Jesus begins healing, and it soons spins into a 24/7/365 job that begins wearing Him out! Sickness, leprosy, demon-possession, etc. Jesus can’t out-heal the need. What does He do? He first points the need out to His followers. They should know, but Jesus ensures that they see the overwhelming numbers. Then they pray for help—Jesus makes sure they realize that the problem is not the needs of the world, the problem is the lack of workers.

By the time he’s done, I hope Jesus’ followers were volunteering to help, but in case they didn’t, He makes a point to appoint twelve of them, and send them out to the surrounding area. Even then, He tells them to keep their ministry focused on a specific group of people—the first wave of the ministry to the world.

Our world is no different. The needs are overwhelming—we will never be able to take care of them all. We need to pray—because ultimately getting more people working in ministry is a task only God can complete. And we need to appoint people—even people who are not ready—but who are willing—to try doing the ministry for themselves. And even after we have done all of that, we need to limit the scope of their endeavor so that we prioritize the gospel message and don’t overwhelm the next generation of ministry leaders.

I hope I am as bold and prayerful and empowering as Jesus was with potential leaders that I find.