The Responsibilities of a Godly Leader

by Patrice Tsague, NPIM

Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. -Exodus 18:19-20

A godly leader is someone called of God with the ability to cast a clear vision and provide direction and guidance to others through his or her example and influence. Godly leaders must lead in a manner that honors the Lord and accomplishes His purposes in the earth realm.

Moses is an example of a godly leader. He was called by God and was able to cast a clear vision of the Promised Land to the people. He guided and directed them through the wilderness all the way to the Jordan River where he then passed the leadership baton to Joshua. Moses' success was due in part to the guidance of his father-in-law, Jethro, who witnessed him in action and rebuked him for his bad leadership. Moses demonstrated a lack of clarity of his leadership responsibilities by taking too much upon himself. His leadership approach would have caused burn-out and frustration for the people thus hindering the success of the mission. Led by the Spirit, Jethro instructed Moses on his responsibilities and the most effective way to carry them out.

Let us glean from the instructions that Jethro gave Moses so we can apply them to our lives:

Stand before God for the people - Godly leaders must intercede before God on behalf of their employees and those they are responsible for. They must make intercession for them on matters of their spiritual growth, family life, and social and financial development. They must plead their cases before God as Moses did for the children of Israel. They must not attempt to handle difficult matters themselves but rather take them before the Lord for guidance, instruction and wisdom.

Cast the vision - God always provides His leaders with a clear revelation of the vision. Vision is the ultimate goal that the Lord has given you. It is what you aspire to become. God gave Moses a clear vision of the Promised Land. A godly leader must provide the people with clear direction of where they are going. The Bible states that without vision the people perish. People cannot follow a leader who is unclear of where he/she is going. Godly leaders must be able to clearly communicate the vision so others can run with it.

Provide the people with direction and guidance - Casting a clear vision is not sufficient to ensure effective leadership; the people need to be guided and directed. Godly leaders must be able to teach the people how to realize the vision and equip them with the tools necessary to carry out their responsibilities. Moses often found the people discouraged or becoming impatient with the journey. He had to constantly direct and guide them so they could stay the course.

Raise up others - Godly leaders are not permanent nor eternal. As great as Moses was, he could not go all the way to the Promised Land; he had to pass the baton to someone else who would become responsible for continuing the journey. What if Moses had not raised up Joshua? A key responsibility for godly leaders is to duplicate themselves. You must raise others by delegating responsibilities to them based on their abilities. Trust them to handle those responsibilities and support them in those areas where they are weak.

Oversee the work - The ultimate responsibility for the success of the organization always rests on the leader who must be accountable to God for the outcome. Godly leaders must provide oversight to ensure that the work is being accomplished according to plan. Although others such as Aaron were called to co-labor with Moses, the ultimate responsibility rested on Moses. As a godly leader, the ultimate responsibility rests with you. You must be prepared to give an account to God.

Hand-made Crafts Sewn in Mongolia

Hey, I saw this in a google alert and it's about a friend of mine!

Here's the link to the article, with excerpts from the article below. :) Please pray for the women involved in the sewing project and also for Susan, who is home battling cancer. Thanks! ~skye

Susan sits in the living room of her Ault home surrounded by bags, runners, and other handcrafts made by [Ka.z.akh women in Mongolia]. Susan started the Altai Women’s Project to help create income for the women’s families. Traditionally the stitched patterns were used for wall hangings, but the Ault resident helped the [women] adapt the art to more portable items for tourists and to sell in the West. ERIC BELLAMY / ebellamy@greeleytribune.com

Ault [CO] woman helping half a world away
Christopher Ortiz, (Bio) cortiz@greeleytribune.com
April 23, 2008

Susan is not a homebody. Though she lives in the small town of Ault, her second home is half a world away in Mongolia. She works with women in remote villages in Mongolia, helping them sell their hand-crafted items on the Internet. And she is doing this while battling cancer. Susan, 63, first got involved with her project nine years ago when she was looking for philanthropy opportunities overseas."I was praying God would open something up for me to do something besides work," she said.

[After working there for some time], "I was thinking they don't need to learn English. They need to eat; they were starving," she said. The area she visited is so remote that there are no paved roads. The only way to reach the villages is either by plane or cross-country via a four-wheel drive vehicle."Most of the people there have not been outside the community," she said. She said she wanted to give women in the area a skill they could learn so they could earn an income. After spending three years teaching English, she worked with the Women's Federation of Mongolia to return to the country to help the women there learn a skill.

Through her visits, she taught the women how to embroider and sew [new products]. They learned how to... make handbags, purses and other items... Through a Web site, the women sell their goods to customers and shops all over the world. "These women have no other source of income," Susan said. "They get paid per piece, and some of them are making more than doctors."

The Ault library, 216 2nd St., will have on display some of the bags produced by the Mongolian women. The items are for sale. For more information, call (970) 834-1259. For more information about Altaicraft Co. and to see their catalog, go to http://www.altaicraft.com; items can be purchased from www.fiatcharities.org.

The 4 Principles of Effective Leadership

by Patrice Tsague, NPIM

Moses' father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone." Exodus 18:18-19

Does the world need another document written on leadership when so many people have written books on every dimension of leadership that one can find? I definitely claim no unique revelation, though I must obey my Father and bring out that which He has given me. The success of families, businesses and government depends solely on its leadership. There is no other greater position upon which rests the rise and fall of any institution. I believe that is why there can never be too much written or read on the subject, it is just that important.

Are Biblical Entrepreneurs leaders? If they are not then who else can be. There are two types of leaders; born leaders and learned leaders. Though there are very few born leaders, most individuals are in a position of leadership and as a result, must learn how to lead. Positions of leadership include; parents, older siblings, committee heads, heads of businesses or organizations, supervisors or managers, etc. All of us who find ourselves in any of these positions must take the responsibility to learn how to lead. As for Biblical Entrepreneurs, like Moses we are called to lead our employees, customers and community from the bondage of an economic system that puts money above God, greed above love, and profit above people. We are to lead them to a system that recognizes that God is the owner and sovereign ruler of the universe and we are stewards who must give Him an account for our service to humanity and our handling of His resources. Therefore as Jethro reminded Moses, we must be reminded that we cannot do it by ourselves. We must inspire the people around us to work with us to realize the vision the Lord has laid on our hearts.

Leadership is the ability to cast a clear vision and provide direction and guidance to others through your example and influence. In order to be an effective leader, there are four basic principles that you must continuously walk in. The principles are:


Leaders must serve - effective leadership begins with service. Every leader is a servant but every servant is not necessary a leader. To serve is to put the needs of others before your own. The distinction between a leader and a servant is: a servant is only responsible to fulfill an assignment or project while a leader must not only serve but also assume the position of authority and the responsibility of oversight. Faithful service leads to greater responsibilities.


Leaders must be responsible - as effective leaders serve faithfully, they are rewarded with greater responsibilities. To be responsible is to accept the demands to serve honorably without superior authority and oversight. Effective leaders do not need onsite supervision because they are always mindful of the responsibilities bestowed upon them. If a responsible leader is to be effective, he or she must delegate.


Leaders must delegate - A responsible leader is able to delegate effectively to ensure that work gets done without relinquishing his/her responsibility. The more faithful leaders are in their responsibilities, the more responsibilities they are given. Therefore the ability to delegate effectively is necessary for them to be able to handle their growing responsibilities. To delegate means to transfer the control of an assignment or project to someone, as well as the ability and authority to carry it out, without relinquishing your responsibility. Remember, you cannot delegate something you have not fully taken responsibility for and delegation does not relinquish you of your responsibilities. Effective delegation leads to accountability.


Leaders must be accountable and keep others accountable - Everyone is accountable to someone, effective leaders must give an account and they must demand account from those who report to them. To be accountable is to assume the responsibility to achieve certain goals and provide ongoing reports on the status of the goals. Without proper accountability, projects are incomplete and goals go unmet.


How effective are you in your current leadership of your staff and associates? Review each of these principles and allow the Lord to direct you on how you can improve on your current leadership.

Impact International

Alastair Geddes just sent me an email with the link to Impact International's new website. There's also a blog! I've put the link in the sidebar but here's an excerpt from the blog, written by Craig Geddes.
... Within Southern Sudan, the girl child attendance rate in school is 35% and only 1 in 5 children ever finish school, which is lower than attendance of children living under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Through humanitarian interventions, we are creating programming to try and coax families in to letting their girls go to school through giving them a take-home ration each month of 5L of oil. The skills and strength of these girls at home are more valuable to the family and bring more assistance than if they were sitting under a tree, miles away, learning and improving their education. With each hour that passes, there is less work that has been accomplished, less food that has been made, but, as each class rolls on there is one more girl that will never understand and will never be educated. Gender inequality throughout the developing and third world is rife and girls across the globe, due to culture, income needs and forced labor are missing out on education. The education of their children, the future of their family, the revolution of a generation and the upliftment of a gender all hangs on 5L of oil...


