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On the Church Lobby podcast, Karl Vaters asked me for the best piece of advice I have received as a pastor. Here’s what a wise mentor told me that changed my leadership style.
Isaac Newton said, “This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.” Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler are two gigantic figures in the world of science. These men were both devout Christians. Check out these mini-biographies from the ICR.
“What made David’s heart remarkable wasn’t the absence of sin but his unrelenting pursuit of restoration with God.” —YouVersion reading plan Men of God: Ancient Virtues for Modern Warriors
It’s always fascinating to read about archeological discoveries that overlap with the historical accounts of the Bible.
Whether you are a pastor, a Sunday School teacher, or just a Christian sharing your testimony with your friend, we need to handle God’s Word correctly. John Piper’s lesson on 2 Timothy 2:14-15 is spot-on.
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Everyone knows that we all make mistakes. Good leaders know more than this: They know that it is their responsibility to help those around them recover from those mistakes.
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Did you know that’s possible for your greatest strength could become your most limiting weakness? Let’s learn how to spot and avoid this pitfall on this episode of The Podcast.
As leaders, we need to continually work on the “unconscious” areas of our lives. Here are some additional resources to help you.
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Sanctification (saint-ification) is an ongoing process that brings out fruitfulness, joy-fullness, and enhances our testimony to others. And an essential part of this process involves other saints. Notice that this word “saints” it plural. That’s because it is a plural word every place it appears in the Bible.
Saints have gotten themselves into trouble when they tried to go solo. Like David’s sin with Bathsheba, Elijah’s slide into depression, or Peter’s denial of Jesus. But we also see saints thriving through difficult situations when they have a fellow saint alongside. Like how Barnabas gave Saul his start, Paul and Silas could sing together in prison, Silas and Timothy helped Paul minister, and how Jesus sent out His ambassadors by twos (Luke 10:1).
How does accountability to other saints work? Since we see togetherness so much in the early Church (look for the phrases like “each other” or “one another”), think A.C.T.S.—
(1)Admit my need for accountability. James tells us that we all stumble and that even my so-called little slip-ups are major in God’s eyes (James 3:2, 2:10). So I need help.
John Maxwell said, “Every person is undisciplined in some area of their life; in the area that I am undisciplined, that is the area where I need greatest accountability. I will not do well in my areas of weakness unless I am held accountable for better results.” We all have blind spots, we all have weak areas, and we must be humble enough to admit to those things.
(2)Choose my accountability partners prayerfully and carefully (Proverbs 12:26; 2 Corinthians 6:14). These should be trustworthy people who have the emotional and spiritual capacity to be able to come alongside me (Proverbs 17:9; Galatians 6:2).
(3)Trust my friend. Trust their counsel even when it stings a bit (Proverbs 27:6), and trust the effectiveness of their prayers for me (James 5:16).
(4)Stick with them through thick and thin. Be your brother’s keeper and let them be your keeper (Hebrews 3:12-14). We need to keep at it especially in difficult times. Notice the phrase “let us” that appears five times in Hebrews 10:19-25.
If we are living with a biblical worldview, we realize that the saints here on earth are those we will also be with for eternity. Our biblical worldview should form our understanding of both being accountable to another saint and holding other saints accountable as well.
As Jack Hayford so wisely noted, “The believer’s best defense against self-deception is through mutual accountability to one another.”
If you would like to check out the other messages in our series B.A.S.I.C. Christianity, you can click here.
You cannot get Scripture from the Bible into your heart and mind by osmosis! To develop a biblical worldview, we have to put the Word in so the Holy Spirit can help us work it out.
“Without goals, training has no direction.” —Natalie Coughlin
John Piper saures 12 resolves for Christians to fortify them against viewing pornography. In the post called The High Price of Watching Nudity, Piper says, “I want to invite, frankly, all Christians to join me in this pursuit of greater purity of heart and mind. In our day, when entertainment media is virtually the lingua franca of the world, this is an invitation to be an alien. And I believe with all my heart that what the world needs is radically bold, sacrificially loving, God-besotted freaks, aliens.”
