A Scalable Curriculum for Church-Based Leadership Development
A few years back, when I was in Myanmar visiting a local Bible College, I remember being in the back of a small oddly shaped “truck” bouncing around the dirt road. It didn’t feel like we were ever moving faster than 30 miles an hour. To be honest, the “truck” probably didn’t even have the capacity to do so.
As we began to drive up a hill and go around a bend, I remember our guide telling us that we were about to pass a Buddhist monastery. This monastery, he told us, had actually prevented the local electric company from extending power to the Bible College.
As I was reflecting on what it would feel like to live in a place where something like that could happen, I felt the air go thin and began to experience a bit of trouble breathing. I then felt this deep sense of heaviness in my heart. It was so vivid that I can still feel it to this day.
Eventually, a few miles later, we arrived at the Bible College to this tall wooden fence. As it opened, not only did I feel the air clear up, but the heaviness in my heart dissipated as I saw, not concrete buildings like the monastery had, but straw roofs and makeshift buildings. This felt like the most peaceful place on earth.
As I reflect on that experience—when I walked the grounds, talked to the pastors, and prayed for them—I couldn’t help but feel like my future was going to be somewhat tied to the encouraging, training, and equipping of pastors.
The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few
When I read Hearts, Heads, & Hands by M. David Sills, I couldn’t believe these three statistics that are outlined in the opening pages:
“In the USA there is one trained Christian worker for every 235 people. Once you leave the USA, that drops to one trained Christian worker for every 450,000 people.”
“An estimated 85 percent of the pastors around the world have no theological education or pastoral training.”
“Over 90 percent of all our tools for evangelism, discipleship, and leadership training has been produced for highly literate people.”
I know it sounds incredulous, but I believe it. Jesus said it himself, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (Matt 9:37-38).
—– Enter the giveaway at the bottom of this article for a chance to win a copy of Hearts, Heads, & Hands by M. David Sills —–
The need is great, not just for harvest workers, but for harvest workers that are trained to have “minds for God, hearts for truth, and hands that are skilled for the task.” This precisely is the goal for this resource that I would love to introduce you to today.
Learn how to train minds for God, hearts for truth, and hands that are skilled for the task.
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Hearts, Heads, & Hands is a curriculum that was developed by M. David Sills, who is a missionary, church planter, pastor, author, Professor of Christian Missions and Cultural Anthropology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the founder and president of Reaching & Teaching International Ministries. If that isn’t proof enough of his qualifications to write this training program for pastors, how about his thoughts here:
My only “right,” qualification, or even audacity, to write this book and compile this curriculum is simply the calling and passion that God has placed on my life—to see the pastors and leaders of Christ’s global church thoroughly prepared and equipped for every good work.
The Content
The reason I’m so excited about this book is because Sills has been able to distill the essentials of theological education, leadership training, and pastoral training into such a valuable one-volume resource. What’s even more powerful is that he offers teaching guides for each of the nine modules outlined in this book. In other words, he wants to empower and equip you, the reader, to be able to go train and develop other leaders in a scalable fashion! Through his teaching guides and the actual content of the book, it feels like he’s walking alongside you as a coach and mentor, teaching you how to train others, who can then train others, who can then train others (2 Tim 2:2).
By the end of the nine modules, the learner will have covered the following topics, which are divided into three categories: heart, head, and hands.
The Heart: The Leader’s Spiritual Development
Personal Spiritual Disciplines
Bible Intake
Prayer
Worship
Scripture Memorization
Serving
Evangelism
Stewardship
Fasting
Silence and Solitude
The Nine Aspects of Galatians 5:22-23—Fullness of Spirit
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faith
Gentleness
Self-control
The Nine Aspects of Philippians 4:8-9—Thought Life
Truth
Honorable
Just
Purity
Lovely
Commendable
Excellence
Praiseworthy
Peace
The Head: The Leader’s Biblical Foundation
Overview of the Old Testament
Overview of the New Testament
Christian Doctrine
Church History
Hermeneutics
Missions and Church Planting
Homiletics and Storytelling
Family Ministry and Counseling
Worship Leadership
The Hands: The Leader’s Administrative Responsibility
God’s Call to Ministry
The Pastor’s Character
Shepherding God’s Flock
Ordinances
Developing Leaders
Mentoring
Community Engagement
Church Finances
Church Discipline
Delivery Approach:
Sills suggests that this curriculum is delivered via one-week intensive classes that happen every four months over a course of three years. This equates to a total of nine weeks of classroom time. Here’s a summary of how he has used the material to train others:
We train hearts, heads, and hands in an integrated fashion, constantly connecting personal discipleship to the content of traditional theological education and teaching practical pastoral ministry applications. We start each teaching day with a personal spiritual discipline, explaining what it is, how to practice it, why it’s important, and then actually doing so to model it, and then move into the head knowledge instruction, which more closely resembles what would be expected in pastoral education. We end the day with the hands portion, which is training in the skill set of pastoral ministry for more practical aspects of mentoring leaders, managing church finances, administration, etc. This last segment of our teaching day sometimes becomes a Q&A where pressing concerns of the students become known and addressed directly. As time permits, the instructors may act as a “Christian Google” in what could be called the “Ask Anything Hour.”
Application
Finally. Here we find a scope and sequence to develop equippers, pastors, church planters, and missionaries, in a scalable way, for missional engagement in the West and around the world. You don’t need a Ph.D. to teach this material, nor a ton of money. All you need to do is gather a group of people in your church who are passionate about the Great Commission and being on mission with God.
Transformation is the intersection between knowledge, experience, and coaching.
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Transformation is the intersection between knowledge, experience, and coaching. As a result, Sills does the heavy work in providing the knowledge piece. It’s up to you to provide the experience and coaching piece to help bring transformation to your church.
Who knows? Perhaps God will use you to train up future staff members, pastors, church planters, missionaries, and marketplace missionaries for His glory and His kingdom?
Click the button below to enter into a draw to win one of four copies of Hearts, Heads, & Hands by M. David Sills!
Next Steps:
Pick up a copy of Hearts, Heads, & Hands.
Enter the draw to win a free copy of the book before December 1.
Click here to learn more about this book, download an excerpt, and learn about certification.
