I don’t have much time for all the books and conferences on church planting these days.

Our church planting came out of a congregational prayer meeting. People were playing individually and in small groups, but I believe in an Acts 2 prayer meeting [with all the people together]. About 40 young people were converted when they were just underm university age. We appointed a person to work at the uni and 70 people were coming along to he meetings. Om Sundays at St John’s, the building was full in the morning 300, with about 200 in the evening.

It was an new wine in old wineskins situation. This is one incident which illustrates the situation: st John’s is a historic church. There were locks on the pew doors which you had to unlock before you could go in and sit down. The young guys wanted to remove a barrier for their friends who were noted to an evangelistic event, somthey went around unlockng and opening the doors, but a elder came along after them and shut the doors again. If we were in independent church, there would have been a split. The elders didn’t agree and I didn’t agree with my associate pastor, but the Presbytery got involved and gave me permission to plant a church.

Eventually, we formed our own Presbytery. The Pressies have planted 4 churches and the Reformed have planted 4. Theyre all viable. That means they have financial viability, indigenous leaders and a church planting focus. I go to the new plant, then a young guy or a few young guys come along behind me. The average age of ministers in Hobart is really young. They’re all young (except Steve’s father who is also there at Rokeby).

We talk about church planting at Presbytery, and we also meet together to pray every Tuesday morning. But Presbyteries don’t plant churches, denominations don’t plant churches and committees don’t plant churches. Churches plant churches.

4 Reasons Not to Plant Churches
1. We have enough already.
The Titanic never had enough lifeboats, but even those that they had were not properly manned. Some churches aren’t safe to go in to.

The Anglican Archdiocese of Sydney aims to reach 10% of the people of Sydney. When you have 10%, you have a significant proportion of e population. (The gay lobby says they are 10% of the population, but they aren’t. They’re far less than that.) What would it look like for 10% of Hobart to be in Bible-believing churches? Taking into account the existing faithful churches, we need 100 new churches for the 200,000 people in the city. That’s why we call ourselves Vision100.

When you look outside the church, you see how many people need the Gospel. There are suburbs where there are no churches and segments of the community with no Gospel witness.

24 people have been raised up to minister from within this movement and most of them have been trained and returned to us for the work.

2. Strengthening existing churches
Should a young couple look after this elderly parents or have children of their own? Both.

The skills are different for revitalising an old church compared to building a new church. New work can provoke a Godly jealousy in the old church. Both works need prayer and the ministry of the word.

A plant needs people with entrepreneurial gifts. We had people who were prepared to take risks. In the end, you get supported by the people you are ministering to. They have to be evangelistic and read the culture.

I’ve tried the church revitalisation thing. I think it’s very difficult. You have to be able to cast vision and preach and be patient. You have to carry the people with you and manage change well. St John’s (Hobart) had a conservative evangelical witness. That’s what I’ve always worked in. What wasn’t there was we didn’t have a prayer meeting. We started one. It became the hub of the congregation. If you want to know what is going on at St John’s, go to the hub.

Don’t just fit prayer in; make it a priority. When there was a prayer meeting on, there was nothing else on. If the appointed time doesn’t suit, you should have to change your plans. Ironically, some of the people who were praying those kingdom-centred prayers had the most difficulty with the converts who were the answers to their prayers.

3. We’re not big enough to plant churches
It doesn’t matter how good our meetings are or how comfortable the pews are, 70% of people are never, ever going to come in.

In Hobart, we had no funds, but we had people. This bunch of 70, then 150 university students were supporting me. For the second plant at Cornerstone, some of those uni students went with us and the Reformed church at Kingston gave us some of their families to plant a Presbyterian church. That’s Gospel generosity. At Mount Stuart, we took 45 people out of Cornerstone. It was painful for the congregation, but they were replaced almost immediately and Cornerstone has grown faster than Mount Stuart.

You don’t need 45 people to plant a church. That’s the easiest way to do it. Really, that’s a transplant.

You need the right guy. You can try to parachute someone in. We tried that in Warrane and it was hard. We had to pull the plug. Now we’ve got a guy in the northern suburbs who has adopted a block. He knocks on the same doors every week. At first, doors were slammed in his face and he was called all sorts of things. Now, people are asking him when he is going to start his church.

How do you choose the 45 people? It’s been part of the culture from the start. I went through studies from The Gospel-Centred Church, which came before Total Church, to show what we were planning to do. After Mount Stuart started, some went back to Cornerstone and some joined us from there later.

4. Someone Else Will Do It.
If we think this, either no one else will do it or the wrong people will do it. You’ll find Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses in all sorts of out-of-the-way places.

4 Reasons to a build Churches
1. Heaven commands it.
The Great Commission is in all four Gospels and again in Acts. We don’t plant because we choose to or we would like to, but because we are commanded to. As William Carey told his opponents, you can’t have the promise of Matthew 28:20 without obeying the command of Matthew 28:19. As Dick Lucas says, “It’s ‘Go’, then ‘Lo’, not ‘Lo’, then ‘Go’.” We can’t wait until revival comes.

Every Monday morning our people are going; they just have to go with a Gospel intentionality. It is our job as pastor-teachers to teach them how to do this.

Conversion isn’t finished until they join a church. “The Lord added to their number those who were being saved” Acts 2:47. I tell people, “If you’re not being saved, you can’t join this church. If you are being saved, you need to be in a church.” If you’re discipling people, you’re beginning to gather a church.

2. Hell demands it.
People are very much alone in hell. Some say they’ll have a great time because all their friends will be there too, there won’t be any friendship in hell. C.S. Lewis brings it out in The Great Divorce, how it is an unsubstantial existence.

In Luke 16:19-30, the rich man is alone in torment and Lazarus is in Abraham’s bosom. The rich man wants his brothers to be saved from this. Yet, he is told that even if someone is raised from the dead, they would not believe it. They have Moses and the Prophets.

People are being swept into hell every day by the decisions they make. As Lewis says, the grumbler becomes a grumble.

“It begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps criticising it.  And yourself, in a dark hour, may will that mood, embrace it.  Ye can repent and come out of it again.  But there may come a day when you can do that no longer.  Then there will be no you left to criticise the mood, nor even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine…”

- C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, p74-75

The man who uses pornography starts separate from the filth, but in the end he becomes filth.

People are on their way to a lost eternity.

