Good Leaders Ask Great Questions by John C. Maxwell (New York, NY: Center Street, 2014)
I am always looking for ways to increase my leadership capabilities. I serve in a position of leadership within my church, and have discovered over the years that this is a critical area of my growth that I must intentionally focus on, or it just won’t happen. Because of that, I strive to read several good resources each year, take in a conference or workshop, or find an online event or resource that I can utilize to help me grow as a leader.
I have been a longtime fan of John Maxwell for this area of my growth. He recently launched an online resource called LILO: Lead In, Lead Out. This is kind of like the Netflix for leaders; it is filled with short videos and resources that you can take a few moments here and there to learn something and improve your abilities. I subscribed, and have been extremely satisfied with the content.
In one recent video I watched, Maxwell referenced his book, Good Leaders Ask Great Questions. I was immediately interested, since this is a book I had not yet read by Maxwell. So I ordered it, and started digging into it last weekend. The premise is simple: if you want to grow as a leader, you need to learn to ask good questions, questions that will help you learn, questions that will help you connect with others, questions that will challenge you to grow, and questions that will help you develop better ideas.
I have long said that I know I’m not smart enough to have all the good ideas, and I need to surround myself with other who can help me grow, and stimulate my thinking in ways that I don’t normally. Questions are a great way to capitalize on that. Asking questions is critical to growing, but you also have to know how to ask good questions.
I am convinced that this will be a book that helps take my leadership to a new level, and will help me expand my thinking as I strive to grow. If you are in a leadership position, you should check it out as well. You can pick up a copy for yourself on Amazon.
There are several key habits that we must develop if we want to grow in our spiritual maturity. Many habits are beneficial, but there are a few that I would classify as critical that we incorporate. Accountability is one of the crucial ones.
Accountability can be difficult, and especially for guys. Maybe it is because women seem to be able to understand relationships better than most men. I don’t know. But it can be tough for a man to build an accountable relationship with being very intentional about it.
But… If you can develop one accountable relationship, it will change your life. It really will. Unfortunately, most men live their lives without ever even attempting to build this type of relationship into their life and growth.
Accountability is, at it’s most basic level, simply an intentionally formed, deep friendship with someone who has permission to ask you some tough questions in and about your life. Proverbs 18:24, describes this kind of friendship very clearly:
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
If this is such a necessary part of our spiritual life, then there must be some benefits from developing such a relationship. Let me suggest four benefits, and then a few tips on how to incorporate accountability so it can be most impactful.
The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus by Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2004)
I am continually on the search for great books. And when I hear of something that is potentially a quality resource, I’m usually quick to grab a copy and read it. Over the years, I have built an extensive library of such volumes, and utilize them frequently, and recommend them to others.
Not long ago, I was listening to some older episodes of one of my favorite podcasts, Every Thought Captive — which is the creation of three current professors at my alma mater, Ozark Christian College, in Joplin, Missouri. In one episode, they made a passing comment about a book that a couple of them have used as a textbook in their classes, remarking that it was the best resource they had found on this particular topic. Of course, I was immediately intrigued.
So I went to Amazon and found myself a copy of The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus. And I have not been disappointed. This book lays out the logical and historical evidences for the resurrection accounts given to us in the New Testament, and they do so in a clear and concise manner that is easy to read and comprehend. They also don’t get caught up in “side issues,” such as the reliability of Scripture and others. These are important topics, and certainly play a part in the discussion, but are topics that can pull the attention away from the discussion at hand. Authors Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona avoid that as much as possible.
The book approaches the evidence from a couple of different directions, from both the proponents point of view, as well as the perspective of the skeptic, answering his questions and opposing theories. Both are equally well crafted and provide excellent information for Christians to use, adding strength to their testimony of Jesus to others.
I find The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus to be both refreshingly new, and timelessly solid. It’s an incredible addition to my library. I highly recommend this book for just about any Christian who wants to become better at sharing their faith in Jesus and the power of his resurrection.
If you are interested in picking up a copy, you can find it on Amazon.
