Ever wondered how Titus went from zero to hero—from an unknown nobody to one of the most respected apostolic figures in the New Testament? I can spot three distinct milestones that he passed that we can imitate. Check out the first 2 by clicking here.

Milestone 3: Gaining my own zeal

This is the big one. On the journey to maturity and leadership, many pass Milestones 1 and 2, yet find Milestone 3 elusive. Milestone 3 is the place of gaining your own zeal. Take a look at what Paul says of Titus: "But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit." (2 Corinthians 8:16-17, 23)

What a jump! Titus goes from being the tag-on servant-hearted guy to a leader in his own right whom Paul now speaks of as "my partner and fellow worker." How did this radical promotion happen? Answer: Titus gained his own zeal.

At Milestone 3 something clicks, and we develop zeal, enthusiasm, and initiative derived directly from God. We begin to do things not primarily because we are told to or asked to, but because God's zeal is welling up inside us and becoming our own zeal. The things that God and Paul were passionate about had now also become Titus' passion. He owned the mission for himself. At Milestone 3 our fire is stoked from within us by God more than by a "Paul" outside of us.

Biblical examples of Milestone 3

Isaiah hit the third milestone when he voluntarily responded to God's general call. Deep within, he found his own zeal for the call. Nehemiah hit the third milestone when he took personal responsibility to rebuild Jerusalem. He was serving God just fine at Milestone 2, but then everything changed when the zeal of God for Jerusalem became his zeal for Jerusalem. Who told him to do it? God. Where was the fire? In his belly. When confronted by Goliath, 10,000 Israeli troops stayed at Milestone 1 or 2, and only David made the leap to Milestone 3. In the next part, I will look at ways to burn hot and long with your own zeal from God.

What is Team-Leadership?

"A team is a small number of people joined together in relationship with complementary gifting who are committed to a common vision, with clearly defined goals for which they hold themselves mutually accountable."

The church at Antioch was a team of prophets and teachers. There were five in number and was international in its cultural background with a mission understanding that involved activity. It was therefore an apostolic (sent) community.

I received a book years ago called The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition. It's a book about Sir Ernest Shackleton and his 1909 polar expedition that reached farther south than anyone ever before him. The Endurance expedition (1914- 1917) brought a 22-foot open boat from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island. This was one of the greatest epics of survival in the annals of exploration.

However, what the book really demonstrates was Shacketon’s team-building ability. He was able to draw levels of ability and leadership out of His crew that were incredible. They moved forward in spite of impossible weather conditions, daily attempts to get sightings for knowing their positions, and the worst living conditions of any crew in history.

Shackleton had a single-minded determination to do what was best for his crew. What made the Shackleton team work was his insistence that getting a project done was more important than who does the project, controls the project, or gets credit for the project. His biographer writes, "The mystique that Shackleton acquired as a leader may partly be attributed to the fact that he elicited from his men strength and endurance they had never imagined they possessed; he ennobled them." (p.194).

Shackleton refused to discriminate between the weak and the strong, the sick and the well. They would all survive or none survive. So what’s the result of such an approach to being focused on a mission as a team? The Endurance crew is a testimony of such valiant commitment as a team: They all survived.

Remember our definition:

"A team is a small number of people joined together in relationship with complementary gifting who are committed to a common vision, with clearly defined goals for which they hold themselves mutually accountable."

John G Paton (24 May 1824 - 28 January 1907) Born in Scotland, Paton was a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands of the South Pacific. In spite of tragically losing his wife and son after less than a year on the Islands, John Paton labored tirelessly among the cannibalistic natives, his own life constantly under threat. He learned the Aniwa language, translating the New Testament for them, and after many years of patient ministry, saw the entire Island of Aniwa profess Christianity. Due to his efforts, he saw missionaries established on twenty five of the thirty Islands, with churches, orphanages and schools built. His work inspired hundreds of missionaries to also take up the Great Commission.

