28/10/2021
CONTINUOUS EDUCATION IN MINISTRY
1 Corinthians 8:2
It is a hard and harsh reality that 80% of ministers and church leaders abhor the necessity of continuous education in life and ministry. Majority have the ‘destination disease’ – obtaining title, degrees and materials – but failure to possess a truly learning and teachable spirit.
There is so much ineffectiveness, incompetence and unhealthy Christianity in our churches today, simply because leaders refused to keep on educating themselves. Unfortunately, many leaders only go to one month, six months and one year school in preparation for ministry and after that they packed up their books and rely only on anointing, power and miracles to see them through the rest of their ministerial life. Small wonder, that churches and ministries are hitting a brick wall, dead end and nose-diving after a great start.
Continuous education is the soul of dynamic and effective ministry. The story is told of a student that saw his Professor studying late into the night and very early in the morning. The curious student then asked his Professor in class, ‘why do you still study and read early and late?’ He replied, ‘it is better to teach out of a running stream of water than from a stagnant pool.’ Very many ministers have become stagnant pool that can no longer bless people in a fresh way.
A.Foundation and Basis: - Mal. 2:6-7; 1 Tim. 4:13-16; II Tim. 4:13; Prov. 10:14; II Tim. 2:15.
The work of a minister calls for a keen insight, sharp mind and wise knowledge. Yes! God sometimes calls men of low level of education, but they are to upgrade and update themselves continually. Paul the Apostle is a model of a highly educated minister that used his knowledge for the expansion of the kingdom.
Continuous education can be formal, informal and non-formal in nature. It is having learning, teachable spirit and willingness to adjust to new ministry realities.
Ministers must not be morons and dullards.
Ministers must have formal, informal and non-formal education.
Ignorance is a great enemy of ministry progress.
Your level of education, insight and enlightenment will affect your ministry.
When the pew is higher than the pulpit, then trouble is around the corner.
It is not a crime for God to call you when you are not educated, but it is a crime to remain uneducated.
Your level of informal and non-formal education will determine your audience.
Your education will determine who you surround yourself with: dwarfs or champions?
Too many conservative church leaders have unwittingly lower the impact and effect of their ministry by their refusal to learn and keep learning. Ministers that truly desire to make indelible impact and see sustainable growth must keep learning, growing, updating, improving, changing and enlarging themselves in life and ministry.
B.Myths Against Continuous Education In Ministry:
There are many lies, half truths and assumptions by ministers that have helped to promote lack of continuous education in ministry. Allow me to look at the three most prominent here:
1. Holy Spirit Will Teach You Everything:
People with this myth have postulated that all we need is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We don’t need any human teachers to teach us again. But the reality is that the Holy Spirit will only remind you of what you have been taught and as you continually maintain a teachable spirit, He will lead you into all truth through your teachers. (2 Tim. 3:14; 1:13).
2. Prayer Is More Important Than Knowledge:
People with this myth prefer to rather fast, pray and go to mountains than to learn, acquire the right knowledge to prosper their life and ministry. While prayer is important in our walk with God, yet we still need knowledge to rule the earth. (Hosea 4:6; 6:6).
Praying in ignorance will greatly limit the impact and effect of your life and ministry. We need three kinds of knowledge:
i.Knowledge of God – The truth of His word.
ii.Knowledge of God’s Principles – Civilization, man, environment and church.
iii.Knowledge of God’s Kingdom – Values and character.
Right knowledge will help your prayer to be much more effective, result-oriented and fruitful. If you don’t want God to reject you and your ministry, then value knowledge as high as you value prayer and fasting.
3. Miracle Is More Important Than Teaching:
Leaders with this myth usually over-emphasize the power of the miraculous more than proper teaching of the people. If they teach at all, it is so shallow, fickle and wishy-washy. This has resulted in unhealthy Christianity, nominalism and pagans in the church today. Preachers are being deified because of signs and wonders and the faith of the people is in men rather than in the word of God.
