Leadership in Context

The old saying goes: There is no success without a successor. Throughout the book of Judges, people are sporadically raised up, and they do great for a season. Yet there is no successor. The leadership lesson here is that without a successor, there is no sustained legacy. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

If you do not have a job that is bigger than you, you need a bigger job. The job, when you are leading in the storm, is always bigger than you. Your greatest strength is to know that you need strength. Whatever situation you are leading people in, though God might not have chosen the circumstances, He has chosen you to be the leader. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

From time to time, we have storms in our lives. Currently, we are facing a storm with COVID-19 that impacts every area of our lives. The temptation is to come up with a quick answer because, after all, leaders give answers. However, a quick answer may not be the right answer or may only be a partial answer. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

REPETITIVE. When I have listened to business gurus, the one thing I have discerned from them is the need to take repetitive actions. When something happens, we sink down into our training. REDEMPTIVE. There will be actions you take that will not be perfect, and you will fail, and then you will have to take redemptive action. Things will go wrong and you will have to fix them. RENEWED. If you are g...

If you take responsibility for getting on the road, I can help push you up the hill. You must be the responsible party. When you lose responsibility, you lose the ability to respond. When you lose responsibility, you lose the vision for your life. You lose the ability to steer that vehicle. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

If we are going to go forward, we must be committed to a sequence of action. Ready, aim, fire. Not ready, fire, aim. Not ready, aim, aim, aim. You don’t have to have an elaborate plan. You know you have to take action, and you know there is going to be follow-up action. Very few things in life happen because of one act. Commit to a sequence, not just an action. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) ca...

You have to know where you are to get where you are going. Some people have a good idea of where they want to go, but don’t understand where they currently are. Good leaders have vision because they’ve been able to define reality. God wants to help you clearly identify where you are so that you don’t have to stay there. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

Waiting for things to change is usually not a good plan. You must determine that the place you are in is not the place where you will stay. Get an exit strategy, and begin to move forward. Listen to God. Bow your knee. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. But pack your bags so you can move forward. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

Forward is not a place. Forward is a motion. Forward is a commitment. If we are going to go somewhere, God wants us to go forward. We must be committed to forward action, not just as an idea or a theory. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

Our salvation is based on a relationship with Christ, and that relationship must be maintained. Do not become sluggish. Do not become dull. Do not start coasting in your faith. Be imitators. Let’s be a people who actively engages our faith in Christ. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

The ministry of the New Testament church was to plant churches and strengthen churches. Everything they did was connected to that. Jesus said, “I will build my church.” Paul said, “They were imitators of the churches.” We need apostolic congregations that are strengthening and building churches in a way that people can emulate. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

People pray for revival. People pray for a move of God. Historically, revival was very messy. Disruption is one of God’s techniques to get people’s attention. There is a philosophy in the Church today that we should go along to get along rather than being the people that stand out in the culture and speak God’s Truth in love and clarity, regardless of what might happen. Show notes (posted every Tu...

Vision is divine revelation, divine direction. When you have vision, you have a conviction of what you must do. A mark of someone with vision is that they will do self-sacrificing things because there is a conviction to see the vision come to pass. It is not just a preferred future; it’s a necessary future. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

The word vision appears 77 times in the New American Standard version of the Bible. Each time it is mentioned, except for twice, it refers to a supernatural occurrence or is commentary on a supernatural occurrence. When the Bible is talking about vision, it is not just talking about someone having a plan or an objective; it’s talking about God super-imposing Himself in the form of vision. Show not...

Be kind to one another. Be tender-hearted. Forgive each other just as God has forgiven you. In Ephesians 5, Paul admonishes us, the Church, to act and love not as he did, but as Christ did. God trusts us to love and serve with no promise of a return on that investment. Just like Christ loves us. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

Paul encourages us in 1 Corinthians 11:1 to be imitators of him, just as he is an imitator of Christ. We are not to use our liberty as a license, thus causing people to stumble. Paul explains the why of this in 1 Corinthians 10:33…so that they may be saved. This is a good reminder: We are ambassadors of Christ for the Good News. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

Several times in the new Testament, the Apostle Paul admonishes us to imitate him. Today, Keith looks at the exhortation of imitation found in 1 Corinthians 4. Paul had gone through a lot, but he endured and was a good steward of the gospel message. In this passage, he is calling us to do the same. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

Hardship is not when things go awry; that is suffering. Hardship is found on a path with known obstacles. When you are walking in hardship, you have chosen the path that you are walking on; you have chosen a path with known obstacles. In covenant relationships, we do as Paul was instructing Timothy to do in 2 Timothy 2:3; we suffer hardship TOGETHER. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found...

It is critical that we are fortified in the fundamental doctrine of Jesus Christ and Who He is. He is the Creator. He is the radiance and the exact representation of God. He is not an angel. He is better than the angels. He is fully man and fully God. That is the incarnation. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

Jesus was fully man and fully God. God did not send an idea or a plan or a strategy. God clothed Himself in humanity. Jesus coming in the flesh was not just an act of benevolence from God, but a divine act of redemption. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

It is hard to develop strategies when we aren’t going to see some sort of immediate return, but we have to be long-term minded. What is your plan and strategy to connect to your community? While we are focused in-house, winning souls and making disciples, doing all the things we need to do to have a healthy church, it’s important to keep fertilizing the soil around us and finding ways to connect....

Most people’s theology is based on experiences and a few Christian quotes instead of the Bible. They look at God, based on their experience and not through the lens of Truth. We need to identify critical doctrines that need to be preached, extrapolated, and expounded upon so we can be rooted firmly in Truth. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

It is a mistake to just doing something without understanding why you are doing it. Every church has liturgy. Is that liturgy theology? Is it explained? Is it being done in Spirit and in Truth? Do people know what they are doing, why, and how they are doing it as unto the Lord? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE . 

Have you ever in your church life seen someone who was very faithful and grounded, and yet down the road somewhere they got into a tizzy or caused division because of having a strong opinion or idea about something? I’m not referring to a doctrinal issue, but about the way something should be done or the color of the paint—something along those lines. Have you ever wondered how that happened? Mayb...

We should not have leadership teams whose only obligation is to give an opinion, but teams that understand that they are part of the DOING team. That when all hands are called on deck, that they are the first guys to show up. That they are leading not just by wisdom, which is obviously great, but leading by example. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE .