Spiritual Life

The big deal Jesus made about gratefulness in the one leper (and the lack thereof in the nine), points to the high value He places on a grateful heart. I believe leaders above all should evidence a grateful heart. Evaluate your level of gratefulness against these three gratefulness indicators.

Jesus declared that His view of success and effectiveness was directly tied to His obedience to the Father, not to an organization. We often put too much faith, confidence, and belief in the organization as though the institution is what matters. We make the mistake of measuring our effectiveness, our success, by whether or not the institution is growing.

Let’s be careful that we don’t by-pass relationship with God to get on with the activity, and start worshiping at the altar of what we do For Him. Jesus was very careful to point out that what He did was through the authority God gave Him. He also worked at maintaining that close relationship with His Father.

That little yellow mask that drops down from the ceiling in an airplane gives life-saving oxygen in a depressurized cabin. Oxygen is something that we take for granted while our feet are firmly planted on the ground. Sam discusses how our relationship with God is as crucial to leadership life support as oxygen is to the physical body. He outlines how self-deception toward responsibilities can be as detrimental to the physical body as lack of oxygen.

The story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), one of Jesus’ most famous stories, describes the power of true love. In this story, Jesus contrasts those with big heads (the priest and the Levite who had heads full of Bible knowledge) with one who had a big heart, the Samaritan. This story also offers clues about leaders with big hearts. Read that passage and then ask yourself these five questions based on the story and evaluate your own leadership heart.

True leaders are servants who die to themselves so others may flourish. True leaders go forth not for themselves but for others. If the foundation of leadership is “go forth and die,” no one should outpace the Church in developing and deploying leaders. Here are two reasons that the Church should develop leaders who “go forth and die.” We have the ultimate example.

For the past decade, doctors and psychologists have been taking notice of the health benefits of reflective writing. They note that wrestling with words...

Regret is as deadly as worry. One confronts an unknown future, the other an unfortunate past. Both seem unwilling to relinquish their death-grip once they...

What is this wonderful gift from God, this incredible blessing? It is the fear of the Lord.

God doesn’t impose on any leader the need to acknowledge Him as the source of their leadership abilities or gratitude for placing them in that position.

When we focus on our goals instead of our health, if we reach the goal, we have sacrificed an area of health (spiritual, emotional, physical, or relational). If we seek health before goals, we reach our goals healthily.

When you are suffering, how do you think God responds to you? Do you imagine Him saying something like: “Hey, buck up. It doesn’t...