Within Mars Hill Church, we train all types of leaders – group leaders, deacons, elders, etc. – to encourage people in their discipleship and build up the church body. But we also steward a significant portion of our energy and resources to training leaders in other churches so they are able and equipped to disciple and build up their respective church bodies, and we do this through The Resurgence. Here, Pastor/Dr. Justin Holcomb, who directs The Resurgence, explains why this is what we do.

Who

We have a large definition of a leader is. We don’t mean just the "leaders or leaders." We want to be involved in training Christians in the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12). That means children, teens, students, moms, dads, Community Group and Redemption Group leaders, worship leaders, volunteer biblical counselors, deacons, and elders. Ministry is not just to be performed by the church’s pastors or staff. They are there to minister and to equip all believers for ministry. We want every Christian to have an awareness that they are participating in God’s mission.

Why

We train leaders because through Christ God reconciled us to himself and then he gave and entrusted the ministry and message of reconciliation to us (2 Cor 5:18-19). We are the recipients of the Good News, and God invites us to proclaim this same good news to others. This is a huge privilege for every believer that he would call us, who used to be his enemies, not only friends but also his ambassadors to the world. The Bible says God is making his appeal to the world through us. So, you need to be equipped to proclaim the Good news of Jesus and make disciples. What and how we train the leaders and more, after the jump:

What

Training includes five main areas that are at the same time theological and practical:

1. God: biblical and theological studies
2. Family: marriage and parenting
3. Mission: worship, church planting, counseling, community, and apologetics
4. Health: mental, physical, and emotional
5. Wisdom: planning, coaching, finances

How

We provide a wide scope of options and tools for training. The Resurgence blog is the largest Christian leadership blog in the world that offers articles as well as audio and video teachings and interviews. We also publish a half dozen books each year and host conferences around the country. Numerous teaching options are also available, from seminars and classes to apprenticeship training and coaching to leadership programs and a masters level program held for leaders from around the world.

Head, Heart, and Hands

When God saves us, he makes us new. This means new lives, desires, motivations, thinking, and action. Training should incorporate all of these. We firmly believe that what our heart loves our minds will ponder and our wills will pursue. Unless training gets to the heart level, it fails. Lots of training is exclusively for either practical training or filling people’s heads with information. Real change begins with our desires, so we concentrate on heart-level issues like worship and idolatry, love and hate, Gospel and slavery. Knowledge and wisdom are essential components to every leaders training: biblical knowledge, theology, church history, apologetics, ecclesiology, and the like. While knowledge with our zeal is abstract, zeal without knowledge is dangerous. What good is passion and knowledge without action? Philippians 2:13 says that God works in us to will and to do his good pleasure. We believe that leaders need to have repentant hearts and solid theology so that they can do the work God has called them to. Leaders need to be trained in a way that leads our knowledge and passion into effective action.