Books & Blogs from Adrian Hawkes Blog

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We are so persuaded by the ‘normal’ and what is perceived to
be the right approach that those of us who do it differently always expect to
have to swim upstream, to move against the odds to climb the mo…

Adrian’s Blog

Adrian’s Blog

Adrian’s Blog

I just thought you might find it interesting to know a little more about the Blog you read.
Why write a BLOG, and I guess that people do it for all sorts of reason, to tell friends, to advertise their wares, to just put their thought out there.  I guess for some people it’s almost therapeutic.
But for me, well yes I would like to put my ware out there, I have six books I would like you to read, but that’s writing as well isn’t it.  I guess the real reason for writing is that I want to see change in certain things.  I also think that I would like to use the words to make the world a better place. I also actually like to introduce lots of people to ‘the Word’ because I know having met the Word, that it changes life, our outlook, our culture perspective, and our value stem in fact everything for the better.
The other thing that I though you would like to know is who reads this Blog, that is quite fascinating to me, I am sure you know that these days with the internet you can track and analyse all sorts of things, and my Blog is no exception.  Here are some of the interesting data to date, well I think it’s interesting anyway and I hope you might too.  As you would expect as I live in the UK most readers come from that area of the world, on today statistics it’s so far to date 1877 of you in the UK have had a look at it.  The next country, which probably isn’t such a surprise as we speak the same language and I have many friends there, but I suppose what does surprise me is how many, as of today’s date the stats tell me that in the USA  1409 of you have taken a peek.  Not so far behind the UK. 
What really does surprise me is country number three and four a long way behind in terms of numbers but hay welcome all of you from Russia, and South Korea who have had a look Russia is 189 and South Korea is 135.  I would really love you to click that comment button and just tell me what you think. 
I will of course say thank you to those of you who have joined my discussions and journey from Germany, Brazil, Slovenia, Slovakia, Kenya, Taiwan, Netherlands, Norway, France and Switzerland.  Thank you all for joining me and for reading my comments, now all I need is for you to join the discussions. So far almost 5,000 have joined me at some point thank you for that.
It is also interesting to see what you are all reading, and the stats tell me that the most read Blog is the one put up in October 2009 on the subject of woman, and I didn’t even write that one baa!  It was written by my good friend Dan Wooding of Assist News Service, he is a professional news hound so I guess I am happy that you like to read his stuff. For those who like tit bits, he was also our best man when we got married.  Check out his news service at www.assistnew.com  it is worth the time.  It also fun to note that my second most read is the one entitled Beer and bandits which I posted in May 2010 does that tell me something about you or about what I write about?
Venezuela 
I like the fact that you are still reading those Blogs that I posted some time ago, again thank for that.
I could go on and tell you which search engines and what referring sites you use, but I won’t enough already.  Just to say again thank you, hope you enjoy, and most of all I hope together we can effect change for the better. Don’t forget would love to hear from you.
Adrian Hawkes
For Adrian Hawkes Blog spot www.adrianhawkes.blogspot.com
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Leadership – Vision

Leadership – Vision

Leadership – the book, Vision

Talks for UCB 3 min

 I always  feel sad when I come the end of my chance  to talk with you. I hope you have found our times together helpful, as I have chatted about the subject of leadership. I have written a book on the subject and in it I cover many other areas that I haven’t had time to talk to you about in this series.   I looked through allthe subjects in my book, ‘Leadership and…’ to decide what to share with you during this last talk, should I tell you about decision makers or small groups of people, or perhaps the platform? Goals? Work or loyalty? And I was very tempted by the chapter on Solomon’s clothes,  there’s one I wish I had time for right now,  but as I pondered it became very clear what should I talk about  during our final time together.  I decided it has to be vision.

Scripture says that where there is no vision, people perish.  Now maybe it’s just the people I mix with but there has been a bit of a backlash against vision.  Maybe you are not aware of that and if not don’t let it worry you.  The thing is that people, and I understand why they do, react against the fact that leaders want everyone to buy into their vision, and sometimes   they exhaust people in trying to see things achieved and the vision reached, and why their vision anyway? Why not mine?

