I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
A TREASURY OF A. W. TOZER – by A. W. Tozer
If you have never read A. W. Tozer, this might be the book to get. It is a collection of Tozer’s writings from a few different books he has published. Tozer is an older author who speaks with a directness to his audience and a reverence for our Holy God. Much of his writing focuses on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the pursuit of holy living. The short chapters make it a great devotional read.
When our girls were little, I loved seeing the world through their eyes. They were curious about things that I had long become accustomed to and never noticed anymore. They noticed the little bugs crawling on a windowpane. They were excited about the colours of flowers – and weeds. Their little fingers loved to touch the dirt and play in water.
As Christian leaders, we need to reignite our curiosity. We need to be comfortable asking questions, even when we have no answers. It seems that somewhere in our growing up we decided we should be more concerned about answers than questions. Yet questions help us to learn more than answers. They open new ideas and new angles on answers we thought we had sorted out. We need to be more curious.
We should be curious about the people we work with whether on our team or those we serve. We assume many things about each other, and don’t know how little we know until we start asking questions. Ask people about their families, or their pets. Ask people about their dreams and experiences. Be curious enough about people for them to believe you truly care about them. I love learning about people. I love to hear stories of how couples met, or what their families are up to. I love to hear how they started a business and it grew.
Curiosity can benefit us as we give leadership to programs and ministries. It is when we are curious that we ask the questions that no one else is asking. We ask about how the program is really working. We want to know how the leaders are doing. Are they feeling adequate or is more training necessary. Are they feeling they have an impact on those they connect with? Do they have ideas to improve how they run the program and are waiting for someone to give them the courage to try them? When you are curious, you may discover great things happening that you can share with others to encourage them. I enjoy finding people who are serving in an area of their expertise. Some people serve because someone is needed in that role, while others serve because they are uniquely equipped to excel in that role. While willing volunteers are greatly appreciated, I love finding those who are serving in exactly the role they were created for.
Curiosity helps us to learn. As long as we stay curious, we will continue learning. We will search out new books or learn new skills. We will sign up for classes. Curiosity can draw us into new areas of growth as we willingly pursue new interests and new skills. My curiosity has helped me to try new things. When I was a youth pastor, I decided I needed to learn to play guitar so I could lead the youth in singing. I loved it. Some years later I tried my hand at songwriting. I wasn’t good at it but had fun trying. At one point, I learned how to create balloon animals. It was fun learning how to shape balloons into recognizable creations, and then to even use them to tell children’s stories.
Our eyes can be opened to new experiences – and so can our tastes. Just this past week my wife, Lynnette, and I tried a new restaurant, the Cozy Pierogi. I had driven by the place a few times and was curious about their menu. It turned out to be pretty good! As we try something new, we often discover new favourites. Curiosity introduces new experiences into our lives as we are willing to step into something foreign but interesting.
Last week I wrote about the courage to risk. I believe curiosity can pay a part in our courage to risk. Curiosity invites us to courageously try something new to see if it may be better than what we were doing in a program we were running.
We would all benefit from becoming like a little child occasionally, to be curious about things that we believe we have completely figured out. And as your curiosity opens your eyes, you may discover new and wonderful ways of interacting with our world and the people around us.
When I was in Grade Four, my Dad felt called to attend Bible School. I remember one time in his third year, where he came to me and my brother, now about 12 and 13 years old. He told us that we had no food left in the cupboards and we needed to pray together that God would provide for us. Money that was supposed to come in had not. So, we prayed. Then, a little later, I remember hearing a sound at the front door. We
opened the door to find four big paper grocery bags full of food. Whoever dropped it off was long gone, but God had put it on their hearts to bring it to us at just the right time! I will never forget that feeling of knowing without a doubt that God had provided!
