HAVE YOU BEEN TRAINED TO FAIL?      Part 1

I am convinced that most pastors have been trained to fail.  Why would anyone allow themselves to be trained to fail? 

You have been trained to fail in ministry if your perception is to do ministry rather than to train others to do ministry.  I am grateful to those who taught me to perform the functions of ministry: visiting, counseling, marrying, burying, teaching, witnessing, and a host of other duties. All of them 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.  God wants us to be equippers of leaders—not leaders of followers! 

The following five common ingredients are necessary if you want to pastor a growing church:

(1) Both the pastor and the congregation must 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 must be established. That is, leadership plus lay ministry equals growth.

How can you build a leadership team and maximize ministry in your church?

I will deal with this question next time.

Steve Brown
District Leader               (To comment on any part of this article, please scroll down.)