What Tim taught me

Over the last six months I’ve witnessed the transformation of a leader. Tim Scheuer heads up Church Army Australia, a ministry of evangelism alongside the Anglican Church. He has done an outstanding job as its national Director.

In March this year I brought “Barney” out to Australia to talk about his experience of fueling a church planting movement somewhere in Asia that is now up to about 8,000 people.

The usual response of existing leaders to a story like Barney’s is to tell me why the lessons can’t be applied in the “Australian context.” Instead, Tim decided he would do something and see how it went.

He reordered his life, recruited a team and headed out to one of the neediest suburbs of Sydney. Almost immediately people came to Christ and began sharing the gospel with their friends and family.

Tim’s vision is for thousands of new disciples in the region and hundreds of new churches.

Here’s what Tim is teaching me about how God transforms an organizational leader into a movement leader.

1. A credible example

When Barney shared his experience of a church planting movement, Tim was presented with a role model he could imitate. Barney is no superstar. He has a simple strategy, a simple faith in a God who saves, and a willingness to obedient. Tim looked at Barney and thought, “Why can’t I do that?”

2. A sense of urgency

Tim moved with lightening speed. Within weeks he had raised the funds for a business manager to run the national office and restructured his role so that he could spend three days a week on the front line.

He did all this with the support of his Board, but there was no doubting what he was going to do and the urgency with which he moved.

3. Thinking on his feet

He spied out the land. Did the demographic study. Recruited the team. It didn’t take him months—it took just a few weeks. The real learning began when Tim hit the streets and went house to house. He spent time with people sharing the gospel. Why do we think missionaries can be made in a classroom?

Four more lessons to follow in the next post. . .