The Spacious Room

So, you've been going along quite nicely in your leadership walk and then all of a sudden, BOOM! God asks you to do something. However, you're not keen and it's making you want to run in the other direction! As leaders, we want change, we want to see change, and yes, we want to be the change. And yet, God will send a storm and a whale to change us from the inside out first so that the chaos inside of us develops into peace. 

Excited about this week's Leaders Talk episode as I'm chatting with my dear friend, Ivana McNeil. Wife, mother, and campus pastor, Ivana shares her hard-won wisdom on what it means to become a leader who is prepared to take a stand. A leader, like Queen Esther, who choose to lay down her own needs to help others when that big faith moment came. 

Joining me in the Spacious Room Leaders Talk this week is my good friend, Leonie Schlosser. Wife, mother, and worship leader, she has learned to let others hear her life song. Drawing on the life and leadership of Miriam, we chat about the battle cry of worship, packing your tambourine, and how through the struggle and hard places we can learn, regardless of our singing ability, to become worship warriors.  

How does the importance of being in God's presence help you to delegate well and avoid burnout as a leader?

This week's Leaders Talk Episode on the Spacious Room, I'm chatting with my good friend, Elizabeth Chapman, wife, mother, author of multiple books, and founder of DOLL Ministries. Elizabeth is an influential voice in my life and I'm sure as your listen to her nuggets of wisdom on how she has learned to cultivate a life style of being in God's presence, you'll be able to thrive in your own faith journey with God. 

Kicking off the Spacious Room leaders talk podcasts for 2024, is my dear husband, Philip Parker. From leadership in the Royal Navy, to the market place, and leading teams in church life, he shares his nuggets of wisdom on how and why good team building is an important part of leadership. "Valuing the person rather than the job" is Philip's way of telling a different story, as coming alongside someone and discipling them helps them to believe in themselves.  

We pray and we listen. We position overselves to hear the voice of God. We feel His presence when He speaks to our void, vacant spaces. He takes us on a journey and shares His dreams for our lives. He takes our inadequacy, our loss, our sinful ways, and moulds them into something beautiful and good. 

Understand that the vision you carry, the blueprint for seeing your dream come to pass is your prized possession. Sharing this prized possession with the wrong people can sterilize your dream causing you to go off course by ten degrees. Doesn't seem much, however, stroking egos rather than stoking the fires of a dream can lead you into trouble. Just ask king Hezekiah!  

Where do you need to stop striving and doing things in your own strength?

Spending some unhurried, uncomplicated time with God causes you to become undone, as those subtle cues He laid out previously that you either ignored or were totally ignorant and unaware of have now become as obvious as an elephant sitting in the corner of a room.

I know what you're thinking, an unhurried, uncomplicated, undone life?

Who are you kidding?!

But Jesus says, "Come to Me, get away with Me, walk with Me, and work with Me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." 

In today's episode, I talk about pain. When we get real with God, it won't hurt forever and the pain from our wounds will evenually be healed into silence. Because it's the scars that are left behind that tell our stories helping others to find their healing too. 

I'm sure there is a big diffrence where you sit and where I sit. 

Nevertheless, God's word and His presence meets us both, right where we're at, when we stop for a moment and selah with Him for a while. Purposefully, intentionally and unhurried moments. God promises to help all those who seek Him.