Years ago, my friends and I took our first fishing trip up north to Minnesota. I rigged up an extra-long couch pallet in the back of my truck to hold the kayaks up top so we could store our gear below. 2 out of 3 of us were new to fishing up north – we had basically invited ourselves to Joe’s summer outing. Leading up to the trip, we asked Joe a lot of questions. We were fishing for species we had no experience with, and some of them were large with very sharp teeth. All of my rods and reels needed some kind of modification.
Not to get too technical on the fishing side, but Joe recommended setting up a Carolina rig with a Green Watermelon Seed colored Zoom Lizard. The fish up there go crazy for it in the summer. Well, I have no experience setting up a Carolina rig, so I just went out that day with my regular setups…and I had a pretty poor day. I was out-fished by the guy who knew what he was doing and the other fellow who was smart enough to listen to him. That night back at the house, they noticed me cutting line, adding a sinker and swivel, and ribbed me about coming around to the Carolina rig. I was not going to suffer another day of fishing from behind!
Former US Secretary of State James Baker is well known for his saying: proper preparation prevents poor performance. That night…I fully agreed! I decided to prepare as instructed so that I could achieve success. The book of 1 Samuel tells the story of two kings, the first two kings over Israel – a time when preparation made all the difference of success between them.
In 1 Samuel 8 the nation of Israel desires a king, and God lets them have their way, but gives them this warning: their success depends on the need to follow God as their king, and not just following a human king. Soon after, Saul is anointed as king over Israel, but he wasn’t prepared, and the results are disastrous. HIs qualifications to be king are…well, he was tall and handome and he had lost his donkeys. Though Saul started out following God, he soon took the reins in his own hands, and for the next 20 years, Israel is at odds with itself. Meanwhile, God raises David up and prepares him to be the future king of the nation.
David spends 15 of those years in exile, wandering in and out of Israel, sometimes fighting and sometimes fleeing from Saul. By the time God sees that David is ready to rule, he has been forged by several powerful seasons in his life. First, as a youth, David was a shepherd. When the prophet Samuel comes to anoint a king from Jesse’s sons, David wasn’t even invited. It’s a pretty cool picture – David is out with the sheep. It’s kind of like he was the only one doing his job while everyone else’s attention was captured by the hope of being anointed king. As a king, David would still keep the honorable qualifications of a shepherd.
David second formation experience is as an exile. For a decade and a half, David was completely dependent on God’s hand for food, refuge, and provisions. For short seasons he would find a home, a cave, or a tribe, but soon enough he was moving on. When David finally takes the throne, he is a man who knows the threats to the kingdom, he knows how the people have endured Saul’s reign, and he knows to rely on the Lord.
While it might seem cruel for God to promise you a kingdom and then wait 15 years to hand it over, this time of preparation sets David apart from Saul. Saul had zero prep, and when temptations and challenges came, he fell quickly. As we chart the course of raising up leaders, we’ve discovered some important principles:
#1 – Leaders must invite and shepherd others into leadership personally.
#2 – Leaders must discover and develop meaningful roles for others.
#3 – Leaders must disciple more and equip others to do more instead of doing more alone.
#4 – Leaders must take joy in the work of delegating ministry to disciples.
Now let’s talk about preparing leaders for success in a practical sense. The principles above are solid, but they need an action step.
Leadership Pathway #5 – Prepare others for success through patient modeling and mentoring.
It is crucial that the initial steps and principles are in place: Is there a growing friendship? Do you believe every disciple has some unique ministry potential? Are you excited about helping them discover their contribution? Are you willing to give up a portion of what you do to make room for others?
Patient modeling is going to require that your friendship is in a solid, secure place so you don’t get frustrated and they don’t get hurt feelings. You never know the pace that another person is going to pick up the role. If it is greeting at the front door, maybe they watch and learn a week and they are ready to go. Maybe after a few attempts it turns out they struggle with strangers. That isn’t a failure – it’s just a learning curve. Can they get it with more modeling? Or perhaps through mentoring you discover that the greeting team isn’t the best fit. Some people are made for behind the scenes prep, setup, tear down, and clean up – that’s how God made them and we need them in that role! Patient modeling and mentoring helps a disciple discover their place without fear of failure.
Patient mentoring means that you as a leader are committed to their success, however long the process takes, and whatever twists and turns may come. Once you find their ministry place and have modeled the role for them (or found a role model), the next stage is encouraging and measuring their success through the hand-off. In the example of greeting at the front door, the hand-off will occur a lot quicker than say, setting up someone to lead a small group. With one or two Sundays, you can train up someone on the basics of greeting at the front door. Plus, you can put them on a team so that they always have some other people who can continue to point them in the right direction. But establishing someone as a small group leader is something where you plan the hand-off over the course of a month or two – especially if they are new.
Model the ministry, incorporate their involvement, and then mentor success through the hand-off. Incorporating their involvement will look different in every ministry, but it means that as a leader you are looking for opportunities to hand off a moment of leadership. Can your disciple lead an opening or closing prayer? Is this their ministry place, or do they need to cover a different area? Maybe they are well-suited to hosting in their home. If your disciple is on the worship team, can they handle leading a song? Reading a scripture and saying a few words of encouragement? Leaders are looking for disciples and finding spaces to give them an opportunity.
When we don’t invest in others, the same people switch around the same roles over and over. People burn out and no one new gets a chance to grow into leadership. Potential leaders either coast along into “sit and learn” discipleship or leave to find a church where they can engage. It’s risky business to ignore modeling and mentoring disciples into meaningful roles, and it certainly isn’t the Biblical pattern of discipleship.
First Timers Welcome: Every church should welcome first time guests! But…how often do you see new people trying out ministry roles? Are you excited about the possibility of seeing new faces in leadership spaces? What ministry roles are you prepared to patiently model and mentor? Imagine God’s joy at seeing people serve in new roles as first timers! Let’s make First Timers welcome at the front door and beyond!