mr. t.......... on mission

encouraging one another to be on God's mission

Friday, September 08, 2006

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.

5 Comments:

Blogger Darrell said...

Another awesome piece.

This brings up so many things in my mind. I have not had any difficulty delegating tasks to others. I have had great difficulty in finding faithful men. SOOooo many flakes! They say they will do something, then not do it, or do it poorly.

I like the "quad A" principle as a means of governing things.

What do you do when you confront someone about something they have not done, but said they would do? They apologize, and still do not follow through. What do you do then?

I have meditated much on this verse:

1 Thessalonians 5:14 Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.

However I still have difficulty determining when someone is lazy or weak. I know patience is central.

I hope clarity come along this journey in dealing with slackers!

Friday, September 08, 2006 5:30:00 PM  
Blogger Tim Patterson said...

Darrell,

You ask: "What do you do when you confront someone about something they have not done, but said they would do? They apologize, and still do not follow through. What do you do then?"

We have found the principles from the Matthew 25 parable of the talents help us in dealing with those that "hide their talent". We reward those producing more fruit, more obedience and more results with more of our time and attention. We also give them more responsibility (authority).

We don't spend as much time with those that are cronically lazy and disobedient. We don't reject the disobedient, just don't invest as much time and energy in them. This is a little counter-intuitive but very Biblical. It sounds cruel and "unchristian" but if you look closely at Scripture true Christ-like love is tough. Christ had a lot of followers that left Him when the training was too difficult to accept. Paul had the majority of his co-workers abandon him for various reasons.

In missionary ministry we turn the disciples not responding to our training over to those in pastoral ministry. The pastors shepherd the flock. Missionaries do some pastoral things but are primarily in an apostolic (sent out church planting) role. Pastors do some missionary things but are primarily in a shepherding role. Pastors work with those that are slow to obey Christ' commands. Missionaries find the disciples that are obedient and through them see great harvest (see Mark 4:8 and 4:20 but read the whole text). We do our training in leader cells separate from house church meetings. We incorporate some of the same training in house church, but the purpose of the house church meetings is more for praise, fellowship, teaching, etc.

The bottom-line: work separately and closely with those that are responding in obedience. Give them more responsibility as they obey and produce more fruit (character) and results (harvest). Let them lead their own small groups or house churches without you present. Although you may want to observe in the beginning (without interfering) for debrief and evaluation (separately in private).

Also, many who should take more initiative don't because they don't feel prepared, or worthy, or like they have the right (authority). Make sure they feel prepared and empowered to do all that Christ commands. Just give them bite size assignments. After each assignment, receive their report, encourage, model some new teaching, observe them practice with you and/or others, delegate authority with more assignments and send them back out there to do more.

Friday, September 08, 2006 8:47:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excellent teaching/advise for us all. I especially found helpful what you have to share about "laying on of hands" from Heb.6, along with your answer to Darrell in the comments section.

It is true that we "spin our wheels" with non-reproductive, disobedient disciples. One of our leaders shared with us the 80/20 principle: spend 80% of your time with the 20% who are really out there working. Spend 20% of your time and energy on the 80% not bearing much fruit.

Saturday, September 09, 2006 10:38:00 AM  
Blogger Tim Patterson said...

Happy Birthday Guy! The big 50... wow! I am three years behind you.

I heard about that 80/20 principle when someone said only 20 percent of the church does 80 percent of the work. I agree that is a good application for us to follow. Now, if we only have 5 disciples that leaves only one, but what if we have less than 5? ;-)

Saturday, September 09, 2006 1:36:00 PM  
Blogger Darrell said...

I understand. I see Jesus and Paul working this way.

I hope one day to have a "selection" of potential church planters to work with. Right now I can't think of one person who is consistently responding with obedience.

Sunday, September 10, 2006 12:36:00 AM  

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