A Simple Method for Training Lay Preachers (w/ Dan Sargent)

STS Editors: Hello and welcome to the Small Town Summits Podcast. This week we are giving you a little taste of what you can expect at one of our summits. During our summits, we have various breakout sessions that you can attend that aim at helping you take biblical ideas and apply them to your small town context. And for this week's episode of the podcast, we have a recording of one such breakout session. We hope you find this helpful as you seek to magnify Christ in your own small town church. Thank you for joining us to talk about ⁓ training preachers. And our catalyst comes from it's printed at the top of your handout from Second Timothy chapter two. It says, You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, and trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. And so we want to talk today about how we do that. And ⁓ of course That can feel really daunting. That's such a big idea. Like train up preachers, entrust the word to faithful men and help others teach the word of God to other people. And so, like, what does that look like? How can we do that? And so I just want to talk about why we should do this, who we do this with, and then how we can do that. Obviously, what I have to say is not, you know, here's the only way in which you can train preachers, right? Like this is just something to encourage you. I also want to open with this caveat that coming from the conviction of God. Complementarianism and so I'll probably say some sweeping words like anyone or everyone, you know, whoever wants to do this right, like and so convictionally coming from the idea of complementarianism, the focus of training preachers, ⁓ being men, ⁓ to lead as elders. Of course, women should be raised up and taught in the church, and I'm thankful for a a women's ministry ⁓ breakout session. ⁓ but for our purposes what we're talking about for training lay preachers and pastors coming from the conviction of complementarianism. ⁓ just wanna say that as I use sweeping words throughout our time together. Let's start first with why should we train? Like why do we want to talk about this? Why is this important to do? ⁓ first and foremost, it's because Scripture commands it, as we just read in Second Timothy two, two. This is our calling, our task as pastors and shepherds, as stewards of the ministry of the Word of God. We have been called to entrust, meaning to give to somebody else. the ministry of the word. we are to give that ministry to other people so that they will then train others and teach others from the word of God. So this is something that we should be doing as pastors intentionally, purposefully, not just kind of hoping that people catch it and have a desire, you know, God give give somebody a desire for pastoral ministry. This is to be something we do intentionally with vision and purpose and training and teaching. This is God's command for us, his calling for us as pastors, to be ministers of the word who intentionally, purposefully raise up other ministers of the word. And so I want us to really feel feel the weight of that command if we are pastors, that this is God's call for us to be intentional, to raise up people, to entrust the ministry of the word to others so they can teach others also. So why should we train? Because God commands it. But also because it's super practical, right? Like God's command has intention behind it. ⁓ it's very practical. It's good for us to entrust and and raise up other teachers and preachers. ⁓ you, as a pastor who preach every Sunday, you could be out of commission on Sunday. And if there's nobody that you've raised up intentionally in your church, in your flock, in your fellowship, right? That's a problem. And so it's very practical for us to have people that we are intentionally raising up. ⁓ this is actually honestly, you know, really how it came to the forefront in my mind and and made me really start thinking about this and kind of leading to this breakout session is because some of my chronic health issues and and I've only been a pastor for three years, but I've had to call out a couple of Sundays already. And it's like, ⁓ my goodness, it's eight o'clock on Sunday and I can't stand up. What am I gonna do? And and so, like, I should probably take this command seriously and raise up pastors and preachers and teachers so that there's other people there. It's a practical command within the church. The church should not just be founded upon my ability to teach. And so it's practical. This is a command with purpose behind it. But it's also a blessing to our church, right? It's helpful for the church, for the members of our church to hear and be used to other people. Preaching, right? They need to remember that the church isn't built on us. It's not built on me and my ability to preach. It's not built on my understanding of Scripture. Scripture is what builds the church. The church is founded on God and His Word. And so it's helpful for the church to hear and be used to other voices preaching the Word of God. And it's a blessing for the church to see God at work. Right? Think about how God gets more glory when more preachers and teachers are being raised up within the flock. And and the church gets to see these men grow up in the word and then in their ability to teach and to serve the church. Like the church gets to overflow in joy and thanksgiving to God through this work. So it's a blessing for the church. It brings glory to God as more people are raised up, more people take part. in