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| TAG,
TRAIN, AND TRACK FUTURE CHRISTIAN LEADERS
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| By
Daria Greening |
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 Baptist
Bible College sophomore youth ministry major Josh Jones,
left, is an example of how The Ministry Initiative was functioning
long before the idea for the program was conceived. Each week
Josh meets with BBC Discipleship Ministries Coordinator Dwight
Peterson to discuss his classes and what he is learning.
They also talk about Josh's present and future ministries and
any questions Josh may have.
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Would
you like to see more people from your church enter vocational
ministry? If so, The
Ministry Initiative (TMI)--a church-based
strategy designed to raise up people for vocational ministry--is
for you!
During the past two years, a task force of mission leaders,
pastors, youth leaders, and college representatives* met in
Columbus, Ohio, and at the GARBC Resource Center to work on
preparing this strategy and its resource packet, which will
premiere at the June 2002 GARBC Annual Conference in Cedarville,
Ohio. Four members of the TMI task force--Jon Beight, director
of Twin Lakes Camp and Conference Center, Hillsboro, Indiana;
Dwight Petersen, discipleship ministries coordinator, Baptist
Bible College, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania; Mel Walker, student
ministries editor, Regular Baptist Press; and Dennis Wilhite,
ministry development coordinator, Baptist Bible College, Clarks
Summit, Pennsylvania--describe The Ministry Initiative and talk
about what it takes to raise a new generation of men and women
committed to vocational ministry. |
What prompted you and other leaders to develop a strategy for
identifying, equipping, and sending people for vocational ministry?
DENNIS: I had been thinking about how our college could better
take advantage of what churches were already doing in ministry
development so that we could work with them, as opposed to doing
our own thing. I approached John [Greening] with the suggestion
of doing something movement-wide that would have broad ownership.
MEL: Churches and agencies have been expressing a growing concern
that we've got to do something to raise another generation of
people for vocational ministry. We decided to do something about
it.
DENNIS: It seemed as though every ministry was doing its own
thing. Churches were going after vocational ministry development
and were sending people off to camps and schools, but there
wasn't a coordinated effort.
DWIGHT: When I was a youth pastor, our church saw God raise
up a large number of kids who went into ministry. As part of
their training, the students grew spiritually and developed
ministry skills at certain colleges and camps. As the agencies'
personnel and I began to think that [process] through, we realized
the students were successful because we talked together about
the students and coordinated our efforts. I was looking for
a way to expand that coordination into other arenas.
JON: Many churches want to do something for their students who
believe they are called into full-time ministry. They send the
students to visit Bible colleges or on missions trips, but they
could use a strategy on how to get the students from point A
to B in their training. Our staff sees camp experiences as being
very beneficial for leadership development. We want to work
with churches in doing that.
|
 Baptist
Bible College student Natalie Boeke, left, prays with
teens at First Baptist Church, Hollisterville, Pennsylvania.
Dennis Wilhite, ministry development coordinator for
Baptist Bible College, has been coaching Natalie for the past
two years to help her develop skills and confidence in discipling
people, teaching, and creating growth experiences in a variety
of ministry environments. |
How do you reply to those who say young people aren't interested
in vocational ministry?
MEL: That's absolutely not true. The Millennial Generation has
a part of their nature that says, "I want to do something
with my life; I want to make a difference." Many believe
that God has gifted them with skills for ministry, and they
want to do something about it.
DWIGHT: Kids are interested in changing a culture and in making
their lives matter. When you present ministry as that opportunity,
then they will say, "That's what I want." When you
raise the bar of expectation of what a pastor or ministry leader
is and does, then the kids are really interested.
How can churches make a difference in
raising a generation of vocational Christian workers?
JON: By honoring their pastor and the ministry.
DWIGHT: Also by making a difference in young peoples' lives.
When kids see the difference people have made in their lives,
they say, "That's what I want to do. I want to do for somebody
what they did for me." We can interest kids in ministry
by living our lives so they know that we believe serving Christ
is the greatest thing in the world.
