Is Your Church Raising Up People for Gospel and Bible Ministry? If Not, Why Not?

Let me prompt you to reflection and action …

Question: Where will the next generation of ministers, pastors, leaders of local churches come from? Where will future evangelists, youth workers, and families’ workers come from? Where will we find the next generation of missionaries? Where will we find chaplains for schools, prisons, and hospitals? Where will we find future ministers for your church and other churches?

Answer: Your church, and other churches like your church!

When I was working at Ridley College, people from local churches would contact us because they wanted to appoint a youth worker or minister. We would say that there are very few available. They would be surprised! Then we used to ask, ‘How long is it since your church sent someone to college to be trained up as a youth worker or minister?’ And then, ‘Why don’t you send someone to college to be trained up for your church or another church?’

It is wicked to expect people to do ministry in your church without training them, supporting them, giving them feedback, and mentoring them in ministry.

There won’t be enough people being trained for full-time gospel and Bible ministry if your church is not praying for and training up people who will do this. Every church should be doing this.

For too long churches have depended on other ministries such as Scripture Union or AFES to train up their young people for ministry.

It is wicked to expect people to do ministry in your church without training them, supporting them, giving them feedback, and mentoring them in ministry.

I sometimes hear people praying that God would raise up future ministers from our Bible and theological colleges. The fact is that if God is not raising up future ministers from our churches, they won’t be in our colleges.

Jesus told his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’ [Matt 9:37, NIV].

Are you doing this? Are your church leaders doing this? Is your church doing this? If not, why not?

The Christian experience that students receive in their home church has the greater influence.

While I think that it is vital that people in full-time gospel ministry go to Bible or theological college, the Christian experience—the ministry and training—that students receive in their home church has the greater influence on them, and shapes their future ministry most strongly. Their primary training and formation is in your church. Your church is the primary source of future ministers, and your church shapes their future ministry.

There are currently not enough workers to fill vacancies for ministers, other gospel and Bible workers, and missionaries. We need to work to fill these gaps, let alone expand our outreach in Australia and overseas.

A friend of mine reckons that raising up future gospel and Bible workers is the greatest challenge for churches in the western world.

If you church has not had this vision, this goal, this passion, then here are some suggestions for action. You need to achieve a massive cultural change, by God’s power, and there are also some practical suggestions for a way forward.

Theological and cultural change, and information

1. Help individualistic Christians—those who have become Christians through an individualistic gospel—to understand that God’s big plan is not about individuals, but for the world—a plan to create his own people. Encourage a doctrine of the church, and a commitment to God’s global gospel plan.
2. Remind people of God’s global gospel plan and multi-cultural and multi-ethnic ministry whenever it occurs in a Bible passage you are preaching on.
3. Ensure that your church is engaging in ministry to people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds.
4. Give the people in your church regular information about the world-wide need for gospel and Bible workers. Tell them about opportunities for gospel and Bible ministry in Australia and overseas. Talk about gospel-poor areas in the world and unreached people groups.
5. Give them regular information about a wide range of possible gospel and Bible ministries: church ministry; chaplaincy in schools, sport, prisons, hospitals; youth and children’s ministry; church planting; teaching and training in Bible colleges and theological colleges; Bible translation; cross-cultural ministry in Australia, including gospel-poor areas; denominational ministry; overseas ministry.
6. Set up an intern training program in your church in which several people set aside 3-4 days a week to get ministry experience and training for one or two years.
7. Get the church to provide some financial support for people from the church who have potential for full-time gospel/Bible ministry to study at a college.
8. Recognise and commission the people God has raised up to do full-time gospel and Bible ministry and keep on praying for them long-term.
9. Develop a culture of ‘Drawing in, Training up, and Sending out.’
10. Remember that it takes up to ten years for a person do get the relevant training and ministry experience in their home church, then go to Bible or Theological college, and then begin their full-time trained gospel and Bible ministry.

Prayer

Include prayers that God will raise up trained gospel and Bible workers from your congregation

1. Ask God to show you people in the congregation who should be encouraged to consider full-time gospel/Bible ministry and challenge them to consider that possibility.
2. Include prayer for God’s global gospel plan in the regular weekly intercessions of the church.
3. Include prayers that God will raise up trained gospel and Bible workers from your congregation to serve in Australia and overseas in the regular weekly intercessions of the church.
4. Include all the nations of the world in your regular weekly intercessions (perhaps praying for a world area each week: Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Oceania/Pacific).
5. Ask the prayer warriors in the church to make the prayer that God will raise up gospel and Bible workers a priority.

Ministry and Training

1. Get every Christian into the habit of encouraging and teaching others—and welcoming it when others teach and admonish them.
2. Get every Christian encouraged and trained in prompting gospel conversations, and giving an account of the gospel when asked.
3. Provide and require both preliminary and in-service training for all who engage in any ministry. (This includes leading Bible study groups, ministry with children, young people and adults, leading services, leading prayers, preaching and teaching, evangelism, intercession, any church or ministry leadership).
4. Keep an eye on what ministry people are doing so that:
   (i) they get a break when they need it; and
   (ii) they are given greater ministry responsibility when they are ready for it.
5. Train people for cross-cultural ministry; to be aware of their own culture; and to respect and understand other cultures. Create cross-cultural ministry opportunities for people.
6. Run a lay preacher training course for able Bible study leaders who:
   (i) understand and teach from the Bible well;
   (ii) have good people smarts;
   (iii) are humble and servant-hearted;
   (iv) have maturity appropriate to their age and experience;
   (v) have future ministry potential;
   (vi) might become full-time trained gospel and Bible workers.
7. Give newly trained lay preachers opportunities to preach or give public Bible talks: at mid-week services; at youth group; in a local aged care facility; in the congregation; in others churches which need a preacher.
8. Set up a group of people who are considering full-time gospel and Bible ministry to meet, say, every two months to pray together and talk about their progress and ideas. Provide opportunities for cross-cultural ministry for these people.

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Matt 9:37, NIV).