Developing Kingdom Leaders – Tom Yeakley

Taking the Mystery out of Leadership

Archive for the category “#1 KNOW- How a Leader Thinks”

05 Oct 2026

Even the Lone Ranger Had Tonto!

Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek. Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek. Then they went from town to town, instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew larger every day. Acts 16:1-5 NLT

Leading a disciplemaking ministry is not an individual endeavor.  It’s a team effort.  Wise leaders will select team members that have complementary gifts and strengths to their own.  The result is more complete leadership and a manageable workload for all. 

If you are pioneering a new ministry, carefully consider the importance of launching with a ministry team and not doing it alone.  If you don’t have a launch team, pray and work for emerging leaders who will join with you.  Delegation is a great thing when you have someone to delegate to! 

Within our Kingdom leadership paradigm of shepherd leadership,  we have three leadership functions – lead missionally, care personally, and develop professionally.  As the team leader, you are responsible for all three functions, but no one can do all three well.  Each of us will have one that is a strength, one that is our stretch, and the third which is our struggle. 

Ideally, a leadership team will have complementary strengths, and delegation of tasks will go to those with strengths in their respective areas.  With team members operating in their respective strengths or at least their stretch,  you provide great motivation, satisfaction, and impact.  Good leadership says, “Operate in your strengths and staff to your weaknesses.” 

The best way to develop emerging leaders is to give them responsibility.  Don’t wait too long to ask others to join with you in sharing your leadership load.  Leaders want to lead, so give them right-sized responsibilities.  Delegation will recruit leaders as well as develop them in ministry vision and skill.  And always be sure to evaluate their work when finished. 

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21 Sep 2026

The Goal is Not Pins on a Map!

But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while. Romans 15:23-24 NIV

How could Paul possibly say that there was no more work for him to do in the eastern Roman Empire?  The answer is found in his calling and ministry strategy. 

Paul was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles – the non-Jews.  Jesus told him this when He appeared to Paul on the day of his salvation (Acts 9).  Thus, his calling was one of pioneering, planting the gospel in places that had not heard the Good News of Jesus dying for their sins.  He says that he has been faithful to that calling for the past 25 years, intentionally avoiding places where someone else had already planted the gospel.

But how could he say there was no more work for him to do?  The final part of this answer lies in Paul’s ministry strategy.  Paul targeted locations that were transportation and communication hubs, knowing that the gospel would spread from those hub cities to the surrounding areas.  He knew others would come after him and build on his foundation (1 Corinthians 3). 

But we are not called to a vision of geographical expansion.  Rather, we are called to contribute to fulfilling the Great Commission of discipling the nations by raising up spiritual generations of disciplemakers.  We are not seeking to add more ministry locations to our ministry map. 

Our ministry locations are a means to an end – more trained disciplemakers.  As we raise up these spiritual multipliers, we will see geographical expansion.  But it is not our goal, nor is it a measure of our success to add more brightly colored pins to our ministry map.  Ministry locations will come and go.  We are trusting God to raise up those with vision and skill to reproduce their spiritual lives in others.  These fruitful disciplemakers are the measure of our ministry success. 

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24 Aug 2026

You Will be Quoted!

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. James 3:9-12 NIV

Before you assumed the role of leader you freely shared your thoughts and opinions, usually without significant consequences.  But now that you are leading others, your words carry much more weight because the authority of your position stands behind your words.  Now your words really matter to others. 

Someone put it this way.  “As a leader you speak at a volume of ‘2’ but you are heard at a volume of ‘9’!”  Therefore, you must think before you speak!  And choose carefully what you want to have public opinions about.  You will be quoted! 

Because of the gravity with which others hear a leader’s words, you can hurt someone with a flippant remark or bad use of humor.  A leader’s sarcasm can wound others, especially those more sensitive.  They may laugh, but inwardly they are hurting. 

Knowing that your words matter can be used to advantage also.  All team members want to be well thought of by their leader.  Words of affirmation from a leader are also heard loudly and can go a long way in helping individual or team morale.  But if a  leader is always pointing out short-comings or mistakes, team members will be hesitant to take risks or disclose the true nature of a situation for fear of criticism or rebuke.  Never confuse flattery with affirmation.  Flattery is insincere or excessive praise, often used to manipulate others.  “You’re the best!”  “You’re so smart!”  Often these characteristics are things  the person is born with.  But words of affirmation are compliments about something the person developed or did.  “Your wholehearted attitude was exemplary.”  “Your attention to detail really helped us.”  Be sure to affirm, not flatter!

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13 Jul 2026

Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing!

