How Did Paul Train Pastoral Leaders?

I read this article some time ago. It made me think. I forget who wrote it but it is worth the thought process to go through it.

HOW DID PAUL TRAIN PASTORAL LEADERS?

Are you interested in a profound missiological truth? One so simple we are overlooking it now and have continued to do so for centuries? Then , place your "blinders" ON and tune out the 20th Century American church and its religious culture. Remove your "tinted lenses" that inhibit seeing Scriptural realities and look with me at the Pauline model.

For almost three decades I have labored over the "riddle" - -how could Paul go to a place like Thessalonica, stay three weeks or less and leave such fine leaders that later he will write a letter calling them examples? I should have realized that like everything else related to the first century church, the answer would be (1) RELATIONAL and (2) SIMPLE. Notice I said I "should have" realized that, but I did not.

Exploring many options, personally I have usually relied upon a "one-on-one" approach, blending content from several excellent sources. These sources contain important concepts, well-developed for training and transfer (the 30 basic topics in Leroy Eims' "The Lost Art of
Disciplemaking" by the Navigators, / "Questions People and Churches Ask" by Chas. Brock, / "Individually Guided Training for Equiping Indigenous Church Leaders" by HMB staff - Hernandez, Palmer, Wigger, Rodriguez, Anthony, etc. with help from the "Skunk Works" Team, / Seminary Extension Courses, SBC,/ "Building Disciples" by Waylon Moore, ...etc.). Using two to four years, mentoring "on-the-job", I have fascilitated the maturing of many strong leaders on the mission field. Avoiding the model of sending the "called" leaders away to schools or trying to find local jobs for schooltrained leaders from outside, our source was local indigenous leaders from within God's harvest here. However, - decentralizing the training location and personalizing the content imparted did not alter the fact that the paradigm was still one of imparting a body of material [ a prescribed set of concepts, skills and Biblical knowledge] to the developing worker. This paradigm cannot be what Paul used in three weeks in Thessalonica or what untrained, pagan-background elders/pastors used in hundreds of house settings in Ephesus. The riddle was still an unsolved mystery.

A trip this past Winter to Hong Kong only heightened my growing anxiety over this dilemma of "What Did Paul Do?" What material did the master-apostle cover in a three week boot camp or even in three months, that could firmly establish new believers who, without even the benefit of
a Jewish background, were being called to shepherd small congregations?

The church planters in Hong Kong were frustrated "with" me at times and "by" me at times as this dilemma became the greatest weakness in being able to envision a true movement of God in planting house churches among the grass roots Chinese. How can the church planter start new work and then quickly "get out of the picture" - - avoiding the dependence upon him that will naturally evolve to the detriment of indigenous reproduction and multiplication? Many ideas surfaced, but satisfactory answers did not come.

I returned to the U.S. , convinced that we needed a very minimal list of basic ministry skills and basic Bible knowledge. We could match these with Scripture passages that give clear guidelines. Perhaps one key verse for memory that addresses each area to be taught. This keeps training simple, Biblically-based, flexible {each church planter can contextually shape the teaching as he sees fit} and transferable. It requires no book, no costs - only the list. It is cross-cultural and won't require translations of texts, publication costs, etc. It involves the planter covering a list of
basic ministry skills from Scripture. It is SIMPLE and RELATIONAL - - - and I will probably keep trying to develop this for more advanced leaders.

BUT - - PAUL DID NOT USE THIS APPROACH.

How do I know? Simple. (1) In the early 50's AD when Paul planted the church in Thessalonica, there had not been sufficient (New Testament) Scripture written and accessible to accomplish this. It was far too early in the development of the first century church. (2) Secondly, even if copies of the Gospels and Epistles had been freely available, this task [imparting a corpus of knowledge and practical skills] could not have been accomplished in three weeks or less. As valuable as the "List" concept may appear to us, it was not the first century "method".

