One-on-One with Doug Gehman on ‘Before You Quit’

The main reason people persevere is that they “see” something that is bigger than themselves or their current reality.

Ed:Why do you think emerging leaders need the message of this book right now?

Doug: One of the weaknesses of contemporary Western culture is our lost appreciation of the power of perseverance. We stand on the shoulders of previous generations who understood this vital quality. The sad reality of our time is their hard-won advancements are now slowly being swept away in a flood of pleasure and entitlement.

Emerging Christian leaders must learn the value of the long pull, and that every advance in Kingdom work is the fruit of gritty courage, patient determination, and strong but gracious resistance to the deceitfulness of sin.

Christ’s redemption was not cheaply won. It will not be easily realized. We must view leadership – with eyes wide open – as a rewarding but challenging task. What distinguishes successful leaders from all others is their long-term dependence on the enabling grace of God. Such leaders are not heroes. They are common men and women who have discovered they can do all things through Christ who gives them strength.

Christ’s redemption, now fully purchased and freely given, is completed in each of us only after patient endurance through joys and sorrows, and wonderful moments of overcoming glory and sometimes desperate pain.

Leaders who thrive have prepared themselves for this reality. They walk with holy reverence for what Christ has done for the world, and have fixed their eyes “not on what is seen, but what is not seen,” namely the eternal purposes of God.

Ed: Why do people persevere? What makes people put up with difficulties, delays, and struggles?

Doug: The main reason people persevere is that they “see” something that is bigger than themselves or their current ...

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from Christianity Today Magazine https://ift.tt/2TjTSED