Pentecost

May 16, 2013 — Leave a comment

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JR. Forasteros - May 19, 2013

Pentecost

More From "Already/Not Yet"

Easter 2013 Mar 31, 2013 Listen
Living Between Two Worlds Apr 7, 2013 Listen
Holiness Apr 14, 2013 Listen
Church and Baseball Apr 21, 2013 Listen
Spiritual Gifts Apr 28, 2013 Listen
Pentecost May 19, 2013 Listen

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When we hear the story of Pentecost, with everyone speaking in multiple languages and tongues of fire and thousands finding Jesus for the first time, it’s frankly easy to become intimidated.

Because we look around today and think, Where’s all that?

Where are the miracles and the tongues of fire? Where’s the powerful, power-filled Church that’s moving and shaking and changing things?

Asking that question about Pentecost points to a whole set of questions that lie just beneath the surface of what we’ve been talking about throughout this series. Since Easter, we’ve been exploring how we are called to live Between Jesus’ resurrection and his second coming, in this time when the Kingdom is already here and not yet here at the same time.

We claimed that those who follow Jesus are called to be different from the world around us, that we should look like Jesus’ Life. We saw that the best way for us to live that different, holy life is in the Church (which began on Pentecost). That we’re all given – by the Holy Spirit – gifts that should enable us to serve each other. A couple of weeks ago, Keven told us that we gather to celebrate the new life we’re living with God and last week Sheila led us to see our purpose: to invite the rest of the world into this new life we’ve found in Jesus.

The scary thing about all that we’ve been talking about is how easily this new life with Jesus turns into a self-improvement program. If we’re not careful, we reduce Christianity to ‘just try harder’ or ‘just be better’. This powerful, world-altering, life-resurrecting faith ends up being sort of like the Atkins diet or P90X or the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. You just try, develop some new habits. And some people nail it and some people don’t and that’s that.

Then we hear the story of Pentecost and think, Woah I’m missing something big. But even then, we get caught up in the spectacle – the languages and the fire and the wind. It’s easy for us to miss the true importance of Pentecost for all the spectacle of the day.

What actually matters on Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit creates a people who will show the world who God is.

That’s it. That’s the bottom line on Pentecost. Behind all the flash and truly awesome, miraculous stuff, God has called a people together to become the light of the world. The Holy Spirit is the heartbeat, the lifeblood of the Church.

That might sounds odd to some of us. Of the three persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is certainly the most confusing, least understood. We can imagine the Father, in Heaven, ruling the world. And we really like Jesus, the Son who became human, who lived, died and was raised to rescue us from Sin and reclaim God’s good creation.

But the Spirit? We’re fuzzy on her. Many of us grew up hearing her called the Holy Ghost (and you still hear that on TV and in movies today). The term “ghost” is unfortunate because even though back in ole King James’ day, ghost and spirit were synonymous, today ‘ghost’ conjures images of departed loved ones and wronged, vengeful dead.

For many Christians, the Holy Spirit is sort of like a ghost – haunting the edges of our faith, lingering like a specter we don’t quite know what to do with.

But the Holy Spirit is vital to our faith! She’s the third person of the Trinity (again, more about next week). The Spirit is as fully God as is the Father or the Son. Everything that’s true of the Father or the Son is true of the Spirit (and vice versa). The Spirit is coequal and coeternal with both the Father and the Son.

In short, the Spirit is God, living and active in the world.

Join us Sunday as we celebrate the Holy Spirit and explore what she does in our lives!

The Crab Safari

May 6, 2013 — Leave a comment

1. Out of the Boat, Into Darkness

Can't see anything? Yup. That's about right.

Can’t see anything? Yup. That’s about right. This is our boat.

The outboard motor died and silence settled over the water like a shroud. Our guide’s broken English pierced the darkness:

Down! Down!

I looked over the side at the water. Were those rocks, visible just below the surface of the water? Or was the surface reflecting faint ambient light back onto the clouds above? We had been riding for nearly a quarter of an hour, and the lights of tiny dock had long faded into the distance. Ahead lay only the silhouettes of a Mangrove forest, their slightly blacker forms standing sentinel below the night sky, seawater lapping at their trunks.

As the rest of the newly-minted crabbing crew milled uncertainly in the boat, I hooked my legs over the side, grabbed the small, trident-shaped crab-spear and jumped into the depths…

…only to find myself in water barely to my shins.

This was not our boat. Ours was much smaller.

This was not our boat. Ours was much smaller.

The guide was out by then, untangling wires that ran from the motor to a half-dozen handheld lights that he distributed to pairs of us brave warriors hoping to prove ourselves against the briny shallows. Amanda and I struck out on the shore-side of the boat, quick to put distance between us and the other pairs.

I shined the light into the water, wondering if I would even recognize a crab through the refracting sea. Silently, we trudged through the water, hunters dragging our chariot behind us by electrified leashes, six beams of light scouring the seafloor, spears held high in anticipation of prey.

2. First Kill

My mom and her crabbing spear

My mom and her crabbing spear

A slow sense of foreboding crept over us until my mom called out,

This is a setup for a horror film, right?

On cue, the creatures began to appear – first harmless fish, barely larger than minnows, darting in and out of the light. Then, from behind, a creature skipped across the surface of the water – once, twice, five times, coming always closer to us before returning below the surface. We laughed to cover our fear, announcing that it must have been a fish as though we were offering one another last rites while our imaginations conjured some Cthuluian beast out of our nightmares.

The guide turned to me:

Mister! Your light! In the water!

Following his example, I plunged my light below the surface, at once marveling at how much more clearly I could see and wondering how many of us would die if one of those lights shorted in the water.

Our Crabbing Crew emerging from the darkness

Our Crabbing Crew emerging from the darkness

No sooner had the seafloor opened itself to me, than our guide plunged his spear into the water, then raised up a crab, pierced cleanly through the center of its shell, legs and claws flailing. He returned it to the boat, depositing his prey into a large bucket there.

As though the guide’s offering had been accepted by some dark sea god, suddenly sea creatures were everywhere. A light glowed in the water faintly ahead of me, and stayed in front of me. I saw it was a small squid, attempting to escape without drawing attention to itself. When I thrust at it with my spear, it sped into the inky blackness.

My light caught the brown-and-white body of a puffer-fish, which quickly escaped back into the darkness. Then, suddenly, a short scream errupted from the far side of the boat. Before we could react, a startled sting ray darted between Amanda and me, seeking safer waters. Our light caught another stingray a few yards away, content and undisturbed by our crew.

With a shout, the silhouette of another crewperson – I later learned it was my stepdad – held up his spear with another squid writhing on the end of it. Our crew let out a cheer – it was the first clear catch of the night (not counting the guide). But the guide motioned to the water and intoned gruffly,

No squid.

A little bit jealous, I looked back into the water and saw a starfish. Having never found a starfish (despite numerous trips to the beach), I scooped it out of the water and into my pocket, forgetting that a starfish in the water is still alive until I felt its arms pressing against my leg, writhing in my pocket.

3. The Pinchers of Defeat

My stepdad and his crab

My stepdad and his crab

We pressed on. Shortly, our guide turned to me, light pointing into the water a few yards ahead of me and gesturing with his spear:

Mister! Mister! Here!

Three long strides brought me within sight of the crab. A white streak, glowing in the light, resolved into the creature crawling on its back four legs, pinchers raised high in the water as though defending itself against the light.

Or perhaps they were raised in petition.

I approached the crab, Poseidon denying his supplicant the mercy it sought. I thrust my mighty trident into the sea.

And missed. Soundly.

The crab, having received its answer, scuttled off into the murky blackness. I pressed on, trying my best to ignore the guide’s patronizing disdain.

IMG_0924As I continued to search the waters, I was rewarded by a final sight: a flounder. As my light caught its pancake-shaped body, it undulated away, its eyes transfixed by terror on the beam.

Soon, our crew were pulling crabs from the water left and right. My stepdad caught a crab. My mom caught a crab. The Canadian who’d been nervous to jump in at first caught one, as did her Arab friend. The smoking couple who weren’t English speakers caught one.

