Speaking

This was another full month. I spoke in Longview, Texas with my father on Hearing God’s Voice and on Spiritual Leadership. I continue to see how these two areas of the Christian life go hand in hand. It’s impossible to be a spiritual leader if you are not regularly hearing from God. Then I was off to Singapore to speak to top Christian CEOs from Singapore and Malaysia. These fine men and women are seeking to know how their walk with God will not only affect how they do business but also how God will work through them to impact their nations for Christ. I plan to be back there next year and am excited at how God is working in their lives. I also was in a meeting in Atlanta with several top leaders from Broadman and Holman Publishers. I am presently working with my father to revise and expand the trade books Experiencing God and Fresh Encounter. I appreciate your prayers as both of these books continue to impact people’s lives all around the world. I was also in Jackson, Mississippi where I spoke three times to the Mississippi Baptist annual convention. These are great people wanting to reach their state for Christ. It is always a joy to offer a challenge to God’s people as they seek to be and do all that is in God’s heart for them.

Finally, I spoke at my home church in Cochrane. I did something a little out of the ordinary for me in that sermon. I opened with a video clip of my daughter Carrie bungee jumping in New Zealand in 2006 when she was 15. I pointed out three things: First, the bungee officials will not allow family members or friends on to the tower where the person is jumping. Bungee jumping from that height is a decision every person must ultimately make for themselves. Second, the person in charge instructed my daughter that the longer she stood and looked over the edge, the harder it would be to jump. So, on the count of three, the best response is to overcome your fear and jump! (which she did). Finally, although the people are encouraging, they do not push you over the edge. There is no trap door or rope that yanks you off the platform to help you overcome your fear and hesitation. You have to be the one who takes that step. Otherwise you could end up standing there a long time! I challenged the people in my church that every time God invites us to join Him it will take us out of our comfort zone. Some Christians become so paralyzed by fear that they stand at the edge of a great new work God intends to do through their life but they never take that crucial step. God won’t force us to obey Him. Others can’t make the decision for us. We have to have the faith to take that step of faith that will open an entirely new and exciting world to us.

I knew if Carrie had been too afraid to jump that day, she would have been filled with regret forever afterward. If there is one thing I don’t want my kids to have; it’s regret. I pray you have no regrets either from your walk with God.

Reading

This past month I have read several books that have provided me much food for thought:

James Canton, The Extreme Future: The Top Trends that Will Reshape the World for the nest 5, 10, and 20 Years, provides plenty of things to think about! While on the one hand it is always humorous to watch people trying to peer into the future to see what only God sees, this still causes you to stop and think. Canton is a much sought after futurist and business consultant who advises many of North America’s top companies about what the future holds. Whether he is right or not may not make any difference. The key is that many of the world’s top companies are acting as if he is right. Certainly every Christian and church ought to be aware of the trends that are occurring today and to be at least asking the question, “Where is this world heading and how should I and my church be preparing for that?”

Howard Gardner, Five Minds for the Future, discusses what kind of thinking needs to take place to be successful in the future. Gardner is famous for developing the theory of multiple intelligences. He also wrote Leading Minds which is a great book. He is a strong supporter of the power of good thinking. Certainly the church needs people today who are thinking in ways that will address the issues that lie in our future.

Allan Leighton, On Leadership is a secular, British book on business leadership. Many of the companies he mentions may not be familiar to North Americans. However, he focuses primarily on entrepreneurs and offers some interesting insights from people who have been successful at innovation in business.

Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences, is a summary of Gardner’s views on multiple intelligences. He argues that most schools and organizations are based on the IQ type of intelligence. People who are good at tests that measure IQ are considered to be intelligent. Those who don’t do well on those types of tests are not considered to be very smart. However, Gardner argues there are at least seven types of intelligence: musical intelligence (something I have no trace of personally), Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, linguistic intelligence, spatial intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intra-personal intelligence, naturalist intelligence, and perhaps an existential intelligence.

What intrigues me with Gardner’s theory is that it may free many people who found themselves, for whatever reason, perhaps boredom, or ADD or dyslexia or a bad teacher, to have been labeled as “dumb.” When I was in high school I struggled with learning French. At one point I gave such a terribly incorrect answer that my teacher, in exasperation, exclaimed, “Richard Blackaby, you have a fungus for a brain!” Needless to say, I had no aspirations to be the next Einstein! Since you needed a foreign language to be accepted into university, and since my grades in math and sciences were all generally D’s or close to it, I assumed university was a pipe dream. But, according to Gardner’s theory, because I was not good at math and science, or foreign languages did not mean I was stupid! I actually led my grade in history. Gardner would argue that because society, and IQ tests, tend to favour certain kinds of people, anyone who does not do well in those areas is labeled as having average intelligence or worse.

In actual fact, they may be brilliant in other areas (many of which may be far more practical for daily life), but because they do not excel on IQ type tests, they (and everyone else) assumes they are not too bright. How tragic that some of the smartest people in history were labeled as stupid while they were growing up. Imagine what might have been accomplished by some people even today if people had only recognized that their brilliance lay in different areas than the ones normally focused on in traditional schools.

I hope this month is filled with God’s very best for you. Take time this month to consider if you are prepared for the future. Are you reading and growing? Are you thinking in ways and at levels you were not thinking even last year? Keep growing! God wants you to serve Him at your very best!

Posted by Richard Blackaby at 11:42 pm