Bringing Leadership Home :Accountability

Bringing Leadership Home: Accountability

[My Offline Bible] Matthew 18
23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.

[My Offline Bible] Hebrews 13
17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

Being accountable is one thing so difficult for people. Demand for accountability is received as a doubt on one's integrity. At times it is seen as questioning one's high office. Many seek high offices or leadership positions in order to avoid being accountable to anyone.

Meanwhile accountability is the mark of nobility. We can't have the kind of freedom that absolves us of accountability. Accountability is a mutual responsibility between the leader and the led in a true and responsible leadership system. You have no right to lead a people you won't be accountable to and once you submit to a leader you have a responsibility of being accountable to such.

In our offices, we demand accountability from every officer including the leader. We account for every resource, from money to materials, from time to people, from raw materials to finished products, activities and events are expected to be accounted for. Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly we account for the metabolism of the system to know what's building up, what's degrading and why. We account for everything to know where waste, negligence, diversion and such like are undermining the purpose and the success of the system.

When our accounts are adequately monitored we are informed as to what direction to put in which and more efforts and in so doing we build great systems that sustain all stakeholders.

But at home, accounting for what we have and do is seen as unnecessary, yet we got married to care and to hold...

To ask how time was spent is tantamount to barging into one's privacy. To ask how money was spent is seen as subtle control. To ask what kind of people we flock with is curbing one's movements. To demand explanation for anything is undermining one's trustworthiness. Eventually people become afraid of demanding accountability and of course, come under the threat of the repercussions of lack of accountability.

The people who our errors and mistakes will hurt the most deserve our accountability. We have a responsibility to give account of what we have in money and materials, of what we do with our time and of the people in our lives to those who care the most about us. particularly our spouses.

I once listened to Dr Tunde Joda of Christ Chapel International Churches say, if lots of men in prisons had listened to their wives they wouldn't have found themselves there. I believe same goes also for women. Yet, those we feel shouldn't demand accountability from us end up suffering when we had abused the resources put in our trust.

If it's good at the office, it'll be better at home. If you need to clock in and out at work to honor your contract with your employers to make the company work smoothly and become great, then do same at home. Tell where you are leaving home for, give an account of your day. When asked why you came in late or early, tell why. It shouldn't call for a fight. When asked how money is spent, don't turn it into a quarrel because when you turn out badly the spouse asking will suffer for it... When your spouse questions the kind of friends you flock with please take caution and safe your home from unnecessary pain.

Inability to give account naturally cast a doubt of the activities in question. It's a sign that things untoward are being done.

It's of no use lying too. Lying about accounts is a sign that such hasn't gotten the essence and the importance of accountability. Lies may cover errors for a while but a hidden sore will only fester, it won't heal. It's better to submit to treatment early before it claims something that can't be replaced.

Accountability keeps us safe and preserves us. It helps to spread liabilities as we enjoy our assets. It helps to know what progress we are making and how to move faster towards accomplishing purpose...

We do this as part of best business and management practices at the work place and we should bring it home to encourage peace and sincerity in love...and so build strong homes capable of withstanding any kind of storm...

Let's do this.

Good morning. Share this with friends, you may be saving a generation.

Join us this Saturday 12noon @

Pneuma Worship Centre
Winsford Primary School
Igbogbo, Ikorodu

As we discuss marriage and relationship in contemporary times and how to make our homes a bliss...

Gods blessings!

Bringing Leadership Home: Vision and it's Communication

Bringing Leadership Home : Vision and it's  Communication

[My Offline Bible] Proverbs 29
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. 23 A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.

[My Offline Bible] Habakkuk 2
2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

[My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians 14
8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?

Leaders are led by visions. The people who are led follow vision and not just the leaders. The connection between the leader and the led is the quality of communication system installed in between them.

No system should be run without a vision. Lives and team entities so run will be in constant confusion and conflict. Where there is no vision, people cast off restraints. Vision is a guide that helps our blindness. We are blind without vision.

When the blind leads the blind, they both end in a ditch, so said our Lord Jesus Christ.

The vision connects with the leader's heart and the the leader's heart to his mouth and his mouth to the ears and the hearts of the led. Any disconnect in the pathway results in relationship dysfunction that threatens body safety and productivity.

Leaders are called heads not just for being on top but for the organs residing in it. The head houses the brain, the eyes, the olfactory, the hearing, the tasting and the speaking and it can also feel. And so it feels from and for the body and process the information received to be able to respond and give commands that will ensure the well being of the entire system.

When the body cannot exchange information with the body, the body is left to suffer external aggression up to death.

When good intentions are badly communicated the result is confusion and discord.

A vision may be developed from the mental picture of a preferred state, maximised potential, desires accomplished, problem solved, needs met and purpose fulfilled.

Meanwhile, God given vision is powered by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to accomplish all these in times appointed.

When the vision is a corporate vision that involves more than one person or a team, it must first foster unity and oneness in purpose and in pursuit if it is to be achieved.

A corporate vision is what leaders work with which when fulfilled creates a platform upon which individuals personal visions can thrive to fulfilment. Leaders can't afford to lead with their personal visions.

Communication is crucial in leadership. In Habakkuk, God said the vision must be clearly written so that those who will run with it will be able to read and draw inspiration, direction, motion and speed to accomplish it.

A vision not properly communicated will cause more confusion than solve a problem. When  the communication system of a team is negatively affected, confusion sets in and the noblest of projects become abandoned.

In Genesis 11, God saw that the people were one in rebellion and there was nothing they had imagined to do that they wouldn't be able to accomplish and the only way out was to hit their communication system and it worked. It always works.

Great corporations have been built by following the rules of effective communication and to build a home we must bring that same system that works at work home.

Our God given vision for our homes must be well communicated to help us focus on what's important and be blinded to distractions. When it is properly communicated, we share our good intentions and commit all we are and have to great futures together as couples work together towards their preferred havens.

The root of so many problems is the inability of couples to express their good intentions, hopes and aspirations for their marriages in a way that the other can understand, appreciate and get involved in.

That's why understanding the language the other person speaks and the wavelength at which he or she hears is crucial.

Just as organizations create convenient and established communication pathways, homes too should and the couple should be committed to it.

Just as a corporate leader won't lead without a vision and wouldn't operate without painting the picture clearly for his team same way we shouldn't lead at home without a vision properly communicated.

When visions aren't properly communicated, it compounds the confusion of the led and response is derailed not for rebellion but for lack of understanding. Many followers' mistakes are results of this and better outcomes are received by correcting the error in communication than correcting the follower.
Homes are prone to our error of taking things for granted and anything not attended to turns out badly. Vision and it's communication are thing we shouldn't take for granted. Objectives and goals must be shared and mutually committed to. There shouldn't be pursuits that's not contributive to the overall vision of the home and that's coordinated by proper communication and there shouldn't be a vision not incorporated into the overall vision otherwise the house will be divided and it won't stand that also is done by vision.

My question is, what is the vision you run with concerning your home and marriage? Is the vision shared or it is just you running? Are you living in assumptions that your spouse has a good understanding of the vision picture?

We can't afford not to work with a God given vision for our home and that vision must be made crystal clear for the other person to run with...

My prayer is that God will give grace to do whatever our homes need to create a place of comfort and bliss for a lifelong peace and quiet for ourselves in Jesus name.

Good morning.

Join us tonight by 6pm at

The Bible Class, TBC
Havila Place
#46 DF Street
Mosan Road
Shagari Federal Estate
Iyana Ipaja
Lagos

You'll be glad you did...

Share this...

Bringing Leadership Home: Where the Buck Stops

Bringing Leadership Home: Where the Buck Stops

When great things are achieved by a team, a corporate body or a nation, it is attributed to the leader. When they are underachieving too, the blame is to the leader.

We all know he wasn't the only person building but the oversight is his or hers and the overall credit or blame goes same way.

So we always say, the buck stops at the leader's table.

But leadership goes beyond being in position. It is the influence exacted to make people do what it takes to become who they were made to be and to play effectively the role they should in an organization.

