Teachable Teacher

Teachable, would you describe yourself with this term or are you like other leaders that already have it figured out. To be a GREAT leader we have to be willing to be taught. Being in a place of leadership by no means gives us the right to think that we know it all. There is always something new to learn, a strength to be strengthened or a weakness to be stretched. How can we expect to impart lessons learned or speak out of experience unless we are being taught ourselves.

One suggestion to make sure we are always being taught is to seek out those that have gone ahead of us and talk with them. There is nothing new under the sun, so it would stand to reason that those that have gone before us would have something to be gleaned from their experience. While I am not perfect at this, it is something I try to do regularly in all areas of my life. It has proven to be a good way to stretch my way of thinking as well as the way that I process through obstacles and ultimately the way I lead those around me.

What are some areas that you have had to really learn to be taught before you can successfully teach?

O Leader, where art thou?

Do you remember back to that crucial point in life where someone saw something in you and said “have you ever considered taking a more active role in what we are doing here.” Maybe it was the opposite, maybe you were the one who wanted to step up but no one else saw the “it” in you or wanted to take a chance on you.

But guess what happened… Somehow, someway you rose to the challenge and now sit in a uncomfortable comfortable spot of Leadership.

How did it happen, what did you do, who took the chance on you, what challenges did you encounter and how did you overcome them.

As I am writing this my youngest son is showing a very key element needed to become a great leader, determination! He is trying to learn how to roller skate and no matter how many times he falls, slips, or trips he keeps getting up and trying again. No doubt by the end of the weekend he will be able to skate with at least a little grace and soon after that he will be skating like a pro.

Determination, it’s what drives us and keeps us getting up no matter how many times we get knocked down and believe me we will get knocked down.

Take a minute and tell me about a time when you got knocked down or about the time when you stepped up to a place of leadership and what happened.

Waiting, Waiting, and more Waiting

That title seems to sum up how I feel as of late. Waiting on the right door, the right opportunity, the next step. The question I have to ask myself though is this, “What am I waiting on?” The search for a ministry position has been somewhat uneventful to date but is that what I am supposed to be doing searching and waiting or am I supposed to be just waiting. I heard a great quote this weekend at church, by now I am sure most of you have heard it as well but it really struck me.

“God is rarely early, but He is never late”

– Craig Groeschel

The thing about waiting on God is that we want Him to move in our time, which for me is probably on the early side.

I would say that most of us want things this way, when it’s the most convenient for us not Him. For me as I am sure a lot of us we forget about one of the greatest things to ever happen to us when we are so focused on the next step in life and last night my 3 year old pretty much laid the smack down on me without him knowing it.

He said this “Daddy Jesus lives in our hearts and it is so special”

Now mind  you he is only three and he just gave me a kick to, well you know where but it made me really think about this and is helping me to realize the most important thing is that Jesus lives in me and that He is rarely early and never late.

What do you think, where are you spending too much time asking God to move in your time and forgetting that He lives in you and will move when He sees fit to?

Goldfish?

Like I mentioned in yesterday’s post I got the opportunity to talk to some people from our church about Leadership. What I am about to tell you is not from me but the other two guys that I shared the time with but I thought it was good enough to pass on.We talked about Leadership in the settings of small group.

• Without leadership you have no vision and you end up like a school of goldfish everyone doing their own thing
• Without a grasp for the influence you have you will struggle to lead
• With an outcome stated you can then find the people needed to make the outcome reality

These are just a few of the thoughts from last night. What other things would you say are necessary to have an outcome become reality?

What is Leadership?

Tonight I will be speaking to a group of people about Leadership and I wanted to know how you define it.

I would define Leadership as simply…INFLUENCE

Now the trick is, if Influence is Leadership what kind of leader are you?

• Positive
• Negative
• Dictator
• Passive
• Pushy

There are all kinds of Leaders, the question is which will you choose to be?

Hitler was a leader but so was Martin Luther King Jr.

Caesar was a leader but so was Christ!

Choose wisely you may only get one shot.

What do you think?

You’re a Giant

A few days ago my 3 year old Logan looked at me when I walked into the living room and said

“Dad you’re a Giant”

and then climbed up on the couch and jumped up into my arms, just as happy as he could be. This has stayed in the front of my mind since then. I keep thinking that in his eyes I am a giant after all Logan is only 3′ tall and I stand at 6’6″ but on the flip side isn’t that what we are as Christians or at any rate isn’t that supposed to be what we are. It has really made me start thinking how can I become more of a spiritual giant. It has also made me think what am I doing to lead both of my boys to be giants for Christ.

