Learning to be an expert

I am wondering whether, or perhaps starting to realise that, I have no choice but to become an expert in certain areas if I am going to be a minister in Mitchell's Plain. I have a level of expertise in many areas - the classic jack of all trades and master of none - which is generally required of ministers, but this just isn't enough.

There are two distinct areas where I find this. They both start from the point that I make all sorts of assumptions about what should be obvious to the people around me. If I worked through something years ago, didn't everyone else? Why don't they know it? And thus my first struggle is to know my subject (whatever it might be) well enough to explain it from the basics in order to explain the need for change or to motivate doing something.

The second struggle is to know it well enough to teach it. I can start from some point above a basic level, but wow, getting back to basics is another story.

Some of you will have seen my struggling to make sense of 'mission' and 'projects' and how best the church can be involved with the community. Today I started thinking along lines of counselling which is a definite need and if practised may well identify other needs that the church could meet. Yes, this could be good. And it would be very beneficial to the churches if we had a number of trained lay counsellors. Ok, so where do we find training? At a price affordable by dwellers in the Plain? Not so easy to find.

I have done two very good Basic Counselling Courses and one university module. But I never intended to teach counselling. I don't have the experience to teach counselling. But I don't think I can keep putting things off because I don't have the skills. I just may have to learn to teach counselling (unless something turns up in my inbox . . . !)