1. Spiritual Gifts and Missions
2. Spiritual Gifts and the Missions Field
3. Spiritual Gifts and Missions Teams
4. What is the ‘Apostolic’ and Why Is It Important?
5. The 5 Essential Elements of an Apostolic Leader
6. Indicators of an Emerging Apostolic Leader

In this series, we’ve discovered what the word “apostolic” means, given the 5 essential elements of an apostolic leader, and discussed potential indicators of an emerging apostolic leader.

In this final post, we’ll talk about how to partner with and develop these proven or emerging apostolic leaders.

We’ve previously given some very practical steps for how to network with believers, build relational trust, and filter for a potential NAV through a “NAV Process.” This includes introductory meetings, discerning if they fit the NAV profile, vision casting, participating in ministry together, and finally piloting a training with them and their group.

Hopefully by the end of this process, you have 1-3 good candidates to partner with. As you partner together, keep the 5 essential elements and the indicators in mind to help you discern if they’re truly apostolically gifted.

But what happens if it turns out that they aren’t apostolic? What then?

Then you’ve spent time either learning about what you’re really looking for and / or you’ve found a local partner who has the vision to pioneer and multiply but may need some help in certain areas to see breakthrough. Either way, it’s time well spent. We’d encourage you to shoot for an apostolic leader because it’s a gifting that God clearly uses to pioneer. If He grants it, great. But any and all gifts can be used for the Kingdom. Any believer can be given a vision for multiplication and may have a crucial role in it. 

You’ll still likely find other faithful, vision-driven local believers that want to pursue multiplication – you should absolutely work with them! It could be that one of them has latent apostolic giftings and needs more time for those things to emerge. And no matter what, these local believers will have much greater effectiveness as cultural insiders in making disciples than we will. They may eventually help you find an apostolic leader that leads to breakthrough by training other believers or through the harvest, like how Paul raised up Priscilla and Aquila as leaders in Corinth who eventually found and developed Apollos. We believe that it’s best if the apostolic gift is involved somewhere in the movement work – through the insider believer, the outsider partner, a movement coach, or through the harvest. He will lead you to these types of people in His timing! Until He does, keep praying, looking, and partnering with faithful disciple makers towards multiplication.

Partnering With an Apostolic Leader

Here are some things we would encourage you to do with an emerging or established apostolic leader that you want to partner with. Some may happen earlier or later in the process of ministry, but all are beneficial in pursuing multiplication, identifying emerging leaders, and developing and using the apostolic gift!

Pioneer Together. As apostolic leaders are called to pioneer among new peoples and places, the first step is to do pioneering work together! Whether entering and preparing new areas through prayer walking, sharing with the lost, or catalyzing others through training, apostolic leaders will thrive in a pioneering environment. You can follow a MAWL (Model-Assist-Watch-Launch) process if you’re working with a potential apostolic leader who has never engaged in pioneering before. You’ll quickly be able to gauge their faithfulness, capacity, and gifting in harvest and catalyzing activities like seeing a fish in water! During the early stages with an emerging leader, you may need to set the parameters and guide a little bit more, but the apostolic leader will intuitively and earnestly start to generate more of the initiation of pioneering activities. Encourage them to pick the target people or places to start harvesting, the groups to train, the tools to use, and help them to gradually refine the vision that the Lord has given them. The goal is to empower them to grow into their gifting, not for them to become cogs in our ministry machine – so empower them by letting them take the lead and make decisions!

Train in Multiplication Principles and Practices. Being in the pioneering environment will feel natural and exciting for the apostolic leader, but pioneering activity does not necessarily equate to multiplication activity. Train and coach the apostolic leader in multiplication principles and practices. It doesn’t need to be a formal classroom setting to train; simply sitting together in a tea or coffee shop and talking through these things with a potential apostolic leader is great! Walking through the apostle Paul’s journeys is probably the best tool in showing a combination of principle and practice. Telling stories of movement, reading case studies, and introducing apostolic leaders to movement sources can help broaden their vision from simply expanding the Kingdom to catalyzing a multiplication movement. It can also be really helpful to show a process of how multiplication can happen, whether the 4 Fields or T4T or DMM processes. We use this Multiplication Cycle that combines elements from different streams of movement to help our partners understand how to pursue multiplication. For the sake of simplicity, we generally lean towards biblical training and tools over movement-jargon types of curriculum, though both are needed and helpful.

