you would with students in a more formal, academic institution.
Assign reading or other studies that support the activity that the student's congregation or small group is developing.
Provide Bible reading schedules for families to follow in the home, with practical discussion questions.
Teach with the specific purpose of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12.

This requires you to be communicating with the members of the church body, especially the new ones, and on their God-given gifts, duties, needs and opportunities for serving others. That is not possible if all leadership training takes place in an institution apart from the student’s church work.

Supplement church-based pastoral training with formal theological education where conditions warrant it. Conditions favorable to institutional theological education exist where…

There is a high enough level of education. Uneducated students cannot assimilate intensive study.
There is a high enough level of affluence. In poor societies’ the "elder types" whom you should train as pastors, cannot leave their jobs, families or fields, so they send their sons and daughters who are too immature to serve as pastors.
There are enough well established churches. Unless students have a model of a well-organized church in mind, they cannot associate classroom theory with church life and pastoral work.
There are experienced pastors or shepherding elders who can model servant leadership. Pastoral trainees must also serve as models of a godly life to their flocks, for. The congregation is to imitate them. A classroom professor alone is not an adequate model of the pastor or elder.

Scoggins discovered the need to model the pastor's heart and work:

Pastors prepared in formal, resident seminaries often do serve as an effective pastoral model, but sometimes they do not, especially if their only training was in a seminary. Most formally educated pastors show that they still need to learn how to do careful, personal shepherding, in order to add pastoral skills to their knowledge and theory.

A low ratio of shepherd to sheep helps to maintain spiritual vitality. Jesus worked with a ratio of 1 to 12; our experience seems to confirm this to be a practical proportion.

To find tools assembled by George Patterson for Christian mentoring that applies the Word of God to believers’ lives, visit the web site http://.MentorAndMultiply.com.

Do you ask those you train about their churches before you teach them? If not, ask God to help you to listen first, so you can select what you teach so that it applies to their immediate needs and ministry opportunities.

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16F. Build Up Your Students' Churches, Not Just the Students

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Trainers teach to edify the body, to convert sinners, to equip and lead believers, not just to communicate the Word because one loves to teach (Matthew 7.24-27; Ephesians 4:11-16; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). This requires that one use their teaching gift in harmony with the other gifts given to the body by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:31-32).

Scoggins explains how his churches help their people to use their gifts:

Pastoral teaching must equip the saints to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12). We begin preparing our leaders by explaining our vision statement about growth and reproduction. From there our trainees figure out what equipping will be necessary to carry out the task. Reading schedules and teaching plans grow out of this assessment. Since God’s purpose is to extend His Kingdom, our teaching must not only be theoretical but also practical and be applied to the building of the Kingdom.

During the 20th century, teachers were probably more careless than were other types of ministers, in failing to harmonize the use of their spiritual gift with other gift-based ministries. They often neglected to coordinate their teaching closely with evangelism, caring for the need, spiritual care for those with problems and other essential ministries. They used the Bible primarily as a source of content for their teaching and preaching, rather than as the norm for how they ought to teach and preach. Most teachers ignored the Bible’s teaching on the need to minister in an interactive, highly relational and experiential way within the church body (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:1-12, 18; Ephesians 4:1-13).

Patterson found that simply to teach the Word without relating it to the people in a relational way is seldom productive:

While teaching in Uhrsleben, Germany, shortly after the fall of communism, I asked residents one Sunday afternoon why they did not attend their town’s church. A friendly man invited me into his house, pleased that I cared about his spiritual life. I remarked, "I visited your church and saw very few people apart from the pastor’s family," then asked, "Is it because they destroyed your faith during the communist regime?"

"Ach! Nein! We Germans are too stubborn to let them destroy our faith! They only proved that their atheistic beliefs debase and destroy a healthy society. The problem is that the church people do not minister in a relevant way to today’s Germany. They still live in the days of Luther."

"So what should they do? I’m teaching pastors here this week and I want to deal with the realities of these communities."

"Tell them to do what you’re doing now. Listen to us. Talk to us. Love us. Do not just sit in that chapel and prepare irrelevant sermons."

The chapel was over 800 years old. We discussed the needs of the village and I commended him, "You seem to be genuinely concerned for this town."

"I had better be," he revealed. "I am the mayor."

Another case is similar. A church planter explained why he was starting churches in northeast Portland where many churches already served the population.

"I evangelize postmodern youths," he explained. "When they come to Christ, if I take them to the church down the street, then they do not continue. Unless they have a church background, they do not form friendships easily with people in traditional churches. The preacher preaches down at them from a huge pulpit in a non-relational way that is alien to them. They love Christ but fail to find the friendship they seek."

He cited some examples of converts who could not bear more than one or two visits to a church that offered little care, social interaction or personal discipling.

