Being Chinese and Reformed (Reforming) » » meditations

40 Leadership Questions

reformed — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:49:48 +0000

Accountability questions from Acts 29 Network.

Leadership Accountability Questions
A Self Leadership

1 How are you unique? (calling, gifts, passions, personality, experiences, sin patterns)
2 How do you stay inspired? How often do you practice this?
3 How do you preach the gospel to yourself? (What’s the message in your mind?)
4 What are the rhythms of grace in your life? (scripture practices, worship, community, Sabbath)
5 What idols are calling for your worship?
6 How do you forsake each idol?
7 What are the lies that you believe in your head?
8 How is the gospel applied to those lies?

B Interpersonal Leadership

1 Who gets you and why? Who are your guys? (2 Timothy 2:2)
2 Who do you pray for? What are you praying for them?
3 Who are you considering to become one of your guys and what is your plan?
4 Are you telling the “truth in love” to your guys, consistently? When do you tend to “spin” something?
5 Are you “on time” and following through with promises?
6 Do you say “yes” and “no” with clarity? Who are the people you tend to “please” and why?
7 How are you discipling each of your children and your spouse?
8 Who KNOWS you?

C Organizational Leadership

1 What mission and vision has God entrusted to you?
2 Are you aligned to this mission and vision?
3 To what extent is your identity wrapped up in your position or your mission?
4 Where is there “sideways energy” in your life (schedule)?
5 Do people in your organization know with clarity what you expect of them?
6 What do you expect of others in your organization?
7 How do assure that each person under your charge connects expectations to mission?
8 In what ways do you personify vision and values?
9 What opportunities did you decline for the sake of mission, vision or values?
10 What are the stories that define the culture of your organization? How do you capture these stories? How are the stories being shared?

D Team Leadership

1 Who is your team? (Roles, Styles)
2 Who is going to replace you?
3 How do you demonstrate your love for each team member?
4 What dysfunctions on your team are you addressing?
5 With whom do you sense the most synergy? How can you maximize that?
6 With whom do you sense the least synergy? Why? How are you minimizing that?
7 Who do you struggle to trust? Why? Do you address issues of trust with them? Why or why not?
8 What inspires each team member? (Ask each one, “What aspect of your work brings you the most joy? What stories do you tend to tell most often?)
9 Do team members feel empowered to exercise their greatest gifts and talents on the team?

E Pastoral Leadership

1 What does faithfulness in your calling look like for you?
2 In what new areas are you learning to apply the gospel?
3 Describe your system for managing your availability and “interruptability.”
4 How do you develop men by involving them in ministry and making decisions?
5 What opportunities have you had / taken to herald the gospel in serving others?

Happy New Year 2010

reformed — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:00:49 +0000

Here are ten questions you should ask the new year… got these questions off the 9Marks blog.

One thing I like about the New Year is how reflective everyone is. This should be a constant thing, something that goes year round. I’m glad though, because I know how unreflective I can be at times and end up in some kind of slump. God is gracious by placing mirrors along the way so I can see…

1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

8. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?

9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?

10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

goals for 2007

Love – WMD

reformed — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:24:26 +0000

I wrote this to the people in my Sunday School a few years back. It was quite possible after I saw an episode of 24 where terrorists dropped a nuclear bomb on Los Angeles. I was quite horrified to say the least…

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord…

Grace and Peace to you all. The latter part of Romans 12 was very challenging to me. Love. Not referring to a romantic love, but the kind of love that says “I forgive you” in the midst of persecution, injustice, and hate… the kind of love that says “even though you hurt me, I will pray for you and care for your soul…” the kind of love that says “father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.”

This love refers to a weapon of mass destruction… a weapon to destroy hate and sin… It refers to a weapon that changes the face of your enemy… a weapon that changes the world…

May the God of love and of all hope be with you today. We love you guys and praying for each one of you,

Merry Christmas!

reformed — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 12:38:12 +0000

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

May the Lord Jesus Christ reign in your life.

No related posts.

Motivated to do what?

reformed — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:50:57 +0000

Read this article from reformation21.org. It encourages people, especially so-called “reformed” christians to not only seek personal reformation but also move that towards mercy ministry.

However it is not my intention in the scope of this article to present the Biblical case for mercy ministry, but to bring our attention the fact that God constantly commanded His people to be in this work even when others are neglecting it. So this should tell us that there will be a tendency of risk for both the individual believer and for a local church to become ineffective in this God honoring work. In particularly I have become increasingly convicted that this work should be fervently done by the young Reformed Christian. Why do I say this? Because by definition most young reformed Christian have spent the majority of their energy and time on understanding the Scriptures, (which of course is of the utmost importance, as well as being able of effectively defend and communicate Gospel truth): but since the “lion’s share” of our time goes rightly to these spiritual disciplines, we can some times become deficient in other spiritual exercises such as mercy ministry.

God is not only transforming your heart, he prepared you to do good works with that new heart.

Thanks be to God!

Return to the reformed tradition

reformed — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:45:26 +0000

After finishing this semester in my intro to pastoral and theological studies, I am amazed at how far the church has come in terms of maturing in her faith. I am also aware of how far we still need to go. We have to grow in our understanding and application of the word of God. The five points, five solas, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, biblical theology, systematic theology, practical theology, etc… All theology is practical, meaning that unless we apply it, we don’t truly grasp the full meaning of what we learned.

I’m learning that having a great understanding of the things of God means loving my neighbor as myself, means trusting God when it hurts, means reflecting the glory of God to a dark and sinful world. Reformed theology is historical Christian tradition. It is the pure religion that was taught by Jesus, it is the apostolic teaching, it is the teaching of the saints throughout the ages. It’s not that it has changed, it has matured over the ages… it has been refined and focused by the person of Jesus Christ into a sharp laser that points towards that time when we will worship before the throne of God… with Him seated on the throne and high and lifted up… and us laid low by his glory.

Oh, what a tradition we have. Oh, what a great God we serve.

My prayer is that God will continually remind us of his greatness. Remind us that it is His glory that we see… In times of suffering like that of Myanmar and Chengdu China, it is God who is our refuge and our comfort and our provider and our savior. Lord that we may remember you. In times of prosperity, like what we experience here in the U.S. may we not forget our Lord. May we not forget you. Help us. Help us to worship you. help us to know you and delight in you. Lord help us!

Impress or Serve

reformed — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:40:30 +0000

Been listening to Eldership training classes that were held a few years back. Lately have been a time of reflection and thinking about my relationship with God, where do I stand with him and in relationship with the church, what roles do we play… I heard this in one of the Sovereign grace MP3s about eldership.

In ministry a question I was asked was do I do it to impress or serve? To whom do you do the things that you do? For whose glory? This is the downfall of many ministries. Whom do you serve? That question was asked the Israelites many times over – Elijah asked choose for yourselves this day whom you serve… it was asked to the early church… our motivations, whatever they may be, may still move the gospel as Paul says in Philippians, but we will not be blessed.

Are you in the ministry so that the kingdom of God will be advanced… so that the name of Jesus will be glorified… so that people will praise God for his creation, salvation, greatness, love, etc…. or are you ministering so that people will pat you on the back? are you serving so that you can achieve titles, accolades, self-justification… to whom do you serve? That is my thought for today….

Proud man pursues humility by the grace of God… If we are to truly prepare for ministry… it is in the word and prayer… it is not by our strength, might, intellect… instead it is by the spirit of God. Let this be your prayer and mine.