In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of believing in people and understanding them as a leader. He shares his own experience of witnessing the power of God in people's lives and how it has shaped his belief in them. The speaker also discusses the key qualities of leadership, such as giving orders without offending, probing into people's affairs, and working with a team. He highlights the importance of teamwork and the transformation that can occur in followers when they become leaders. The sermon concludes with a call for questions and a reminder to stay free from pressure and tension in leadership.

Let me begin by saying that very, very few are really successful in leadership. Some can manage for a while, but not many can keep going. You'd be amazed the feedback I get every year from team members on OM against their leaders. The number one cause of disillusionment in OM is connected with the follower-leader relationship. The follower just doesn't feel after spending a year with this fellow that he has anything much to offer. In fact, he's quite discouraged, and in some cases I even get a letter saying the best thing for this field is if this guy could go. And of course it's very interesting to go around trying to follow up on those situations. I think of a brother many, many years ago, none of you know him, and I only knew him at a distance. He seemed like the most nice fellow, he seemed a little loving, and when you first got to meet him, he just, you know, he just seemed everything a Christian would be. But by the end of one or two years, I hardly found a team member who could bear that fellow. And this was very much in the beginning of the work, and I really began to do a lot of thinking. I found out how hard it was for a team member, I mean a team leader, or even a country leader, to win the respect of a majority of his team members. Even to win the respect of half of them. I usually figured if they had half of them, that was a pretty good situation. And so there's a lot more to leading even a small team than we think. And though young people on OM, because they're given a strong message on brokenness, a strong message on submission, a strong message on, you know, a lot of other things along that line, they will go along quite a while with a leader. But down in their heart, they won't really be happy. And of course, generally, they push on, or they become discouraged. I know some who have been so discouraged by the leader, and so confused by that, that they almost gave up their faith. Because they figured if this leader can't live it, I'm never going to live it. So what's the sense? And so discouragement comes in. I can't think of any greater need in the Church of Jesus Christ than leadership development. And I repeat that because I'd like you to write it down, jot just a note, taking notes is good if you just put things down on paper that will just enable you to associate and remember what's said. But I can't think of any greater need in the Church than leadership development. And probably most men of God today have made similar statements, similar statements. I can't think of any more important aspect of the Lagos ministry than leadership development. And one of the reasons I've had this session tonight is because I realize here are having leadership conferences in youth conferences to train people, you know, who come on the ship. But how much of us, how many of us who are actually on the ship are making efforts in leadership development? When you leave OM, people, whether you want it or not, are going to expect you to have a certain amount of leadership. You will say to them, I don't know anything, and they'll say, well, what have you been doing for three years? You'll say, I don't want to be a leader. You say, that's okay, nobody else does want to be a leader here either, but you obviously have more experience than the rest. We, a lot of us, may not think we have much experience, but compared to many others, we have a lot. We've had young people in India go off our teams who we were not allowed to be leaders, and within two years they're pastoring a church. And there are many reasons for this happening. One of them is, of course, many people begin in the Christian life, not so many go on. Who's going to shepherd all these people who are beginning? If as the years go on there's less and less people going on, as the devil knocks them out, that's obviously what he's doing. So there's less and less people as years go on, that means there's less and less potential leaders for an increased number of people who keep coming to Christ. We left behind 300 or more babes in Jesus Christ in Sri Lanka. Who's going to lead them? If people in Sri Lanka have the attitude of many people on OM, I'm not a leader, then who's going to lead those 300 babes in Christ? And so I believe leaders training is needed on a much broader level. It doesn't hurt anybody to be exposed to a bit of leader's training. It'll help you, if nothing more, understand your leader better. The incredible problem he has trying to keep people happy and to keep them pressing on and untangle innumerable difficulties that come up every day. So leadership training is needed on a wider level. Let's face it, if we get married and have children we're leaders. When our husbands go away we're in charge if we're a wife, so we have to be a leader. And some of the principles of leadership are so basic that they're valid whether you're leading a hundred people or a team of five people or a Volkswagen van of people or your own family. And I believe one of the reasons for family breakdown in the 20th century is poor leadership on the part of the husband. He can't even win