The Heart Of An Executive

I last posted about a great book on Christian manhood entitled, The Masculine Mandate, by Richard D. Phillips, a Presbyterian pastor from Greenville, SC.  When I recommended this book to a friend, he recognized the author and said he's also written a great book on leadership.  That book is entitled, "The Heart Of An Executive," and I too would say it is excellent.  Pastor Phillips speaks with wisdom and experience, for before he entered seminary he served in the U.S. Army as a tank commander, and has held numerous leadership roles.

In this book, Phillips reviews King David's life through several phases in the OT.  We see David from the days he was a shepherd boy, to his amazing defeat of Goliath, then through his turmoils and conflicts with King Saul, to his own ascension to the throne of Israel, his making of the capital city of Jerusalem, (the city of David); then to his pride and moral failure in adultery and murder, and also through internal family corruption, failure, and civil war.  Through God's grace, he was restored to the throne of Israel, and then successfully passed his throne to Solomon before he died.

Even though I've read these stories before I've never looked at them through the lens of Godly leadership.  Pastor Phillips brings keen insights from the world of executive leadership to describe the "principles and purposes" that David lived by.  In contrast to King Saul who lived primarily by the priorities of his own self-centered interests and advancement, David recognized the importance of living for God and his glory.  Perhaps from his youth tending sheep when he gazed into the heavens at night to see the stars, he realized the big picture of who God is.  His instincts of shepherding people were always guided by his realization that the God of heaven and earth should be honored always.  David was indeed "a man after God's own heart."

In the review of David's many achievements, Phillips remarks,

"Can any of us rise higher than David did in his act of mercy and faithfulness at the cave of Adullam?  Surely that was his greatest moment, the highest point his heart ever reached, higher even than the quick triumph of faith that slew Goliath.  For the heart of an executive shines brightest not when it reveals its own identity, but when others find theirs in it," p. 262.

Other people realized that David was dedicated to a higher calling, a higher set of values, and even to a higher vision of God.  This in turn led others to also be dedicated to this same vision and to live for the God of creation and glory, and not for our own glory or accomplishments.

David's life and leadership are most compelling and worthy of our admiration and following.  From him we find the hallmark of Christian leadership, to inspire people with a great vision of God and to serve Christ with whatever gifts they have, so as to build His kingdom.

The Masculine Mandate

I've started a young men's study on the book, The Masculine Mandate, by Richard Phillips.  This book got my attention over a year ago because it addressed biblical leadership for men today.  There are not that many books on leadership that promote the creation design of Genesis 1 and 2.  But the crisis in leadership in our culture shows how important this study is for the family and church.

As you can imagine it's a great challenge to try to bridge the gap between a sixty-something year old man, and the predominately twenty-something group of young men.  My strategy has been to enlist the support of a thirty-something young man, husband and father, to connect our ages. Basically I am a "baby boomer" trying to relate to the "millennials".  But the man in the middle is helping me a lot.

The following outline is my six week plan to establish a foundation for this book.  The book is much better as it discusses the issues in greater detail.  But, these young men are not big readers and that's part of the challenge.  They have grown up on TV and the Internet, Facebook, Snapchat and texting.  So, a condensed summary outline is what I've given them to try to establish a big picture of the book, and what biblical manhood looks like.  This is what it looks like.

The Masculine Mandate

Part One describes the "mandate" that God gives to men.  Part Two describes living it out in life.  We will discover six major topics that we can learn from and discuss.  

Week One - our PURPOSE.  Ch.1, (p.6), references Gen.1:26-27, and describes how God created Adam, and we are created in the "image of God".  We bear God's image, as we are spiritual people representing God.  Manhood is seen in the "who, where, what, and how," of God's creation design.  "Who" we are is God's "image bearers" and created to be with God.  Our primary purpose in life then is to know, live for, and to serve God.

Week Two - our VOCATION.  Ch.1, (p.9), reference Gen.1:28, and "the calling" from God to, "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion."  This has been referred to as the "creation mandate", God's calling to humanity in general.  "What" is our calling - we are called to be God's "co-laborers" and this is before the "fall".  But our calling as men in leadership is found in Gen.2:15, to "work and keep" in the "masculine mandate".  What is your particular skill and job?

