Why train for ministry?

Because you should.

I’ve written several posts now about the pros and cons of training. I’ve tried to gently and persuasively spell out why it’s a good idea. If I was to be a little bit more honest and franker however, that I’d say you actually need a really, really good reason not to train.

Ministry is not about you. It’s about Jesus and it’s about those that you serve. If you’ve got the opportunity, therefore, then you should give God that intentional time to shape you to be ready for those people. You owe it to your future congregation to spend less time playing trial-and-error, and more time building intentionally on a solid foundation.

Why would you not train if you have the opportunity?

If you want to take ministry seriously as a calling and not just a vocation, then you’ve got to think of your life in terms of decades and not years. This means portioning out serious time for ministry training.

You can always build experience later, but you can’t build a foundation later, especially not when you’re already several floors up.

Why train?

Because you’ll learn how to handle the Bible.

You’ll learn how to preach better.

You’ll gain an understanding of different learning styles.

You’ll start to ask better questions.

You’ll play test ideas.

You’ll examine things that have already been done.

You develop practices critically without responsibility – which means you won’t hurt anybody if you get something wrong.

You’ll meet a band of brothers and sisters to grow with.

You’ll learn to engage more critically, developing nuance and subtlety.

You’ll be evaluated by people who know more than you do.

You’ll learn in community not just isolation (which is how the Bible was designed to be read).

You’ll do more reflective practice.

You’ll receive formal recognition that you have reached an understood standard – making you more employable.

If you feel a call to ministry then don’t see training as only one potential option. See it as the obvious main path, and only choose a different one if God lays it clearly in front of you.

Training is so important. I believe that one of the main reasons so many youth ministers quit after just one contract period, is simply because they weren’t trained to hit the ground running in the first place.

Training can be better, and it certainly could be cheaper, and you might even end up picking the wrong place for you and then need to change. But this doesn’t make training a bad option. Please, if you’ve written it off, think – and then think again.

 

Photo by Jenny Hill on Unsplash
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