Some modern cultures emphasize that the only true reality is one’s present experience and relationships. This thought entered Western Europe a generation before it came to America. Many churches, concerned with countering liberal theology, failed to reach out to those who embraced this philosophy of life. The new generation wanted a more relational and experiential church life, which God also demands in the New Testament, but they did not find it. Thousands of churches became nearly empty. Whereas half of the people attended church after World War II, a generation later less than five percent did so. Now this modern way of thinking is hitting American churches like a tidal wave. It is emptying many of them and will continue to do so until the churches provide a more relational experience. With God’s help, many churches are making a healthy shift toward small groups that allow greater interaction and a more loving, family atmosphere. Perhaps more than anyone else, those who train church leaders must model the humility and love needed to harmonize different gift-based ministries in a relational body.

Do you need to teach in a more relational and relevant way? If so, pray for God's help to discipline yourself to do so.

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16G. To Train Pastors on Another Field, Get the Skills You Will Need before You Go

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Learn to mentor leaders by being mentored. If you do not have this experience and need it, then arrange to meet regularly with a mentor who has experience in the type of ministry that you pursue. Do not try to learn reproductive mentoring only from books or lectures. While being mentored as a leader, you should also mentor other potential leaders. Do as Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, "That which you have heard of me among many witnesses, commit to reliable men who are able to teach others also."

The 2 Timothy 2:2 Mentoring Chain Reaction

Paul. The 2 Timothy 2:2 Mentoring Chain Reaction started with Paul.

Timothy. Paul mentored Timothy (also Titus, Luke and others).

"Reliable men." Timothy mentored reliable men.

"Others also." These reliable men mentored others also.

Many Western pastors and missionaries lack the skill of mentoring new leaders as Christ and His apostles did. You may have to look around for someone who can mentor you. You may find more than one who can help you in different ministry areas. You should arrange this with a pastor or worker who will:

model skills for you,
meet regularly with you,
pray with you,
listen to your reports,
help you plan what your people will do immediately,
help you strategize for long-range objectives,
recommend studies that support your plans,
help you network with other leaders.

A mentor need not be very experienced in your field but must agree with your objectives and help you to:

use your spiritual gifts,
discern new or better ministry opportunities,
build on your experience and strengths,
think through your plans,
monitor your progress objectively.

You may need two or more mentors, each for different needs. Avoid mentors who try to fit you into their program, agenda or agency!

To train pastors in a field that outlaws missionary work, you will have to mentor them behind the scenes, privately or in very small groups. To go the field without first acquiring this skill is as about as wise as trying to fly a jet fighter without any training.

In our zeal to help our trainees gain skills, we must not neglect the need to build Christian character in practical ways. Scoggins advises:

Wise church planters know that God’s call is to be faithful—not always productive. Faithfully walking toward the goal is as important as achieving it, for it is the process that shapes and molds us. Good works, as seen by God, proceed from a transformed heart and life. Thus family activities, which appear to have no direct relationship to your official church ministry, may be more important than your official ministry, perhaps when your lonely wife or child asks you to do something with them.

If you train pastors in a different culture, or plan to do so, begin practicing educational methods that will work in that culture. Consider its resources and level of education of those you will train, and the need for one pastor to train other pastors, and pass it on to still others.

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16H. Use Progress Charts as You Train Leaders

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

A Progress Chart lists and describes briefly the competencies, aims and activity plans for each person whom you will mentor. The chart will help you and the apprentice leaders whom you train to evaluate their progress and to see at a glance what they still lack. The Train And Multiply™ Student’s Activity Guide can serve as a progress chart. For a description see http://www.homestead.com/mentorandmultiply/TandM.html.

Meet regularly with your trainees and help them to use their Progress Charts. Share responsibility for their effective ministry. They, in turn, may help you in your ministry. You might ask your trainees to give spiritual care to some people in your church or group.

A Progress Chart should include not only what your trainees will do but also what those whom they shepherd or train will do. They can use the same chart to guide others toward their God-given goals, short-range plans and long-range objectives.

Why should a leader list what his people are to do? Because he cannot be a leader unless he leads. He cannot lead unless he takes people from one place to another. Their task may be to start a new ministry or to improve an old one. Moses received a list of activities from God that He wanted His people to do. Moses used it not only to lead the people to the Promised Land but also to equip elders and help the people to obey God’s laws.

Some teachers mistakenly think they are leading when they only teach them. But if one only passes on information, then one does not lead. Others think they lead when they only enforce rules. But in God's kingdom, simply enforcing rules is not leading, according to Christ (Matthew 20:25-28).

The only way one leads His people is first to know where God wants them to go, and secondly to help them get there. It helps to have a Progress Chart that clearly sets forth what God wants one's flock to do. Joshua was a great leader, because he knew exactly what God wanted His people to do and he led them in doing it.

To help your trainees plan activities for their people, you must ruthlessly eliminate vague, spiritual-sounding activities that do not move people toward their God-given goals. For example, it would be too vague to list as an objective to "build spiritual character." All leaders want to build character, of course, but the wording is too general. Ask how to build character; flesh it out. For example, you might include in your activity list to work on each aspect of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23.

In a mentoring session, you might ask, "How will you build patience in your people? Whom do they need to have more patience with? Who can help them to do so"

Your trainee may reply, "I shall practice on my teenage son by not getting angry the next time he forgets to turn the lights off upon leaving a room. My wife will pray with me about it and help me."