As you pull your shopping cart out of the line, walk down the aisle of the local Wholefoods and review your list for the week, the day around you will be bustling and busy. Mothers with small children will be looking for formula and some sort of unneeded toy, the local university student will be picking up the six pack of Bud light and the young couple will be looking for the fresh vegetables. Across the world, in a hot, dusty town, one young Sudanese girl will be walking miles home, with no shoes after 3 hours at school, carrying her reward on her head.


As you turn the corner and walk down that cooking aisle the next time, will you ever look at 5L of oil the same? I pray, for the children of Sudan you do not...

Read full post (it's worth reading!)

Called to Be in the Marketplace

by Patrice Tsague, NPIM

Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid from now on you will catch men." So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
(Luke 5:10-11)

Too often we as Christians have two lives: our church life, where we do our so-called ministry, and our secular life, where we earn our living. If we feel called into what we consider to be full-time ministry, the immediate assumption is that we are called to be the traditional Pastor who must establish a local church. Many have even left their businesses or professions in the marketplace thinking that the only way to be in full-time ministry is to be a part of the local church staff or be involved in foreign missions, only to find themselves outside of the will of God. Ministry is bigger than the local church; ministry involves every aspect of our society.

There are three basic institutions that God has established where ministry must be carried out: the local church, the family, and the marketplace. Among those institutions, the marketplace is the one where we spend most of our time with the majority of unsaved people. Marketplace ministry challenges those of us who spend much of our time in the marketplace to accept our call into full time ministry. It challenges us to allow Jesus Christ to change us from fishermen to fishers of men. Several of us who have accepted Christ are still acting as fishermen. We spend most of our time and energy in the marketplace toiling and worrying about how much fish we can catch, not realizing that we are no longer fishermen but fishers of men. As fishers of men Jesus has now taken the responsibility to ensure that we catch enough fish to make our business profitable, our project successful, or that our campaign for office prevails. Are you a fisherman or a fisher of men?

I started my career as an entrepreneurship instructor, executive director and founder of a nonprofit youth organization. I was doing good works according to most standards: providing leadership training to young aspiring leaders and helping young people learn the skills of business so they could have an alternative to drugs. But in 1995, through a Christian businessman who was operating in his marketplace ministry, I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. That led to a personal transformation where I received my call to use entrepreneurship as a tool to empower the body of Christ and to seek and save the lost. That revelation then led me to develop an entrepreneurship training program called Biblical Entrepreneurship and to restructure the organization my wife and I founded into a service ministry called the Nehemiah Project International Ministries. This ministry helps people fulfill God's plan for their lives through business by working with businesses, churches, parachurch ministries, and Christian colleges and universities. At that moment I went from being a fisherman to being a fisher of men.

Your transition may not be as drastic; it may not even cause you to change what you are doing. You may only have to change the way you do things and your attitude towards doing it. By the grace of God, the Lord has blessed us to assist hundreds of individuals who are now fulfilling God's plan for their lives in the marketplace.

Regent SIFE Wins Regionals, Advances to National Championship

Back Row:Joseph Calandra, Hanisha Besant, Yuliya Paslavska, Jennifer Holland; Front Row: Stefanie Proctor, Regina Oakman

April 9, 2008
read full article

The Regent University SIFE team claimed victory as they won their sixth regional championship title at the SIFE Regional Competition held in Philadelphia, Pa. on April 8. Thirty-five SIFE teams, primarily from the northeast region of the U.S., competed in seven leagues at this event sponsored by the Campbell's Soup Company.

Regent's 24-minute presentation summarized its year-long community outreach projects including Pilot Produce, in which ninth graders at Norview High School grow and operate an organic produce business; Orphans Promise, which helps Ukrainian orphans gain education and skills training for success in the job market; Dinner Theater, which provided the community with a family-fun Christmas event; Biz4Kids, which provided financial knowledge and entrepreneurship training to at-risk kids at Norview High School; and the SIFE-MPAA Anti-Piracy Contest, which promoted legal downloading.

The script and presentation, which includes an annual report, must address the six judging criteria of market economics, personal success, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, business ethics and sustainability.

This year's Regent SIFE team consists of 16 student members from various Regent graduate and undergraduate programs and is under the guidance of Dr. A. Gregory Stone from the School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship (GLE) and Dr. Shauna Tonkin from the School of Education who serve as faculty advisors. This year's presenters were Regina Oakman, Jennifer Holland and Yuliya Paslavska from GLE and Hanisha Besant, Stefanie Proctor and Joseph Calandra from the School of Undergraduate Studies.

