On 04/15/23 from 9 AM to 1 PM, the Ministerial Alliance of North Amityville & Vicinity presents Church Leaders & Ministry Workers Conference hosted by Dr. Vernon Shelton at Holy Trinity Baptist Church, Amityville NY.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN THE LOCAL CHURCH

The church is made-up of unlikely people. In first Corinthians 1: 26-31. Paul writes., take a good look, friends, and who you were when you got called into this life I don’t see any of the brightest and the best among you, not many influential. Not many from high society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses? Everything that we have, right thinking and right living, a clean slate, and a fresh start comes from God. By way of Jesus Christ…. (The message. Bible.)

In Mark 3: 14; Luke 6: 12-16; John 15.:16, Jesus chose 12 apostles out of the many disciples who followed him to lead his church. He prayed all night so that he would choose the right one, and after choosing them he gave them authority to be apostles. Jesus mentored them for three years so that, through the direction of the Holy Spirit, they would be prepared to continue Jesus’s work.  It would be through them, that God would develop his church. Without Jesus’ intentional leadership development by the teaching of prayer., servant hood, obedience to God and his word, and unconditional love, who then would have been equipped. to effectively pass on the message and mission of God so they could go forth to make disciples, Baptize them, teach them., and then become witnesses to the uttermost parts of the world?

That is why Spiritual mentoring and leadership development is so important in the church today, especially in the post-modern time we live, where we see the decline in Christian beliefs and church attendance.  That is why we must be diligent to follow Ephesians 4: 10-13 where we read that one of the gifts Christ gave to man, is for the perfecting and equipping of the Saints; whose responsibility is to equip God’s people to do God’s work, to build up the body of Christ,  so that God’s people will learn to serve, and the body of Christ will grow strong.

So, just as iron sharpens iron, we must all work to help perfect the gifts in each other so that we can use them for 21^st century kingdom building. We must study, always maturing in the faith so that we will be equipped to lead our homes, communities, and most importantly the church, so we will not be tossed to and fro by every wind in doctrine. And we do this so that when our assignment on this earth is done, we will be able to pass on the baton of faith and the gospel of Christ with confidence to those who are coming behind us that they may be prepared to run the next leg of the race with confidence.  Some, like the Apostles, may be thinking, “I am the most unlikely person to be called to this great task of church leadership”, but guess what? God does extraordinary things with ordinary people who say yes!  Who knows, you may be God’s next extraordinary leader…Why not!

Submitted by Rev Dr. Patricia Rickenbacker, D’Min

Pastor Living Hope Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, Massapequa, New York