This document discusses leadership in the 21st century. It notes that while technology and knowledge have increased, good leadership has not. To succeed as leaders, one must embrace change, optimize technology, love learning, communicate differently, build partnerships, and be willing to move. Good leaders adapt to changing times and continuously learn. They leverage technology, collaborate with others, and find new ways to engage people. True change starts from within - leaders must be willing to change themselves first before expecting change from others.

1. TOPIC 1: LEADERSHIP IN THE 21ST
CENTURY
By Pdt. Dr. dr. Paul Choo
Introduction: We live in a century that's so challenging. We have more cell phones, we have
more things to play with, and more things to amuse us. But the only thing that we don't seem
to have more is good leadership which will result in having a good country, good business, a
good father of a family, a good and strong church, and good pastors. Today, most pastors
feel they are not sufficiently trained to be effective in the 21st century. Surveys show that in
the United States, 90% of pastors feel they are undertrained in shepherding the flock. Would
you want to fly in an airplane where pilots have 0% training to fly an airplane? Would you go
to a hospital where surgeons have 90% insufficiency to do surgery?
I. The End Times
This century is what the Bible calls the “Last Days” as prophesied by Daniel. The last chapter
of the book of Daniel 12:4 tells us some very interesting things about the last days.
Two things will stand out:
1.Men will travel a lot. In our grandfather's time, traveling was by horsedrawn carriages, and it
was a very rare luxury. With the invention of trains, motors, cars, and mobiles, everything
changed after150 years ago as travel provides the acquisition of seeing new things, learning
new things, and experiencing new things.
2.Knowledge will increase. Today, we know everything about anywhere in the world.
Information increased and with information comes knowledge. We learn more and more from
one generation to another generation. As human knowledge accumulates and doubled over
time. Every 25 years, four times faster - more people learn, more people read and more
people increase their knowledge every year. After a year you only know half of what you
should know because discoveries have come out, new medicines have come up, and new
ways of operating have come up. Daniel predicted 3000 years ago, “will run to and fro,
knowledge will increase.”
Having understood how men will travel a lot and how knowledge will increase how are we as
pastors going to succeed as good leaders in these amazing days and lead people to find out
about God, and learn about God and the gospel?
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2. Embrace the Change
II.Six (6) Ways to Succeed as Leaders in the 21st Century
1.
- The change will come fast when knowledge increases. New ways of doing things will be
needed. While learning is natural, changes are difficult for it needs a process in our brain that
we do -not have by nature. We have a natural learning ability in our brain, but to remove the
old things and put in new things, we do not have the natural delete button. Things we learn
are stuck there and the process of unlearning is not easy, the mental habits that no longer
serve us, the old ones. But many people cannot unlearn. So, the capacity to learn is natural to
unlearn is not natural and hence, the need for God arises. We need to ask God for grace and
help to unlearn.Most older people have a hard time learning new things but it is not because
of their age. It is because they make the conscious decision to stop learning new things. These
people are the ones who don't know how to use a smartphone, shop online or send emails. It
is not because they don't have access to these new things but rather because they have come
to believe that they are too old to learn. In Singapore, the best doctors are not the old guys.
It's the younger doctors who are willing to try new ways. Same with pastors. The church is full
of old people and there are no young people, that church has no future. The young people go
away and go to churches where the pastor is younger and teaches new and fresher ways. In
this century, embrace change. Don’t get stuck slowly, leave your comfort zone and make
room for new things to come. Be willing to embrace change, and accept it happily. Why
should I fight against God and His Words? Don’t be a fool. Disobedience can be an
inconvenience, or it can be life-altering.
2.Optimize Technology
God has given us amazing things in this world to make our life easier through technology.
Communication was revolutionized and updated to the minute. In a matter of seconds
optimizing technology facilitate both exchanges between individuals with different cultural
backgrounds. The internet is amazingly everything. Makes work easy. Laptops, PCs, Tablets,
Cellphones. With more and more people getting cellular-based phones, people were
accessible. But at the same time, another computer-based technology was taking hold in
society: the internet. People could send emails and look up information, book a plane ticket,
and read Bible in Greek, Hebrew, and Bahasa Indonesia. Skype enables video call services to
keep in touch with friends, and family and communicate with other people from diverse
cultures. In the confines of your home, you can hold seminars, meetings, and training and
work with people in 7, 8, and 9 countries. The Father of the Protestant Reformation, Martin
Luther 500 years ago, optimized technology, wrote 95 protests on a piece of paper not only
to his church but to the whole of Europe and wanted to reproduce it fast. It paved the way for
the birth of a technology today, we call the printing press. The good news was spread and -
believers today are beneficiaries. We tap technology to send bible verses for encouragement,
and warnings, influencing them to evangelize the gospel of truth.
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3. 3. Love Learning
-Keep learning. Learn something new every day. Be up to date with new things to your
learning and progress. In the past in most countries, the most respected two professionals
most sought advice from people are doctors and pastors. For health advice, they go to the
doctor. Advice to live meaningful lives that have a purpose goes to their pastor. How come
one of these most sought professionals is also according to a survey in most countries the
least respected job? Young people categorize pastors as only talking about the Bible and
knowing nothing other than the Bible and would rather get advice from the internet. Personal
development and continuing theological education, training, learning, and making progress in
our understanding and application of doctrine become their least priority. Everything in the
Bible is true, but not everything true is in the Bible. To influence people, and be a leader
continue to be an intentional lifelong learner.
4. Communicate Differently
- In the past, people were very happy to sit in a classroom, listen to a boring teacher for 30
minutes, sit down and take notes. Today, young people, especially children, cannot keep their
attention. They keep burning, doing other things, and playing with their cell phones and they
have very short attention spans. The new generation is visual and communicates differently.
They pay attention only for about 35 minutes; hence, innovation and creativity skills must be
adopted to catch their span.
5. Build Partnerships
- PIC is a classic case of partnerships. Indonesia and Singapore, are working together with
pastors from different churches, building partnerships with Koreans, Japanese, and China
and learning from one another, and cooperating. Finding ways to create mutual benefit and
being open to collaboration are vital to progress among all churches.
6. We must be willing to move
- Lastly, entrusted by God to be the spiritual teacher, leader, and shepherd of His people and
to bring new visions and take risks to lead your church forward. Serve one another, be willing
to move to care for one another, and fulfill the great commission together. Change must start
within us, before the world. Some leaders want to keep their churches small or don’t care
about growth, stay a small church for a long time, and settle down to around 100 people but
some leaders want to reach more people. They want to see their mission fully realized. They
hope and pray for the day when they can reach as many people as possible in their
community, structured bigger to grow bigger.
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4. Conclusion:
If you want change to happen- start with yourself! We all accept the value of change, but we
are not so glad when it comes down to us being the ones who must accept the change. We are
creatures of habit. We tend to continue acting as we have acted in the past, the longer habit
continues, the more deeply it becomes ingrained, and the harder it is to change.
This is true of all habits, good or bad. God is interested in you. If you are willing to change,
God is willing to use you to make a change. Old practices and attitudes must be replaced by
new ones. Christians must learn good habits like Bible study, prayer, love, faith, patience,
attending church meetings, giving, teaching others, etc. We must also eliminate bad habits
like foul language, uncontrolled temper, gambling, drugs, smoking, drinking, gossip, lying, etc.
Change does not come easily. God provides us with His Word and all the guidance we need.
God's word is the best source of guidance for self-help and motivation for self-improvement.
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