Yet within the Christian community, where openness and grace should flow the richest and deepest, where the masks are meant to come off and safety offered to all, owning depression is virtually taboo. There is an unwritten rule that people of faith shouldn’t be depressed.
Perhaps it’s because the strained connections and harsh words feed into my own insecurities. Or maybe it’s because there are so many more of the blessed times.
In a church, the faces the congregation sees on the stage matter. If all the faces are the same race, gender, or age, they often assume that’s who’s welcome in that church.
All leaders should lead well, but when one claims to be a follower of Christ their leadership reflects on his or her walk with Christ.
When was the last time you talked to a single person about Jesus? When was the last time you mentioned to your waiter or waitress that you came to the restaurant from church, and see where that conversation went?
Hint: It's not doing two things poorly, but learning to thrive in bivocational ministry.
If I understand faith as something I get, then it’s a matter of how I use it. But if I understand that God has me, then the matter becomes how God chooses to use me, not how I choose to use God.
Notice David had a vision. He had a word from God, but this was a bigger request than David and his men probably felt capable of doing. They were still a young army.
If you require that the fruit for your labors must always be visible and measurable, one of two things will happen, both of them bad: you will either lose heart and quit or you will become a manipulator of congregations.
All of us can have moments of wisdom. There are lots of “smart” leaders. Yet, for the term “wise leader” I’m referring to a unique category of leaders. These are leaders who have developed certain characteristics – wisdom learned from the personal experience of success and failure and from the insight of other leaders.
