Advanced Training: Lessons in
Navigation
A CHRISTIAN MAN IS THE MOST FREE LORD OF ALL,
AND SUBJECT TO NONE;
A CHRISTIAN MAN IS THE MOST DUTIFUL SERVANT OF ALL,
AND SUBJECT TO EVERYONE.
Martin Luther
The late great football coach Vince Lombardi was a devout churchman and dedicated family man. He was also a person of honesty and integrity who was a fanatic for excellence, mercilessly demanding 100 percent effort at a time when such virtues were being not only largely ignored but even ridiculed. Those values appear page after page in a book Lombardi wrote about his relationship with football, the game he loved. In Run to Daylight Lombardi gives us a how-to series of "lessons for life" that make sense whether football is of serious interest to the reader or not. One particularly apropos lesson appears in his chapter on running backs.
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Run to Daylight
Lombardi describes how football players learn their plays and then practice them until they become as automatic as breathing. During a game, then, the players can instinctively pull from their memory banks the numbers, the signals, the advice and the hours of coaching. But as the running back gets the ball, tucks it under his arm and begins his rush down the field, he has time to consciously remember only one thing: he must run to daylight!
When I read Lombardi's chapter for the first time, I knew I was never going to be a confident running back, eagerly taking the ball toward the end zone. I was often reluctant even to get my hands on the ball.
Most of the time I felt more as if I was being led by my Father with a lantern. The darkness was scary, but as long as he led me I felt secure. But Lombardi's image of daylight appealed to me, because I knew that my Captain himself was the light. I knew God was telling me to keep walking in the light. He was saying, Munger, you know light when you see it. I've taught you some plays, and you've been pretty good at being disciplined. Now I want you to look for those shafts of light I'm putting before you day after day. Your primary task now and for the rest of your life and ministry is to walk in my light.
I had lived in darkness long enough and had longed for a true friend. Now I had found the light and that Friend, one who promised he would stick closer to me than a brother. Again and again over the years I have been deeply moved by the story of Jesus healing the blind man as recorded in John 9. There Jesus not only is the bringer of light, he is himself the light. I am the light of the world, Jesus said; if you come to me, if you follow me, if you run to this light, you will have life.
As I left Moody Bible Institute and, after another brief summer interlude in California, headed for Princeton Theological Seminary and the continuation of my theological studies, I knew I was walking toward daylight. The dark clouds of confusion and doubt had lifted. My spirits were beginning to soar. I was still only a member of the crew and
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desperately needed to learn the ropes of spiritual navigation. But regardless of whether I would accomplish my life goals, I was confident God would always be at my side, illuminating my path. I needed only to stay focused on his light, even though at times I felt frustrated, perplexed and anxious about my future.
Theologically Extreme?
It was the fall of 1933, the beginning of my first year at Princeton Seminary in New Jersey. The day I checked in I learned that two of my Mount Hermon friends, Dave Cowie and Clyde Kennedy, had registered the same day. What a coincidence, I thought. Or was it God's hand reuniting us "California crazies"? I know now it was the latter. It wasn't long before we had rekindled our friendship and determined together to take on the world.
Several who were studying with us at Princeton soon came to regard us as theologically extreme. Students and faculty members alike saw us as zealots who might just as well have arrived from a distant planet. Looking back I can see why.
Our California contingent was joined by a few from Wheaton College, then by others. After we had sampled all the local church fare and found it less than to our liking, we decided to start a fellowship of our own. We were confident that this new, improved koinonia experience would be relevant and exciting for all who got involved with us. How could it not meet the spiritual needs of those students who were being so shortchanged, we thought, in the relatively traditional ecclesiastical setting of Princeton and its environs?
Early in the fall our fellowship convened at the seminary's historic Alexander Hall, a magnificent early-nineteenth-century structure, architecturally symbolic of past glories and tradition. About fifteen students came that first night. We sang a few choruses and gave a word of witness, after which Samuel Zwemer, a great missionary to Arabia and Egypt, took over and unfolded to us a powerful, soul-satisfying exposition on prayer.
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That evening was the beginning of something extraordinary for all of us, a fellowship that would keep us spiritually warm to the things of God. But like so much of what we would experience in seminary, we were unaware of how God would play the role of the relentless "hound of heaven" in leading, guiding and pushing us in areas of our deep desires.
We kept holding our Sunday-evening meetings until the Christmas holidays. All of this was bewildering to some of our colleagues. Many, by their attitude toward us, seemed to be saying, "What's going on with you? Trying to be supersaints? Can't you get enough of God and the Bible during class, chapel and Sunday-morning worship?"
