R³

Going to use this section to bring your attention to some of the treasures that I have been excavating. I believe very much in one of Rick Warren’s life principle.

Every leader is a learner, and the minute you stop learning you stop leading.
-Rick Warren

So here’s something interesting to kick off this series.
(Most blog references can be found under my Link Highlights.)

April 30th, 2008 Steven Furtick wrote:

I can’t stop thinking about this lately:
Is it possible that the key to Elevation’s continued growth lies in my ability to lead less?
To spend less of my time executing and almost all of it empowering?
I’m not talking about passive or nebulous leadership. It will always be my responsibility (and my passion, and my honor) to lead wholeheartedly and boldly in key venues and to key people.
Developing and communicating clear and thorough direction will always be on my job description.

But I think the bigger this thing becomes, the more time I’ll spend receiving vision from God, and the less time I’ll spend implementing it at a hands on level.
It’s a brand new paradigm for me: I can lead better by leading less.

Read more of his articles here.

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
-Winston Churchill

Imagine if you have 5 minutes with any person in the world, living in any era, and you are allowed to ask him or her only one question, what would it be?

Bill Hybels. Rick Warren. George Bush. Mother Theresa. Andy Stanley. John Ortberg. CS Lewis. Bill Gates. Bono. Lee Kuan Yew. Billy Graham. George Soros. Warren Buffet. Ravi Zacharias. Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama. Adolf Hitler. Mao Zedong. Donald Trump. Angelina Jolie. Martin Luther King Jr. John Wesley.

What are your convictions?

These beliefs alter destinies. It determines how these people lived their lives. Given that the life is lived proper and consistent, this question becomes rhetorical.

No one doubted Hitler’s conviction, he wrote it in the war. You can’t miss Chris, Torch & Shirley’s convictions*; it’s penned down with their lives!

I pray that question remains rhetorical in my life.

PS: For those who want a copy of the sharing of their convictions they did in Careleader’s Meeting, drop me a comment with your email address and I will mail it to you. I couldn’t seem to host the files online…

The greatness of an organisation is synonymous to the greatness of its leader. And the greatness of a leader is synonymous to the greatness of his vision
-Anonymous
(Credits: Andrew’s blog)

There lies a world of difference between good leadership and outstanding leadership. This quality is one of the most underrated and overlooked aspects.

Good leadership is abundant; just don’t lead your people off the cliff.
Outstanding leadership is a rarity; they discover new continents.

They don’t seem to make Christopher Columbus-es anymore.

Here’s something for all Christian leaders who have been in the system long enough to understand that workings and procedures. We know the phrasing and words to say to justify ourselves, but at the end of the day, it’s all about our heart’s motive.

[John 12:3-6]
Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages. ” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

This is what I call the “Holy Excuse”; using something biblical to cover up something else carnal.

Classics Works:
We did not work hard to grow the group - God is testing us in perservance
I don’t want to get out of my comfort zone - I do not sense God’s calling for me
I want to hang out more with the opposite gender - I like to fellowship
I don’t want to do it now - It’s not yet God’s timing

[Jeremiah 17:9]
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

No wonder God judges the heart.

Disclaimer: I’m not an Obama supporter; I’m a Singaporean for goodness’s sake! However, this guy said something that really stirred the inner recesses of my heart

People often ask why I liked Superman that much. I kept telling them its a symbolic representation of the power I wanted from God, but I never really did explain it thoroughly.

Well, like any other idealistic youngster, I wanted to change the world for the better. It took no doctorate or religious brainwashing for me to realize that the world is screwed up. I am sick of the injustice present in the world. I cannot stand by and permit evil to take its course. My conscience would not allow me to commit inaction. I should not, I will not and I must not. In that aspect, I totally agree with Bonhoeffer.

“If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained to his sister, “then I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try and wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”

The German theologian, a pacifist, was attempting to convey why he had joined with others to plot an unsuccessful assassination of Adolf Hitler. The most extreme ambition is to attempt revolution. Bonhoeffer tried and failed and was executed on April 9, 1945, as a result.

Perhaps I might need to start a revolution, create a revival, raise a riot, by any methods, using any means. I do not fear hard work, but I only fear helplessness in stamping out evil.

Hence I came to a conclusion. To have any visible and impressionable impact on this world, we will need power. We will require as much power as possible, as much power as we can get and we cannot be ashamed to ask for it. Without it, there can be no hope of a change. No hope of a significant change.

Therefore I strived for power, or positions of power. I wanted to be a politician; perhaps I can redirect a country. I wanted to be rich businessman; perhaps currency can readjust the world’s trajectory. In that sense, I would love to be an “Obama” - Someone who asked for power so that he can change the world.

“…because good intentions were not enough. We’re not fortified with political power… and political will.“
-Barack Obama’s Speech in Youngstown [1.00-1.08]

However, as I mature in Christ, I have come to understand that secular power is not enough. Policies cannot change our human condition. Legislation cannot stop us. Economy cannot save us. Education cannot mould us. We are still greedy for money, unkind to the minority. We are still committing murders, starting wars. We are still poor in spirit. I have come to realize, what we need exactly is actually the redemptive power of Christ. If you know the history of this term, you would know its irony from its usage by the predecessors. Yet my limited vocabulary can express it in no other forms.

Christ is our “Final Solution“.

The surgeon who only takes out half the tonsils or half the appendix risks as much infection or shock as if he did the whole job. And he has not cured the condition, has indeed made it worse. He either operates or he doesn’t. Similarly, the effective decision-maker either acts or he doesn’t acts. He does not take half-action. This is the one thing that is always wrong, and the one sure way not to satisfy the minimum specifications, the minimum boundary conditions.

-Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive