Leadership in the Community

I have the blessed privilege of saying, "I am a SON of Pastor A. Glenn Woodberry and a product of the Greater Mt. Olive baptist Church in OKC. All of us had to have a start somewhere. No one just arrives. Joshua and Caleb needed Moses. Elisha needed Elijah, John Mark needed Barnabas, Paul needed Gamaliel and Timothy needed Paul.

No man is an island and no man stands alone. We all need someone. Too many times churches have died off because of a lack of preparation for training the next generation for service. Either saints who were unwilling to pass the baton or even not allowing someone to run beside them just to learn how to handle this race.

Many of us are one if not two major funerals away from our churches being in major upheaval because we have not properly trained our "waiting in the wings workers". We have made some people TOO valuable in the church and allowed some to hold the church hostage because we have not properly prepared the next leaders.

II Timothy 2:1-3; 3:14-17; 4:1-5 gives us a beginning outline that we should
DEVELOP, DISCERN and DEPLOY
2:1 uses the term SON. Paul speaks of a development that has taken place from the time Timothy was converted at Lystra that has moved deeper than a normal relationship.
All preachers birthed into a ministry are not SONS, in fact some are illegitimate children birthed from wrong sources such as Deacons, members, family pressures, etc but everyone that has Rev. behind their name is not a Son of the Pastor.

To be called a Son implies a Relationship, a Kinship and a Fellowship.

Paul encourages Timothy to Discern- find, choose some faithful men who can teach others. How do we pick people for leadership? It is not based on money given, level of influence, whose family they belong to but can they be trusted, are they teachable, and can they train others in the Treasure of the Word of God.

Paul then seems to express to Timothy, it's time for deployment, in vs 3 to "endure" join with me, share in suffering" You have been deployed to serve. Soldiers don't get to pick when they want to fight or where they get to fight. Soldiers have to stand a post, guard a wall, and be faithful until relived. No where do we have to understand, just obey the orders given you.

It's always a challenge for me as I am still trying to develop my skills to preach and teach to teach Bible lessons when the Sunday School writers skip from chapter to chapter to chapter but the outline I will use to try and bring all three chapters together is:

Enlarge the Family II Tim 2: 1-2

Entrust the Faithful II Tim 2:1-2

Endure the Fire II Tim 2:3

Engage in the Fundamentals II Tim 3 14-17

Equip the fold II Tim 4:1-2

Encourage the Followers II Tim 4:1-2

Entrench when people fall away. II Tim 4:3

I am excited to share this with the teachers in teacher's meeting. We pray that God will be pleased.