Training multiplies ministry, but takes time.
It was 1985, and I was a fresh-faced recruit working as a ministry trainee on the campus of the University of New South Wales. It wasn’t called MTS in those days—I think ‘Santa’s Helpers’ was the closest we got to a label—but MTS is what it was. We were let loose to learn by doing—to lead Bible studies, chase up student contacts, evangelize, preach, stack chairs, and generally anything and everything else. It was an extraordinary and life-shaping experience.
But one thing became very apparent, very early on. The potential number of people to contact, converse with, evangelize, follow up and disciple was massive. It was not infinite, but it might as well have been for all the hope I had of getting through the ever-expanding list of names.
It drove me to two rapid realizations—such realizations, of course, being part of the training. The first was that God’s sovereignty was not a theoretical speculation but a lifeline to sanity in Christian ministry. The second was that if I had 100 people on my list, and I could realistically spend significant time with only a small proportion of them, then the obvious thing to do was to mobilize that small proportion to help me minister to all the rest. I realized, in other words, the supreme value of training.
Theologically speaking, I suppose training is a species of edification. It’s one particular way of building people up in their faith, and spurring them on to love and good deeds. It’s not a secret weapon or a silver bullet. It is simply the time-consuming but invaluable practice of imparting ministry skills and knowledge to others.
The beautiful thing about training is that it confers a double benefit: the trainees themselves blossom and grow in their knowledge and confidence to minister to others, and all the people they minister to grow as well.
The only trouble with training is that it’s time-consuming. There is no short cut to good training. A small weekly training group in personal evangelism is an excellent structure, but you can’t just run people through the course like a sausage machine and expect the training to ‘take’. You have to take time to work with individuals, and to do some ministry alongside them, whether it’s evangelism or leading a Bible study or following up a new Christian. Quality training happens over time through personal relationship. Some sort of training course is usually part of that—but it doesn’t stand alone. Much better to train six people really well over six months, than to train 20 people superficially over the same period. And why is it better? Because some of those well-trained six will themselves soon be able to train others—and so the 20 will eventually be trained, but properly and effectively. It takes time, but the growing of seed through planting, watering and patient tending usually does.
It’s probably no accident that more than 20 years later, I find myself working for an organization that exists to provide tools and resources for that particular brand of Christian discipling called ‘training’. Just for Starters has gone through a few editions, but is still the same supremely useful set of Bible studies for following up new Christians as it was when I first used it in the 80s. It sells in the tens of thousands every year around the world. The material to help you train someone else to use Just for Starters has also gone through some changes in recent times. It is now effectively in two parts—the Six Steps to Encouragement course, which trains people in the first principles and general skills of ministering personally to another Christian; and Preparing Just for Starters, which can be done individually, in pairs or in a group, and which provides you with all the background info, answers and extra content to prepare the Just for Starters studies, and work through them with another person.
The evangelism training I used has also evolved. The classic Two Ways to Live personal evangelism training course is still going strong, although it now has DVDs, CD-ROMs, and only takes seven sessions (it used to take nine). For actually training someone to share the biblical gospel naturally in their own style and lead another person to Christ, the Two Ways to Live course still has no equal. But just recently, Matthias Media has introduced a new training program to help people take some short, simple steps in sharing their faith—Six Steps to Talking About Jesus. In your training relationship with someone, this would be material to use first, to be followed with the more specific skills that the Two Ways to Live course can provide.
These aren’t the only training resources we provide, of course. There’s Growth Groups for small group leadership, and Their God is So Big for Sunday School teachers, for example.
But as you use our resources to train others in ministry, remember: training takes time. Do it slowly. Do it in personal relationship. Do it well.