the ministry of the word. And not only our church, we should train others because this could potentially, Lord willing, bless other churches. ⁓ did you guys see, I don't know if you look at the Gospel Coalition website frequently, there was just an article the other day about New England and expositional preaching and the need for it. And they kind of focus on a church in Providence, Rhode Island and how they're raising up preachers and and providing pulpit supply, right? Like Our raising up of preachers can bless other churches as we are able to send them out to help. ⁓ just a question like, do you know of any church in your vicinity that could use help filling the pulpit right now? Does anybody know of a church nearby in from where they are that could use help? I do. Yeah. Like if we raise up preachers in our church, we could then bless other churches through our ministry. and that's awesome to think about, right? These men that we train could move also into full time ministry. Right? They could go from our church in this training and this equipping, and they could go out into other churches full time, and that is fruit that's being grown beyond our walls for the kingdom of God. Right? We don't know what's gonna come from our faithfulness to this command. And so ⁓ we should train because God has a million things that He could be doing. By our faithfulness to his word. And so we train because God tells us to. It's practical for us to do it. It's a blessing to our church, and we could bless other churches ⁓ beyond what we could ever know. And so that's why we should train. So let's think about who we should train. Let's get into some specifics. It's important that we should start and continue this process with prayer, right? So this is God's command. This is God's plan for us as shepherds and equippers of the flock, and so we need to depend upon Him. Right? We need to depend upon Him for the sheep to lead. We need to depend upon Him for this whole process because this is His plan. ⁓ and it's easy for us, I think, when we when we look at this command and we think about, you know, I don't I don't know of anyone that I could do this with. I don't know how this would work, right? Our churches are small, I don't there's nobody here. I don't have anyone that I could do this with. But we don't need a church like the one in that article, right? Like that article was encouraging in one way, but almost a little discouraging in other ways because it's like they have they're in Providence, they have all these college age kids and it's like they have just a bunch of people that they have opportunities with. But we don't need that in our churches to start with. We just need prayerful, dependent hearts. We just need eyes that are open. We just need a willingness to start, to be faithful to God's command and do what He calls us to do with whoever He provides for us. So training people starts with prayer. It continues with prayer and submitted hearts. Then we need to begin with, I think the best place to begin is with leaders that are already in place. So if you in your church. ⁓ if you're the pastor and you have elders, elders are called to teach, right? They are to be involved in the equipping ministry of the church. So you have a group of built-in people that you can train right there because they are elders, they are to teach, they are to be involved in the equipping ministry. You might need to start with reminding them of the purpose and function and ministry of the elders and and really train ⁓ them to to get a full vision for eldership. But right there, their role, their name, their title as elder gives you the basis to begin this process with. So if you're thinking, I don't know who I could do this with, if you have elders, you can start right there. If you have deacons instead of elders, which a lot of New England churches do, then this gives you a good reason to change your church government, right? Like that's kind of a joke, but you know, you can maybe start there, but kind of kidding. But right, like I think even if we have deacons, again the basis for for teaching serving is a little different between elders, deacons, but look at your leaders, whatever you call them, deacons. Look at them for who has this potential, whether they would agree with that assessment or not. Like guys that are godly, guys that are leading well already, who are serving well, who are invested in the church, right there beside you. Start there, right? The guys who are already in leadership, that's where we start. But also think about the church as a whole and have again open eyes, prayerfully open eyes, and be on the lookout for who's gifted, who's passionate about understanding scripture, who is who's good at communicating in some ways. I th I think of a guy in my church who's just a really good speaker, not a not a teacher-preacher. He's just a really good speaker. And it's like, I want to start there. But don't don't think of only polished guys. Like look for. Diamonds in the Rough in youth group. Look for young adults. Even look for and be praying for young boys in children's ministry, right? Like have a long term vision and prayer for this process. Don't just say, I don't have anybody right now. Again, pray. Be on the lookout from the youngest guys in your church. Start there. I think one of the benefits of of small town ministry is that. Most of our congregations aren't transient, right? Like city populations, people come and go. But in small towns, people put down roots, and we get to see multiple generations come