the respect of his own kids. I don't know how many children I've interviewed basically don't respect their father. They've told me my father never communicated to me. He was never a leader in the home. There's nothing that can mix up a child more than seeing the husband pushed around the home by the wife. And this can mix him up and confuse him. And so I think we see that this is really a big area where we need a lot more emphasis and a lot more study. Now the next point I want to give you is simply that a leader is a reader. Most of what I've learned about leadership I've learned through reading. I've had very little training in this area. I wish I had more. I went through the Moody Bible Institute. They don't offer one single course on leadership development. The number one biggest Bible school in the world. Not one course on leadership development. And what I've learned, I've learned the hard way out leading people. I had some leadership training before I was saved, which was a very helpful thing. And then I read. Now I brought some books tonight that I want to give away. We have one book or two books per person if you read them. I'd like you to jot down some of these men because the men who have written these books are people we can learn from. And you'll find some of these books in the library. You only take one or two from here. Return them to Jack Randall or myself when you're done. And let me just quickly mention some of these books. Hudson Taylor. Read what you can on Hudson Taylor. One of the greatest Christian leaders of all time. He faced enormous problems. Many of his co-workers were not content with his leadership. He was viciously attacked, but he plotted on. And this is just one of the books. God's Man in China, Hudson Taylor. Another one that's valuable is Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret. Read Hudson Taylor. Another man that's worth reading about for leadership study is William Carey, great pioneer to India. Read books on prayer. Again, I don't want to tarry on each point, but if a leader is a reader, we know twice as much a leader is a man of prayer. A man of prayer. Prayer does not come easy. Way over 50% of all the leaders I've ever counseled and I've also taken surveys, over 50% by far are having trouble with their prayer life. So just because you're having trouble with your prayer life doesn't mean that you're disqualified from leadership, as long as you stay in the battle. As long as you keep trying to learn and keep repenting and keep pressing on and keep trying to learn reality in prayer. God will use you to the degree that you learn reality in prayer. One of the things that will help you is reading books on prayer. This is one by E. M. Bounds, one of the best writers on prayer there is, especially the book Power Through Prayer, which is written for preachers and leaders. Very devastating book. And the other is Andrew Murray, one of the outstanding devotional writers. Both of these were mission leaders. They were not just mystics dwelling in cupboards somewhere reading books and praying, they were dynamic Christian leaders who knew that the foundation for Christian leadership is spiritual life, spiritual reality. And that involves prayer. So read books on prayer. Read books by Alan Redpath, another one of God's leaders. He's pastored Moody Church and many, many trials in the process of it. He pastored Charlotte Chapel, many, many trials. And now he's got on an itinerant ministry, which is always a lot easier. Of course, he's a lot older now, but his books are very, very powerful. This one happens to be Victorious Praying, Alan Redpath. Yes, we have some of his pages. One of the instructors I had when I was at Moody Missionary Practices was a man named Paul Adolph. This is his book, Release from Tension. Health Springs Forth is the same book. This is a new edition book that meant so much for my wife. A lot of valuable material. Read Oswald Sanders. Oswald Sanders. He has a book on leadership. I don't have a single copy in my own revolving library. I think there's some in the library. If you could put that on the top of your list tonight for leadership training. Oswald Sanders. This is his other book, A Spiritual Clinic, Problems on Discipleship. He was, for the past 10 years or so, the leader and director of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, one of the great missions of our time, founded by Hudson Taylor. Read books by Evan Hopkins. This one is called Henceforth. He was one of the dynamic founder leaders of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Another book that I put on a level with this one is Sacrifice by Guinness. Sacrifice. To me, these books are classics for anyone who wants spiritual development. So, read Henceforth, the meaning of Christian discipleship. Read Martin Lloyd-Jones. Carl Barr, who was the founder of neo-orthodoxy, stated of Martin Lloyd-Jones that I was not even skeptical of him. In fact, there were two different schools. He said Martin Lloyd-Jones was the greatest living preacher of the 20th century. He's still alive. He's the only man in Britain apart from Billy Graham that can spill the thickest bloodstorms of the nation since Donald Mack. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Spiritual Detractors are the best books I've ever read. His Daily Devotional, which is stated in the other book, is two volumes of the Sermon on the Mount are classics on the subject. Read it. Spiritual Weakness. He had a pastoral seminar meeting every week in London when I first went to London. I could go 150 minutes or 10 Saturdays a week. We can't do that in our own educational, but we can sit and speak through reading his books. Another Oswald Sanders book I've already mentioned here. Read Eugenia Tyton. I've met her a lot on the ship. One of my most competent and well-read comebacks. Make Love to Rain. Now, she doesn't actually emphasize leadership, but the principles he has. I can just say that it's the leaders in Ohio that had more of this earlier. We'd be a lot further than we are today. A lot of the mistakes that leaders have made in Ohio, she covers in her books. She's very good, especially in helping us understand people. A leader must learn to understand people. Absolutely. They must learn to understand people. So, anybody who has a good insight into people like Eugenia Tyton or Keith Miller, another one I recommend. These books bounce off each other. Anybody who has a deep understanding of people, and I'll add to that Lehag, Spirit, Control, Temperance, all three of these books, is going to be very helpful here. Many leaders make their biggest mistakes because they fail to understand their people. That, hey, for example, that person is being insincere, when in fact that person is of such a distinct temperament, has such a different lifestyle, and that the leader cannot make the association so remarkable as being insincere. It's very difficult to know when you're leading a team who the really potential people are. Um, I was amazed. I was amazed. One of the biggest clucks I ever saw came in Ohio. When I first got here, the whole first year, was a guy named Frankie. I told him, let me send you this guy. He's called Provincial Leader. You know, he's the same guy. And, uh, I, uh, after the first year was heaped by words, got a fourth year. But, uh, leaders, you never know what the potential may be. You never know. Some people are very slow in developing. Some people are late adolescents. You get them out of your team when they're 19, and they're just kids. And, uh, if you take time with it, and you're patient with it, and loving with it, and demonstrate to him, like, uh, discipleship, you may discover he becomes a great soul winner of all time. The man of the greatest kind that I like, unless you just have to finish the book, is John Peachman. He was a man that should have died 10 years ago. Everything was against him. He had the plastic valve in his heart. That's how he should have died. Yet, he's become one of the great outstanding leaders of the Whitman Bible Translation. Let me assert here that there is no one type of person who becomes a great Christian leader. Get that out of your head. It's not the hilariously outgoing, dynamic type who necessarily makes good Christians. It's not necessarily the, talkative person. The very, very quiet, very reserved men who have become great Christians. After all, the Bible says, be slow to speak. So, one of the qualifications for leadership is, I'm sure, be slow to speak. A lot of people who seem to be good leaders, they start off with hilarious, outgoing, generally, you know, rich leaders. They fizzle. They fizzle. They put off their team members. They never learn to battle. And it's a dark horse, quiet fellow, who suddenly comes into the arms. He's faithful to the responsibilities he's given. This guy is the director of the Missionary Society. I'm amazed to meet so many Missionary Society directors who are very quiet, reserved men. Okay? So, don't get one little type of, you know, what you think a leadership is. Because spiritual leadership is distinct from leadership in the world in that it's so greatly dependent on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit makes very, very different types of people. There's men, men, and youth. Another very interesting leadership study is Reed Howell, Interceptor. He's the founder of the Swazi Bible College, the National Graduate School of Anthroposophy Studies. His son, Samuel Howell, is one of our strongest prayer partners in this world. Very godly man, very unique man, a bachelor, who at the age of two was taken by Reed Howell and given away to some friends, to Reid, to break every rule of the book of God and children. And yes, this man, Samuel Howell, is the son of Reed Howell, one of the most godly men I know today. Anyway, this is a very interesting leadership study. He was a bit of an extremist. Many leaders are. It's got to do with youth. I think it's important to emphasize at this point another big factor, that there are different kinds of leaders. There are the pioneer leaders, actually the world doesn't need too many of them. For different types of people, that's the more attractive leadership. Oftentimes, that's the kind of leadership people get prematurely into. How many of them have met people who started their own organization, figured they were wrong, and they blew out? So there is the pioneer type of leader, but there's also the faithful man type of leader. Supposedly a good example of this is by South, I suppose, is the pioneer type of leader, always starting new projects, always pushing ahead. And a perfect example of the other kinds of leaders is Jonathan MacArthur. Jonathan MacArthur started very little ago, in his 12 years in Europe. He'd take up where other people had left off and faithfully carry on in real dynamic leadership for 12 years in his main job. And I've read that work from when I was 13. It's very encouraging, of course. I might have to tell you what year it was. I knew it was the end of the last 24 years. A couple of other books, Norman Winston Steele, outstanding Christian leader. You may not agree with theology. He has become more evangelical in the last 10 years, but a brilliant leader. Unique style. He's a fantastical optimist. And if you're going to be a leader, you've got to be an optimist. And I strongly recommend this book. Top prize in