Just four days ago I was driving early. It was still dark and there was quite a bit of traffic. I was a little wary because we hit a deer a few months ago and I did not want that to happen again. With all the traffic I couldn’t see well. There were headlights shining in my eyes and my low beams didn’t reach into the ditches like I wished. Finally, I managed to get some space between me and other traffic and could turn on my high beams. As I did, it felt as if God was saying “Okay, now you can see. I’m looking after you.” Within seconds there were a couple of deer on the opposite shoulder of the road. I saw them in time and slowed down. As I got closer, they turned and headed back away from the road. And then within minutes I saw a couple of elk on the opposite shoulder of the road, coming steadily onto the highway. Because of my high beams I saw them clearly and came to a stop as two of them made their way onto the road and stopped to look around. Slowly the two of them started walking again and cleared the road. And then, again, because of my high beams, I noticed some more movement just as I was about to drive – a third elk. Where I needed to see, I could have my high beams on and God kept me safe!
When God does these kinds of things, we need to remember them. We need to tell others and pass them on to our families and friends.
There are many stories in the Old Testament that are repeated again and again. Many psalms celebrate significant stories of the people of Israel and God at work. They even had special holiday festivals dedicated to reminding people of God at work. One significant festival was the Passover, a yearly reminder of God freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt when the death angel passed over the homes of the Israelites who had painted the blood of goats on the doorposts.
Many of us have had unique experiences with God where we know God intervened in our lives in a way that was much more than coincidence. Unfortunately, even though the event was significant to us, we tend to keep it to ourselves. We need to tell the stories. We need to share them at our Thanksgiving suppers. We need to pass them on to our children and grand children, reminding them that God is still at work in our world.
The problem is that we too quickly forget. We don’t write songs about these significant events like bards of old might do. We don’t write the stories down. Unlike the Israelites, we don’t set up stone altars as reminders of God’s work.
God is still at work in our world. Let’s remember when he works in our lives and lets share the stories with others so we can celebrate God and his goodness together.
I was an actor in a drama years ago when I was attending Bible College. We received our script and then spent time getting to know our lines. One of the key aspects of preparing for the final show was rehearsals. After months of rehearsing, first individual scenes, and then the entire drama, we debuted a successful show that went quite smoothly and was enjoyed by all.
As pastors and teachers in the church, we regularly prepare presentations. We work on lessons to teach to a class and sermons to preach to the congregation. We all have our methods of preparing for our presentations. We may do some research and pray through what God wants us to say. We may work at preparing just the right outline and finding just the right words to express our thoughts clearly. One aspect that some of us miss is rehearsal..
I like to practice my sermon at least once and have experienced numerous benefits.
I hear what it sounds like.
Preaching is not the same as writing a paper. In a paper I might write formally, and there are often clues such as headings and formatting that visually indicate the organization of topics.
However, when preaching, the content is delivered audibly so the same visual clues no longer apply. That means that it needs to be more conversational, even if the audience isn’t responding to you. You need to pretend you are speaking with them. I get to hear if it sounds too formal and change the wording before I preach it “live”.
I hear what I sound like.
I can hear my voice as I preach it. I can adjust by slowing down or speeding up at sections I want to highlight. I can hear if I sound judgmental, or if I sound like I care about the audience as I preach to them. If my voice goes too high, or if I say a word in a funny way, I can work at correcting that. Sometimes, what sounds good on paper sounds wrong when we speak it, so I can adjust that.
I can anticipate their responses as I practice.
I try to do this as I write, but sometimes, as I practice out loud, my mind hears how it sounds and reminds me of a question that may be raised by what I just said. I can then determine if and how I need to address that question.
I get a better idea of how long it will take.
Often there is an expectation on how long – or short – our sermon or lesson should be. When practicing it out loud, I can time myself and get a pretty good idea of how long I will take. I can also adjust to the time before I go live.
I can see how my actions will look or feel like.
As a presenter, I enter into the presentation with my whole body. I can smile and frown. I can raise my hands in excitement or open my arms wide to imply something big.
As I practice the sermon, I move around and go through my actions as I expect them to be. If they seem awkward I can either drop the actions or practice them enough to feel comfortable using them. Some presenters will record themselves so they can see what they actually look like.
I get it ingrained in my head.
