Words that have impacted my life and leadership

1. “START AT THE TOP AND WORK YOUR WAY DOWN. THEY MIGHT SAY 'NO' BUT THEY COULD SAY 'YES'."

Dr. Robert Clinton, a former professor of leadership at Fuller Seminary had five principles of mentoring. His first principle; it is the mentee’s responsibility to find a mentor. This could be interpreted as the principle of attraction.

CHRISTIAN ATHEIST: Is a person who believes in God but lives as though God doesn’t exist or is largely irrelevant to the everyday business of living.

The term CHRISTIAN ATHEIST is a figure of speech called an oxymoron in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side. Other examples of oxymorons that perhaps you have used are:

I was most interested to learn from a family in my church about their recent holiday in another state. Even more so when they had taken the time to visit a very well known church in that state. I asked them what was it that impressed them most about the church and what could we learn from them.

There is much to suggest that the church in the west is living in a post-Christian generation. Evangelism has fallen on hard times, and ironically it seems that seminars to help people learn how to share their faith are doing no better.  And yet our denominations, although aware of their continued decrease in numbers, seem largely unmotivated to address the real issue. If ever there was a time to get back to basics, then surely it is now and I would like to suggest that the following 10 keys will give you a platform on which to build a fruitful church that will reach lost people. These 10 keys will help you to take evangelism in your church from being an optional extra to an important priority...

One of the wisest persons in the Bible wrote the following words that have served me well in my life of ministry:

“The righteous choose their friends carefully, But the way of the wicked leads them astray.”
— Proverbs 12:26

So important was this principle for his readers to take to heart, that he repeated it in varying ways through the book of Proverbs. “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.” Proverbs 13:20...

An important leadership lesson: What do you do when your mates desert you?

It can be lonely at the top. Like the time the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy from a damp, dark prison cell, on trial in a Roman court, believing that the time for his departure was near. As I recently read this story, I couldn’t help being reminded of one of the great challenges that leaders need to be ready and equipped to face at critical times in their ministry. That being, what to do when your mates desert you? Paul describes this situation in 2 Timothy 4:16-17. “At my first defence, NO ONE came...

Dan Brown: Learning About Strength

Does God teach missionaries? Definitely! Well, let's just say that the good ones come equipped with a humble learning posture. Take Dan Brown, for example.

In this clip, Asian Access/SIM missionary Dan Brown shares about what he is learning about doing ministry in his own strength versus doing it through God's strength. Serving with Asian Access as a Missional Partner with Oasis Life Chapel in Rifu, Japan, Dan talks openly about his weakness and struggles in ministry:

"So I've really come to learn that I'll do my part. I'll do the possible. I'll go to class. I'll study. I'll show up for ministry, for church each week, just to love and serve people to be a presence. But really it's going to be God who has to do the work."

Dan and his wife Casi arrived in Japan in the Fall of 2012 and are currently...