I recently finished reading, Paul’s Missionary Methods, edited by Plummer & Terry. It’s a centennial celebration of Roland Allen’s work and its ongoing impact to missional thinking today.
Let me quote a lengthy section from a chapter on the apostle Paul and leadership development:
“The missionary wrongly believes that the time to turn over the church to indigenous leaders – that is, after they have been sufficiently trained – will be obvious to all, but “those who are seeking to gain authority never agree to wait until those who hold it think they are sufficiently prepared.” Filled with the Holy Spirit, the new believers are thus “not so incapable as we [missionaries] suppose.”
Toward this end, Allen argues that the apostle Paul generally “preached in a place for five or six months and then left behind him a church, not indeed free from the need of guidance, but capable of growth and expansion.” Paul accomplished this task by “teaching the simplest elements in the simplest form to the many,” thereby fostering a reproducible process that facilitated rather than hindered planting new churches. The apostle planted and taught the young church, moved on quickly to his next ministry destination and made himself available to minister as needed to the planted church via his writings or his emissaries. The leaders he left behind were not necessarily highly educated; they were simply Holy Spirit-filled men.”
Two things immediately stood out to me in this section, and which called for further reflection. First, Allen contends that Paul’s focus was not on efforts to ‘highly train’ others, but to ‘train so that others could train others who could train others’. The apostle was looking to foster a reproducible process; training in such a way that it was more easily transferable. Second, I recognized how often I can underestimate the capabilities of others because I forget that they, like me, have the Spirit living and working in them.
To apply both of those insights would mean working to ‘release’ people more quickly into ministry and leadership, entrusting their ongoing growth to the Father.
Filed under: Leadership, Multiplication | 8 Comments »
