4 Necessary Traits for Next-Generation Leaders

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Juan Sánchez
Let me say a word of welcome to those of you who are in the room. And to those of you who are watching online right now. My name is Juan Sanchez. I’m the senior pastor of high point Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. And I’m also a member of the gospel coalition Council. And it’s a it’s a pleasure to be here with you. Let me take a few moments to see. Is there anyone here that’s traveled from out of the United States? Anyone here that came to this conference from outside the United States? Alright, where did y’all come from? What are Rico, fellow Puerto Ricans, when you come and pick up one of these books? This is discipling by Mark Devere. I’ll talk about this in just a minute. This will be just a book giveaway. How many of you have been pastoring for a year or less? pastoring for a year or less? Okay, one book at a time. All right. So there you go. How many of you have been pastoring? Five years or less? Five years or less? Stand up? Stand up? All right. 123456. Wow, I have two books. So I’m gonna see that will work. Oh, sorry about that. And then was there someone over here? Yeah. See, they didn’t want to say anything now. Five years at the same church. All right, there we go. Thank you, sir. We do want to talk about discipling. But in a very focused fashion. And you’re here is, as they say, when you board the plane, we’re going to talk about developing leaders in the church, the next generation leaders in the church. If you’re in the wrong place, now is the time to deplane and to go to the right breakout, but we’re glad that you’re here, in person and online. And we’re gonna work through some things really, really fast. So buckle your seat belts, we’re gonna go through some scriptures, I’m gonna establish some foundations, and then end up talking about some practical steps that we can take in the church. Let’s go to the Lord in prayer and ask for the Spirit’s help. Father in heaven, we thank you for this time, thank you for allowing us to gather for those of us who have been able to gather in person, what a great joy and privilege to gather his brothers and sisters in Christ, singing praises to our Lord, and hearing the Word of God preached. Father, we do not take it lightly, that we were not meant to be alone and isolated. And it’s a great joy for us. We pray for our brothers and sisters who are not yet able to meet with us. And for our brothers and sisters throughout the nation who are not even able to meet together as churches. Father, would you eradicate this virus? Would you allow us to gather together as churches in totality, sooner rather than later, and protect us from this virus as we navigate through hallways and airplanes, and even back home, our Lord our God, now give us grace, to understand your word, and to think about your design for leadership in the church. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. So once again, welcome, I want to talk about developing leaders in the church. And where I want to land is what I call the leadership formula. I wrote a book detailing all this, and how we think through this in our church, I think it might be at the bookstore. But I’m gonna run through some things really fast, because I’ve done a lot of work in there. But what I want to talk about is, first of all, the pattern of leadership in the Scripture, when I came to high point Baptist Church almost 16 years ago now, I remember meeting with the elders. And in the interview process, they asked me what what would be your greatest concern about high point Baptist Church? And my, my response to them was my greatest concern is in this room.

Juan Sanchez
My greatest concern is the elders. How the elders go, so will the church. Also, if we’re united in heart and mind and vision and voice, it won’t matter what crises are happening in the congregation. We can lead them through it. But it doesn’t matter how great things look in the church. If we’re not united in heart and mind and voice, then the church itself will end up fracturing. And we see this in the Scriptures don’t we? We see how is Israel’s King went so did Israel when they had good kings. They did well when they had For kings they did poorly. But the pattern of leadership, I think is established in Genesis one, we’re gonna go to a lot of scriptures, and I’m not going to comment on all of them, I might just highlight some of them. But I do want to start out by reading Genesis 126, through 28. This is where I think the pattern for leadership was established. Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image and the image of God, He created him male and female, He created them, and God bless them. And God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Now, there’s a lot to unpack as far as the image of God. But my point is simply this God created us as His image, we are God’s representative rulers on the earth, male and female. We are equal as image bearers, but we have distinct roles, as we see in Genesis to the man was created first, and the woman was created to help the man. And God’s original intention from the very beginning, was to show his rule and his reign through humanity through a faithful humanity, who would reproduce the image of God and spread it until the whole earth was filled with the glory of God. And that’s what we see here, isn’t it. And what we see is God’s image, I would just kind of highlight a number of things that the image entails number one, it entails sonship. Number two, and entails priesthood. In Genesis two, we realize that the man was created and placed in the garden to guard it and to keep it that’s priestly language. It’s what the priests did, they they kept guard and the presence of God that tabernacle in the sanctuary. So sonship pre ship, but also kingship. And so I think what the pattern that we see here is that God had created humanity for the purpose of sonship, kingship and priesthood in a covenant relationship, for the purpose of mission. And so that’s what we see here that the leadership pattern here is male and female equality is image bearers, but male leadership and female help. We see that in the marital relationship, don’t we? But But here’s the point where I want to go with this. The point is, the pattern is established here of a royal priesthood.

