Mentoring Developing Leaders

Ministry Development highlights the ongoing need to equip and train the people of God for ministry. Ministry Development of the whole people of God operates on the understanding that God created each and every one of us for a purpose. God did not create you and then thought He better find something for you to do. God created you for a purpose. Ministry Development aims to help people find and maximize that God given purpose, using the skills and abilities that God has given to them. It aims to place people in the arena of ministry God has called them to and help them to be effective in that particular ministry. Ministry development applies to all God's labourers: ordained ministers, priests and pastors, as well as the laity of the church. The principles and processes outlined in this book have been fruitful in equipping the laity for ministry; preparing men and women for ordained leadership as pastors, evangelists and missionaries; and for those who are ordained pastors, priests or ministers to continue to develop and grow in their ministry. In regard to the laity it is important to understand that ministry development is not simply a matter of mobilizing the laity for ministry, nor is it providing additional help for the minister or pastor as he or she carries out his or her pastoral duties. Ministry development is about mobilizing and engaging the laity in their ministries, to which they have been called by God and equipped by His Spirit. They are not there just to assist us in our ministry but to be fruitful in their ministries. The role of the minister or pastor has changed from the doing of ministry to the management and leadership of well-equipped and organised lay ministry teams. This does not remove the minister or pastor from the heat of ministry, but calls us to broaden the parameters of ministry and truly open the doors for the laity to minister. This will also require redefinition of ministry that has been previously limited to the pastoral tasks the minister, priest or pastor did.