One of, if not the core, passages in Ephesians (here @ Bible Gateway) is Ephesians 4:11 – 16 (here @ Bible Gateway). In no uncertain terms, Paul declares the purpose of leadership in the Body of Christ. It is not to do the work of service, ministry, rather it is to equip those in the Body, the saints, for that ministry.
How are we doing on that?
Much of what I have experienced in the western church has been lecture based. Whether it be a Sunday morning message, a Sunday school, a Wednesday night meeting, or a small group, there is often one who shares and the others either listen and take notes or else respond to what he says.
That seems to be what serves as equipping in the minds of many leaders.
However, I am willing to wager my next year’s wage (truthfully, not a big wager) that is not the way they were equipped to earn their livelihood.
For example. I was, for a time, an instructor pilot in the Air Force. To train pilots we gave them a book to read (true), and then sent them out on the flight line to fly the planes (true or false?).
Should we have followed that process, we would have created multiple smoking holes at the end of the runway. That is not the way pilots were equipped, trained to fly. Sure they were given a book that explained how the plane worked. They also had multiple classes that included tests on the material. Then, an instructor gets in the plane with them, demonstrating, and walking them through each task they needed to complete to successfully fly the plane. Then, when they were performing those tasks, the instructor would correct their mistakes as well as offer other techniques for completing the task successfully and safely.
In all of the disciplines of which I am aware be it medical, engineering, accounting, the equipping, training is similar. Men and women are taught, they practice, and they are given feedback about what they did correctly, what they need to do to correct, and thoughts on what they could do differently to make their practice more effective. By the way, all of their careers are called practices.
But it is not just “professional” careers that follow this model…
This is getting longer than I anticipated. We will finish this tomorrow…
Much of what I have experienced in the western church has been lecture based. Whether it be a Sunday morning message, a Sunday school, a Wednesday night meeting, or a small group, there is often one who shares and the others either listen and take notes or else respond to what he says.
That seems to be what serves as equipping in the minds of many leaders.
However, I am willing to wager my next year’s wage (truthfully, not a big wager) that is not the way they were equipped to earn their livelihood.
For example. I was, for a time, an instructor pilot in the Air Force. To train pilots we gave them a book to read (true), and then sent them out on the flight line to fly the planes (true or false?).
Should we have followed that process, we would have created multiple smoking holes at the end of the runway. That is not the way pilots were equipped, trained to fly. Sure they were given a book that explained how the plane worked. They also had multiple classes that included tests on the material. Then, an instructor gets in the plane with them, demonstrating, and walking them through each task they needed to complete to successfully fly the plane. Then, when they were performing those tasks, the instructor would correct their mistakes as well as offer other techniques for completing the task successfully and safely.
In all of the disciplines of which I am aware be it medical, engineering, accounting, the equipping, training is similar. Men and women are taught, they practice, and they are given feedback about what they did correctly, what they need to do to correct, and thoughts on what they could do differently to make their practice more effective. By the way, all of their careers are called practices.
But it is not just “professional” careers that follow this model…
This is getting longer than I anticipated. We will finish this tomorrow…
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