Juan Sanchez
And what we see is a series of when there’s sin, God does not give up on this, he brings another atom. And so when there’s sin, sin runs rampant. God judges, he literally cleans the earth with water. And he starts with a new atom. Noah, is sin increases in Genesis 11. God judges he divides people and disperses them. What do we see Abraham, a new atom. And from Abraham, he creates Israel, which is a corporate atom, Exodus 19, a royal priesthood, a holy people. And so this is the pattern that’s established, God has established has designed from the very beginning to display his rule and reign through humanity through a faithful godly humanity that represents his rule over the earth. The leadership problem is sin, isn’t it. And in Genesis 316, we see this problem, particularly as it relates to the man and the woman. In verse 16. To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing and pain you shall bring forth children, your desires will be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. And so what we see is this, this male female relationship where there’s equality as image, but distinction in roles that are complementary, we see now a desire for control, the man seeking to control and put the woman in her place, and the woman seeking to control and to drive the man. And this is not unique to male female relationships. But the leadership problem is one of, I think, two extremes. I don’t want to reduce it to that. But one extreme would be domination, tyranny, overbearing, and then the other extreme is passivity. So this is the leadership problem that we see in Scripture. And of course, in Genesis 315, we see the promise of good news that the woman will bear a child that will resolve Sin issue and crush the serpent’s head. And we know that to be Jesus, and Jesus is the last Adam Wright is the true son, the true priests and the true King, who establishes a new covenant, and creates a people on the basis of this new covenant for the purpose of mission. And what is that mission? To reproduce the image of God unto the whole earth is filled with the glory of God. Isn’t that glorious? Just to think about how constant God is how he’s established patterns, and he is the one by his word who shows us. And so Jesus Christ died and rose again, he ascended to the right hand of the Father, and he has been given ruling authority over all things, he is KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And as a true image of the invisible God. Jesus is at work by his word, and by His Spirit, to create this people, this new covenant people who are to reflect the image of God. Now, look at Ephesians 411. With me, and what I want you to see is that this Jesus, who is the true image of the invisible God, is creating a corporate atom. Just as Israel was a corporate atom, Jesus is creating a corporate atom, what I mean by that he’s creating a royal priesthood of people that represent his rule on the earth. And that image him that display who our God is, what he is, like, what it’s like to live under his rule. And in Ephesians, 411, we see that the Ascended Christ has structured his church for this mission. I’m going to pick up in verse 11. And he gave the apostles and prophets, they’re the foundation of the church. They’re the ones that have received the revelation of the Father that Jesus is the Christ, and evangelists. These are the ones that spread this gospel message, and the shepherds and teachers. Why, to equip the saints, for the work of ministry, for building up of the Body of Christ, until we attain the unity of the faith, and the knowledge is of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. You see what God is doing? The image was lost in the fall, it was distorted. And in Christ, God is restoring the pattern.