Regent SIFE will now assess the judges' comments and retool the presentation for the SIFE USA National Exposition & Competition, in which they will compete against more than 180 other regional winners. If victorious, the team will join national SIFE team champions from 45 other countries in October for the World Cup competition in Singapore.

Full of the Holy Ghost

-Patrice Tsague, NPIM

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." - Acts 1:8


Power is the ability to get something done. Without it you are weak and unable to accomplish whatever task you set out to do. Some people confuse the word "power" with authority. Authority is the right or privilege to do something while power is the ability to do it. You may have the right or privilege to get something done but without the ability, no matter how hard you try, it will not be accomplished. Essentially you need both power and authority. Jesus Christ came into the earth with both power and authority to fulfill His mission and in 33 years of life and 3 years of ministry He was able to return back to His father with His mission accomplished. The same power and authority that He had, He gave to us, His followers.

The authority is given to us through our personal relationship with Jesus Christ and committing ourselves to a life of sanctification. The power is given to us through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately many Biblical Entrepreneurs are operating in their authority but without the power to execute their responsibilities. They are like police officers with a badge but without a gun, or guns without bullets or eagles without wings.

As Biblical Entrepreneurs, we are called to bring transformation into the marketplace, evangelism into the public square, and to be lights in dark places. This cannot be accomplished without the power that comes with the infilling of the Holy Spirit. This power was so critical that after Jesus' resurrection from the dead, He delayed His departure into heaven to instruct the Apostles not to begin their ministry, but to wait until they had received power from the Holy Spirit. Once the power came, they began to transform their environment through teachings, miracles, and their willingness to suffer persecution for what they believed. I strongly believe that what happened in the book of Acts is a model for what should be happening in the marketplace today; however, it cannot happen without power.

Who is the Holy Spirit and why is He so important to the Biblical Entrepreneur? The Holy Spirit is the third part of the Godhead and when we are filled with Him, the Spirit of God the Father takes residence in us and enables us to be His witnesses. The Holy Spirit causes us to walk in God's statutes and keep His commandments. The Holy Spirit is our guide, enabler and director. The Biblical Entrepreneur must be filled with God's Spirit (Mark 16:17, Acts 2:1-5, I Corinthians 14:12).

- Being filled with God's Spirit allows the Biblical Entrepreneur to receive power from God to be a witness in the marketplace (Acts 1:4-8).

- The success of the Biblical Entrepreneur is not based on his might, but on the Spirit of God (Zechariah 4:6).

- Being filled with the Holy Spirit allows you to overcome the temptations of the devil in the marketplace(Luke 4:1-13).

- The Holy Spirit teaches the Biblical Entrepreneur the things he needs to know (John 14:26)

- The Holy Spirit serves as your comforter (John 14:15-17).

- The Holy Spirit causes you to walk in God's statutes (laws) and keep His commandments (Ezekiel 36:27).

- The gifts of the Biblical Entrepreneur come about by the help of the Holy Spirit. (I Corinthians 12:4-11).

- The Holy Spirit reminds you that you are a child of God (Romans 8:14-16)

- The Holy Spirit helps your infirmities (weaknesses)(Romans 8:26).

- The Holy Spirit helps you know the wisdom of God (I Corinthians 2:6-13).

- The Holy Spirit helps you walk in freedom(Romans 8:1-2).

When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, it wasn't dynamite, it was a dynamo! Dynamite makes a loud noise, kicks up a lot of dust, and it's over. A dynamo is a continual source of power. It builds and builds and builds, and the power never stops flowing.Ken Hutcherson, The Church: What We Are Meant to Be

The Spirit reveals, first and foremost through Scripture; without the Spirit's work, the Bible is just dead ink and paper. Without the Spirit's wisdom and insight, science is but trickery, psychology is just self-obsession, sociology is just the workings of the rabble, language becomes merely a tool for manipulation, and religion really becomes the opiate of the masses that Marx thought it was. http://www.spirithome.com/spirwork.html

"In Luke, receiving the Holy Spirit is the way that those who already believe in Christ are empowered to serve Him. It's more important to focus on how one lives the Spirit-filled life than on a rigid formula for receiving it. Receiving the Spirit in the Lucan sense is not a one-time event, but an ongoing way of life." Larry Christenson (attrib.)You may have authority but do you have power? The power that comes from the Spirit of God taking residence on the inside of you and enabling you to do mighty exploits. With that power you are able to go beyond your natural abilities; to walk on water, move mountains and resist the attacks of the enemy in the midst of your marketplace ministry.