The Sunday Mail
Divine Appointments
Pastor Peterson K Simbotwe of Reality Leadership has a passion for church leadership. He recently spoke to Tendai Manzvanzvike about leadership in today’s church.
Q: You say that when God wants something done, He begins by raising leaders. Why?
A: Leaders determine the direction of the church. God is not concerned about our own churches, or denominations. He is Kingdom-minded. God cannot change the direction of the church, without a change of leadership. As God, He doesn’t actually fire you, but He will simply raise another leader, because people are looking for leaders who can produce results.
Q: For the Kingdom?
A: Yes. People are not going to follow you simply because you have a Doctorate in Theology. It’s not a doctorate that will lead them. You need the anointing that can impact lives, because there is only one commission that Jesus gave.
Jesus said “go ye into the world . . . ” But, we have people who are not going out, thus God is raising leaders to fulfil His Commission, regardless of their education status.
When He gave them the Great Commission, Peter was almost ready to go, but Jesus pulled him back, and said, for now, go to Jerusalem and wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The world is looking for leaders that are anointed.
God is looking for leaders who like Simon Peter can say, “Silver and gold I have none, but such as I have, I give thee! In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk.” Those are the kind of leaders the world is looking for.
People need Jesus. They need deliverance. They are facing challenges, and so, these are the kind of leaders God is raising.
The other thing is that God gave me a burden for the church. If you read Ephesians 4:11, there is what we call the five-fold ministry (apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists and teachers).
These are people called by God to equip the saints, so that the saints may do the work of the ministry. But the challenge we are having today – the failure of the saints today is a reflection of the failure of those leaders, because the five-fold ministries that are supposed to equip these saints are not well-equipped themselves.
Jesus said, you cannot give what you don’t have. The principle is that you reproduce yourself through your followers.
Q: Why is leadership so crucial for the success of any church?
A: Competent and effective leaders are in short supply today. The church has also not been spared and its followers are looking for leaders who can make a genuine and positive impact in their lives.
To quote from leadership guru John Maxwell: “Leadership determines the success of any organisation,” while vision determines the direction of an organisation.
God values and believes in leaders to such an extent that before He does anything on Earth, He always starts by calling an individual who will spearhead whatever He wants done.
A few illustrations will suffice:
1. When God wanted to establish a new nation that would serve and worship Him in His own way, He raised Abraham. Abram then and his generation worshipped idols, but God called him out to start a new nation.
2. When God wanted to deliver the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, he raised Moses. When He was about to take them into Canaan, He raised Joshua. He also called up judges to lead His people during difficult times.
3. When King Saul and his army failed to deal with Goliath, God raised David, and what Saul and his army failed to deal with in 40 days, David achieved in a few minutes.
4. When God was about to give birth to the Church, He brought up Jesus. The Pharisees and the scribes could not understand the mind of God. And, with the coming of Jesus, there was a paradigm shift. God was now bringing the Gentiles into the picture. In other words, God was saying that He was now expanding His mission, and He needed people aligned to His mindset, people who were not trying to limit Him, claiming that He was their God alone.
5. The Apostle Paul was raised to take the gospel to the Gentiles. God not only confused the church, but us as well, because He also used him to write more than half of the New Testament.
So, this is what God has been telling me – that He is raising up leaders. For those that are not relevant, God is not going to stop raising kingdom-minded leaders, leaders who are able to fulfil the Great Commission.
Q: The leaders were not raised uniformly. How is He doing it now?
A: If God is raising leaders, He doesn’t inquire from those that are already in leadership positions. Paul was persecuting the church. If God had asked for advice from the 12 Apostles, they would have been shocked, and not recommend him.
After the Damascus encounter, Jesus appeared to Ananias and asked him to go and pray for Saul, but he was hesitant. I can see Ananias saying to God, “There is a woman who is crying because of Saul. There are kids who are crying because they are now orphans because of him…”
But, when God wants you for a particular task, He will do it His way. However, it is one thing to appoint individuals into positions of leadership and another for them to competently and effectively undertake their leadership roles.
It is also one thing to be called by God into a leadership position and another thing to know how to lead effectively.
Great leaders aren’t born; they are sculpted, moulded and refined through years of learning, training and growth. They understand that the only way to improve their leadership skills and the performance of their ministries is through continuous learning.
Q: Do they reach a point where they acquire enough knowledge?
A: No leader anywhere in the world, no matter how anointed, can claim to have reached the pinnacle of Christian leadership to an extent that they can say that they have no need of learning new ideas.
Secular world leaders, despite their high professional qualifications, improve their leadership skills through continuous learning. Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.
Information and knowledge on everything are increasing every day, and there are new ways of doing things, including in the church.
This means that as a church leader, your knowledge must also increase and keep up.
Hosea 4:6 says, “God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Unfortunately, if you look around today at what is happening in some sections of our churches/ministries, you will notice that some leaders are in that group of people that are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
Q: You are with Reality Leadership. How does this fit into what you are saying about leadership?
A: Affiliated to the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Reality Leadership is an interdenominational Christian organisation that provides leadership teaching, training, mentoring and development.
According to Ephesians 4:11, leaders are called to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. It offers leadership courses to churches, ministries and denominations that are meant to mold and shape leaders and enable them to competently carry out their work.
Q: And, who is Pr Simbotwe?
A: I have been in ministry for 30 years and have a passion on leadership. I am also an author, leadership speaker, trainer and have worked with a number of local and international Christian organisations. In 2015, at the leading of God, I founded and established Reality Leadership development ministry.
Q: Your final remarks . . .
A: It is one thing to be taught by someone who hasn’t gone through what they are teaching and quite another to be taught by someone who has both experience and knowledge.
But, the message remains that God is going to raise some of the leaders. Those that are already leaders are not going to understand, because when the first church started in Acts of the Apostles, they could not understand that of all the people, God could raise Paul, because to them, there were good people out there.
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