Well here are some answers; firstlydo you have a vision?   People regularly   come and chat with me, seeking advice about the direction their life is taking, or not, as the case may be, they may say things like, ‘ I don’t have a vision, I really would like one, what should I do?’  I’m sorry but I have a stock answer which is, ‘get on board someone else’s vision!’  Don’t forget that scripture says, without one people perish

Secondly   as leaders, aren’t we all called to lead?  Yes we are, but we are also called to follow. Scripture statesthat we should be under authority, and if we are all practicing servant leadership then things will work really well.  I would also hope that as a leader you are following  a vision God has given you,  one that reflects what Jesus would say,  ‘I must be about my Father’s business.’ Or let’s put it another way, the Father’s vision is what I plan to accomplish. 

So let’s think again about those who have no vision, if it is the Father’s vision that your leader is following, why not get on board? A key point to bear in mind is that the Father’s vision is broad enough to encompass other visions.  For the church community to function smoothly and effectively, you will all be following a God given vision but that does not eliminate the possibility that God can also give you a vision, at which point  you should be able to say to the leadership, ‘ hey I really want to do this and accomplish what I believe God has shown me,’   and if we are all under authority, in close relationship with the Father and his purposes, it should be equally possible for the leaders to say, ‘That’s great! That extends the vision in this area and makes things work better in that area. How  fantastic that we are going in the same direction.’   Often when we cannot respond in that way, then  perhaps what is wrong is that the vision is too small.

In many ways God has given us the broadervisions, outlining them several times in scripture. He wants us to catch His vision, the top priority he give us is to ‘seek FIRST the Kingdom of God  Then we are told, ‘tell the good news.’ I know you know it, but let me say it again, the good news is about a person and that person is Jesus. He is the good news. We are told to, ‘tell it in Jerusalem, in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world.’  That’s a big job, a big vision isn’t it? 

Finally we are told to, ‘make disciples of the nations.’  I think that gives most of us enough to do for the rest of our lives don’t you?

A vision keeps you fresh; it actually keeps you alive and moving forward.  I have a little saying that some puzzle over; it goes like this ‘the worst enemy of better is very good.’  The thing is that when things are bad you can usually see that there is a need for some vision to make them better, but when things are going well that can put you in thedanger zone.  Unless you are alert, you could end up settling down and dying off.  Don’t do it!  We have not arrived; the kingdom has not yet come, there are still dreams to dream and a vision to have. 

Get a vision of leading, forging ahead,keeping going and kingdom seeking!  If you haven’t got one then get on board with someone who has.   There is a promised land to be possessed, there is a Kingdom to be found and we have the power to bring it to earth if we know our God, that’s why he told us to pray and work, ‘your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’  Happy seeking!  Thank you for listening God bless you as you dream and vision His plans.

Adrian Hawkes

Editor A Brookes

For UCB 3 min Script

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Leadership – Getting it Wrong

Leadership – Getting it Wrong

Leadership – Getting it wrong

Talks for UCB

3 min.

I hope you have remembered what I said at the beginning of this series which was that all of us are called to be leaders; or to put it in Bible language, we are prophet’s priest and kings.

Alongside this universal calling there are always several people in each churchcommunity who take special responsibility for others, and that brings with it all sorts of pressures. One of those pressures is the problem of being right.  I guess you have all seen that joke that sometimes sits on a manager’s desk which says, ‘Rule number one. The boss is always right’.  ‘Rule numbers two, if the boss is wrong, refer to rule number one’.  The reality is that being in leadership does not always mean that you are right.

That in itself presents another pressure, one of our culture and our age.  Generally people do not like or expect anyone in leadership to be wrong.  Just watch what happens when a politician tries to admit to being wrong and misses the mark; the response is rarely,   ‘that’s great they have admitted theyare wrong, lets forgive them and move on’. Usually it is quite the reverse immediately there is a flurry of frantic digging in order to reveal further failings  and  we demand they resign, no that’s not enough, die, andeven that is not enough, we want to dance on atheir grave.

 Coupled with the possibility of being wrong, there is also thecultural pressurewhereby we want our leaders to know the answer to everything.  I am a leader, and sometimes I am wrong and sometimes I do not know the answer and what is worse sometimes I can see a problem, which I am sure everyone else can see. I know this because they come and tell me, often inconspiratorial tones,‘there is a problem’.  I know there is problem and I didn’t need anyone to tell me what I already know,  what I  need is for someone to give me an answer to the problem, as I don’t have one.