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:1-4 ESV

When launching your ministry there is great excitement and zeal to begin building a generational ministry that sends skilled disciplemakers to the ends of the earth.  But as time moves forward, especially with increased numbers of people involved, the clarity of your mission can begin to fade.  Problems arise (they always do) and ‘shiny objects’ flutter in front of our eyes taking away from the laser focus we once had.  How do you  prevent mission drift and a loss of focus on the main thing?

First, you the leader must be crystal clear as to your responsibility and contribution.  You must gently say no to anything that would take you away from this contribution.  Just as the apostles did in acknowledging the importance of daily food distribution to widows, they also affirmed that their personal contribution was a  focus on prayer and the ministry of the Word of God.  They resolved the issue by delegating the solution to others without becoming embroiled in the details of the operations.

Secondly, you must continually cast vision and remind all involved with you about the mission.  As the ministry leader, you are the primary vision caster.  Saying it over and over again will embed not only the vision, but also the values which guide choices resulting in aligned behavior for the mission. 

Train yourself to communicate the mission and vision in multiple ways.  Use stories and metaphors to illustrate key values.  Model these values by your own behavior.  You are working against the natural degradation of the vision with the passing of time.  Remember the adage, “It’s hard to remember why you decided to drain the swamp when you are surrounded by alligators!”  Keep sharing the mission and vision wherever you go. 

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18 May 2026

Play Hardball, Not Softball!

Jesus had provided free food to 5,000 people and attracted many with engaging parables and wonderful healings.  He knew many were superficial in their commitment to following Him and their understanding of discipleship.  Thus, He drew a very clear line in the sand on what it meant to follow Him.  The Bread of Life sermon in John 6:41-69 defined the cost of discipleship.

“Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life,” He said.  “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” He continued, referring to the physical manna God had provided for wandering Israel in the desert.  “I am the bread of life…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”  The crowd grumbled as the cost of discipleship and His claims became clear. 

Jesus follows with, “Does this offend you?”  And John records, “From that time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.” (v. 66)  Jesus defined the relationship and left it to the people to decide if they would pay the price to truly follow Him as His disciples.  Sadly, many walked away.

Note too that Jesus did not assume the Twelve would continue with Him.  He says to them, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”  Peter sums up their attitude, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life?” (v. 67-68)

Billy Graham said, “Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you everything.”  Discipleship is not about joining a social club or seeking fun with your friends.  It’s choosing life over death and a total commitment to obey Jesus whatever He may ask, trusting His promise of the resurrection and eternal life.

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04 May 2026

The Foundation Determines the Superstructure!

“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles…” Luke 6:12-13 ESV

Having spent a year since His baptism around Jerusalem and recruited the two sets of brothers to full-time discipleship, Jesus now creates a ‘leadership team’ called the Apostles.  The Twelve were chosen by Jesus as He looked ahead two years knowing that He would be leaving them to carry on His mission to reach the world. 

These Twelve would become the model for others who would come.  Anyone who wondered what following Jesus was like only had to look at the example of His inner circle to know what discipleship meant.  The Twelve were both catalyst and model for the disciplemaking movement.  They were the foundation on which Jesus would build. 

Within two years from their designation a ‘messengers’ (apostles), they were given the final command to ‘make disciples of all the nations’ (Matthew 28:18-20).  They would take what they knew and experienced, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, seek to conquer the world.  Local leaders commented, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”  (Acts 6:13)

As others are attracted to your disciplemaking they will evaluate the quality of your influence by the lives of those already involved.  Especially those designated as disciplemaking leaders act as a living advertisement of what discipleship means. 

In the case of the Twelve, it was undeniable that they had ‘been with Jesus’ and no other schooling experience could explain their behavior.  The first generation determines all who follow. 

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20 Apr 2026

The Launch Determines the Orbit!

When you first arrive at your new ministry location you will be greeted by excited people who welcome you, saying all sorts of nice things.  “We’ve been praying for a disciplemaking ministry here…” or “You are such an answer to prayer…” or “We’ve been telling everyone about you…”  So uplifting! So exciting!

These people mean well and perhaps you are an answer to prayer – someone’s prayer.  And in your zeal to get started quickly with ‘short term wins’ you invite these people into a core group bible study or even begin to meet with them one-to-one.  You assume that God has prepared this ‘fruitful field’ and that these initial contacts are the foundations of many future spiritual generations.  This is a very wrong assumption.

What often occurs is that these people are attracted to the latest new and exciting thing and you are it – for the moment.  But next week or next month there will be another new and exciting thing starting and they will be there to greet them and welcome them like they did for you.  That’s their strength and design.  Nothing is wrong with this, just realize that your foundational ministry people will probably not be the ones who you initially meet. 

Go slow in your commitments to others.  Get to know your new ministry environment.  Seek to know and be known.  Pray and wait for the Lord to confirm who it is that He has chosen for you to build the foundation upon.  And don’t be surprised if it is not the people who you initially connected with when you arrived at your new ministry location.  Don’t build your ministry on those who greet you at the train station! 

You only get one ministry launch!  Make it a good one!

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23 Mar 2026

Bigger Does Not Mean Better!

It can be natural for some ministry leaders to think that the more people involved in our ministry the better.  We can assume that ‘more’ is better and a sign of God’s favor and blessing on the work.  Maybe or maybe not?

The disciples assumed that the rich man was favored because he had more money that others.  They assumed that his wealth was a sign of God’s blessing on his life.  But Jesus’ summary as he walked away from an invitation to join Him was that it is hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.  Their resources make it easy to depend upon themselves and not on God. 

The disciples were amazed by this statement, for this was counter to a basic belief regarding God’s blessing on people.  Abundance is a sign of blessing and scarcity is a sign of His disfavor.  Don’t make the same mistake and assume that bigger is better! 

The vision of investing deeply in the lives of a few requires that we ignore the temptation to build some big ministry.  Building a  big ministry is not the goal.  Big ministries require great effort to manage.  Chasing after ‘bigness’ in ministry is not our focus. 

Having many people involved in your disciplemaking ministry is not necessarily bad.  We must avoid the other extreme of small numbers being an excuse for lack of effort or laziness.  We note that Jesus had thousands who He fed on at two occasions.  But caring for the hunger of the masses was not His primary focus.  It was an occasional endeavor. 

Don’t make the pursuit of many your aim.  Your aim is to equip a few people with vision and skills to make more disciples, thus changing the world one person at a time.  Go deep with a few for the sake of the many!

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09 Mar 2026

Pray and Work for Critical Mass!  – Acts 2:42-47

 In a nuclear reaction energy needs to be added to split atoms until enough atomic particles are split to enable more atoms to split without needing more energy.  So it is in a disciplemaking ministry.  As a ministry pioneer, you will need to expend much energy to attain a critical mass of ministry.  But how do you do this and how do you know when you have it?

When starting a new ministry, you will want to lay a solid prayer foundation from which to begin to build.  Take adequate time and energy praying for ‘soil four people’ who will be the reproducers of many spiritual generations.  Recruit others to pray for God’s favor and expect divine appointments with those who He is bringing to you.  Walk the land and pray for God to bless!

Ask God to give you those who are ‘gatekeepers’ to many more relationships.  These people, like Andrew, will bring their friends because they are blessed to be a part of your ministry and want to share that blessing with others.  They are your ‘fans’ and always bringing others to meet Jesus in your ministry.

Have a short ‘elevator pitch’ answer that you can share when asked, “Who are you or What do you do?”  Make your answer short, engaging, authentic, and inviting.  You will want to meet a lot of people and have lots of practice sharing this.

Critical mass is reached when you have a consistent, sustainable number of committed people engaged with you in the ministry.  You, the leader, do not need to work so hard to invite because these people are inviting their friends.  You are able to delegate responsibilities to them, not having to do it all yourself.  You have increasing capacity to think and strategize, rather than ‘do.’

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09 Feb 2026

The Flywheel in Disciplemaking is Evangelism

But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:5 ESV

The purpose of a flywheel is to store kinetic energy and release it to smooth out power delivery.  In a disciplemaking ministry the flywheel is evangelism – taking the gospel to the lost.  Seeing people come to faith in Christ creates great momentum in the rest of the disciplemaking process and attracts those who are practitioners rather than philosophers. 

In personal discipling, focus early with those you help on developing a heart for the lost, praying for the lost, becoming skilled in sharing their salvation story, and in sharing the gospel.  This is especially true if you are beginning to disciple someone who has a Christian background.  Focusing on evangelism will quickly separate those who want fellowship with other believers but are not interested in laboring in the harvest.

An emphasis on reaching the lost will help set a tone for others who are attracted.  They quickly see that foundational to being a disciple is engaging with lost people and helping them move towards a relationship with Christ.  Thus, they begin to get a rudimentary understanding of discipleship and that it is more than just a relationship with Jesus.  It is missional, because God is missional by nature, and it involves helping people know Christ and make Him known.

Recognize that our adversary will actively oppose any initiative towards the lost.  You are a threat to his kingdom.  If he can prevent you from coming to faith, he will diligently work to stop you from sharing it with the lost.  Don’t be surprised when you face difficulties in evangelism.  Expect it.  And do the work of an evangelist to create the flywheel momentum of evangelism in your life and in the lives of those you disciple. 

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