A dispensation is the ordering or management of the world by delegated divine authority. Dispensationally, that is, the management principle to which Jesus made us subject was the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20. Jesus said we have been commissioned to preach the gospel to all the world.
How do we do that? Evangelism is the first prong of our dispensational calling. Then He said to go into the highways and the byways and bring them into His house so they could be fed a banquet of God's Word, grow up, mature, and become a part of the glorious Church (Luke 14:23-24).
Discipleship, the second prong, is preaching the Word to see people saved and grow up spiritually. Everything you do ought to be measured by its effectiveness in achieving one of those two dispensational callings.
If you are going to administrate on an eternal scale for our Lord, if this is reality to you, then it completely restructures your behavior.
Once you realize that everything you do should contribute to one of two things—getting people saved or helping them grow in God's Word—it completely restructures your use of time and your use of money. Your behavior is completely altered.
Your behavior changes because you have finally grasped the big picture, which keeps you running on the right track.
The reason ministries and people get sidetracked and sometimes even fall into gross deception is that they lose sight of the big picture. The leadership loses the ability to communicate the goals and purposes effectively with the people who are working to bring them about.
Consequently, the workers seldom produce what the leaders desire. Even if the production of tangible goods is maintained, the intangible problems—strife, division, unrest, dissatisfaction—will be present because the leadership is unclear of its objectives.
Your view of the call on your life and how you fit in the plan of God will affect how you behave toward those who work for you and how they respond to your behavior.
This has to be the first focus of a leader's effort—to develop the vision within himself, and then to develop it in the lives of those for whom he has been given responsibility.
Excerpt permission granted by Harris House Publishers