Book of Acts- Pt 2 Acts 1:12-26

Book of Acts pt 2: Acts 1:12-26

Recipe for Renewal 

There is a connection between Prayer and the Spirit

Spirit Descended on them while in prayer Luke 3:21-22 Acts 1:14, 2:4

There is an Observable Manifestation of the Holy Spirit Luke 3:22, Acts 2:2-4

The Ministry of Jesus and Disciples started after the Spirit come on them. 

1. Unity in Prayer- Homothumadon- meaning with one accord- Luke uses this work 10 times in the book of Acts to describe community. Acts 1:14

Pray Unifies us with God’s Will- 

Jesus in the Garden- 

Martin Luther letter, 

God’s Plan, 

Our responsibility is to pray and seek God’s will, then do it. When we come to God we shouldn't come to him with our own agenda, we need to come to him like Martin Luther came to God. Martin Luther was a man God used to shape the world. Martin Luther was a priest in Germany. He started to realizes the things that where going on in the Roman catholic church was contrary to what the Bible states. So he took a stand. Because of that stand, most of the non catholic church can trace their roots to him.

Prayer Unifies us with one another- 

Hard to Hate someone you pray for. 

When their are issues in church, praying for the other person can unify us. 

Pray is the glue that unifies us as a body of christ. 

Prayer Unifies our Mission

When we pray for God’s will, if we all listen and follow it, it will lead us all in the same direction. But if we all try to lead how we “think” verses what God tells us, then we are all over the place. 

The Disciples prayed and where united with the decision that Peter made. 

Philippians 4:6-7New Living Translation (NLT)

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. 

2. Persistent in Prayer 1:14- Constant Prayer I John 5:14-15

14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

          To have an outpouring of the Spirit, Prayer is one of the most important things you can do. There is a human responsibility for the Spirit to be poured out. I think sometime God puts his church though hardships and persecutions to get us where we should have been. 

Hannah Prayer

Elijah Prayer

The Grandmother’s Prayer

3. Trust in Prayer- Draw Straws. Proverbs 16:3

Proverbs 16:3  Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.

Prayer brings trust. Do You trust God? Do you trust his judgment? Do you trust it plan? Do you? I hear people say I trust God’s plan for my life, but when things seem to not go the way we think it should go we call out and point to God for deliverance or even question God. 

BUT GOD, WHY DID YOU LEAD ME DOWN THIS ROAD, WHY DID YOU CAUSE US TO SUFFER, WHY DID YOU TAKE AWAY file in the blank. 

Picking of Mathias shows you, the trust they had. 

What do we know about Mathias before this?

According to Peter the criteria for being a Apostle was

They Prayed, and Cast lots’

So do you Want revival, renewal, and what are you willing to do for it? Thats a question we all need to ask. I as a pastor desire nothing more than for each of you to experience God in his fullest. Are you willing to put you own will aside for God's will? Are you willing to pray till it happens? Are you willing to Forgive and Move on? What are you willing to do for Revival/Renewal?

Book of Acts- Pt 1 Acts 1:1-11

Back Ground of Acts Acts 1:1

To start to understand the Book of Acts, we need to dig into the History and Backstory of the Book. 

Background- Book of Acts

In the book, there are much struggles, issues, and even persecution recorded.

Acts was written by a man named Luke. He was a doctor and an educated man. 

Luke was hired by a man named Theophilus. Theophilus tradition says he hired Luke to research and see who is this Jesus person and what about all his followers. Luke Does much research and records it in the book of Luke and Acts. 

Luke was the guy that went around and interviewed people first hand and wrote down what was said. He would have interview John, Mary, Paul , Peter, James, Soldiers, Priest, etc. 

The Book of Acts is history of the first 33 years of the church, Luke himself joins in the journey in acts 16 on. It records 32 countries, 54 cities, 9 islands, 95 different people along with my governing officials and prominate people that even to today we are confirming of their existence. All this helps support the history recorded in Acts as fact. 

Acts 1:8 Even summaries the whole book of acts. 

Jerusalem 1-7

Judea 8-12

Ends of the Earth 13-28

Acts isn't just History of the early church tho, it is a hand book for the christian life and spirit filled church. 

A Beginning- Acts 1:2-3 

Every Story has a beginning. For Jesus it was his birth. For the church it was his ascension. 
Even this church has a beginning. Sometime as organizations and fellowships age, we forget our roots and why we were made to exists in the first place. The churches start was recorded in the beginning of Acts. 

