707. The Greatest Key to Unity Under Your Leadership
Lead To Serve, A Leadership PodcastJuly 15, 2025x
7
00:31:0442.67 MB

707. The Greatest Key to Unity Under Your Leadership

In this episode of the "Lead to Serve" podcast, Pastor Ed Taylor and Pastor Bob Claycamp talk about the importance of "like-mindedness" in ministry and leadership. They emphasize the importance of unity, harmony, and shared core beliefs among church leaders and team members. Through engaging discussions, they highlight the roles of grace, trust, and submission in fostering healthy relationships and effective collaboration. The episode provides practical insights on navigating disagreements, avoiding dictatorial leadership, and embracing differences to foster growth. It’s a valuable listen for anyone looking to enhance their leadership skills and build stronger, more unified teams in ministry.

 

Key Words:

like-mindedness, ministry, leadership, unity, harmony, agreement, church, core beliefs, collaboration, grace, trust, relationships, submission, communication, prayer, humility, differences, teamwork, personal growth, divine purpose, benevolent dictator, community, effective ministry, Ephesians, Amos 3:3, conflict resolution, team dynamics, spiritual growth, mutual respect, servant leadership, church leaders, podcast, Lead to Serve, Pastor Ed Taylor, Pastor Bob Claycamp, Calvary Church Colorado, Calvary Chapel, Mission Assist Ministry, ministry effectiveness, shared understanding, respect, personal preferences, God's guidance, roles and responsibilities, teamwork, creative environment, healthy ministry, church setting.


00:00:05
Calvary Church presents lead to Serve, a leadership podcast with

00:00:09
Ed Taylor. Welcome to another episode of

00:00:13
the Lead to Serve podcast with Pastor Ed Taylor.

00:00:16
My name is Ed, your host for today and the host of the

00:00:20
podcast. And in studio with me again is

00:00:23
our friend Pastor Bob Klaykamp. Welcome, Bob.

00:00:27
Yeah, it's great to be here. 50 plus years of ministry

00:00:32
experience, you're not saying anything.

00:00:36
No, no, no. It's all grace.

00:00:38
It's what I think, I think it what a blessing it is to be able

00:00:42
to sit in the room with a man who has 50 plus years of

00:00:45
experience, good, bad, left, right, up, down, so that we all

00:00:49
can learn and, and just real quick.

00:00:53
I know we're on the introduction, but I just want to

00:00:55
keep talking. 50 years goes by fast.

00:00:58
It does. That's a question.

00:01:01
Seems like maybe 20? And when you look back, and this

00:01:05
is on the spot and off topic, but do you see any wasted years?

00:01:10
No. No.

00:01:12
Maybe a day or two or something. You know we have days and weeks,

00:01:14
but not years. No, because God doesn't ever

00:01:18
waste it. Yeah, he uses it well.

00:01:20
Even the bad years he uses. So then we'll take the

00:01:22
spiritual. That's the spiritual answer and

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I agree with that. Obviously all things are used,

00:01:27
but in a practice is a practical podcast, so it's a real

00:01:31
practical question. Do you see any years that you

00:01:35
wasted through disobedience and whatever?

00:01:38
Like that's the practical side. No.

00:01:41
And that and that's what we were talking about earlier because I

00:01:43
would, I would venture a guess before you even answered that

00:01:46
the answer be no. And we'll probably do an episode

00:01:49
on this. But we were just talking

00:01:51
earlier. How does a man last 50 years and

00:01:55
he's usable and he no big blow out, no big disqualifying sin.

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And like my pastor, my pastor finished 50 years at Calvary

00:02:07
Chapel Downey before he passed away.

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And again, I was at what hit me immediately.

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Not a perfect man like all of us.

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That's what's going to be set at our memorial.

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Not a perfect man or whatever or what would think, but a faithful

00:02:20
man and a reliable man and a man in the hand.

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I mean, there was no question that this man was devoted to

00:02:29
God. Yeah, great example.

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Keep short accounts of sin, Repent, humble yourself, ask

00:02:36
forgiveness, walk and forgiveness.

