I recently heard author and leadership specialist Dr. Paul Ford say to a group of our young leaders in training that “one of the scariest things about next generation leaders is that many of them want to be ‘great kingdom leaders.'” He went on to say, “I’m not sure that God is looking for great kingdom leaders as much as he is looking for a great kingdom community!”
He shared with our young leaders, and all the other leaders in that room, that we shouldn’t be focused on becoming great Kingdom Leaders, but instead to be focused on being people who are willing to step away quietly knowing that others might not miss us because we’ve equipped and released them so well. His encouragement was, not just to be good spiritual parents, but to become great spiritual grandparents.
I have been thinking about this since hearing him a couple of weeks ago because it complemented one of the things I felt God was calling me to as a leader this year; to decrease so that Christ and others might increase. When you think about it, that’s essentially what Servant Leadership is all about, but we can get so caught up in celebrity and honor values which work their way into our church cultures that we forget that our goal as leaders is not to “do” ministry well but to equip others to do the ministry! The Ephesians 4 ministerial gifts of pastoring, teaching, evangelizing, prophesying, and apostling (I just made up a word :-D) are meant to equip others to do those ministries. It shouldn’t just stop there, but they should also equip others in such a way that they too can equip others to do the ministries.
In 2 Timothy 2:2, a verse which I think all leaders should memorize, Paul writes: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”
How many generations do you see here? This wasn’t about Paul doing ministry. In fact it wasn’t even about Paul passing that ministry on to Timothy. It was about an impartation of leadership and ministry that extended for FOUR generations, and could really go on forever! There’s a shape that we’ve been using in our leadership development and discipleship that has helped us keep this continual impartation at the forefront of our minds. It’s sometimes known as the Leadership Square and it really helps to us visualize the simple process that Jesus seemed to follow with His disciples and that Paul followed with his young apprentices. Both Jesus and Paul were very intentional in training others and then getting out of the way as they sent them out to equip and send others.
You can go here if you want more details on how these steps and what it means to “walk around the square.”
Simply put, God has called us to lead and to minister. A great kingdom leader then is someone who equips disciples and sends out leaders, not just as a spiritual parent, but as a spiritual grandparent and great-grandparent. They raise up others and get out of the way. They lead in such a way that they can step away and know that things will go on well without them. That’s a very different way of thinking of ourselves, isn’t it. Grandparents in ministry. That would make me Grandpa Sam!?! I’m not sure if I’m quite ready for that yet! I’m still working on spiritual parenting, but I want to lead in such a way that I equip others to do ministry and then send leaders who are able to equip and send other leaders for generations until Jesus returns!
Who are you equipping for ministry and leadership who will be able to equip and send others?
Who has intentionally come alongside of you as a spiritual mother or father and helped to equip you for ministry? Let’s use this venue to thank them for pouring into our lives.
