Friday, January 19th | Lightning Round Questions

This episode of Clearview today is brought to you by Mighty Muscadine. Ryan, are you looking to boost your immune system? I'm so ill that I fainted right before we turn the show on.

I hate to hear it, but I do think I have a solution. Introducing Mighty Muscadine, king of the super fruits. Sounds like a superhero. Well, these guys are practically superheroes. Every single one of their products are packed with organic polyphenol content, essential micronutrients, and I'm telling you, these grapes are just dripping with antioxidants designed to strengthen your body's defenses.

It's going to help you stay resilient all year round. And these guys have everything. They have grape juice. They have all natural energy shots, protein powders. They've got seed oil, toothpaste, body lotion, shampoo.

And here's the best part. You can use promo code TODAY, that's T-O-D-A-Y, to unlock exclusive savings at checkout. Again, use promo code T-O-D-A-Y at checkout to enjoy a significant discount on your purchase of Mighty Muscadine products. And every single dollar you spend using that promo code helps us here at the Clearview Today Show. So don't miss this opportunity to supercharge your health and well-being with the incredible power of Mighty Muscadine. Visit their website now, that's MightyMuscadine.com, and experience the difference firsthand. Remember, that's promo code T-O-D-A-Y.

A healthier, happier you is just a click away. That said, let's start the show. Keep the conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online with your friends and your family. You can leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave a couple of links in the description so you can do just that. The verse of the day today comes from 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 6. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit.

You know, we think that—I'm thinking about having received the word in much affliction. Christianity and following Christ, I should say, is very costly. It's a very costly life. It's not an easy life. It's a very joyous life, and it can bring some of the richest—I would say the richest—satisfaction that you can ever get. But that doesn't make it easy.

That does not make it cheap. So, anytime I read the book of 1 and 2 Thessalonians now, after having taken a trip with Dr. Shaw and Jon, I'm sure this happens for you with things related to Israel. We went to Greece last year in 2023, and it was an amazing trip of a lifetime. But we stayed in Thessaloniki, which was Thessalonica. And so as we're crafting this and as we're learning, there is a part in Acts where Paul is in Thessalonica, and he is sharing the gospel, and there are people who are receiving it—the church in Thessalonica. But there are also these religious leaders that hate Paul and what he's doing, so much so that they incite a mob in the city, and the city is up in flames.

And there's this mass chaos. Paul leaves Thessalonica, and he goes to Berea, which is sort of like a town over. But then the rabble-rousers from Thessalonica follow him to Berea.

I remember reading that. I was like, they— I was like, you have got to be kidding me. These people hate him so much. They sent the rioters. They were like, dude, we tore this city apart.

Follow him. But then my point is, Paul's writing here to the church in Thessalonica, and he says, having received the word, in much affliction. The much affliction there is the religious persecution that they were encountering. Because Paul left, but the church in Thessalonica didn't. They still hadn't encountered that religious persecution.

And because of their bond with Paul, and most importantly because of their relationship with God, they were able to keep their heads on straight. Yeah, and the afflictions for us here in 2024 are going to look very different than what Paul— it might even look different than what Christian life looked like here in America, even 50, 60 years ago. But it's always going to be there. It just is going to take on a different form and a different shape. And so the encouragement that I'm getting from this verse is, have that joy of the Holy Spirit.

Know that when we go through those things, it's just confirmation that Christ is with us. Because if they did it to Paul, they'll do it to us. And, you know, there's solidarity there.

Yeah, absolutely. Today on Friday's episode is, of course, another episode of Lightning Round Questions. We tell you guys to write in and submit those questions. I have good news. There's a storm brewing, and Dr. Questions is in the house. Oh!

My pew pew pew pew pew! Dr. Questions is here. He's actually in the building as we speak. We're going to cut to an ad, and then we're going to go grab him real quick. Stay tuned.

We'll be back after this. What's going on, listeners? My name is Jon.

And I'm David. And we hope you are enjoying the podcast thus far. You know, we really appreciate how many of you download the podcast every day.

Right. We also want to remind you that we are first and foremost a radio show. Clearview Today is actually syndicated through the Truth Network. And we just want to let you know right now that in addition to hosting the all-time best Christian talk show of all time, Hashtag Clearview Today.