Week Three - our FINANCES.  Ch.1, (p.10), also references Gen.2:15, and the "How" of our calling, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it."  To "work" so as "to labor and make things grow", and to "keep", so as to protect and sustain progress already achieved".  In today's world we do this primarily with financial management.  All resources belong to God, and we are just his stewards of it all.

Week Four - our RELATIONSHIPS.  Ch.6, (p.77), references Gen.2:18, and our relationships with the opposite sex.  We are created with a purpose, Gen.1:28, and with a calling, Gen.2:15, and we are also created for a wife.  The "creation design" was incomplete initially, Gen.2:18, "It is not good that man should be alone"; and "not good" means not complete.  God created us "male and female" so to become one flesh, Gen.2:24.  Friendship is foundational, partnership is the plan, and love is the goal.  

Week Five - our FAMILY.  Ch.9, (p.126), references Gen.2:15 and our calling "to work and to keep" the creation of God.  This also applies to being a father.  We are called to nurture and to protect our children.  This equates to discipling (work) and disciplining (keep) our children.  Teaching and correcting, training and educating, for the heart and the head.  Proverbs 4:23 speaks of wisdom, "keep your heart with all vigilance..."  God calls us to him as "our Father".

Week Six - Our FRIENDSHIPS and FAITH.  Ch.11, (p.165), references 1Sam.18:1, and describes, "the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul."  Such a Godly friendship is a great asset in life.  And in John 15:1 we see, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."  Faith is "a gift" and not an achievement, Eph.2:8-9.  It is completely by grace but we must walk in faith, and then it will transform all of our life.

These topics are a lot easier to discuss than accomplish.  But we need a blueprint to live by and God's Word gives us that design.  The Masculine Mandate calls us to live for these truths.

John 1:14

Within the many facets of ministry, it is difficult to come up with one philosophy of leadership.  But for a clear vision for Christian leadership, I've decided upon John 1:14.  It reads, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."  Here we see that Jesus is the incarnation of God in the world, he lived and dwelt among the disciples in real life, and in turn, they saw his glory as he ministered in teaching and miracles.  And all this because he proceeded from God as his only begotten Son.  Jesus was the God-man.  Even more, Jesus was filled with grace and truth.

So I believe this "grace and truth" of Christ is the best paradigm to best understand how to conduct Christian ministry.  We need both the grace and truth of Christ, not one or the other.  For it is by grace that we receive truth and it is by truth that we can understand grace.  God graciously grants the truth of the gospel to us, and he then gives us his truth to understand the true meaning of the gospel.  The two are inseparably connected all through the Scripture.  The challenge is to always keep these two in balance and in priority.  In a complicated and broken world that can be difficult at times.

The priority of truth must guide us in our grace.  And we must always be gracious as we teach and disciple the family of faith for we constantly need the grace of Christ to become Christ-like.  But John 1:14 makes it clear that we also need the truth of Christ and we must never compromise the truth in an attempt to be gracious.  We must always be true to the whole counsel of Scripture that God has given to us for the very purpose of knowing him.  We must also always be gracious to our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord as we all are recipients of grace.  But the priority of truth must guide us in our grace.  Amen, it is true.

What's Your Priority?

The "Veritas Fellowship" is all about "proclaiming the true truth of Christ."  This is an extremely important ministry in our postmodern world.  So much of our culture is wrapped up in the personal perspectives of each individual or group of people.  But we are called to know God and to live for him.

The priority therefore must always be upon the Lord who has created us and redeemed us.  The great commandment is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  And the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself."  We are called to love God with all our being, and then to be filled with the Holy Spirit so as to serve others.  This is a theocentric priority and focus.  But the tendency is to reverse this and become man-centered.

The true-truth of Christ is that we are called to him first and foremost in all our lives.  This is what we all need, even those who are in different stations in life.  When we are God-centered, we are lifted up and we trust Christ in his teachings, and we take on new faith and character.  We reject the philosophies of the world and accept the truth of Scripture.  Our priority must be God and his Word, to discover and live out the system that redeems and restores us to him.

