Leadership in Context: Recent Episodes
Keith Tucci
Leadership in Context is a conversation on leadership in the context of the local church. Keith Tucci is the apostolic team leader of the Network of Related Pastors. He loves the church and its leaders. You will be empowered and equipped to walk in fruitful ministry as you listen to Keith as he puts leadership truths in the context of the local church.
Needs will always be part of leadership, but they shouldn't be in the driver's seat. Today, we're back in the archives with another episode from Getting Better. Too often, ministry teams spend 80% of their effort meeting immediate needs instead of moving the vision forward. But when leaders begin to shift that balance, they develop more leaders, advance the vision, and ultimately meet even more needs.
Leaders set goals by defining where they want to go. Today, we're back in the archives with another episode from Getting Better. Goals aren't just about productivity; they're about clarity of direction. When the destination is clear, you're far more likely to persevere through the challenges along the way and ultimately reach the destination.
Are we leading people or just ministering to people? Today, we're back in the archives with another episode from Getting Better. Ministering to people means helping them become whole and self-governed, and that is a key part of discipleship. But too often, ministry leaders spend 75% of their time doing ministry instead of leading. As a result, they have fewer leaders and more needs. Even if people grow through your ministry, they aren't equipped to multiply.
Is there anyone in your life who will require your best? Today, we're back in the archives with another episode from Getting Better. Often, we look for people who can help us do a certain thing rather than someone who can help us become a certain kind of person. Having someone in your life who challenges you to become better will, in turn, help you do better. Who have you given permission to drill down on your life, even when you don't like it?
You don’t win by simply showing up, and you don’t have a great game without great practice. Today, we’re pulling Getting Better from the archives. So how do you get better? You change the way you prepare and the way you practice. Practice develops both attitude and aptitude. If you don’t have a desire to get better, you’ll have a bad attitude toward practicing. As we practice, our aptitude increases, we keep getting better, and that becomes the culture.
Today, we conclude our archived series, Responding to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals the things God has prepared for those who love Him. One of the marks of a Spirit-filled life is that the love of God flows in us and through us. The Holy Spirit also works to bring order and clarity to our hearts, removing confusion and helping us see things from God’s perspective. He brings clarity, not confusion.
Today, we continue our archived series, Responding to the Holy Spirit. There are times in life when what we feel doesn’t line up with the Truth. We are the stewards of our feelings, and we must choose what we will believe: our feelings or God’s Truth. As followers of Christ, we are called to be led by what we believe, not by what we feel, and to yield ourselves to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Today, we’re pulling Responding to the Holy Spirit, Part 1 from the archives. Just as we have passions for the world or our flesh to have its own way, the Holy Spirit who dwells within us has a holy passion to have His way in our lives. The Holy Spirit is jealous for our attention. As we humble ourselves and allow Him to reign in us, we find victory over our own desires and our passion for having our own way.
Today, we’re pulling Reaching the Next Generation, Part 2 from the archives. The Church misses something vital when it overlooks the “dew” of youth that God has given to bring refreshment and life. Too often, we wait for young people to mature instead of helping them mature. Rather than counting them out until they are older, we can give them opportunities right where they are and walk alongside them as they grow. We have the privilege of being encouragers, affirmers, and investors in them.
Today, we’re pulling one from the archives: Reaching the Next Generation, Part 1. Each of us plays a unique role in the lives of the next generation. Brothers and sisters connect and understand. Fathers and mothers teach, guide, and help prepare them for what’s ahead. Grandfathers and grandmothers bring affirmation, encouragement, and perspective. Every role matters as we invest in those coming behind us.
The command to be thankful and give thanks is overwhelmingly one of the most repeated commands in Scripture. Thankfulness is an exercise of the will that helps us see life more from God’s perspective. It becomes an antidote to bitterness, and the more we practice it, the more we strengthen and develop that seed of thankfulness in our lives.
As followers of Jesus, there should be fruit in our lives. Those who follow Jesus should be hearing from God, and those who hear from God should be following Jesus. Servants are followers, and followers are servants. Serving is not passive or waiting for an invitation to obey God. Serving is proactive.
The greatest thing a believer has to conquer is self. To follow Jesus, we must deny ourselves, and we never outgrow that calling. This is not the throne of self, but the throne of Jesus Christ. As we leave self behind, our true identity is fulfilled in Him.
There is a reason why Jesus picked people who were working when He was choosing His disciples. Today, we’re pulling one from the archives: Discipleship Nuggets About Work. Work is redemptive because it teaches us responsibility, allows us to benefit others, gives us the ability to be generous, and trains us to solve problems, overcome obstacles, and live under authority.
Jesus’ message was repetitive and clear: "Follow Me." Why would we lower the gospel to self-improvement? Even if someone didn’t believe and simply followed biblical principles, their life might improve—but that isn’t the gospel. Too often, we focus more on what we’re stopping than where we’re going. Jesus said, “Follow Me.” It really is that simple. Is there anything you’re waiting on before taking that next step of obedience?
In God’s system, there is an obligation to pay off debt. Today, Keith continues the conversation on God’s economic system. It’s not just about giving God 10%, but about not doing whatever you want with the other 90%. There is giving, but there is also a greater call to wise management.
The Bible encourages helping people get out of debt. God has an economic system. While the government is not equipped to practice it, the Church is. And His economic system starts with the tithe.
God has an economic plan that much of our culture has overlooked. When an economy is broken, people don’t just lack resources, they lose responsibility and often the ability to sustain themselves. The answer isn’t throwing money at the problem. The Biblical model is personal investment—investment that calls something out of people, not just meets a need in them. That’s why what’s happening in Ukraine has produced such significant fruit. What was sown into them didn’t stop with them, they’ve reinvested it. Their hands haven’t just been out, they’ve been up.
We have a voice and we need to use our voice. Don’t be mad—do something righteous. In this episode, Pastor Keith dives into some of the tensions shaping our culture today. From an NFL ref wanting equal treatment without being seen as a woman, to an NBA player calling Pride Month unrighteous, the question is: what do we do? We speak out, and we speak up.
True teachers motivate people to do good things. Your speech should be so solid that it stirs people to action. In Titus 3, Paul instructs us to avoid foolish controversy. If it doesn’t edify, change lives, engage people, or motivate them toward good works, it only creates a disruptive culture. Measure the fruit of it, and then take action. Be a leader, not just a listener. Don’t cultivate a culture that entertains controversies the Bible has already addressed.
God’s Word is amazingly wise. We should take His precepts and apply them. In this episode, Keith Tucci unpacks more biblical principles about immigration. To those who are diametrically opposed to you or who refuse to assimilate, we should not seek their peace and prosperity. That is different from offering a drink of water or treating them with basic humanity. Be kind to them, but do not empower them.
Kindness and equity are not the same thing. I can give a stranger a sandwich without giving him the keys to my house. God has given us specific understanding in Scripture about how a nation can live together cohesively, and we need to consider how to apply those principles today. Immigration is one of those cultural issues that we need to examine through the lens of biblical thinking.
It’s important to know how to have sincere conversations, even if they are uncomfortable. Remember that each conversation involves three people: you, the other person, and God. Ask clarifying questions, and come into the conversation open-hearted, open-minded, and ready to listen. Don’t prejudge the conversation, feel pressured to resolve everything in the moment, or put it off altogether. No one likes confrontation, but everyone likes clarification!
Scripture shows us the beauty of both leadership and management working together. Leaders help us see where God is calling us next, while managers help care well for what He’s already entrusted to us. One leans toward vision, growth, and forward movement, while the other leans toward stability, faithfulness, and wise stewardship. Both matter deeply. When conflict arises between leadership and management, it’s often because there isn’t a shared vision, key information is missing, or everyone wasn’t aligned from the beginning.
“Even on my worst days, it doesn’t change God’s immense goodness toward me.”—Keith Tucci. These are the seeds of rebellion (Psalm 106): forgetting God, losing wonder at His majesty, overlooking His abundant kindness, quickly forgetting His Word, envying others, and grumbling. A rebellious heart becomes a hard heart. It won’t hear God, won’t flow in thanksgiving, and a heart without thanksgiving does not share its faith or carries a testimony.
Leadership is about vision, clarity, sacrifice, and the ability to make the path forward simple enough for others to run with confidence. Real leaders don’t just see where they’re going. They help people understand why it matters, invest personally in the journey, and remove unnecessary complexity so momentum can build.
Tithing is a practical way to put God first and train your heart to actively participate rather than passively receive. It builds discipline, creates a shared culture of giving, and frees leaders to lead without hesitation. Over time it forms a testimony in your life, strengthens your spiritual confidence, and invites God’s active involvement in your finances.
The priesthood of Melchizedek that received the tithe is still in operation because Melchizedek and Jesus are one, and they have not changed. Even though the earthly priesthood has faded away, we still bring our tithe to Jesus.
Tithing isn’t a side note in Scripture. It runs through the covenants, from Abraham’s promise, to Moses’ process, to Jesus’ covenant that gives us the power to obey and then to share the blessing. Tithing isn’t merely an Old Testament command; it is clearly addressed in the New Testament.
God is not against you having things; He is against things having you. There are over 2,500 Scriptures that speak about money. Together, they reveal five clear truths: God wants us to prosper and is able to help us prosper. God wants us to enjoy Him and enjoy His blessings. God is generous, and He wants us to be generous. God does not want us living in debt or bondage. God wants us to work hard and invest.
Your cash and your calendar reveal what you truly value. Everyone is equally rich in time—24 hours a day, seven days a week—but how you assign those days determines your priorities. Accountability sharpens how we live, and your calendar is your greatest tool, because you will never get that day back. This isn’t about living in a hurry; it’s about living with intention.
Scripture says that our life is like a vapor. How we think about time should be biblical. The enemy wants to distort our view of time. Everyone assumes they have tomorrow, but we aren’t guaranteed that. We plan like we have tomorrow, yet we should live like we do not.
Men and women are different, and as believers, we need to embrace that truth. We can affirm it with our words, but when we live as though there is no distinction—treating women as the same as men and men as the same as women—we undermine our confession. Gender confusion is affecting the church just as much as it is the world.
Why did Paul instruct women in 1 Corinthians to cover their heads? Keith dives into this discussion today, explaining how, culturally, uncovered heads were a distraction and why Paul gave instructions for women to cover them. These kinds of conversations push us to dig into Scripture and sharpen our understanding as believers.
"Israel does not have a blank check according to the judgement of God."--Keith Tucci. All people, including Jews, are saved only by the cross of Christ. While we do share a deep theological connection, that does not mean we must agree with or support everything Israel does. Like any nation, Israel has the right to defend its borders and pursue those who seek to destroy it. Even more significantly, that land is the cradle of Christianity—it is where God chose to enter the world in human flesh.
Do not be arrogant...Cancel culture is when we throw out the baby with the bathwater. We fail to separate the good from the bad—without justifying any of the bad. And the truth is, we wouldn’t exist without our Jewish heritage.
We need to celebrate our inheritance. If you are born again, no matter what tribe you come from, you are a descendant of Abraham and an heir according to the promise. There is no separate gospel. There is no separate process.
For God to honor a natural heritage, He would have to diminish the sacrifice of Christ. There are not two plans for two groups of people. There is no distinction in our sinful condition. There is no distinction at the cross of Christ. And there is no distinction in our inheritance. We are one bride, one body, with one salvation and one purpose.
The Church is the bride of Christ and Christ does not have a girlfriend that He will leave the bride for.
Israel as a nation is not exempt from God’s judgment. There is no separate plan of salvation in which God accepts Jews who do not believe in Christ. God has not rejected Israel, but He shows no partiality. Christ came to build one house, not two. Salvation ultimately comes down to belief or unbelief.
Being willing to rejoice in suffering for Christ is one of the greatest breakthroughs a believer can experience. We don’t suffer as Christians because God afflicts us, but because our obedience to Him brings opposition. We will never face that opposition in a Christlike way if we don’t understand that suffering comes with it.
If you speak the truth and walk in love, there will be people who try to intimidate you to stop you. The enemy looks for your vulnerable points as you stand for righteousness and speak truth. You have to decide from the start whether you will keep doing what you’re doing, no matter what comes against you because what you’re doing is more valuable than anything anyone could take from you.
The church is alive and well in Ukraine despite the war. Today, the team in Ukraine shares an update! Our brothers and sisters still need a miracle, but their hope is fixed on Jesus, and the church is full of new believers. They could focus on their own safety or personal loss, but instead, their hearts are full of gratitude for what God is doing and for how many people are coming to know Jesus.
When you stand for Truth, suffering may come with it. When that suffering meets you, will you stop standing for Truth? Will you let a “slap” silence you? We cannot allow others’ opposition to keep us from boldly and clearly speaking Truth.
False Belief: If we were really living right—how Jesus wants us to live—then we wouldn’t have enemies.
The truth is, we can’t deny that we have opposition. But Jesus told us to love our enemies. Loving them does not mean embracing their ideologies or helping them carry out their mission. You love them by being kind, treating them as humans made in the image of God, and speaking truth in a way that never compromises it.
The Kingdom of God is upside down to the world, and the world is upside down to the Kingdom of God.
The only way we can endure persecution, insults, false accusations, and people speaking all kinds of evil against us is by understanding that one day we will stand before the Lord. What we take on the chin—figuratively and sometimes literally—will result in a great reward. That is the ultimate test of faith.
When the Kingdom is in you, your mindset shifts from temporary to eternal. This will pass away; this is not going to stand forever. But when you respond in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, you bring honor to Him—and He, not anyone else, will reward you for that honor.