The apostolic leader will differ from other types of leaders when engaging in a vision for multiplication – they’ll believe it can be done. It’s the faith gifted to an apostolic leader to believe that God can and will do this miraculous work in their field, where many others may feel resistance or hesitance that it can happen. As with the first point – try to empower the local leader to make decisions about what ways are best to apply these multiplication principles in their context. As the cultural insider who is a foundation and DNA setter, they will likely be far more effective in choosing multiplication practices for their context after some initial guidance.

Focus on Apostolic Functions. Clinton’s Leadership Commentary on 1st and 2 Timothy has a number of very helpful articles around the Apostolic Function and Gift. He highlights 7 functions in particular:

1. Start New Ministries
2. Appoint Leaders
3. Establish Works (help newly started works to develop and grow)
4. Intercede for Works, both new and old
5. Combat Heresy
6. Resource New and Old Ministries
7. Test New Ministries for Validity

The last 3 functions – combat heresy, resource ministries, test validity – are probably later stage functions as opposed to the first 4 focused on starting new ministries, appointing leaders, and doing the work of intercession.

As we said in the post about indicators, an apostolic leader is likely to be a jack of all trades, multi-gifted in order to help the new ministry or work get off the ground. In a given week they might end up training, evangelizing, interceding, teaching, preaching, healing, shepherding, administrating ministry, leading worship, cooking food for the group, taking care of a believer’s kid, driving between multiple locations, answering the phone, helping a business, problem solving a strategic problem, encouraging a hurting believer, and 100 other things. As a leader of an emerging or multiplying work, they’ll have full plates! Your job as a Barnabas is to help them to focus. Spinning too many plates is one of the big pitfalls we see for apostolics, as their competency and the breadth of their vision drive them to end up doing everything.

As with any believer with a spiritual gift, they’ll be most effective when they can spend the majority of their time serving out of their gift instead of other things. Of course there’s some percentage of our time where we have to do things that we’re not gifted at – but honoring the Lord by releasing responsibility to other leaders is the role of an apostolic leader. Help them focus on starting new things, clarifying vision, investing in leaders, and interceding for the works! That leads us to…

Collaborate with and Release Authority to PESTs and Other Gifts. Again, one of the main pitfalls for an apostolic leader is to get caught up with all the needs of a new work and try to overcontrol everything by doing everything themselves. A critical component of an apostolic leader is to identify, appoint/recruit, develop, and release new leaders! Not just other apostolic leaders, but other Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers especially. These other gifts are greatly needed to establish and deepen the new works that the apostolic leader has started. Our post on the “Apostolic” covers some of the different functions of APEST leaders in a movement.

Many times a headstrong apostolic leader can butt heads with other types of leaders, especially shepherd/teachers who are particularly drawn to shepherd needs and grow maturity through teaching, which can feel slow to an apostolic leader. But a mature apostolic will be able to see their own limitations and know that Scripture teaches that we are all one body in need of each other (1 Corinthians 12). The apostolic really, really, really needs the other members of the body. A good way to see a ministry start quickly and burn out just as quickly is to leave it under the control of a fast-moving apostolic that never appoints other types of leaders to focus on health and depth.

Withdraw, Reflect, Listen, and Plan. With the apostolic leaders’ high proficiency, numerous responsibilities, and big vision, it’s likely that they will work themselves to the bone and straight to burnout. You as the Barnabas can play an intensely important role simply by reminding them and creating opportunities for them to do as Jesus did – withdraw to be with God (Luke 5:16). Many times, we’ll ask our partners to come meet us somewhere away from their place of ministry so that no one can knock the door down looking for them. We tell them to shut off their phone, and give them the first half of our time simply to rest and pray and spend time with God alone. We might spend the second half debriefing, hearing reports, training, and planning for future ministry, but our role is primarily to make space for them to rest in the Lord. In the whirlwind of busy ministry, the apostolic leader desperately needs to find the quiet space to reflect, listen to the voice of God, and plan and prioritize where they need to invest their limited time. These times are critical for them to evaluate and refine the vision they’ve received from God. When we cease to do this, we are doing ministry out of man’s power instead of God’s – and we’re guaranteed to fail one way or another.

