Keep walking...!

One of the email lists that I am on and that I actually read regularly is sent out by a pastor in Australia named Phil Pringle. (You can sign up for them for free here.) It always contains some brief, pithy, pungent nugget about leadership and ministry. He is an accomplished artist with many paintings, etc., to his credit, but also, apparently a cartoonist. Click here to see the animation that goes with this cartoon and enjoy a good laugh about what it sometimes means to be a leader...! Enjoy!

Mark

What do you think?

Following is a post containing some very rough notes I have made about how to evaluate prophetic words. I beg your indulgence in advance for the poor wording of certain phrases, etc. I do not have time to rewrite them, but have included them in my blog in the hope that it can stimulate some interaction between those who are reading these lines, and that we can learn from each other. So, if you have questions or comments about this subject, or experiences to relate, please share them by clicking on the comments link at the bottom of the post.

How Do I Know It's God? (Revised 12/5/2006)

Here are a few "rough" notes that I have made about the question of the evaluation of prophetic words. I would l love to hear your thoughts and comments. Just click on the "comments" link at the end of the post...

I have heard many hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of prophetic words given by various people in a wide variety of settings over my lifetime. A small minority of the time, I had a crystal-clear sense that the word was, indeed, from God. A small minority of the time, I felt certain that the word was not from God. To be perfectly honest with you, the rest of the time, I did not have a rock-solid conviction either way, when I first heard what was spoken.

Quite often, my “gut” reaction ranged somewhere from, “Hmm, that sounds and feels a little suspicious…” to, “Hmm, that did not minister anything to me, personally, but, maybe it did to someone else…” to, “Wow! I sure hope that is God! Won’t it be wonderful if it is…!” to, “I don’t have a clue whether or not that was truly inspired of the Holy Spirit.”

I think there are probably several reasons why my “discerner” is not more dogmatic.

1. I am sometimes more spiritually sensitive than at other times. When I heard the word, my heart and spirit may not have been completely focused on the Lord for a whole variety of reasons. Perhaps I had allowed what I had been thinking about on my way to church or the things that had happened earlier in the day or broader concerns that I was carrying in my own life or simply the fact that I was attending a conference where I knew I would not be leading the service or some other thing, to keep me from fully entering into God’s manifest presence through the communion of the Holy Spirit. The more "full" I am of the Spirit at the moment I hear the word, the more likely I am to clearly and accurately discern whether or not any or all of it is of truly from the Lord.

2. Some words that I have heard were addressed to someone else and not for me. Perhaps they were for some individual in the service, but not the congregation collectively. When this happens, I may have a clear sense that the word is for a third party, sometimes I do not know for sure, but think it could be because overall it sounds and feels "right." When you think about this possible scenario, you quickly understand that it is really not all that surprising that God would not always bother to let me know if a word for someone else is authentic or not. After all, if the word is for someone else's life individually, it may be that God doesn't think what He is saying to them is really any of my business. If, for instance, He is dealing with some specific, secret sin in their life that He wants to give them an opportunity to repent of without exposing them openly, then He would quite deliberately not let me know who He is talking to about that particular subject. He might then give me only a general sense of conviction that the word is from Him so that I would allow it to be given in the service if we are following the "gating" or "evaluation" procedure mentioned below, or reassure me of its authenticity if there is something about the time or way that it is given that is less than ideal.

3. In a healthy, New Testament church, for greater safety and security, God sometimes intentionally leads us collectively instead of individually, by giving a clear confirmation through establishing a consensus. When this is happening, God deliberately initiates the process of giving revelation through someone other than the leader. Some pastors have a very hard time believing or accepting this, but God really does reserve the right to speak through other people, even when we are present...! (Smile!)

4. God has clearly said that, on our best days, we only, “…know in part and prophesy in part…” until “…that which is perfect is come…,” i.e., until we stand face to face with Him! It is the height of arrogance for any of us to think that we are above that Scripture and that we will always "fully" know everything about every prophetic word.

In any case, it is not automatic that a Christian always knows the voice of God. Full grown sheep do, but not necessarily little lambs…!