through our churches. So be willing to take notice of younger guys, even young boys who are too young to preach, but be praying for them. Write their names down, disciple them, have a long-term vision. Patience for this process. Don't just say, I don't have anyone now, I can't do this. Have a long-term vision ⁓ and think bigger than you can imagine. Again, this is a prayerful thing that we submit our hearts to God. And of course, be willing to train anyone, there's that sweeping word, anyone who has Willing and has a desire for this. First Timothy 3:1. If anyone desires to the office of overseer, he desires a good thing. So Paul starts with this idea of desire. So look for those people that have desires, right? Like put it out there that you're doing this and you want to train guys for this. and that you're this is a a process that you want to start. And if you start putting guys out there that you're training and begin to teach, right, others will respond, hopefully. But my encouragement is don't put up a wall based on initial perception of of how this person appears. Right. Obviously, they need to have godly characteristics. They can't be disqualified from handling the word of God based on their character and spirituality. But what I mean by that is don't assume so and so can't teach. Don't assume I can't train this person and they're unable because they're socially awkward, right? Or whatever. ⁓ There might be a time in the future that you have to have hard conversations about ideas that they have for full time ministry. And it's like, yeah, I don't I just don't think you're gifted in this way and and maybe we can look at other things. But but that doesn't mean that some guys can't grow and be taught and be blessed through this process and that they can't ever be a blessing to the church in small acts of teaching and preaching, right? So don't disqualify people outright. And that's really hard. Again, we say that they don't have the potential. We don't know. Just be willing to train and disciple and build up anyone who has a desire. So who should we train prayerfully? Begin with our leaders. Look at the whole church. Have eyes that are open and willing to train whoever might come with a willing heart and a desire. Alright, so now let's get into the nuts and bolts of the How, the the methodology. Again, we start and we continue with prayer. We need to to pray for wisdom about this process. How are we gonna do this? Who are we to focus on again? You know, praying for men to invest in. But pray for yourself for for patience, because this type of thing, this command to faithfulness to this command takes time and it might not bear much fruit for a long time. ⁓ Pray for time and energy to do this and to keep doing this. Pray for the church to to take part in this process through encouraging those that are speaking, those that are preaching and teaching, that the that the church would be blessed, ⁓ that they would be encouraging to those who are sharing and not, you know, be divided over, you know, I don't like this speaker, I don't like this speaker, I like this guy, you know. Just pray that the church and encourage the church to be encouragers. ⁓ And pray more foundationally for a passion to do this, right? This is for God's glory. This is his command that we follow for his glory, for his purposes, that we may not see right away. We not we may not see the fruit of our labors. And so remember, have a long term vision. Pray for that long term patience. Pray for a desire for the kingdom of God to be advanced, to be built outside of our church walls, and not just I want to see what takes place. Like pray for the kingdom to be advanced through this. And pray that ⁓ for that to be your passion, the kingdom of God and its growth. And let that be your motivation to obedience to God's command here. So we start with and we continue with prayer. The next thing, how do we train? I think it's super important. Again, it's called a simple method for training preachers. So keep it simple. Keep it. focused on the main thing, which is expository preaching of the Word of God. Right? That's what we want to focus on. We're talking about preaching and teaching the Word of God. Keep it focused on that. So to begin with, I I highly advise ignore the aspects of delivery of a sermon and just focus on training how to exegete the Word, how to order and prepare a sermon. ⁓ Because that's where the power in preaching comes from, right? God's proclaimed word. So focus there. Worry about delivery later. Right. Because I think too often, in my experience, guys will want to run away from this idea of of speaking in front of people because they feel like they're not a good enough speaker. Right. And so it's I can't do that because I'm not a good speaker. But we need to remind them that's not what we're after. ⁓ we're not after great orators. We're after people who are confident in the word of God. And so we want them to proclaim that. We don't want them to proclaim themselves, to to show themselves as a great speaker, focus them, focus ourselves, focus the method on God's word and proclaiming that. Right? That's where we want to start. On one of the handouts, if you have ⁓ the second page of the handout, which I gotta get you one of these here. Yeah. On the second page of the handout you'll notice there's a ⁓ sermon review ⁓ form N L B C that's the acronym for our church, North Liverpool Baptist Church. ⁓ so I just wanted you to see this. Super simple. You'll notice that none of the questions, none of the things focus on, it's