Leading By Example

I have just been blown away by the number of people that are being saved as a result of the outreaches that are going on in my church. I've never personally witnessed so many salvation's. Just this past week our youth group under the leadership of Shawn Symons, lead 4 young people to Christ at Jackson Square in downtown Hamilton. To my knowledge this is the second time they have been there. There were seven baptized today, four of whom were giving their life to the Lord for the first time as a result of others witness and friendship. When someone gives their life to Christ at my church, a candle is lit at the front of the church. There haven't been very many weeks since I started attending last October when that candle hasn't been lit. I asked myself why? Why is this happening? The answer I received was because there has not been one week go by when the Word Of God and the Gospel has not been preached from the pulpit. God's Word is powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. Now our church is going out door to door throughout this city to bring the gospel to people in their homes, lead by the senior pastor. Wow! That's leadership by example. This is exactly the example Jesus himself and his disciples left for us to follow. It's so exciting to be part of something that you know is in the center of God's will lead by the Holy Spirit.
A growing church is a healthy church.
I'm just so thankful for what the Lord is doing and allowing me to be a part of it.
Praise God!

LEADERSHIP TIPS

I was looking for something to read today before starting my shift, anticipating a slow day, since nothing was open and the strike halted all Canada Day celebrations. That amounts to people not travelling around and a holiday for the bus driver. Lot's of time to read at the end of the line. Nothing was open, so I picked up this free magazine from a stand at Royal York Subway Station called " Fifty Five Plus Magazine". Surprisingly, it had some interesting articles in it. The first one I read was about a retired Major-General Lewis Mackenzie, who is retired from the Armed Forces and is now speaking on leadership and racing cars. He is very highly respected and in much demand as a public speaker and lecturer. What caught my eye was some tips on leadership taken from his book " Soldiers Make Me Look Good". I thought I would like to share them with you. These tips come from pages 231 to 248 of his book.
Here they are:

Definition: Leadership is getting people to do what they don't necessarily want to do, and having them enjoy the experience.

Tip:

-be yourself

-Lead by wandering about: your primary responsibility is the people who work for you.

- Listen: pay attention and pick up good ideas.

- Set difficult but achievable objectives: determine how much is enough to be proud of and how much is too much to ask.

- Accept responsibility, even when you're not responsible. Accepting responsibility frequently makes the problem go away much more quickly.

- Be an actor. This means be consistent. A good leader does not exhibit moodiness.

- Think outside the box. Step back and think about the problem. Don't just tinker with the status quo.

- Strive for ethical decision-making. Imagine that someone you love is looking over your shoulder when the decision involves an ethical issue. Then you will do the right thing.

- Have the courage to disagree. It's a leaders job to create an atmosphere in which honest disagreements are aired.

- Prepare and train your subordinates.

- Be approachable.

Good advice from someone with over 35 years experience and has spoken to over 1,ooo,ooo people. He also wrote a best seller in 1993 called " The Road To Sarajevo".
He is also humble enough to say; " I'm not an author". He'd rather be known as a race car driver. He does that very well too!

Very Interesting.