The biblical way of “developing new leaders” …

Nowhere in the New Testament do you see church leaders being instructed to “develop new leaders,” yet from among the circuit of “church leadership gurus” it has been taught for many, many years that that’s really the priority of church leaders.

It isn’t.

Not even close.

And what is often taught about how to go about developing such leaders is also nothing biblical.

That’s a pathetic situation because actually developing new leaders isn’t hard to do. There is a “natural,” biblical way of seeing new leaders rise up in the church, and it comes from fully obeying Jesus’ commission to His church.

Do you remember that?

We find it in Matthew 28:18-20: “Jesus came and told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

In that commissioning of His church, Jesus lays out a three-step process:

1. Go make disciples.

2. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

3. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

That third step is what we commonly refer to as “discipleship” and that is the biblical, “natural” way for all followers of Christ to spiritually mature, and for new leaders to rise up in the church.

Let me give you a real life example.

For eight months during late 2024 and early 2025, I served as Interim Pastor for a San Diego area church as part of a consulting project for Scott Free Clinic. During my time there, I met a bright 20-something guy who I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with and subsequently baptize upon his confession of faith. Since that time, I have been meeting with him every week to study the Bible together as part of a one-one–one discipleship relationship. That included equipping this young man in how to effectively share the Gospel with others. From that equipping, he has since shared the Gospel with, and baptized, four people (and has helped them begin their personal discipleship, that “Teach” part of the Great Commission).

While meeting with this fellow servant of Christ last Saturday, I shared with him that I had received the newsletter sent out by his church, which averages a few hundred people in attendance every Sunday. They were excited to report that thus far in 2026, they have baptized five people.

When I told my young friend that news, he looked at me with a startled expression and said, “I baptized four of those people.”

The church he is a member of doesn’t do anything to equip members to effectively shared the Gospel with anyone. They do very little in the “teach these new disciples” component of the Great Commission. Without my friend having joined the church, thus far in 2026 they would have baptized … one person. That, in a church where a few hundred who profess to follow Christ attend services weekly.

That church is not growing because like most churches it is not obeying the Great Commission by making disciples and then teaching them, but it does have a “leadership development” focus and activities.

Instead of trying to manufacture some kind of “leader” who isn’t a disciple-maker, the church can actually be faithful to it’s mission – and fruitful in it – if it would just follow the plan Jesus laid out. By making disciples through an initial focus on evangelism, and then “diicpling” them by teaching and equipping them (on of the reasons church leaders exist, see Ehiesians 4:11-12), REAL leaders — true disciple makers — will naturally rise up.

Scotty