Leadership Lessons from Charles Swindoll

Some really good insights from the latest email newsletter of PreachingNow. Just something for all of God's servants to consider:

SWINDOLL'S LEADERSHIP LESSONS

Chuck Swindoll was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at last week's Catalyst '09 Conference. During his presentation, he described "10 Things I Have Learned During Nearly 50 Years in Leadership." Here's the list:

1) It's lonely to lead. Leadership involves tough decisions. The tougher the decision, the lonelier it is.

2) It's dangerous to succeed. I'm most concerned for those who aren't even 30 and are very gifted and successful. Sometimes God uses someone right out of youth, but usually He uses leaders who have been crushed.

3) It's hardest at home. No one ever told me this in seminary.

4) It's essential to be real. If there's one realm where phoniness is common, it's among leaders. Stay real.

5) It's painful to obey. The Lord will direct you to do some things that won't be your choice. Invariably you will give up what you want to do for the cross.

6) Brokenness and failure are necessary.

7) Attitude is more important than actions. Your family may not have told you: Some of you are hard to be around. A bad attitude overshadows good actions.

8) Integrity eclipses image. Today we highlight image, but it's what you're doing behind the scenes.

9) God's way is better than my way.

10) Christ-likeness begins and ends with humility.

Blessed Are The Merciful

Am I merciful? Am I forgiving? These are extremely important questions. In fact, how we answer these questions has huge implications for the state of our souls. Listen to some words from the book of Matthew.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." (5:7)

"For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions." (6:14-15)

"It is not the healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (9:12-13)

"And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart." (18:34-35)

Why is it that we can not receive mercy unless we have first been merciful? So that we don't misunderstand the text and think that God's forgiveness of us is based on our forgiving others, let's restate the point. Only those who know how much they have been forgiven are able to forgive others. And if this is true, then the inverse must be as well, which is, if we do not know how to forgive others, then we have not known forgiveness.

What a scary thing to consider. Are you able to forgive and let go of a grudge? Are you able to love the unloveable? Consider God's mercy in Jesus Christ. How rich, full, wide, and deep that mercy and forgiveness is. That while you were still yet a sinner Christ died for you. Not based on how good you are or what you have accomplished. Rather because of your lust, your lying, your hatefulness, your pride, your vanity, your dirty little secret, Jesus died for you. And yet we as "Christians" can be so merciless, so unforgiving. We get upset about another church's style. We get upset because we were slighted by a friend. We get upset because someone didn't like our ideas. We upset because that person caused us personal emotional injury.

What did you expect? They are forgiven, just like you. And if they are forgiven, it means they have sinned. And if they have sinned, until they become fully mature in Christ, they will continue to battle sin. But on the other hand, they are forgiven, just like you. And if you are forgiven, then you should in turn find it quite easy to forgive an equally sinful, equally forgiven brother or sister. I am praying that I can learn what real mercy is all about. That I could know the forgiveness that God offers so that I may extend that same forgiveness to all those who I come into contact with.

I'm going to be on TV

I don't normally write blogs about what's going on in my life, but this is an interesting thing that has recently happened to me. We have someone in our church who works at TBN, (yes you read that right), and has asked Chuck (our youth minister) and myself if we'd be willing to be interviewed. We both said yes. But what I am finding difficult is what I want to talk about.

This blog is based on the fact that I have the message of God burning within and I can't hold it or I will explode. These interviews that we are to do will be on the one "non-religious" programming that the FCC (not florida christian college) requires TBN to carry. Therefore, we are not allowed to talk at length about Jesus, the church, or things of a spiritual nature. My topic is to discuss family. So my concern is, how do I talk about family without talking about Jesus?

This is not an easy thing for me. I believe that Jesus is at the core of the family unit. I believe that without a proper understanding of God and His plan of creation and redemption, then we can not properly understand the dynamics of a family. I guess I did not realize how difficult the task would be when I agreed.

What I plan on doing is focusing my efforts on the externals of a family, how sin has caused the break down of the family (won't use the word sin of course) and what a proper family would look like. Please pray for Chuck and myself as we try to figure out how to be true to God in this task.

Who's Writing Our Sermons?

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." I Corinthians 1:21-25

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." I Corinthians 2:12-13

Paul was very clear on this matter. He did not author this message of Christ and Christ crucified. Not Paul, nor any Jew, nor any Gentile had authored this message which Paul preached. It's too crazy to the world! How ridiculous does it seem to us that God, the master and creator of the universe would be willing to die for a creation that had rejected Him? How many husbands would naturally be inclined to welcome back a wife who had cheated on him multiple times and had never shown much affection for him? Better yet, what if your friend kept taking back a wife who had cheated on him multiple times? What kind of words would you use to describe that friend? Most of the words would have derived from one, "foolish."

Paul's message was so crazy, that it had to have come from God. Paul takes no credit for the message he preached. How can preachers learn from this? By asking the question, "who writes my sermons?" I am finding that far too often there is a tendency for preachers today to fill their sermons with the wisdom of this world. We begin with a need we see in the world and then search for that scripture which helps us to alleviate the pain of that need. We then get caught up in "writing" sermons, chocked full of ideas, stories, and advice.

But preaching is not a religious advice talk. It is not just another form of communication. It is the means by which God has ordained for the truth of the Gospel to be spread. It is by hearing that sinners are saved, it is by the power of the Word that the dead are brought to life. Life is inherent in the words of Christ and if that life is to be had, then it is the words of Christ that must be spoken in our sermons. We need to be sold out on the fact that God is the author of our sermons. He does the writing, we do the preaching. That's how it worked for Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul, Peter, Luther, Spurgeon, and all other faithful ministers of the Word. Where God spoke, they spoke.

So who writes our sermons? Do we spend more time digging for truth in the text or more time thinking of a creative way to explain the text? Is our energy in understanding and applying God's word to our own lives or in figuring out how to captivate people's attention? Are the sermons we preach full of scripture and the power of the cross or are they full of quotations and the power of the laugh? Who is writing your sermons?