Fire your bow. This is not a time to sit back and be a spectator. Be intentional. Engage. Study so you can understand the questions being asked and answer them from a biblically principled, sound worldview. Charlie Kirk said, “Courage is easy; it’s just saying yes.” Say yes, and let courage rise in your spirit.
The loss of Charlie Kirk’s life was a loss to us, but not to God. Are you prepared to die with your boots on? Today Keith asks the hard questions: Why do the righteous suffer? Was Charlie Kirk taken too soon? Does God have the license to take what belongs to Him? Is eternity real to you? Is the mission real to you? Do you see your life as God’s conduit for His possession?
Charlie Kirk was a Christian missionary. He taught people to think, not just to feel better about themselves. He made gospel connections that enlightened minds and edified souls. The fragrance of eternity was on Charlie Kirk.
What is our response? Refuse to be silent. Stand up. Speak out. Make the death of Charlie Kirk the worst thing that could happen to those who hate the gospel. While we are alive, let’s fully live.
There is a reason why Jesus picked people who were working when He was choosing His disciples. Work is redemptive because you have to be responsible for yourself, it causes you to benefit someone else, gives you the ability to be generous, and teaches you to solve problems, overcome obstacles, and be submitted to authority.
Today we pulled an episode from the archives–When you are tested, you find out what you believe. We can lose heart as we look at outward circumstances. Speak what you believe, not just what you see or feel. This is how you maintain hope, how you don’t lose heart in what you are doing.
Today we pulled an episode from the archives–Offense is the cheese in the trap. Don’t let the enemy pull the string. Learn to forgive quickly and move on. Be a leader who lives offense-smart.
Today we continued a series from the archives–If we don’t process the “stuff” from people and keep our hearts soft, then we aren’t really operating out of the flow of the Holy Spirit. Scripture directs us in how to keep our heart pure with other people. Bear with one another. Forgive each other, just as the Lord forgave us. Put on love, the perfect bond of unity.
Today we pulled an episode from the archives–Forgiveness is not intellectual. It is an opening of our spirit, allowing the Holy Spirit to wash through us and out to others the same forgiveness that we so desperately depend on. One of the greatest things that has to happen in leaders is the ability to maintain a clean heart by really forgiving people and releasing them from their offenses.
Today we continued a series from the archives–How much pressure should you allow a hand to put on your bow? How much pressure are you allowing the hand of money, sex, recognition, and success to put on your bow? Those hands really do mark us.
Today we pulled an episode from the archives–A bow and an arrow work together as one. They are two pieces that make up one instrument. A bow is just a wall ornament unless you have an arrow to go with it. An arrow must be sharp. An arrow must be straight. An arrow must be aimed. We are arrows in the hands of a warrior. Whose hand is on your bow?
When the majority of your meetings are spontaneous or as needed, something else besides you is driving the vision. Today we dove far back into the archives to the first series we did called The Art of the Meeting. Many leaders make fatal errors or don’t act quickly because they are simply operating on old information. Who you are meeting with is important. Do that on purpose every time. If you stay in contact with all the different soils in your church, you will hit water every time.
Today we dove far back into the archives to the first series we did called The Art of the Meeting. When we take the time to set the atmosphere, it tells people that they are important and have been invited to something important. Comfortable chairs and favorable lighting can make all the difference in people’s ability to receive and engage in a meeting. Preparing questions ahead of time to promote engagement and discussion is a must during preparation. And ending with clear action items helps people know what is happening next and that the time together was valuable.
Today we dove far back into the archives to the first series we did called The Art of the Meeting. Bible experts suggest that Jesus spent 73% of His time with small groups in strategic situations. Who are you meeting with, how often are you meeting, why do you meet, and what is your meeting culture. The answers to those questions are critical to the forward momentum of your church vision.
A mark of maturity is being more disciplined and governed by what you believe than by what you feel. We need emotions, but we can’t be emotionally driven. Feelings are real, but they’re also temporary—and they can compromise good decisions. People who haven’t developed their faith often let their feelings shape their beliefs. But those who operate in a spirit of faith are consistent in not allowing their emotions to lead them.
Your attitude determines your altitude. Complainers identify problems and conclude that progress is impossible. People with vision identify problems—and find a way forward. A mark of maturity is refusing to be a complainer.
A mark of maturity is being coachable. A coachable person invites change, is committed to a process, and allows someone they have a relationship with to coach them. What part of your game do you want to improve? How are you going about that? Who have you invited to coach you?
God desires maturity in us and is calling us to a higher place. Leadership comes with standards, and a mark of maturity is accepting and working within them.
"Most ministries grow to the size that its leadership can empower people."--Keith Tucci
Today we are pulling an episode from the archives–The Power of Delegation. The purpose of delegation is not to take something off one person’s plate and put it on another person’s plate. The purpose is having the right thing on the right person’s plate. Delegation is the heart of multiplication.
This week we are pulling an episode from the archives–Handling Leadership Privilege. How we handle trials shows who we are, but how we handle privilege shows our character even more. We should never come to a place where our privilege stops us from being a servant or being accountable. Serving God is a privilege and that means not taking advantage of every opportunity.
Jesus said that where your treasure is, your heart is. Money is important and we should be the best money managers on earth. As parents, we need to help our kids learn how to manage and be disciplined with money, tithe and give selflessly, and use money as a visionary tool.
Everyone’s thinking about money. What if we thought about it Biblically? Jesus wove stewardship into every parable. Money isn’t just a goal—it’s a tool. A tool that God uses, along with ideas and strategies from Him, to not just to earn money, but to make an impact in people’s lives.
People are valuable. Our attitude and everything we do should reflect that. It starts at the beginning. The most telling thing that reflects our attitude about people is how we handle guest follow up. You close the back door by making the front door wide open.
Examining and understanding why someone left, whether we can do something about it or not, will help us to shut the back door. The seeds of people leaving the church are often sown when people first come through the doors. Start on the front end and create a velcro environment where people stick and feel connected.
When you have an opportunity to be used by God, is your first reaction a check of your abilities or a radical dependence on God? Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption–that is our inheritance in God. We can put our full weight in the “chair” of Christ and trust what He has put in us.
If you want to have a lot of friends, serve good food because people will show up. If you want to be a good leader, feed them good words—healthy, encouraging, sound words of Truth. Sound words result in having faith and love in Christ Jesus. We need to guard the treasure of Truth, of sound words, that has been entrusted to us.
The government is not the head of the Church. The culture does not dictate doctrine and morality for the Church. We are the body and Christ is the head of that body. When the body is not connected to the head, it is dysfunctional and it dies. If a body has two heads, it is abnormal; it is a monster.
Today we have a special bonus episode of the Leadership in Context podcast. While the team was traveling back from Ukraine last week, Keith interviewed each one about the significance of this trip at this moment in time. In the natural, it’s easy to wonder, “What are we thinking?” But God! If God is for the Church in Ukraine, who can be against them? The need is as great as ever, but in spite of all of this, the Church is growing better than ever.
Jesus is the light. The Holy Spirit is the oil. And we are the lampstand. The light of God in us isn’t to just stay in us, but to go out into the world to lead others to Christ.
Join us for a special episode recorded in the van as our team in Ukraine travel from one city to the next.
All the while in unimaginable circumstances, our brothers and sisters in Ukraine are standing firm in their faith and conviction, their resilience and persistence, their leadership and devotion to prayer, and their quality of fellowship and love. We carry them in our hearts and pray for them often as they are not forgotten.
You can continue to partner with us by giving at NRPUkraine.com
Christ is returning for a victorious Church. Just as a bride prepares for her wedding—welcoming her guests with care, remaining loyal and resolved in her relationship with her groom, and knowing his heart—so should we, as the Bride of Christ. This is a great picture of the Church.
A pillar resists a downward pressure and anchors for the upward force of wind. God has called us, the Church, to be the pillars of Truth. To be there, we have to be firmly planted in the foundation of Christ.
As leaders, we can demonstrate our confidence in God not based on our personal perfection, but in our response to God and how He works in our lives. Being approved by God through the things we have gone through and our response, that is integrity. When you cut through something that is solid wood, all of the layers are wood. It’s the same thing through and through. Integrity is there. Integrity is consistency.
Scripture outlines some core values of a disciple—work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. Faith is a work; it is something we do. Love is a labor at times, but is also our motivation. And staying steadfast in our hope, that gives God the opportunity to move.
Sanctification is the mark of Christian growth and maturity. It is God’s divine empowerment of our will. Not that we rely on our will to not sin, but a yielding of our will to the Holy Spirit.
Increase your capacity with your convictions, competency, curiosity, and connection. Today we are pulling an episode from the archives on increasing your capacity. Convictions override feelings. Increasing your competency will increase your capacity. Curiosity is part of a learning venue. And connection multiplies your capacity.
If you are going to increase your capacity, you have to take advantage of what you already have. Today we are pulling an episode from the archives on increasing your capacity. People tend to complain about what they don’t have, but they don’t fill up what they do have. The greatest mark of a leader is that a leader leads himself.
Capacity is what you can take hold of, what you can handle. Today we are pulling an episode from the archives. Increasing your capacity doesn’t mean you have to get a new talent. It means you have to use the talents you have more effectively. For leaders, the key way to drill down is learning the power of “yes” and “no.” If you say no to the right things, you’ll be able to say yes to the right things—that increases your capacity.
How can we say that love never fails? True love, godly love, is always representing Christ. It is being like Jesus. Love never fails because love always honors God.
There is a pattern in Scripture of a baptizing of the Holy Spirit after salvation through the laying on of hands. In the majority of those times, the evidence of that happening is that they spoke in tongues. We are edified and emboldened when we pray in the Spirit. When we are praying in the Holy Spirit, our spiritual antenna gets pointed in the right direction.
Angels are still active beings, creative for the purpose of worshiping God. They are not to be used to authenticate spiritual experiences. But they are part of the supernatural and we need to not forget about them. We can call on the Lord to send them to minister to us.
In everything we do, there’s this one thing we should always do—forget what’s behind us and look forward. Today we are pulling an episode from the archives, the Prize of Leadership. When we look forward and not behind, we can press toward the goal of the prize. If we are pressing forward, the prize is that God will always be calling us to greater things. The prize is God trusting you. The prize is peace, knowing you are obeying God.
You get stronger when you lift weights. If you run away from any of the pain points in leadership, you won’t get stronger in them. You will only get stronger when you press through them. Today we are pulling an episode from the archives, the Pain of Leadership.
Leadership is ministry; it’s serving. Today we are pulling an episode from the archives, the Privilege of Leadership. The God of Heaven, the God that spoke the galaxies into existence, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the sender of the Holy Spirit trusts you to do great things in His Name. We need to treat that like it is a privilege all the time.
God wants to release the Holy Spirit through His Church–not just when we are gathered together, but when we are out and about throughout the week. Scripture promises that “these signs shall follow those who believe.” But if there is no believing, there is nothing to follow. When there is nothing to follow, there will be no signs and wonders. Who is the person in your life who is waving their arms because they are open? Pray. Be aware. And then act in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The culture cannot dictate the design that God has for the family unit.
The world is ruthless and the standard has been lowered. The enemy wants to take out the masculine definition of protection and providing. We need men who are going to stand up to provide and lead their families. Ask yourself: What do we want our families to look like and are our actions leading to that desired outcome?
If you want to follow Jesus, survival of self is not guaranteed.
To follow Jesus, we must be willing to pick up our cross and follow Him wherever He leads. Denial is the reality of courageous men. What you say yes to and what you say no to are the seeds of your destiny. When was the last time you said no to your flesh?
**Courage is contagious, when a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others often stiffened. –Billy Graham
Fear is a reaction, but courage is a decision. When we make that decision, we need to acknowledge our fears, accept responsibility, and activate a plan of action so that we can move forward in obedience to the Lord.**
Don’t just cut off the giant’s head. Display it and testify of what God has done.
The enemy would rather steal the seed than chop down the forest. But we can turn the moment into momentum by celebrating what God is doing. When God is doing something, we need to seal it with the word of our testimony.
When you obey God, there is always a blessing from God. But often, obedience yields a negative reward from men. Courage allows us to focus on obedience and standing for Truth instead of focusing on the ramifications of that obedience.
You will repeat what you replay. Who are you listening to? What are you listening to? Are you feeding yourself something that is poisoning you? Fear comes by hearing the word of the devil. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
Where have you lost your anointing? Where have you lost your edge? When we aren’t doing the things we once did (giving, serving, sharing, pursuing the Lord), we can go back to the point where we lost it and get it back. It may not be easy to get to. But through humility and repentance, we can go back, take responsibility, and pick up that ax head.
The purpose of delegation is not to take something off one person’s plate and put it on another person’s plate. The purpose is having the right thing on the right person’s plate. Delegation is the heart of multiplication.
It’s important to know how to have sincere conversations, even if they are uncomfortable. Do remember that each conversation has three people involved—you, the other person, and God. Do ask clarifying questions. Do enter the conversation open-hearted, open-minded, and with open ears. Don’t prejudge the conversation. Don’t feel like you have to come to a conclusion in that moment. And don’t procrastinate. No one likes confrontation, but everyone likes clarification!
We all have a measure of faith and we need to use that faith effectively. Faith comes by the Word. Faith has a confession. Faith has corresponding actions. Faith has an awareness of righteousness.
If you are thinking about yourself, then God is not working through you at that moment. If God has to humble you, it means that you have not been humbling yourself. A humble person doesn’t think about me first. A humble person isn’t focused on how something impacts them, what they get out of it, or what others will think of them. God loves humility.
How we handle trials shows who we are, but how we handle privilege shows our character even more. We should never come to a place where our privilege stops us from being a servant or being accountable. Serving God is a privilege and that means not taking advantage of every opportunity.
God’s Truth is settled in Heaven. There are no new Truths. There is a lot of weirdness in the body of Christ. Proclaimed revelation needs to be tested. Does it match the Word? Is there an application for the revelation? Is the person carrying the revelation consistent, competent, and do they have character? Is the person open to being critiqued?
In the midst of the chaos, the brokenness and destruction, there are a group of people in Ukraine who are expanding the Kingdom. Pastor Keith and the team are back from Ukraine. Today he shares with us about that trip.
The video and update referenced in today’s podcast is up on NRP’s social media. You can find it by searching NRPastors.
You cannot be led by the Spirit and be fearful. Often, leaders are led by fear rather than discernment, concern, or stewardship. Fear will not lead us into the future of God. An atmosphere full of faith will lead to equipping and empowering.
Strong is not bad. It’s a lot easier to get things done when you have strong horses pulling the wagon. Harnessing and steering them takes a lot less effort than trying to drag someone out of the stable and get them moving.
The Church has grown old because we are missing the “dew” in the youth that God has given us to refresh us. We are waiting on them to mature rather than helping them in the maturity process. We shouldn’t count them out by waiting until they are older. We can give them a platform right where they are in their maturity and walk with God. We get to be encouragers, affirmers, and investors in them.
We each play a different role in the next generation’s life. A brother or sister connects and understands. A father or mother takes on a teaching role and helps to prepare for what is next. A grandfather and grandmother affirms and encourages.
You can’t have a little bit of faith and a little bit of law and hope that will get you through. If your faith isn’t in the fact that Jesus took your place and paid the price for your salvation, it’s not faith. Faith has been and will always be the means of people being saved.
The purpose of the Jewish nation was to love and worship God in such a way that the other nations would be provoked to serve the Lord. That is the same purpose the Church has–we have the same mission, the same Lord, the same purpose.
You cannot trust two things at the same time. You can’t trust Jesus AND your traditions to save you. All have sinned, all need to be saved, and there is no other way to be saved except by the cross.
The book of Jude concludes with five things we need to do when dealing with false teachers causing division in the church: (1) Keep yourself in the love of God, (2) anticipate the increase of the mercy of God in your life, (3) give away some of that mercy, (4) don’t be silent, and (5) hate what sin does.
When someone defies the Word of God, when they go their own way, when they are rebellious and cause division in the church, they are not working against you but are working against the Lord. How do we not act like that? Jude instructs us to be responsible to build ourselves up in faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
Jude compares false teachers to hidden reefs. We live in a culture where not only is there no consequence for sin, but you are a bad person if you think there should be. The wind blows, and a lot of stuff blows with the wind. Be wise. Be anchored in the Word, or you will be hitting a hidden reef that will bring you down.
Jude warns against false teachers. He warns against a resistance to divinely-appointed authority. If we honor God’s authority in the local church and work through the precepts of Matthew 18 when there are issues, the church would be vibrant and healthy.
False grace leads people to live as if there are no consequences to sin. The consequence for sin is eternal. Even the angels could not escape judgment.
To be a Christian, you have to have a Master. You are not morally free. You are morally dependent on the Lord, His powers, and His directives. In this week’s episode of the LEADERSHIP IN CONTEXT podcast, Keith continues the study of the book of JUDE.
We are not trying to attain our salvation. Jesus bought that for us on the cross. Instead, we are trying to live out what we already attained. In this week’s episode of the LEADERSHIP IN CONTEXT podcast, Keith begins a study of the book of JUDE.
A vision that is not worth working for is a vision that will never work. Three Vision Truths: (1) Good vision defines a value and puts a price on it of human endeavor. (2) Goals are not end products; they are tools. (3) Inspiration equals perspiration.
Vision Truths: (1) Vision understands that the WHO is bigger than the WHY—God is the “who” of the vision. (2) Vision requires single focus and multitasking—Lack of preparation and details will invalidate the destination. (3) Vision needs clarification on the difference between function and process—People lose heart in vision when they get buried in the function. (4) Honest evaluation is a key ingredient in vision—Sometimes the road changes on a journey or the path just isn’t working, and adjustments need to be made.
To increase our visionary leadership, we have to first understand that God honors and blesses plans. Making a plan is a spiritual thing. We also need to keep our sight lines clean, avoid procrastination, and have a purpose perimeter.
If you want something you’ve never had, you must do something you’ve never done. Translate time into action, make sure you see the vision, change your vantage point, and don’t run from pressure.
People who don’t have vision hurt themselves because they stop when they experience pain. Vision allows you to persist through pain because vision sees where it is going. Vision sees the finish line, which causes the pain to submit to the greater cause.
There is a difference between vision and focus. Vision is the inspiration part. Focus is the discipline part. Vision makes things clear. Focus makes things practical.
We can engage in missions by (1) investigating the place or people that interest us, (2) educating others as to why meeting a need is strategic, (3) stimulating others as to why this is critical to the heart of God, your church, and the people you are reaching out to, (4) creating an opportunity to do something, and (5) celebrating what is happening through your engagement.
In all things, when you obey God, there is a reciprocal blessing and benefit. The benefits of working with other local churches in missions are that you are more effective, influential, and able to develop people. As a local church, if you are not involved in missions with other churches, you can’t be as healthy as God designed you to be.
Missions is about relationship, not just giving money. Missionaries are often the most neglected people in the body of Christ. It is essential when we take on missions that we take on caring for that person, as well.
Missions are not an addendum to Church life. God so loved THE world. Not just the world in our sphere, but the world as He sees it. Any endeavor in Church life has to be connected to God’s ultimate intention, and that is that everyone should hear the Gospel and see the Gospel displayed.
Ministry is a privilege. That perspective changes everything. In the grand scheme of things, leadership does seem on a temporal level to be sacrificial, but the reality is that you are getting the best deal of your life. The reward you get for the investment is the greatest thing!
Are you promoting a trustworthy culture? As leaders, we can teach people to be trustworthy, help them to understand the value of trust, teach them how to build trusting relationships and how to disagree without being disagreeable. If we don’t do those things, trust won’t be part of our culture and people will end up not trusting us.
Leaders are set aside by God. The foundation of biblical leadership is responsibility. The ability to respond to God is a leader’s greatest ability. Good leaders have a sense of responsibility, and that is the velocity in which they lead others.
We were created for and need healthy, fun relationships. As a leader, model wisdom and discretion in that and learn to have boundaries. But have relationships, share activities, include others, and have fun! You CAN be friends with those you minister to.
Character trumps charisma. The greatest thing a leader brings to the table is not their oratory skills, but their character. As leaders, we need to have a life that is worth following.
I remember God speaking to my heart and saying, “I’m going to give you a big family, and it’s going to be a major part of your ministry because I want people to understand how much I love people and love children.”—Penny Tucci
The heart posture is this: Lord, You own me. My life has been purchased by You. You own my past that You have forgiven me of, You own my future and my destiny. What do you want for me?
We should be thinking God’s way and not allowing the world to think for us. We should be making decisions based on the Lordship of Jesus in our life, not based on the culture. And we should be saying loud and clear with our lives that children are a blessing.
The less we think, the more we feel. The less we learn to think, the more we rely on our feelings. We need to learn to think through things so we aren’t dependent on our emotions.
Many of us had strong convictions about not getting the COVID-19 vaccination because we didn’t know what it would do to our bodies and how it might change us. Yet, when it comes to child prevention, there are pharmaceutical cocktails that Christians are putting into their bodies with no consideration about the affects on our bodies.
When we take away the divinity of God and the humanity of man working together in procreation by literally changing the creation from the way it was made to function, that should be something we are concerned about.
If you have questions and comments about this episode, email Pastor Keith at podcast@nrpastors.com
If we say that children are a blessing, why do we want to limit that blessing? The concern is that we put so little effort into coming to the decision to limit how many children we have.
This episode stirs up a conversation on procreation. Send your questions and comments about this to Pastor Keith at podcast@nrpastors.com.
We are going to spend the next few weeks on this. Listen to the episodes, and give this real consideration so that no matter what decision you make, the decision is not just a cultural cave-in, but it is truly an intellectual and spiritually-inspired decision that you make because Jesus is Lord of ALL of your life.
The gospel ends with Jesus still personally encountering people and giving them the authority to go and preach the Good News. As His disciples, we need to share the Good News and help people personally encounter Jesus in this new year.
People aren’t bothered by Jesus being a savior, a healer, a prophet, or a great teacher, because none of those things carry ultimate authority. But Jesus being King carries ultimate authority. We have to come under the Kingship of Jesus.
Jesus makes it very clear that what He is talking about in Mark 13 are things that have already happened; they are not prophetic words about what will happen in the end times. Don’t fall victim to seeking a political messiah. The Church and the gospel message are the hub. Politics, art, law, economics, and education are the spokes.
Whose image is impressed upon you? That is who you owe a debt to. That is who you ultimately serve. You were made in the image of God.
What Jesus did in the temple was a premeditated plan. He wanted His last picture of the temple to be a cleansed temple. He still wants to cleanse the temple, starting with us.
In Mark 10, the Pharisees ask Jesus about marriage and divorce. They were not asking a theological question, but a political question. Jesus didn’t run away from that political question. He answered it with Scripture and got to the root of the matter.
God doesn’t chastise you for having spiritual ambition. He wants those ambitions to be sanctified so that they are not about you, but about Him. God is looking for some self-starting, self-governing people who are teachable and will respond to the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus walked the earth, He considered everything going on. Even Him using spit to heal a blind man was intentional. Everything Jesus did was not just for the moment, healing a blind man or feeding the five thousand; it was also a bigger picture of WHO He was.
If we aren’t careful, we can hold traditions in our hearts as equal as the Word of God. You can only hold one thing as your authority. Don’t fall prey to holding people in religious bondage by traditions, as the Pharisees did.
An offense doesn’t stay with just the person who was offended. It puts a stumbling block in front of other people and diminishes the ministry and calling of someone else. As leaders, we need to walk free of offense and help deliver people from their offenses.
If you want to get the Lord’s attention, latch onto the promise of God. Get a specific promise and fight through the obstacles and disappointments. Hold on and don’t let go.
For every godly person who is going to make a difference, there comes a time when God invades, disrupts, upsets, and causes them to be so passionate about what God is calling them to do that to those around them who are mere spectators (and not seeking to follow), it appears unreasonable. That same Spirit draws many of us in, for we are seeking the Spirit of God that is moving that person and we want to follow Jesus. We follow them out to the ledge where we jump into the arms of God, casting all our cares upon Him.
Righteous anger has a grieving with it, not just an offense in your flesh. We don’t have a license to be angry. But God has given us an emotional container to use the right kind of anger as a tool for righteousness.
We need to learn how to have biblical conversations. There are times when we have one-way communication and preach with authority. And there are times, in the discipleship and growth process, when there are around-the-table conversations with the Bible open. Jesus modeled both.
Mark 1:38 tells us that Jesus came to preach the Good News. All that we do needs to have the name of Jesus on it and include the preaching of the Good News. It is what Jesus did. It should be what we do.
Servant leadership is first and foremost about serving God, not about serving people. We should be submitted to God and a servant of God. We then invite people, not just to serve us, but invite them to serve the Lord WITH us.
Farmers are hard-working. They sow and expect to reap, they understand processes and seasons, they are patient and consistent. Farmers harvest and then release, because they love to feed people.
Athletes have an incredible desire that drives them. They are disciplined, work towards progress, do things with excellence, and enjoy what they do. Athletes inspire people and help them translate that to discipline.
Soldiers defend and expand, are risk takers, train and trust others, use the best tools, and they follow orders. Soldiers believe that the value of the objective is greater than the inconvenience on their life.
God promises to give us dreams and visions and is the initiator of them. When He gives them, they aren’t about the person who receives them, but about the One who gives them. Dreams give a picture, not just information, and they require a response. When God gives us a dream, it brings clarity and not confusion.
When God gives a dream to an ungodly person, it’s so they seek out a godly person and God’s name can be exalted. Think of dreams as spiritual gifts, and spiritual gifts are to make things more clear–not less clear. Dreams should make things clear to those who are walking with Him.
When we try to hold onto things, it turns to worms. When we sow things, it turns into treasure. You will never give what God has graced you to give if you only give what is left over because the core culture of giving is not giving what’s left over; it’s giving off the top.
You can order Pastor Keith’s latest book, CORE CULTURE–the tremendous strategy of generosity that launched the church by visiting NRPastors.com/CoreCulture
Sometimes God wants your honey, not your money. He wants your heart. God adjusts your heart by adjusting your treasure. Your money doesn’t belong to you. Everything that passes through your hands belongs to God.
You can order Pastor Keith’s latest book, CORE CULTURE–the tremendous strategy of generosity that launched the church by visiting NRPastors.com/CoreCulture
Managers do the best with what they have to maintain what is happening. Leaders define a place and create a process to help people move ahead. When you see a group of people that have gifts but aren’t giving all, check if the clarity of the destination is burning in their hearts. It’s clear vision that propels us forward.
We each have the ability to be equally committed, even though our gifts are different. It’s not about equal gifts; it’s about equal commitment.
You can order Pastor Keith’s latest book, CORE CULTURE–the tremendous strategy of generosity that launched the church by visiting NRPastors.com/CoreCulture
When God looks at you, He doesn’t see a half-empty cup. He sees what you do have. Your job is to figure out what God has given you in Christ. Stop measuring yourself by what you don’t have. God will empower you to use what you do have!
You can order Pastor Keith’s latest book, CORE CULTURE–the tremendous strategy of generosity that launched the church by visiting NRPastors.com/CoreCulture
You cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ and follow Him if you are always thinking about yourself. Giving is about not putting yourself first.
You can order Pastor Keith’s latest book, CORE CULTURE–the tremendous strategy of generosity that launched the church by visiting NRPastors.com/CoreCulture
If you develop a strength in one area, it's a lot easier to translate it to another area. People who get free in the area of giving are able to allow that grace to flow over into other areas. Giving is an avenue for grace to abound.
You can order Pastor Keith’s latest book, CORE CULTURE–the tremendous strategy of generosity that launched the church by visiting NRPastors.com/CoreCulture
Giving is one of the tools that God uses to drive the world out of us. Our money is not ours; it’s His. Therefore, what we do with it is up to Him.
You can order Pastor Keith’s latest book, Core Culture, the tremendous strategy of generosity that launched the church by visiting NRPastors.com backslash core culture.
Out of the Macedonian church came an emergence of generosity. No one gave at a greater cost. That was the core culture of the Macedonian church. They were givers. What a heritage we have. This should be the core culture of the church. The understanding of generosity is what caused the church to multiply. God wants us to be givers. Let’s be more like the Macedonian church.
One of the concepts of Kingdom finances is looking at the mission rather than the need. As we put the mission first, there is a godly contentment that comes. God does not want to raise up need-meeters; He wants to raise up givers. If you are not free to be a giver, you will never be satisfied or content.
You can order Keith’s newest book, Core Culture: the Tremendous Strategy of Generosity that Launched the Church, at NRPastors.com/coreculture
You can’t be offense-proof, but you can be offense-smart.
Offense is the cheese in the trap. Don’t let the enemy pull the string. Learn to forgive quickly and move on. Be a leader who lives offense-smart.
Don’t let people’s problems become your problems. When you do this, you lose your objectivity.
When you hold on to offense, you are allowing someone else’s sin to dictate the flow of your heart and ultimately your obedience to the Lord. We are in the forgiving business. The fragrance of forgiveness is what helps keep our hearts healthy.
You will lose your leadership equity if you lose heart.
When you are tested, you find out what you believe. We can lose heart as we look at outward circumstances. Speak what you believe, not just what you see or feel. This is how you maintain hope, how you don’t lose heart in what you are doing.
The mind of a leader is that they are accountable to God and accountable to themselves.
1 Timothy 4 outlines God’s prescription to leaders: Be in the Word, do not neglect your spiritual gifts, be inconvenienced, pay close attention to yourself, and persevere. As you do, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.
Self-leadership is leading the most important person in your life—you.
Show yourself an example to those who believe. A model is better than a message. Great leaders are good models in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Eventually people will not hear what you say but will see what you do.
When you are leading something, you are trying to change something in order to change someone.
If you are not changing something, improving something, then you probably aren’t leading but managing. Good leaders hear direction from God, they see what it looks like, and then they show it to others.
Every human soul needs the possibility that what they are doing is not in vain. Hope says it’s possible. Hope doesn’t just say that God loves you, but that He wants you to experience that love and walk in that love. We are ambassadors of hope. It is an honor to stir hope in someone. Be a hope spreader today.
Today Keith gives a recap on his most recent trip to Ukraine. He had a team of 16 medical missionaries, 8 Romanian’s assisting in translation and trip logistics, plus a few more. The team spent time preaching, giving medical assistance to those in need, feeding over 1,000 people, and sharing the hope of the gospel.
We have not forgotten the people of Ukraine; we are committed to make history into His-Story.
The Holy Spirit dwells inside us and gives us power to overcome being led by the flesh. We should be believers living our lives based on what we believe, not on what we feel. In order to do that, we need the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
You are the steward of your feelings. We have to be led by what we believe and not what we feel. There are times in life when what you are feeling doesn’t line up with the Truth. You have to choose what will you believe–feelings or Truth. You have to be led by the Holy Spirit.
Just as we have had passions for the world or our flesh to have its own way, the Holy Spirit that dwells in us has His holy passion to have His way with us. The Holy Spirit is jealous for our attention. When we humble ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to reign in us, we will have victory over our own passion for our own way in our heart.
How does Truth work? First you are a believer, then you continue in the Word, then you are a disciple, THEN you know the Truth. The only way to truly know the Truth is through that process. When the Truth gets on the inside of you, not just around you or preached to you, then the Truth sets you free.
Truth is absolute. Truth is not subject to change. Truth is not measured in the now; Truth is measured in eternity. Facts are accurate but are subject to change. Truth is accurate and is not subject to change. You cannot change Truth. Truth will always be true.
When you make outward, subjective judgments, you diminish what Jesus did on the cross. If we don’t preach the judgment of God, there will be a lack of depth of conversion because people don’t really comprehend what Jesus did for them. Judgment and forgiveness cannot be separated.
Does Jesus judge people? Jesus’ mission was to not bring judgment. His mission was to break the judgment that was over us. If people don’t receive that mission, they stay under judgment.
Listen to this and all episodes on most major podcasting apps and on our website https://www.nrpastors.com/podcast
In everything we do, there’s this one thing we should always do—forget what’s behind us and look forward. When we look forward and not behind, we can press toward the goal of the prize. If we are pressing forward, the prize is that God will always be calling us to greater things. The prize is God trusting you. The prize is peace, knowing you are obeying God.
You get stronger when you lift weights. If you run away from any of the pain points in leadership, you won’t get stronger in them. You will only get stronger when you press through them.
Leadership is ministry; it’s serving. The God of Heaven, the God that spoke the galaxies into existence, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the sender of the Holy Spirit trusts you to do great things in His Name. We need to treat that like it is a privilege all the time.
Five things to maintain relational integrity--Recognize that your own personal preferences are not Scripture. Give forgiveness to others just as freely as you have received from the Lord. Empathize with people, not their performance. Remember who people are to God. Remember who they are to you and your relationship with them.
If we don’t process the “stuff” from people and keep our hearts soft, then we aren’t really operating out of the flow of the Holy Spirit. Scripture directs us in how to keep our heart pure with other people. Bear with one another. Forgive each other, just as the Lord forgave us. Put on love, the perfect bond of unity.
Forgiveness is not intellectual. It is an opening of our spirit, allowing the Holy Spirit to wash through us and out to others the same forgiveness that we so desperately depend on. One of the greatest things that has to happen in leaders is the ability to maintain a clean heart by really forgiving people and releasing them from their offenses.
The evidence of effective leadership is that people know the next step. Spiritual planning does not lack faith; it is a testament to your faith. You are not waiting for something to happen. You are allowing God to instigate you to cause something to happen. What is your plan for the things you say are important to you?
A lot of people never become the steward of their own life because their thinking is stuck in a victim mentality. A lot of bad things happen to a lot of good people. A planner says, “What am I going to do with what I have?” At some point, you will give an account for the things the Lord has given you.
You will never be prosperous or free in your soul if you are jealous of others or compare yourself to others.
Jesus came in the flesh. He humbled Himself and took on the form of a man. The Spirit of God lives in you. You are a model of Christ, an example of Christ. You have a purpose. God wants to use you to touch this world as the representation of Christ.
What drives your life–problems or purpose? The 80/20 Rule is that 80% of the effort from ministry teams is spent taking care of needs and not moving the vision forward. When a leader can begin to tilt that seesaw, then you have exponential growth in leaders. Therefore, you can meet more needs.
Leaders set goals by defining where they want to go. Goals are not just about productivity. They are about clarity of direction. If the destination is clear, you are more apt to fight through (and win) whatever happens along the way. If you aren’t sure about the destination, there will be a hesitancy to give it your all. If you see a group of people who have gifts but they aren’t giving their all, then the destination isn’t clear.
Are we leading people or just ministering to people? Ministering to them is helping them get whole and self-governed. That is a key part of discipleship. Often ministry leaders spend 75% of their time doing ministry and not leading. As a result, they have fewer leaders and more needs. Even if they grow from your ministry, they aren’t able to multiply.
Often we look for people who can help us do a certain thing rather than looking for someone to help us be a certain kind of person. Having someone in your life who will help you be a better person will, in turn, help you do better. Who is that someone in your life that you have given permission to drill down on you, even when you don’t like it?
How do you get better? Change the way you prepare. Practice. Practice involves attitude and aptitude. If you don’t have a desire to get better, you are going to have a bad attitude about practicing. Practice helps our aptitude. We keep getting better, and that becomes the culture.
We all have to do things that we are not called to do so that we can do the things we are called to do. God placed man in the garden to cultivate it and keep it. He placed him there to work. Our work should be a reflection of our worship. Work is not a necessary evil. Work is a divine assignment. If you don’t do it in the workplace, you won’t do it in the ministry.
If you don’t have a plant, you can’t have fruit. If you haven’t planted, then nothing will sprout. Before God plants something, He already has a plan so that when He puts that plant in the ground, it will yield fruit.
Listen to more episodes of Leadership in Context HERE.
People walk out what they really believe. When we see people do things, what they are doing is manifesting what they really believe. We walk out not what we have said “amen” to, but what we believe deep down. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
As a leader, don’t apologize for calling people up to their holy calling. God wants us to be a disciple and be a disciple maker because we are called with a holy calling. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
2 Timothy 2:2, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Discipleship is not just a classroom. Discipleship is when you share your life. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Increase your capacity with your convictions, competency, curiosity, and connection. Convictions override feelings. Increasing your competency will increase your capacity. Curiosity is part of a learning venue. And connection multiplies your capacity. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If you are going to increase your capacity, you have to take advantage of what you already have. People tend to complain about what they don’t have, but they don’t fill up what they do have. The greatest mark of a leader is that a leader leads himself. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Capacity is what you can take hold of, what you can handle. Increasing your capacity doesn’t mean you have to get a new talent. It means you have to use the talents you have more effectively. For leaders, the key way to drill down is learning the power of “yes” and “no.” If you say no to the right things, you’ll be able to say yes to the right things—that increases your capacity. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Vision ownership is the root of how you breed vision. Great vision bearers are not necessarily dynamic personalities, but they have a dynamic plan and invite people to go there with them. In vision ownership, you have to be saturated with the vision yourself. It has to get down inside of you. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The Church is described in Scripture as a body. We have many parts, and those parts are required to work together. When those parts work together, we have health. When those parts do not work together, we have dis-ease. Vision integration is vital to all of the parts working together. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The clearer, more obvious, easier it is to grasp, the better chance you have of your vision coming to pass. It is easier to increase a vision than it is to get somewhere and have to shrink vision. Vision used to never be talked about, and now it is talked about all the time. But sometimes when you talk about things a lot, you don’t define things clearly and everyone leaves the room with their own definition. Vision is your preferred future. It is your destination. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When in a season where you have to endure, identify what the enemy is trying to take, and fight back, refuse to be separated, do not neglect your commitments and patterns, and lastly, get refreshed and stay refreshed. This is how you plow your way through the land mines that are happening around you. God wants you to endure. He doesn’t want you to just make it through. He wants you to be prosperous and effective. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Endurance is a part of life. Endurance is a mark of a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ. To endure, we need to remember that trials are just for a season, every test is a faith test, endurance is not passive, and keep our eyes on the prize of eternity. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God wants to reveal the mystery of Christ to us. We ought to be gospel detectives that unveil the mystery of God. Our ministry is revealing the mystery of Christ. Let us be regarded as people who are great stewards of the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The word “mystery” appears 25 times in the New Testament. 21 of those times, it means the same thing and refers to the same thing. A mystery is something you want people to investigate so they can find out. There is a great mystery that God wants us to understand. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There is a lot of screaming from the liberals declaring that they believe the science. Reality is, they believe the theory, not actual facts. There really is a definite science that is consistent with fetal development. Science says that the origin of something is that something. Does life start at conception? Everything starts at its conception point. Conception means the beginning of something. So of course, life begins at conception. When else could it start? After conception? No, at conception. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
It is amazing the liberals’ disconnect with history and lack of understanding of what Roe v. Wade is and was. Abortion did not start in America when Roe v. Wade law was made in the Supreme Court in 1973. There were 7 states that completely outlawed abortion before 1973. There were about 6 states that had no restriction on abortion—which is what Roe v. Wade did. What Roe v. Wade did was make abortion at any time, for any reason (or no reason at all), legal. It was the mother’s complete right. The child was treated as property. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Life is valuable, and Jesus is life. When you diminish life by saying that not all life is valuable, you diminish the redemptive act of Jesus. If killing children is not wrong, then nothing is really wrong. If nothing is really wrong, there is no sin. If there is no sin, then we don’t need a Savior. If we don’t need a Savior, then Jesus is irrelevant. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When the majority of your meetings are spontaneous or as needed, something else besides you is driving the vision. Many leaders make fatal errors or don’t act quickly because they are simply operating on old information. Who you are meeting with is important. Do that on purpose every time. If you stay in contact with all the different soils in your church, you will hit water every time. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When we take the time to set the atmosphere, it tells people that they are important and have been invited to something important. Comfortable chairs and favorable lighting can make all the difference in people’s ability to receive and engage in a meeting. Preparing questions ahead of time to promote engagement and discussion is a must during preparation. And ending with clear action items helps people know what is happening next and that the time together was valuable. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Today we dove far back into the archives to the first series we did called The Art of the Meeting. Bible experts suggest that Jesus spent 73% of His time with small groups in strategic situations. Who are you meeting with, how often are you meeting, why do you meet, and what is your meeting culture. The answers to those questions are critical to the forward momentum of your church vision. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Discipleship without evangelism is not discipleship; it’s just a personal growth strategy. Disciples make disciples and part of that process should be teaching and demonstrating how to share your faith with someone. Evangelism should be just as central to us as going to church, tithing, or walking in forgiveness. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Today we have a bonus episode for you. Keith Tucci and Pastor Mervin Strother recorded an episode while in Ukraine. There is a war going on for the hope of the people. They are not forgotten. We have not forgotten them. We will not forget them. We will continue, with your help, to provide resources, the hope of Jesus, and to care for the people there. You can join us in making history His-Story HERE.
