Believe It Before You See It: Why Leadership Development Starts with Vision

Welcome to the first episode of Let's Talk: Life, Leadership & Making Disciples. This podcast is designed to be a resource for pastors, church staff, elders, ministry leaders, volunteers, church planters and disciple makers. Every week, we strive to provide valuable insights to train, inform and inspire healthy leaders who will go on build healthy churches. 

Series: Growing Leaders Where You Are 
Speaker: Ryan Lutz
Episode: 1 of 3, Believe It Before You See It
Transcript: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2627823/19441010-believe-it-before-you-see-it-why-leadership-development-starts-with-vision/transcript

This is the first in a three episode series featuring Ryan Lutz about Growing Leaders Where You Are. Ryan is the senior pastor of Bethany Missionary Church in Elkhart, Indiana. He also oversees our full-time and part-time residency program here at the North Central Region of the Missionary Church. As the director of our leadership development program, Ryan is passionate about empowering leaders in churches of every size. 

"You don't need a larger church, a bigger budget, or a perfect system to develop leaders. You simply need to believe God has already placed potential leaders around you and take intentional steps to invest in them. Many pastors are praying for leaders while sitting in a room full of future leaders." - Ryan 

Let's Talk is brought to you by the North Central Region of the Missionary Church, were we want to empower everyday people to love like Jesus and live like missionaries. Learn more about what we do at mcncr.org. 

Elevate Church Leadership Conference.
November 2, 2026
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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Welcome to Let's Talk, a podcast about life, leadership, and making disciples. Let's Talk is brought to you by the North Central Region of the Missionary Church, where we want to empower everyday people to love like Jesus and live like missionaries. To find out more about our events and ministries, go to mcncr.org.

Kevin Moore 0:31

Well, hey, thanks so much for listening to Let's Talk. My name is Kevin Moore. I'm the regional director. I'm also your host. Why are we doing a podcast? I mean, every everybody and their brother has a podcast right now. So why, right here at the North Central Region of the Missionary Church, are we doing a podcast? We're doing a podcast for you. We want to help you live better. We want to help you lead at a higher level. We want to help you be more effective at making disciples individually as well as corporately. And that's why we're doing this podcast. Every time you get on this podcast, you are going to walk away inspired. You're going to walk away informed. You're going to walk away with some practical steps that you can actually use. That's why we're doing this podcast. We want to create a library of resources for you, for your team, so that you can live better, lead better, and make more disciples. Well, I'm really excited about our first episode here because we are kicking off a three-part series titled Growing Leaders Where You Are. You see, sometimes we think that in order to grow leaders, we've got to be a bigger church, we've got to have a bigger budget. We've got to do no that that that's not the case. What you need is you need a belief in the truth that God has placed right where you are potential leaders. And God wants to give you creative ideas. God wants to give you systems. God wants to give you tools to be able to raise up leaders right where you are, regardless of your budget, regardless of your church size. And I'm really excited about our presenter today because it's Ryan Lutz. He's the director of our leadership development network right here at the North Central Region. He oversees our full-time residency as well as our part-time residency, doing an incredible job at that. But he's also the senior pastor of Bethany Missionary Church. Ryan has an incredible past and a history of developing and raising up leaders, and he's helping us do that right here at the regional level. And today, he wants to help you do the same right where you are at your church. And so today we're going to kick off a three-part series titled Growing Leaders Where You Are. Today's episode is simply titled, Believe It Before You See It. So grab a notebook, grab a pencil, and let's listen to Ryan.