Juan Sanchez
We are being transformed from one degree of glory to another into the image of Christ. The whole purpose of what we see here in Ephesians, four, the ministry of the word is a goes out, it calls the dead to life, it gathers the elect, and it works to transform them to look more and more like Jesus. How do we do that? Verse 16, verse 15, rather speaking the truth in love, we’re to grow up in every way into him who is ahead into Christ. So all that to say that the mission hasn’t changed. God is seeking to reproduce his image into the whole earth is filled with the glory of God. In Christ through the preaching of the Gospel, Jesus is building his church, gathering people and conforming them to the Emperor to his own image to the image of God. And the Ascended Christ has gifted the church shepherds by which he leads his church. The Ascended Christ has also given us the qualifications for this kind of leadership. And so So what we see is that is Paul says to Timothy in Second Timothy, two, two, he is to identify he’s to look for faithful men who are able to teach others also, in the New Testament that able to teach others also is a is a like a key phrase that indicates pastors eldership. And so we have some qualifications here in First Timothy three. And I’ll trust you to go through this on your own because our time is running quickly. But I want you to notice in First Timothy three, one through seven, the Bible emphasizes character, over competency and over charisma. The Bible emphasizes character over competency, or charisma. Again, let me just read, First Timothy three, one through seven. And I want you to listen, just listen as I read, for the emphasis on character. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the Office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach. The husband one wife, sober minded self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. There’s that phrase that distinguishes elders or pastors from deacons. Not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well with all dignity keeping his children submissive from someone does not know how to manage his own household. How will he care for God’s church, he must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace into the snare, a snare of the devil. So notice how the Bible emphasizes character over competency, or charisma. And we saw this back with David right when David was anointed, you know, little David, his brothers are passed over. And God tells Samuel Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. One of the great dangers that we see throughout ministry and the moral failures and, and the ministry crises that we see, throughout evangelicalism, you have to wonder if competency or charisma was elevated over character. And so it’s important as we think about raising the next generation of leaders, that we don’t fall prey to the danger or the trap of being in press with sparkly speech or magnetic personalities, and we pass over character. But secondly, not just character, conviction. Leaders must be convictional. Beware of sentimentalism, or the fear of man, what I mean by sentimentalism is something that on the outside appears like love, but is missing truth. We must speak the truth and love, we must lead with love and truth, we cannot separate love and truth. But the fear of man is a terrible thing in leadership, and we all probably struggle with it. But we want to raise up leaders that are people have conviction. In fact, look at Titus one, Titus, one, nine through 16.

Juan Sanchez
In Titus one, we read these words. Sorry. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught that there must be a knowledge of Scripture, there must be an understanding of Scripture and ability to apply scripture, to difficult situations and to hold firm to it. So that purpose, he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine, that’s a positive aspect, but also to rebuke those who contradict it. So our leaders within the church must be people of conviction. And as we’re raising leaders and church planters and pastors, they must be men of conviction, not men, who are who are tossed about by every wind of doctrine, or by every cultural when they must be able to stand firm and hold firm in the faith. So character, secondly, conviction. But thirdly, care. It’s important that leaders care for the congregation. I take this from First Peter five, in first Peter five one, Peter says it this way. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you. Me, just say a word. Raise your hand if you’re a pastor. Are you? Okay? Great, wonderful. Brothers. Let me just say a word of encouragement to you. pastor the church, God has called you to, not the church you wish he had called you to? Write? Don’t Pastor Mark Devers. Church don’t Pastor John Piper’s church. Don’t Pastor John MacArthur’s church, Pastor the flock of God among you get to know the people get to love the people get to care for the people smell like the sheep, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, but not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you not for shameful gain but eagerly not domineering, there’s the leadership problem over those in your charge but being examples to the flock. I think this is part of what it means to live above reproach were to live our lives in such a way that we should be able To tell the our congregation, follow me as I follow Christ, follow my husband, Dean, as I follow Christ, follow my parenting is I follow Christ, follow my walk, as I follow Christ, we’re to live our lives in such a way that we live as examples. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading Crown of Glory. One of the things that’s important for us as we look out in the congregation for what we call elder trajectory, guys, is we want to make sure that we’re identifying guys that love the church. One of the indications they love the church is they actually gather with us, they actually gather with the church, when we gather with the other indicators that they love the church, and they care for the church on their own. They don’t need a title. But they’re discipling other men. They’re caring for members in the congregation. They love the widows. And, you know, they love the senior adults, they love the young people. They’re going out of their way to encourage other people. And it’s important for us to see that as we’re trying to identify elder trajectory guys, that we want to see them eldering before they’re actually named as elders, and that this becomes a key component that they’re actually caring for the Church of Christ. And then number four, competency. So the Bible emphasizes emphasizes character over competency, but it doesn’t completely discount competency. Right. And the competency piece, what I mean by that is able to teach that’s the key phrase that we find in scripture. But I want to take you to to Timothy to 24 through 26. Because there’s also a manner in which we’re to teach.