It is the taking responsibility of making positive things happen towards the accomplishments of overall goals and vision of the corporate entity.

So at home, where does the buck stop?

Adam ate the fruit given him by Eve. But he claimed the wife God gave him was the cause of the whole trouble.

[My Offline Bible] 1 Timothy 2
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Though Eve was the conduit of the trouble, the man wasn't spared. It wasn't an excuse that she caused the transgression, Adam still got the full dose of the repercussions.

That's because his excuse wasn't tenable. Same with the excuse of the woman. They were both responsible.

Taking responsibility is a character people hardly loves to take. Many who take responsibility do so to press for something. Men take responsibility to establish their authority. Women take responsibility to draw from their husbands. And when what they seek isn't given the responsibility is withdrawn.

Taking responsibility is all about getting things done and taking the blame when it goes awry. Many dysfunctional marriages and divorces are filled with bucks passing and blame trading.

I once counselled a couple that had crisis. When taking a session with the man alone, I asked about who he thought was to blame for the bad situation of his home, he said his wife was to blame...
I asked if he had any contribution to the crisis, if he did something that could cause more trouble or refused to do something that could help... He insisted that he had done all he should do and didn't do anything that could cause a problem...

I congratulated him and told him, how the question was a trick. I told him he is the leader  and that all his leadership expertise and perfectness have only brought the family into crisis.

A people are where they have been led...

Leadership is about taking responsibility. If you don't want to take the blame, use the available tools to engage whoever would cause you trouble. If you wouldn't do what you should do, when trouble comes be ready to take the blame.

Many of us want to to take the credit we should also be ready to take the blame. When we walk in that consciousness that we would be blamed if things go awry then we'll be disciplined enough to do what we have to do to make things work.

As leaders, oversight is important and crucial to put day to day success. If someone isn't doing what will add to the overall success of the organisation, the right thing is to do what has to be done and get the person performing or cover for such person's lapses.

We must learn to cover for each other's lapses and compliment each other to produce the home we desire. To think since a role is not our responsibility and so should be left even when the person responsible isn't in a state to perform is to permit failure which will affect overall outcome...

Covering spaces for each other is therefore the sole responsibility we have. In a relationship where each person is ready to give all, passing the buck doesn't have a place...each person takes responsibility of overall outcome covering for the inadequacies of the other knowing that it'll be his or her fault if things go wrong...

Are you ready to take responsibility? The question is if you don't do it, who will?

The rule therefore is...

[My Offline Bible] Ecclesiastes 9
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

Jesus Christ said, work while day, night is coming when no man can work...

Take total responsibility... The buck stops at your table... You are a leader!

Let's make our marriages work!

I pray God grant grace to do all that's necessary to make our marriages the bliss we desired... In Jesus name. Good morning!

Bringing Leadership Home: Decision Making at Home

Bringing Leadership Home: Decision Making at Home

We are sum total of the decisions we have ever made and we are where our last decisions brought us. Decisions are powerful. They determine the direction we invest our energy and pursuit in. Decisions help us to explore the unknown terrains of the future into our destinies.

Everyone makes decisions. It is a personal responsibility with consequences. Decision making is the display of personal sovereignty and free will. It is both the responsibility and a right of the individual. Until the power of attorney is given one way or the other, no one has the right to usurp that right if such won't be at the receiving end of the consequences.

In leadership, this sovereignty is shared to a leader with the trust that such will take decisions on behalf of the individuals in the system that'll represent their best interests and take them to a preferred envisioned place. That's why the choice of who leads is a personal decision that must be well informed.

The future isn't a place anyone has been before and so the choice of who leads into it can't be based on frivolities. It must be based on adequate knowledge of the most possible situations on the way and on the basic knowledge of what it takes to navigate such paths and terrains.

Great organizations are built on decisions made at different times in the lives of those organisations. We can build great homes too if we bring home the same decision making processes that brought out the plans that translated to greatness in those organisations.

Some things affect the quality of our decisions. A major influence is the knowledge pool or register concerning the issues and elements over which decisions are to be made. The quality of decision made is directly proportional to the quality of knowledge and understanding available to the decision maker on the subject and on the elements involved.

