Pastors can only fulfill their calling as shepherd leaders with the vitalizing power of prayer, and must pray for themselves first. A healthy, prayer-full pastor is an effective pastor. My newest book is to help pastors in this vital discipline of prayer.
Amen Indeed fuels growth by providing more than 100 prayers for pastors to pray for their own mental, physical, spiritual, and relational growth. Each is sourced from Scripture and rings with the “Amen” that Jesus promised to add (2 Corinthians 1:20).
“There is one assured way for our prayers to be answered: It is to pray the will of God.
“There is one assured way to pray the will of God: It is to pray Scripture.
“As ministers of the Gospel we would be wise then to primarily pray Scripture, for ‘the word of our God stands forever’ (Isaiah 40:8).” —Dick Brogden, Founder of the Live Dead Movement
“When it comes to prayer, we need some help. And in Amen Indeed, help is at hand. Whatever is keeping us from prayer, Craig Owens can help us push through to a more consistent and more consistently joyful and fruitful life of prayer.” —T.M. Moore, Principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
Years ago, I read a book by Tim Elmore called Artificial Maturity. The premise of his book is that youth have access to so much information that they can sound informed and educated, but because they don’t know what to do with all that knowledge, they remain unprepared to handle the situations they face each day.
If we’re not careful, we Christians can be described as artificially mature. We know what the Bible says, we can quote a lot of passages, but if we don’t know how to actually apply that knowledge in our everyday lives, we are immature.
So we have to do something. One of the things we have to do is use our brain. God wants us to be fully engaged so that we can love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. So there needs to be a recognition of what we don’t know so that we can know how to apply what we know.
We don’t know what we don’t know until we know someone who knows something we don’t know (Romans 7:7).
But once we know that we don’t know, we have a choice: (1) Seek knowledge so we can know what we don’t know, or (2) Seek someone who can help us both know what we don’t know and know how to apply what we’ve learned. The Holy Spirit is that Someone (John 16:14-15).
We’ve already looked at one word for know in 2 Peter 1:2—epignosis is how to apply what we know. Remember the progression (vv. 2-5). The word for knowledge in v. 5 is gnosis: this is moral wisdom. So gnosis is having the knowledge; epignosis is how to apply that knowledge.
When we perceive the goodness—the gentlemanliness—of Jesus and we see ourselves in comparison, it makes us want to: (1) throw in the towel, (2) try to improve ourselves (which will ultimately make us want to throw in the towel), or (3) submit to the Spirit’s sanctification process.
God loves to help those who admit that cannot help themselves. In 1 Peter 5:5, Peter quotes Solomon, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” God stands back from those who say, “I know how to do this myself,” but He rushes in to help those who say, “I know I need to change, but I don’t know how” of “I need wisdom to apply what I know.”
“There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.’” —C.S. Lewis
So we make every effort to add goodness to our faith, we make every effort to add knowledge to our goodness, and we make every effort to add self-control to our knowledge.
Self-control literally means “with strength.” Knowledge without strong self-control can be dangerous—just like a curvy road without guardrails.
In Titus 2:12, Paul ties together a sound mind with sober behavior. So it appears that self-control starts in the mind that is taking in new knowledge. Remember that knowledge is Spirit-breathed, so the strength of self-control must also be His strength. My strength fails, but God’s strength sustain me (Isaiah 40:29-31; 41:10, 13). I can know that…
God’s strength is my assurance in spiritual battles—Ephesians 6:10
His strength gives me longsuffering patience and joy—Colossians 1:11
The same strength Jesus used is given to us—Hebrews 2:14, 18
My knowledge won’t help unless it’s Spirit-illuminated. My self-control won’t stand unless it’s Spirit-empowered.
Our “make every effort” is to ask, receive, and apply. And then do that again, and again, and again with the Holy Spirit’s illumination and empowerment.
Check out all of the other messages in this series by clicking here.
T.M. Moore wrote, “The apostle Paul promised that, whenever we are faced with temptation, God will provide a way of escape, so that we can bear up and grow through temptation into greater maturity in the Lord (1 Corinthians 10:13). We are practicing self-control when we search for that way of escape and direct our steps toward it: ‘I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies. I made haste, I did not delay to keep Your commandments’ (Psalm 119:59, 60).” Read more about the necessity of self-control in this post.