Determined Witnesses
We weren't trying to be spiritual superstars, but down deep we were hungry for more of God. That's why our weekly fellowship was so vital. It provided the spiritual food, warmth and encouragement we were sorely missing; it was a weekly discovery that seemed to be the answer to the insatiable needs of our young, maturing minds. We knew that Jesus was the way, the truth and the life, and we were determined to share his love and truth in as direct a way as possible — even if we would have to endure being regarded as "the weird ones from the Wild West."
None of the criticism slowed us down. We were convinced that Jesus was at the door of people's hearts and would bring abundant life to whoever let him in. So it became our single-minded desire, even as young, inexperienced seminarians, to stand by that door, eagerly, passionately helping all who were looking for life-changing answers to find them in Jesus Christ.
Years later I would discover that the great Anglican preacher, communicator and theologian Samuel Moore Shoemaker had written a poem which spoke to what we were attempting to do during our fledgling attempts at witness at Princeton. Perhaps Shoemaker's verse will help you sense that same evangelical zeal we felt and encourage you to take your own position by the door.
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I Stand by the DoorI stand by the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out.
The door is the most important door in the world —
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There's no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I, crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands.
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it.
So I stand by the door.
Go in, great saints, go all the way in —
Go way up into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics —
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
God into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms,
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in,
Sometimes venture in a little farther;
But my place seems closer to the opening —
So I stand by the door.
Suffering children
During the fall of my first year of study at Princeton, several members
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of our group learned about a ministry opportunity in Trenton. Dave Cowie, Clyde kennedy, Bob Pierce, Otto DeCamp and I, along with a few others, had no idea what to expect, but we had a message from the Lord and we were ready. We had the confidence that if our small band of servants used its gifts for the glory of God, we'd be prepared for anything that might come our way.
What we were not prepared for was the terrible poverty and hopelessness we would discover in that decaying area that must have ranked near the bottom in every social category. In the midst of the Great Depression, hunger, despair and homelessness in North Trenton (just a few miles south of the seminary) were wrecking individuals and destroying the lives of thousands of families. Those hit hardest were children.
In Trenton we began to hear stories we'd never heard before — of children who had never owned a toothbrush; children with no shoes or socks and no warm clothing in subzero weather; scarce food; no heat in the walk-up tenements; unemployment rising and expectations falling. Most of the children had to share the only bit of clothing they had — a shirt, a blouse, a pair of shoes, a dress, a pair of trousers — with their brothers and sisters. The youngsters were forced to go to school on alternate days because there wasn't enough clothing to go around.
The depth of the poverty we saw ripped at our hearts. But even worse, these children knew nothing about a loving heavenly Father. So we started a mission Sunday school — for their spiritual well-being and to help get them out of the cold.
Each Sunday it was my responsibility to teach the ninth-graders, a tough group of youngsters to relate to because their attention span was about as long as it takes to hurt if you step on a rake. I quickly learned, though, that if I told them stories that communicated gospel truths in ways they could understand, I could get them to track with me. In this class I discovered a special love for teaching. I found I knew how to share biblical truths simply. Before long I had developed a growing
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confidence as a teacher, although I had my moments of both fear and surprise at the response I was receiving from the youngsters. I found myself embarking on an entrepreneurial act of faith that elicited enthusiastic participation from the kids. I was having a terrific time.
I realized that I was a visionary. I could see the end results of events that were still only shadowy, formative images in my mind. Like Lombardi's running back, I was off and moving toward the light.
Some might have seen our group as a team at the time, but we really had not yet come together as a cohesive force. Each of us had his particular niche, and we would come and go, ministering to the children according to our individual gifts. Still, as I look back at those years, it is now clear that what I would later call teaming in the truest sense of the word had its simple beginning at that Sunday school in Trenton.
The Beginning of the Teams
Every member of our group had a vital, unique gift, and each individual was encouraged to nurture and use that gift for ministry. Before long, my own spiritual outreach extended well beyond the mission Sunday school. But that experience with the children in beleaguered North Trenton provided me with the training I would soon use to lead others in effective team ministries.
In the spring of my freshman year at Princeton, a graduating senior asked me if I would take over the responsibility for recruiting and leading deputation teams — actually gospel teams — for the school. I said yes, knowing this would be an opportunity to gain valuable experience. My affirmative reply ultimately led me into one of the most important areas of spiritual development during my time at Princeton. Word quickly spread on campus of the earnest young seminarians who were spending their weekends talking about the Lord wherever they could capture an audience. I remember that the president of the seminary was less than enthusiastic about the nature of our team's work. He called us a group of "red-hot gospelers." A marvelous compliment, we thought.
