Investing, Stretching, and Letting Go

Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! One of my favorite parts of Easter is that call and response proclamation between the pastor and the congregation. For many years I stood on the pastoral side announcing the resurrection. Since taking my current role as Synod Executive, I have experienced Easter from the congregation. Easter is not usually the Sunday when a church brings in someone from the denomination to speak, so I gladly join with the congregation to proclaim the good news!

On the day of the resurrection, and for the next forty days, Jesus appeared to many people in many places. Often his words included comfort such as “Do not be afraid,” along with a clear call to action such as “Feed my sheep.” I sometimes wonder what would have happened to the movement of Christianity if Jesus had not spent those additional forty days with his disciples. The temptation for many of them was to return to their previous lives and occupations. Those extra forty days, along with the coming of the Holy Spirit, seemed to make the difference. The disciples moved from hiding and uncertainty to courage and commitment to the mission of Christ.

At the National Gathering, I mentioned that one of the key ways we participate in the movement of Jesus is by equipping the saints. In the early church, and in places around the world where the church is growing rapidly, every believer is a missionary. Every person is released into ministry according to their gifts and calling. When the church relies too heavily on professionals to do the work of ministry, the movement slows. Greg Ogden writes in Unfinished Business: Returning the Ministry to the People of God, “The one issue that will determine the future of the church is whether ministry will remain the domain of the clergy or become the shared calling of the whole people of God.”

If Greg is right, and I believe he is, then we must do everything we can to facilitate this shift. Let me suggest three questions.

Who might you invest in during the next forty days? We often use the forty days before Easter to practice spiritual disciplines. What if we also used the forty days after Easter to invest in others the way Jesus did? We are currently running a discipleship and micro church cohort with KC Underground. Many participants are not paid leaders, including a high school student. When we look for the gifts God has placed in others, we often discover far more ministry potential than we expected.

Where can you help someone stretch? We learn to rely on the Lord most when we move beyond our comfort. When I pastored a smaller church I often encouraged elders to preach. Some thought it was so I could take a break (in reality it took more time to coach them through sermon preparation than it would have taken me to preach myself!) But the growth in those elders was remarkable and the congregation was blessed. Stretching people produces leaders.

Where might you need to let go? Equipping others requires releasing control, ego, and sometimes our preferred way of doing things. Greg Ogden writes that the role of the pastor or leader is not to do the ministry but to equip the saints to do the ministry. That means learning to delegate, empower, and trust what God can do through others.

Jesus spent three years in public ministry, but those final forty days may have been the most strategic. They prepared the disciples to carry the movement forward. Many of us have spent years doing ministry. Perhaps the most important step now is investing that final portion of our energy in encouraging, equipping, and sending others.

I pray that the Lord will show you who he is calling you to invest in during these coming days.

In Christ,
Dana

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