Eldership and Training

We hire local Veterinarians to cover some of our shifts at Tejas Veterinary Clinic. More than one of them has told us that we have the best trained non-veterinary staff in the whole city. That’s what they say. It didn’t happed by accident.

Early on we recognized that staff can do a lot of what our Veterinarians were doing. Things like placing IV catheters, taking radiographs, handling and monitoring anesthesia, giving injections, performing dentals all under the direct supervision of a Veterinarian. That allowed our Veterinarians to focus on examinations, diagnosis and prescribing.

Initially the training wasn’t going very well. A technician might say something like. Dr Perkins I can’t get this IV catheter in can you please do it for me? and I would oblige.

Eventually we would just say… no… keep trying until you figure it out. And they did. You see… you don’t have to have a college degree to place an IV catheter. Now they have skills and confidence and pride and attitude.

As Christians we have a hard time saying “no”. After-all Jesus said if someone asks of you to give to them… even give them twice as much as they are asking. But I would point out even Jesus would upon occasion tell his disciples “no”.

Here’s a learning point… you have to train the congregation to serve in our public worship. You can’t just let the preacher and a select few handle everything.

Here are a few things that are detrimental to training men to serve.

-letting the paid preacher handle all the Bible classes and preaching because after-all that’s what we pay him for right? I heard a preacher say one time that he had no men in the congregation who could teach an adult class or preach. That’s not the case at Parkway we have several men who are well equipped to handle those duties.

- Not having Sunday night services. On Sunday nights (and Wednesdays) you can use and develop members who are not quite ready for prime time (Sunday mornings). They will get better but need training and opportunity and experience.

- COVID brought some good things but also some bad things. The good thing was live streaming services for those who are unable to attend. The bad thing? Not passing out communion trays but continuing to let members serve themselves with pre-packaged bread and juice. It’s bad because you can’t use your inexperienced members (freshly baptized young people) to gain the experience of standing in front of the congregation (over coming stage fright) and learning to lead a prayer, etc. at the table.

- We have Wednesday night singing once a month and let the young boys lead songs. We’ve had more than one member say in the past that only baptized believers should be participating in those services. How short sighted. For one reason our Wednesday night services are not a God ordained Sunday worship service. They are a time for us to get together extracurricularly. An opportunity for fellowship and study. For another reason these young boys are pure in the sight of God and haven’t reached the so called age of accountability. We are training them for the day when they become baptized believers and can help build us.

Wise leaders understand the importance of identifying talent, developing skills and providing opportunities so that our members can be recognized for their superb abilities and perhaps as being the best in their service to God.

Leaders don’t be afraid to say "no" and don't necessarily take “no” for an answer. Use your smarts and figure out a way to make it happen.