Altar Call's Greatest Hits

Spiritual Leadership

Many writers have written books that can be fairly deemed a "classic." Brother Lawrence. St. John of the Cross. The guy who wrote Beowulf. But it's much rarer for a writer to pen more than one true classic. J. Oswald Sanders is one of those.

Sanders's book, Spiritual Leadership, ranks with his Spiritual Maturity as a true classic of Christian literature. In fact, I think if I had to prescribe just one book on leadership for pastors and Christians in general, it would be this book.

Sanders methodically and artfully charts the path of spiritual leadership, drawing from Biblical examples like Peter, Paul, Nehemiah, and Moses, as well as more modern voices like Wesley, Tozer, and Ockenga, among many, many others. His chapters on "Prayer and Leadership," "The Leader and Time," "The Leader and Reading," and "Perils of Leadership" were high points for me.

On the whole, the book is one of the few in my library that I have read--and plan to read--repeatedly. It bears reading and re-reading. And, with a fine updated version by Moody Press (adding study questions as well), it should be required reading for every Christ-follower for, as Sanders says, "every Christian is a leader, for we all influence others. All of us should strive to improve our leadership potential" (p. 109).

I Praise God for These Muslims

This is a wonderful story. After the New Year's Eve suicide bombing of a church in Alexandria, Egypt, Egyptian Muslims had promised to act as human shields for the Coptic Christians in their Christmas Eve mass (Copts, like some other Orthodox Christians, celebrate Christmas on January 6), and they were true to their words:

Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had a been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea.

Among those shields were movie stars Adel Imam and Yousra, popular preacher Amr Khaled, the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak, and thousands of citizens who have said they consider the attack one on Egypt as a whole.

“This is not about us and them,” said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly. “We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.”

Free Tools to Change Your Life and Work Forever

A great post from TechPastor.net offers free tools found on the web. Some are for personal productivity, other for Bible study, and more. We've been using several of these at Cobblestone already, but a couple other were new to me. Check it out. You'll be glad you did.

Leaving Churches (Pt. 2, For Those Thinking of Leaving)

This is the second of three blog posts by Scott Hodge, lead pastor of The Orchard in Aurora, Illinois, on the subject of people leaving the church. Tomorrow he will post the third installment, directed at people arriving at a new church. I'll repost that one sometime tomorrow, but visit Scott's blog, anyway. Here it is:

To those thinking of leaving the OLD church.

Offense is never the right reason to leave a church. Leaving a church with offense in your heart is dangerous to your soul. Work it out. That’s the tough side of community that we don’t talk nearly enough about. Often times, it’s through the working out of hurt, pain, or offense that we become more closely connected in our communities. It grows and matures us.

Don’t just disappear. People do this all the time. POOF! They’re gone! (And often times they get offended when the church they left doesn’t desperately chase after them when they’re gone.) Look, if God is behind your decision, then trust that He will give you the courage and strength to have the (yes, somewhat uncomfortable) conversations needed to do it well. Finish your commitments. Connect with your leader through the process. Ask them to pray with you about what you’re feeling. Give God an opportunity to make it seem right with them too.

Don’t look for reasons to leave. If you are….trust me, you’ll find plenty of them! If God is calling you to leave, you don’t have to wait until you find a tangible reason to do so. Sitting around waiting for a “reason” can turn you into a nasty, judgmental, and negative person. It’ll hurt your soul and probably others too. In fact, if you’re walking around looking for reasons to leave, then I’d suggest looking at the inwardly condition of your heart and soul.

Don’t be negative. I hate hearing people talk negatively about the church or pastor they just left. Chances are, those same people will be standing in front of my pastor friend down the street saying the same thing about me in a matter of months. If you feel like you need to talk negatively about the pastor or church you’re leaving, chances are……you are the one who needs to change first.

Show Gratitude. Take time to say ‘thank you’ to the pastor and leadership of the church you’re leaving. If you stayed too long and are offended, that’s your fault – not theirs. When someone takes the time to send me an email or letter saying ‘thank you’ for pouring into their lives as they transition to a different church, that’s huge! I have a ton of respect for people who do that.

HOW you do things is just as important (if not even more important) as WHAT you do.

Leaving Churches (Pt. 1, for Pastors)

Scott Hodge, lead pastor of The Orchard in Aurora, Illinois, has been blogging about people leaving churches. His first post was directed to pastors. The second was aimed at people thinking of leaving their church. The third is for people arriving at a new church. They're good. I'll repost them here, but visit Scott's blog. There's a lot of good stuff there.

Pastors…

If there’s one thing we all know about our churches, it’s that people come…..and sometimes people go. For lots of reasons. Most pastors really struggle with this. At times, I have too. But, taking it personally or internalizing it as some sort of failure every time it happens is a miserable way to live. And frankly, it’s also probably a sign that you’re taking too much ownership for something that isn’t yours to begin with.

And besides…you know as well as I do that your church will never be the right church for everyone. In fact, trying to be will pretty much guarantee that you’ll end up reaching no one. Actually, you will. But trust me, you don’t want them.

Pastors…the best thing you can do is to just be very clear (right from the beginning) what your church is all about. The clearer you are about that, the sooner newcomers will be able to make a decision as to whether or not your church is a good fit for them. But listen…don’t be arrogant about it! Don’t say it in a way that makes your church sound like it’s “better than all the others” and therefore “it’s not right for everyone….because we’re so bad a$$.“ No….if you do that, you’re just an ass.

Selah.