Hashtag Clearview Today. The Truth Network also, as it turns out, has an extensive library of Christian programming. We really love everything they're doing at the Truth Network because the whole goal is to encourage, challenge, confront, and uplift listeners with the life-changing truth of Jesus Christ through Christian talk radio. And listen, we know we're not the only show wanting to expand its audience. So if you have a vision for your show or for your ministry, why don't you consider syndicating your show through the Truth Network?

Because they rely on decades of experience of self-syndication with a full array of features for your long-form or short-form content. Make sure you visit the Truth Network online today at truthnetwork.com or you can give them a call at 336-759-0363. Again, that's 336-759-0363. Well, John, are you ready? I was born ready, my friend. Let's hop right back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right, and we are here once again in the Clearview studio on this Friday morning with Dr. Questions himself. Dr.

Questions in the house. You guys can see the jacket. He's got the tie. We got the hat.

I can't stand this hat, but I wear it anyway because I'm a good sport. We are doing lightning round questions today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, who is our Ph.D. in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show, Dr. Shah. Today is lightning round. Yay, I'm ready. Are you— I'm ready. I was just about to ask if he was ready.

He just said he was ready. I'm ready. Are you set? I'm set. All right, well, let's go. I'm all set. Are you ready, Freddie?

Yeah, are you ready, spaghetti? All right, so we've got tons and tons and tons of questions at the Clearview Today show, so we try to put them in categories so that every Friday has sort of a theme. A lot of questions about leadership.

Okay. We talked about leadership a couple of weeks ago. And just want to let our listeners or viewers know, some of you have sent questions a long time ago.

That's true. We've been sort of busy with a lot of other little projects, so it's not that we have forgotten those questions. We're coming back to them, and one by one, all those will be answered is just—there's so many. Yeah, there's a lot going on. And some of the questions are great questions. They're so deep that they lend themselves more toward like an episode rather than just lightning round questions. It requires some research and making sure we have the right resources and all that. So anyways, so don't think any of those questions will be forgotten. We take them and we put them in a database, and then we're just going to walk through them now. That's right. That's right. We don't necessarily answer them in the order that they do come in, but we are going to answer them. Yes. Specifically, Tom B. from North Carolina wants to know, what's the best leadership book you've ever read?

Wow, that's a great question. I would say John Maxwell, anything by John Maxwell is good. Of course, Cusis and Posner's book on leadership is great. There's also books by some of the older guys, like Zig Ziglar on selling. And I know what you're thinking about selling is that's not leadership, but it is. A lot of the concepts in there is about helping other leaders.

Patrick Lencioni, his books are amazing when it comes to leading organizations, teams. There's also John Carter. He was a Harvard professor and helped me tremendously in helping lead our change. And I was also a principal of a Christian school, helping lead that school through change and accreditation and all those kinds of things.

So a lot of good books out there, but John Maxwell is my quick default. I would tell you to go read anything by him. Did you ever follow up with John Carter? Did you ever invite him to your school and then call it Welcome Back, Carter? No. I was trying to walk there. I don't get that joke.

It's a sitcom, Welcome Back, Carter. Oh, wow. Yeah. I've heard of it. Yeah.

No, I haven't. I would love to meet John Carter one day. Hey, maybe we can get him on the show. Gosh, that would be awesome. Quite amazing. Mr. John Carter, if you are watching the Clearie Today show, write in and let us know.

2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. Maybe we talk about your book on Book Club. That would be pretty cool. That would be pretty cool. What is one thing that separates a good leader from a great one? Wow. That's a great question.

We've got some hard hitters today. Yeah. A good leader will do great things, good things, I would say, build an organization. But I think a great leader will build people. That's a great answer.

That's pretty good. So for me, for a long time, it was building the organization, building God's kingdom. And then when the shift began to happen, it's like you build all that by building people. Jesus, when he was leading those 12 disciples, even the one never got it, never got anything. He was building them. He was teaching them. He was leading them to pray. He was teaching them theology. He was teaching them leadership. You know, he taught them leadership. Be wise as serpents and harmless as...

I mean, that's... Yeah. What a powerful leadership lesson. Because you go one or the other, it's like, oh, you need to be nice and kind and servant-hearted.

But Jesus said, be like a serpent. Like the whole time you should be aware of what's happening, what's going on. None of this cluelessness. But be harmless as doves. You don't attack anybody. You don't hurt anybody. You're just like, I know who you are. I know what you're up to.

