Hard Way or Easy Way
Get 2 The Next Level Leadership
www.get2thenextlevel.com
Life is more about the school of hard knocks than it is about academia. Learning is a process not an exercise. There is more already at work inside of you than you will learn in a life time. Each new experience should be seen as the process by which we learn more about who we really are on the inside. God has designed each of us with unique DNA. Just as we are all unique physically, we are a unique person that when fully realized, becomes who God intended us to be. The big question is, “Do I work life out the hard way or the easy way?” Knowledge is what you know, but wisdom is what you have learned through experience. The sad things is that for most people, it is the end of life before they attain true wisdom.
1- Wisdom comes through the experiences of life. Someone said, “The last words of an idiot are…’Watch this’.” We have all done things that we look back and wonder what we were thinking. In actuality, the bad part is not so much that we did something not wise. It is that we didn’t learn anything from it. Be careful whose example you follow. Want to be successful in a particular area? Find someone who has wisdom about it, not just someone who knows something about it.
2- Wisdom comes through pain. To become a butterfly a caterpillar goes through a complete metamorphosis. What a beautiful thing a butterfly is, but it came about through pain. Not all caterpillars experience this pain. They die and never become a butterfly. On the other side, every butterfly must have experienced a “complete metamorphosis” in his life. These are called Life Maturing stages.
3- Wisdom comes through taking life seriously. If you spend your whole life partying and not taking the right things seriously, you will eventually fall very short. To take life seriously, every phase of it has to be taken seriously. Foolish people waste the opportunities placed in their life. Often they miss them alltogether because of looking at them immaturely. Face the day ahead. See the challenges as “growth spirts” in your life.
You Are Your Worst Enemy
Get 2 The Next Level Leadership
http://www.get2thenextlevel.com/
We are great at blaming others for our failures or lack of success. Some see their inability to reach their potential because they are a product of a bad environment, unfortunate circumstances, insufficient resources, or all of the above. These could all be external factors, but not the entire equation. I would like for you to look deeper than what seems to be the obvious. You have been uniquely designed by God for a purpose. Let’s look a few factors that could cause you to become your own worst enemy.
1- A little goes a long way. This thought can help us if we see it in the positive and the negative. First the positive. A little “knowledge” goes a long way. You don’t have to “know it all” to begin your road to success. A little “drive” goes a long way. Start with your number one passion and begin to pursue it. Now, the negative. A wrong decision can go a long way, only if it is left unchecked and unchanged. A small character flaw goes a long way when not corrected. Look at one or two things in your life that you could immediately address and start there. Those small steps can begin a process that will go a long way.
2- Guard the respect you have earned. If don’t have the respect of others you are not a leader. John Maxwell says, “If you are leading, and no one is following, you are not a leader, you are just out taking a walk.” It takes a lifetime to build a solid reputation, and an instant to tear it all down.
3- Don’t dig a hole you can’t get out of. You do this by not thinking before you act. By not over-promising and under-delivering. In the business world you might define this as the difference between working in “Sales vs Service”. Someone said that a fool places himself in a situation that he cannot get out of.” Making bold and definitive statements can place you in a situation where change and growth are impossible.
4- Don’t stoop to the level of others or burn the bridges behind you. It is foolish to have the mindset that others achieve success simply because they get all of the breaks. There are hard working honest people all around you. Look around, specific people have been placed in your life for a strategic reason. Some of them will sharpen you, others will agitate you out of complacency, a few will motivate and inspire you. Don’t shun the people placed in your life whether you agree with them or not. You can learn from those who are like you, and those who are not. Remember, there could be a day when you need them again in your life.
5 Principles To Leading Change
We all realize that times change, seasons change, views change, even knowledge changes. We are living in a day where technology enhances the possibility of rapidly expanding our knowledge. What about YOU? You are changing whether you know it or not, whether you acknowledge it or not. Part of the responsibility of a leader is embracing change first within yourself so you can lead others. Below are some principles to consider:
1- There must be a valid reason for change. We should not change just for the sake of change. We should not change simply because others are changing. It will become evident because of an obvious need that change is necessary. When a valid need for change comes, as leaders, we must lead it with confidence.
