THE CHALLENGE OF LEADERSHIP

I heard a quote recently that gets me pumped every time I think about it. It is a quote about life and about leadership. It comes from a guy named Antoine de Saint-Exupe'ry and it goes like this, "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." Man, isn't that great? "If you want to build a ship, (or business, or church, or anything else for that matter), don't drum up the men (and/or women) to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders (don't start building whatever it is you want to build). Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea (create in them such a hunger, such a desire, such a passion that they can't help but want to build the ship and then get out of their way). How you do that my friends is the challege of leadership!

COMPASSION: ANSWER FOR THE HARD LIFE

Life Is Hard! A couple went to attend the wedding of a family member. Relatives had flown in from across the United States, but somewhere between the rehearsal dinner on Friday and the wedding on Saturday the groom and the bride-to-be called the whole thing off. Another man, a father, in great anguish shared how his daughter was planning on marrying a young man that he and his wife vehemently disapproved of and how there was nothing they could do to stop her. Finally, a young woman, a mother of twins and pregnant with a third, went to run some errands only to return home to find that her husband had hanged himself.

Life Is Hard! But Jesus knows that because in Matthew it says that "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

Dear God give me that kind of compassion!

HE STILL CHANGES LIVES

Man I just got blown away!!! One of my college buddies wanted to befriend me on Facebook. Now I am not going to give you any of the gory details about my friend, I will call him Ed (fictitious name), but just let it be said that Ed is the last person who I ever dreamed would become a radical Jesus follower. Ed was one of the smartest guys in our class, but he lived on the wild side. He was a party animal, no he was more than that. Ed was a party lizard! Ed and I were roommates for a semester and his exploits were known far and wide. But over the years as Ed journeyed through life God got a hold of Ed's life and spiritually changed him, and Ed became a radical Jesus follower. In fact Ed just finished serving a multi-year term as an Elder in his church. And as Ed puts it "To get to that point, you KNOW it wasn't my own strength!" And the coolest thing is that if God can change Ed he can change you too!

TOO BUSY DOING CHURCH TO BE THE CHURCH

My interim Office Assistant, good friend, and radical church member made a comment recently that caused me to give pause. Basically, what she said was that since she had been working at church she had not had time to connect with her "3", the three friends she had been getting involved with to help guide them on their spiritual journeys. When she said that I realized I had lost focus on my "3" as well. I realized that I was so busying being a spiritual leading Preacher Man to my church that I was failing to make time for my "3" who needed spiritual leading the most of all.

As I was working through all of this I realized churches are in many ways just like that. They are so busy doing church, hanging out with other Christians at church, having church meetings, and attending church activities, that they have forgotten how to be the church, the radical transforming power of Christ in and to an unbelieving world.

What about you? Are you being the church or are you just going through motions???

May God Bless,
The Preacher Man