encouraging and leaving

“But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them” (II Timothy 3:14).

“For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you” (Titus 1:5).

Paul never abandoned his new disciples, churches and leaders. He always followed up with encouragement and further instruction, even as he left to preach the gospel in other places. He would do this primarily through faithful men like Timothy. He also sent letters to the churches along with his faithful disciples, to remind them of “his ways in Christ” (I Corinthians 4:17). Paul himself sometimes revisited the churches to strengthen and encourage them (see Acts 14:21-23).

Paul modeled a Biblical pattern for the new churches to follow. The new churches would model this same pattern for others while Paul observed their obedience. Most of the time, he heard reports of their faithfulness (or lack thereof) from a distance. Paul would revisit the churches to delegate authority to the recognized leaders who demonstrated obedience (Acts 14:23), or he would have faithful men like Titus do so (Titus 1:5). Finally, Paul would encourage them to continue following the pattern they had learned and practiced, even as he left for another place.

Jesus modeled the same pattern for His disciples. A careful reading of John chapters 13 through 17 reveals the same pattern for training: Jesus modeled, observed, delegated, encouraged and left. But He did not abandon His disciples; He left them “the Helper”, and continued to be ever present with them through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (see John 14:15-18). Jesus also prayed for the future spiritual generations of new believers that would believe because of His obedient disciples. In John 17 Jesus revealed how He was to accomplish the Father’s master plan, through reproducing generations of loving obedient disciples.

Jesus said: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that you sent Me” (John 17:20,21).

Like the previous stage of delegating authority, we often fail to encourage and leave our disciples. It is difficult to let go and change our role; after all, we have invested so much of our time, effort and resources in them! Don’t we have the right to continue to be their instructor? And, what if they mess up?

Remember, we are not talking about abandoning our disciples. We are talking about moving on to another stage of development, a different level of trust and maturity. We can continue to have a mentoring relationship, but that relationship should mature into a higher level as we delegate responsibility and authority to them.

It is very similar to how we should train our children. At first, they are very dependent upon us. We are their role models, they observe everything we do and say. Then we observe how they do, how they follow our example. There is a great deal of correction and discipline in the early stages. As a child enters adolescence, they become more independent. They still need our guidance but they begin to handle more responsibilities on their own. As they mature, we delegate more freedom to act on their own accord, but we still hold them accountable for their actions. We continue to encourage them to live according to the pattern that we set before them. Sooner than we like, they grow up, become very independent and leave us (here the analogy breaks down, as church planters we should do the leaving). They become an adult and start their own family. They will make mistakes; nevertheless, the cycle of life reproduces itself and will repeat the whole process again through another generation. Our relationship still exists, but it is changed radically by this natural order of things. This is the natural progression of a healthy child who develops into a mature adult and starts his/her own family.

We should practice the same cycle of training in our spiritual life. But it should not take years and years to reproduce. Depending on how the mentor and trainee carry out their roles, the time it takes for the reproduction of a new spiritual generation should be relatively short. Christ took only 3 years. Paul never stayed more than 3 years in one place, but most of the time; it was only a matter of months before the second generation of disciples was delegating authority to a new third generation. When Paul saw that his churches were reproducing healthy churches, he let go and moved on. He continued to encourage them, sometimes he revisited them, sent letters, or left a disciple like Timothy who was fully authorized to do everything necessary to help the church obey the Great Commission. But Paul never stayed; he left them to continue the work on their own. Did they make mistakes? They sure did, but Paul still gave them full authority to carry on the work. He even left the job of choosing leaders for the third generation churches to second-generation disciples like Titus.

“For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you” (Titus 1:5).

What are your thoughts? Do you have any experience with leaving to make other disciples? How did you continue to encourage from a distance?

the key to reproducing disciples, churches and leaders

Have you ever been given a job to do but your boss will not trust you to do it on your own? Maybe he or she stands over your shoulder to make sure you don't make a mistake, or that you do it a certain way? Or, maybe you don't have the authority to implement, always having to call your boss for permission? This lack of empowerment is very common, not only in the everyday working world, but also in everyday kingdom work.

“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (II Timothy 2:2).

Paul charged Timothy with entrusting his teaching to obedient disciples who were equipped to teach others. This is the key to reproducing followers of Jesus: a disciple is empowered to carry on the work of his mentor, training others with the same teaching, and in the same manner. For this to happen, the trainer must delegate authority to his trainee, so that disciple will be empowered to do all that is necessary to reproduce another generation of disciples.

