Session 2: Just Courage:Charging the Darkness Gary Haugen

The Leadership Summit: Session 2: Gary Haugen

International Justice Mission

• At the end of the day, we want our leadership to matter
• Leadership that matters to God are in the issues that matter to God- so what is God truly passionate about?
• One of the hardest things for people to believe is that God is good- there's so much pain in the world, in their lives.... Is God good?
• God's plan is "us"- there is no other plan...
• Injustice- Ecc 4: "Behold I saw the tears of the oppressed..." This is sin to God- We have a call to stand up to oppressors....
• 60-85% of people in developing world are in prision/jail without a charge or trial...
• 2 million in forced prostitution in the world (UNICEF) today... how is God good?
• Leadership doesn't matter as much in things that are cheerful, safe, and easy... it's critical in things that are scary, dangerous, and hard
• When the task seems hopeless, Lead by re-centering the basis of our Hope.
• The magnitude of the need can be overwhelming... Jesus asks..."what DO you have?" (Feeding the 5000)... "Will you give it to Me?" He didn't ask what was needed, he asked they "had"...
• How do we lead when the task seems scary? Jesus did not come to make us safe, He can to make us brave. If I'm playing football and no one is hitting me... I may need to check to make sure I'm in the game...
• Don't go on the trip of life but miss the adventure... Take the diapers off... Follow God beyond what I can control... that's where we can experience God... Take our strengths God has given us farther than we feel comfortable to climb....
• Choose not to be safe. Starts with prayer... If we're doing something that doesn't require prayer every 30 minutes.... maybe I need to do something different...
• Choose deep spiritual health... You don't see people doing hard, scary, uncomfortable things without a deep spiritual health... My spiritual discipline should be driven out of a serious desperation of need rather than a casual "I've done a good devotion" to check it off my list.... Lead people to places that are unsafe to go without God....eliminates the pretenders.... We need to believe we can't do the task without prayer....
• Choose to pursue excellence... The church and Christians have moved too far into climate controlled neighborhoods (Christian adjusted mediocrity) and began to ignore deep study, practice, stategy, and great execuation.... We need to be effective and skillful... it matters.
• Choose to seize the joy... The first thing to disappear when we begin to slide is laughter... We need to be able to laugh at our ineptness- How can God depend on all of us, broken people, to be His plan? That's funny. Joy is the antidote to despair...
• God, please rescue us from all things petty.

Thoughts:

• People are always asking where God is? Where are the miracles? Why doesn't He speak? Are WE truly the plan? Is that why He seems silent but is speaking every moment?
• I think we lose focus that we're carrying about God's plan and can drift to think it's "us", our actions, our ideas, our plan... we can drift to think we're our own God... Misguided, God-less beliefs abound in our culture that exists in the "I'm a Good Person" theology..
• If we think life is about here...it's hard to be brave because we hang too tightly to our lives... when we believe it's about eternity, we can risk, we can step out of the boat, we can go into the dark places...
• I do too many things trying to "accomplish" something on my own or to be the one to "fix" the people around me... I need to hand it off to God, pray more, and find a bigger mountain to climb.