The reality is that miracles will deliver a nation in bo***ge, but you need teaching and understanding to develop and grow them into true people of God. The more signs and wonders the Israelites enjoyed, the more they backslide. In fact, all those who experienced His miracles died in the wilderness, except Joshua. (Psalm 106:6-15).
Miracles will bring people, only teaching can keep them.
Miracles attract and impress; only teaching disciples and converts.
Miracles are fleeting and shadows, teaching endures and solidifies.
Signs and wonders open doors, proper teaching cleanses, purges and purifies hearts.
It is only the church that is properly taught in a Spirit-filled, lively, powerful and relevant ways that will become rapturable church. Moreover, you can only give what you have. If you don’t really know it, you can’t teach it to others.
C.Laws of Continuous Education In Ministry:
If you want to remain fresh, deep, profound, relevant, impactful and influential in life and ministry, then you cannot but obey the following laws of continuous education.
1.Don’t Stop KNOWING:
This is the law of the teacher. The teacher must know and know that he knows before he can teach others. What you don’t know, you can’t teach. Seek to know God, His word, principles, truths and characters continually, then you’ll be able to pass it on to others.
2.Don’t Stop SEEING:
Many look but few sees. Ask God to anoint your eyes to see, pray to see clearly, higher, deeper, and farther and see before others. What you see is what you get and become. If you’ve stop seeing then you’ve stop progressing.
3.Don’t Stop LEARNING:
One way or the other, you are ignorant. So, determine to learn every day. Possess a teachable spirit that can learn from everybody. If you stop learning you start to lean. Go for courses, seminars and trainings that can enhance your ministry and leadership skills. Let your personal study and quiet time be rich. Use appropriate devotionals for leaders.
4.Don’t Stop READING:
Readers are always leaders. Read deep, wide and systematically. Reading makes a full man. You are as fresh as the last book you read. Read, study, and take notes, mark and shade as you read. Let your reading leads to action.
5.Don’t Stop GROWING:
Determine to grow every day. Be superior to the person you were yesterday. The day you stop growing, you start to die. Your growth will affect the growth of those around you. Grow personally, professionally and ministerially. Seek for improvement and change. You don’t have to be tomorrow what you are today.
6.Don’t Stop PRAYING:
Sincere prayers enrich your soul and deepen your walk with the Lord. Prayer turns you to whom God wants you to be. Therefore let nothing take you away from prayer and take prayer away from you. Practice regular personal prayer, corporate and intercessory prayers with others.
7.Don’t Stop SEARCHING:
Searching implies an inner fire, passion and desire in you to do more and be more. Don’t let that fire and passion die. Keep searching for more of God, His power, grace, wisdom and glory. Don’t settle for average or in self-contentment. Be on fire for God and follow your passion.
8.Don’t Stop SACRIFICING:
Great impact is made possible by great sacrifice to learn and to lead to the next level you must sacrifice. The more impact you want to make, the more sacrifice you must make. Sacrifice time, talent, treasures and privileges for the greater good of all.
9.Don’t Stop GIVING:
Great leaders are generous people. They have lost the right to be selfish and self-centered. Be generous to a fault. Reject stinginess and tight-fistedness. Give away things that will benefit others. The more you give away, the more God will give to you to give away.
10.Don’t Stop Equipping:
Do everything to keep on equipping yourself to become a better and a more capable minister of the gospel. Knowing that the more you equip yourself, the more you’ll be able to empower and enable others to rise and shine. Remember, the bottom-line of ministry is empowering others to be at their best for the Lord. And you can only continue to do that when you don’t stop equipping yourself rightly.
Albert Schweitzer maintained that ‘the great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.’ When you make it a goal to continually learn and enlarge yourself, you become the kind of person who can never be ‘used up’. You are always recharging your batteries and finding better ways to get things done. The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge. Any day that passes without personal growth is an opportunity lost to improve yourself and to enlarge others.