*Disclaimer! This definitely falls under the category of church planting. If you read my blog for pithy comments, insightful devotions, or my family’s journey – well, this may bore you completely. You’ve been warned.
The Call
Church planting is hard. I read a post from a fellow church planter recently who said church planting was easy – pastoring was hard. I understand the sentiment, but the issue is that the two are inseparable.
Unlike the difference between the wedding and the marriage, church planting has no definitive end in sight. I’m not sure when you are done “planting”.
The Challenge
The primary reason for this is that the most common challenge church planters face is the need for additional leaders. In the majority of cases, every leader involved in a new work is responsible for 3 or 4 areas – and none of them may be their area of gifting! There always seems to be more work to be done than there are people to do it.
Many church planters (myself included at times) often cry out, ‘if I only had more leaders, I could _________!’
Wake Up Call
The truth is, you probably couldn’t _________. That’s because leaders aren’t born. They’re grown!
I was reminded today that Jesus had a peculiar way of doing ministry and equipping leaders. There’s an old saying: God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Repeatedly in Scripture we see examples of God taking the most unlikely candidates and using them for His glory and purpose.
True Discipleship
I sat in a meeting this morning where I heard David Putman from PlantingTheGospel.com share this: ‘When Jesus sees the least, the lost, and the lonely, he sees people beaming with potential.’
In other words, rather than focusing on your situation and the lack of resources, why not take the approach of Jesus and focus on the people God has placed in your care and the potential that lies within?
Discipleship isn’t about taking a full grown plant from one garden and transplanting it to yours. It’s more about taking a freshly planted seed, planted in new & fertile soil, and making sure it grows into the healthy plant it should be.
Healthy things grow.
As leaders, we don’t have to manufacture something that doesn’t exist. We don’t have that power. We are only to harness the God-given power already at work within the disciple and steer that in the direction God intends for it to go.
It’s slower than your plug and play leadership team idea.
It’s messier than the neatness of titles and job descriptions.
It hurts more because you fail more and learn as you go.
It’s harder to help people move from where they are to where God wants them to be.
But that’s the job.
That’s discipleship.
And it’s our sole mission.
*Question: I have not arrived in this area and am still learning this principle. How about you? What has your experience been with developing leaders from within?
