CHURCH MINISTRY
Pastoral Training
Theology training
In many churches, the pastor never got the chance to get a proper Bible training. Why? The main reason is that church works differently here in Latin America. Most of the time, whenever a church goes without a pastor for whatever the reason may be, one of the deacons or elders will become the new pastor of the church.
As you can imagine, this deacon or elder already has his own side job (most of the Pastors in Latin America work in secular jobs), plus most also have their own families. Because of this, it is hard for Pastors to take one year off to go and get Bible training in a Bible Institute or Seminary. For many years part of my ministry has been going to the local churches to help them understand more of the Bible and how to correctly interpret the Scriptures.
Many times, when we see or hear pastors saying or doing things that may not be Biblical, immediately we mark a big X on that church or pastor. I have found out that often they just don’t know better. This is why we teach them theological subjects that we divide in blocks of different weeks or months.
Because of our weekly structure, it gives the chance for pastors from the USA to come and be an essential part of the Bible education of these pastors.
Some of the subjects we study
Bibliology
Hermeneutics
Pneumatology
Eschatology
Homiletics
Old testament
New testament
Doctrinal books
Life of Jesus
Biblical counseling
Church Finance
Identifying Abuse
Church’s Vision
Many times, when we start our Pastoral training program, the Pastors and church leaders that come get very excited at the opportunity to increase in Biblical knowledge. This program is especially beneficial and productive for the Pastor. As someone once said, “A Pastor will take his congregation as far as he knows.” Pastors cannot take people to where they themselves have not been.
Which raises the question, What is the purpose of your church? Not the general purpose of the Church of Christ, but rather the purpose of your church specifically in the community where you are located. Many times, churches have no local purpose and Pastors do not have goals.
We take Pastors and teach about how to establish goals for their church, goals for their community, and how their church can get more involved in their community.
Biblical Worship
Music is a valuable tool for teaching doctrine and promoting worship in church. Many times, churches use different worship songs that sound good, but may not be very biblical or simply make people feel good about themselves! The point of the one-day training session is not to talk about Christian music in general, but to focus on what we sing in church. Did you know that many times a song can do more to teach the people than a sermon? When you sing a song over and over, the words stick with you. Oftentimes, people can quote more songs than Bible verses! This training aims to bring every music director or worship team member to evaluate the songs they sing in their church. Church music should bring our focus to Jesus, and teach the truths of God’s Word!