It’s a great story and I hope you will read it again. My purpose of this post is not the main theme of the story; my focus is the little boy. We tend to read this story for the purposes of David and Jonathan, and while they are certainly central characters in God’s story, so was the little boy.
It reminds me of an important principle about leaders. Real leaders don’t need to have a position to make a difference.
I have posted many times before about my attempt at discovering my strengths and weaknesses. The older I get the more I realize things I’m not good at doing. This discovery process has led me to what I believe is the perfect combination on a team:
Jon Acuff is a funny, intelligent, mega-blogging leader at Stuff Christians Like. When I originally started this series I honestly overlooked some of the best leaders, because I falsely limited myself to people that have positions in a church or ministry. Jon has one of the most read blogs in the church world today. If Jon posts something, others instantly take notice. I call that influence, and if leadership is about influence, Jon is one of the best.
Dave Ferguson is a pastor and mentor to hundreds of church planters around the globe, including me. His church, Community Christian Church, is a pioneer in the multi-site movement. Dave is an influencer, a teacher, and a visionary leader. I appreciate his responsiveness to those of us that desire to learn from him. I also appreciate his commitment to his family. The one meeting I had schedule with him had to be canceled because of a school program for one of his children. I admired that in him. He has befriended my son in Chicago. I previously wrote about that HERE.
Today I have a fun dream stretch. I am curious what some of these dreams will be. At my church, Grace Community Church, we are seeing God do amazing things. This post is a result of that activity of Go
I consider Jenni Catron a friend and ministry partner. Jenni serves as the Executive Director at Crosspoint Church in Nashville. The church’s proximity to our church helps me learn from their success. Jenni is a hard-working, genuine leader. I love the transparency she shares through her blog and the intentionality she brings to her ministry. I am fully convinced that much of the success of Crosspoint is due to Jenni’s leadership. You can follow Jenni on Twitter also.
I’m sure there is a perfect definition of this, but for me worship happens when you forget about yourself and recognize more about God in that moment. You can put that in the context of a worship service, where a person recognizes that I don’t care about myself or my struggles; I just care about God, or you can put that in terms of a work situation, where a person says, “None of this matters except for me bringing glory to God.” When self disappears and the image of oneself disappears and God’s purpose, design and plan becomes the most important thing, that’s worship.
Geoff Surratt is part of the church famous Surratt brothers of Seacoast Church. I have had to the privilege of meeting several of them and I am always impressed. I sat in a breakout at a conference last year where Geoff spoke last year. He’s funny, witty, and smart. His latest book, Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing, is a frank and honest book that identifies the most common mistakes pastors make. You can follow Geoff on Twitter also.
Karen on our staff has been asking Cheryl to do a guest post for the Grace Community Church website for months and she finally agreed. She chose the title “Who me – a pastor’s wife?”. Let me say that I believe one of the most important jobs in the church is that of the pastor’s wife. I’m thankful I have such a good one. For more of my thoughts on Cheryl, click HERE or if you want to know how to honor a pastor’s wife, click HERE.
