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Resurrection Leadership 

By Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International

"without me you can do nothing (John 15:5)"

"You give them something to eat (Mark 6:37)"

How do you think the disciples felt when Jesus told them to feed 5,000 men plus women and children with virtually nothing?  How would you feel as a leader if He gave you this kind of a task?

What could they have thought when everything they had was five loaves and two fish? A boy’s lunch—that’s what it was. And that’s all Jesus had in that isolated location on the Sea of Galilee. He only had that because He sent His men on a search through the 5,000 looking for anything they could find, and they knew it was all they had a chance to find when they searched. Everyone who was there knew it.  What was Jesus doing?

Jesus was about to teach His men Leadership 101, the beginner’s course on The Jesus Way of Leadership. To say it was a beginner’s discovery is an understatement. To say it was crazy, useless, a waste of time, is also true to those who chose to follow Him. It was the first course.  To say we are going to learn to be leaders in the same way is also true because this is the only way we can lead the eternal way, the resurrection way, the way that takes us through Calvary, through death, through resurrection, and through life into eternity. This is Resurrection Leadership, the Jesus kind of Leadership.

For the disciples, this happened on a hillside where the disciples were fresh off a ministry assignment in which Jesus had sent them into towns and villages throughout Israel to show them what He could do when they trusted Him to lead His way. They returned with stories of great success, which drew large crowds to them and now they were ready for even more of the same kind of provision they already saw.

John the Baptist had just been beheaded, and Jesus knew His hour was coming. It was time for Him to focus on preparing His men for the supernatural tasks that lay ahead for them. He chose a solitary place to withdraw them where He could teach them more of what they had to learn, but the crowds kept coming. Because of what the disciples had done, more people than ever wanted to see and hear Jesus, so they followed Him by the thousands to listen to His teaching as He fed them with God’s word.

The hour was late, the day was long, and the people were hungry. Dinnertime was fast approaching, and the disciples were becoming restless. Most of the people had a long way to go to get to their homes and food. If they didn’t leave now, the old and the young, the weak and needy would never get home to eat. They were in a wilderness, and these people needed to be sent on their way for their own good. They could feed their spirits on the Lord’s words, but His wisdom could never feed their bellies. Only bread could do that.

The disciples must have conferred and decided to interrupt Jesus and point out the problem to Him. It was not like Jesus to miss seeing the needs of others—no one had more compassion for the crowds than He did (Mark 8:34). So, they gave Him a quick reminder that it was time to wrap things up and send the crowd home.

Jesus’ reply to their interruption startled and confused them. “’They don’t need to go away,’” he told them. “’You give them something to eat.’” (Mark 7:37. Note: Jesus did not say ‘We—or I—give them something to eat.’ He said, ‘YOU give them something to eat.’ What? How could THEY do that? They didn’t even have food for themselves. How could they give the crowd anything?

Why did He send them to discover the obvious impossibility of their situation? Nothing He was doing made sense. They knew they didn’t have enough bread to feed these hungry people, probably close to 20,000 in all, and so He gave them the impossible task to meet their needs. Did He issue this command to make them feel foolish and futile, calling attention to the problem by sending them through the crowd to ask if they had food? He sent them searching for something they could never find.

No. He wanted His disciples to discover how little they had. He wanted to make their lack of resources utterly undeniable. He wanted them to face their inadequacy square in the face. He needed them to see their reality.

Often, we are counting on someone to tell us what we should do or to do it for us. We look for all kinds of information that we record and maybe even go back and review, but it’s rarely the same as acting for ourselves. In our Lord’s case, we want Him to do something for us, but Jesus wants us to face it, to take it on and to trust Him to do it through us. On the Galilee hillside His intent was to teach them to trust Him to act through Him as they had to do for the rest of their lives, even as we must do today. Even as they had to learn to trust Him to do what they could not do, so we must trust Him as His leaders wherever we are.

Have you ever hit a wall like this—where everything you had to give was nowhere near enough for the challenges you faced? In these times He is teaching us that without Him we can do nothing, but with Him nothing becomes everything He wants us to do because Jesus always turns nothing into everything He wants us to accomplish. That’s what He does through us today and every day as He desires for the rest of our lives.

Remember 

Resurrection Leadership means nothing always becomes

everything when we trust Him no matter what we face.  

Every leader needs a leader.

by Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International

We frequently speak of the leader’s leader, of the reality that every leader needs a leader, even though many never admit it. Frequently leaders speak as if they don’t need a leader to guide them and hold them accountable, as if they don’t need someone to give them direction or help them sharpen their vision or offer them advice or tell them they’ve made mistakes. Just leave them alone, get out of the way,  move behind them, follow them, and move on toward the aim, don’t raise any questions, don’t make so many suggestions, don’t hesitate so much, just do what you’re supposed to do and move forward—that’s what they say. If anything is going wrong, it’s your fault. Do what you’re supposed to do and get going.  Either do what I say or get out of my way. That’s what they’re saying.

