#Lead Well

Hi, this is Joanne Vigner with the podcast It's Storytime Meemaw, an answered prayer for stories that point children to God. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. What is God calling you to? What does it mean to have vision? What about that verse in Proverbs that convicts all of us?

Where there is no vision, the people perish. Well, a friend of mine, a pastor in Greensboro, North Carolina has written a book, hashtag lead well. I kind of like Pastor Holiday, I like how you put the hashtag on there because now your book is going to be searched for by even more people.

But it's a 31-day leadership development devotional. Pastor, this thing is blowing up, man. Thanks for hanging out with us here on Truth Talk. Stu, I'm glad to be here. It has been wonderful just connecting with you. And I appreciate this opportunity to talk to you about this book that I believe is going to really not just help pastors, but Christian leaders everywhere.

Business executives need to read this book. Dads, moms, football coaches, whatever it is, if you lead, if you're a believer in particular, we know that we're called to lead. Amen.

Amen. And so, Pastor, let me talk to you a little bit about, you know, 22 years you've been pastoring. Tell us a little bit about your church and then tell us how you came to know Christ.

Yeah. Well, I've been pastoring, as you said, 22 years, a wonderful congregation of people in Greensboro, North Carolina. I believe that's where God lives.

But Bethany Fellowship Church. And it has been a learning ground for me. I mean, this is where I've developed as a leader. God has taught me many things about leadership, given me the opportunity to not only to lead, but to develop other leaders. And just in terms of my personal testimony, you know, I came to know Christ over 30 years ago, and God has been faithful.

It was at a very difficult time in my life. It's amazing how God will let you hit rock bottom sometimes and then lead you to his son, Jesus Christ. But I was saved in a wonderful church in Greensboro. And my wife and I became part of that same ministry. And then seven years later, I found myself pastoring my first church. And so God has been doing glorious things in our life. Well, and I really, you got some great endorsements, an endorsement from Congressman Mark Walker, all kinds of pastors and leaders. But this leadership thing, this idea of vision and, you know, tell us how important that is just in terms of, you know, God has a vision for us. And we really need to think about folks out there kind of struggling, like, you know, how do I get my moorings? I got all this COVID mess going on. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with my career.

I'm trying to figure out what is God's will for my life. I mean, there can't be a more important question than that. Right, right.

No, you're exactly right. And leading with vision, that's day one in the book, as you know, you've already started reading it. Proverbs 29 18, a very popular, familiar verse where there's no revelation that people cast off restraint, you know. And so vision really, one way to see it is that thing that's a far off that keeps us alive. Jesus Christ is the revelation of all revelations. And so the scripture tells us in order to keep from running wild or losing focus, we need vision. We need revelation from God. He gives us insight.

He gives us direction. The trajectory of our lives is determined by the vision that we pursue. And so one of the things that happens most often is people are led astray by these alternative visions. And so there's voices that are competing that are especially now you look at this with COVID and this pandemic. I mean, there's all kind of voices that are appealing to people, leading people off in different ways. But we need to stay true to that which God has called us to both be and do not start with vision.

I love it. The book is Lead Well, hashtag Lead Well, a 31 day leadership, development, devotional, essential qualities for those who desire to lead well. The author is Pastor Reginald M. Holliday. He's with me right here on Truth Talk talking about leadership, talking about the power of vision. And how can someone, let's just back up.

It was just real basics, kind of like just keep the cookies on the lower shelf, like they say, right? Pastor Holliday, how can our listeners really connect with God and get his vision for their life? So they can have that vision and have some focus and not be like that verse in Ephesians, let us not be like babes tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, the next thing that comes along, the next craze, the next fad. Sometimes Christians just kind of we just we get excited. Oh, no, you know, someone says something. The Lord's coming back, you know, next week we got to get ready.

We got to stock up on food. How do we get grounded in his vision? Well, I think the important thing is and we can take, you know, a biblical example from in the book of in the book of Haggai and where I'm not Haggai, have a backup where he talks about, you know, waiting before the Lord to watch and to see what the Lord would say.

We've got to spend time with him in prayer and in meditation, especially in the word, seeing what's what's near and dear to the Lord's and Lord's heart. You know, the most important thing is what he desires, what he wills is his plan. You take someone like Joseph and you know, Joseph received the vision that he had from the Lord early as a young man. But he had to develop from a character standpoint.

You can take all types of leadership courses and they can tell you how to lead and what to do. But then you can screw up one time from a character standpoint and just throw it all away. That's what this book is about. This book is about helping you get the character that will go along with the vision that God gives you. But it takes time.

And typically vision is progressively unfolded. He doesn't give it to us all at once because he know we don't have what it is that we can handle it. And you just mentioned, you know, over in Ephesians chapter four where it talks about not being children, tossed to and fro.

You know, you need the help of others, those spiritual gifts that are there in Ephesians four and eleven. They come alongside to help build you, mature you and grow you to someone who could take that vision. You know, ultimately what the Lord is after is a family of sons who are just like Jesus Christ.

