Together We Equip

“Together We Equip: Integrating Discipleship and Ministry Leadership for Holistic Spiritual Formation”

This is the first book to be released from our Center for Discipleship and Ministry Leadership at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. We have brought together 15 contributors to facilitate a guide to the two driving concepts in ministry that parallel our equipping the people of the church to do the work: discipleship and ministry leadership.

In Together We Equip, you will discover the biblical foundation for equipping others. Equipping others in ministry is a process you bring with you as the leader! It’s both personal and public. It’s you as an individual and your church. This book will challenge you to take responsibility to grow spiritually, engage the culture, and share the gospel. Further, you will discover the impact of discipleship in the local church by examining mentoring, small groups, and preaching as relevant means to equip others.

In the later chapters of the book, seasoned church ministry leaders with years of experience in making disciples through the local church, share many practical ways to equip others and lead church ministries with children, youth, collegiate, men, women, adult and senior adults.

We intentionally did not provide you a step-by-step guide or a model of how to implement all the chapters as one total equipping strategy. Each chapter was intentionally crafted to flow into the next, but with the ability to skip chapters and read them in the order you desire. As editors, we believed the foundation was crucial and that each chapter that followed in the discipleship section provided a great progression to what should happen each week in the church.

Each contributor has provided you with a snapshot of what each of those seven crucial components of lifespan ministry with children through senior adults for discipleship to be a part of ministry leadership. We could have written more chapters but we have realized that most churches are stretched to have ministry leadership with a staff person or a ministry team to cover these seven areas. The landscape of small, medium, and large churches can all benefit from what is written. Do not be discouraged if you cannot address everything in the next few months for discipleship and ministry leadership. Begin to craft a plan for what you can do effectively and work toward creating a culture in your church where discipleship is a priority. The ministry leadership should have ways to be equipped to disciple each age group and be sure that an area of the lifespan is not missing if possible in your ministry context. We understand that some churches are missing some age groups and we pray that as you focus on discipleship that churches would be healthy and intergenerational. If you desire to continue to receive information we have a center for Discipleship and Ministry Leadership to help you that can be followed on Twitter, liked on Facebook, or visited at http://www.nobts.edu. The center also sponsors conferences and can provide training for you at your church. We call these Xcelerate events which occur on the main campus and can be taken on the road to where you serve. Contact us if we can help you with your ministry.

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