Saints Translation · Four programs of formation

The Ministry

Teaching · Preaching · Healing · Leading · for service inside the church and outside it

Jesus went around all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. Seeing the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and cast down, like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 9:35–36

Matthew sums up the Lord’s own ministry in three words: teaching, proclaiming, healing. Then he adds what the Lord saw, a people like sheep without a shepherd, and the next thing He does is send others. Those are the four works: teaching, preaching, healing, and leading, which is responsibility for the other three.

The Instructions gather what Scripture commands, what it teaches by story, and what the apostles handed on. The Ministry puts that knowledge to use. Each of the four programs below takes a person through the Scriptures that form that work, asks for practice and not only reading, and ends by pointing two ways: into an office of the church, or into a field outside it where the same gift is needed.

There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, and the same Lord; and there are varieties of workings, but the same God, who works all things in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common benefit.
1 Corinthians 12:4–7

Not everyone who is formed for a work is called to hold an office. Joseph, Daniel and Nehemiah served God in the courts of foreign kings. Luke remained a physician. Priscilla and Aquila made tents. “Whatever you do, work from the soul, as for the Lord and not for human beings” (Colossians 3:23–24).

Which work is yours?

Read the four descriptions slowly. Most people recognize themselves in more than one, and that is as it should be: a pastor must teach, and a nurse must sometimes lead. Look for the one where the statements describe what you already do without being asked.

Teaching

Understanding handed on.

You explain things and people understand them.
You are not content until you know why.
You read, and you keep what you read.
You notice when someone has not followed, and you go back for them.
You would rather be corrected than be wrong.

The five modules: The disciple before the teacher · Knowing the text · How the Lord taught · In the house and in the assembly · The teacher’s account

Preaching

The word spoken to a gathered people.

You cannot keep good news to yourself.
You can say a thing plainly and briefly.
You are willing to be disliked for saying what is true.
A room does not frighten you, or it does and you speak anyway.
What you say in public you are in private.

The five modules: The message · The heralds before you · How the apostles preached · Preparing and delivering · The preacher’s life

Healing

The work done beside people.

People tell you what they have told no one.
You can stay in a room where someone is suffering.
You notice who is missing.
You are practical with your hands, or patient with your ears.
You do not need to be the one who fixed it.

The five modules: The Healer · The body · The mind · The spirit · The limits and the cost

Leading

Responsibility for the work of others.

When something is nobody’s job, you find yourself doing it.
People follow you without being told to.
You can decide, and you can wait.
You take blame more readily than credit.
You are able to hand work to others and let them do it their way.

The five modules: The pattern · Leaders made in hidden places · Justice and decision · Building and keeping a people · The hireling and the fall

Then test what you think. Ask three people who know you well which of the four they would have guessed, before you tell them your own answer. In Scripture a calling is recognized by others and not only felt: the church at Antioch set apart Barnabas and Saul, and Timothy’s gift was given with the laying on of the elders’ hands (Acts 13:1–3 · 1 Timothy 4:14).

How the programs work

Each program has five modules, taken in order and at your own pace. Most people will need some weeks for each.
Every module has four parts: Read (passages and study pages, linked to the Saints Translation), Learn by heart (one passage, quoted in full), Consider (three questions, to be answered in writing), and Practice (something to do, among real people).
Do the practice before you go on. The programs are built on the Lord’s own rule that the one who hears and does is the one who builds on rock.
Keep one notebook for the whole program. If you can, go through it with a companion, or under someone older in the faith who will read what you write.
Each program ends with Where it leads: the three roles of that work inside the church, and the fields outside it.

What these programs are, and are not

They are formation: of understanding, of habit, and of character, drawn from Scripture. They are not a qualification. They do not ordain, license or certify anyone, and completing one gives no standing in any church. Every church has its own requirements for its offices, and every profession outside the church has its own training, which these programs do not replace. This matters most in healing: nothing here prepares anyone to diagnose or treat illness of body or mind, and part of the healer’s formation is learning when to take a person to those who can.

They are also an editor’s work. The selection of readings, the questions and the practices are offered as a help and should be weighed, as everything on this site should, against the text itself.

The twelve roles

Each of the four works has three roles within the church, twelve in all, which this site reads against the twelve stones of the high priest’s breastpiece, the sons of Israel and the apostles. They are set out in full, with the warning that stands over all of them, on The Twelve Roles. Preaching: Pastor, Vicar, Minister. Teaching: Reverend, Deacon, Evangelist. Healing: Cleric, Chaplain, Prophet. Leading: Bishop, Priest, Apostle.

Saints Translation · The Ministry · four programs of formation, not qualifications; readings linked to the Saints Translation, passages quoted from it · working draft awaiting specialist review.