Authority
Leadership Library Spotlight, pt. 1
by on Oct 2nd, 2009 at 11:01 am
A former percussion instructor once told me, “You are only as good as the music you study.” If I wanted to expand my repertoire as a musician, I needed to listen to various artists and their styles of musicianship. If I wanted to understand the tiniest nuances that accompany good drumming, I had to hear many different skilled percussionists work with those nuances.
Growing in wisdom and leadership is much the same as becoming a skilled musician. We are only as competent as the material we study. When we read, we learn how people think, we discover new ideas, and we develop a better sense of what makes a good argument and what makes for a good fire-starter.
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Leadership Library Spotlight, pt. 2
by on Oct 2nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Book: Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer, 3rd edition
Author: J. Oswald Sanders
I have always loved to work for bosses, coaches, pastors, and leaders who have high standards. They expect much from me and are not content to settle for mediocrity. They believe that every person on the team should strive to be as strong in competency and character as the best leaders in the group.
Part of my appeal with Sanders’ book has to do with his mentality that being a spiritual leader requires an extremely high standard of living and learning. In fact, the standard is so high that only complete reliance on and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit will yield the marks of leadership in the believer’s life. This resource lays out a 166-page gauntlet of qualities, habits, challenges, dangers, and opportunities that spiritual leaders will need to master if they are to be fit for service in the kingdom of God as one to mark and follow by other Christians.
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Leadership Library Spotlight
by on Jan 29th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Book: Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters
Author: Timothy Keller
If you are a follower of Christian blogdom, you would know just how far behind the ball I am on saying something about Timothy Keller’s latest work, Counterfeit Gods. Right at the turn of the decade, many Christian authors presented their “Top Books of 2009,” and Keller’s book was on virtually every list that I viewed. Therefore, I knew that it was at least worth a read.
Now, the Leadership Library’s purpose is not to review the latest and greatest, but arm you with resources that can be of use throughout your years of leadership in the home, church, and community. Nevertheless, Keller’s resource is one that will offer a healthy challenge to your own soul whenever you read it.
I think that it fits into a category along with Jerry Bridges’ Respectable Sins (coming soon) or, in a way, C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. In each of these works, the authors expose us to the subtle ways in which we rebel against God. Whether it is Lewis’ Uncle Screwtape’s advice on how to lead a Christian astray, Bridges’ attack against the more “acceptable” offenses against God’s rule, or Keller’s refusal to let our priorities escape the worthy title of idolatry, the point remains the same: Is God our all? Do we truly wish to serve Him and Him above all else?
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Leadership Library Spotlight
by on Sep 2nd, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Book: The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life
Author: A. W. Tozer
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us” p. 1
“Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.” p. 2
One of my favorite authors is A. W. Tozer because he had a gift for clearly and simply explaining hard-to-grasp issues in a way that was memorable and challenging. The more I read biblical and scholarly literature, the more thankful I am for a man who could get down to the heart of a matter, address it, and move on. While scholarship has its important place, this resource is among the finer works to be submitted in the twentieth century, and the message still demands our attention. Dated it is not.
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Watch Football But Don't Worship The Game
by on Sep 14th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
America is still a nation of devout men. Hundreds of thousands still gather every Sunday, especially in the fall and early winter, to worship and celebrate the object of their heart’s affection. They enter brilliantly designed and tremendously expensive cathedrals in many of the country’s major cities, and now the country’s schools allow for the construction of smaller, but still glorious chapels for worship on a smaller or more local scale. We might even argue that America has increased its devotion to gathering for worship. Instead of the old church format of Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night services, we take an entire weekend to complete the process: youth services are held on Friday nights, college groups gather all throughout Saturday, the adults have three services on Sunday, and all of this culminates in a Monday night service. Yes, the football season has arrived.