Meanwhile, I missed three more of the skittish sub-marine devils.

4. Victory?

Finally, though Amanda had hung back, choosing to hold the light, she approached a crab, spearing it on her first try and raising it in victory. At her catch, the guide proclaimed

Done! Back in the boat!

You can't really see me, but these are our crabs.

You can’t really see me, but these are our crabs. Sound the feasting horn!

Grumbling, we all climbed back in and headed home, 15 crab in a bucket as the fruits of our labor. They cooked the crab when we got back and brought them to us on a platter. We dined as kings and queens of the sea.

If maritime monarchs had to spend 20 minutes cleaning crab meat from rather small crabs, that is. In the end, we had tremendous fun, and it was way less creepy than I tried to make it sound.

If you want to do the crab safari, it’s at the Flamingo Beach Resort in Um Al Qwuain. Details here.

Epilogue: The Horror Film

1. It's a mutant Star-of-David-Fish 2. It now lives only in my nightmares

1. It’s a mutant Star-of-David-Fish
2. It now lives only in my nightmares

We returned to Dubai that night and stayed in a hotel. I had forgotten about the starfish in my pocked until we were getting ready for bed. I took it out – now quite dead – and set it on the desk to dry overnight. The next morning, I rolled it in the t-shirt I’d worn on the safari and packed it carefully for the trip home.

Hours later, when we arrived back in Abu Dhabi, Amanda and I did laundry. I tossed all my safari clothes into the wash, not thinking about the starfish until a few hours – and few loads of laundry later. The t-shirt I’d wrapped it so carefully in was clean and folded, and the starfish was nowhere to be found.

I checked the washing machine. The dryer. My backpack. The floors of our room and the laundry room. It was nowhere to be found.

Now each night we try to find sleep while waiting to feel the tiny arms of the missing starfish pressing against our tired flesh, seeking its vengeance.

YOUR TURN: So who wants to go on a crab safari with us?

Iron Man 3 Fall PosterThe armor was never a hobby or a distraction. It was a cocoon. — Tony Stark

Iron Man 3 is Robert Downey Jr.’s fourth (and possibly final) turn as Tony Stark under his third director – Shane Black (Jon Favreau and Joss Whedon being the previous). It’s also the first Marvel Phase 2 film – meaning it’s the first single-hero film they’ve released in the wake of team-up superfest Avengers. The question on everyone’s mind is: Does Tony Stark still have an interesting story to tell?

Iron Man 3 proves the answer is Yes. Tony is back with a vengance and leaves us anxious for more!

Iron Man 3 features a new, more vulnerable Tony, the same cast we’ve grown to love and a pretty plausible excuse for not having other Avengers show up (not that I ever had a personal problem with that – as a comic reader I love reading both stand-alone Iron Man and Avengers titles). The villain is great, the story is great. It’s all great (in fact, Pepper and Rhodie are probably the two weakest parts of the film). If you liked the first Iron Man, my guess is you’ll love 3. If you didn’t like Iron Man 2, don’t worry! This film avoids 2′s mistakes nearly to a fault.

Fair warning: massive spoilers after this point Continue Reading…

Check out God or Godless on Amazon!

Check out God or Godless on Amazon!

Civil dialogue seems to be a thing of the past. More and more, we divide ourselves into camps, turn every issue into Us vs. Them. Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice. Democrats and Republicans. Cubs vs. Cardinals. And increasingly in our culture, Christian vs. Atheist.

When we polarize our positions, we eliminate any real opportunity for dialog.

I understand why we end up polarized: the convictions we hold are strong and mean a lot to us. We deeply care about whatever position we’ve assumed. But in our passion, we often dehumanize the person who does not agree with us. An opponent becomes an enemy.

That’s why we need genuine, civil dialog. We need interactions that don’t forsake kindness and charity for truth. We must remember that engaging the Other violently, without respect to their personhood, experiences and positions is wrong no matter how right our positions may be.

We don’t have many examples of civil, truth-seeking dialog with the Other, especially in the realm of religion. Until now. Continue Reading…

Pain and Gain PosterPain and Gain is the new film starring Mark Wahlburg (who will forever be Marky Mark in my heart) and The Rock. It’s smart, funny and completely over-the-top, which makes it hard to remember that the story actually happened. (Here’s a great article from Slate fact-checking the film).

