John Scholtz
John's Blog - Time to be Accountable PDF Print E-mail
Some of the greatest disappointments of my life have been around the failures of leadership. Many of those failures have been my own, but most have been the result of leaders I have held in high esteem, falling in one way or another.  
 
We, as the body of Christ, all suffer as a consequence of that.
 
 I find myself having walked so close to failure in many areas that I cannot ever look for a speck in someone else’s eye, knowing full well the log that is in my own, but I believe I have learned some valuable lessons on the road to walking life out in integrity for the glory of our Lord. I remain vulnerable and imperfect.
 
The times I have not failed, have been because of accountability that I have imposed on myself by making myself accountable to others, my wife included and because of their boldness to confront me. But by saying I am accountable by no means secures my integrity. How many leaders confronted by their colleagues have denied any wrong doing only for it to come out later?  When you are deceived in a matter it is already too late!
 
The time to be open and vulnerable to those who hold you accountable is when things are going well and then to live in their protection. Choose those who will boldly and fearlessly confront you so that you can live in the Godly fear of letting the team down. It’s not foolproof but it’s time Christian leaders set the standard once again for trustworthiness in a world  that has become more and more sceptical of the church.
 
The following link called “Time Magazine talks to Evangelicals” is a great article and accurately reflects what I have been thinking about for some time now:
 
 
God Bless,
John
 
About John PDF Print E-mail
Written by COTN Administrator   
John was born in a mining town in the Free State, South Africa.  He attended primary school in Evander and secondary school in Johannesburg.  After qualifying as a doctor at the end of 1976, he married Jayne and together they have 4 children and 2? grandchildren.  John worked for 5 years in a remote mission hospital on the Mozambique border before moving to Port Elizabeth in 1984.

In 1996, after twenty years as a General Practitioner, John became Senior Pastor of Harvest Christian Church in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.  John has a heart to see the Kingdom of God established and a vision to make disciples of the nations.  John serves on the Apostolic Council of Church of the Nations, and has oversight of a number of local churches across several nations.

John and Jayne are passionate about family, and along with gardening, they love caravanning, and John enjoys fishing.
 
John's Blog PDF Print E-mail

ACCOMPLISHING THE IMPOSSIBLE

I was sitting in Plymouth in October, where we had gathered at the Holiday Inn as Church of the Nations and I was reflecting back on the last fourteen years. That’s how long I’ve been part of the family of COTN and the same goes for Harvest PE, South Africa, which is home base for me.

We had gathered for the Northern Hemisphere COTN Conference from 22-25 October. There must have been 150 leaders present for the Leadership section of the Conference and by the Sunday morning we had 400 delegates from around the world sitting in the last session. Someone told me that twenty nations were represented there. That’s an incredible story!

When we joined COTN in 1994, adopted in as most of us have been, there were 5or 6 nations at most represented in the whole of COTN. We had a prophetic word at a conference a few years after that to the effect that we were going to be in 150 nations eventually. It seemed ridiculous at the time, but the reality is that we are already in at least 50. That really is an incredible story.

You can’t make that happen. God does. You can want it and we do; you can be obedient and we try to be; but God makes these things happen. Unexplainable divine meetings happen and then destinies begin to flow together. It sounds like it’s been easy. It hasn’t been. It’s been very costly and we’ve made some serious mistakes along the way.

Tony reminded us: “if you ask God for an Oak tree He will give you an acorn.” It’s easy to say we understand that until He takes some of your acorns (the sons of the Kingdom) and sows them into the world and they’re no longer yours. Not that they ever were, but sometimes we behave as if they are. It’s not always easy to hold spiritual sons lightly. They have a way of creeping into your heart. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. You’ve usually got to sow some of the best seed, but it doesn’t always get into the fertile ground. It’s like that with acorns.

We’re “Building a family of Churches, reaching the Nations” according to our COTN mission statement. That’s what we do. It’s a great cause. It’s a great family and it’s growing fast.

So I sat there in Plymouth and thought back a bit on these things and on the audacity of claiming 150 Nations for COTN to influence and plant churches into.  I could have got weak in the knees trying to imagine how we’re going to accomplish this, but I realized again that we’ve never done it in our own strength and never will.

But you know something? It’s going to happen. It’s going to come to pass, even if we don’t know how.

God is moved by faith and not by circumstances.  So this is what we do: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” (Prov 3:5-6 NKJV)

It doesn’t make good sense from the world’s perspective, but there hasn’t been a dull day following Jesus and there is always a purpose bigger than us. Some days are even fun!