In less literate societies, a Progress Chart might not be a written checklist but something else that serves the same purpose. Patterson helped the nationals make plans without writing them on paper:

Rural leaders, especially uneducated village elders, hated paperwork. They did not care to check off ministry activities on a written list. So I helped them to learn about key Bible persons and activities that are associated with them. The leaders focused on what the model person did. Examples:

Abraham was faithful in prayer,
Peter was an effective evangelist,
David was a poet and singer, who inspired people to worship and serve God,
Priscilla was a house church hostess, servant and disciple-maker,
Lydia was businesswoman and hospitable hostess,
Barnabas was an understanding caregiver,
Dorcas was a compassionate helper of the poor,
Timothy was a shepherding pastor and trainer of other shepherds,
Titus was a trainer of new elders for new churches,
Philemon hosted a church in his home and welcomed back his runaway slave as a free brother,
Abigail was a giver, who contributed material goods to meet an emergency,
Elijah was a prophet who challenged the people to turn from idolatry,
Paul was an exhorter who corrected erring Corinthians without condemning them.
Elisha was a healer who prayed effectively for people’s healing.

Some found it easier to imitate the activities and virtues of these biblical models.

If you train new pastors for new churches, do they have some way to monitor their progress? If not, prepare something for them. You might do it together with them.

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16I. Help Your Apprentice Pastors to Train Newer Pastors

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Find in 2 Timothy 2:1-4 some principles and examples of reproductive mentoring:

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs — he wants to please his commanding officer. (NIV)

Before you start to train pastors, seek out mature men, elders, as the Bible describes them. Look for mature, serious heads of families who will begin at once to shepherd their people. Elders are to be able to teach (1 Timothy 3:2). This includes the training of other pastors, who will train still others (2 Timothy 2.2; 3:14-17).

Scoggins diagramed the 2 Timothy 2:2 chain for his leaders:

We use a diagram of "links" based on 2 Timothy 2:2 to keep track of our mentoring chains. ("And the things that you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.")

Link 1: Missionary Paul teaches …

Link 2: Timothy, his trainee, who teaches …

Link 3: ‘Reliable men,’ who teach …

Link 4: ‘Others also.’

We use this model to organize mentoring chains, to keep track of relationships within the body, and to see how far the training extends down the chain. To foster multiplication-type growth, the chain must extend at least to a third link.

Are you getting at least three generations of Paul-Timothy training relationships? If not, please pray for wisdom to do whatever needs to be done.

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16J. Help Participants to Make Commitments Needed For Churches to Multiply

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Churches multiply when the persons who participate in pastoral training make their corresponding commitments:

The churches’ commitment is to reproduce in daughter churches
The pastors’ commitment is to train their ‘Timothies’ (new pastors, leaders)
The pastoral students’ commitment is twofold: to shepherd others while they study, applying at once what they learn, and to train their own pastoral ‘Timothies’ to keep extending the training chain reaction.
The pastoral trainers’ commitment is to require students to be active in pastoral work while they study. He requires that each pastoral student start a church or home group, or help to shepherd a congregation, applying what they learn at once. To do this, the trainer must listen first as students report their people’s progress or problems, to relate the Word and other teaching to their work and their flocks.

Do your people need help to make any of these commitments? If so, please take a moment now to think how you will help them do so.

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16K. Follow Biblical Guidelines for Mentoring Leaders-in-Training

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

To imitate Jesus and His apostles in the way you train leaders, you will:

Require obedience, above all else, to Jesus’ basic commands and to the other requirements of the New Testament,
Train leaders on the job while they start or develop churches, relating theory to what they are doing to start a church,
Harmonize gift-based ministries, including that of training pastors, by cooperating closely with those who have other spiritual gifts and ministries,
Foster loving relationships between teachers and their trainees.

The truly biblical pastoral trainer, like our Lord and His apostles, shares responsibility for the effective ministry of his students and gives personal attention to the details of their ministries. The trainees should give something in return to their trainer. Their trainer is to be open to receive as well as to give (Galatians 6:6). The Western concept that maturity in Christian service means attaining financial independence is an idea foreign to Scripture.

Do any of these guidelines for mentoring leaders need more attention? If so, pray and plan now for how you and your coworkers will do them.

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16L. In Training Sessions, Respond to Each Apprentice’s Needs

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

The essentials of a training session include…

Listen

Listen to each trainee report on progress and problems in his church.

Plan

Help each trainee to plan fieldwork that fits the current situation, that he or his people will do before the next session. Keep a copy of his plans, to evaluate results next time. You might do role-plays to prepare trainees for new situations. They act out how they will confront, correct or shepherd, before doing it. They discover and deal with their weaknesses before dealing with others.

Evaluate Reading

Verify reading done. Ask questions about it or look over answers written in a workbook. Ask trainees to tell you about what they studied, and to summarize what they will teach their people

Assign

Assign reading in Scripture or textbooks, etc., that supports trainees’ immediate plans for their church, cell or task group, or their trainees.

Pray

Each participant prays and is prayed for. Ask God for guidance and power to carry out the plans made.

Do you have experience in leading mentoring sessions? If not, ask God to help you do this kind of teaching.

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16M. Assign Reading That Supports an Apprentice’s Pastoral Work

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Assign readings for Bible knowledge, doctrine, church history and any other area, that correspond to each activity that a trainee is to develop with his people. Record this assignment in his Progress Chart under the corresponding activity. For example:

When the student is to help his people to obey the commands of Christ, assign reading about our Lord's deity. Jesus requires our obedience to His commands precisely because He is all-powerful in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18-20).
When assuring believers of God’s grace, assign readings dealing with justification, the promise of eternal life and Christ’s intercession.
When naming deacons to care for the needy, assign reading about the social duties of the church.

If topics in a theological textbook neglect how to relate them to people's lives or pastoral ministry, they probably are not worth assigning, no matter how interesting.

Reports on reading are usually better done orally than in written form. Trainees should relate how the material applies to their spiritual life, family, church, and ministry. Oral reports develop verbal skills; and trainers can respond at once to things that need correction or comment. Good mentors ask questions that enable trainees to grow in their ability to think and to respond quickly, as well as to reflect on the principles behind their plans. (For example: Why do you want your people to do that? What biblical principle does it follow?)

Are you accustomed to assigning reading that relates to a new church's current needs? If not, ask God now to help you and your coworkers to develop this discipline.

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16N. Use Materials on the Apprentice's Level, that Deal with His People's Needs

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Most theological training programs started by Western missionaries, including Theological Education by Extension (TEE), begin on an educational level that is way too high. Use materials that thoroughly integrate pastoral training with church planting and the other New Testament ministries. These materials include:

Train And Multiply ™ (T&M) is especially effective on fields where institutional training is impractical. For information on how to obtain the 65 small study books, contact Project WorldReach: http://PWR@TrainAndMultiply.com.

Pastor's Storybook is shorter (one small book, free) and follows the same New Testament guidelines as T&M. It conveys biblical truths and pastoral tasks by means of Bible stories. It is good for starting while T&M is being translated. Download it from http: //www.Paul-Timothy.net.

Paul-Timothy Training Menu is a longer program, written for more educated people. You can get seminary credit for it from Western Seminary, Portland, Oregon, USA. Download it free from http://Paul-Timothy.net.

For training missionaries for church multiplication in today’s neglected fields: Disciple the Nations, an interactive e-textbook on CD-ROM by Patterson and Currah. It is written in the form of a novel and the reader competes with an adversary to work through increasingly difficult skill levels. To order: http://AquireWisdom.com.

Do you want to look over any of these materials? Send questions about any of them to George Patterson, Gpatterson@CVImail.net.

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16 O. Evaluate Training in Terms of Students' Current Ministry Effectiveness

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Rate your training by results, not by your efforts or by your students’ efforts. Help your students to measure their progress not only by the amount of new knowledge gained but also by converts baptized, lives changed, and new churches and ministries. You should record progress in their pastoral work and the studies that they complete.

Scoggins discovered the value of good evaluation of teaching:

Good teachers are brutal in their self-evaluation, so they listen well to the input from others. Once an elder in one of our churches complained about his congregation, "I preached one of the best messages of my life, but the people slept through it!" He had failed to make a brutal self-evaluation from his congregation’s perspective.

If students are not producing the results you believe God wants them to have, then you may want to change your method of teaching. Pray for the self-discipline needed.

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16P. Be Creative in Communicating God’s Word

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Jesus and the Old Testament prophets used creative ways to communicate God’s message. They used symbols, vivid illustrations, poetry, drama, questions, narrative, parables, irony, pithy proverbs and riddles. Try different methods of teaching. Do not overlook story telling, drama, dance, music, poetry, ritual, and symbolism.

If working cross-culturally, avoid importing evangelistic and teaching methods from other cultures or educational levels. Use methods that converts and workers can immediately imitate in passing on the teaching to others.

A form of story-telling that is easy for most literate people is that of dramatic Bible reading. When reading Bible stories that have dialogue, ask persons to stand and read the conversation of the people in the story. A narrator reads the portions that are not spoken as dialogue, skipping phrases like "and he said."

For example, in reading John chapter 9, six readers can voice the conversations of the following persons in the story:

the disciple who asks Jesus why the man was born blind,
the Lord Jesus,
the blind man,
the Jews (those in authority who rejected Jesus),
the parents,
a narrator reads text that is not dialogue.

Should you or your coworkers include more stories, drama, poetry or role-plays in their teaching? If so, take a moment now to pray and think how you can encourage this.

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16Q. Demonstrate Skills for Your Apprentices

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Jesus commanded His disciples to do only what they had seen Him do first, in a way they could imitate. To train pastors, imitate Jesus methods, so that pastors can reproduce. No one individual can model all the skills that students need, so seek other mentors who will model the skills that you lack. Arrange internships or apprenticeships that will enable students to serve as "Timothies" so that they can observe good models. To enable churches or cell groups to reproduce spontaneously, do everything in a way that students can imitate at once. Paul told the Corinthians to imitate him as he imitated Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Some churches train bivocational church planters by starting daughter churches within a different, nearby culture. Workers who have cross-cultural experience are more apt to multiply churches when they go abroad. Sometimes businesspersons take on apprentices in order to help prepare them as bivocational workers for a field that needs "tentmakers".