How we act toward the Lord, obviously, is important, but a lot of people will never see that. How we act towards one another, just about everyone sees. The greatest outward problem we have today is that we have an inward problem. We are to love the body, the brothers, like Jesus loved. That is the inward standard. If we get our inward act together, there will be a radical change in the culture of our church–and the world will benefit. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Thank you for standing with us as we stand with those in Ukraine. In Matthew 9, it says that Jesus was moved with compassion when He saw the multitude. God’s compassion is released in us when we see things–not just with our natural eyes, but with our spiritual eyes. I believe God stores up things in us that He can tap later for divine compassion to be released. That’s why Pastor Keith Tucci is leading the charge to make sure the Ukrainian believers stay connected. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The church operates in three dimensions–upward, inward, and outward. The Church should be all three. But we have to get the first thing first. Access is the foundation for the UPWARD ministry of the Church. Your growth and the fruit you bear will be determined by how you use your access more than what gifts and opportunities you have. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The picture that Paul paints here in Ephesians 6, is one of people who relate to each other–not on the basis of their social or financial status, but rather on the basis of promoting the gospel. The reason I’m friends with some of my dearest friends is because we have an agenda—we want to promote the gospel. That promotion of the gospel, that promotion of the Church, binds our hearts together in whatever we are doing and causes us to cherish those relationships beyond just the familiar benefits and blessings of a friendship. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
It is His Church. None of us have a church. They are too expensive. You have to die to get one. It’s the body of Christ. We are incorporated into His body. It’s His plan, His design, His doctrine, His demonstration, His destination. The Church is not ours to make into our image as we please, but to make into His image as He has laid out in Scripture. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
One of the humanistic problems we are dealing with today is that we are trying to make God into our image rather than submitting to the image that God made us. I think the Church does that too. God has an image for His Church. Part of that is to bear His image. We have to be careful not to become retail-oriented and demand that the Church should be what we want it to be. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Where does God want to show His glory? In the church. His bride. His family. Those members who are fellow heirs, fellow members, and fellow partakers of the stewardship and the grace of God. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
I want to share with you my heart about my recent trip to Ukraine and what the Network of Related Pastors is doing there. I want you to understand the vision of what is happening, why it is so critical that it happens, and why I believe— for the integrity of the gospel—that we find ourselves in the center of what God is doing. Martin Luther said, “If I proclaim the gospel with the greatest boldness, yet I do not proclaim it at precisely the place and the moment where the devil is raging the most, I have not proclaimed the gospel.” Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The first thing Paul does in chapter 1 of the book of Ephesians is talk about who we are in Christ, what our inheritance is, what He gave us. Paul gives us the prize first. Then in chapter 2, he challenges us to live worthy of that prize. Notice the description that Paul uses starting out chapter 2. This is God’s description of what He saved you from. God saves you from something and God saves you to something. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
I struggle with reading the Bible. I find it much more enjoyable to study the Bible. When I just sit and try to read the Bible like I read another book, my mind wanders. You have to dig in. I cover less pages in my Bible study time because I take the time to study it, to really dive in. Once I understood one book of the Bible (for me, that was Galatians), really grasping what it was about, it seemed like the rest of the Bible opened up to me. I had a “velcro” that I could stick things to. I’m going to walk you through a little bit of the book of Ephesians. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God has made us to rule over His creation, to subdue the earth, and to fill the earth. (Genesis 1:27-28) The earth is still vastly empty. We are only using 2% of the world’s land to feed the whole world. People are not the problem. The radical environmentalist's bottom line is population control. There is a war going on with hundreds of thousands of innocent people being slaughtered in Ukraine, and we are feeding that war machine. We are buying oil from Russia because we won’t drill our own oil for fear that we might contaminate the earth in some way. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
To have a proper biblical worldview, one of the things you must understand is that man was not made for the earth; the earth was made for man. The earth is here to serve the purpose of God in subduing the earth and taming it. There is a great clash in worldviews when people suggest that the earth is greater than humanity, that the earth is a personality—i.e., Mother Earth. Today we are in a crisis regarding “Mother Earth.” There is a war going on in Europe because many of the nations of the world are dependent on Russia’s oil. They won’t drill for their own oil because they don’t want to contaminate the earth. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Today we are pulling an episode out of the archives on working with strong personalities. Do you have strong people in your life that you would like to have better relationships with? Compliance is not the goal of leadership. FRUIT is the goal of leadership. We don’t want people who will just comply, but people that we can release, channel, and hold onto without dragging them down. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Today we are pulling an episode out of the archives. Servant leadership is first and foremost about serving God, not about serving people. I am submitted to God and a servant of God. I’m inviting people, not just to serve me, but inviting them to serve the Lord WITH me. I am a servant of God TO the people, not a servant of the people. I am a servant of God to the people; therefore, I serve the people. Because I’m a servant of God, I serve people because that is what God does through us. We are serving everyone so they can multiply, learn to serve, and go to the next level. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Today we are pulling an episode out of the archives on the essence of leadership. Servant leadership is first and foremost about serving God, not about serving people. I am submitted to God and a servant of God. I’m inviting people, not just to serve me, but inviting them to serve the Lord WITH me. I am a servant of God TO the people, not a servant of the people. I am a servant of God to the people; therefore, I serve the people. Because I’m a servant of God, I serve people because that is what God does through us. We are serving everyone so they can multiply, learn to serve, and go to the next level. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If something is dead or dying, there probably have been no corrections or adjustments made. If you see a church that is dying, there is a good chance they haven’t made needed corrections.If there is no correction, there is no growth. Correction is part of growing. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There are many people out there who have a desire to do something for God, but they don’t want to put themselves in the line of fire for the criticism and the judgment they have seen other people suffer. I think there are some things we can do about that. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The core of leaders is that they are burden bearers. It isn’t complicated. It just isn’t easy. Ultimately, when a leader encounters a problem, in their heart and attitude they take the posture of being the most responsible person in the room. Not the person with the title. Not the person with the tools or gifting or the most prepared. They see themselves as a Christ-bearer who takes on that responsibility. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The law of inspiration empowers people to take risks and to develop their own faith biography and their own testimony of faith. The law of inspiration is that father spirit that is not afraid of a risk. The law of inspiration doesn’t put someone down because they tried and failed. Nothing is wasted. An inspirational leader is redemptive in motivating people to do great things for God. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If you are leading and no one is following, you are just going for a walk. Position/title is the lowest form of influence. Great leaders are men and women who take their title or position and turn it into influence instead of trading for influence. Using influence isn’t for self-promotion, but for promoting the Kingdom and God’s reign on this earth. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The reason that Jesus’ ministry was so incredible to the minds of that day was that He was not a philosopher; He was a doer. He didn’t talk about healing broken hearts; He went out and healed broken hearts. He didn’t talk about feeding hungry people; He went out and fed hungry people. He didn’t talk about making disciples; He made disciples. He didn’t talk about being a servant; He became a servant. One of the great laws of leadership is being a doer, an example. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The law of faith within a leader is the ability to latch onto and see God’s desired outcome greater than the problem or circumstance that is trying to interfere. Start looking at problems for what they are—opportunities dressed up as distractions to get our mind, our vision, and our heart off the prize that God has called us to. The destination does not change. We might have to pause and change a flat tire, but where we are going doesn’t change. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When you look at world class athletes, they look at food as fuel—how are they going to fuel their body? Most of us look at food as fill—what am I going to do to fill my body up? For those who look at food as fuel, their body will perform better than those who look at food as fill. As a Christian leader who wants to influence people, the Law of Self-Investment—feeding yourself, fueling yourself, putting spiritual nutrition in yourself—has to be at the top of the list. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God wants to show Himself alive. God wants to remind people who He is. The first thing we do to start that happening is to testify about Who God is, show what He’s done in our lives, and believe God for a miracle when praying and ministering to people. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
With every miracle, there is an agenda. With every miracle, there is a platform. When God does something supernatural, He wants his people to step up, own it, and declare that God did it. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
You will never flow in the supernatural until you are in a vulnerable situation—a situation where you are in such a radically dependent place that it is God who has to come through. That is why when there are supernatural things happening, humility is found in the individual, as they know it isn’t them doing the supernatural. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When you see miracles in the Scripture, historic miracles, or legitimate miracles in your own life, they are almost always connected to another event that will happen. Very seldom are miracles stand-alone events. God has a divine agenda in His miraculous manifestations. When we give God praise and honor for things He is doing in our life--blessings (God’s favor) or miracles (the supernatural)--there is still something greater He wants to do. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
You have to feed your convictions. If you believe strongly about something in the Scripture, it’s important to feed it because the enemy will attack that very point. We see so many people deconstructing their faith. I guarantee you that those people did not feed their convictions. They were running on yesterday’s fuel. A conviction can turn into a preference if you don’t have something to support it. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
You can cherish people in your heart and mind and not do a good job of walking it out. It is healthy to think about people who aren’t a part of what you are doing right now, who are really great people that you need to spend time with that are healthy relationships. Don’t live a life where people just pass through. Learn to live outside your circle. Learn to open your heart and cherish people. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
One of the marks of a submissive person is they understand that God is molding them into something bigger than themselves, and He is going to have to fit them into place. The Bible says that God has placed, fitted, grooved, notched every member in the Body as it pleases Him. That means that God has some filing and sanding to do on us. He is going to use the pieces around us to make that happen. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
We need to have the heart of a giver. Giving is one of those spiritual growth things that is continual. As you go through life, giving should be a sport. It should be an engagement. Giving should be something you are looking to improve. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Listening is really important. Some of my greatest victories were because I listened. Some of my greatest failures were because I didn’t listen (even though sometimes when I didn’t listen, I thought I was listening). Since I’ve become a better listener, I ask better questions. Learn to be a good listener. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If you are not taking a break, not enjoying the fruit of your labor, always pressing, you are going to see the glass half-empty. When you are not taking a break, you are not operating in faith. When you are not taking a break, you are not taking time to be thankful and show gratitude for what you have accomplished. When you are always being driven, you are training your heart to not be thankful. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Anger is the manifestation of selfishness. Anger is just a big boy pouting because he didn’t get his own way. When you show anger to people you love, people who are close to you, and you are using intimidating language or posture, what you are doing is being a two-year old who has overgrown your britches. We each have a capacity for love and anger. If you are not loving the right thing, you are going to love the wrong thing. If you aren’t being angry at the right thing, you are going to be angry at the wrong thing. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Everyone is called. Everyone has a place and position on the wall in the body of Christ. Everyone has a voice to the world. We might have different gifts, but we have the same Lord. We might have a difference of administration but the same spirit. You don’t have to be an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or teacher to know that you are called. There is a place and a people that you should be connected to. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God hates sin. He hates what destroys us. He hates the consequences of sin. God loves to forgive sin. But sin still has consequences. And as a leader, you have to not just teach about the consequences of sin, but also point it out. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
All great leaders move in faith. All great leaders have vision. All great leaders understand that they have to operate over their heads. You will never be able to call people to do extraordinary things if you only operate ordinarily. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Circumstances from hell are designed to cause you to lose traction, cause you to stop moving forward. When you are having circumstances stirred up by hell, you have to put those circumstances in a box. The facts might be accurate, but the Truth is that you will arrive at your destination. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Moses blew two trumpets to call together all of the tribes and one trumpet to call together his leaders. When he blew the trumpet, those who had ears to hear, those who knew the tune of his heart, would show up. This is a good picture of pastoral ministry--clear leadership and clear communication. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Great leaders learn to navigate the tension in hearing God and listening to people. Develop your listening. Don’t feel like you have to give an instant answer. Learn to bring the two together. At the end of the day, give God the credit. This is a tension you will always have, so you might as well get good at balancing it out. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Moses was a wave offering. He left everything behind and was constantly giving it all. You are a wave offering. Having a wave offering mentality is saying, “Everything I am belongs to you, Lord. It’s all Yours.” That needs to be the attitude of every leader. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Giving is a foundation of leadership. As leaders, we should model giving--giving our time, our treasure, and our talent. We teach people to give their life to God by modeling it in our lives. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
All through Moses’ life, we see a passionate, justice-oriented person. Moses has a great plumb line of right and wrong. Sometimes he did really well--he had passion under control, and sometimes he didn’t do as well--he had passion out of control. When he exploded with legitimate passion, it got him into trouble and he made mistakes. There are 3 D’s that lead to leadership mistakes--Demeanor, Discipline, and Destination. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
What people have done, what people are doing now, what you think they might do in the future is not a barometer for what God wants you to do. As a leader, you have to ask WHAT God wants you to do and HOW you will do it. HOW you do it may change in light of things, but WHAT God is going to do will not change. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Our founding fathers were brave and courageous men who understood that their actions or their silence would have grave consequences either way. It is OK to acknowledge that these men were really good in one area and not so great in another, but we can learn from them rather than tearing down their statues. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
To love someone or love something, in the broadest possible terms, does not make it right. We have the capacity to love in a way that glorifies God and blesses our lives or to love in a way that does not glorify God and does not bless our lives. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
An instigated vision stirs you up and troubles you so that it can move you to a place you would never have been, making a decision you would never have had the grace to make because God is instigating us and moving you from where you are and revealing more of Who He is. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
You can understand someone more by the questions they ask than the answers they have. Wouldn’t it be great if we were the best question askers? Jesus often would answer a question with a question. If you don’t ask the right question, you won’t get the right answer. Let’s start asking the right questions. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
