Age doesn’t BLOCK Leadership

1 Timothy 4:12-14

” Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love , in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to preaching and teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.”

My life hasn’t always been straight edged. It has lots of weird turns and lots of BLOCKS that I have ran into. I was blessed with a church that allowed me to learn how to do ministry while I was in college. It was an absolute awesome experience and I learned a whole lot. One of the main things that I learned is:

YOUR AGE DOES NOT DETERMINE YOUR LEADERSHIP.

I thought for a long time that I wasn’t going to be doing anything significant until I was “older.” I am not really sure where this thought came from, maybe it was my dream that  I could live college life until I was “older” and then I would start doing something of significance. However, this is far from true and I experienced this in a first degree.

I was in a place where I was confused, not sure where to go and not sure what to do. In the middle of a conversation with a mentor of mine I heard this line:

” dont you ever use the excuse that you are only 22 again. It doesnt matter how old you are, you are a leader and you can lead.”

Whether I wanted to admit it or not, my mentor was right. Age is not a BLOCK of Leadership. It is not something that you can fall back on when you don’t know what to do.

Leadership is a hard road. If you look in the Bible at this letter that Paul wrote to Timothy, it isn’t written in a passive tense, or a future tense. It is written in a way to Timothy that says ” You need to lead now!!” There is no time to waste and there is no time like the present in order for you you to lead. Timothy is was a “young” leader. He wasn’t in the ministry for a long time, he didn’t have all the answers and he certainly faced the same BLOCKS  that any young leader has.

Respect

Experience

Practice

Knowledge

Influence

All of these things are talked about in Paul’s letter to this young leader in Timothy.

November 2009, I had the privilege of being ordained. If you have ever been ordained, it is a very interesting process. It is something that I had no real knowledge of unless it was for tax reasons. Probably not the best thought of it. In this process I had to do an interview with my home church elders, which included my Dad. It was an interesting experience because I dont know if I have ever been that forward and up front with my Dad. I was asked the question: Do you know what it means to be ordained?

I had no clue. So like a good young person, I made up an answer. No, not really, I asked them what the definition was.

My purpose in life had a much different feel and meaning after the definition. ” Ordination is basically the process of you baptizing yourself in the ministry of Jesus Christ.” O!! Thats what it means! It meant a whole lot more to me when I realized that was the definition. It made much more sense.

Here is the thing; living a life of leadership is not all about age. It is a life that is called by God and given the gifts to lead by God. God has blessed everyone with different gifts along the way. Leadership is one of those gifts. As young leaders, we need to take to heart what Paul calls Timothy too and not run away from the gift of leadership. We need to embrace our calling and work hard at setting an example for the people around us.

Age is NOT a BLOCK of Leadership. You are the only thing blocking you from being a great young leader. Don’t let age, or any comment about your age take you to a place where you neglect the calling of leadership that you have.

Lead Well. Learn Well. Live Well.

Thanks for allowing me to join in on this conversation.