Think like a leader!

When I was new in leading a team, someone once said to me, “If you want to be a leader – start thinking like a leader.”  “What on earth does a leader think about?!” I asked myself.  Since I’m not a natural leader,  I put myself to work in learning what a leader thinks about.

I learned that a leader often turns to questions to help him evaluate whether or not he is on the right track.  He asks himself how the people he works with are doing.  He asks himself about the health of the ministry… I began compiling a list of questions and printed them out and kept them in my notebook.  As I did my weekly planning, I took out the list and chose which questions to give special attention to that week. 

Perhaps you might want to do something similar.  You can check out my list of Movement Questions to help get you started if you like.  This list is most definitely not a complete list – I keep adding to it and have compiled other lists as well (in the near future I will send you another list of questions focused on planning).

Simply learning to think like a leader is a great skill, but without reliance on the Lord to guide your thinking, your discoveries will just be the thoughts of man. Ask Him to show you what He wants you to consider as you look over your list.  Go to Him with an open mind – if He leads you in questions that aren’t on the list, be flexible to go where He leads your think.   He will direct you in your thinking as a leader.

“Trusting God to complete the mission He has called you to”

An old favorite recycled: 

 

One of my favorite passages of the Bible is Jesus calming the sea (Luke 8:22-25).  As I read it I think about how Jesus had told the disciples that they were going to reach the other side. He didn’t say, ‘let’s see how far we can go and if we can’t make it, then we’ll forget about it.’  No, Jesus said, ‘Let’s go to the other side of the lake.’  They would get to the other side of the lake, no question.

After saying this Jesus lay down and went to sleep.  The storm came in.  Not just a typical lake storm which the fishermen were used to, but such a storm that they felt they were in great peril and feared that they would die.  And in the midst of the howling wind, beating waves and frantic movement all about while fishermen trying to bail the water out of the small boat, Jesus slept.  It wasn’t because He was unconcerned that the storm had arisen or seemed to be totally unaware of the terror the disciples were experiencing that He continued His peaceful sleep.  He could peacefully rest because He knew that they were going to get to the other side, no matter what came up to attempt to slow them down or stop them.

At times in my life, even though I was confident that Jesus had called me to something or promised that He was going to do something in ministry, I have felt that He was ignoring me or was unconcerned that I was seeing little happen in connection to His promises or call…I have felt disappointed that it seemed that He was asleep on the job.  The Lord reminded me again through this passage that when He has said that He will do something, He will do it and I simply need to rest in Him.  I am not to get anxious or impatient but must always wait in great faith that what He said He will do, He will do. 

If He has given you promises regarding using you to help to bring the gospel to your campus and to help develop a movement of students, administrators and faculty that will make a difference for Christ on your campus, then you must trust that He will do it. You must trust Him, no matter how great the storm is all around and no matter how sound asleep He may seem right now!  If He said He would do it, He will do it!

Take some time to ask God to show you His promises for you this coming semester.  Ask Him to place His plans in your mind and on your heart and direct you to do what will best bring about His glory on your campus.  Continue to ask Him to lead you to other believers at your campus to whom He has given the same call, the same dream for making His Name known among your classmates.

Small things…

An old favorite recycled:

I recently finished a personal Bible study on the Kingdom of God.  The Lord encouraged me with these thoughts:   

The Kingdom of God is a power already released in the world.  Its beginnings are tiny – but once it has been begun, nothing can stop it.  Not even the “gates” or powers of hell can prevent the Kingdom of God from coming to completion.

Three word pictures of the Kingdom of God are given in the gospels: 

·          The lump of yeast is small, but when added to flour it will leaven into a very large quantity of dough (Matthew 13:33).

·         The mustard seed is tiny, but if you plant it, it will grow to become one of the largest of trees (Matthew 13:31-32).

·         If you sow a field with seed, you will have set in motion forces which one day will produce the harvest (Mark 4:26-29).

This is what the Kingdom of God is like – it starts small, but with time it will grow to something overwhelmingly large!

If you are praying for and trusting God to start a movement to bring the Kingdom of God to the lost on your campus, you are partnering with Him to set into motion the forces which will produce a harvest for God! 