Decisions are children of wisdom, wisdom must be informed by understanding of the quality and quantity of knowledge available. When knowledge and understanding inform the mouth, it is said that such a tongue is wise... [My Offline Bible] Proverbs 2
6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

[My Offline Bible] Proverbs 10
13 In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.

Another thing that affect the quality of our decisions is self control and personal discipline. Hasty decisions do not permit thinking through to provide solutions. Our immediate needs and pressure call for attention and that call most often than not will push to hasty decisions that didn't consider or understand all the facts. That's why emotions aren't our best guide in making decisions. Our emotions, either the 'feel good' or the 'feel bad' ones aren't reliable and shouldn't be burdened with decision making. You can't base a decision on how things look on the outside, or on the trends of the moment and expect a good outcome.

In marriage, emotions play very good roles in making things enjoyable but such roles should be kept under the control of wisdom when decisions are to be made. Both anger and mirth don't make great decisions. Coitus is about the most emotion controlled act in marriage, yet it must be done with discretion otherwise it may lead to pregnancies unprepared for. Self control is indispensable in decision making even in the decision of who to marry.

While we fall in love and we have good feelings doing so, we can't rely on such indiscriminate, unstable and blind mood to make lasting decisions. We won't do that in our businesses. You won't do that to choose the managers and executive officers of your blue chip company. Why use that to pick who you marry?

There are other factors that affect the quality of decisions we make but these are the basics within our context here.

The downside of this everywhere is the lack of the full and exact knowledge of the exigencies that may come up in future. And as Christians this is where God comes in.

God's plan to lead us was based on the fact that there is a way that seems right to a man which the end is destruction. Proverbs 14:12;16:25.

Nobody wants to make a bad decision that brings bad outcomes but we are limited in knowledge and we misjudge and come out badly...

But the covenant we have with God offers us among other things the indwelling of the Spirit of God. We, according to Christ in John chapter 3 must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God and when we receive the new birth we receive the nature and the Spirit of God to carry us around as the wind that blows. We are born of the Spirit to be borne by the Spirit. That's why Apostle Paul in Romans 8 said as many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God. Sons of God are led by the Spirit. The path of righteousness isn't accessible without the leading of the Shepherd. In deep matters of life and of the spirit, we are sheep who without the Shepherd is lost. Psalms 23.

So as people born and borne by the Spirit of God, we need to voluntarily submit and yield our sovereignty to the Lordship of Christ and of His Spirit in every matter of life to be safe and saved in decision making.

This isn't just relevant in businesses and in ministry, it is most important in home building both in finding who to marry and in maintaining a godly home.

Isaac's wife was barren he had to consult God and God opened her womb. The pregnancy was troublesome, Rebecca consulted the Lord and the Lord revealed the destinies of the twins. And I'm sure that had effect on Rebecca in the upbringing of the boys. If we seek, we will find. God still leads today!

The information and wisdom we need are in the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and the Holy Spirit can feed our spirits with what we should know per time to run favorably on the racetrack set before us. When we are led by the Lord, we are saved from the rigor of seeking relevant knowledge and processing them. Such knowledge may not be available in public domain... people are mysteries only God can unravel. The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it. No wonder God looks at the heart while man looks at the face. We will always need more than the cv or profile of men to know them. Jer 17:9, 1 Samuel 16:7

With God and Christ being the two topmost on the organogram structure of the home, decisions shouldn't be made without due consultation and consideration of the way they'll want to run things. You won't permit that in your businesses and corporations. Though it is a saving grace for us. Though the head of the wife is the husband, Christ also is the head of the man and God the head of Christ. For a good outcome and order, the hierarchy must be adhered to. That's the way decisions are made that raised great organisations and that way we can build great homes and families too.

[My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians 11
3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

The multiplier effect of decisions made concerning our homes can never be over emphasised and that's a reason why the best practices in decision making both spiritually and physically must be adhered to, to get best results. We can't do that at work and abandon it when we get home... That's the essence of Bringing Leadership Home.