optimism. A lot of countries that have done shit to work have begun, for about two shillings, an 18-shill book. But there is a book worth reading. I can't think of anything that has saved me over the years from total depression, more than the little bit of optimism I've been able to hang on to. And people like Steele have been a great help to me. So leaders are readers. In reviewing those books, I've covered about three or four more of my points, which I feel are very important. Let me re-emphasize the leader is a man of prayer. Don't give up on your prayer life. Most leaders have a tremendous struggle in that area. It doesn't come overnight. The foundation of leadership is spiritual life. There are many different kinds of leadership. So though you may not be the pioneer, aggressive, dynamic, charging down the beach first type, there still may be very important place of leadership. Now, Al Meyer here, for example, may not think he's a leader, but he has had to leave the mechanic space for the past year. And he's discovered, I'm sure, from what I've heard, that that isn't so easy. Just keeping three men working happily together. Now, has that been a little bit of a chore at times? Certainly has. And I can tell you, my first team was only two people. My second team was only four people. And that just about drove me out of my mind. So be happy if you start small. But be ready and realize there are many, many different kinds of leadership. Now, I have a very, very excellent leaders memo that was developed out of a leaders conference that I did not attend in 1967, in which there were a number of speakers, including Dale Rotob, Jonathan McCroskey, and others. And I thought I would just give you some of the things, share with you some of the things, before we open for questions, that they put down for leadership development. A leader must have a vision, including a vision of what God can do, and a vision of the world. A leader must have a vision. It may be small, but he has a vision. And I think that's so important even here on the ship, that we develop this capacity to initiate ideas, to have vision of what can be done. For instance, someone gets a vision to reach this ship in front of us. Now, when he gets that vision, the second thing he's going to do is move into leadership. Even if he doesn't lead the team that goes on to that ship, he is going to have to spread his vision. He's going to have to get someone to go along with him, even if eventually he says, now look, you lead the way, and he lets that guy do the speaking. And in the ship, there's all kinds of scope for people to get a vision of things to do, and then to muster a few people, and to do it. Because it's impossible for one leader, or two leaders, or three leaders to begin to respond to the total challenge of our situation. And so I think that's very important. Two, he must have the initiative to take hold of that vision. It's no good to think, oh, we're going to have a team to reach this ship in front of us, and then sit in your cabin daydreaming about it. The leader must be able to take hold of that vision. Three, must have the ability to get the team in on that vision. Now, of course, there's two types of leaders in this area. One of them doesn't even have a team yet, and that's the way some of you may be when you go home. We've had XO Embers say, when I get back, we're going to get a door-to-door team, yeah? Boy, you get back and you try to organize a door-to-door team in your local church, and you more likely move Mount Everest. And so, of course, it's a lot easier. And this is where OM has been used in leadership development, because we take all kinds of green people in the summer crusade, we hustle them through five leadership sessions, we give them a manual, and then plop, we give them a team of 10 people. And boy, they learn. They learn. And I'm convinced that OM is one of the best leadership training things going in these days. And there's quite a few missions that have acknowledged that. So, if you already have a team, that's easier. Otherwise, you've got to round up a team. Next number, you must have not only an idea of what God wants him to do, but a sensitive spirit to know how it is going to affect the others in the team. Being sensitive to people makes a difference. Now, this is very, very important. All of us offend far more than we know. I offend people far more than I know. People don't tell me. In the past, fortunately, I have had some who have told me, and so I've learned a lot of things. I used to be much, much more offensive than I am now. Oh, and still, I'm sure, I offend. But if we're going to be a leader, we have to learn what it is to be sensitive to people. In other words, it's possible. I remember in the early days of the ship, one out of every two announcements given in this place offended someone. I didn't. When I came to the ship, somebody was already making announcements. I never thought, well, announcements, that's not important. And I made a mistake as a leader. I didn't take over the announcement. Different people were making announcements. Sometimes one guy got it, sometimes another. More people were upset over those announcements. People stood right up after the dinner, and people were trying to digest their food and shout down the guy who's making an announcement, or disagree with him, or tell him he doesn't know what he's talking about. And we discovered in the very early days of the ship that the announcements are a very important thing. And when we make announcements, we need to try to be sensitive to the problems of the ship, to the situation of the ship, to what others feel, others think, and not just run roughshod over people. I remember