Has God called you to something or is there a specific task, idea or vision He’s given you?  Are you hitting any resistance, doubt, or frustration? If He has indeed called you, then be encouraged. You now have the biggest backer in the industry.  Listen to how Paul handled this…

Reading through the Corinthians this morning and didn’t get past verse 1 of the first chapter.

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…

I’m sure there are all sort of scholarly explanations for why Paul wrote this, but as I began to look at the introductions of Paul’s other letters, I was struck with a thought. Listen to how he opens other letters:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God -Romans

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God – 2 Corinthians

Paul, an apostle–sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead – Galatians

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God – Ephesians

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God – Colossians

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope – 1 Timothy

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus – 2 Timothy

After Paul became an apostle of Jesus, his life did not get easier or more luxurious. In fact, from an outsider’s perspective, you could say it probably got worse. But Paul knew that his calling was from God and that is served a much greater purpose than himself. Paul was given the mission of taking the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. A pretty amazing calling. As Paul did this, he ran into opposition, riots, torture, prison, beatings, snakes, liars, dirty politicians, and a host of other pleasantries. I am sure there were times when Paul was thinking, why the heck am I doing this? Why should I keep going? Where am I going to find the strength to go on?

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Jon is a good friend to Backstage Leadership and I’d like to help him out. Jon has a book coming out soon and we want it to get on the best seller list on Amazon. Right now, if you pre-order it from Amazon, you’ll be entered into a contest to win Apple’s latest gadget, the iPad.

Here is a  brief interview I did with Jon, whose hilarious and thought provoking blog is  Stuff Christians Like. Jon shares some great insights on the fact that his blog wasn’t an over night success. He actually spent lots of time (years) writing before the current blog. And it paid off. I also love Jon’s heart to use his platform for good. Through the readership of his blog he built 2 schools in Vietnam. Let’s help a brother out. Go get an advance copy of the book.

Whatever your vision, idea, ministry, business or purpose, you must pursue it with everything that you have.

Because every vision:

• is a gift from God
• is given to you as a steward
• could have eternity  at stake for someone else.

Don’t take your vision lightly. Push. Keep pushing. Keep working. Keep praying.

Backstage Leadership is a distance learning program where you get to ask great leaders any question you want. Each month you participate in a private session with a particular leader and the content is driven specifically by you. Plus there’s no travel expenses or time away.

Here are this semesters speakers:

Mark Batterson- Pastor NCC, author, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase

Catherine Rohr- Entrepreneur and founder of Prison Entrepreneurship Program.

Dan Cathy- President and COO of Chick-fil-A

Mike Foster-Founder, Ethur and author Deadly Viper Character Assassins

Ken Blanchard- Business leader, author-One Minute Manager & other books selling more than 18 million copies.

Here’s an example I use frequently.  If you were at Catalyst two years ago than you remember Dave Ramsey knocking it out of the park with his talk on building trust in his organization.  The talk was awesome.  The principles were sound.  The problem is this…I don’t have 300 employees and 8 direct reports.  I have a handful of volunteers and half of those are family!  I’m not on step 50 Dave, I’m on step 5.  I’m trying to lay the foundation so that when I have 300 employees there will be trust.  Help me get there!  This is where Backstage Leadership comes in.  Now, you can ask the questions you want answered.

This is more than a conference.  This is a journey that you’ll experience with other hungry leaders that want so desperately to grow and be used to do great things.  If you are ready to go to the next level, then visit www.backstageleadership.org and apply today.

Sign up here. Deadline is January 18th. Spots limited.

Cost: only $300