Where do we find the leaders our churches need? Among us.
Every believer has been called to salvation and to ministry, but some have also been called to leadership.
We are unwavering in our conviction that Jesus is faithful to do everything He says, including giving the good gifts of leaders to His Church in each local setting.
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,” (Ephesians 4:11-12)
Let us be found faithful in issuing a call for those called to leadership roles to respond to Jesus’ calling upon their life.
To assist in this, Resound Network has developed the following resources to come alongside our churches in calling men and women to serve in various ministry leadership roles.
Resources
Use the below outlines as a guide to create a series suited to your church. Each of the outlines fit together but do not build on each other. Want to dive in deep and stretch the emphasis into more weeks? Great! Only have time to set aside one week? That’s fine too. Use as much or as little as you’d like.
- Week one (.pdf)
- Week two (.pdf)
- Week three (.pdf)
- Week four (.pdf)
View and download these printable prayer prompts and reflection questions to be used in conjunction with the sermon series.
- Week one (.pdf)
- Week two (.pdf)
- Week three (.pdf)
- Week four (.pdf)
- Title slide for projector screen – view and save
- Facebook cover photo – view and save
Contact us at resound@mobaptist.org to help you develop a custom leader training event in your area, or consider attending the conference below.
SENT Conference
with special guest JD Greear
September 30 & October 1
Hosted by the St. Louis Metro Association
at Missouri Baptist University
Learn more or register for free at stlmetro.org/sent-conference-24
Looking to develop leaders? Check out the Resounding Leaders branch of Resound Network and the Quick Start Guides we developed to help you discover potential leaders in your midst and equip them for ministry leadership.
Videos
FAQs
It is an emphasis month that has been set aside in response to a resolution passed at the MBC Annual meeting in 2023 to designate August as the Calling out the Called Month. The 5th “resolved” in that resolution states: Resolved, that we partner throughout Baptist life to raise awareness of the need to call out the called and to encourage and equip one another to discover, develop and deploy leaders.” See the full text of the resolution here.
Anyone! Men, women, young adults, teens. God calls people to serve in ministries that fit their giftings, and the church needs everyone. God does not call everyone to the same job or ministry, but he does indeed call every believer to service and some to specific areas of ministry. Our emphasis is on the roles of pastor, deacon, worship leadership, and women’s ministry.
It has become clear that we are facing a significant shortage in the number of qualified full-time, bi-vocational, and lay ministry leaders. The statistics are quite alarming. Currently over 200 MBC churches are without pastors, and many of them have been for a long time. In SBC life there are more churches searching for pastors than there are pastors searching for churches.
It is not only pastors though. Churches are struggling to find worship leaders, deacons, women’s ministry leaders, and more. The problem isn’t that God is not calling, the problem is we are not encouraging, instructing or creating opportunities for those whom God is calling to respond to that call.
We hope this emphasis month puts this in our hearts that God is calling, and that we must be asking those called to step out and follow.
That is perfectly ok. We have designated August as the emphasis month, and hope that as many churches as possible can join together. However, if your church cannot participate in August but is willing to help revive a culture of calling out the called by leading this emphasis in another month, please do.
To participate simply means you will make this an issue of emphasis in your church. We have resources for use, sermon outlines, videos, prayer prompts, and more, but you don’t have to use them. You can create those on your own if you prefer. We are simply encouraging every MBC church to make this a point of emphasis.
The short answer is no, however, if your church does participate we would love to hear from you. If you’re willing to tell us what you used and how things went, it would greatly help us in serving you and other churches as we work to make this a recurring event and renew a culture of calling out the called in Missouri.
You can contact us at resound@mobaptist.org, or fill out this form.
Other questions? Send us an email at resound@mobaptist.org.