• Leaders need leaders who are spiritually ahead of them. This type of leadership takes constant devotion and learning.
• Leaders set the tone for a congregation. If the congregation is weak, the leaders are weak.
• In the absence of strong leadership, leaders leave and dysfunctional people take charge.
• Leaders always take responsibility for whatever situation in which they find themselves. Leaders never blame the system for their failure. If the system destroys them, they allowed it to happen.
• Leaders set their own agenda and set out on the journey to make it happen. It is silly to think that a pastor should do whatever a congregation wants him or her to do. That would be a violation of a pastor's call. The same is true for all Christians. It is a violation of God's direction for our lives to allow someone else to redirect our call.
• Leaders get what they look for. (pp. 29-30)

Every time I fly on a commercial plane I have to listen to this dumb statement: Before helping someone else with their oxygen mask, put yours on first. I usually tune this announcement out. But one day, I didn't. Instead, I found myself running through my head the reasons why airline personnel are so paranoid about us putting on our own oxygen mask first. Surely if the person sitting beside me couldn't get his or her mask on and appeared in trouble, I should put his or hers on first. But the more I thought about it the more I realized they had a point. To not put mine on first could be a fatal mistake. You see, if the person next to me needed my help putting the mask on, something else was wrong with him or her. He or she was too weak or confused or hurt to put it on and, even if I got his or hers on, more than likely the person would not be able to help me put mine on and I would probably pass out before putting on my own mask. Whereas, if I quickly put mine on, the odds are I would be able to get his or hers on in time since I was strong enough to help myself in the first place.

Now, what do oxygen masks have to do with rediscovering ministry? Everything! Too many Christians are so busy they don't take time to develop their spiritual life. They remind me of the hamster on the treadmill - constantly running to nowhere, refusing to get off the treadmill long enough to spend time developing their inner life. Too many Christians I know look like they just stuck their finger in a light socket. What most of us need to do is get off the treadmill, pull our finger out of the socket, and put on my own oxygen mask before we go into a spiritual come and die.