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Boy-Man Meets Jimmy Carter on the #4 Train
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken I heard him before I saw him–the Boy-Man hustling to get on the #4 train. The Yankee game had just ended, and Kyle and I were headed to Times Square so he could buy the newest Metallica CD at the Virgin Record store. I couldn’t help but hear the Boy-Man as he and his buddy rushed for the train with us because he used the kind of language Boys use in a crowd when they want you to think they’re Men. The two Boy-Men ended up standing next to me, but I didn’t pay any notice to them when we first pulled out…
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Toy Soldiers for Jesus
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Hearts are like beds and minds—they need to be made up. Just as an unmade bed shows a lack of discipline and an unmade mind shows a lack of determination, so an unmade heart shows a lack of devotion. Rehoboam was a leader with an unmade heart. His epitaph from God was, “He did evil because he did not set his heart on seeking the Lord (2 Chronicles 12:14).” He never made up his heart, he never decided that he would devote himself to the Lord. Sometimes he did, and then the Lord blessed him. But much of the time…
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The Leader with No Ears
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken "To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well." – John Marshall Leaders who don’t listen talk their way right out of leadership. That’s exactly what happened to Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, who disqualified himself as king over most of Israel because he refused to listen to his followers. A representative group of leaders came to Rehoboam from the northern part of what should have been his kingdom (I Kings 12:1-17) and asked him to lighten the tax and forced labor load that his father had put on them. He responded with wisdom and sought…
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Live the Jesus Lifestyle: Make Disciples
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken The most disobeyed directive Jesus ever gave is the last directive Jesus ever gave: make disciples. Nothing could be plainer than Jesus’ final marching orders: make disciples! That’s what He said, that’s what He meant. Yet all over the world we find pastors, churches, deacons, elders and church members who are radically disobedient. Some are ignorant, others are willful, but they are disobedient nonetheless. Pastors give in to tradition and the demands of their people and choose to disobey Jesus’ final command. Many seem to think that ministry is about making them successful, or keeping their job secure, which they…
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A Leader’s Loves
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken What a leader loves determines how a leader leads. Consider Solomon, for example. Solomon loved the Lord and walked according to the statutes of his father, David . . . As long as Solomon loved the Lord and walked according to David’s ways, he was humble and trusted God for an understanding heart because he knew he was not adequate to lead God’s people. Solomon demonstrated his love for the Lord by living in radical dependence on Him. Because of this request God gave Solomon a discerning heart and with it, God gave him more than he asked for: riches and…
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Is Your Altar as Big as Your Heart?
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Is Your Altar as Big as Your Heart? When I was twelve years old I put my heart on God’s altar. It happened on a Sunday morning when Mr. Stewart, the superintendent of the junior high Sunday school department in my church, exhorted us mightily to give our all to the Lord. I don’t remember what he said, just that he spoke with intense passion about giving our all to Christ. As I listened I remember distinctly thinking, “That’s what I thought it’s all about. That’s what I did when I trusted Jesus as my Savior.” I became a Christian in my…
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McMansions in the Sky
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken McMansions in the Sky Leaders today are building eternal edifices on temporal foundations. The result? McMansions in the sky that lack foundations and crash leaving crushed hopes, confused leaders, and questioning followers. Everyone asks, “What happened?” What happened is what Jesus said would happen. When we build leaders and ministries on the sand of human talent, experience, and success, the storms of life bring them crashing down all around us… We think talent, experience, and success are the foundation for effective leadership and don’t realize that these resources can never produce lasting leaders. If we depend on talent, experience, and success to…
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Broken Leadership – What Works?
What works is a desperate question. Or it often is. It can be a legitimate question, of course, the valid inquiry of a leader who seeks new ideas to meet challenging needs. But often it is the question of a desperate leader who has tried everything he knows to do and he’s run out of ideas but not out of needs. What he’s run out of is leadership. He doesn’t know what to do, but he has to do something. So he asks, his friends, “What works?” He goes to conferences asking, “What works? He reads books and watches videos and listens to podcasts asking what works? Finally he…
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Broken Leadership – Why is Leadership Broken?
Leadership is broken today. The evidence abounds all around us. *Leaders search for solutions only to discover bigger problems than ever. *Followers seek for leaders of integrity only to find pursuers of self-interest. *Organizations long for leaders who unify only to find controllers who divide. *Staff members hope for leaders who value them only to find ambitious men and women who use them. *Wives hope for strong men to lead them only to find passive men who avoid them. *Children crave fathers who will nurture them only to find selfish men who ignore them. Perhaps the greatest evidence of broken leadership in our world is the number of books that…