Jesus did this with His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20. He left no doubt when He said, “all authority has been given to Me… Go therefore”… (v.18a,19a). God the Father fully authorized Jesus to carry out His mission, Jesus delegated His authority to His disciples to carry on the same work in the same way. The original disciples were empowered by Jesus (through the Holy Spirit) to do even greater works (see John 14:12-18). What were the original disciples of Jesus, and now present day disciples, authorized to do? As they were going, they were to make followers of Christ from all people groups, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that Christ had commanded (Matthew 28:19-20).

At this stage of training we often fail to do what is absolutely necessary for reproducing a new generation of disciples. In most mission work around the world, the first spiritual generation is very slow to share authority with disciples from the second generation. Therefore, the second generation of believers seldom authorizes a third generation to do all that is necessary to make disciples, plant churches and train new leaders. This is because they are not fully empowered by their mentors. The third spiritual generation may be allowed to do evangelism and the initial work of planting a church (which is quite difficult in itself). However, the first generation, with maybe a few from the second generation, will continue to do the baptizing, administer the Lord’s Supper and train leaders. This disrupts the reproduction of future spiritual generations and limits the expansion of God’s kingdom to addition, and not multiplication. In most cases, the first generation disciples do all of the “authorized” work, and the second generation disciples become eternal assistants, never fully authorized to empower their disciples (the 3rd generation) to do all that Christ commanded.

The first generation will use Scriptures to justify this:
“A bishop (pastor/elder) then must be… not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil” (I Timothy 3:2a,v.6). Or where it says: “Do not lay hands on anyone hastily”… (I Timothy 5:22a). However, leaders are more likely to never lay hands on anyone, than to do so hastily.

Most of us have been guilty of not empowering our faithful disciples to baptize, administer Lord’s Supper, lead and teach. We forget that the “laying on of hands” is a basic doctrine (teaching). It should be part of our basic discipleship curriculum. Look at what Scripture teaches in Hebrews:
“Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary (basic) principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection (maturity), not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine (teaching) of baptisms, of laying on of hands”… (Hebrews 6:1-2a).

The writer of Hebrews is saying that if we want mature disciples, we must get beyond these basic doctrines to deeper teaching and practice. Teaching about the “laying on of hands” is one of those basic foundational doctrines that we should not only teach about, but that we should put into practice with our obedient disciples. We should not blame our faithful disciples if they are not mature enough to be in leadership. We should blame ourselves for not equipping them properly and with enough intensity. If we met with them for training and mentoring more often, they would progress much more rapidly. But often we only have infrequent meetings with our disciples (or no meetings at all). They continue to faithfully wait until maybe one day we will count them worthy enough to entrust them with full authority.

The measure of maturity is not in how much you know, but in how much you obey. If our faithful men continue to obey, are they not demonstrating maturity? I would rather have new Christ followers that know little but obey the Lord every time, than to have disciples who have professed Christ for many years, and yet do very little with what they know.

No one ever arrives, so how can we judge when someone is "ready" and share full authority? Faithfulness... when our disciples demonstrate progress in their character (fruits of the Spirit) and obedience (works of faith), we entrust them with the training of their own disciples. Our disciples must be fully empowered to do all that we do in order to help their disciples follow Christ. Yes, that even includes baptism and Lord's Supper, or any other function that we have traditionally reserved for the clergy.

We see multiple reasons for the “laying on of hands” in the Scriptures: to give a blessing or inheritance, to consecrate an offering, to ordain a Levite priest, to heal the sick, to impart the gift of the Holy Spirit. But another reason for the laying on of hands, that is often overlooked, is to commission one for a task. I am not talking about legal ordination. Look at the example we have from the church at Antioch:
“Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers… As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away” (Acts 13:1a, 2,3).

Paul and Barnabas were fully authorized by their church to do all that was necessary for making disciples of all nations: baptizing, teaching to obey, and anything else needed to train the local leaders raised up from the harvest. Paul and Barnabas were not commissioned to do whatever they felt like. They had to return and give account to their church for what they had done with that authority (see Acts 14:26-28). Accountability Always Accompanies Authority (Quadruple A). This is kingdom insurance against abuse of authority.

This last year, when we discovered our disciples did not feel authorized to baptize or administer the Lord's Supper, we organized a commissioning service. We had other national believers pray, lay hands on them and send them out. This made all the difference as new baptized believers and house churches multiplied in a short time.

What about your experience? Have you been frustrated by a leader unwilling to share authority? Or maybe you have been reluctant to empower your disciples to teach and do all that you have taught them? Many will say: "I would rather err on the side of caution." In other words, they will not entrust their faithful disciples with all authority. If we make that choice, instead of freely sharing authority (always with accountability of course), we are choosing to interfere with the Holy Spirit's work and the expansion of God's kingdom. Pray about using the key to reproducing generations of disciples, churches and leaders. Delegate authority and step back to see what God will do.