Everyday Evangelism

Is Evangelism something we do only on a certain night of the week or is it something we do all the time? I believe it is something that we do all the time. I know that in the beginnnig when I first started to share my faith with people I was so nervous and wasn’t very comfortable doing it so setting up a designated time to do it was needed. Now what I mean about a designated time is that on a specific night I would ask God to purposely put someone in my path that wanted to talk not even about God or church or anything specific but just someone that needed someone to just listen to them. Over time I became more confident talking to complete strangers like I had known them forever and before long God was putting opportunities in my path to share the word with complete strangers. There are couple schools of thought on evangelism; intentional and unintentional.

Intentional

• set time and place to share
• talk to anyone that comes along
• usually have a tract or something to give them

This is a very specific laid out time to evangelize (witness)

Unintentional (or Lifestyle Evangelism)

• Not planned
• Allow God to place divine appointments in your path

I am an unintentional evangelist, right or wrong I tend to feel that God has divine appointments for me to share my faith. But you and I could not do either one without first doing the things we have previously talked about. Make sure you are training. Sharing our Faith is not for only certain people or an option. We are all called to “Go into all nations” I challenge you all this week to be on the look out for those divine appointments and act on them.

Let me know if you have someting to add or what you think.

Training

When we start to become engaged in the aspect of sharing our faith with other people we can not expect to just know how to do it or expect to have the stamina to complete the challenge. So like anyone else training for a big event (marathon, superbowl, ect.) we have to train. One of the first things we should do is know our own story. Well you say I know my own story. Yeah of course you do it is your story, but can you share it with somebody in less than 5 minutes and will it truly showcase what God has done in your life. If not we need to start there. The next thing we need to do is know what to share. Many evangelist have put together their own selections of bible verses and analogies and so you need to decide which one works best for you, but I like this one it’s called the Roman Road. The Roman Road takes you on a journey towards salvation through the book of Romans. Here is what it looks like.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned; all fall short of the God’s glorious standard”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”

Fomans 5:8 “But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners”

Romans 10:9-10 “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him                from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it                 is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”

Romans 10:13 ” For anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 11:36 “For everything comes from Him; everything exists by His power and is intended for His glory. To Him     be glory evermore. Amen”

(note: all verses are from the NLT version of the bible)

So now you have some verses but what does that mean, well it’s the start of our training. Know your story, know these scriptures and we will began to see God train us up for sharing our faith with others. Tomorrow I will show you how to use what we have learned so far in everyday life.

Did I miss something or do you have a different take on evangelism drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts. See ya.

Why do we share our Faith?

What’s the point? Is it worth it? Let’s do this, If you are called to ministry raise your hand. Come on now go ahead and raise your hand.

Now if you are a believer and you didn’t raise your hand we gotta take a look at why you didn’t. Here is what the Bible says about this topic and who is supposed to do it. Check out what Matthew 28:19-20 says “GO therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am always with you always, to the end of the age.” The Great Commission is not only for the disciples it is for all of us that follow after Christ. If you take a look at Ephesians 4 Paul talks about “unity in the body of Christ.” Those that are gifted with certain things are to train God’s people so they all can build up the church. Not just the pastors or evangelist but everyone in the church is to be equipped to build the church. You see it is our job as pastors and evangelists and church leaders to train the church how to be the church and GO out into all nations with the word of God.

Tomorrow we will do some training so check back in and maybe we will all learn something new.

To Share or Not to Share?

I know cheesy hamlet spin off but I got your attention didn’t I.

For the next couple posts I want to talk about the importance of sharing but not just any sharing, the ultimate sharing. Sharing the love of Christ with the people we are around. What do you mean? How do I do it? That’s not my responsibility it’s the pastors job. I don’t have that gift. I live a life that witnesses for me. YEAH RIGHT! You’ve heard these, I’ve heard these, even Christ heard these excuses but never the less didn’t Christ still tell us it was our duty and honor to share His love with people.

Do me a favor and answer this question, “What does it mean to you to share your faith?” Leave a comment and then check back tomorrow and we will look at why we share our Faith.