Can we ever over-emphasize the need to be trained and equipped? Whether it concerns our secular employment or our personal growth – it’s my staunch belief that if we’re not progressing, then we’re regressing. As the old Chinese idiom goes, “Learning is like sailing against the current – if the boat is not advancing, then it’ll be carried backward by the currents.”
I want to present to you several Scriptures for your consideration: “Be diligent to present yourself approved by God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” 2 Tim 2:15; “That we should not no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” Eph 4:14; “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the Word of righteousness, for he is a babe.” Heb 5:13; “All Scripture is God-breathed (given by divine inspiration) and is profitable for instruction, for conviction (of sin), for correction (of error and restoration to obedience), for training in righteousness (learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately – behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage); that the man of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Tim 3:16-17 (AMP)
When the New Testament Church was born, we see the believers giving substantial focus to the doctrine and teachings of the apostles. They met together and the apostles would teach them from the Word of God. In fact, this was such a vital aspect of the Church that later on, as they grew, they found that it was necessary for the apostles to dedicate more of their time to prayer and to the study of Scriptures. This not only laid a foundation for the Early Church, but it also lays a foundation for us today.
The great travesty of the Church today is that there are more Bibles sold now than ever before. We’ve more versions of the Bible, more books, podcasts and study guides than all the generations before us. However, the irony is Bible literacy is at an all-time low! Most believers live off weekend sermons as their only source of feeding and have lost the ability to feed themselves from the Word of God.
As we mull over this sobering thought, I’m pleased to announce that we’re launching our Training & Equipping Semester for 2016 over the weekend. We’ve lined up a range of classes for the year that will cover subjects from the basics of our faith to more practical subjects on ministry skills.
Our purpose is to raise up a people who know the Word of God and how to rightly divide the Word of Truth. We want to be those who are not easily tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine or fad of the day, but those who are solidly grounded in God’s Word. As such, we want to encourage you to take a look through the list of courses listed in the brochure in your T&E Pack and find one that you can sign up for as an individual or collectively as a cell group.
Training and equipping forms a key backbone to what we do here in Cornerstone. It enables us to help you grow spiritually and into the call that God has for your lives. Our desire is that there’d be a wonderful blend of the Word and the Spirit in the church. In fact, we see in Acts 13:1, the prophets and teachers coming together at Antioch, and this gave birth to the apostolic team of Paul and Barnabas. This in turn sparked the most prolific church-planting movement recorded for us in the New Testament. It’s a picture of the Spirit and the Word joining together to birth the apostolic, and this is the formula for success that God has given to us in His Word. This is the pattern we seek to establish.
So take the Training & Equipping 2016 Package home, look through the courses available and enroll yourself for one. May God’s Word delight your hearts and be the light unto your paths!
