READING: James 3
LEARNING: Why do people follow me? It’s a question that I have been thinking through lately. A number or years ago, we were on vacation on the East Coast and we stopped at the Minute Man National Park in Lexington, Massachusetts. We’ve been to a lot of Parks and bar none; the story of Paul Revere’s Ride was one of the best multimedia presentations in the National Park System. I remember getting goose bumps as the story was told of him proclaiming the British were coming and mobilizing the countryside to join forces. Other than his character and his ability to connect with those he met, I imagine there were three things he portrayed as he called the community to arms:
1. A Cause. “Wake up. This is urgent. The British are really coming. You could do a lot of things tonight, but get up…THIS is worth fighting for.”
2. A Conviction. “This is not a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. YOU are needed. YOUR ROLE is crucial to the success of our mission.”
3. A Confidence. “We WILL stop them. Don’t be afraid. Even though we are facing the greatest army in the world, TOGETHER WE CAN and WE WILL do this.”
As a leader, you can hold me accountable to not settle for informing people, but to genuinely inspire people toward Christ’s vision. If there are times when I’m lacking Cause, Conviction or Confidence, let me know.
Why do people follow you? Look at page 10 and share how has God uniquely wired you? What area do you need to grow?
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I work with jr high and I think (hope) that I “connect” with them, because I can remember and empathize with what a difficult time those yrs can be. All middle schoolers want to be recognized and respected at their maturity level. They don’t want to be seen as “children” yet they are not “adults”. But they are coming into their own beliefs and they hunger to know for themselves. (Holy Spirit is alive and well in each of them) They don’t want to be lectured to or down at. They want to be heard and they have their own opinions, thoughts and question. They know when your are being real with them and they accept you in not always having all the answers to “everything”.
God allows the events that shape our lives, to shape us as individuals. My daughter Katie had a number of seizures when she was an infant, and when she started school, she needed a lot of tutoring and had difficulty staying focued on her assignments and homework. It became apparent that Katie was a visual learner. I had to develop the ability to explain her homework to her in a very visual way. During our family devotional time, explaning God’s will and direction also had to be taught in a visual way, “parable” style. Over the years, I had a couple of teachers come to me and tell me that Katie had explained things to the other kids in class by using examples I used to reach her. When Katie started her confirmation program, again I utilized visualization to help her through her binder work, and the youth leader at that church picked up on it. He asked me to give a short talk on peer pressure, and I was terrified. But that night, using a movie clip and a jar of marbles and sand, those kids got it and I that’s where I began to work with Jr High. I still run into kids today that remind me of a lesson I barely remember teaching and they tell me how it made an impact on them. Very “God Cool”! Now, I can’t turn it off! When I watch a tv show, commercials, movies or read a book, there it is that constant click of a bible verse or passage that jumps out at me.
I know that I can be a “flooding mess” in that I’ll try to cover way too much and go in way too many directions. I also need to focus on my individual spiritual life. I tend to use my lesson preparation as my personal bible study time instead of taking time to read the bible and allowing God to direct His work in me. God took something that was, I’ll abmit a hardship at first, and allowed to it become a passion that I look forward to using for Him in class.
(By the way, James knew how to use visualization too. Love James 3:3-12)
This topic couldn’t be more timely. I have a team at work that had considerable issues with working together. The leader has been working hard at leading the team by example, defining clear objectives (The Rivers and Floods) and personally working individually with each member of the team. In the end, the team was not a team. He asked that I sit through one of his meetings.
I had just read about the Paul Revere Principle the night before. It was amazing how the two situations between the team and William Dawes. In working through the issues, it became apparent that the leader, although a strong leader in my eyes, wasn’t a strong leader in the eyes of the team. He had most of the traits that motivated people, but was weak in two areas; character and humility. (I had used the traits that were defined in the article as a guideline to determine the issues.)
His team viewed him as not keeping to his word, often working around them to get answers or to change direction, rather than deal with them directly. It is what we call ethics. The second area dealt with his sternness when the team didn’t complete the tasks on time. He was compassionate when the lateness was beyond their control.
We spent a week working through these issues with the leader and the team. I believe that it has created a closer relationship between all of them, including me. I can see God (although this was not a spiritual activity) working through all of this. It has even fostered a stronger relationship with the team and others in the company. One of team member talked to me today indicating how proud he was to be on the team and how he felt that a higher power had directed the outcome. I think it did.
By the way, the leader is a deeply religious individual. We share at least two lunched per week talking about articles relating to Christianity. (He is Catholic.) I am convince that God did intervene and assisted us to resolve this very uncomfortable situation.
Jacklyn,
I think people have an internal authenticity meter (teens even more so). If someone comes across as fake or pretending to have all the answers, we disengage from them as a leader. It’s easy to start making your teaching prep time as your time with God, which eventually leads to burnout. Block out some time this week for JC and Jackie time.
Larry,
Christ seems to keep opening doors at your workplace. Don’t be ashamed to share how your life is lead by Jesus and as God leads, share God’s invitation to begin a personal relationship with Him.
Have you ever read “Five Dysfunctions of Team” by Patrick Lencioni? It’s a great read and might be helpful for your coworker.
It is Monday and earlier today I was thinking how far behind I was in my readings (as in I hadn’t read any of Habitudes nor any of James). My wife, Kim, said she was meeting with her Propel partner tonight and the gym was closed due to a power outage, so I thought it’d be a great chance to catch up.