My prayer is that grace be released abundantly to make decisions that'll power our homes to greatness and absolute peace and prosperity in Jesus name. Good morning

Share this and visit
www.evansademanuel.blogspot.com

The Bible Class, TBC, holds today 6pm

@Havila Place
#46 DF Street
Mosan Road
Shagari Federal Estate
Iyana Ipaja, Lagos.

You are invited.

A Call to Nobility in Nigeria's Leadership

A Call to Nobility in Nigeria's Leadership

[My Offline Bible] Ecclesiastes 10
16 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!

17 Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness! KJV
Ecclesiastes 10
16 What sorrow for the land ruled by a servant, the land whose leaders feast in the morning.

17 Happy is the land whose king is a noble leader and whose leaders feast at the proper time to gain strength for their work, not to get drunk. NLT

[My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians 1
26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

I think of my nation today from a painful heart. As we pray for this great nation to attain to her glorious potentials we must pray and call for nobility in our leadership at all levels and in different strata

I know we used to know what nobility is. Our folklores and history tell of past heroes who displayed acts of nobility to birth their various nations. But it seems we would need to revisit the definition again in our day since nobility seems to have been wiped out of our consciousness and we have become a base people without shame who will not tolerate any bit of nobility no matter how tiny, as it reflects in our summed up leadership and the outcome.

Nobility, aside being born into the aristocratic circle or developing to become part of such a social class, speaks of having honorable qualities. Having moral eminence; freedom from anything petty, mean or dubious in conduct and in character according to Oxford dictionary.

Nobility isn't perfection as much as it requires having an excellent knowledge of ethics and etiquette required and expected in public and private conducts. It isn't a show off thing and not much of mere party table manners and observations of events' protocols but of character.

It is the ability to endeavor to do what's expected of a high office and to act appropriately when found wanting. It is the ability to be honorable beyond the title that we love so much. It is the tendency to feel shame when caught doing the unexpected and to relieve self of benefits and perks associated to the high offices desecrated by base and ignoble acts.

In those days, suicide is a way of restoring one's nobility and honor when found wanting, in our days resignation from office is a way of redemption. Our experience so far hasn't identified with the basest of what's acceptable as standard in nobility in leadership.

When people who don't understand nobility rule a nation or lead a group anywhere, there will be trouble. Kings Solomon, the wise preacher said woe unto such a people so ruled. To these ignoble leaders partying is end result. Every other thing is a means to the end of pleasure and self aggrandisement. They see their position as a way to make their partying larger. They compete among each other for the cars to drive and the things to wear to parties. They don't eat for strength to work but for debauchery and gluttony and afterwards the idleness sets the house leaking. Solomons mother taught him not to indulge in wine as a king, it isn't for nobles lest they forget the law and cast away justice...

[My Offline Bible] Proverbs 31
1 The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.

2 What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?

3 Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.

4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:

5 Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.

6 Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.

7 Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

Here, 99% of our leaders wouldn't obey this rule, they do exactly the opposite... What actually do we expect afterwards?

Nigeria today suffers at most levels the absence of nobility in leadership. It is woe and sorrow and a pitiable outcome. Our house is leaking and the roof is dropping through.

Do I call for a Christian leader? Oh, how I wish we have a truly Christ like person to lead us which we had never had, but we don't really need one in a multi religious environment if we can at least have nobility. The lifestyle and doctrine of Christ are beyond nobility. It confounds nobility but how many Christians, even in leadership have attained to that? Christianity is a bypass of nobility, it is the higher life but how many of us understand this. Many so called Christians are even worse... Yet God had intended Christianity to be a way by which the base ones born outside nobility would confound even the nobles of this world. It has come to that point at this time when  even the Christian would need to go back to learn the basics of nobility and honor...to be trusted.

A good name used to be seen as better than silver and gold, but today who cares? It's better to be rich than to have a good name. What's in a good name that can't buy you a house in Lekki or in Asokoro? What's in a honorable name that can't buy houses in London and in Dubai? As if you can sleep in two out of them all same time...

