We want to speak together in this session
on leadership, on the principles of spiritual leadership.
I'd like you to turn in your Bible
to 1 Timothy chapter 3.
I will try to speak slowly for those
that are doing translation work into other languages.
1 Timothy chapter 3, this is a true
saying, if a man desire the office of
a bishop, he desireth a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband
of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior,
given to hospitality and apt to teach, not
given to wine, not no striker, not greedy
of filthy lucre or money, but patient, not
a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well
his own house, having his children in subjection
with all brevity, seriousness.
For if a man know not how to
rule his own house, how shall he take
care of the church of God?
Not a novice, lest being lifted up with
pride, he fall into the condemnation of the
devil.
Moreover, he must have a good report of
them which are without, lest he fall into
reproach and the snare of the devil.
Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double
-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy
of filthy lucre or money, holding the mystery
of the faith in a pure conscience.
And let these also first be proved, then
let them use the office of a deacon,
being found blameless.
Even so must their wives be grave, not
slanders, sober, faithful in all things.
Let the deacons be the husbands of one
wife, ruling their children in their own house
as well.
For they that have used the office of
a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good
degree and great boldness in the faith which
is in Christ Jesus.
These things I add I unto thee, hoping
to come unto thee shortly."
Now here we have a very clear explanation,
a very clear challenge of some of the
principles of spiritual leadership.
And I recommend that you take time to
study this chapter.
And of course there are other parts of
the Word of God that very clearly tell
us what is expected of us as leaders.
Let me say first of all that I
don't think any of us realize how much
more leaders are needed today in the Church
and in Christian work.
The number of people responding to the Gospel
on a worldwide basis far surpasses the number
of leaders who are being trained up to
teach them and to ground them in the
Word of God.
You know it's an incredible thing that you
go to some places in Great Britain and
you find in a small assembly seven, eight,
nine men capable of leadership and of teaching.
And you can go to huge churches and
assemblies in Asia and Africa and not find
two men among 200 capable of really teaching
the Word and grounding people in the Word
of God.
And this is also even true in certain
parts of Europe.
There are large churches in certain countries in
Europe and if you find sometimes one or
two capable of really teaching the Word, of
really being a spiritual leader, it's sometimes unusual.
And all over the world Christian leaders have
acknowledged the fact that there is a dearth
of Christian leadership.
This is one of the reasons that in
Operation Mobilization we have become so involved in
training leaders starting at the very beginning with
very young people.
I don't believe that most of you in
this room today are bishops or even deacons,
but I believe that you could be put
into the classification of verse 10.
And let these also first be proved.
Let these also first be proved.
You must begin somewhere.
Spiritual leaders are not just born.
They don't just fall out of some evangelical
tree.
They have to be made.
And though there is the anointing of the
Spirit, there is also the training.
Now the method of training in the New
Testament was not Bible school.
I'm not saying I'm against Bible school.
God seems to have used Bible schools.
But the method in the New Testament was
that those who were in training were in
a local assembly or church and were being
taught by the already existing leaders.
And so the teaching and the gift was
passed on from one down to the other.
Today everything seems to be at times in
a complete state of chaos.
The rules of the game seem to be
almost thrown out.
But still there is in some ways no
better method for you to learn spiritual leadership
than to somehow get at the feet of
a man of God.
Now that's not so easy these days.
But if you can do it, I believe
you can learn far more through that method.
Especially if you can live with such a
person, travel with such a person, listen to
such a person.
I think it's the pride of our own
heart that makes us unwilling to study and
as much as lies in us copy through
the strength in Christ the lives of the
men who really are making an impact.
The Apostle Paul said, Be followers of me.
And I like that because it shows that
this reality in Christ is not something just
way out of reach.
And it was a living reality in Paul
and he wanted us to follow him in
that same way as he followed Christ.
I believe one of the ways that we
can learn something about leadership in our day
is by reading the books of Christian leaders.
And studying their writings.
As often times you will find the secret
to their spiritual life in their writings.
To me it's completely ridiculous for anyone in
evangelism not to take some time to study
the writings of Billy Graham.
The man who has made probably the greatest
impact in our generation in the area of
evangelism.
Regardless of whether you think he's making some
mistakes in some areas or not.
If you can't learn anything from him then
I would say that you probably can't learn
much, period.
Of course it's easy for us to criticize
other leaders.
And get caught up in our own pride
feeling that we know better.
But the word of God says by their
fruit you shall know.
Firstly that's one's life.
You know one of the miracles of Billy
Graham's life is that all these years hardly
anyone has ever brought an accusation against his
life.
And he is a man that is living
the life.
No one is perfect.
And if you want to sit at the
feet of someone who is perfect well then
don't try anything on this earth.
And I believe that we can learn much
from the writings of some of these men.
Reading some of the sermons of some of
the old saints who are now with the
Lord.
Men like Spurgeon, Booty, some of the great
soul winners like Dr. Wilson.
And other men, like men in Asia such
as Buck Sink.
Or one who's gone on to be with
the Lord, Sadhu Sundar Singh.
And others, there's not time to mention a
lot of names.
And I believe as you sit at the
feet of these men and as you read
their writings and apply it to your own
life certain principles will just come looming out.
There will be some areas where leaders will
not agree.
And different leaders have different emphasis.
I've been greatly encouraged through listening to some
of the tapes and just reading a little
so far and having some very good personal
contact with Dr. Francis Shaitan.
Here's a man we can learn.
He's completely different from say Buck Sink or
Watchman Nee who we cannot sit at his
feet in his prison cell with him in
China.
But through his writings, now three volumes in
the Spiritual Man we can learn so much,
so much.
However I would say that none of this
is a substitute for getting out and doing
something.
This is where OM has seemingly the advantage
over many other leadership programs.
Not that there are that many leadership training
programs, I don't know many.
Because you will have a terrific opportunity this
summer many of you to get out on
a team, out in evangelism and put these
things into practice.
But what we are facing in OM is
similar to what the Church is facing all
over the world.
The number of people interested in coming compared
to the number of mature, trained leaders is
way out of proportion.
And this is why some leaders are completely
overwhelmed and though they may try to work
18 hours a day and counsel three times
as many people as is sensible and write
five times as many letters as is normal
you can't keep up.
More leaders are desperately needed in OM if
we are going to continue at the present
pace even if we are going to keep
up with the existing program.
It's alright to talk about expansion but you
cannot expand any further than God gives you
spirit-filled men who can take up responsibility.
Because if you do, you'll soon be putting
novices into man-sized gaps and then you
will have some interesting situations and OM has
had a long history of such situations.
And I'm sobered that we may learn something
of these principles of spiritual leadership.
Now it's been thrilling to see people trained
in these conferences and through these crusades moving
out all over the world in other missions.
And young people who have been trained in
OM are now leaders in various groups.
Many are pastors of churches or elders in
local assemblies now this is from years back
and carrying on major responsibilities.
And I think the proof is in that
which has taken place in the lives of
those who have had this training.
And I think most of you know how
few opportunities there are like this to really
think about this thing of leadership.
It's not being proud or pushing yourself to
be willing to be a leader.
And the word of God indicates very clearly
in verse 1 if a man desire the
office of a bishop.
So obviously there's nothing wrong with desiring to
be a leader.
Why is this?
Because a leader is a servant.
It's a false concept of leadership that has
given us wrong ideas in this area.
The leader is the servant.
The Lord Jesus said he who is greatest
among you let him serve.
And probably one of the most twisted ideas
about leadership is that it's a position where
you are to be served where you have
special privileges where you are treated higher than
someone else.
And though a man must be honored for
his work's sake he is firstly called to
be a servant.
Let us turn for a moment into the
book of Thessalonians and just see a few
verses about the biblical basis for leadership.
Thessalonians.
It's 1 Thessalonians.
Verse 12.
Chapter 5.
Verse 12.
And we beseech you brethren to know them
which labor among you and are over you
in the Lord and admonish you and to
esteem them very highly in love for their
work's sake and be at peace among yourselves.
And then Hebrews 13.
Hebrews 13.
Verse 7 and verse 17.
Every once in a while you may find
someone who says they doesn't believe in leadership.
They believe in just getting all their instructions
from above.
Well there's a number of verses that you
can show them.
Verse 7.
Remember them which have the rule over you
who have spoken unto you the word of
God whose faith follow considering the end of
their conversation.
Verse 17.
Obey them that have the rule over you.
The last thing many people want today.
To have someone ruling over them.
What are they going to do with these
verses?
And submit yourselves for they watch for your
soul as they must give account that they
may do it with joy and not with
grief for that is unprofitable for you.
Now these are very very very strong verses.
If you are a team leader this summer
or if you're watching this television tape and
you're a pastor or a leader you will
give account to God for the spiritual life
of those under you.
This is serious.