So what canwe do?  Firstly I think that it is very helpful to admit we are wrong as quickly as possible and learn to put up with people’s reactions and disappointment. Weshould also look for help both from God and our fellow travellers; perhaps when they see us admit that weare wrong  it might encourage them in their own struggle to get things right.

Secondlyall of us need to treat those who lead us with respect when they say that they do not have an answer to some particular conundrum; maybe accepting and believing that they simply do not know.

Thirdly, and this is a hard one, I am convinced we need to learn to say ‘I am sorry,’ that can be a great help to all.  But isn’t it a hard word to use? 

Let me finish by telling you a positive story to illustrate what I mean.

For more than thirty years I have been involved in running independent Christian Schools and in two of them I hold the role of principal. A while ago a young lady of around twelve years old was brought to my office for some misdemeanour, it was my job to tell her off; I did so, very sternly and the young lady ended up with tears running down her cheeks.  She left my office very, very subdued and quiet, so I thought I had down my job well.   The next day, to my horror, I discovered that I had reprimanded a totally innocent person, who wasin no way guilty of any wrongdoing.  What should I do?  I asked a member of staff to find the young lady and bring her to my office as quickly as possible.  Shewalked in with fear in her face, I asked her to sit down and she did so, very carefully, her hands folded meekly in her lap.  I explained to her that on the previous day I had made a terrible mistake when I told her off and I said I wanted to apologise. I looked into her fearful eyes and said, ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me’.  The transformation was instantaneous, the fear disappeared and the young lady burst into the largest smile I have ever seen, I was afraid that her face would come apart if she smiled any more.

Suffice to say   she went away very happy, and I must admit that I also felt good.  Being wrong and saying sorry really made my day and I think it made her day too. I am pretty certain thatthe story got repeated many times to her schoolmate’s. 

Did being wrong in that case make me a lesser person?  I don’t think so; I think dealing with being wrong after the event in the right way made a positive difference don’t you?  Unlike how some of us react to our fallible politicians she didn’t want to kill me, itwas just the reverse,I think she thought shehad a receiveda fantastic present. Don’t kill people for being wrong, be like our God; full of grace and forgiveness.

Adrian Hawkes

For UCB 3 min talks

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Leadership In The Big Wide World

Leadership In The Big Wide World

Leadership 8 – In the big wide world

3 min script for            UCB

I have been looking at leadership in these short talks in the context of those who are followers of Jesus.  However I  hope that I  haven’t give the impression  that these skills of servant leadership are  only relevant and appropriate to the church community.  If I have given that impression let my try and correct that today.

I have spent a large chunk of my life establishing some independent schools, we have two in North London, one in Sri Lanka and one in Nakuru, Kenya.  When people ask me what is their purpose, I answer that I am interested in affecting the thinking of young students, but also I want to produce tomorrow’s national and international leaders.

I hope you don’t think what I say next is too strange, but even if you do, I believe it to be so. If you really are a follower of Jesus, and you are walking with him then certain things will apply.  First of all you are in touch with wisdom, I do not believe that wisdom comes from any other source but from God, he is the source of wisdom. Knowledge on the other hand can come from a variety of sources.  If you are a follower of Jesus then you should have a world view that gives great credibility to any leadership role into which you enter. Followers of Jesus also have a clear perspective about the future,where it’s all going, why we are here and what is our human purpose is.  You are also in touch with the ultimate law giver, ruler and therefore understand what it means to have a moral base.  Scripture talks about our thinking producing who and what we are, and that can, should and does reflect into the wider culture locally, nationally and internationally.

I learned a lot of my leadership skills as a follower of Jesus rather than from management training, or other training schemes. But I have discovered that it is very easy to transfer those skills into what we sometimes call the secular world, although I don’t like theword secular, as I know that the Kingdom of God can be found in every area of life and do not like the false dichotomy of secular and spiritual. I have been able to use the leadership skills obtained as a follower of Jesus in social service, education and business to name but a few.


Just the other day I was listening to a discussion about an emerging economy and they were talking about how the country could be improved by business, by politics, and by new laws.  But there was an element that was missing from the debate, there was no mention of how people think, the philosophy of a nation if you will.  In the UK, whilst I would never want to call us or think of us as a Christian nation we do have a strong Christian heritage which can be seen in our laws and the way the country works.  This heritageis, I believe, currently being rapidly squandered, but some of it is this is still there, which tends to make us generous and caring; and affect levels of honestyand corruption. If you look at nationalcultures in other parts of the world then you will see clear differences to the UK culture, due to theunderlying philosophy, for some there is a lack of concern for others outside of their own country, some place a low value on human life and some have very corrupt systems.  Now I am sure business, law, politics and education can all help those things if they are wrong, but ultimately you don’t really change things unless you change the thinking and the underlying philosophy.