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Leadership Library Spotlight
by on Sep 17th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Book: The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Author: Timothy Keller
“Whether your consider yourself a believer or a skeptic, I invite you to seek the same kind of honesty and to grow in an understanding of the nature of your own doubts.” pg. xxiv
Could it be that many of the people who reject Christianity do so using one set of rules against it while employing a different set of rules for their own beliefs? Have skeptics, cynics, or aggressive opponents of Christianity been as logically fair about their own affirmations as they have their objections to the teachings of Christ? Can Christians hold to the claims of Christ and truly be consistent with logic, history, and the nature of things as they appear?
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How Did Jesus Deal With Temptation? pt. 3
by on Sep 21st, 2010 at 11:20 pm
So far, Satan’s attempt to get Jesus to operate outside of the Heavenly Father’s provision and leadership has failed. However, he switches to another tactic that, again, looks ridiculous on the surface, but is menacing at its deepest levels.
In Luke 4:5-7, Satan shows Jesus the kingdoms of the earth and promises that the Lord could receive glory from and authority over all of these kingdoms if he would just make the simple gesture of worship toward Satan. Now, this offer seems tremendously stupid. I mean, there is hardly any subtlety to Satan’s offer, and it would barely seem like a temptation to someone of sound mind. He is asking the Lord of the Ten Commandments to break the first three commandments!
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The Gift Of The Triune God In Our Suffering
by on Oct 20th, 2010 at 3:40 am
This afternoon, I was in a meeting with the worship design team as we prepared this coming Sunday’s service. A conversation arose concerning the topic of suffering, and I don’t mean the occasional bad day type of suffering. We discussed the weight that comes with prolonged suffering: chronic pain, incurable disease, broken relationships, death of a loved one, the onset of poverty from long-term unemployment, the abysmal economic conditions that lead business owners to see the crumbling of their life’s work as well as the decisions to send people into unemployment, and the thousand other deep cuts that come from living in a sin-soaked world.
As we talked about suffering and the instruction we receive from Scripture about it, an interesting dialogue developed. We began to concentrate on God’s role in our suffering. What we found led to a time of reflection and praise that might one day soon turn into a necessary sermon for our church. I thought that I would share just a simple demonstration of the fruit that came from this discussion (and more importantly, from Scripture).
God does not allow useless suffering to overcome the lives of His children. This truth can be easy to accept in times of plenty and peace, but for people who are plunged under the waterline with suffering for periods that exceed their ability to keep their breath, this truth must be the lifeline to which they cling. You might be one of those people, and if you aren’t, you might very well become one of these people. Therefore, this topic is worth pondering.
The triune God is active in all of our suffering, and His activity must be recognized, trusted, and received with joy, which is a state far more complex and full than a simply “happy” emotion. Let’s look at the role of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our suffering:
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Leadership Library Spotlight
by on Oct 22nd, 2010 at 12:10 am
Book: Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions
Author: Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears
"Sadly, it is too common for churches not to speak of Jesus, which is a tragedy akin to a wife rarely uttering the name of her own husband. In our day when there are innumerable contradictory beliefs about who God is, Christians must be clear that their God is Jesus Christ alone so as to communicate the same central truth that Scripture does. No matter how many verses are used, the Bible has not been rightly understood or proclaimed unless Jesus is the central focus and hero." p. 66
The most important question in all of existence is not the origin of the universe or the meaning of life, but the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth. The eternal state of a person’s soul is entirely determined based on one’s answer to the question of Jesus’ true identity. Therefore, the most important endeavor any person can make is to discover who Jesus is, test His claims, and decide whether or not He is worthy of receiving the full weight of one’s confidence.
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A Prayer For Election Day...
by on Nov 1st, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Heavenly Father, today, our nation selects many of its national and local leaders.
I thank You, Father, for allowing me to live in a country that permits me to vote. So many of Your people live in countries where they face persecution and oppression at the hands of leaders who will not grant them any opportunity to change their situation. You have planted me in a land where I get to safely state my preference for the leadership of the state. This is a blessing and I am grateful.