Saturday, April 25, 2009

Andy Stanley "leadership quotes" from Catalyst West via Tony Morgan

“The higher up in the organization, the greater the complexity and the more uncertainty there is.”

“Uncertainty is why we need leaders.”

“As long as there are unanswered questions, this organization needs me.”

“God created the gift of leadership. He gave it to certain people. Not everyone has it.”

“God is not uncertain.”

“Uncertainty is the arena in which good leadership is identified.”

“I will always be uncertain. I’m certain of it.”

“A story without uncertainty isn’t a very interesting story.”

“You don’t learn anything when everything is going well.”

“Instill in me a deeper passion for leading your people”

“Clarity. Flexibility.”

“As a leader, it is okay to be uncertain but it’s not okay to be unclear.”

“Pull back to that thing that God called you to do in the beginning.”

“Clarity will trump uncertainty.”

“We’re going to trust God to take care of the part we don’t know about.”

“You can be clear even when you’re uncertain.”

“Retreat to the vision.”

“What can you do proactively around what God called you to do?”

“What has God called you to do?”

“Plans change. Vision remains the same.”

“Don’t confuse the plan with the vision.”

“In times of uncertainty, plans change a lot.”

“We fall in love with our plans. And we make the mistake of saying ‘God told me…’”

“In times of uncertainty, there is no better time to change plans.”

“Where is the vision conflicting with the plan? Sacrifice the plan for the vision.”

“No decision is ever sacred, but the vision never changes.”

“Blame it on the economy and change it baby.” (Smile)

“You need to learn how to confidently express your uncertainty.”

“Leadership is not about making decisions on your own. It’s about owning the decisions once they are made.”

“You have to pray like crazy for God’s wisdom and direction.”

“God, please show me your will for my life.”

“As a leader, I need grace.”

 “God’s calling on my life is sure.”


Read more: http://tonymorganlive.com/2009/04/23/catalyst-west-andy-stanley/#comment-14108#ixzz0DhU32mMT&B

Friday, April 10, 2009

Glory to Your longsuffering, Lord, Glory to You.

The day of Christ's death is the day of sin. The sin which polluted God's creation from the breaking dawn of time reached its frightful climax on the hill of Golgotha. It is also a day of unconditional love. On Golgotha sin and evil, destruction and death came into their own. Ungodly men had Him nailed to the cross, in order to destroy Him. However, His death condemned irrevocably the fallen world by revealing its true and abnormal nature.

The day of Christ's death has become our true birthday. "Within the mystery of Christ dead and resurrected, death acquires positive value. Even if physical, biological death still appears to reign, it is no longer the final stage in a long destructive process. It has become the indispensable doorway, as well as the sure sign of our ultimate Pascha, our passage from death to life, rather than from life to death.


Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon the Cross. He who is King of the angels is arrayed in a crown of thorns. He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery. He who in Jordan set Adam free receives blows upon His face. The Bridegroom of the Church is transfixed with nails. The Son of the Virgin is pierced with a spear. We venerate Thy Passion, O Christ. Show us also Thy glorious Resurrection.
(Fifteenth Antiphon)


Wednesday, April 8, 2009

1 of 2: The Lukewarm

Serving God Leftovers 

                       GOD DEMANDS OUR BEST...HE DESERVES OUR BEST



  1. ARE LUKEWARM CHURCHGOERS CHRISTIAN? WHY? WHY NOT?
  • REVELATIONS 3:15-18
  • WHAT COMES TO MIND TO HEAR GOD USE THE WORD “SPIT”?
  • WHAT IS THE CONCLUSION OF THESE VERSES?
  • JOHN 14:15...JESUS WANTS OUR ALL OR NOTHING...
  • A LUKEWARM CHRISTIAN IS AN OXYMORON

  1. CAN WE GO TO HEAVEN W/O BEING A DISCIPLE OF JESUS?
  • JAMES 2:19
  • 1 JOHN 2:3-4
  • MATTHEW 16:24-25
  • LUKE 14:33
  • TO CALL SOMEONE A CHRISTIAN BECAUSE THEY DO CHRISTIAN ACTIVITIES IS GIVING FALSE HOPE TO THE UNSAVED.


  1. How does God measure in our lives what matters most?
  • 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
  • read the verses and substitute your name for the word “love”
  • How do you feel when you substitute your name?
  1. How Much does Jesus really matter in your life?
  • Luke 9:25... Are we willing to leave it all?
  • Isaiah 6:8-9...what if you were called oversees? to leave your family..
  1. Where do you spend your time? money? energy? 
  • Romans 12:1-2
  • We can’t worship God if we value other things more than God.



Questions that we must have an Answer


  1. Are you willing to say to God He can have whatever response He wants?
  2. Do you believe that commitment to Christ is more important than any other thing or person in your life?



Nothing else matters in our life more than Loving God and Loving People.


Monday, April 6, 2009

Christian Leadership is rooted in Spiritual Priorities...Leadership=Discipleship

Christian Leadership is rooted in Spiritual Priorities...Leadership=Discipleship


This past weekend I had the privilege to speak at Leadership Training Conference for Mississippi Collegians whom represented every college from the state of Ms. During the event, over 200 students were commissioned for summer missions... the most Student missionaries ever in any state. I wanted to deduct my message into one statement that would cast the vision for godly leadership. Jesus was obviously the greatest leader of all time; after all, he never wrote a book, and we have more evidence of his leadership than Caesar and every other leader in antiquity combined. His leadership was much more affective than the latest strategic plan of the 21st century. It was gloriously paradoxical as an effective means to an end; a way to teach what matters most... His leadership style didn’t even seem practical, but very controversial. He risked making crowds angry all because He was driven by something completely different from the Status Quo..He disregarded the pressures of the scribes and crowds of his day. His understanding of leadership was Something bigger than the “rules” of leadership.Upside/down if you will..but what was more important than listening to the wise counsel of his peers and going to leadership conference 101? The book of Mark begins to expose the leadership of Jesus. Have you ever read the book of Mark from the perspective of leadership. Within the life of Jesus in Mark is where you will see a beautiful collision of Discipleship and Leadership.. When the Bible tells you to contradict the business rules of leadership, you should follow. In Scripture, leadership and discipleship are inseparable as though they are one in the same. Understanding this beautiful collision is essential because of the new ministerial trend to follow the cultural marketing strategies of secular organizations. I am not here to negatively critique a church CEO model, but simply extract biblical principles of leadership regardless of what model any church adopts. These principles are superior to cultural trends of ecclesiological methodology. Principles are theolocal, not cultural. Put differently, sometimes we argue of methodology rather than theology..


 In Mark 2 Jesus in bringing the Word in a house in Capernaum. People were attracted to Jesus’ teachings. If fact, the crowd was horrendous that day. We don’t know how many were there, but probably at least 200.


 1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.



Wow!! You’ve got to be kidding me.... It’s stories like this that make be believe the reliability of scripture because noone could make this story up. you know... there are just some stories that are too good to be made up. this is certainly one of them. Can you imagine this story from the perspective of the paralyzed man?? He was probably freaking out, thinking they would drop him on Jesus’ head after making a sunroof for the house..Imagine the perspective of the four friends... I bet they were disappointed when they didn’t get the miracle show like they had prayed for or maybe embarrassed that Jesus apparently wasn't clued into the obvious. Imagine what Jesus was thinking when they ripped a hole in the roof... What a sermon ender!! I thought the kid who threw up on the first row during the middle of my message was the worst sermon ender... you know the poor paralyzed man thought he was going to fall out of that mat while being hoisted down.. His friends probably thought he was going to fall too, but, O well, He was paralyzed anyways; one more fall wouldn't hurt. would it?? and... if he did fall, Jesus was there and maybe he would heal him. at any rate, the text says that Jesus did something different than heal him physically.. Jesus knew why the paralyzed man was brought to Him. Jesus isn’t oblivious to the circumstances that are presented before him. however, Jesus doesn’t heal the man physically, like everyone wants him to. What does he do?


5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."


Noone erupted with applause after Jesus proclaimed this controversial statement. It was an anticlimactic moment to say the least. What drove Jesus to fail to act as everyone had hoped? Jesus understood what noone else did that day. what the man thought he needed most (physical healing) was not God’s highest priority for him. Jesus knew the eternal was more important than the temporal. His most urgent need was spiritual, not physical. The felt need wasn’t the primary need.. Christian leadership always has a spiritual priority; Jesus didn’t allow anyone that day to deter him of spiritual priorities. In fact, those same priorities led Him to the cross. what is deterring you of Spiritual leadership? 


We should see that Leadership and Discipleship are one and the same. 


2 months ago I was sitting beside a colleague of whom I’d just met.. or so I’d thought. He is the BSU director at another community college. I could tell I’d seen him before, but I couldn’t quite place him..weird feeling... I’m sure you can empathize. As I began placing the puzzle pieces together, I asked him 2 random questions... I asked, “Stan do you like the color purple?” and “Have you ever worked RA Camp” He said, “I have worked RA camp and then he proceeded to point to his ring that contained a purple stone. Suddenly I had an outer body experience. I said, “Stan, you have no idea who I am, but you led me to Christ 16 years ago.” 


Stan understood what Jesus exemplified...Christian Leadership is rooted in Spiritual priorities...Leadership=Discipleship

Thursday, April 2, 2009

just think.. how reliable are the gospels & NT?

Yesterday during our BSU lunch program, I had a conversation with an atheist who  wanted to know about the reliability of the gospels and New Testament. I gave him a number of resources and books to study; we talked in length about the historicity of the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John accounts. His ambition is to write a book in order denounce the gospel accounts as the primary evidence that God doesn’t exist. I want to provide a primer of evidence compiled from seminary, books, etc... If there are any questions about citations, please contact me.


There are several lines of evidence that supports the reliability NT manuscripts; i will only discuss the number, dating, accuracy of the manuscripts. The number of OT & NT manuscripts is overwhelming compared to any other manuscript in antiquity. The average # of manuscripts in antiquity is 7-10. By contrast, the NT has almost 5,700 greek manuscripts in existence. 2nd in line is Homer’s Illiad with 643 manuscripts. 

Generally the older the manuscript the more accuracy to the original composition.  The oldest manuscript for the Gallic wars in some 900 years after Ceasar. P52 (greek NT) manuscript is the earliest undisputed manuscript dated 117-138. This means it survived from within a generation of composition. Whole NT books are found traceable from 200 AD. No other ancient manuscript from the ancient world has such a small time gap as the NT. You would expect all of Roman History to have much better records than the life of a Jewish Carpenter who never wrote anything.  Yet, we have 4 historical accounts of Jesus’ life written by contemporaries and eyewitnesses. 

There are also more accurately copied texts in the NT than other books from the ancient world. Bruce Metzger compared the accuracy of Homer’s illiad to the NT and found 95% accuracy with the Illiad and 99.5% accuracy with the NT. The NT is also confirmed by Eusebius and other early historians.