Posts Tagged ‘spiritual leadership’

Good Question (part 2) My answer

// March 25th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // My Thoughts

I got this question posed to me recently by a young… on-fire christian and I figured it would be great if you answered it… I will post my answer afterward.

I am so depressed… why does it make a difference what people think? I am sick of caring, and I am sick of everyone acting like there is so much time…and making everything funny or light hearted. Like people that take being a christian seriously are so looked down on… I am sick of it! what do I do.

so what do we say to this?

My answer:

Love them.  Take your walk with God seriously, take yourself not so
seriously and let others take resposibility for themselves. Ultimately
you cannot hold someone accountable unless they give you the ability to
do that. It is earned by just loving and caring sometimes for years…

I was answering in a text message so it is a pretty short answer… but the truth is … we cannot cannot make others take responsibility for their lives only God can… and we can make as much of a fuss as we want and it will make hardly a difference in their life…unless we have earned the right as someone that loves them.  It is tough to love people… Love hurts… it hurts more when they act like they don’t love you or they don’t love the things you love… but the sacrifice of love is the only thing that ultimately redeemed us.  Feeling sick with frustration is the sacrifice of love… Solomon said it best “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”  Hope deferred… drawn out…seemingly forever!  love that continues to believe that there is hope… even though the time grows long…and it is over and over ignored… can you imagine how sick God is?!!!   Paul says in Romans 8:22-23 “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”  If all creation groans and labors together… and even we do… can you imagine the Love-sickness and long-suffering of God as he waits for us to “Get it”?

Anyways.. that was my answer… feel free to expound further!

Tags: Christianity, depression, Love, spiritual leadership, spiritual warfare

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Good Question

// March 21st, 2010 // 10 Comments » // My Thoughts

I got this question posed to me recently by a young… on-fire christian and I figured it would be great if you answered it… I will post my answer afterward.

I am so depressed… why does it make a difference what people think? I am sick of caring, and I am sick of everyone acting like there is so much time…and making everything funny or light hearted. Like people that take being a christian seriously are so looked down on… I am sick of it! what do I do.

so what do we say to this?

Tags: Christianity, depression, Love, spiritual leadership, spiritual warfare

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Key Elements Of Leadership

// January 27th, 2010 // 11 Comments » // My Life, My Thoughts

I recently began thinking about leadership and decided to write down some of the things I have learned about leadership over the past few years.  There is no lack of experts that have opinions on the subject of leadership… and I am by no means an expert. however I figured I would share my thoughts.

There are some fundamental ideas about leadership that I feel are important for good leaders to understand.  Some,  if not all of these are already established and accepted ideas in some perspectives of leadership.  Some of them go directly against the grain of everything we are taught about ” Alpha Wolf ” style leadership… and for good reason!

  • Authority is given not taken
  • Leaders should be able to follow well
  • A role of leadership is functioning to promote unity and forward momentum with minimal exercise of authority.
  • It is critical that a leader recognize that the role of a leader is to
    • Lead in humility
    • Develop a mentoring relationship with those he leads
    • Promote mentoring relationships in upcoming leaders
    • Demonstrate proper boundaries in dealing with issues of
      • Pride
      • Personal conflict
      • Burn out
      • Life choices
      • Balance
      • Discernment

Leading in humility is a tough job, it requires a selfless determination to recognize that your authority is given to you and is something that you must measure and use with discernment.

some questions a leader should consider asking.
Will you recognize me as your leader?
If so will you respect the authority that you have given me and trust me to make decisions for you?

Do you give me permission to speak humbly, honestly, and directly with you when I need to talk to you about how you are dealing with the subjects of:

  • Pride
  • Personal conflict
  • Burn out
  • Life choices
  • Balance
  • Discernment

A good leader should promote healthy boundaries yet still welcome to questions and even challenges to their opinions. Often it is difficult when others challenge our vision and ideals.

It is critical that a leader develop a good balance of gracefully accepting criticism, instruction, and even condemnation; Without feeling threatened.

The best way to develop good balance is to hold loosely to ideals that are not based on rock solid principals.  We often set our full weight on issues that are largely unimportant, and forget to defend the core principals that are worth saving.

By regularly revisiting core values; re-establishing their truth,  and by evaluating and holding loosely to the less important ideals and preconceptions of your vision: you can maintain a healthy balance in your leadership.

Maintaining good balance as a leader gives the team  you are leading the freedom to truly thrive and challenge you in new areas of leadership; instead of wallowing in mediocrity and internal squabbles over meaningless issues.

So if you feel like you are having trouble as a leader try applying some of these principals and you may just discover that leading is easier than you thought.

So how about it… any leaders out there that want to weigh in on this??  what do you think?

Tags: Leadership, spiritual leadership, worship leader, worship leadership

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The Millstone Principal

// November 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // My Life

Matthew 18:6
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

It has been said by some that the mental age of the average American is around 13,  I have to admit things are not looking good for us… we often times act no better than temper tantrum throwing children with no self control.

That being said… with so many possible “little ones” running around… I would think the millstone principal still applies to those who would claim to have a level of maturity.

Tags: offence, spiritual leadership

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