But whether they admit it or not every leader needs a leader.

Most leaders want to be in total control of those they lead. They strive to be in control. And there is a need for them to be in control. The question is, Who is in control of them?  More specifically, Who is in control of you? Even Jesus was under His Father’s will (not my will, but yours be done [Luke 22:22]). Even Jesus had a Leader.

Why Are You a Leader?

by Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International

Have you ever wondered why you are a leader? Can you answer this question? Why do I have the abilities and the opportunities to be a leader? You might even wonder at times if you have the gifts to be the kind of leader you must be to face some of the overwhelming demands put on you.

There is only one answer.

You are a leader because God called you to be a leader. It is not because of any decision you made, although you responded to His call and made that choice. God gave you the opportunity to be a leader, and without His hand on your life, even when you might be unaware of His presence, you would never be a so blessed—or have such a burden. All of this happened because of God’s grace. 

At times the demands of leadership may be so great that you long to be relieved of the responsibilities you have.  However, you play a vital part in God’s plan for those you influence because, throughout all of history, God has accomplished His purposes though leaders He has raised up, even when they are afraid and struggling. Consider Moses or David or Peter or Paul. None of them were qualified to do what they did apart from God’s enablement.  None of us would do what we do if God hadn’t called us to be leaders.

The greatest strength a leader has is weakness, then God will move us to dependence on His all-powerful omnipotence through us. Leaders look strong until we move into positions of responsibility and those who know us will realize that we are weak in ourselves apart from the power of God in us. Through us He expresses His power. He transforms our weakness into His strength by His grace as He has done in leaders throughout history.

Do you realize that God’s call to leadership is a holy call? It is a special call from God to you, and He wants to use you to make a difference in the hearts of those you influence.  You must remember that leadership is a movement from one leader’s heart to another and not just a matter of action from one vision to another or from one organization or government to another. The heart must be at the essence of one truth to a deeper truth or it fails. This is why leadership must be a holy call in business, politics or education, even when there is nothing religious about it. Those who lead must have spiritual drives or they will fail as leaders. That has certainly been true of effective business and political leaders who have made radical impacts without being overtly Christian.  

What greater privilege could you have? It doesn’t matter whether you have limited or major leadership responsibility. What matters is that you fulfill that responsibility according to the way God is forming you. The end result is that you make a difference in others whom He is calling you to influence.

We must realize that we see reality differently from the way God sees it.  He sees who we are as much more important than what we accomplish.  He can always get things done Himself.  However, getting us to be the kind of men and women He wants us to be is a much greater task from His perspective. He has the will, the plan, the love, the patience, the purpose, the endurance—all that and more to get one of us to be the kind of leader He can use to accomplish His purposes. He wants us to be His kind of people. That’s what Genesis 1 and 2 is all about and what He came to accomplish in Genesis 3—and at Calvary. And that is what forming leaders is all about.

The only way we can lead as God wants us to lead is to lead His way, which is with His kind of heart, so the change in leadership must begin in us.  Leadership is failing today because it has overlooked the heart. We’re good at the head and the hands, at thinking, developing a vision, planning, communicating, convincing, doing, all of the  elements needed to accomplish significant tasks. 

He takes us through our Gethsemanes to our Calvaries, through our graves and our resurrections into our lives with Christ in us so we can be His instruments, His kind of leaders forming even more leaders to accomplish His aims. What could be more than this? This is why you are His leaders. Subject yourself to Him and His purposes, accomplish His aim, be His difference-maker, and make His difference, whether you are in business, education, service, or as a parent—whatever God calls you to. Do it His way, lead according to His will, form His kind of leaders, make His difference, and express His glory.

2000 years ago an unknown man called 12 unknown men who laid the foundation for a movement that transformed cultures, influenced multiple generations, brought down governments, and overcame all efforts to destroy it in every part of the world, all under the influence of a cross-bearing man. The man is Jesus, the men are His disciples, and cross-bearing men are all disciples who follow Jesus and bring others to Him. You can take them away but they will come back, and no one can stop them from returning. The movement has overcome every effort to destroy it in countries around the world.  No other men in history have changed the world as they did without armies or weapons or governments or any of the methods of power known on the earth. These men have created unknown, weak men and women who  answered any question ever raised and called for others to follow Him. How did such powerless men gain such great power and how can you lead movements to transform followers as they did? How can men without powerful methods or armies create such movements and make such an impact over such a lasting period of time?

Jesus calls His followers to suffer as He did and to follow Him to accomplish His mission. No opposition can overcome the followers of Jesus as He works through them to build ministries that change hearts.  Jesus accomplishes this through movements in every generation.  He takes ordinary men and women and transforms them to become His kind of leaders by loving them, modeling for them, and teaching them unique ways to form them through the cross, the grave, and His resurrection.

