PAMPANGA, PHILIPPINES. Last weekend Deborah and I drove to San Fernando, Pampanga for our Central Luzon Discipleship 2013 conference. We now have 11 Victory churches in the region. About 1000 Victory Group leaders attended the conference. I wish you could have been there. Amazing stories of  the gospel changing lives!

As great as the conference was, I had a troubling conversation with a pastor and his wife. I have had similar conversations with pastors on other continents. Here’s the all-too-familiar story.

Some church members recently attended a “prophetic signs and wonders” conference led by foreigners. After the conference, they returned to their local church passionate, excited, arrogant, judgmental, and weird. Since they now believe that their home church is not sufficiently led by the Spirit, they are determined to change their local church culture to reflect the “moving of the Spirit” they experienced at the conference.

First of all, I am not suggesting that the Spirit was not moving at the conference. I am sure there was a real sense of His presence and power. But, there is a huge difference in how a local church is led and how a revival conference is led.

Second, I should point out that the pastoral couple who brought up this concern are both deeply spiritual prophetic leaders. They are not spiritually dull leaders with no appreciation for spiritual gifts. Yet, they were bothered by the obsession with strange religious experiences that these people are trying to import into their church.

One of the primary reasons these conference attendees felt that Victory pastors are not led by the Spirit is because we schedule and post an ending time for our worship services. Guilty. They also mentioned the absence of gold dust and angel feathers. Guilty again. But does that mean we are not led by the Spirit?

Is it possible that the Spirit could have led us to schedule ending times at all our weekend worship services? What if the Holy Spirit actually gave us the wisdom to know that when you do six worship services every Sunday, and two on Saturday, and you want your volunteers to return next week to minister in kids church, that you must stick with a schedule? Wisdom is not incompatible with being led by the Spirit. And weirdness is not necessarily spiritual.

I’m all about the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our meetings, and especially in our homes and neighborhoods. But I have little tolerance for arrogant and judgmental attitudes that well-meaning spiritual novices bring back from these conferences.

I pray that our churches and our church members will experience a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit that will empower us to be His witnesses “in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.”

In other words, I pray we will respond to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit by becoming more missional, not more mystical.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Two paths. Robert Frost wrote about them, and Kid President pep talked about them. (“Not cool Robert Frost!”) But what are the two paths?

All leaders have two options, two paths, two choices: faith or fear.

While reading the Book of Joshua recently, I noticed those two paths, and I prayed that I would never do what ten of the twelve leaders (spies) did to the people they were called to lead.

Caleb and his friend chose faith. The other ten chose fear.

Here’s Caleb’s summary. “My brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.” (Joshua 14:8)

Two leadership options:

1. FEAR. If we choose fear, we will cause “the hearts of the people to melt with fear.” As leaders we have the power to strengthen or to crush the hearts of those they lead.

2. FAITH. If we choose to “follow God wholeheartedly” then the people will follow our example and respond with faith.

Are you choosing the path of faith or fear? Are you following God wholeheartedly?

The Bible. I watched it last night on History Channel. I read it this morning in my favorite chair, drinking my favorite hot tea.

Today’s reading was about a young orphan from a despised ethnic minority who became one of the most influential leaders in ancient Iran. This leader was a female in a male-dominated society. The deck was stacked against her. But that didn’t stop God from changing a nation through Esther.

Here’s the story. Evil King Xerxes (more like a dirty old man than Prince Charming) throws a party to show off his trophy wife, Vashti. But Queen V refuses to play the game, so King X-man sets up the 1st ever Miss Persia contest to find a replacement queen. Esther, a beautiful young Jewish orphan being raised by Uncle Mordecai wins the crown.

Evil Haman, the “assistant to the national security adviser” is angry because Mordecai the Jew will not bow to him. So, Haman tricks the king into signing a law making it legal to kill and rob Jews for one day.

