Skip to main content

On the Kindle

This week I am kindling 'Be A People Person : Effective Leadershio through Relationship' by John C Maxwell. He has a great chapter on how to be a person people respect. A key part of having respect is "failure proofing" your life through listening for the “alarm bells” in your life. Here are Maxwell's 10 questions every leader must ask to help spot those warning signs.

1. Is My Personal Walk with God Up to Date? Every leader should be able to answer the question, “Do you have a word from the Lord that is up to date?” or “What have you been learning recently from the Lord?” We should have something that God is teaching me us today.

2. Am I Keeping My Priorities Straight? Countless numbers leaders have become “successful” only to discover the tragic price for their success was a broken marriage or loss of health. At some point along the road to success, their priorities shifted. Our priorities must be God, family and vocation - in that order.


3. Am I Asking Myself the Difficult Questions? We must ask ourselves the critical questions : Why am I doing this? What are my motives? How should it be done? When should I do it? When does God want his task accomplished?

4. Am I Accountable to Someone in Authority over My Life? Much of the problem of credibility in the Christian community is caused by people with power who struggle with the same tough moral issues as the rest of the world, yet are often not accountable to anyone. Authority minus accountability equals a very dangerous situation.

5. Am I Sensitive to What God Is Saying to the Body of Christ? Are you sensitive to the fact that God speaks to others too? If you can’t answer an unqualified yes, you’re skating on thin ice. God the Spirit speaks to others in the body who complement us and make up for our weaknesses.

6. Am I Overly Concerned with Image Building? Too many of us have become more interested in image building than in kingdom building. Change in this area requires us to ask : Do I make decisions based on what is right or what is most easily accepted? When I do something for the Lord, do people see me or do they see my God?

7. Am I Overly Impressed by Signs and Wonders? We all seek to experience revival. But more than seeking revival, we need to seek God. Then we certainly will experience revival, healings, and miracles. But if we pursue revival for revival’s sake, we’re seeking after secondary results. God is not in the entertainment business. When he works miracles, it is for one purpose only—the ultimate good of his kingdom.

8. Am I a Loner in My Service to the Lord? When we design our lives after the Lone Ranger concept, we are sure to suffer some unfavourable consequences. We develop a distorted perception of ourselves, our ministries, and other people. We become irrelevant because we don’t live where other people live. There is a sense of exclusiveness and an inability to relate to the real world.

9. Am I Aware of and Honest about My Weaknesses? To be forewarned is to be forearmed! Most of us know our deficiencies, but we have a tendency to try to cover them. We need to set aside time to reflect on our weaknesses. Areas where we become sidetracked and are prone to sin. We then need to ask God to strengthen us. Paul David Tripp has great advice about this. 

10. Is My Commitment Constantly Before Me? This is supremely important if God has called you into a position of Christian leadership. When Paul stood before King Agrippa, he said, “I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision.” Paul could have been tempted to give up, take other options, or yield to the persecution, but the thing that kept him on track was the vision before him.

Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Vulnerability of A Pastor

None are more exposed to slanders and insults than godly teachers. This stems not only from the immense demands of their work, which can sometimes overwhelm them, causing them to stumble or falter and thus providing fertile ground for malicious individuals to find fault. Even when they diligently fulfil their duties and avoid any errors, they face a barrage of criticisms. Satan’s strategy is to alienate people from their ministers, gradually undermining their teaching and causing its reputation to suffer. This not only harms innocent individuals whose reputations are unjustly tarnished but also diminishes the authority of God’s holy teaching. Satan’s primary goal is to achieve this, as Plato’s observation about the maliciousness and envy of the masses applies here. Furthermore, the more sincerely a pastor strives to advance Christ’s kingdom, the more they become targets of spite and the more intense the attacks against them become. Moreover, accusations against ministers of the Wor...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

Christian Unity

I profess myself to be of no party, and to love all of every party who love the Lord our saviour in sincerity. If they preach the truth in love, live as they preach, and are wise and watchful to win souls, and to feed the flock, I care not much whether they are called, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Church men, Kirkmen, or Methodists. I desire to rejoice in their success, on every side. I believe the zealots of all parties, pity or blame me, for my latitudinarian spirit, but the moderate and peaceable of all parties show me kindness.  In some of the great shops in London, there are several counters; and servants at each to attend the customers. If these servants are faithful and have their masters' interest at heart, they will not be jealous of each other, they will not affront the customers by saying 'Why do not you come to be served on my side of the shop? If they are all well served and pleased, it signifies not to which counter they come. Now what are we but servants of...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

God is Not in A Rush

It is a noble aim to serve the Lord but we are sometimes too hasty, like children who love fruit but have not patience to stay till it is ripe. But the Lord is seldom hasty in his operations, and when our zeal comes to be sifted, by experience and after reflection, we shall perhaps find some of the bran of our own spirit mixed with it. Nay, possibly that Satan transformed into an angel of light, has put us upon things beyond the present call of duty and beyond our strength, that we may give him the less disturbance in future. In a word as I approve of your zeal, I shall be glad for your own sake if you will approve and adopt a little of my prudence. I wish my | letters may be a bridle to you and yours a spur to me.  JOHN NEWTON  (Source: Wise Counsel, p30)  Newton is giving this caution to Ryland because he feels he is getting overstretched. Ryland is taking on too much. He is serving as a man in hurry because he probably feels the urgency of the Gospel. Newton’s point is...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →