How to make training available for all church members

Dear Editor,

An en reader wrote recently: “I’m interested to know why there is very little training of Christians in general,” (en letters, March 2025). Great question! It hasn’t always been thus; in the church’s history there have been times when intensive training for all believers – not just for pastors and leaders – has been a high priority. Knowing God is an eternal and joyful task, and being learners and lovers of God is core to our identity as His people.

But it can be hard for busy pastors to get around to working out who needs what training, let alone finding the resources, doing the prep and running courses. So here are two suggestions for ways to make training possible for all disciples, whether your church is large or small:

1. Identify someone in your congregation who could be a training co-ordinator.
   Many churches have someone co-ordinating pastoral care, or kids and youth ministry, or home groups. What about someone to coordinate training? Someone who could put in the time to build up a picture of who wants and needs what training, and find out what training resources are available. Someone who could work with the elders to create a schedule of congregational training activities and ways for people to sign up for them. Someone who can bring focus and momentum to training all year round
2. Use a ‘flipped classroom’ model for training.
   That involves finding accessible resources (like a book that a group can read together, or inexpensive online courses like the Crosslands Foundation ones), set out a schedule for people to work through the material over a term or so, and hold a few in-person discussion sessions along the way to help people to clarify and apply what they’ve been learning. Less preparation, but deeper learning.

I’m happy to acknowledge that I have skin in this game, because training in and for the local church is why Crosslands exists. We’d love to share with your readers some of the resources that we’ve created for the very purpose of equipping regular Christians for everyday mission and ministry, whoever and wherever they are.

Yours sincerely,
Jen Charteris Executive Director, Crosslands hello@crosslands.training