See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop . . . ~ James 5:7b
READING: Hebrews 5:12-14
People can only grow so fast. When we are raising up leaders to plant churches in several villages and towns it is easy to get impatient when they don’t understand or mature quickly enough for us. We want to see results!
After we eat a meal we need time to digest and allow the nutrition to produce the growth and energy in our bodies. Likewise, we must feed our spiritual sheep on a regular basis, then allow the God-ordained process to take place within them. Giving them too much of the Word or too heavy of concepts too quickly, without providing the processing time, often leads to spiritual indigestion and reduces their desire for the things of God.
Training of leadership for a church plant must take into account the ability of the people to receive the word. During one period of time in our career on the mission field we had young people in intensive training for four months at a time in internship. We found that often the sheer volume of information was not assimilated into their lives and was therefore only head knowledge. Or they would be sent out to assume the leadership of a church in the river villages and fail miserably because they were not of proven character, but just full of head knowledge.
We need to prepare the future church planting leadership for the long term, teaching them the Word of God and church planting principles, and mentoring them in their daily experience to develop and prove their character and test their motivations. They need to put into practice what they have learned and be given opportunity to apply it.
Heavenly Father, Thank you for your patience in our growth in maturity and please help me to have patience with those I am training. Amen.
Dynamic Church Planting International (DCPI) “Equips Leaders to Plant 5 Million Churches Worldwide.” Learn more