“Character doesn’t make you a leader; it protects you as a leader.” —John Maxwell
“Hard words are an evidence of the weakness of the cause which they are used to support. Hard arguments softly put, are the really effective weapons, but it takes some of us a long time to learn this; and generally, in our younger days, we wear away our own strength by the violence with which we use it.” —Charles Spurgeon
One of the leaders in my school shared this: “Numerous researchers have studied the use of wait time by teachers. Pausing for just 3-5 seconds after a question has been shown to produce higher-level thinking and answering. This is true both of classroom questioning and individual conversation. Slow down during conversation today and see what happens!” Previously, I shared an important lesson I learned about slowing down.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
Over the past several years Greg and I have given you innumerable pieces of advice on how to grow and develop your team. If you’ve been diligently working at mentoring, chances are you’ve got a handful of superstars on your team. So now the question becomes: how do you get them to stay? In today’s episode, we give you strategies to entice your high performers to remain on the team.
[1:45] As your teammates develop and mature, how do you keep your best talent from leaving your organization?
[3:16] It’s more profitable to keep your in-house talent than to hunt for new talent.
[4:20] Existing teammates know your culture better than new hires would.
[5:43] The best employees have other metrics which motivate them. You need to discover what those are.
[6:32] Including your top talent in your succession planning is a huge motivator for the longevity of their tenure.
[10:12] Micromanagement discourages top talent from sticking around.
[11:15] Here’s an idea of how to develop an organic plan for your next generation leaders.
[12:51] Leaders need to do more than focus on the bottom line if they want to see emerging leaders develop.
[15:18] If leaders are lifelong learners, mentoring the leaders around them to go to the next level will become quite natural.
[18:37] Let your top talent begin writing their own job descriptions.
[21:32] Show that you believe in your teammates by giving them bigger opportunities.
[24:24] A business coach can help you spot opportunities for leadership development that you may be missing.
Greg and I have co-authored a series of books called Business by the Book—what the Bible says about each department in a typical corporation. Check them out here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did. (1 John 2:6)
If I claim…
…I have fellowship with Jesus
…I know the truth
…I am done with sinning
…I live in the light
Then I must think, speak, and act like Jesus.
To prove my claims I must show that…
…I know the Truth and live in it
…I quickly confess and repent of sin
…I know His commands and obey them
…I know His love and I love others
There is no better proof for my claims than Christlikeness!
As Charles Spurgeon said,
“When we try to be, in every respect, what God’s Word tells us we ought to be, then may we know that we are in God; but if we walk carelessly, if we take no account of our actions, but do, after a random fashion, whatever comes into our foolish hearts, then have we no evidence at all that we are in God.”
The proof of our claims is self-evident. John uses the phrase “this is how we know” 8 times in this letter, and he uses the word “know” another 35 times!
It’s not enough for me to verbally make the claims, but people should hear the words of Jesus in my mouth, see His compassion in my actions, and know His love fills my heart and informs my mind.
I’ll say it again: There is no better proof for my claims than Christlikeness. I know it, everyone who sees or hears me knows it, and, most importantly, Jesus knows it.
Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. (1 John 3:18-19 NLT)
Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people.Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is threatened. I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:16 NLT)
Slander is defined as: “The utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another’s reputation.” (Merriman-Webster dictionary)
I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors. I will not endure conceit and pride. (Psalm 101:5 NLT)
Hiding hatred makes you a liar; slandering others makes you a fool. Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut. (Proverbs 10:18-19 NLT)
And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. (Matthew 12:36)
In my book When Sheep Bite, I have a whole chapter about dealing with slanderers. In that chapter I wrote—
You might be thinking, “But I have to respond to these lies, right? I can’t just let them continue to fly around unchecked because people may start believing these falsehoods.” I think this is a very natural response, but I want to again call us to strive for a supernatural response—something we can only do if we are completely yielded to God. Just as we saw what Peter wrote about the way Jesus didn’t verbally lash out at His slanderers (1 Peter 2:23), we need to respond in the same way as our Chief Shepherd did. …
Don’t treat those who criticize and slander you as an enemy. Instead, grieve for their hardened hearts and pray for God’s mercy on them. Intercede for them to be able to acknowledge their sinful words, so they may ask God for forgiveness before His judgment inevitably falls on them. Remember that these sheep—though they are angry and attacking—are still ones for whom Jesus shed His blood. The natural response may be a desire to see our slanderers eternally punished, but the supernatural response is to desire for their soul to be eternally in God’s presence. (Excerpt from When Sheep Bite)
God-fearing people are not to listen to slander nor to slander another. Every human is created in the image of God—to slander another is to slander his or her Creator.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
My wife was a cheerleader in high school, so she taught me to appreciate some of the finer points of the integrated movements and stunts that the sideline cheerleaders performed at each game. But it wasn’t until our daughter moved from her first sideline cheer season to her first competitive cheer season that I really took notice. Competitive cheer is cheerleading on a whole different level—the stunts and tumbling runs, the coordinated movements, the precise way the words of the cheer are punctuated by the claps, stomps, and jumps of the cheerleaders is quite impressive!