Now I'm going to move on this way. Right. So I would say impacting people who, like Maxwell will say, who impact others, that to me is the greatest leadership. Yeah. Our next question comes from Chad S. Why are people in ministry so afraid to be assertive leaders? You kind of just answered it a little bit.

Yeah. Well, I guess the answer goes even beyond that. In a nonprofit organization where you have volunteer base, that's where you're afraid to make people upset, angry, quit, or try to rally other people against you. So it's so much easier just to appease everybody, keep everybody happy, and just don't rock the boat. And you don't help anybody. You're not helping them. You're not helping the kingdom of God.

So I would say that fear in a nonprofit is what does that. And so I would strongly assert pastors, ministry leaders, staff leaders. Just know you've got to be humble. You've got to depend on God. Having said that, you have a work to do. Yeah, that's true. And I can speak to that personally because we all work with volunteers. All of the people on the worship team, they are volunteers. And so you start to get that fear, like you said, that they're not being paid.

There's nothing keeping them here. I have to keep everyone happy. And when you give people everything they want, like I've learned this the hard way several times.

It took a lot of times before I learned my lesson. You just create your own problems. Yeah, of course. You have to set the right example for people. Have I always done that? Probably not.

I would go ahead and say not. But I try to. Because if I don't do those things right, why do I expect them to do it?

And they're following my example, not my words. So definitely step up. Don't be hateful.

Don't be rude. Follow Paul's example. How do you lead elderly men?

How do you lead young men? It's in the scriptures. Well, you're not going to believe this.

James G. from Anaconda, Montana. Really? He wants to know, I've read so many leadership books that I feel, quote, don't apply to me because they're focused on personal growth slash business. How do you distinguish church leadership from business leadership?

Great question, by the way. It's really frustrating when you're reading a book and it's like, yeah, but this isn't for me. When really it is.

I'm not the CEO of a corporation. There are books that I refuse to read. Really? Yeah. Wow. Because the person who wrote those books was very successful as a CEO, very successful as a business leader, but very poor in their family life.

Wow. Very poor in their marriage, very poor in their leading their children. And I'm not saying children won't do or say things that may make you look bad. That can happen. It's all a growing process.

But in this situation, in these situations is because the father did not do his work, did not do his job. So, yes, there are leadership books that I would say stay away from. Research the person, know who they are, know their integrity and credibility in their personal lives. So I understand that. And also, for example, John Carter, I just mentioned John Carter on change. If you want to know how to change a business or a church, John Carter is the one.

But it's about businesses. It's about leading institutions to change. But that book was one of the key books that, those books were one of the key books that helped our church transition into the church we are today. We held onto our doctrine.

We never compromised on our faith. But at the same time, we changed how we did worship. We changed how we were organized. We changed how we impacted people. So, honestly, I mean, this is good to read non-church books. Yeah. Do you feel like people are scared of secularizing the church?

Is that, does that play into it at all? Well, we don't do business like the world does business, like churches. I'm not leading a church so we would demolish all the churches around here. So we would have a monopoly on churches. No, I want churches to grow. One church cannot reach 35,000 people. I mean, that's how many we have in our county, I believe, maybe a little more, a little less.

How in the world can we have 35,000 people in one church? Yeah, unless I was in, like, say, Houston or Dallas or Los Angeles, maybe some of those places, the population is very large, we can do that. Right.

But here, it's not possible. Yeah. So, all that to say, I believe we can learn from businesses, but at the same time, some books could be left alone. For our next question, who are your top three leadership mentors? So, two were my leadership mentors and both are family. One was my dad and he passed away in 2021, January. And then the second one was Nicole's dad, who passed away in December of 1998.

Wow. Both leaders, both pastors. Both pastors, both were leaders.

But they tremendously impacted my life. Now, let me talk about my father-in-law first, Jerry Shedd, very smart man. He's the one who really helped me get into ministry. If he wasn't in my life, if I hadn't heard his preaching, I wouldn't be in ministry today. He also impacted me in the way he treated people, he interacted with people.

He was just so good with that. And to this day, I kind of think about it, how would Pastor Jerry talk to this man or this woman or this family or this person or this situation? And I can see him just very gregarious, but at the same time, a good, solid pastor. And right before his death, he began a church. The association in Georgia near Warner Robins, Perry, the Air Force Base area was growing, and they asked him to come and plant a church. In less than two years, they had 500 people. Wow.

