Pillars Begins Today

Peter —  February 12, 2011

For the last two days I have been helping the Cor Deo participants move in to their place here in Chippenham.  That has gone really well and I can’t wait to get started on Cor Deo on Tuesday.  But for now, I have to switch gears for 24 hours.  Today is the first day of Pillars.

In 2009 I went to Hungary with a group of 20 “younger leaders” from Brethren-connected churches across the UK.  Out of the discussions we shared then came the concept of Pillars – an accessible training programme to strengthen our churches by strengthening people in the churches.  The design includes 9 study days over three years, along with pre and post-study day reading and assignments, as well as a mentoring component.  We hope that this approach to making training accessible will prove helpful to those in our assemblies that can’t go for traditional training because of mortgage, marriage, career, etc.  We have a good team leading this initiative, including Stephen McQuoid as national coordinator.  I am the programme coordinator.  Today the two of us, plus Roger Chilvers, are teaching at the first study day.

We are encouraged to have over thirty signed up for this first day.  Please pray that it will be well received and that it can grow.  We want to see our churches strengthened in their key infrastructure – the people.  People of substance who can be the kind of pillars upon which the local church is built.  As well as launching this programme in the South West, we are looking to offer the programme in another region of the country too.  Hopefully, if the programme proves to be successful, it would be great to have these programmes running in several regions.  More importantly, we would love to see people growing in their knowledge of the Word, reflecting theologically for the sake of their church, and equipped to serve in all the ways needed for the local church movement to thrive.

Thanks for praying for Pillars!

If you’d like to see more, please check out the Pillars website at www.pillars-training.org