Synchroblog : Give someone else a turn!
One of the largely undervalued aspects of leadership in churches, is the need to train others. When we look at Jesus’ leadership model we notice he regularly gave leadership roles to the seemingly unqualified.
In Luke 10:9 we see Jesus sending out the seventy to announce, “the Kingdom of God is near you.” Previously when the twelve were sent out they were “to preach the kingdom of God” which is interesting because when we look at Acts 1:6, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” It shows the disciples were still thinking of a physical kingdom and did not really understand the true nature of God’s kingdom even though they had been preaching about it.
Furthermore would we have chosen uneducated fishermen, quick tempered brothers and a dodgy tax collector to be the leaders of the church? It seems Jesus regularly appointed people to positions who we would consider incompetent. Remember Jesus also had the disciples, including Judas, healing the sick and casting out demons. Unfortunately in churches we tend to wait until someone is mature and their ability is fully developed. Or perhaps our reasons are more selfish. Are we afraid we will miss out on opportunities of using our gifts and abilities if we encourage others?
Sometimes Christians, who should know their worth is in being God’s children, seem to find their worth in their performance. They refuse others the chance of being involved because they don’t want to step aside. They may justify themselves by saying others are inept or unreliable when all they really are, is inexperienced. This would soon be rectified if they were given some opportunities. I’ve heard people commenting with pride that they have been playing the piano, or printing the newsletter, or handing our song books, or whatever, at their church for 10…20…25 years. I feel like saying, “How sad that you couldn’t find anyone to train.”
We need to stop clinging to our area of ministry and start looking for someone who needs an opportunity, particularly a young person. Young people often leave the church out of boredom. They were never asked to make any meaningful contribution and consequently never felt like they belonged. I’ve seen 14 year-olds lead worship, play the piano, teach Sunday school, and pray in public. They may not do it as well and their efforts may not be as polished but often they do it with a great heart. And isn’t heart attitude more important than performance?
Maybe our real fear is that someone will do it better than us, or differently, and we may never get asked again. Regardless of our reluctance, others need the chance to test their abilities, stretch their faith and discover which area of service God wants them in. We also need to bear in mind that Jesus was a whole lot less worried about failure than we are. At Jesus’ arrest when Peter cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Jesus touched him, and healed him (Luke 22:51). Jesus still has the power to fix and heal the mistakes we make.
So it’s time to give someone else a turn!
This post is part of a synchroblog on the topic of “Leadership”. You can see the posts from the other synchrobloggers by clicking on the links below:
Jonathan Brink – Letter To The President
Adam Gonnerman – Aspiring to the Episcopate
Kai – Leadership – Is Servant Leadership a Broken Model?
Sally Coleman – In the world but not of it- servant leadership for the 21st Century Church
Alan Knox – Submission is given not taken
Joe Miller – Elders Lead a Healthy Family: The Future
Cobus van Wyngaard – Empowering leadership
Steve Hayes – Servant leadership
Geoff Matheson – Leadership
John Smulo – Australian Leadership Lessons
Helen Mildenhall – Leadership
Tyler Savage – Moral Leadership – Is it what we need?
Bryan Riley – Leading is to Listen and Obey
Liz Dyer – A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Polls…
Bill Ellis – Leadership and the Re-humanizing of the World
Ellen Haroutunian – A New Kind of Leadership
Matt Stone – Converting Leadership
Julie Clawson – Leadership Expectations
Kathy Escobar – I’m pretty sure this leadership book won’t make it on the bestseller list
Bethany Stedman – A Leadership Mosaic
Sonja Andrews – Leadership In An Age of Cholera
Lionel Woods – Why Diverse Leadership is Good for America
Steve Bradley – Lording or Leading?
Adam Myers – Two types of Leadership
Fuzzy Orthodoxy – Self Leadership
Tara Hull – Leadership & Being A Single Mom
Joe Speranzella – Leadership: This Election and Social Justice
Beth Patterson – Leadership: being the river
8 thoughts on “Synchroblog : Give someone else a turn!”
great thoughts. I think you are really right that we don’t often give people a chance to learn leadership – it seems to me that leadership is most often learned in the trenches, amidst failure by trail and error – but if we don’t let those who are inexperienced try and maybe even fail then they may never have the chance to become the leaders they have potential to be.
“It seems Jesus regularly appointed people to positions who we would consider incompetent.” Yeah, but we’re smarter and more educated than Jesus now. 🙂
Susan, I think you’ve got it!
One of the things that really impressed me about the fellowship I now attend is in a Sunday service the pastor asked for the congregation to pray for certain people who were there. I began to watch what would happen and the first person to make a move to pray for one of the needy people was a 11 year old boy who went to the person, who was an adult, laid his hand on his shoulder and prayed for him.
I’ve sense gotten to know that family and am now not surprised at the way they honor God.
Very good post.
Generational Leadership (passing on our life to the next generation) is so important to the life of the church!
I agree. I think it’s human nature to want to feel valued and that we are good at something…which leads to not wanting to step away from something we are doing well. I wish it weren’t the case…even Jesus stepped aside to allow the Holy Spirit to come…so it’s something we could learn.
susan, i am so with you!!! i’d love to see more and more and more and more people encouraged to step up and in to whatever they can and this requires leaders moving aside and encouraging this in more ways than one. thanks for your thoughts!
Thanks everyone for your comments.
I’ve had a busy couple of days but hope to read more “leadership” posts over the next few days.
This is definitely something that needs to be a focus. We receive spiritual gifts to edify and disciple and train. Paul constantly wrote about how the older need to teach the younger. In our culture we seem to be so busy that there is little training going on – except that which comes by fire and experience. I really appreciate what you’ve written here – it adds a lot to the synchroblog.