Ministry is Initiated by Leaders

Scripture: Acts 13:1

Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Insights: There are five men listed in today’s verse who were considered to be prophets and teachers.  These men represent the leadership of the church of Antioch.  It is my presupposition these men were the ones who initiated any kind of ministry campaign or activity.  Many of my leadership assumptions have come from John Maxwell and his courses and books.  For example, some of Maxwell’s adages are, “Everything rises and falls on leadership,” “People buy into the leader, then the vision,” “Trust is the foundation of leadership,” and “Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course.”  I list these Maxwellian statements because I believe these five men represented these truths in the Antioch church.  Leaders are going to initiate ministry and it will become contagious to the rest of the body in time.  As more and more people buy into the vision, then momentum begins to build.  As the momentum grows it becomes like a snowball going down a steep hill.  It picks up speed and size the further down the mountain it rolls.  Now this idea of ministry being initiated by the leader makes me ask a question.  What if you are in a ministry context and you have a poor leader who will not engage in ministry, what do you do?  Let me again point you to a Maxwell resource titled The 360˚ Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization.  The premise of this resource is to help a person who is not the “official” leader to lead others.  God has called all of us to ministry and He has not given us the latitude to make an excuse for our lack of engagement based on a poor leader in an official capacity.  We need to pray for these unengaged leaders.  We need to start conversations with others and influence them into ministry opportunities.  We need to be intentional about serving the Lord.  The absolute best scenario is when the titled leader actually will lead, but even if he will not, someone must rise up and lead others into ministry because ministry is initiated by leaders.  Beloved, it is my prayer we all become more intentional about engaging a lost world for Jesus.  Let us share His love with someone today.

Questions:

1. How willing are you to follow your church leadership into ministry opportunities?

2. If you have a poor leader who is not leading you into ministry, are you willing to step up and be the kind of leader that motivates others to do ministry?

Prayer: Father, You are the ultimate leader.  Guide my life in such a way I become a better leader to motivate people to take action for Your kingdom.  Amen.