Are you helping your team members reach their potential? (79-1)
Experienced leaders should have a plan to help inexperienced leaders reach their potential. Read Judges 6.This passage tells a story of an ordinary person who followed God. Gideon lived in the time of Israel’s judges (about 1300 B.C.). Because Israel had stopped obeying God and embraced the foreign gods, the Lord had put Israel under Midianite domination for seven years. The Midianite oppression was so severe and cruel that many of the Israelites had moved into caves in the mountains to escape it.
God chose Gideon as His leader to deliver his people from the Midianite rule. No one who knew Gideon would have guessed he would be God’s choice for His leader. In fact Gideon didn’t believe it himself at first. The narrative in chapter 6 demonstrates God’s accommodation to help Gideon understand God’s call.
God prepared Gideon for his role as deliverer by proving His divine power to this young man. God’s willingness to comply with Gideon’s two requests in 6:36-40 built up Gideon’s confidence in the Lord. In the process of developing young leaders, it is important to be patient and to remember that it may take them a while to arrive at the place we would like them to be.
Gideon is, in a way, like every one of us. God commissioned him and God has a plan for each of us. Some view Gideon’s need for reassurance as evidence of weakness. But think about it, doesn’t every leader have doubts and questions about many of life’s great decisions? We pray for God’s help but then doubt the sincerity of His promises to help. We pray for God’s guidance and then waver in our belief that He will guide us. But Gideon was honest about his doubts. He faced down his fears, asking his questions and wrestling with his torments. He succeeded because he was a person convinced by God. And a person convinced by God is a person possessed by God and used by God.
When effective mentoring leaders allow a young leader to be convinced by God’s Word, they have also equipped that young leader to be open to being used by God.
Gideon had doubts. That doesn’t make him different from you and me and he isn’t different from the young leaders we have on your team. Are you open enough with your team that they feel the freedom to voice their doubts? Are you concerned enough about your team that you are willing to help them get answers to the questions creating the doubts? Do you have a good enough command of the Bible to direct your team to Biblical principles that are secure truths that can give direction for a lifetime?
