Leadership by Influence, Not Merely by Position
Leadership Training Students discover and learn through the study and meditation on God’s Word, daily experience and in community, the dynamic of leadership through servanthood; learning to think through “why we believe what we believe;” and learning to know Christ in the power of His indwelling resurrection Life.
The Leadership Training Programme is tailored to train men and women in the Word of God and the Ways of God.
This programme is specifically for those students who have successfully completed a first full year at a Torchbearer Bible School (minimum 25 weeks), with priority given to those who have attended Capernwray Harbour.
Spiritual leaders, like disciples, have to be “made”; they are not “born”.
When Jesus, the master trainer, took three full years to make His leaders (not entirely successfully from a human point of view), we can hardly expect to do the job ourselves in a shorter time! Nor will a “course of lectures” on Christian Leadership be any substitute for imitating the way in which Jesus shared His Life with the twelve, guiding them, correcting them, encouraging them, forgiving them and praying for them.
What do we work and pray for in order to shape disciples into leaders?
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01. A Christian leader must have the spirit of service! A ruler tells the people what to do. The leader shows people through his actions and personal example! (Paul said to the Philippians, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do…”)
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02. A Christian leader must possess spiritual authority. The evidence of this has nothing to do with status but with obedience to God and being filled with His Spirit. (I.e. the seven helpers in Acts 6 – chosen by the congregation and appointed by the elders, were marked out as having been observed as being of good reputation, full of the Spirit and full of wisdom! The “mark of God’s fullness” was an obvious characteristic in their daily service, no question about their authority!)
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03. A Christian leader is marked as one who has resolved “willingness to exercise discipline” although always done with a great degree of gentleness.
In this world which so worships at the shrine of greatness, where bigger is better, to have a higher profile, get more attention and give more impression …all just the norm: we truly need to rediscover Christ Himself as Life. There is no bigger and it doesn’t get any better!
Teaching and instruction is given by guest lecturers as well as resident staff with added personal study and assignments which are often reviewed together with discussion.
With a tutorial approach, the small group context is ideal for group interaction in deeper and practical training in the Christian Life, learning “why we believe what we believe”.
Understanding the life of Jesus Christ as He spent time not “just by schedule” but in “rubbing shoulders” with those entrusted to His training as being critical to the training of the twelve disciples.
For the Lord Jesus, there was no “work time” and “off time.” He was at His Heavenly Father’s disposal to pass on to the disciples what had been given Him to pass on! That was anything but a 9 – 5 job. The Lord Jesus let His disciples see and hear almost everything He was doing and saying according to the Father’s instructions and through His Father’s empowering. They needed to learn to “live” not just “get information.”
This is what Leadership Training Students can expect at Capernwray Harbour Bible Centre.
Genuine spiritual empowering which comes through Christ’s indwelling, resurrection Life, not through designated responsibility, scholarship, methods or formulas.
