Developing Godly Leadership

Biblical Training.org has just announced a new course at their phenomenal ministry called Developing Godly Leadership which is taught by Dr. John Johnson.

Bill Mounce introduces the class:

We are especially glad to be able to announce a new class at BiblicalTraining.org, Developing Godly Leaders, by Dr. John Johnson. We have been looking for a long time to find a professor trained in practical ministry who has academic and church experience in the area of leadership.

Dr. Johnson is a professor at Western Seminary, and we are thankful to Western for the gift of this class. He is also the Lead Pastor at Village Baptist Church where he has served for 18 years.

I once, rather jokingly, suggested a book title to Zondervan Publishers: “Why Save the Lost When You can Fight with the Saved?” The sad part of the story is that they were open to the publishing project. Almost everywhere I go, I hear stories of Christians devouring one another. Alexander Strauch has even written a new book, If You Bite & Devour One Another.

Unfortunately, while many pastors are well prepared in exegetical and theological matters, the question of how to identify, raise up, encourage and train the leadership in a church is often not part of their skill set and so often contributes to the devastating statistics we hear.

Here is the course description from the website:

This is a core leadership course designed for those who intend to be future leaders in ministry.  This course will move from definitions to the core values of a leader; how to take a ministry through a vision process; engage in strategic planning, decision-making, and implementation; build great teams; work through conflict and change; delegate tasks; and effectively mentor the next generation of leaders.  Models from the corporate, political, and military worlds will be compared and contrasted with biblical definitions and illustrations of leadership.

Biblical Training is a wonderful ministry resource that gathers top notch seminary level teachers and provides these great teachers to us via the Internet.

Developing Godly Leadership >>>

Biblical Leadership seminar with Alexander Strauch

Alexander Strauch gave a 4 message seminar to Desert Springs Church on the subject of Biblical Leadership.  If you are in ministry and haven’t yet heard Strauch on eldership or church leadership, this will be a good seminar to get into, even if you are a congregationalist or have no elders.

Biblical Leadership series >>>

A History of the English Puritans: J. I. Packers seminary lectures

For the past few weeks I’ve been making my way through J. I. Packers lectures on the English Puritans, and I have to tell you, it’s been a real treat.  This is one of those series you will want to go through a second time and take notes. I can’t begin to scratch the surface of all the good material.  Much here on ministry philosophy, worship, pastoral concerns.  Some very fascinating biographical material on lesser known Puritans.  A great deal on Baxter and Owen. 

Some highlights from one of the first messages that looked at many more contemporary giants who were greatly affected by the Puritans. Packer looks at sermonic structures of the Puritans and more recent contemporaies such as Lloyd-Jones.  How soon in a sermon do you begin application?  In the cases of Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones, they started right away. Where did the 3 point sermon originate? He also talks about the contemporary loss of rhetorical prayer, where pastoral prayers were presenting arguments before God.

This series of lectures has been generously provided by Reformed Theological Seminary, which has conveniently supplied their audio through iTunes.

RTS iTunes page >>>

 A TOP AUDIO POST

Sovereign Grace Leadership Conference 2007

Sovereign Grace Ministries is somewhat of an anomaly in the church today, and I mean that in a good sense. We live in a day where we are seeing denominations shrink, but Sovereign Grace Ministries is planting healthy, growing churches based on solid reformed teaching. They are also heavily involved in writing new, theologically sound, worship music. God is doing amazing work through this organization. So, when they put on a leadership conference, I want to know about it. All three general session speakers, Sproul, Powlison, and Mahaney, delivered messages you will want to hear.

R. C. Sproul opened the general sessions. C. J. Mahaney was correct when he said nobody can preach about the holiness of God like R. C. Sproul. If you’ve never heard Sproul preach on the holiness of God, you’re in for a treat.

David Powlison brought a message that has been deeply embedded in his mind of late. He confronted the unfortunate tendency within the church to follow the culture in it’s unhealthy habit of introspection. Powlison argues that our introspection should be short lived and our focus on God and Scripture should be more weighty. The message he brought was like a lightning bolt to our age. If you only buy one MP3 from this conference it must be Powlison’s message.

C. J. Mahaney’s message title ‘Trinitarian Pastoral Ministry’ might be somewhat misleading, but his lecture was timely and needed. I won’t go over the spine of his message, but will cover two important points he raised. First, he brought much needed clarity to the ‘charismatic’ issue, and offering a clarifying term for his position which he calls ‘continuationism’ (as opposed to cessationism). He also called for the church to stop trying to redefine itself to be ‘relevant’ to the culture. He calls for churches to recover lost ground in the face of post-modern church thinking.

When you order the conference, order the whole conference, general sessions and seminars. The full package is only $4.oo more and there are some excellent seminars. Powlison returns of a seminar. Other seminar speakers include Mark Dever, Joshua Harris, and Mike Bullmore. For the ladies, Carolyn Mahaney brings a message titled ‘Watch your Man’ and then is part of a panel discussion.

The conference consists of 4 General Sessions and 16 Seminars.

Full MP3 CD set ($24) >>>

General Sessions MP3 download ($8) >>>

Seminars MP3 download ($16) >>>

Godly Examples of Spiritual Leadership with Steve Lawson

Steve Lawson is one preacher who brings me to a level of sober spiritual reflection and self-examination that is deep and clear.  One of the things I love about Steve is his understanding of church history, and the great men who have come before us.  In this message Steve exhorts men to find other godly men who will drive you to godliness, and to lean upon dead godly men through their writings and biographies.

Godly Examples of Spiritual Leadership >>>

Entrust Seminar: Path to Pastoral Ministry of Sovereign Grace Churches

This 2006 seminar is helpful for men who are considering to pursue pastoral or elder level ministry.    Dave Harvey’s message ‘Ambition and the Called’ is particulary insightful as he differentiates between human ambition and godly ambition. 

Harvey also makes the statement, “It’s not unusual for God to call a man to ministry and then immediately put on the brakes, and cast them into the wilderness, sometimes for a long period of time.  God’s calling operates on His timing, and not ours.  And when the time is right he will place that man into the ministry He has for him” (my paraphrase).

2006 Entrust Seminar>>>