It has been a fascinating argument raging across America concerning the inexperience of certain political candidates. The discussion began with Barak Obama several months ago and is now squarely centered on Sarah Palin. The great question is “How much experience is required to lead?”

For the most part, we know the benefits of experience: wisdom, stability and confidence, among others. But it’s made me wonder if there aren’t benefits to allowing the inexperienced to lead. Change is the mantra of both political campaigns but change is not necessarily a value in and of itself. What about innovation, energy or redefinition? How much are these worth to entrenched institutions?

This discussion is fascinating to me because the same questions seem to apply to the American Church at large which is mired in self-analysis concerning effectiveness (see the “Reveal” study, the emergent church movement, and rampant moral failures) Our 21^st century American Church is wrestling to remake itself as it faces major generational shifts in leadership over the next few years.

Learning While Leading

Creating opportunities for young and inexperienced leaders is one of the most effective tools we have to continue to make the church dynamic and relevant. It is extremely challenging to do because it demands accountability, it involves some risk, and it can be a bit messy, but it is indispensable to a church that is committed to generational longevity. Every good organization knows that one of the secrets to long-term success is the constant development of young talent. Our churches need to embrace this idea in a more intentional and direct manner.

I’m convinced now more than ever that we need to allow people to learn while they lead. Learning while leading is probably closer to the model Jesus used with His disciples than anything we’re doing now in our traditional American churches. I admit that there are good church plants and other youth oriented movements happening around the country but not enough partnerships that include a multi-generational approach to transitioning leadership. If you think about it, we’re at the crossroads of transition for many of the mega-churches that were started in the late ‘70’s and ‘80’s as they approach the 25 or 30 year anniversary mark. But this question of experience and leadership goes deeper into the development of our church cultures.

Jesus Culture

Luke 9 provides stunning insight into this concept.

At the beginning of the chapter, Dr. Luke explains that Jesus had called the twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases. He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. But what follows in this chapter is particularly telling. After verse 6, “they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.” In the midst of this miracle activity, we find the less-than-perfect, bumbling disciples asking Jesus to send the crowds away to get some food. Jesus challenges the disciples to give the crowd some food themselves, to use what they have (5 loaves and 2 fish) and mix it with their faith. Jesus’ compassion leads to 4,000 people getting fed.

A few verses later we see Peter wanting to camp out on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus is revealing himself to Peter, James and John so that they will have confidence to face the difficult days ahead, but all Peter can do is stick his foot in his mouth by wanting to create a shelter to house the glory. Luke actually describes how disoriented Peter was by telling us that he didn’t know what he was saying.

Later in this chapter, we observe the inability of the disciples to cast out a demon. Jesus comes to their rescue, casts out the demon and then coaches them to increase their spiritual authority by prayer and fasting.

After this, an argument breaks out among the disciples over who is the greatest, and we find Jesus chiding them to become great by becoming the slave of all. The disciples aren’t getting it. Finally, James and John, the ‘sons of thunder,’ ask Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven to destroy those who were not especially welcoming to Jesus. These are the same guys who were healing people everywhere, right?

These guys were raw and untrained, but Jesus gave them power and authority to do the same things that He did. Jesus was allowing them to learn while leading.

On the Job Training

Many churches have a difficult time embracing this idea. Their systems and structures are built on teaching, learning and absorbing information. There’s only one problem: Information is not what the kingdom of God functions on. First Corinthians 4:20 says “the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” Learning and growing in Christ has a teaching element, but it must be paired with powerful real life experiences where God’s kingdom is shared with others.

It’s no wonder new believers are typically the most excited about sharing the good news of the gospel with their friends. They’ve just discovered the wonder of a relationship with the God of the universe. The world is new. Their faith is transforming their outlook on life. Anything is possible for these young followers of Christ! They have experienced the greatest of all miracles and they just have to tell someone else about it. Should we forbid them from being used by God within them to speak into the lives of others because they are not adequately trained? Absolutely not. The question then is what do they need as immature believers who are in training?

They need relational discipling. They need coaching and encouragement. They need correcting and redirecting. But this happens best in the context of doing ministry together with mentors, fathers and disciple-makers who will walk through life with them. When are these inexperienced young disciples capable of leading? Sooner than you think.

Biblical Next Gen Leadership

Consider Jeremiah, the young prophet (Jer. 1:1-10), Timothy, the apprentice (1 Tim. 4:10) and David the shepherd boy (1 Sam. 16-17) who were all encouraged to lead in spite of their youth. David was despised by his older brothers when he came to the front lines of the Israelite battle with the Philistines. He was the young man who could not fit into Saul’s armor, and instead came up with the strategy for defeating Goliath. We need a new paradigm for allowing young disciples of Christ to lead in our churches while learning under the tutelage of older and mature believers.

Jesus was just such a leader who modeled his philosophy in front of his young disciples while eating with tax collectors and sinners. He wasn’t the leader who was closed off from the public or from his own disciples. He wasn’t just showing up to teach and then disappearing behind the curtain. He walked through the crowds with his disciples, stopping along the way to heal, instruct, challenge and feed.

Risky Business

Our own tendency is to demand more training, more coaching, and more instruction for our young learners until we finally feel comfortable with them. Then they can do something significant for God. This paradigm may keep our churches from the energy; enthusiasm and innovation that we need to stay effective in our quickly changing cultural landscape.

Some Christians have surrendered to the fear and insecurity of this information based ministry mindset. They want to know all of the answers before the questions are even asked. But Jesus told us that He only said what His Father told Him to say, and that’s pretty impressive when you realize that He was fully divine. If anyone could have spoken on his own about what he knew, it was Jesus. But, He didn’t. He listened to his Father and then spoke His words. He acted on what His Father instructed him to do.

Relational Antidotes

Translation? Relationship is the best context for knowledge transfer. Even Jesus didn’t function primarily from a knowledge base in his life and ministry. He spoke and acted based on his relationship with his Heavenly Father. That relationship directed him and gave him confidence to do the marvelous works that his father had in mind for him to accomplish.

This is the hunger that most young leaders have…mentors who will invite them into leadership with relational coaching, encouragement and care. The big question for aging Baby-boomers is will they let go and allow young learners to join them in leadership. I don’t think Millenials really want to be separate (that may be the Boomers projecting their experience from the Jesus Movement), I believe one of the greatest needs Millenials have in our divorce ridden culture, is the desire to belong.

There is value in inexperience. But it costs something. Are we willing to pay the price to get the value?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.