Four weeks ago, while making a missionary journey with a North American Mission Board regional strategist, I believe I discovered the solution to our "riddle". Desiring to interview experienced Home Bible Fellowship leaders for insight about lay-led work, we traveled in the Sandhills day and night for three days. Interviewing people by day and trying to solve "the training riddle" in motels at night. As "iron sharpened iron", our strategist was hard on me - - pointing out weaknsses and flaws. Some of these had greatly slowed reproduction, others completely prevented it. Always the problems related to training new leaders and "passing the
baton". A few miles from the South Dakota border, in the shadows of the buttes, an ANSWER came. Almost simultaneously to both of us. It did appear too simple to be true, but since that day, the Lord has affirmed it time and again through Scriptures, through people, through looking back at its presence woven throughout the most fruitful of our plantings. It is simple and it is relational!

ARE YOU READY?

Do not reject it until you carefully consider all the ramifications in the first century and now. HERE IT IS - from the very beginning (the initial contacts in a new work start) BE a man who is
thoroughly in love with Jesus Christ,
filled by the Spirit
and completely surrendered to the Lord's control.
Exemplify this! Model this lifestyle of love-surrender-obedience as you present Christ and evangelize, as you follow-up on those who believe, as you establish the Church and entrust it to the Lord and to its constituency.

How does this missionary lifestyle MANIFEST itself?

This "ambassador" for Christ is compelled by the love OF Christ to a life that radiates a love FOR Christ (2 Cor. 5:14-21). (1) He truly "prays without ceasing" (1 Thes. 5:17) - everything becomes a matter to take before the Father. The new convert learns to pray quickly from observation of a "ceaseless pra-yer". (2) This missionary speaks the "Word". He exhibits an insatiable desire to know God's written Word and clearly demonstrates that his hunger for it flows from that intense desire to know HIM [Phil 3:8,19] (it is not an academic desire to know data or principles or insights). (3) The new believer-leader saw from the very first that the
missionary's love for Christ drives him to share it. It is natural and normal for one in love with Christ to speak often and freely about Him. It becomes almost a compulsion, but has nothing to do with an obligation or discipline to "witness". (4) This apostle thrives on being with believers
(Heb. 10:24-25) - it both energizes him and affords him his greatest opportunity for ministry. He lays his life "open" to receive and give through the vehicle of genuine fellowship. (1 Thes. 2:8)

Can the lifestyle described above be imparted in three weeks or less? YES!

Paul's lifestyle painted an indelible picture in the minds and hearts of the new believer-leaders, and - - - he recognized the importance of this. Take this new LEADERSHIP TRAINING "filter" and reread 2 Tim. 2:2, 1 Thes. 1:5-7. 2:8, 2;10-11, 3:12-13, 4;1 {PLEASE pause and take the time to read these passages before you continue reading this blog}.

A simple group - - in love with Christ and with each other. Sharing freely with each other and with a lost world. Constantly in His Word and in prayer. "Together" , discovering more each week about Him and His Will. If they continue to "abide' (John 15) in relationship to Christ and the body (church), they will have everything they need. The Holy Spirit will be their resident Teacher (not you, church planter) and they will become very Christ-dependent as a body. Is that not what we desire as church planters? (There is an ego-based dependence upon us which we enjoy "in the flesh", but it is clearly sin that complicates new work reproduction.). Neither you, I - nor Paul could impart sufficient skills nor teach them enough raw data in three weeks to handle everything that will come. But, the body, - functioning as a whole, nurtured by its own Spirit-controlled leaders, constant in prayer, faithful to the Scriptures it knows, dependent upon Christ, led by the Spirit - - that body is Divinely "sufficient"(regardless of its age).

Paul's epistles are full of references to teaching by example. Paul took no leadership lists or books - -no resources, but his own life! Everything was relational and simple. IF all of this be true...THE GREATEST SINGLE DETRIMENT TO A GOD-BREATHED MOVEMENT OF CHURCH PLANTING IS YOU AND ME!

Consider this thought by Japanese missionary, Dr. W. Maxfield Garrott (1941):

"...we have seen how Jesus lived night and day with twelve men...and made something of them. The implication for us today is obvious. To get results comparable to His, all you have to do is to be like Jesus and live close enough to few enough men for them to acquire His image through you. Very simple."

TAKE some time to pray about this concept. READ all of 1st Thessalonians again. Then respond to me if you wish. I want to learn from you.