Are You Ready to Be a Leader? - Kevin De Young

Are You Ready to Be a Leader?: - Kevin De Young"
There are too many books on leadership, but the ones that are good can be really good. In that latter category is Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. I try to read it every few years.

In Chapter 5 Sanders offers a series of questions–a kind of leadership audit–for leaders and potential leaders. I’ve included some of the questions below and numbered them for ease of reference.

1. Have you ever broken yourself of a bad habit? To lead others, one must be master of oneself.

2. Do you retain control of yourself when things go wrong? The leader who loses self-control in testing circumstances forfeits respect and loses influence. He must be calm in crisis and resilient in adversity and disappointment.

3. Do you think independently? While using to the full the thought of others, the leader cannot afford to let others do his thinking or make his decisions for him.

4. Can you handle criticism objectively and remain unmoved under it? Do you turn it to good account? The humble man can derive benefit from petty and even malicious criticism.

5. Do you possess the ability to secure discipline without having to resort to a show of authority? True leadership is an internal quality of the spirit and requires no external show of force.

6. Have you qualified for the beatitude pronounced on the peacemaker? It is much easier to keep the peace than to make peace where it has been shattered. An important function in leadership is conciliation—the ability to discover common ground between opposing viewpoints and then induce both parties to accept it.

7. Can you induce people to do happily some legitimate thing that they would not normally wish to do?

8. Can you accept opposition to your viewpoint or decision without considering it a personal affront and reacting accordingly? Leaders must expect opposition and should not be offended by it.

9. Do you find it easy to make and keep friends? Your circle of loyal friends is an index of the quality and extent of your leadership.

10. Are you unduly dependent on the praise or approval of others? Can you hold a steady course in the face of disapproval and even temporary loss of confidence?

11. Do your subordinates appear at ease in your presence? A leader should give an impression of sympathetic understanding and friendliness that will put others at ease.

12. Are you really interested in people? In people of all types and all races? Or do you entertain respect of persons? Is there hidden racial prejudice? An antisocial person is unlikely to make a good leader.

13. Do you possess tact? Can you anticipate the likely effect of a statement before you make it?

14. Do you nurse resentments, or do you readily forgive injuries done to you?

15. Are you reasonably optimistic? Pessimism is no asset to a leader.

16. Do you welcome responsibility?

17. Do other people’s failures annoy us or challenge us?

18. Do you direct people or develop people?

19. Do you criticize or encourage?

20. Do you shun the problem person or seek him out?

What do you think? I find 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, and 20 particularly insightful questions. Actually, on second thought, they are all pretty insightful.


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4 Puritan Family Lessons

4 Puritan Family Lessons: "

Family worship was one of the hallmarks of the Puritan era and one of their greatest legacies for us.

The Puritan pastor and theologian Richard Baxter wrote,

We must have a special eye upon families, to see that they are well ordered, and the duties of each relation performed. The life of religion, and the welfare and glory of both the Church and the State, depend much on family government and duty. If we suffer the neglect of this, we shall undo all…. I beseech you, therefore, if you desire the reformation and welfare of your people, do all you can to promote family religion.

Family Church

The Puritans believed and taught that your family is your church. Every man has a responsibility to pastor his wife and his children. Jonathan Edwards said, “Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace.” George Whitefield said, “A man ought to look upon himself as obliged to act in three capacities: as a prophet, to instruct; as a priest, to pray for and with; as a king, to govern, direct, and provide for them.”

Family Discipleship

Puritans believed that the home was the primary place of learning the Bible and moral instruction. They also believed that it was a parent’s spiritual responsibility to disciple and teach their children about faith. The Bible instructs us, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). It is important for children to begin learning about God and the Bible at home.

Thomas Doolittle said, “Masters of families ought to read the Scripture to their families and instruct their children and servants in the matters and doctrines of salvation. Therefore, they are to pray in and with their families.”

Family Sabbath

For the Puritans that day off was synonymous with family time. Many church planters fail to take a day off and justify it with their great ministry need. We are not leading our family well unless we take time to be together without work lingering in the background. This is a common sin that ministers—in fact, all of us—need to repent of.

Spiritual burnout occurs when we don’t give ourselves time to rest from our daily routine. Puritans were a great example for spiritual rest because they had a rhythm of work and rest and service and worship.

Family Stewardship

Puritans taught the gravity of the responsibility of shepherding your family. We are stewards of our families. Let us not sin in this area. Let us repent for not leading well. Thomas Doolittle said, “If God be the Founder, Owner, Governor, and Benefactor of families, then families are jointly to worship God and pray unto Him.”

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It’s Okay to Pass This Test

It’s Okay to Pass This Test: - By Kevin De Young"
You may have heard these words in a sermon. Maybe you’ve handed them off to others. Perhaps they’ve rung a spiritual alarm in your heart. They come from the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 13:5: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.”

This exhortation is often used to motivate careful self-examination–to see if we really believe in Christ, to see if we are actually walking with the Lord, to test if we are genuine disciples or phony hypocrites.

And there is a time for this kind of self-examination. The Sermon on the Mount (the end of chapter 7 especially), the woes on the Pharisees (Matt. 23), and the seven letters of Revelation (Rev. 2-3) come to mind. But self-examination becomes a problem when we don’t believe were allowed to pass the exam. Some Christians turn introspection into annihilation. And some of our heroes don’t always help. There is a strand in some Puritan divines–and I love those dead guys as much as anyone –that so delineates all the sins on our sinny sin sins that we scarcely feel it possible to call ourselves Christian. Pound away with the law, but don’t hammer out the faith.

The thing we often miss with 2 Corinthians 13:5 is that Paul expects the Corinthians to pass the test. He is writing to defend his apostleship, and the chief ground for his defense is the Corinthians themselves. They want proof that Christ is speaking through weak little Paul (v. 3). He offers their lives as proof. The Corinthians ought to test themselves to see whether they are in the faith because Paul knows Jesus Christ is them, so they will not fail the test (v. 5b). Consequently, Paul will not fail their test (v. 6).

So go ahead and encourage one another to examine the heart. Let’s be honest and see if we are in the faith. Let’s test whether or not Christ is in us. But as we put our “in-Christness” to the test let’s not forget it’s okay to give ourselves a passing grade. To God be the glory."

 

Thinking for the Sake of Global Faithfulness: Confronting Islam with the Mind of Christ Desiring God 2010 National Conference Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God - Desiring God

Thinking for the Sake of Global Faithfulness: Confronting Islam with the Mind of Christ Desiring God 2010 National Conference Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God - Desiring God

The Puritans

 

It is amazing the humble beginning of faithful men who did not choose to run away from their problems that challenged them then.  Instead of running away from their situations they were willing to face the status quo with Biblical faith!
The Puritans was their name! from the very beginning the Puritans were out to make changes in the world around them. They soon would encounter resistance from the religious hierarchy of their day in the land.  They did not have a Pilgrim Separatist position. They wanted to stay within the system and change it.  The Puritans wanted to reform and purify the church of England.  This is where they came to be called Puritans.  In the 1500s the Church of England was under King Henry. (Exerpted from here.)