“Are They Ready?”

Twenty five years ago, I served in the Army's 12th Special Forces Group. One day, I noticed a training poster in a building that I did not frequent. This poster looked to be from the Vietnam War; there was an African American soldier in olive drab utilities; he had a helmet and his M-16. The poster simply asked, "Is he ready?" Leaders have a moral responsibility to ensure that the souls in their care are properly prepared.

We need to stop fooling ourselves; most people hold to different doctrine than we do and they hold to their position because they are convinced for whatever reason that they are right. It is illogical to think that sober minded people would knowingly choose to hold to a false idea.

When we encourage our folks to share their faith with others; we need to make sure they are ready to give an answer for the hope that rests within them. Training is not the most enjoyable thing to do; there are lots of things that I find more fun. But, we are not doing our job as leaders in the church if we send out our folks and they aren't ready.

In fact, not only are we failing but we are placing our folks in a dangerous position where they may feel disheartened if they don't have confidence in their ability to give a good witness. On the other hand, it is a thrilling sight to see soldiers who have confidence and decent resources come up with solutions and see them through to completion. You know when you see a confident soldier, you can just tell.

Every week when I get together with House Church Planter candidates, we review one question from Luther's Small Catechism. It is always my encouragement that House Church Planters include time in their gathering for the group to discuss and reflect on one question from the Catechism. Why? Because in a healthy House Church you are going to have people who are coming with all sorts of different ideas regarding faith. The great thing about the Catechism is that it has over 1,000 quotes from Scripture in answer to 306 questions about the basics of the Christian faith. We also have the Book of Concord handy so that we can go deeper.

Leaders, by God's grace, let us answer, "Yes, they are ready." Amen?

Planter Training