When I became a Christian, all I needed to know was in a little booklet called Journey into Life, by Norman Warren. It clearly and simply explained the gospel and how to respond to it. And I did. Many thousands of people became Christians through that booklet. Then there was his follow-up booklet, called The
You’re probably facing a series of leadership questions in your church, but it’s important to see that your role might not be the same in each circumstance.
The translation, which my friend so enjoyed, and which has its funny side, was distracting him. A passage which should humble him before God’s throne, was making him giggle because it felt quaint.
I was recently talking through an idea with a friend, and he shrewdly asked, ‘What’s the problem this is trying to solve?’ And the mist cleared in my mind.
‘Ghosts’ are the habits, practices, customs of the past that don’t have any present value, but the organisation (church, group, whatever) still carries on with them.
When you’re a leader, it’s all too easy to be the hero. You’re the one with the answers, the vision, the ideas. You’re the pack leader, the team captain, the one who’s first over the top. And you know as well as I do, all the things that are wrong with that ‘big hero’ style.
It’s not that this kind of leader want to be the only person in the room – Diotrephes needed that church he could control – but he needed to be the leader in the room. And he’d break fellowship with an apostle to win.
