OUT OF THE BOX

This post is a reprint from August 2010.   -Billy Long A girl from our church in Raleigh NC was taking a philosophy of religion class taught by a professor from Duke University. Nancy came to me one evening and shared how she had been brought to tears when some of the other students mocked her for sharing her faith during a class discussion. Nancy was a committed Christian and loved the Lord. She was shocked at the unbelief and skepticism of the professor and the students,and soon came to discuss it with me and fellow believers at church. Now she was asking me to visit the class. The professor had told the students to invite their pastors to come sit in on the discussions. My first thought was, “This professor wants to pull out all his weapons of complex, intellectual, theological, and philosophical thought, all his esoteric terms, and make me or any other pastor who shows up look like an idiot in front of the class." But I knew this was a great opportunity and so agreed t...

This article is a re-print of an article I posted a couple years ago.  -Billy We should not use “bad apples” as an excuse to avoid all “apples.” Grocery stores and trees are full of good apples, and it is extremely rare to find a bad one. When I was a kid I found a worm in a peach taken from a tree in our yard, but it did not stop me from eating peaches. I found a rotten egg once when I was a child. It stank worse than anything I had ever smelled before or since. But I knew that it was an exception to the norm. Eggs are good, and so I continue to enjoy them as a part of my usual breakfast menu. I did not let one bad egg cause me to henceforth approach all eggs cautiously as if they might be rotten. If you were to visit a church where people were swinging from the chandeliers or behaving strangely, would you then reject emotions and joy in your spiritual walk ? Would you say, “These people are crazy,” and use this as an excuse to avoid any search for God? Or would you search fo...

Manipulation in Leadership Too often leaders are guilty of manipulation. Manipulation is unhealthy in any relationship and is a violation of trust. It involves the dishonest use of influence to get people to do what you want them to do and is an underhanded means of controlling people. Leaders use manipulation when they lack the ability to lead by inspiration, when they have ulterior or hidden motives, or when they are trying to get people to do what the individuals most likely would not do if they had access to all the facts. Manipulation involves giving partial truth and withholding information that would be necessary for others to make an objective decision. It means distributing information selectively, giving little twists to the facts, and sharing only that which would cause other people to respond favorably to the objectives being presented. Diplomacy and Truth Being diplomatic can “put a sweet face” on manipulation. Diplomacy in its positive sense refers to the ability to ...

Introduction The issues highlighted below are principles I learned while serving “as referee” (and in some cases a participant) in a few church “fights” and were originally written with the intention of helping pastors understand some of the issues that get them into trouble. Initially I was reluctant to share these with a broader audience, but then realized that the principles are apropos to any discussion of healthy leadership. Many readers will identify with one or more of the problems discussed. For every issue there is a flip side. There is always the “other side of the coin.” This “flip side” issue is especially true for some of the areas covered in this article. For example, pastors usually teach on gossip, and they legitimately try to prevent unhealthy and destructive communication within their community of believers. But my emphasis here is the other side of the issue, which is leadership’s unhealthy control of communication among members. Control of communication amo...

Pigs or People (Mark 5: 1-19) Jesus cast a legion of demons out of a man who lived wild among the tombs, cutting himself, breaking chains, fierce, and threatening all who approached him. The spirits left the man and entered a nearby herd of swine which promptly ran down a steep embankment into the sea and drowned. When the multitude saw the healed man and the dead hogs they were afraid and begged Jesus to depart from their territory. How is it that these people who had endured the fierceness of this demon-possessed man were now so afraid of the holy and compassionate power of God that they begged Jesus to leave? They seemed to have more compassion on the hogs than on the suffering man, and they were more afraid of the power of God than of the demon-controlled man. This exposes the misplaced priorities and twisted perceptions of those who do not have a heart to know God. The Religious Response (Matthew 12: 7-14) The Pharisees also showed this same lack of compassion. Their religiou...

“…And we are His witness to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” Acts 5: 32 We usually think in terms of the Lord enabling us to share the good news of Jesus death and resurrection, but we should not overlook the “also” in the verse quoted above. We should remember that He will walk beside us to give His own witness and add power to our testimony. We bear witness, but so does He. Below is a dramatic example of this second dimension of our testimony. High School Kids Experience Jesus In 1971 when Laurel and I were first married we were asked to speak at a youth retreat for a group of high school kids from a Baptist church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The youth pastor had prepared for the event by calling friends and intercessors to pray and fast for the Lord to visit these kids. There were about 40 of them at the event. Most of them attended church, but I don’t think many of them really knew the Lord or had a real personal relationship ...

Thanks for visiting. I would love to hear from those of you who have been encouraged or blessed by these posts. If you are a regular visitor or an occasional guest, please introduce yourself. You can send me an email at this address:    blong8@sccoast.net Billy Long

I strutted around thinking I was really something, pleased with myself as I showed off the tail-feathers of my talents and abilities. Then the Lord gently spoke to my heart as He placed His finger on certain areas of my life, and asked me to humble myself and obey His leading. But I closed my ear and did not listen. So He quietly plucked a feather. I did not notice the plucking, and so went on in my sense of self-importance. Soon He returned, and placed His finger again on the area of my heart that He wanted me to surrender. Again, I ignored Him. So He plucked another feather. And I, unaware of it, continued on my way. In His lovingkindness and patience He continued to visit me and point out the area of my need. But I kept strutting around in my self-satisfaction. Then one day, my tail-feathers were all gone. But amazingly, I kept strutting about thinking I was as beautiful as ever.   When with rebukes You correct man for in...