After they had preached the gospel in that town and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch, strengthening the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith and by telling them, “It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” When they had appointed elders for them in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
– Acts 14:21-23
This is an interesting passage of Scripture. Here is an account of how God used Paul & Barnabas to spread the Gospel through these towns, then to retrace their steps so they could build resilient leaders and followers. They did it with three things: they strengthened the disciples, sought to prepare them for coming hardships and appointed leaders there. All three activities were essential for the perpetuation of the early church in its formative stages.
How important are these assignments today, over 2000 years later?
If we were to grade today’s church, how well are strong disciples prepared for leadership and hardship? How can we cultivate resilient leaders and followers ready for ministry challenges in a changing landscape?
Declining Leadership Strength
I think about our church leaders today. Cary Nieuwhof says (in his article on Disruptive Church Trends for 2025) our church leaders are in crisis emotionally. In particular, the younger generation of pastors is struggling deeply. Look at this chart he shared, which identifies the struggles of the younger generation to flourish as pastors:
According to another aspect of this Barna study, 18% of pastors have considered self-harm or suicide. If church leaders are struggling so much, how can they build resilient and healthy disciples? What is the fundamental issue?
Why are pastors so strung out in ministry?
The isolation among pastors has increased over the past thirty years. Many pastors report having no significant relationships. Nieuwhof’s study shows that in the last decade, pastors’ ability to seek help has decreased by more than half:
We were never meant to “go it alone.”
The message of simply depending on the Spirit of God without a team of godly allies leads to isolation, which is where Satan does his best work. He began his first attack on Eve in isolation; and has continued to seek to isolate God’s people ever since. Notice that Moses’ greatest crises were when he was alone? When was Elijah the most depressed? Jesus Himself faced his greatest temptations when alone in the wilderness and in the garden.
God has put on my heart a determination to speak into this particular dilemma: to strengthen the disciples, prepare for coming hardships and appoint leaders. What’s fascinating is, for me it has come out of the day to day work of the ministry. The reality of life is, ministry is hard. Caring for sheep, hearing their heartaches and serving them before yourself on a regular basis is draining.
The only way we as a couple have sustained the daily grind of ministry, with all its crises, disappointments, betrayals, losses, tragedies and failures is a constant return to the feet of the Father through Jesus in the power of the Spirit.
Basic spiritual habits, or rhythms, or the heart have sustained our faith and fortified our souls for the tough times, whether from within our own souls, in our family, or in our churches.
These rhythms were reinforced and bonded by a constant relationship with men and women who were in the struggle with us. In our 41 years of ministry I can count on two hands the number of months we had no support at all. Why? We knew it was too critical to our survival spiritually. We need the support of God’s people.
It’s interesting that in our darkest moments one of Satan’s ploys against us has been to try and separate us from those we love the most, so we were left in isolation. When he gets us disconnected with our prayer band, our foxhole friends, we are vulnerable to the greatest failures. To counter this, we have worked diligently to maintain our closest ministry relationships. They have rarely been ministry team relationships: instead they were men and women who were in the trenches with us: praying, studying, praising, laughing, crying, breaking bread, celebrating, defending and holding one another.
It is one of the reasons we are involved in Spiritual Formation and Resilience coaching as a part of Loftis Coaching. We believe that foundational to anyone’s journey through life are the healthy rhythms of the heart and the people who share those rhythms with us. With them we can walk through the darkest valleys, because He is with us. Without them we are susceptible to spiritual disease, discouragement or impending disaster.
Paul leaned into these elements in his early ministry for a reason. Building resilient leaders and followers requires these elements. These three things are the essence of continued health among our churches. This is the essence of biblical ministry. How we do that will be critical to the health of our churches and ministries in coming days!
Pray this prayer with me:
Dear Father, we really need Your help to accomplish this massive task. You have called us to a new task; to boldly awaken believers to critical tasks of discipleship and leadership for Your kingdom. This includes letting them in on the realities of ministry; there will be hardships. There will be difficult times. There will be betrayals. We will be hated, just as You told us. Will You clarify for us the best way to go about this? Help us, Lord as a team to find the right paths, and to overcome the barriers that would hinder us from doing this well. Give us boldness and the influence we need to accomplish these tasks for Your glory.