Making Disciples, Making Leaders--Leader Guide, Second Edition

A Manual for Presbyterian Church Leader Development

Steven P. Eason, E. Von Clemans

• Publisher: Geneva Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781611646351
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The second edition of the widely-used Making Disciples, Making Leaders is a comprehensive guide for creating effective spiritual leaders in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A). With almost two decades of combined experience in training church leaders, Eason and Clemans have designed resources that can be customized to fit your church's unique needs. The book introduces biblical principles for leadership before describing the important task of the nominating committee. Pastors then receive a step-by-step curriculum for a four-session leadership training course.

With updates for the revised Form of Government, Making Disciples, Making Leadersâ€"Leader Guide is the ultimate resource for PC(USA) leadership training. A participant workbook to the second edition, which includes worship aids, handouts, worksheets, quizzes, and study guides, is also available.

Chapter 1

Biblical Principles for Church Leadership

According to Genesis 2:18, the only thing in all of creation that was “not good” was that humanity was alone—disconnected, isolated, having no one to share the burdens and joys of life. Even God apparently does not enjoy working alone. God chooses to work with folk like us. Think of the great leaders of the Bible: Abram, Sarai, Moses, Gideon, David, Mary Magdalene, and Simon Peter. None of these were exactly star players, but God chose to work with them, which is no small detail. When we work alone, it’s not good. Even God chooses to work on a team!

Leadership in the Old Testament

Perhaps the most prominent example of team ministry within the Old Testament is that found in the account of Jethro’s advice to Moses:

¹⁴“Why do you sit alone, while the people stand around you from morning until evening? . . .¹⁸You will surely wear yourself out. . . . For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone. . . . ²¹You should also look for able [people] . . . who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set such [people] over them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. . . . ²²So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure.” (Exod. 18:14, 18, 21, 22–23)

It is not good to “sit alone” (v. 14). How many clergy, ruling elders, or deacons do you think are “sitting alone,” or feel they are? According to clergy burnout statistics, the percentage is pretty high. If the goal, as Jethro states it, is “to endure” (v. 23), then leadership has to be shared. That’s the “Jethro Principle.”

The Jethro Principle does not really belong to Jethro. His comment to Moses was, “If you do this, and God so commands” (v. 23). The implication is that God has observed Moses operating in solo fashion and has assessed that this leadership style cannot provide what is necessary. Thus God instituted shared leadership and team ministry as a provision of grace. The alternative was for Moses to continue operating alone and “wear [him]self out” (v. 18a). The apparent motive behind Jethro’s (and God’s) advice was to ward off failure, to secure success. A record of Moses’s prayer reveals his frustration and hopelessness in operating alone:

¹⁰Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the LORD became very angry, and Moses was displeased. ¹¹So Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child,’ to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors? . . .¹⁴ I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me.¹⁵ If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.” (Num. 11:10–12, 14–15)

This is a “Kill Me Prayer!” In other words, “I’d rather be dead than to be in ministry this way.” Many a person has prayed this prayer.

Moses prayed, and God responded. Rather than kill Moses, God directed him to recruit seventy of the ruling elders of Israel and bring them to the tent of meeting, where God would do the rest:

I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself. (Num. 11:17)

God empowers leadership, but we have to get to the tent of meeting. We have to position ourselves for empowerment. Empowerment is not a program or even a training course. It’s a gift from God. Though we cannot achieve it, we do need to receive it. Our posture for receptivity is critical.

The team was empowered together. God didn’t select the seventy and empower them in the privacy of their homes. Moses selected the seventy, and God empowered them with the spirit at the tent of meeting—together, in one place. Leadership is communal. By God’s design, human leadership is recruited and equipped to participate with God in the task of leading and guiding the people. God’s covenant with Abraham was a sharing of leadership. Israel’s history of judges, kings, and prophets reflects God’s choice to work with others toward the common goal of retrieving a lost humanity. In the Old Testament, God clearly chooses not to act alone, and God does not intend for human leadership to act alone either.

Leadership in the New Testament

If I had been Jesus, I would have definitely chosen to work alone! The disciples seem to have been in the way. But God chooses to work on a team, even if, and perhaps especially when, the team is dysfunctional. There’s hope for any session!

Christ called twelve students. He intentionally recruited each one of them. All of them were busy. None of them had previous skills in being a leader in the church. They weren’t volunteers. They were disciples, students, people going to school to obtain skill and knowledge. They weren’t clergy. Jesus took fishermen, tax collectors, political activists, and businessmen to build his team. He took people with the potential for learning. He saw that potential in them and called it forth, even when they didn’t see it themselves. Jesus charged the twelve with the task of leading the church, but always in the context of partnership with him.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . . and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always.” (Matt. 28:19–20)

A prime example of the team ministry philosophy of Christ is found within the story of the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30–44). Jesus has taken the disciples away to rest, but, when they get out of the boat, they are met with more demands and needs. The disciples immediately draw up a plan to dismiss the crowds because of the late hour and the probability that food could be found in nearby villages.

