Introduction

Welcome to 2023! Our big focus this year is equipping and training staff and volunteers (Master Trainers and Programme Directors)

In 2022 we announced our new calling statement. We believe that God has called us to create a wholistic discipleship movement that results in God glorified, churches strengthened, and poverty and injustice ended. 

Take a moment to ponder that. Imagine if there really was a worldwide movement of wholistic discipleship. If each Christian understood what it was to glorify God in every area of their life and understood their calling to serve those facing need. Imagine if it was multiplying without our involvement. That churches, denominations and Bible schools were discipling people to see God’s kingdom built. Imagine God was truly glorified, churches were strong and poverty and injustice was ending? 

Hopefully that’s a vision that excites you, that makes you passionate to do your role. And yet, as exciting as this vision is, it’s also HUGE. It feels impossible. (Except once before I said that it was impossible for a community to move out of poverty and they did, so now I am more careful about declaring something impossible!) But it is going to take God’s intervention. It’s going to take miracles. It’s going to take all of you (and many more people) working hard. While God certainly amazes us, He works through us to achieve His purposes. 

So that’s why we are focused on equipping and training you (all our staff and volunteers). Because if we are going to achieve our vision, then we all need to continue to grow in our skills, in our love for the Lord, in our relationship with Him, and in our understanding of our role. 

To help us to achieve that we are bringing together the Flourish materials, the monthly Day of Prayer devotions, and our Master Trainer development materials. We want to be learning all together. 

We will be looking at the Apostle Paul who, with God’s help, led one of the first great movements—the early church. We have identified four key areas of leadership that we long for people to grow in and that we see reflected in Paul’s ministry. 

1. Walking in obedience to God – If we are going to be great leaders we need to walk in obedience to Him – that means understanding His word and what He is saying and being willing to obey. 
2. Leading others – In the Bible leading is often related to loving and serving, caring for the sheep, washing of feet. How do we do that well, while helping people to get done what is expected of them? 
3. Executing on commitments – A leader who keeps saying that they will do something and then doesn’t leaves us all frustrated. Thinking well about what needs to be done, prioritizing, managing our time, and not procrastinating are all key skills. 
4. Strengthening ourselves in the Lord – Leadership is hard. In Christian ministry the number that don’t finish well is too high, the number of families that are sacrificed to ministry is concerning. A great leader knows how to find strength in God. When the disciples were exhausted, Jesus invited them to spend time with Him (not head home for a nap). Do we know how to find our strength in God? Do we know how to Sabbath well or is the day just filled with activity or sleeping? 

Please find the devotions attached. As we go through our studies this year they will help us to think about how we apply the ideas that we are learning.