Why use pre-written resources in ministry?

When I was living in a share house, many years ago, I attempted to cook a meal by myself for the first time. It should have gone pretty smoothly. I bought a jar of sauce (‘Chicken Tonight’), some raw chicken to cook, and set about to follow the instructions on the jar.

“Brown the chicken”, it said. I’d cooked beef mince before under my mother’s watchful eye, so I followed what I thought was the established pattern, watching carefully as the raw chicken changed colour from pink to white, waiting patiently for it to turn a cheerful beef-coloured brown.

Mercifully, my housemate arrived in time and saved me from burning the house down, letting me know that ‘browning’ as it relates to chicken means waiting for the meat to turn white.

Some recipes aren’t a great fit for people of a certain level of expertise.

When it comes to Christian resources, we can think the same way: “Those study materials are all well and good, but my people need a different approach. I’ve figured out exactly what we should be doing, so I’d better create something from scratch.”

There is a measure here of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. My flatmate just had to explain to me that one unclear term—browning—and I was fine to work my way through the rest of the recipe. It gave me a level of confidence in cooking that I wouldn’t otherwise have achieved.

When setting out to do something new, something beyond my current skill level, I have two options: I can look for a recipe, a set of steps to follow, or I can just work it out myself.

When we are teaching people how to read the Bible for themselves or share their faith with other people, if we just leave them with the scribbled notes that may make perfect sense to us, we’ll find their competence drops significantly as soon as we step away. A few may figure out their own way, but many will panic and avoid being put in similar situations in the future. It basically becomes the ‘work it out yourself’ approach.

But a recipe has two benefits: it saves time in making a series of mistakes, and it provides a framework for understanding a new task. It does the task of scaffolding, a structure put in place for a time until it’s no longer needed

So, apart from mistrust, what keeps us from using resources more often? A few suggestions:

• Fear of plagiarism. We don’t want to be seen as someone who downloads someone else’s sermon and passes it off as if it’s our own. But it’s much easier to acknowledge the original author when using written resources, and sharing what you’ve learnt from others in that way gives those learning from you a way to retrace your steps.
• Fear of irrelevance. Is a different spelling of ‘colour’ enough reason to throw out an entire study? People can cope, or you can use the resource as a springboard from which to write your own, instead of starting with a blank page.
• Having a greater trust of what we create ourselves. Often we can think that our own situation is so distinct from all others that there’s no way someone else can understand. And yet we would never (or only very rarely) seek to write our own songs for congregational singing. There are times when it’s easier to accept the benefits of the gifts God has given other people.

As the people we are discipling grow in confidence, they can leave the scaffolding behind—I no longer cook (solely) by reading the instructions on jars—and start to put their own spin on things. So a resource is a stepping-stone to confidence, part of the mentor-disciple relationship.

If you’re trying to help people build their confidence, a resource can be the training wheels that help them take the next step in reading the Bible for themselves, sharing their faith, or even leading a group. It’s not a replacement for pastoral oversight, encouragement or training, but it can free up pastoral time for more face-to-face ministry.

Photo credit: Atlantic Way Food