Needed: Multigenerational leaership

The other day I was talking to one of my overseers about the need to raise up younger leaders in our denomination. This includes identifying and developing leaders for the future. It also involves placing some qualified, experienced, younger leaders in key assignments now.

I stated that while it’s important to keep engaging older leaders who have wisdom, passion and energy, we must also keep an eye out for younger leaders who are wiling to go to battle when necessary. There is so much that needs to be done, and sometimes it requires a fight.

But after reflecting on this, I feel I misspoke. There is truth that taking ground in the Kingdom often does involve a fight. But even the subtle hint of a suggestion that younger leaders may be more qualified for that task than older ones betrayed my own (unknown to me—and since repented of) generational bias.

Because while the world looks at age as essential for qualification, the Lord looks at things differently. Whether it is a young David in the field who the Lord chooses for His service or an elder Moses in the desert who is called to lead God’s people, age doesn’t seem to have much to do with the reasons God chooses and uses us.

There is much in the Bible about respecting the wisdom of eldership, and there is much, too, about raising up and releasing the next generation. Far too often I think those issues become points of division instead of opportunities for unity. Of course we need to do both. Focusing on one while letting go of the other is incredibly short-sighted: We either lose the essential perspective of maturity (1 Kings 12) or we neglect to raise up a whole generation of leaders (Judges 2).

My conclusion is that when appointing leaders we should look for the right person, the called person, and the anointed person; not simply the young person, the experienced person, or the well-known person. And knowing who the right person is will take more than strategic planning or assessing a resume; it will require hearing the voice of the Lord.

Because just as God used someone like Aimee Semple McPherson to impact the world in her early twenties, He also continues to powerfully use a person like Jack Hayford well into his seventies.