The Way Of The Spiritual Leader - 167 Chapter 4. The Progress of Church and Witnessing Section 1. The Growth and Progress of the Church
4. The Progress of the Church and the Responsibility of a Preacher
4) Be a Leader Who Raises Members - 2
Even though you have brought in members in such way, you sacrificed many people because of bad policy in taking care of members after they joined. So, what should the leader always be concerned about? The mission of the leader is not spreading and conveying the word, but reaping the harvest.
You must understand this. Proclaiming the word is planting seed, and reaping harvest afterwards is the mission of the leader. In other words, you must give water to the young bud, and uproot the weeds and help the blossoming of flowers in order to produce fruits. The mission of the leader will be completed only after the fruit matures after some time and he is able to reap the harvest. A new leader should not try to implant again from scratch what the predecessor has already done. Rather, he must take a good care in raising what is already there.
Although someone else planted the seeds, if he can raise them well and bring in harvest, then they will go into the storage of heaven. However, because he does not have such an attitude, because he does not try to first understand the personality and leadership style of the past leader, but plants his own seeds, they will die. You should never make such mistakes. I believe that because the leadership transfer and inheriting responsibility did not go smooth, many people were sacrificed. Looking from this point of view, more than the spreading of words, leaders must be able to reap the harvest.
You should not be a leader who implants seeds, but a leader who collects the harvest after implanting seeds. It takes more than three years in order to make a harvest. You should not try to reap right away. For this reason, Jesus wandered for three years in order to find the twelve disciples. This is the principle. Therefore, you must devote yourself for three years. For this reason I told you when I was sending you out witnessing, "You must play the role of someone sold as a servant, or in the military for three years, and must loyally fulfill your duties in the villages." Moreover, what do you teach them?
You should teach them about the true way of loyalty. In addition, you should show them through practice. Then, without you telling them to do so, they will try to inherit your mission and work. When everyone displays this attitude, then you can secure your foundation in your villages. Because you could not fulfill your responsibilities in the frontier despite such direction, all over the world the foundations laid down are like not having built a complete house. It is more difficult to continue to build on top of that structure than to build a new house from scratch.
If you return to a place where a witnessing campaign has failed in the past and all members have dispersed, then you will find that it takes two or three times more effort to pioneer there as compared to the first time. You must already be well aware of this fact through the experiences of the past. Reflecting on this, we arrive at the conclusion that we did not accomplish our responsibility fully. Considering all these questions, we have to reevaluate this. First is the issue of solving the problem of regional headquarters, second is the issue of enhancing the Principle lecturing skills, third is the question of witnessing and raising members.
You should not just give birth and abandon them. You must raise them after the birth. You must raise them to be your own heir. We have been neglecting these problems so far. Therefore, when you return to your regions tomorrow, you should make plans centering on these issues. How many have you witnessed to so far? If you have witnessed to ten members, then you must have a meeting with them together with the people under you at least once a year.
Even if they are spread out in the Chunla state, Kyungsan state, or Kangwon state, you should gather them at least once a year. If all of them cannot gather in one place, you should try to call them individually, or take the time out to go visit them at least once a year. Just like the relationship between a parent and child, you should be able to talk about the things that happened so far. Just like how a parent will embrace and encourage a child who comes to visit from far away and tells him about his recent affairs, you must have a time of unity centering on the bond of heart of the past, and tell each other everything from sad events to happy affairs. The longer these times are the more they cannot forget you. However, you have not been doing this so far. Then, what did you do so far? When a leader from Chunnam area is transferred to another region, then I am told that he calls all of them over by writing letters. This is not how it should be. You must introduce them to the succeeding leader. You should write to them saying, "Although I did it this and that way, if there is conflict with the leadership style of the new leader, then you should do this and that to eliminate the problem, and when even that does not work, you should write to me."
You should not try to drag them to where you are. You should try to connect them to the new leader, and try to create the basis for them to be better, based on the standard that you have been using to raise them. Since the new leader does not understand about each member, this is how you should do it. We have not carried this out so well. [29-191, 1970.2.28] |