\nOne of the most important aspects of developing leaders cannot be programmed:\nHow do you develop leaders spiritually? How do you help people grow in their\nawe of God and love for people?<\/p>\n\n
\nOswald Chambers once explained that the way we grow in holiness is to be\naround people more holy than ourselves. We hear their stray comments and\nabsorb their judgment of what’s important. We listen to their prayers and\nfind that God is bigger than we’d thought.<\/p>\n\n
\nThat’s the reason few seminars help with developing spiritual leaders: the\nprocess can be aided but not rushed. It requires holy people, and time. No\none has yet found a shortcut to the process: (a) live a godly life and (b)\nlet potential leaders rub shoulders with you.<\/p>\n\n
\nI believe most pastors do this instinctively and well. But maybe they don’t\ngive themselves enough credit for it, for the process often seems haphazard.\nDeveloping a leader spiritually may happen in a brief, unplanned hallway\nconversation. A prayer over the phone. The simple thank-you, the short note.\nIn such daily things, leaders’ spirits are grown.<\/p>\n\n
\nDuring college, I worked as an intern on a church staff. The pastor needed\nto drive seventy-five miles to a metropolitan hospital to visit a church\nmember; he took me along. As we rolled through central Maryland, I confessed\nsomething bothering me: “A good friend of mine just turned away from the\nLord.”<\/p>\n\n
\nTerry said simply, “In the Christian life, you’re going to see a lot of people\ncome and go, Kevin.”<\/p>\n\n
\nHe said it matter-of-factly, with a quiet resolve underneath. I sensed he\nhad determined to follow Christ no matter who abandoned the faith. That taught\nme I could handle this loss and press on. That’s an essential lesson for\nany spiritual leader (2 Tim. 4:10), yet it hadn’t come on a chalkboard.<\/p>\n\n
\nAt Leadership,<\/em> someone who develops spiritual leaders well is Harold\nMyra, our founding publisher. Though president of Christianity Today International,\nHarold has a touch of shyness common to writers, and he’s not afraid to answer\na question, “I don’t know.”<\/p>\n\n \nWithout trying to, Harold has taught me and others the importance of prayer.\nA mutual friend told me, “I used to come in early, around 7 o’clock in the\nmorning, and Harold’s car would already be in the lot. As I’d pass his office\nand glimpse through his office door, he’d be praying. That taught me something.\nI pray more for our work now.”<\/p>\n\n \nOr I think of ways my current pastor has developed me spiritually. Several\nyears ago, he used to gather a group of leaders for training and prayer.\nThe training sessions were interesting, but I remember most the Saturday\nhe said, “I believe that during this time of prayer, we should all prostrate\nourselves before the Lord.” People looked around, nervous. I had never prayed\nin this position (though clearly a biblical one) before.<\/p>\n\n \nBut we gradually spread out across the sanctuary, laid on our faces, and\nprayed. My muscles became stiff, but my spirit became soft, and I learned\nsomething about humility before the Great God of the Universe.<\/p>\n \nClasses, seminars, and programs have their place. But the best leadership\ntraining program ever designed was a day-by-day mentoring, in which twelve\nstudents watched their Leader and then did what he did.<\/p>\n\n\n Kevin A. Miller is editor of Leadership.<\/p>\n\n 1996 by Christianity Today\/LEADERSHIP, journal.<\/p>\n