Pulling our apostolic partners out of their ministry schedule for just a couple days of quiet, rest, and listening can make all the difference in seeing breakthrough in multiplication. But more than the strategic and ministry pieces, the apostolic leader desperately needs to focus on their intimacy and relationship and abiding with God. He cares so much more about our being than our doing. Allow them time and encourage them to hear from God for themselves and what He wants for them, not just the ministry.

Be a Friend and Encourager. Lastly, as the apostolic leader jumps into an emerging and thriving ministry, the list of problems, crises, needs, difficult people, conflicts, and burdens increases exponentially. Any ministry, and certainly pioneering ministry, can be extremely isolating and lonely for leaders. Not many will understand what they’re going through.

They need to first and foremost surrender those things to the Lord and find their motivation and peace in him. And they need a friend. Someone to listen to their frustrations, to be thoughtful in loving them, to point them to Jesus, to encourage them to persevere.

There’s a reason why Barnabas was called the Encourager. What a role he had in encouraging, supporting, empowering Paul. Without Barnabas, we don’t get the book of Acts.

I think Paul could call Barnabas a lot of things – mentor, advocate, co-laborer. My guess is when I get to ask him, he’ll first call Barnabas his friend.

How to Develop an Apostolic Leader

All of the above things will be great for an apostolic leader’s development in learning through doing. But there’s other ways to help them understand more about the apostolic gift that God has given them and use it effectively.

Study the apostolic. There’s plenty to study in the New Testament about the apostolic gifting, function, and ministry – basically anything about who Paul is or what he does will be informative. The book of Acts reveals much about the pioneering aspect and his letters give more insight into his own development, perseverance, and heart in being an apostolic leader. If you’re able, we’d recommend diving into some of the resources we listed in the 5 essential elements post. The more you can understand what the original model of the apostolic gift looks like, the better we can imitate it. It can also be helpful to read books and biographies about other pioneering leaders.

Interact with other apostolic leaders. If you’re able to, interact with other apostolic leaders. It’s hard to describe this but an apostolic leader is probably more used to resistance, hesitance, rejection from others around them when they begin talking about big vision and multiplication. Others can feel intimidated by their intensity or just the scope of their work. But when they’re in a room with other apostolic leaders that they trust, there’s a freedom and an excitement in getting to talk to others who get you. Others who won’t frown at their big ideas but encourage them and share their own experiences and ideas. It can make them feel like they’re not crazy – at least when they’re in a room of people as crazy as they are!

A couple of disclaimers in this – just because someone is an apostolic leader doesn’t mean they don’t feel insecurity or deal with comparison. Naturally when apostolic leaders gather the focus will be on ministry. But it’s a smart idea to bring the focus on God. Highlighting shared experiences and sufferings will draw out vulnerability and increase trust before you start trucking ahead on ministry topics. Creating safety in the room before jumping in to discussing ministry can help the interaction. Secondly, although we’d encourage apostolics to interact with other apostolics, there can be some intense friction in working together. We’ve had mentors advise us that apostolic leaders can probably agree or work together at a high, 30,000 foot perspective (let’s generally share tools, or have a semi-frequent coaching meeting together, or strategically parse out people and places to focus), but can step on each others’ toes when working closely together. The apostolic leader probably wants some freedom to pursue their own ideas, and working with another highly opinionated, highly confident leader might cause some problems. This isn’t always the case but just something to be aware of.

Find apostolic mentors. This is similar to the previous point, but finding an older, more experienced apostolic leader to mentor you, especially in personal development, can be a gold mine. Hopefully this mentor has experienced and gone through many of the pitfalls and problems that an apostolic leader faces and you can learn from their wisdom. Again, the apostolic leader will want freedom to try new things on their own, but they also will value a mentor’s wisdom and shared understanding of their experiences.

Develop other leadership skills. Since the apostolic leader has so many functions in establishing a new work, it can be helpful for them to also develop leadership skills that will support their gifting. Clinton lists out several including strategy, planning, change agent, leadership styles, motivating, inspiring, mentoring, organizational skills, team building, identifying and developing leaders, and communication skills. Even though an apostolic leader may do these things intuitively, equipping them with skills and frameworks to boost their efficiency is a good idea. Or focusing on shoring up weaknesses that they may have like shepherding skills can be beneficial.