“1 ¶ “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.”” (John 10:1-5 NIV)

Little lambs grow to know their shepherd’s voice by constant, continual exposure to it, that is to say, by hearing it over and over again. We also increases our degree of certainty in distinguishing God’s voice through communing with God in prayer and worship; exposure to healthy New Testament church life with fully functioning prophetic ministry; and exercising our gifts in an environment where we receive clear feedback from other, more spiritually mature individuals when we give words. I remember vividly the first time that I ever delivered a "message" in tongues to a congregation. It was then interpreted according to the Biblical pattern. After the service, a very spiritually mature person that I knew quite well made their way to me privately and said, "Mark, that message was clearly from the Lord!" Their honest affirmation of my gift greatly encouraged me and increased my faith, giving me much more confidence when I felt God leading me to minister in that way.

“11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 NIV)

Here is a mental list of questions that I ask in those “in-between” instances when my "gut" alone does not give me a rock-solid conviction about a word I have just heard:

1. BIBLICAL - “It is Scriptural?”

Obviously, if someone says something that is not biblical, we know that is not of God. However, given the very real presence of the human element in all prophecy, in some instances, there can be someone who feels a genuine, Holy Spirit impulse to minister an exhortation to faith, for example, and tries to quote a Scripture to illustrate the point, but does not remember it perfectly or perhaps takes it out of context. They may use the verse in a way that they heard it used by others, even though upon close examination, their exegesis was faulty. The verse they quoted was misapplied, but the spiritual principle they were setting forth was valid. In this instance, the thought they were trying to convey may well have been given to them by God, but their articulation of it was faulty. The Holy Spirit certainly did not inspire them to misquote Scripture, but, in some instances, there may have been some element of what they said that was, “right on.” (See notes below on "Is it partial?")

2. SPIRITUAL – “Does it seem supernatural?”

The point here is not how “spooky” or “mystical” it is…! Genuine prophecy does not have to be given in some kind of weird voice! It can be given in a very natural way and yet still be very supernatural in origin. The style of the delivery has much more to do with an individual's personality and church background than with the level of inspiration they are experiencing. The issue I am addressing when I ask this question is that true prophecy is not merely the result of human reflection, but of divine inspiration. Words always gets my attention more quickly when I know the person giving the word has no earthly way of knowing why they are saying what they are saying, how relevant their words are to my context, or why they are so timely. This does not mean that God cannot use someone who knows all about what is going on in my life to speak to me. But, it certainly causes me to perk up my ears more when He uses someone who knows nothing about me. On the other hand, just because a word is clearly supernatural does not automatically mean it is of God. The Apostle Paul understood this reality and opened his great discourse on the nature and proper exercise of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 by delineating how one can know if something “spiritual,” i.e., supernatural, is of God and not the devil. John speaks to this same subject in his epistle.

3. CREDIBLE - Does it come from a credible person?

It appears to me that 1 Corinthians 12 & 14 seem to presuppose that credible people should be given the opportunity to share what they feel God has given them in public worship services and that utterances should be judged after they are given utterance is given publicly, not before. “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. (vs. 29)” It does not say that their word should necessarily be evaluated before it is spoken publicly. Having said that, I do think it is very wise to have some mechanism or procedure in place so that the gist of words given by people who do not have an established track record in a local church are first weighed by the leadership of that church before they are put out for public consumption. It is far easier to avoid some problems than it is to solve them once they have been created, and a lot of damage can be done to individual lives and that of a church through words that are not of God!

At the same time, verses 30 and 31 seem to indicate that even those who are not already recognized to be prophets should also be given opportunities to share and that those recognized for their gifting should cease prophesying in order for that to happen. “And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.”

In practice, this passage sometimes leads me to give credible people a chance to share even if I do not have a strong, specific inner witness that what they are about to say is for sure of God. I do this so that the body can evaluate that word collectively. (I would, of course, never ever allow someone to speak if I had a clear sense that what they were about to say was not of God…!) I would be much less quick to let someone share that is not already known to be credible unless I had a strong sense that what they were wanting to share was definitely from the Lord.

Another very important factor when evaluating someone’s credibility is their relationship and attitude toward spiritual authority and toward our “house.” It is a very serious mistake to let anyone address the congregation publicly under any pretext if they are in rebellion against the spiritual authority of the “house.” Even if their gifting is genuine, it is far too likely that in that context their attitude will color any word that they give.

4. BENEFICIAL / HELPFUL - Was it given with a right spirit? Will it edify? Is it right for this time and context?

This does not necessarily indicate whether or not the inspiration was genuine, but it can dramatically impact whether or not the word will edify the body. In a larger sense, this question is linked to another important question, “Does it edify?”