Ryan Lutz 2:57

Have I ever told you about the first sermon I ever gave? Honestly, I don't know why I'm asking this question. This is a podcast. There's no way of me getting your answer live and in the moment. Also, I don't think I've told you about the first sermon I've ever given because I haven't told too many people. It happened just a couple of months after I had an encounter with the Lord that led me to transfer schools, change career paths, and pursue a calling into ministry. My name's Ryan. I get to be the pastor at Bethany Missionary Church. I also get the chance to be the residency director here at the North Central Region of the Missionary Church. And I wanted to tell you about my first sermon because I think it will hopefully help you relate a little bit to what we're going to be talking about today. First sermon I gave a couple months after I felt called into ministry, I was a sophomore in college going into my junior year. I transferred to Bethel College, go pilots to play basketball. And we went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. And at that point in time, I transferred schools, but never really fully gone all in with this calling to vocational ministry because honestly, I didn't know what it looked like. I had no family members that had been in ministry, no uh experience in pastoral ministry or anything like that. So I just said I was going to transfer it to a Christian college to learn a little bit more about what it might mean to be a pastor. The issue was I told my coach, the coach that I was transferring to at Bethel, that I felt a slight tug in the ministry, didn't know what it looked like, but I thought that might be the path that I wanted to head down. And he, of course, told the pastor down at the church in the Dominican Republic. And so the second night we were there, it was a Saturday night, right before we had our Sunday morning church. I had a coach pull me aside and said, Hey, the pastor at the church said they wanted to have you give the message on that Sunday morning. At that point in time, I had spent hours upon hours upon hours listening to sermons from pastors far and wide, big church, small church, loud preacher, quiet preacher, really highly educated, really passionate type of sermons. But I myself had never given a message before. And where we were staying in the Dominican Republic, it was this unique hotel where we were at, but I didn't have any Wi-Fi or anything like that. All I had was my Bible and a notebook. And I thought to myself, as coach asked me, and kind of he didn't really ask me, he voluntold me that I was going to be given the message that next morning, just in 12 hours or so at a at a church I'd never been to with people I'd never met and a team that I was just starting to get to know. And so I remember I was sitting in the lobby area of this hotel in this downtown area of the Dominican Republic, no Wi-Fi, no internet, no nothing. And I felt completely lost, completely helpless. Like I had nothing that I could offer. And so I sat there and I just prayed. I said, God, if there's any way that you can take this cup away from me, right? That type of prayer. I don't know that I can do this. And I just felt an overwhelming sense of fear and anxiety as I tried to prepare my first sermon. As I was praying and sitting there preparing for this message, I felt a calmness rush over me as I was sitting in this hot, humid lobby on the second floor of this hotel in the Dominican Republic where you could hear the horns honking past. Most of my teammates were probably already asleep in the hotel rooms. I felt a calmness come over me, and I felt the Lord kind of shed a light on what I had and said, What you have is exactly what you need for me to get you where I want to get you, but you got to believe. So I grabbed my Bible, I grabbed my notebook, and I said, Okay, if this is what I need, then Lord, you got to show me the way. So I prepared, I was up, I was writing a sermon, no idea, hadn't gone to seminary at that point, hadn't taken any sort of preaching class or anything like that, hadn't been mentored by any incredible communicators or anything like that. I had just watched sermons online and studied my Bible. And so I began opening up my Bible, looking through everything that I had highlighted and underlined the weeks before, the months prior, all that stuff, trying to find a message that I could patch together to kind of bring some clarity into what I was going to be talking about that Sunday morning at church. And the next morning rolled around, I gotten just barely a wink of sleep. We we hop in the bus, we drive to church, we're wearing our Sunday best, and we get up there, and it's time for me to give the message. And I realize in this moment, as I'm walking up to the pulpit of this church that was partially outdoors and just an incredible community of people in this area of the Dominican Republic that was so formative for me. I walk up to the pulpit area and I realize to myself, most of the people sitting in this church right now don't speak the language that I speak. And now I don't mean to brag, but I did take three years of Spanish in high school and I barely squeaked by that. But I realized very quickly that I was not gonna be able to give the message that I had prepared to the people that were sitting in the pews because we didn't even speak the same language. So as I got up there, I saw Eduardo. He was gonna be my translator for this message. Incredible person, incredible young man, loved baseball, loved basketball, and loved people. And he stood there with the second microphone and he would translate every sentence that I would give. And so what I had is I had a notebook full of notes and jumbled thoughts, a Bible with a bunch of highlights and underlines, and I gave a message that probably I'm grateful there wasn't any live streaming or recording of this, but it probably was not my best message I ever gave. But Eduardo did an incredible job translating. And in fact, there became a moment in the message where I gave a really short line and he he kind of talked a little longer where I realized that he might be taking the thoughts that the Lord had laid on my heart, and the Lord might have laid something similar on his heart to where he was able to expand a little more with a little more knowledge. And together through that patchwork of a sermon that I was not prepared for, we saw God move in incredible, incredible ways. And I don't know about you, if there's been moments in your life where you've entered into something that you felt like God was calling you to, but you realized that you were just not prepared for it. You thought the resources that you had just weren't enough. The things that you were providing just weren't possibly enough, but God kind of said, What I have for you is exactly what you need for me to get you to where I want to get you. And truth be told, I stepped into a senior pastor role following an incredible senior pastor who had been leading the church that I'm currently at for a long time to a very healthy place. And I was stepping in as a young, first-time