Equipping the Saints — God’s Plan for Ministerial Training and Succession.
Today, professionally trained ministers professionally minister to starving congregations, regurgitating doctrine that is often is dead to them, and we wonder where the life-giving power of God’s Word is to fill the hungry heart. Could it be that our current methods for ministerial preparations have more to do with a classroom education and a plaque on the wall, and less about a mighty anointing and equipping call in answer to the eternal question “Who will go for Us…?”
I would like to briefly look into how God’s people should be trained and prepared for the ministry. It is NOT my goal to categorically speak despairingly of seminaries or Bible schools, and especially those who seek to serve God better by attending these institutions. However, I would like to examine what God’s intended pattern might be, as revealed in His Word.
There are two keys to God’s plan in this vitally important life preparation: humility and relationship. The key to God’s power and authority in leadership is humility; this comes by serving. Jesus demonstrates this for us by girding himself with a towel and washing his disciple’s feet (John 13:3-4). The Bible clearly states that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5). Today’s Bible colleges seem to have the same affect, in many cases, as secular universities. They foster a pride of the knowledge learned. Paul tells us, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (1 Corinthians 8:1b). This verse begs the question, if knowledge can be a snare, what is the goal then of our ministerial education – the answer is WISDOM. The minister of the Lord needs wisdom; the church is destitute in our day of wise men of God, who can discern the will and message of the Lord for His people. Unfortunately, what we have in place of the wise, humble men of God, are many shepherds of God’s flock who are full of knowledge and often full of pride.
In 1897 J.D. Rant wrote in his work Advice to Young Preachers, “But at the beginning of this work, many young men are met with a difficult problem: “How am I to prepare myself to preach the word?” To many this seems hard; to others no great difficulty seems apparent in this matter. To all I must say there are no insurmountable difficulties for that man who is willing to labor and to wait. I often notice calls in the papers from so-called “noble young men” asking some church to help them by sending them money that they may go to school. They desire an education that they may make preachers of themselves! To these calls I give no heed, for not one young man in ten of those who make such calls will ever succeed. They are not willing to endure hardship as a good soldier, and only desire to be educated at the expense of someone else.”
It is clear that often times we view education as the quick and easy way to gain God’s anointing. God’s ways are not always the easy ways, but they are always the best. Through humble service, a young man can be prepared for God’s work.
This first point is key to the accomplishment of the second. The attitude of humility is essential in the mentoring relationship that God has designed to prepare the man of God for the harvest field. The scriptures are replete with examples of these mentoring relationships. A few of these are: Elijah and Elisha, Paul and Timothy, or Paul and Titus
Along with these there is the model of the father and his children, and the admonitions for the older to teach the younger. These relationships are based on wisdom being communicated from one generation to another and from one life to another. This relational model enforces character while experience in ministry is gained. This mentoring should, of course, start in the home. It is sad that many men of God feel inferior, such that they feel they are not capable or worthy to train their own sons and daughters for God’s work. In Deuteronomy 11:18-20, we are told, “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates” This daily discipleship becomes the foundation for anything else that God might do in the lives of our children. This relationship can continue in the home, or often times God brings another man of God to amplify the preparation for ministry. This most often occurs when a son’s desire for ministry reaches into areas that are beyond the father’s experience or burden. We notice for example in the life of Timothy, that he was trained by his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5), then God brought Paul into their lives to help facilitate the ministerial training of this Godly young man.
Paul summarizes this method of ministerial preparation in 2 Timothy 2:1-3, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
I have briefly outlined above what might arguably be a better method of ministerial training for men of God. In closing, I would like to address a few issues that arise out of this model.
The Responsibility of Mentors
One reason that we do not see more of this type of ministry in the church today is that we as mentors are guilty of one or more of several wrong ideas. First, often just like the fathers described above, we feel inadequate to mentor those in our sphere of influence. We forget that the best mentor shares from his weaknesses and strengths what God has taught him. Secondly, we value our own individual positions too highly and thus are afraid or apathetic in our need to prepare others to augment our ministries and to eventually take our place. The sad thing is that we are cheating ourselves. God often gives leaders visions that are larger in scope than they could ever accomplish alone. We are all workers in God’s vineyard – the operation of the gifts of the Spirit in our midst is meant to equip the church to shake the world, to the get the work done before the end of life’s day. As mentors and as workers in that vineyard we must strive to prepare others to serve where we can’t; selflessly giving all we can in their preparation. Lastly, and probably most common, it is easiest to do things our way and by ourselves, we forget that God has much more in store than one can ever accomplish alone. We need those we mentor as badly as they need us.
The Preparation of Young Ladies
This article has primarily dealt with the preparation of young men for the ministry. It is my believe that this method of training works for all young people, and when used appropriately will train the sisters in our churches to be meek, quiet keepers at home that honor and obey their husbands. The factory brand of education that seeks to train women alongside their male counterparts tends to produce the female dominated churches that we have today and does not cultivate the meek and quiet spirit that is precious in God’s site. Why is it that the majority of our testimony services and other acts of worship are dominated by sisters in our fellowship? Why do the men not lead out in these important areas? We have not mentored our men, equipping them to aptly lead in their homes. Since they are not their family’s priest, the wife feels often times uncovered spiritually and other times equal positionally with her husband. The older women quietly instructing (mentoring) the younger women will help bring God’s body back into its proper order.
Marriage and Bible School
Perhaps one of the saddest outcomes of the modern mode of ministerial education is an emphasis on early marriage often times during Bible school. Our children desire to go to Bible school supposedly to “seek the Lord”, while actually they are really trying to seek a spouse. Our young people assume that they will find the ideally qualified young person to spend their lives with since, after all, they are both “seeking the Lord”. I wonder however, if the young people, especially the young ladies, in these Bible schools are in their proper place at all. The Bible clearly tells us that young women are to be quiet keepers at home (Titus 2:5); moreover that they are to be silent in the assembly and learn from their husbands (2 Timothy 2:10-12). Yet our young men are looking not in the homes of Godly families for their future helpmeets but in the halls of religious institutions where these girls are being taught not to be quiet but to preach, not to learn but to teach, and not to be meek but to be opinionated. This may seem harsh, but it is so vitally important for the continuance of God’s work hear on earth that we do things God’s way.
The School of the Prophets
In the course of this type of conversation invariably the topic of the “school of the prophets” of the “sons of the prophets” comes up. We are not told of the function of these gatherings, but they are not described in scripture in any negative light. So we can not assume from a plain reading of scripture, that these were not God-ordained institutions. However, I find it interesting that, while there existed in his day many such groups of young men, the prophet Elijah picked his successor from behind a plow rather than from behind a pulpit. Elisha was at home doing his father’s work when God’s man called him. The key is to be doing what God has called you to TODAY, so that you will be ready to do what God will call you to do tomorrow.
In conclusion, I realize that I have not thoroughly dealt with every possible situation that might arise, or even with every topic discussed above. My desire is to stir us up to do things God’s way; for to truly see God-sized results, we must do things God’s way.
