Leaders Read

I graduated high school without ever finishing a novel. Thank God for Cliffs Notes because we did not have the internet. Reading was boring to me except for an occasional biography on Johnny Unitus or Jim Thorpe. (I was motivated to read these by my football fanaticism.)

It was hard to stay focused and I did not see the benefit in reading. I know what your thinking. "Your parents had the same attitude." Wrong, my mother has always been a reader. I just saw no value in it. It interfered with my playtime. I carried this attitude into my adult life and my first attempts at college. I was making $5.00 an hour as an eighteen-year-old sporting goods manager at Woolco and the energy I was putting into Junior College seemed to be such a waste of time.

Then it happened. I was sitting in a church service one night (I did not go to church much) and God changed my life by changing my heart and convincing me that He loved me and wanted to have a close relationship with me through His Son Jesus. It happened. He changed my heart. There was an interesting side effect. He gave me the desire to change my mind also. I not only started reading the Bible, but reading became a passion of mine. I became a learner. I was now representing God and I wanted to be able to sit down and have an intelligent conversation with anyone. Atheists and agnostics think Christians follow Christ because we are uneducated or "stupid". This is true to some extent because many Christians think there is no need to read or reading is below them. They say to themselves, "The Bible is all I need." My first response to this is, "then read the Bible." The average Christian has 3-5 Bibles in their home and none of them are being read. Some are carried to and from church, but many are not read. (Great exercise for the arms)

As you read the Word of God and get to know the all-knowing God, He will put a desire in your heart to be a learner. His desire is for you to be able to sit in love with anyone who does not know Him and build a relational bridge to Him. You cannot build that bridge if you cannot relate. (1 Cor. 9:21 When I am with the Gentiles who do not have the Jewish law, I fit in with them as much as I can. In this way, I gain their confidence and bring them to Christ. But I do not discard the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.)

One of the characteristics of a spiritual leader is a passion for learning and it is made evident by his or her love for reading. (Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders) Sanders writes, Leaders read. Read to weigh and consider. Read for intellectual growth. Read to cultivate your ability to communicate. Read to acquire new information and know what is going on ion the world. Read to have fellowship with great minds.

Sanders rules for making your reading worthwhile and profitable:

* What you intend to quickly forget, spend little time reading. The habit of reading and forgetting only builds up the habit of forgetting other important matters.
* Use the same discrimination in choosing books as in choosing friends.
* Read with pencil and notebook in hand. Develop a system of note taking. It will improve you memory.
* Have a "commonplace book," as they are called---a book to record what is striking, interesting, and worthy of second though. You will build a treasure trove of material for future use.
* Verify historical, scientific, and other data.
* Pass no word until its meaning is known.
* Vary your reading to keep your mind out of a rut. Variety is as refreshing to the mind as it is to the body.
* Correlate your reading---history with poetry, biography with historical novel.

Are you an apprentice to Jesus? Then remember this famous quote, "Reading is fundamental."

Serving you in Him

Royal