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That's the we would So that episode of the podcast would be

00:02:42
30 seconds, but this is season 7.

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We're on episode 7 and I really do appreciate our last couple

00:02:50
weeks of episodes were very, very important and informative

00:02:56
as it isn't the we answered the question that probably is most

00:03:00
popular. I don't keep a list of how

00:03:03
popular questions are, but I do know when they keep getting

00:03:06
repeated. That one was the most repeated

00:03:08
and how you raise up someone, how you deploy them in the

00:03:12
ministry, train them. If you didn't listen to those,

00:03:15
you need to and share them and pass them on and you can follow

00:03:19
up with us if you have questions, you you heard

00:03:22
something, didn't quite understand it or you have a

00:03:24
follow up or what about you can always tell us.

00:03:27
You can text US 720-608-0012. You can e-mail me at Taylor or

00:03:34
you go to edtaylor.org, edtaylor.org.

00:03:37
You can e-mail me there and we'd love to hear from you any of the

00:03:41
responses I shoot off to Pastor Bob.

00:03:43
So you don't have to send them to both of us.

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And when he gets them, he sends them to me.

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So whatever voice you resonate with, just you can send it to us

00:03:53
and we'll make sure to to get it out to each other or any of the

00:03:58
other guests that I may have on the podcast.

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Our hardest to be in a place where we're helping you be the

00:04:05
better servant because a better servants, a better leader.

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That's the whole point. You're like in a conversation.

00:04:11
These are not scripted. These are really just Bob and I

00:04:15
talking. We did.

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We do have some predetermined topics and we do have some line

00:04:21
items and some thoughts for sure.

00:04:24
But the conversation comes out as if you were in our office and

00:04:28
we're just talking ministry. And we do that a lot here.

00:04:30
We just talk ministry. We talk ideas.

00:04:33
We have staff meetings, we have personal meetings, and we just

00:04:36
get to talk. And Pastor Bob's involved in a

00:04:39
wonderful new ministry in these latter years of his life called

00:04:44
Ministry or Mission Assist. I got to get it right.

00:04:47
Mission Missions assist, where he's developing upon what he's

00:04:53
always done with, with Poyman supporting other churches and

00:04:58
pastors. But now he's going global and

00:05:01
he's added for you pastors listening, if you have a heart

00:05:05
for the UK and you want to connect with the church, you got

00:05:08
to talk to Bob. He'll help you.

00:05:09
Maybe your church is looking for missionaries to support, or Bob

00:05:13
can talk to you about that in his own ministry in the support

00:05:16
that he raises, because he raises support and also his

00:05:19
relationships with the UK. So that's something that is a

00:05:23
value add from Bob's life and ministry of what he's doing

00:05:26
right now. On top of being a stellar

00:05:30
husband, on top of being a stellar dad, on top of being a

00:05:34
stellar grandfather and on top of being a stellar, stellar,

00:05:38
stellar great grandfather, pastor, teacher, Walker, dog

00:05:45
Walker, car enthusiast. Bob is he, He has a full life

00:05:52
and a lot of energy. God has just been so gracious.

00:05:55
So it's good to have you, Bob. Yes, topic today like

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mindedness. Like mindedness.

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This is very important and also builds upon our topic last time

00:06:12
in serving together like mindedness, the word comes from

00:06:17
2 Greek words meaning that mean equal and soul.

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And the idea is that as you and I serve together, there's a

00:06:25
unity and a harmony and an agreement together.

00:06:30
The one of the definitions I found for this word is to be

00:06:34
activated by the same motives or to be of like character, Like

00:06:40
mindedness is all throughout the scriptures.

00:06:43
And it to me is a tremendous attribute to have serving

00:06:49
together. It's a necessity.

00:06:50
Actually, I wouldn't say tremendous attribute.

00:06:52
It's a necessity because it how? How can two walk together unless

00:06:56
they're agreed? Yeah, Amos 3/3.

00:06:58
Amos 33. So it's it's essential.