Fighting For Women's Justice

Amongst the Heathen, in the New Hebrides, and especially on Tanna, woman is the down-trodden slave of man. She is kept working hard, and bears all the heavier burdens, while he walks by her side with musket, club, or spear. If she offends him, he beats or abuses her at pleasure. A savage gave his poor wife a severe beating in front of our house and just before our eyes, while in vain we strove to prevent it. Such scenes were so common that no one thought of interfering. Even if the woman died in his hands, or immediately thereafter, neighbours took little notice, if any at all. And their children were so little cared for, that my constant wonder was how any of them survived at all!

...The girls have, with their mother and sisters, to toil and slave in the village plantations, to prepare all the materials for fencing these around, to bear every burden, and to be knocked about at will by the men and boys. Oh, how sad and degraded is the position of Woman, where the teaching of Christ is unknown, or disregarded though known ! It is the Christ of the Bible, it is His Spirit entering into Humanity, that has lifted Woman, and made her the helpmate and the friend of Man, not his toy or his slave.

John G Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides. An Autobiography. P147/8

John G Paton (24 May 1824 - 28 January 1907). Born in Scotland, Paton was a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands of the South Pacific. In spite of tragically losing his wife and son after less than a year on the Islands, John Paton labored tirelessly among the cannibalistic natives, his own life constantly under threat. He learned the Aniwa language, translating the New Testament for them, and after many years of patient ministry, saw the entire Island of Aniwa profess Christianity. Due to his efforts, he saw missionaries established on twenty five of the thirty Islands, with churches, orphanages and schools built. His work inspired hundreds of missionaries to also take up the Great Commission.

Working among Cannibals

When it became known that I was preparing to go abroad as a missionary, nearly all were dead against the proposal...that I was leaving certainty for uncertainty, work in which God had made me greatly useful, for work in which I might fail to be useful, and only throw away my life amongst Cannibals. I replied, that my mind was finally resolved; that, though I loved my work and my people, yet I felt that I could leave them to the care of Jesus, who would soon provide them a better pastor than I; and that, with regard to my life amongst the Cannibals, as I had only once to die, I was content to leave the time and place and means in the hand of God, who had already marvelously preserved me when visiting cholera patients and the fever-stricken poor; on that score I had positively no further concern, having left it all absolutely to the Lord, whom I sought to serve and honor, whether in life or by death....

Amongst many who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument always was, "The Cannibals ! you will be eaten by Cannibals!"

At last I replied, "Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer."

John G Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides. An Autobiography. P89-91

John G Paton (24 May 1824 - 28 January 1907). Born in Scotland, Paton was a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands of the South Pacific. In spite of tragically losing his wife and son after less than a year on the Islands, John Paton labored tirelessly among the cannibalistic natives, his own life constantly under threat. He learned the Aniwa language, translating the New Testament for them, and after many years of patient ministry, saw the entire Island of Aniwa profess Christianity. Due to his efforts, he saw missionaries established on twenty five of the thirty Islands, with churches, orphanages and schools built. His work inspired hundreds of missionaries to also take up the Great Commission.

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The very discipline through which our father passed us was a kind of religion in itself. If anything really serious required to be punished, he retired first to his closet for prayer, and we boys got to understand that he was laying the whole matter before God; and that was the severest part of the punishment for me to bear ! I could have defied any amount of mere penalty, but this spoke to my conscience as a message from God. We loved him all the more, when we saw how much it cost him to punish us; and, in truth, he had never very much of that kind of work to do upon any one of all the eleven - we were ruled by love far more than by fear.

How much my father's prayers at this time impressed me I can never explain, nor could any stranger understand. When, on his knees and all of us kneeling around him in family worship, he poured out his whole soul with tears for the conversion of the heathen world to the service of Jesus, and for every personal and domestic need, we all felt as if in the presence of the living Saviour, and learned to know and love Him as our Divine Friend. As we rose from our knees, I used to look at the light on my father's face, and wish I were like him in spirit, hoping that, in answer to his prayers, I might be privileged and prepared to carry the blessed Gospel to some portion of the heathen world.

