Starting with God: The Bible’s guide to ministry training

There are a range of different opinions on how people should be trained for gospel ministry. But, as Gordon Cheng reveals, the right starting point for ministry training is God and his gospel.

How should Christians be trained in gospel ministry? Some churches are happy to leave the details of this and all related questions to their denominational authorities. As long as their minister is duly appointed, the manner of his training is of secondary interest. Whether it has involved Bible college, some other theological training, or just a lot of practical experience, the question of how they are trained is not an issue that raises a lot of concern. As for going further and training the non-ordained church members, the very suggestion seems alien and out of place. On this view, the job of church members is not so much to be trained as to turn up at church, receive ministry and contribute money. Other churches, arguing that God himself raises up labourers for the harvest, and that all Christians are ministers, will actively resist the idea that ministers of churches should go through some sort of ministry training or subsequent ordination. Still other churches go in a very different direction, seeking to train not only their pastors but also their congregation members according to the very latest and best management principles and business practices—sometimes loosely adapted with reference to biblical proof-texts. One minister I spoke to lamented the lack of such training in his denomination. He said that he had learned a lot about the Bible but nothing about how to lead a congregation. (I confess that the thought occurred to me that he had not learned as much about the Bible as he believed he had—especially after this comment.) But what principles does the Bible itself set out when it comes to training Christians in ministry? And what will such training look like? In this article, I want to offer some initial thoughts about how God himself trains us in ministry.

What is ministry training?

To begin with, we need to be clear on what we mean when we speak about ‘ministry training’. For those who believe in the value of ministry training (and even for those who don't), there's often an unspoken assumption that training someone to be a minister of the gospel is a learned technique or a skill—like learning carpentry or being taught to programme a computer. Others view the training paradigm as less like an apprenticeship and more like a university course in a humanities subject, where academic information and research skills are imparted and honed through discussion and debate, essay writing and examination. So on these and related views, teach someone the right method for taking apart a Bible passage (exegesis, systematic theology, linguistic skills and historically relevant information), help them put it back together and behold!—a gospel minister emerges with Bible study or sermon in hand, equipped with the intellectual wherewithal to keep producing those sermons and studies for a lifetime of ministry. As useful as such intellectual training might be, the difficulty is that the Bible itself does not speak of preparing people for ministry in terms of transferring skills or imparting academic information. Think of Jesus with his disciples. Think of Paul relating to his dear missionary companions and the churches where he has placed leaders. Think of Peter and John being sneered at by those who had received theological training because “they were uneducated, common men” (Acts 4:13). The example of Paul with Timothy is particularly significant because of the detail the New Testament gives. If we had time, we could pursue this detail closely.¹ Paul relates to Timothy not as a teacher to his student, or a craftsman to his apprentice, but as a father to his son: he calls him “my true child in the faith” (1 Tim 1:2) and “my beloved child” (2 Tim 1:2), and urges him to imitate Paul in his dealings with those whom he is teaching. In considering how Christians are shaped for ministry, 1 Thessalonians 2 is also very revealing. Paul's teaching and training of the Thessalonians was gentle and personal. It is was motherly (v. 7); it was fatherly (v. 11-12); it was “affectionately desirous”, says Paul—so much so that he was prepared to share his very life with them, by which he means in context that he was willing to toil hard night and day to support himself. The idea that the one who teaches or trains Christians is like a parent is an idea that is quite different from training that follows a secular educational or apprenticeship model. And certain important consequences follow for the way we think about ministry training, for there are as many different ways of being a gospel trainer as there are of being a parent. One such implication is that training in ministry, like bringing up children, can never be tied down to a particular programme or syllabus. The father or mother who is structured, organized and disciplined in their approach to parenting has every possibility of being as successful in this vocation as the one who is spontaneous, disorganized and vague. By the same token, the father who parents according to an idealistic but authoritarian formula can fail just as spectacularly as the self-centred mother who makes no effort whatsoever to think about what is best for her children. Beginning with a programme for ministry training (or, for that matter, with the rejection of a programme) is missing the point.

