By Bulus Silas Bossan
What our International Executive Team and Regional Directors do is very costly. But is it worth it? Take a closer look, and see what you think. We nurture leaders in dozens of countries around the globe as they grow, both in their spiritual maturity and also in their leadership skills. The continual development of present and future leaders is vital to sustaining movements of the Gospel, and it is one of our key contributions.
What is the Biblical basis for this type of leadership? When we dig into Scripture, we can see that both Paul and Jesus modeled this pattern for us in ways that are clear and a bit surprising.
Have you ever wondered why Paul and his pioneering team didn’t stay long in any one place in the course of planting the Gospel and developing communities of believers? Leaving the young communities of believers at the times he did was not always due to persecution; it was a matter of principle and strategy. For example, Acts 19:20-21 says, “In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia.” Leaving the young communities was not primarily dictated by the need to take the Gospel to other places. Paul, a good spiritual parent, would not have risked jeopardizing the welfare of the young believers in pursuit of new mission fields. So what made him do it?
Paul was like Jesus, who left the custody of God’s purposes in the hands of people in their late teens and early 20s after being with them for just about three years! And he made his purpose very clear; as we read in John 16:7, “It is for your good that I am going away.” What was good about Jesus’s departure?
We believe that it has to do with the growth of the community of believers and the development of the leaders of the movement, among other things. Growth in leadership is best accomplished through responsibility, shared experiences, mentoring and formal content. Jesus’s departure and the relocation of Paul’s pioneering team were calibrated to motivate the emerging leaders in that context to effectively assume responsibility.
But Jesus didn’t leave the communities of faith that he had founded to themselves: “Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you… when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth... He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you” (John 16:7, 13-14). He also sent the 12 to plant and sustain movements of the Gospel. So did Paul. From the beginning of his second missionary journey until he died, he and his team dedicated themselves to traveling to visit the young communities of believers so they could teach, coach, encourage, network, and resource… so that “I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain” (Philippians 2:16).
We believe the types of mentoring and coaching that Paul and his team provided are critical aspects of growing momentum in the grassroots movement of the Gospel advancing through the nations. Mentors build community, develop deep friendships as foundations for influence, ensure relevant formal content, and use coaching to help emerging leaders succeed in their responsibilities.
To give an example of the practical work of the International Executive Team and Regional Directors in this area, in a September 2021 joint meeting of these two teams, we discussed how we may bring intentionality in using responsibility to develop leaders. Among other topics, we discussed:
Developing a bench of future leaders. We envision a plurality of leaders. We also want to encourage diversity in different types of leaders, including pioneers, local leaders, and others, with the understanding that their collaboration as they share life and responsibility is a key part of their development.
Equipping mentors to ensure that increased responsibility is truly developing each person. We aim to clarify what success looks like in that given responsibility and help each leader move towards it. Through good questions and effective feedback, we seek to provide coaching and help growing leaders find answers to their issues in the Scriptures. We also continually identify and address developmental needs in a given responsibility, helping leaders grow through failure.
Providing development opportunities fitted to each leader’s season of life (which is especially pertinent to women leaders).
Maintaining a mindset that some developmental needs and responsibilities will apply to the whole group, while some will be individualized.
Just as Jesus and Paul developed leaders in various capacities by entrusting them with responsibility and providing them with coaching, the Navigators International Executive Team and Regional Directors believe that the right kind of responsibility, at the right time, with effective mentoring and coaching, makes a big difference in the development of leaders. Ultimately, this endeavor to intentionally develop our leaders is crucial to sustaining the advance of the Gospel to and into the nations.
