The Gospel Commandments of Leadership

“The Gospel Commandments of Leadership” is a great list of qualities that we all must have. I read it recently, but the author is unknown. Whoever wrote it was right on. I hope this list will be a big encouragement to you as it was to me.

1. People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered. Love and trust them anyway. (Luke 23:34)

2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway. (Matthew 11:16, 19)

3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. (Luke 19:36-38; John 19:15)

4. The service you render today will be forgotten tomorrow. Serve people anyway. (Luke 17:17)

5. Honestly and frankness will make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. (Luke 12:51; Luke 13:5)

6. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest ideas. Think big anyway. (Luke 22:22, 24)

7. People pretend to love the “little” people but sell their souls to the “big” people. Fight for the “little” people anyway. (Matthew 19:14)

8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. (Matthew 26:48, 49, 56)

9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help. Help people anyway. (Luke 4:18, 19, 28, 29)

10. Give the world the best you have, and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway. (Matthew 27:17, 21)

Here to Serve,
Jeff Bush

Why People do not Agree with Their Leader

Some years ago, a friend and I made a trip on the mission field where some church members wanted to divide because of negative things they saw in their pastor.  Praise the Lord that after my pastor’s counsel the situation was better and the pastor and people decided to fix things and go on for our Lord.  I would like to share a few key things the church people saw that were negative in the life of the pastor.  Hopefully it will be a help to us as missionaries, pastors, and workers to make sure we know others are watching our lives. Continue reading “Why People do not Agree with Their Leader”

Leadership Training Overview

By Austin Gardner

  1. What is the greatest weakness in “Church Planting” around the world today?
    • No trained national leadership
    • A lack of funds to build the buildings
    • Hardness of the hearts of people around the world
    • No one answer
  1. How many strong indigenous churches will the normal church planting missionary be able to plant during his missionary tenure?
    • One
    • From two to five
    • Eight
    • In excess of 50
  1. Under normal conditions on the foreign mission field who will take the missionary’s place when he goes on furlough after four years?
    • A national pastor or leader that the missionary himself has trained
    • A national pastor or leader imported from a Bible College or different ministry
    • Another North American Missionary
    • The missionary will not be able to take a furlough since no one is available to take his work
  1. Why should great care be taken not to give money to nationals?
    • They will become dependent
    • Money will ruin a good man
    • Nationals lack the character to deal with having money
    • The same reason care should be taken in giving money to an American missionary
  1. Why do so many fail at leadership training?
    • The lack of character among the nationals
    • They do not understand the importance of training leaders
    • They have never seen leadership training modeled
    • All of the above
  1. What order did our Lord Jesus follow in establishing his ministry the church here in this world?
    • People then buildings and finally leaders
    • Buildings, then people and finally leaders
    • Leaders then buildings and finally people
    • Leaders then people and finally buildings
  1. What attitude do we typically see in the national believers?
    • A great lack of character and ability
    • A desire to do the work but they need to know why and how to do what they want to do
    • Interested, desirous but without the natural or spiritual ability to do the work
    • Impossible to answer since it is different on every field
  1. What is the missionary’s greatest weakness in the development of leaders?
    • Doesn’t know how to do so
    • Can’t find good human material to work with
    • Very able and excited to do the work and using all of his abilities to build a church for Jesus
    • Different with every person
  1. The key ingredient to leadership development is
    • Knowledge
    • Practice
    • With-ness
    • Wisdom
  1. A missionary’s success should be determined by
    • The number of souls he sees saved
    • The number of indigenous churches he plants
    • Faithfulness to God or sticking by the stuff
    • Training national leaders that can carry on the work after his departure
  1. What is discipleship?
    • An advanced new converts class
    • A series of lessons that grounds the new convert in basic Bible doctrine and helps to establish him as a faithful Christian
    • A specialized training method to prepare Christians for different ministry responsibilities
    • Life on life personal involvement in the life of another that carries him forward to full maturity in Christ
  1. What should be the missionary’s priority goal be for each term?
    • Win as many souls to the Lord as he can
    • Plant an indigenous church
    • Start a Bible College
    • Train leaders and especially “leaders of leaders”