Inadequate Leadership
Mark 6:30–44 ESV “The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.”
Matthew 9:35–38 ESV “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
In these passages we see the compassion of the Lord for people who are hurting; a theme that runs throughout both the Old and New Testaments. We also see the longer-term solution to people feeling helpless, hopeless, and harassed like sheep with no shepherd. The solution is to multiply the number of compassionate leaders who can offer care to hurting sheep.
The same idea is conveyed in one of the New Testament classic leadership passages, 1 Peter 5: 1-11, where Peter reminds us that elders (leaders) should, in the first place, shepherd the sheep. And because the sheep often outnumber the desired number of care-givers, we need to pray for more shepherds, which is what Jesus tells his disciples to do in Matthew 9:37.
Things haven’t changed much in 2000 years. The harvest (hurting sheep) is still many, and the shepherds (leaders/care-givers) are still few.
Here are 3 principles for shepherds/ leaders from these passages of Scripture:
1. The needs always exceed the resources. The needed finances always exceed the finances we have. The hurting people always exceed the number of people we need to minister to them.
2. I am always inadequate for the task Jesus has for me. Almost every leader God called felt he wasn’t quite ready, adequate or capable: Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and David, to name a few. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 3:5, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God…”
3. Jesus is always more than adequate in every task and challenge I face. Ephesians 3:20 tells us, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…” The disciples in the Gospel stories experienced that Jesus was more than adequate for their inadequacies.
We can rely on Jesus when we’re humbly shepherding his sheep.
By Dave Kraft
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