Category: Christian Leadership

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. - Stephen Covey

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (The Message):  What do you think God expects from you? Just this: Live in his presence in holy reverence, follow the road he sets out for you, love him, serve God, your God, with everything you have in you, obey the commandments and regulations of God that I’m commanding you today—live a good life.

For Week 7, the NIV Leadership Bible focuses on obedience to God.  As a disciple of Jesus Christ, that is my “main thing.”

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible has a lot to say about obedience.  Our Pastor is currently leading a 40-week study of the Ten Commandments, as we celebrate our 40th anniversary as a church.  We’re in the midst of a 4-week study about the First Commandment–having “no other gods” before our God.  Through the Ten Commandments, we see how important the concept of obedience is to God.  According to Holman’s Bible Dictionary, biblical obedience is “to hear God’s Word and act accordingly.”

Deuteronomy 11:26–28 sums it up like this:  “Obey and you will be blessed.  Disobey and you will be cursed.”

Click here to explore three examples of obedience to God.

Do You Lead with Integrity?

photo credit: Wonder woman0731 School Poster Integrity is doing via photopin (license)

OK, that’s probably the wrong question.

Let’s take a closer look at the word integrity.  Since integrity comes from the word integer and means “whole”…a better question would be “Do you live with integrity?”

Integrity means “sound and complete.”  To the extent that a person’s ethics (defined standard of right and wrong, good and evil—what you say) and morality (lived standard of right and wrong, good and evil—what you do) are integrated, they have integrity.

There are a few other ways to define integrity:

  • Webster defines the word as the “quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”
  • A kid-friendly definition says “doing the right thing when nobody is watching.”
  • The Bible points to a consistency between what is inside and what is outside, between belief and behavior, our words and our ways, our attitudes and our actions, our values and our practice.

The bottom line is that integrity is a powerful word that needs respect…it is a life skill composed of many other powerful life skills — patience, honesty, responsibility, dependability, accountability, and caring…to name a few.

If we let our personal commitment to integrity show in what we do during the day, every day…we’ll become a leader others will eagerly follow.  Let’s learn from two Old Testament leaders who demonstrated integrity:  Samuel and David.

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