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I was talking with one of the young men I’m mentoring, Josh, who serves with a Christian organization specializing in discipling high school students. Josh had three experiences this summer, all with the same lesson: people can do more than you think.

In a local church, he was running an evening vacation bible school for high schoolers. To do that, he involved the next age group up, the young adults 18 – 25 to lead the small groups. The pastor was astounded that the young adults did such a good job. “We’ve never given them this much responsibility.”

Josh had a similar experience in Haiti, where he involved participants in a seminar he was leading to develop creative ways to explain the gospel. Again, the local pastors were astounded at what the “ordinary” people were able to do. One pastor said, “I never thought about letting them use their creativity.”

Finally, in Puerto Rico this summer there were demonstrations resulting in the resignation of the governor about the time Josh was there. I don’t know much about it, but according to Josh, the local pastors he was dealing with attributed the demonstrations to young people, who “had to leave the church to find their voice. We in the church didn’t give them a voice.”

I’m reminded of a story told by a friend of mine in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Two AA members went to call on a first-time visitor. The new guy asked one of the members, “How long have you been sober?” He replied, “23 years.” Then he asked the other one the same question: “two weeks.” The new guy turned to the 2-week guy and said, “Tell me how you did it.”

The story haunts me because we in the church would almost never send out a 2-week guy! But Jesus did. Matthew, the tax collector, gave a dinner party and invited all his friends on day 1 (Luke 5.27 – 32); the woman at the well in John 4 invited her whole village to hear Jesus (John 4.27 – 30). Both of these “bad” people started missional activity right away.

I believe in training as much as or more than anyone! On the other hand, people don’t need boatloads of training to be engaged. In fact, Jesus didn’t wait until the disciples were fully trained when he sent them out in Luke 10. The sending was part of the training.

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. (Luke 10.1 – 3, NIV)

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed. (Mark 5.18 – 20, NIV)