senior pastor, and I remember feeling very similar feelings as to what I was feeling in that lobby of the second floor of that hotel in the Dominican Republic. Looking at what the skill set that I have, the experience that I have, the knowledge that I have, and thinking to myself, there is no way that I can do this. But then God would step in and say, What you have is exactly what I need to get you where I want to get you, but you just gotta believe. And so over the next few episodes, what I want to talk to you guys about is growing leaders where you are, developing a pipeline or a culture of leadership development at your church. Now, this the hope for this is that this will reach churches of all different sizes, all different demographics, all different histories, all different traditions. I think the principles that we have here are not something that only applies to a smaller church, an established church. I think it can also apply to a large church or a church plant. And so, what my hope here is that you will understand when it comes to developing a culture of leadership development, you don't need a larger church, a bigger budget, or a perfect system to develop leaders. You simply need to believe that God has already placed potential leaders around you and take intentional steps to invest in them. There's three episodes to this podcast series. Um, and the the three, you can you can boil it down to three things. If you're a note taker, if you're someone who doesn't like podcasts, you're just tuned in for a second, write these three things down. One, believe, identify, multiply. When it comes to developing a culture of leadership development at a church of any size, three things are gonna help you get there to where I believe God wants you to get. Uh it's it's it's believe, identify, multiply. Believe, identify, multiply. Believe, identify, multiply. In this first episode, we're gonna be talking about that first thing, belief. Belief is a supernatural thing. You know this. I mean, when we look through scripture, belief isn't just this Mickey Mouse, fairy tale, Disney World type of belief when you wish upon a star. No, belief has some power to it. I mean, John 3.16, one of the most famous verses in the history of mankind, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but live eternal life. Belief has the power of eternity within it. Belief is not just uh uh reckless optimism. Belief is something that can take you from where you are to where God is trying to get you. And so belief is a powerful thing. Many pastors are praying for leaders while sitting in a room full of future leaders. And so this first episode is this believe it before you see it. We've got three main points to this. If you're a note taker, I'll try to be quick, try to be precise, try to narrow my stories of embarrassing sermons down a little bit more than what I've done already. But point number one, when it's believe it before you see it, is this leadership development begins with belief. Leadership development begins with belief. Let me ask you a few questions. Do you believe that God wants to raise up leaders through your church? Do you believe that He can do it through your ministry context? And do you believe that your church is large enough to make a difference? That last question is one that I've wrestled with as I've I've worked at churches of all different sizes, all different shapes, all different histories. But as I read through the Bible, I see churches of all different sizes and shapes make an incredible impact. As I look across our globe, I see underground churches, microchurches, house churches, megachurches all making incredible impact for the kingdom. But I think it starts with the belief of the leadership. So let me ask those three questions again. Do you believe God wants to raise up leaders through your church? Do you believe that God wants to? Do you believe that leadership development is part of the discipleship process? Do you think, do you believe that as you read through the New Testament, as you read through the four gospels, as you read through the book of Acts, do you believe that leadership development is part of God's plan to bring his kingdom here? Do you believe that he can do it through your ministry context? Do you believe that wherever you are in rural northern Indiana to the big cities of Napanee and Wakarusa, right? Do you believe that in your ministry context that God can raise up leaders? And do you believe that your church, the size that your church is, is enough to make a difference? I think so often we can put a ceiling on the leadership development in our ministry context because of our own unbelief. See, because the reality is, is you'll never develop leaders you don't believe are there. And if you don't believe God can raise up leaders through your church, you'll never look for them. And every moment, uh movement of multiplication begins with someone believing before they can see. One of the coolest moments in history that's that's out of the Bible. I'm a big sports guy. And so uh one of the coolest moments in history that I love to point to when it comes to belief uh is is the the under four-minute mile story, right? The four-minute mile, it was something that was believed to be, you know, uh impossible to run a mile in under four minutes. But what was seemingly impossible was something that was made possible when Roger Bannister became the first person to break that four-minute barrier in 1954. The crazy thing is, is just a few months after that, someone else beat Roger Bannister's record. Sometimes it takes someone believing that they can achieve the impossible in order to help others see that it is possible. And so, what would happen in your church context if you started believing that there were leaders ready to make an eternal impact sitting in your pews every Sunday? That within your community, in the neighborhood that your church is at, that there are leaders actually there. What would it look like for you to start believing in leadership development in your church? Because I believe, point number one, leadership development begins with belief. Point number two is similar. It's time for us to stop waiting for the ideal church and start stewarding what God has already given us. You know the parable of the talents, one of the my favorite uh stories that Jesus tells, and I don't need to recount that to you right now, but we need to stop waiting for the ideal church and start stewarding what God has already given us. Bigger isn't always better, right? If you're waiting for your church to grow before you start intentionally developing leaders to multiply, then I think we're missing the mark a little bit because leader, leadership development isn't a mega church ministry, it's a kingdom ministry. God isn't waiting for your church to grow before he starts growing leaders. I believe that God is already growing leaders within your church context. It's just about us believing that they're there and being intentional with where they're at right here and right now. Some of the best leaders that I've seen and I've interacted with and