It was discouraging today to see a high-profile civil rights leader come to Memphis and give the same politically orientated and racially charged message that we've heard for the last fifty years.  It would be so much better to hear the truth of Scripture that describes that Christ alone can transform us and give us an upward calling.

The inner city poverty comes from a poverty of spirit and hope.  People live out what they believe.  But the message of Christ is the gospel, where we trust in Christ, then repent, and follow his teachings.  Our faith in Christ makes us new people who are eager to become like Christ and to leave the brokenness and ghettos of socialism behind.  It takes the truth of Scripture and faith in Christ to learn a new priority to live by.  

A Truth Based Faith

Our contemporary culture runs after many pragmatic endeavors to gain the things of the world.  We run after finances, sports, fashion, power, possessions, status, and pleasure.  With the abundance of freedom in our country we are able to pursue the things of the world with abandon.  More often we pursue the desires of our hearts without too much aforethought to our actions.  We simply follow the ways of the world and our natural inclinations.

The freedom we have most often leads us to pursue self-centered goals.  This comes from a faith that we are basically good people and that pursuing our interests is a good activity.  But as we do the analysis on our freedom and our essential nature, we have to admit that we are not fundamentally good people.  We do not have a good nature in our natural selves.  But many people believe we are essentially good because we seem to be good on average, as we compare ourselves to vile offenders and see that basically, most people are good.  But how can we explain it when we sin?  How can we understand ourselves when we really blow it, when we make obvious mistakes?

It's clear that our faith can be biased and distorted to ourselves.  We don't see ourselves for the most part as being sinners.  But when we turn to the Bible we must read it as it is, for it indeed declares that all people are not good and that the truth of the matter is that we are sinful.  We do not just make mistakes sometimes, we are sinners by nature.  This is what it means to be full of sin, to be sinful.  And it is clear that we do not want to admit that we are sinners.  We prefer to be good people and to be accepted by each other, even to be esteemed by each other.  Even more, we seek to be loved and respected, and admired by each other.

From a biased view of being basically good people, we have a biased view of the Bible.  Beginning with an assumption of our goodness we see the doctrine of sin from a distorted view.  We can either believe that it doesn't mean we are really all that bad and therefore it doesn't really teach that we are totally depraved.  Or we believe that no matter how sinful we are, for the sake of grace, we should emphasize the positive and focus on the love of God instead of the condemnation of sin.  Our faith becomes biased upon the belief that the more gracious we are the more gracious we will become.  And before long the central teaching of the Bible becomes the gospel of grace without an affirmation of needing grace.  We lose the gospel however if we forget our need for grace is due to our sinfulness, or we choose however deliberately to overlook our sinfulness.

The Bible to the contrary needs to be understood from a truth basis instead of a faith foundation.  We need to acknowledge the truth of our sinful condition to understand the truth of Scripture.  We must confess that we are sinful and that our every natural inclination is to deny or reinterpret ourselves and thus the Bible.  Our natural faith is that we are not sinful.  The truth of our sinfulness needs to be proclaimed however and this is not a bias or a deception, it is reality, and it is the truth we see in everyday life.  And this is what we also see in Rom. 3:10-12 as it states, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”  When we accept this foundational truth we then can begin to acknowledge all other truths in Scripture.

As we study the Bible from the truth that we are sinful, (that I am a sinful person and God is not sinful, that indeed God is holy and without sin), then we can begin to see the importance of truth in the Word.  We can see the priority of a truth-based faith instead of a faith-based truth.  We can recognize more and more our subjective perspectives and distortions and that we naturally seek to twist the Bible to a sinful man-centered basis.  With a commitment to the truth of the holiness of God, and thus the sinfulness of man, we can change and grow Spiritually by truth.  This sanctification in truth is our calling, and it is necessary to grow in the image of Christ to be a follower of Christ.

If we are left to ourselves we will not believe that we are all that bad, or that we are sinful.  But we must humbly accept our total depravity and see it is true that we need Christ completely.  The manifestation of our own sinfulness is just one way that we can see the truth of God in the world.  We need this objective truth to understand the truth of Scripture and to understand the grace of Christ.  Amen, it is true.

