RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHURCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTIONS

And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the Kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that Way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks - Acts 19:8-10

 PREAMBLE

Acts 19:9 tells us that Apostle Paul established a training institution, which he operated for about two years. This institution was a training ground where he nurtured budding preachers of the Gospel and then unleashed them upon the world to proclaim the undiluted Word of God. No wonder, Acts 19:10 declared “…that all who dwelt in Asia heard the Word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.”   

“…School of one Tyrannus” may refer to a school owned by a person called Tyrannus or a school located in a place called Tyrannus. Whatever be the case, a school was operated where preachers of God’s Word were trained. The school may have operated for two years and closed shop or may have operated a two-year curriculum of training, which today serves as a model for two years program of schools. Whatever may have happened, training occurred: churches were involved and preachers were trained!

IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING

Training is a critical factor in human resource development. If medical professions recognize the need for training of their workforce, if engineers, teachers, security operatives, financial institutions and all manners of professions recognize the need for training and retraining of their members or staff, how much more would the Church of our Lord not ensure that her preachers and ministers are properly trained!

Congregations must be in the vanguard of advocating for the training and retraining of her most critical workforce. If there are no pools of intellectual and theological resources, the Church of tomorrow will become endangered. We must continue to re-sharpen our focus by continually equipping those who will take the baton of our Congregational leaderships by reminding them to hold forth the core elements of our message (cf. II Timothy 2:2).

WHY THE CHURCH MUST BE INVOLVED IN TRAINING  

The distinctive nature of New Testament Christianity makes her a lone voice in the wilderness of modern day religious confusion and cacophonic ministrations. Proliferation of religious houses have taken centre-stage where story-telling and entertainment of the like of Athenians’ experiences are replicated (Acts 17:16-23). Today people flock to religious houses to “hear something new.” We must take Holy Spirit’s injunction to Titus, an evangelist, seriously. In Titus 1:10-12, Paul wrote,

For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.

Nothing best describes our modern day religious environment than what we find in the above Scripture passage. There are many empty talkers on various media of mass communication and in various religious houses whose mouths must be shut because they teach and preach things they are not permitted to for the sake of financial gains.

We live in an age of advancements in virtually every area of life. Ministry is becoming increasingly challenging as human societies move from simple to complex. Human beings are becoming more and more enlightened. Therefore, those who must minister to them in spiritual matters must endeavour to keep pace. As a rule of the thumb, pulpit is supposed to be above the pew not the other way round.

Training raises the human capital of our preachers and teachers to be more proactive and responsive. Divergent voices which are trying to weaken the Church’s voice would be properly coordinated if we meet on training grounds to cross-pollinate Biblical ideas and moderate our differences. 

IMPORTANCE OF PREACHERS’ TRAINING

Benefits of formal Biblical training of our preachers to the Church of our Lord cannot be overemphasized. Jesus set a powerful example when He took twelve ordinary men and for a space of about three years schooled them on Kingdom matters. Even though they were ‘commoners,’ a kind of rag-tag, the confidence they exuded after the training and the boldness that characterized their ministrations pointed to the direction where they had been (Acts 4:13). Apostle Paul’s training under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), an eminent Jewish theologian of his era (cf. Acts 5:34) and his continued education in Jesus’ doctrines were so impactful that as he stood to speak, he towered intellectually above his audience. His elocution, carriage and charisma swept his audience off their feet that one man described him as a man with “excessive learning” (Acts 26:24). 

Brethren, if Roman Catholics could train their priests for upwards of fifteen years before being deployed to man parishes. If our denominational neighbours could invest fortunes on their ‘pastors’ to ensure that they are well trained before manning their pulpits, then the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ would be seen to lag behind if we do not engage in effective training of our ministers. We must train and retrain our preachers. I would not know where I would have been today without the training I received in Church and Bible/Preachers’ training institute that I attended.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHURCH AND TRAINING SCHOOLS

The relationship between the Church and Preachers’ training schools is that one lays the foundation upon which to build superstructures of the Faith while the other builds; one plants the message while the other waters the message. It is a perfect arrangement of Town and Gown. It is so symbiotic that the absence of one will be greatly felt by the other. While congregations financially support preachers’ training schools, these institutions will in turn become feeders of congregations because the people they train will at the end serve with existing congregations as well as many who will chart new paths by going to virgin areas to plant new congregations (cf. Romans 15:20).    

Our American Brethren know the importance of ministers’ training. Schools such as David Lipscomb, Abilene Christian, Faulkner, Bear Valley, Brown Trail School of Preaching, Freed-Hardeman, Harding, Heritage Christian, Lubbock Christian, Memphis School of Preaching, Ohio Christian, Oklahoma Christian, Pepperdine, Sunset International Bible Institute, Tennessee Bible College, York College, etcetera were all set up by members of the Lord’s Church in America and are heavily sponsored by Congregations of the Lord’s Church all across America. Some were purely for preaching purposes while others combine ministerial training with secular education.