2- You will need more than just a plan to change. Implementing change is 90% of the act. Once you have the courage to make the change, the rest seems to flow. The hardest part is pulling the trigger. Dreams are simply that, dreams, unless they turn into vision and action. Vision will plot a course of action because it is leading somewhere. Vision will cause you to act not just strategize.
3- There must be a willingness to invest what it takes to bring the change. Bringing about change is often a slow, tedious process. It requires doing your homework as well as the fortitude to have the patience and ability to work at it. If you as the leader will not sacrifice to bring about the change, those following you will not sacrifice either.
4- It is about being strong enough not to be swayed by others idea of change. Remember, change is relative. It is uniquely tailored for the person, occasion, and need. It is not a one-size-fits-all concept. What works for one may not work for another.
5- The leader must have the guts to take full responsibility for the change, and the integrity to live with the results. It takes thick skin to lead change because it often means being misunderstood. Leaders do no operate by the poll numbers. They live by a drive and commitment to see the end result. If you lead the change, take ownership of it. Failure can happen, but so can success!
Riding In The Ruts
Get 2 The Next Level Leadership
http://www.get2thenextlevel.com
We all want to reach our full potential. We all want to blaze a trail that is our own. What hinders that from happening? Why do we seem to veer off the road to success down a side road of mediocrity? Dirt roads (which are few these days) are notorious for developing ruts in the places where the most people drive. Before long they become so deep that the only way to drive on that road is to drive in them. One sign in Alaska states, “Choose your ruts carefully, you will be in them for the next 200 miles.” If you expect success you have to chart your own course. You have to set the bar higher than those around you and not quit until you reach it.
1- If you plan to reap, you need to sow. Life is an adventure and everyone is given opportunities. You may feel that you don’t have the same opportunities as others. That may be so, but what about the ones you do have. As you take advantage of those, others will begin to appear. Someone once said, “Success is never guaranteed, but failure is automatic if we don’t try.”
2- Let go of things you can’t control. Stop and think about it, lots of things happen around us that we cannot control. Why stay awake and night and worry about the weather, you can’t control it. Practice this thought: If you can’t control it, control it. If you can’t control it, let go of it. Just because we have enough wisdom to see what is happening, if we have no control over it, we must not waste our energy worrying about it.
3- Don’t let your circumstances determine your effectiveness. Circumstances should have no control over laziness, procrastination, making excuses, or even failure. Failure is not final. It is simply a stop on the road to ultimate success. There will always be uncertain circumstances so if you use them to stop your progress, you are doomed for failure.
4- Never stop learning. Leaders are readers. There are so many places to learn. The written word is the mind of the author. Certainly, book knowledge can help us. There is probably another way to learn that is even more effective though, and that is studying the lives of others. Often times we learn as much or more not by what people say, but by what they don’t say. Another thought is to learn from your own mistakes. Why would you want to go through the whole process of completing something, only to fail and never learn from it.
God is putting the pieces of the puzzle together!
IT’S A GOD THING!!!
IT’S A GOD THING! We had a lengthy meeting with 4 pastors in Mali who are from 4 DIFFERENT UNENGAGED PEOPLE GROUPS! They have been praying for God to help them train and send Mali people to Burkina Faso to reach their people. North Point will partner with them to do just that. We need more churches to partner with us to do more than just support missions. We need you to get DIRECTLY involved in changing history forever – reached a unreached, unengaged people group. Read Revelation 7:9!
We will probably be starting with an unengaged people group called the Senufo. They live mainly in Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Ivory Coast. We know that they can reach their people better than we can. We discussed a partnership between their local churches in Mali and North Point to go after them. Soon they will send survey teams down into the Senufo people to see where each village is located. We will give them a GPS so they can log in the exact coordinates to the location of each village.
The churches in Mali will send out young men as missionaries from their church to Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast to evangelize, start a church, and disciple the believers. Once a man rises up to pastor that church, he will be trained and the missionary will turn the church over to him. The Mali missionary will go on to the next village and begin the same process.
Over 80% of the people we will be reaching are illiterate. The Senufo people do have a New Testament translated into their language but there are two problems: not many copies available and they can’t read them. We will be raising money for a device that has their New Testament recorded on it for them to listen to. It can run off batteries, electricity, solar panel, or you can turn a crank. What an awesome tool so EVERYONE can hear.