In many ways, the relationship of the three Persons of the Godhead are much like a coordinated dance. Which part of the Trinity you may see at any one moment is based on your viewpoint, as you can quickly see the other Persons of the Trinity at the exact same moment. The Father revealing Himself in the Son; the Son sending the Holy Spirit to be in us; the Spirit drawing people to the Father through the Son. Each Person of the Godhead revealing and promoting and glorifying each Other!
It’s absolutely awesome! And yet what is even more astounding to me is that we are invited to participate in this Spiritual Dance (see John 7:33, 14:16-17, 16:14-15, 17:20-21).
Peter says we are a part of this dance; actually he calls it more of a chorus. The word “add” in 2 Peter 1:5 is the Greek word epichorego. The root word (chorego) sounds like “chorus.” But it really means to be a chorus leader who supplies everything for the dance/chorus. As v. 3 tells us, “His diving power has given us everything we need” to participate in this Spiritual Dance.
As we have already seen, Jesus has provided everything we need except for our effort—our diligence to learn this dance and become more proficient in it. The idea of adding is really implied throughout these next verses. We could read vv. 5-7 like this—
“Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and [add] to [your] goodness, knowledge; and [add] to [your] knowledge, self-control; and [add] to [your] self-control, perseverance; and [add] to [your] perseverance, godliness; and [add] to [your] godliness, mutual affection; and [add] to [your] mutual affection, love.”
The supply of these virtues is not ours, but the “every effort” to ask, receive, and apply is ours. I cannot supply myself. But faith from God allows me to access the One full of grace (remember what we saw in John 1:16).
Our Father already knows what we have need of (Matthew 6:8), so we could ask something like, “Where is my goodness lacking?” And when the Holy Spirit reveals that to us, we can then ask our Savior—Who is full and overflowing with goodness—to impart to us what we need.
So my “every effort” is not supplying what I lack but asking to be supplied what I lack. The only thing keeping me less than full of any of these virtues is my lack of effort to ask and then apply what I am supplied.
The Holy Spirit imparts faith to us to believe for salvation. Then there is a faith we must “make every effort” to strengthen. This is the faith on full display in Hebrews 11.
Faith is:
conviction of the truth revealed in the Bible
believing that what God calls us to do, He will also empower us to do
being convinced that Jesus is our Example
trusting the Holy Spirit to conform us to this image of Jesus—to reveal Christlikeness in us
The first virtue Peter lists—the first virtue that our faith believes God to form in us—is goodness. This is moral excellence (NLT), good character (MSG), and virtue—excellence, resolution, Christian energy (AMPC).
Since Peter uses the same word to describe Jesus in v. 3 (His own glory and goodness), people around us should see our growth as Christian gentlemen or gentlewomen.
Remember that 2 Peter is written to saints about their interaction with other saints. Being around other faith-filled gentlemen and gentlewomen is an excellent training ground for all of us. It matters how we speak to each other. It matters that we treat each other chivalrously and with good manners. It matters that we are kind and polite to each other.
Because when we take this gentlemanly or gentlewomanly behavior into the world, it gets noticed. So make every effort to develop the goodness of Jesus in your life. Let this community of saints be the place where your training takes place.
Check out all of the other sermons in this series from 2 Peter by clicking here.