two sided. None of them has to do with delivery. And that's that's intentional. Right? So obviously as we and we'll come back to this in a minute, obviously we should discuss things that will be a serious distraction. So if somebody every other word is ⁓ ⁓ and they just kind of are seriously distracting. You want to talk about that? But keep the main thing, the main thing, which is exegeting scripture, proclaiming Christ to God's people. So that's what we want to do is keep it simple, keep it focused on the main thing. Similar to that, and using that form, help them learn how to preach by reviewing your sermons. So that can be really scary, right? To have somebody intentionally Fill out a form about your sermon, but have them review your sermons so that this will help them begin to think about sermons differently and more critically. Right? So use a sermon review tool to help them ask questions of a sermon to listen for different things that they probably never thought of before, right? Like how often do people think, like, yeah, that introduction really fit and flowed really well into your first point? And I understood the main point of the passage through. where you said it and what I was looking for, right? Like have them start thinking critically about listening so that they can learn how to preach by being a better listener. And so encourage people to review your sermons. And I think that will help them be better preachers and more equipped. Again can be really scary, but I think it's super, super beneficial. And again the sermon review tool can be a help there. ⁓ to have them focus on different aspects of sermons. Next, and here's a big thing, choose a teaching resource wisely and carefully. So I think starting with a resource like a book can can be a really big help. And it can be a great time saver, right? Like as as we just kind of digest information all together in a group or one-on-one, right? And in these days we have so many great resources on preaching. Right. And so find one and and use it to help teach and equip guys, like in a group or one on one. And and ⁓ a resource really helps get everybody on the same page with a consistent message. And my point here, choose a teaching resource wisely and carefully, right? Like pick a a small book on preaching. So if if you're a pastor and you went to seminary and you're used to reading, right, you might not be scared of a book. But a lot of people in our churches are terrified of books. And so if you're already scaring somebody by saying we're gonna learn to preach, and then you come at them with Christ-centered preaching, it's like, hey, read this, and then you'll be able to preach. Like this is probably my favorite book on preaching. I think it's an amazing book that everybody should read. But this is gonna scare the pants off of anybody who has never preached before. So choose a resource wisely. Like start ⁓ like Goldsworthy, again, preaching the whole Bible as Christian scripture. Super helpful book. Gonna terrify people if you hand this to them. ⁓ Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson, we're getting smaller, right? So we're getting there. But again, they look at the table of contents, that's too much. That's scary. John Piper, we're getting really small, supremacy of God in preaching. But if you ever read John Piper, he's a little scary to read because he's super intense and it comes through even in his writing. Another great book. But here's one. That I've found super helpful that has not scared anybody yet. And it's my favorite color, orange. So great book. So Ex Expositional Preaching by David Helm. Super helpful resource. It does, it is s some of the middle of it when it gets into like exegesis and stuff, can get a little tough. But I have found people who are not even readers, who have never preached before. Have benefited so greatly from this book. This is not a plug. I don't get any money from David Helm for this. I just find this to be super helpful. So expositional preaching by David Helm. Again, not scary. It's really small. ⁓ but so, so helpful. He goes through, you know, what is expositional preaching, how what is not expositional preaching. ⁓ here's how to read scripture and understand it. Super, super helpful resource. But again, using a resource wisely, To get everybody on the same page. Choose ⁓ something that again will not scare people. Larger resources might be employed later when someone is showing more of an aptitude and you're like, all right, I really want to dig into this more. Yeah, let's let's move past this. It's a great introduction. ⁓ but start simple and go through it together and and tailor the speed and the discussion based on who you're doing this with. Again, what I love about Doing this like in small church ministries is I'm doing this like one on one with some people. I'm doing it in a group setting with other people. ⁓ we can tailor it to who we're working with. So I've done it with my fellow elders. We all read it as a group just individually, kind of talked about it just kind of in general, but we didn't really spend a ton of individual time on it. Again, I've done it one on one where we looked at one chapter, we talked about it a little bit more. We did we did the next chapter, talked about a little bit more, right? So use wisdom, use it wisely for each situation. choose a teaching resource wisely and carefully to help everybody get on the same page. Next, after you've kind of built the foundation for what expositional preaching is and what we're after, let the person