00:07:00
However, it also speaks to the difficulty that the church and

00:07:06
leaders have seen over the years of demanding allegiance,

00:07:12
demanding conformity, and stifling creativity and freedom.

00:07:19
I'll tell you what the death of a movement, the death of a

00:07:23
church and the death of a relationship is when you remove

00:07:26
freedom and now you dictate and demand instead of allow the

00:07:34
relational aspect of serving together and allow for you to be

00:07:38
different because you are different.

00:07:40
Bob, you and I are very different people.

00:07:43
Yeah. Different backgrounds, different

00:07:44
upbringings, different points of view.

00:07:46
You have more years of experience.

00:07:48
We can say 1000 things that would make us different and yet

00:07:52
together we're pretty powerful. We can do a lot together, but

00:07:57
Bob doesn't become Ed and Ed doesn't become Bob.

00:08:01
That will kill our relationship. And like mindedness is what I

00:08:06
love to disciple our team here, where like mindedness generally

00:08:11
is my definition. It generally it's, it means

00:08:15
generally we see things the same way.

00:08:17
Yeah, we may not agree on everything or issues.

00:08:20
Yeah, on quarry issues. We we need to see things the

00:08:22
same way, you know, doctrinal like a like the doctrinal.

00:08:26
And I thank you for bringing that up because there are some

00:08:28
assumptions here, some base baseline things.

00:08:31
Obviously doctrinally we have to be in agreement and there's if

00:08:35
we're going to move forward and be strong together.

00:08:38
We like marriage. If if your definition of

00:08:40
marriage is different than your wife's definition of marriage,

00:08:43
that's not marriage. Yeah, that's that's a landmine.

00:08:47
You. Know you think about it, I, I

00:08:49
know this is exaggerating, but think about it if if the groom's

00:08:51
definition of marriage is I want you in my life and you have to

00:08:55
stay loyal to me and and I'm the only man in your life.

00:08:59
But my definition, the man, the groom's definition of marriage

00:09:02
for himself is I can have as many women as I want.

00:09:05
That's not marriage no. So that core belief is it has to

00:09:11
exist in order for relationship to exist.

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However, in the same illustration, if the husband

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says I like to squeeze the toothpaste from the middle and

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the wife says from the OK, well you know, get 2 tubes of

00:09:22
toothpaste, it's not that big a deal.

00:09:23
But you can still do what you're doing.

00:09:25
And I I can still do what I'm doing because we're like minded.

00:09:28
We may not agree on everything in church.

00:09:30
It's the same thing. Like doctrinally we have to be

00:09:32
in agreement. But Even so, Even so, let's say

00:09:37
you and I disagree on not a not a salvation issue, but one of

00:09:41
those secondary issues that are pretty serious.

00:09:43
It doesn't mean we're not brothers anymore, right?

00:09:46
Doesn't mean I destroy you or come down on you you.

00:09:50
Don't break relationship. Right.

00:09:51
But that that is a habit in the church.

00:09:53
You don't think like we do. You don't believe like we do.

00:09:55
And you, well, I can make room. I can make room for what you're

00:10:01
what you're doing. I can make room for your view if

00:10:04
it's within the pale of orthodoxy and still be your

00:10:07
buddy. Yeah, I mean, I can be a buddy

00:10:10
with people that don't even believe the Bible.

00:10:12
Yeah. So at any rate, that's not the

00:10:14
topic of our discussion. But that baseline is important.

00:10:18
And in like mindedness, that means we generally see things

00:10:21
the same way. And in our disagreements we die

00:10:24
to ourselves for the sake of a bigger 'cause that's my thought

00:10:29
of like mindedness. What do you think?

00:10:31
Well, I think you have to. No one is going to be exactly

00:10:36
agreeing with all your opinions and preferences, and you've got

00:10:40
to have grace in between everyone.

00:10:44
Give everyone the space of grace because you want that yourself.

00:10:49
I mean, even in your position as a leader, you're going to need

00:10:54
to make decisions that you don't have the opportunity to tell the

00:10:58
back story of how you got to that decision.

