GREAT LAKES BAPTIST INSTITUTE

From a SCRIPTURAL standpoint, a pastor must be “apt to teach” (I Timothy 3:2). Each church is the “pillar and ground of the truth” (I Timothy 3:15), and its pastors and evangelists (missionaries) are charged with the responsibility “the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (II Timothy 2:2).

From a PRACTICAL standpoint, there is no better place for any man to learn firsthand the order, operation, and ethics essential to the leadership of a church than by being actually involved in one. If a pastor is willing to train men in his own church, it is not necessary to send his best workers away to be trained by others and serve in another church.

From a PERSONAL standpoint, a close working relationship with one’s own pastor(s) allows tremendous opportunities for insights and evaluation not found in any other setting. Training a man is much more than lectures and book learning (as important as they are); it requires that a pastor share his heart, his vision, his burden, etc., with the preachers-in-training God has given him. Consider II Timothy 3:10,11a in this light.

Building Lives by the Book, since 1951