Our apprentices Rose and Susan are THE BEST! They arrived even before we did and set the chairs, wiped the tables, put name badges out and and and...
Susan took special care to wipe a baby chair to hold the bags for Josephine and Denise.
We always pray before we begin - we were so happy to have several of the ladies join us!
Often there are only 2 or 3 gathered at 10am...
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| L to R: Sarah, Josephine, Susan, Rose and Rachel |
Here Susan is praying for all the ladies in the group - we truly felt the presence of the Lord!
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| Josephine praying from her heart |
Sarah prayed in Swahili, but it was very apparent that she was Spirit-filled as she prayed fervently - we were so blessed!
Denise began the teaching by talking about the fact that many sports need a team of players to compete...
...with the World Cup well under way, all the ladies could relate to that!
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| Consolata, Elida, Sarah, Josephine and Susan |
Consolata, who came a bit late, is checking the board to fill in the blanks on her handout...
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| Josephine always alert! |
In ministry and in the church we also operate as a team.
The Holy Spirit gives each person gifts as He wills for the common good...
...as we operate using our unique gifts, the whole team is strengthened.
This concept is well articulated by the Apostle Paul in 1Cor 12:7-27...
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| Emmanuel and Emily |
We can imagine the church to be like a single human body...
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| Elijah watching the 'big guys' outside |
...it has many different parts, but functions together as a unit.
No single person has all of the spiritual gifts, just as no single part of the human body can perform all the functions the body needs.
Too often leaders assume that they need to do everything...this leads to burn-out of the leader and demoralizes the members.
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| Rose, Linet and Rachel |
As people try different roles within the church, they may struggle and even fail. That is a very good way for them to learn what they are and are not good at!
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| Elijah, outside looking in |
But - it is often hard for leaders to watch people struggle. A good shepherd wants to care for his or her sheep!
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| He had climbed this pile of rocks! |
But - sometimes the best way to care for people is to allow them to struggle and discover what God has designed them to do.
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| Can you find his right foot? Yikes! |
One critical skill every leader must learn is the art of delegation!
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| What a handsome boy! |
An excellent example of the power of delegation is found in Exodus 18:13-27. Here we see Jethro, the father-in-law to Moses helping him to see that he will wear himself out unless he begins to delegate to able men.
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| Rose reading from Eph 4:11-13 |
A leader must realize it is critical to share the load.
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| How many want to be part of building up the body of Christ? |
Then he or she must select key people to train...
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| We all want to contribute to building up His Body here on earth |
Then we must spend time training these new people...
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| But - sadly - few churches have any formal training program |
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| All the blanks! |
Finally it is critical to then release them to serve in the ministry/church!
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| Emily getting good at multi-tasking! |
We then explored the idea of giving your ministry away...
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| Curiosity |
The idea of giving your ministry away may seem like a foreign concept - but it is actually very important in order for churches to be healthy and balanced, but also for the pastors who serve the churches to be healthy as well!
When we look at the life of Jesus we see that he invested his life into twelve men.
He delegated and released those twelve to continue His ministry after He was gone.
There are several ways that the Lord Jesus needs to be served through leading His church...
...the four main ways are: Teaching or preaching, Evangelism or church starting, Shepherding or pastoral care and Overseeing or managing.
Each week we give out 'homework' questions. They are designed to help the ladies dig deeper into the teaching and begin to apply the concepts to their own lives.
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| Two mamas and their little ones |
After the teaching Josephine told a compelling story about how she was thrust into a teaching position, against her will...
...she was told at a fellowship meeting that she would give the message. She wanted to refuse, but did not feel free to say no.
Many times this is the only way a leader knows to help people find their place of service.
All too often, however, this method leads to bitterness, resentment and a refusal to serve.
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| I love Sarah's smile! |
It is far better to 'invite' gifted people to be trained and then eased into ministry.
Ideally they are given an opportunity to watch, then do while being watched, then do and report back to the 'trainer' and then be released when they are fully ready. That is the method we see Jesus use with His disciples.
Dorothy came late, but it was so good to see her!
We love when the ladies engage in lively discussion after the lesson!
Dorothy is sharing here that a person must be given enough notice to prepare themselves to preach or teach...
...this is true, but also very important that the person is qualified to perform that service!
Denise shared a personal story of being asked to preach without notice...she did it once then warned that pastor that next time she would refuse - and she did! She helped the ladies see that it is okay to say no in those circumstances...
Time for prayers at the end of our meeting...
Several of the ladies brought their requests to the group...
Here Rachel is sharing about a serious issue at her church...
Josephine listened intently, then translated into English for Denise and me.
Each week we debrief over lunch - we have found this great little place just down the road - they even have 'our' table cleared for us each Thursday!
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| Rose asked how long her portion of the teaching would be... |
We are sharing with our apprentices that they will take a portion of the teaching for the following week...they are excited and a bit nervous!
How perfect that the week we taught about Team Leadership and Giving Your Ministry Away, we are beginning to do just that with these precious ladies!