Develop intimacy with God. Whether as an apostolic yourself or in helping your apostolic partner – focus on developing intimacy with God. Learn to hear the voice of God for everyday direction and decision. Being surrendered to God is an essential element for an apostolic leader, so practice the process of surrendering and receiving from God. The pioneering ministry has an avalanche of challenges and trials that we’ve noted repeatedly. At times, Paul mentions feeling “so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Cor. 1:8). If God grants fruitful multiplying ministry, the challenges will also multiply accordingly.

Without this critical foundation of intimacy with Christ, the apostolic leader is guaranteed to fail. The Enemy is prowling to take out those that will greatly expand the Kingdom through isolation, sin, discouragement, and spiritual warfare of many kinds. Guard yourselves in His armor and through intimacy with Him. Fight to not allow ministry to become your idol. Fight to have Philippians 2 humility in the midst of ministry fruit.

It’s an example for all believers but especially the apostolic leader that we see Paul’s own dependence on the Lord grow over the years of his ministry, from being the least of the apostles (1 Cor. 15:9), to the least of the saints (Eph. 3:8), to the foremost of all sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). He constantly prioritized his intimacy with God, withdrawing to be with God as we see our Savior did.

If God’s pattern throughout Scripture and history is to raise up apostolic leaders to pioneer the least reached people and places for His glory, then there are people He has prepared in your field.

I firmly believe there are in- or near-culture believers that He intends to use to finish the Great Commission. If you’re reading this, and you have the heart to find these modern-day “Pauls,”’ then I believe you can be a Barnabas to them. Ask the Holy Spirit, have a heart to serve, have eyes to see these people, and He will lead you to them. Remember, it only takes one.

I’ll finish this series with an exhortation to the apostolic leader reading this or the Barnabas who will empower a national apostolic leader. Sometimes we feel the temptation to cut corners or skip over inconvenient things or treat people unlovingly in pursuit of the big vision. And we use the defense – “those people don’t understand us” or “it’s worth it to see more multiplication” or something of the sort.

Apostolic gifting without apostolic character produces apostolic malfunction.

Steve U.

What’s really happening is that ministry success and numbers and fruit have become our idol. Being overly busy is a badge of pride instead of a warning indicator that we are allowing our doing to overcome our being with Jesus. Increased isolation or surrounding ourselves with only others who enable us is explained off as being a contrarian, a pioneer, a barrier breaker instead of the truth that we’re not willing to humble ourselves and submit to a group of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Scripture is abundantly clear – the ends of ministry don’t justify the means. Being an apostolic leader doesn’t give us license to trample people, to steal and extract sheep, to be disingenuous about ministry numbers, to ignore clear discipleship and maturity problems in pursuit of the more and the faster. Unfortunately, we’ve seen apostolic leaders pursuing movement do these types of things repeatedly. I won’t attempt to judge their hearts, but there often is not a humility to even admit to these things or correct them. The very thing we claim to be effective at in catalyzing movements, the apostolic gift, becomes a testimony against the ministry we are doing and against ourselves.

Matthew 7 has a haunting statement from Jesus, that “on that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not do… many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

My prayer for myself and to others reading this – 

May we keep our hearts tender before the Lord. 
May we always mirror the character and heart of Jesus to others in pursuing big vision for him. 
May we not twist the gift He has given to us for our own personal and selfish gain. 
May we not allow ministry to become an idol that keeps us from worshipping Jesus.

I’d recommend Andrew Murray’s books Humility and Absolute Surrender as regular reads to help us check our hearts. And about this specific topic of losing our way in pursuing movement, I highly recommend my friend David’s book, How to Pursue Great Works without Losing Your Soul.

Every believer, every gift can be used towards completing the Great Commission, but I believe that He means to use those with the apostolic gift as first in sequence to pioneer. My hope is that these few at the tip of the spear could be surrendered to Jesus and become who God has called them to be, leading to multiplying movements among the remaining unreached peoples and places of the world.

The world has yet to see what God can do through a man [or woman] who is totally yielded to Him.

Henry Varley

Currently, women make up ⅔ of the missionary workforce! However, there is often a staggering lack of women in leadership positions in field contexts and mission organizations. For example, of the 200 organizations in MissioNexus, the largest professional association of evangelical mission agencies in North America, only 5 have women at the executive level (Playing By The Rules, 11). 

