Identifying and Grooming Sons and Daughters in Ministry

One day, a certain pastor was compelled to send out a very critical associate of his. This associate literally complained about everything and constantly lamented that he was not given opportunities to preach the Word of God.

After three months of being sent out to plant a branch and preach his own messages, he returned and confessed to his senior pastor, "I don't know how you did it over the years but I have gone through the Bible and my messages are finished. Please show me what to teach my members."

Bishop Matthew Addae-Mensah related this anecdote in teaching on "Identifying and Grooming Sons and Daughters in Ministry" at the May Clergy prayer meeting on Thursday, 24th May, 2018 at the Phenomenal Faith Cathedral. He encouraged the senior ministers present, "Send them out. They will make mistakes but direct them."

The man of God adumbrated five categories of sons in ministry:

# Ordinary son

# Son in faith

# Son of common faith

# Dearly beloved son

# Bad son

An ordinary son, as the word ordinary suggests, is just like any other (see 1 Timothy 1:18; Philemon 1:10; 2 Timothy 2:2).

A son in faith imitates the father, learns from him and follows him. He is eager to learn and asks questions, taking things seriously. (see 1 Timothy 1:2; Hebrews 6:12).

A son of common faith believes in the leader and honours him just as the ordinary member would. His faith in the leader is common.

A dearly beloved son shows up and attends to the father's needs even to his own inconvenience. He has interactions with the father and comes easily to the father when he has issues. When the dearly beloved son is around the father is glad (See 2 Timothy 1:2,4).

A bad son always makes a shipwreck of his faith. He does not follow instructions, he criticizes the father and does not listen (see 2 Timothy 4:14-16; Psalm 109:1-7).

Bishop rounded off by encouraging the clergy present to look for sons and daughters within the congregation and groom them, saying, "Look for sons and daughters and release them into the ministry. Give them opportunty." He warned, "Don't promote bad sons. Don't give them the microphone."

He also admonished the clergy to strive to elevate themselves from their current level to the next level of sonship. Ultimately, the best place to be is at the place of being a beloved son. The man of God pointed out, "It is your sons in ministry who understand your message whom you can send...It is sweet to have beloved children because they reduce the burden."

The meeting ended with prayers offered to become better sons and to raise sons.

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