Making yourself available so that someone can learn from you, may catapult them into their destiny.
If you know me, you know the Lord has blessed me with some of the most amazing friendships. When I first felt that I should study relationships, I just KNEW it’d be focused on how to be a great friend. However, I have found that the central theme of my relationship study is that between leaders and the community. I think it’s interesting to assess my personal relationships with the community from a biblical basis. My first study is the relationship between Paul and Timothy.
I’ve noticed that Paul accepted responsibility as Timothy’s mentor. Paul honored that responsibility through discipleship, trust, and assignments. He allowed Timothy to learn from him in a way that nudged Timothy to walk in his own purpose.
A Deeper Dive into 1Timothy
So far, in 1Timothy, I noticed four relationships between leaders and community: mentorship, instructional, submissive, and reputable.
Mentorship: guidance provided by a mentor~
Being submissive to someone's tutelage gives you authority to operate in purpose. Timothy gained enough knowledge from Paul to confidently leave instructions for the church. Making yourself available so that someone can learn from you, may catapult them into their destiny. People will be healed through your authenticity.
Instructional: intended or used for teaching; giving detailed information about how something should be run~
The entire book of Timothy is an instructional guide for prayer, worship, modest living, and a lot more. Timothy gives specific instructions to women to make ourselves attractive by the good works that we do. He says that those who are devoted to God should “continue to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty.”
Girl-Talk Insert: Most women are taught to make ourselves attractive through beauty treatments and rituals--much like the “Esther Experience”. Esther went through a year long beautification process to be chosen for marriage. At the conclusion of the process she was to choose garments and jewelry to help make her beautiful for the king--she chose the simplest. Her goal to maintain the freedom of her people was in the forefront of her mind and made her attractive to the king. Revelation for meeee! :: Girl Talk Over LOL
Submissive: ready to conform to authority~
The part of this definition that gets me the “ready”. Ready denotes that we can conform to authority without being willing. If we’ve conformed unwillingly, or without being ready, we have missed the essence of submission. Timothy’s willingness to submit to Paul introduced him to purpose.
Reputable: having a good reputation~
Church leaders (and leaders in general) should be reputable. The community should know and speak well of you. Operating in integrity and honesty is the start to building a solid reputation. You want the community, and those you are in relationship with, to trust you. Words and testimonies have greater impact if they are coming from someone you trust. People should be confident that the words you speak about God (and your testimony) are true.
Now, more than ever, we have the responsibility to be the church. As we assess our relationships with community, I think we should keep the above in mind.
What do you think?
Who we are teaching? How are we presenting opportunities for discipleship?
Who are we learning from/being submitted to? Are they challenging us/pointing us to God’s heart?
Are you building reputable relationships? Do people trust your God-stories? Do they count your testimony as true?