A famous preacher was once asked why good spiritual leaders are important. He replied, ‘Because water cannot flow uphill’. He meant that the pastors and elders of a church must be spiritually in a higher place than the average church member because he will influence the whole life of the church. At NETS we take this very seriously, spending time with our students to encourage them to grow into leaders who are in close touch with God. But godliness alone does not make a good leader. Leaders need also to be gifted by God. It is hard to explain what makes someone a leader, but there is a definite gift for it which emerges when you are watching people in a group. Even then, spiritual gifts need to be developed and leaders need to grow in their understanding and skills. At NETS, this is what we seek to do.

The first step in spiritual leadership is to know that God is calling us. This comes mainly in two ways. First, God speaks to our own hearts and we become convinced that we must serve Him. The problem with this is that we can be mistaken, especially about something we find attractive or desirable. For this reason, God has provided a second test and it is absolutely essential. Our church must confirm our calling after very careful thought and prayer. Sometime, indeed, a church may identify God’s call before the individual does, and challenge that person to consider serving God. Our pastors play a vital role in all this because God has given them spiritual responsibility for the church, but the pastor cannot make this decision on his own. He may be in favour of someone for the wrong reasons – or against them! The best way is for the church leadership team to pray and discuss the person and make sure that totally unsuitable people get no further. But after that, the church meeting should discuss it and give its view. If the church agrees, they are called by God to give encouragement and support to a future leader. The church should make space for someone they believe God is calling. This should certainly include hearing them preach to the church it they believe God is calling them to ministry. All this, of course, is true especially when someone says he is called to become a pastor, but it is applicable to all leadership roles in the church.

The second step in spiritual leadership is to develop spiritually and socially in the local church. When I was leading churches in Britain, I would always be looking for young people with potential to serve God – perhaps because I began to preach when I was only fifteen years old. I began by preaching on the streets to people passing by, but then I was invited to preach in small churches. I thank God for the courage of church leaders who were willing to risk having me to preach to their congregations and I have continued to take risks ever since in order to find future leaders. When someone has God’s call in their lives they need to learn a number of basic lesson. The first and most important is HUMILITY. I have often asked young men who say they are called to preach to do simply things in the church – take the offering, read a lesson, pray in the service – clean the building – even clean the toilets! He who is faithful in little is faithful in much. The second lesson is to develop as a trustworthy friend to people in the church. The third is to handle responsibility. The fourth is to learn how to be spiritually used by God through being a channel of His Holy Spirit – we are nothing if we are not anointed by God, however talented we may be. The fifth is to grow in knowledge and understanding – this is different from wisdom. Wisdom is about judging people and situations well. Knowledge is about learning more and deeper things.

The third step in spiritual leadership is to study. Why is study important? First because the Bible is a deep book that takes a lifetime of faithful reading and research to understand. Second, because theology is like any other academic discipline, requiring careful and deep thought. Third, beause pastors need to feed their churches for the rest of their lives and this means learning how to be a skilful spiritual chef! In Britain, schools last all day and a meal is provided at midday. Every child ends up hating the food because it never changes! Preachers can be like that. They know how to produce good sermons on a few subjects, but eventually their churches know what they will say because they have head in many times before!

This is where NETS offers special help. We run two basic courses: an Arabic language BTh and our English-language BD. The BTh is not a British degree, but the BD is as good as any degree you can get in Britain and is equivalent to the American M.Div. We also offer a Master’s Degree in Theology that is British and we are planning a new MA in Ministry with an American university, which we hope can include writing essay papers in Arabic. When NETS began we did not realise how important the partnership between the college and the churches would prove to be and in the last few years we have worked hard to make NETS a good servant of the churches with a strong indigenous identity.

But just as important in the college as our academic programmes is our leadership training. We teach leadership in a truly excellent Certificate course devised especially for NETS and only taught here. We also teach basic skills for preaching, leading church meetings, leading worship, being a good pastor, etc. And we spend time with each student to talk about personal spirituality, God’s calling, how to use gifts, how to cope with church problems wisely – indeed, anything that troubles a church leader. Arab churches are much the same as churches all over the world in spiritual matters, because all churches face the same basic problems of discipling believers, dealing with difficult people, struggling with failure, handling growth well, etc. We at NETS bring to our work many years of successful ministry – in my case, I will be celebrating the fortieth anniversary of my ordination in 2011 and I can look back on the four churches I have pastored and say that I have learned how to handle both success and occasional failure. Students who come to us will learn how to be good ministers of Jesus Christ; will think deeply about Arab church life and what it means to be the Church of God here in Israel.

At NETS we want to serve the churches by standing with them as partners. We include in this denominational bodies in their role of examining people who offer to serve as pastors. Pleas pray for this partnership – that churches will take seriously their responsibility to identify and encourage new leaders, that denominational bodies will deal wisely with applicants, that we at NETS will be able to train people effectively for the work of the ministry.

If you believe God is calling you to serve Him, or would like to study at our seminary for any other reason, please contact us through our website: www.nazarethseminary.org.  Now is the time for you to be praying and talking to us about beginning your studies next year, but it is possible that we can include new students from January for some courses.

Revd Phil Hill,
Head of Ministerial Formation,
Nazareth Evangelical Theological Seminary.