3. Love constrains us.
Paul says that Jesus’ love hems him in, pins him down, 2 Corinthians 5:14. We should no longer live for ourselves. On the Mount of Olives, Jesus cried out that he longed to gather Jerusalem as a hen gathers her chicks under his wing. Isn’t that what the love of God does? He went to the cross for us.

A.W. Tozer said, “I resolve that I will love everybody, even if it kills me.”

4. The World is Crying Out For It.
In Acts 16:6-10, Luke records what happened when Paul and his team decided to take the Gospel into Europe. A man from Macedonia cried out for help. He was from the land which was the product of the greatest civilisations, Greece and Rome. Luke says the group concluded that these people needed to hear the Gospel. The best help that can be given to any people, anywhere is the Gospel.

John Stott says that at the start of the day, the head of the Jewish household prayed, “I thank God that I am not a woman, a slave or a Gentile.” Look into Lydia’s house and what do you find? A woman, a slave and a Gentile. It was a house of refuge, and as John Wilson said yesterday, we should be houses of refuge too. That’s a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)!

Peter Hastie: It’s not worldly success which is important. Faithfulness means taking initiative, but we must trust God. As David has spoken to us, he has set us an example in his life, speech and purity. You have held up for us the pastoral ideal and rightly divided the word of truth. David, you will always be welcome here.

We thank Ben Pfahlert for speaking to us about copying the private ministry of Jesus.

John Wilson spoke about the black-and-white realities as well as some helpful thoughts about proceeding forward by prayer.

Nello Barbieri talked about the nuts and bolts of one-on-one and small group ministry contexts and encouraging individuals in their pursuit of spiritual maturity.

David, we realise the great demands on you in all you work, especially in Hobart. We will pray for you, your wife and your family.

I sincerely thank the music team for enriching our time together in real ways.

We thank Alicia Nobel for making sure this all came together. Good administration makes fellowship sweet.

Zechariah 3:1-5
Jude 1-2, 20-25

In 1914, a British WWI corporal, Thomas Hughes, dropped a ginger beer bottlein the British Channel with a letter for his wife. He was killed two days later. The letter was dragged up in the River Thames in 1998 and given to his 90 year old daughter in New Zealand the next year.

We have received a letter from the step brother of Jesus, kept for us for 2,000 years. The letter isn’t address to anyone in particular. He doesn’t locate them for us geographically, but he does spiritually. They are those who are beloved in God and kept in Christ. And that’s all Christians, isn’t it?

The Final Countdown

4 Things to do for Yourself
1. Keep on building yourselves up in the faith, v20. We’re not looking for people who work on their own. We’re not looking for people who work with others. We’re looking for people who work as a team. We must be built up in the faith that has been entrusted to us.

The worst advice I was given as a theological student was, “Keep a professional distance from your people.” Who pastors the pastor? Does he pastor himself? Who really does that? The administers fellowship? They’re pi parties. The Presbytery? I don’t know any that do that. The congregation must pastor the pastor.

If I ever write a book, it’ll be called The Penny’s Dropped, Eventually and be on Ephesians 3:18. You can’t take in the full dimensions of how much Christ has loved us on your own.

2. Pray in the Holy Spirit, v20.
Calvin says, “Prayer is the chief exercise of faith.” If your prayer life is flagging, build yourself up in your faith. Maybe it’s because you’ve stopped listening. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God.

He’s not talking about two tiers of Christians. Everyone who has embraced Christ has the Holy Spirit. Spurgeon: “I looked at Christ and the dove flew into my heart.  Looked at the dove and it flew away.” The Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Luther wrote to Melancthon in 1521, “Your estimation of my spiritual vitality shames and tortures me. I sit here like a fool and hardened in leisure, pray little, do not sigh for the church of God, yet burn in a big fire of my untamed body. In short I should be ardent in spirit, but I am ardent in the flesh, in lust, in laziness, leisure, and sleepiness. … Already eight days have passed in which I have written nothing, in which I have not prayed or studied.”

My people are sick of me saying, “We don’t pray for the work. Prayer is the work.”

When the disciples who rejoiced at their return from ministry, Jesus praised God, full of the joy of the Holy Spirit, Luke 10: 1-24, especially v:21f.

The Spirit is the spirit of adoption, Romans 8. We have the Son of God in heaven interceding for us, who knows our weakness. We give in first round, but he stood. We have the Holy Spirit in our hearts interceding for us. “And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

Spurgeon said, “I’m so glad my prayers go to heaven in the revised version.” That’s your defence.

As the old hymn-writer wrote, Satan trembles when he finds the weakest saint on his knees. The more he huffs and puffs to bring our house down, the stronger we get.

Bunyan said, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.”

3. Keep yourselves in God’s love, v21
In school, I came down with pleurisy. When I went back to school, the doctor told me to walk on the sunny side of the street. God loves you, not because you’re lovable, but because 

You can only know God’s love together with the saints, Ephesians 3:18.

Keller loves quoting C.S. Lewis, so here is quoting Lewis:

“In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles [Williams] is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s [Tolkien's] reaction to a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him “to myself” now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald…In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious “nearness by resemblance” to heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each of us has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Issiah’s vision are crying “Holy, Holy, Holy” to one another (Isaiah 6:3). The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall have.”

Lewis is saying that it took a community to know an individual. How much more would this be true of Jesus Christ? Christians commonly say they want a relationship with Jesus, that they want to “get to know Jesus better.” You will never be able to do that by yourself. You must be deeply involved in the church, in Christian community, with strong relationships of love and accountability. Only if you are part of a community of believers seeking to resemble, serve, and love Jesus will you ever get to know him and grow into his likeness.”

- Tim Keller in “The Prodigal God.”

You must be deeply involved in the church, in Christian community.

4. Wait for mercy, v21
When the Puritan Thomas Hooker was dying, a friend tried to console him by saying, “Brother, you go to receive your reward.” Hooker said, “No! I go to receive mercy!” Those who know mercy show it to others.

3 Things to do for Others
1. Discernment, v22
Be merciful to those who doubt. We need to know the difference between real doubts and excuses. We need to know when to comfort the afflicted or afflicting the comfortable.

In his book Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, Thomas Brooks writes about 8 kinds of spiritual depression, 8 deceptions Satan uses to keep us from our duty, 8 kinds of doubt and 12 kinds of temptation. Why? He knew his people. He knew his people because he knew his own heart.

