To my fellow gospel ministers:

If you had 13 weeks to train a young man for ministry (knowing he will get more training later) what things would you be sure to cover? And what resources would you use?

It is all in my head and heart somewhere...I am having difficulty mapping it out and making it organized. I would hate the first 3 weeks being spent on me trying to figure out where we are going.

Here is what I have so far. I am wanting to sum it up as best I can. I have found five broad categories of ministry. Lead. Plead. Read. Bleed. And for lack of a better rhyming term...Breed. I want to teach a few principles of leadership--mostly that we are called to be a servant (Mt. 20:20-28). Here is a list so far:

Lead with gentleness (1 Pet. 3:16)
Lead with courage (Joshua 1)
Lead with humility (Phil. 2:3, 1 Pet. 5:5)
Lead with your life, authenticity (1 Thess. 2:8, 2 Tim. 3:10-11)
Lead with holiness, example (2 Tim. 2:22-26)
Lead with labor, suffering (2 Tim. 2:3)
Lead with passion, fervency (1 Pet. 5:1-5)
Lead with appropriate patience (1 Thess. 5:14)

There needs to be some teaching about where leadership comes from; this will probably be covered in our discussion of Matthew 20.

What would you add? What resources would you use? How would you teach these things? Obviously modeling them in my own life. How would you put this young man in situations where these graces would be brought out and cultivated?

Later I will discuss--Plead, Read, Bleed, and....Oh, I really need another name for this...Breed.

UPDATE: I think I have figured out how to avoid the word "breed" as a category. The concept of reproducing can fall under a category in leadership. One of the categories will now be "lead to be replaced".

With the infrequency that I have been able to blog, perhaps I should change the title to "This Week" in Blogworld instead of "Today".

Josh Harris has an excellent article on mentoring. He has experienced first hand the impact of mentoring. (CJ Mahaney mentored Josh). It would be my prayer that young men might be humble enough to pursue older men, and that older men might be confident enough in the gospel to mentor them.

Tim Challies urges us to Draw Out the Infection of sin through accountability partners. It is always difficult for younger pastors in smaller settings to find accountability partners, but this has motivated me to pursue it even further.

Dr. Galyon gives us Packer's 4th and 5th points on Calvinism.

Last week I linked to several articles on Mahaney interviewing Sinclair Ferguson. Go here and see it all.

Which one of these seven counterfeit gospels have you bit into?

Great question, great advice. Piper considers whether a pastor can preach what he does not feel.

One of my favorite sites the Reformed Mafia appears to be shutting down. Apparently the name "Mafia" has gotten a few people in trouble. This is no joke. I thought it was at first, until I tried accessing the site. I will let you know when something similar is up and running.

I almost made it without linking to a C. Michael Patton article. But this one, on Grace-Centered-Theology and Rewards, can not be passed up.

This is why I do not drink beer:
(HT: The Thinklings)