Uncle Mo convinces new Queen E to ask the king to spare the Jews. Esther explains the problem, that anyone entering the king’s presence without an invitation is usually killed, and Esther has not been summoned by the king in a month.

Uncle Mo’s response is the key verse of the whole book:
If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?

Esther overcomes her fears and convinces the king to help the Jews. The Jews survive, Esther becomes a hero, the king promotes Uncle Mo, Haman is killed, and they all live happily ever after – except Haman’s ten sons who are promptly executed (but we won’t see that on the Disney version).

Five leadership lessons from Esther’s story:

1. We don’t have to stick a fish on it. Esther is the only book in the Bible that does not mention God, the temple, or worship. But God is obviously right in the center.

2. We don’t have to take the credit. Mordecai is the real hero, but Esther got the book deal. Being an invisible leader did not bother Mordecai. He was OK with Esther getting the credit.

3. We don’t have to have a righteous leader. The Jews were saved not because Xerxes was righteous, but because of a young orphan’s boldness, an old man’s wisdom, and a lot of prayer. Generations earlier, God blessed Egypt because of a slave named Joseph, and God blessed Babylon because of an exile named Daniel. Neither Egypt nor Babylon had righteous leaders, but that didn’t hinder God from blessing and protecting His people.

4. We have to defend life. God placed Esther in her position to stop the genocide. Standing up for life could have cost Esther her life. Like Esther, we must stand up for life – the life of the widow & orphan, those dying of AIDS in Africa, those starving in our inner cities, and the life of thousands of unborn who are slaughtered daily through violent abortions.

5. We have to keep listening. Esther listened to Uncle Mo even though she did not want to hear what he said and even though she was now powerful, rich, and famous. Unfortunately, many who get to the top stop listening to those whose advise got them there.

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, USA. Too often we get so focused on what we are NOT, that we forget what God says we are.

Consider Old Testament writer, Amos who wrote: “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’” (Amos 7:14,15)

We know him as the Prophet Amos, but he says he was not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. Here’s the lesson: Amos did not let what he was NOT stop him from becoming what God called him to be.

He was a shepherd and a fruit-picker. But God wanted him to be a prophet. So he became a prophet. Case closed.

What has God called you to be? Are you letting your past, your parents, or your problems stop you from becoming what God has called you to be? Don’t! Be all you can be.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES. We are glad to be back in our Manila apartment after a week in Taipei for our annual Every Nation Asia Leadership Team (ALT) meeting. This blog was inspired by something Bishop Manny Carlos said about leadership development during the ALT meeting.

Pastors and missionaries are leaders, or at least they are supposed to be. Some are good leaders. Others are not. Some have intentionally upgraded their leadership skills. Others have not.

It is one thing to be an effective minister; it is another thing entirely to be an effective leader.

A person who is an effective pastor or missionary will eventually attract a crowd that will become an organization that will require leadership skills. If we grow in ministry skills, but fail to develop leadership skills, we will create chaos and unwittingly destroy what we build.

Here are three leadership skills that pastors and ministers must develop and constantly upgrade:

1. Organizational leadership. If we are effective ministers, what we lead will grow. And, growing churches and ministries will require organizational leadership skills including management, strategic planning, budgeting, communications, and others. The larger the ministry grows, the more important it is to develop organizational leadership structures and skills.

2. Spiritual leadership. Organization charts, strategic plans, and management principles are important, but inadequate. We must also be spiritual leaders. Prayer, preaching, Bible study, discernment, and deliverance are just a few of the skills necessary to lead healthy growing churches and ministries.

3. Relational leadership. My good friend Joey Bonifacio always says, “discipleship is relationship.” So is leadership. Our influence in the lives of those we hope to lead will be directionally proportional to the depth of our relationship with them.

Are you intentionally and strategically developing leadership skills in all three areas to complement your ministry skills?

(Wrote this in Manila, posting from Tokyo airport on the way to Nashville.)