To say this church plant was unlikely would be an understatement. We had our family, one other family, and five people in their seventies. Sitting on a folding chair in the living room, I realized, If we are going to have a church, we have to develop the leaders we have right now.

One Sunday morning Irene, one of those in her seventies, set up the Communion table. I noticed that she then went around to make sure everything else was in order—and people did whatever she asked them to do.

Afterward I asked her, “Irene, have you ever considered that you have leadership gifts?”

“Absolutely not!” she said. “I am just an ordinary woman, housewife, and mother.”

“But you lead our Communion setup ministry.”

Irene was not persuaded. “That’s not a leadership gift,” she told me. “That’s just service.”

But if I didn’t convince Irene that she was a leader, she didn’t convince me that she wasn’t, and ...