Before they even knew we what coming to Mali they had already begun to see what they could do about reaching these groups. They have a FIRST EVER Mission’s Conference set up for next week. Many of their churches had decided to come together to pray and preach about missions with the hope that some would surrender to go. Here we come in today with the same vision and God was already working behind the scenes. This is exciting!
Pray about some much needed funds for the recorded Bible project and a few others we are praying about. We serve a BIG GOD and we are doing this for HIM!
Great Day in Mali
We have spent a lot of hours on the road (if you could call it a road). My head is as familiar with the roof of the car as my rear end is with the seat. I preached to a great church this morning and enjoyed worshipping African style. They know how to really play the drums! They are very loving, friendly people too.
We had a 3 hour meeting on Sunday afternoon with two men that represent a lot of churches in Mali. We spent time talking about partnering with their churches to reach a number of unreached people groups in Burkina Faso, the country to the south. They will have a meeting with all of their churches in about a month to see the response and if there are any young men who feel called to leave their country to be a missionary.
You may ask, “Why do we need them so bad?” Good question. They can win the people groups there much easier than we can because they are what we call a “Proximate People Group.” By Proximate, we mean, they are a similar culture and are nearby. They have no barriers to stop them, and they can do the job quicker and more effective than an American every could. We believe our job is to partner with them so the have the strategy, tools, guidance, and oversight from people who can help them.
North Point, and other US churches will soon join us to become THE missionary to the field of Burkina Faso. The National pastors here will work directly with us as we attempt to change a group from being ‘UNREACHED” to “REACHED”. That is an AWESOME thought that we could change an entire people group ourselves! Read Revelation 7:9 to see what God thinks about it.
Please pray for the upcoming meetings Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We need everyone together on the same page to accomplish this large task.
Signing out from TIMBUCTOO and heading SOUTH!
I’m going to knock you to Timbuctoo!!
I heard that saying as a child. Well it is coming true in my life. I’m going to Timbuctoo (Tombouctou), Mali. The team from North Point is tired and have reason to be. We arrived at the airport at 10am (Thursday); flew to New York, then to Senegal Africa. We landed in Senegal about 4am on Friday. We had a 4 hour layover and flew to Bamako, Mali.
I have not taken any pictures yet, but I will. We are staying in a nice hotel the first night and the last night. The nights in between sound intesting. We drive approx. 8 hours on Saturday close to Timbuctoo. I will be preaching there on Sunday. We will be meeting with some pastors over these days that have a desire to reach many of the unengaged. They say the hotel has no electricity and the only running water comes from a tank on top that stores water.
We also met a lady who has been a missionary here for 5 years and has been working with and praying for laborers to reach these groups. It is exciting to see the Lord working even before we arrived. Pray that the Lord orders our steps as we lay the groundwork for what could be a strategic partnership between the American and Mali Churches to reach people
We are 5 hours ahead of Georgia. I have been up alomost two days and my eyes are crossing. If you find any typo’s, just know it’s not normal. Keep praying for North Point’s involvement in reaching the Unreached, Unengaged!!! We plan on partnering with some other Bible preaching churches to connect them directly to the National pastor on the field to turn their country up-side down. These Mali nationaly pastors are willing to send of their best men to be trained by us in Bamako
Love everybody, I hope to be home next Friday.
Dr. Rodney A. Agan
Lauren is a Freshman!??????
Paula and I took Lauren to Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, FL. It’s hard to believe but “our baby is growing up.” Her roommate is Ashley Mack, daughter of Roy and April Mack. Roy pastors Pinecrest Baptist in McDonough, GA. This is picture of the girls with their moms and dads at Freshman Orientation. 
Lauren will be getting a degree in Education with a major in Special Needs. It’s great to have Nathan back home. He graduated from Trinity last May. He is now working for our ministry. We moved one OUT and one IN!
Heading Home …wahoooo!
It is 6am Georgia time and we are leaving Cambodia in 2 hours. We will fly to Vietnam and have a 3 hour layover. We will fly from Vietnam to Tokyo, Japan. We will have a 12 hour layover. We will fly 14 hours from Tokyo to Georgia!!! We should arrive about 7pm GA time.
Pray for our safety and continue to pray for the people of Vietnam and Cambodia!
God Bless!