R.C. Sproul

Last week on 12/14/17, we received the news that R.C. Sproul died from a long illness and passed into glory.  It was heartbreaking to me even though I knew it was coming.  I loved R.C. in many ways because he was such a good teacher, and because I had the chance to work for him personally between Mar '89 to Sept '90.  My memories of R.C. will be an encouragement to me for all my life.  R.C. lived in faith, he taught the faith and he died in faith.  He is one of my Christian heroes for many reasons.

When most people think of R.C. they think of him as a Teacher.  He had a great combination of gifts of being an excellent scholar and a great communicator of truth.  This was the first thing that connected me to R.C.  He could explain the complicated doctrines of the faith in a way that even I could understand.  More importantly, he could do it with grace knowing that most of us have never heard of the doctrines of grace in this way before.  This also came across in all of his writings.  He wrote and taught in straightforward language and thought.  He was clear and compelling in his teaching.

In the same way, R.C. was a gifted Philosopher.  If there was one thing I would highlight as R.C.'s greatest strength it would be that "he could do the philosophy."  This may be a surprise to some because he was known to be a champion of theology, but it is also because he understood the undermining philosophical foundations of all the major world views that he could analyze an argument for its truth validity.  Often R.C. would describe making a distinction on some point of theology and this was his ability to see the philosophical aspect.  In teaching the necessity of making truth statements, to make valid statements, he one time bewildered his audience by describing the chalk he was using to write on the chalkboard saying, "This piece of chalk is not a piece of chalk."  After several minutes of confused responses over what R.C. was talking about, he finally explained that he was deliberately making a contradictory statement, so that it would be clear that contradictions were false, and therefore invalid and deadly for both philosophy and theology.  Life itself falls apart with contradictions.  This realization verifies the truth of Scripture and that all true faith is built upon the truth of God.

Most of us will think of R.C. Sproul as a Theologian first and foremost.  This is because he was such a titan of theology.  His primary ministry was launched by the overwhelming transformation he experienced from the Holiness of God.  Early in his ministry, he wrote his classic book, The Holiness of God, and from this theology of knowing who God is, he developed all of his other theologies.  All of Christianity needs to be predicated on the knowledge of the Holy One, as we can see from his teachings.  Not only do we learn so much from the character of God, we saw R.C. make a huge commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture or the truth of Scripture.  These two proclamations and commitments launched R.C. into a position of being a serious theologian in the Evangelical community.  But it continued abundantly with his equally vibrant defense of and proclamation of the doctrine of Justification By Faith Alone, which he attributes much credit for to the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century.  In particular, R.C. had an affiliation with Martin Luther as being unwavering in his teaching of Salvation By Grace Alone, or Faith Alone, from which all of our salvation is developed.

In a huge way, all of this made R.C. a Statesman for Reformed Theology in America.  R.C. had no personal desire to be involved in the secularistic banter of politics.  He knew this was not his calling in many ways because it had no room for theology.  R.C. did however interpret all of life theologically and had a great commitment to teaching about the Kingdom of God.  His position was that he would not compromise his position in politics but describe all of the civil realms through the truth of Scripture.  He saw Reformed Theology transforming not only the hearts and minds of people, the "Renewing Our Minds", but also that each of us has a ministry in life.  There was a priesthood of all believers and our vocations are our ministries, to be done for the glory of God.  R.C. rose above the tyranny of secularistic politics and spoke as a Statesman for the Kingdom of God.

R.C. was also a Minister in the Church for Christ.  He truly cared for and prayed for the welfare of people.  His whole ministry was for the salvation and sanctification of the saints.  He believed strongly that the best ministry we can offer for all Christians was to help them become more like Christ and to grow Spiritually in their faith.  We are called to mature in Christ, and although that is not a popular message sometimes, it is exactly what we need all the time.  R.C. was extremely gracious as well, as I know personally from working with him.  On one occasion when I had been struggling mightily with confidence and an embarrassing situation, he comforted me personally with all comfort knowing clearly the human condition we all face.  He knew my weaknesses and accepted me completely.  That spoke volumes and strengthened me forever.