Be a model of vital ministries in a way that new shepherds can imitate you. Jesus, Paul and his coworker Barnabas all modeled pastoral skills for their students who included Luke, Mark, Titus, Timothy, Aquila and Priscilla, Philemon and many more. Plan and arrange for new leaders to observe you or another worker doing the common pastoral tasks listed below.

Check the ministries for which you or another trainer aim to model skills.

To extend Christ’s Kingdom on earth:

Evangelize, reach converts’ family and friends
Help the needy with material needs, as you make disciples
Reproduce cells or daughter churches
Penetrate neglected fields and people groups

To enrich your prayer life and deepen your personal relationship with God:

Intercede, pray for healing, and wage spiritual warfare
Watch over and develop member’s spiritual life and character

To help lame or straying lambs:

Counsel and encourage any who have personal or family problems
Strengthen marriage and family life
Correct without condemning, watch for straying lambs and wolves
Deal with demonic oppression and influences

For edification of the church body and training:

Teach in a way that equips doers of the Word.
Disciple on all levels--seekers, new believers, growing believers and leaders.
Practice stewardship for wise use of the material goods that God gives us.
Train leaders and help them to train others.
Lead worship.
Cultivating fellowship within the church body.
Worship and do Communion in a way that engages everyone in active participation.

After modeling these skills and activities, give your trainee the freedom to do so in turn. Trust the Holy Spirit and let them make mistakes. Let new leaders take their "baby steps, and get out of their way! It is their own inner motivation that counts, not perfection in their efforts.

Reproductive training requires materials that students can study and use with their own trainees who will pass them on to others in a 2 Timothy 2:2 chain reaction. Many Western missionaries use materials that do not help reproduction, that are written on an academic level that is too high, are too expensive, too abstract, and too Western or that contain an unbalanced emphasis on knowledge that cannot be related to other gift-based ministries.

Scoggins explains how churches use materials in a way that facilitates a reproductive chain reaction:

We provide small, portable paper booklets having four, five or six separate studies that fit neatly inside a Bible. When we do a study with one person, we can give the booklet to that person and ask him or her to present the same study to another person. We had to develop methods of discipleship that were easily transferred and did not have to be presented by a seasoned professional teacher or pastor. Disciple making is an art, and disciple-makers improve our ability with practice. It is easy to sound like an expert whom others will admire, but if an expert does all the discipling, then there will be no reproduction.

If your main spiritual gift is teaching, then you must work closely with others who can model other skills. Simply teaching in the traditional way, by itself, does not show others how to use other gifts. Blend your gift with others whose gifts include leading, helps, discernment, compassion evangelism and etc.

Do you need to model, or ask someone else to model certain skills?

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16R. Use Equipment that Is Available to Those for Whom you Model Skills and Methods

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Except for special, occasional events, avoid high-tech, expensive projectors, computers, or any other equipment that your people lack. Reliance on technology provides a wrong model, robs national workers of initiative, and thereby kills spontaneous reproduction. In most pioneer fields, when leading worship, Western missionaries must discipline themselves to avoid expensive, entertaining musical instruments and dependency on budgets and technology. Some short-term Westerners take along so much musical equipment that they give the impression that the power of the Holy Spirit extends only to the end of their electrical cord!

Do you need to stop using some method or technology that your trainees lack, while you are training them?

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16S. Avoid Modeling Values Rooted in the Paganism of Your Own Culture

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

"Paganism!" exclaims Mr. 'Traditionalist', "Surely that means other cultures. Not ours!"

Mr. 'Foresight' replies, "You’ve gotten used to the paganism of our culture, that’s all. Do you think we’re immune to it?"

Missionaries to other cultures must avoid exporting to churches of other lands all their cultural values. Many things that are held in high esteem in the industrialized West, for example, weaken God's work on other fields. Some Western values that can be dangerous when exported include the following.

Western Values and their Effects on Non-Western Societies
Entertainment—it leads to entertaining worship with music that is considered frivolous by mature people in some societies.
Tolerance of bad influences—it leads to obscenity, violence, fornication, homosexuality and nudity in the media, all of which has come to be tolerated by some Christians.
Size—it leads to superficial evangelistic methods, excessive fear of offending people with teachings the truth as God has revealed it.
Instant gratification of desires demanding availability of commodities and consumer-oriented marketing—it leads to immediate acquisition of the latest things and fads offered in the Evangelical market.
Financial success—it leads to commercialization of church programs, commercialization evangelism, healing campaigns, sacred concerts and seminars.
"Official" credentials described in superlative terms of excellency, highest standards, or the latest this or that—it leads to sophistication that replaces sincerity and obedience to Jesus.
Compartmentalized organizations—it leads to excessive control by the main leaders and splits the church organization into isolated programs that fail to harmonize gift-based ministries.
High technology—it leads to contented enslavement to electronic equipment and media.
Hedonism (‘What feels good is good’)—it leads to easy toleration of sexual liaisons that destroy families, and to drug abuse.
Equality of the sexes—it leads to disparaging the biblical male role in marriage.
Democratization (all govern)—it leads to lack of oversight by a group of godly, mature elders as taught by the New Testament
Individualism—it leads to keeping one's relationship with God excessively private, failing to deal with converts’ relatives and friends.
Independence—it leads to doing evangelism in a way that extracts individuals socially from their relatives and friends whom God wants them to love and reach, in violation of Acts 16:3.
Unity based on conformity—it leads to a Babel-like passion for unifying cultures, at the expense of destroying the weaker ones.
Rationalism (the idea that faith is the same as understanding)—it leads to a rationalistic approach to sacraments and to the Word, doubting any immediate work of the Holy Spirit.

