This is a document I wrote for a ministry I was involved in a while ago. I find empowerment a powerful and important skill to learn. Please enjoy :D
The Importance of Empowerment
I consider this an important part of Ezra’s Creed, leadership and sustaining the ministry. In the most basic sense, it is important because if we do not train up people to follow us, then whatever we are doing will fall to ashes and be forgotten. If one values the cause to which they are following, they will understand that for the cause to continue, they must empower others. It also weighs on the desire to develop people, both in character and skill. This will be carried out by continuously passing off responsibilities and delegating. Our goal is not just to carry out our responsibilities, but also to teach someone else to do it.
Accepting volunteers is also affected by this. I would encourage that we should always give people the opportunity to prove themselves. Even if I think someone will be unable to do what a task or position requires, if they show a desire to carry out the responsibility, I would often let or encourage them to do it. Some people can end up surprising you.
Yes, you will at times come across an occasion when somebody fails to fulfill what they commit to, but frankly, I do not believe we should allow our paranoia to prevent us from giving them an opportunity to be challenged and grow. It is important to remember the purpose of Ezra’s Creed, that is, to present the Word of God as the Word of God. We are to approach it with personal reverence, not as a professional presentation.
Randy Sims in his book The Greatest Among You defines Empowerment as “the act of endowing someone with the knowledge, tools, motivation and authority to continue the mission of the team.”[1] In his definition he lists four things:
The first is Knowledge, this is the how to, if we merely give somebody a to-do list and say ‘have at it’, that is far short of empowering them and enabling them to be successful. Knowledge without ability, purpose and authority can do nothing. For example pretend there was a surgeon (let’s call her Alexandra) who had been practicing for 12 years. On one operation on a patient’s heart, she made a critical error and the patient ended up dying. Even though it was a mistake Alexandra feels deeply personally responsible for the incident and thus never wants to risk hurting somebody again by a potential surgical mistake. Now Alexandra still knows how to do surgeries, but she neither has the medical lab to work in and because of regrets of the mistake she never wants to do surgery again. She has the knowledge, but it does no good. Knowledge is a must, but we do a great injustice if that is all we give people. Without the knowledge nothing will get done, but knowledge alone will not get anything done.
The second is the tools. Suppose somebody named Jack was trying to learn how to assemble a car’s engine he took apart with the desire to aspire to be a mechanic. Jack went to a trained mechanic and asks for his help and instruction and empowerment to be able to assemble and install an engine. The mechanic agreed, but all he ever did was give Jack permission to use the tools in his shed. After a month of trying Jack got irritated and gave up, not only on the engine but also on the aspiration of becoming a mechanic. Did the mechanic at all empower Jack? No, in an afternoon he could have easily guided Jack in assembling the engine telling why each piece was important, and eventually the mechanic could have given Jack the authority to work along side him within his shop and they both would have gained from the empowerment. Thus empowerment is more than just supplying the tools. In our case these could be seen as our chapel opportunities, the Tent supplies and even our campus and church connections.
The third thing listed is motivation. The best motivation is intrinsic motivation that is there is something in ourselves that simply enjoys and sees value what we are doing without being concerned with the success or failure of that. This is the kind of motivation we desire to inspire in people, and the only way to do that is enable them to see what we do as valuable. I believe this is done a lot by personal testimony, personal experience and looking at the Scriptural importance of our task. Motivation is probably the hardest part of empowerment to provide, but it is the most essential. If somebody has strong enough motivation but no knowledge, tools, or authority, they will do everything they can to seek out what they need to fulfill their motivation. This is not to say that it is not important to provide the other parts of empowerment as well. If we give somebody motivation and motivation alone, they will waste much time learning and gathering what we have already learned and gathered. I think the most obvious example of this necessity is education: When people desire to learn they go to a place where the resources to learn are and the information to learn is. In short if we pass on motivation but nothing else, we are causing great waste and excess effort.
The last part of empowerment is authority. If somebody has the knowledge, the tools, and the desire to do something but they do not have any authority where they can make use of such things, they are like a caged bird. What good is a bird’s ability to fly if it cannot use it because it is kept in a cage that is too short to be flown in? Also, if one can never make use of knowledge, tools and motivation without some authority, then how can they ever grow those three? For this reason we must eagerly, but appropriately give people authority.
So as you see, each of the four parts of empowerment (knowledge, tools, motivation and authority) are essential to properly empower others. If any of them are missing, then it will be like a flat tire, yeah it goes for a while, but pretty soon the car will stop and major repairs will be needed…
“and what you have head from me… entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” ~ 2 Timothy 2:2
5/1/10
~Andrew Voigt
