09. The Wrong Social Class, Jesus Called People From the Margins
Who Are You Preventing From Leading? · Part 09
When we search for potential leaders, we often look toward the top.
We notice the educated, the wealthy, the well-connected, and the impressive.
We ask:
Who has influence? Who has resources? Who already commands respect? Who can help advance our ministry?
But God frequently begins somewhere else.
“For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise.”
1 Corinthians 1:26-27 WEB
God Does Not Choose as the World Chooses
The world evaluates people by education, income, occupation, appearance, influence, and social standing.
God looks for faith, humility, obedience, and availability.
Jesus did not build His disciple-making movement around the religious and political elite.
He called fishermen.
He welcomed tax collectors.
He received women whom society disregarded.
He touched people others considered unclean.
He entrusted the good news to ordinary people, and they carried it throughout the world.
The people society pushed to the margins were not on the margins of God’s mission.
They were often at its center.
Our Leadership Standards May Exclude God’s Choices
We may say that everyone is welcome, yet quietly assume that certain people are more qualified to lead.
We may listen more carefully to someone wearing an expensive suit than to a laborer with calloused hands.
We may trust the educated professional while overlooking the faithful believer who has little formal schooling.
We may seek people who can fund the ministry while ignoring those who could multiply it.
But faithfulness is not measured by a bank account.
Spiritual authority does not come from social status.
And the ability to make disciples is not reserved for the impressive.
Influence Is Not the Same as Faithfulness
Influential people can certainly be used by God.
The problem begins when influence becomes the qualification we value most.
Jesus did not tell us to find impressive people.
He told us to make disciples.
A person may have little influence by the world’s standards yet possess something far more valuable: deep relationships within a family, neighborhood, workplace, village, or overlooked community.
That person may be able to take the gospel into places an outsider could never reach.
The person we consider insignificant may already have the relational network through which God intends to begin a movement.
Movements Grow Through Ordinary People
Disciple-making movements do not depend upon a few exceptional leaders doing everything.
They multiply when ordinary believers are equipped to obey Jesus and teach others to obey Him.
The unemployed man can make disciples.
The market woman can open her home.
The refugee can reach other displaced families.
The farmworker can share Jesus with coworkers.
The person with little formal education can tell a Bible story and ask questions that lead others toward obedience.
They do not need to become impressive before God can use them.
They need someone to believe that the Holy Spirit can work through them.
Who Is Already in Front of Us?
Sometimes we pray for God to send influential leaders while overlooking the faithful people He has already placed among us.
They may not have credentials.
They may not have money.
They may never stand on a stage.
But they are available, obedient, teachable, and connected to people who need Jesus.
What if the next disciple-making movement does not begin with the most impressive person in the room?
What if it begins with the person almost everyone else overlooked?
God deliberately chooses people the world considers weak so that the glory belongs to Him.
The question is not merely whether we will serve people from the margins.
The deeper question is whether we will disciple them, trust them, and release them to lead.
Are we searching for influential people while ignoring the faithful people God has already given us?
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