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I frequently cite Mark 3.14 in the context of Jesus’ training the 12:

And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. (Mark 3.14, 15, ESV)

With him…send out. That’s the strategy. But I just noticed a very good reason for that strategy in the context of Mark 3:

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. (Mark 3.7 – 10, ESV)

It was a mob scene! So it’s no coincidence that right after that, Jesus begins his training program in earnest. If you have more than you can do, don’t work harder, start training people to help you!

A lady we met at Spring Canyon, about our age, who clearly had given herself a lot of people was bemoaning the fact that sometimes she would rather rest than respond to the latest cry for help. I shared with her at the time that we just needed more workers. She shouldn’t have to be the only one in her circle that could minister to people’s spiritual needs.

Later I read the early fruition of Jesus’ training:

And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. (Mark 6.7, ESV)

Training. Jesus did it. The Apostle Paul did it and advocated it for Timothy.

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade… After this, Paul …then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila…Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. (Acts 18.1-3, 18, 24-26, ESV)

What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2.2, ESV)