Psalm 99 lists four different ways saints come to worship before God’s throne. The Old English spelling is “worthship” because God is worth all of the praise we can lift to Him—especially when we think about the sins He has forgiven 🙌🏻
“True love hates that which is unlovely. It is inevitable that a man, who is full of love, should feel intense indignation against that which is contrary to love. Hence the apostle says, ‘If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.’” —Charles Spurgeon, commenting on 1 John 4:18-20
Christians aren’t supposed to be “lone rangers” but in community with other saints. T.M. Moore wrote, “Our Christian friends can be a very helpful resource for improving our conversational skills, if we will take the time to talk about spiritual things. As iron sharpens iron, we may expect that, by engaging often in conversations with other believers, over matters of the highest moment, our conversational skills will improve steadily over time. We might even have some fun.”
The social conditions that led up to the Prayer Revival of 1857, in many ways, mirror those in America today.Check out a short history lesson about spiritual revivals.
“And, in yet another sense, handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, mean that you stop trying. To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity
A young man in the middle school where I serve asked to read a copy of my book When Sheep Bite. Nearly every day on his lunch break, Nick would come into talk with me about what he read, and share some insights he had gleaned. He wrote the most sincere and straightforward endorsement that I have ever received.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
On a recent episode of The Craig and Greg Show, we talked about the underutilized leadership practice of journaling. Here is one idea I was able to capture and implement because of my commitment to keeping a journal.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
…the Lord has a charge to bring against you… (Hosea 4:1)
Sadly, the charges that God brings against ancient Israel sound eerily similar to charges He could make against us today:
Faithlessness
Lovelessness
No acknowledgment of God
Cursing
Lying
Murdering
Stealing
Adultery
Deserting God
Rampant sexual immorality
Idolatry
I believe idolatry is at the root of all these other sins. And this idolatry stems from a lack of knowledge of God’s supremacy (v. 14). But the lack of knowledge of God among the people is due to a rejection of deeper knowledge of God by the religious leaders. God specifically identifies the priests and prophets as those who are stumbling in their sin.
God says, “You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. … Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as My priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children” (Hosea 4:5-6).
God’s leaders set the tone. As the leader goes, so go the people.
A mark of a godly leader is one who is continually and increasingly growing in his knowledge of God.
Leaders must be learners in order to defend those under their care. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory, “To be ignorant and simple now—not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground—would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.”
Leaders, I implore you: learn more of God. Abide intimately with Him. Get to know His heart and mind. Then impart this knowledge to those around you. Lead them into the all-satisfying presence of God, so that they may also know God more intimately. This intimate knowledge will fortify them against the pull if idolatry and the whole list of other charges God has against those who remain willfully ignorant of Him.
This is part 89 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts in this series by clicking here. And you may also want to check out my books for church leaders—Shepherd Leadership and When Sheep Bite.
Even a Wolverine fan can acknowledge the quality leadership lessons that Urban Meyer (the coach of that football team to the south of us) provides in his book Above the Line.You can check out my book review by clicking here.
Below are a few quotes that caught my attention. My Patreon supporters have access to all of the quotes from this book.
“We teach our players, in response to any situation they face, to press pause and ask: What does this situation require of me? Pressing pause gives you time to think. It gets you off autopilot and helps you gain clarity about the outcome you are pursuing, the situation you are experiencing, and the Above the Line action you need to take to achieve the outcome.”
“Under pressure, we do not rise to the occasion. We rise or fall to the level of our training. When contact is made, it is too late to train and build skill.”
“Every team faces some kind of adversity. Mediocre teams are destroyed by it. Good teams survive it. Great teams get better because of it.”
“Resilience is one of life’s most important attributes. Because nobody wants hardship or adversity, but everybody gets it. It’s inevitable. No one escapes pain, fear, or difficulty. In fact, a productive and successful life involves some amount of necessary pain. When it happens, don’t run from it. Learn from it.”
“Performance cannot be declared. It must be led. Great results are initiated and sustained by great leadership. Not just leaders at the top, but leaders at every level.”
“Culture is what leads when no one is watching.”
My Patreon supporters have all of my notes from Above the Line, including the six “R” factors Urban Meyer unpacks in his formula E + R = O.
Pastors can only fulfill their calling as shepherd leaders with the vitalizing power of prayer, and must pray for themselves first. A healthy, prayer-full pastor is an effective pastor. My newest book is to help pastors in this vital discipline of prayer.
