I'll never forget the first time I stepped on stage to teach. I was a senior in high school, and I was asked to teach for our Wednesday night, Middle School Ministry program. I had no idea what I was doing. What's even more fun is that I actually still have a CD of my awful message. I didn't have a clearly communicated message, I stuttered, and I wasn't very engaging. But out of that was my first glimpse into one of the things that I love most about my job, preaching God's word.
If I didn't get a chance to teach poorly, I may have never found out how much I loved to teach. Eventually I got much better, but it only happened because I learned by doing. Every now and then those of us who lead people are hesitant to hand over tasks to other people. And we may have lots of great reasons to be hesitant; we can do it better, the timing isn't right, or it is actually easier to do it ourselves than try to walk alongside someone else while they learn.
The problem with this is if we are always obsessed with doing it ourself or doing it perfectly, we may miss opportunities to give new leaders a chance to try it. I would not be in my position today if it weren't for multiple people taking risks in letting me do things. Excellence is absolutely something that we can and should strive for in our ministry programs, but if avoiding problems prevents us from building new leaders we have a much bigger issue.
Who took a risk and gave you the opportunity to lead?