As one American president once said, ‘if you educate an evil man who was stealing from the railway, it doesn’t change his actions it just makes him clever, so instead of stealing from the railway he steals the whole system’.  What we often see as requiring astructural change actually needs a change of heart, or from my point of view, Jesus style leadership in all areas of life.  So how about you, where do you lead?

Adrian Hawkes

Editor A Brookes

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3 min Script for UCB

Leadership And The Cost

Leadership And The Cost

Leadership and the cost – in time and space

It seems to me that there is a great gulf in our understanding of Biblical style leadership. In many ways those of us who think of ourselves as follower of Jesus are more often than not influenced by Greek thinking and philosophy than we are by Judeo-Christian thinking and  influence.  What is worse is that we think that the Greek way of thinking and its philosophy is actually Judeo-Christian and it isn’t!
We are talking at this time about leadership, and the whole Judeo-Christian Greek thing is another issue, but I have mentioned it now because of the way that Jesus led and I contrast that with what is often perceived when we leading in today’s world.  What we tend to do is preach, or perhaps we would use the words teach or even lecture.  Usually that takes place from the front of some building and what is really happening is information is being passed from someone’s brain though their vocal cords out of their mouth and into, they hope, their listener’s ears.  This then is regarded as leading, and of course it is, but actually it’s a Greek style of leadership.
In contrast the Judeo-Christian style of leadership is much more involved, and we see it very clearly in the servant leadership style of Jesus. From out of his many disciples he choose twelve of them, then said ‘follow me’, and for three years they followed him, or if you like followed His leadership.  That ‘following’ is very involved, for Jesus and for the disciples; they are living together, walking together, eating together, watching what Jesus does, sometimes helping him do it, like distributing baskets of bread and fish, and then sometimes Jesus will say ‘off you go and do it by yourself’, and then when they hit problems, they go back to Jesus and say, ‘we can’t seem to do this, please help’.  Jesus also regularly spends time in what perhaps we would now call a tutorial group, talking to them and answering some of their questions, often to our modern frustration, with new questions.  Yes, Jesus occasionally preaches, but actually that is quite rare, most of the time he is walking, talking, doing and showing.
Here is a couple of my stories to illustrate what I’m talking about; some years ago one of our leaders said to me ‘why does so and so do what you ask them to do, but they often don’t when I ask them, and yet I am a leader just like you’.  I didn’t go into detail about leadership but responded, ‘well actually they lived in my house for two years, I saw them every day, they had breakfast with me almost every morning, they came home at night and I was there, in fact I was probably with them more than they were with anyone else so perhaps my life input to them has influenced them strongly and they are therefore willing to help me, or to do what I ask’.  The leader replied, ‘Oh but I don’t want other people living in my house and to be involved with them to that extent.’  To which I replied, ‘well then you don’t get the response from them that I do, which is how it works!’
The second story happened some years ago, a young lady came to me and said, ‘this is my brother’, I said, ‘Hi,’ and then she said, ‘I want to give him to you.’  I looked a little surprised and said as polity as possible, ‘that’s fine  but thank you I don’t want him.’  ‘No,’ she said, ‘you don’t understand he has been to a Christian camp and he has become a Christian.’ I said, ‘I think that is great, fantastic!’ ‘No, no!’ she said again, ‘you still don’t understand, that happened to him last year and the year before and the year before that, and two weeks after he gets home he is a bad as ever, I know that because I am his sister.’ By now I was very curious and said,   ‘so what do you want me to do?’, she told me, ‘I want you to look after him and take him with  you wherever you go. ‘
And so I did, much to the disgust of my girl friend at the time,  because every time we went out the guy was in tow, it was a pain, but I did try to share with him what little bit I knew, and so wherever I went he went too.   And just in case you’re wondering,  he isn’t following me around anymore but he is still a strong follower of Jesus, and leading others.
Now what I am trying to say, and hoping you get it, is that this kind of Judeo-Christian leadership has at its heart the servant lifestyle to start with, but also it is quite costly, costly personally I mean, for it will take our time, our commitment, and to have people  us a lot can sometimes be a real pressure.  What you are really giving to the  people that you are leading is, in fact, your life. When you think about it the person we so often claim to be following did just that, gave us his life, that we might live, and lead others.  Do you want to be a leader? Can you give your life?
Adrian Hawkes
For UCB Leadership 3 min scripts
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Leadership – Investment Into People

