Guidance from Overlooked Men and Women of the Bible

Category: Leadership (Page 15 of 22)

For the Love of Reading – Books I Read in 2016

I enjoy reading. It’s a pleasure that never grows old. I read a great deal as I work in ministry and I read just for fun.

This year I’ve read some excellent books and also read some that were not so great, but that’s how it goes. Here my list of the books (with the author’s last name) that I read this past year, in the order I read them. You’ll find **highlighted** the books I enjoyed the most and recommend highly. Happy reading!

Lead like Jesus – Blanchard & Hodges
** The Witches – Schiff **
The Kill Artist – Silva
Movements That Change the World – Addison
Predictable Success – McKeown
Impact – Irwin
Leadership and Self-Deception – Arbinger Institute
** Dead Wake – Larson **
H3 Leadership – Lomenick
The English Assassin – Silva
** The Things They Carried – O’Brien **
Multipliers – Wiseman
Native Son – Wright
** Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus – Qureshi **
The Water is Wide – Conroy

Black Hawk Down – Bowden
The Girl in the Glass – Ford
Accelerate – Kotter
** This Change is Everything – Sebastian ** 
The Prince of Tides – Conroy
** I Once Was Lost – Everts & Schaupp **
** The Revenant – Punke **
The Stoning of Soraya M. – Sahebjam
Delighting in the Trinity – Reeves
The Way Is Made By Walking – Boers
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Dillard
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind – Kamkwamba
** Church History in Plain Language – Shelley **
The Climb to Hell – Olsen
The Confessor – Silva

** Heroic Leadership – Lowney **
** Confederates: A Novel – Keneally **
Pope Joan: A Novel – Cross
A Life God Rewards – Wilkinson
The Sabbath – Heschel
Epic – Eldredge
The Fox was Ever the Hunter – Muller
True Community – Bridges
A Death in Vienna – Silva
Discovering the Camino de Santiago – Markey
Night of the Grizzlies – Olsen
Create vs. Copy – Wytsma
Being White – Harris & Schaupp
** The Bridge on the Drina – Andric **

The Color of Wealth – Lui et al
Danny the Champion of the World – Dahl
Prince of Fire – Silva
The Coffee Trader – Liss
** The First Time We Saw Him – Mikalatos ** 
** Follow the River – Thom **
Longshot in Missouri – Baker
** In the Sanctuary of Outcasts – White **
The Messenger – Silva
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals – Piper
The Confessions of Nat Turner – Styron
A Man Called Ove – Backman
Eat, Move, Sleep – Rath
** Hillbilly Elegy – Vance **

Finally, in December I finished my “read through the Bible in a year” program, so I include: ** The Holy Bible, New International Version **

Surprised by Jesus?

Supper at Emmaus, by Caravaggio

Supper at Emmaus, by Caravaggio

I love this painting. The original hangs in the British Gallery in London where I recently bought a large print. I’m going to frame it and put it up somewhere in our house (location tbd by my wife).

What do I like about it? I love the reactions of the two disciples when they realize that Jesus is sitting with them. Read the story again, it’s found in Luke 24:13-32, where two disciples met Jesus along the road after the crucifixion. They thought Jesus to be dead and were confused and disheartened by the recent events. The risen Jesus walked with them and explained all that had happened from scripture. As they neared their destination, the men asked Jesus to stay and dine with them, still not recognizing him.

It’s when Jesus blessed the bread and broke it for their supper that their eyes were opened. Caravaggio captures their surprise at that instant in his painting. Notice the third man, the innkeeper, who is standing next to Jesus. He does not know who Jesus is, not yet, so his face doesn’t register a response. But the two disciples, they know. Their eyes go wide and they start out of their seats. The intensity of the scene blows me away. Jesus is alive!

For the people who knew Jesus and had literally walked with him, this painting encapsulates the profound changes that swept their lives when Jesus rose from the dead. The world now has hope, life is not in vain, the Savior still walks among us! Scripture records that these men immediately returned to Jerusalem to report the Risen Savior.

How about you? Have you been surprised by Jesus lately? Has the intensity of your faith, of how you see Jesus, ever matched that found in this painting? Perhaps it’s time to ask Jesus to walk with you for awhile, to become real to you again. Maybe it’s time to ask Jesus to join you at supper?

 

 

Out of Africa

 

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The student leaders at the University of Botswana hosted our group of ministry leaders for a prayer walk of their campus on a sunny afternoon. And when I say sunny, I mean hot and sunny, with temps hovering just over 100 degrees. As we strolled in small groups and prayed for their fellow students, I found myself subtly guiding our group to the few patches of shade along our route. A few minutes later, I found myself praying, “Lord, don’t let me fall over from heat exhaustion in the middle of this campus!” The Botswana students certainly have a higher heat tolerance than this North American.

I was in Botswana for several days of meetings with Cru African student ministry leaders. Men and women attended from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Namibia, Mauritius, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Tanzania. Many of these are young leaders, in their 20’s or early 30’s and many are pioneering new ministries and attempting to reach new campuses. The conference covered aspects of leadership, coaching their staff and students and launching new campus ministries. Their goal is to get to hundreds of new campuses by 2020.

I spoke a couple of times, including a talk on Servant Leadership and a devotional talk on the spiritual realities we face as ministers. We also attended a student meeting one evening at the University of Botswana. Student meetings on different continents often look different, but it’s encouraging to see the common threads of a commitment to growing in faith and reaching friends with the gospel. And, trying to meet members of the opposite sex. This aspect never changes!

Please join me in praying for these young leaders in Africa. Pray for their success in launching new campus movements and pray that many of their peers will come to faith and influence their continent for Christ!

 

One Man, One Beast – Creating the U of Botswana

In the 1970’s, the nation of Botswana, at the time one of the poorest in the world, was struggling to develop their national university. A fund-raising campaign called One Man, One Beast, was started to raise the money necessary to fully launch the university. Every family in Botswana was asked to contribute anything they could, including cash, cattle, grain, eggs – literally anything! It took several years, but by 1982 the university was established. Today it’s a large, modern, beautiful campus, one of which any nation would be proud. The One Man, One Beast campaign is immortalized in this statue that stands outside the university library.

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The One Man, One Beast statue at the University of Botswana. Seated are some students, several of whom had grandparents who gave cattle to help start the university.

 

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