Are You a Leader?

Continuing on the idea of leadership, a brother in Christ sent me a link from Desiring God. John Piper writes about Marks of a Spiritual Leader. Its a good reading that helps me both evaluate my inner and outer health, while also helping me focus my prayers to allow the Holy Spirit to change, modify, and/or adjust my life accordingly. Reading this also helps me understand more that character and practice are priority before any ministry or service can truly be successful.

I have tendencies to be more pragmatic than theological. Always want to be doing, which sometimes bars me from actually thinking through issues scripturally. Hopefully, through spending time with the Lord and the scripture, with my core group of brothers, while 'doing', and even while blogging, God will bring that balance to me.

What Type of Leader are You?

A notion that was briefly touched upon at the NYC Dwell Conference was the idea of King, Priest, and Prophet. Mark Driscoll very briefly brought this up in the church planting context. The idea was to help a planter understand his own motivations/strengths better. Here is a broadcast from another conference where Pastor Mark describes these three critical roles in a church and its significance in a multi-site church. (BTW, towards the end he communicates his definition for church, which I must say is extremely thorough while very understandable).

This has really helped me understand more the conflicts I have experienced just being around some close brothers in Christ. Its help me understand that each one of us have certain tendencies when introduced to different situations and has allowed me to encourage and also accept my brothers for being who God made them to be.

Another interesting read is The Triple Cure: Jesus Christ - Our Prophet, Priest and King by Kim Riddlebarger, who briefly runs through Calvin's notion of Jesus fulfilling these 3 offices and the effect it has on us.

So what am I? I love thinking and trying to build structures and work flows that would help the church do the Great Commission. I highly value evangelism and discipleship, which I feel are two sides of the same coin where the coin as a whole is the Gospel. However, I am still trying to figure out how to do it. Anybody doing it? Please comment and post any resources and suggestions.