Speaking the sermon out loud helps me to get it ingrained in my mind so that I am not just reading content, but it becomes part of who I am. In this way, hopefully, it will not just sound like I am reciting information I have researched but will sound like something I have learned personally and am passionate about sharing with those listening.
I think of new illustrations as I go.
Sometimes, practicing my sermon out loud will help me think of illustrations I didn’t think about when just writing words down. Saying the words out loud can remind me of something else that helps explain what I am teaching.
I can recognize when something needs to be reworked.
There are times when I have written things down in the wrong order. Just the other day I recognized that I was missing a section of the scripture I was preaching on. Somehow, I had missed including a place where we would read those verses. I was able to put that in because I noticed it in practice.
As we prepare for lessons and sermons, we want to do our best to communicate God’s truth accurately and creatively. Rehearsing your presentation is one way of making it even better.
A church leader must not be a new believer, because he might become proud, and the devil would cause him to fall.
1 Timothy 3: 6 (NLT)
It is a great joy to welcome new believers into the church! But Paul gives a warning: “A church leader must not be a new believer.” We should look to those who are spiritually mature to lead us.
Paul doesn’t give us a length of time to wait, just that we are to wait. This is good, because some new believers mature faster than others. There are some who could take years to be ready while others might be ready in a year. The important thing is to give the new believer time to learn and grow in their faith in Christ.
What might be some problems with new believers in church leadership? Paul, in his letter to Timothy cautions that a new believer put into leadership too soon may become proud. The new believer may see this leadership role as a position of elevation in the eyes of others and think of themselves as something special, rather than as a servant. And Paul is concerned that this new believer, in their pride, may fall. The NIV puts it like this: He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. The devil fell because of his pride. He wanted to be higher than Jesus. Paul is concerned that a new believer will fall prey to the same sin and hurt his walk with God.
Other concerns may be tied to some of the earlier instructions given to church leaders. A leader needs to have a good reputation and live a goldy life. The new believer may not have that to begin with. He may need to have time to mature and become more like Jesus, and to gain that good reputation with others around him.
Another concern may be that a new believer will not be able to teach in the same way that a mature believer can. If a new believer is good at research, they may be able to put together a good lesson, but their teaching would generally be theory because they have not yet had time to put into practice what they are learning as a new follower of Jesus.
A new believer may also still carry sinful habits. He needs to learn to set those aside before stepping into leadership. While it is great to desire leadership, there should first be a strong desire to live in right relationship with Jesus by the power of the Spirit.
Churches often talk about discipleship when referring to the process of maturing as a believer, where over time the new believer becomes more and more like Jesus. A new believer would benefit from some discipleship first, whether formal or by spending time in the activities and teachings of the church. Part of that discipleship could include observing and learning from the leadership board or shadowing a leader as they go about their duties.
The official church leaders should be people who have already shown their leadership in the church as maturing believers. Asking them to serve on a board or a committee is a natural next step, affirming that they are already one of the people that others naturally look up to and learn from. Ongoing discipleship prepares maturing believers for the next steps in church leadership, taking on smaller roles to begin with and then being asked to higher levels of leadership as they prove themselves.
Church leaders should be mature and passionate about Christ and His church. They should learn and develop and grow until they are among the best in the church and well prepared for leadership. If you are that new believer, then do your part to continue to grow and be discipled as opportunities allow. God will build you up to the time when others recognize you have already become a leader. When that happens, step into leadership with a confident faith in God and a desire to serve.
I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
ON BEING A PASTOR – by Derek Prime & Alistair Begg
This is a great book for any pastor, especially for one who is just starting out. It covers many aspects of the pastor’s role and how to do it well. It is a bit dated, yet most of the content still speaks to the pastoral role today. The first chapter is a great discussion on the call to be a pastor, pointing out that the role can be difficult, but very rewarding if this is what God wants you to do. The authors, both pastors with years of experience themselves, then talk about the character of the pastor, his home life, and how to lead a serve a congregation well. The authors both share examples of how they have applied the teaching in many sections of the book. It is good to see the way two different pastors do the work of ministry. A great book for anyone in ministry!