Instructions with a Promise Acts 1:4-6

1. Wait in Jerusalem for the gift
1. Who likes to wait. If you knew God had a gift for you, would you wait? How long?
2. John Baptized with Water
1. This is a physical Baptism. 
1. Symbalism of Christ and his forgiveness of sins. 
2. It is an outward statement to the world on your decision to follow Christ
3. Baptized with the Holy Spirit. 
1. Spiritual Baptism
1. Following Salvation- 
2. It is an experience that one must ask, seek, and find. 
3. It is a free gift like salvation but it is something one must seek and wait for.

A New Mission Acts 1:7-8

1. But you will receive POWER
1. What type of Power? - Dunamis- more than strength and ability- operations and actions
1. Power of Boldness
2. Power to stand up to sin
3. Power to Do Miracles
4. Power to Fight the Evil
5. Power to testify
2. When the holy spirit come on you
1. We know this is not salvation but something that happens after salvation. We believe that if someone seeks and ask God for this he will give it. 
2. This gift of Holy Spirit Baptism is for all who seek it. It wasn't just for the church of that day. We are in period of the church and until Jesus raptures the church, we are in that period.  
3. MY WITNESSES
1. What is a witness?
1. Someone who testifies of what the Lord is doing. a person who sees an event and testifies. 
2. What has the Lord do in you? what is your witness to the world. 
2. When we have a close personal relationship with Jesus we naturally want to spead the good news. 
3. The Holy Spirit witnesses to righteous and truth which brings glory to God. 
4. Baptism of the HS is when people get Power to do miracles and wonders
5. BOHS can only be given to those whose hearts are turned toward God and away from their evil ways. It is about a relationship with God. 
4. In Jersusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth
1. Jesus is telling them how to spred the Gospel.
2. Local- Jerusalem- Brookhaven/Chester/Parkside/Aston/Media/Marcus Hook, ETC
3. Spread out further Judea/Samaria- Philadelphia, King of Prussia, Wilmington, PA/NJ/DE/Maryland 
4. TO the ends of the earth- World mission field. 

A Promise Acts 1:9-11

            The Angels said that in the same way he left, he will return. Jesus made a similar promise to his disciples and now the angel make the same promise after he ascended into heaven. Jesus ministry on the earth ended with him being taken up into heaven,  but the Church start here. The end of Jesus on earth is the start of the church on earth. 

Be Encourage, Jesus will return but in his time away he will send a Helper, the Holy Spirit. So...

BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Book of Acts- You Will Be My Witnesses

For the next 3 months, Full Gospel Assembly of God will be doing a series on the book of Acts 1-5. 

I will try to post my Sermon notes and such as we go through this book. Use this as you personally read and research the book of Acts. 

 Blessings- Ben Grenier

5 Ways to Inspire Followes

5 Ways to Inspire Followes

Cast Vision

Casting Vision is part of leading. The term used often is “people without a vision will perish.” People that have a vision, that they embrace, are able to and willing to go far above and beyond what anyone could ask of them. If people have a vision on why what they do is important, then they will be willing to put it all on the line so that they may accomplish that vision

The apostles had a vision that Jesus gave them but we see that they didn't pursue that vision till they embraced it and made it their own. They were willing to put their life on the line so that they may achieve the things that Jesus asked them to achieve. Jesus vision was that all would repent of their sins and turn their hearts to Christ. He also had a vision that the disciples would not stay where they were at but start in their city and move out from there, a global vision. 

Encourage Dreams 

One of the greatest things a leader can do is the encourage his followers to dream, but not only dream but do what they dream. Dreaming and doing need to go hand in and but most leaders know that dreaming can cause issues, so most discourage it. The leaders who embrace it and encourage their people to dream, see a huge growth in productivity, creativeness, and happiness. We all have dreams, it is a leaders job to encourage it but more encourage the doing of those dreams. 

Dreaming also can encourage your people to come up wight he next great idea for your organization. If you take one person, lets say a CEO and we determine that this CEO has 25 years of experience in an industry. Now we take a group of 9 people all having an average experience of 10 years. Some are 1 year others are 15 years, but the average is 10 Years. Now if we add them group experience vs the CEO experience we see that it is 90 years to 25 years of experience. That isn't almost 4 times greater. Likewise with dreaming that 9 times more people dreaming. Does that mean you follow every dream? No, but your encourage the dreams in the hope that one of those dreams become revolutionary and changes everything as you know it. 

In the Bible, Elisha was on his death bed and he was trying to get a commander to have great dreams and vision for his self and his nation. He told this man to do 3 things and each correlated with some outcome. Elisha ends up scolding this man because he didn't have a vision or faith to do something greater than he currently imagined.

Attainable Goals

Achieving Goals is another great way to inspire people. When people have attainable goals to shoot for and they achieve it, it will inspire them to achieve the same goal over even a greater goal. When we attain our goal we set or others set for us, we are inspired. This can be seen with athletics and people that life revolves around goals. 

Goals also need to be attainable sand measurable. There is a commonly used idea for setting goals. SMART.  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Oriented. You can find more on Smart by looking it up Online, but the benefits in using this method is it gives you a good frame work to make attainable goals. There are also other Ways to do “SMART” and all the letters can be change to fit you goal. 

Lead by Example

Leaders by definition is someone who leads. How do you know if you lead? Turn around and see if anyone is following. Now if you have people following you, it is time to lead how you want them to follow. Following the leader is a game I use to play when I was a kid. The essence is the same. We follow and imitate our leader. If the leader works hard, the followers will. So if you don't like what you see in your followers, look at what you are doing first. Sometime it is obvious and sometimes we need to ask trusted people. When people see what you do, they are inspired to achieve the level you are at. They look up to you and take their directions from the leader. 

The other side of leading by example is that you are doing what you expect your follows to do. If you expect them to be on time, work hard, and make wise decisions, then you as a leader should do the same. Otherwise your leadership is one of do what I say and not what I do. Jesus was a great leader that lead this way. He was selfless, humble, and diligent. Most of his disciples where the same way, some were not but most were. 

Celebrate Wins

Celebrating wins is another way to inspire people. Celebration anything inspires people to achieve it. Wether it be goals or great achievements, Whatever is celebrated gets done. If you want your followers to be inspired to press on and achieve the hard things, Celebrate the small wins along the journey to the end results. If we don’t, our people can feel under appreciated and not desire to achieve the end goal. 

Celebration can also be very creative in most situations. A party, or free lunch, or bonus are just a few ways to celebrate wins. Rewards are just a part of celebration and so are words of encouragement and positional promotions to name a few more. Being creative here is the key to making this work. 

Lastly

This is not a comprehensive list. It is just a few that I have personally seen to be effective in inspiring people. If you know of another ways to inspire people list it down in comment section below. Till next Time, 

-Benjamin Marc Grenier

Kicking Our Own

Kicking our own while they are down- 

Today’s post is going to be more about some thoughts I had. 

In a resent pod cast i was listen too. Chris LoCurto http://chrislocurto.com mentioned about how we has the body of christ will so often beat up our own when they fall or make a mistake. The world is looking for faults in people and when someone who is high up falls it becomes a big deal. People talk about it, and we continue to beat people up for it. I could go down the list but as pastors, we are notorious for this. When a pastor is at mega church, their church is growing and people are coming to Jesus, they get lots of attention and scrutiny. Some say they are preaching heresy, or feel good message, or insert issues here. Then they fall or something happens to them, the world normally start beating them up and pastors/other christians follow. 

I have been very guilty of this. I won’t name pastors that I have done this with but I been convicted because many times I attack them. Just because their style is different doesn't mean they deserve to be beat up. If they are still reaching people for Jesus and getting people to find out who Jesus is, then why should we beat them up because it isn't our cup of tea. This also goes to say that there are people that make mistakes and come to admit them. Sometimes these mistakes are small and some are big but both are mistakes. Both can be ammunition for our assault on their ministry. 

In churches we developed a culture where if it bad for a pastor to be wrong or do wrong. Yes, we should expect some sort of standard, but we expect pastors to live a life that only Jesus could live. We love to watch people fail and burn, then join in on beating them while they are down. Things i have said in the past as example, “I knew they were too good to be true,” “See thats what happens when…,” “Why would they give up…,” “I knew they would fail.” Our words and thought can really cut into people and beat them up. Many times we do this because in some way we are jealous or covet what they have even if we don't directly think it. Number, fame, success, money, life, or people. As a culture and churches, we define success by those criteria instead of the criteria, “Am I doing the best I can.”

Should we be on the look out for false prophets? Of course but what makes a false prophet? Is it his message, or maybe things he might say? Is it his heart where we look at his fruits? Is it by the attention he gets so we judge him out his loudest moment? Aside from contradicting Jesus and the Bible, I don't know if we can get on someone for having a different view than us. Could we all get to heaven and ask Jesus “what is the real/true denomination? Is it Pentecostal, Baptist, Calvinist, Catholic, etc.” And he response, “You are all wrong.” Is that possible? I would have to think it is. We all are reading the same text and all seeing the same stories but we are all looking at it in different ways. So how do you tell if someone is teaching something that is false? Know what the Bible says and compare what they say to it. 

Most of the time we confusing method with the message. We don't like the method they are using to get across a point or to invite more people or to close out people, so we demonize them. We see them as less holy then “us.” We don’t even look at the lives changed or the word being preached, or the people that are being called to ministry though this method. We as the saying goes, “Throw the baby out with the bath water.” We discount their ministry, they fruits, and their life and their message because it is not delivered how we would want it delivered. And when the person that we are demonizing fails, we say it is because of (Insert issue). We wait till they are the weakest and we pile on and beat them up with the world and the devil. 

We will always have issues with people method and even how they interpret some scriptures. We will want to put them down to lift ourself up. We will look at them and scrutinize their life. But what we really need to do is ask the simple question. “How would I want to be viewed by them and other pastors?” If we want people to give us the benefit of a doubt, then we need to do the same. We need to look at what are they doing, who are they reaching and if their is an issue, don't gossip about it, go to them and talk with them if you are able. If they chose to not see it your way, chose to agree to disagree. It is better way. It is better to see them fighting the same fight we are facing. They have trials and temptations just like us. We fail, they fail. We are human trying to be like Jesus and so are they. 

In conclusion, treat others as you would be treated. Give people the benefit of a doubt. Love them and pray for them. We fight the same fight. Lastly don't judge someone without knowing the details, there is much we don't know about them and their life. Thanks for reading the post. Till next time, 

Benjamin Marc Grenier

Rev. Rick Warren- Resurgence Leadership Conference 2013.

Pastor Mark Driscoll has been putting on a conference and this past you conference has been one of the best to date. Rev. Rick Warren teaching can be found Here and to find out more about the Resurgence Leadership Conference click http://theresurgence.com. Pastor Mark invited Rick Warren to share to follow pastors about a lesson that would help each of them.

Summary of the Teaching. Anything I would type does not do this teaching justice. Rick Warren got down to the essence of how and why some people have the anointing on their life and others don't. The four concepts he talked about were integrity, humility, generosity, and faith. He talked about how each of the first three can combat the three attacks that Satan sends to leaders. Rev Warren says, "The last is by which God work, in-through-by-for-to-with you."

Rev Warren continues, "God is looking for people to use and if you are usable, he will wear you out. The problem is most people are not willing to pay the cost. There is a price tag and price tag is a cost of character. Character comes through pain, suffering, criticism, and difficulties. It doesn't come through popularity and ease, or getting your way every time, it comes through conflict."

The three temptations Satan uses he continues to use. The three are the "Lust of the Flesh"-Passion, "Lust of the Eyes"-Possession, and "Pride of Life" Position. Sex, Salary, and Status is another way to put the three.

"Lust of the Flesh" is the temptation to feel. It is the temptation to wanting to feel good. It could be anything we use to make our self feel good. I could be sex, TV, food, drugs, sports, drink, or any kind of pleasure that we use to feel good.

"Lust of the Eyes" is the temptation to have. I see it and I want it. The lust of the eye is greed.

"Pride of Life" the temptation to be. I want to be loved, to be known, to be famous, to be envied, to be worshiped, other people to think that I am better than them.

The temptations of Adam and even Jesus can be seen to fit the three. First Temptation of Jesus is the "Lust of the Flesh", Second is the "Lust of the Eyes", and the last is the "Pride of Life."

First Temptation- You will be tempted to use the gifts that God has given you for your own purpose. To feed yourself, to meet your needs. That is sin. You will be tempted to use your own abilities to meet your needs. This is seen with Jesus being tempted to use his power that God gave him to meet a need he had. Jesus power for not for himself but for the glory of God and the people Jesus was sent too.

Second Temptation- You will be tempted to compromise your message because a deacon in your church has a condo you would like to use or a boat, or someone to pay our dinner. Your being bought off. It is the lust of the eyes. It is the desire of material things or possessions. Jesus was tempted with all the riches and the things in the world. This is the "Lust of the Eyes."