00:11:01
But because you've spent time with them and trust has built

00:11:05
up, people are able to give you grace, to give you the benefit

00:11:10
of the doubt. To start with, yes.

00:11:13
You want and benefit of the doubt is a big deal to each

00:11:16
other where we aren't jumping to conclusions and we're working to

00:11:20
enhance our relationship. I, I have met people that just

00:11:24
are looking for a way to break relationship or to take

00:11:27
authority or to take this is a big deal in the church because

00:11:30
if we don't learn how to trust one another and trust is

00:11:33
challenged when we don't agree and how we handle disagreements.

00:11:37
Because if you, if you, if you look at the church in general,

00:11:40
leaders especially, there is a clear chain of command in the

00:11:44
Bible. There are leaders and there are

00:11:45
followers, there are elders and there's the congregation.

00:11:49
Like there is definitely leadership, but leadership

00:11:52
doesn't convey value where somehow elders or pastors are

00:11:57
way more important than everyone else.

00:12:00
All it conveys is they have more responsibility.

00:12:05
They have directional responsibility or they have

00:12:07
leadership. Oversight and like mindedness

00:12:11
comes into play. When you don't, you don't

00:12:16
either. A Don't agree or B don't like

00:12:18
the something you've been told, like for example, silly.

00:12:22
But nonetheless, Pastor Bob, I need you to go take out the

00:12:25
trash. Well, why don't you do it, Ed?

00:12:29
I actually could do it, but I'm asking you to do it.

00:12:32
Yeah, well, and and on you could go on and on on that, but but

00:12:35
there's a general like mindedness that if you said,

00:12:38
hey, hey, Ed, can you go take out the trash?

00:12:41
Yeah, Bob, like I don't even need I it's not even an issue.

00:12:44
And if I'm going to grouse about it, I'm not going to do it to

00:12:46
you because we already have an agreement.

00:12:49
And if I grouse about it, what does that show?

00:12:51
I'm just going to be complaining to the Lord or mumbling under my

00:12:53
breath. And and I'm going to be in the

00:12:55
flesh and not even enjoy somehow helping you or doing something

00:12:59
for the it's silly. But like my like mindedness is,

00:13:03
well, whatever Bob's asking me, I trust him.

00:13:07
And yeah, maybe I don't want to take out, maybe I don't like

00:13:09
taking out the trash. Actually, I don't have a problem

00:13:11
with that. What I don't like doing is the

00:13:13
dishes. This is something personal, but

00:13:18
but I'm, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that of

00:13:21
course you could do it. And of course you could do it if

00:13:23
you wanted to do or whatever. But if you're my leader and you

00:13:26
asked me to do something, I've already agreed to it.

00:13:29
When I said I'd serve with you, I already agreed to it.

00:13:31
I don't know why it's coming up in my heart again, except that

00:13:33
I'm a I'm, I'm in the flesh, but we've already got this agreement

00:13:37
and I don't need you to tell me why.

00:13:39
I don't need you to explain yourself to to me.

00:13:43
We're like minded and we both agree that the trash needs to be

00:13:47
taken out right. And we both agree that one of us

00:13:51
is going to do it and. And that that like mindedness

00:13:54
takes time to build. It does.

00:13:56
And there's also in the process in the timeline, there are

00:14:01
disagreements, there are wrong, wrong conclusions or there are

00:14:08
actual times where it was in the flesh mistakes.

00:14:12
So how you going to how you going to rebound out of that?

00:14:15
How you going to endeavor to keep the unity and the bond of

00:14:18
peace? Now, let's say, let's go back to

00:14:20
the illustrations for you. If you yelled at me to tell me

00:14:23
to take out the trash or when I came back, you said you're the

00:14:27
worst trash taker outer that I've ever met, We now have

00:14:31
something to work on relationally.

00:14:33
Sure, we still both agree that the trash needs to go out.

00:14:36
We're just not happy. The way it went, it went down

00:14:38
and whether it's you or you heard me mumbling out and you

00:14:42
did it all good and why and kind and.

00:14:45
But I'm the one knocking everything down and making a big

00:14:48
ruckus about it. And I can't believe I hate this.

00:14:51
And I take out the trash and I come back to the chair here and

00:14:54
and you're and you're like, Ed, are you OK?

00:14:58
Well, yeah, of course I am, Bob. And and what?

00:15:01
But. But you were whatever.

00:15:02
And, and now we're working out relationally something that will

00:15:07
either help our relationship grow and will become more like

00:15:12
minded, or it will torpedo one of us or both of us.

00:15:17
But it could be one of us would torpedo our relationship and

00:15:21
would become less like minded. Yeah.

00:15:23
Which means we probably will serve less together.

00:15:27
Yeah, yeah, because it grows. I mean, when, when you don't

00:15:33
take care of a conflict, it's living, it grows and it spreads.

00:15:40
It's an amoeba. It just it, it takes different

00:15:44
forms and and that's the enemy. The enemy is to divide and kill

00:15:52
and communication, prayer together, honesty, openness,

00:15:58
forgiveness, all those are tools the Holy Spirit wants to use to,

00:16:02
to and in that process of endeavoring to keep the unity of

00:16:06
the Spirit and the bond of peace.

00:16:08
I mean, that was said on the context in Ephesians 4 of you've

00:16:12
got Jews and Gentiles in the same small environment because

00:16:17
our house churches. And so here you have an agape

00:16:21
meal and a Gentile comes in with all his shrimp and it's like,

00:16:28
how can you do that? And you know, so the amount of

00:16:32
topics, the amount of life situations that could occur in a

00:16:36
small church with Jew and Gentile, rich and poor and all

00:16:41
of that. I mean so, so many Satan could

00:16:45
just breathe on it and all of a sudden it flares up.

00:16:48
Yeah, yeah. We entering into serving,

00:16:51
entering into leading. I do believe like mindedness

00:16:55
needs to be at the top, not conformity.

00:16:58
When pastors and leaders demand conformity, they become abusive,

00:17:04
they become dictatorial, they stifle creativity, they crush

00:17:09
spirits and may not learn about it for a while because people

00:17:13
will serve, they'll love they'll they love God and they'll learn

00:17:17
how to work around you or they'll, they're just heard and

00:17:20
they'll cow. There's so many negative things

00:17:24
when a pastor becomes a dictator.

00:17:26
I, I had a pastor once described that to me.

00:17:29
I actually, I think he, it was in private conversation, but he

00:17:32
also did it from the pulpit. One of our conferences, very

00:17:36
well known pastor who described our role as benevolent

00:17:40
dictators. And I don't believe that's an

00:17:45
accurate description and should ever be an accurate description

00:17:49
of a pastor. A pastor is a benevolent

00:17:52
servant. That would be a better.

00:17:55
And as I serve you and I'm looking for your best and I'm

00:17:58
looking for you and I to be effective together and hopefully

00:18:02
training you to do the same. What I'm looking for is where we

00:18:05
agree. Because if we the more we agree,

00:18:08
the more we're going to be able to do together.

00:18:10
The more we trust each other, the more we're going to be able

00:18:12
to do together. The more that I have seen you,

00:18:17
whether with me or with someone else, truly demonstrate the

00:18:21
Christ like character of the scriptures and the the

00:18:24
characteristics of the Holy Spirit, the and, and watch it

00:18:28
unfold. The more I trust you and the

00:18:30
more I trust you, the more we serve together.

00:18:33
That's why it hurts so bad when somebody betrays you.

00:18:36
Yeah. I mean, you could tell how much

00:18:38
you trusted or love someone by the pain you feel when they when

00:18:42
they betray you, right. Like if it didn't matter, like.

00:18:45
Well, you know, I expect that from them.

00:18:47
Yeah, you probably didn't trust them that much.

00:18:48
It's it's kind of a bad attitude to have so.

00:18:51
But still. Yeah, but but like, if you're

00:18:53
crushed and Demon says forsaken me and you wrote it down, Yeah,

00:18:58
that was deep. Whatever that was, it was deep.

00:19:01
You know, part of the crucified life is OK, I want to live the

00:19:04
crucified life. I'm crucified with Christ.

00:19:07
OK, You can, you can drive a nail through your hand.

00:19:09
You can drive a nail through your feet.

00:19:11
But somebody else has to drive the last nail because your other

00:19:15
hand has to go on there and you can't do it.

00:19:18
And it hurts. And part of that hurt is but

00:19:24
also hurt. Jesus.

00:19:25
Yeah. And he, he's there to say.

00:19:28
I know. This.

00:19:30
But we'll get through this. I just don't go to the dark

00:19:34
side, you know? Just keep your eyes on me and

00:19:37
we'll get through this. One of the attributes that helps

00:19:40
with like mindedness too is the importance of submission.

00:19:48
Submission exists when we disagree and if we've already

00:19:53
agreed that we the core issues we agree on and we disagree with

00:19:57
some methodology or something. The best choice when I'm like

00:20:01
minded is to submit. You're my leader and I trust

00:20:06
you. And what I may not like it, I

00:20:09
may not do it this if I was a leader, I may not do it that

00:20:11
way. But for the sake of unity and

00:20:13
progress, submission is necessary.

00:20:16
Yeah, we actually all live by submission every day of every

00:20:20
every moment of every day. We we live by submission when

00:20:23
we're driving, we live like if you think about it, without

00:20:26
mutual submission, there would be chaos in every element of

00:20:30
society. Submissions emphasized in

00:20:34
marriage. Ephesians talks about submitting

00:20:36
to one another and the ways of the like.

00:20:38
Submission is very important and it's super helpful as if if

00:20:43
you're not sinning and we already agree and trust each

00:20:46
other and I just don't like or I'm having a bad day or

00:20:50
whatever. With an instruction you gave me,

00:20:54
the best course of action is it's not sin.

00:20:56
I just submit to it. I don't know why I'm so upset

00:21:00
and I don't know why you're upset.

00:21:01
I don't know why I'm not sure. I don't need to figure it all

00:21:04
out. The trash needs to be taken out.

00:21:06
I'm just going to take out the trash and hopefully I'm not

00:21:09
going to grouse about I'm not going to.

00:21:10
I'm just going to take out the trash.

00:21:12
I'm going to submit because we have been working these things

00:21:15
out already. If I'm unsubmissive, I become

00:21:18
disruptive to our relationship and I erode our like mindedness

00:21:23
because I obviously I'm not seeing things the same way when

00:21:25
when I resist you. And submission helps you

00:21:30
progress the ministry so much faster than an unsubmissive

00:21:36
heart. I mean, where does an

00:21:38
unsubmissive heart come from, Bob?

00:21:40
You read your preferences where you're elevating them to a high

00:21:43
level and you think that your way is smarter and better.

00:21:47
And even if it is, you may not be in the position to make the

00:21:51
final call. And so you just need to like

00:21:54
humble yourself and say it's it's you know, it's I'm not the

00:22:02
one in charge. And so unless it's sin all

00:22:06
another category, but. Yeah.

00:22:09
But but just the preferences on, I mean, even in even in

00:22:12
marriage, how you load the dishwasher really, really.

00:22:17
Or you know, how you take care of the lawn, how you, yeah, you

00:22:21
know how you put things on the wall.

00:22:23
I mean, over in the UK, it's minimalist.

00:22:27
You there's one thing on the wall, one thing.

00:22:30
And they walk into our house and it's like a Christian bookstore.

00:22:34
I mean all over, everywhere, because that's my wife's gift,

00:22:36
you know? And so it's, it's just

00:22:39
different. It's not wrong, it's just

00:22:41
different. We learned that big time.

00:22:42
And that's a really key, even as you bring that back into our

00:22:45
discussion, it's not wrong, it's different and you might do it

00:22:49
differently. But the reality is, is that if

00:22:52
if he's the leader and you're the one that called to serve

00:22:55
with them, then submission is, is necessary.

