All posts by Rod Denton

LEADERSHIP EMERGENCE……An often underrated and overlooked season. (not for the faint hearted)

Following his release in February 1990, Nelson Mandela has emerged as the world’s most significant moral leader since Mahatma Ghandi. As president of the African National Congress and figurehead of the anti-apartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving South Africa towards black majority rule. And throughout the world he has been revered as a vital force for human rights and racial equality. In 1993 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. (Adapted from notes from the cover of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography LONG WALK TO FREEDOM)

Nelson Mandela’s story reminds us that a life of greatness is often birthed out of a time of preparation that is quite painful …

The Most Memorable Gift I Could Have Given

Rod Denton in Christian Living, Leadership, Marriage

My wife Sue’s birthday was fast approaching, and try as I may, I couldn’t think of a memorable present that she needed, that I could buy for her. We had been married for forty years and memorable presents were now more difficult than ever to find.

However, in the process the word memory would not leave me and then it came to me; why not buy Sue a memory. After all, you can never wear a memory out, it can never add clutter to your house and you are less likely to forget it. But what kind of memory! Now my thought processes were quite stirred and I started …

MAKE PLANS THAT OUTLIVE YOUR LIFE

Rod Denton in Christian Living, Discipleship, Leadership, Mentoring, Mission

“Is this a tragedy?” John Piper asked an audience of 50,000 young people when he spoke of two 80 year old ladies, Ruby a nurse and Laura a retired doctor, who were killed instantly when their car went over a cliff in the Cameroons, where they were serving as missionaries.

I continued to watch the video of John Piper where he said, “What happened to these two ladies was no tragedy. But this is a tragedy.”

And then he told the story from a Readers’ Digest article about a couple aged 59 and 61, who took early retirement to live in a coastal development in Florida, USA to spend …

INSIGHT……that separates leaders from followers

Rod Denton in Leadership, Mentoring

INSIGHT is a critical quality that characterises great leaders and the decisions they make. It separates leaders from followers and great leaders from ordinary leaders and can be defined as perspective, intuition, vision and discernment. However, insight can be compromised by logic, precedence, fear, legalism and traditions.

Jesus was a person of insight and often saw things that others did not see. The religious leaders of His day sent spies to catch Him out in something He said, but “He saw through their duplicity.” (Luke 20:23) On another occasion we read, “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” (Mark 2:5)

Leaders possess …