R.C. was also a Brother in Christ.  That is to say, he was all too human, he was just like us in every way, except for the fact that he was also so abundantly gifted.  But he had his scruples, he certainly did not like all the frustrations in life that we all don't like.  In his humanity, however, he was authentic and honest.  In the same way, he had his human attributes as well.  His sense of humor was a catalyst for his teaching, and a bond with us as a real person.  He just really loved to have fun sometimes, and it was so welcomed not only for comic relief but to assure us that we too were normal.  We loved his laugh, and his ability to make us laugh.  We will never forget his "Detective Columbo" routines.  He "just needed to ask us one more question ..."  And when he would ask the audience if anyone didn't understand a particular aspect of theology, and no one would dare raise their hand, he then felt comfortable to ask everyone who didn't raise their hand questions about the subject.  Yikes, he was always a couple steps ahead of us.  His Dr. Gerstner stories were also like this, such as when Dr. Gerstner asked his seminary class why we should pray, when in fact God was sovereign over all things.  After going around the room, and everyone was stumped, he came to R.C., who sheepishly, as a new theology student, humbly suggested that maybe it was because "Jesus commanded us to pray."  At this response, Dr. Gerstner let out a huge laugh and a satirical response that, 'possibly, because the King of heaven and earth, the Sovereign Lord of all things, had commanded that we should pray, that then it was a good reason for us to pray.'  Ha!  R.C. still 'shivered' when he told that story.  Gerstner awoke R.C., and thus a generation to our humanness in that we often can't see the theology right before our eyes, but then to our need to seek after God with all our hearts.

Lastly, as this could go on for a very long time, R.C. Sproul was my Mentor and my friend.  His life is now complete, he has finished his race, he has fought the good fight, and he has upheld the faith to the end.  He has taught me what an abundance of blessing God gives to a person who responds in faith in all of life.  This is a great example of a life well lived.  Although not perfect, he was faithful, and this is what Jesus counts as being a friend.  R.C. didn't compromise on the big issues of faith or the distinctions of truth.  He knew that small compromises were still compromises and that they lead to other compromises.  He developed Ligonier Ministries into a multifaceted, and now world-reaching C.E. ministry that proclaims the Holiness of God in all his glory and for our sanctification.  Because he was faithful to God he, in turn, ministered to me and befriended me, and countless others.  He made the truth of God the central issue in all his ministry and demonstrated that the truth of Christ shines gloriously to give light to all the darkness of the world.

R.C. declared the glories of the Holiness of God and the Truth of Christ in such a way that it has awakened a whole generation of people.  This glory and truth is what I now live for.  Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be the glory, SDG.

Retirement or Redeployment?

Just about a year ago on December 28, 2016, I submitted an email to the company I work for (FedEx) to notify them of my intent to retire this December 31, 2017.  This policy of notifying the company a year in advance allows them to plan ahead and hire new pilots to keep pace with the number of retirements each year.  And so, I'm closing in on the end of the year and the retirement that I've requested and planned for.  But it seems almost unreal after twenty-seven-plus years as this company has become a big part of my life.

But retirement is not necessarily my primary motive as I'm actually hoping to do other things in my newfound time and open schedule.  A Christian teaching ministry is actually what I'd like to tackle next, and this isn't a Plan B for me.  On the contrary, soon after I became a Christian in 1976 I had the desire to do something along this line.  This is more in line with being Plan A for me for all these years, having started seminary before but needing to raise and support a family had to come first.  And now I have a chance to get back to Plan A.

A new redeployment is a much more accurate idea to describe what I hope to do.  Even beginning a Bible study or a local study center would be exciting I believe.  There are many Bible studies and even para-church ministries that are already doing this kind of ministry.  But a "Veritas Study Center" would be a somewhat rare Christian Education ministry in that it would seek to tackle the many worldly philosophies that distract people from the truth of the Bible.  Focusing on the truth of Scripture would be a challenge in our culture and a key catalyst for Spiritual growth.

We all need a vision of divine truth to understand the Bible.  We also all need an inspiration to live by and a purpose to live for.  Knowing that redeployment is coming and not just the rocking chair for retirement is a great encouragement to me to know that the next several years can be meaningful.  I certainly hope so, and I certainly believe they could be a Spiritual blessing for me and even my family.  It is God who holds our future in his hands, and we should run into his fellowship to enjoy it with him.  Amen, it is true!