Trusting the Lord
There was a self-perpetuating youth organization called Lutheran Brethren Youth Fellowship. I was an officer in the Central District LBYF. Rev. Elroy Vesta was our advisor. My friend Tim Anderson was the president, and when he graduated from college, I found myself in that position. I had been mentored for the task by Elroy and Tim. For the next couple years I was responsible for organizing rallies and retreats for teenagers and young adults in what is now called the CLB Central Region. Until I got too old.
I didn’t have to quit, but I knew there would be other opportunities for me, and it was time to unleash new leaders. I had noticed at our events a high school student from Clearbrook, Minnesota, who seemed enthusiastic and gifted to serve. He was young, but I had once been that young myself—four years earlier. So, as I neared graduation from college, I approached Paul Larson to take over the LBYF duties, and he did so admirably… Yes, that Paul Larson.
The Church has always done this. Unleashing new leaders is a God-ordained, on-going process. Acts 14:31 reports, “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord…” The missionaries raised up new leaders, then moved on to God’s next mission for them. In Acts 6, the Apostles ordained the seven Deacons to take responsibility for the thousands in the Jerusalem church. How old were the Apostles then? Thirties or forties? How old were the deacons? Some must have been in their twenties.
How are we doing today at unleashing new leaders? This isn’t about age, because individual Christians can become leaders at any age. But then again, we can make it about age. This also isn’t about opportunity. Calling and mentoring young leaders is happening in many ways, for example, IPoint, Tuscarora, and the planned Rooted program. Potential leaders are knocking on the door of opportunity all the time, whether they are fully aware themselves or not, and whether the established leaders hear it or not.
So, if age isn’t the issue, and the right vehicle for developing new leadership isn’t the issue—what is the issue? How about trust? Trusting a younger generation than yours and mine to serve in leadership now. Trusting the Lord enough to loosen our grip, and share responsibility. Why wouldn’t we? Perhaps we are so focused on accomplishing our mission that we are simply inattentive to raising up and unleashing new leaders. But the mission isn’t ours; it is God’s, and it is to be owned and shared by all of us.
LBYF is long gone, but my old advisor Elroy is still mentoring and encouraging new leaders in his own way. Paul went on from LBYF president to other opportunities for service in the kingdom. Today, as CLB President, he and synodical leadership are issuing the call: Unleash new leaders.
Rev. Brent Juliot is Contributing Editor of F&F magazine and Pastor of Living Hope Church in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
I didn’t have to quit, but I knew there would be other opportunities for me, and it was time to unleash new leaders. I had noticed at our events a high school student from Clearbrook, Minnesota, who seemed enthusiastic and gifted to serve. He was young, but I had once been that young myself—four years earlier. So, as I neared graduation from college, I approached Paul Larson to take over the LBYF duties, and he did so admirably… Yes, that Paul Larson.
The Church has always done this. Unleashing new leaders is a God-ordained, on-going process. Acts 14:31 reports, “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord…” The missionaries raised up new leaders, then moved on to God’s next mission for them. In Acts 6, the Apostles ordained the seven Deacons to take responsibility for the thousands in the Jerusalem church. How old were the Apostles then? Thirties or forties? How old were the deacons? Some must have been in their twenties.
How are we doing today at unleashing new leaders? This isn’t about age, because individual Christians can become leaders at any age. But then again, we can make it about age. This also isn’t about opportunity. Calling and mentoring young leaders is happening in many ways, for example, IPoint, Tuscarora, and the planned Rooted program. Potential leaders are knocking on the door of opportunity all the time, whether they are fully aware themselves or not, and whether the established leaders hear it or not.
So, if age isn’t the issue, and the right vehicle for developing new leadership isn’t the issue—what is the issue? How about trust? Trusting a younger generation than yours and mine to serve in leadership now. Trusting the Lord enough to loosen our grip, and share responsibility. Why wouldn’t we? Perhaps we are so focused on accomplishing our mission that we are simply inattentive to raising up and unleashing new leaders. But the mission isn’t ours; it is God’s, and it is to be owned and shared by all of us.
LBYF is long gone, but my old advisor Elroy is still mentoring and encouraging new leaders in his own way. Paul went on from LBYF president to other opportunities for service in the kingdom. Today, as CLB President, he and synodical leadership are issuing the call: Unleash new leaders.
Rev. Brent Juliot is Contributing Editor of F&F magazine and Pastor of Living Hope Church in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
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