Third Temptation- You will be tempted to show off in your ministry. The temptation to do the spectacular. The temptation to use your ministry to show off. Satan temps Jesus with the possibility of him jumping from the top of the temple and angels saving Jesus. Then people would worship Jesus because of the cool thing that happened. There is nothing wrong with Jesus being worshiped but God intend him not be be worshiped by showing off but by dying on the cross.

The way to combat each of the three are integrity, humility, and generosity.
Integrity- This combats the "Lust of the Flesh." You live your life the same with people and without people. It is doing the right thing and being the same every day. Being real. The moment you change from situation to situation, the more your integrity is weakened. It isn't a piece of the pie, it is the whole pie. One aspect of sin in any part of your life will ruin or destroy your whole life.

Generosity- This combats the "Lust of the Eyes." The only antidote to Lust of the Eyes is learning to be generous. Some people trust God with their salvation but not their money. Every time you give, you break the grip of materialism and you become more like Jesus. You can give without loving but you can't love without giving.

Humility- This combats the "Pride of Life." Humility is not devaluing yourself or denying your strengths, it is being honest about your weaknesses. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses but humility is being honest about both. Their is no growth without pain and weakness. Being humble is about admitting to yourself and to others what that really is.

Reflection-
Rev Rick Warren spoke to me with this message. Far too often, I see myself and other pastors make this small mistakes that starts to make wholes in our character. God wants to use everyone for his purpose but people are not willing to pay the price to be used by God. That is the cost of character.

I see that in ministry, I have bended a little to each of this things and had stood against others. I find myself getting closer and closer to the things I shouldn't do but it is a slippery slope and sometimes you fall a little further than other times. The more you fall the more your character is hurt and you must work twice as hard to repair that character.

It seems so easy to look at each of these temptations and to think it can't be that bad. It can't hurt this one time. It can't hurt me forever. Well Satan uses that lie to get each of us closer and closer to where he wants us and not where God needs us. The lie about the apple from the tree of knowledge was one of it can't be that bad. The lie, everyone is doing it so it can't be that bad, is one that I hear often. But sin is sin, temptation is temptation. God wants our character to shine for him.

After listening to this, I have a stronger drive to have God's full anointing in my life. I will try to preserve and grow the character I need to do the things that God wants me to do. I will keep integrity, humility, and generosity in my life so that one day, I hope that God will say "well done" to me.

Till next time.
Benjamin Marc Grenier

First Topic: Simon Sinek- Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Good

If you don't know a man by the name Simon Sinek, you should check him out. I was first introduced to him while listening to EntreLeadership podcast. Since then have watched his TED Talks on www.TED.com and have found him very useful from a ministry stand point. Simon Sinek made waves with his "Start With Why" TED talk and since then he has written books and recorded videos that are more made for the business world but can be applied to church leadership. (I will be posting about "Start With Why" in the near future)

In his recent TED talk, Click Here, Simon Sinek does a 12 minute speech titled "Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe." In the video, he brings up the idea how does soldiers get to the point where they are willing to give up their life and themselves for someone else. He tells a story of a captain that willingly put himself in danger to save a sergeant and injuries solders. Simon states, "In the military, they give medals to people that are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may gain. In business, we give bonuses to be people that are willing to sacrifice others so that we may gain." He continues with the question "What makes them like that? Are they better people? Are they attracted to what the military means and thus ended up there?" He reasons it is the environment that effects these men and can make any man or woman just like these soldiers. They are surrounded by men and leaders that are willing to give up their life for each of them. They have developed a relationship of trust and corporation. So where does that come from?

Simon continues the thought by talking how humans where designed. In the world we are surrounded by danger, things trying to kill or hurt us. Eventually we became reliant on our social circle or village/tribe for survival. Their was a trust that in a community one could sleep because they trusted the person on watch would warn them if something happened.The world is filled with danger, people wanting to attack and hurt our opportunity of success. These are constants, meaning they don't change. They will always be there. However the thing that changes is the organization we are involved with. Today is the same. Simon says, "That is where leadership matters. It is the leader that sets the tone. When the leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people inside the organization first, to sacrifice comforts and tangibles results so the people remain and feel save, remarkable things happen."

He then tells a story about a person who doesn't feel safe and doesn't trust their leaders. When they don't trust or feel safe, they then spend their time trying to defend themselves from others. This weakens an organization. When we feel safe and trust an organization we will apply our talents and abilities to face the dangers outside instead of inside.