Jesus knew what was in a man. We can know what is in our people, because it is in us. We need to discern what is in our people’s lives. It comes from listening too, not jumping to conclusions.

2. Urgency, v23
Snatch others from the fire.

Christopher Ash tells a story in the Priority of Preaching about 3 apprentice devils. Satan has his own MTS program going.

“The story is told of three apprentice devils being trained by Satan. ‘What are you going to try today?’ asks the leader. 

The first apprentice replies, ‘I’m going to tell them there is no God.’ 

‘Well,’ says Satan, ‘you can try. A few fools will believe you. But the universe shouts the existence of God. There is evidence all around and you’ll not do very well. Indeed, even in the secular twenty-first century you may find your self witnessing the slow death of atheism. Any other ideas?’ 

The second apprentice tries this: ‘I’m going to tell them there’s no judgment.’ 

‘That’s a better idea,’ says Satan. ‘You will persuade more people of that, especially some of the clergy. But human beings have a gut sense of accountability, that actions have consequences. They know what it is to feel guilty even when there therapists tell them not to. So I think you’ll find it an uphill struggle. Anyone else have an idea?’ 

The third apprentice pipes up, ‘I’m going to tell them there’s no hurry.’ 

‘Brilliant,’ says Satan. ‘That is just what you want to say. You will have great success. Let them listen to the word of God and whisper in their ears, “This is good stuff. One day you ought to do something about this. But tomorrow will do.”’

- Christopher Ash, The Priority of Preaching, p 65

We need to snatch people as brands from the burning. Preach as dying men to dying men. Paul said to Timothy (literally), “Do all your work as an evangelist.” 2 Timothy 4:5.

3. Caution, v23
We need tender hearts, as Wesley wrote in the hymn Weary of wandering from my God:

Ah! give me, Lord, the tender heart
That trembles at the approach of sin;
A godly fear of sin impart,
Implant, and root it deep within,
That I may dread Thy gracious power,
And never dare to offend Thee more.

We need a Godly fear of sin, like Joseph in Potiphar’s house. As David found, everything he did was in the sight of God, Psalm 53.

Kent Hughes asks in Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome:
Is your life growing in holiness, or are you being captive to culture? 
There is a cloud of sensuality which envelopes everyone.

We need purity. Robert Murray McCheyne wrote: It’s not great giftedness that God uses, it is great conformity to Christ.

2 Things God Does For Us

1. He Keeps You From Falling, v24
Because of the control of the rider, the horse goes down the hill calmly. He can keep you sure-footed when you go over hard territory.

2. Present You Faultless, v24
In the end, he will present you faultless with exultant joy. George Fox, the Quaker’s last words were “I’m clear.”

When I am joined to Christ, all that I have is his. All that I have is sin and he takes it. All his spotless righteousness he wraps me in to cover my filth.

1. The Only God our Saviour, v25
J.S. Bach signed most of his manuscripts J.J., which means Jesus help me. At end, he wrote S.D.G.: Soli Deo Gloria.

Jesus help me. To God alone be the glory.

Tony Bird: I note the title and am amused that when you buy a child’s Superman suit at a toy store, it comes with a manufacturer’s note: This product is sold as a toy only. It does not enable the wearer to fly. Sometimes I think young men leave the college with a degree and expect to fly, but that isn’t the case.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5
Jude 8-10

While travelling by plane, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) was once told by a stewardess to put on his seatbelt. He retorted, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt!” to which the stewardess said, “and Superman don’t need no airplane! Put on your seatbelt please.”

Ministers can fall prey to Superman Syndrome or the Messiah Complex.

1. The symptoms

A. The most obvious symptom is the desire to leap tall buildings. I think I we need ministers with Big Hairy Audacious Goals. That’s healthy. We need dreamers and schemers.

Arriving early to a moderator’s dinner when the Tasmanian assembly met at Devonport, I asked someone at the restaurant if I was in the right place. she said, “It’s the one for the Pedestrian Church, isn’t it?”

We need to ask big things from God band attempt big things for God. William Booth, speaking to his granddaughter said, “Your best is not good enough. With God you can do better than your best.” Interview of Anne Booth with Michael Parkinson.

You have to root it in the Scripture and take your people along with you. I think that is one mistake I made at St John’s when the whole church planting thing started.

B. Heroic Problem Solving
When we see a struggling cause, we want to get in and fix it. We don’t see that God has other people that he can use.

Wikipedia definition of the Messiah Complex

We take on the role of God in people’s lives. We think we can fix everybody’s problems. We think we ha speak that weekend or people won’t come back to the church.

C. 100%ism
Broughton Knox warned his students against the problem of 100%ism; we think we have to be seen attempting everything. We are tempted to skimp on the core pastor responsibilities of prayer and preaching because that hasn’t seen. (See also, Peter Brain in 

D. People Pleasing
Paul said he faced struggles, but he didn’t just say what people wanted to hear.

E. A Full-blown Messiah Complex
These guys start to believe their own publicity. They think they have a direct line to heaven. They’re starting to work on instincts and promptings. Tozer, “A true leader is one who has no desire to lead, but is forced to lead by the inward pressure of the Holy Spirit.” they’re cult leaders. They claim to have direct revelation from God, Deuteronomy 13:1-5.

2. The Reasons
Why does this happen?

A. Inferiority/superiority complex
Often it is the result of an inferiority complex and low self esteem. We have to prove ourselves.

After Lloyd Jones’ death, Ian Murray gave a moving account at the Banner of Truth Conference. In the time running up to his death, DMLJ wasn’t able to speak for a time. Murray said it must be hard for him not to be able to preach. DMLJ got very angry. He said, Do you think I’ve lived to preach?

B. A wrong understanding of Christian life/ministry
Dying to self is not killing yourself. This is not what it means to take up your cross. Dying to self may mean having to delegate. We have to accept that others can do a better job than we can, so we hog it allot ourselves. Wife convince ourselves that we’re being spiritual in this and functioning in the gifts that God has given us.

We can think we become Godly by doing a Godly things. Ministry becomes a path to Godliness instead of the fruit of Godliness.

C. Consequences

1. Fatigue
It is a recipe for burnout. “Superman don’t need a day off.” We repress our needs for rest and fun. We don’t give time to spiritual growth.