I've been mentored by have emerged from all different sizes of churches, right? Some of them come from a large church background where there's there's systems in place that they get to learn from. Some of them come from much smaller, homey neighborhood churches, some of them come from micro church communities, and they get these intentional development opportunities. I think that's so often I can find myself confusing limited resources with limited potential. I don't know about you. We we at my local church context don't have the biggest budget necessarily. And there's moments as we're preparing for the budget for the year or looking at the finances, looking at the giving statements, that type of stuff, where it's very easy for me to see that limit uh of resources kind of limit my thought and belief in the potential that God is trying to do in our church. But it's a daily decision to choose that God is moving regardless of our limitations, right? I don't think healthy churches uh wait until they're bigger to multiply. I believe that healthy churches begin multiplication process wherever they are. Wherever you are is right where you need to be for God to get you where he wants to get you. It's just going to take you believing and taking that step. So, point number two is stop waiting for the ideal church and start stewarding what God has already given you. Point number one, leadership development begins with beliefs. Point number two, stop waiting for the ideal church and start stewarding the church that God has already given you. And point number three is this cast vision for multiplication. I don't believe leadership development is another ministry area. I believe it's part of the mission. Healthy churches don't just gather people, they they raise them up because the reality is, is vision creates permission, right? People rarely rise above the vision that they're invited to. And if you don't talk about developing leaders, your people won't think that they are leaders. The future of your church might just be sitting in your congregation today. You know this, Ephesians chapter 4. Christ gave the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. Why? To do the works of ministry, to do the works of service, no, to equip his people for the works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. One of my favorite translations, I believe it's the English Standard Version, as I try to pull this up quickly on my Bible app. I'm an NIV guy myself. So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, the teachers to equip the saints for the works of ministry. To equip the saints for the works, for the work of ministry. Friends, I think that's what we're called to do. We're not just called to create systems and pipelines and have incredible people leading different ministry areas. I believe that you and I are called to equip the saints for the work of ministry. I believe that right where you are might be right where you need to be for God to get you, where he wants to get you, but it's going to start with you believing. There are so many moments in history recorded in the Bible where we see belief make something impossible happen. The woman who was bleeding goes up, crawls to Jesus' robe, grabs just a hem of his garment, and her belief, Jesus says, heals her. Friends, I believe there's something supernatural in belief. I believe that right where you are, if you started believing that God had leaders for you to develop, that the growth potential of your church was not about the amount of money that came in, but it was about the leaders that were sitting in your church, in your neighborhood, in your community, right here and right now, no matter how big or small your church is, no matter how many years of experience you might have in the pulpit, no matter how good of a preacher you are, no matter how good of a discipleship, small group, strategy person you are, I believe that right where you are is right where you need to be for God to get you where he wants to get you, but it's going to start with you believing. Ask yourself this question: who could God raise up through your church in the next three years, in the next five years, in the next 10 years? It's so easy for us to look at, you know, our kids' ministry, our student ministry, and say, okay, I see some potential leaders there. But what would it look like for the person who is running that RV plant down the road from you that goes to your church every Sunday, sits there faithfully, doesn't say much, doesn't talk much, what would that look like if that person, if you started believing that God could develop them into a leader? Not just in their work context, in the church context. Not just in the work and the church context, but in their family context. Not just in the work and the church and the family, but also in the community. What would it look like if our churches started intentionally developing leaders, not just so that more ministry could happen within our church walls, but so that our community could be filled with leaders that are so on fire for Jesus that we see revival happen through our communities because the leaders that are leading in our community are following Jesus faithfully. Friends, that's what I'm believing for. I believe right where you are is right where you need to be for God to get you, where he wants to get you. It's just gonna take you believing. I'm gonna go through these three main points again. One, leadership development begins with belief. Two, stop waiting for the ideal church and start stewarding the church that God has given you. And number three, cast vision for multiplication within your ministry context. I'm excited to continue this conversation on as we dive into episode two and we talk a little bit more practically about what it looks like to create a or develop a culture of leadership development in any church size.

Kevin Moore 23:01

Man, thanks so much, Ryan, for that information, for that inspiration that we can actually use right where we are. Leadership development starts with a vision. And I pray today that God will begin to give you a vision on how you can begin to raise up leaders. Here at the North Central Region of the Missionary Church, we want to help you. We want to help you with your life, we want to help you with your leadership, we want to help you be more effective at making disciples. That's why we're doing this podcast. But that's also why we do many things that we do, and one of them is a church leadership conference that we're hosting called Elevate. It's on Monday, November the 2nd. Our keynote speaker is Carrie Newhoff, and Carrie's going to be doing key two keynotes for us in the main room. And then we've also wrapped 12 different breakouts around him. We would love to have you come and be a part. So if you want to find out more and you want to register yourself and your team, just go to mcncr.org and get ready to grow. Hey, thanks so much for joining us. Can't wait to have you join us next time.

Speaker 24:16

If you have any questions, topics you want us to discuss, or a story you want to share, email us at info at mcncr.org.