Saturday, April 04, 2009

I read a lot of leadership blogs, books, etc. Most of what I read is so inspiring. But, even guys who are great leaders get it wrong sometimes.

Recently, I read a statement by someone that I think is a very good leader. I don't always agree with his approach, but his execution and inspiring of people is amazing. He said, "if you are not offending people you aren't preaching His gospel".

While on the surface there is a lot I can agree with in this statement, I think we often times give ourselves too much credit. "We" should not be offending people. We should leave that to "the gospel". I know this may seem picky, but I see that approach far too often.

Secondly, when we go into an opportunity to preach God's word anticipating the offense, it is tempting to intentionally offend by our presentation as opposed to the content. I see it too often when a someone expects offense to take place, they present it with an "I don't care what you think" attitude and the offense takes place via the messenger and the message isn't truly heard.

Finally, our responsibility as believers is to presnet the truth in love. Let the gospel truly be the offense. Not our attitudes and intent to offend.

1 comment:

Jon and Angie Tyner said...

Good insight dude. I think you're right on.