Chatting with Herdo yesterday we were pondering what was needed to be an effective missionary, or to be a leader of an emerging missional church.

It seems the early church crew didn’t have much at all in the way of theological expertise, but had regular coaching and reflection time with Paul etc. Is theological training necessary?… No?… Maybe?…

We have often said that we are looking to create churches that are simple and reproducible yet the fact is that most of them are still led by people with theological degrees… As much as we may value the average punter we seem to be telling them by weight of numbers that leadership in these babies is for people who have done some hard yards with study.

But then again if we release people with little biblical understanding and a limited theoligcal framework what will the end result be. At our Forge meeting yesterday Mike Prince suggested that maybe the ability to think conceptually is more critical. Some people can do this easily, while others just want the concrete info.

I am still pondering this…

Do we need theologically trained leaders?
Do we just need people with a missionary heart who are willing to have a go?
Do we simply need people who can think conceptually and some of that involve theological / missiological / ecclesiological issues?