Challenging Assignments

Healthy Leaders | Issue 53

Jul 18, 2025

Welcome to Issue 53 of Healthy Leaders. In this issue, we rise to the challenge.

Hello friends,

Welcome back to our ongoing conversation on healthy Christian leadership and leader development.1

One of the primary ways in which emerging leaders grow is through difficult assignments, those tasks that challenge them but are not so challenging as to discourage them. We’ve talked about challenging assignments before, but let’s get a little deeper into what makes a good one.

Here’s Malcolm with more:

Once you start knowing what to look for, you’ll spot challenging assignments everywhere. The Bible, for instance, is full of them.2

Jesus used such assignments all the time with His disciples:

By this time it was late in the day, so His disciples came to Him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But He answered, “You give them something to eat.”… (Mark 6:35-37)
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do. (John 6:5-6)
“But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.” (Matt. 17:27)
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep. (Matt. 10:5-10)

And Abraham was given one of the most challenging of all time in Genesis 22:

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” (Gen. 22:1-2; cf. Heb. 11:17-19)

Of course, Abraham’s assignment was a picture of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross that bought our salvation — talk about a challenge only God Himself could accomplish!

An Indian pastor we worked with acknowledged to us that after five years of working in a particular village, he had seen little fruit.

“I have only 15 families in my church, and though I have visited these families, conducted house groups, shared tracts, and tried to help them grow, new people were still not coming to the faith or to our church.”

One of the things we focused on in our trainings with him and other leaders was the importance of challenging assignments and evaluation — both ideas that stuck with him. He realized in evaluating his methods that he needed to challenge his people, not do everything for them.

“I told each family to give five tracts to five people every day and try to share the Gospel with one family each week. I understand now that I am not running alone; I am teaching my people to run with me. After we started doing this as a church, within four days, a new family has come to the Lord and a new house group has started in their home.” (Pastor A)

What about you?

This is a key aspect of challenging assignments that should not be glossed over: that they force your emerging leaders to depend on God, to go beyond what they think they are capable of, trusting God for both the outcome and the strength to do it. Leaders who haven’t learned to depend on God will not be healthy leaders, full stop.

It is through fire and challenge that strong men and women of God are built!

The best training for a soldier of Christ is not merely a theological college. They always seem to turn out sausages of varying lengths, tied at each end, without the glorious freedom a Christian ought to abound and rejoice in.
You see, when in hand-to-hand conflict with the world and the devil, neat little biblical confectionery is like shooting lions with a pea-shooter: one needs a man who will let himself go and deliver blows right and left as hard as he can hit, trusting in the Holy Ghost.
It’s experience, not preaching that hurts the devil and confounds the world. The training is not that of the schools but of the market: it’s the hot, free heart and not the balanced head that knocks the devil out. Nothing but forked-lightning Christians will count.
A lost reputation is the best degree for Christ’s service. It is not so much the degree of arts that is needed, but that of hearts, loyal and true, that love not their lives to the death: large and loving hearts which seek to save the lost multitudes, rather than guard the ninety-nine well-fed sheep in the British pen. (C.T. Studd)

If we want to build tough, visionary leaders who will change their worlds, we must give them challenging assignments.

What are some challenging assignments you’ve used with your leaders that were particularly successful in helping them depend on God? What are some challenges you yourself have faced that did the same? We’d love to hear them in the comments.

Until next time, we’re with you!

— Chris

Healthy Leaders

Challenging Assignments

Healthy Leaders | Issue 53

What about you?

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