March 8, 2002

Dear Ministry Partners,

Thanks for your financial support for Real Men. Thank you for your prayers concerning Steve. National Geographic filmed and interviewed Steve for a documentary they are shooting. He plans to return to Lincoln April 18^th before working again as a mountain climbing guide in Estes Park in May.

The Mar. 1-2 Discipleship Summit in Denver was extremely stimulating and profitable. One of the breakout sessions was done by Leadership Catalyst. By training leaders of today and tomorrow in character, relationship and influence, the definition of leadership success will include the emotional and spiritual well-being of leaders. They coached leaders at Berean two years ago and desire further follow-up in Lincoln. Success, as defined by our culture, tends to breed loneliness and personal failure in leaders. It seems the higher leaders climb, the more isolated and separated they often become from their employees, spouses, friends and children. Leaders can strive to be all God wants them to be, developing capacities, acquire title or position and attain individual potential, but not work simultaneously on their character. As we develop authentic community with leaders who are vulnerable, an environment of grace and trust develop. I Peter 5:5-7 summarizes some key principles:

Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” ⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

How This Relates to Real Men

For discipleship to blossom, an environment of grace needs to be developed in a group or church. The concepts in the "Journey to Make God's Story Ours" relate to authentic living, of course, so developing an atmosphere of trust and grace will allow God's Word to bloom in peoples' lives. Leadership Catalyst offers training and coaching to equip mentors to be authentic guides in their church, company or community so this process can be continued in other settings. I am asking God what part He may have for me in this process. I will explain the above I Peter passage, quoting Ken McElrath and Bill Thrall:

Humility means trusting God with who we are and who we will become, not fearing God-dependency, but seeing his power as protection, which we desperately need to live in community, so we reach our God-given potential. . . . Humility ripens in relationship. It depends on community. When leaders choose to let others influence their lives in significant ways, they test and prove their humility. Humility always leads to submission and there's the rub! Many leaders imagine they are humble, but they evaluate themselves in isolation. They never test their assumed humility in relationships. When leaders refuse to hear their teammates, to listen to their spouse, to work through life issues that can only be addressed in relationship, they not only prove their lack of humility, they reject any chance of developing it! . . . In many communities, leaders just bail out when faced with opposition or input that's hard to receive. Some leaders fire people. Others withdraw into isolation as the temptation to jump back on the short ladder overcomes them. It's easier. It gets things done. But it doesn't develop character. (The Catalyst, Vol. 3, Issue 1, 1997, www.leadershipcatalyst.org)

When we hide things from our wives -- emotions, dreams, fears, praises and even our sin -- we are breaking faith with her. It is a short step to justifying our behavior, which leads to judging, condemning and manipulating her.

A mission leader was hooked on pornography, which he hid from his wife for years. When the wife discovered material hidden behind some books, she yelled, “I don’t know who you are,” and then slapped him. The husband said he had forgotten about it, but the magazine's recent date repudiated his claim. A counselor later asked the wife why she had slapped her husband. She said, “I had put so much trust in this man for so many years.” Husband then spent two hours denying the seriousness of the problem.

cause the concepts to flourishbe moving up the character level. moving up the ladder I was striving to be all God wanted me to be. I was committed to working on my sin in order to have a relationship with God. Hiding my sin from God and others caused a works and performance orientation.

Sincerely in Christ,

Mark Pomeroy

"Journey to Make God's Story Ours" Nugget

What are the Benefits of Loving God?

Are there times when you don't feel like praying or reading God's Word? Are you bored in your relationship with God? If you answered yes, you have not considered the magnificent benefits in loving God. The book of Deuteronomy gives at least seven benefits. We will look at four of these this time and the other three next time.

The first benefit of loving God is power to fight the spiritual battle. God told Moses not to fight unless the Lord went with him (Deut. 1:42). If we are not in moment-by-moment conversation with God, we will be defeated by Satan who "prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Pet. 5:8b).

The second benefit of loving God is wisdom in knowing how to fight the spiritual battle. We need wisdom from God to know which battles to fight since we cannot fight them all. God told Moses to not to provoke Esau or the Ammonite to war, but to engage Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon to battle (Deut. 2:4-6,19,24). We need wisdom to determine who should lead the fight in a particular battle. Even though Moses wanted to lead Israel in battle across the Jordan River, God commanded him to commission and encourage Joshua for the position (Deut. 3:23-29).

The third benefit of loving God is being an example of wisdom and understanding to the world that the Lord is supreme over all gods (Deut. 4:1-6,9-10). God wants to show the world a new quality of life instead of being corrupted through worshipping idols. “But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are” (Deut. 4:20). When people see God’s miracles and the personal care given to His children, they will stand up and take notice.

The fourth benefit of loving God is communicating a message to our children how the Lord frees us from sin so we gain approval and blessing from Him. After Moses told the nation to impress God’s commands upon their children, He promised to give them good things that they did not provide themselves (Deut. 6:7,10-11). When a son asks the meaning of these commands, they were to describe their slavery in Egypt and explain the Lord's miraculous power of deliverance (Deut. 6:20-25).

Key Thought: We communicate grace powerfully to our children when we tap into God's wisdom and power.