Monday, February 02, 2009

Teaching Church Leadership . . . Haitian style

I've just confirmed my assignment for our upcoming Haiti mission trip. I will be teaching Church Leadership to preachers and elders in the Bible College at St. Louis du Nord. I will lead a sixteen hour seminar, spread out over four days, in which we will cover the basic structure and function of the New Testament church's leadership.

I am tasked to cover such elements as the founding of the church, the early church's structure, the choosing of the first seven deacons, and the Jerusalem council among other topics.

Four days to cover the book of Acts and the passages from the pastoral epistles that pertain to leadership?! Impossible, really. I know that several preachers and church leaders read Frankly Speaking, so my question to you is: given only four days to teach, what do you think are the essential components of church leadership on which I should focus?

Oh . . . and if you're moved to give, we need 50 spiral notebooks and about $200 to feed the college students for a week while I am there. Drop me a note if you can help, and leave your course curriculum suggestions in the comments section.

5 comments:

Soren said...

Authority of the Bible
Principles of Interpretation
Overview of the Covenants
Plan of Salvation

I know you will do well.

Frank Weller said...

Dude - I'm serious! What are the highlights that you would teach?

Anonymous said...

Start with Paul's words from 1 Corinthians 11:1, where he writes, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." (NASB)

Four Days...
Day 1. Servant Leadership
Day 2. Spirit-Empowered Leadership
Day 3. Something Else Leadership (take your pick)
Day 4. Elders, Deacons, Preachers - oh my.

Anonymous said...

To my dear brother Frank,
I would focus on the role of the Elders first. Then, I would share what it means to be a preacher of the Gospel of Christ.
I believe that if these two ministries are in place, the rest of leadership will fall into place.

Terry

Anonymous said...

You need to emphasize their leadership roles:

Leading people to a commitment to Christ (perhaps some of the stories from Acts that are good examples of how to share our faith)

Leading people to maturity in Christ (Philippians and Colossians both talk about how Paul did this)

Leading people to community in Christ (Acts 2:42ff)

Leading people to become missionaries for Christ (Becoming a Missional church)