John G Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides. An Autobiography. P25/26, 34

W.F.P. Burton. Born in Liverpool, England in 1886, William Burton had been dedicated by his parents to God's work in Africa even before he was born. He came to the Lord in 1905 under the preaching of R.A. Torrey. In 1914 he set sail for the Congo in Africa where he learned the native language and made some of the first maps of the country. Together with James Salter, who later married Smith Wigglesworth's daughter, they started a work that became known as the Congo Evangelistic Mission. God confirmed his word with 'signs following' and hundreds of indigenous churches were planted amongst those who had never before heard the Gospel. When Willie Burton died in 1971, he was traveling with all that he owned in two suitcases; one for clothes and the other for his books.

Ngoimani, March 7th, 1917.
The rain is coming down in torrents. The ground outside is all 'on the swim,' and the tent in which I sit is waving and slapping as the wind catches it, and the noise of the water pelting on to my outer canvas tent-fly is like a great roar. Thunder is rolling and lightning is vividly flashing. During the dry parts of the day all the ropes and canvas are slack and limp, but as soon as the rain comes, everything soon becomes taut and rigid. I got a lot of inspiration from these howling, rushing, crashing storms.

How often God's children get slack, lacking in energy, and lose the sense of the awful consequences of a soul dropping into hell, and forget the grandness and completeness of God's salvation in Christ Jesus. What is needed is a heavenly storm, a tornado that turns things over, and discovers the leaky places in the tent. It is God alone who can show us our own littleness and defects, but it is I alone who can allow Him to do so. Search me, O God, through and through, I want not one scrap of leaven, not one leaky spot in my tent, not one day's time to be burned up in wood, hay, and stubble.

Missionary Pioneering in Congo Forests. A narrative of the labors of William F.P.Burton. P64/65

W.F.P. Burton. Born in Liverpool, England in 1886, William Burton had been dedicated by his parents to God's work in Africa even before he was born. He came to the Lord in 1905 under the preaching of R.A. Torrey. In 1914 he set sail for the Congo in Africa where he learned the native language and made some of the first maps of the country. Together with James Salter, who later married Smith Wigglesworth's daughter, they started a work that became known as the Congo Evangelistic Mission. God confirmed his word with 'signs following' and hundreds of indigenous churches were planted amongst those who had never before heard the Gospel. When Willie Burton died in 1971, he was traveling with all that he owned in two suitcases; one for clothes and the other for his books.

When sending His disciples into 'all the world' (Mark 16:15-20) Christ's last words were : "These signs (credentials) shall follow them that believe." And true to His promise, the Lord plentifully strewed their pathway, as they went forth and preached everywhere "with SIGNS FOLLOWING." Thus we see Philip at Samaria, healing the sick (Acts. 8:6-7), Peter at Lydda healing the sick (Acts 9:34-35), Paul at Lystra healing the sick (Acts 19:10).

"Oh," says someone, " these were special men, unique men, extraordinary men." And so thought the people of Lystra, for they were about to sacrifice to them. But Barnabas and Paul soon disillusioned them on this point by asking : "Why do you these things? We are men of like passions with you." (Acts 14:15). Just ordinary, everyday men, but with a God! "also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles, and with gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will." (Heb. 2:4). And this lasted up to the last chapter of divinely recorded church history where we find Paul still healing in the case of Publius' father on the island of Melita. (Acts 28:8).

"Well," says some one else, "those were apostolic days." Exactly. And we are still in apostolic days. "God gave some apostles .... for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." (Eph. 4:11-13). Do we yet see the Church a full grown and perfect body, in unity of the faith, etc. ? No ! Well then there must be apostles still, because apostles were given till then.

Missionary Pioneering in Congo Forests. A narrative of the labors of William F.P.Burton. p76-77

W.F.P. Burton Born in Liverpool, England in 1886, William Burton had been dedicated by his parents to God's work in Africa even before he was born. He came to the Lord in 1905 under the preaching of R.A. Torrey. In 1914 he set sail for the Congo in Africa where he learned the native language and made some of the first maps of the country. Together with James Salter, who later married Smith Wigglesworth's daughter, they started a work that became known as the Congo Evangelistic Mission. God confirmed his word with 'signs following' and hundreds of indigenous churches were planted amongst those who had never before heard the Gospel. When Willie Burton died in 1971, he was traveling with all that he owned in two suitcases; one for clothes and the other for his books.

