SELECTION

The fate of every business hangs upon the quality of the employees hired. The fate of the world rests upon the quality of Jesus’ disciples engaged in obeying the Great Commission. Therefore, selection is an extremely important concept in the formation of teams and in accomplishing God’s will! I’d like to share with you seven principles that my Dad, Ron York, utilizes as a result of over fifty years of ministry experience. I believe you will find them to be very encouraging and helpful.

1. Intercede: “During those days He went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God. When daylight came, He summoned His disciples, and He chose 12 of them—He also named them apostles”—Luke 6:13 (Holman CSB). Jesus spent an entire night praying about those He should select among His followers to specifically train. He set the example for us. The ministry of selecting begins, continues and completes in prayer for the simple reason that we need God’s help to choose wisely.

2. Identify: Robert Coleman, in his book The Master Plan of Evangelism, wrote, “Make a list of those you would like to see join you. Pray over the list. Ask God for guidance in selecting the right people for the right roles.” In order to select, identify those whom God has brought into your life that you might train and equip for ministry.

3. Initiate: Make an appointment with the people on your list, one at a time.

4. Involve: Encourage them to be a part of something that you are doing or ask if you can be part of something they are doing. It might be a prayer walk, a Bible Study, a sports outreach or group activity. Sometimes being with a small group is better than meeting one-on-one. The key is to spend time with others that will allow you to begin discussing principles like sharing your faith, discipleship, obedience to God’s Word, etc. See how they respond. Some will not be interested and all you can do is pray and wait.

5. Investigate: Getting to know people and what God is doing in their lives is important if we are to have integrity in our inviting. What is on their heart? How is God leading them? What is it they need to learn? What fears do they have that keep them from following God’s lead? Visit their home. Meet their family. The key is to ask questions and listen. Particularly we are looking to see if a person demonstrates qualities of faithfulness, availability and having a teachable spirit. God will begin to give you some impressions.

6. Inspire: Now we are beginning to sense a connection. Those we are spending time with are beginning to get a picture of what God wants us to do. We now seek to cast vision for people in two ways. First, we are inviting people to join the greatest enterprise in history—the Kingdom and purposes of the King of kings! Second, we inspire people with a foretaste of what God wants to do in them. God is committed to seeing people transformed and developed. We invite people to adventure but also to personal growth and development. Ecclesiastes 10:10 says, “If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen its edge, then one must exert more strength; however, the advantage of wisdom is that it brings success” (Holman). God wants to sharpen us so we work with maximum effectiveness.

7. Invite: Jesus said in Mark 1:17, “Follow Me and I will make you fish for people!” (Holman). Had Jesus not called disciples would we know God today? How many people are not in ministry because no one invited them to be trained and deployed? Jesus asked and so should we.

Caution! Beware of inviting people to fulfill your own agendas or agreeing to work with only people that are part of your church. Selection is a process consecrated to building God’s Kingdom, concentrated in prayer and confirmed by fruitfulness.

Inspiration
Whatever the apparent gifts and abilities of people, we must look for those who want to move for Christ. Life is too short to expend excessive time and energy upon apathetic people.—Robert E. Coleman in The Master Plan of Discipleship