These and many other Western values restrain and sometimes paralyze church reproduction when exported by insensitive missionaries. This is a modern version of the Galatian error of forcing elements of one culture on Christians of another. Such legalism hinders the free flow of God's grace. The effect is that seekers must experience two conversions, one to Christ and another to values and practices of a foreign culture. Meanwhile the old dragon laughs!

If you are not Western, you might have escaped some of these errors, but probably not all of them, because Western forms and values have been taken to most areas of the world. Also, satan sows erroneous values in all cultures--including yours--that need correction.

What values prevail in your society, for which you need to provide a positive biblical alternative?

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16T. Develop a Caring, Long-lasting Relationship With Pastoral Apprentices

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Coaching people in Christian love for serious ministry motivates and mobilizes them more powerfully than do organizational rules. Coaching also provides a channel between a mother church and her daughter church through which love and power flow, helping new churches to grow and develop.

Such mentoring is not always done one-on-one. Jesus personally trained twelve disciples at a time. It is personal in the sense that we share personal responsibility for our student’s effective ministry, and talk with each student face to face.

Please take a moment to ask God to develop the relationships you have with those you train, and think about things you and your coworkers can do to improve relationships with trainees.

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16U. Augment Mentoring with Teaching in Larger Groups

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

To personally mentor leaders requires a group small enough for you to give careful attention to each one. Such discipling takes too much time for you to continue indefinitely with each trainee. Your trainees can also meet in larger groups for common issues and encouragement. Classrooms can also be effective for the on-going training for mature leaders. Keep your training balance in by providing both types of meetings. You can combine both by first meeting together as a class and then separating into smaller groups for mentoring sessions, if you first prepare the mentors.

Plan for balance in training, by using both methods--mentoring with a few, and teaching many at once--when needed and practical.

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16V. When Planning Ministry Activities, Keep Apprentices of the Same Level Together

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

In small mentoring groups, do not mix students of different social, economic, or educational levels, unless they already mix socially with ease. In less-educated societies uneasy mixing can seriously stifle the initiative of less-educated and poorer workers.

Do you or your coworkers need to reorganize training sessions?

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16W. Reviewing a Church’s Activities Helps to Connect Doctrine and Duty

Cited from Church Multiplication Guide, Patterson and Scoggins, William Carey Library, Pasadena, chapter 16.

Jesus and His apostles applied at once what they taught to the life of their disciples, to the community and to the church. Wise teachers relate the Bible and their teaching at once to practical duties.

The following list is a review of some of the guidelines presented above. They are important enough to warrant a second review. Note items to which you aim to give more attention in order better to apply your teaching to your students' ministry. Skip the rest.

Help new leaders of a church or group to envision activities that God wants their people to do. Plan these activities, then add studies that support them.

People of faith look ahead, focusing on where God is leading them and planning accordingly. Set realistic goals and plan the little, easy-to-take steps to reach those goals. Stagnant churches live in the past; any plans that they make for the future are too vague.

When you meet with students first pray, then listen to their ministry reports, next help them plan ministry for the next week or two, and assign studies that support their plans. Lastly, pray for them and their flocks.

Give priority to Jesus’ foundational commands and provide biblical studies that will help your people to obey them.
When you help trainees to plan activities for a church, also provide studies that support them.
Add to activity plans supporting biblical studies, doctrines, history and any other study material.

Paul-Timothy Training, like Train & Multiply curriculum, thoroughly weds evangelism, church multiplication and pastoral training.

Keep revising the Progress Chart or checklist of activities that you use to monitor a student’s flock’s progress toward its objectives.
Frequently revise your progress chart to deal with new needs and objectives. Doing so makes it easier to select supporting studies.
Emphasize the New Testament guideline of teaching or assigning reading in response to the immediate needs and ministry opportunities of your student's flock.
In training sessions, let communication flow two ways.

Trainees report what their people are doing, and the trainer responds with biblical counsel that applies immediately to the needs and opportunities facing the students’ church or group. Scoggins found it helpful to encourage students to develop their own plans:

As students progress in their understanding of ministry and of church or cell reproduction, they eagerly develop their plans for training others. Normally this occurs when they begin reproducing themselves in their Timothies. As they develop another leader, they add a link to the discipling chain. They promote themselves by becoming a mentor and developing still more leaders.