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Our group had rules, and participants were required to adhere to certain disciplines. One of these was attending a Friday-afternoon meeting for prayer and briefing. Another requirement — one I had learned at Moody Bible Institute — was that members of our gospel teams had to turn in reports each week, stating in writing where we had gone, to whom we'd spoken, what kind of group we talked to, how may decisions or rededications were made and so on. I learned one thing during this time: if you ask people to put down on paper what really happened in their meetings, they really go after it!
Enough students were attracted to this challenge and accountability that the team continued to grow. By the second year sixty students were involved. At the end of two years, even the seminary president publicly reported on the number of churches in which the gospel teams had ministered. (We felt this acknowledgment was a major coup!)
I'm convinced that I learned more about ministry (not about the Bible or theology) in the two years on the gospel team than in all my seminary study. This was the practical, workable stuff. In my formal classroom training, my mind was being stretched intellectually — something I needed and appreciated. I was given technical principles on how to navigate through complex theological waters. I learned the art of preaching and how to project my voice, and I reveled in the seminary's library with the vast reservoir of learning it was putting before me. Seminary was my guide, and inexhaustible supply of wisdom for my spiritual voyage.
The Art of Spiritual Leadership
At Moody Bible Institute I had operated out of the basic primer on seamanship. There I was a deck hand wanting desperately to be an officer. I longed to be trusted with leadership of some great endeavor under my Captain in the greatest of all causes. At Moody I learned the basics, the fundamentals of the art of spiritual navigation.
If Moody was my introductory course to seamanship, Princeton became
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my Annapolis. I was now in an environment where I could learn the basics of the art of spiritual leadership. I was becoming acquainted with the tools of my trade and was being taught how to use them. How grateful I am for the solid, evangelical training, so rooted in the authority of Scripture and sound Reformed theology, that Princeton gave me during those years.
But it was the weekend gospel teams that allowed me to put my theoretical navigational skills to the test. Our gospel teams ministered in churches, to youth groups and later to far-flung Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps — places where hundreds of young people were so bored with what they were or weren't doing that they'd listen to anyone. We discovered, with joy, that we didn't even have to be experienced. Sometimes all we had to do was show up and be genuine.
Six Spiritual Lessons
Week after week the teams gave me a rich opportunity to put into practice everything I was learning in the classroom. Six specific spiritual lessons emerged from that team experience.
1. It was a powerful vehicle for much-needed personal renewal. The gospel team shook us up as individuals. It made a life-changing difference in every area of our lives — an impact that continues to this day.
2. We saw before us the power of a personal witness. This was not a new revelation for us. But because it was all so practical and hands-on, we realized that Christ actually wanted to use us to share his light with others. We saw that people, empowered by his Spirit, responded to the gospel. We learned that when we walked in his light, that light would keep moving us into one new area of ministry after another.
3. We discovered the power of a cooperative endeavor. We did things together. We shared our lives. Alone, I never would have had the courage to do what we did. But with the team at my side, I knew I would never be alone. The affirmation of the team made all the difference.
4. We felt the power of in-service training. Jesus was our model for
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ministry. We observed that the Master (a) by instruction showed his disciples how to do ministry, (b) by example modeled it — lived it out, (c) by experience (clinical) had the disciples do it, (d) by holding them accountable saw them do it and (e) by affirming them watched them grow in wisdom, understanding and effectiveness.
5. We experienced the power of encouragement and affirmation. When one was down, another team member could lift that person up, help renew his confidence and encourage him to know that the team was with him all the way.
6. We learned the enormous power of prayer. We knew we couldn't do our ministry alone. Ours was a venturing faith that recognized we were nothing unless we spent time on our knees before the Lord.
I asked myself the question then, and I ask it today: What keeps the heart beating? Sitting around contemplating noble thoughts? Sitting at a desk? Watching fitness videos on television? Of course not. If you want a healthy heart you have to exercise, move around, get interested in something that demands a hefty supply of oxygen and adrenaline. If I had not been involved in the exercise of the gospel team, I wonder if I ever would have had the least notion of what spiritual adrenaline was all about.
A whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We learned early on that our team was effective only when it worked together. We loved each other and looked after each other. No one was allowed to critique the performance of another member until the following week. We risked together. We were winners even when we failed. We trusted each other and relied on each other. Week after week we demonstrated to one another God's love and forgiveness in practical terms.
Years later, in my ministry in South Hollywood, Berkeley, Seattle, Menlo Park, California, and finally Fuller Seminary, this concept of intimate teaming with the laity would become the core of my ministry. And God put it all in motion at Princeton Seminary when a small band of zealous seminarians who didn't know much about anything determined
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to make Christ known to any and all who would listen.
"We All Win"
Princeton was my trial run as a leader. It was my officer's candidate school where I learned to work with my fellow officers — the team. I spent my time acquainting myself with lifeboat drills, crew training, the compass, the maps, the sextant and the basics of the ship's maneuvers. But I was still docked in quiet waters close to shore, not yet put out to the rigors of the sea. That would come soon enough, in my first stormy assignment as a pastor in South Hollywood. For the time being I would remain busy attempting to master the basic science of spiritual navigation and taking advantage of the rich opportunity of coordinating the leadership of our teams.
If you have been — or are now — a part of such a ministry team, you understand what I'm saying. Because when we serve the Lord together in the unity of his love, nobody gets left out. We all win. This story that I recently found tucked deep in one of my files makes the principle clear:
A beautiful young girl whom the world would call retarded was getting ready to run at the Special Olympics. The gun went off, and she let out a yell, "I'm gone!" Now, this is not an Olympic-form runner. She's hitting every lane. But she has everybody beat by 40 yards. She got all the way down to the finish line and stopped — she would not go across. She turned and waited for her friends. And then, as all six young people held hands, crossing the finish line together, she said: "WE ALL WIN!"
That is the love of Jesus in action. That is the team at work. There is no playing to the gallery. It is only a nonaggressive, non-ego-centered spirit of love and cooperation that will give us true success in ministry. Here's the exciting part: the team, eventually, will make winners out of everyone — even if one loses.
On a team — whether it's the rough-and-tumble of the NFL or NBA, the
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fierce competition of a corporation, the uncertainties of living in a family, or the challenges of a pastor and his or her staff — individualism is out of place. Forget the screaming, cheering fans in the stands. Quit looking for personal glory. There's no place for it. If it is pursued, it will be fatal. Looking out for number one doesn't cut it. A deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ, a mutual dependence on the team and a commitment to honest, no-holds-barred, long-term accountability are vital for spiritual growth and will help prevent irresponsible personal behavior. And whether you are a "special Olympian," homemaker, disadvantaged child, pastor, factory worker, student, doctor, teacher or whatever, the spirit of the team will also work for you.
Jesus and His Team
One thing we still have to get through our heads: no one needs a theological degree to be effective in ministry. We need to be amazed once again at how Jesus trusted nonprofessionals with major responsibilities. I may have heard someone say that during my three years of academic study at Princeton, but I think I really learned it on the team. And the principles of teaming are as effective today as they were in Galilee two thousand years ago.
Jesus taught his disciples to work as a team. Their willingness to follow him, learn from him and work in unity with him and each other was all that was required. Why were they willing to do this? Because they knew the Master trusted them and would always be there to teach them.
Jesus traveled with his small band of men. He took time to answer their most banal questions. He didn't choose them because of their pedigrees — they had none, except perhaps the clout of a certain tax collector, and even his qualifications would later be subject to question. Instead Jesus took a ragtag contingent of uneducated, sweaty fishermen from their boats and nets and made them fishers of people. He dared to believe that ordinary people could become extraordinary servants of God. From a common lot of questionable personalities, he would call
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his disciples, whom in turn he would send out to disciple the nations.
Today one of the single greatest bottlenecks to the spiritual renewal and outreach of the church continues to be the unscriptural division of roles between clergy and laity. Many clergy are hesitant to trust the laity with significant responsibilities, while laypeople are equally hesitant to trust themselves as ministers of Christ. Romans 12:3-6 in the Living Bible paraphrase sums up the truth of the matter as well as it can be said:
As God's messenger I give each of you God's warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you. Just as there are many parts to our bodies, so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of it, and it takes every one of us to make it complete, for we each have different work to do. So we belong to each other, and each needs all the others.God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, then prophesy whenever you can — as often as your faith is strong enough to receive a message from God.
Teach One to Teach One
Not only did Jesus trust his team, but he took pains to teach them. Day after day Christ gave special attention to his small band so they might understand his message.
