The Equipping Ministry, Student Workbook, SW15

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T H E E Q U I P P I N G M I N I S T R Y

• Show how that in urban ministry there is a need for us to recover the ministry of teaching (i.e., the ministry of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry) in our urban churches in order to build the Kingdom in our most vulnerable and neglected urban communities. • Demonstrate with use of the Scriptures the ingredients of a legitimate call to the teaching ministry, including an understanding of the teaching ministry as a call to equip the saints for the work of the ministry . Show that teaching is not a matter of scholarship alone, but spiritual gifting and enablement from Christ – the ability to lead others to discover the truth through dialogue and study, and above all else, the anointing and enablement of the Holy Spirit in the one teaching and those who are being taught. • Outline the way in which the “principle of character” (i.e., who a teacher is in his or her character will sooner or later impact what they as a teacher say and do) impacts the fruitfulness of the teacher. • Reproduce and defend with Scripture that the cardinal virtue of the teaching ministry is clarity , rightly dividing the Word of truth and relating that meaning to the lives of the students, and show the same with the cardinal vice of the teaching ministry being pride and hypocrisy , knowledge puffs up, and, it is easy to lay standards on others that you yourself are unwilling to apply and keep. • Detail the content of the teaching ministry which includes the teaching clause of the Great Commission, i.e., to instruct disciples of Jesus to obey everything that he commanded , to make plain the person and work of Jesus Christ for the purpose of Christlikeness in character and life, to make plain the teaching regarding the Kingdom of God and the promise and the righteousness associated with it, and understanding and defending the apostolic tradition, i.e., the historic orthodox faith and how it relates to their life and witness where they live.

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Equipping the Saints for the Work of the Ministry: The Goal of the Teaching Ministry

Devotion

Eph. 4.11-16 - And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, [12] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, [13] until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of