Leadership in Context

If you want to have a lot of friends, serve good food because people will show up. If you want to be a good leader, feed them good words—healthy, encouraging, sound words of Truth. Sound words result in having faith and love in Christ Jesus. We need to guard the treasure of Truth, of sound words, that has been entrusted to us.

The government is not the head of the Church. The culture does not dictate doctrine and morality for the Church. We are the body and Christ is the head of that body. When the body is not connected to the head, it is dysfunctional and it dies. If a body has two heads, it is abnormal; it is a monster.

Today we have a special bonus episode of the Leadership in Context podcast. While the team was traveling back from Ukraine last week, Keith interviewed each one about the significance of this trip at this moment in time. In the natural, it’s easy to wonder, “What are we thinking?” But God! If God is for the Church in Ukraine, who can be against them? The need is as great as ever, but in spite of all of this, the Church is growing better than ever.

Jesus is the light. The Holy Spirit is the oil. And we are the lampstand. The light of God in us isn’t to just stay in us, but to go out into the world to lead others to Christ.

Join us for a special episode recorded in the van as our team in Ukraine travel from one city to the next.

All the while in unimaginable circumstances, our brothers and sisters in Ukraine are standing firm in their faith and conviction, their resilience and persistence, their leadership and devotion to prayer, and their quality of fellowship and love. We carry them in our hearts and pray for them often as they are not forgotten.

You can continue to partner with us by giving at NRPUkraine.com 

Christ is returning for a victorious Church. Just as a bride prepares for her wedding—welcoming her guests with care, remaining loyal and resolved in her relationship with her groom, and knowing his heart—so should we, as the Bride of Christ. This is a great picture of the Church.

A pillar resists a downward pressure and anchors for the upward force of wind. God has called us, the Church, to be the pillars of Truth. To be there, we have to be firmly planted in the foundation of Christ.

As leaders, we can demonstrate our confidence in God not based on our personal perfection, but in our response to God and how He works in our lives. Being approved by God through the things we have gone through and our response, that is integrity. When you cut through something that is solid wood, all of the layers are wood. It’s the same thing through and through. Integrity is there. Integrity is consistency.

Scripture outlines some core values of a disciple—work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. Faith is a work; it is something we do. Love is a labor at times, but is also our motivation. And staying steadfast in our hope, that gives God the opportunity to move.

Sanctification is the mark of Christian growth and maturity. It is God’s divine empowerment of our will. Not that we rely on our will to not sin, but a yielding of our will to the Holy Spirit.