Training institutions exist for the Church. Therefore, the Church should support these institutions. It is in her best interests to do so. To do this, Congregations should send their men to be trained and support them fully; they should make occasional as well as regular donations of money and materials; take lead in securing lands and construction of permanent structures for these institutions.

Today, health and educational institutions such as School of Biblical Studies, Jos; Western Nigerian Christian College, Ogun State; Nigerian Christian Bible College, Abak, Akwa Ibom State; Nigerian Christian Hospital, Nlagu, Abia State, Nigerian Christian Seminary, Asa Nnentu, Aba, Abia State, Nigerian Institute of Arts and Theological Studies, Nlagu, Abia State as well as School of Biblical Studies, Awka, Anambra State are all testimonies to institutions owned and funded by members of the Church of Christ. How well these facilities are funded largely unknown.

If we as a church family must be relevant in the scheme of things today and tomorrow, we must put our hearts where our mouths are. Leaving a legacy for the Church’s posterity entails that we must be futuristic in our plans and programs by ensuring that our gains in the present are consolidated by strategically empowering our training institutions to continue to serve the theological and spiritual needs of the Church.

The spillover effects of the Church’s supports and funding of our training institutions are enormous:

1.  It will ensure a continued pool of theological and intellectual resource for our Congregations.

2.  Our capacity as a church family to contain divergent voices will increase.

3.  Our capacity to contend earnestly for the Faith will also increase as we will have in abundance not only men who are well equipped but men whose confidence in themselves and in God’s Word cannot be in doubt.

Congregations MUST SUPPORT our training schools. We must empower our Bible training schools as individuals and body corporate with our financial resources and expertise in different areas of life to ensure that our present is consolidated and our future guaranteed. To do so is akin to what Samson did. He took three hundred foxes, bound them tail-to-tail, set them on fire to set afire the land of the Philistines (Judges 15:4-5). By supporting our training schools we will be gathering men together, set their spirits on fire to set our communities afire by God’s Word.

Paul did that at Tyrannus supported by congregations and the result was tremendous. More congregations were planted and nurtured all across Asia. The people our Lord left behind to ensure that the message He had brought to the world and the Vicarious Sacrifice He had made on Calvary’s Cross were properly propagated by the men He had spent three years plus training and equipping.

CHURCHES AND TRAINING SCHOOLS: A WAY FORWARD

I would like to request our training institutions to adopt a mentoring strategy. If lawyers after training would be sent to serve and be mentored in chambers before setting up their own practice; if medical doctors after spending years in medical schools are required to undergo a mandatory one year Housemanship programs before being allowed to work as medical doctors in public or private health institutions; if graduates of higher institutions are required to do their one-year mandatory national youths service programs in different areas before being allowed to work, I would want to propose that our training institutions should adopt a mentoring approach in ensuring that our newly trained preachers are deployed to serve with experienced preachers in their serving congregations where they will be groomed in the art of lesson and sermon preparations, practical aspects of ministry; understudying those in the field on how they deal with congregational problems so that when they finally take up congregational appointments it will not be a trial-and-error experience for them.

Bible shows that Joshua understudied Moses, Samuel understudied Eli, Elisha understudied Elijah, Timothy and Titus understudied Paul. This mentoring program can last between three months and one year as the case may be. If this mentoring program is adopted, it will go a long way to help.              

CHALLENGE TO PARENTS AND CONGREGATIONS

Parents should encourage their sons to take to preaching as a career and then send them to preacher training schools (I Samuel 1:11, 24-28). Our Christian sisters should be encouraged to marry preachers. Congregations should encourage their members to consider preaching, send them to training institutions and support them fully.

We would notice that today we are in short supply of preachers. Let any congregation advertise for vacancy for the position of a preacher, it would take quite a while before one shows up. Reason is that we are in short supply of preachers. The only way to mitigate this is to encourage more men to go into preaching, not because they are jobless but because the Lord needs them to serve as preachers in His Congregations. The more preachers we graduate, the more congregations we can establish.

The secret of the fast growth of The Redeemed Christian Church of God lie in their aggressive mobilization and training of preachers and deploying them to serve in their parishes. The policy of RCCG is that there should be a parish of the church within a considerable distance.

To encourage men to take to preaching, we must stop running our preachers down, stop demeaning their persons and treating them as if they are ‘errand boys’ for our Congregations. Preachers must and should be treated with respect, make provisions for their wellbeing and ensure that their future are secured. Then, and then we can be sure that preachers will preach their hearts out.

Our Lord is depending on His Church to take the message of salvation to the world (Ephesians 3:10). Bible training institutions are willing to assist Congregations of our Lord achieve this objective. Therefore, let Congregations partner with our schools to ensure that this is realized. When this happens, it will become Partnership that Works!