My own leadership journey was filled with confusion, barriers, mistakes, and a lot of failing forward. There are many women currently with overlooked leadership giftings, experiences, and calling who aren’t exercising that leadership to the benefit of mission teams because of both internal and external barriers. I believe that when women are released into their leadership God will work powerfully through them for his glory among the unreached!

My Story

Committing to moving and serving overseas was an incredibly difficult process for me. Though my heart longed for Thai people to know Jesus, there were significant fears that I had to work through before I could fully surrender to God’s calling for me to go. And one of my primary tension points was that I feared that being a leader as a woman meant that I was sinning against God.

Our sending church adheres to complementarian theology and tends to celebrate more traditional gender roles. I had never seen a woman leader outside of kids or women’s ministries, and wondered if I could have a role outside those spheres. After we got married, whenever Steven and I were in rooms of other ministry leaders, I started counting how many male leaders would greet me or even make eye contact. Unfortunately, the number was always very low, as most people assumed Steven was a leader whose wife tagged along. Even our leaders in our organization thought this way, and I was warned that I better do as much ministry while I could because I would be “taken out once [I] have kids.” While there is good intent and wisdom in that statement about the realities of being a mom in ministry, I received it with frustration and discouragement.

Throughout college, I had participated in and served on a leadership team over a 300 person campus ministry. Steven and I had together received vision, passion, and calling for Thailand through similar experiences and over a similar timeframe. I felt deep ownership over the team and vision that we were forming, and I desired to lead alongside Steven. But I had so many questions. Is it Biblical for women to be leaders? Can men and women co-lead together? What does that look like?

Our first year on the field was extremely difficult. My hidden questions, when met with cultural stress, stirred up into anger and accusation. No way was I going to be invisible! I was going to lead with my husband! It was my vision too! I pestered Steven ad nauseum, asking to be part of meetings he was going to. Questioning his decisions. Refusing on principle to do household chores (although, maybe I always would have done that). 

Steven, on his part, was confused. In his mind, when he had asked me to marry him, he always had expected me to be a ministry partner and co-leader with him. He discussed plans with me, facilitated team meetings with me, and brought me to networking opportunities. And he patiently bore with my obstinate antics, until one day in the midst of a spiraling complaining speech, he blurted out – “Who is oppressing you?”

Although he meant it as a joke, that one question made reconsider my whole perspective. This whole time, I was operating under the assumption that I was the only one able to advocate for myself and that Steven was only grudgingly humoring me in my desire to lead with him. Instead of trusting him and communicating, I projected my insecurities about my place in leadership onto Steven and felt like I had to fight him for a “place at the table.” But as we continued to discuss this topic (without my passive aggressive lashing out), we realized that we actually had always wanted the same things, but simply needed to get on the same page. 

I began to take proactive steps to grow in my own leadership, with much encouragement from my husband and our team. There were plenty of external obstacles, such as a lack of examples of women leaders, or lack of clarity in communication and expectations with my husband, organization, and sending church. But I realized that my greatest obstacle was my own lack of confidence that this was actually something God had called me to do. I needed to learn that my leadership was not sinful, but actually my form of obedience to God.

My View On Women in Leadership

After years of studying the Word on this topic, I believe that the Bible is incredibly empowering towards women who desire to step into leadership. The Bible is full of women leaders from Deborah (Judges 4-5) and Esther in the Old Testament, to Lydia (Acts 16:14-15) who led a house church, and Priscilla (and Aquila) (Acts 18:18-28) who co-labored with Paul in the New Testament. Jesus honors women in his interactions with them (Luke 10:38-42), going out of his way to speak to and encourage women (John 4), and the first witnesses of his resurrection were women (John 20:11-18).

My conviction in complementarianism is that there are certain roles and responsibilities that are set aside for men, namely elders (1 Timothy 3:1) in a local church and headship for husbands with their wives (Ephesians 5:22-23). Apart from that, men and women who are believers are commanded to honor one another, serve one another, counsel one another, and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21, Romans 12:10, Romans 15:4). 

However, in my understanding of ministry leadership on the field, the role of a team leader isn’t the same of that of a local church elder, and I believe that women can be team leaders and can even supervise men. A clear example of this is Apollos, one of the greatest evangelists ever, was taught by both Priscila and Aquila (Acts 18:24-26).