Many of you are in the beginning stages of starting to build God’s Kingdom at your school.   Remember that although the results you may be seeing today seem small, maybe even invisible, they will eventually result in a large harvest!  Look at this amazing story of how God used “small beginnings” in prayer to build a fruitful movement in Irkutsk.

As you step out in faith and ask God to use you in bring His Kingdom to the lost at your school, remember that the forces of God have been set into motion, which will inevitably build His Kingdom!  Once started, even though it may be a small beginning, God’s Kingdom cannot be stopped!  Stay on the course He has set before you, don’t stop believing that He will do it, walk by faith in His power, stay faithful to the little things and the big things, don’t give up in despair and doubt.  God’s Kingdom will come to you campus!

« Благовместие» = Sharing the gospel together

Every Monday our team meets for «Благовместие» - it’s a time when we go out together to do evangelism.  We love the play with words: “благовествие" = "to share the gospel" + "вместе" =  "together” = «благовместие».  Why do evangelism together?  We have several reasons:

·         it keeps us accountable to take the initiative to go out to share the gospel,

·         one of us is usually courageous when another of us is not so courageous, so the courageous one helps the not-so-courageous one be more courageous,

·         one person can pray while the other shares,

·         when one person doesn’t know what to say, the other can jump in,

·         we can encourage each other through our fears of sharing the gospel,

·         we can rejoice together at what we saw God do and how He used us to help a non-Christian begin to think about their relationship with God.

We have started going through together a short series of studies on “Heart-motivated Evangelism”.  We meet for 30-40 minutes to go through one of the studies and to pray together just before we go out to share the gospel.  We divide up into pairs and go to a campus or to a specific place together on campus to share the gospel for 1-2 hours, and then we come back together at the end to talk about what we learned about sharing the gospel and what we saw God do.  We finish by praying for the people we talked to about the gospel. 

On the last 2 Mondays we have shared the gospel with 6 Muslim guys, a Chinese student and a Russian guy as well as have tried to start spiritual conversations with students from Ecuador and Libya. 

This is the highlight of our week.  I encourage you to «Благовместие», even if there are just two of you. 

Lay a foundation, build on that foundation through prayer

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. (Psalm 127:1)

The most significant, the most enduring movements have begun in prayer and have been sustained by prayer.  Let’s look at the spiritual movements begun Acts.  The disciples had been given the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20) about 6 weeks earlier.  After His resurrection from the dead, Jesus appeared to them and taught them much about the Kingdom of God.  He again told them that they were to tell everyone around the world about Him.  But He told them to wait for the Holy Spirit first. 

They didn’t just sit around and check out Facebook or play video games.  They didn’t go for a walk or watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy to fill up their time.  What did they do?  In Acts 1:14 we find that the apostles have gathered a number of believers together to pray.  What did they pray for?  Well, Luke doesn’t share with us the requests on their prayer list, but since Jesus had given them a huge charge to fulfill, they more than likely prayed for the fulfillment of their mission:

• or God to prepare them to be His witnesses,
• to prepare the hearts of non-believers,
• for God to prepare the situations and circumstances for the mission to be fulfilled,
• for boldness and courage to tell others about Him,
• for the words to speak…

 They had no idea of when or how the mission was going to be fulfilled, but they continued in devoted prayer until God answered.   And, boy, did He answer!  About a week later of intense, faithful, trusting prayer, the Holy Spirit came upon them in a powerful way that enabled non-believers from all over the known world to hear the gospel in a clear way.  God answered their prayer in a more amazing way that even the most full of faith would dare to ask or dream!

I have been looking at examples of how the disciples continued to pray throughout the book of Acts and the epistles associated with those movements (Eph.2:15-19, Col.1:9-14, etc) and am convicted at how little priority I have made for prayer.  How about you?  Are you devoted to prayer for your local movement? 

Please share with us the things you are doing to make prayer a priority in your movement.  Let me know if you have good ideas for leading prayer times for your ministry – I would love for others to be motivated and encouraged by the things the Lord is leading you to do.  Please share the things you are asking God to do so that we can join you in prayer.   I would love to hear how God has been answering your prayers!

Don’t forget, you can always go to the prayer section on www.2tim22.com [regrettably I have only been updating the 2tim22.ru site with additional resources on prayer].