“But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see.” Deuteronomy 3:28

Deuteronomy 3:28 captures a thread that can be found across scripture. God instructs Moses to “strengthen and encourage.” God emboldens Joshua no less than three times when He also tells him to be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:6,7,9). Fast forward several hundred years and you see the scene replaying with King David and Solomon. David instructs Solomon, his son and future King, to “...be strong and courageous and do it” (1 Chronicles 28:20). Four instrumental leaders in Israel’s history either provided or received instructions that included being strong and courageous. Mentoring future leaders in today’s world should do the same. The question is, “What does it mean to strengthen and encourage, and even more importantly, what is the foundation where strength and encouragement come from?”

Before diving into the question, let the current ministry leader be aware of three things that are foundational to getting the question right. The first is that the work is not yours. The work is the Lord’s. He positions leaders to fulfill a role for His Kingdom in a certain time and place. His Kingdom includes you, but it is not about you. Stories of leaders who get this wrong and leave breaches that take years to repair are readily available in scripture and present headlines. There will always be a temptation in our brokenness to change the focus of ministry from the Lord to man. Man’s sinful desire, including in ministry contexts, will be to worship the creation more than the creator (Ro 1:25,26). Godly leadership remains ever-sensitive to the very real temptation of this trap. We work in our work for the King.

Second, people who work with you do not work for you. They work for the King. They are His people. I am continually cautious to avoid speaking of the people I lead as “my people, my team, etc.” I don’t avoid these types of phrasings because I am not thankful for them. I work with incredible people. Rather, it is because I do not own them - the Lord does. This also does not mean Christian organizations should not have a hierarchy or structure. Hierarchical leadership is evident throughout scripture and God blesses order. Paul shares, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1, KJV). However, leaders in ministry contexts recognize people are working for the Lord and not for man (Colossians 1:23). Leaders who truly get this orient work and workers to the truth that every knee will bow and tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phi 2:9-11). They recognize that they are not to domineer over those under their care (1 Peter 5:3). One Lord on one throne, and the Lord is not the person in the organization who has the most significant title.  

Finally, godly leadership recognizes that the work is meant to continue. God’s kingdom is without end, but our leadership within it will conclude. Godly leaders examine and build structures that sustain past their era of leadership. Succession planning, identification of future leaders, and strengthening their people for the next should be standard practice for leaders who know the kingdom lasts much longer than their stewardship role. God-honoring leaders recognize whose work it is, to whom the people they steward belong, and that their leadership will come to an end. Once this is realized, leaders can answer the question of how to strengthen and encourage those who may be next in line to lead the work of God’s kingdom.

Strengthen means to make strong by establishing, fortifying, hardening, and increasing. Each of these words could easily have its own article, but their collective weight challenges leaders to take future leaders to a stronger or deeper place. To do so, leaders must know the future leader’s strengths and weaknesses to challenge and grow appropriately. Strengthening work, however, is not easy work. There will be times when the leader needs to challenge an unwilling recipient. There will be times when patience will be required as God’s work in the future leader is incomplete or presently insufficient. There will be times when the future leader would rather remain in weakness. As difficult as these scenarios can be, none of them remove the leader's responsibility to strengthen. The kingdom's work is far too important, and the leader needs to model a resolve to strengthen others, regardless of difficulty.

Similarly, encourage means giving support, confidence, and hope.  To encourage means the leader imparts courage. It is a worthless pursuit to be strong and yet not have the courage to employ that strength or resolve. The word “paper tiger” comes to mind. There are far too many instances where leadership capacity is not the problem, but leadership resolve most definitely is. Godly leaders teach others to pursue, persist, and promote Christ and His kingdom - all of which will eventually require courage. We must be courageous to act with the strength we have been given. Godly leaders should be about the business of imparting courage to those under our care. 

How do we do so? Godly leadership demands that reliance on self is avoided at all costs. Ministries do not function on self-strength or courage. Godly leaders teach and model insufficiency despite having great ability. How, specifically, do we model that? Perhaps the easiest way is to pray. When is the last time you clearly prayed for your potential next-in-line leader? Jesus did. His prayer in John 17 was for His disciples. Jesus prayed for Peter that his strength not fail. Jesus then shared that with him (Luke 22:32). Prayer sets a rhythm and tangible example of dependence upon the Lord to those you lead. If you are not praying for your leadership and the leadership of others - do so today.

Godly leaders also remind future leaders that the Lord’s presence and the strength that comes from it is the sustaining foundation of ministry. Both Joshua and Solomon were reminded to be strong and courageous not because of their incredible talents, but because the Lord would be with them. They were reminded that God was with their predecessors and He would be with them. We are reminded of the same. Christ shared with his followers that He would be with them always (Mat 28:20). He was with Stephen when he faced the brutal death of stoning, and He now sits on the throne to make intercession for each of us (Acts 7:56, Heb 7:25). God encourages and strengthens His children and reminds us that we will reap if we faint not (Gal 6:9,10). Christian leaders should do the same. We simply should not know why we should strengthen and encourage, but we should be about the business of doing so. Let that work begin today and may God receive the glory as you do.