I understand that this is a nuanced and potentially difficult topic for many. If you come from a tradition, organization, or church that has a different stance than what I described above, that’s okay! What matters is that you personally work out this question with the Lord and the Word with total honesty, until you reach a point of peace that you are obeying as God would have you do.

What Can Women Do?

Much of the discussion around womens’ roles centers on what a woman cannot do. Can a woman teach, and if so, who can she teach? Can she exercise authority? While I understand the desire for clarity on these sorts of questions, I have found that this discussion is much more empowering and productive when we focus on what the Bible says about what women CAN do – which is a whole lot! 

Exercise Gifts

When I first started leading our team, one of the most cunning lies that Satan repeated was that I didn’t look like a leader. In my mind, a leader commanded a room, led meetings, always had the right answer, and was strategically minded. I thought that being a leader was leading in the way that Steven did. And anyone who has ever met us knows that we exist on two opposite spectrums.

For years I tried to lead like him. I awkwardly interrupted meetings because I felt like I needed to say something decisive. I tried to learn and speak in strategic terms, and project out long term ministry objectives. But most of these attempts felt clunky and awkward, because I wasn’t leading as myself using the spiritual gifts God had given me.

Paul teaches about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good

– 1 Corinthians 12:4-7

Gifts are given by the Holy Spirit’s will, for the common good. It is our responsibility to use our gifts, and employ them toward advancing God’s kingdom. Notice in this passage, there is nothing that distinguishes the gifts by gender. This includes giftings that are typically attributed to men like teaching, apostleship, or leadership.

What this also means is that it’s vital that women are able to know and work out of their own spiritual gifts. For me, my giftings include leadership, exhortation, and prophecy. My leadership doesn’t have to and shouldn’t necessarily look like Steven’s leadership. Instead, I have found that my best role in leadership is in exhorting our teammates and Thai partners to persevere and to develop toward greater Christ-likeness. “Hard conversations” have become my niche, and I am content to let Steven lead out on strategy conversations, though we both participate, give feedback, and support the other when they are taking the lead. I am thankful that God allows us to lead as we are!

For women reading this, do you know your spiritual gifts? Are you able to utilize your giftings on a regular basis? For women leaders – does your leadership role allow you to use your gifts? Are you aware of your teammates’ spiritual gifts and are you able to lead them toward roles that best maximize them?

Make Disciples

The last thing that Jesus said to his disciples before he ascended to heaven was the Great Commission. 

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

-Matthew 28:18-20

Out of Jesus’ own authority, all believers, male or female, are commanded to make disciples, to baptize them, and to teach these disciples how to obey God. Like giftings, the Great Commission is not dependent on gender! Therefore, women can and should be encouraged to make disciples who multiply, not only so that more may hear about Jesus but also for their own personal obedience to Christ.

When we consider that 51% of the unreached are women and that ⅔ of all goers are women, it is far too costly to exclude women from leadership and ministry work. By pulling women out of the equation, the potential missionary labor force is cut by more than half.

In our work in Thailand, we partner with National Apostolic Visionaries in trying to multiply movements of disciples and churches. Again, if the giftings of the Spirit are not limited according to gender, how many National Apostolic leaders could be women? Without women mission leaders to encourage and empower female NAVs, what opportunities for kingdom expansion are being missed? But when women are welcomed into leadership and given freedom to exercise their gifts fully, the Holy Spirit will use our contributions to glorify the name of Jesus! 

If you are a woman in leadership, or even considering leadership, is your whole team (male and female) equipped and confident to raise up disciple makers? If not, how can you develop them? Spend some time praying and asking God – what is my role in the Great Commission? Who have you called me to influence and disciple? Are there any female NAVs that you would have me walk alongside and empower? How will you use my leadership to multiply the gospel? 

For men reading this, reflect in prayer and ask God – are there women in my sphere who I could encourage toward leadership? How? Am I cultivating an environment where women can exercise their giftings?

Lead!

Regardless of where you land theologically on women’s roles in leadership, there are plenty of ways to build out roles that exercise your unique leadership and giftings in ministry to whatever level you believe is biblically encouraged, even without a title.

For example, discipling your family or new believers is a form of leadership. Training groups of people in evangelism tools and methods can be a venue to exercise a potential teaching gift. Shepherding and encouraging teammates is an integral leadership role on a team that doesn’t necessarily require a title. Project or administrative management is often an overlooked type of leadership gifting that can bolster a team or ministry effort in critical ways.