You can understand someone more by the questions they ask than the answers they have. Here are some great questions to ask yourself each day: What is my priority today? What can I delegate today? What can be learned today? Who can I help today? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If you want to be a good vision-bearer, if you want God to trust you with more vision, you have to first be a steward of that vision. God has to be able to trust you with the details. God has given you a vision to lead something. Write the details down. Then, in the right setting, download those and do it with joy and excitement to liberate the talent that is in other’s lives. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When we discern there are things that are not profitable to the things God has called us to do and the people He has called us to be, how do we handle those distractions? How do we handle those interruptions? A good leader knows how to respond to an opportunity. A good leader is also not drawn away by something that masquerades as an opportunity. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
All authority is delegated authority. Anyone with a title, a throne, a dominion, a badge—they are all subject to the authority of God. When they command us to do evil, we do not have to obey those unjust commands. When they want us to participate in evil, then the Church has no responsibility to comply. According to Romans 13, they are only allowed to help us do good and not to do evil. The other side of this is that we should be people who look for a way to cooperate with authority. That should be our posture—how can we cooperate without violating the ordinance of God, His law, and His heart? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Man is not basically good. He is basically evil. He is able to commit every vile act and every vile sin. Scripture spends a lot of time establishing the fact that man is evil and must be born again, must get a new nature, must be redeemed, must come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Man needs to be more than reformed; he needs to be transformed. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God is the only just and authoritative lawmaker. All good laws come from God. All laws that need to be judged need to be filtered through God’s laws and His judgment. This is a foundation for righteous thinking. You have to have righteousness before you can have fairness or justice. You have to know what is right. God is the only One who is allowed to say what is right. Man is futile in his attempt to pursue justice and fairness without God. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The first way we see God, in Genesis 1, is that of creator. Not a creator in the sense of a divine spark or evolutionary spark. When God made things, He made them complete. When He made man, He made man complete. When He made an apple tree, He made it complete, not in some kind of evolutionary stage. Many people talk about God as a creator, but they are referring to an initiator, not a creator. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Often people ask, at what point do we resist? Before there is resistance, there is non-compliance. Resistance is what you DO to push back. Non-Compliance is what you DON’T DO to push back. Non-compliance is not contributing anything that empowers evil. Before we take a stand of non-compliance, we need to have an inward resolve, with integrity. More than just being bothered by something, we need to understand what we would be contributing to if we were to comply. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
What happens when you try to sow something and cut off the reaping of it? Why has child prevention, what we call contraception today, become so acceptable and in most cases, not even thought through? Are children a blessing, or are just some children a blessing? If all children are a blessing (and they are), are there any other blessings that we work overtime to limit? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
We were made in the image of God--made male and female. When those images are blurred, it blurs the image of God. The transgender movement is working to nullify the voice of God in our culture, in people’s lives and nullify the ability to say anything is right or wrong or state something is clearly what it is. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There are three references in the New Testament that say, “Do not grow weary.” It’s not just becoming weary or letting weary happen to you. There is a process by which weariness happens. Weariness is different than being tired or exhausted. When you are tired, a good night’s sleep or two and a good meal will help you. But weariness is more mental, more emotional. Weariness depletes you; it dissolves you. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Obedience produces vision, and vision produces provision. Often people look for provision or vision first. There is a biblical sequence where God says: First you obey Me. Then I’ll show you what you are to do. Then I’ll provide for you how you will do it. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The gospel message and the creation message are tied together. If you violate the creation message, then you violate the gospel message. If you violate the gospel message, you violate the creation message. God is singular; He is the same. We have to link creation and redemption together. It is only then that all things make sense. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
How much pressure should you allow a hand to put on your bow? How much pressure are you allowing the hand of money, sex, recognition, and success to put on your bow? Those hands really do mark us. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There aren’t many Scriptures about arrows. There are a lot more about bows. When you think of a bow, you think of an arrow. A bow and an arrow work together as one. They are two pieces that make up one instrument. When the Scripture is referring to an arrow, it just mentions the bow. A bow is just a wall ornament unless you have an arrow to go with it. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When you design a house, you design it based on your vision and your needs. That’s how you can have 100 houses which all have the same components, but are all different. There are certain essential things that make a house—a roof, bathrooms, kitchen, bedrooms, etc. Discipleship needs to have certain essential components. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
You’ll never have responsibility for what you don’t see. What we take responsibility for, God gives us authority for. Those who do not accept that responsibility and don’t get that authority will never be able to impart or delegate to the degree that God wants them to. The downriver of responsibility is creativity. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God’s grace comes to us and sustains us when we are weak. In our weakness, we become strong. Attacks show us how weak we are and make us dependent upon Christ's strength. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Sometimes people get into deception when they over-complicate, over-analyze, over-spin, and bring things in from the outside that are not part of the equation. Be simple in your thinking. Not a simpleton. But simple. Clear. Not too complicated. Not too layered. Think clearly and in straight lines. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
We need to be familiar with the Truth. We need to be very clear on the Truth. When we are talking about things, are we edifying people or are we putting more questions in their mind, making them more unstable, more fearful? God wants the gospel to be reliable. God wants the gospel to be sound. God wants the gospel to be consistent. In order for that to happen, you and I have to be consistent with it. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Where is your identity? Who do you identify with, and what do you identify as? In our culture today we are seeing identity politics. I’m a citizen of Heaven first, and then I’m a citizen of America. My allegiance is to the Kingdom. If I have to choose between obeying the Kingdom or an American law, I’m going to choose the Kingdom. The devil challenged Jesus’ identity. He is going to try to get you to get your identity wrapped up in other things. Let your identity be in Jesus. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If the devil can steal your identity, confuse you as to who you are or who you are not, then every other blessing, every other purpose, every other destination God has for you can be stolen because he has now stolen your identity. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When we make a promise, we must keep it. God keeps His promises to us. This is what covenant looks like. This is what the family of God looks like. This should be our reputation. We are a people who keep our word. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
We are redeemed. Our salvation should be prized, protected, and propagated. A covenant person understands their unique place in god’s redemptive plan and order. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Today Keith pauses the series he’s been on to respond to the conclusion of the presidential election. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
A covenant heart honors those who have gone before. Those who have gone before have passed on the stewardship responsibility to us. We honor them by stewarding what they fought for and continuing to build on it. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Noah was not serving himself when he built the ark. He understood that it would benefit people in the future. Future generations would be saved. That is covenant. It is not about serving ourselves. It is about building Kingdom, Kingdom that will go on for generations. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
With a covenant, there is the idea that there is a third-party beneficiary. A covenant of Christ and His people are that we come together as the body of Christ to benefit the world. The Church, by its nature, becomes sacrificial. We come together not just for mutual benefit, but to benefit the world. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Our blessing isn’t dependent on how much other people receive. Our availability and willingness to work in the ministry isn’t dependent on a job or a position. God blesses work. Let’s get up, go out, and get to work in the Kingdom! Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The fruit of the mustard seed is that it produces more seed. Our fruit is our seed. The Kingdom of Heaven is about producing seed. It is about sowing seed. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God is doing something in our hearts; He is doing something in the hearts of those we lead. He is building Kingdom. He is cleansing the soil. He is sifting our hearts. We need to be alert to the enemy’s plan to distract us to build our own life instead of Kingdom life. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Don’t wait until you are in a religious context to serve God. You don’t want to give into peer pressure and not do what you should do. Loving your neighbor looks like ministering on the way to minister. To be a good neighbor, there has to be an abundance of mercy that we are willing to share. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If you ask a good question, you have a good chance at getting a good answer. A good question is not one to relieve ourselves of responsibility. A good question will lead us to press into God and bear the responsibility that He wants us to have. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Today we are going to do something a little different and the podcast will be a bit longer than normal. Here is a message Keith gave at Metro Harvest Church in response to the 2020 Presidential election. There were some technical issues during the recording of this message. The audio sounds a little different and it jumps right in mid-sentence during Keith’s intro, but the message is so important and timely that we wanted you to not miss it despite the technical difficulties. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Betrayal, unfortunately, is something that happens in life. It is something that eventually we all will experience. Too many times, out of the depths of hurt, people will write off those who haven’t hurt them. The way to rebound from betrayal is to stay in covenant with the people that haven’t betrayed you. (And if you can’t find anyone, then you are running with the wrong tribe and it’s time to get connected to the right people.) Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When you read harrowing stories like those of Corrie Ten Boom or Machir taking in Mephibosheth, in those incredible situations there arises a man or woman whose voice is predominant and who sees their position (not their circumstances) as a place where God’s Kingdom should come. They see themselves as ambassadors of God. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Covenant people seek people out. And they seek people out that they might bless and honor. Are we that type of people today who would risk our reputation? We look at the Holocaust and wonder how on earth that happened. It happened because people turned over the Jews for fear that if they didn’t, they would lose their land, their possessions. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Covenant people understand honor, even when they have been hurt. There is no cancel culture in the Bible. There is no cancel culture in great people’s lives. There is no cancel culture in great cultures. Our lives are dotted with flawed people who God still uses. Our history and our circumstances are full of people who had great understanding and revelation in one area, but were devoid of it in another area. That’s why we need one another. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Covenant people are concerned about justice and righteousness. You can’t define what is just without defining what is right. One of the cornerstones of the Christian worldview is that God is the only just law maker. Only God gets to make the laws. God knows what is right and what is wrong. If you fight with God on that, you will never have justice. When you try to have justice outside of what is right and wrong, you end up with more corruption. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Covenant people sense an obligation to the third party. Covenant people are conscious that their obedience to Jesus benefits a third party. There is a sense of stewardship when you understand that. Our covenant with Jesus isn’t just about me and Jesus. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Covenant people go beyond. A covenant person does not want to do the minimum. David was extravagant, in the good sense, in his love, against his enemies, for his friends, and in the way he worshiped God. He was out of the box. He created new boxes for the Lord to fill. What are you being dutiful in, that God is blessing to a degree, but it is an area where He wants you to go beyond? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
In God’s economy, we are going to get where we are going, even if it feels like we are moving slower than others. When you see people being blessed, can you genuinely rejoice with them and celebrate the fact that it is God who is blessing them and He has enough to go around? The good thing about trusting the Lord to take care of you is that you know He will never run out. His supply of money, time, food--whatever you need--will never run out. Rejoicing with others is a fragrance that is pleasing to the Lord. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There are specific criterias that should be used when discerning prophetic declarations. Does it reveal God’s character? Is the Church central? Is it redemptive? Does it exalt that God has the final word? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There are metrics in the Bible, clear delineations, on what a true disciple of Jesus Christ is. One of the metrics is mentioned at least 63 times. It’s the term “high places” in regards to human sacrifices, infanticide, modern day abortion. It must be important to God if it is mentioned that much. 48 of those times are God’s outright condemnation of this travesty. There needs to be an intolerance in the Church against child killing. Why should we be so sensitive to what people think and how people feel while rejecting what God thinks and feels? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There are people out there who are using this COVID thing to try to shut the church down, to try to get us to stop doing what we were already doing, to legitimize their authority over God’s authority. This is clearly happening. My response? At some point, you will be put in a position where you will have to passively resist--not because you have a chip on your shoulder or you are looking for a fight. You are going to have to keep doing the things that God has called you to do. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Revival happens when there is an awakening of our offense towards God, a focus on eternal matters, a dedication to personal holiness, a love and concern for lost people, a decision to make restitution, an expectation of divine intervention, and a commitment of service. Revival can only happen with a move of the Lord, but we can till the soil in preparation for God to send the rain. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Keith has a rapid-fire conversation about five critical issues that the church needs to think about--the Church’s relationship with the civil government, who we need to be relevant to, a commentary on justice, thoughts on Bible orthodoxy, and a short discussion on racial reality. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
A lot of times we put a high value on a person’s ability to keep a secret. Certainly, someone who knows how to use discretion is to be valued. But the truth is, keeping secrets almost always ends badly for someone. Do not take confidences as a badge. It is not a good thing. Train the people around you to stay away from it. If someone trusts you enough to share information with you, they need to trust your discretion with that information. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
We are to be an example. It is not just what we speak, but how we live. Being a model causes you to give up rights and privileges. Leadership demands that you are willing to shed your liberties, your rights, your privileges. Jesus is our example. He surrendered His rights to live like and be treated like a king. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Ministry is a privilege. When we serve, we are not doing God a favor. When we serve, it is God who is doing us a favor by letting us do something in His name. The core of what we do has to be as if we are doing it as unto the Lord. You never outgrow serving. Ministering in the name of Jesus is a great privilege. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Three leadership essentials: government, power, and strategy. Government is the determination and execution of decisions. Power is the understanding of the tangible ingredients that create forward motion. Strategy is the plan to accomplish the goal. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There is a move going on in our country to replace our history. That is not to say that all our history is good. Of course, we have bad history. But history is HIS-story. His story is that of redemption. His story is one of taking frail, flawed, fragile people and, in spite of themselves, doing something with them. His story is not man being self-righteous or good enough on his own. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Every human is deserving of care, no matter the circumstances (their choices or others affecting their life) that led them to be where they are. When we were full of sin, God visited us. What did we do to earn God’s visit? Justice is only justice if it’s justice for all. Jesus said, “as much—to the degree that you do it to the least of these, you’ve done it unto Me.” The least of these has to be the seed in which we operate in this human rights realm. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Servant leadership is first and foremost about serving God, not about serving people. I am submitted to God and a servant of God. I’m inviting people, not just to serve me, but inviting them to serve the Lord WITH me. I am a servant of God TO the people, not a servant of the people. I am a servant of God to the people; therefore, I serve the people. Because I’m a servant of God, I serve people because that is what God does through us. We are serving everyone so they can multiply, learn to serve, and go to the next level. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