And I believe that we need to see
just how important it is therefore to get
these principles of spiritual leadership.
Let's move into them for sake of time.
First of all the spiritual leader must be
a man of prayer.
He must be a man of prayer.
There's not time to begin to emphasize this.
We've given to you at this conference this
book on prayer by Hallowsby and I trust
that you will take time to read it.
The great Norwegian Christian leader has written on
the subject of prayer.
There are many books on the subject of
prayer.
I suggest that in the next year or
two that at all times you have at
least one book around apart from the Bible
which speaks very much on the subject of
prayer that you have at least one book
around such as this one or any other
book on prayer and just read it.
Don't read it all at once.
Books on prayer cannot just be raced through.
I usually read a little bit.
I have to fall on my knees and
repent of prayerlessness or lack of prayer.
But the greatest area where Satan will attempt
to attack you is your prayer life.
If he knocks out your prayer life basically
he's got you regardless of outward appearance.
Regardless of the outward show.
The leader must know reality in worship.
Must know reality in intercession.
And this goes into many areas of leadership.
The leader is the man who will be
taking time constantly to pray with others.
This should be one of the most important
things you're doing in this conference.
Spontaneously praying with others.
So often times we engage in idol talk
which would be used for praying together.
We should be praying of course in groups.
And the leader is exhorted in the word
to make sure he has a proper prayer
life with his wife.
And vice versa.
And I tell you when you get married
you'll discover that Satan will do everything he
can to keep you from having a good
prayer life with your own wife or husband.
So the spiritual leader must be a man
of prayer.
If you want to get involved in leadership
some of you are involved whether you want
to or not you must learn something of
prayer.
Don't get discouraged over your failures.
Don't get discouraged because you're not praying high
or David Brainerd.
But press on in your prayer life.
Don't let the activities of the day squeeze
out that time with God.
The best day I had this past month
was a day and a night that I
just got completely away from everything alone with
God.
And I saw more result from that day
than a whole week of running on the
evangelical treadmill.
You've got to get time with God if
you want to be a man of God.
And that's whether you're a leader or not.
You may say well I'm not going to
be a leader.
Well you need to get on your knees
and learn how to pray and one of
the main things you should do is pray
for leaders.
Secondly, the spiritual leader is a man of
the word.
You say oh how basic.
But isn't it often the problem that we
miss on the basics?
A man of the word.
He must know where he stands in regards
to the word of God.
He must be able to answer people who
have questions about the word of God.
And why it is the word of God.
One of the most important crisis experiences in
the life of Billy Graham was when he
came to a place of deeper and stronger
faith that this book was indeed the word
of God.
Despite the fact there were some things he
couldn't understand the evidence was so heavy on
this side that he came to the conclusion
this was truly the word of God and
he must preach it and live it and
believe it.
And it was after that, very shortly after
that that he had his great Los Angeles
crusade and began to see a complete turn
in his ministry.
Some of you are going to have to
wrestle with some problems.
You may have to do some thinking but
you must come to a place where you
know this is the word of God and
where you trust it.
It was inspired by God.
Promptable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in
righteousness.
Some may be watching this program who do
not believe the Bible is the word of
God.
The main assault of Satan on the church
has been really to undermine belief in the
inspiration of the Bible.
Once that goes everything starts caving in.
And in some countries we know that 80
% of the churches are liberal with pastors
who do not believe the Bible is the
word of God.
Now in the past 10 years and I
must not get caught up on this, it's
a whole separate message but in the past
10 to 15 to 20 years all liberalism
has caved in.
The higher critics, most of them rather low
characters the higher critics have taken a terrific
beating and the evangelical position has become much,
much firmer.
And I think if you listen to some
of the tapes by Dr. Schaefer and by
other men, you will see how this is
true.
There are plenty of reasons why we can
just rejoice knowing that this book is the
word of God.
It can be trusted.
And some of you have been reading some
of the books that will help you along
this line.
But more than that, it's a matter of
getting into the word.
Perhaps more than that, it's letting the word
get into you.
And to me, I feel very strongly that
there's no substitute for meditation and memorization.
They go together.
Not just studying.
Not just reading for sure.
But meditation.
Memorization of the word of God.
You can use that in your preaching.
You can use it in your personal work.
And it's so important to build up your
own spiritual life.
So remember that.
A spiritual leader is a man of the
word.
He's a man who when other people are
reading other things, he's got his Bible open.
There's nothing wrong with reading the newspaper.
There's nothing wrong with reading magazines.