00:22:58
It's helpful. If you're the leader and you're

00:23:01
and you're giving something, you can take that into account that

00:23:05
we've already got these things in order so I don't have to

00:23:09
overly respond or overreact or I can, I can say, hey, we're

00:23:14
A-Team here. Maybe I need to get all our eyes

00:23:16
back on the Lord. But your disagreement with me or

00:23:20
your lack of desire to do something isn't necessarily and

00:23:24
probably hardly ever is personal.

00:23:27
It's actually, and I wish I would have learned this earlier,

00:23:30
but like, actually it's your problems.

00:23:33
Probably not with me at all. You probably have a problem with

00:23:36
the Lord and he's working something out and I just happen

00:23:40
to be. Handy.

00:23:41
The guy that gets to be used by God, it may not be me at all,

00:23:45
but pastors and leaders, they overreact.

00:23:48
They interpret this stuff as well, You're not submissive.

00:23:51
You don't care. You.

00:23:52
No, no, no. If you're like minded, there's a

00:23:54
lot of space for expression. Yeah, there's a lot of space

00:23:58
for. And I've learned, and I've had

00:24:00
to learn this, that I actually now want more space.

00:24:05
I, I desire like this, this person that may not be like me,

00:24:10
but they're such a great addition to the team where and,

00:24:14
and we all get to go together and it refines me and it refines

00:24:17
them. And it's one of those principles

00:24:19
that I've adopted over the years that has helped me a lot of

00:24:24
where I don't have to walk in that I'm the leader.

00:24:28
Don't you know, I'm the leader. I, I don't need you.

00:24:30
Like, I think we all kind of know what my role is here, but

00:24:33
it doesn't make me better than you.

00:24:35
And do we really agree? Because if we don't agree, let's

00:24:38
just admit it. But I'm, I'm the one established

00:24:41
as the leader here. So God has brought you here.

00:24:45
So why has God brought you here? What do you have to learn?

00:24:48
One thing that's also helped me is the timer's running down here

00:24:51
again. But one thing that's also helped

00:24:53
me on the other side is remembering that God put this

00:25:00
man in my life, and he did it for a reason.

00:25:04
So if you gave me the direction and I didn't like it, God put

00:25:08
that person in my life. Yeah.

00:25:10
He's my pastor. He's my friend.

00:25:12
All right. I made the commit.

00:25:13
You. You said that you wanted to take

00:25:16
a vacation day and join me. Well, this is what it's about.

00:25:19
You. You.

00:25:20
I didn't. I asked you and you said yes,

00:25:23
which implies like mindedness in a sense of you want to do

00:25:26
something I want to do with you. But now that we're 15 minutes

00:25:30
into it and you wish you got your vacation day back,

00:25:35
obviously God's teaching you something because you're not

00:25:37
getting it back. This is God's will for us today.

00:25:40
And I, I would have to remember God put this man in my life.

00:25:43
And so then my question would become, Lord, why?

00:25:46
What are you doing in my life? What am I missing here?

00:25:50
Whatever the prayer might be. Yeah, personally, God put you in

00:25:53
my life because I needed your gift of exhortation.

00:25:58
I needed have that. Yes, you do, but I need that

00:26:04
after so many years, you can think, OK, I got this, but you

00:26:08
know, you don't have it. You don't have it all.

00:26:10
And so perspective, we know both Jeannie and I know we're here

00:26:18
because God put us here and for this season of our life.

00:26:21
And it's super helpful because if we were on our own, it's just

00:26:26
so much easier to start kind of building your own little Kingdom

00:26:30
and lose some perspective. And I and I think of their in

00:26:33
interactions I have with you and Genie at times and they'll be

00:26:36
just a quick yeah, we'll just do it.

00:26:38
And that you're at you're you've been processing it for days and

00:26:41
days and days. And then you come to me and I'm

00:26:43
like, yeah, Bob, just do it. And then you go, OK, But that's

00:26:48
that's my like I it obviously it's not, it's not my life.

00:26:52
I I think days and days for things pertaining to my life,

00:26:55
but in but in the people that are surrounded with as you

00:26:58
process it. God would bring me in my in me

00:27:01
into your life to go yeah or no, don't do that.

