Leadership 101 – Part 6 – Respectable
Love Example Accountable Discipline Equip Respectable “A [leader] cannot expect people to follow him if he is not respectable,” says Alexander Strauch. Simple and direct…. about as clear as one can say it. Respectable? Yup… decent or correct in character or behavior, worthy of respect or esteem. So says Webster. What’s the Bible say? In 1 Timothy 3, Paul gives instructions to Timothy regarding the character and personal qualities of those who aspire to a position of oversight within the local church. Among those qualities is respectable (v. 2). So what’s that mean? Quite simply, it refers to one who …
Abandonment leads to restlessness
My first post set the foundation for the defining theme of my life for the first 39 years: abandonment. The main point of this post is to communicate that a feeling of abandonment in one’s life, leads to restlessness. From my earliest days, even well into adulthood (and post-conversion) I was living out my core identity as one who felt abandoned (i.e., rejected by my earthly father), A sense of abandonment, deeply embedded in the soul, causes one to ask questions like these: Why was I not worthy to be loved? I guess I have to earn love. How do …
Leadership 101 – Part 5 – Equip
Love Example Accountable Disciplined Equip In his book They Smell Like Sheep, Dr. Lynn Anderson writes, “Just as a major role for parents is to empower their children to discover, develop, and use their unique giftedness, even so, a major role of church leaders is to help each Christian discover, develop, and use his or her spiritual gifts in the building up of the body.” There are many unhealthy myths concerning leadership… one of them being that “it’s all about me.” Wrong answer. It’s not at all about you or I. It’s about others. More specifically, it’s about seeking God …
Better than who?
One of the more damaging fallacies Christians can fall into is the thought that because they are a Christian, they are better than most people out there who are not. For example, they are a better mom, a better husband, a better child, a better teacher, a better coach, or they have a better marriage, a better family, etc. Though it may appear prideful or self-righteous, that may not necessarily be the case. This kind of thinking can spring from a genuine, though incorrect, assumption that Christianity, in order to be true, must produce better all-around people. In other words, …
It's a long story . . . . . abandonment to hope!
I’m going to start telling a long story. This post is the first installment. It’s a story of God reconciling me to my earthly father after having been abandoned by him for almost 40 years. This post will start at the beginning. I was born October 11, 1962 – thankfully. Had my father had his way I might have been aborted, at least as I hear it. But God knew my days even in my mother’s womb, and He had a plan for my life. But a newborn with two other kids, under the age of three, was just too …
a funeral count down
I love this country. But sometimes I am ashamed of our sense of values and priorities. For weeks now I have heard nothing from our national news agencies but the detailed events that have led up to the funeral of a blonde woman. To make matters worse the day of her funeral our news media and talk show hosts picked this thing apart … reaching beyond the point of ridiculous. When Jesus died it was really “no big deal” to most people around Jerusalem that day. But in reality it was part of God’s plan to save sinners that would …
Thinking something different
“Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.” — Roger von Oech I love this quote. I found it in the sign-off of an e-mail from a friend and it has provided a good deal of reflection, some of which I offer to you today. First is the use of the word “discovery.” You could replace that word with “worship” and the quote would still work. “Worship consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.” I have found a good deal of worship is discovery. As we …
Leadership 101 – Part 4 – Disciplined
Love Example Accountable Disciplined Paul, writing to Timothy, urged him to “train [i.e., discipline] yourself for the purpose of godliness.” (1 Timothy 4:7) Paul knew how vitally important it was for his young protege to develop the habits of self-control, restraint, and order. Without those qualities his character and his ministry would suffer greatly. Harry Truman offered this analysis, “In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.” Discipline is essential. Aristotle once said, “What lies in our power to do lies in our …
Leadership 101 – Part 3 – Accountable
Love Example Accountable Henry Blackaby nails this one… “The time to buy the smoke alarm is when you build the house, not after the fire starts. The time to enlist friends as partners in accountability is not when [ fill in the blank ] temptation is already a raging inferno but before the first spark. Time after time, disgraced leaders admit that, although they were surrounded by people, they had not close friends with whom they were transparent and who were in a position to hold them accountable. They rarely cite the lack of available people or the unwillingness of …
The mission is you
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) You have a mission in life and this is it: you. Your mission is not only your story, though that is part of it, it is you, because Christ is in you. You were made to be a vessel to carry him and reflect him through your personality as he lives his life through yours. You are the temple, the dwelling place of the most high. You are a carrier of Christ; he lives again in you. Jesus died, rose again, and went to heaven in his new body, but …