The setting of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1 is significant: "Jesus saw the crowds and went up a hill, where he sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them" (TEV). This is a strange sequence indeed, and certainly not one followed by many of today's pastors, spiritual teachers or evangelists. Here's the scene: Jesus sees a vast multitude of people eagerly waiting to hear his words, and he turns on his heel, walks away and gathers his disciples around him for some impromptu teaching at the top of a nearby hill. Wasn't it rude to respond this way to the waiting throngs? Some had surely come from many miles away to see and hear the Master. Didn't
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Jesus know this social miscue would be terrible public relations for him as an itinerant preacher claiming to be the Messiah, one who already had his share of negative ecclesiastical press?
But Jesus knew something we still struggle to understand. He knew the way to reach the multitudes was to teach others who in turn would share with others the Word of life. No ego was involved. PR was never an issue. Jesus simply made a commitment — and lived up to it — to take the time and energy to share truth with his leaders.
Later, Paul would write to his "son in the faith" in 2 Timothy 2:2, "Take the words that you heard me preach in the presence of many witnesses, and give them into the keeping of men you can trust, men who will be able to teach others also" (TEV). The apostle Paul caught it! He knew that if the church continued to follow the leadership principles initiated by Jesus, the truth of God's Word would be extended outward without limitation by teachers who were teaching others how to teach.
Today the high levels of theological awareness and advanced education of many lay men and women, along with the increasingly accepted and accelerated diversity and mobility of our society, are challenging the church. We need to break out of its traditional straitjacket of limiting the ministry to the domain of the pastor-teacher and to take seriously the nurture and development of a gifted laity that works together as a team for a more diversified and effective teaching ministry.
Making Time to Train
But trusting and teaching were only part of the disciples' growing, intimate relationship with the Master. Jesus took personal time to train his team, and his time-intensive methods of instruction have never been surpassed. His program included taking the time for explicit teachings in procedure and making the time to give his disciples practical, clinical experience.
Today if the church of Jesus Christ is to accelerate its outreach to the
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lost, those in spiritual authority have no choice but to make time and then use that time to teach, train and provide the modeling that is essential to any effective ministry. This will require more than a laity-oriented twenty-minute sermon a couple of times a year. This takes real time — quality time — and an unwavering commitment to training those nonprofessionals who have made the decision to serve their Lord and Savior whether the local pastor approves of it or not!
Christian leadership today must reflect the boldness we see in Jesus' relationship with his disciples. Jesus said, "Follow me," and they followed. They learned by observation. Jesus walked his disciples through one exercise after another. This took time, personal time. The long, painful hours, the boat trips, the walks along dusty Galilean paths, all combined with the boundless love and energy that Jesus poured into his team to make the difference.
Jesus didn't ask his disciples to take notes while he taught theory from the lofty lectern of a synagogue. He was down-to-earth and practical. Together they walked the roads, faced the crowds. They moved among the sick, the lame and the dying together. They slept side by side. They did cleanup jobs together.
The team enjoyed Jesus as a companion. They experienced the wonder of his daily presence. Jesus proved that time and love are a powerful combination. Without this combination of time and love in our ministries and in our lives, we will falter, struggle and ultimately fail.
Ministry is not a go-it-alone arrangement. It's a team effort or it's nothing at all.
The Master's Method
At Princeton I was fortunate enough to catch a brief glimpse of how Jesus mentored his team of disciples, and those insights were as valuable as all the formal training I received in ancient Bible languages, church history, homiletics and speech. Perhaps the following progression of how to teach others will be your key to multiplying yourself
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and thereby enhancing the spiritual gifts of those who look to you for leadership and guidance. The sequence goes like this:
I do it — you watch (to learn)I do it — you help
You do it — I help if necessary
You do it — I watch (to evaluate)
You do it — another watches you (to learn)
The process then continues, each one teaching one, until the fellowship is filled with men and women who, like so many accomplished deck hands, have learned the ropes and are ready to move out into spiritual navigation, instructing others. The point of it all is to be an effective witness for Jesus Christ and to share his message of life and hope with others.
In even a cursory look at the Gospels, one key strategy of the Master stands out: Jesus was acutely aware of the need to provide practical, clinical experience for his team. None of us would want to have surgery under a doctor who had managed to get an A in a course on Gray's Anatomy but had never scrubbed up or held a scalpel before. Most of today's medical schools place their students in the wards almost as soon as they enter the program. They need to begin their practical, on-the-job training immediately.