I mean, tremendous work. So I looked to him. My dad, of course, coming from a Muslim background, very successful, very affluent, became a Christian. How in the world did he do that? How in the world did he then come to a real small little church and then help lead that church to grow? And when he knew that this is the ceiling, this is as far as this church is going to grow, I have to move to have a bigger impact in ministry, he didn't. He stayed. He chose to stay, him and my mom, of course, chose to stay there.

And if he hadn't done that, I don't think we would have had the learning and the mindset we have today or I have today. And I've called him many times. In fact, I called him up until two weeks before he died to seek advice on some issue that I was dealing with in church. I was like, Dad, I have a question.

How do you do this and that? And I mean, we're talking. He talked to me. And then there were complications.

And with all the shutdowns, he was not able to get help that he needed. But God's timing is perfect. That's right.

That's right. My concern may sort of surprise you. Our people in our church, I look to them. Some of our people are just amazing people. They are family people. They are business leaders.

They may not own the business because they work in leadership capacity and they're just amazing. And I watch them and go, I know this much. I know so much. I've read so much.

I've written so much. And yet these people are doing right in this or that area. I can learn from that. Clearview is a very unique place in that regard where it does draw business-minded leaders. And even if they're not business-minded, just people who have that mindset of being leaders in the community. And you would think it would be such a recipe for disaster because you've got nothing but leaders coming here, but it actually works for the good because everyone has buy-in because this is their church. Right, right, right. Our next one comes from Terry H. Terry wants to know, how do you approach decision-making under pressure?

I feel like that's almost like what Jonathan D. was asking. What if I'm the type of guy to crack under pressure? How do you become a leader in those circumstances? How do you lead through tense situations? Now I'll be the first to tell you I haven't always done it the right way.

Sometimes in the moment I just get emotional or just go with it or get upset or whatever. But David asked me that question some time back. Do you remember what I answered you, David? Have you forgotten? Oh, the three. The three.

See, there it is. So the three things that I try to focus on when I'm making decision-making under pressure or I'm thrown in a situation that all of a sudden I've been pushed up against the wall or somebody's just not acting right and they're coming at me or whatever. Number one, I need to stay calm. You need to stay calm. And that's hard because your emotions start matching their emotions. Their negativity starts impacting your spirit, so staying calm. So pray and stay calm. Secondly, stay on topic because it's easy to go here or there. Sometimes my mind thinks on four or five different levels.

So I'm already over here. I'm talking about this is the heart of the issue. It is the heart of the issue, but they're not ready to get there. So I have to help walk them to that point and go, you see, this is the issue. Or even if you're not that great of a leader yet, you start pulling in other arguments from stuff that don't even pertain to what you're talking about, like I do that.

Well, they do pertain, whether you or me, they do pertain. And in our neurons, they are connected, but either we're not able to express. This is how this connection is. You're saying this, but this is where it leads.

You're saying that, but here is what happened. But they're not ready to build a connection. They're not ready to connect the dots. So stay calm, stay on topic, and then give clear reasons, which is sometimes hard to do. I mess up there, but in my sermons, I always try to do that because, okay, I have had an entire week or at least an entire day or two days to prepare the sermon. I'm not going to jump in and just go with my emotions and go anywhere. That's why in my preaching, I don't try to veer off too much because that sometimes is great. Most times it's not because people are like, okay, I'm lost. Where are we going with that? It's very powerful and intense.

It's true, but I'm not connecting. So whether in my preaching or in decision-making or thrown in a situation that is unpleasant, stay calm, stay on topic, give clear reasons. Those to me are three things. There may be more, but those three things are important. I think we've got time for one more question.

Gerald R., this is sort of broad. What do you think the most significant challenges a leader will face will be in 2024? It's like the state of the world today.

Yeah. 2024, if you're in America, it's going to get crazy. I hate to say that.

It's not going to get crazy right away, but give a few more months, the crazy will begin. And I'm very sad. I'm not frightened. I know God is sovereign. God is in control.

Jesus is still Lord. I have no worries about that. We need to stay the course, but be aware that crazies will come and craziness will begin. And there are sinister forces in our world, in America today, who don't like us. And they have ulterior motives.

And I, for one, want to not be naïve. I want to be aware and be prepared for that. And look to God. Do what's right. Do what's right, no matter what other people do. And in everything, seek to please God and share the gospel. It's an opportunity to share the gospel. Keep doing that.

That's right. I think we've got time for one more. You want to read this one? Sure. So Brandon T. writes in and says, How do you set up the people under you to become future leaders?

