TITUS CONNECTION Volume 20, Number 5 May, 2026
WISE INTENTIONAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
TITUS CONNECTION
Volume 20, Number 5 May, 2026
Intentionally Developing Multigenerational Leaders
Throughout The World
Greetings. Welcome to May’s Connection. This month we interact with Nehemiah in the spiritual leadership paradox of Optimism versus Realistic. Then the interaction of Paul’s life is discussed in the Youth Ministry Illustration. Enjoy. Mike
Leadership Paradox – Optimism vs. Realistic
Vision versus blind spots. A paradox a spiritual leader wrestles with. On the one hand, vision offers direction, a target to aim for and helps you stay focused as you move through your life. With vision comes the reality of blind spots (issues that you did not anticipate or areas you did not see coming), because you do not know what you do not know. In most cases you only have a few answers to a plethora of questions.
In vision comes optimism but with blind spots, you live with being realistic. Having vision, you see what others cannot or do not see and you enthusiastically move forward. Then you have lots of questions and probably no way to solve issues that come up. So you try new ideas because you are open to suggestions.
You may be unconventional in your approach, as vision encourages lifelong learning to overcome blind spots that come up as you move forward. You play to win, you want to be proactive. Being creative and willing to give an idea a try because you are refusing to bow down to the logic of “We have always done it this way.” Or “We have never tried it this way, so we cannot”.
Experience can slow you down but having a fresh set of eyes helps with our vision, a kind of kick starting something. Naysayers bring up blind spots like inexperience, you will make mistakes, what you are thinking is crazy, you do not know where this could lead to or the fact that you are showing more courage than the naysayer has.
Vision causes you to move forward when you run into a blind spot. Learn to fail forward.
When God lays on your heart for you do get involved in a vision of whatever magnitude it is, “What He originates, God orchestrates” (Andy Stanley). Recall Nehemiah. In the book named after him, Nehemiah is confronted with the problem of the Jerusalem walls broken down. God began to work this vision on his heart
Nehemiah was a slave, the cupbearer in King Artaxerxes court (Nehemiah 2). Prior to the king eating and drinking, a cupbearer tasted the beverages and foods to make sure no one had poisoned what the king was about to partake in. The cupbearer was quite expendable.
Nehemiah had this God vision with a great number of blind spots, including the reality that he had no money, could not leave due to his job and lived far from Jerusalem. Over a four-month period, God’s vision changed Nehemiah to the point that one day as Nehemiah entered the king’s presence, he was very sad.
The law was you could not be sad in the king’s presence or you could easily die. King Artaxerxes, a heathen ruler, did not know if Nehemiah was sick or sad. Nehemiah was praying for the opportunity to share his burden with the king, and here was the moment – another blind spot.
God prepared the king’s heart as he heard what Nehemiah was sharing. The king provided what Nehemiah needed to travel to and begin to rebuild the walls. What is God laying on your heart to be involved in His Kingdom work? What He originates, He orchestrates!
Nehemiah spent time looking over the needs of the wall, what needed to be accomplished to complete the project, then shared the vision with the Jerusalem elders. He was being realistic and involved people who could help accomplish the vision. With some blind spots, obstacles can come along the journey and destroy the vision. Do not get ahead of God. Utilize godly Christians to help you navigate your blind spots.
Naysayers came like Sanballat and Tobiah, but Nehemiah stayed focused. This blind spot caused Nehemiah to keep the vision of the rebuilding the wall, but the strategy and methods changed somewhat (chapter 4).
Do not ignore blind spots as they can help you become sharper in seeking solutions to the vision you pursue. In 52 days, the vision was completed. God orchestrates.
During COVID (blind spot), WILD changed its strategy on training and developing people from large group seminars to one-to-one, zoom calls and in some cases, very small groups of people getting together to be discipled or mentored in WILD’s leadership material. Results were tremendous. God was gracious.
While some groups immensely struggled because they could not meet in large groups and unfortunately for some, never recovered, but WILD flourished. This is not because WILD is God’s special gift to the body of Christ, but because WILD met blind spots head on and were able to stay focused on the vision from God. Thank you, Lord.
YOUTH MINISTRY ILLUSTRATION –
PAUL’S FOCUS NEVER WAVERED
What is your top priority or motivation in life? Is it to have a successful, happy life, to have a job where you can comfortably live or have a wonderful family? None of these are not necessarily bad. As a young person, you are in position to have some of these goals occur.
When Paul considered his greatest priority, here was his response. “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead” (Philippian 3:10-13).
Let’s break this down. After having his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road, Paul’s priority was to get to know His Savior better every day, to have a deep, intimate relationship with Him and to experience as much as humanly possible God’s power. Then he added that he was willing to suffer for the name of Christ.
He was pressing forward with these goals. The past accolades of his life (vs 4-7) were no longer any motivation for him, in fact, his past was not going to define who he was. Everything he was going to do moving forward was focused on him getting to know Jesus more intimately, no matter the circumstance.
Paul was not going to settle for a good relationship. Rather what was on his daily agenda was to make his Jesus relationship his absolute priority. I feel what he said about his desire to suffer with Jesus and sharing in His death made knowing Christ not a convenience goal but completely every aspect of his being, that absolute goal.
There are times when we have a priority that when things get difficult, we tend to back off or not work as diligently as we can because there is a price to pay. This passage in Philippians speaks of excellence. From a spiritual perspective,1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” is the standard believers need to hold to.
No matter what I am doing, (and everything we do is spiritual because we are spiritual beings) it is to bring honor, glory and recognition to Jesus. Make that your standard and you will begin to do some things differently. This standard will keep us from doing things that would not bring honor to God.
A priority is fun and easy when there is little or no sacrifice, an easy choice to bring honor to Jesus. Think about Jesus’ suffering. Now some of His suffering we cannot ever do because it was at a God level. Yet there is a good deal of suffering He did that we also can experience if we are obedient to Him.
How about being laughed at, mocked, cursed at or physically hurt because we follow Jesus? If you indicate that you are a follower of Jesus, have you been excluded from a group, lost acquaintances or a job, or received a lower grade in school?
Am I every ashamed of His name, hold back on a conversation that involves a spiritual component because I do not want to suffer for being counted as one of His? Paul had no problem being completely out there for Jesus. Suffering in anyway for Jesus was not an issue.
Desiring to know Christ in the greatest way possible for us includes prioritizing our time and energy to grow in relationship with Him (spending time reading, mediating, memorizing Scripture, being in communication with Him through talking and listening, interacting with other Christians), being obedient to what Scripture says, willing to suffer for Him and being available to serve Him in whatever capacities we are presented. Are these items at the top of your priority list? Then you will be like Paul in many ways.