I had the privilege of taking my second trip to Togo, West Africa this past January (2018). I was going to do some filming for our initiative as well as getting to know the culture and learning as much as possible about what's next for the 6th Degree Initiative.

I was there for two and a half weeks on this trip. I got to see all that God had done since a year earlier on my first trip. 
To say the movement had grown would be an understatement.


The first time I was in Togo, we had one brick-and-mortar church plant and we had just bought property for our second... and that was it. We were dreaming and talking about growth but that was where it was.


In just one year we went from on brick-and-mortar church to, two thriving brick-and-mortar churches, 3 house churches that were launched out of the first church plant and 2 other churches partnered with us in our network.


Yeah... unbelievable growth!


Numbers of churches sounds great but the focus is life transformation. If that isn't happening then nothing else matters.


In the year of 2017, we saw over 1,000 people come to Christ in an unreached people group.


This is becoming a movement with exponential growth! God is going before the team and we are just trying to keep up.


As I was observing the incredible movement of God, I started to observe our local pastors who are the ones leading the charge.


I started asking the question, "how are these men leading this incredible movement of God?"


While observing I noticed three specific characteristics that these leaders carried.


1. Humble


The number one characteristic that I saw in these pastors was humility. 


They led the people in their church and the neighbors in their village with so much humility. 


They approached every message with humility.


They approached every conversation with humility.


When I would praise them for anything they would quickly point it back to God and thank Him for all He has done in their life.


These men are truly led by the Spirit and are completely aware of the goodness and grace of God. That drives them to humility.


2. Bold


The second characteristic that these leaders exemplify is boldness.


Togo is the birth place of voodoo. So the spiritual warfare is heavy to say the least. Yet, these men of God are humbly walking into witchdoctors houses and through the boldness and power of the Holy Spirit, they are seeing lives that have been gripped by satan, transformed and living for Christ.


They speak the Word of God with a boldness that we seen in Paul in the book of Acts. 


These men are not timid with the Truth, they live it and speak it in so much boldness. 


3. Confident


The third and final characteristic that I noticed in these leaders is something that I think comes from a combination of the first two. 


These men walk with so much confidence. A confidence that only exists by the humility and boldness of the Holy Spirit. 


They are confident in who God is, what He has done in their lives and what He has called them to do. 


This confidence is seen and emanates from them when they walk in a room. It is a confidence that comes from a surrendered life completely resting in The Spirit.








Humble. Bold. Confident. The DNA of a leader in the midst of a Gospel movement. Is it your DNA?

Humble Inquiry by Edgar H. Schein, is an incredible read. He battle the ongoing epidemic of pride and ego in our culture today.

Edgar takes a stand for humility in all kinds of leadership and in this book, he says that being inquisitive is a key to humble leadership. According to Schein, telling is much less effective than asking is. 

I highly recomend this book for everyone, but espescially if you are a type A personality and in any leadership role. We could grow our influence in others lives if we apply the thoughts of this book to our lives.

First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Jim Harter, is a great leadership and management book.

They break down what it looks like to build successful cultures in working environments. They bring a fresh aproach to the way we organize and start teams and buisnesses. 

If you are building a team, organization or buisness... this book is a must!

Success is something that most people strive for in life and everyone tends to have a different idea on how to achieve it. Adam Grant provides a revelutionary approach. 

Grant says that there are three types of people; givers, takers and matchers. People typically think that to be super successful you have to play cut throat and take, take, take. It is a very real approach that does work at times. However, is it actually successful to play this way? I guess that depends on your personal definition of success.

Grant says that givers are people that are incredibly generous with their time, money and resources. These people care more about helping others than their own personal gain. 

It's easy to think that these people will never be successful because all they think about is giving away, but Adam believes that they gain so much more when they do that. 

Takers are just that, takers. They are people that are only looking to get ahead at anybodies expense beside their own. They do what is best to get more money and fame. These people may make a lot of money but are typically alone and burn through personnel. 

Then their are matchers. Matchers are people that only give what they are given. 

In this book, Grant gives  examples of givers and takers and compares their success. He creates an argument that givers are much more successful in the long run.

I loved this book! I give it a five star rating. I think all leaders should read this book. If we had more givers in this world, we would have a much more successful world. 

Enjoy the read and tell me what you think! 

Tell me what you're reading!