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How do they receive the Gospel? They gulp it down without stopping to chew, and then come for more. Really, if I were fluent in Kiluba, I could get audiences for eight hours a day, and seven days to the week. You see it is all new to them. Never a whisper has reached them before. The resurrection of Christ is the great theme. They love to hear about it. Since my vocabulary is short, my gesticulation has to be correspondingly vivid.

They already understand there is a God, but so mysterious and far away, that it is quite a new idea that we can approach and speak to Him in the Name of Jesus. They already believe in angels and have a native name for them. Being filled with the Spirit will be no hard thing for them to understand, for every day they can see their own witch-doctors under the possession of demons. They naturally expect to see supernatural manifestations accompany the Gospel, and this is where we have the key to the whole situation.

In Mark 16:15-18, the word 'signs' might be termed 'credentials.' We carry our 'credential' with us. We are not afraid of snakes. We eat palm nuts which it was thought the witch doctor had poisoned, with no ill results (though, of course, we did not do this deliberately); but above all, again and again, we lay hands on the sick in the Name of Jesus and they recover, whereas the witch doctors' fetishes could not, in some cases, heal them. So you see, Christ had a very strong reason when He said 'These signs shall follow them that believe..' And the father of lies has also a strong reason for trying to stop the signs following...

I believe that healing in the Name of Jesus is the very foundation of pioneer missionary work. 'And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you...heal the sick that are therein.' Luke 10: 8-9. So when we hear of people being sick, we go and pray for them indiscriminately, in the name of Jesus. And God heals them as a testimony to the village of the power which He has vested in His risen Son, whom we preach.

Missionary Pioneering in Congo Forests. A narrative of the labors of William F.P.Burton. p38-40

J O Fraser (1886–1938) Born in London, in 1908 James Fraser dedicated his life to missionary work and joined the China Inland Mission. He arrived in China in 1910, and spent nearly thirty years working in difficult conditions among the Lisu people in the mountains of Western Yunnan Province. For six years Fraser prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, often battling with depression and discouragement as finally his first Lisu family turned to the Lord, only to then turn back to ancestral worship. The breakthrough occurred in 1916. Within a four month period, 600 Lisu had turned to Christ! With Fraser’s oversight, an indigenous church planting movement was started with Lisu believers leading scores of other Lisu villages and families to Christ. By 1918, 60,000 believers had been baptized. The conversion of the Lisu is one of the greatest stories in mission history. Today, there are an estimated 300,000 Lisu Christians in China.

A trinity of prayer, faith and patience

Sunday, January 16, 1916. Not a single person at service in the morning ....The walls of Jericho fell down "by faith." Of all the instances of faith in Hebrews 11, this corresponds most nearly to my case. But not faith only was necessary; the wall fell down after it had been compassed about for seven days. Seven days’ patience was required, and diligent compassing of the city every day - which seems to typify encompassing the situation by regular, systematic prayer. Here then we see God’s way of success in our work, whatever it may be - a trinity of prayer, faith and patience.

February 5, 1916 I am not taking the black, despondent view I took yesterday. The opposition will not be overcome by reasoning or by pleading, but (chiefly) by steady, persistent prayer. The men need not be dealt with (it is a heart-breaking job, trying to deal with a Lisu possessed by a spirit of fear) but the powers of darkness need to be fought. I am now setting my face like a flint: if the work seems to fail, then pray; if services, etc., fall flat, then pray still more; if months slip by with little or no result, then pray still more and get others to help you.

March 13, 1916 Cloud seems to have lifted considerably - perhaps because prayer burden fought right through ...After much pressure, even agony, in prayer for Lisu souls, enabled to break through into liberty, and to pray the definite prayer of faith for signal blessing among the Lisu during the next few months .... Real, prevailing prayer, for the first time for a week or more, and well worth the travail that led up to it ....Much peace and rest of soul after making that definite prayer, and almost ecstatic joy to think of the Lisu Christian families I am going to get.

The Prayer of Faith by J.O. Fraser. Further reading: Mountain Rain by Eileen Fraser Crossman