Germany (Mainz): 2010, Day 5
After another feeding at the breakfast buffet, it was time for me to begin the work of this trip in earnest. Over the next 10 days, I will be offering seminars to Foursquare pastors/leaders and church planters in several regions of Germany. Jan’s thought for my tour is that many more lay leaders in the churches will be able to attend a seminar if it is held close to their home—as opposed to in some far off city. Since the real hope for any Movement’s future rests in what happens to the not-so-obvious and yet-to-fully-emerge leaders in its churches, we must keep working hard to find ways to help develop, train and inspire those leaders.
For the most part, future church planters and pastors will come from the ranks of lay leadership in existing churches. Not every local pastor knows how to inspire their leaders to “go” into a future beyond the limits of the local church they currently attend, and sometimes it’s just helpful for an outside voice to communicate, “We believe in you” to the many, many leaders who support their local church. That’s why my topic of conversation will mostly center around how leaders can better make disciples, and how leaders can mobilize workers/leaders to help in the ministry.
I believe that God leads people a little at a time, one step after another. If we want to end up with many lay leaders who eventually decide to “go for it” and lead congregations of their own, we have to begin the step-by-step process now. A faithful Sunday school teacher who gets inspired to lead the Sunday school program and mentor other teachers is taking a huge step toward their future. Someone who begins to volunteer is taking a similar step. Few people leap from non-participating church-goer to church planter!
Jan picked me up, and as we drove to the church where the seminar is being held, he gave me the rundown on which churches were participating. In all, seven churches sent one or more leaders—sometimes the pastor alone and sometimes with a whole team.
My main challenge–aside from cultivating relationship with people who don’t know me from the man on the moon—was to stay true to the prompting God gave me to eschew preparation, to stay away from producing a tidy outline with several bullet points about inspiring and training disciples/volunteers. I know how much Germans like nice, orderly presentations, but I also know God knows best! But I was tempted to have my day figured out ahead of time.
The fifty or so people attending the day’s discussion came from a wide spectrum of ministry engagement. There were pastors looking for keys to mobilizing others; lay people who had no idea why they were here; cell group leaders; administrators; etc. It was instantly clear to me that the eclectic nature of the audience required I find common ground. So, I began by discussing a church-wide truth: most leaders feel completely unqualified for what they’re doing. They feel like imposters, but they don’t want to rock the boat by actually resigning their position.
We had a good laugh reading their mail!
Unfortunately, our training model in church is based on a premise that makes people feel perpetually unqualified for leadership. No one comes right out and says so, but how we train people communicates one major fact: “You need to know what you don’t yet know!” Yikes. No wonder people feel like they don’t know enough to be a leader. If they always need to learn what they don’t know—in preparation for ministry that they will one day do—they will always know that they need to know more before they minister.
Can you see what a vicious cycle that is? There is no way that a normal, thinking person can ever conclude that they are now ready to minister!
My premise for ministry preparation goes more like this: “You already know many things. Jesus has taught you allot. He wants you to learn more, of course, but what He has already taught you is enough for you to be able to minister to people right now. The only things you need to know to minister are those things you’ve already learned. In other words, teach what you’ve been taught—and don’t worry about what you don’t yet know.”
That is a far more hopeful and do-able training/ministering partnership to offer to people.
The seminar lasted until 4:00pm, at which point I went back to the hotel, told Pamela about the day, took a short nap and got back on my computer. At 8:00pm we had a delightful dinner with Jan and his wife, Susanne, as well as Tom and Inga Haase, pastors of the church-plant sent out by the Mainz church a few years ago. Oh we laughed and carried on like old friends, as we swapped stories and explored subjects that pastors love to talk about.
Once again I was reminded of the strength we can find in true fellowship—and why I’ve kept returning to Europe (and Asia and South America) for all these years: pastors need, and relish opportunity to simply share their common triumphs and pains with other church leaders. What could be better than this—to be sitting in a great restaurant in the heart of Germany with German friends whose life-aims are identical to ours?
Of course, I enjoyed the opportunity to speak at the seminar today, but I couldn’t help but think how pathetically small some ministers’ perspective on “ministry” really is. The thrill of going to another place is NOT really in getting a chance to monologue to a crowd; the thrill, the spiritual oomph can be found far more in the dinner conversation with friends who call upon the same God—only in a different language.
