Leaders

What started as a romantic bike ride had become a small intimate adventure. I had inadvertently awed her with my relaxed trust in her steering. And boy did I reap the benefits, scoring big points with my new wife. Not a bad idea on your honeymoon.

While there is nothing wrong with profiting from hard-earned expertise and diligence, treating one’s knowledge and experience more like Wikipedia than a classified government secret proclaims a different Way … a way of unity, joy, and freedom.

He wants you to fail and will do anything to pull that off. Limited the way he is, there is nothing Satan can do against God directly, so he strikes out at those whom the Lord loves: People. Humanity. You. Me. Them. Us. All of that is leading up to this: The devil knows some things about you which he would just as soon you never find out.

Are you in a spiritual rut? Here are a few practical tips to breathe new life and vigor back into your devotional life.

Good leadership demands that we understand what we control and what we do not. Among numerous healthy reasons for this is so that when followers are playing the blame game, we are not drawn into an unhealthy discourse: both with others, and within our mind’s conversation.

Here are five big mistakes ministry leaders make when they think about setting goals.

Leading from strength means progressively moving toward convergence with your “life message” and “life mission.” How confident are you in knowing your spiritual gifts and natural talents?

God can, and does, use young men and women to do amazing things. For this we should be thankful. But far more often, the combination of youthful zeal, prideful passion, and immature idealism forms a toxic combination in the soul.

For the Christian who leads in a secular environment the question isn’t, Does self-promotion mean you aren’t being humble? ‒ the question is, Can you be humble in any position you occupy?

As I look at the way I have typically treated myself – when I review the way I think about myself – I realize that I haven’t seen myself as someone the Father of the Lord Jesus delights in. My preoccupation is not with God’s goodness, with His love for which no adjective is sufficient; my preoccupation is on the many ways I blow it – impatience, lack of trust, and impure motivations. The list is endless. You have your list too, don’t you?

"If only my people would just do what I ask!" I've heard too many leaders utter those words and then, in their frustration, implement solutions that don't seem to make things better. Maybe leaders can sharpen their approach with a simple shift in the question they ask themselves.

Leaders can be prey to many dangers from the outside and within. Consider a leader’s fear of being vulnerable. Clinton shares a case where vulnerability led to greater trust.