2. Frustration
This grows into frustration. We start to hate those we are ministering to. The joy of the Lord is our strength, but it often ebbs away with anger taking its place. Paul describes the Philippians as his hope and joy, Philippians 4:1. When we become Superman, we become resentful. It is a downward spiral which can pull you down to hell. If you are tempted to say Raca (or Rack off!), you are in danger of hell. Of Richard Sibbs it was said, heaven was in him before he was in heaven. It can be the same with hell. If you are taken over by resentment, it can sweep you away. The way we do ministry can make us contentious. Outwardly, we can still go through the routine, but inwardly we can dry up. If you keep going like this, you will crash.

‘Trying to be more than you are results in being less than you could be.’ it is tempting to Want to be like Whitfield, getting up at 4am to pray. You’ve got to be you. You’ve got to be the man God made you.

How to stop being Superman:

1. Take off the cloak
Mark tells us that Jesus chose the 12 to be with him. It wasn’t that that was all the room he had in his minibus. He chose 12 men to be with him. He has 3 special friends who he took everywhere, Peter James and John. They were his special friends. Even in that circle, he had his best friend, the disciple who Jesus loved, John.

I’m losing my best friend. For 15 years, the Reformed minister at Kingston, Brian Barstra and I have met for prayer. Heirs moving to Sydney.

Jesus needed friends and I hope you don’t think you’re more spiritual that Jesus.

2. Place a priority on nurturing your relationship with God
With the help of God, I dared to preach the Gospel to you. I without me you can do nothing.

3. Open yourself up to others.
We try to disguise ourselves as Superman, but we need to show people we are Clark Kent. Invite people in. Receive as well as give. Paul wants to be mutually encouraged by the people at Thessalonica, I Thessalonians 2.

Jesus stood in the line of sinners waiting to be baptised. He identified himself with sinners, those that he has come to save. Heaven opens and a voice is heard from heaven, ‘That’s my boy.’ “This my son in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus needed that encouragement from his father

When did you last encourage someone? How many people are struggling for lack of encouragement?

4. Lighten up.
It’s not your job to save the world. Jesus said, come to me you who labour and are heavy laden. Take my yoke. Upon You, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” are you labouring? Whenever I come to a place of ministry, I pray, “Jesus, I can’t do this on my own. Let’s do it together.”

Not even the archangel Michael took to himself what wasn’t him. Disputing with Satan over Moses, he said, the Lord rebuke you. 

It is God who justifies. Who is it who condemns? Jesus died and rose again.

Still today, fools rush in where angels fear to tread, playing God.

You didn’t die for your people. It’s not your job to defeat Satan. Its Jesus’ job. Be content to leave the fighting to him.

Tony Bird: This is Biblical kryptonite for the Superman Syndrome:
Recognise you’re human. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Learn to receive, not just give. Remember that Jesus only is the Saviour.

I Thessalonians 2:17-20

Getting things in perspective is what keeps us going when the going gets tough. Paul puts his whole ministry in perspective here. He views it from the standpoint of eternity: what will matter when Jesus comes?

Gospel ministry
1. Goals and Achievements
Everyone has their crown of glory. We’re all aiming for something. Some of you have your whole ministry ahead of you and you hope to make something of it. Seem have had their midlife crisis and see that you’ll never achieve what you set out to do.

Press the fast forward button. What does it look like in his presence at his coming? Can you still boast about it? Can you stand before him without embarrassment, without shame? Jesus won’t ask us what denomination we were part of. He won’t be impressed if we kept the doors open. He’s more interested in the 22 million people who don’t come to your church. 70% of UK citizens surveyed say they have no intention ever of going near a church. Ever. 

Jesus tells us about a rich man, who presumably the listeners all knew of, and a poor beggar called Lazarus. They both died and there is a great gulf fixed between Lazarus in heaven and the rich man in hell. Earlier in that Luke 16, Jesus tells us to use our worldly wealth to make friends in this life so that when you died you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. You have to invest in people.

Press the fast forward button. What will you life look like on the day of his return? Will you be able to boast about how you treated your family or will you be ashamed?

God is going to conduct a qualitative review of our lives. So much of what we boast in now will be burned up, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. D.A. Carson: “We may be winning more adherents than converts.”

2. Motivation
We also have to question our motivation. Paul is motivated by people, not programs. In this job, there is often nothing to show for the hard work you do. You’re going to hit a patch where you’re going to say, “Let’s pack it in and do something else.” But, press the fast forward button. You’ll have instant job satisfaction, won’t you? There will be people there who you’ve prayed for, lost sleep over and cried over. Those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever, Daniel. This will last long after the world has forgotten who Barak Obama is.

Your task is to make people justified at the last day. What a joy to have people who have been justified by the grace of God standing with you at the end of the world.

TIME Magazine distinguishes between it’s most powerful people and the most influential. The powerful change people from the outside. The influential change them from the inside. We want people to want to change, don’t we?

3. Results
Paul is sure that in these Thessalonians he has gold, not straw and stubble. They will be witnesses that he has not worked in vain. They aren’t statistics. They are solid gold. He can boast about them because they are only Christians because Christ and his cross have made them trophies of his grace. There are others who he cannot mention without crying, 1 Corinthians 3.

What am I? What are the people among whom I work? Will they be someone’s hope and crown of glory or someone’s shame? C.S. Lewis said in The Weight of Glory: “It is a serious thing,” says Lewis, “to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ‘ordinary’ people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whome we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.” Immortal horror or everlasting splendour, which will you be on that day and what will your people be?

Have you ever wondered why they don’t play the soundtrack to Hitchcock’s Psycho in the dentist’s waiting room. Ed Clowney: “The church needs to hear the soundtrack in the return of her returning Lord.”

Soon we will be in his presence.

Mark 3:7-19

I want to answer your questions about discipleship.

There has been a really encouraging move by the Holy Spirit to look at ourselves over the last two days. I don’t want to do that. We’ve been encouraged to pray more. How do we do that? As a college, we want to be a place where you come to get help.

Discuss: What are the biggest obstacles you face to being an effective disciple-maker?

Time and lack of commitment from the potential disciples. We are sinful and lazy. I was never discipled myself. Gender differences.

Even if no one discipled you, there is hope.

Paul talked about growing mature people as giving birth. It hurts.

