The book of Acts opens with these profound words from Luke (who wrote the book):
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. (Acts 1:1, 2)
This passage encourages me as a leader toward more simplicity in the way I help leaders. It makes me take a step back, clear off the clutter and focus on those few, relational, reproducible principles that will leave a legacy in people’s lives.
Luke makes it clear that his first letter, the Gospel of Luke was a streamlined reminder to the church to never lose its focus on training. According to Luke, that training should look like this: Simply shed light on all that Jesus taught and did. Sounds great in theory, but how true is this in my practice of developing leaders? How often am I bringing the opinions of man into my training of leaders?
The main content of the Gospels is simply demonstrating that Jesus is enough. And then the book of Acts shows how these highly focused leaders (Disciples) began pressing out into the world to simply introduce others to Jesus by telling the stories of what he said and did. I always need to be reminded to keep this the main content of my leadership training now, and forevermore.
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REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- If you are training leaders, or leading anyone really, take five minutes and test what you are passing on to people. Are you simply shining a spotlight on all that Jesus taught and did? Is Jesus enough?
- What could you change about your training to stay true to this simple focus?
- It’s not wrong to supplement our training obviously, but it is important to filter the main content of our discipleship through this grid of “what Jesus said and did.” Do you have any ideas you could share below of how you keep the main thing the main thing (as Lee Iacocca used to say)?
