One of the first questions that anyone considering becoming a leadership disciple of Jesus needs to ask is: “Am I willing to put aside my doubts and answer the call to follow Him in some pretty radical and maybe counter intuitive ways?”

Consider the following incident in Luke 5, involving Peter, who was faced with the same decision.

¹ One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, ² he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” ¹¹ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him

Question:  In Verses 4-5, what pride and fear EGO problems did Peter have to overcome in order to benefit from the leadership that Jesus was offering to him? How does this apply to you as a potential leadership disciple of Jesus?

Question: In verses 8-10, what barrier did Peter see in his relationship with Jesus that threatened his becoming a disciple?  What new level of relationship did Jesus offer Peter? What new level of relationship is Jesus offering you? What are some potential barriers you might raise that would keep you from answering yes to Jesus as He calls you closer?

Below is the report of LLJ’s first Encounter in Japanese! The first portion of this email (in green) is a report from River Furuta who coordinated the event at Tokyo Baptist, did much of the translation and hosted Chip Clary, our facilitator from Singapore. The 2^nd part of the email (in blue) is the report from Chip Clary, who led the Encounter. 

I wanted to inform you that the Lead Like Jesus retreat was a total success.  When I first started preparing for this retreat, I envisioned 100 participants.  Usually, the Singles Retreat is only open to singles, but since the church was paying for Chip to come speak, they asked that we open it to the whole congregation.  Since we have many people at church, I thought that 100 participants was achievable.  However, when the deadline came, there were only 7 applications including myself.  I was sooooo discouraged.  I e-mailed all the pastors about it and asked the head pastor to mention something about the retreat during the sermon.  I extended the deadline another 2 weeks.  2 weeks later, we had about 47 participants. That was such a huge improvement from the 7, but it was still way below 100. Totally bummed, I brought the issue to my small group, and one of the members shared her testimony with me.  She used to organize events for an NPO in South Africa, and she expected a few hundred people to show up at this one event.  However, less than 100 actually did.  She was just as bummed.  She brought it to the Lord and she shared with me what the Lord had revealed to her.  He told her that it had nothing to do with the numbers and everything to do with her obedience.  I took that to heart and continued to prepare for the retreat, just doing everything in faith.  Then, a few days later, God explained it to me.  He told me that the retreat is about leadership, and learning to lead like Jesus, His son.  He assured me that He is sending people who He considers ready to lead like Jesus.  He told me that it would be a waste of time and effort to have people who are not ready to lead, attend the retreat.  And then, I understood.  I saw it from His point of view and realized that TBC had done such a good job that right now, there are 47 people ready to learn and lead like Jesus for His glory.  I was totally floored.  47 was no longer a small number; it was an outrageous number.  In the end, we only had 43 participants due to last minute cancellations, but first time in TBC history, all the retreat participants were Christians.  And they weren’t brand new (novice) Christians either. Everybody at the retreat had some sort of an awakening and it was such a blessing.  Personally, I received too many blessings.  God performed many CRAZY miracles. 

I want to thank you for your prayers, your patience and support through this whole ordeal.  Everybody had such an awesome encounter that I am even considering doing it again next year.  I will talk with the church to see if we can or not.

It was a wonderful experience just as River has said.  She did an excellent job in coordinating the event and doing the translation. 

It was certainly a challenge for me as we had 26 Japanese Speakers and 18 English Speakers that include Japanese that had very good English skills as well as Americans, South Africans, an Australian, German, Korean and probably a couple of other countries. 

I think the most powerful activity was the unconditional Love.  Everyone was moved to tears and it really got the point across.  It was so exciting that about 9 PM the night before, they really got the Way of the Carpenter model, and it was cemented in their minds.  It was great to see the light come on for each person.  They all participated very well.   