You may even begin to pursue team or ministry leadership, taking on responsibility over others and leading out in vision.

What are some ways you can start to practice and exercise your leadership on your team or in your ministry context? How can you pursue clarity with your leaders to find a role where you can begin to lead?

How Do I Start?

If you’re a woman reading this post and you feel like God might be calling you to be a team leader, to have some role of leadership on a team, or to exercise your leadership more in the context of CPM ministry, here are some next steps you could take. 

1. Come to a point of personal clarity and conviction concerning what the Bible says about women in leadership. While the Bible should be primary, a good commentary or theological studies like Men and Women in the Church are also helpful resources. The Coworkers Podcast is also a fantastic resource about men and women partnering together in movements, with a Bible study you can do with your whole team.

2. Take time to process with the Lord whether you are truly being called into leadership. We wrote a post on how to discern if you’re a leader that has some guiding reflection questions. Surrender your expectations and fears, and ask him for wisdom on how he has gifted you, and what role he would have you do and who he would have you lead. Write down questions you might have about what he tells you. Ask for verses to anchor your vision and calling into, and make your commitment to Jesus first. 

3. Communicate your desire with your organization and / or leaders. Ask them about the process toward becoming a team leader and for guidance on how to proceed. Each organization or denomination will have different requirements. 

4. Develop yourself. There are plenty of resources out there for women who want to develop as leaders. Books like Developing Female Leaders (Kadi Cole), 7 Deadly Sins of Women Leaders (Kate Coleman), and Making of a Leader (Robert Clinton) are good starts.

5. Begin to lead! If you aren’t ready to be a full blown team leader immediately and to recruit your own team, begin with smaller intermediate steps. Perhaps there is a specialized role on your team that you can begin to own, such as team development or resource creation, or maybe begin to own a key relationship with a national partner. You may encounter resistance at first, but remember, you belong in the room! God has given you a specific calling to leadership and he is pleased to use female leaders for his purposes! Everyone’s context is different, so if you need more guidance than these basic steps, feel free to contact us at contact@missionsleaders.com.

The Great Commission Needs Women Leaders

When we first launched, I wasn’t sure if I was a leader or what my leadership was supposed to look like. But through different experiences and circumstances, Jesus helped me to discover that I am one. I’ve had different opportunities to use my giftings, had a husband who championed me, a team that allowed me to lead them, and mentors throughout the years to guide me. However, the most significant factor God used toward helping me embrace leadership was our partner, Mint.

Mint was a church planter working in Northeast Thailand with a vision for the region and for neighboring Laos. As we spent time together and developed a relationship supporting her vision as Barnabas did with Paul, we increasingly became Mint’s friends, peers, coworkers, and confidants.

I quickly realized that Mint looked at me as a leader. It made no difference to her that I was a woman. If anything, it was more important to her that I was a woman leader who was just as committed to seeing Thailand reached as her. And because we are both women, she feels safe to open up to us, spend evenings in our home, train with me, and bring me into discipleship conversations with other women leaders. Because I am a leader, she respects my feedback and exhortations and knows that I empathize with her own leadership challenges as a woman.

Mint started out as the church secretary before launching as a church planter with no support or training. Now, through God growing her leadership, she is a regional leader with a dozen church planting teams under her and generations of churches multiplying out of her stream. In Mint’s region, the least reached in Thailand, her best leaders are unsurprisingly women. And she has continued to be an example that many other women have seen and desired to emulate throughout our church planting network because she has obeyed God in exercising her leadership gifting. Seeing God bear fruit through Mint has been one of the most rewarding and empowering affirmations of my own leadership.

The Great Commission will never be completed without women stepping into leadership. All women are called to be disciple makers, and many women are gifted in a multitude of ways to lead. Women display and model Christ in a wonderfully distinct way from men, and it would be a shame to pull back our contribution because of fear, a lack of clarity, or because the pathway is not defined. In my next post, I will address some of the major internal and external barriers women face in leadership.

I believe there are more women being called now to courageously step into greater leadership and influence. The Holy Spirit is raising up female national leaders among the unreached, many of whom will be best empowered by other women missions leaders. 

We are confident that when these two groups are able to partner together in the gospel, the Spirit of God will pour out power that will result in multiplication and restoration for generations to come.