00:27:03
No, I don't think that's good. I don't think no, I I really

00:27:06
don't think that's healthy. It's also me your decision.

00:27:08
That's where like minded is it's if you decide whatever I say

00:27:12
whatever your decision is all right.

00:27:14
God bless you if it's not sin. Yeah.

00:27:17
If you don't make room for this freedom, you will stifle people.

00:27:21
You will hurt people. You'll become that benevolent

00:27:24
dictator. And what happens to a benevolent

00:27:26
dictator? They become unbenevolent.

00:27:30
Malevolent, I guess, is the word.

00:27:32
They don't stay that way. You nobody's intent.

00:27:35
Nobody, not even our own, not not only, not even the character

00:27:40
and nature of our creator could be described as a benevolent

00:27:44
dictator. He, he is a God who loves and

00:27:48
serves his creation. He certainly gives direction,

00:27:51
and he certainly prescribes what's best for his creation.

00:27:55
Right. What's best?

00:27:56
That's what he's doing. It's what's best for his

00:27:58
creation. And we don't want to hurt people

00:28:01
and we don't want we want to minimize the strife.

00:28:04
And one of the ways that I've learned to minimize the strife

00:28:08
is through like mindedness. And just a quick illustration,

00:28:11
we see this in the Old Testament when the children of Israel were

00:28:15
fighting with the Amalekites. And Moses gathers, gathers them

00:28:19
together and tells Joshua to go fight them.

00:28:22
And he goes up onto the hill with Aaron and her.

00:28:24
Everybody had a role and the one that had the worst rule was

00:28:28
Joshua. If you know, Can you imagine?

00:28:30
What do you mean? Aaron gets to go up there?

00:28:31
You're taking your brother up there, huh?

00:28:33
You know why? Why did your brother get to be

00:28:35
in safety? And I'm going to go risk my

00:28:36
life. You can think of all the fleshly

00:28:39
responses which are not in the Bible because Moses did what he

00:28:44
was supposed to do. Aaron and her did what they were

00:28:47
supposed to do. Joshua and the elders and the

00:28:49
fighters did what they supposed to do.

00:28:50
And what happened? Victory.

00:28:53
And that to me is like mindedness.

00:28:55
If we're all I know we have different roles, different

00:28:57
responsibilities, even more that it might be more dangerous or

00:29:00
more hard or more strenuous, whatever it might be.

00:29:03
But as we're all doing what God's called us to do together,

00:29:08
that's where victory comes coming to an end.

00:29:11
Again, I have another episode of the Lead to Serve podcast with

00:29:15
Pastor Ed Taylor. I'm in studio with Bob Klaykamp.

00:29:18
He's a pastor for missions assist he overseas that

00:29:22
ministry. He is the leader.

00:29:26
You could even say he's the head of the organization of a

00:29:30
ministry that serve seeks to serve churches around the world

00:29:36
and God is using him greatly in many, many different ways.

00:29:39
And if you have any feedback on our podcast, give it to us.

00:29:44
Make sure you like and four five star 10 star the podcast on.

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00:29:53
Definitely post it on your social media.

00:29:55
If one of the topics helped or if you have any questions you

00:29:59
want to follow up text, text me 720-608-0012.

00:30:06
You can also e-mail me ed@edtaylor.org and Bob can be

00:30:12
reached at bobclaycamp.com. Bob Claycamp dot com his Bible

00:30:18
studies are there all kinds of information on his life and

00:30:21
ministry is there as well. And so until next time from the

00:30:25
lead to serve podcast team, God bless you guys.

00:30:28
Until next time. We're going to be back with our

00:30:30
next episode, talking about the things of the Lord together.

00:30:34
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Lead to Serve

00:30:36
with Pastor Ed Taylor, a leadership podcast from Calvary

00:30:40
Church in Aurora, Co. If you have a leadership

00:30:42
question you want to hear answered on a future Lead to

00:30:45
Serve podcast, please e-mail it to Pastor Ed at Calvary Co dot

00:30:49
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00:30:51
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00:30:55
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00:30:58
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00:31:01
podcast.