Servant
Leadership School
March 23, 2003
Small Groups
Accountability – Break into small groups and share. How has this been
affecting your Quiet Times?
Has it helped knowing that you might be sharing?
Share: Quiet Times – How many
times this week did you have a Quiet Time? Share one “highlight” from this
week’s Quiet Times.
Drew
Teach for 5-10 minutes
Chapter 11 – Prayer and Leadership
I think that for many of us, one of the most important parts of this chapter
was found in the first paragraph:
“Dean C.J. Vaughan once said: “If I wished to humble anyone, I should
question him about his prayers. I know nothing to compare with this topic for
its sorrowful self-confessions”. (pg. 85)
In other words, it’s awfully easy to fall into a guilt trip on prayer.
What’s important about this chapter is not that you come away feeling like
you have a lot to learn about prayer – we all have a lot to learn about prayer.
The important thing is that we learn let some of the principles sharpen us,
stretch us, and hopefully grow our prayer lives a little bit more.
Self-discipline
Many times we fall into the trap of thinking that other things are too
important, that it’s too difficult to find the time, or perhaps we don’t even
realize just how important things like prayer are. Sometimes we have this
mindset:
Illustration
“Just in terms of allocation of time resource, religion is not very
efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.”
-- Bill Gates,
Founder and CEO of Microsoft and Richest man in the world, Quoted in Chicago Tribune, Jan 13, 1997.
I’d have to disagree with this statement! It’s this kind of thinking that
keeps us from spending time in the Word and in Prayer.
Luther: “Work, work from early till late. In fact I have so much to do that
I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”
The truth is that prayer actually makes the day go better. It’s important
to not look at it as something that just “wastes” time. It helps my use of time.
When we pray, we are going to find lots of things trying to get us off
track. It takes self-discipline to stay on track.
I think that sometimes the effect prayer has is seemingly insignificant. It’s
kind of like our lives are a huge ocean liner that gets nudged by a tugboat. Yet
if you nudge the cruise ship enough times, you can have it heading in a new
course. We expect that prayer will always have a HUGE, sudden effect and when
it doesn’t, we stop. We need to keep going and see the cumulative aspect of
prayer – like adding a pinch of incense to the “bowls” in heaven until they are
filled.
The Holy Spirit
It was nice to see the emphasis on the Holy Spirit in prayer. We are to
pray in the realm of the Spirit and in the power of the Spirit.
Study Guide Question #3 – What
are some of the obstacles that keep people from prayer?
pgs. 88-89 – Sin, ignorance of what to pray for, weakness in our body,
Satan.
Spiritual Warfare
Prayer is something that moves God, and we want God moving in our
ministries.
God can bind Satan.
God can influence people.
Hudson Taylor:
“It is possible to move men, through God,
by prayer alone.”
Do we believe this?
Chapter 12 – The Leader and Time
Things we spend time on aren’t always very important:
Illustration
The Fly
Study
Guide Question #5 – Why do spiritual leaders often feel undue pressure in
the use of time?
Perhaps we let things creep in and take up
all of our extra time, things that aren’t that important, things that sidetrack
us from the most important things.
I also wonder if we haven’t got this notion that we could actually
accomplish everything we think we need to do.
The effectiveness of a leader will be tied to how he or she spends spare
time.
“Each of us has the time to do the whole will of God for our lives” (pg.
94)
Our problem is not too little time, but making better use of the time we
have.
Priorities
We need to be careful about our priorities.
We have a choice over MUCH of what we do with our time.
Jesus spent His time doing things that mattered. The strength of moral
character is conserved by refusing the unimportant.
Practical idea:
The example of the man who learned to deal with “interruptions” (pg. 97)
“The Lord must have brought you here. Let us find out why He sent you. Let
us have prayer.”
It is impossible to respond to every need.
Chapter 13 – The Leader and Reading
What did you think of this thought:
“Leaders should determine to spend a minimum of half an hour a day reading
books that feed the soul and stimulate the mind.”
Why read?
To gain spiritual benefit
For intellectual growth
To cultivate your preaching and writing style
To acquire new information
To have fellowship with great minds.
What to read
Only the “best”
Biographies
Things that stretch us
How to read
Meditate on what you read – take time to think through what you’re reading
Taking notes on what you read – helping you to remember better
Put what you read into practice
Study Guide Question #6 – If you
were stranded on an island, what three books (or magazine subscriptions) would
you most desire?
The Bible (of course), Biographies: Finney, Moody, Spurgeon; Newsweek.
Chapter 14 – Improving Leadership
Recognizing weaknesses, making corrections, cultivating strengths
Intensity
Study Guide Question #8 –What
does it mean to lead with intensity? How does a person learn to do this?
