Central Illinois' Best Kept Secret

For complete details and registration information, CLICK HERE.

Join me and host of others at Equip Ministries' Christian Worker's Coference, Friday and Saturday, February 27-28, 2009 at Peoria Christian School in Peoria, IL.

I'd LOVE for you to participate in the training workshops Cadre is offering this year! So consider joining me for one or more of the following training options...

Friday, February 27, 9:15 AM
Why Volunteers Quit and What You Can Do About It
Volunteers don’t usually quit ministries... they quit leaders. Yes, I’m talking to you, church leader. In this workshop, we will explore seven biblical ways you can shepherd volunteers and, ultimately, keep them loving and serving Jesus alongside you. If you think this workshop is for someone else, then you probably need it. Will you dare to check it out?

Friday, February 27, 10:45 AM
Leading Those Who Lead You
When most people think of leadership, they think of leading those over whom they have authority. However, if you don’t learn to lead those who lead you, then you may not be around long enough to lead others. Great news: The Bible has a lot to say about how to lead those who lead us... and none of it has to do with fawning over them. Come with a teachable heart and bring your Bible.

Friday, February 27, 1 PM
Church Would Be Great If It Weren't for People
Someone came to mind when you read the title of this workshop... right? Loving God is a delight. Loving people, especially people in the church, can be a little more of a challenge. Yet God has given us over 40 “one another” verses that instruct us on how we should interact with each other. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to APPLY those “one another” verses. Isn’t it time to put the OTHER in the one anOTHERs?

Friday, February 27, 4:30 PM
Youth Ministry 101 or 911
How can you tell when an issue with a student is a Youth Ministry 101 issue or a Youth Ministry 911 issue? At what point in the messiness of youth ministry should you get parents and church leaders involved? Each person will leave this training workshop with a basic understanding of the difference between a 101 issue and a 911 issue. Come to this workshop, learn, and take it back home to the adults who serve your church’s youth ministry.

On Saturday, February 28, I'm doing a full-blown four-part training workshop starting at 8:15 AM titled The Mentoring Connection. To see the training content for this workshop, CLICK HERE.

For complete details and registration information, CLICK HERE.

New state motto?

See the bottom of the license plate... (If you're over 40, click the image to enlarge for reading : )

Need some encouragement?

Click any section below to enlarge for reading. To view or print the two page PDF, GO HERE.Make no mistake about it. We're missionaries. And that means we can't do Cadre without friends like you who make our ministry possible and powerful via your prayers and financial support. Any gift is much needed and greatly appreciated. For more information about how you can partner with God, us, and Cadre, GO HERE. To make a secure online donation right now, GO HERE.

Allison Kids Summer Ministry 2009

Click the images below to enlarge for reading or to download a one page PDF for printing and praying purposes GO HERE.

Jesus Wasn't a "Leader"

Jesus wasn't a "leader."

He wasn't a CEO.

He violated the "laws of leadership."

He actually resisted opportunities to increase his influence—even when the crowd demanded more of him. (How strange is that in this day and age?)

No, Jesus was none of the mental images that are so prevalent in our current North American thinking about leadership.

I contend that Jesus was, first and foremost, a follower.

Yeah, you'll probably have to read that previous sentence again.

I know that being a follower these days doesn't sound as near as sexy as being a leader, but Jesus didn't seem to mind being a follower. Explaining to his disciples that he was a follower—and who he was following, he said, "...I love the Father and... I do exactly what my Father has commanded me" (John 14:31). Make no mistake about it. Jesus was a resolute follower of God the Father—and the Father's agenda for his life... to the point of death.

The irony here is that because Jesus was a dedicated follower of the Father and every little part of Father's agenda for his life, the right people recognized him as someone worth following. Hence, Jesus trained a cadre of not-so-promising folks to follow him as he followed the Father's agenda. These followers of Jesus personally surrendered themselves to Jesus and the Father's agenda for their lives... and then gave themselves to the wild, out of control movement of helping other people to do the same, ad infinitum (over and over in the exact same way).

Of course, Jesus, by training others to follow Father's agenda for their lives, ultimately started a revolution. But it wasn't a "leadership" revolution as much as it was a followership revolution. The emphasis of Jesus' followership revolution is on following God's agenda... not "leading" it (at least not in the current way many today understand the concept of leadership).

It's really important to note here that being a Christian "leader" has nothing to do with OUR vision, plan, or agenda.

Jesus already has a big dream—one that was given to him by God the Father. That dream in two simple words is "make disciples" (Matthew 28:18-20).

Jesus wants us to scrap OUR visions, plans, and agendas... and do something absolutely revolutionary: Follow him and the Father's disciplemaking agenda—and then train others to follow Jesus and the Father's disciplemaking agenda... so they can train others, ad infinitum.

So beware of the emotional inebriation that comes from engaging in leadership bravado. While you are conjecturing on casting vision, strategic planning, and developing leaders, you could forget that you're supposed to be following a follower—and that you are called to make followers... who can make more followers (see 2 Timothy 2:2; 1 Corinthians 11:1). While you are drinking deep from the current fountain of leadership, me-carcinogens can slip in undetected. Somewhere down the road, you could end up trying to lead your own agenda in God's name rather than following God's agenda.

To really "lead" like Jesus, you must first dare to follow like Jesus.

If you think about it, following takes a lot more guts than "leading" because you're not in control of the agenda—you're accepting God's agenda as you own.

Here's the important and compelling question that only you can REALLY answer:  Do you have the guts to follow like Jesus?

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