Perhaps it was risky for Jesus to trust his message and ministry of the kingdom of God to eager nonprofessionals who make one mistake after another. Still, Jesus did it, and the result of his time-intensive training was that his disciples returned shouting with joy (Luke 10:17). The venture of preaching and teaching in his name had demonstrated to them the delivering power of God. They discovered a confidence in Christ and in themselves they had not known before.
Four Questions
In light of Jesus' leadership strategies, help me answer these questions — I'm sure you will think of many more:
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1. Why do so many church leaders today shy away from the approach Jesus used to disciple the disciples? What are today's leaders afraid of? Why are so many unwilling to lift off their roofs and tear down their personal walls? Why are so few willing to take the time to do it right?
2. Is there a better, more effective method to disciple today's laity than the modeling Jesus gave us to train the Twelve? If so, perhaps we'd better take the seminar. If not, what factors are holding us back from doing it right?
3. Are the laypeople — the amateurs — really the vital link to keeping the ministry of the body alive, vibrant and growing? Or are we kidding ourselves in suggesting that leaders should "lead from below"? Again, what is keeping us from doing it right?
4. Max DePree, author of an excellent book on leadership entitled Leadership Jazz, asks, "What can a leader learn by walking in the shoes of a follower?" And, I add, when our results are so poor, when pastors burn out, when accountability for our leaders is at an all-time low, what is keeping us from doing it right?
You'll recall that when the members of the Jerusalem council saw the boldness of Peter and John and recognized that these men were ordinary, uneducated nonprofessionals, they were amazed and realized what being with Jesus had done for them! The leaders of the Sanhedrin also were astounded, shaken to their sandals by the undeniable fact that the hopelessly crippled man whom they had seen day after day begging alms in front of the Gate Beautiful had been miraculously healed. They could not deny it. There he was — standing, walking, leaping in joy! This was discipleship at work, results produced by the Master who had poured his life into a few good men who responded to the call, "Follow me."
Apparently Jesus found no other way to mature his team and prepare them for service but the investment of personal time. And I doubt that any program of Christian discipleship or lay ministry today will develop mature Christian servants unless the leader provides large quantities of
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personal time, the heart of a humble servant and an unfailing measure of support and love for every member of the team.
The Gift of Time
As I look back over my years of ministry, it is clear to me that I did not teach others the principles of spiritual navigation mainly through my preaching, my teaching or even the modeling I attempted to do. I do hope some of that was effective. But it was the wonderful, long hours on late Saturday afternoons in my study with a dozen or more students, where together we shared our lives, supported each other in our desire to know Christ and do his will, and prayed for one another, that made the real difference. Sometimes I wonder if those were not the only times that truly brought honor to God. For me and for my colleagues, this interdependency, this long-on-time, mutual self-giving toward a common goal, shaped our lives.
Time is always a great gift of love. Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then all will know that you are my disciples" (John 13:34-35 TEV).
In the landmark book The Making of a Leader (NavPress, 1988, pp. 202-3), J. Robert Clinton writes that a leader is "a person with a God-given capacity, and with God-given responsibility to influence a specific group of God's people toward God's purposes for the group." Clinton continues,
If the Lord were to make a statement to us, looking not only at the leadership gap but also at the present leaders, He might rephrase Matthew 9:36-38 as I have done:
When He saw the leaders, He was filled with dismay, because so many quit, so many were set aside, and so many were plateaued and directionless. They had lost their zest for leading. They had no clear philosophy or direction in their leadership. They were leaderless leaders. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest isPage 75
plentiful, but the leaders with clear direction are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth knowledgeable, discerning, and direction-oriented leader-laborers into His harvest."
Clinton then makes a wonderfully creative suggestion:
Wouldn't it be wonderful if ten or fifteen years from now the Lord Jesus could rephrase Matthew 9:36-38 in the following way?
When He saw the immensity of the work and multitudes to be reached, He was not disheartened but was moved with joy because many leaders were meeting those needs and were continually raising up new leaders to meet the tremendous leadership challenge. He said, "Thank the Lord of the harvest, for He is giving harvest leaders, and they are leaders with direction and purpose."
If you are a spiritual commander, your crew needs to know that you know what you are doing. Many around you want to be leaders, but they have not sufficiently exposed themselves to the disciplines of leadership and therefore disqualified themselves to the disciplines of leadership and have therefore disqualified themselves for service. Seek out those who are willing to learn the ropes, who are eager to launch out into the white water of conflict, and who are willing to sacrifice to be part of your team. It is my prayer that you put into practice the Master's unfailing principles of leadership in your life and ministry.