A person is valuable because of what was paid for them. Jesus substantiated our value when He traded His life for ours. Jesus broke down the dividing wall. Anyone who is putting a brick on the wall that Jesus tore down is resisting God and the spirit of grace. We should be dismantling walls with the Truth of the Gospel. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God is a God of authority, and authority is needed for the Church to be vibrant and effective. We cannot let our history and personal experience demand and dictate Scripture. Romans 13 is not a doctrine on civil authority. What the Apostle Paul was addressing in this chapter was that God is a God of authority, and authority is needed for the Church to be vibrant and effective. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
How do Christians relate to government? We pray. We pray that the government does not interfere or interrupt the spreading of the gospel. The government’s job is to protect us from foreign and domestic enemies. It has not been designed to teach or tutor or mandate the Church. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
How do Christians relate to government? Our allegiance is to the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s not spiritual government versus civil government. Civil government will change and fade away. God’s government is eternal. When you have a conflict of values or how to apply wisdom, you ask: What is eternal? What is temporal? What is subject to change? What is not subject to change? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The key to discipleship, the key to leadership is uncovering the warrior in people. That’s the fun part! Yes, you can go through getting their life together, balancing checkbooks, breaking addictions, staying free, and hearing from God. But those are all things that lead to an end. What is that end? That they might defeat the enemy. That they might humiliate the enemy. That the enemy may run from them when he sees them coming. We have discipled great character into people but very little warfare. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The influence of a leader is critical to something happening. God has set leadership in our families, churches, businesses, communities, military, civil government. In every aspect of human endeavor, those that function well do so with headship. Good people will do the wrong thing without good leadership because God has set leadership in every institution that He ordains. We have to embrace that as leaders. We need to not only embrace leadership tactics, but embrace the leadership mantle. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Praising is one of the greatest character demonstrations of a leader. Leaders must be praisers. Praisers are God-reflectors. Praisers reflect what God is doing. The first thing a leader has to do is reflect the heart, character, majesty, and person of God. When you are a praiser, you see the possibilities. When you are not a praiser, you don’t see the possibilities because you don’t see God. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The old saying goes: There is no success without a successor. Throughout the book of Judges, people are sporadically raised up, and they do great for a season. Yet there is no successor. The leadership lesson here is that without a successor, there is no sustained legacy. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If you do not have a job that is bigger than you, you need a bigger job. The job, when you are leading in the storm, is always bigger than you. Your greatest strength is to know that you need strength. Whatever situation you are leading people in, though God might not have chosen the circumstances, He has chosen you to be the leader. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
From time to time, we have storms in our lives. Currently, we are facing a storm with COVID-19 that impacts every area of our lives. The temptation is to come up with a quick answer because, after all, leaders give answers. However, a quick answer may not be the right answer or may only be a partial answer. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
REPETITIVE. When I have listened to business gurus, the one thing I have discerned from them is the need to take repetitive actions. When something happens, we sink down into our training. REDEMPTIVE. There will be actions you take that will not be perfect, and you will fail, and then you will have to take redemptive action. Things will go wrong and you will have to fix them. RENEWED. If you are going to do the first two, you are going to have to have some gas in your tank. What I’ve noticed about most good leaders is that they know how to resource themselves. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If you take responsibility for getting on the road, I can help push you up the hill. You must be the responsible party. When you lose responsibility, you lose the ability to respond. When you lose responsibility, you lose the vision for your life. You lose the ability to steer that vehicle. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If we are going to go forward, we must be committed to a sequence of action. Ready, aim, fire. Not ready, fire, aim. Not ready, aim, aim, aim. You don’t have to have an elaborate plan. You know you have to take action, and you know there is going to be follow-up action. Very few things in life happen because of one act. Commit to a sequence, not just an action. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
You have to know where you are to get where you are going. Some people have a good idea of where they want to go, but don’t understand where they currently are. Good leaders have vision because they’ve been able to define reality. God wants to help you clearly identify where you are so that you don’t have to stay there. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Waiting for things to change is usually not a good plan. You must determine that the place you are in is not the place where you will stay. Get an exit strategy, and begin to move forward. Listen to God. Bow your knee. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. But pack your bags so you can move forward. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Forward is not a place. Forward is a motion. Forward is a commitment. If we are going to go somewhere, God wants us to go forward. We must be committed to forward action, not just as an idea or a theory. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Our salvation is based on a relationship with Christ, and that relationship must be maintained. Do not become sluggish. Do not become dull. Do not start coasting in your faith. Be imitators. Let’s be a people who actively engages our faith in Christ. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The ministry of the New Testament church was to plant churches and strengthen churches. Everything they did was connected to that. Jesus said, “I will build my church.” Paul said, “They were imitators of the churches.” We need apostolic congregations that are strengthening and building churches in a way that people can emulate. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
People pray for revival. People pray for a move of God. Historically, revival was very messy. Disruption is one of God’s techniques to get people’s attention. There is a philosophy in the Church today that we should go along to get along rather than being the people that stand out in the culture and speak God’s Truth in love and clarity, regardless of what might happen.Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Vision is divine revelation, divine direction. When you have vision, you have a conviction of what you must do. A mark of someone with vision is that they will do self-sacrificing things because there is a conviction to see the vision come to pass. It is not just a preferred future; it’s a necessary future. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The word vision appears 77 times in the New American Standard version of the Bible. Each time it is mentioned, except for twice, it refers to a supernatural occurrence or is commentary on a supernatural occurrence. When the Bible is talking about vision, it is not just talking about someone having a plan or an objective; it’s talking about God super-imposing Himself in the form of vision. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Be kind to one another. Be tender-hearted. Forgive each other just as God has forgiven you. In Ephesians 5, Paul admonishes us, the Church, to act and love not as he did, but as Christ did. God trusts us to love and serve with no promise of a return on that investment. Just like Christ loves us. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Paul encourages us in 1 Corinthians 11:1 to be imitators of him, just as he is an imitator of Christ. We are not to use our liberty as a license, thus causing people to stumble. Paul explains the why of this in 1 Corinthians 10:33…so that they may be saved. This is a good reminder: We are ambassadors of Christ for the Good News. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Several times in the new Testament, the Apostle Paul admonishes us to imitate him. Today, Keith looks at the exhortation of imitation found in 1 Corinthians 4. Paul had gone through a lot, but he endured and was a good steward of the gospel message. In this passage, he is calling us to do the same. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Hardship is not when things go awry; that is suffering. Hardship is found on a path with known obstacles. When you are walking in hardship, you have chosen the path that you are walking on; you have chosen a path with known obstacles. In covenant relationships, we do as Paul was instructing Timothy to do in 2 Timothy 2:3; we suffer hardship TOGETHER. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
It is critical that we are fortified in the fundamental doctrine of Jesus Christ and Who He is. He is the Creator. He is the radiance and the exact representation of God. He is not an angel. He is better than the angels. He is fully man and fully God. That is the incarnation. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Jesus was fully man and fully God. God did not send an idea or a plan or a strategy. God clothed Himself in humanity. Jesus coming in the flesh was not just an act of benevolence from God, but a divine act of redemption. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
It is hard to develop strategies when we aren’t going to see some sort of immediate return, but we have to be long-term minded. What is your plan and strategy to connect to your community? While we are focused in-house, winning souls and making disciples, doing all the things we need to do to have a healthy church, it’s important to keep fertilizing the soil around us and finding ways to connect. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Most people’s theology is based on experiences and a few Christian quotes instead of the Bible. They look at God, based on their experience and not through the lens of Truth. We need to identify critical doctrines that need to be preached, extrapolated, and expounded upon so we can be rooted firmly in Truth. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
It is a mistake to just doing something without understanding why you are doing it. Every church has liturgy. Is that liturgy theology? Is it explained? Is it being done in Spirit and in Truth? Do people know what they are doing, why, and how they are doing it as unto the Lord? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Have you ever in your church life seen someone who was very faithful and grounded, and yet down the road somewhere they got into a tizzy or caused division because of having a strong opinion or idea about something? I’m not referring to a doctrinal issue, but about the way something should be done or the color of the paint—something along those lines. Have you ever wondered how that happened? Maybe we’ve contributed to that DNA. That there is something in the soil that is reproducing itself. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
We should not have leadership teams whose only obligation is to give an opinion, but teams that understand that they are part of the DOING team. That when all hands are called on deck, that they are the first guys to show up. That they are leading not just by wisdom, which is obviously great, but leading by example. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When we have promoted someone to a leadership position, we can think that we are all on the same page and we see that we have giftings that complement each other, but we often fail to talk about and define the values of the team. Identify those values, clearly define them, and communicate them to every member of the team. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
A common mistake that is made when building a team is putting it on hold and waiting for better people to come along. Start with what you have. Be methodical. Be intentional. Draw out a strategy. Begin to bring people together. Create a pot for that flower to bloom. It has to be organic, but even things that are organic have a biological structure to it—make sure you supply that. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Generosity is a virtue that is greatly esteemed—even in our culture today, in its current moral tailspin. Our forefathers gave tremendous wealth to the revolutionary cause. That was generosity. Our spiritual forefathers gave everything they could to the establishing of churches, hospitals, and learning institutions. That was generosity. Generosity is esteemed in every culture. One of the ways we glorify God is by being generous. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God looks at us as a sower. We may look at our needs and feel we don’t have an abundance related to certain things, but when it comes to giving, we always have an abundance because giving is seed. One little seed. We may discount that amount, but God never wants us to discount our obedience. God exalts those acts of obedience, even if they are seemingly small. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
If God has called you to leadership, He has called you to a higher standard. A critical standard of leadership is not just how someone handles responsibility, it’s how they handle privilege. James tells us that we should not want to be teachers (leaders), knowing that we will receive a greater condemnation, not a greater commendation. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
It’s the equality of the commitment, not the abundance of gifts, that really makes a difference. Our level of commitment should be greater than our level of gifting. We don’t have to be as gifted as the next person; we just have to be completely committed to do what we can do. God is looking for spiritual distributors who will do something with what they have. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Scripture tells us that God will not judge us according to what we don’t have, but according to what we do have. It is easy for us to look at our life and see all that we do not have, but God looks at our lives and He sees an inventory list. He sees everything you do have. What has God given you? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God gives us seed for the sowing, not seed to consume. Giving is a spiritual standard. We can measure our heart by our giving. God so loved the world that He GAVE. Giving is not just an idea; it’s a commitment and it’s a response. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Giving is a grace. We should be excited about it. If you are not excited about giving or talking about giving, it’s because you are lacking grace. The church should be an example to the world of God’s economy. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Often in leadership, we are depending on sheer force to get something done rather than the edge of the blade being sharp. I remember one time, watching someone cut down a tree. I joked that he was trying to burn the tree down. His saw blade was so dull that you could literally smell the little tree burning. He spent a lot of time trying to cut down a small tree with a dull blade. There is a life lesson there. Healthy is being sharp. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
A common frustration I have found among younger people is the lack of response from those who are leading them. When leading people, it is imperative that we have good response practices. Get back to people. When you contact people, make sure it’s a good time for them to talk before you blast into conversation. Double-check your messages and emails, and make sure nothing has slipped through the cracks. Give people permission to follow up with you. Create a response code among your team where you respond within 24 hours, even if it is to let them know that you don’t have an answer, but that there is a process that is going on. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Vision is critical. The more you understand it, the more you’ll want to learn about it. Four vision truths: Vision is not necessarily a sign that you have it all together. Having an orderly life is critical to retaining vision. Vision must be maintained with focus. Vision must be clarified. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There are things we cannot back down on because they carry the whole spirit and integrity of the Gospel. God is the exact and specific Creator. Man cannot save himself. God is the only just law giver. All authority is delegated authority. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
We do not want to make decisions in a vacuum or decisions that appear to be made in a vacuum. Being a decisive leader is a defining mark of leadership. Knowing what you don’t know, seeking input and wisdom, being teachable, listening to the Holy Spirit, processing with someone outside yourself—that is the mark of a mature leader. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
When you make a decision, you are stewarding the time, talent, and treasure that has been entrusted to you. If we are good stewards and walk humbly before the Lord, God will enable us to escape from our defeats and triumph in our victories in decision making. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God wants people with fruitful lives that know how to make decisions. When you make a decision, you are cutting off the escape hatches of the other places you could go. Our decisions won’t make or break us, but our decisions will mark us. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God has anointed all of us to lead in some respect, in some capacity, in some sphere. The most distinctive sign of a leader is decisiveness. Being a leader, however, does not mean that every decision made will be the right decision. To be effective at leading, we must be decisive and not fear the consequences of a bad decision. Don’t let the paralysis of analysis cause you to not move forward. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There is a difference between Truth and fact. Facts are accurate, but subject to change. Truth is eternal. God invests in us and gives us the stewardship of preaching, teaching, and living that which is eternal. That is a very important understanding to have when discussing the issue of civil disobedience. If we are going to violate the standards of civil government by trying to remain true to God, the objective in our heart should not be defiance; it should be obedience. We should have a deep desire to obey God, be true to God, and stand against lies. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
We do not lose our civil rights when we stand behind the pulpit. We have the liberty, the authority, the responsibility to speak about anything to anyone, as long as we believe it is related to the gospel. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
