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Help! I’m In Charge with Author Rod Loy
Rod Loy has been in full-time pastoral ministry for thirty-two years. He is currently senior pastor at First Assembly of God in North Little Rock, Arkansas, a 106-year-old church. In the last fifteen-plus years, under Rod’s leadership, the church has grown to over 5,500 in average weekly attendance on nine campuses and over twenty thousand attending through their online campus every week (Firstnlr.tv). Rod is also the director of Strategic Initiatives for Project Rescue, a ministry that rescues women and children from human trafficking. His passion for missions has taken him to over forty different countries. First Assembly gives over a million dollars to missions every year and has helped to plant more than 1,100 churches in sixty-three nations. He is the author of 3 Questions, Immediate Obedience, and After the Honeymoon. Rod’s unique approach to leadership has led him to adventures in the real world, including working as a volunteer lifeguard at a water park. A former children’s pastor, Rod has helped develop the Faith Case® curriculum for children and is still actively involved with kids. In fact, his office is in the preschool department! He and his wife, Cindy, have been married for thirty years and have two sons: Tyler and his wife, Emilie, and Parker and his wife, Meredith. On February 21, 2018, Tyler and Emilie blessed Rod and Cindy with their first granddaughter, Evie Brooke Loy. Rod’s social media is filled with pictures of her! The Loys live in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
Chapter 1 Are you willing to pay the price
The question is not, “What do you want to do?” The question is, “What will it take for you to do it?” Any vision worth pursuing demands sacrifice and risk.
uncertainty in a leader is always magnified in the heart of a follower. If you aren’t sure if the sacrifice is worth the vision, the people around you won’t be willing to sacrifice for that vision.
Chapter 5 Your ability wont get you very far if people don’t like you
Your talent, your intellect, and your ability won’t get you far if people don’t like you. In ministry, business, or even in your family, if people don’t like you, they won’t follow you. They might obey you, but only to keep their job, get what they want, or get you off their back. Leadership is about relationships. I have a friend who leads a ministry in a large church. He’s an excellent communicator with some wonderful gifts. But despite his many abilities, he can’t build his ministry. Why? He doesn’t want to spend time building relationships. He considers himself too important for that.
Chapter 7: Don’t go into the pool without a lifeguard.
If you really want to grow, you’re much more likely to succeed if you establish and maintain accountability.
Loy, Rod. Help! I’m in Charge (Kindle Locations 1649-1650). Gospel Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
One of the keys to growth and positive change, and a primary mark of an effective leader, is to establish accountability: to enlist someone else to hold you responsible for your growth and change. The dictionary definition of accountable is “subject to the obligation to report, responsible, answerable.” My definition of accountability is “answering for and giving report of your actions, words, attitudes, or behavior; owning your decisions and actions.”
Loy, Rod. Help! I’m in Charge (Kindle Locations 1655-1659). Gospel Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
Chapter 8 You can respond stupidly or wisely to critics
If you misinterpret correction as criticism, you’ll lose key input that’s necessary for making right decisions. Here’s a grid to help you tell the difference between criticism and correction.
- Criticism is often shared with others; correction is directed to you.
- Criticism’s goal is to hurt, offend, or put down; correction’s goal is to fix or repair.
- Criticism is offered with an attitude of anger or pride; correction is offered in humility and love. • Criticism attacks character; correction questions actions.
- Criticism is abusive in nature; correction is redemptive in