Juan Sanchez
Two Timothy two, beginning of verse 24, Paul says it this way, in the Lord’s servant, think he’s talking about, again, pastors here, the Lord servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone able to teach there you see that phrase, when you see that phrase, I take Paul to be talking about elders, or pastors or bishops. Those three titles are interchanged, used interchangeably in Scripture, able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness, God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may have they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. Now, later in, in the third chapter, Paul is going to warn, to avoid such men, who are always learning but never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. So this is the dilemma of leadership, isn’t it? It’s, we have to be patient. We have to be kind, compassionate, we have to shepherd that God may lead some to repentance. But then there are some people that when we realize they seem to be always learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth, they’re divisive, they should never be in leadership. Avoid such men, I actually take that to mean church discipline to to follow these people in church discipline, and they continue down this path. So one of the dilemmas of leadership is that we’re to be competent, but not just competent in theology in the scriptures, we have to be competent in that. But I think it means more than that, we have to be competent in our ability to teach, with gentleness, teach with patience, teach with love and compassion. And one of the dangers here is that, you know, there are those people that they know the Scriptures in and out, they know theology, and they love theology, and they love crowds, but they don’t love people. They love the idea of getting in front of a church and teaching, but they don’t love people. And so what we see from Scripture is this idea of the qualifications or character, conviction, care, competency. Now, here’s what I would propose to you. Look at First Timothy 522 through 25. Here’s what I would propose to you. These qualities, character, conviction, care, and competency, up to be observed over time. Now, Paul’s already warned us to this right. Don’t elevate someone It is a young convert. But I think there’s more to be said than just that. Here’s my argument for slow processes in in elevating people to leadership. First, some of the five beginning verse 22, do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others keep yourself pure. I’m going to skip to verse 24. The sins of some people are conspicuous going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later, I received a call one time from a pastor in town. And he gave me a call is a new church plan, you know, they were somewhat fragile. It’s a one I just met with this guy. And he will either be an amazing elder or a wolf. And I don’t know which so I’m sending him to your church. And I say, well, thanks a lot. And the man came the very first Sunday shook my hand and the words out of his mouth after his name, I want to be an elder. He had a desire, and we didn’t discount that, in fact, we sought to be patient with him. But the slow processes over time, revealed the fact that he was in love with the idea of teaching and preaching, actually just preaching. And he just wanted a platform to preach. And he didn’t really want to care for the flock. So my fellow brothers, let me just encourage you to take advantage of slow processes, slow processes will eventually reveal sin. That’s not present there. But also, slow processes reveal good things to look at the rest of verse 25. So also good works are conspicuous and even those that are not, cannot remain hidden. So this is let me give you the leadership formula. Here it is. Character, plus conviction, plus care, plus competency over time, equals

Juan Sanchez