Leadership – Investment Into People

Leadership 5 – Investment into People

3min Script for UCB
One day, a little boy was being driven by his Mother along a motorway.  In front of them was a large lorry filled with rubbish, it was obviously not going very far as lying spread-eagled across the tarpaulin sheet used to cover the rubbish, was a man.  At a guess he was doing this to save the time and trouble it would have taken to rope the tarpaulin to the sides of the lorry, instead the man lay on top of it to stop it from flying away as they drove along.
The little boy studied the lorry and the man spread out on top of the rubbish, he was puzzled by the almost lifeless form of the driver’s mate, suddenly a gust of wind lifted one corner of the tarpaulin causing the man to react quickly to bring the large sail under control by throwing his arm over the offending, flapping corner.  The little boy turned to his Mum and said in a horrified voice, ‘look mummy, somebody has thrown away a perfectly good man!’
Leaders must never throw away perfectly good people.  Scripture reports that Jesus said, ‘I will not quench a smoking flax nor break a bruised reed.’  What exactly does that mean?  I reckon it means that Jesus will not put on one side even the weakest or most damaged person, rather he will use them; they too are leadership material.
Sadly many are tempted to throw people away because they’re not clever enough or too clever by half, the wrong colour, the wrong culture, funny, silly awkward or just plain weird.
Leaders work with people and need to get them motivated, activated, committed and following us because we are following Jesus and of course helping them to develop into leaders themselves. If we, even in our thoughts, dismiss people, mentally throw them away then that is completely opposite to the Jesus style of leadership.  Scripture is full of success stories about people whom others had thrown away. If you want to lead Jesus style then you will want to discover people whom others have thrown away that, if taken and carefully nurtured and polished, will turn into diamonds whose bright light will dazzle you.  These people, you will find by careful handling, will not only become useful kingdom seekers but also powerful leaders, kings, prophets, priests.
We must learn to love others, be good at directing people, never deriding them, there to help in whatever way possible.  Jesus came, we need to remember, to lift people up not to push them down.
We actually need to make people, other people, our offering of worship to God.  God has great things in store for all of us, we are called to be his leaders, his prophets, his priests, he kings.  All of us! God has put great value on us. He seems to know the value of every person and he is never willing to discard them, he will never throw them away.  The only way they can be thrown away is if they throw themselves away. Jesus never throws people away, he died for people, all people and we should never forget that.
For UCB 3 Min Script
Adrian Hawkes
Editor A Brookes
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Honest Leadership

