ZBA Leadership Conference 2024

Message #4, I AM HERE TO ENSURE THAT BETTER LEADERS COME AFTER ME. I used to tell my sons, “I expect you to be a better father than I am. After all, I didn’t have me for a dad.” In one of his books the late Warren Wiersbe said. “Some pastors boast about the church where they used to be going down in attendance after they left.” He goes on to say, “That is not what should be. If a pastor does a good job, the church will grow after he leaves because of the strong foundation that he left behind.” Ladies and gentlemen, I am almost 74 years old—older than most of you, many of you are younger than my sons. Yet having lived almost 3/4s of century, having spent more than ½ my life leading one church, I am impressed with how little time we have to get the job done. I have seen ministries die, or be greatly diminished after the death, resignation, or retirement of a dynamic leader. In part, perhaps in large part, that decline takes place, because no new leader has been discipled to step in...

  #3, I Am Here to be Guided by the Mind of Christ   Again, I would remind you that these documents are primarily the notes that preached from. They are uncut diamonds or probably more accurately jagged rocks. I am putting them on this blog for the use of those who attended the January 2024 ZBA Conference. I ask that you not distribute this without checking with me first. hmerrell@liebenzellusa.org   In 1967, I was 17 years old. The United States was in a war in Vietnam. Some of my friends fought there. Some didn’t come back alive. I’m going to read a couple of paragraphs from a 1967 issue of Time Magazine. The article is about new training—new in 1964--for a new kind of war. Viet Nam is no place for the traditional American rifleman, who prides himself on long-range sharpshooting and an unerringly steady hand. Though infantrymen do get some chances for this, most firefights occur at ranges of 50 ft. or less, in dense jungle that offers only a fleeting glimp...