The Leader’s Psalm
by Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International
The Twenty-third Psalm is The Leader’s Psalm, David’s psalm, one he may have created as a shepherd, that he sang over and over again throughout his leadership as the King and when he was a warrior. It must have been a vital verse for him. For that reason I offer it to you as a word for all who lead in these seasons of injustice as Jesus walks beside you in your season of darkness.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I fear no evil, for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4
For our brothers and sisters in Ukraine under
the attack of the evil one from one who walks with you
Today I speak to you as a pastor to pastors.
Published on Monday, March 14, 2022 @ 8:24 AM CDT
Short Cuts over Long Ways
by Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International
Short cuts along zigzag lines over wilderness wanderings to Christ’s will
Jesus, the Leader, was real. Radically, totally, absolutely real. This means He was fully God and fully man in the same person.
However, He emptied Himself of His divine prerogatives and was absolutely free, not of His deity, but of His rights as God, His self-reliance and His own will. He limited Himself and accepted human limitations and human needs, yet without sin. He was fully man with no sin. He was Genesis 1 without Genesis 3.
Published on Tuesday, November 2, 2021 @ 3:05 AM CDT
Reproducing Leaders Over-and-Over Again
by Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International
Matthew 28:18-20 Again and Again
All authority has been to Me in heaven and on earth,
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . .
Jesus commands us to be leaders who obey Him by reproducing His kind of leaders over-and-over again. In fact, our lives are all about doing what He tells us to do by using our opportunities to accomplish what He directs us to pursue. So, if you are a business leader or an educator or a politician or a pastor or an athlete or a coach or an artist or a draftsman or a factory worker or a husband or a wife or whatever your role in life is, you are most of all a disciple-maker, His kind of leader. In other words, you give yourself to the Lord to be used by Him to be His instrument to make those you influence His reproducers for Him. This is your constant purpose in all that you are doing with your life. You see, your task in life is to form everyone you influence to be His instrument wherever He puts you. This means it is our task to do what He wants done with His life in us: to make that man or woman we influence His kind of disciple-maker as a result of His life through us.
Published on Thursday, September 9, 2021 @ 10:32 PM CDT
Fear Not
by Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International
Fear not, the prophet says to the leader.
Even when everything goes well, fear dominates so many leaders and they are afraid.
In seasons of prosperity, we worry that financial security will go away unexpectedly. In times of health, we constantly seek to avoid illness. We tend to think that good times will fail suddenly, and bad times will last forever. In moments of safety, we anticipate accidents. When things go badly, we expect them to stay bad.
Published on Wednesday, August 25, 2021 @ 11:28 PM CDT
Working to Make Disciples the Jesus Way
Matthew 28:18-20 Again and Again
by Bill Lawrence, President of Leader Formation International
Jesus commanded us to be leaders who obey Him by reproducing leaders over and over again. In fact, our lives are all about doing what He told us to do by using our opportunities in life to accomplish what He directs us to do. So, if you are a business leader or an educator or a political leader or a pastor or an athlete or an artist or a draft man or a factory worker or whatever your task is, you are most of all a discipler and a disciple maker. In other words, you give yourself to the Lord to be used by Him to be His instrument to make those you influence His reproducers for Him as well. This is your constant purpose in life, all that you are doing with your life in all that you do.
Published on Tuesday, August 17, 2021 @ 4:46 AM CDT


All of us are afraid. In fact, fear may be the most common emotion of our lives. For virtually all of us, the first response we have to fear is to hide it, deny it, not let anyone see it. We are afraid of fear, afraid, especially as leaders, that if we let others see our fear they will reject us, lose respect for us, and take advantage of us or even reject us.
So it’s surprising to hear Paul admit his fear up front, at the beginning of his companion epistles, I and II Corinthians. In both letters his authority is at stake, yet he puts his status on the line when he says, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling (I Cor. 2:3).” Later he states that he experienced “. . . fighting without and fear within (II Cor. 7:5).”
It’s little wonder that Paul was afraid when he got to Corinth. Driven from Philippi to Thessalonica to Berea and through Athens, he ended up in Corinth, the last stop in Greece before boarding a boat and sailing for home. Shortly after arriving in Corinth and proclaiming the Gospel there, he was in the middle of turmoil. Staring physical violence in the eye, he had every reason to be afraid until Jesus appeared to him and assured him that he was there to bring many to the truth. On this basis he stayed and persevered despite the overwhelming idolatry and evil of the city.
One of the many truths we learn from Paul’s ministry is that leadership is hardly a triumphal march to the mountaintop. More often than not it is a struggle through the darkness of a deep valley, even the valley of the shadow of death through which Paul ultimately walked.
In several places Paul acknowledged fear, inadequacy, and need, but he never pulled back from God’s call, no matter how overwhelming it was. Still he could only make the decision to stand against fear by being in situations where he felt out of his depth because he faced fear. God puts leaders in places where we are forced to confront fear so He can teach us to turn fear into faith. We not only see this in Paul’s life; we also see it in the disciples as they faced overwhelming fear and terror for their lives. How do you respond when you face such great fear? Can you stand against it by faith or do you give in to it by conforming to the demands of those around you?
To stand for the Lord you must first spend time with the Lord, lots of time, searching your heart and releasing it to Him, focusing on Him, releasing ourselves to Him, yielding ourselves to Him and His purposes and His will. We must be prepared to lose everything for Him so we can gain everything for Him. Anything less than this will cost us everything for Him. This is the decision of a lifetime, and we can only make it as we prepare ourselves by giving ourselves to Him in small ways over our daily lives. God teaches us to face fear so we can overcome its attack by learning that it cannot overcome His faithfulness no matter how afraid we are.
Published on Feb 11 @ 3:18 PM CDT