once an announcement was made by a man who had nothing to do with the deck department. Stern made an announcement, everybody in the deck will meet me at the gangway after supper. This is a complete breach of the way you operate on a ship. A non-deckman doesn't get up and tell all the deckmen to meet him after supper. And of course this brought almost a revolution. Imagine how the captain felt, and a few other people felt they did have some authority in the deck department. And so leadership is learning to be sensitive to the needs of people, learning to be sensitive to their position. You don't run over another man's position. You don't give a man a job and then run roughshod over the job. You don't delegate to a man a task and then when his back is turned, take the task back and do it yourself. You don't give a man a job to do without teaching him or giving him some training how to do it, unless he's a professional or he knows it. You don't give him a job to do, no training, and then blast him out of his shoes when he doesn't do it right. And that's very, very important. So being sensitive to people is a very important issue. As hard as you try, you'll still make some mistakes, so don't be discouraged. 1 Thessalonians 4.11, the next point, teaches how important it is for the team leader to ask members to do something, not in a way that gives offense. Team members want to confide in the leader, but not to have the leader probe into their affairs. Here again, the balance is not easy to find. If I've been still trying to learn this in about 19 years of Christian leadership, I hope you won't be discouraged in your first year. The balance between taking an interest in people and putting them off because they think you're nosy and you're probing into their affairs. Here again, you have different kinds of people, and you have to learn. That's why, as I've mentioned before, one of the most important things in leadership is getting to understand people. What makes them tick? What makes them laugh and what makes them cry? What makes them run and what makes them sleep? What elates them and what depresses them? What encourages them and what discourages them? If you can learn that, boy, you're going to go places. Very important. So, learning how to give orders without giving offense. That's a ten-year program. And then also, not probing into their affairs. Next point, working with a team and setting the example. The Lord Jesus was a shepherd, not a dictator. Working with a team. The key in O.M. leadership has been teamwork. The leaders are out on the doors, the leaders are in evangelism, the leaders are working. Of course, the bigger a movement gets, the harder it is for the guys at the very top to be right in with a team. But this is one of the miracles of the ship, is that the main leaders of O.M. are right here with you. Many, many missions, the leaders are totally isolated. A high percentage of all leaders of American missions live in six-room houses in Wheaton, totally isolated from their people, except for visits. And they stop in and visit them. And we have the privilege in O.M. of living to some degree with our leaders. Of course, this has advantages and disadvantages. It's especially rough if the leader doesn't have the life. Leaders who don't have a degree of reality in life do not make it in a movement like O.M. You can't, you can't do it. And you can be sure it's one of the great struggles many of our leaders have. Next point, in being an example, he needs to be a great encouragement to the team in every sphere. That's five reasons why you want to quit, huh? Faith, encouraging the team to set their marks high in spiritual life. Showing real confidence in the sovereignty of God. Leaders should thank a member who does something right. Or if it is not right, you should give a word of encouragement to do better next time. That is rebuke in love. But if you never pay any compliments, you may not find your rebukes go over very well either. I find that a high percentage of people sense a great amount of failure. They've failed so many times and they've been told off so many times, they've had very little encouragement because people tend to be negative. If you do four things right, nobody says anything. You do the fifth thing wrong, boom, they're on top of you. So that's an area where we need a lot of help. A leader must have a good sense of humor, try to develop one. And he must have the ability to laugh at oneself. You're going to make mistakes as a leader and if you have the ability to laugh at yourself, that's going to release a lot of tension because one of the greatest enemies of leadership is tension, pressure. And a leader must know how to get release for his tension. Next point, the ability to delegate jobs. The key word is controlling yet having confidence in the one to whom the work is assigned. Ultimately, the leader is responsible. The job is done. Who do I blame? So as a leader, and we see this in the Old Testament, we must learn to delegate. What time is it by the way? I can't see the clock. So a leader must know how to delegate. On the other hand, he must follow up. I have directly and indirectly, I would say over 1,000 projects delegated at this present time. Apart from all kinds of things leaders are doing, which I don't know about because the total job is delegated to them, so they just carry on. So I don't know much about them. But apart from that, I have about 1,000 things that I know about. I keep track of these with memory God has given me, with files, lists, notebooks. I review them, pending projects files, super urgent files, and I send out remarks. I find in OM less than 50% feedback on delegated jobs, less than 