One of the most important books I have read on leadership is Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. I not only read the book but was motivated to go out of my way to spend time with Mr. Sanders whenever he came to the city in which I was living. In the process, he came to my home and spent time teaching my leaders.

The main reason I was motivated to connect with Mr. Sanders was because of a line in his book that urged leaders to have “fellowship with great minds” in their desire to grow to their maximum potential. One way of doing this was to read books …

The Argentinian pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz stood up to preach one Sunday and read three words of Jesus, “Love one another.” Then he sat down. After a few minutes Ortiz got up and again said, “Love one another” and sat down. The congregation began to stir nervously. So, Ortiz got up a third time and said, “Love one another” and sat down.

A man in the front row leaned over to the next man and said, “Is there anything I can do for you?” Gradually people from across the congregation began to reach out to one another to share and pray and cry and give to one another’s needs. They …

We live in a world where there is an oversupply of words with a corresponding undersupply of learning.
John Maxwell made an interesting observation when he said, “The illiterate are not those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn.”
Speaking as a pastor, I came to the conclusion some years ago that if all I did was preach about what people should be doing, I was in danger of hardening people’s hearts and causing them to become sermon tasters and sermon critics. My words were just the beginning of the process of communication.
I now have come to understand that there are three steps to the process …

I have much to be thankful for my father who grew up in a harsh environment, left school at a very early age and then with great determination and courage sacrificially worked hard to provide for our family.  For him, life was a great battle full of challenges, injustices and opposing forces.  I remember him impressing on me to be careful not to “stick my neck out”, or it could get chopped off. Such was life.

I remember my father teaching me to drive a car.  Before we started, he told me how I would be setting out on roads that were filled with dangerous drivers who could cause serious …