And that passage is about us becoming adult sons. That's that's the vision. That's the goal. You know, everything else is a means to an end for that. So when we talk about the Great Commission, people need to be saved. Lost folk need to be saved so that they can become adult sons of Jesus Christ. But spend time with him. Pray.

Sit with the word of God and God will give you direction and vision. That's so good. Pastor Holiday, I love how you have the word of God all throughout your book. I mean, every time I turn, there's scriptures. There's a there's really important, important truth that our hearts, our lives should be saturated with scripture.

Yes. You know, you know, everyone's talking about reading through the Bible in a year, reading through the Bible daily, just getting in the word, listening to the word, hearing the word, studying the word, memorizing the word of God. How important is God's word?

Just a daily walking. You know, Jesus said man should not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. How important is that our vision not go past what God wants, but we also daily walk with him. And he wants us to think about this little child. I want a vision for this child to be a great woman of God one day or a man of God one day. But it doesn't mean that I'm not daily. What does it take daily walking with God so that those long term visions are fulfilled?

Yeah. Well, I think about Job. Job said he desired the Lord's word more than his necessary food. So that for me, I think that establishes a baseline.

Most of us eat three square meals a day and some have two snacks. But, you know, do you take the word in like that? Do you take the word in? And then you take Psalm chapter one, the first three, the first Psalm.

Amen. The first three verses. It talks about the blessed man, the one that prospers, advances, increases, you know, before the Lord is the one who meditates on the word day and night. And then God promises prosperity as a result, you know, of that individual taking in the word. The word becomes that person's context.

It becomes the filter, if you will, the measure for everything. Joshua, after taking over from Moses, God specifically tells him, meditate on this word day and night. Keep this word in your mouth. You know what I'm saying?

Keep it before you. And he says, then you you'll you'll make your way prosperous and you'll have good success. We cannot succeed without the word of God.

You just said it. And Jesus reiterates what Moses said. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. So we need God's word. We need it more. You know, even in our churches and even in our pulpits.

I mean, we don't people don't need vain philosophies and they don't need counseling sessions in psychology. We need the word. The grass withers, the flower faded, but the word of God will abide forever. Everything's going down but the word.

And so we've got to lift the word as a standard. I mean, this this is the sword. The only offensive weapon we've been given in the whole armor of God is the sword of the spirit. Praise the Lord. The word of God is all throughout his book. And that's really what's driven this whole heart and his vision to help you all find a vision without which the people perish.

Right. So he is Pastor Reginald Holiday pastors in Greensboro, North Carolina. The book is hashtag lead.

Well, a thirty one day to leadership development devotional and pastor holiday. This is great. I'm enjoying it so far. Thank you for sharing this.

And I love that it just points me to God and it makes me ask God the question, Lord, what is your vision for my life, for my family, for our Christian radio ministry, for this show? Tell us how we can get the book. I know you're on Facebook because we're Facebook friends.

We're real friends until you're Facebook friends. Right. Well, yeah, you can get the book in two places.

One, of course, you can get it through Amazon. Just search hashtag lead. Well, throw my name in. It'll come right up. Or you can go to our Web site, w w w dot on target.

O n t a r g e t four one one like information dot com. You can get to order the book there and we'll get that to you as soon as we get your order. But we'd love for you to get it. Pastors, you need to get one for your whole staff.

If you're running a business and you've got a board or staff members, everybody on your team will be better leaders as a result of this. Well, thanks for blessing us with this. And we're excited. And please share this podcast is when it comes down to podcast form friends with your folks that want to want to, you know, beef up on their vision and really connect with the Lord on that in the lead. Well, of course, the lead. Well, we serve well, right.

You know, this is full, chock full of all kinds of really good nuggets. Thirty one day devotional that you can go through multiple times throughout the year. What a great gift to bless maybe your pastor with maybe someone that you want to encourage.

Hashtag lead. Well, is the name of the book. The author, Pastor Reginald Holiday. God bless you, sir. Thanks for keeping bringing the word and for blessing us all with this book. Yeah, I appreciate you, Stu. Thank you for the Truth Network and for you having me today to talk about this. Go get that book. Lead well. Awesome.

We're at Dario, one of my second studio. That's why there's a little bit of noise. Guys are still fellas. I mean, they got Christian music playing in the background, but I had to get this guy while I could. So it's an honor to sit down with you. And we had a good time with the word with the guys this morning to do it. They all got to meet you, too. That was fantastic. I'm telling you, if you had anywhere near one of these eight locations of Dario, these guys have Wednesday in the word.

It was phenomenal to sit in the mist. And they were men, men of God, worshiping the Lord first thing in the morning. We had a tremendous teaching, stew letters, but the others engaging and sharing. Man, you're talking about a way to kick off your day. They say Wednesday is hump day and it's a difficult day. This is a good place to get over the hump.

Get this word. Well, it was fun for you to be able to share your book, you know, just to give a quick plug for your book. And a lot of guys were excited. They came up after like, hey, guys were buying your book from me.

You were signing books. So honored for you to be here. Awesome. Bless you, brother. Thanks for all you're doing. Amen. Thank you. Bless you as well.