Throughout history, the Church has allowed leaders to hold positions of authority they should never have been given, gifted or not. Our lack of discernment and failures have rocked everyone across all streams of faith.

The Lord will always raise up a new generation of leaders, including unlikely leaders, to replace failed leaders. People we would never imagine could be leaders.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Gideon (Judges 6:7-14). What is unfamiliar to most people is the backstory leading up to Gideon’s victories. Israel was living in fear of the Midianite marauders who came and stole their crops. The people began to cry out to God as the fear of famine was increasing. As a result of their lament, when they cried out to the Lord, He sent a prophet to them. That prophet was Gideon—a very unlikely choice.

While Gideon was threshing wheat in his father’s field, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

Gideon responded by saying, “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” The response: “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

God defined Gideon as a hero before he did anything heroic. And Gideon offered a fleece to the Lord to prove that He would use him to rescue the people of Israel.

That exchange was the basis of Israel’s victory over the Midianites. Gideon’s fear and his personal disqualification for the task ahead would not stand in the way if he did not forget the Lord was with him If he simply stepped forward and obeyed the Lord’s instructions.

Any inability to lead was not a disqualification for his service. Only disobedience would disqualify him.

We need to discern self-promotion and look past personality and talent. God will use the humble, faithful, and willing ones, gifted or not, to do what God asks of them. This wisdom will not be easy because the world’s impression of success has been planted as a false seed in the Church as a measure of spiritual integrity. It’s not. God measures a leader’s success by the integrity of their heart.

Some of you reading these words are candidates for such a position, even as you are currently processing your own weaknesses and fears. Regardless, go in the strength you have, however weak that strength may appear, knowing the Lord is going with you.