The reality is that truly inspired utterances are sometimes given with a total lack of spiritual etiquette. This is a lot of what 1 Corinthians 14 is all about. Genuine words can even be given in flagrant violation of some of the commands Paul laid down for the Corinthian church, which was in state of crisis and needed close regulation. When addressing their excesses and imbalances, Paul did not say that the gifts that were functioning in their midst in an unhealthy way were not authentic. He had much more to say about the manner of those gifts than their character or nature. Gifts that functioned outside these paraments, though sometimes genuine, would not result in maximum edification.

This still happens today. I have been in services, for instance, where I was convinced that the fourth word given was truly inspired of the Lord, even though Paul limited such utterances in Corinth to only three. Paul did not say that a fourth word could not be inspired. Rather, he said that a fourth word would be excessive, and not edify the body. In some services, that was exactly what happened - a fourth word came that was genuine, but many people in the audience rejected it out of hand because three other words had already been given. The audience was familiar with Paul's words and were instinctively prejudiced against the fourth one.

This question of, “Does it edify?’ is also very important when considering the potential impact of a particular word on the flow of a particular service. There are times when I do not release certain people to give their words in a particular service, even though I would release them to give that word in another service, simply because that word does not seem to “fit” with what I sense God is doing at that moment in the service or at that juncture in our body.

Some people go so far as to say that all New Testament words must only be positive “…edify, exhort, and comfort… (vs. 3) ” and never be corrective, but I do not believe that is the point of 1 Corinthians 14:3. There is more than one instance in the Book of Acts of individuals speaking prophetically to someone and actually pronouncing God’s judgment upon them (cf. Ananias and Sapphira, the sorcerer who was struck blind, etc.) The point of the passage is simply to underscore the need for interpretation of “messages” in tongues in a public gathering (see preceding verse.) Interestingly, the NIV uses the words, “strengthening, encouragement, and comfort.” Sometimes, godly correction is what is needed in order for a person to be stronger spiritually and thus be edified, literally, “built up.”

5. COMMUNAL - How do other spiritual leaders feel about this word? Is there a consensus regarding this word?

Sometimes, the context itself requires that we “go it alone,” but, those instances are rather rare in a healthy, mature New Testament local church. 1 Corinthians 14 indicates that when we share words from God for a particular body to that body, we can expect the Holy Spirit to bear witness with multiple members of that body, particularly among those that are the most spiritually mature and in positions of leadership.

6. CONTINUAL – How does it relate to the things the Spirit has already said?

Does this word coincide or build upon prior words? Has this same thought been expressed by more than one person in more than one context? Words that come multiple times from different sources carry more weight in my mind than words that come a single time from a single source. Paul seemed to share this view:

“22 "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:22-24 NIV)

This does not mean that all true words are spoken multiple times, but, when they are received multiple times from multiple sources in multiple places, it adds to the certainty about their authenticity and gives them added power. It is interesting to note, in this connection, that the revelation of God in the New Testament contains some 1,100 references to verses in the Old Testament as the Holy Spirit deliberately linked what He was saying in the New Testament era to what He had already said in the Old Testament era.

7. PARTIAL - Is part of that word inspired, but not all of that word?

It is entirely possible, and in fact, rather common, for someone to begin “in the spirit” and wind up speaking out of their own understanding. This is particularly true if the person giving the word tries to interpret or apply that word…! One of the easiest mistakes to make is to speak forth what God says by the Spirit, and then try to explain what he meant through our own thought processes and deductions. A dear senior spiritual statesman friend of mine once told me, “Every time in my life I have heard the voice of God telling me to do something, the next voice I heard was the voice of the devil telling me how and when to do it!”

Further Observations

· Because I am aware of the very real presence of the human element in all prophecy, I think it is best to try to focus on the “bottom line” of a word instead of every detail or phrase in that word. I normally do not write words down or try to record them with a tape recorder, etc., but simply trust God that anything that is spoken to me that truly is from God will carry a weighty enough anointing that it will easily lodge in my heart and spirit and I will not have any difficulty recalling it later.

· God wants the message to get through and will keep trying if we miss it in a service and unintentionally quench the spirit. This applies to both the speaker and the evaluator. This is a great comfort to me when leading church services. I would never knowingly quench the Spirit, but I am quite sure there are sometimes that I drop the ball and miss a moment the Holy Spirit was trying to set up.

