Dear Friends:                                                                                                              

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account

Leadership is quite a responsibility.  In Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading Harvard faculty members Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky declare, "For all its passion and promise, for all its excitement and rewards, leading is risky, dangerous work."  The prophet Micah confronts leaders for taking bribes, violent injustice, twisting the truth and giving false hope.  Yet our Nation and God's work calls out for strong leaders.  What should we look for in a leader?

The indispensible requirement is the power of the Holy Spirit.  Humility and servant leadership are prevalent throughout the whole of Scripture.  These qualities stand out.  But let me point out two others that recently have caught my attention - trust and being approachable.

Recently we were interviewing a guy for YBL and he was asked is there any reason he would not follow someone.  He stopped for a minute and said "That's a great question; I know I would need to trust him.   He would need to be a role model and I would have to trust his motives and his actions because of his character."  It was a strong answer.

Approachability is another key factor.  Although leaders cannot be friends to all, there should be a willingness to learn, to improve, to accept criticism and encouragement.  Again in Leadership on the Line it says, "Once you lose your ability to doubt, you'll see only that which confirms your own competence."  "In ancient Rome, the emperors had a man stand close to them at all times whose job was to remind them of their mortality." (pp. 170, 173)  In an article in September's Fortune magazine on the airline JetBlue it says  "This approachable CEO says the airline's friendly relationship with its crew members is what sets it apart."  If you are not approachable no one will ever challenge you or help you see you are mortal and flawed. 

Our Senior Pastor has written a book on leadership and his three maxims are: Leaders know their mission and are committed to it; they take care of their people and they reproduce themselves.  Think of great coaches and military leaders you know or have known.  They are willing to heap all the praise when they win a battle or a game on the players or the other coaches.  But when there is a loss or things don't go as planned they take the blame themselves.   They don't leave their people to fend for themselves.  They lead, they take care of their people and they model what they want reproduced.  So you can see why the writer of Hebrews says obey your leaders and submit to them.  It is a hard job. 

I would ask you to pray for the follow-up from our outstanding banquet with ESPN Analyst and Director of Team Focus Mike Gottfried.  We had close to 200 men attended and now we are following up with 70 of them.  Twenty five men   have requested studies or more information on Christ. 

Thank you for your continued stand with us in prayer, involvement and finances.  It is critical we end the year strong and you are a vital part of that endeavor.

I will close with the article from Fortune  again.  CEO Barger of JetBlue said, "It's the culture that can't be replicated.  It's how we treat each other.  Do we trust each other?  Can we push back on each other?  The human side of the equation is the most important part of what we are doing."  I love it when businesses and leaders practice what Paul says in Philippians 2:3 consider one another as more important than ourselves.