GOD EXPECTS PASTORS TO TRAIN OTHERS TO MINISTER
(This blog is a word-for-word transcript of the first session in all my pastors’ conferences in India .In the first two blogs we saw God expects pastors to use their own gifts and to feed themselves and their people. This is blog 3 in this series.)
- TRAIN OTHERS TO MINISTER. God expects us to train others to minister. Sometimes it seems impossible to do everything a pastor must do. He doesn’t expect us to do everything ourselves. We are like the principle of school. He doesn’t do everything in the school but he makes sure it gets done. Remember when the people came to Moses with their problems? All day long there were so many he couldn’t help them all and he couldn’t get anything else done. What did his father-in-law tell him to do? Get some other men to help.
Ephesians 4:12 says that the work of pastors is to “prepare God’s people for works of service.” He doesn’t say we are to do everything ourselves. He says we are to prepare others to do the work. Remember when the early church was very busy giving out food and clothing to the widows? The apostles didn’t have time to read the Bible and pray. What did they do? They got deacons to do the work instead. They said “It is more important for us to study the Bible and pray” so they trained others to do the work. We must do that as well.
Whatever you do, take someone with you and train them how to do it. Then let them do it on their own. That’s how Jesus trained His disciples. He took them with Him and taught them. Then He sent them out to do the work themselves. They would return, talk about what happened and He’d send them again. Paul did that, too, with Timothy and Titus. You need to be training others to help with the ministry. Then they can train someone else and more are equipped.
You need to train all your people to grow and serve as well. Sometimes we have some people who demand a lot of our time. They are always wanting us to come pray for the or solve their problems. God says we need to train them so they will pray for themselves. They must know how to use the Bible to solve their own problems. There are always times we need to help people. But one of the main reasons we don’t have time to do the important things is because we are doing what others can be doing.
- SERVE HIS SHEEP. God expects us to serve His sheep. Some pastors think the sheep are to serve them. They expect the people to do everything they want so the church looks good and people are impressed with as the pastor. Some pastors in their pride think they are more important than others. But the Bible says we are to serve our people, not have them serve us. Sheep aren’t to serve the shepherd; the shepherd is to serve his sheep.
Jesus was a shepherd Who served His sheep. Matthew 20:28 says Jesus did not come to be served but to serve. He washed His disciples’ feet and said we are to the same thing. We are to serve our sheep. But that doesn’t mean we are to do everything they want us to do. Serving our sheep means we do what is best for them by training them.
How many of you have children? Do you do everything your children want you to do? Why not? What if you did everything they wanted you to do? A parent serves his children by doing what is best for them, not everything they want. Sometimes the children may get upset or not like us. But we know it is more important to do what best for them to grow. Sometimes our people may get upset with us or not like us. They may tell others we aren’t a good pastor or even leave to go to a different church. But we must do what God expects and serve our sheep by doing what is best for them, if they understand or not. If we don’t we will be so busy doing what the sheep want that we won’t have time to do what God expects from us. And if we don’t do what is best for the sheep they won’t grow. God expects us to serve our sheep. (Continued in the next blog.)
Ephesians 4:12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.
Who are you currently training to help with your ministry or to do ministry on their own?
Ask God to show you who else you can train?
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling)
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