Introducing Metro The purpose of Metro is to glorify the one true God who has revealed himself in his Son Jesus Christ by training others to make him known, who then train others to do the same.

ministry

• Metro is about ministry training, specifically geared for the local church context.
• it promotes an evangelistic ministry model as standard for local church ministry.
• it recognises that developing evangelistic ministries is not the primary task of theological colleges, and so needs to be developed prior to college.
• Metro therefore, is pre-theological college training that aims to engender a philosophy of evangelistic ministry within a potential ministry candidate.

equipping

• Metro is geared not simply towards developing evangelistic ministers but developing evangelistic ministries and evangelistic churches.
• it focuses therefore, on the key role of ministers as equippers (see Eph 4:11-12), preparing the whole church for works of service.
• it recognises that, fundamentally, healthy churches are evangelising churches: the bigger picture of evangelistic training is training across the entire life and ministries of the church.

training

• Metro recognises that this evangelistic, equipping model of ministry is best learnt through the apprenticeship of one-to-one training (see 2 Timothy 2:2).
• in the context of one-to-one training, the whole person is trained — this can be thought of as three strands: (i) personal godliness; (ii) theological reflection (iii) ministry skills.
• Metro benefits not only the trainee, but strengthens the training culture for
  • the trainer, through an intensive training experience.
  • the local church, as the trainee becomes a focal point for developing a training culture.
  • the Presbytery, as neighbouring churches are spurred on to be involved in Metro and its benefits.
  • the denomination, through the calibre and experience of ministry candidates.

recruiting

• Metro provides a pathway for people considering training at theological college to take steps in that direction.
• by profiling and building such training into the local church context, Metro trainees, in turn, become examples for (and trainers of) others heading down such a training pathway.

organisation

• Metro recognises the need for one-to-one training to be facilitated through resources such as funding and a training curriculum.
• it also recognises the need for one-to-one training to be networked with other trainers and trainees, and supported through coaching provided by experienced trainers.

METRO makes extensive use of the MINISTRY PAPERS training resource. Working through the two introductory papers: ‘the ministry training church’ and ’meeting one to one’ will help fill out the picture outlined above. The MINISTRY PAPERS are available through CENC or at www.ministrycentre.org.au.