Church Training 101 Topics
4 P.M., every other Sunday. This offering is for those with commitment to or serious interest in Lamb of God. “Church Training” is all about preparing to launch. Think of it as boot camp for the church rather than the church planter.
This time is dedicated to learning how to be a church together as we grow. Topics range from things like learning the liturgy together to best practices for hospitality to newcomers and everything in between. It’s brass-tacks time! There will be a dedicated kids’ offering outside. Families are encouraged to bring snacks to share.
Before music styles, liturgy, or buildings, it’s critical we start with the way relate to one another. Because every member is a sinner being sanctified, conflict will come; the health of the church will rise or fall on how we handle it. Drawing on Matthew 18, the Peacemaker model, and real‑life stories, this talk lays out a counter‑cultural path of direct, humble, restorative conversation that protects unity and strengthens witness.
Jesus watches people give at the temple and singles out a poor widow who drops in two small coins—everything she has. From this scene this teaching draws five lessons on stewardship in the church.
Through the Petrine and Marian charisms, God blesses differing yet complementary roles in creation and in the body of Christ. The church can only be strengthened by recognizing such God-given roles. This talk draws primarily on theologian Barbara Gauthier and Fr. Gerald McDermott’s work entitled “Men and Women in Ministry.”
This Church Training 101 sessions explored why the organizational shape of a church is never a side issue. Using Ephesians 4 as a frame, the session walked through the classic Anglican (Episcopal) model - bishops, priests/presbyters, deacons, vestry, and laity - and showed how each layer is essential. Additionally, each layer of leadership is designed to protect, feed, and mature the body.
The Book of Common Prayer is a gift meant to return Scripture-saturated, shared worship to every member of Christ's body--from clergy to four-year-olds. These sessions walked through the heart of the 2019 edition: why it was created, how its daily offices keep us in the Bible and in prayer, how it shapes personal and family devotion, and simple ways to begin using it at home or in church without turning it into a burden. The goal is to help believers know what is in the book, why it is there, and how to use each part to the glory of God and for daily formation.
The evening gathered around three short passages that show God's nearness to human weakness, then moved to a teaching session on “Disability and Christianity” led by Don Pollard, Lay Catechist, committed Christian, and quadriplegic. Don argued that disability is not a side issue for a few but a reality every church must engage theologically, historically, and pastorally.
“The Eucharist is a journey...from the kingdom of death to the Kingdom of God. [Here] the extraordinary becomes manifest and communicated through the ordinary”
- In the Breaking of the Bread, Leander Harding
The story of the Emmaus Road in Luke 24 gives us a map by which to understand Holy Communion. It contains every part of the Eucharist and becomes a kind of template to Christian worship in the New Covenant. This instructed Eucharist training walks participants through all the major parts of Holy Communion, showing how the whole service fits together in the fullness of Word & Sacrament.
Here, Jeff and Misha Marlowe urge the church plant to think like missionaries: learn about people before trying to reach them. Drawing on 45 years of international work, they showed how understanding culture—especially the difference between high-context and low-context communication—helps us listen, welcome, and share the gospel with clarity and love. The session ended with practical “ethnographic” tools anyone can use this week to discover the real hopes, fears, and needs of neighbors in Covington and beyond.