A Strategic Priority
One of our strategic priorities across the Pioneer Network is to raise up leaders to shape our society. We know that God’s plan for his church depends on all of his children being thoroughly equipped for ministry. We’re all called to partner with him for the transformation of our world. This is about plumbers and engineers, parents and carers, teachers and healthcare professionals, accountants, call-centre workers, retirees… and everyone else you can think of! It’s about all of God’s people knowing who they are and making a difference where they are. It’s an amazing and, frankly, audacious plan but Christ in us really is the hope of glory!
So, we’re committed to equipping every member of the church for ministry and service. We know that most of our impact on our society will be made by those without any formal leadership role in the church. But in order to achieve this goal, the plain reality is that we’re going to need to keep on raising up new church leaders. We need new leaders for some of our existing churches and we need leaders for the new churches that God is calling us to plant. These are the people who will help us to embrace our identity and mission and keep us focussed on the task. These are the people who will train us and equip us for the ministry God has given us. So we really must invest into equipping them for theirs.
Pioneer Training
We’re working hard to develop our training opportunities across Pioneer. As a first step, we’re encouraging every Pioneer church to consider running an Ignite course. It’s a brilliant way to get people more engaged in the life of the church and to help them understand their identity. For most, it will convince them that God can use them in their everyday world. For others, it might just help them to realise that God is in fact calling them to leadership within the church.
Beyond that, we want to encourage existing church leadership teams to send potential church leaders onto our Pioneer CORE and Pioneer PATHWAY training programmes. We realise that in most cases this will require a financial investment on the part of the church. But these are two great ways that we can be part of securing the future leadership of our churches.
If you’d like to talk more about any of the Pioneer training opportunities you can contact Richard Anniss by emailing richard@pioneer.org.uk