It’s been said that everything rises and falls on leadership.
I think Jesus understood that. As the time approached for
him to return to his Father, Jesus knew that developing
those who would lead his church after
him would ultimately bring glory to his
Father. The prayer in John 17 suggests
that by the night before his crucifixion,
Jesus felt he had fulfilled this crucial
part of what his Father had sent him to
do. He had prepared a group of leaders
who, directed and empowered by his
Spirit, would change the world.
Leadership is often treated like some
mysterious quality or mystical power, but
when you get right down to it, effective
leaders do two basic things. They shape
an environment, and they develop peo-
ple. Robert Banks and Bernice Ledbetter
write that leadership consists of “aligning
people by translating vision and values
into understandable and attainable acts.”
Jesus shaped a new culture for his new
community, the church. He showed them
what to do, he taught them how to do
what he did, he did it with them, and then
he sent them out to do it on their own. All
disciples of Jesus are called to use their
gifts, abilities, and resources in ministry.
But like Jesus, effective Christian leaders
never do ministry alone; instead, they en-
gage in ministry alongside those they are
developing in order to multiply the impact
of the ministry beyond their own personal
limitations.
The authors of the modern bestseller
The Leadership Challenge report that
people around the world say they are
willing to follow leaders who are hon-
est, competent, inspiring, and forward-
looking. They also write that those who
lead others in pioneering, world-chang-
ing journeys typically do so by model-
ing the way forward, inspiring people to
see a preferred future, challenging the
process, enabling others to act, and en-
couraging the hearts of their followers.
From this, we conclude that effective
leadership flows from a blend of per-
sonal character, strategic thinking, and
relational intelligence, as well as some
specific skills.
That shouldn’t be news to us. On one
hand, the New Testament epistles list
leadership among the gifts of the Holy
Spirit for building up the church and
extending the kingdom of God. On the
other hand, the Gospels and the book
of Acts demonstrate that people of any
age, education, temperament, cultural
background, or gender can, under the
influence of the Holy Spirit and leaders
who invest in them, grow to become ef-
fective leaders who develop other lead-
ers (2 Timothy 2:2).
Today, we live in times of breathtak-
ing global change. The center of the
Christian movement is shifting east
and south, and exciting new opportu-
nities are opening up for the Gospel to
reach more and more of the unreached
people groups of the world. They will be
reached in large part by cross-cultural
workers from places where OMS mis-
sionaries helped the sons and daugh-
ters reach their own. Now, workers from
these same countries are reaching the
lost in places where Western missionar-
ies cannot go, while also infusing fresh
spiritual life and energy into Europe and
North America as they minister among
their countrymen there. Who will lead
the thousands of new churches spring-
ing up and the movements going from
anywhere to everywhere to reach a bil-
lion people and beyond?
At One Mission Society, we believe
that the power of the Gospel, in the hands
of disciple-makers, will transform all na-
tions. We believe that God has called
us and our partners around the world to
catalyze multiplying missionary move-
ments through the development of godly,
competent cross-cultural leaders. We be-
lieve that in these days, there is no higher
strategic priority for us as an organization.
We long to be able to say to the Father,
as Jesus did, “(We) glorified you on earth,
having accomplished the work that you
gave [us] to do” (John 17:4 ESV).
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