LEADERS ARE PROBLEM-SOLVERSWord and God’s Spirit. He constantly nurtured young Christians with
the “water of the Word” (Eph. 5:26). That balanced combination of
watering and weeding kept the enemy’s “seeds and weeds” from taking root
- and taking over.
Principle:
“ Your greatest defense is always a strong off ense.”It is always easy for each of us to think that our problems are the
toughest! We secretly believe that the problems we face are worse than
the ones anyone else has ever faced. That’s because they are our problems!
However, there are no totally new or unique problems. Satan is just not that
creative! He doesn’t have to be. The reason is that each new generation
of people is susceptible to the same old lies, temptations, and deceptions
- resulting in the same old spiritual and relational problems! All Satan
does is re-package and re-cycle the same old problems over and over again - one generation after another. The first thing that we need to do in
facing problems is to remind ourselves that there are no totally new or
unique ones. Other leaders have also faced some variety of those very
same problems.
Principle:
“Eff ective people are not problem-minded,
they are opportunity-minded. Th ey feed
opportunities and starve problems.”^1
(Peter Drucker)The church problems that Paul wrote about in the 1st century are basically
the same ones we face in the 21st century. His challenges were as varied
as the places to which he traveled, and as diverse as the people to whom
he ministered. The conflicts and crises he confronted were as daunting
as any leader could ever face in any century. In those early churches the
problems he faced ran the full gamut of human and demonic expression.
They were spiritual, theological, doctrinal, liturgical, personal, marital,
moral, cultural, legal, financial, vocational – just to mention a few of
the major ones! Unlike some church leaders then and now, Paul never
ignored problems. He directly confronted them - head on. Rather than