Starting in the right place: the gospel of God

Rethinking what ministry training might look like leads us away from thinking about programmes towards thinking about the beliefs and the character of the one who is doing the training. In fact, we must move beyond the human leader or ministry trainer—even beyond one as impressive as the Apostle Paul—and ask questions about the relationship between God and gospel ministry. There are at least two reasons for doing this. The first reason is that human leaders have feet of clay. They—and we—will frequently get it wrong and make mistakes. Even the best and wisest of our human ministers (the one exception being the Lord Jesus) will still give ample occasion for disappointment and disillusionment. This is not just because we are weak and finite and lack the necessary ability and energy to minister effectively, it is because we are, by nature, fundamentally sinful. So while Paul urged people to imitate him, he was also clear that he was not the ultimate source of the message; rather, he was a terrible sinner (1 Tim 1:15) who was only able to act as a teacher of the gospel because of the work of God in his life. The second reason for starting with God is that all Christian ministry does, in fact, derive from God. God is the prime minister, and he himself takes responsibility for his own glory and for our salvation. If those who minister to us are like parents, then the ultimate parent is God our Heavenly Father. He ministers to us by means of the gospel of his Son. In the gospel, we don't just learn interesting but academic information about God, we learn that God has made it possible to know him because Jesus has sacrificed his life to win the forgiveness of our sins. So Jesus, the divine Son of God, says to his disciples, “I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:27b). God himself shows us what ministry is, and he does so by sending Jesus to die in our place. These two reasons are closely related. Because human beings are weak and sinful, God takes responsibility for our salvation and becomes the one who ministers to us. So in Ezekiel, God sees the corrupt nature of Israel's leaders and exclaims in response that “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down” (Ezek 34:15). This idea that God is the leader and rescuer of his people is a constant theme in both the Old and New Testaments.² How does God shepherd us? He does it through the Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, who leads his sheep: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”, Jesus declares in John 10:11. The Lord Jesus will lead them by his word: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Other gospel ministers are shepherds not in their own right, but only because they answer to—and are modelled upon—the Chief Shepherd: Jesus. Peter makes the link explicit in this passage:

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. (1 Pet 5:1-4)

So, then, it is not only gospel ministry but training people in gospel ministry that depends first upon God: God saves and shepherds and trains us through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If God saves us and ‘trains’ us through the gospel of Jesus, we should ask three important questions. First, what is this gospel? Second, what does the gospel require of us? And third, how does the nature of this gospel shape our understanding of ministry training?

1.What is the gospel?

Revelation 14:6-7 is one of the briefest gospel statements in the entire New Testament. Nevertheless, it manages to highlight two frequently neglected aspects of the gospel:

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

The twin emphases in the angel's gospel proclamation are God's lordship (which arises from the fact that he created all things) and the imminence of his judgement. A lot of contemporary gospel preaching omits these twin themes of lordship and judgement. Yet they are the only elements of the eternal gospel that the angel treats as indispensable: the God who revealed this—the same God who sent Jesus as a sacrifice to die on the cross for our justification, and raised him to sit on the throne of God—this God is the one who now comes as ruler and judge of all.³ Without these two essential elements, the ministry of gospel proclamation is reduced to nothing more than social work with a spiritual dimension. If Jesus himself is not both Lord and judge as Revelation teaches, then there is no genuinely pressing need to be right with God or to honour his authority. Nor is there any urgency to the task of talking to men and women about the Lord Jesus, the one who will come to weigh up the words and deeds of the living and the dead. Ministry that has lost connection with the gospel of lordship and judgement will centre instead on pragmatics, popularity, and human opinion on what ministry should be all about. In such a ministry, God becomes a comfortable and comforting figure who fills a ‘God-shaped hole’; he exists to fulfil people's deepest desires and longings, and he rewards with eternal life those who are gracious enough to put their faith in him. So the call to repentance and discipleship becomes transmogrified into the weak call to trust a morally undemanding invisible friend—if indeed we feel we need to. As true as it is that God does satisfy the deepest desires and longings of his creatures, this is not the reason for God's existence, nor can it be the reason for our ministry. Right ministry will only flow out of commitment to the true gospel.

2.What does the gospel require of us?

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:18-20)

In these final words of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus claims lordship over all creation. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. At the same time, Jesus reminds his disciples that judgement is coming: the end of the age is in sight. This is the same eternal gospel that the angel preached in Revelation, but here we hear it from the lips of Jesus himself. Jesus draws the link between his lordship, the coming judgement, and the need for every disciple of his to involve themselves in the proclamation of his rule—both by responding to it and by going on to present our Lord's claim to “all nations”. In God's eternal gospel, this demand for a response comes with great clarity and force. In Matthew 28:17, Jesus' disciples respond as they should, worshipping him even in the face of their own doubts and hesitation. They worship him because the evidence of Jesus' resurrection is there before their very eyes, and they now have no choice but to acknowledge what this evidence demonstrates: that Jesus is God's appointed Messiah, the one through whom God is establishing his promised kingdom.⁴ It is out of this acknowledgement of Jesus as the risen Messiah that the evangelistic task flows. As a direct result, the first disciples are to make disciples of all nations—to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins to the whole of humanity, without exception or prejudice. By its very nature, the authority of Jesus over heaven and earth can no longer remain a piece of information known only to that privileged early group of followers; Jesus is Lord of all, so his offer of forgiveness for our rejection of his lordship extends to all. All nations without exception must now respond by becoming disciples, receiving forgiveness as they are baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This task of disciple-making will continue “to the end of the age”. Jesus' instruction to “make disciples” is not just a specific word to the apostles gathered around him at the time of his final resurrection appearance. Why? Because those first disciples were instructed to “make disciples” of others. And because they were disciples recognizing the universal lordship of Christ over his creation, the disciples thus made fell under exactly the same obligation as the original 12 to get on with the job of announcing the lordship of Christ—as did their hearers, and so on “to the end of the age”. This work of announcing Christ's lordship necessarily continues until the Lord Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead. So it involves us too. This has particular and immediate consequences for the way we now think about church and ministry training. For example, if it is the gospel that makes disciples, then it is not only the gospel preacher in the pulpit who is making disciples (although that task is basic to what he is doing); it is not just the ordained minister or the denominationally appointed leader who is making disciples; the small home Bible study group gathering themselves around the word of God are also, necessarily, involved in disciple-making since they too are being shaped by hearing and responding to the gospel. The same goes for the Christian meeting one-to-one with his or her friend, the cross-cultural missionary and the public evangelist who proclaims the gospel to unchurched people.⁵ In short, anyone who knows the gospel, and speaks it to another person, is doing the work of discipling. If we are Christians, we are ministers of the gospel charged with the task of discipling others. What's more, we are to teach the people we disciple that they too are to get on with the work of discipling, as they find opportunity.