We pay so much attention to the environment of worship that we tend to forget the content of worship. Worship should have a good environment (crisp sound, excellent in every way), but you can do all of that and still not have the right content in worship. We need to sing about the exploits of God. Sing about the gospel. Sing about the message. Sing the Word of God. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Worship should be bragging on God. And yet, so many of the songs focus on me. How I feel. What I think. What I want God to do. Scripture tells us again and again to sing praises to God. Our songs are to be adoration towards Him, not focused on us. We should be spending our time together in worship boasting on our God. In turn, we will find ourselves edified and encouraged. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God revealed His character to us through His writings, the history, the prophets, and the law of the Old Testament. If we are going to preach the benefits and the abundance of grace—which we absolutely must, we also must preach responsibility of the hearer in the call to obedience and the consequences of disobedience. Grace is not divine slack. Grace is God’s divine empowerment. God is consistent in His nature and consistent in His character. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Today Keith continues the discussion of Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews had several opportunities to discount the law—to tell the readers that the law no longer applies to them, that it doesn’t count anymore. But instead, he affirmsthe law, showing that Abraham, Moses, and Jesus all preached the same thing. The book of Hebrews affirms the Old Testament. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Keith begins a series of conversations where he models a practical approach to applying the Word of God. He looks at the book of Hebrews in light of some of the arguments coming out of the hyper-grace movement. Jesus came to fulfill the law, not abolish the law. The book of Hebrews helps us understand what part of the sacrificial and ceremonial law was fulfilled by Christ and that the moral law, the criminal law, the applications of the law still stand today. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
29 times (8 of them in the Old Testament) the Bible tells us to love God and obey His commandments. In other words, we love God according to His commandments. Do you think God wanted to be loved differently in the Old Testament than He wants to be loved now? Of course not! God is the same. When we unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament, we begin to declare that God has changed. Once we believe that God has changed, everything is shifting sand. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There is a place where we preach the gospel, and people are offended because they need to be offended. The gospel offends their place of sin. In order for a person to be found, they have to be lost. We are trying to find people who have no concept that they are lost. The preaching of the gospel should produce an understanding that they are lost and in need of a Savior. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Jesus was gentle and loving and kind, and that caused Him to affect the masses. We should be gentle and loving and kind to affect the masses. But to say that we are failing in our mission because everyone doesn’t like us—I don’t buy that indictment. I think it’s important that we understand that there are many, many people who rejected Jesus’ ministry. We do have some great success stories that are told in the Scripture so we can see the message that Jesus was preaching really does work. Christianity is not a popularity contest. We can be every bit as nice or kind or compassionate or concerned as Jesus and still be rejected by the majority. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There are some beliefs that pretty much guarantee that people will not like you. They are beliefs that our culture does not agree with. But they are foundational. They are important. And regardless of what people think of us, we must stand firm on them. Jesus wasn’t always popular. Our mandate is not to always be popular. But to always be truthful and effective for the gospel. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Many believers that think if they are really pleasing God, then everyone around them should be pleased with them. But Scripture tells us that we will be persecuted. That people won’t like us. In fact, Scripture ties persecution and righteousness together. We aren’t persecuted because of us, but because of Who we represent. Many of us are walking around with the wrong expectation (that everyone will like us) and need to shift our thinking to get to the place where we can rejoice in the midst of persecution. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
In Scripture, occupations are talked about many times. It is not coincidental that Jesus was identified as a carpenter and that His disciples were found casting nets, mending nets, and collecting taxes. Nehemiah was a cupbearer. Amos was a fruit picker. There is a Kingdom connection in Scripture between what a man does for a living and how he impacts the world. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
As we lead and disciple people, as we impact our culture, our messages need to line up with God’s Word, encompassing teaching, reproof, and correction. Teaching that is not just auditory, but demonstrates the how. Reproof that uses the gospel to identify sin. Correction that is preemptive in action. These elements lead people to hold God’s Word as the authority and not just another opinion. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Dignity is not ours to give, to decide upon by a vote, to debate; but dignity, rather is to recognize, receive and, honor. Dignity, by its very nature, is not about performance or ability, production or contribution. It's not even about being wanted or needed, but dignity is about “being”—it’s about being a human being. That is the true qualification for dignity, and that is the story history will eventually tell. What side of history will we be on? The side that wrapped itself in silence while the slaughter continued, or will it be the side that intervened to stop the madness? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Without some energy, without some excitement, without some urgency, you depreciate and devalue the vision. Vision is not something that is on a sheet of paper, on a flow chart, or a mantra people quote. Vision is a wake that is being created by those who are leading. The value of the objective needs to be what determines how fast we are going. Are you making a wake, or have you become sluggish? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The single biggest deterrent to people getting healed is faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.We need to be stirring faith up in believers. We need to set a new culture where we are preaching the Word, having people examine themselves in preparation to receive prayer, and then releasing faith and believing God for a supernatural outpouring. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Research shows that evangelical believers don’t really believe in a literal devil, just a force of evil. The Bible says to resist the enemy, but how can we resist something that we aren’t aware of or know nothing about? As Christians, we need to understand that the enemy is real. That he is laying snares and plotting schemes against us. We have an adversary, but we also possess the power to not only resist him, but to overcome! Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Teaching on the giftings can unmask the gifts in your church. Get people baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Introduce them to the gifts of the Spirit. Teach them how the five-fold gifts mature them and cause them to become a united part of the body. Teach them about the motivational gifts so they can be plugged in and serving somewhere. All of those gifts work together to build the body. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The infilling of the Holy Spirit is critical to the overcoming and victorious life that every church, every Christian needs. Yet it seems we have neglected this foundational stone. Today Keith discusses the importance of the filling of the Holy Spirit and how you emphasize the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
It is easier to deal with wildfire than no fire. How a senior leader handles strong personalities is one of the defining marks of their success. When working with strong personalities, you have to focus on the idea (not the person), avoid suspicion, and not be fearful. The goal is to be a leader that strong personalities feel like they can vent to, talk to, and give opinions to without being shut down. When we lead from that position, we will find that we spend a lot less time trying to make a fire under people and more time enjoying the wildfires that God has placed in our midst. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Do you have strong people in your life that you would like to have better relationships with? Compliance is not the goal of leadership. FRUIT is the goal of leadership. Today Keith begins a discussion on working with strong people. We don’t want people who will just comply, but people that we can release, channel, hold onto without dragging them down. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Evaluation is critical to growth. Today Keith discusses how, by asking just a few questions, we can identify some things that may be holding us back. He has found that the things we are avoiding tend to be the pitfalls that are knocking us off course, that as we improve in specific areas, we will see correlated areas of our ministry improving, and that investing in others is always worth the effort. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
In ministry, we are always telling people they need to improve, to be equipped, to be held accountable. Yet often the most unaccountable and unchallenged person in the church may be the guy who is doing the preaching. Self-evaluation uses tools and people around us to give us honest feedback on where we are on specific things so we can keep improving. It is important to identify what you are really good at and what you are not. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
God needs called people that He then qualifies. He doesn’t look for qualified people and then calls them. As leaders, we can recruit people and train them for leadership. By recruiting, by turning the funnel open wide, we give people an entry point. We give people a chance to show us what God has put in them—thing that we might not have seen if we had not given them the opportunity. We need to be leaders that are overtly, intentionally, objectively, and clearly recruiting and making a way for new leaders.Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
We have 52 opportunities to influence people for the Gospel and for the Kingdom. It only seems rational that we would build our schedules and strategies around those 52 launching pads. When we plan ahead, we inspire people. Where do you want to be 52 weeks from now? Today Keith walks us through how we can build our schedules backwards and shift from hoping something happens to making something happen. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
There is a good chance that you would say you are busy. Most of us are. But having a busy mindset is one of the things that will zap your mental, spiritual, and emotional energy and will keep you from being productive. As the new year is starting and we are planning our calendar, how will 2019 look different from 2018? It’s as simple and as difficult as this: Assign your days. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The first person on this planet to praise the incarnate Jesus Christ was John the Baptist—as a baby inside his mother’s womb. Jesus received this praise while He was still in His mother’s womb. What a message God sent to us. Every day, God’s heart breaks, because every day innocent blood is shed. That will never be OK with God. If we are in covenant with God, it should never be OK with us. Pray for creative, redemptive tactics, vision, and plans to stop the killing of innocent children. Listen as Keith encourages us to remove our “amen” and speak up. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
The greatest missions need is not money; it’s people. Money helps facilitate those people. Cast the vision of people (your church) touching people (the missions) touching people (the need). This works and creates provision for your vision. Join us as Keith continues a series of conversations about being missional. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
One of the clearest ways you define and infuse vision is to demonstrate a strategic plan to obtain provision to fuel the vision. Missional churches have leadership that is unapologetic about asking people for their time, talent, and their treasure. Take the time to find people’s ponds; find the things in their heart that really moves them. People are motivated by different things, but they all want to make a difference. Join us as Keith continues a series of conversations about being missional. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Join us as Keith continues a series of conversations about being missional. If we want people to be different, we are going to have to lead them out of where they are, not just suggest a different route that they can take themselves. Today Keith shows the practical application of this by walking us through what needs to be done to develop a strong missions culture in our churches. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Join us as Keith continues a series of conversations about being missional. If you want to move forward—building a building, adding staff members, supporting a missionary, recruiting more volunteers, etc.—here are 5 C’s that can be a checklist for you as you pray, meet with your leadership team, and communicate. Cause, Cure, Curriculum, Culmination, and Commission. As you begin to put these into practice, you will begin to see a different flow. The culture of being a missional church will begin to develop. You will have a lot less maintenance and will be able to provide a lot more leadership. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Join us as Keith begins a series of conversations about being missional. We have trained people to think that the church exists to take care of their needs instead of helping them mature and contribute to the work of the ministry. Missional is what we do and why we do it, not just what we receive and the benefits. Developing a missional culture is one of the most significant things you can do. It affects and defines not only everything you do, think, believe, and feel, but also what you end up doing—what you put traction to. Listen in as Keith introduces this important aspect of church culture. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found here.
Join us as Keith continues a series of conversations about discipleship. Oftentimes, the end result of discipleship is raising up people who are committed, serving, faithful, and loyal. This is the soil, not the fruit, of discipleship. The process is training up followers, but the product is releasing leaders. Listen as Keith discusses how you practically change your focus and your efforts from the soil to the fruit of discipleship. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found here.
Join us as Keith continues a series of conversations about discipleship. When it comes to discipleship, discipline means effective planning, clear executing, and making what you say is a priority really a priority. Today Keith shares from his experience in discipling by practically answering the questions: How often did you meet? When did you meet? What are some other things you can do in a meeting context with your leaders? Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found here.
Join us as Keith continues a series of conversations about discipleship. The heart of discipleship is discipline. It is where the word “discipleship” comes from. The desired outcome of discipleship should be producing people who are growing and reproducing. Discipleship is predicated on discipline. Listen as Keith shares 6 critical discipleship disciplines. These disciplines alone do not make someone a disciple, but they are a critical part of the whole package. Show notes, posted every Tuesday) can be found here.
Join us as Keith begins a series of conversations about discipleship. Discipleship is key to a growing and flourishing ministry. Many get the end result wrong. The end result is not just quality. The end result must also be quantity. But that can only happen with clear direction. Today Keith challenges our thinking about discipleship, asks some hard questions, and shares his 5 M’s of discipleship. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found here.
Join us as Keith continues his series of conversations about guarding your testimony. Sexual compromise is rampant in the church, and it knocks many out of the race. It is especially rampant in the next generation. This next generation will not succeed if they have weak morality and they don’t have a clear code of conduct that is biblical regarding their sexuality. Keith shares about how, as a leader, we need to compensate the fact that morality is at a critical low point in the church. We do this by being obvious and clear as to what the biblical standards are, teaching how to walk them out, and, most importantly, modeling them. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Join us as Keith begins a series of conversations about guarding your testimony. He has found that the casual consumption of alcohol has become part of many believers’ lives. It’s not a matter of addiction, but dependency. As a leader, we are not to be legalistic, but purposeful in the leading of our church and our example in the community. Keith shares how we can provoke a conversation about a sensitive subject and how we can sow vision into the next generation that dedication, consecration, and sacrifice are valuable to the Lord. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Join us as Keith has a conversation about having an immediate and specific follow-up plan for new converts. He has found that many leaders agree on the ingredients, but fail to make and implement a plan. It does not have to be complicated. Keith explains how all you need is a “fast ball straight down the lane.” You will find that having, and implementing, an immediate and specific new convert plan will change the dynamics and have exponential impact on everything you are doing in your local church setting. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Join us as we continue our conversation on the Art of Meetings. The Holy Spirit spoke to Keith one day after watching some guys drill a well, “If you stay in contact with all of the different soils in your church, you will hit water every time.” Many leaders make fail errors and do not act quickly because they are simply going on old information. Listen as Keith Tucci discusses how to drill down at every leadership level so that you will sustain the people who are serving and see the water level rising at your church. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Join us as we continue our conversation on the Art of Meetings. Believe it or not, comfortable chairs and favorable lighting can make all the difference in people’s ability to receive and engage in a meeting. Preparing questions ahead of time to promote engagement and discussion is a must during preparation. Listen as Keith Tucci discusses The Art of a Meeting and how to set the atmosphere, be intentional, be engaging, and end clear. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
One of the questions we asked in a recent survey of our network churches was: Are there any practices that you used to do that are now neglected or not being done that need to be reinstated? The overwhelming answer: meeting with leadership groups. Listen as Keith discusses how regular leadership meetings make you accountable for the vision and process to move forward, keep you from being swallowed up by problems and “problem people,” and help you accurately assess the health and ability of your team. Show notes (posted every Tuesday) can be found HERE.
Keith Tucci is the apostolic team leader of the Network of Related Pastors. He loves the church and its leaders. You will be empowered and equipped to walk in fruitful ministry as you listen each week to Keith as he puts leadership truths in the context of the local church. During this episode, Keith shares his heart for the local church and its leaders. He shares how his experience in ministry has prepared him to be able to give practical, Biblical leadership principles that can easily be applied to produce a healthy and growing local church.