50% returns until I follow up. Now you find that in an organization where people were paid a higher salary, where the leader could get tough with people, which I can't do, I have to use the win them, coax them, encourage them, dance for them, whistle at them approach, memo approach, question approach. Whereas in a secular job, I could just call people on the car and say, look Joe, you're the state now, more faithful in this, or that's it, we got 20 more men that want your job. And more people shape up under those conditions, and there's a lot of unemployment these days. Or of course you have bonuses, you have all kinds of things in the world to motivate people, and a lot of that's missing. And so in Christian leadership you really have to dance the jig. I get less than 50% returns on assigned jobs until I follow up. Then I jump up to about 75%. So that's very interesting. So if you're going to delegate, have a system of follow up. Things get lost, things get forgotten, and that's important. The leader must be systematic and organized. I know, you've just dropped out. Systematic and organized. And I can't put enough emphasis on that. It's very, very important. Planning is important. Make a list of jobs to be done. Make sure they are all being done. Fix the time regularly when jobs are given out, or else erode it. And I think that's very, very important. We all have certain things that we've got to do. I have certain things I have to do every week. One of them is my weekly report. I've been writing it for 17 years. I hate it, but it's part of my job. I believe in it, and I adequately believe in it. I still hate it. There's often a very fine line between what you love and what you hate. Remember that. But there's certain things you have to decide you're going to do them every week. There's other things you have to determine to do every month. Make a list, and don't miss anything. Each thing you miss eventually will probably cost you more time than what it would have taken you to do it. So why miss it in the first place? A good leader keeps the team informed as to what is happening and why. I get a lot of feedback from team members. I'm always interested in feedback from team members. Quite a few complain, we don't know what we're doing. Leader doesn't tell us what we're doing. You know, we have a very big ship, a very big team here on the ship, the biggest in the land. This ship and the team on this ship gets more information about what we're doing and what's ahead than certain small teams. And we, of course, have room for improvement. But that's a big area, and remember what you don't like others to do to you now, if you're not careful, you may do to them someday. Some of the most militant followers became very meek after a couple of months in leadership. They finally realized what it's all about. Of course, a lot of harm can be done in between. Well, there are many other points, but I want to give some time for questions, and we're going to have our prayer meeting. So let's just open for questions. I've given you a mic. I'd like to know if you have any questions. Delegating, delegating the work and following up, being able to laugh at yourself, release some tension, knowing how to get, knowing how to stay free from pressure and tension. I don't think that's your greatest problem, Billy. I've heard about some of the teams you've led, Billy. Yeah, anybody else have a question? Yeah, I think especially a leader who is new, though anybody, any leader should be open about areas where he feels he's weak. At the same time, he should not overemphasize that and drag the whole team into a position of insecurity in which, you know, one of the leaders, he's thinking and I'm thinking. Should you be open with your team about your weaknesses and some of your struggles? I think you should. I remember one particular leader who tended to be very hard on his team and tended to lose most of his team members. His greatest victory was when he just sat down one day and he just confessed that he was really uptight. He was really sorry for certain things he had done and he really asked for forgiveness as a team. I tell you, that just broke in. That just broke into that team because then they realized they also needed really to ask for forgiveness because they didn't have the right attitude either. And I know that in my leadership, it's such a failure many times that I've had to just at times ask the team to forgive me and to bear with me and let's make, do what we can. But don't dwell on that and sort of go into that as a pool of introspection. I had a girl just write me from Germany. So you have two German brothers here. This girl said, what can I do? There's not a man in our church, not a single young man who will lead anything. And they want me to be the leader. I'm a girl. What is the position? What state is Germany getting into? And I wrote back to her. I said, look, if there's no man in your young people's group, then by all means lead it. Do try to find a young man and get him going. Get behind him or marry him or what. I didn't tell her that actually. But really, it's pathetic in some places that, and this is often true in the church, no young man can take the leadership of the youth fellowship. Now how many youth fellowships I know of, the girl is the leader. My wife, who's the last person to think of herself as a leader, she was the president of a young people's group. There's no boy who wanted to do it. Another question. Yeah, well, there are many, many things I didn't mention. Certainly, brokenness is one that is basic. Humility, brokenness, willingness to admit you're wrong. And you know what I try to do? Somebody's hammering at me and try to see, well, maybe