I started reading through Habitudes and a quote on page 8 hit me like a brick. The quote was, “If the devil cannot make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” Between my “day job”, my merchandising business, ebaying, going to estate sales, racquetball, working out, church activities, and the kids’ soccer, dance, and piano, it seems like I always have somewhere I have to be every day from morning until night.
So tonight I read all 5 Chapters of Habitudes and all 5 books of James. Now I’m not behind anymore. 🙂
Chapter 5 of Habitudes talks about putting your “big rocks first” – As in your top priorities first. I don’t want to jump too far ahead for those of you that haven’t read it yet. However, I know that I need to reorganize the big rocks and prioritize my schedule. My prayer tonight is for God to help me re-prioritize and focus on the truly important things in life.
My youngest daughter, Allie, has a loft bed in her room that is like only 2 feet from the ceiling. Tonight we crawled up in her loft and her and I read through the 5 chapters of James. It is truly amazing the perspective of children. She wanted to read some and at first I said, “no, it’s pretty tough to read.” Then I told her to go ahead and she read through Chapter 5 of James amazingly for an 8-year-old. She read the verse of James 5:12 where it says, “but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no so that you may not fall under judgment”. She has been known to make up some “white lies” from time to time, and as we discussed it she started crying and said she was so sorry for lying to us and she will “never lie again”. It was truly one of those “whoa moments” to have her reading the Bible to me and then break out in tears asking for forgiveness.
I think the Lord put my big rocks in place tonight…
Jeff,
Good work, great honesty…now, “pause” and give yourself time to let Jesus speak to you and lead you personally through the material. I’ve found I don’t listen to God or make the changes He wants to make in my life unless I hit the “Pause” button. Much of our life we live in the “Fast Forward” mode called busyness. Unfortunately, God doesn’t show up to fit our schedule, He wants to our schedule fit around Him. Take some time with Christ, write down your priorities, put together your plan and share it with your Propel Partner. Read “Catalyst: The Starving Baker” (01.04.08) for ideas…
What a guy, that Paul Revere. Reading about him again was much more interesting than when I was in school. I do have some influence as a (good host, doctor/counselor and tour guide) within my family and church family. I only wish I had the same influence on people outside my circle to help grow God’s Kingdom. This is where I am always holding the short end of the stick. There are a few people I could follow through with and don’t and the relationship gets dropped. I can use the excuse of not enough time or energy but the truth is, in those times I am not sensing the urgency that time is short. The time is now and I always need to be alert and aware of the opportunities that come around and follow through in hopes that they will be influenced by Christ in me.
I read half of the Habitudes book and it is really good. I especially thought the river and flood section was totally on. I think most of us try to do too much and end up doing ok but not great. This section has made me rethink by priorities.
Keep it narrow.
The Paul Revere principle
This section is excellent in terms of “the Golden Rule”. The story about the replacement Pastor would make good reading for the entire earth. I really believe humility is a great characteristic and will contiue to work on it.
Tom,
It’s great to see you in the game and posting. Keep pressing in and listening to Christ. He’s doing an awesome stuff in your life and preparing you for greater things. You Rock!!
I think the thing I have to work on the most in leading others the “Paul Revere” way is convictions/passion. I seem to always accept people’s excuses and/or make excuses for them. I hate to admit that I struggle sometime with whether people really NEED Jesus. (It’s interesting that Tim preached on this last Sunday.) I know they need salvation and I know I love following him but I question whether others need him the same way. Now I know in my heart that everyone needs him but still have doubts.
I have a really good friend that I met in college and that I was roommates with all four years. She was even the maid of honor in my wedding. She doesn’t know Jesus and I would love to have her become a Christian but sometime I wonder if her life would really be better with him. And i know she feels the same way. She thinks it’s great that Tim and I have this Christian thing but she doesn’t think she needs it.
So how can I witness to her when I don’t always see the need myself? Something to think about!
So where I lack is the conviction to get people off their butts to join me in my mission because I’m not always sure it would make life better.
This one is a tough one for me… Why do people follow me? Honestly, right now in my life, I don’t see many people really “following me.” I think that at this time in my life, I have voluntarily stepped back from leadership. I really enjoy being a leader, but I think that the reason I don’t feel like I am leading right now is because God wants me to take this time to assess my own life first. The Habatitudes have been a great opportunity for me to do this. Each chapter that I read teaches me something else that I need to work on. Right now, I think it is a little bit of all ten of the reasons on page 10. In my past experiences in leadership, I think my strengths were my humility and my convictions. When others who I led wanted to give up, I would refuse. I would talk with them about how they were feeling and encourage them to continue trying with me. I think in the last couple years I’ve lost some of that. So much has changed in my life in the last two years that I think my heart has weakened a little bit. When I look back at the courage I had in College to walk up to people I had never met before and sit down with them and share Christ with them, I compare it to today where I have such a difficult time even admitting sometimes that I am a Christian for fear of rejection. I need to renew my passion for bringing people to Christ so that God will give me the courage and strength to fight again.
Check out the small sprocket. Again, right on for me. I sometimes feel I push and puh and spin and spin and get nowhere, sometimes go backward. However, I find if I live by Gods principals, I eventually make headway.
When on this treadmill I have learned to pray and this helps.
Ok don’t laugh…I didn’t even remember the story of Paul Revere…ok you can laugh.
This one’s hard for me, mostly because of my own insecurities. I don’t like to think of people following my lead or my example.
Anyway, going back to page 10. I’d have to say, if my team mates or family members are listening to me, it’s not because of my insight, sacrifice, abilities, or experience, but more because of my relationships, intuition, character, humility, relevance, and convictions. Does that make sense?