Foundations of Christian Leadership, Mentor's Guide, MG07

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F O U N D A T I O N S O F C H R I S T I A N L E A D E R S H I P

who minister informally should not be defiant or disruptive but should allow the overseers to direct their ministries in ways that are orderly and edifying (i.e., strengthening and upbuilding, 1 Cor. 14.3-5, 12, 26, 40; Heb. 13.17). The body of Christ grows to maturity in faith and love “as each part does its work” (Eph. 4.16) and fulfills its grace-given form of service (Eph. 4.7, 12). ~ J. I. Packer. Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs . (electronic ed.). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1995. As you cover these central truths to the role of the diaconate below, ensure that you emphasize them in light Packer’s important insights. Cover these concepts clearly and carefully, as their quiz work and exams will be taken from these items directly. One of the central gifts for your students will be their ability to explore the meanings of the insights they learn first for their own lives, and then for the ministry situations that they encounter. The ability to apply the truth is as central to this study as finding out the truth about a subject. Therefore, in helping your students think through the implications of the lesson, you may wish to design some questions that can get them started in this important discipline. The questions below were designed to provoke response, to help “prime the pump” of their interests, so to speak. What is to be noted here is that what you seek during this section is not merely more questions about data and abstractions, but what key principles and issues have been made plain in the lives of the students. Your conversation with them can now be blunt, on point with their lives, and focused nearly exclusively on the kinds of questions they are interested in. Let them settle on a cadre of issues, concerns, questions, and ideas that flow directly from their experience, and relate these to their lives and ministries. Do not hesitate to spend the majority of time on a question that arose from the DVD, or some special concern that is especially relevant in their ministry context right now. The goal of this section is for you to enable them to think critically and theologically in regards to their own lives and ministry contexts. Again, the questions below are provided as guides and primers, and ought not to be seen as

8 Page 43 Student Application and Implications