A number of churches are using mentoring as a means of discipling and training, with ministers and more experienced elders and deacons entering into a mentoring relationship with less experienced elders and deacons. Many churches have found the use of periodic retreats for orientation, education, and fellowship to be helpful in building effective consistories. Many churches report renewal in the life and ministry of churches through inclusion in the regular agenda of significant portions of time dedicated to prayer, Bible study, and sharing. This comes to be seen as equal in importance to the business to be done. Learning from One Another.
People learn from one another.
The Spirit still speaks to the churches and through the churches. While particular models may not be directly transferable to a different setting, they do serve to open up the possibility of alternative and more effective approaches to mission and ministry. One church reported that after an article appeared in the Church Herald describing their restructuring of consistory, they received dozens of requests for details. Pastors, churches, and consistories are looking, sometimes almost desperately, for training opportunities for elders and deacons. More than one pastor reported that the first two years of the term of a new elder or deacon was spent learning what the office was about.