Eight Challenges for Christian Leaders

Yesterday I was in Cambridge for the TEAM (the ministry training course run by the East Anglia Gospel Partnership) end of year lecture given by Wayne Grudem.

It was a very helpful series of 'random observations on life and ministry', entitled 'Eight Challenges for Christian Leaders'.

The challenges were these:

• Keep your heart first of all (Proverbs 4:23) - the condition of your heart is most important to the whole of your life; you won't have a week without something / someone testing what is in your heart
• Trust and teach faithfully every word of God (Proverbs 30:5-6; Psalm 12:6)
• Learn to know the Holy Spirit's guidance (Romans 8:14; Acts 16:6) - this is a skill we gain greater ability in as we go through the Christian life
• Do the Lord's work in the Lord's way (2 Corinthians 4:2) - when you are involved in Christian leadership there are often temptations to violate due process to get the job done - don't!
• Tell the truth - don't lie, don't exaggerate or embellish stories (Exodus 20:16; Colossians 3:9) - the issue here is the character of God. Here Grudem referred to a time when he had mentioned an event he had spoken at in a prayer letter. He put the attendance at 100 people, but later when talking to someone else who had been there, he found out that it had only been attended by 70/80 people, so he sent out a letter of correction. Why? Because our word should be completely reliable
• Correct others with gentleness (2 Timothy 2:24-26)
• Maintain the boundaries that protect your people from within and from without (Galatians 2:4-5) - the challenges today are the uniqueness of Christ; penal substitution; hell; the authority of Scripture; the claim that obedience makes no difference to our walk with God
• Work hard (Colossians 1:28-29) - He said, "As I look over my life I have only known progress to come by long hard work."

I found it a very helpful lecture indeed and extremely challenging. I'll post some more thoughts on it tomorrow.