How to develop new leaders – part 2

 

In the last blog I shared with you some of the things I learned from reading a book called T4T – a Discipleship Re-revolution, by Steve Smith and Ying Kai.  In that blog I talked about how vital it is to develop new leaders in order for movements to continue long after you graduate.  We looked at how Jesus developed His leaders as a great model for leadership development. This week I want to continue to share the insights I gained from the chapter on Developing New Leaders.

What can we learn from how Jesus discerned the right people and how He developed them?

• Give new disciples small assignments and see who is faithful, then increase the level of responsibility you are asking them to take on and watch to see if they follow through (Matt.25:21).

Ease them into responsibility.

Remember, in the beginning you are not expecting new leaders to take on full responsibility for leading the ministry, you are just trying to see who is able to fulfill the responsibility given in smaller tasks.  You are looking for those who will obey the Word, who will begin to witness, who are starting follow up new believers or is helping other believers to grow in their relationship with God as well.

• As people prove faithful, give them more time and attention as they are fulfilling responsibilities in ministry.  The best leaders are developed ‘on the job.’

A common leadership mistake we make is by spending 90% of our time with the 10% who are the least responsive.  We try to help move along those who are not willing to move or who aren’t ready to move at the current moment.  And we ignore those who are envisioned to the ministry, are faithful and ready to step up to the plate to serve.

These developing-leaders need more of your time because they are taking on increased responsibilities and the problems that accompany them.  They need to be developed in the midst of fulfilling the tasks of ministry. 

• An important point:  God often chooses those who seem to be unlikely leadership prospects because He sees that these persons long for Him and are teachable (1 Sam.22:2, 1 Chr.11:10ff).

Developing leaders happens best in the context of ministry.

• Believers mature more rapidly when they are given responsibilities for service immediately.
• Leaders are developed in the midst of proving themselves in ministry.

When we talk about developing leaders for student ministries or movements, we are not talking about developing a church leader. 

• What student leaders need and what their responsibilities call for are not the same as for someone leading in the church. 
• You are simply looking for the most basic qualifications for spiritual leadership that is appropriate for what you are asking them to be responsible for.

What are indicators that someone is growing into a leader within your ministry?

• you are able to observe their obedience to God and faithfulness in ministry.
• you can watch them taking the initiative to share Christ.
• you are aware of whether or not they are helping new and young believers to grow.

How can you help begin to develop future leaders for your movement?

• share your vision of what God has called you to do on campus with them.
• help to appoint them to appropriate leadership responsibilities in the beginning of their involvement.
• create ‘proving’ (‘proving ground’) opportunities for growth as a leader.

I would like to add one thing to Steve Smith’s list:

• Don’t wait until there is a ‘crisis of leadership’ before you start to develop new leaders!  You should be developing all who are involved in your group on some level or another at all times.   It takes time to develop new leaders and give them time to ‘prove’ themselves.  The more experience in ministry they have before they move into a more formal leadership role, the better leaders they will be.

What are some of the lessons you have learned in developing new leaders?  We have so much that we can learn from each others' experience!  

How to develop new leaders – part 1

I have been reading a great book on building movements called T4T – a Discipleship Re-revolution, by Steve Smith and Ying Kai.  I recommend this book as it is full of extremely practical ideas on how to plant and build church movements through spiritual multiplication.  I heard that this book is being translated into Russian and will let you know as soon as I know when it is available in Russia.

A few days ago, I read the chapter called, “Reproducing Leaders.”  I have written a few blogs on this subject already but I really loved how the author clearly laid out from a Biblical model the ideas about how to develop new leaders.  Most of the following is directly from the book (I have adapted some parts to shorten the text).

Developing new leaders is absolutely vital to the continuance of a church or student movement.  

• Movements or ministries will only continue on as long as new leadership is developed and entrusted to carry on the ministry.
• The more leaders are developed and entrusted with leadership, the larger the movement will grow.
• If there are no new leaders to take over when current leaders graduate, then the ministry dies.

Biblical examples of how Jesus developed leaders

Jesus never asked Andrew, Peter, James and John to simply leave their nets and follow a person they had never met before.  There was more involved before this happened.  Long before Jesus called the four brothers to leave their boats and follow Him, He had a number of encounters with them.  The first one occurred when John the Baptizer referred Jesus to them.

·         Stage One:  First encounters (John 1:35-51)

o   How did Jesus discern that they were the right men?  They showed some interest, but Jesus wasn’t ready to call them to full-time ministry or make them apostles.  Instead He probed them with small requests or statements.  He watched how they responded to these small requests or statements. 

o   How did Jesus develop them at this point?  He gave them small things to obey – stay with Me tonight, go get your brother, think about what you can become (fishers of men).  Plus, He began to spend sporadic time with them observing their lives as they observed His.  At this point, Jesus did not yet make great demands on them – He simply observed how interested they were in what He asked them to do.

·         Stage Two:  Second call to them at the seashore (Mark 1:16-20, Luke5:1-11)

The famous story we all know about Jesus calling the four men - Andrew, Peter, James and John – came weeks or months after John 1.  These men knew Jesus and had already spent time with Him.  Knowing this helps explain how Jesus could ask them to leave everything to follow Him.  They knew more of who Jesus was at this point and were able to count the cost of leaving their livelihood behind and decided it was worth leaving all to follow Him.

o   How did Jesus discern that they were the right men?  He had already spent time with them.  When He probed them with larger requests (take Me out in your boat; let down your nets; leave your nets to follow Me), they repeatedly obeyed.

o   How did Jesus develop them at this point?  By giving them greater tasks with greater responsibility to fulfill and by spending more and more time with them.  He gave them uninterrupted attention at times by this point.

·         Stage Three: Final selection of the Twelve (Luke 6:12-16, Mark 3:13-19)

Though ‘the Twelve’ get the most attention in the gospels, Jesus had many more disciples (He had as few as 120, and 500 is another number given, but there could be more - Acts 1:15, 1 Cor.15:6).  He is now ready to give more authority and responsibility to one set of disciples than He would give anyone else among larger group of His disciples.  Even after choosing the apostles, Jesus continued to invest in many other disciples (e.g. the 72 disciples of Luke 10), but the Twelve received His greatest investment. 

o   How did Jesus discern that they were the right men?  Jesus spent an evening of prayer and fasting before calling the Twelve to even greater responsibility (Luke 6:12).

o   How did Jesus develop them at this point?  He continued to develop them by giving them more attention and increasing their ministry responsibilities (Mark 3:14-15).

In the next week blog I will continue with the observations of how to develop new leaders in the context of ministry.

What have you found helpful in developing new leadership in your ministries?

Leadership team ideas

Some of you are at the point where you are ready to ask others to join you as a strategic team in helping to bring the gospel to students, faculty and administrators on your campus who don’t know Jesus Christ.  This blog walks you through a simple process of putting together a leadership team.

Saying no to say yes to the best

This is one of my personal favorites!  We are all inundated at times with so many pleas to get involved in various ministries.  Is it ever ok to say, ‘no’ to involvement in ministry?  This blog should help you walk through the process of making these kinds of decisions.

Successful Witnessing

It is easy for me to get discouraged in telling students about God’s way of salvation for them because so many are not interested.  I think this reminder of what to consider ‘success’ when we are sharing the gospel with others is especially good for us in Russia where we don’t often see people place their full trust in Christ as Savior and Lord.