The International Ministries Of Last Call
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" Reaching The Harvest One Person At A Time "
International Ministries of Last Call, Inc
8311 N E Zac Lentz Parkway Unit
Victoria, TX 77904
ph: 601 324 1240
Leadership Series # 7
You know I found something to be very valuable to me as a store manager and It's going to be the basis Leadership #7 message:
Leaders of Loyalty:
Leaders of Loyalty:
We as leaders always are looking for someone better qualified to be on our team, because we want our leadership team to be the best, In a 5.2 million dollar a year retail establishment, my aspirations were no different and as Pastors and Leaders we are...the same, but I quickly found out that when I hired the better qualified applicants, they never stayed and they had already developed their own style of leadership that may or may not have been different from mine, but what I learned is that if I could take an employee who may not have been the best qualified but had shown me a trait of loyalty, I could invest, and teach and train them and develop them into a great leader that would stay with me....and in the end that call that I made was far better.
There are many leaders hanging out there in many of our church's today that may not have all the qualifications but if you take the time to invest and teach and train them, if they have loyalty, you can have a great leader.
Now, I urge every one of you to study well the words and life of Jesus in the new testament, for in my studies I have found that Jesus chose to take the approach of a servant leader. He quietly influenced the lives of a small group of men and women that He handpicked Himself, and then He trusted and empowered them to impact the world.
Sometimes, pastors when they are building a church or ministry forget this factor as they look at quantity ( numbers ) instead of quality ( how much can they as one person invest in a multitude of believers) and in turn get the best overall results. And if you look and study the life of Jesus you will find that only a small portion of His teaching was to the multitude, but much of His time He spent teaching and imparting Himself to His Disciples....this is a flaw in the modern day church, we spend more time trying to get to the multitudes first before we have prepared for them by spending time to develop Loyal Leaders that can help us to go, make, and teach the multitudes.
Pastor's please don't get so busy that you do not have time to spend with your leaders, to teach and train and develop them.
Just as an example: If I as a store manager, hired a staff member and just put them out there in the store and expected them to know how I wanted things done or how to correctly do their job in a large retail store with no training and developing or laying out my expectations of how I expected that store to be run, all I would have is a lot of confusion and disappointed customers, but when I take the time to spend with them and instill my vision and my preference for the way things should be done and invest in them with a comprehensive well developed training program then I can send them out knowing that I have made them ready to do their job that I have hired them to do.
In a sense, this is what Jesus did, He took a small group of people and invested himself in them and then He left in them a legacy that would live on forever.
His legacy did not start in the multitude that followed Him, it started in the few that He spent most of His time pouring Himself into.
My friend and Pastor this is what The Last Call Ministries website is all about, some of you who come here, I may not even know you, I may never know you or meet you, but if you can come here and I can through the power of the Holy Spirit pour into you Jesus Christ the hope of Glory, you may not even know my name, but if you can read message after message and know more about Jesus and then go out and teach your congregations and so on and so on, this is how we can build the kingdom of Jesus Christ together here on the earth.
Many of you may not know that TLCM Website was developed for encouragement to the body of Christ and now has been utilized to encourage Pastors in Africa, India, Uganda and Pakistan.
It is not because we are the most knowledgable, or greatest teachers of the word, on the contrary, sometimes We feel like the least qualified, and most unlikely person that should be doing this, nor are we the most gifted, but we're willing, and it's what God has put in our hands for this moment.
There are many more out there just like us, who may not be the most knowledgable, or even the most gifted but if they are willing and they are loyal, then my friend you have the making of a loyal leader.
We must learn to recognize loyalty in our leaders, and just like Jesus we must take the time to invest in them because just like Jesus showed us, every one that followed Him was not loyal to Him...........
The ones that remained, are the ones I'm sure He saw in them the ability to be loyal....everyone does not have loyalty and yet this is the trait we should all look for in those we choose to identify with as leaders.