He calls them into His future and His mission, and no opposition can overcome the followers of Jesus as they pursue what really matters: His vision of building a movement that transforms cultures and unifies them as nothing else ever could. Jesus teaches every generation His truths and trains them through His process so they see reality as He enables them to see it.  He calls them to a new and better way that they could only learn through Him. He forms these wrestling and uncertain human beings and makes them into the next generation of His capable and amazing leaders. You are now called to be His kind of leader, the same kind of leader He is.

God desires to give you a heart that is different from the typical leader’s heart, a heart that does not desire individual success and recognition, but rather serves and  sacrifices to meet the needs of others through the cross. The kind of heart that He calls for looks on the genuine needs of others and puts the interests of the weak and needy and lacking ahead of their own. This is why the cross is at the center of leadership for Christ’s followers; their greatest needs cost Him His life because the penalty of sin is death and the way to righteousness is resurrection, and that is the price He paid for each of us.

The central reality of Christ’s kind of leadership is the cross. Jesus led the twelve men He called to follow to Him to take up the cross and then experience the resurrection and live His way. This is His kind of leadership, the daily way to lead His way. Understood properly we see it constantly in Acts in the leadership carried out by Peter, Andrew, James, Paul, and all others as the church started, and then as it is carried out by us, His followers, in our daily lives, especially in the way we conduct our businesses and our regular relationships.

So to be an effective leader you must be a faithful follower of THE Leader How are you doing?

Seeing the old heart in a new way that makes the old leader a new leader

Or

From My Way to the Jesus Way in the 21^st Century

In today’s world there is a great lack of leaders, especially in the church. Would men like Peter, James, John, Andrew and other apostles and early believers be thought of as successful in our day? Do we realize that the only way to be successful in Christ’s world is to serve, not to be powerful nor to be superior nor to be rich? Of course, these are forms of success God can both give and use to make us His kind of leaders as He desires. This is why many regard accomplishments such as fame, recognition, power, money and other achievements as success for leaders. However, the Jesus model of success for His followers is radically different today in the church, even as it always has been.  We must see them only as God’s instruments to accomplish His purposes as He chooses. Remember, these are His instruments and not ours, and we must use them as He wills and not as we will.

After all, our Savior’s instrument of success ended on a cross, hardly thought of as success in the Roman Empire, as we all agree. Just as He could never be thought of as successful to establish His kingdom, neither could the men He called to build the church in the Roman Empire be thought of as achievers. Yet today the same issues of the flesh are in force as they were during Roman rule, and the same solution is needed today.  This means we must become leaders of the cross even as the men and women of the 1^st century did. If we proclaim anything other than the cross we are biblical failures. They are instruments of communication, yes, keys to open doors, ways to enter major opportunities and talk to influential leaders, but not ends of success as seen in other settings.  This is why we need to proclaim the old message of the cross in a new way in our day. We must use the marks of the cross as the instruments of Christ’s truth, even as He did in the 1^st century. This is why the message of the cross of the 21^st century is the same as the message of the 1^st century, just stated in 21^st century language using contemporary illustrations addressed to current needs (the same as the needs of the Roman Empire, just stated in a different way), and addressed to the same sin lived in a new manner. At base, though, 21^st century struggles are the same as 1^st century struggles and solved in exactly the same way, the message of Jesus addressed to every age.

Some years ago, I was part of a team that created an ministry called LEAD, Leader Evaluation and Development. Our method is taken from the Gospels, the old way, formed in a new way.  We helped Leaders Evaluate their ministry And Develop new ways to become more effective than ever before. We did this very effectively with over a thousand leaders who moved forward in amazing ways. This ministry is made up of experienced ministry teams who helped other leaders learn to be more effective than they currently were and also helped them learn how to impact others so they could change their hearts.

We learned that the only way we can help anyone overcome their struggles in their lives is to face them, confess them, seek forgiveness for them, and turn away from the harm they cause. This is a painful process and most leaders are too fearful to carry it out, but those who act this way find that it brings freedom and builds greater leadership opportunities than ever. A large number of both men and women have participated in this message and have experienced great impact through it.

Because these are the most important elements of leadership to face and change, they the primary elements that are often ignored because the demands are so penetrating and distressful and leaders must face deep realities about themselves in moving forward. Thus the greatest leadership struggles are left unfaced and unsolved and become more demanding than ever. The greatest elements you must face in light of this reality is to answer these questions and to seek help from a few whom you trust to help you overcome these great struggles. Consider these questions as some you might need to face and consider with others who know you more deeply than you want to consider.

How well are you overcoming the most demanding changes you need to make?

What are you doing to make the changes you must pursue if you are going to grow as a leader?

How you are you choosing others to help need find those you must consider moving forward as a leader?

What changes are those who know you best seeing in you as an effective leader?

What are the three most significant changes they see that you need to make in you and why? What must you do to take these steps forward?

How willing are you to listen to others who care for you when they criticize you, especially when you have not asked them to criticize you?

Now is the time for you to face your old issues in this new way for God to bless your ministry as a leader as He has never blessed you before.