The Students Pledge

 

Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis and this is “Multiply,” the podcast that provides a word of encouragement to Village Church Planters.

One of the wonderful aspects of being a Village Church Planter is that you have a trainer.  Maybe you go to a VCP training center each week with 14 other student church planters to participate in three lessons your trainer facilitates. Of maybe you meet regularly with a first generation church planter who is helping you plant a second generation church and he or she trains you day by day, month by month.  It is a good thing to have a trainer.  I wish I had a trainer when I was first planting churches.

When VCP church planters start in the training center, they sign the Student’s pledge.  This pledge can be found on page 24-32 in the Train and Multiply booklet called “Pastoral Worker Training and You.”  It has 12 points and is designed to help a prospective church planter decide if he is faithful, available and teachable.

You have heard me say many times on this podcast, “It’s not easy to plant churches.” And you know that because you are a church planter. But three are some steps we can take that will set us up for success.  There are some steps that will make church planting just a little bit easier, if we will only take them.

Once such step is showing your prospective second generation church planter the Student’s Pledge found in the back of the Train and Multiply booklet called “Pastoral Worker Training and You.” If a student church planter abides by these 12 promises, he or she will be fruitful as a church planter.  What are the 12 points?  I’m glad you asked:

The student church planter pledges, with God’s help:

• To love Jesus Christ and give first priority to obey all his commands.

• To teach others to obey all the commands of Jesus.

• To care for his or her own family with sincere love (Ephesians 5:25-33).

• To pray continually for those he or she shepherds, for coworkers, and for those who still need Christ.

• To work hard with others in loving harmony, especially with his or her church, and keep his or her T&M trainer informed of activities (Romans 12:9-11).

• To give of his or her time and money to extend Christ’s kingdom wherever he calls us to go (Matthew 28:18-20).

• To trust in God’s power to enable the church to grow and reproduce (Mark 4).

• To seek to obey the requirements for leaders of the church as described in 1

Timothy 3:1-7.

• To explain the Gospel with zeal, love, and clarity so that people will believe in and obey the Lord (Matthew 28:19-20).  

• To seek to raise up new, healthy churches that will multiply, especially in areas where there are none (Romans 15:20-21)

• To be willing to suffer for Christ (2 Timothy 2:3).

• To follow the advice of the T&M trainer, faithfully fulfilling all assignments in work and study.

Let me speak directly to first generation church planters right now. I have a question for you. Have you spoken about this pledge with your second generation church planters?  If not, when would you like to do so?  If you will show them these twelve points, you can help them take firm steps toward being the kind of church planter God delights to use, one who is faithful, available and teachable.

This has been “Multiply.” And I’m Dean Davis asking, “Who will you share this encouraging word with today?

#EncouragementforVillageChurchPlanters  #TrainandMultiply #PastoralWorkerTrainingAndYou