“Accountability closes the gap between intentions and actions.” —Craig Groeschel
T.M. Moore wrote, “Who are your ten most admired pastors? Probably we could all make a list. Why do we admire them? Because their churches are growing? Would they want you to say of them that they really know how to grow a church? We make two mistakes here. First, we mistake big numbers with real growth. The Bible’s view of growth is much more qualitative than quantitative. Second, we think we can get ‘growth’—in numbers—by simple mechanics: Find the right combination of programs, the latest in worship music, and a nice refreshment area. That won’t get the growth Jesus is seeking.”
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When you’ve been hurt, you probably want someone to tell you that it was all the other person’s fault. That’s what you may want, but a true friend will tell you what you need to hear.
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The definition of salvation comes from Romans 10:9. When we believe in our heart that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and we confess that with our mouth, we are now justified. I can now stand before God just as if I had never sinned. But the Christian life is more than merely going to heaven at some point. It’s about glorifying God and pointing others to Jesus while we’re on our way to heaven.
Paul wrote to saints in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1) but he also called them “mere human beings” in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. Paul points out that there is a difference between viewing this life from a worldly viewpoint and a biblical viewpoint (2 Corinthians 5:16).
A naturalistic world view is constantly shifting as new discoveries are made. A biblical worldview knows there is nothing new under the sun, that everything is addressed in Scripture.
In order to not view this world through the lens of “mere human beings” we have to read, study, meditate on, and apply the whole counsel of God’s Word. We put it in and the Holy Spirit helps us live it out. Just like our prescription glasses won’t do a thing to correct our vision of they aren’t on our face, Scripture won’t help us navigate this world in a God-glorifying way if we haven’t put it in our heart.
Each day before I ready my Bible I pray Psalm 119:18, which asks the Holy Spirit to open my eyes to the amazing things in Scripture. I read, I journal, and I pray over the passage that I have read. Then the Holy Spirit makes good application of that Scripture (John 14:26, 16:13; 1 John 4:6). I want to be sure to read the whole counsel of God’s Word, not just cherrypicking my favorite parts. And I always want to be going deeper (Hebrews 6:1).
One place that we see contrasting world views—the natural worldview versus the biblical worldview—is in 2 Timothy 2:14-19.
Natural worldview #1—quarreling about words
Biblical worldview #1—correctly handling the Word of truth
Natural worldview #2—engaging in godless chatter
Biblical worldview #2—standing on the firm foundation of Scripture
The results of a biblical worldview are amazing:
A sure foundation (Matthew 7:24-27)
The attention of others (Matthew 7:28-29)
Useful treasures to share with others (Matthew 13:52)
A strong defense against critics (Acts 6:9-10; Psalm 119:99)
Let’s not get stuck in the “mere human being” level of a natural worldview, but let’s commit to studying our Bibles diligently so that the Holy Spirit can develop a robust biblical worldview in us. This worldview is fruitful, joyful, and enhances our testimony.
Follow along with all the other messages in our series on B.A.S.I.C. Christianity by clicking here.
If you want your heart to be able to perform better, you are going to have to stress it a bit—that’s called exercise. The same thing is true for the heart of leadership—we have to exercise our leadership so that it can rise to the challenge later.
J. Warner Wallace wrote, “Everyone, whether they realize it or not, is engaged in worship. We all adore something, elevating it above the rest, sometimes so much that we overlook its flaws.” Check out this post about being careful about what we worship.
“Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else.” —Charles Spurgeon
“We should avoid end-time hysteria and ‘not grow weary in doing good’ (2 Thessalonians 3:13). There will be good work to do (vocationally and socially and personally) right up to the Lord’s coming. Our normal earthly duties will not end until the Lord appears. The rule then, until he comes, is, ‘Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men’ (Colossians 3:23).” —John Piper
Greg Morse has a fascinating post connecting the fable of Chicken Little with the historical account of Noah and the imminent return of Jesus. “I hope an acorn falls afresh on our heads as we observe an Old Testament saint who was the Chicken Little of his day. A man who remained awake and faithful with his back against the end of the world: a man named Noah.”
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How do leaders make sure that obstacles to their personal or organizational growth don’t become permanent?
This clip is from a lengthy conversation Greg and I had about leaders being like gardeners. You can check it out here. The main point is this: The seeds have what they need to grow, so the gardener-leader simply has to remove the obstacles to growth.
You may also want to check out a couple of related posts:
Craig T. Owens 