Simon says that the reason we hate corporations are that most of the leaders care only for themselves and would rather sacrifice company well being or even the people in the organization for self preservation. He then bring us two companies that are counter to this idea. One has a do not fire policy. If you mess up or not doing well, they will coach you and train you till you succeed. The other was a manufacture company that lost one third of it business overnight. Instead of laying off many people the CEO of the company addressed the people saying, "It is better for all of us to suffer a little than anyone to suffer a lot." Moral went up instead of down. They implemented a company wide policy that saved all of their jobs but it hurt each of them a little, however people supported the decision. They trusted and cooperating with the organization and worked to make it better.

Simon then states,  "Leadership is a choice, not a rank." Their are people in an organization that might be on top are not leaders, they might have authority, but they are not leaders. We do what they say because of their authority but we will not follow them. Likewise, there are people in an organization that are on the bottom that are leaders because they have chosen to look after the people to the right of them and to the left of them. This is what a leader is.

Simon concluded about a story of a Marine. As the tradition when food is served to the Marines, the officer ate late. Well on this one day when all the troops were served there was no more food left for this officer. After they left, his men gave their officer some of their food. "We call them leaders because they go first, We call them leaders because they take the risk before anyone else does. We call them leaders because they choose the sacrifice so that their people will feel safe and protected so that their people will gain. And when we do, the natural response is that our people will sacrifice for us. They will give us their blood, sweat, and tears to see their leaders vision to come to life. When we ask them, why would you do that, why would you give your blood, sweat, and tears to that person, they all say the same thing, they would have done it for me. Isn't that an organization we would all want to work in?"

My Refection:
As I watch this video, I was reminded on how this could be implemented in our churches of today. Businesses and churches have a few things in common. They deal with people, safety is required, and trust is required among many others items. The leader of the church really sets the tone for the church. Just like the CEO and the Officers in the stories Simon Sinek talked about, the leader needs to lead his people and set the example. If a leader is not willing to put his personal goals and self aside for the sake of his people, then his people will not feel safe and not trust him. The people will be more worried about themselves and protecting themselves then helping the organization to succeed. Jesus lived this model too. He lived his life in service to the people who he was bring up to lead once he was gone. He washed their feet, taught them, and loved them. They trusted him and felt safe.

The people that go to a church or more important the people that are like the workers of the church,(lay workers and paid workers) both need safe environment and trust. The main difference with churches and business is most of the workers in a church are volunteers so they don't respond well to people forcing them to do stuff due to positional power. So that make it even more important to work with them and to give them a place to succeed. If someone doesn't feel safe or trusted they either look for a different leader to serve or don't excel at their current ministry because like Simon said above, they will spend most of their time taking care of their own needs.

So what are some tangible results that a pastor may sacrifice his people for? Money and Fame are two that come to mind. Sometimes decisions that are made in church are to keep some tithes. While this sometimes seems necessary, I have seen it hurt many people. If doing something would effect the trust and the safety of the church, then it would be better not to do it. Now with fame, some pastors are only looking out for themselves. They will preach and do things where they get the credit. Sometimes it is better to pass the credit to your team or the people around you. If your team sees you taking credit for the things they do, they will lose trust in you. Also with fame, there is a huge temptation to do something so that it gets you more complements or attention from your piers. This decision and actions will not be the best for the church. When the dust settles, people will either not feel safe or not trust the pastor to make the right decision in the future.

When Simon was talking about danger, for churches the danger they face is from multiple places. False teaching, the devil, sin, "wolves", and many other things that would seek to tear someone away from their place in a community. If someone comes into a community and feel safe, or at least not fear the people they are around, they will grow and thrive. However, if they fear people around them and/or leadership, they send their time guarding themselves from attacks and possible look for another community to be apart of.

In the Bible, their is an idea that Jesus taught that we should all be servant leader. He demonstrated this teaching many times but the most prevalent example is when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. What this showed the disciples when he did it was that he want them to know he might be their leader but at the same time he was leading and serving each of them at the same time.  He then went to the cross and die. He gave and scarified of himself for them. We see this worked in teaching his disciples because each of them gave their blood, sweat, and tears just as Jesus gave his blood, sweat, and tears.

So what can we take away from this video.
1) As leaders, we need to be servant.
2) Leadership is a choose.
3) Healthy organization help the people feel safe and trust the leader.
4) People that can trust their leader will perform better and want to stay.

Till next time,
Benjamin Marc Grenier