· Not every genuine prophetic word is meant to be shared publicly. Be very slow to share personal words with anyone besides the person they are addressed to.

· We need to create opportunities for people to exercise their gifts in an atmosphere where they can fail and not be severely criticized, but, rather, learn from their failures and move on into mature spiritual gift ministry. This “practice” venue should not be the main worship service!

· Spiritual maturity in a local church includes coming to the place where someone can sincerely miss it in a public worship service, and the body will know it and be able to move one with what God is doing without any serious disruption or trauma.

[Prophecy]

Leadership book excerpts

Check out this link to find free excerpts from some top leadership books: http://leadershipnow.com/leadershop/readingroom.html

Global trends in Christianity

During the WME World Ministries Conference we had the privilege of hosting here at Hillcrest a while back, Ted Haggard, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, gave an excellent overview of the most significant global trends in Christianity. You can listen to his message via our website by clicking on the following link:

http://www.hillcrestchurch.org/index.cfm/PageID/692/index.html

Recently, I came across the transcript of an interview Rick Warren gave at a symposium hosted by the Pew Charitable Trust. It's title is a bit misleading because it is about much more than the mega-church phenomenom. During the interview, Rick gives his overview of where the global church is today. You can read the full transcript by clicking on the following link:

http://pewforum.org/events/index.php?EventID=80

Even Jesus chose a Judas...!

When I was attending Bible college back in 1979, one day the guest speaker in our chapel service made the statement, "Even Jesus chose a Judas!" That phrase somehow lodged in my memory. Later, before I ever came to Dallas, while I was meditating one day on the importance of putting together the right leadership team, remembering that statement prompted me to write the following article.

God has surrounded me with a wonderful group of leaders here at Hillcrest Church. Thankfully, this dynamic is not one that I am dealing with right now, but the principle I wrote about is one every spiritual leader needs to remember...

Even Jesus Chose a Judas...!

Every ministry, business, organization, and congregation needs the right team members in order to reach its God-given goals. Jesus understood this and chose twelve close co-workers early in His ministry. Each one of them was meant to wear the mantle of apostolic leadership and play a significant role in the evolution of the Church. One of the people He selected failed to live up to his potential, turned against Christ, and betrayed Him!

Given this outcome, it might appear that the Lord committed a serious error in judgment when He invited Judas Iscariot to join His ministry staff. Scripture paints a different picture, noting that Jesus made His choice after praying all night long, apparently under the express leading of the Holy Spirit.

Each one of us sometimes experiences the same dynamic in our own sphere of leadership. Hiring a particular person may seem so providential, yet their presence on our team ends up creating more problems than it solves. Serious, hidden sins may surface in their life that disqualify them from leadership. Their lack of relational skills may become a source of conflict with the rest of our team. They may prove incapable of performing the tasks that we need them to do in order to implement our vision. They may even be unwilling to work.

Realizing that Jesus chose Judas helps us understand an important truth: God is just as concerned with giving our team members the opportunity to mature spiritually and fulfill their divine destiny as He is in helping us accomplish our ministry assignment in the most efficient, pain-free manner possible. Our team members are more than just a means to an end. When I was pastoring in Paris, one day the Holy Spirit said to me, “If you sacrifice your sheep on the altar of your vision, then your ministry has become your god and you are a hireling, not a shepherd!” When God gives us people to help us with our ministry, He also expects us to minister to them.

Remembering that Jesus chose a Judas frees us from the unrealistic expectation that everyone we invite to be a part of our team will turn out to be the person we expect them to be. It also helps us understand why we need to create a work environment characterized by liberty and accountability.

Encouraging our team members to creatively initiate ways of implementing our vision provides them with the freedom they need in order to develop to their full potential. This shows respect for God’s calling upon their lives, inspires loyalty, and reduces staff turnover. After all, most people prefer to work where they are valued and have ample opportunity for advancement, even if they could make more money elsewhere at the price of feeling personally stymied or unappreciated.

Requiring periodic, systematic accountability from our staff gives us frequent opportunities to change their job assignment to something more in keeping with their primary giftings, should they prove unable to perform the way we need them to. It also furnishes us with a clear rationale for firing them if necessary. As unpleasant a task as that may be, the will to remove unqualified or unfit people from positions they have held for an extended period of time is one mark of an effective, righteous leader. In both the Old and New Testaments, God demonstrated His willingness to sacrifice certain individuals for the corporate good of His people when those same individuals were hindering the unfolding of His plan.

