Revolutionary Leadership

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio. We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes.

Enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. We are the women of the American Revolution.

Sometimes you have to dig back a couple hundred years or more to see these amazing lessons. My friend, Pat Williams, is with me right now. I can't believe it, Pat. We are reunited. We've been on the phone.

We've texted. We were at the NBA All-Star game, chapel service, which was exemplary. Bobby Jones, the admiral, was there. David Chadwick brought a great message. And here we are together at the Religious Broadcasters Convention in Dallas, Texas. Well, Stu, it's always good to see you.

And it's always good to talk about different topics. And today we get to talk about the Revolutionary War period and what it meant in the overall history of the world. And some of those fascinating personalities that led the way. And without them, well, we don't have a country today, Stu.

So that's the meat of this book, Revolutionary Leadership. So young people, let me translate. You're walking around. You're enjoying a cell phone. You're enjoying a Coca-Cola or a drink. And you're driving places. And you're eating.

And you're not malnourished. And you're like, where did all this freedom come from? Well, Pat Williams is here to tell you some stories about some people that laid it all on the line in exemplary leadership so we could be here today.

Right, Pat? Stu, if you go back in history, we had 13 colonies that were subject to Great Britain's rule. And in this period, for many, many, many, many years, Great Britain was the powerful force on Earth.

They had holdings all around the world, these nations that were under their subject. And so our little colonies began to get a little agitated because there was a lot of taxation of stuff that was going on. And we had no representation in Great Britain. And so there were some rebellions that were stirring up, highlighted by the time when all this tea had come across the ocean. And tea was a precious commodity then. And our guys snuck onto the British ships in the still of the night and dumped all the tea into the Boston harbor. The Boston Tea Party. That was the Boston Tea Party. And it was engineered primarily by a very brave woman named Sarah Bradley Fulton. And she had the idea of dressing these men up as Native Americans.

And she saw that all that got done. Well, Stu, and news didn't travel across the ocean all that quickly, but when the King, King George III heard about this particular act, that pushed it over the edge. And storming across the Atlantic came the British forces. Army, the biggest navy in the world. We had no navy. We didn't have any trained army, trained soldiers. We didn't have money to pay the soldiers. We didn't have enough food.

We didn't have enough equipment. But these men volunteered to fight off and the war began. And as we write about these 25 men and women, in this period when their lives were at risk, they led. They led boldly. They led courageously. And after eight years of fighting, the colonists quipped the largest military force on the face of the earth. And we became a free group of 13 states, which then came together under the banner of the United States of America.

And that's what happened. And at that point we became the first democracy on the face of the earth. There were no democracies. The people didn't have a voice in all these countries.

They were subject to kings and emperors and cruel leaders. But yet, and this is where George Washington comes in, he was not perfect, Stu. He had his faults.

But without George Washington we don't have a country. Because for eight years he headed up that military force. Never left his troops for eight years.

He was with them around the clock for eight years. And he lost more battles than he won. But fortunately won the last one at Yorktown with the aid of France.

France came to our side and they were a big force. But it's fascinating to study these men and women who led in different ways. And they all had different skills, different leadership talents, but they all combined to lead to getting this country established. There's a serious message of faith in here. That's the voice of Pat Williams, author of this brand new book, Revolutionary Leadership. Pat Williams, the author of 117 books.

I haven't quite read all of them yet, but I'm on the right track. Pat loves Jesus. He's got the subtitle of this book I love, Essential Lessons from the Men and Women of the American Revolution. The chapters are filled with Samuel Adams, the father of the Revolution, Crispus Attucks, the first American martyr, John Adams, Ben Franklin. You have the mother of the Tea Party, Sarah Bradley Fulton, you just described her, Patrick Henry, the voice of the Revolution, the midnight rider, Paul Revere.

You've got all kinds of folks, men and women, who funded, who fought, who were aristocratic warriors like Marquis de la Fayette. You've got all these people in here, Pat. But there's a need for leadership today.

We're kind of all wimping out a little bit here. We've got to step our game up, and this book really takes you into the nitty-gritty, but also it's a history lesson, where we came from. We're all a product of good leaders.

So where are we going? How is America going to get back that sense of greatness? Maybe someone listening right now will step up and lead.

Well, that's the challenge here. Step up and lead. There are leadership opportunities that face all of us, if not daily, weekly. Students leading in the classroom or leading on the football field, leading in the government, leading in the church, leading in the business world, leading in the military. And I think leadership can be learned. I don't know that it can be taught, but it can be learned. And we stress at the end of this book the seven principles, the seven sides, to be a leader of excellence.

And Stu, I can summarize it for you in about 60 seconds. Seven things one must do to be a leader, right and true. Have vision that is strong and clear.

Communicate so they can hear. Have people skills based in love, and character that's far above. A competence to solve and teach, and boldness that has fearless reach.

A serving heart that stands close by to help, assist, and edify. And I think those are the seven key principles if you're going to be a leader of excellence. That's all right here in this book.

Yes, at the end of the book we really dive into those seven sides. Could you have done a seven that actually rhymed? Because that could remember it better. Stu, I'll teach you that poem if you want.

I want to learn it. I enjoyed that. In fact, there's something powerful about poetry and poetic prose that helps the mind remember pneumatically. That's tremendous. Pat Williams, thank you for this book. Talk about the faith in God of our country. There's something driving below the surface, below the great courage, below the valley of Forge and all these things going on. There's a faith in God. There's a George Washington on his knees, reading the Bible, calling the troops, calling the people.

Rank and file. We need to call out to the Almighty. So thank you, Pat Williams. God bless you. Stu, always great to see you, my friend. Always great. Thank you. This is the Truth Network.