Deal frankly with a student's shortcomings and poor attitudes.

Mistakes due to inexperience are a normal part of learning and are often better overlooked. But mistakes due to bad attitudes or pride are another matter completely. Scoggins deals with bad attitudes at a deeper level:

Problems often appear at the behavioral level when a new leader begins practicing a new ministry. Errant behavior is often only symptomatic of deeper problems at the motivational or affective level of one's personality. You must teach pastors to be sensitive to motives rather than merely to behavior. Pastors must change the affections of a congregation, not just their behavior. A good parent is not satisfied with a child whose behavior conforms to the code; one wants their children’s character, their affections and motives, to embrace the code. Jesus pointed out that the source of sinful behavior is the heart. It is our heart that needs regeneration and then must start going through the normal cycles of repentance and renewal.

Help new leaders to define their vision, plan what to do to reach it and move ahead on their own initiative.

Help students to define their long-range goals and to list the steps that will lead to their fulfillment. Do this as you would place stepping stones across a shallow stream, near enough together that one will not have to leap too far and fall.

Help students to trust the Holy Spirit as they plan to deal with obstacles, and not to come to you for help every time. Do not fear that you will lose control, for you are more likely to lose control of those whom you "keep on too short a leash".

To help new leaders to envision reproduction, teach the parables of Jesus, which illustrate how the Kingdom grows and multiplies similarly to grain. In just a few years of reproduction, one rice grain planted in good soil will multiply enough to feed the entire human race. Remind them that every time they look at grass, trees or flowers, or eat a meal, they enjoy the fruit of God’s miraculous, reproductive power. All creation reminds us daily of how our Father makes every living thing reproduce! Like grain, the church has its own God-given power to grow and multiply.

We humans cannot make a church grow; we can only sow, water, and cultivate it in faith; it is God who gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6). When it comes to reproducing His living Body on earth, Christ limits His infinite power to our weak faith! So, ask him often to give the increase, to bring people into His kingdom and grant you the Holy Spirit's power to do your part.

Train new pastors to solve problems by dealing with root causes rather than with their symptoms; and discern the difference.

Patterson observed how detecting underlying causes rather than external symptoms helped to cure damaging behavior:

A devout Honduran pastor was disturbed because the teenage girls in his church kept running off to live in "common law marriage" without the blessing of church or state. He failed to discern the real cause, however, which was poverty and despair. In his area the girls of marriageable age were often underfed, unwanted and miserable in the little village huts they shared with oversized families. They saw no hope for a better future. But the pastor, looking only at the external symptoms of the problem, assumed erroneously that the girls were motivated by sex. He preached incessantly against the sin of fornication.

The pastor's scolding only dealt with symptoms and did not deal in love with the underlying and painful cause. It had the opposite effect from what the pastor wanted. He unwarily kept before the girls' troubled minds the idea of a possible way of escape from their plight. It became evident that his church was having more cases of fornication than other churches in the same depressed area, whose pastors did not make it a major point in their preaching.

The other pastors noticed the root cause of the problem and took a more positive approach. They helped the youth visualize a better future, to work together to create, train for, or find better employment. They helped them ponder how to achieve wholesome marriages. The result was far fewer cases of promiscuity.

Do not so fear false doctrine or bad practice creeping in, that you chain leaders to needless rules and policies.

Rules growing out of fear stifle spontaneous growth and development. They also provoke a subtly rebellious spirit in your trainees and coworkers that will eventually open the door to the very errors that one fears. When you establish for a church a permanent rule having no explicit basis in Scripture, you will probably find later that it limits the free working of the Holy Spirit.

Patterson recalls a case in which a person did not let fear deter her from breaking with church policy:

A devout Roman Catholic girl and her boyfriend were attacked by a shark while swimming off the coast near where we lived. She dragged him ashore and saw that he had only moments to live; he was losing blood rapidly from large gashes. She asked him if he wanted to affirm his faith in Christ, then took seawater and baptized him in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. She feared that her church might disapprove, but faith overrode her fear.

Some Protestants and Roman Catholics questioned the validity of that baptism. The bishop, however, declared the baptism valid even though not done by an ordained priest. The girl believed that the Holy Spirit led her and felt the freedom to do it, uninhibited by tradition, unlike many would have been, including some evangelicals.

Find textbooks geared to the local needs and educational level of your people, or write them.

Textbooks written by less educated writers can be very effective if they are prepared for a specific people’s needs and on their level of reading comprehension. Such books can help more than books that erudite scholars have written for another time or culture.

Mobilize for ministry the members of a church or small group.

Normally it is easier to mobilize people for ministry if their group is small. It is easier yet, if it is also new. Scoggins found ways to mobilize people for ministry:

When new believers understand that they have been saved to serve as Galatians 5:13 reveals, we help them to learn how spiritual gifts apply in the body. We help them to pray and seek how God has equipped them to help the body attain its vision. This reinforces the on-going teaching about the church as a community of people who have been given something by God to pass on to someone else.

