www.bible.com/reading-plans/13696/day/4

Let’s be honest here. Being a leader is hard because all eyes are always on you, just waiting for you to make a mistake. The Bible gives the way good spiritual leadership works well and that is to designate others to help out. Mentoring them and guiding them and praying about who should hold positions of responsibility is the task of a good leader. I have seen churches fall because the pastor would not let anyone help out, keeping his finger in every pie and not really trusting the people to be led by God. That is an exhausting and ineffective way to lead! Jesus appointed the twelve disciples to go out among the people, but He didn’t follow them everywhere. He waited for them to return and report to Him, or perhaps for the people around them to let Him know what was going on. I remember the story of the healing that the disciples could not accomplish. Jesus stepped in when they fell short, not before they had even tried.

We can learn a lot about spiritual leadership by watching Moses and his interaction with Joshua and then Joshua and his interaction with the seventy elders. At some point, if we are called to lead any kind of ministry, we will have to relinquish control to God and to others. We have to be willing to step back if we are to be good leaders. As I am aging, it has been difficult to watch younger believers step into positions that I used to hold years ago. But it is the way of life; we do, we teach, we mentor and we step back, trusting that God’s working His plan in the lives of others just as He has done and is still doing in ours. I am grateful for the years that God has allowed me to serve Him, in teaching school and at church. But I am also learning to be grateful that there is a new generation ready to take the baton that God is offering them.