DENNIS: The next step for the church is to have a clear vision
for what God wants to do in the world and with their young people,
and to ask themselves, "Who has God placed here? What could
[that young person] be? What could [he or she] do?" Then
the church should chase that vision with those kids and groom
them actively in ministry. When the church family involves [young
people] from an early age with the excitement of being part
of something that is going out to touch the world, the kids
will be there.
Do you think an intentional approach
of identifying vocational ministry prospects works better than
a spontaneous movement?
DENNIS: Definitely. When it comes to raising up ministry leadership
for the next generation, we need to do it with an intentional
approach, which produces far more people going into vocational
ministry than just hoping somebody surfaces.
DWIGHT: We see in Scripture where David, Abraham, Paul, and
the disciples were selected. When we see characteristics, skills,
and the hand of God in someone's life, we can say, "Not
everybody who has your abilities needs to be in the ministry,
but everybody who is in the ministry needs to have your abilities.
You need to consider why God has given you these abilities."
MEL: That's exactly what the apostle Paul did in his ministry.
He identified Timothy and John Mark and intentionally took them
along on his travels, turning his journeys into leadership training.
Can you give us an overview of The Ministry
Initiative?
DENNIS: It is a set of tools for a church to use in identifying
people who seem to have God's hand upon them and have potential
for ministry leadership--to strategize for their development
and to track that progress. The packet includes tools for identifying,
setting up a strategy, and tracking that strategy throughout
that development process. Then the other part of TMI is the
tools that help you link up with and draw other people--camps,
missions, and schools--into the process so that they know what
you as a pastor or youth leader are trying to accomplish and
so that they can become part of the team.
|
 Summer
Program Director Nathan Chambers uses "the talking
fish" as a metaphor for Christian growth while teaching
high school campers. Nathan, a student at Baptist Bible Seminary,
has been the summer program director at Twin Lakes Camp for
the past two years. Twin Lakes Camp Director John Beight,
who has been mentoring Nathan, would like to see him return
to camp full-time after Nathan completes seminary.
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Why do you sense the need of developing something like The Ministry
Initiative?
JON: The Ministry Initiative will allow us to minister in context.
In the cases of some kids here at camp, we don't know where
they came from or where they are going in their ministry development.
The Ministry Initiative will allow us to have that information
and get us up to speed to minister more effectively.
DWIGHT: When we talk about raising up a generation, a number
of youth pastors and pastors will say, "I would love to
do that. I don't know how to do that." You don't get a
class in Bible college on how to identify, prepare, train, and
link up--on how you get this person from point A to full-time
vocational ministry. We have created something that will help
ministry leaders do what they want to do.
Who is the key player in carrying out
this strategy?
DENNIS: In most churches the key player is going to be the pastor
or youth pastor, though the pastor could designate another church
leader to oversee the training and coordinating.Is
The Ministry Initiative church driven?
MEL: Yes, that's why it works. What The Ministry Initiative
accomplishes is that a church of any size can identify, equip,
and send out its own people to ministry. The church is caring
about its own people.
DWIGHT: This will work effectively only if the church recognizes
it, if the church is doing it, and if the church is committed
to it. When churches give us at the college information on a
student and interact with us, we can take that student miles
farther in his development than if we have to start from scratch
in getting to know him or her.
JON: Preparing people for ministry is about training them to
live godly lives that are marked by good works, spirit-filled
worship, caring fellowship, and Christ-honoring homes. The Ministry
Initiative allows the church to track that training over a long
period of time and then use the schools, camps, and mission
boards to help them.
DENNIS: Schools and other organizations do their jobs best when
they are helping a church that has strong ownership in the student.
How does The Ministry Initiative coordinate
the efforts of those involved in training young people?
DENNIS: We had a student at the college whose church in Grand
Rapids, Michigan, owned the process from the beginning. The
church helped the student with the decision-making process of
choosing a college and then sent us objectives on a regular
basis, letting us know what kind of ministries and programs
would be beneficial for him. In turn, we passed information
to whatever church or organization he was ministering in while
he was here. The student graduated from here, went back to his
church for a year's internship, and is now on staff at that
church as youth pastor. The church is to own the process; they
are the coordinators. All we are doing is taking our resources
and helping that process.
