Curriculum Materials

Pastor training begins with establishing a partnership with a denomination or large church. The leadership then identifies and empowers a Champion, who is often the first to understand and embrace the vision of CTN. CTN works with the Champion to develop a strategic plan to implement the training model among the denomination’s pastors. This Champion leads the adoption and implementation of CTN’s training program and bears the ultimate denominational responsibility for the success of the training. The Champion is directly supported by a National Training Team, which consists of approximately five team members and serves as in-country experts on CTN’s training material and methodology

The church faces two urgent questions: who will lead and how will the church be led? The answer to these two critical questions will come from rediscovering and applying the biblical plan for pastoral leadership. Pastoring the Flock of God is a course designed to fill in the gap with sound biblical answers for Christian pastors who accept the daunting and rewarding call of leading and caring for the flock of God. The global church today faces two urgent questions. Who will lead? How will the church be led? The answers to these two critical questions come from rediscovering and reapplying the biblical plan for a pastor’s call, character, and ministry competency. Pastoring the Flock of God provides sound biblical answers for Christian pastors who embrace the daunting and rewarding task of leading and caring for the flock of God. Pastoring the Flock of God is a step-by-step discovery of the time-tested pathway of servant leadership given by Jesus, our Chief Shepherd.

Pastoring the Flock of God empowers pastors to lead the church with confidence in God’s call, with personal integrity and with proven leadership principles. This reliable resource is unique because many books on church leadership are based on passing cultural trends or a methodology that only fits in a limited cultural context. Pastoring the Flock of God is a proven resource for all cultures and church denominations because it provides biblical principles and practical steps on leading the church with God’s vision, wisdom, and love.

Its purpose is to equip pastors to prepare and deliver sermons that are faithful to Scripture and relevant. Most of this course is designed to provide the knowledge and skills that are needed to preach well. However, preaching effectively involves more than just knowledge and skills. Preaching also requires attention to one’s relationship with God and the development of godly character. Although this course specifically focuses on preaching, many of the principles in the course can be applied to other situations when communicate the biblical message.

The 21^st century global church is growing at a pace unlike any other time in the 2000 years since Pentecost, but the worldwide church is threatened by the rise of highly polished false teachers and their seductive deceptions.  Slick purveyors preach the Prosperity Gospel, the Word of Faith movement, the New Apostolic Reformation or other “new revelations from God” accompanied by bogus prophesies and miracles. These are not isolated, regional phenomena but rather movements that have spread globally. Each of them, in their own way, creates a series of false expectations and hopes that distort God’s message and the experience of authentic spirituality. Defending the Flock of God examines false teaching and false teachers with a tone that is straightforward, humble, and full of the pain that comes from being deceived by spiritual counterfeiters.

The Bible instructs church leaders to identify false teaching and false manifestations so that they can distance themselves and the churches they serve from these destructive heresies. What does God expect from us who hold “to the faith once delivered to the saints?” (Jude 3). The answer is found in Titus 1:9. He “must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” Defending the Flock of God addresses this crisis with trusted research on false teachers and it defines four biblical tests that unmask false teaching and teachers.

The challenge to church leaders in every generation is to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). If the truths of our Christian faith are not articulated clearly and defended zealously by Christian leaders, then the flock of God will be immature, vulnerable to clever lies and unsettled in their faith.  Maturing the Flock of God is designed as an important resource for Christian leaders to deepen their understanding of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith so that they can instruct believers in God’s eternal truths. The intended result will be a healthy church, an informed church, a strong church, a missional church, and a church maturing toward the “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Churches and Christian leaders do not slide toward greater faithfulness. History shows that the tendency is to slide away from the truth. Sound doctrine must always be stated, defined, and defended in opposition to false doctrine. False doctrine always challenges sound doctrine for prominence. So, it is always top priority for the Church to review, recommit and revive the teaching of the basics of Christian theology. Maturing the Flock of God is a steppingstone on the path of that holy marathon.