love is the anthem: Week Ten -- Spiritual Leadership

Our speaker this past week was Dan Thoemke from Hillside Community Church, who taught on Spiritual Leadership. It was a really cool week, where we looked at the lives of Moses, King Saul, King David, and Jesus. We talked about what leadership looks like, what the struggles are, and how to be someone who leads while glorifying the Lord.

Dan Thoemke

One thing Dan asked us was who has had the greatest influence on our lives. We went around the room and shared who it was. Most people said their parents, a few said siblings, aunts, etc. But it was really sweet to see that the people who have the greatest influence are common people.

Leadership really isn't skill-based. It's about being faithful and consistent.

"In every age, there comes a time when a leader must come forward to meet the needs of the hour. Therefore, there is no potential leader, who does not have an opportunity to make a positive difference in society. Tragically, there are times when a leader does not arise to the hour."

~Winston Churchill

We were reminded that Biblical leadership is not limited to the Christian community. We have opportunities to lead all the time. It's just a matter of recognizing them.

"The enemies we do not destroy in our strongest moments, will be the same enemies that will destroy us in our weakest moment."

~Tommy Tenney

A huge focus of this school has been cutting stuff off at the root--dealing with our junk now so that we don't get down the road in ministry and 40 years from now realize we fell prey to the same thing that the enemy used against us in our youth. This place, the environment I'm in, is the perfect place to deal with that stuff. It's easy to deal with it here because people are wanting to help us be accountable. But in other places and most scenarios, you have to make yourself accountable to people. It's a lot harder when you're outside of a discipleship bubble. I encourage you to ask people to speak into your life more often. No, it's not very fun. :) But we should have relationships with people we respect and know have our best interest in mind, where we can receive the hard truth. I want to create a culture where I can receive correction and then bring it before God so He can really deal with my heart.

Another theme God really highlighted to me this week was literally loving your neighbor. What do we think Jesus actually meant when He said, "Love your neighbor"? I've grown up in a house where we honestly haven't done that effectively. We are cordial to neighbors and have light conversations, but now I want to be intentional about building relationships with them. Real relationships. This earth is as close to heaven as some people will ever get, and I don't want to take that lightly.

We had the opportunity to close our week of teaching with a Q&A time with a panel of really awesome men and women of God who are leaders in the area. We had a couple pastors, a detective/chaplain from the police department, and a man who just stepped down from an official "pastor position" to go into real estate. We asked them hard questions like, "What's something you wish you'd have known 25 years ago?" and "How do you deal with failure as a leader?" We finished out the week with really asking ourselves, "Am I okay not doing formal ministry?" We should be! I think the answer to this last question shows who we're actually doing ministry for.

The panel during class time

Saturday was our third and last of what we call, "Service Saturday." Service Saturday is simply a day where the students and staff at YWAM Denver disperse across the city to different organizations and just serve whatever needs they have. My small group along with two others went to do four hours of children's ministry with Burmese refugee kids. We taught about the fruits of the Spirit and how much God loves us. We also sang songs, played games like musical chairs, and decorated Christmas cookies. :)