I'm 95% right and only 5% wrong. If that's the case, the main thing I have to worry about is the 5%. So get right on the 5%. And many times when someone is really upset with your leadership and they come torpedoing in on you, what they say is not their real problem. They're just upset and they don't know how to express themselves. So don't attack them. The worst thing you do generally when someone comes to correct you and walk in the light with you is to sort of counterattack them saying, look, you don't realize what the situation is. You don't realize what I'm up against. You put this big defense up. That generally doesn't improve your situation. Try desperately to see what his position is. What is this guy facing? Why is he thinking this way? Why is he feeling this way? And see where you can say, look, I'm sorry, you know, I think you're right on that. I should have been a lot more careful on that point. And forgive me. And generally that will open up the way for real communion. You see, if you're going to lead a team in Christian work, there's got to be communion. There's got to be fellowship. Not just a matter of you giving orders and him taking them. It's got to be communion and there's got to be exchange. And that isn't easy. That takes time. Say some married couples, they spend their first five years just learning how to communicate. So if you think that's going to come easy for people on your team, different temperament, different background, different lifestyle, different manner of thinking, well, you're wrong. It's going to take time. And we do, we do switch each other off. I've had people often tell me how something that so-and-so did switches him off. And I think we have too many points where we're switched off. We need to be more optimistic and have more points where we're switched off. I have found things that bothered me eight years ago and switched me off today switch me on. Because I've allowed my whole mentality and lifestyle to become far more optimistic and to see the good in people. And one of my, one of the things that's helped me the most in my leadership is that I believe in people. I don't find it hard to believe in people. Because I just, I believe that God is working in people. I believe that God is working in some of the most weak, crippled that you'd ever imagine. It's the whole history of the world. What blasphemous unbelief if I, who have seen this movement for 15 years, don't believe in people. After what I've seen God do in people. If I don't believe in people, I'm disqualified from continuing in what, what I'm doing. Another question. One or two more questions. Go into the prayer meeting. Our leader has come. Talking about leadership. We haven't discussed you. Any other questions? Last minute or two. Very good point. One we're all learning. To be able to keep calm and to keep our heads. Especially when everyone else is losing theirs. And I think this is why the leader must have a tremendous grasp of the sovereignty of God. And I found that the greatest help in the last five days. These last five days, some years ago, would have been much more pure torment for me than they have been now. Because I have a, by God's mercy, a much wider view of God's total program of and though to me this is a very upsetting experience. These five days and you know, everything has gone wrong. That in God's total overall program, it really isn't worth getting all upset about. First of all, getting upset isn't going to improve it anyway. So I've been trying to take extra time in the word, prayer, and just making use of what I can do. And not getting all uptight about the things I can't do. Preach to the teams, do this, do that. All kinds of things I was expecting to do these past five days. And I find that a tremendous help. Once I arrived at the Iran border, can you imagine this? And discovered I left all the money, all the passports, all the car documents, 1,000 miles behind next to my chair in a restaurant. And I was 10 miles from the Pakistan border on the southern route in the middle of nowhere. And I tell you, there was a whole team, a whole team of us trying to get to India as quick as possible. And boy, if I didn't just about want to go out of my mind. And yet in many, many experiences like that, especially over the last years, I just found it tremendous relaxing to realize that in eternity, this really isn't that important. And not allow the devil to take that particular situation you're in right now and blow it up in your mind, pushing out eternity, pushing out even one year's viewpoint, much less God's sovereignty. And this is something very important for a leader to be able to always see the long-term, the long-term, God's overall plan and his tremendous power to overrule even your mistakes. And we saw even there at that border, God overruled in so many ways. And this is a great temptation when your team members really drop the ball to really pace them, really let them have it. But that is the worst thing a leader can do. Maximum you should do is have, give a loving exhortation, try to explain that this really isn't good. We need to try to improve. To lose your cool, to lose your temper, to shout at people, this is completely out of place in leadership. If you do, you should immediately apologize and put it right. Because God's leadership isn't that way. Let's take a few minutes break for the prayer meeting. Hopefully a few other people will come. And each one of you come up and take one or two books that you definitely will read. These books that build leadership. And then we'll go into the prayer meeting. George Miley said he's tired of leading prayer meetings, so he's asked me to lead the prayer meeting.