you're working with pick for the first sermon that we're we're working on to for training, let them pick. a passage of scripture to preach on. So let them pick for themselves. Don't assign something in a series. Don't just say, all right, you're going to preach on Genesis 1, ⁓ you're going to preach on Revelation 17, right? Like let them pick a passage of scripture for their first sermon to develop. And the reason for this is because you want them, especially to start, to feel comfortable, to feel interested with a specific passage of Scripture, something that they are already passionate about, perhaps, and motivated For digging in to it more. Of course, you can help someone if they don't have any ideas right offhand to pick. But I found in these kind of conversations that about, you know, all statistics are made up, like 90% of the time ⁓ that guys already have a passage in mind pretty quickly. If you're like, hey, what would you like to preach on? People are like this one. ⁓ it's already in there. There's something they're interested in, something that's caught their attention. So let them pick the passage first. So we start there. ⁓ we built the res ⁓ the foundation for preaching. They have a passage in mind. talk to them about that passage. I think is is really interesting. You know, ask them once once they've picked it, why did you pick that? Like what it what is it about this passage that strikes you? and then you can walk through some of the basic questions with them. Like, ⁓ What's the context of this passage? What are the major themes, right? Help them start thinking about the passage in those exegetical terms, in the expositional terms, in that initial conversation. All right, so you're going to preach on ⁓ Matthew 5, you know, specific passages in ⁓ specific passage in the Sermon on the Mount. Like what's the context? What's Jesus talking about here? What are some of the major themes and and and have them start thinking in that way? Then we move into developing the main point. Right. So we want to start small. It's not just, all right, you pick this passage, go write a sermon. You know, start with what's the main point? ⁓ Steven did a great job of that this morning. Here's the main point of the of the passage. So give me the main point. You go work on it, come back. What's the main point? What's what's the outline of the passage? And so just take it in chunks. Don't again just tell people, go out, write a message, right? What's the main point? Let's start there. Give me one to two sentences of the main point of the passage. Move slow, right? Help them develop this and rework it if necessary. We had a really cool discussion among our elders as we went through this. we we use one of the passages that one of the guys was going to use and we just talked about it. What's your main point? What's your outline? Let's all look at it together and and just start kind of reworking it and and zooming into different things. It's super helpful to just work through it. Synthesize the passage into one or two sentences. What's the main point of this passage? Let's develop an outline. And be ready to help with this, right? Have conversations. ⁓ work slowly and patiently. Again, there's that prayer for patience. But also be ready to be amazed and and enjoyed and be encouraged at what guys come up with that was so good, even for their first time. Like, be encouraging. Like one of my elders picked an old testament passage, and I was like Alright, go for it. You know, that was the one you picked. And then I said, All right, what's the main point? What's the outline? I was blown away. He even had alliteration. Dudes never preach before. And I was like, This is so cool. Like be excited for them and with them. Have these conversations. Either way, if it's not beautiful and polished, right, encourage and help. Be patient ⁓ and work through it together. So develop the main point together, develop an outline, have them write the manuscript next. Really important. I think have people write out everything verbatim, right? Don't just say, all right, you know, kind of fill it in a little bit. Verbatim, write the whole thing out word for word, ⁓ so that you can review it and go over it with them and they can revise it as needed. Give good feedback here, right? Like listen or read really well. don't just rewrite it for them, give good feedback patiently, prayerfully. Help them see where they need to flesh things out a little bit more, where something doesn't fit and could be rearranged. ⁓ what may be wrong theologically even. You might see some things like, hey, what do you mean by that? Like ask good questions, give good, clear feedback. And again, always encourage, right? Don't take out the red pen and and mark up like, ⁓ this is terrible, right? Like be patient, be encouraging. Tell them where things are good, where you really like something, right? Like That's that goes so far when you say that was a really good introduction. Really great statement here. I really like that. Instead of just, what do you mean by this? This is terrible, right? Like be encouraging. Tell them what is good, what is clear, what is powerful, what is helpful. Encourage, encourage, encourage. So go through the manuscript with them. Again, takes time, it takes energy, it takes effort. but help them write it together and encourage, encourage, encourage. And be ready to learn yourself, right? Like don't just be like, I am the master here. Like be ready and be excited when things are coming together and praise God for it. So you have them