IDMC 2024: Leadership Under Attack

 IDMC 2024: Leadership Under Attack

Collin Leong.  September 3, 2024

These are notes I took from the August 2024 IDMC Convention. Note that not all are from the speakers. I have mixed in with my own words and sentences too. 


Leadership Under Attack - Rev Dr Peter Tan-Chi

The Battle of Saratoga was a pivotal moment in the American Revolutionary War, taking place in 1777. The Americans, under General Horatio Gates, fortified positions on Bemis Heights, overlooking the Hudson River. They used guerilla tactics to harass and slow down the British advance. The Americans were short of ammunition. They came up with a strategy to shoot the British officers first. This tactic aimed to disrupt the command structure of the British army, causing confusion and lowering morale among the troops. By eliminating officers, the Americans hoped to make the British forces less effective in battle.

Satan also have the same tactics. Disrupt and make the church leaders ineffective, so that the church can be disbanded and give up. Today we see the results of this strategy in United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Scandinavian nations and the USA. They experience less attendance in their churches, and some churches are turned into mosque. Secularism has increased in every generation.

Research of 245 full time ministers show the following problems:

  1. Neglect personal time with God, losing their leadership direction from God.
  2. No boundaries with opposite sex, leading to sexual scandals.
  3. No accountability. The leaders has no one to tell them their mistakes and doing the wrong things. Each church should have accountability partners, so that evaluation can be done 360 degrees.
  4. Leaders thought it will never happen to them - pride issues. 

God wants us to finish well. In a survey 75% of leaders don't finish well. 

2 Tim 2:15 says : "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  This means that leaders must: 

  • Have the Passion to please God - to be diligent. 
    • Ps 40-7-8 says this about Jesus "Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.” The heart of Jesus is to do God's will. 
    • Satan wants us to be discourage when our leaders failed. Paul is the most like to be discourage. (See 2 Cor 11:23-28); however, his ambition is to please Him. 2Cor 5:9-10 says "Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad."

  • Have the Passion for excellence - a worker who does not need to be ashamed. 
    • Collosians 3:22-23: "Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters,  not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men," 

    • Ephesians 2:10 - "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
  • Have the passion for God's Truth - accurately handling the word of truth. 
    • 2 Tim 3:16-17 - "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." 
    • It is easier to speak the truth but we need to live the truth. Ask "what will Jesus do"? For example, heroin addicts who forgive will recover faster than those who don't. To live out the truth of the Word will transform us. 

2 Tim 4:6-8 - "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing."

Our race is not a sprint, but a marathon, and Jesus is cheering and waiting for us at the finish line 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Unwanted Journey (Genesis 28)

Image
An Unwanted Journey (Genesis 28) Collin Leong.  28 August 2015 Synopsis I imagine Jacob riding on his camel towards Haran with tears on his cheeks. He misses his father Isaac and especially his mother Rachel - both back in their estate in Beersheba, worrying for him. And here he is, on an unwanted journey, with nothing to his name, running away from his brother Esau who threatened to kill him for robbing his birthright. Soon, he will be more than 500 miles away from home. Jacob might be singing this song by Peter, Paul and Mary if he knew it as he rode into the sunset: If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles A Hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles Lord I'm one, Lord I'm two, Lord I'm three, Lord I'm four Lord I'm 500 miles away from home away from home, away from home, away from home, away from home Lord I'm 500 miles away...
Read more

Be a Legacy Builder (1 Cor 3:5-15)

Legacy Builders 1) Invest in long term results. (v10) Paul pioneered the Corinthian church but Apollos built on it. In Paul's mind, it is never about himself. With the limited time spent in that place, he wants to build a Legacy.  When leave the church, what are we leaving behind. 2) Invest in eternity in mind. (v13-15) 3) Invest and build with their best resources. (v10-13) God is looking at the motivation from your heart. You can build with gold or straw. Gold is when you serve with love; straw is building with fame from others.  We are limited with time, energy, and money.  Three types of Giving: - Loose Change Giving  - Budget Giving  - Faith Giving  Your will should include giving to Christian ministries. 4) invest with or through the holy spirit. (v6-7) A legacy Builder invest when the Holy Spirit calls. Whatever you give will be like the five loaf and two fishes.  ------- True legacy is about leaving your money and education degrees to live in t...
Read more

Aaron Implicated With Moses' Disobedience (Numbers 20)

  I Just read Numbers 20. It is a very very sad chapter. Miriam and Aaron died, Moses was prohibited from going into the promise land. The people rebelled again, and didn’t learn the lessons of their fathers. But what was saddest for me is that God hold Aaron accountable for what Moses did. The short story was that Moses strike the rock twice, when God told him to speak to it so that water will come out (v8, v11). 1 Cor 10:4 said that the rock symbolizes Christ, and he only need to be “strike” once only, when he completed the redemption work at his crucifixion and resurrection. And this already happen in Exodus 17:6, where Moses strike the rock as God told him to do so. So now, all we need to do is speak to Jesus and ask for the Holy Spirit (symbolized by the water pouring out from the rock). However, Moses ruined God's purpose to demonstrate the redemption plan. But Moses makes things worse when he spoke harshly to the people: “Listen, you rebels: shall we bring water for you ...
Read more