Why do people outside the church show so much hostility toward or indifference to people inside the church?
Scott Sauls has some intriguing answers, plus we talk about the most effective and least effective evangelism strategies and how to stay resilient in a troubled world.
Welcome to Episode 244 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
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ScottSauls.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Irresistible Faith
Episode Links
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CNLP 178: Scott Sauls On Unhealthy Ambition, Envy And Isolation In Leadership
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5 Disruptive Church Trends That Will Rule 2019
The Good Neighbor: The Life & Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King
A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L’Engle, Author of A Wrinkle in Time by Sarah Arthur
Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World by Andy Stanley
Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian in Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
From Weakness to Strength: 8 Vulnerabilities That Can Bring Out the Best in Your Leadership (PastorServe Series) by Scott Sauls
Befriend: Create Belonging in an Age of Judgment, Isolation, and Fear by Scott Sauls
Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides by Scott Sauls
Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing by Andy Crouch
Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America by Michael Wear
3 Insights from Scott
1. Pain and conviction can keep us in a healthy place of humility
Scott argues that both success and failure can be dangerous to leaders. In both cases, a leader’s heart can move away from humility and to an unhealthy place of pride or self-absorption. The only people who can be effective at sharing the gospel are those who stay humble.
Humility is key in leading any organization. The problem is that when we succeed, we can begin to get prideful. So, as we begin to get more and more success we have to be more and more intentional about staying humble.
2. How have we made Christianity resistible?
To Scott, the answer to this question is obvious. The biggest thing making our faith resistible is the joining of Christianity and partisan politics. When we relate our Christianity to one side of the political agenda, we put on blinders and isolate the other side that disagrees with us.
We can be political people, but we cannot filter our Christianity through our political stance. Scott argues that we get into trouble when we begin to let other kingdoms become as important as the Kingdom of Jesus is within our own lives.
3. Kindness is key in making our faith irresistible again
Kindness is the primary way to win the world. The less “mean-spirited” we can become, the better. If we want to reach lost people, we should become less mean-spirited, too. All government is not bad (God was the one to invent it).
These are a few voices that transcend the noise of politics and are concerned with the real issues facing our world. These are the people we should model if we are going to make our faith irresistible again: Ann Voskamp, Tim Keller, Russell Moore, Eugene Peterson, Henri Nouwen.
Most of these leaders are “too left for their conservative friends, and too right for their liberal friends.” Scott’s argument is that that position is right where we need to be.
Quotes from Episode 244
Read or Download the Transcript for Episode 244
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Read or download a free PDF transcript of this episode here.
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Next Episode: Jud Wilhite
Las Vegas is a place millions visits, but home to two million people who live there year round. 20,000 of those 2,000,000 Vegas residents attend a location of Central Church in Vegas. Jud talks about some fresh strategies and insights he and his team are developing to reach even more people, and opens the book on their current assumptions and strategy and shares and what’s working, what’s not and what they’re changing.
Subscribe for free now and you won’t miss Episode 245.