Honest Leadership

Honest Leadership – i.e. in the family
For UCB 3 min script
For many years I lead large youth camps both in the north and south of England.  I often feel I have spent almost as much time camping as Abraham!
What has camping to do with leadership? Which of course is the subject we are discussing; well on those camp sites, with almost 400 teenagers thrown together in close proximity, there were many human problems.  One of the camps regularly had young people who were referred from various departments within Social Services, so you can imagine there were lots of pastoral issues and much time spent just talking, answering questions and dealing with issues.
It may surprise you to know that the group of young people I probably spent the most time with, due to their unruly behaviour, usually after midnight sitting on a hill around a fire (well it was a summer camp) was the church leader’s kids.
My conversations with many leaders’ kids over the years became very repetitive, it went something like this. ‘I know your father and mother, they lead that large church in Anyshire, now why is it that amongst all these young people you are giving me the biggest problems?’  And their response was invariably, ‘Huh,’ they would say with a teenage shrug, ‘you might think you know my Mum and Dad, but you only see them when they are at a church meeting, you don’t live with them. You don’t see you how my Dad treats my Mum, and you don’t see how my Mum speaks to my Dad, you have no idea what they are really like!’   And of course they were right.
Out of the hundreds of disciples who followed Jesus, he chose twelve of them, then he lived with them, this was the basis of his teaching.  He didn’t give them a lecture now and then for a couple of hours, he was with them 24/7.  It’s a well known saying that you don’t really know someone until you have lived with them.  When I was at college sharing a room with 5 other students, one of the guys had a very appropriate rhyme which was, ‘to live with the saints in heaven above I’m sure that will be glory, but to live with the saints down here on earth beneath boy that’s another story.’
When we’re at a church meeting and someone asks, ‘how are you doing?’ it’s so easy for us to put a smile on our face, be very spiritual and say, ‘I’m fine.’  But when you get home, the façade drops and the real you appears. That’s a rather hypocritical lifestyle. At home it’s much harder to be a Christian, a true follower of the way, a leader who maintains consistency in words and actions.
Does that mean it can’t be done?  I don’t think that’s true, but we do need, however, to change out thinking, we need to put on the mind of Christ, we need to have a servant attitude in our heart and we certainly need to loose the ‘lording it over you’ approach that so many of us pick up so easily.  Its funny isn’t it how quickly we learn to boss people around and take the high ground and I’m not just referring to leaders.
Next time you are at a Christian function, take a look around at the people who have been given some responsibility, they may be sporting a badge, or a walkie-talkie; notice how quickly they begin bossing people around, putting others down and making small rules seem like mountains to climb or an instrument with which to whack others.  This bossiness is in us all and we need to be on our guard when it rears its ugly head.
If we desire to be a Jesus-style of leader, we need to be honest with ourselves, we need a heart make-over, and we need to say to Jesus, ‘help me to be a servant-style leader that effects real change in your world.’  We need to consistently seek to maintain that attitude in the most important place, our home.
Adrian Hawkes
For UCB 3 min script
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Editor: A Brookes

Leadership of Self

Leadership of Self

Leadership of Self
Script for UCB
Leadership
The most important person we need to learn to lead is our self.  In other words, we need to be in charge of ourselves. The thing is if we cannot govern, control and lead our self, how would it be possible or even thinkable to lead others?
It is obvious from scripture that Jesus thought of himself as under authority, that is, under the authority of his father and was doing, saying and being all that his father wanted him to be and do.
In servant leadership, the style of leadership that is required by God, the phrase ‘do as I say not as do’ just does not hold water!  Self discipline is a must, but what does that mean.  Well it includes things like controlling our tempers, or should I say temperament.  The excuse that I often hear from people who loose their temper is, ‘well that’s just how I am’, that excuse will just not do.  It might be how you were before, but now that you are a new person in Christ, as it says in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 17,  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come’.
Many times I hear people say, ‘accept me for who I am, God does!’  Well of course, in some senses, that is true, God does not wait for us to change before we come to him, so in that sense he does accept us for who we are and just how we are,  as the old hymn says, ‘Just as I am, I come’.    But hang on, it doesn’t stop there, the scripture is very plain about this, God’s plan for us is to change us.  There are many references similar to the one I quoted from Corinthians, here is another example, Colossians chapter 3 verse 10, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.’  So it’s obvious that God does not plan to leave us as he found us in that ‘just as I am’ state.  The plan is to change us and to make us like his son Jesus.
So how does he do that, or how do you or I do that, that is, how do we change to be more like Christ?  It’s not as complicated as you might imagine, though it does take some action on our part, but God is alongside us helping us, encouraging us, strengthening us, being with us every step of the way.  I often ask people what it is that God or we use to change and I get  a variety of answers including: praying, going to church, reading the bible, the Holy Spirit. They are all good answers, but not the right one methinks.  The right answer is ‘think’.  The battle ground from God’s perspective and from a biblical perspective is our thinking, our minds, and it is the changing of our thinking and our minds that makes us into good leaders, in control of ourselves, able to lead ourselves and therefore others.
The bible has lots to say on this subject, about ‘putting on the mind of Christ’, there are so many references in the New Testament about having the mind of Christ that I decided to encourage you to get hold of a concordance and have a look for yourself.  You could start with Philippians 4 verse 8, ‘whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things.
 And you could also take a look at Romans chapter 12 verse 2 which tells us we need to renew our minds. ‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformedby the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.

If you do that it changes everything.  Computer geeks say that if you put rubbish into your computer, then you will get rubbish out, they call it GIGO, Garbage in, Garbage out.  It’s the same with our minds, what we need is right thinking; that will change us so that we can lead ourselves and then lead others.
Adrian Hawkes
For UCB 3 Min Script
W. 768
Editor A Brookes