Leadership In the River: Obeying God In Our Leadership

In God we trust? It is a pertinent question answered by this book, for trust comes from believing something, and belief is another word for faith. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, so the purpose of this book is twofold:

1. To equip ministers to better understand the often brutal law of the jungle that the business world has become and to see Jesus as King of the Jungle, a mighty warrior who fights for our families, our businesses, and our churches.
2. To further equip successful business owners in their growth in mature Christian leadership.

I believe the greatest need in the world is seasoned Christian leaders, who honestly care about the people they lead and the impact they have on their communities and society as a whole.
Yet, in many cases there has been a great disconnect between successful business leaders and the local churches they attend. There are legitimate reasons for this in many cases: I have met successful business-people that have honestly stated: "If I ran my company financially the way that they run this church, I would be bankrupt in 30 days
Where does a Christian leader go for help? Are there relevant answers in the Scripture for real world challenges? To the pastor trying to effectively minister to the business community in their area, AND to the business owner honestly determined to make an eternal difference in their calling through their business, this book is written for them.

The heart of this book came from an encounter the author had with his pastor in 2007. A wealthy businessman had come forward for prayer at a church service at Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, led by the legendary Billy Joe Daugherty. Pastor Billy Joe asked the author to join him in praying for this beleaguered businessman, and he looked the man in the eye and said: "Sir, why don't you join one of our small group Bible studies?" The leader looked Billy Joe in the eye and said: 'Billy Joe, you know I can't do that. I have money, and every time I give Christians access to my life, they treat me like a walking ATM, constantly looking for me to pay for their latest missions trip or outreach. I would rather stay home and watch a movie with my family' I interjected: '" Exactly! Seems that about every missionary in town drops by my office when they are in town looking for a donation, it would be good if there was a Bible study where leaders could actually study Gods Word for answers, without getting hit on for money."
Then Billy Joe looked me in the eye and said: 'That's a great idea, why don't you start something'.
So I did. With one of my business partners initially, we began to meet Tuesday mornings from 7:30-8:30AM at the local coffee shop, and in 2008, we met until the summer of 2021.We read the book together, "The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon's Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness' by Stephen K Scott. The gist of his book is this: find a group of 6-10 people who will commit to reading a chapter of Proverbs every day, and putting it into practice in their homes and businesses. Since there are 31 chapters of Proverbs, it puts you through this book every month, our weekly Bible studies were simple to schedule: .If that a particular Tuesday falls on the 15th of the month, we read Proverbs 15 that morning, each of us reading 2-3 verses, and at the end, each person shares what they got out of that particular reading, or anything else the Lord might put on their heart.
Over that 12 year period, meeting weekly with leaders in both business and ministry, and reading the chapter of the day, and deliberately seeking God for wisdom.Prayer has been answered and God gave us a portion of His excellence, Holy Spirit-led leaders, fully grounded in the Word of God, are the greatest need of this generation.