Men's Conference on Pursuing Genuine Biblical Revival

May 5 & 6, 2017

Theme: "Capture Our Hearts Again!"

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ray Ortlund
Pastor of Immanuel Church (Acts 29 plant in Nashville, TN)
President of Renewal Ministries
Regional Director of Acts 29 Network
Formerly Assoc. Prof. of OT & Semitic Languages @ Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL)
Council Member & regular blogger at The Gospel Coalition
Author of commentaries and many books including Isaiah: God Saves Sinners in the Preaching the Word Series Commentary Series, When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ in the 9 Marks Building Healthy Churches Series and most recently Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel.

Pre-Conference Workshop - 2 Sessions (Content to be released soon)

Special Guest Speaker: Dr. Tom Schreiner
James Buchanan Harrison Prof of New Testament Interpretation, Professor of Biblical Theology and Associate Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
Author of many commentaries and books including The Law and Its Fulfillment: A Pauline Theology of Law, The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance; The King in His Beauty, and Romans in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament Series.

Registration opens soon at www.FGCon.org

Hosted by:
Union Lake Baptist Church
8390 Commerce Road
Commerce, MI 48382
248.363.9600

Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Power of a Leader

When most think of Paul, images are evoked of the apostle as an almost overbearing figure, thundering the good news to people he met, almost forcing them to receive God's gospel. But hear these contrary words from his own mouth in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5,

"And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."

Many things could be said of this passage, but consider just a few observations.

First, you don't hear a lot about Paul's delivery, his command of the language, his confidence in his own abilities. Keep in mind that this is Paul describing himself: "weakness," "fear," "trembling," no "superiority of speech," no "persuasive words," no "wisdom" of his own. Most of us would no doubt have tried to keep our reputation in tact by at least throwing in words describing our adequacy to the task. Not Paul. He was being used by God to teach us something different.

You might say: "Doesn't sound like much of a leader." But whatever your definition of a "successful leader" is, I'll bet it has something to do with a man understanding some source of power upon which he can draw. In a football coach, perhaps it's his ability to impress a young man with motivational stories. In a foreman, perhaps it's his ability to threaten employees with the fear of job loss. In a corporate ladder-climber, perhaps it's his ability to slander his competition.

For a Christian leader like Paul, however, he knew that the source of power that he would need to draw upon was quite outside of himself. Notice how he had reconciled himself to that fact: "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." Paul added no original thoughts. No ingenuity. No sales techniques. Just the plain facts about Jesus and why He had to die for sinners.

Was this a "successful" strategy? Well, here at last we read of Paul's confidence. Not confidence in himself, but in those strange and wonderful facts about Jesus. Listen to Paul speak of it: "my message and my preaching was . . . in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." He provides the reason for his strategy as well. It was so that their response to his message wouldn't fade after they forgot how charismatic or persuasive Paul was, but would endure because it was based upon "the power of God." So Paul knew that the gospel was the only way to show the Corinthians the true power of God. He also knew that it was only if they saw that power and were changed by it, would it stick. Paul comprehended that there was nothing about himself, certainly no innate ability to lead, that would eternally change any of those folks in Corinth.

So often I want to be seen as a strong, knowledgeable, capable leader because of my own natural abilities. Oh, that I would rather desire to be a weak, trembling, forgettable leader that wields the power of the cross in the lives of others.

Pray that God would cause my leadership team (me especially) and the conference speakers to live out Paul's lesson in this text. Pray that the teaching at the conference would reflect it. Pray that conference attendees would receive this teaching and become leaders that, perhaps nobody remembers, but who leave Detroit radically transformed by the power of the crucified Jesus Christ!

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