I believe a spiritual leader is a man
who knows what's happening in the world.
He hasn't got his head in the sand.
But he's constantly going back to the book.
He's constantly giving the book, the word of
God, priority.
And that's true over all books, including very
good Christian books.
Don't let devotional books and challenge books take
and hedge away that time you need in
the word itself.
Learn how to study the word of God.
I wish that we could have a course
in OM, in what's called hermeneutics.
This whole theology of how to interpret the
scripture.
It's very important.
We see from the Jehovah Witnesses that once
you have a false method of interpretation, you
can get anything you want.
But the word gives the clue.
It says compare scripture with scripture.
And I believe that if we would learn
to take the whole counsel of God and
compare one scripture with other scripture, we could
not get off on these tangents.
But too often today we compare scripture with
our own vain imaginations.
And then with that scripture verse, we go
off on every wild tangent you can think
of.
And men are defending everything possible from the
Bible today, including immorality.
There have been always those men in history,
and there are today, who clearly defend their
immorality from the scriptures.
Taking some verse out of context, perhaps, generally
from the Old Testament.
And so and so in the Old Testament
was a man of God.
He had a number of wives and concubines.
Well, the Lord has given me this special
dispensation.
It's incredible what people do with the Bible.
It should just break our hearts.
And it is incredible what the Jehovah Witnesses
are doing.
Every Christian leader should know how to refute
Jehovah Witnesses.
I have noticed more than anything else in
this summer's reports the absolute widespread influence of
the Jehovah Witnesses.
In report after report from Spain, from France,
and from Austria, Jehovah Witnesses.
They are ahead of us many times, confusing
the people.
Now let me tell you there are men
who have been saved from the Jehovah Witness
movement and are being used of God to
bring Jehovah Witnesses out of their confusion.
Baldy Mar, our Mexican director, has brought many
Jehovah Witnesses out of their confusion.
But that's because Baldy Mar, though he's only
had three years of primary school and maybe
one or two years of the small Bible
college, got into the Word on his own
and knows the Word of God more than
98% of all O.M. leaders.
A young Mexican with hardly any education.
In fact, in the early days he used
to study his Bible so much that most
Bibles we've given would last one year and
the pages were falling out and so marked
with punching holes in it.
And so he can answer Jehovah Witnesses.
And he can just stop them cold.
But some of us, with our flimsy knowledge
of the Bible, we can hardly find the
right reference at the right time to answer
their questions.
The spiritual leader is a man of the
Word.
And one of the reasons that we have
these conferences, one of the reasons we have
our study program and also we have the
ship and the Bible school on it, is
to get our old men and others into
the Word.
It takes time.
It's not a matter of one or two
years or three years even in Bible school.
It takes many years to become a master
of the Word of God.
Thirdly, the Christian leader is a lover of
men.
Now you can have all these other things.
You can have faith to move mountains, 1
Corinthians 13 says, written by perhaps one of
the greatest leaders who's ever lived.
And you can even know the Scriptures.
But without love, I'll tell you, it's nothing.
There's not many groups that know the Scriptures
as much as those connected with a sect
known as the Exclusive Brethren.
And big Jim Taylor, who died this past
year or so, his father was a fantastic
man of the Scriptures.
So much so that he went to China
and completely deceived Watchman Nee.
And for a number of years, many years
ago, Watchman Nee became a disciple of Jim
Taylor, or his father.
Because Watchman Nee was so impressed that this
man knew the Bible like no man he
had ever met.
And that's what almost took the whole Watchman
Nee movement into exclusivism.
Later he broke and brought many of the
churches back to a more balanced position.
But many churches never did come back.
And to this day, you have among the
Watchman Nee churches, what's left of them, you
have those who are open, and those that
are much more closed.
And you will find men like that who
really know the Bible.
Really know the Bible.
But you will find so often that one
thing is missing, that love.
I say this with all my heart, when
love is missing, everything goes through it.
Whether it's orthodoxy, or faith, or whatever it
may be.
That love for one another, that love for
people.
I like to read one of my favorite
quotations on the subject of leadership.
A quotation from A.W. Towson.
And notice especially the latter part of this
quote.
The church at this moment needs men.
We languish, that is we want, we look
for men who feel themselves expandable, and expendable
in the warfare of the soul.
Such men will be free from the compulsions
that control weaker men.
They will not be forced to do things
by the squeeze of circumstances.
Their only compulsion will come from within, and
from above.