Does that mean we should only have leaders that 100% agree with us all the time, NO!! NO!! NO!! as a matter of fact Jesus spent a significant amount of time interacting in a positive way with people who disagreed with Him.
He did not isolate Himself from those who respectively were His enemies.
But He did not change.
His message was still always the same.
He did not change them to gain approval, but He continued to speak the same teachings to all who would hear, and those who did not accept them, He still died for them anyway.
Because our life-role and relationships are based on lifelong loyalty and committments, it is also possible that we can fall into the trap of relying too much on the resilience of those we have chosen to work with.
This is why we must be continually investing in them, and also testing them.
Ever heard of a secret shopper?
Well I had secret shoppers in my store, and what they would do is they would come in my store to shop, but when they arrived they had a list of 5 things to look for in each associate.
1. Did they greet you, did they interact with you in a friendly positive manner?
2. Did they offer service to you?
3. Was the area they were working in presented in the very best condition?
4. Did they follow through to answer any questions or conerns you may have, did they give you proper directions to find what you needed?
5. Did they stay with you until you were ready to check out?
So, Here's the key I want you to see, Loyalty reaches out beyond you....those that are loyal to you will be loyal to show the qualities you have invested in them and don't be afraid to test them.
Remember, just like we read in the life of Jesus, even those He invested Himself in the most had their own moments of weakness, look at Peter, who totally denied Jesus to His face.
We all have moments of weakness and I'm sure Jesus knew that Peter in his heart still loved Him but the pressure and fear of losing his own life that day overcame his loyalty.
Pastors, your gonna have this same thing to deal with, and it's up to you to be ready for it, and when others leave you, give them the same love and understanding Jesus did Peter.
Sometimes it is hard for us to understand that whenever we have an opportunity or responsibility to influence the thinking and behavior of others, the first choice we are called to make is whether to see the moment through the eyes of self-interest or for the benefit of those you are leading.
You cannot truly encounter Jesus Christ and not learn what is means to be a servant leader, always embracing the greatest challenges through the love and leadership of Jesus.
This is what must shine through us everyday.
Here is a great example:
In Mathew 18: 3,4
And He said " I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Here's what I see in that:
1. A child will believe anything you teach them...they are molded very easily and eager to learn...
2. A child easily forgives, you can scold them or spank them and 5 minutes later they will come and hug your neck.
3. A child easily yields dependence to others, as they yeild total trust to those that care for them.
I pray that the Lord would remind us today of what it's like to be a child. To relinquish ourselves to Christ in child-like faith.
Our heart to become like the heart of a Child and let Jesus lead through us and to teach us His principles of servanthood.
I pray that the Holy Spirit will help us that we may be effective leaders, always exemplifying the true love of Christ to the world and those we are trying to lead.
I pray that God would renew our daily committment as leaders that we may serve rather than be served.
Colossians 1:10-12
And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way. Bearing fruit in every good work,
growing in the knowledge of our God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great
endurance and patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
Philippians 2:12
Wherefore, my beloved as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence; work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Philippians 3: 8
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
Philippians 3:12
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
It is so obvious that Jesus found His strength and wisdom from His time spent seeking His Father. I pray that Jesus would also teach us the value of spending time alone with Him, listening and talking to Him, imparting His wisdom and directions through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Spoken Word of God.
Philippians 3:13
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God to Christ Jesus.
We are truly living in the days when the Love and Light of Jesus Christ need to shine out of us to the world.
He is calling out to hearts today for LOYAL LEADERS who are willing to hear Him and seek His ways, to challenge ourselves by His words and His teaching and then invest themselves into others.
For it is in our Loyalty to Leadership that will bring about Loyal Leaders in the body of Christ today, and remember it does not begin with the multitude, it begans with the chosen few.
International Ministries of Last Call, Inc
8311 N E Zac Lentz Parkway Unit
Victoria, TX 77904
ph: 601 324 1240