Three Steps to Empowerment

Fascinating how we all love to be in control and to have the power to do what we think is best. “Just give me the power and let me do it!” is what we say. However, just having the power doesn’t necessarily mean that we’d use the power for healthy and productive purposes.

Christ’s goal while He was on earth was to select, train and equip 12 disciples to carry out His mission on earth long after He was gone. Inevitably, following Jesus and watching His power at work made them anxious to be able to do the same.

However, following Christ’s leadership in the Gospels, we are reminded by His example that there are three important steps to empowering a person(s) to accomplish their responsibilities.

First, it was important for Christ to equip His followers with the appropriate training and resources to do the job. Then, as He witnessed their ability to manage the training and resources properly, he chose the best timing to enable them to practice what they’d learned. Finally, He could fully engage them in taking on their full-scale mission.

Let’s look at examples of how Christ accomplished each step toward empowerment.

1. Empowerment Requires Equipping

After spending a night in prayer, Christ carefully chose his disciples based on two criteria: individuals who could spend extended time with Him and could communicate His message.

He appointed twelve[a] that they might be with him and

that he might send them out to preach

Mark 3:14

Then He gave them a clear picture of the vision and mission He was setting before them, including a challenge.

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.

Luke 10:2

Then Christ began the process of training and equipping His disciples. Witnessing the importance of prayer, the disciples asked to learn more about prayer.

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished,

one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray,

just as John taught his disciples.”

Luke 11:1

With this began the on-the-job training for months to follow as they lived life and worked together.

Who, in your work, do you need to provide

more formal or informal personal on-the-job training?

2. Empowerment Requires Enablement

As Christ equipped His disciples, He was careful to select the right time for His disciples to be enabled to put their training into action. When He released them to do their work, He provided clear instructions.

“When Jesus had called the 12 together, he gave them power and authority

to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to

proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”

—Luke 9:1–2

Once his disciples were released to do the ministry, Christ continued to teach and model for them the way they were to minister. He took time to check and correct their thinking when issues arose. His enablement included accountability.

How do you keep your staff

enabled and accountable?

3. Empowerment Requires Engagement

Christ knew the time would come when His disciples would be fully equipped and ready to be fully engaged in their ministry, which would go far beyond His ministry. Once again, He chose that time carefully. When it arrived, He launched them off on their own with clear commissioning:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been

given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in

the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching

them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely,

I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28: 18-20

As a further empowerment, Christ shared with His disciples that they would be given power through the Holy Spirit to further enable their world-wide ministry.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea

and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:8

As we know today, the empowerment given to Christ’s disciples literally changed the world through the establishment of churches on every continent.

What resources do your employees need to

be fully empowered to accomplish their goals?

Christ’s disciples were empowered for ministry as Christ chose to equip, enable and engage His followers who were captivated by the mission set before them.