Equipping all the saints: how to train your congregation
Most churches would love to be doing more training: rooting our congregations more deeply in God’s Word for discipleship, mission and leadership. And most congregations have people in them who would love to learn and receive more training. But most church leaders simply don’t have the capacity to do all or any of the training they would like to see taking place. This can easily result in inertia, where little or no training happens because the task is just overwhelming.
This four part course is for anyone who wants help to develop a vision, culture and plans for congregational training in their local churches, whether as a pastor, volunteer or staff member. Rooted in a biblical vision for learning as a gift from our Creator – who wants to be known – the four-session course will also walk you through principles, tools and practical tips. By the end of the course you’ll be ready to develop a realistic plan for building out a sustainable training programme that’s tailored for the needs and opportunities in your local church.
The four sessions will cover:
- How to identify your congregation’s training needs
- How to map and mobilise your training plan
- How to lead engaged learning communities
- How to evaluate the impact of your training
The seminar will be led by Jen Charteris who has over three decades of experience in designing and leading adult learning programmes, both in industry and in a variety of Christian ministry settings. Being married to a pastor and church planter, Jen has lived through the realities of every stage of church growth and loves working with leaders on finding the realistic approaches that work for churches of different sizes and stages.
Who is it for?
This course is for anyone involved in leading training: pastors, volunteers, staff members, elders or Foundation group moderators.
We encourage you to bring along your team (of elders or staff), and offer a discounted price for those sharing your screen on Zoom (see below).
What is involved?
A weekly online workshop, taking place over four Mondays. Either:
- a 1.5-hour session, 12:00 – 13:30 (GMT) OR
- a 1.5 hour session, 19:30 – 21:00 (GMT)
On these dates:
- Monday 28th September 2026
- Monday 5th October 2026
- Monday 12th October 2026
- Monday 19th October 2026
Cost: £40 for the entire course, plus £10 for every additional participant that shares your screen.
Further resources
The ‘trainer training’ course goes hand in hand with other useful resources that Crosslands has created to help local churches to be able to train their congregations:
Video: Every church can be a training church – Introducing the idea of a local church learning co-ordinator
Helpful resources – downloadable from the Crosslands website