He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him. For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church?
1 Timothy 3: 4,5 (NLT)
his children must be believers who don’t have a reputation for being wild or rebellious.
Titus 1: 6 (NLT)
I wonder how many leaders love the idea of leading people as long as it doesn’t intrude on their own personal life. The reality is, when we are leaders, we are still parents and children and siblings. We have responsibilities at home that affect how we lead and how we lead affects how we handle our responsibilities at home.
A Christian leader must manage his own family well. After all, if you can’t manage your household, how can you be expected to manage the church organization you lead? How you do with your responsibilities at home portrays how you will likely manage others.
Look at Ephesians 6:4: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Parents, especially fathers, are entrusted with the training and instruction of their children. Church leader, you need to be able to manage your family well.
In 1 Timothy the leader is described as “having children who respect and obey him.” Titus says, “his children must be believers who don’t have a reputation for being wild or rebellious.” I know of Christian leaders who have stepped out of leadership positions because of children who were not obeying them. They felt that if they were not able to manage their family, they should not be in church leadership. I respect that decision as long as there is then an effort to rebuild a relationship with a rebellious child.
There is an expectation that a Christian leader will have a good relationship with his children so the children will willingly respect and obey him. This tells us things about both the leader and their child. This implies that the leader has taken time at home to ensure there is a relationship with the child. Some Christian leaders are “absent fathers” because they spend so much time away from home, or even focused on their leadership responsibilities, that they have not cultivated a loving and caring relationship with their children! A child’s obedience can be an indicator the leader has not parented well, but this is not always the case. It could be that the child is struggling in some other way or is determined to do their own thing, no matter what. If so, then maybe the leader needs to step away from some leadership roles to spend more time with this child.
A leader should not have a “wild and rebellious child” but children who are believers. The leader should take time raising their children to ensure that they came to know Jesus, or at least had every opportunity to do so. Do we really want leaders in the church who have not taken the time to ensure their own children have given their lives to Jesus and accepted Him as their Savior?
Some Christian parents seem to think their role is to make sure their children get to Sunday School and VBS and youth group at church. They may enroll them in a Christian school. Their idea of Christian training is to expect the church to do it all. While all those are good things, they can never be more than an added help. The church cannot be the main contributor to the spiritual growth of children. This must be led by the parents at home. A Christian leader needs to see the value of their own time teaching their children and not expect they can hand it off to the church. A Christian will go out of their way to disciple their children first and then look at leading others.
He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong.
Titus 1: 9 (NLT)
I love to teach. I love preparing a lesson and then teaching it to a group of people, small or large. I love to see learners understanding a new idea or learning how to apply a truth they have just understood. To be a leader is to instill new ideas and ways of doing things in others who are coming after you. A church leader must be able to teach. This is one of the main ways to instill new ideas and practices in those whom you are leading. My automatic reaction to this verse is to think of teaching thoughts and ideas, of preaching and teaching scripture and discipling others through teaching in a class or sermon. But we all know that teaching is also about hands-on and practical learning.
Apprentices are always learning, but only part of their training is in the classroom. Much of the teaching they receive is active hands-on learning. Leaders in the church may be good classroom teachers, or they may not, but if they are teaching others in practical ways, then they are still teaching.
I find it interesting that in Titus we are told that the leader must have been taught first and must believe what he was taught. A teacher cannot teach what they do not know.
The key teaching in the church is the “trustworthy message” of the gospel. We have heard and now teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to others. As leaders we continue to encourage others to get to know the Jesus of the gospel, and to receive His life-giving forgiveness of sins as we put our faith in Him.
Church leaders are responsible to teach many things in the church, but it always needs to come back to the gospel message. Whether we are teaching others how to be an usher or how to do run the sound board, all of that is to help others continue to hear the gospel message.
