Acts 2:14
“But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:”
The story of Peter and the disciples preaching on the day of Pentecost truly seems to be much different from a few days earlier when they were on the lake fishing. Just a few days prior they had given up on Christianity, and for good reason; they thought that Christ was dead. The verse above shows an obvious difference in the disciples as they boldly proclaimed the Gospel and thousands responded by accepting Christ as Saviour. Something had changed!
What changed was that Jesus knew there had to come a time when He trusted what He taught them would take effect when He left them. He had sent them out before, but this time He totally trusted that they would carry on what they learned. He knew His trust in them would result in growth.
I believe that many people do not grow because they are never given the chance to grow. Anyone who has followed me for a short time knows that I love dogs, and I train my dogs. One of my dogs that I was training seemed to respond rapidly to the training. One morning while I was taking my morning walk with my dogs, I decided to trust this dog and take her off the leash. Mind you, I was on a busy city street, and I was trusting my dog to listen to me. Though I was a bit nervous, I knew she would respond because I had trained her well and had done this before. It is always amazing how once the dog sees that I trust her enough to take off leash that she rewards me by doing what I trained her to do.
I believe many Christians have never been taken off the leash by their pastor or a spiritual leader only to see them become frustrated and eventually quit. There has to come a time as a leader when you trust what you have trained your people to do enough to take them off leash and let them train others. Pastor, if you never learn to trust people, they will never reward you for putting your trust in them. They need to see that you have enough confidence in them that they will respond right, just like Jesus did with His disciples.
The common response I get when I tell pastors this is that this person is not ready. Pastor, they will never be ready. The pressure of you putting your trust in them has an amazing result in causing them to grow. If you can’t fully trust them, at least trust them in a controlled atmosphere. Put them in a situation where they teach under your guidance. Any little bit of trust you put in them will always result in growth. Just like my dogs responded right when I had enough trust to take them off leash, so Christians will grow when you trust them enough to follow what you have taught them.
Let me take this one step further and address parents. Your children will do right if you have trained them right. I totally understand the fear of gradually letting go, but if you want your child to do right you are going to have to trust them under the controlled atmosphere of living under your roof and gradually take them off leash. There is going to come a day when they move out. The trust you put in them while they are under your controlled atmosphere will prove you right when they move out on their own. Simply put, people grow when their leader shows trust in them. Yes, you will be disappointed at times, but you will find more growth than disappointment if you take them off leash.