Three essential skills for every Christian leader
Yesterday at I was at Starbucks at 6am to meet some guys from the church and the College. We’re reading the Bible together and praying—a small group in public—it’s really a lot of fun. Anyways, we read from Mark 3 about the time that Jesus appointed those He would later send out, and we read about his ministry development curriculum for these folks.
It says that He chose them that they might “be with Him, that He might send them out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons.” Education is important. But sometimes we over complicate it. There were three major points of training that Jesus would give to His closest followers, knowing they would be the ones to lead the church to change the world.
1. That they might be with Him: First priority; to be with Jesus. As we grow in ministry, we can learn a whole lot about running a church or leading a gathering or creating a budget, or any number of things we think are necessary for a good ministry—and they just might be indispensable in a particular setting. But the greatest and most universal imperative for those who are going to represent Jesus is that they have spent a huge amount of time with Him.
2. That He might send them out to preach: Deliver a sermon; Publicly proclaim; Earnestly advocate: These are all definitions of the word, preach. Often we only consider the first definition— the sage on the stage—as the preacher, when in reality all serious disciples of Jesus need to be ready to communicate the reality and passion that is wrapped up in a close relationship with Jesus. That can’t happen without our first point. It’s actually fairly simple: Be with Jesus and then be prepared to share what you heard when you were with Him.
3. That He might send them out to have authority to drive out demons: Spiritual authority is essential to an effective ministry life. In the western world, we tend not to live as if there is a real spiritual realm, but there is. Demons exist and need to be dealt with. Miracles still happen. We are just as much in a spiritual battle today as Christians always have been in. When we go out to share what we have heard from Jesus, we also need to be prepared to encounter the forces of darkness and know how to deal with them.
After 3 years of this kind of development, Jesus died, rose again, and ascended. Then He sent the Holy Spirit. Then these followers changed the world. We need to get these three things right. We need to keep them front and center. If we could get this down, I think we would be better prepared for the outpouring of the Spirit through our lives to make a difference like these apostles did.
And, you’ve probably figured it out already, but these aren’t just things Christian “leaders” need to be involved in—I think every Christ follower would be better off knowing and practicing these things. Really, these are accessable to all of us…it’s not rocket science and it doesn’t take a Bible college degree to folow Jesus effectively and change the world. Good thing, too!