Where do I find the time? Perhaps you’re thinking of discipleship to narrowly. Peaching is never an end to itself. We preach because we want people to give their lives to Jesus and grow in him.

1. Prepare well. We aren’t just meant to teach people what Jesus said, but to obey what he said.

2. Make the time count to help people think like Jesus. Apply this in how we do committee meetings. It might be one small step, but it heads towards the right end.

People around Jesus wanted to kill him, wanted healing and help from him, and to hear from him so much he asked for an escape pod. The work was fruitful. Yet, he went away from it. He took the disciples away and prayed all night.

Two misconceptions:

First, we think we don’t have time for discipleship. If we’re too busy for discipleship, we’re too busy. If we’re not discipling, what are we doing? 

Second, discipleship is equated with a bible study and prayer. There is a activity beyond that.

How can we disciple?

1. Be a disciple. If Jesus can make time, we need to. Five years ago, I hit the wall in ministry. In the years running up to that, I was doing a lot of ministry work and God blessed it. As Joh Wilson told us this morning, we lose 25% of the guys who leave this place for the ministry. They forget spiritual formation.

We need to read the a bible and pray. Whenever I talk to the guy who lead me to Christ, the first thing he asks me is “How are you quiet times going?”. The next question is “Who have you spoken the Gospel to recently who isn’t a Christian?”

I’m a big one for Scripture memorisation. There’s no better way to change the mind than to eat the Bible.

Whenever I speak to others about their need for salvation because they face a Christless eternity, I become grateful. This our bread and butter.

What can we do?

A. Be earnest about your spiritual walk. When we study the Bible, this is God speaking to us personally.

B. Spend time in prayer. I find it hard, because I it is humiliating. Nothing speaks more about what we think of the sovereignty of God than how much we pray.

C. Let other carry burdens with you. Make connections with others to help.

D. Let God send you into the world.

2. Be A Disciple-Maker

A. Be convinced theologically.

I. Jesus – Mark 9:3-19
I. Jesus internalised. He worked on 12 people to make sure they got it. He knew he was dying. He wanted them to be deep, not broad.

II. He multiplied. To win the world, he worked on a small number of people who could reach the world.

B. Paul – Colossians 1:28-29
I struggle with all his strength that I may present everyone mature in Christ.

2 Timothy 2:2
What you have heard, entrust this to faithful men. When you pass on skills, do it in a way that they pass it on. In Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food, you cant come back for week two until you’ve taught someone what you learn in week one.

Ephesians 4:11-16
We need to train people to train others to disciple others wherever they are and whatever work they do.

3. How do I go about discipling someone?
The way will be different depending on who it is. Discipleship is relational. People will only ever go to programs because of who invites them. If we don’t have time for people, they won’t come to the program, or they’ll only come to one or two until something else comes along.

Select your candidate using FAT: Are they Faithful, Available and Teachable?

How: Read the Bible, Pray, Scripture Memory and Review.
What: The Gospel, Bible, Prayer, Fellowship and Witnessing.

We focus on all sorts of side issues and assume the Gospel. Wherever we are, whoever we talk to, find a way to make the Gospel central to whatever you’re doing.

A healthy discipling context will use preaching, small groups and one-on-one or one-on-two sessions.

4. Principles to practice
A. Focus on making disciples, not obtaining decisions. Look for repentance and growth. Focus on these people and help them reach the multitudes, but just decisions

B. Focus on individuals, not masses. The masses are important, but remember: masses are made up of individuals.

Three people were instrumental in me becoming a Christian. One was a teacher who was a crazy charismatic. I stole his Bible. My karate teacher decided in the middle of a trip to Adelaide to explain the difference between the pre and post tribulation raptures. The last one was Steve Lawson. He invests in me one on one and made me pass on what I learned.

C. Focus on intensive ministry, not extensive ministry.

D. Focus on people, onto programs. Spend you time worrying about people not property. God provides the money. Let’s not be so concerned about it. Money isn’t what we’re on about. So, we need to spend time on people. The problem is that the workers are few.

E. Focus on goals, not means. There are lots of books about what kind of church we should have, but not many about what kind of people God wants me to be.

The goal of Christian ministry is winning converts and building up Christians. If this is not what we’re doing, few are wasting our time and God’s resources. The questions isn’t how busy are we, but are we getting the job done?

Help people read their Bibles and understand them, pray and put into practice what they learn.

Moderator:
Peter Hastie

Panelists:
Bill Medley (Frankston)
Gerard vanderwert (Donvale)
Neil Chambers (Bundoora)
Don Elliot (Eltham)

Questions:

Peter Hastie to BM: What role has dependence on Prayer had in your ministry in what has been a difficult place to work?

BM: If God is sovereign, we should stir up our people to pray. I spent a lot of time praying for my personal holiness. A bad tree cant produce good fruit. I seek to be transformed as well as stirring up the people of God because God alone can give the increase.

PH to GV: How significant is it to Donvale’s work that it is in team ministry?
I was at Donvale for ten years before atony Bird joined me in 1998, out of necessity. Truth is enforced by being preached by the whole team. It prevents burnout. Family can get neglected when you work on your own. Having a team gives you people to discuss the issues with and provides continuity when someone leaves.

PH to NC: (Was at Ashfield for 10 years) What should be the absolute burden of a pastor?
I was convinced that the core of ministry is preaching and prayer. Nothing that has happened since has changed that conviction. God ony nurtures his peep through the preaching and teaching of the word of God. We need to supplement the Sunday preaching and reinforce it with small groups and one on one ministry. 

PH to NC: Do you coordinate the growth groups with the preaching?
It’s a lot of work to produce Bible studies for people to use, but normally they keep connected with the preaching. Some groups diversify. It helps them to apply the message.

PH to DE: How has your overseas training in counselling (at RTS) effected your preaching and pastoral work?
(I graduated in 1985 and the PCV is very different)
I have a better grasp of people and how unpredictable people’s reactions can be. This bears on my sermon preparation. It has helped me to look at the Bible’s human focus, when I was more focused on getting theology out of it. I’ve learned that people resist personal application. I try to think about the less mature person at church and how to preach to them. I’ve become more interested in the process of communication. We should get rid of the cursive “we” and put in “you” and “I”. I change the structure and length of my sermons so people don’t get into listening ruts. When I came back from RTS, I preached at Arrarat and they said, “If that’s what your counselling did for your preaching, it was well worth the expense.” A man at Eltham Said he found it hard to get up in the morning to hear me preach. We covenanted to meet every few weeks to discuss past sermons. I couldn’t have done that before.

