Empowering Others

During my many years in ministry, I have received a lot of advice on how to be a better leader.  Some advice has been good, some not so much.  However, one of the best pieces of advice that I ever received was told to me early in ministry by a veteran minister.  He told me that the best leaders empower their people to lead.  I asked him exactly what he meant by that and he told me that many times leaders are insecure and feel the pressure to receive credit for every little thing that happens in the organization that they are in charge of.  However, if a leader can get past his/her insecurities and empower others to lead the organization will be healthier than ever before and will flourish beyond anything the leader could imagine.

Take Jesus for example.  He strategically picks a team of 12 individuals whom He invests in for over 3 years.  During that time of investment, He teaches them truths central to the mission that has been set before them and empowers them to lead out in various situations.  When the time comes for Jesus to ascend to the Father, He looks at his disciples and tells them to go get the job done and then He ascends.  What a great leadership model.  Help encourage people to be leaders and walk them through what that looks like, and then someday when God moves you to another area of ministry, the ministry continues to function and grow because of the leadership that is left once the main leader has moved on.
I mean, that should be the goal for every minister, right?  Work in such a way that ministry is totally not about you and when the day comes for you to move on, the ministry continues.  I tell my students and adults all the time that my prayer is that if I were to ever leave the ministry suddenly one day, the only difference that people would see is that the guy who speaks on Wednesday night would be different.  Now, I know there would be other differences, but you get what I'm trying to say.

Ever since that day I have tried to incorporate that bit of knowledge into everyday ministry.  How can I help empower people to be leaders?  I would encourage you to ask yourself that exact same question.  A couple of pointers if you are serious about doing this:

1. You won't be in the know about every single thing going on, but that's okay.
2. Things won't always be done the exact way that you would have done it, but that's okay.
3. Bad decisions will be made, and you will have to deal with it, but that's okay.
4. You will need to become the biggest cheerleaders for those people that you are empowering to lead, but that's okay.

So what are you waiting for?  Go out and empower people to lead!