The PurposeBe transformed through an honest and in depth study of God's Word to be more like Christ Jesus in His trust, love and obedience as He sends us out to faithfully display His genuine compassion and proclaim His truth to others.The Heart of Christian TrainingOur quest for a good training program must go back to the questions, "What kind of men does Christ call into ministry?" and "How does the Lord train them?" The Lord ignored the professionally trained Jews in favor of training His own disciples.
The apostles' qualification was not his degrees but the faith they had gained when they were with Christ. Athough we know of the benefits of seminaries and Bible schools, we must resist the tendency to place ourconfidence in schools for training in ministry. We must seek to be with Christ and learn from Him. Curriculum must not focus on course materials but on opportunities to meet the Lord and learn of His ways. We understand that this might sound vague and even impossible to others. Our belief rests in the Lord's desire to meet all of His sheep and especially His shepherds. He knows that they will only be faithful shepherds as much as they have seen how He Himself has led them. We are not minimalizing the impact of faithful Christian leaders around us. But our vision must go beyond meeting man. They in the end lead to a path that would disappear when it would be most needed. Godly men and women cause us to inspire knowing Christ more. But we must be a bit more practical in our pursuit of meeting Christ. What is it that the Lord will train these disciples? By gleaning the scriptures, we see that God has numerous lessons for His people. The leader by functional definition must have gone through these lessons at least on a basic level so that he is aware of and molded by that experience. The shepherds show the sheep the way of the True Shepherd. Through scenes of everyday life, we find that the disciples that would later be the apostles gained important insights into the way of the Lord. They were later detected as having 'been with' Christ (Acts 4:13). Our training for ministry must be a situation where we disciples live in Christ's presence. For here we will learn how God's love breaks down old prejudices. There we will learn how Spirit-filled ministry is dependent upon faith or trust in God. Only by Christ's side will we see the hope that He would have all that He needs to minister to the ones the Father has led to Him. Real training is not 'bookish.' Real training is the steps by which we grow in our faith in every area of our lives. Our inadequate ways are shown up by the glorious ways of the Lord. The study of books tend to make us confident of our knowledge. God wants His shepherds, however, confident in His Word to be able to give them what he needs to minister. There is no doubt that books can help us expand our thoughts of what our Lord might want through the experiences of others. But in the end, we need to meet with the Lord. Our training is done by the Lord's Spirit who works in each of His people. We humble our selves in prayer for unless the Lord speaks and moves, we are as a sailboat adrift in a world of ocean. We are desperate for the Lord. We want the Lord. We want Christ in us and like Paul the apostle, we are willing to cast all aside to know Christ more (Philippians 2:9-16). Training is to provide situations where we as individuals and groups of like-minded disciples seek His wisdom regarding a certain area of life. Yes, we have patterns and principles from His Word, but we believe He desires us to know these only so that we can trust Him to do for us that which is so desperately needed in the life of some needy saint. We need to train how to meet God or even to know that we should expect to meet Him. Basic Christian disciplines of fasting, reading God's Word, prayer, meetings, etc. must be retrained so that we are not doing these things just to get His work done but so that we can do what he desires because of His strength and wisdom. Are there dangers in being so focused on experience? Sure. We must stay away from every form of pride and exaggeration. We must stay close to God's Word and be accountable for our interpretation of His Word. But we must also not reject what the Lord so much desires to be part of our lives. Let's think of our goals to believe or trust like Christ, to serve like CHrist with His amazing love andto expect what Christ expected His Father might want to do. Our anticipation of what the Father would be doing greatly shaped His disciplines to meet Him in such a way that He would be fully equiiped to do them. We tend to spend too much time telling others what God the Father does not want to do rather than spending time with Him listening to what He does want. Faith, Hope and LoveAll that we share with you now has to do with faith building. Our societies are so knowledge–oriented that we have substituted theology (literally 'study of God) for knowing God. Hebrews 11 lists the great men who really accomplished God's heavenly will on earth. They had only one thing in common: they were men of faith. They believed God. As gifted men, we can get a lot of things done in the world. We would be wasting our time and energies, however, if we do not realize that faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Doubt caused by false teaching, ignorance and temptation has slain her tens of thousands. Faith, however, is the Victor (1 John 5:4). It is now time for faith to arise in the hearts of God's people around the world. Chief among these new heroes of faith are those who are desperate to believe God to accomplish His great heart of making disciples who obey Him all around the world. Our training brings together those factors together which encourage and foster that kind of faith. The faith of Christ's disciples increased as they observed Him in action. And so we too, must in the Spirit meet Christ in our lives and ministries. The MeansOur goal is to live more like Christ by meeting with God. We humbly acknowledge that only that only the power of the Holy Spirit changes our lives. The training will be composed of three complementary objectives.
What about theology?Our focus is in knowing God in Christ. Theology's glory is in the shaping of a disciple's heart, knowledge, conscience and ministry by the person and purpose of the eternal God. We are integrating the different fields of theology into our above studies. Many have only studied theology and left the life, perspective and ministry largely untouched by what they have learned. This approach to the study of theology causes fear in some. Jesus, however, both modeled and taught how we are to seek God and be cautious of whom we listen to. Postively, we are to seek the Father as He did in prayer, the Word and the situation. On the negative side, Jeus directed our caution to the professional theologians. They became an authoritative group on spiritual matters which although they did know God's Word, they did not know God as a whole (Matthew 16:12). We desire to know God through Christ and having Him, His will and ways shape our devotions, our families and ministries. True ministry must be sourced in meeting with the most Wise God through His Word rather than in learning. The CallWe understand that we are called to be disciples of Christ. Our success in life as a Christian will be dependent to what degree we are able to humble ourselves before God and be more like Christ. In one sense all His people are called to this life, and yet we realize that those who claim to be teachers will be called to a higher standard. We like Christ must seek a full portion of the Holy Spirit upon our lives. The BattleWe are fighting the spirit of secularism which trusts in its own resources. We instead pledge to have God be our strength. We are subordinate to the Lord Jesus Christ our Head, and seek God's gracious Spirit to bring His marvelous work to the earth (mat 6). We want to be the means God shines forth His love and light into the world The MentorA mentor will go over each day's reflection and discuss with the trainee on what he has learned and what more needs to be learned. The RoutineThe group will regularly meet to discuss the prime goals of the studies and then begin to plead God to make real changes in their lives. A spiritual journal is kept by the trainee on one or two significant thoughts, prayers or burdens placed on your heart this day. Turn it in to a prayer. A week's worth of study and reflection revolve around key themes.
Biblical Foundations for Freedom
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Isaiah 11:1-5