DWIGHT: The Ministry Initiative creates a format that enables
common language and terminology so that I can open a sheet here
at the college, read it, and know where that kid is at.
DENNIS: Many good people want to help students develop [their
ministry skills], but it takes much work, and we are all so
busy. The Ministry Initiative enables us to understand what
the student needs, deliver it, and pass word back with much
less effort.
|
 Mel
Walker, left, youth editor for Regular Baptist Press, meets
once a week with Jason Jackson, youth leader at Heritage
Baptist Church, to discuss the overall youth ministry at their
church. Their mentoring relationship is designed to build accountability
between the church leadership, the teens' parents, and Jason.
Mel frequently attends Sunday School, youth group, and youth
activities in order to give Jason better advice and council
during their meetings. |
What helps students say yes to entering vocational ministry?
JON: Students need someone to take a personal interest in them,
to guide them in the process, to show them how to do ministry,
and to point them in the right direction. That personal contact
makes the difference.
DENNIS: It's exactly what Paul did with Timothy. Somebody gets
a vision of what could happen in that person's life and then
opens the person's eyes to it. There's nothing like taking a
kid under your arm and saying, "I see something in you
that God could really use," and then giving him an opportunity
to use his abilities.
MEL: It starts with a kid who, on his own, is sensitive to what
God is doing.
JON: Yes, ministry development is something that we do with
the students. They are intimately involved in this process.
Have you ever discipled a student into
ministry whose parents were apathetic or oppositional to the
idea?
DENNIS: I have had disappointments when I have poured my life
into a student, and the parents were successful in thwarting
[my efforts]. On the other hand, I've seen people pursue ministry
beyond that. Typically, those are the ones with parents who
are unsaved or are marginal Christians.
DWIGHT: Any parent who is hesitant to have their child enter
ministry due to financial reasons is immature or uninformed
spiritually. The job of the pastor is to mature and educate
people. We can't wait for parents to be mature; we have to aggressively
mature parents. The same effort we put into casting a vision
for the kids is what we have to do with parents. We found that
rather than trying to bypass or blame parents, we had to mature
and educate them.
What will happen if we do not rise to
the challenge of training young people for vocational ministry?
DWIGHT: Scripture tells us that God will build His church. [Since]
God is going to do that, I think He will bless The Ministry
Initiative. The future of Christianity is not dependent upon
TMI; it is dependent upon God.
JON: If we don't do it, the cults will. They've got kids out
beating the streets because they are passionate about their
cause. We have truth on our side; we have something that will
make a difference.
DENNIS: As a movement, we are a group of people who have committed
ourselves to the cause of Christ. I want to see God [raise up
and train workers] through us. We've got something phenomenal
and the opportunity to be involved in something great, and I'm
anxious to go for it.
Bottom line--Why would churches benefit
from participating in The Ministry Initiative?
MEL: One of the most important things that any church can do
is to reproduce itself in the lives of the next generation.
That's what the early church did and what the church today is
supposed to do.
DENNIS: Plenty of churches are making those efforts. With The
Ministry Initiative we get to exaggerate our efforts by coordinating
with one another. We get to be a team that is playing well together
to accomplish far more than we can by ourselves.
DWIGHT: Churches are working hard, and they are asking themselves,
"Are we making a difference?" With TMI, they begin
to realize, "Yes, we are making a difference. This matters.
The sacrifices we are making are worth it." |
* TMI task force participants: Tim Ahlgrim, Don Anderson, Jon
Beight, Duke Crawford, Tim Crown, Mike Eleveld, John Greening,
Shon Lundberg, Bill Newman, Nate Osborne, David Peters, Dwight
Peterson, Ken Rudolph, Bill Smallman, Don Trott, Mel Walker,
Lori Watkins, Jerry Weber, Dennis Wilhite, and Andy Woodall.
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