Releasing Leaders Quickly
By Jessica McFalls, ANCT field worker
How soon is too soon to release new leaders to lead within our movements? How do we know when someone is ready for greater levels of responsibility? According to Jesus’ own examples with those who followed him while He was on this earth: quickly! Uncomfortably (for us!) quickly!
When we read in Luke 9 (vs. 1-6) that Jesus sends out the 12 Apostles to preach and heal in towns on their own, we think, “Well yeah, that makes sense. They have been traveling with Jesus day and night and He has been teaching them almost non-stop. So of course, Jesus would feel that they were ready to go out on their own for a little while.” But then in chapter 10 Jesus does the same thing with 72 other followers. Who are these people? They had not been with Jesus since the beginning like the Apostles. We aren’t even told how long they had been following Jesus. How did Jesus know that these people wouldn’t say something wrong or misrepresent Him in some way? Answer: He knew they would make mistakes and sent them anyway! Let that soak in a bit. He knew that neither the 12 nor the 72 would get His message perfect every time and yet He still sent them out as His representatives to places where He would soon follow.
I believe one of the keys to how Jesus could feel comfortable to release these people so quickly as His messengers is that He knew He would have a chance to follow up with them afterwards (Luke 10:17-20) and He would be going to each of the towns they visited later on and would be able to clean up any messes they may have inadvertently created. In All Nations we call this coaching. We release quickly but we also coach along the way, even through the messes. Especially in the messes. When Jesus ascended to Heaven, He also sent us a helper, a coach if you would, who would, “teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.” John 14:26. In other words, Jesus is still coaching His followers today through His Holy Spirit.
Following in the example of Jesus himself, one of our values in All Nations is that we release leaders quickly for the work of the Kingdom. Below is a story from South Asia of an example of this value being lived out by some of our All Nations brothers and sisters…
In South Asia there is a man who has been a village elder (a chairperson who holds official authority) for 10 years and all the village people respect him very much. He used to be involved with witchcraft using it to heal people for a long time. He inherited this witchcraft job from his ancestors. He was a rescuer for his village people for a long time, but his family began to go through massive problems. He has four daughters and one son. Three of his daughters lost their husbands while they were still under the age of 24. In the meantime, his son fell down from a tree and broke his backbone and he couldn’t walk. His wife became a drunkard and the village elder himself also started to lose his hearing. After many years of pain and suffering, one brother from our movement came to his village with the gospel of Jesus Christ and he began to command healing over the elder. He was healed instantly and was wondering who is this person, and how can he heal without the sacrificing of animals? The elder started asking questions of the man who came to heal without sacrificing animals and eventually decided he wanted to give his life to Jesus. This was a very strange thing for the villagers, and they started to argue with him because the elder was the one who always represented the village in front of the idols with sacrifices for the village. They were confused about what had happened with him. The person who didn’t know Jesus a few days ago now started to teach them about the God who had healed him and some of the women came to receive Jesus as their personal savior. Within 3 months there were 16 new people who gave their lives to Jesus also. These new followers of Jesus were told, you don’t have to learn everything about Jesus right away, but just share what you have received and your testimony.
Now in another location to the South of this village, our brother *Charles, who is a very new disciple also, heard about what was happening there and said that he wanted to go and help the believers there continue to grow in Christ. It is so encouraging that a new person, like Charles, who is still young in Christ would want to go and give what he has received. Charles’ willingness to leave his own village and travel to this other village has been very encouraging to Charles’ church. His church did not have a lot of money themselves to support Charles in this endeavor. So, his church started to give him what Charles would need for daily essentials. Things like a toothbrush, a little bit of travel money, soap, blankets, etc. Each person in the church would give something. Now Charles is at the village with the Elder and the other new believers and we hope to see God do amazing things there for His Glory!
In this story we see the new believers in the village being encouraged to share what they know about Jesus immediately even though they are still learning. We also see a relatively new believer being sent to the village to disciple them further and teach them more although Charles himself has only been following Jesus a little longer than the villagers. In this way the movement is continuing to grow and those in the movement are continuing to grow in maturity and passion for the work of the Kingdom!
How might you be able to implement the value of releasing leaders quickly within your ministry context? Are there those that you have been discipling that need to be “let go” so that they can continue to grow in understanding and passion?
*name changed for security purposes