Wow. They're sitting in this room, and they're not future leaders. They are leaders now. It's been tough for me, not to make future leaders, but tough for me to sometimes understand that not everybody thinks the way I think.

Not that my thinking is superior, but it's just that I am in that mindset. And it's tough when other people don't see it that way. So I have to be patient, which I'm not always good at that, because I'm like, get with it.

Don't you see? This is going to impact you here. Get with it. But I try to let people know that their jobs are not in jeopardy. I'm going to push you, and I'm going to stretch you, but your job's not on the line. You're on this team, which means you're here to stay, unless you mess with some sexual immorality or you mess with finances or something like that, or you get into some kind of heresy. Okay, now we have to talk to you.

We have to figure out what to do with you now. Other than that, if you mess up, you fail, you don't follow instructions, we can work with you on that. So job's not on jeopardy, but I'm going to push you, I'm going to stretch you, because you need to lead. You need to understand how to lead people. You need to go beyond just your gifts and talents.

If gifts and talents were everything, that would be great, but that's not it. You have to lead people. Talk about John. John is a wonderful musician, singer. You're my mother-in-law's, one of her favorite singers. John is so good. She's like one of the only people I've ever heard say that.

I appreciate it. She was talking about her church, which is like 2,000 people, and she was talking about their worship pastor, and she's like, he's good, but nothing like John. Unbelievable. Not that I don't think it is, but I was like, yeah. It's like the Falcon being someone's favorite Avenger.

Like, yeah, he's cool, but he's no Iron Man. But thank you for being humble on that. But I've told you that as great as that is, that you love music and you sing well, that's not the primary job of a worship pastor. The primary job is to lead your people so that they will lead God's people to worship him. And musicians are some of the hardest people to lead because they think with their emotions. They think with their heart. So how can you let them think with their heart, even you, and yet say, but if only you can think with your mind.

Right. If only you could utilize both and not be so convinced. Musicians and artists are so convinced they're right. Now, let me give you two examples, all right, quickly. One is a man, one is a woman. One is Bill Gaither, another one is Dolly Parton. Now, these are two people who have lived an entire career. They are great musicians, great singers.

We know that. I don't believe they're the greatest musicians and singers. I don't believe. I think there are people out there who write songs better. I believe there are people out there who can produce music better. But they are amazingly gifted leaders who know how to lead other leaders. And so Bill Gaither is going to go down in history as probably the greatest worship person in the world. Yes, that's true. Dolly Parton.

I mean, this lady comes out of the hills of Tennessee, right? Or somewhere there. And you have a team park? Right. Yeah. She has a team park.

How in the world do you do that? She has her own theme park. She has a program that sends books to kids so they can read. Every person in America has at least heard of Dolly Parton.

Yeah, of course. No one can touch her. Yes, she's beautiful. Yes, she is a great singer and artist, but she's more than that. She's a leader. You don't get a theme park because you can sing well.

We'd all have theme parks. Yes, she is brilliant. So anyways, that's my shout out to Dolly Parton and Bill Gaither.

Try to get them on the show. There you go. And I can give more examples of musicians like that, like Lionel Richie. I think he's an amazing artist.

Amazing artist. I just saw him recently on the New Year's Day. Times Square?

Yeah, Times Square. He's there and I'm like, Lionel Richie doesn't get old. He was in the 80s singing. In the 90s. In the 2000s.

2024, he's up there. Still going. Still going strong. But he's more than just a musician. That's right.

That's right. Leadership principles. And I love that we've talked about leadership because it's something that's timeless.

Other gifts and talents you have may wane, may come and go, but leadership principles will last forever. Today was helpful for you guys. If you enjoyed this conversation about leadership, write in and let us know.

252-582-5028. Also make sure you're sending us those questions, four lightning round questions, and trust that we are organizing them and we will get to them just as soon as we can. Make sure you visit us online. Clearveetodayshow.com. Don't forget, you can partner with us financially at the bottom of that web page. Also, I want to encourage you to go over and visit mightymuscadine.com. Use the promo code today.

That's T-O-D-A-Y on checkout. And a portion of those proceeds will come right back here to the Clear Read Today show. Jon, any words for our listeners over the weekend?

Nope. Have a great weekend. We will see you guys on Monday. We've got a lot of new episodes for you, so stay tuned. That's right. Love you guys. Have a wonderful day on Clearveetoday. Bye.