PH to NC: Would you like to share some thoughts on application in preaching?
Look at John Chapman’s Setting Hearts on Fire and Haddon Robinson’s Bibkical Preaching. Unless you apply, you haven’t preached. You can never be too direct. It is possible to be over-specific and not leave room for God.

Adam Humphries to BM or GV: Exiting into a parish, what would you do different or try.
BM: I’m the new guy. Because I’m new, I haven’t been effectively discipling.
GV: There were big problems in the parish. John Ellis had had a hard time there. They didn’t want an exit student and were happy to have a home missionary. They finally decided to accept me. My training was very inadequate. There were a couple of wise people in the congregation who at went for advice. Sme people left because of the preaching. Other new people came. It was very different, but it was in the process of growing myself. The first thing I did was to start a fortnightly prayer meeting. It was prayer where God intervened in that situation.

PH to NC and DE: What must a new minister do?
NC: You must do what God has called you to do: labour to present everyone perfect to Christ. It is only his word that will bring his people to himself and enable them to live fruitful lives which will bring glory to him. You’ll want to get to know people, so you’ll visit them and get to know the area.
DE: In my first year, with 3 centres and 200km round trip, I was lead to concentrate my efforts in the spiritually dead area. I should have been encouraged by the living part of the work.

Peter Stanton: With all your responsibilities, how do you manage your time to do proactive ministries to evangelise people?
GV: I use mornings to prepare and afternoons for visitation, unless I have to. Get into a pattern. Let your people know what it is.
BM: Dunno. It’s impossible. The exit guys, you’re in for a shock. Just pray and seek the Lord. It’s a major problem for me. I still don’t compromise on the amount of time I pray.
NC: I like talking through ideas. We tak about our strategic area. It depends on how you run your session. I see my session as coworkers. Most of our substantial discussion is about direction. We’ll devote mornings to that. I find it hard to access people. If I were to visit in the afternoon, I’d only see one of my men. I visit people in the mornings before they go to work. As I lose stamina, I don’t visit so much on Saturdays and Sundays. I find that more than than 4 evenings out a week puts stress on what is going on at home.
DE: We want another worker at Eltham so that we can have more ministry evenings. The other things I’ve been doing outside the church have slowed Eltham down. It has cost the local congregation. W do have to be involved in the wider work of the church. Helpfully we’ll recover from that.

Andrew Satchell: How do you set your day off?
DE: I take Monday off, but I’m thinking of taking another day when I’m fresher.
NC: I’m struggling. I aspire to Mnday, mostly because that’s the day my wife has off. Now my children are grown, I need time on Saturday or Sunday to see them. I basically take time off when I can. It confuses the congregation and the wife. I’m trying to stay in touch with those important members of my family.
GV: I take Monday off, as does my wife. Seem guys have Saturday off because they have kids. I spend most of Saturday in the study, with some in the garden but with my mind still in the study. Having time off is crucial. It’s not unusual for us to have coffee with church people on our day off.
BM: My day off is determined by my family, so it’s Saturday. I don’t panic at the end of the week, I panic at the start.

PH to NC: As someone who has worked in the medical field, what are the long term effects of not taking a break?
You’ll grow old and die. It depends if you enjoy your work. On my day off, I like to read my Bible and commentaries. We should all exercise. It depends on the quality of your relationships too. There’s a difference between working hard and dealing with conflict. It’s the things you can’t solve that wear you down.

Steve Woods: Have any of you gone to a congregation where the predominate culture is elderly and how did you attract younger families?
GV: There were a few younger people, but not many. If everyone has the attitude that there must be something already there, we’d get nowhere. It took a while, I believe in long term ministry. Nothing is achieved in 3 years unless God really pours out his blessing.
BM: there was one family at Frankston when I started there. I wanted not get them on board with a mission that not one of his sheep will be lost. They’d been praying before I got there. I spoke to them abou that they were going to do if a whole bunch of new people turned up there. I told them to was going to preach as if the place was filled with unsaved people. Pray. God is sovereign.

Ian Hutton to GV: How do you overcome favouritism?
GV: I don’t think it’s perceived as favouritism.
NC: Have real relationships with people in your congregation. Paul says, we shared with you our selves. You will relate more with some people than others.
DE: Do not take the advice that you should not have friends in your congregation. Paul’s role was to be mother and father to them. These people are the only family my kids have ever known.

Ian Hutton: How do you manage doing two sermons a week?
BM: Because of my abilities, I can’t do the same quality of sermon morning dan evening. I believe that the Lord has given us this day to serve him. I will at latest have God’s people worshipping rather than not. It’s worth it to do something lesser just to keep the doors open at night.
NC: For some years now, we’ve repeated the morning service. Our people are busy. We want people to invite people to lunch and spend time relating to their non-Christian friends. Often it’s the only days they have now.
DE: We a format where we did the extra stuff in the evening with interaction. It was always just the hardcore regulars. Now we do discipleship training courses scattered throughout the evenings.

Toby McIntosh : What do you do about poor attendance and lack of committment?
NC: To help with pastoral care, we take a roll every Sunday. There’s not social or economic benefit of belonging to Bundoora. We get 65-75%. It’s not very good. We’re grappling with what to do with those results. What’s driving us was having a person associated with us found dead in his bed 7 days after he died.
GV: The team can keep tabs. We don’t usually follow up unless they haven’t shown for 3-5 weeks.
BM: It’s a major problem for us. It can have 50 people away, last week it was 35. We don’t want to give up on a week person. I meet with the group and ministry leaders every m onto and am trying to get stronger Christians to take one person to follow up on and seriously connecting with them. We’ve made a start.

Brad Georges: Could you share with us how you’ve cultivated small group prayer life?
DE: We set up growth groups and at one stage had 75% in them, though this has dropped as we have grown. Once a term, we meet for prayer. People come with a verse about God, which we pray about, then ministries. We don’t pray so much for people.
NC: We also use growth groups. We have a monthly prayer meeting which needs to be rejuvenated. People find Saturday morning hard. W encourage people to pray through the directory. We’ve used prayer triplets. We’re about to being encouraging people to not only read the Bible one to one, but also to pray.
GV: We get 4 or 5, maybe a dozen, at 7am on Saturday morning. Every connect group has a prayer time. We tried praying before the service on Sunday morning, but that’s come and gone. We out out a church directory with people assigned to a day of the week so that people pray for each other.
BM: We have a prayer meeting before the morning serivce, and I pray with the elders before the evening service. Our focus in our groups is kingdom-focused.

