In my judgment, the second most important thing a Senior Pastor does, after the faithful exposition of Holy Scripture, is to train, develop, and raise up faithful lay leaders. After all, faithful lay leaders are the backbone of the local church. I wholeheartedly concur with the assessment of Dr. Harry Reeder who said, "If you and I die, or move on from our present pastoral ministry, and we do not have other leaders trained and ready to take our place, then we have not been good leaders. Period. ...Great leaders develop more leaders; they multiply themselves continually and intentionally." By the grace of God, I have very intentionally devoted a lot of time into the men's leadership training and discipleship ministry at First Baptist Church and have witnessed God bless our Church through these faithful men.
In our context, each year a faithful group of laymen have invested three and half hours, once a month, on Saturday morning. During these super sessions the pastoral staff have presented various lessons related to biblical leadership in the church, home, and society at large. We also have discussed various doctrinal matters, contemporary church issues, and other relevant ecclesiastical concerns. Sometimes I divided our main group into "small groups" for prayer and mutual accountability. Before each monthly session each man has read through a portion of five or six books (a few chapters are typically assigned each month) . Many of these chapters become the focal point of our discussions and lectures. In the words of Dr. Al Mohler and President Harry Truman, "Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers."
Over the years we have utilized the following "healthy" resources: 9 Marks of a Healthy Church; The Shepherd-Leader: Effective Shepherding In Your Church; The Conviction to Lead; The Master's Plan for the Church; In Pursuit of Prodigals: A Primer on Church Discipline and Reconciliation. When Good Kids Make Bad Decisions; Blame it on the Brain; 12 Ordinary Men and Study Guide; The Courage To Be Protestant: Truth Lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World; The New Testament Deacon; The Exemplary Husband and Study Guide; The Shepherd Leader At Home; The Cross-Centered Life; What Is A Healthy Church Member; What Is A Healthy Church; A Biblical Critique of Infant Baptism; Revelation 20 and the Millennial Debate; Men Counseling Men: A Biblical Guide to the Major Issues Men Face.
A picture of the books for our upcoming Men's Leadership "Track 5" course.
Afterword: I have been greatly blessed to serve alongside four faithful deacon boards over the past six years of ministry. Jim Winker, Dennis Jungles, and Dick Hunziker have been excellent chairmen. Each of these men brought various skills and gifts to our ministry team. In many regards, the human heroes in this modern day revitalization story are these courageous and biblical shepherd-leaders. Instead of placing a premium on "nickels, noses, and noise" they did everything they could to elevate the Word of God to its proper place of authority within this local church. For the good of the fellowship they have made tough decisions and have stood by the inerrant Scriptures. This blog post is dedicated to all the faithful lay leaders who have served the Lord's people in this essential capacity (1 Peter 5:1-6).
