My first four years in full-time ministry were 48 months of pastoral overload.
I was 29. I had a seminary degree in hand and a heart full of ministerial dreams. It didn’t take long to realize that, even in my 250-member church, I was treading water in the deep end of the pool.
Some weeks, I faced more responsibilities than I could possibly accomplish, more problems than I could ever solve. So when I read this statement by Howard Hendricks, it leapt off the page: “God is not calling you to do the work of ten men. He’s calling you to equip ten men to do the work He’s called them to do.”
Equipping. It’s not just a pragmatic essential for pastoral survival; it’s also a biblical requirement. Ephesians 4:11–12 says, “And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ.”
This isn’t new information. Countless books and DMin projects have been written on the topic of equipping. A quick survey reveals four basic approaches to the topic, most of which affirm the general teaching of the New Testament.
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