This kind of freedom is necessary if we
are to have prophets in our pulpits, again,
instead of mascots.
These free men will serve God and mankind
from motives too high to be understood by
the rank and file of religious retainers who
today shuffle in and out of the sanctuary.
They will make no decision out of fear,
take no course out of a desire to
please, accept no service for financial considerations, perform
no religious acts out of mere custom, nor
will they allow themselves to be influenced by
the love of publicity or the desire for
reputation.
The free man has never been a religious
tyrant, nor has he sought to lord it
over God's heritage.
It is fear and lack of self-assurance
that has led men to try to crush
others under their feet.
These have had some interest to protect, some
position to secure.
These have had some interest to protect, some
position to secure.
So they have demanded subjection from their followers.
As a guarantee of their own safety.
But the free man never.
He has nothing to protect, no ambition to
pursue, no enemy to fear.
For that reason, he is completely careless of
his standing among men, if they follow him
well and good.
If not, he loses nothing that he holds
dear.
But whether he is accepted or rejected, remember
this on your team this summer, whether he
is accepted or rejected, he will go on
loving his people, with sincere devotion, and only
death can silence his tender intercession for them.
I recommend you get a hold of that
quote.
This is the kind of men we need.
Men who are not living for their reputation.
Men who are not living to push their
particular idea, which is always involved in their
ego, onto others.
But men who are free, and who will
go on loving and loving and loving, no
matter what that team member or church member
does or says.
There has never been a leader who has
not been misunderstood.
There has never been a leader who has
not been criticized.
And oftentimes the greatest leaders have been the
most widely criticized.
And if you don't want problems, if you
don't want criticism, if you don't want eventually
a blasting letter from somebody telling you off,
don't get involved in leadership.
Mind you, that happens to followers as well,
so I don't know where you should go.
A lover of men.
Will you take your New Testament as I
did some years ago, and go through it
all and underline every verse on the subject
of love?
Many things are important in life, but without
love, they go off track.
They go off track.
We need the power of the Holy Spirit.
We need the gifts of the Spirit.
We need so many things.
But without love, it's sounding brass and tingling
cymbal, and that can be your team this
summer.
As you go through the villages of France,
you may hear the purr of the engine,
but the Lord of Glory hears the old
brass band, the evangelical band that's been banging
its way around France for the last ten
years since OM began.
May your team not be a tinny band,
but may that sweet savor of love go
out from town to town and village to
village.
I was quite impressed recently when I was
in India, or encouraged, when I met one
of the oldest men in one of the
oldest and most strong movements in Asia.
A movement that wasn't always known for emphasizing
love, and would tend not to preach messages
about love.
And this dear old man, who probably may
not live more than a few more years,
somehow he got a copy of my very
poorly written, not even written, it's just a
rewritten sermon, Revolution of Love.
And all he could do when I met
him, and to others as well, just for
my sake, was rave about this message.
This old man pushing toward 80 was just
raving, this is it, this is it!
This is the answer!
I hope we don't wait until we're 70
or 80 to discover that love is the
answer.
That love is the missing link in so
much evangelical work, and in so many OM
teams.
Every year, the greatest battle in OM, and
I visit almost every team every year, the
greatest battle is always the same.
Generally, a lack of love.
Right behind that, oftentimes, a lack of prayer.
Love is a very practical thing, of course.
It brings patience.
It brings brokenness.
It brings humility.
It brings the spirit of serving.
We have all that it brings in 1
Corinthians 13.
Maybe just before going on to the next
principle, we could just look at that for
a moment.
Have you ever tried putting your name in
1 Corinthians 13?
Just put your name in there.
John suffers long.
Read it, whatever your name is.
John is kind.
You, envy not.
You want not yourself.
You're not puffed up.
Does not behave itself unseemly.
Seeketh not her own.
Not easily provoked.
Thinketh no evil.
Doesn't read very well, does it, with your
name in there?
Sort of almost like somebody banging on a
tin can.
But you know, there's only one name that
fits in there.
There's only one name I've ever read that
really fits in there beautifully.
And that's the name of Jesus.
Jesus suffers long and is kind.
Jesus envieth not.
Jesus wanteth not himself.
He's not puffed up.
Does not behave himself unseemly.
He sought not his own.
He's not easily provoked.
He thought no evil.
Jesus rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in
truth.
Jesus beareth all things.
Jesus believeth all things.
Jesus hopeth all things.
Jesus endureth all things.
Jesus never fails.
