Jesus called his first apostles by saying: “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” (Mark 1:14 NASB). Encapsulated within this sentence is a perfect leadership development model.
Foremost in His development model for Simon Peter and Andrew was the call to both physically follow Him and to emulate His teachings and example (Jews like Peter and Andrew understood that to follow a Rabbi was to emulate and learn from him). Like Jesus, leaders are called to model the behavior of a leader disciple for those developing in their faith to emulate.
Second in Jesus’ development model is the assignment of responsibility and goals. Jesus took upon Himself the responsibility of developing His apostles into the Spiritual leaders when he said, “I will.” His promise was to make them become leaders. Some people are born with some physical and mental traits of a leader, but no one is born with a complete set of leadership traits (who a leader is) and skills (what a leader does). Every single person must “become” or develop into a leader.
Finally, Jesus called his apostles to be “fishers of men (people).” The fishermen who heard this word picture understood Jesus was calling them to become a leader who could “catch” or influence people to the gospel in His name. This is the essence of leadership, influencing people toward a higher goal.
Spiritual leaders in the church are responsible for finding and calling future generations of leaders. A responsibility that extends to purposefully maturing young leaders through mentorship and the modeling of strong traits and skills for them to emulate. Echoing the words of Jesus, leaders in the church must say to potential future leaders, “Follow my example and I will make you a leader of people.”