Note Jesus’ response to their plan: “You give them something to eat” (Mark 6:37a). Everyone sees the obvious impossibility of this task. Nevertheless, Jesus puts the privilege of ministry on the twelve. They respond with apparent sarcasm: “Are we to spend a year’s salary on this group?’ (v. 37). Jesus replies: “How many loaves have you? Go and see” (v. 38). Jesus looks to them to provide the base resources from which a miracle will grow.

Once they surrender their meager resources—five loaves and two fish—to Christ, it is by the power of God that provisions are made for the five-thousand-plus people who are present. Christ takes the resources, looks beyond the human realm to heaven, and then “bless[es] and [breaks] the loaves” (v. 41a); but the twelve gathered the resources in the first place.

Notice Jesus’ next move. He gives the multiplied fish and loaves “to his disciples to set before the people” (6:41b). Jesus uses the disciples, in team fashion, to serve the people. Again, he pulls his followers into the experience. Jesus’ floating the food out to the folk would have been quicker and more impressive. Using human resources took a lot longer, but the disciples/students would have missed the experience had he not.

When all had eaten, they took up twelve baskets of leftovers. That’s one basket per disciple. Their own personal needs were provided for in abundance, just as they provided for others. But Jesus makes number thirteen on the team. The others had to feed him out of their own baskets. Imagine that!

Some may read this story and marvel at the ability of Jesus to multiply fish. An underlying and perhaps more significant lesson is revealed if you watch the interrelatedness of Christ with the world (the five thousand), with his disciples, and the disciples with the world. The story begs us to ask of ourselves: What are our resources? What do we have to offer that Christ can use?

Implications for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

As Presbyterians, we ordain people to the ordered ministries of deacon and ruling elder. They are called to ministry. We lay hands on them. They take vows. We are a team by God’s design. It is a gift! We need to utilize it. Working alone is neither biblical nor effective. Working on a team is energizing and life-giving. It’s a gift!

Chapter 2

Choosing the Team—The Nominating Committee

Who in our churches is qualified to serve as deacons and ruling elders? Getting the right people is half the battle. What if we took the nominating process more seriously? Here’s the kind of people who need to serve:

To those called to exercise special functions in the church—deacons, ruling elders, and teaching elders—God gives suitable gifts for their various duties. In addition to possessing the necessary gifts and abilities, those who undertake particular ministries should be persons of strong faith, dedicated discipleship, and love of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Their manner of life should be a demonstration of the Christian gospel in the church and in the world. They must have the approval of God’s people and the concurring judgment of a council of the church. (Book of Order, G-2.0104a)

That’s a tall order—for all of us. Without God empowering us with the Holy Spirit, none of us is qualified to serve any ministry within the church. Yet flawed as we may be, we are called to service. Incredible!

There is a human dimension to the call process. You, like Moses, are charged to choose the people whom you deem to be qualified to serve. How are you doing that? We have found that most churches spend very little time in the nominating process. A committee is formed, names are collected, candidates are chosen, calls are made, and the slate is submitted to the congregation. That’s about it. Would we get better results if we did more?

Strengthening the Nominating Process

Do you nominate, elect, train, and ordain in the fall of the year and install the new class in January? There are pros and cons to that timeframe. Here’s another option.

September to December is packed with activities in most churches. There are fall start-ups, the stewardship campaign, budget setting, Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas. Add weddings, funerals, baptisms, presbytery meetings, and you get the picture. Fall is a cluttered time to be nominating, electing, and training leaders. Not to mention, in January you’re changing the guard right in the middle of your program year.

What if you were to change the terms of service to begin in June? Now you can elect leaders at a January congregational meeting, train them during February–April, examine them and celebrate an ordination/installation service in May, and they begin their term June 1. You move it out of the clutter and end the “fruit-basket turnover” in the middle of your busiest season.

To make this shift, your current outgoing class will need to serve five more months (January–May). When we made the change, some in that class could not continue through May, so we simply left those seats open. It’s a brief transition time. Changing your class terms, the work of the Nominating Committee could follow this pattern:

January

The Nominating Committee is elected at the congregation’s annual meeting.

February

First meeting: Do a Bible study using our chapter on “A Biblical Model for Team Leadership.” Read Exodus 18:17–18, 22–33; Numbers 11:10–12, 14–15, Ephesians 4:11–16. Discuss some of the following questions together:

1.Why do you think God would choose to use humans in shared leadership?

2.How would you compare what we look for in ruling elders/deacons with what God asked Moses to look for in choosing his team? (see Num. 11:10–12, 14–15)

3.Do you feel we are calling people to ministry, or are we just filling slots?

Allow time for the...