Friday, July 29, 2011

Stott on Authenticity

The last time that John Stott spoke at Kessick he shared some deeply challenging words about evangelism. He said, if I understood him right, that it matters much more who we are than what we say. Or, to put that the other way around, our doing and speaking and its impact flow from the person that we are. Essentially, this is a call to character and it drives me and perhaps you also to my knees on how short I fall. If few are becoming Christians around us it might be good for us to ask ourselves the question 'Why?' When boiled down to its core, might it perhaps simply be a lack of love (1 John 3:16-18)

Tozer wrote of a type of leader:

"A true and safe leader is likely to be one who has no desire to lead, but is forced into a position by the inward pressure of the Holy Spirit and the press of [circumstances] .....There was hardly a great leader from Paul to the present day but was drafted by the Holy Spirit for the task, and commissioned by the Lord to fill a position he had little heart for......The man who is ambitious to lead is disqualified as a leader. The true leader will have no desire to Lord it over God's heritage, but will be humble, gentle, self-sacrificing and altogether ready to follow when the Spirit chooses another to lead"

Spiritual leadership, Sanders, [p. 30]

John Stott's humilty, gentleness and self-sacrifical life were an example to us all.

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Saturday blog-sweep

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