write out a manuscript, then you have them deliver the message. I like the idea of delivering it in a small group, ⁓ but again, that's a case by case basis. So as we're training people, ⁓ if you're doing it in a group of three, four, five guys, like just start there. Like It doesn't have to be super intimidating. All right, you wrote a message Sunday morning, you're up. Like, it's okay to start small, right? you could, you know, depending on the person. It's what's nice about doing simple methods, right, is you could have them deliver in a large group, but be prayerful and about and wisdom here. Whether you're going to use Sunday morning. Some churches have a Sunday evening where that's the purpose of that. Wednesday night, we have a Wednesday night prayer meeting and and have Bible study in in scripture time ⁓ there. I've had people Preach and share at that time. But I like the idea of a smaller group to start, like just the elders, just these three, four, or five guys that we're working with, ⁓ to make it easy for a lot of people. Again, most people are just terrified of speaking in front of anybody. And so be flexible, be patient, know who you're working with and let them decide the first time that they want to deliver after writing their manuscript. The big thing is, regardless of the venue. After they preach, do a sermon review right away, like right after the final step in in our process. Don't wait a week, don't wait a couple days, do a sermon review right after the time of delivery, if it's just an intentional time just for that, or if it's the Wednesday night thing or Sunday night thing, like do it right away so that any notes that you scribbled make sense, your thoughts, your feelings, everything needs to be done right away. And again, the sermon review form here, ⁓ just an example, super simple. Again, just focus on the content, unless something in the delivery was overly distracting. But review, review, review, review the message together. Let everybody share feedback, not just you, right? Like everybody can say, Yeah, that was super helpful, that was encouraging. ⁓ get different opinions and feedback. Remind people to be kind and encouraging and constructive. so review right away. You might need them to to do a lot of changing of the message right there. ⁓ to you know, yeah, that didn't sound right. It it seemed different when I read it, right? When we speak the word, it sounds speak words, it sounds different than when we just read it. ⁓ so people might need to go back and re-deliver it after this, ⁓ before they're ready to go into a different type of setting, like Sunday morning if you haven't done that yet. so they could deliver the message again, whatever is needed. Again the point is flexibility, helping people, be patient with them. so key, right? 'Cause some guys Again, you'll be so impressed. They'll be able to just jump right in after one test message, right? It's just like wow, they're really gifted, they're really confident, the message really came together. But some guys you're gonna find are gonna need constant help, patience, prodding sometimes to take the next step, like, hey, you know, you've been working on the that main point for six weeks now. Like what are what are we doing? Like some guys are gonna need that, some guys are gonna need lots of time editing and coming back and re-preaching it, re-delivering it. To a small group, be willing to do whatever it takes, right? To be faithful to God's command to entrust His word to faithful men. And again, pray, pray, pray through the whole process because it is really easy. If you start doing this, it's easy to get discouraged because some guys, again, are just going to be slow. Some guys are going to need pushing. Some guys are going to need hard conversations of like you keep. Saying heretical things. Like, I don't think you mean them, but like you're you're just saying stuff that doesn't make sense, right? Like some guys are gonna need a lot, but pray, pray, pray that you can be faithful to this command. And remember that this is God's call for us. This is God's call for us as pastors. This is what is good for us, for our churches, for God's kingdom. This is something that God has commanded, therefore, He will supply all that we need to do with. And he will be glorified when we take part in it. And so we can make it a priority. We can depend upon him for his help, for his spirit to give us joy in this process, to give us all that we need to do it. And again, be ready to see how God works and be praising him for every little piece of encouragement, every work that he does. Like let I just I love that idea of entrust. The word, the ministry of the word to faithful men. Give that over to them and let God work through others and praise him and glorify him as he does this great work. Thank you again for listening to the Small Town Summit Podcast. We hope that it was a blessing to you, and if you are interested in learning more about the Small Town Summit Ministry, check out our website, smalltownsummits.com. We also want to let you know about an exciting opportunity to join us, the Rural Home Missionary Association in Desiring God, at a new England wide conference October 5th through the 6th in Newberry Port, Massachusetts. Our speakers, Dave Mathis and Scott Hubbard of Desiring God, We'll be helping small town pastors and ministry leaders remember that Christ is our treasure and goal in gospel ministry. For more information, visit STSfallconference.com. Again, that is STSfallconference.com. We hope to see you there.