Right Purpose. Right People. Right Process.

by Joumeel Mclaurine

My wife asked me a strangely daunting question. She enquired, in her quizzical tone from the other room, “if you had to write a book today what would it be called”?

My reply to her is what I’m going to share with you today!

In the last five years I have been a youth pastor and a church planter; that means a lot of things (including the fact that I haven’t slept since 2013) but I want to focus on the three part title I responded to my wife with the other morning. It also happens to be the biggest lesson I’ve learned in the last five years.

As you read above that title is: Right Purpose. Right People. Right Process.

If you want to accomplish the incredible kingdom impact God has in store for you it’s going to require these things!

Right People

For the sake of time I’m going to skip purpose because if you are at a conference or investing in reading this article I am going to assume you pray, fast, submit your Pastor and have a desire to fulfill God’s purpose for your life. Your purpose is a God vision, but vision needs a vehicle. 

I believe that God uses people to propel your purpose like almost nothing else will! Every great purpose will be accompanied by great people! This is a crucial component of leadership in my eyes. So many people are intimidated to surround themselves with great leaders because they either don’t understand the value or they don’t know the how.

I’ll explain the value of finding the right people with a name: Kento Mori.

Kento was a college student while I was serving as a youth pastor. In short, he had never been involved in ministry at all, but I went after him because he had such obvious leadership value in my eyes (p.s. God has already got everything and everyone you need around you… you just have to see potential before placement… don’t worry…we’ll talk about that in a second). Three years later he is now the youth pastor of the church, he has built his own team of leaders, and is ten times the youth leader than I only dream of being!

Kento is why I’m able to serve as a church planter without our home church skipping a beat! THAT IS THE VALUE… high quality leaders in high quantities leads to a higher overall quality of organization. But the question is how? So glad you asked!

The answer is simple: Identifying, developing, and empowering the right people!

It starts with identifying the right leaders to surround you on your team. I heard someone say recently that you can add all the filters you want to a picture, but the quality is determined by the camera. That’s how I feel about team building: if you do not  choose well it will not work well!

All these things should be done with prayer, fasting, and pastoral council of course, but here is my 4 part evaluation for identifying the right people (and they all start with P’s because I’m a preacher… and you know… I just can’t help it!)

1. Potential Value

This is that person that you look at and think to yourself, “if this person got their head on straight and realized what they are capable of, they would be incredible! You may just have gold if you’re willing to invest in digging.

2. Positive Value

People with positive value Light up a room! They bring energy and positive thinkers. Their value to a team is immeasurable because they will make everyone excited to be a part of what you are doing.

3. Personal Value

This is a person that you just like; you are drawn to them! You want to be around them, you want them to win! Don’t overlook that! Be what I call “spiritually suspicious”. Maybe God is putting a spotlight on that person in your mind for a reason.

4. Production Value

This is that person that just gets stuff done! They may not be crazy personable but if you needed ten kids dropped off midnight after the youth rally they would make it happen (even if the kids are scared of them). You need people like this especially if you’re not crazy organized like me and if you’re in youth ministry there’s a great chance we share that struggle.

I identify potential leaders on this scale every time and when someone hits two or three of these I just know we have a great candidate.

From that point, people have to be developed. I once heard a Pastor say, “we don’t find great leaders, we build them”. I have to imagine that’s why Paul spent so much time investing in Timothy, Titus, etc…

Developing your team will take a few types of intentional investment. First is relational investment. You have to relationally invest by just sharing your life with them like Jesus did with the disciples. Prepare to open up your home, wallet, heart, and time if you’re going to develop leaders. The second is informational investment. Go through a book with them, podcast together, or some kind of training.

Lastly and most importantly: impartation is absolutely required when you develop leaders. There is a spiritual transfer going on that goes beyond your words or perceived actions. You have to live it if you want to give it. Importation happens when you have virtue to pass to your team from the overflow of your walk with God. As the late great T.F. Tenney used to say, “keep the main thing, the main thing”.

As we develop we must empower! Please read what I’m about to say loudly and audibly because it may be the most impactful thing you will read from me (if you made it this far in this article, it’s about time I gave you a decent point right): Do not be insecure! That’s it! So profound! I’ll be writing for the Pentecostal Harold soon for such a ground-breaking statement! Do not be insecure! Empower people around you and let them shine brighter than you. Put them in a position to win, to succeed; let them lead, preach, sing, influence! If you have identified the right people and developed them, empowering should be the most exciting part. You get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. You’ll rarely be more like Jesus than when you empower others to fulfill the mission after you found them and trained them.

Right Process

We are intended to be unapologetically spirit-filled leaders! We have to follow what the Lord is speaking at all cost.  With all that said, “spiritual” and “strategy” should never be conflicting words, rather they should always be complimentary words! God could have created the whole universe and its inhabitants with the snap of His fingers but he took 7 days for a reason. He has always used a process and used people to fulfill his purpose.

I do not hav to spend too much time on this subject because if you have the right purpose and you find the right people, the right process will take care of itself! My biggest suggestion in this area is this: keep it simple.

We recently launched a new church and we were humbled as we watched literally hundreds of people walk in the first day (check out the story @ascendchurchmi) but our systems for evangelizing, establishing, equipping, and empowering these people is simple, and frankly, it’s all in the Bible.

Dream higher because God is just bigger than we currently think!