Matthew 5, the first of the three chapters of the Sermon on the Mount, wraps up with what seems to be a few odds and ends. But they are critically important topics that address how we interact with God and with others… which has been a theme throughout most of Matthew 5.
Many people have found various themes that run through these three chapters of Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount. Many of them seem to be obvious, others not so much. But throughout Matthew 5, it is hard to miss the recurring theme of relational topics. Jesus seems to focus on our relationships with other people in this section, and will move on to our relationship with the Father in Matthew 6.
Just as in previous passages, each of these last three topics begins with the familiar phrase, “You have heard that it was said…” Jesus is drawing from the vast quantity of instruction to be found in the Old Testament, of which his hearers would have been intimately aware.
The Art Of Parenting by Dennis and Barbara Rainey (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2018)
One of the hardest things I have ever experienced in my life is being a parent. Parenting is hard! Don’t misunderstand… It’s good. But it’s difficult.
We thought it was tough when the kids were little. Then we had teenage girls. That was tougher. And then we had a teenage boy. That has been toughest of all so far. And we still have four more kids yet to go through these stages. Parenting is hard!
A friend of mine shared a verse with me a few years ago that shed some light on this for me. He told me to read Galatians 6:9, which says, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
This was not written with parenting as the specific context, but it definitely applies. Don’t grow weary… Parenting is hard! We will reap a harvest… Parenting is good! It might be difficult at times, but if we hold on and keep on going, we will see some results.
Sometimes, though, it can be difficult to see past the immediate circumstances of hard to the future reality of good. Have you ever been there? That’s why Dennis and Barbara Rainey have written The Art Of Parenting. Because it does get difficult. And it does have dark moments. But it also has great moments, and if we do not give up, we just might one day see the harvest that God can bring about in the lives of our kids.
Our family is large. We have adult children. We have teens. And we have younger children as well. Parenting in all these various seasons of life for our kids seems chaotic at best, and downright crazy at times. So I’m excited to dig into The Art Of Parenting. Having read other books by the Rainey’s, I know it will be a great help to my parenting life.
If you are a parent, I suggest you read it as well. You can purchase it on Amazon.
My kids typically sleep in a little more than most. And that has been a blessing in a few different ways. Especially at Christmas time.
We homeschool our kids, and because of that, we can begin our day on a little different schedule than many families. That enables us to allow them to stay up a little later than some, and it results in the fact that they sleep in a little later than many kids do.
That’s a fact that my wife and I enjoy, especially at Christmas time. I’m typically an early riser, and most of the time, I am in my office at the church before most of our kids are even awake. More often than not, even my wife is still snatching the opportunity to sleep a little more before the day’s chaos begins.
But at Christmas, I don’t head off to the office, I stay at home. I’m still up early. I shower and dress, and then I sit down with a cup of coffee and my Bible.
It’s quiet. It’s almost eerily quiet. I know that, soon enough, everyone will be awake, and then it will become crazy around our home while we begin the Christmas festivities and traditions that we enjoy.
But for a time, I enjoy the peace and quiet.
I am really good at imagining a lot of “what if” style scenarios. I must have an overactive imagination, I’m not sure. I can come up with a variety of scenarios that spark my thinking. What would it have been like if it had happened this way? Christmas is a prime example of this.
This displays itself mostly in those moments after a verbal exchange with someone. I can be thinking about it later and that’s when the perfect rejoinder appears in my mind. Mostly, it’s far too late to do anything about it, but my mind works along those channels sometimes.
I do this with biblical stuff too. I ask questions like, “Why did God do it that way? What if he had done it like this instead?” And most of the time, in situations like these, I end up at the somewhat unsatisfying conclusion of, “Well, that was just God’s timing.” Or, “That was God’s design.”
I don’t like that conclusion. It seems to be a cop out. But there are many times when that seems to be the only answer I’m going to get.
Take the birth of Christ, for example. Why did God choose to send his Son as a baby at the specific time that he did? I can think of several eras that I might have chosen instead. And so my mind wanders of into the land of “what if…” What if Christmas was different?
