Episode 9: How Much Can We Expect of Men?
After we have described the overall process for training men in the church that we use, there is a question we hear pretty quickly, “How much is reasonable to expect of Christian men who work and have a family?”
Most every month, at least one pastor or seminary student drives down to our church to spend time talking about training men in the local church and about adult discipleship; they then stay and watch our Training Center happen live.
The idea for this podcast was stimulated by all those conversations with men, many of whom were asking the same questions. This episode tackles one of the most common.
Usually after we’ve described the overall process for training men in the church that we practice, the question that follows is: “How much is reasonable to expect of Christian men who work and have a family?”
Because every church context is unique, we strive to talk through both our practice and the principles involved.
Next season, we will do a deep dive into each semester of each year, talking about what we do, interviewing some past and current students, and giving a listen to what actually happens during class.
| Timecode | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1:00 | What is the baseline character requirements of a man you’re going to train for ministry? |
| 3:50 | Would you train a man if there are known marital issues? |
| 7:35 | Does the reputation of his children affect his readiness for training? |
| 9:57 | Should ministry involvement be a prerequisite to extended ministry training? |
| 12:36 | A deep dive into ‘How much workload can a man reasonably handle as part of the training process?’ |
| 31:00 | What's the minimum workload? Is no homework okay? What's a good starting point? |
| 36:28 | What are the liabilities to a monthly meeting for training? |
| 38:37 | How do you respond to pastors who say, “I don’t have the time”? |
| 39:55 | How should a pastor respond to a man who says, “I don’t have the time”? |