I believe, therefore, that the only way to
live this life is through an intimate fellowship
with the Lord Jesus.
But every time we don't see these things,
let's realize we're not walking with Jesus the
way he wants.
This is the measuring rod.
And God's burden isn't to get us trying
to live all this, but this is to
show us when we're not living it so
that we can go afresh in repentance to
the Lord Jesus and ask him to live
this life through us.
In many ways, I feel one of the
most important things in Christian leadership is to
just make sure you never harden your heart.
I've had leaders come to me and say,
look, I've been battling this for five years,
this problem in my life.
What do I do?
I say, look, the main thing is don't
harden your heart.
Keep battling.
I'm still battling this thing of love.
My failures are many, but my heart is
soft by his mercy when he touches me
on any one of these points, whether it's
through a brother or through a situation or
through my wife or even through my children,
I want to break.
And just admit I'm not kind.
That was an unkind word.
And that's what you've got to do on
your team.
If you've never had to repent before your
team any time in the last month, I
doubt really whether you yielded fully to what
the Holy Spirit was trying to do.
I've never had a team for more than
a few days that I didn't have to
go to them or at least to somebody
and say, look, when I said that, that
was verver all the way, forgiving.
Jesus has, and I'm sorry.
Well, if you can go week in and
month in without ever having to break or
humble yourself or say you're sorry, you are
indeed an unusual person.
And if you could write me and share
your secret, I would certainly very much appreciate
it.
Another principle as we come to the end
of our time of spiritual leadership is that
the leader, the spiritual leader is a man
who has a vision.
Many of the principles of this work you
will never be able to do unless you
have a vision.
I'll never forget Daniel Gonzales, the leader of
the work in Spain, preaching once and explaining
how we were finding this discipline in O
.M. Hard because we have no vision.
In other words, it's like trying to do
something with no goal.
For a lot of people, for instance, doing
morning exercise seems ridiculous and it's very hard.
And generally it's because they have no vision
for it.
They're just doing it because, well, somebody said
do it.
But when you have a vision for it,
like Billy Graham does, like Keith Miller who
wrote Taste of New Wine, like dozens of
other Christian workers, men who have made an
impact, when you have a vision like those
men have, or when you get very, very
ill and the doctor says to you, now,
if you want to stay healthy for the
next year, then do this simple little exercise.
When you get a vision for doing something,
then you begin to do it.
A lot of people have a very poor
discipline in regard to brushing their teeth.
Fantastic.
Go around and look at people's teeth.
I don't recommend that as a ministry, but
sometimes in counseling you can't help it.
People open their mouth and there they are,
huge crevices and holes, and it's obvious they
haven't got the brushing their teeth habit.
And I lose that habit.
Every year it diminishes until I go to
the dentist.
Then all of a sudden it's recommitted of
brushing my teeth.
Brushing my teeth several times a day.
And I've been to the dentist several times
in the last month.
I had to have one tooth pulled out,
several others filled, and I've completely rededicated my
life to brushing my teeth.
I just met one Omer back from India,
hasn't been to the dentist in three years,
and is scared to death to go.
But I believe that one of the problems
in little areas like that, and in big
areas, is the lack of vision.
Lack of seeing ahead.
Seeing the problems you're going to face if
you don't discipline your body.
Seeing what's going to happen to your children
if you don't train them up in the
Word.
Seeing what's going to take place on your
teeth if you don't give time to them.
If you don't get into the Word with
them.
If you don't get a relationship with all
of them.
That's involved in this thing of loving them.
Let me just say that unless you're willing
to spend time with team members, you have
no right to have them.
And if you can't spend time when all
you have is a team of 15, or
a team of 10, then, well, you're without
really qualifications to have them.
And if you're a pastor of a church,
or a leader in an assembly, part of
your responsibility is to get out and visit
those people on an individual basis.
Pulpit activity is never a substitute for personal
contact.
People are individuals who must have personal contact.
And that cannot be done by one or
two leaders at the top.
It means every leader has to get involved.
It's impossible for everyone at this conference to
have contact with me or Jonathan.
But it is possible for every one of
them here to have contact with someone in
this room.
And feel and sense that someone cares for
them, someone is interested in them.
One of the greatest therapies in life is
simply having people be able to share their
burden.
I hope that God, even through this time
together this morning, will give us a vision.
Because a leader without a vision will be
going nowhere.
Let us just pray.
Our God and Father, we thank you.
We ask you that you would give these
principles in our life.
For we pray in the name of Jesus
Christ.
Amen.