It is time for a revolution in how the church nurtures new leaders.
As Jim Downing of the Navigators points out, Jesus trained his disciples by imparting:
- Knowledge, through teaching
- Character, by modeling and example
- Skills, through guided experience
While knowledge can be learned anywhere, character and skills are best developed as part of a community that lives, worships, and serves together – i.e., a church.
That is why we developed Growing Church Leaders is a way for mature leaders to train the next generation of leaders in their churches to think biblically, live wisely, and serve faithfully. We encourage pastors to meet weekly with a small group of “faithful men and women, who will in turn teach others,” to lead them in:
- Memorizing bible verses
- Reading from classic Christian books
- Leading devotions, typically from the Psalms or Proverbs
- Studying entire chapters of the Bible, verse by verse
- Exploring how Scripture applies to their lives
- Responding with repentance, action, and worship
Our prayer is that every growing church will invest in establishing future leaders on a solid foundation of biblical truth, character formation, and spiritual discipline. For that reason, this material is available as a free download at https://2transform.us/grow under a Creative Commons “share alike” license, as well as in book form. This allows you to adapt it to the needs of your church or denomination, as long as you allow others to do the same.
May God use His Word to build His Body for His Kingdom!
In Christ,
Ernest N. Prabhakar
Kingsway Community Church
San Jose, California, U.S.A.
May, 2010
