Jeremy Hoover

The prophet Daniel showed a tremendous commitment to God, even when it was illegal for him to do so. He challenges us to a greater commitment to God in our own lives.

This is a 9 minute audio version of my homiletical essay, "Servant Leadership."

Amidst temptation to lead by control, manipulation, and coercion, godly leaders know that God calls them to serve others because it is their duty to God.

Complaining and criticizing is contrary to the common good. In scripture, we are reminded that we exist for the common good (1 Cor. 12). Yet, those who grumble, complain, criticize, and seek to manipulate do so for their own benefit. These actions display a lack of trust in God. We need to grow our trust, recognizing God as a God of abundance, who provides us what we need, when we need it, and follow his lead into his kingdom.

In this 4 minute audio, I look at 1 Timothy 5 and explain how you cannot adequately serve and love others if you have not first loved and served your own family.

Do you read the bible each day? Do you read and discuss the bible with your family? In this audio, drawing from Deuteronomy 6, I challenge us to grow closer to God by beginning a daily time of bible reading and reflection in our families.

This is a third post in my series reflecting on leadership in service. In the first post, I wrote about how ministers and preachers should be the lead servants in their congregations, out and among the people, serving them. In a follow-up audio, I explore how we need to be the lead servants because Jesus called us not to be served but to serve.

In this provocative 7 minute audio, I examine more about Jesus' teaching to serve and to be first by being last. I ask preachers especially to examine the tradition of spending hours and hours on sermons and lessons and ask themselves whether they do so on behalf of the congregation or to serve themselves.

Next week, I'll follow this up by exploring what sermons and lessons might look like if we spent less time on them and more time among people, serving them.

This audio picks up on my blog post from last week questioning whether preachers spend too much time in lesson prep and not enough time in actually serving people--individually and in groups. In this 3 minute audio, I explore Jesus' statement about his mission--he came not to be served but to serve.

In this 10 minute audio teaching, I briefly describe 3 models we can learn in Acts about evangelism.

1. We can perform a sign of the kingdom (anything that points the way to Jesus and the kingdom of God) which will open a path to teaching (Acts 3).

2. We can teach a larger group and follow up with those who are interested, either in smaller groups or individually (Acts 13, esp. vs. 42-43).

3. We can teach people individually in homes (Acts 18:24-26).

What do you think? What would you add? Please leave your comments.

We lead and influence others by serving them. It's that simple.

Don't let anyone steal your motivation to work for the Lord. Nothing you do for the Lord is in vain.