In those days shame had meaning. Today nothing is shameful, we can be naked and not be ashamed. It is a remote sign of mammon worship. Money matters most. And it's money just for pleasure and for filthy lucre. Today honor is more attached to being rich, irrespective of how the money is made than being attached to having integrity in words...leaders lie like fish without care...

Isaiah 3 tells us of the importance of maturity in leadership.

We and our leaders must come to terms with what nobility and honor mean. The titles of his or her 'excellency' or 'honorable' attached to offices are to depict the standard character and conduct expected of them and not mere appendages to shine.

We must learn how to develop self nobility now before we create a generational gap on the subject, we must have something to teach our children, we can't afford to pass this shamelessness down...

We must learn to make our words our bond. We must learn to 'fall on the sword' when we goof. We must learn to do what noble people do when they fail expectations. We must learn some shame. We must not see comfort as end of life's pursuit but as a working condition to make impact in people's lives.

Our leaders at all levels must become self sacrificial and should begin to see achievements beyond their wealth and affluence to what legacies they leave behind.

Then and only then will Nigeria rise above the woes she has been plunged into by children who became our kings, who eat in the morning to feast and not for strength...

This is an humble call to nobility and honor in our nation to rescue what's left of the plunder of our mental and physical decorum... Sharing this may help us all... Please share

May our story be different for the better this week as a nation....

Good Morning

Bringing Leadership Home: Learning to Show Piety at Home

Bringing Leadership Home: Learning to Show Piety at Home

[My Offline Bible] 1 Timothy 5
4 But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.

Bringing leadership home is all about being consistent and living the same principles that built great businesses, ministries and institutions at home also.

1 Timothy 5 is a chapter dedicated to the care of widows. Yes, people have  tried to use some part to promote some kind of home finance management system that's not consistent with the central theme of the Bible in regards to the family.

But in essence, the chapter was dedicated to the care of the widows in church except for some earlier few verses.

However, we can still learn one or two things from there on how God intends the home to run, particularly in the area of bringing leadership home.

The passage above shows how children and grandchildren should take care of their widowed parents as a payback in their weakened state and not put them on the church.

It tells us how children should learn to show piety or their godliness at home first by taking care of their widowed parents, he went further to tell them that if they don't then they had lost the faith and are worse than people who do not know God.

Let's bring that home.

Our piety anywhere else therefore can't be more sincere than the piety we show at home. God sets our family as the ground zero of our godliness.

You can't show generosity beyond the care you show at home. You can't be a prayer warrior beyond the effectiveness of your prayer for those at home. You can't be kinder a person then the kindness you display at home. You can't minister to those outside and be accepted when you don't do same to those at home...

The home is not where you dump the mess you have no place to dump outside. The home isn't the place to suffer for how your boss treated you. If you can obey your boss without argument, don't bring that bottled up argument home.

As a minister of God, you leave home for days to go fast and pray for other people without ever doing same for your spouse at home. God said, learn first to show piety at home... You can't win the world to Christ and lose your home to Satan... Start your ministry at home.

Jesus was ministering to His brothers, they were the one who were prodding Him to go to the big feast to show what He carried. John 7.

Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy instructions on how to choose local church leaders in 1 Timothy 3...one of the instructions said...

[My Offline Bible] 1 Timothy 3
4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; 5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

If we pray and fast for our spouses as we do for others we'll have homes shinning forth as examples of what grace we carry. Let the revival start from home and it'll spread without leaving a back door for the enemy.

So many use their homes as the place to transfer all sorts of aggressions. They make their homes the receiving end of the bad treatment they suffer outside... It shouldn't be.

What behavior that we wouldn't subject people to in society shouldn't be brought home. Whatever good treatment you have the capacity to show to people outside should first be practiced at home.

We know customer is king. And we invest great discipline in giving our patrons and customers the best behaviours and attitudes to keep them. We rate how good we are in relating to our customers in order to keep them coming...

But as soon as we get home, pull off the jacket of work, we threw every caution to the wind. The same wisdom we had used in keeping our customers and work force in peace and harmony is thrown off and another garb of carelessness is put on without thinking that our spouses are our first patrons, the ones we must never lose.