credibility. Okay, this is not, I just take this right from Scripture. And we’ve put this in this kind of formula, it’s not a mathematical formula. If you’re one of those that it must be mathematical, then you can do it this way. Character plus conviction Plus Care Plus competency, put that in a parenthesis, and then multiply that by time, and that equals credibility. I’m a music undergraduate, not a math, I avoided math with every fiber of my being. But if you’re one of those people, you can rewrite it that way. But here’s the point. As we think about identifying leaders in the church, and raising up the next generation of leaders in the church, we have to, we have to maintain true to Scripture that emphasizes character, over competency and charisma. We want, we want men of conviction that know the word, but are also able to teach it and to rebuke. But we want men who love the church, and that are able to teach faithful men who are able to teach that’s, that’s what Paul says in Second Timothy two, two, and observed over time, that equals credibility. So here’s how it should look like it. This is what it looks like in our church, by the time that we present a candidate for eldership to the congregation, they shouldn’t be willing to say, Oh, of course, that makes perfect sense. Because the congregation has been observing over time. So how do we do that? How do we leave a legacy leadership legacy, as Paul urges Timothy and to Timothy to to let me give you seven practical ways to do this, these not magical they’re not the only ways these are just some helpful ways. I think you could probably add to them or tweak these or make these better. Mark Devere in the book discipling has a can’t remember if it’s the last chapter and appendix on raising up leaders, he has some similar points. So here are the ones that I want to give you number one, model, model faithful, loving, biblical leadership and authority in the church. By your leadership, lead by example, model faithful, biblical loving leadership and authority. Remember the leadership problem? Either domineering, controlling, or passive. We want to show people we want to show our congregation that authority is a good thing. One of the things that I think this last year has caused, and maybe you sense it in your churches. One of the things that I think this last year has cause for congregations, it has created a culture of suspicion of authority. We’re suspicious of governing authorities, we’re suspicious of medical authorities. And that culture of suspicion of authority has crept into the church. One of the ways that we fight that is by modeling faithful, loving, biblical leadership not domineering. Loving, by example, willing. And so that’s number one, number two, and move here a little bit more quickly.

Juan Sanchez
cultivate a culture of discipleship, cultivate a culture of discipleship. One of the things that you see about the qualifications of an elder is that there’s nothing extraordinary. There really is nothing extraordinary about the qualifications of elders. Basically, it’s to be a faithful Christian, to live above reproach, and to be competent to teach. So that competency to teach is what distinguishes the Office of Elder from the Office of Deacon otherwise, it’s virtually the same kind of character, conviction, care, and competency in other ways. But that ape ability to teach is what distinguishes elders from deacons. And so we want to cultivate a culture of discipleship. We want to have an Ephesians 411, through 16 ministry, where the word is preached, and that word that is preached goes to the congregation, the congregation receives that word. And then they speak that word to one another, whether it’s through Sunday school classes, or through to small groups, whether it’s at home, mom and dad, with the kids, whether it’s a group of college students, this word, the word that is preached to the whole congregation, it is like the rudder of the ship of the congregation, it’s going to shape the congregation and we want that word to go out. And then we want to equip our people to speak that word to one another in love, is Martin ever says in his book discipling, to help one another, follow Jesus, that’s what we’re doing. I would simply add this, to help one another, follow Jesus, so that we would look more like Jesus. I mean, that’s the point, right, the image of God, that we would reflect the image of God. So we want to develop a culture where we’re discipleship is normal, people are getting together individually, one on one in small groups. However, however you do that, and that book, discipling, I would highly recommend that you pick up a copy. It’s like a practical handbook to develop a culture of discipleship in the church. Number three. Always, always, always have your radar on for potential leaders.