3. How does the gospel shape our understanding of ministry training?

The gospel not only turns people from unbelievers into disciples, it also provides the means whereby those disciples become disciplers of others—ministers in their own right. For the Christian, there is no special class of priests such as the one that existed within the Old Testament, or as is claimed to exist within Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. As Martin Luther says,

[T]he ministry of the Word belongs to all. To bind and to loose clearly is nothing else than to proclaim and to apply the gospel. For what is it to loose, if not to announce the forgiveness of sins before God? What is it to bind, except to withdraw the gospel and to declare the retention of sins? Whether they want to or not, they must concede that the keys are the exercise of the ministry of the Word and belong to all Christians.⁶

Any notion of a ‘call to ministry’ (an expression that is just as misused as it is commonly heard) is not, biblically speaking, a call to become a member of a special class of Christians; a call to ministry is simply a call to be a Christian. Every single Christian that God has made by the work of his Holy Spirit has an obligation to speak the gospel of the lordship of Christ to those around. Now it is undeniably true that some individuals are particularly gifted in speaking the gospel of the lordship of Christ. There are great preachers, extraordinary evangelists, brilliant theologians, and remarkable and inspirational church leaders who pastor their congregations by teaching them God's word both publicly and (like the Apostle Paul) house-to-house. Both the Bible and experience teach us that some people are more effective than others in certain ministries. However, we simply note that no selection of individuals on the basis of particular abilities, character and willingness to minister can ever be used as a reason to exclude some Christians from the privilege of sharing in gospel ministry. The gospel itself ‘trains’ us to be disciples, and, in so doing, trains us to be ministers of the gospel. The outworking of this will be that the more our churches and Bible study groups continue to make the prayerful study and teaching of the Bible (which is where we learn the gospel) the centre of every element of our ministries, the more we can expect Christians and others in our churches and Bible studies to respond by trusting it. And as they trust this gospel and understand what God has done for them, they too will become better and better at teaching it to others. They are being trained by the gospel itself to become gospel trainers. This is why we need to see the Bible itself (where we come to know the gospel) as the basic diet of our church's public teaching, small groups and one-to-one ministry. The starting point for all ministry training is not the discovering of gifted individuals, or exceptional human leaders. Nor can ministry training simply be a function of a particular strategy or programme. The right starting point for ministry training is God and his gospel. We should thank God for revealing that gospel through Jesus, pray that he will raise up people to speak and live that gospel, and then get on with learning and responding to that gospel, and speaking it to others.

Endnotes

¹ Note especially that in 2 Timothy 2:1-2, Paul urges Timothy to teach others as he himself has been taught by Paul. ² We could spend considerable time showing just how clearly the Bible teaches that salvation is God's work alone, tracing this idea through passages such as Genesis 12:1-2, Exodus 14:13 and Psalm 46:10, and on into the New Testament in passages such as Ephesians 2:8-9. The very fact that Jesus dies for our sins shows the extent of our helplessness and how God's power alone is at work in our salvation. ³ Indeed, as we read Revelation, it is clear that the God the angel speaks of is none other than the Lord Jesus! He is the subject of this eternal gospel; he is the one revealed in Revelation as the one who “loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ... [and who is now] coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him” (Rev 1:5-7). ⁴ This is the very message that Peter, empowered by God's Holy Spirit, goes on to preach in the first Christian sermon ever on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-40). On the basis of the resurrection, Peter declares “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). ⁵ In the classic Puritan work of ministry training The Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter clearly understands that the obligation of the minister is to “preach to one, as to a thousand” (Banner of Truth, 1974 [1656], p. 228). ⁶ Martin Luther, ‘Concerning the Ministry’, Luther's Works, vol. 40, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1958 [1523], p. 27.