Category: Christian Leadership

This Thanksgiving is a great time to pause, reflect, and soak in the words of Psalm 23:1, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” 

Pastor Larry Burtoft of Valley Vista Christian Community in Van Nuys, California, invited Dallas Willard to deliver a series of talks.  Willard’s talks ultimately led to the book entitled Life Without Lack, which Larry co-edited with Dallas’ daughter, Becky Willard Heatley.

Burtoft observes, “Dallas Willard discovered the secret to gaining what many people have sacrificed so much in time, money, and relationships trying to possess.  In a word, contentment.”

Like the apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”

Dallas believed it was possible to keep our minds constantly on God and that this was the heart and soul of spiritual formation in the kingdom of God.

Click here for more from Life Without Lack

International Men’s Day was celebrated on Friday, November 19.  After a few different previous attempts to create a day to celebrate men, Jerome Teelucksingh, revived it in 1999 as a way to honor his father’s birthday and celebrate how on that date ten years earlier the Trinidad and Tobago soccer team united the country as they qualified for the World Cup.

Teelucksingh promoted International Men’s Day as a day where all issues affecting men and boys can be addressed. He said, “We are striving for gender equality and patiently attempt to remove the negative images and the stigma associated with men in our society.”

Last year, I read John MacArthur’s Twelve Ordinary Men.  Jesus Christ—our model “Out of This World Leader”—chose a group of men to change the world. 

They were not outstanding because of any natural talents or intellectual abilities. On the contrary, they were all too prone to mistakes, misstatements, wrong attitudes, lapses of faith, and bitter failure—no one more so than the leader of the group, Peter. Even Jesus remarked that they were slow learners and somewhat spiritually dense (Luke 24:25). Yet with all their faults and character flaws—as remarkably ordinary as they were—these men carried on a ministry after Jesus’ ascension that left an indelible impact on the world.

Ordinary men—people like you and me—became the instruments by which Christ’s message was carried to the ends of the earth. No wonder they are such fascinating characters.

Click here to learn more about Twelve Ordinary Men