Training for Ministry?

A few years back I was asked to lead a seminar on how to study the Bible at the headquarters of a well know Christian organization.  It was essentially the same seminar that I have done in 10 weeks compressed into about 4 days.  During one of the last hours together one of the staff asked me if I thought that training staff was essentially Bible study.  I did not answer the question well.  About three years later I tracked down the staff member that asked the question and we talked through the issue.

Essentially, my answer was Bible study is the starting point and the foundation of all equipping for any Christian ministry.  

In this blog a reading plan has been mentioned several times.  The plan was put together by a Scottish minister, Robert Murray M’Cheyne.  It has been an enormous help to me.  So much so that I wanted to know more about this man whom the Lord took at the age of 30.  I got a copy of his biography and have been slowly reading it.  There is early in the book a key passage:

Mr. Alexander Somerville (afterwards minister of Anderston Church, Glasgow) was his familiar friend and companion in the gay scenes of his youth.  And he, too, about this time, having been brought to taste the powers of the world to come, they united their efforts for each other’s welfare.  They met together for the study of the Bible, and used to exercise themselves in the Septuagint Greek and the Hebrew original.  But oftener still they met for prayer and solemn converse; and carrying on all their studies in the same spirit, watched each other’s steps in the narrow way. (Memoir and Remains, Andrew A. Bonar)

Note that these two men who were struggling to walk with the Lord amid a world that was pulling at them, chose to fight by joining together to study God’s word.  This is a good example of Hebrews 3:13 (here @ Bible Gateway).  This is a key concept.  These men joined together to help each other excel in the Christian life.  What did they do?  They started by studying the Word of God together.

In 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:4 (here @ Bible Gateway), Paul tells Timothy essentially the same thing.  Timothy is to continue in the Word of God.  All of us know 3:16 – 17 (here @ Bible Gateway), the four things the Word does, teach, reprove, correct, and train.  But have you noticed that Paul repeats those four impacts of the Word in two other places in 2 Timothy?  Consider 2 Timothy 2:24 – 25 (here @ Bible Gateway) and 4:2 (here @ Bible Gateway).

In the next post we will unpack these two passages, consider some of the implications of Paul’s statements, and catalog some ways they apply to men leading their families.