Lots of people will humble themselves to humiliation before their bosses at work and pastors in church but never to their spouses at home. They'll do the unthinkable to strangers to please and satisfy them but never to their spouses. The attention given to church members and customers by pastors and by businessmen will do wonders at home...those you treat that good are spouses of others, if such treatments work in keeping them in church or as customers, then they'll work in keeping them home.

The restaurant owner who painstakingly serves his clients will leave all that skills at work and get home dishing out disrespect and lack of civility to those who loves him beyond temporary satisfaction and wonders why the home is a dreaded place to return to after work. Not thinking that if he had treated those coming to eat at his restaurant same way, the restaurant too would have taken same atmosphere...

People are people everywhere...

The home is where we should first learn to give our best and show the highest quality of civility and character, if we learn it at home it won't just be a facade at work and in church.

The real person is that one at home... That's where our piety or lack of it reveals it's reality...

Bring your goodness home. You shouldn't be able to smile to anyone outside if you couldn't smile to your spouse before leaving home.

You shouldn't be able to help someone on the street if you can't do it at home. And if situation had compelled you to do it, then look forward to an opportunity at home to give same helping hand to your spouse at home.

A bus conductor will help carry a little lady's luggage at work but won't lift a finger to help his wife at home.. That's a shame really..he didn't know if the lady is worse in character than his 'stubborn' wife working her life out at home to make him comfortable...

The cry of the Spirit is that we give the home the fair share of what good we do to others outside... Our godliness is nothing outside if we are yet to learn to show it at home first...

Bring your leadership home...!

Good morning.

Share this and visit

www.evansademanuel.blogspot.com

for more inspiring articles.

Bringing Leadership Home: The Suitable Help

Bringing Leadership Home: The Suitable Help

Looking closely to the story of Adam and Eve, we saw how God among all He created looked at Adam and said it is not good for the man to be alone, I will make a help suitable for him. In the old King James version, it read 'help meet'.
God was looking for a company for him, a working company that fits into his work scheme and schedule.

We saw also how Adam couldn't find a suitable help to accompany him among all other creatures until God took the woman out of him. Someone asked if Adam was hermaphrodite but no one can say categorically but if he was made male and female according to Genesis 1:26-27, or was made to reproduce, and was made one person then he would carry both gonads in one body. When God was to remove the woman from him, He didn't say it was for reproduction, it was for a helping company.

And definitely Adam was not the same after the 'rib' was removed but when he saw the woman he recognised that she was part of him...the bone of his bone and the flesh of his flesh...he called her woman, one taken out of him... Genesis 2

That means the help God wanted for him couldn't be found outside of him...so the man was split to two to create help for him. That means he is helping himself, he became his own help meet. The woman isn't just the help for the man, the man too is help for the woman on the same vision God has given them before the split. They were in that one body that needed help, they in one body needed the help and they had to split to provide that help.

So both are equally equipped to bring help. They haven't shared visions, the assignment remain the same...be fruitful, multiply, fill up the earth, subdue it and have dominion. Both had the capacity to fill the earth. They were blessed together with the ability to produce, reproduce and perform. Isn't it clear today seeing that intelligence and skill aren't particularly gender sensitive?

We see also that individuals aren't endowed same way. Women aren't endowed in some peculiar ways different from men, capacities and skills don't have any particular demographic pattern...

So in the home, effectiveness demands that as we do in our businesses we give roles according to what each is equipped to offer in helping the cause. The inbuilt capacity, potential and opportunities of each is pointer to the help such was sent to provide.

We can't be effective and we'll be calling for serious dysfunction if we don't put the right peg in the right hole.

We already have gender stereotypes that don't recognise potentials like we do in human resource management in our offices. In Christian ministry, people are allocated offices by the gifts and the empowerment of the Spirit of God within them. In our businesses, roles are allocated by series of tests to determine competencies and when we get it right we build great organisations.

But on getting home our stereotypes kick in. We begin to demand what men 'do' and what women 'do' even if these particular people in the Marriage do not have the power or the opportunity to do so.

We neglect what they have been wired to contribute, while we expect them to do what society demands of them which they may not have the capacity to do.

