Presbytery Core Value #11

To fulfill our calling we must develop and empower leadership at every level.

Every leader learns this the hard way: you are just one limited person. You are just a man, just a woman. You can only touch a few lives and do a few things. When Moses tried to be "The Man," the only leader of a redeemed but unruly Israel coming out of centuries of slavery, he burned out. His father-in-law, Jethro, watched him work, and gave him wise advice: "What you are doing is not good.... The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.... But select capable men from all the people...and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.... That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this,... all these people will go home satisfied" (Exo. 18:17-23). Leaders multiplied at every level: the only way to lead the people and get them home to the promised land. So it is into the New Testament. Paul urges Timothy, his young apprentice who was a leader in the next generation: "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others" (2 Tim. 2:2). To fulfill our calling -- to make disciples of the nations until Jesus returns -- leaders must be replicated at every level of ministry. Because ministry takes place at every level of life, we need leaders there, too: trained to serve, unleashed to lead, and able to develop new leaders.