Your Questions Answered! – by Julianne McMaster

By Julianne McMaster, first published in Compass, Summer 2020

Julianne McMaster and her husband, Phil, are involved in the Military Ministry of the Australian Navigators. In particular, Julianne oversees the Solid Rock Ministry. We wanted her thoughts on Teaching and Leadership.

“See One, Do One, Teach One.” What’s that about, Julianne?

This was the mantra that greeted me within the Townsville Emergency Department that I worked within as part of a close team for over 10 years. Our job was to save lives and to train up younger nurses in Emergency Medicine so we could keep doing this vital job. People depended on us and every emergency scenario would play out
differently. Therefore, we were always looking out for opportunities to teach and to observe from others who knew more.

How can you take that and apply it to ministry?

Thinking about “Gospel-based discipleship,” it’s similar to the Emergency Department in that our job is to help others to follow Jesus and then to help lead them to do the same with others. It’s all about life and death as we play our part in bringing people from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light. A real-life emergency. So in leading people through the process of discipleship:

– We need to get to know our disciples well, their strengths and their growth areas.

– We need to “fan into flame” their God-given gifts.

– We need to show them how to do it, help them do it themselves and then we give God the glory as we see them pass it on.

What a wonderful privilege to lead people through leading others.