When a church reaches an unwieldy size and becomes too big to effectively mobilize most of its members, reorganize it. The congregation should either separate some members to start a daughter church nearby or it should form small ministry groups or sub-congregations. Then members can better be mobilized to help give pastoral care to each other on a personal and family level. We found that for good shepherding, an ideal group size is from eight to twelve adults. Some groups may serve more for outreach and others for edification.

Base training at all levels on loving obedience to Jesus Christ.

To lead people into loving obedience, establish obedience to Christ from the beginning as the foundation for all discipleship and ministry. Obedience comes before discernment (John 7:17). If you teach heavy Bible doctrine before new believers have learned simple, loving, child-like obedience, then you will jeopardize their commitment to Christ.

Scoggins described the beauty of obedience in action:

Maturity comes through practicing obedience (Hebrews 5:12-14). Try to avoid the paralysis that arises from teaching heavy Bible doctrine to potential leaders before they can apply it and learn to live in simple, loving, child-like obedience. The Western tradition seeks to develop leaders by preparing theological students for every contingency. In the process, they sometimes get the idea that professional proficiency comes from ever-higher learning rather than from following the Master.

In uneducated societies, mobilize non-academic pastors or shepherding elders.

The working classes of the world need hundreds of thousands of non-academic lay pastors who are trained on the job. Churches among the poor and uneducated can thrive and reproduce better with non-academic pastors and elders who are trained by godly pastor-mentors. Many such movements stagnate or decline when they start to depend on outside institutions to train all their pastors. A similar problem would develop if all the soldiers in a military campaign were prepared by the military academies to be generals but none were riflemen. We need both in a sane proportion. Among the apostles, the ratio was one in twelve; only Paul had had formal academic training, and that was with Gamaliel in Judaism. In most pioneer fields you can meet this need by training new pastors by extension education that follows biblical discipling principles.

Let us clarify this point. The authors of this book approve of formal academic training, and teach in formal institutions. But they lament the lack of balance and damaging assumption that all pastors need seminary. Both history and contemporary observation show that formal training can provide only a small fraction of the shepherds needed now. They also insist that if institutional training is the only preparation one has, then his pastoral work will be deficient. That deficiency is even more noticeable in pioneer fields.

Institutional training contrasts with the on-the-job training that Jesus gave to His disciples. He sent His apprentices out where they often failed; he then evaluated their learning of both doctrine and pastoral skills while they worked. In Jesus’ model, leaders learn by both doing and studying rather than by theoretical instruction about the doctrines of the faith in a classroom. Paul’s attitude toward his own teaching echoes this approach; he acknowledged that his instruction was to be evaluated only by the lives and work of those he trained (1 Corinthians 3:1-9; 2 Corinthians 3:1-6).

Leaders often seek more training because they feel inadequate. Before giving detailed doctrinal training, as important as that is, first train them to depend upon the Lord. Sadly, some seminary-trained leaders rely upon their theology books more than upon the Book and its Author.

In rapid reproduction of churches, traditional seminaries cannot keep pace with the need for more leaders, especially for more lay elders. Nor do most seminary-trained leaders have the flexibility to disciple new leaders on the job, keeping up with the moving of the Spirit. Rather they prefer to train others the same way they were trained, in classrooms by lecturing. I was trained within a church in a personal discipleship relationship and therefore rely upon this method. Some seminarians have insisted that my training was inadequate. They encourage men in their churches who are called to ministry to go away to seminary, thereby failing to train a large numbers of elders at the time they are needed to shepherd reproducing churches.

Keep gearing the training—week by week and month by month—to current needs and opportunities.

Patterson saw missionaries overly educate new pastors in some ways and neglect current needs in other ways:

A Honduran pastor working with another denomination had been extensively educated in Guatemala. He heard about the little picture-strip books that we had developed to teach serious theology on a pastoral level to less-educated people. He called on the phone to ask me to mail him some of these training booklets.

He explained, "In seminary I learned wonderful things from the Word of God. The only problem is this: having returned to my church of semi-literate peasants, I find I can no longer communicate to them."

He read a few of our booklets and later wrote, "This is what I want. Send me the rest of those booklets." Later he thanked us for helping him get back on the same cultural level as his own people.

Some churches, too, often follow the only training model they know—the traditional classroom. They aim to teach more and more doctrine, without practicing the ministries that correspond to those doctrines. You must avoid creating the long-eared "hearers only" that James 1:22 warns about. Rather you must train people to be doers of the Word.

Teaching theory without enabling students to apply it immediately, will numb the discipline of church members and stifle their mobilization in ministry. The fact that many do training wrongly does not justify your doing it the same way. Wrong training sidetracks sincere workers who fear feel that they cannot obey the Word until they have learn all the theory. In truth, believers are always learning more, and will do so for all eternity!

Our trainees should learn and should serve at the same time, as the disciples of Jesus and Paul did. To combine learning and serving reinforces true humility, because trainees will not rely only on previous learning but will also trust the Spirit of God who is at work in the body of Christ.

Which of the above items for relating doctrine and duty need attention now from you or your coworkers?

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