God wants to help us choose the right people for our ministry team. If we let Him lead us, personal or moral failure among our inner circle will be the exception rather than the rule. Should one of those we have prayerfully chosen turn out to be a Judas, God will have a Paul waiting in the wings to take their place!

Expository Preaching

At Hillcrest Church, God is calling our leadership to focus on three specific goals:

1. Getting our people into God's manifest presence.

2. Getting our people into God's Word.

3. Getting our people into God's harvest.

We pursue goal number one through emphasizing prayer and anointed worship. Prayer has long been a part of our corporate DNA, in fact, there was a 24/7 prayer center on our property before there were any church buildings. Recently, the Lord has been taking us into a new dimension of worship and we are experiencing a much greater manifestation of His presence. Lives are being profoundly impacted. We are called to be a word and spirit church so this development is essential to our future.

We are gearing up to pursue goal number three by focusing on a specific neighborhood not far from our church campus. This is the result of what we believe to be specific direction from the Lord. We believe He is leading us to target our individual and corporate Jerusalems and Samarias. We define Jerusalem as a 2 1/2 mile radius around our campus, our homes, and our workplaces. For us, Samaria represents those segments of our city's population that are geographically near to us, but either culturally, racially, socially, ethnically, linguistically, or morally far from us. Our "Samaritans" are those who live in proximity to us but that we will never reach accidentally. We must deliberately cross significant barriers to reach out to them.

I believe an important key to reaching goal number two here at Hillcrest is emphasizing expository preaching and teaching. To that end, I am about to begin my first extended series of sermons of this type, a study of the life of Christ based on the Gospel of Luke, followed by a study of the Book of Acts.

If you are unfamiliar with this type of preaching and would like to know more about it, I encourage you to check out the website, www.wacriswell.org. It is dedicated to the memory of Dr. W.A. Criswell, one of the twentieth century's greatest expositors. Several thousand of his audio and video sermons, along with written transcripts, are available there, free of charge. They include his famous address to the Southern Baptist Convention entitled, "Whether We Live or Die" and his sermon on his favorite text. I particularly enjoyed his series on the life of David.

Dr. Criswell pastored First Baptist Church here in Dallas for some fifty years. Not long after he succeeded the famed Dr. George Truett in that pulpit, Dr. Criswell announced that he was going to preach his way through the Bible, beginning with the Book of Genesis. Some of the deacons came to him telling him that he would destroy the church by preaching through the Bible, that no one was interested in simply hearing God's word, but he persevered. His plan was simple, preach on Sunday mornings out of the text that lay before him, then take up Sunday evening wherever he had left off that morning, then take up Wednesday evening wherever he left off Sunday night, etc.. As I understand, it took him eighteen years to finish the task. During that time, First Baptist Dallas grew to be the largest church in the world, with over eighteen thousand members. Few cities have been so profoundly impacted by a single congregation as Dallas.

That amazing story is certainly a tribute to Dr. Criswell's unusual giftings, but it also underscores an important principle. God's Word is more powerful than any two-edged sword. Nothing else impacts human hearts like it and we must build our lives and ministries upon it. This is particularly incumbent upon those of us who passionately pursue the manifest presence of God and appreciate the powerful, present-day work of the Holy Spirt. The Spirit is not above the Word and the Word is no hinderance to the work of the Spirit. To the contrary, the greatest release of supernatural power comes when God's Word is proclaimed in the power of the Spirit, preparing the hearts of people to personally encounter the God of the Word through the work of the Spirit. We do not have to sacrifice or neglect one in order to have the other, rather, each enhances the other and Christian maturity flows from that balance.

Let's pursue both...!

Websites worth visiting

Here is a rather random sampling of some of the websites I have visited recently that are interesting, from a leadership point of view. I'll add a list of podcasts/vodcasts soon.

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/ - "Following God's call in a new world. Conversations hosted by Christianity Today."

www.lifechurch.tv - Oklahoma based congregation that is using media very effectively to open many satellite campuses. They also offer free media content for churches.

http://www.marshillchurch.org/ - Seattle congregation with lots of great audio and video downloads.

http://www.mmiblog.com/ - Home page / web portal for pastors and church leaders.
www.mondaymorninginsight.com - I think this is a newer version of the same thing.

www.mosaic.org - Erwin McManus leads this church in California and is an exceptionally effective communicator. Lots of audio and video downloads.

www.therevealer.org - "A daily review of religion and the press."

