Dare Great Things

There are many philosophies about leadership.  Some hold that the leader needs to keep themselves at a distance from the people that they lead – that the leader always needs to stay aloof and one step above. Others hold that leadership needs to be an exercise from within a community – almost like a shared charge that’s passed around.  What’s the truth?  How do we reconcile the need to lead forward and at the same time belong to the people that we serve?

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.  It’s the same with the business leader today.  If we look backwards we can sometimes allow our mistakes to overcome and overcloud our vision for the future.  Simon Peter obviously had to do the same.  How did he deal with his own sinfulness and brokenness?  How did he become a leader through it all? 

Bruce Lee once famously quipped that in order to win in martial arts you had to be like water.  Willing to find any crack, any way and being irresistible in your motion forward.  We see the same thing in the life of St. Peter and we see the same thing in the life of every successful business leader.  Let’s look at how this applies at our spirituality today.

There are so many reasons for us to be upset today – to be discouraged today – but there are even more reasons for us to be hopeful.  And St. Peter, the leader, demonstrates the role of leadership in inspiring and encouraging hope even in the darkest times.

We all know the value of diplomacy.  We all know the value of consideration and tolerance.  There is also a value in the ability to speak clearly what is on our mind in a persuasive fashion.  St. Peter demonstrates this the day of Pentecost and Fr. Nathan wants to look at that with you!

Every leader needs to take initiative.  It’s the same for St. Peter and for the apostles of his day.  How did St. Peter move the church forward during her darkest times?  Let’s take a look at the Acts of The Apostles, Chapter 1 verses 12 and following to find out. 

Every leader has a call. Every call has a story.  St. Peter was called by Christ to dare great things, but he was called to dare great things because he was loved by Christ and knew it.  Discovering Christ’s love for you gives courage and incentive to strike out and follow him on the paths where he leads.

In my work helping cultural and business leaders grow deeper in their faith, I have had the occasion to preach several times on the life of St. Peter.  I would like to share some of my thoughts with you now – looking at Peter and asking ourselves what was his leadership style?  How did God use and form him to be the rock upon which he built his church? 

Without a doubt the Virgin Mary remains one of the central figures that defines the Christian faith. But what does Mary have to say to leaders?  In this month of May, dedicated to her, I would like to explore with you some thoughts about Mary and leadership.

One of the hot topics today is that of the priesthood.  People think all the time that priests are those who lead Mass, who preach, who distribute the sacraments.  But sometimes they forget what the bible teaches – that all of us are priests in Jesus. What does this mean for us who are business leaders?  How can we live out our function as priests of Jesus Christ in the world? 

One of the great things for the entrepreneur is that of not quitting.  But what are we supposed to found our hope on?  Why is it that I wouldn’t quit when life is so hard and business often seems prone to failure?  The Resurrection shines through and the power of the Christian impels us toward a business optic rooted in optimism.

We all know the value of separating our work life from our private life.  But are we always aware of the value that could come by integrating the two?  What would change about my personal life if I brought my work and dedication home? What would change about my work life if I integrated the values that I hold as an individual person into it? These questions have immense potential to change the trajectory of our lives.

All of us are engaged in business.  What difference does faith make?  How is it that my faith in Jesus Christ and His teachings will really impact my life as a professional in this world?  Do the two intersect?  Pope Francis thinks that they do.  I’d like to look at the difference that it makes for someone to know Jesus Christ from the heart.

The very first Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis centered on the theme of evangelization. What does his message have to say to us involved in the secular world in professions that don’t seem directly involved in the life of the evangelizer?  How can we be missionary disciples today?

We often emphasize the difficulty of work.  Toil, labor, sweat, pain – difficulties in many forms.  But we don’t always take the time to emphasize the positive aspects, including work seen in the light of the Resurrection.

Work sometimes seems more like a rat race than anything else.  Putting in time everyday, dedicating our labor to things, we wonder what the real point is?  Many people even look for purpose outside of their work, saying that their work really is purposeless.  I wonder what Christ thinks about that?  In today’s talk I want to focus us in on the real meaning of progress – the real point of our work.

We all have to work but not all of know why in the world we should!  A lot of young people today prefer to stay in the basements of their parent’s homes rather than get a job.  A lot of parents prefer to wait until their child is out of college before getting their first job.  What does the church have to say about this?  What about God’s wisdom?  Let’s take a look and go deeper!

After six days of creation, God rested.  What does this mean?  How do I balance work and rest?  In today’s continuation on our series on the spirituality of work, we look at the importance of rest in the life of the worker. 

Rediscovering a Catholic imagination means rediscovering the possibility of seeing things in a new way. How do we view the day to day work that we do?  Do we look at it from below according to our perspective or from above according to God’s? In this series on the spirituality of work I want us to learn to look at things through God’s eyes. 

Most of us spend most of our time working.  And yet most of us have a hard time linking what we do when we work to the most important of tasks – namely, our relationship with God.  In this series I want to explore the deep foundations of the work that we do and its link to our spirituality.