Thoughts on Christ and His Word

Last Tuesday I was sharing with my men's Bible study class that "Readers are Leaders". This is what my youth group leader told me 30 years ago. And it’s true. Two days after I repeated these words to my class I was reading the book Axiom by Bill Hybels. In it he has a chapter titled “Read All You Can”. Here are some excerpts from that chapter: “Leaders have a responsibility before God to constantly get better, and one of the most reliable ways to do so is to read. Great leaders read frequently. They read voraciously. They read classics and new releases. They soak up lessons from the military, from academia, from politics, from nongovernmental organizations, and from church leaders who are leading well. They refuse to let themselves off the hook in this regard, because they know that all great leaders read.” “I have little patience with leaders who get themselves into leadership binds and then confess that they haven’t read a leadership book in years. If you’re a serious-

Sacrifice is the down payment for leadership. If you want to influence people and have them follow you with their hearts, they must see you lay down your life for them and the team. In his book “Spiritual Leadership”, J. Oswald Sanders writes “To aspire to leadership in God’s kingdom requires us to be willing to pay a price higher than others are willing to pay.” This is called sacrifice. Jesus said that in order to be his disciple one must sacrifice comfort, time, and family relationships (Luke 9:57-62). And leaders should be disciples that live at a higher standard. So what should our sacrifice look like? Sanders continues “The world is run by tired men…Even Jesus grew weary in ministry and had to rest (John 4:6)…If a Christian is not willing to rise early and work late, to expend greater effort in diligent study and faithful work, that person will not change a generation. Fatigue is the price of leadership. Mediocrity is the result of never getting tired.” Some people want to

In his book Axiom , Bill Hybels describes the difference between a leader who is a hireling (a simple employee) of a vision and the one who owns the vision. The hireling begins to choose a path self-service. The vision becomes more about him – his career, his fame, his job security and his success. But the leader who owns a God-given vision is willing to pay any price to achieve it. Followers follow him to the extent that they feel he owns it – that his heart is in it and is willing to sacrifice for it. Hybels writes that followers “will only sacrifice for the vision if you will. They will only take a bullet for the cause if they believe down to their toes that you would do the same.” He then expresses what should be every leader’s prayer that believes God has given him a vision: “God...right here and right now, I tell you all over again that I will pay any price to achieve this vision so that someday, when I get to the finish line, I’ll be able to say with Paul that I fought the goo