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage - A totally different take (in English) on events in the Middle East.

http://www.churchmarketingstinks.com/ - "The blog to frustrate, educate, and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ."

www.seminarylibrary.com - "...provides a remote library viewer to thousands of searchable, digitized, hi-resolution books."

http://www.breitbart.com/ - All the latest news wires from one, convenient webpage.

http://www.theweekmagazine.com/ - Summarizes the major events of the week with news from around the world.

http://enewhope.typepad.com/ - Pastor Wayne Cordeiro's blog for leaders.

www.christiantoday.com - British christian home page / web portal.

www.blueletterbible.org - Bible portal with several versions, dictionaries, and commentaries.

www.biblegateway.com - Another Bible portal with many resources.

Pastoring the Powerful (Lloyd Ogilvie)

As God increases our ability to influence others, and we demonstrate our faithful stewardship of that influence, He often positions us to influence those who have significant influence.

Click on the title of this post or the following weblink to read an excellent interview touching on that aspect of leadership with Lloyd Ogilvie, Chaplain of the United States Senate, entitled, "Pastoring the Powerful," from Christianity Today's website.

Who am I?

I am not at all fond of promotional bios, but the quickest way I can think of at this point to tell you a bit more about myself is to insert a bit of text from the document my administrative assistant sends ahead to places where I am scheduled to speak outside our congregation...

Raised in Illinois and Peru, South America by ministry parents, Mark had a profound salvation experience as a young boy, soon followed by Holy Spirit baptism and a call to preach the Gospel. During the first decade of his ministry, as an itinerant evangelist and Bible college instructor he was heavily involved in short-term missions outreaches. In 1991, Mark and his wife, Teresa, moved to France where he served as co-pastor of a church in Paris and ministered across the Continent. For the next twelve years, they focused together on encouraging, exhorting, networking, and equipping spiritual leaders and their families world-wide through mentoring relationships; the ministry of God’s Word; and hosting conferences addressing leader’s specific needs. During this time, they founded Harvest Leadership Institute, whose vision is “To touch the world through touching people God has called to spiritual leadership.” In March of 2003, Mark became the Senior Pastor of Hillcrest Church in Dallas, Texas.

Why blog about leadership?

It is often said that leadership is the key to every important advance in human society and accomplishment. This is particularly true when it comes to furthering God's agenda on earth. More than anything else, He longs to be reconciled with every single estranged member of His human family through the provision He has made in the death of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Raising up godly, highly skilled leaders is the single most important key to the realization of that goal. For reasons known only to Him, God has chosen to limit most of His interactions with human beings to human means - people like you and me. He chooses to use people to touch other people, to care for other people, to speak to other people, and to lead other people. If we will respond to his attempts to draw us into an intimate, life-giving relationship with Himself, He will use us to influence others in a positive way beyond anything we could have ever dreamed.

The example of Jesus illustrates this. While He lived on earth, by walking in intimate relationship with His Father, He mentored His leadership team so effectively that they continued furthering His vision and living by His values long after He had returned to heaven. His highest goal continued to be their highest goal - bringing as many individuals into a personal relationship with God as they possibly could.

By any standard, their efforts were remarkably successful. In their own lifetimes, they spread the good news about Christ's life and the meaning of His death and resurrection throughout an amazingly wide land area with precious few resources at their disposal. They also mentored others the way Jesus had mentored them. They did it so well that those they mentored in turn did the same with yet another generation of people, who then did the same with still others, and the greatest leadership replication dynamic ever known was set in motion. It spread throughout the entire world and has continued unbroken during every moment in history down to this present time.

You and I and millions of others like us are part of this unbroken chain. Together we can mobilize others and reap the harvest Jesus spoke of in John 4:35, "Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." As we follow Jesus, we become like Him. We begin to value what He values, think like He thinks, talk like He talks, act like He acts, live like He lives, and lead like He leads.

This blog will be dedicated to sharing some of the lessons I have learned from following Jesus and allowing Him to help me lead others. I am neither a perfect pupil nor a great leader! My failures often seem to outnumber my successes, and yet, I must say there is nothing I have ever experienced that quite compares with the joy of helping others come into the kingdom of God and then discover their destiny in His great, big scheme of things.

Come, join me on the journey, and let's learn from each other...!