PH thank you for your wisdom.

[Download John's notes, including graphs, at cenc.org.au]

This is part of a raft of 5 talks based on the 5 chapters of John’s doctoral thesis: Introduction to Presbyterianism, the 1970s exodus, a review of 35 years, the NCLS story and lessons from ABS census.

Over the time of the book of Acts, the church grew from 120, Acts 1:15, to 5,000 in Acts 4:4, and many thousands in Acts 21:20. Rodney Stark’s Cities of God looks at the growth of the church (without believing in the new birth). He plots a huge growth over the time to 350 A.D. Where the church was more than 30,000,000 strong. He expects a normal growth rate of 3.5% per annum. By the time of Constantine, the church is 50% of the population.

As a church, we are committed to recognising God’s past mercies. The number of parishes in the PCV has grown from 67 to 92 (counting assistants as being two parishes). There has been a trend of growth in parishes over 35 years, including growth of 39% in the last 7 years. There have been 49 congregations planted and 27 have survived.

The number of ministers has increased from 47 to 99. The increase is about 74%. Several are not working in the parish ministry.

People in the PCV since 1982 has declined. We now have more people attending than are communicants members, crossing over in 1992. We’ve lost 4,000 members since the early days when the membership was just shy of 10,000 to under 6,000. Membership was no sign of belief. The college and ministers were Reformed, but the membership was not homogenous. There was a fallout. Post-Union, membership was much more highly regard. Previously, being a Freemason, Rotarian or good-living citizen was enough to get you on the roll. Now, very little value is placed on formal membership of anything (see Hugh McKay on the Trend Generations). We lost 42% of our membership, yet attendance has increased by 25%. The number of preaching places has increased by 39%. The radio of membership to attendance was 9:5, now it is 6:10. Less people in Australia are calling themselves Christians (86/87% in 1971 down to 63% in 2006).

We are top heavy in terms of age. Teenagers are under-represented. W have more than the national spread of all age groups over 20, but under 20 are under-represented by almost half.

For a little while in 1989-1992, the rural church was larger than the urban. Now all of the growth is in urban areas by miles, with the rural church declining steadily.

The trend of professions of faith is up by 33% in recent years. He number of children baptised has dropped immensely to 25%, but is on the upswing. Adult baptisms are up. The ratio of children to adult baptism is now 3:2.

Children attending Sunday School is down from 3000 to 1350ish. This doesn’t reflect our overall ministry to children in all forms, like after school clubs.

There is a slight increase in youth since the 1970s, spiking in 1995 at the start of PYV.

Small groups have grown 2.5 times.

Elders have dropped from 820 to 475. One of the first things Revived in 1977 was no require elders to subscribe to a doctrinal confession of faith, not just “Jesus as he is revealed to us”. In 1998, we decided no remove the words “and female” from the qualifications for eldership, prompting resignations. In 1997, PCV declared Freemasonry incompatible with Christian profession. In the 2000s, training was made mandatory.

Of 120 ministers trained in Victoria, 50 are still ministering here. 9 are in other spheres of ministry, 12 overseas, 28 ill, 4 moral failure and 10 retired or deceased. 25% drop out rate (about average). Peter Caldor and Rowland Crowcher says this is normal across Australia.

Application:
We are not yet a growing church. We are not in good health.

Are there ways to reinvigorate and reverse this decline?

We must reapply ourselves to these areas:

1. We must teach the inerrant Scriptures as if our life depended on it. We may soon be the only church left who believes this!
2. We need to pray to God relentlessly as dependently as we draw air in to breathe. It’s not conferences or books and strategies that connect us to God. More churches believe in prayer than actually meet to pray.
3. We must never surrender our grasp on the gospel of free and sovereign grace. We speak of Jesus and the power of his gospel to save, not just God and church. W must champion a grace-centred Gospel. Revealing the righteousness of heaven for lost sinner is our core business.
4. We must reassured the community of believers and delight in each other’s company. We need to be better at relationships. We need to work harder at loving one another.
5. We must obey Christ by becoming intentional fishers of men. People are being brought into the church. There are people here who are skilled at teaching people to fish for men. We need to obey the command to fish! We need to learn how evangelical action and reformed theology have traction on the street.
6. We should build havens of mercy. The downcast and doubter should find a home with us, the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked and the prisoner. We don’t share meals together, even as families. We should be generous with material goods, as we have shown ourselves to be.

Finally, listen to those who have made a difference: Gerald Vanderwert at Donvale, Bill Medley  at Frankston, Neil Chambers at Bundoora and Don Elliot at Eltham (and David Jones). Perhaps put them on a panel at a ministry conference so you can ask them questions.

Don’t be preoccupied with growth. In the end, glorifying God is the pre-eminent goal. As John Piper says, worship is ultimate. Mission only exists because worship doesn’t.

Is there hope? Don’t look at me. [By implication, look to God].

Jude 11-19

It is said, “Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small minds discuss personalities,” yet, the Bible does it a lot. The Bible often fleshes out thoughts with concrete examples.

Jude is concerned with apostasy.

1. He Names Names (v11)
The three named here are religious figures. Jude gives three ways to lose your ministry. These are three trends and tendencies which trouble the church up to today. Cain was a religious man, offering sacrifices to God. Balaam was heard by God. Korah was a Levite, a cousin of Moses, who wanted to work as a priest.

A. Cain
We shouldn’t go the way of Cain. Why did he murder his brother? He was spiritually jealous of his brother.

F.B. Meyer was in London with Spurgeon and Campbell Morgan, all within a mile or two of each other. He said, it was easy to preach for the success of Morgan when he was in America, but when he came to England and a church near mine, it was different. The old Adam in me was moved to jealousy, but I put my foot on his head.”

When God came looking for Abel, Cain said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” This is what jealousy does. We don’t look out for each other. There are many ways to kill your brother: running down his reputation, false praise, etc.

B. Balaam
Balaam was a brilliant young man with a great reputation. What he blessed was blessed, what he cursed was cursed. If Cain was a murderer, Balaam was a mass-murderor. 24,000 people were killed by his mistake. Revelation 2:14, he is still troubling the church in the first century, a thousand years later! He had the right message, but the wrong motivation, v11. We can be greedy for money, for recognition, for power over other people, wanting to build a following around ourselves. Balaam wanted to die the death of the righteous, but he wasn’t prepared to live the life of the righteous. Being recognised as a great man and getting the praise of men means getting your own reward here, not in heaven.

C. Korah
Korah was a frustrated minister. He said Moses had too much power. 250 leaders joined in his rebellion. His problem was pride.

In Tasmania, 100 new churches spring up and 100 close. People are hiving off on their own. The cult of personality is blossoming in Evangelicalism today. C.J. Mahaney stepped down in 2011, admitting to pride, sinful judgement and hypocrisy, and has since even restored. John Piper took a similar break the year before. He apologised for the sins of his soul, ongoing character flaws. These aren’t the great it sins which shock us. These are the little foxes which get in and spoil the vine. Piper said, the precious garden of my home needs tending.

When we minister without the help of the holy spirit, we want the ground to open up and swallow us. Pride does that.

This happened to real people.

2. He Paints Pictures (v12-13)
These pictures are windows into the church Jude writes too, yet we might catch a look at ourself in the glass.

A. A hidden reef
There is a shadow in the water, a reef hiding just below sea level. There are jagged rocks. A disaster waiting to happen. They can rip the bottom out of an oceangoing liner. The self-serving shepherd are the love feasts (The first century church made a meal out of it and we make a meeting out of it).

At the Last Supper, the Disciples didn’t just turn to Judas, but questioned themselves whether they were the traitor.

Here, as the people of God remember the great shepherd of the sheep, these self-serving shepherd are eating without a quarm. They did not discern the body of Christ. There were their brothers and sisters in Christ with them, but they looked out for their faction.

B. Empty clouds
When we see a cloud, we expect rain. This person talks big, but never delivers. We promise, but are we delivering on our promises. Bonar: the same words which uttered from warm lips would proclaim life and draw men to the cross, given by cold lips can drive them away. Why are we not seeing times of refreshing? We have to examine ourselves, not just blame the times.

C. Fruitless trees
Fruitiness trees and all foliage but dead inside. These men follow mere instincts and not the Spirit. Jesus talks about people who prophecies and drove out demons in his name (using his gifts), yet he tells them to depart from him because he didn’t know who they were, also Hebrews 6. By their fruits you will know them, not by their gifts.

D. Raging seas
Along the Irish Sea at Aberystwth, the residences are shuttered during the winter to stop stones tossed up by the sea from breaking the windows. Some ministries are destructive. Don’t be restless. When you take a call, it is for life or until God calls you somewhere else.

E. Wandering stars
A star was a means of navigation. Don’t be an uncertain point. Philippians , be a shining stars in the universe holding forth the glory of God.

Spurgeon: a house must have windows, but if it is all windows, it will collapse.

Where do these people come from? The devil doesn’t conger them up from no where. They come from a room like this. The leader of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons were evangelicals, and the founder of the Moonies was a Presbyterian minister in Korea.

3. He Quotes Prophecy

1. Antediluvian (v14-16)
Jude quotes Enoch. Why does he go all the way back there? Why not quote Jesus, who spoke about aged coming in judgement with his holy angels? Why go to the seventh from Adam? Enoch walked with the Lord, and he was not. Jude wants us to know that God is slow to judgement. It is a long time coming. He waits, to be gracious. For thousands of year, aged has been patiently warning us, giving us space for repentance. Jesus has died, and he is waiting. Return to him and he will return to you. He is slow to anger and swift to show mercy. We are too proud. God needs to break us.

2. Apostolic (v17-19)
Either Peter is quoting Jude or Jude is quoting Peter. Peter says they are coming, Jude says they are here! But you, brothers, build yourself up in your most holy faith. There is an alternative. There is another course to follow. The best way to detect counterfeit is not to study the varieties of counterfeit, but to know the genuine article so well you can spot the fake immediately.

We need to look for the telltale signs of spiritual de cline, but we need to know those things which accompany salvation, making sure we are the genuine article.

Since 1979, MTS has been showing people how to do ministry through apprenticeship training from an experienced minister. No one should do an apprenticeship unless they are a 1 Timothy 3 person. There must be a subjective calling and an objective calling. The apprenticeship tests the subjective call and provides and opportunity for an objective call.

1. Apprenticeships are ‘on the job training’ – you learn by doing. You live the life of a minister for 2 years to see if you’re suited to it.

2. Apprentices manage ambiguity tolerance: whether you can manage change and lack of structure. This is immaterial to how you can preach the Gospel and make disciples, but if effects the context in which you will work.

3. Apprenticeships save training time. It’s real ministry.

4. Apprentices learn that ministry is about people not programs. It’s about training others too.

5. Apprenticeships allow you to lead with “L” plates on. SFE is Supervised Field Education. People tend to treat them as experts, not apprentices.

6. Apprentices learn very quickly that they are not sovereign, God is! By the end of the first year, you learn to pray. In the second year, you see the fruit of their work.

7. Apprenticeships integrate God’s word, life and ministry. We want them to have the convictions of Christ, the character of Christ and the competences for the work.

8. Apprentices can have a crack at a hair-brained scheme. This is what ministers do.

9. Apprentices receive tailed training not ‘one size fits all’.

10. Apprenticeships prepare you well for formal theological training. It’s not abstract. You have practical questions you want explained.

11. Apprenticeships are spiritual parenthood. It isn’t a 2-year relationship.

Encourage your kids to do ministry apprenticeship. They’ll grow up. Apprentice them now before they go.

If someone in your church wants training, don’t just give them the PTC phone number and hope they leave you alone. Start the culture of training and others will follow.

Don’t expect the college to do everything. The people who are in the room will be there to do the ministry, not to appreciate the theology and pass exams.

If you have anything to do with ordination committees, encourage people to do an apprenticeship. Then you’ll be able to ask two people what this person is like at work.

Having an apprentice makes doing ministry attainable for the others there. Boards of management have to decide how they spend their money and challenges them to budget for mission. Budget first. That’s easy.