Zambia Hunt

Let me share what I’ve learned from the process of raising up a leadership replacement as both encouragement and challenge:

Before You Begin

• Pray. This should saturate everything.

• Consider the end from the beginning. Don’t begin to plant a church without thinking about the day you’ll hand it off.

• Clarify your vision. What are you really trying to produce? What’s your God-given goal for this church? Get crystal clear on this. Articulate it well.

• Filter every decision through this question: How will this decision affect our ultimate goal?

• Resist shortcuts. Don’t introduce programs, equipment, or ministry standards that a mature indigenous congregation could never sustain on its own. The short-term impressiveness isn’t worth the long-term dependency.

During the Process

• Build people, not programs. You’ll have plenty of programs and projects—that’s inevitable. But people are the main thing. Always.

• Don’t do for them what they can and should do for themselves. This is harder than it sounds. Our instinct is to help. But premature help creates perpetual weakness.

• Love people. Trust God. Hold these two in balance.

• Pray. Yes, again.

• Invest your life in people. Your life touching theirs – this is the real work of missions. Trust God with the results.

• Pray. I cannot emphasize this enough.

• Stretch those you are training intentionally. Involve your disciples in ministries that will require them to depend fully on God. Don’t protect them from difficulty; prepare them for it.

• Encourage relentlessly. Pray for them. Cheer them on. Encourage, encourage, encourage. They need this more than you know.

When the Time Comes

• Give it away. When you have a spiritually mature man who meets biblical qualifications, give ministry away. Trust God.

• Don’t take it with you. If you’ve provided equipment or property to the ministry, leave it. It was never yours to begin with.

• Keep the main things the main things. Don’t get distracted by secondary matters in this crucial moment.

• Pray. Cover everything in prayer.

After the Handoff

• Remember who did the real work. Acknowledge God’s grace in your disciple’s life. Understand that your relationship is now one of equals—two servants serving the same awesome Master.

• Get out of the way. Hand it off completely. Keep your hands off the controls. Keep your mouth shut about decisions. Honor the man God has raised up.

• Pray. Continue to intercede for him, for the church, for God’s kingdom work to flourish.

A Final Word

Brothers, this is possible. A God-honoring, mutually respectful transition from pioneer missionary to indigenous leader can happen. I’ve experienced it. Others have too.

It requires humility; the kind that believes God is genuinely at work in others. It requires trust; the kind that releases control because you really believe God builds His church. It requires love; the kind that celebrates a brother’s leadership rather than clinging to your own position.

The African church is now sending out missionaries. The global church is more diverse than ever. We have an opportunity and a responsibility to model something different from what has happened in the past. Let’s get this right. For God’s glory. For the health of His church. For the advancement of His kingdom.

May God give us grace to hand off well and to receive leadership humbly.

For His Glory!