After mobilizing or gathering people, it is crucial that training begin right away. The quality of that training will be the main factor that determines the force that they become. For this to be accomplished, we must also keep in mind that teaching and training are not the same thing. Quality teaching is also important, but it accomplishes little more than puffing people up with knowledge unless it is combined with training. Training calls for the actual experience of applying what is taught.
How many of you would stay onboard a plane if you discovered that the pilot had never actually flown a plane, but had only read many books about it? It is not quite the same level, but Christians can be like this when they read books on ministry, missions, or go to a seminary that just teaches without offering practical experience in ministry where they learn to apply their knowledge. Experience turns knowledge into wisdom. That’s why the Lord did not just teach His disciples, but He trained them by having them do a lot of the ministry.
Now think about this. In Luke 10, He even sent them out two by two to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons, and they did not even know how to pray yet! We know this because they came to Him in Luke 11 and asked Him to teach them to pray. He trusted them with some serious responsibility while they were still obviously quite immature.
Steve Thompson once said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.” Of course, we want to pursue excellence in all that we do, but which great musician played a first note perfectly? Which great artist painted a masterpiece the first time? No, they probably started by drawing stick figures. While in ministry to the Lord’s household and representing the King in any way, we want to do the best possible job—there must be a place for growth and maturity. Even the greatest chef probably burned a few grilled cheese sandwiches when starting.
Training is where you get to make mistakes. I think one of the best things we have done to help release people into ministry was starting a meeting in which we actually glorified mistakes. When we began our School of the Spirit meetings in Charlotte, we were given Proverbs 14:4, “Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of the ox.” We were basically told that if we wanted a strong church, then we needed to get a big shovel! If your view of church life is clean and neat with everything in perfect order, then I do not think you have ever really read the New Testament.
I remember John Wimber saying once how some theologians were questioning him, and he asserted to them that he never allowed anything in his meetings that he did not see in the New Testament. When this seemed to appease them, he challenged them, asking if they had ever read the New Testament! Think about the Lord’s own meetings. Demoniacs would scream out and throw people in the fire, others would cut a hole in the roof to let a sick person down, and then others would pour ointment on the Lord, washing His feet with their hair, and so much more.
Seeking order and neatness is not wrong, but it is wrong if your devotion to it would cause you to snuff out life. Life is messy, like it or not. When the Holy Spirit moves, it often looks like chaos, but this is the result of the chaos in people’s hearts being allowed to come out so that they can be changed. The prideful and the spiritual Pharisees will be offended at every move of God, just as they were when God Himself came and walked the earth. The greater the things that He did, the more they determined to kill Him. The same is still true. The greater the Lord moves, the more these types of critics will try to snuff it out. If you want to continue in an authentic move of God, you have to disregard this type just like Jesus did.
This does not mean that everything being done in revival is God. However, in true revival people get free, and when people are first free they sometimes go a little too far in their freedom and do many silly things. This comes with the territory, and if it embarrasses you, this is not uncommon. To stay in an authentic move of God, you will almost always have to resolve to be embarrassed and love seeing God touch people more than care about your reputation.
Just as the Lord Jesus called the common people as His leaders and workers, He still does the same every time He moves anew. He would rather have those with a right heart than those who are just trained professionals. Because He chooses His leaders, they are almost all going to be on a long learning curve. They can be used to do awesome things, and then follow them with some stupid things, just as we see throughout the Gospels and the Book of Acts. The Lord never seems to be embarrassed by the mistakes of His people, and no mistake is beyond His ability to fix. One thing He obviously loves is real life and real people.
I have now watched a substantial number of people grow into significant and powerful ministries, and in almost every case the ones who grew the fastest and went the farthest were those who started with some of the biggest mistakes. I think this is why the Lord gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter. He did make some of the biggest mistakes, but he also had some of the greatest accomplishments. This trend seems to follow in church history.
It is right to have a goal that is the highest standard of excellence, but to get there we will have to embrace a lot that is far from it. If it is worth doing, it is worth starting poorly. Even the great Apostle Paul was not the great Apostle Paul when he began, but he was the very immature Saul of Tarsus. Even when he was commissioned as an apostle, he was much more mature, but he was not a mature apostle, rather a novice apostle. If you want the best gifts, you will have to be willing to clean up some of the biggest messes. If you want a clean stall, you are in the wrong business. What good is any stall if there is no animal in it? Our goal is to see in even an immature Saul of Tarsus a great apostle and help him get there.
