|
|
On one hand there are many roles of serving that are open even from the outset of your journey, as listed back at Journey 101. The 201 experience will enrich your ability to serve in such tasks. On the other hand, there are other roles of significant responsibility that should be filled only by those who have completed a Growth Group, or similar experience of spiritual formation. Significant leadership roles that recommend Growth Group as a prerequisite
include:
Before you lead and feed others spiritually, it’s important that you know how to feed yourself, at least in an elementary way. 1 Timothy 3:8-13 lists character qualifications for those who are in a recognized serving role in the church. Spending time in a 201 Growth Group will give us time to observe and identify these qualities before you serve in a 301 ministry. Not all ministries are a recognized position in the church. The neighborhood evangelist, or the person ministering to 3 elderly shut-ins, or the volunteer at AWC pregnancy resource center — all are doing ministry, no less than the Sunday School teacher. Have you noticed? We prefer the Biblical terminology of equipping for service, rather than “training for leadership”. Not everyone has the gifting to be a leader. But we are all called to serve. So everyone coming out of Growth Group is urged to find or continue in their place of service. Only a few will serve as leaders. Where to start in Serving? Co-Laboring is serving alongside a ministry veteran for one to six months, or more. It’s like an apprenticeship. You learn ministry skills from assigned readings, from observation, and from gradually increasing responsibilities. Your partner will briefly meet with you once a month to reflect on readings and ministry experience. You will also encourage each other and keep each other accountable for spiritual disciplines, as learned in Growth Group. This is not a vague, unstructured mentoring. A Co-Laborer’s Manual provides a well-structured pathway of growth. Currently we have developed several 6-lesson manuals, each specifically designed for one of 16 ministries, including:
All of us need continued encouragement, accountability and support in ministry. In Journeys 301, there are several options in place to provide that. Team Life. Some will graduate from a 201 Growth Group into a 301 Team Life. Here your team not only serves together in one ministry, but also continues the Growth Group style mutual ministry of building each other up, especially in spiritual disciplines.* A-Team. Some ministries by nature have no organized team. But a bi-weekly A-Team can draw together such servants for a time of mutual ministry. Other Groups. Some will find it most practical to return to an ABF or other previous 101 group. But it would be wise to find a spiritual partner for pursuing higher levels of spiritual accountability, as you learned in Growth Group. Leaders. Leaders of all adult groups meet together for regular fellowship and training. (This has been sometimes called Disciple Makers Community, or DMC). Leaders also receive regular contact and coaching from a staff member or lay veteran of ministry. These four kinds of networking are designed to provide the kind of support, problem solving, and chain of communication that will help each person who is serving to be more fruitful and effective. Additional courses of value in the 301 Journeys include: Intermediate Doctrine. Deeper study of Christian doctrine, following on the prerequisite of Firm Foundations.* Bible Survey. More detailed survey of each part of Bible, as introduced in Bible Overview. Bible Study Methods. How to study, interpret, and apply the Bible.* Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. * These are under development and will be available later.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
