We need more Gospel workers.
God’s Gospel proclaims that Jesus is the Christ our Lord. Jesus commanded his followers to make disciples of all nations, but observed: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:38
The most desperate need of our world and our nation is the recruitment, training and deployment of more workers to proclaim the Gospel that saves people from hell for the new creation. The apostle Paul instructed Timothy to pursue ministry training: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2).
It has long been recognised that a thorough training in Gospel ministry is not limited to theological and Bible colleges, nor even to predominantly lecture-based programmes. Students who attend the excellent training that is now provided by Cornhill, Oak Hill and other colleges arrive well prepared when they have gained some practical experience of Gospel ministry and ‘mentoring’ or ‘discipling’ by experienced Gospel ministers.
The aims of the Co-Mission Ministry Trainee Scheme are:
– To instil in ministry trainees deep convictions of the necessity and nature of word ministry forged in the context of practical experience
– To train ministry trainees in the fundamental principles and skills of various Gospel ministries
– To provide ministry trainees with an appreciation of their own strengths and weaknesses and of the value of further training so that they can pursue the best training and work for their gifting
If we want to see church planters, pastors, evangelists, women’s workers, children’s workers and other spiritual leaders raised up, we will need to heavily invest in recruiting and equipping them.
Co-mission churches, like every church, need workers who are spiritually healthy, theologically-aware and skilled in ministry.
We therefore give a high priority to the training and development of ministry trainees to work within the Co-mission network, but we also want to see workers raised up for the rest of the UK and abroad.
Already, God has enabled Co-Mission to establish an excellent ministry-trainee scheme – which has raised up many gospel workers in the last 20 years.
The aim of the scheme is to prepare people for long-term gospel ministry. Accordingly, it is aimed at mature believers, men and women, who want to be involved in full-time Christian ministry. We welcome applicants from any background – with the requirement that they can sign up to the Co-mission statement of faith.
As we look back, we can see how the Co-mission Ministry Training Scheme has been key to the development of our own network – and also how it has
served churches and ministries in many other cities and countries.
This month we are relaunching our Ministry trainee scheme with as we think about being more strategic in our training and sending:
– We’ve re-formulated the Ministry Trainee Scheme Workshop with different modules and streaming, so that it will be even more targeted and effective
– We are partnering with the excellent Cornhill Training Course, sending trainees once a week where they can get Bible-handling skills and input from various pastors and church-planters
– Trainees will continue to be placed in our local churches where they’ll be given opportunities to lead, serve and teach, and where they’ll also be mentored through constructive feedback
Our hope is that spiritual leaders, both men and women, with a variety of different gifts, will be raised up through this training for longer term ministry for the benefit of local churches and the glory of God.