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Fifty-Five Years Ago this Week
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Fifty-five years ago this week I flew from Philadelphia to Dallas to become a student at Dallas Theological Seminary and enter into the great adventure that transformed me from a rough edged kid into a pastor, professor, and mentor. Amazing! So many rough edges remain, but grace has worked through them despite my flaws. Three influences at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) laid the foundation for God’s grace in me, and I want to celebrate these influences for His glory… 1. My fellow students, peers who taught more than anyone else, perhaps in all my life. I sat in the classroom with some of…
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Why We Lost…or Did We?
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken We lost. 5-4. A crushing loss after an unbroken string of losses dating back to Roe vs. Wade in 1973. This most recent loss, same sex marriage, happened a long time ago, not on June, 26, 2015. That loss happened when we decided to trade in God’s weakness for our power and chose to trust political process instead of spiritual resources… Don’t get me wrong. As citizens of the United States of America we should use every means our constitution gives us to advance our cause, but we cannot depend on our rights to make our nation right. Surely we know that when…
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Discipleless Churches
Leadership is Broken Because Leaders are Unbroken Dallas Willard observed that the word “disciple” occurs 269 times in the New Testament while the word “Christian” is found three times. From this Willard concludes, “’The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, and for disciples of Jesus Christ.’” Yet all around us we see discipleless churches, churches made up of what Willard called “undiscipled disciples.” How is it that the essence of the Great Commission, the only command Jesus made as He gave His final marching order to His followers, is significantly ignored in churches today? How can so many pastors, not only around the world, but also…
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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 many 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 confuse—often unconsciously and…
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Africa, Oh, Africa
Leadership is Broken Because Leaders are Unbokren No continent on earth suffers as Africa suffers. Not just Africans, but Africa itself. Like Africans, Africa possesses untold resources. And like Africans, Africa is mutilated, ravaged, and raped. Corruption contaminates the continent from the Sahara to South Africa. Neo-colonization reigns supreme as outside forces establish economic control the way older nations established political supremacy a hundred-fifty years ago. Africans experience a terrible sense of loss, an awful awareness of injustice, and an utter absence of hope that drives them to take frightful risks to find opportunities they never would have otherwise. Most Africans don’t talk to non-Africans about the corruption of their…
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Not Your Grandmother’s Lumbago
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken With friends like us the cross hardly needs enemies, although it has many. Think of how we distort the cross. Many of us probably heard our grandmothers say, “My lumbago is killing me. It’s my cross. I must bear it.” Right then, before we knew what the cross was, we knew we didn’t want one if it made us feel the way Grandma felt. Or it’s presented to us as some horrible struggle we must endure because we follow Jesus. Now it’s true that the cross can mean rejection and persecution for the cause of Christ, but there’s more to it than that……
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Wall Breakers Anonymous
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Sooner or later all of us hit the wall of inadequacy. There are no exceptions, no escape. There’s only denial, cover up, and futile efforts to break through, get over, get around, or dig under this utterly unexpected roadblock in life. The problem is everything we’ve done before doesn’t work. The barrier may be a career killer or a family struggle or a relationship block, but whatever it is, it matters to us, and we want it to end NOW!But nothing we do makes any difference because this unexpected and unwanted hindrance remains. We try all our tried and true methods, but they…
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You Can’t Come in at the Door
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken So High You Can’t Get Over It, So Wide You Can’t Get Around It, So Low You Can’t Get Under It—But You CAN’T Go in at the Door When I was a boy I used to go to a Good News Club in my neighborhood. A Good News Club is a weekly gathering for children in which they sing some memorable songs, do some fun things, hear a fascinating Bible story, and meet some wonderful caring adults. One song we sang goes like this: So high you can’t get over it, so wide you can’t get around it, so…
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A Worth it Heart
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken So what is a worth it heart? What is a heart that gives rise to worth it days that result in worth it years and produce a worth it life? A worth it heart is a heart that has learned to navigate the wall of inadequacy. The wall of inadequacy is that place in life to which Jesus brings all of us to teach us the most foundational principle of life and leadership:You must do what you cannot do with what you do not have for the rest of your lives. Jesus did that with His men when He commanded them to, “Go…
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A Worth it Year – Worth it Days from a Worth it Heart
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken When our three sons were growing up I loved our home. My wife created a beautiful atmosphere for all of us, and I valued every minute I could get with our family. Of course we all had to go our own way most days, but I liked it best when we were together sharing life. It’s still like that and more so with three daughters-in-law and eight grandchildren, even though we’re scatted across the US. Somewhere along the line as our sons grew older, I started asking myself a question almost every day as I pulled into my garage. “Was it worth it…