There are men with better cooking skills and women with better business skills but stereotypes will demand the man to handle the business while the woman stays in the kitchen and we wonder why people just couldn't meet up with what is expected of them even when putting in all their efforts. They often conclude that marriage wasn't meant for them...

These abnormalities are things we won't do in our businesses and careers which we prioritize and put into utmost consideration at the home front...

Couples need to discover each other's strong points and make each contribute his and her strengths and not weaknesses into the home enterprise. With that we can expect self fulfilment and joy of giving in love without stress...without being forced to do what's not inbuilt. The result will be functionality and effectiveness in every area.

This is the essence of Bringing Leadership Home...

It's time our homes become more fruitful and multiplying to fill our world with what our hearts carry in order to conquer and subdue our world to enjoy true dominion...

Let's do it!

Good morning!

Bringing Leadership Home

Bringing Leadership Home

[My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians 11
1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.

3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

[My Offline Bible] Ephesians 5
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

Here is the organisational chart of the Christian home. Putting it in a straight forward way, the husband is the head of the wife, Christ is the head of the husband and God is the head of Christ.

The husband isn't the overall head and the woman still has Christ and God as the overall head.

God isn't an author of confusion and it's good we understand Him and His systems to live orderly and peaceful lives.

The scriptures didn't say the head of every woman is every man. You are only the head of your wife and not of every woman. Man isn't the head of the female gender. A husband is only the head of the woman he is duly married to.

This is purely a leadership system for the home front. The common problem is that we treat home leadership differently than we treat leadership in the society and in business.

The whole idea of Bringing Leadership Home is to encourage us use the same leadership principles that had built great nations and great corporations to the affairs of the home to build it.

Maybe we need to see marriage as an enterprise first. When we consider that God was out finding a help meet for the man and so a wife came out, it will be easier for us to see that God was only looking for an assistant for him on the job he had given him.

When God couldn't find a help suitable for him outside of him, God took out the female side of man to make a woman to fill that space. Don't forget man was originally made male and female.

So God split him into two and so made him to help himself. The assignment they had before they were split remains the same, the blessedness that was upon them remain the same all they needed to do was to be joined back together through marriage and start their 'company' with the man being the CEO and the woman the COO.

God split them not to destroy their oneness but to create a company, a partnership where the man will be the senior partner with both pursuing same goals and vision with their dinstinct peculiarities, capabilities and potentials.

No senior partner will unilaterally make certain  levels of corporate decisions without first consulting with his board members, taking their own submissions and making robust meetings with them to arrive at what will move the company forward.

But same man who will go all the way to do all the intricate and painstaking things to make the company stand will get home and do otherwise but would expect the home to perform as much as the business performs..

If many handle their businesses as they handle their homes, we'll have more business failures than we already have.

The same goes for the wife. The woman who will agree to whatever decision the board takes at her office even if not in line with the ideas she submitted would still work overtime without complaining to see those decisions produce success. But at home, the same woman won't take what her husband says once it's not in line with her ideas.

Why are we ready to build things that aren't primarily ours abiding by all the rules in the book and we aren't ready to bring same home, where we will eventually rest our heads?

Maybe a lot haven't developed their leadership potentials and may not be schooled in corporate ethics of leadership and subordination enough to even practice it at work not to speak of bringing it home...

But I must say that the same principles that'll build a great nation will also build a great home and the same errors that will destroy a nation or business corporation will also destroy a home. If we handle our businesses as carelessly as many handle their homes those business will fail even faster than the homes crumble.

Bringing Leadership Home is all about bringing home the same good corporate principles that build nations and businesses to build our homes, from leadership, to management, to decision making to financial to human resources management, bargaining, procurement systems, customer care and relations, goal setting and so on...

Maybe that's why King Solomon made this statement by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit...

[My Offline Bible] Proverbs 24
27 Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.

Because you'll need those things you used to prepare your work in the field to make it fit for yourself to also build your home if it will be fit for you and other stakeholders... Let's do it!

Some thoughts from GMI Ministers Conference on marriage last Saturday.

Good morning...