Juan Sanchez
Don’t wait to look for leaders, when there’s a leadership deficit or a leadership need. You have to always have your radar on looking out for those potential leaders in the church. Use the leadership formula as a guide to help you see who’s doing what who’s caring for the church, who’s discipling people have character, people have of conviction. And then to those of you who are pastors, here’s what I would say to you. We do this in our elders meetings, every elders meetings, we just have a list of guys that are on our radar, and we just talk about them. And we want to make sure, okay, these guys are on our radar, which one of you elders is meeting with him? So we want to make sure that there’s an intentional culture of discipleship in the church, but that the elders are leading by example, identifying these guys. Now, if you are a pastor, you’re the lone pastor of a church. And you’re all alone. This is so vital that you identify young men, and they could be very, very green. But you begin to invest in them and spend time with them. Read with them, show them how to read the scriptures. But pastors, you need to disciple elder trajectory men, invest in those men. Number four, invite them into your life. Invite them into your life. There are informal ways of doing this, Hey, let’s go grab some coffee. And just want to just want to talk to you see how you’re doing. Hey, let’s go. Let’s go take a walk. There a lot of informal ways. Are you free for breakfast or you know, you may get some lunch, I just want to get to know you a little bit better. Invite them into your life, invite them into your home. There’s some formal ways of doing this as well, whether it’s a formal internship that you have in the church and look, sometimes these things sound very complicated, but but it’s not. It could be a young college student in your church and you Just invite Him into your life and say, Hey, would you be willing to just over the next six months, I have a reading list that I’d like to develop, you want, just work that with me, let’s just do that together. And we can meet on Mondays at you know, whenever just to discuss the reading. And just to, you know, invite might them into your life. An internship can be more formal as well, where you bring young men into the church, and they’re observing what you’re doing in the church, you can even bring them into your home, if you’re able, I just asked my wife if we can do this. My youngest is 18. She just graduated from high school. And my wife said, Okay, we’ll do that, but, but give me six months, I just want to know what it feels like to be just the two of us in the house. And she said, and after that, great, we’ll do that. And I’m excited about that. We’ve never done that before. I don’t know how to work, we may never do it again. But the idea of having some young men living with us in a house that used to be I have five daughters used to be filled with girls. I mean, it’d be a whole new learning experience for us. But there are different ways of doing that bringing young people into your life, or pastoral assistantships, identifying an elder trajectory guide someone that desires to pursue ministry. And you just hire them to be a pastoral assistant, you know, to do some administrative work and around the church, but then also to observe how the leaders lead in the church. That was number four. Number five, equip biblically qualified leadership candidates, equip, equip, equip, train them to handle the biblical text. One of the ministries that’s excellent at this is the Charles Simeon trust. If you’ve never attended a Charles Simeon trust workshop, I would highly recommend it when it comes to your area, they just teach you how to rightly handle the Word of God. And pastors, you go to it. And then you take those principles. And you take some men through it, we did this on Sunday afternoons for about a year or so we just worked through First Timothy. And so we we open it to all the men in the congregation. So all the men who want to learn how to write the handle the Word of God, we broke them up into small groups. And in on Sunday afternoons from four to five, we just had little small groups that work through the biblical texts, just trying to equip guys to, to rightly handle the Word of God. We also did it one time with a book study. And we just an hour before our elders meetings, we just invited all the guys and what was in my mind is, okay, our elders meet on this night of the week. And I want to see what guys were available that night of the week. And so we just, we just did a study of, you know, a theological study that night, we broke the guys into tables, I would teach from the front, and then they would discuss among the groups, and we had different elders lead each of those tables. There are lots of ways that you can equipment to rightly handle the biblical texts and to understand theology, but then give them opportunities to teach, give them opportunities to teach. It might be a Sunday school lesson, maybe just one or two, observe, and then provide some feedback. It could be a devotional for the youth it could be teaching at children’s ministry can be just teaching one lesson and to give feedback, I guarantee you, if someone can teach children, they can teach adults. I think teaching children is the hardest thing to do. I did my student teaching in an elementary school and a middle school, and middle school was a piece of cake. But those children require your attention the whole time. And so it just expose, expose the people that you’re training