Over the same period we have seen a steady supply of men committing themselves to the gospel ministry, I can think of twelve but there might be more. Of these five were lost to other churches, not because they wanted to go but because we could offer them no opening at the time. We have to accept God's sovereignty and work with the conviction that whatever he ordains is right. Nevertheless I have pondered this seepage long and hard to the point where I now wonder if specialist church-planters (which is the way we have gone up to the present) ought to give way to putting our young enthusiasts in the front line (as if the regular ministry is not front line!!). At least they would not have to get through all the cross-cultural stuff our American friends have to deal with when they come here.
I'm sure that training for church planting is valuable but I wonder if it is always necessary, that is beyond a sound general training for ministry. We would have to choose our candidates well of course and also find money to pay them - something we haven't had from the beginning, which raises the question of a tent-making ministry. I have been dead against it for years forgetting all the while that for the first eight years of my ministry I did exactly that, teaching school and doing the work of the ministry - full time teaching and three occasions of ministry every week.
It's just a thought but if we could go down that route, even a little, it would ease our dependence on 'foreign aid' and create a more indigenous approach. The expertise gained could be passed on. Another dimension, which some of our folk habitually avoid, is that in order to attempt such things we need to formulate a collective view of the ways church planting might be done and accumulate collective resources, including money in order to do it - basic, not top-heavy, Presbyterianism; but that's another story.
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