Finding more leaders for our ministries and churches is a common goal. Yet, there is a common problem of not seeing that they are right in front of our eyes.
Unfounded Complaints
This is the situation in numerous churches all around the globe. The complaint is that hardly anyone is qualified or ready to lead as elders or ministry leaders in the church. Larger ministry organizations make similar complaints. There are not enough leaders with the experience to move into higher levels of leadership.
Those at fault are the senior leaders themselves. Either they haven’t developed the leaders they need, or they have unrealistic expectations for those who might join in the leadership. It is a lack of leadership to complain about a lack of leaders.
The future leaders will always be the younger leaders. And emerging leaders need to identified, valued, developed, trusted and given real leadership. They need to be invited to the table.
Unfair Despising
It is because many of them are too young, we think. They don’t know as much as we know. They don’t have the experience we have. They don’t understand the organizational history we understand. The list of deficiencies can go on and on, and sadly it actually does in some churches and ministries.
This is unfair. And besides, this is actually a positive list, not a negative one, if a church or ministry is looking to the future for greater and growing Kingdom impact. Those who are overly conservative in sharing leadership will find that they are primarily working with their close friends and are given more to cronyism than they perhaps realize.
We often forget that Timothy was only about 30 years of age when he led the Ephesus church and its church planting mission to the interior of Asia. The Apostle Paul instructed Timothy, and by extension those older than he, on this matter.
Unfounded Complaints
This is the situation in numerous churches all around the globe. The complaint is that hardly anyone is qualified or ready to lead as elders or ministry leaders in the church. Larger ministry organizations make similar complaints. There are not enough leaders with the experience to move into higher levels of leadership.
Those at fault are the senior leaders themselves. Either they haven’t developed the leaders they need, or they have unrealistic expectations for those who might join in the leadership. It is a lack of leadership to complain about a lack of leaders.
The future leaders will always be the younger leaders. And emerging leaders need to identified, valued, developed, trusted and given real leadership. They need to be invited to the table.
Unfair Despising
It is because many of them are too young, we think. They don’t know as much as we know. They don’t have the experience we have. They don’t understand the organizational history we understand. The list of deficiencies can go on and on, and sadly it actually does in some churches and ministries.
This is unfair. And besides, this is actually a positive list, not a negative one, if a church or ministry is looking to the future for greater and growing Kingdom impact. Those who are overly conservative in sharing leadership will find that they are primarily working with their close friends and are given more to cronyism than they perhaps realize.
We often forget that Timothy was only about 30 years of age when he led the Ephesus church and its church planting mission to the interior of Asia. The Apostle Paul instructed Timothy, and by extension those older than he, on this matter.
1 Timothy 4:12 ESV “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”There is little to fear and a whole lot to be gained by entrusting leadership to others. Who might you be overlooking as having great potential for the Kingdom of God, for your church or ministry? What do you think about inviting them to the leadership table?
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