to these opportunities, it could be a Sunday evening devotional. It could be a nursing home, that’s looking for somebody to come in and preach on Sundays. I mean, there’s a variety of opportunities. One of the things that one pastor does is he calls up the funeral home and says, Look, if you ever have someone that that doesn’t have a pastor, let me know. And we’ll provide someone to preach that funeral. So just be creative in the different opportunities that you can expose people to, and then observe and give feedback, observe and give feedback. This cultivates a culture of humility. When you give godly encouragement and receive godly encouragement and when you give godly criticism and receive godly criticism. You know, I think one of the one of the missing factors in churches and in church leadership is the ability to give godly criticism and to receive godly criticism. You know, too many people are just crushed by any kind of negative critique. If all we do is Pat people on the back, we’re actually not helping them grow and mature. And so we need to learn how to give godly encouragement, how to receive godly encouragement ourselves, and how to give godly criticism and to receive God and criticism ourselves. And the way to do that pastor is just to you be the example. You know, maybe have a group of people talk about the service, and then talk about your sermon, and you’re just standing, you’re sitting there standing there, or whatever. And everyone’s talking about the sermon offering you critique, and you’re receiving it well receiving it in a godly way. You’re not defending yourself, you’re not responding, you just say,

Juan Sanchez
thank you. Thank you for that. That’s helpful, or I didn’t realize that. So number six, delegate responsibilities. You have to trust and give people opportunities for leadership to be exercise. And this requires risk. It’s the same in parenting, isn’t it? What we want to do is we want to create an environment where it is safe to fail, where it is safe to fall on your face, where it is safe to, to give a devotional and completely missed the point and say, Hey, brother, thank you for your effort. Now, can I share with you what this text is about? Or just ask questions? Okay, how did you arrive at that point, and just slowly Shepherd, but but we have to, we have to delegate, we have to give authority away, we have to give away our leadership in our authority when possible, and be willing to take risks. And then number seven, affirm or send out biblical leaders, either affirm in your congregation, or send out from your congregation, faithful men who are able to teach others. Also, this has to be a regular activity in the life of the church, you want to continually raise up leaders in order to leave a gospel legacy. One of the things that I’ve told our congregation from the very beginning is just the reality that I’m I’m preparing high point for life after one. Okay, you don’t, you don’t need one to be forever, but I want them to be prepared for life after one. One of the ways that I do that is I bring preachers to come in and preach in my place. The month of July, we have a July preaching series where we just bring guys that are much better preachers than I am so that the congregation can realize, okay, once Okay, he’s good. But he’s faithful, and he’s able to teach, so we’ll keep them. The idea is we don’t want to create a dependency upon us. A sign of poor leadership is that when you leave the things deteriorate and fall apart, some people like that, but but the reality is, is we have not prepared our people when we leave. They don’t know what to do. So we have to continually raise up leaders to leave a gospel legacy because this was Paul’s concern. Is he right? Second Timothy, his life was done. His ministry was over he had run the race. And he’s telling Timothy, Timothy, you got to pass this on to others. To others who are faithful who are able to teach others also, because you’ll be there one day to remember in chapter two, he tells him the same thing from the race, fight the good fight. So brothers, if the Lord Terry’s, we will be gone. So what are we doing right now to prepare our churches for life after us. So we want to leave a gospel legacy, but also this will serve your church. It will serve other churches as well. Because sometimes the Lord moves elders, right moves families to other cities or other churches in the city. And you will have equipped faithful men who are able to teach others also and bless other churches, whether it’s in your city or somewhere else. And thirdly, this will bless church plants. This will allow you this, this leadership pipeline will allow you to be generous in church planting. Because there won’t be a leadership deficit. You won’t be afraid of sending elders off with a church plan, because you’re continually raising up elders, brothers and sisters. Thank you for your time. I hope this has been helpful. And I hope this has been encouraging to you. Listen to Paul, as he talks to Timothy. We must identify faithful men who are able to teach others also that we may leave a gospel legacy so that this gospel will continue to be proclaimed until Christ returns Let me pray. Father and thank you for thank you for your faithfulness in revealing these truths to us. And now Father, I pray for my brother pastors, my fellow brother pastors, I pray that you would encourage them. I pray this as an encouragement to them. And Father remind us that slow and steady and faithful wins the race in grant us patients in Jesus name, amen. God bless you