What is the difference between a manager and a leader? I believe that a manager works to achieve a task or a goal. A manager facilitates assets, including equipment, money, and labor, and uses those to achieve a task, usually to make money. A manager cares only about the bottom line; individuals or assets that no longer benefit the task are upgraded or completely replaced. Accomplishing the task is the bottom line for the manager. A leader, on the other hand, is in individual who is often working in the trenches with those being led. They are usually setting the example for what is expected of the group being led. Even though they are leading, they never lord their leadership over those being led; they are often approachable and willing to pitch in whenever work is needed. Leaders recognize that assets are important and need to be taken care of, they need to be molded and shaped into better workers and better people.

In your experience, whom have you considered the most influential leader? What did that person do that you consider characteristic of a good leader? This could be someone in the church, from work, from school, etc. Since this is a public posted blog, I will refrain from naming a leader, but I will describe the characteristics that I see in a good leader: Compassionate - A genuine love and concern for others. Friendly - Someone who is approachable, and easy to talk to. Driven - Sets out goals, challenges people to partner in the task with them. Flexible - Sees bumps in the road as things to work through, not things to get frustrated at. I think a good and influential leader needs these traits (among others) to be able to lead effectively.

"Every aspect of Wesley’s relentless focus on an individual’s holiness was for the purpose of making that individual an agent of perfect love to those around him or her." I love the connection stated between holiness and love. These concepts are unmistakably connected; I don't believe one can exist without the other. Sure, there are the world's definitions of love: sexuality, passion, having someone make you "feel good", but these are fleeting at best. True, perfect love comes from a unique connection to loving God with our inmost being, and loving others in response to our love for God. In doing this, we are able to live our lives in love the way God is calling us to, no longer thinking about our own needs and feelings, but thinking about other people as well. This is the perfect love God is calling us to.

"Through saving grace we are Christian through and through. And yet we are always in the process of becoming Christian, becoming what we are. Wesley has given us a model that allows for our intentionality that cooperates with God’s gracious initiative. Progressive sanctification, then, is crucial in the Christian life; the process is a crucial follow-up to important moments of commitment. The Wesleyan understanding of the means of grace aims at Christian maturing, which never ceases in the journey." I think this is a point that a lot of Christians miss out on. They claim the salvation power of Christ, but that is as far as they go. I think the great misconception is that accepting Christ as Lord and Savior is the end of the Spiritual Journey, moving simply from death in sin to life in Christ. Truly it is just a small part of the journey. The growth and maturity of faith and relationship with Jesus is something we should engage in for a lifetime, continually being willing to lay on the altar of Christ anything that might get in the way of our ability to serve him in the way he is calling us to serve. I think when we remove ourselves from the equation and let God fill in the blanks, that is when we truly start to see that we are still becoming what God wants us to be.

"It could be said that the experience of entire sanctification is as unique as each individual. While we must certainly find ways to keep the articulation of entire sanctification dynamic, relevant, and realistic, and to allow for differences from person to person, to blend—unite—entire sanctification with progressive sanctification is to separate ourselves from what it means to be a Holiness church. Reemphasizing Wesley’s understanding of the “means of grace” is absolutely crucial to a balanced and healthy proclamation of God’s sanctifying work in the lives of God’s people." I have struggled with a good way to articulate entire sanctification in a way that makes sense. I stumbled upon a good example from the work of H. Orton Wiley: "Peace with God. This peace is the result of a change relationship between God and man. If follows when the sinner surrenders to God, is forgiven of his sins, and restored to the favor of God. This experience is known in both theology and the Scriptures as justification... The Peace of God. This peace is given as a bestowment - that which Christ has in himself, and which He bestows upon us in such a manner that it becomes ours... The peace of God is that which dwelt in Jesus' own breast, the deep tranquility of the soul which springs from resting wholly in God. As peace with God is called justification, so this peace of God is sanctification. It is communicated to us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, which removes all the carnal contradictions of the soul and enthrones in the purified heart the Prince of Peace." I think peace is something that everybody can relate to, and when you put it in the terms of Peace, it seems like an easy way to explain and understand what God is trying to do for us, in us, and through us.