Part of a leader’s responsibility is to “show those who oppose it where they are wrong.” (Titus 1:9) It is not unusual to come across people that have not understood something correctly. Misunderstanding may be as serious as not understanding the forgiveness that Jesus offers to all who believe in Him, or something as simple as not following through on a certain responsibility they accepted. In either case, the leader’s job is to correct when correcting is necessary, and this is done by teaching and showing what the correct understanding is.
It is pretty much impossible to be a leader and not be able to teach. To lead is to be ahead of people in information or practices that somehow need to be passed on to those following. In the process of doing that, you are teaching. Yes, some are more gifted in teaching than others, but a leader will always be able to teach to some level.
I will be sharing a brief review of every book I read this year. Hope you enjoy and hope it encourages you to keep reading.
EXPERIENCING THE RESURRECTION – By Henry & Melvin Blackaby
Henry and Melvin Blackaby do a great job walking through the importance and value of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in every believer’s life. While they take time to discuss God’s purpose in the resurrection as well as Jesus’ experience of the resurrection, the value of the book is found in the third part of the book where they apply the resurrection to the believer’s experience. They write, “And as a result of what the Father has done, the resurrection is something believers can experience in daily life…as well as something they will experience for all of eternity.” To experience the resurrection in ourselves is to die to self, and to live in the power of the Spirit, dead to sin and alive to Christ living in and through us.
I wonder how many leaders love the idea of leading people as long as it doesn’t intrude on their personal time? We are quite private people as a culture. We want our own space. We want a place to leave all our work behind and unwind after a long day. We want some “me time.” How does that align with today’s leadership lesson?
In both Timothy and Titus, we read that a church leader needs to “enjoy having guests in his home.” Most other translations just use the word “hospitality,” or “given to hospitality” (KJV). The New Living Translation interprets it in a certain way.
In Jewish circles, out of which the church grew, hospitality was a high value. We can understand the benefit when we remember that there were not many hotels or BnB’s available in ancient Israel. Travelers depended on the kindness of others to open their homes to them for the night. But I wonder, how does caring for travelers relate to church leadership today?
In the larger picture, hospitality is about caring for people in need. They may not be travelers passing through, but they could be others in your church or neighbourhood with unmet needs. Since Paul includes this characteristic of leadership in both Timothy and Titus, it is not likely that he slipped it in as an extra. He made sure to highlight it. So how do we apply it to our lives as leaders in the church?
If you are a hospitable leader, you care about people. You care about their needs. I just recently took in the Global Leadership Summit(GLS). It was interesting to see the theme of loving people under your leadership come up again and again. A good leader understands that leadership is not about just getting people to get the job done, but recognizing and caring for the people whom you are leading.
Yes, you might open your home and have them over for a meal or backyard barbecue. It might be a great experience for those you are leading to see a bit more of your life and to spend time together outside of the work setting.
A hospitable leader might be one who has an open-door policy. A closed door closes off relationships, but an open door says, “I invite you in to interrupt me because I want to help.” If there are times you need to block everyone out to focus on something, then make sure that you have certain times where your office is clearly open and accessible to your team or your church.
At the GLS, Craig Groeschel taught that leaders who want to build trust must be transparent. Hospitality might be one way to be transparent and open. If they feel free to pop in for a chat or to discuss some questions, their trust in you will increase. They will see that you care enough about them to stop whatever you are working on to listen and to connect with them.
If hospitality is about meeting needs, a leader may want to go out of his way to talk to volunteers in the church to see what needs they have that the leader could help with. Serving alongside a Sunday School teacher or the youth leader may be a way of sharing a bit of yourself with that volunteer, learning what they need and encouraging them in the role they serve.
A hospitable church leader should also recognize the opportunity to welcome guest to church in a way that makes them feel welcomed and loved. While this is not inviting guests into your home, it is inviting them to the church and its services. If guests are not greeted warmly, they may not connect enough to want to return.
A hospitable church leader may welcome guests into their home but will also go out of their way to meet the needs of the people around them: church members, volunteers, and people you encounter in the community.
To be a hospitable leader is to go out of your way to meet the needs of others and to love them.
Elevate with Andy 