There were some challenges with translation which was to be expected.  It was hard to keep the pace I want, but everyone was very understanding, and I think we all learned some great things.  I told River that God always meets us at our point of need and He knew that I need to be reminded of what I was teaching.  I probably got out of the facilitator mode more than usual, but since this was a retreat setting we were trying to meet the felt needs. 

I was really tired each day trying to keep everything straight but they were so gracious and I think they will try and put the principles in practice. 

Thanks for the opportunity to serve.

On Friday, October 17th, 2008, Lead Like Jesus presented Revolution to thousands of people around the world.  The live event was broadcast from Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, GA to host sites around the United States and Canada and individuals around the world via the web!  After the day started with praise and worship, co-hosts Ken Blanchard and John Ortberg, had the crowd pumped up early for the exceptional speakers they would be hearing throughout the day. At the live site, it was easy to see—and hear—early on that Revolution was making an impact on many lives, and it continued throughout the day. The speakers hit on the Four Domains of Leading Like Jesus—Heart, Head, Hands, and Habits—and rounded off the day with more worship music, how to tie it all together and get back to the basics, and a time for Commitment. It was such a blessing to watch the engagement and interaction of all the participants throughout the day.

Wow, what a whirlwind of activity for us at Lead Like Jesus this past week.  We were blessed tremendously for our diligence preparing for the Revolution over this past year. We could not have done any of this without the prayers of our faithful supporters and by God’s gracious guidance.

            I helped out back stage this year, and I truly enjoyed watching the speakers interact together in between the different breaks. The charisma and passion they showed onstage for Jesus and for developing and equipping today’s leaders was just as prevalent backstage. For some, this was their first time meeting, and for others, they fell into those familiar habits that only years of friendship can bring.  They were all lending their support and encouragement to each other, and it was truly a blessing for all to see. 

~Christal Duggan

            One thing that really stood out to me at the Lead Like Jesus Revolution was how excited the audience was to learn about Leading Like Jesus.  I worked outside at one of the information tables, and every time they had a break, there was a rush of people who asked me questions and they were obviously impacted by the event.  They asked me where they could buy books, if they could buy DVD’s of the event, how many times a year Lead Like Jesus held this event, and most importantly, how they could become involved with the Lead Like Jesus ministry and what they could do to spread this message.  It was so exciting to see the different reactions from all of the business and family leaders. 

~Katie Duke

            This past Friday has been something everyone in the office has been working toward and preparing for since I started working here a little over 6 months ago.  It seemed the closer we actually came to the date, the more we realized needed to be accomplished or discovered some previously unknown roadblock.  Needless to say, it did not take long for the pressure to build leading up to the event. 

            Even with all of the problems that we ran into in the months, weeks and days leading up to the event, when the day actually came, things went really smooth.  All of the necessary equipment for hosting, recording, and broadcasting the event was ready to go, all of the guest speakers arrived in time and were well taken care of—mainly thanks to Rebekah’s planning, and what could have been a very stressful situation was actually really enjoyable for all those involved.

            Being responsible for managing the media content at LLJ, I had seen all of the recordings of the previous Revolutions before, however I can honestly say this year’s event was unique in itself, and in my personal opinion, the best one yet.  All of the speakers were at the top of their game and really got the crowd interested in the message.  This was no more apparent than when talking with various attendees requesting anything and everything they could get to continue learning more about Lead Like Jesus once the Revolution was over.

            One reason I believe this year’s event was so successful for those who experienced it is because they realize the connection between the current financial crisis we are in with the poor, self-serving, and competitive leadership of organizational leaders.  Though a great deal of finger-pointing has gone on in the recent weeks to identify the culprits of the financial problems, I think this year’s event has helped those who experienced realize that the best way to avoid these types of problems and any other issues life throws at us is to change focus toward a more servant-hearted leadership.  This year’s event has really come at the perfect time because the need of so many people, from CEOs to blue-collar workers, for a clear leader to lead them out of troubled times, and now they realize there has been one here all along, Jesus Christ!

~Taylor Cook