I think intensity comes from knowing what you’re supposed to be doing or
saying. I think this comes from time spent with God: in His Word and in prayer.
Study Guide Question #9 –
Discuss the idea that spiritual leadership is always top down, not bottom up. What
extremes pose dangers for this view? What problems does this view solve?
One danger can come if the leader is a “tyrant”, uncaring for concerns or
thoughts of others, or is simply not Spirit-led.
Illustration
The Lord Is My Shepherd
Years ago, when our daughters were very young, we’d drop them off at our
church’s children’s chapel on Sundays before the eleven
o’clock service. One Sunday, just as I was about to open the door
to the small chapel, the minister came rushing up in full vestments. He said he
had an emergency and asked if I’d speak to the children at their story time. He
said the subject was the Twenty-third Psalm. Just as I was about to get up from
the back row and talk about the good shepherd, the minister burst into the room
and signaled to me that he would be able to do the story time after all. He
told the children about sheep, that they weren’t smart and needed lots of
guidance, and that a shepherd’s job was to stay close to the sheep, protect
them from wild animals and keep them from wandering off and doing dumb things
that would get them hurt or killed. He pointed to the little children in the
room and said that they were the sheep and needed lots of guidance. Then the
minister put his hands out to the side, palms up in a dramatic gesture, and
with raised eyebrows said to the children, “If you are the sheep then who is
the shepherd?” He was pretty obviously indicating himself. A silence of a few
seconds followed. Then a young visitor said,” Jesus, Jesus is the shepherd.”
The young minister, obviously caught by surprise, said to the boy, “Well, then,
who am I?” The little boy frowned thoughtfully and then said with a shrug” I
guess you must be a sheep dog.” I remember the look on that young minister’s
face every time I get to thinking that I’m the shepherd in charge of some of
god’s sheep. There’s only one shepherd of the flock—and I’m not He.
- Keith Miller
The good thing about this “style” is that the least spiritual persons in
the group (hopefully at the bottom) don’t direct things.
If we have time – cover some of the things we didn’t get to last week:
Chapter 9 – More Essential Qualities of Leadership
Humor
Anger
Study Question #4: How can anger
help a leader? How can it hurt?
Anger at the right things for the right reasons can do good. People need to
see that you will take action at the things that need taking care of. If I am
angry at the hurt others face, and I’m seeking God’s best, then it can be good.
Anger is dangerous when I’m the cause of the anger.
Anger should be at injustice and abuse that dishonors God and enslaves the
weak.
Holy anger is open to abuse.
Anger is sinful (pg. 69-70) when:
(these are good!)
1.
To favor a
resentment or feud, we imagine an injury done to us
2.
An injury
done to us becomes, in our minds, greater than it really is
3. Without
real injury, we feel resentment on account of pain or inconvenience
4. Indignation
rises too high, and overwhelms our ability to restrain
5. We
gratify resentments by causing pain or harm out of revenge
6. We
are so perplexed and angry at sin in our own lives that we readily project
anger at the sin we find in others
(Why we need to learn grace …)
I’m considering that before someone is allowed into a leadership position
over a ministry at the church, they have to pass a test: They have to have
gotten mad at me for something, gotten over it, and have continued in the
church!
Patience
Toughest in personal relationships
A leader shows patience by not running too far ahead of his followers and
thus discouraging them.
Not being impatient in weakness (GRACE)
Waiting for others to come on board with your ideas:
(pg. 71) D.E. Hoste:
“I shall never forget the impression made upon me by Hudson Taylor in
connection with these affairs. Again and again he was obliged either to greatly
modify or lay aside projects which were sound and helpful but met with
determined opposition … Later, in answer to patience continuance in prayer, many
of these projects were put into effect.”
Friendship
Leaders can be measured by the number and quality of their friends.
Drawing the best out of people requires relationship – that requires
understanding friendship.
Tact and Diplomacy
Tact: The ability to deal with people sensitively, to avoid giving offense,
to have a feel for the proper words or responses to a delicate situation.
Understanding how people feel and react.
Inspirational Power
Inspiring others to service and sacrifice.
Churchill to his cabinet after France
fell to the Germans: “Gentlemen, I find this rather inspiring.”
Executive Ability
Learning to organize, keeping things methodic and orderly.
Careful planning
The Therapy of Listening
Genuine listening seeks to understand another without prejudgment.
Leaders who want to show sensitivity should listen often and long, and talk
short and seldom.
The Art of Letter Writing
Letters that are encouraging, gracious in compliments, rich in sympathy,
but also faithful to correct faults.
The danger is the lack of tone, the dangers of e-mail, people
misunderstanding what you’ve written.