ARIMA, Trinidad--From July 21 to 25 the church hall in Trinidad was the site of a ministerial conference on how ministers can more accurately conform to the model of an interdependent ministry that Pastor General Joseph Tkach has called for.
The conference was designed to further the church's goal of training lay leaders for a bi-vocational ministry.
With the need for the church in each country to live within its means, we are unable to hire full-time ministers in several Latin American and Caribbean countries.
This means we need to train and empower lay pastors, who have their own jobs but serve the church as well. This will take time, but the conference was a great step forward toward the day when we can credential lay pastors and bi-vocational pastors.
The conference was not only multinational, but also multicultural and multilingual. The 90-plus delegates and wives came from nine English-speaking countries, seven Spanish-speaking countries and three French-speaking countries.
The group was made up of nine full-time ministers and their wives, as well as local church elders, deacons and other lay leaders.
Conference speakers were Dan Rogers, superintendent of U.S. ministers; Ed Mauzey, dean of student affairs at Ambassador University; Charles Albrecht, business manager for Church Administration; and Charles Fleming, regional director.
Mr. Rogers gave an introduction to theology in which he presented a framework for understanding the history and development of theological thought over the past 2,000 years.
Mr. Mauzey provided instruction in basic counseling techniques and gave the delegates opportunities for hands-on experience.
Mr. Albrecht conducted sessions on small groups and, with Mr. Fleming, conducted sessions on spiritual gifts.
Mr. Fleming talked about the need for members to have an intimate personal relationship with Christ and gave pointers for developing an interdependent, team ministry.
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