Ministry Skills - May
The Goal
You pastor for the same reason that shepherds care for sheep. Not because it's easy, it isn't. You pastor because you value every member of your flock. You love your people and want them all to grow into spiritual maturity. Your love motivates you to be the best pastor possible. Talbot can help.
Our Ministry Skills specialty track will equip you to meet the challenges of pastoring in the 21st century. It will help you personally and professionally to lead your church to maturity in Christ. It will help you to be the pastor you want to be. To be an even better shepherd of God's flock.
The Strategy
Year One: Counseling (Wright, Johnson and Edwards)
Shepherds need to be able to help their sheep in times of trouble. This residency will teach you how. You will receive biblically based theories of pastoral care and hone critical counseling skills. Dr. Johnson will also explain how to transform a church into a healing environment. Dr. H. Norman Wright will show how to respond redemptively to individuals and families in the wake of crisis, loss and trauma.
Year Two: Preaching (Edwards)
Our communication age demands effective communicators. Under the leadership of Dr. Kent Edwards (faculty mentor) you will learn how to preach the Scriptures with greater accuracy and relevance. You will discover how to analyze your audience and adapt your communication for maximum impact. Special emphasis will be given during the second week on how to preach the narrative portions of Scripture.
Year Three: Leadership (Edwards)
God has always used human leaders to make significant advances for the Kingdom of God. He still does. During the first week of this residency you will learn the theory and theology of Christian leadership. During the second week you will apply what you have learned to the context of the local church. We will be traveling to several area churches to see effective leadership in action.
The Faculty Mentor
Dr. J. Kent Edwards is the Director of Talbot's Doctor of Ministry Program as well as the Professor of Preaching & Leadership at Talbot School of Theology.
Besides Directing the Doctor of Ministry program, Dr. Edwards is also the author of Effective First-Person Biblical Preaching (Zondervan). He brings 25 years of experience as a successful pastor and church-planter to the classroom. Dr. Edwards is Executive Secretary of ADME (the Association of Doctor of Ministry Education) and past president of the Evangelical Homiletics Society.
Additional Faculty
Dr. H. Normal Wright is a licensed Marriage, Family and Child Therapist. He was former director of the Graduate Department of Marriage, Family and Child Counseling at Biola University, as well as an associate professor of Christian Education. He has taught graduate school for over thirty years and was in private practice for over thiry years. He is the author of over sixty books including Quiet Times for Couples and Crisis Counseling and conducts seminars such as Recovering from the Losses of Life and Marriage Enrichment.
Dr. Rex Johnson founded and for 10 years directed Ministry Associates, Inc.,
a counseling ministry. He is actively involved in curriculum development and teacher training ministries in the former Soviet Union countries, Africa, and the Pacific Rim. He conducts marriage and family workshops and ministries. Besides contributing to many Christian magazines, journals, and texts, Dr. Johnson has published several books, including Communication: Key to Your Parents and At Home with Sex. Dr. Johnson also co-authored Building Positive Parent-Teen Relationships; Communication: Key to your Teens; Characteristics of a Caring Home; Life at the Crossroads; and Foundations of Christian Ethics.