XIV) ENTRUSTING THE TASK TO OTHERS

The Minister of Music and I were talking yesterday about delegating. I recalled what it was like being at a small church where I was responsible for coming early, turning on lights, checking the heat, doing a sound check, picking up any trash, checking classrooms for neatness, and so on. I was very detail oriented and I wanted to make sure that everything was just right before the first member or visitor came through the doors.

In a small church with seven classrooms it wasn’t all that difficult. It felt good to be able to be in control of the details. After going through all the facilities and making sure everything was just right, I could go to my office and relax as I prepared myself for the morning service. In a larger church, with many more rooms, a much larger and more complex sound system, many thermostats, light switches and toilet paper rolls, I realized that I had to be able to entrust various tasks to others. Even now, there are some things that I should let others do, and I plan to do just that—someday.

In Luke chapter 10, the first 23 verses we read of Jesus sending seventy disciples ahead of Him into various cities, towns and villages to prepare for His arrival. Jesus entrusted them with an important task. In leadership it is vital that we learn the mentoring paradigm. Simply stated, it is reaching, teaching, and releasing. We reach out to and bring into the organization those individuals who show promise and potential for a given role. Then we teach them, train them, equip them to do the task, to perform the mission, to further the vision, and finally we must release them to do what we have trained them to do.

Jesus had been training these disciples. They had heard Him teach, had seen Him work, and had been given authority in His name. Jesus sent them out in pairs and in so doing multiplied His ministry by 35 times. They could go to 35 more cities with the message of the kingdom. Jesus had been preparing them for this time.

Notice how Jesus sent these disciples out. First, He gave them a message. He told them to preach a simple message, “The Kingdom of God is near.” He did not expect them to be doctors in the Law, or scholars debating the fine points of Scripture. He simply told them to preach, “The Kingdom of God is near.” When we send our people on a task, we should give them very clear and achievable goals. We should send them on a mission that we feel they will have a good chance of success at. If we send them out on hopeless tasks they will become demoralized and frustrated. We should set them up for success and as their confidence grows, so should the challenges.

Second, Jesus sent them out with a clear mandate. They were not there to gain public popularity, or to curry favor with public officials. They were there to preach a simple message. If they were received and accepted, then that was good. They were to heal the sick, to be a blessing, and to stay on message. They were to accept whatever food they were given and to be thankful for it. But if they were rejected in a town, they were to preach the message anyhow. In fact, the people who rejected them were perhaps the very ones who needed this message the most.

When we give a task to those whom we have mentored, it is always helpful if they know what is expected of them. When I was living in West Virginia I cut brush, trees and weeds from right-of-ways on the mountainsides. We were given sickles and told to start cutting. But the foreman never told us how far to cut, or how long we would be cutting. We never had a goal or direction. We were just told to cut. I didn’t last long on that job. Years later I was hired for a position where I was given an office and a title, but I was never given any clear instructions or direction about what was expected of me. I had no way to gage progress or to evaluate success. It was a frustrating experience and one which I quickly resigned from. People want to know what is expected and they need to have a benchmark by which to gage their progress and success.

Last, Jesus gave them imputed authority. He said in verse 16, “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." In other words, these disciples were representing Jesus and they carried with them His authority. When we have trained and mentored a person and then we entrust them to a task, they need to have the assurance that we are behind them. If we aren’t willing to back them up with the authority of our leadership position, then maybe we haven’t adequately prepared them for the mission.

I’ve seen leaders who were willing to take the credit for their trainee’s successes, but who left them high and dry when they stumbled. I had the negative experience of working in a situation where I was given difficult tasks to complete, tasks that would challenge status quo, but then when there were complaints the leadership failed to back me. If I made a mistake then the leader should have addressed me and let me know what I did wrong. He should have shown me how to correct the mistake. If I was correctly carrying out instructions given to me from higher up, then when there were complaints the leadership should have stood behind me.

Jesus told the disciples that they were going in His name and in His authority. When they came back from the mission they came back rejoicing, they came back encouraged and motivated because the mission had been a success. Jesus then began to rejoice with them. Not simply because they had seen miracles, but because they were members of the team, their names were in the book. We need to affirm our people for being a part of the team and celebrate successes with them on a regular basis. They should feel that they are vital members of the team and should take pride in being part of an organization with powerful mission and vision, a vision and mission that they stand behind and support because they see themselves as integral to the completion.