I’m writing this post from the two day Ministry Intensive put on by the Ministry Training & Development (MT&D).

The speakers are William Taylor (St Helen’s Bishopsgate); Mark Dever (Capitol Hill Baptist) and Philip Jensen (Anglican Dean of Sydney). It’s been a great first day and I look forward to tomorrow’s program.

In one of the early sessions, William Taylor made a fascinating aside about discipleship and one to one training.

He said that in England the church was in a dire liberal mess in the 1970’s. However - this was ameliorated by the strength of para-church organisations like the Navigators and student ministry that would train people in one to one discipleship, small group leadership etc.

However, he feels that as the churches had grown comparatively stronger, and the para-church organisations had perhaps waned, churches has not picked up this training in personal discipleship.

Could the same thing be said in Sydney?

I certainly am grateful for the amazing training many of our leaders get through their student days. Navigators, AFES, Student Life, and other such organisations have certainly given us generations of graduates well-trained in one to one ministry. 

However, I think we’ve assumed that these organisations will keep being the way the next generation is trained. Inasmuch as they are, that is great. But lets not assume it, or abdicate our responsibility to see God’s people built up in the love and knowledge of Jesus. We need to sit down with open bibles, pray with and for potential leaders, and stop doing the things that stop us doing that.