But the most surprising is that this thoughtful, well-crafted film was directed by non other than Michael Bay.

Yes, that Michael Bay. The same director who crapped on my childhood with his Transformers films and desecrated a national tragedy with the abomination that is Pearl Harbor.

That Michael Bay made a smart, fun film that offers some fascinating reflections on the American Dream. Continue Reading…

Spiritual Gifts

April 26, 2013 — Leave a comment
This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Already/Not Yet

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JR. Forasteros - Apr 28, 2013

Spiritual Gifts

More From "Already/Not Yet"

Easter 2013 Mar 31, 2013 Listen
Living Between Two Worlds Apr 7, 2013 Listen
Holiness Apr 14, 2013 Listen
Church and Baseball Apr 21, 2013 Listen
Spiritual Gifts Apr 28, 2013 Listen
Pentecost May 19, 2013 Listen

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Church happens best when small groups of people who love Jesus get together and live out the Gospel together. This can be through serving, through studying, through celebrating.

This is where I want to hang out with you today. Let’s ask more specifically about how we do Church together. Not what we’re doing right now, where I am up here talking and you’re out there listening and taking notes and considering. But how do you do Church?

In other words, what do you bring to the table? Why are you essential?

The great news, the exciting news, is that if you are following Jesus, then the Holy Spirit has given you particular abilities that make you unique and necessary to the Church. Your Church needs you. You are vital to what God is doing in your local church.

We can see that in 1 Corinthians 12. The Christians in Corinth had written to Paul to ask him several questions. One of their questions was about how they were supposed to do Church when they got together. Paul had apparently taught them about what he called “Spiritual Gifts” or “Gifts of the Holy Spirit”, and they asked for some clarification about them. Here’s what he said:

Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this… There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

Paul says, There are lots of different kinds of gifts, but they’re all from the same Spirit. We all serve in different ways, but we’re all serving the same God. We’re all different, but all the same. He goes on:

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.

It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. – 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 (NLT)

Why do we have Spiritual gifts? To help each other. Then Paul goes on to list a pretty nice variety of gifts, and reminds us that they all come from the Holy Spirit. [my gift goes out to everyone else]

This idea that we all have particular gifts and talents can be tough to get our minds around, especially if you’re more familiar with this “big room” model of church. So let me show you something that may help get your brain around what Paul’s talking about.


Do you know why The Avengers worked so well as a movie, why it’s the third highest grossing film of all time? Because every single character was needed for the story to work. If you had taken out any one of those characters, the team would’ve lost (yes, even Hawkeye!).

A super team is only super if each of them is necessary. And believe it or not, God designed the Church to function the same way.

Yes, I’m saying that Church is like The Avengers.

Which may not help matters much if you’re sitting there thinking, Okay, I definitely don’t have any “superpowers”. I definitely don’t have any special gifts from the Spirit.

But the Scriptures tell us that if you follow Jesus, if you have turned from sin and embraced the new life God offers, then God the Holy Spirit has given you some unique abilities.

The problem isn’t that you don’t have gifts. It’s usually trying to figure out what those abilities are.

Join us Sunday as we explore what it means to have Gifts from the Spirit!

Why My Wife is Awesome

April 25, 2013 — 3 Comments

My wife Amanda turns 28 today, and there’s nothing I like more than an excuse to shout her praises from the (virtual) rooftops. So if you’ll indulge me, in Acrostic fashion, here’s why Amanda is awesome:

Amanda attended Gem City ComiCon 2013 with me!

Amanda attended Gem City ComiCon 2013 with me!

Adaptable

Amanda is one of the most laid-back people I know. It’s not that she doesn’t care about anything; she just really loves everything an everyone. And since she’s always putting other people ahead of herself, she’s totally willing to go anywhere, do anything, try everything at least once. I’m always learning to be more relaxed and content in my current circumstances from Amanda’s example.

Mischievous

Amanda feels bad that T-Rex has such short arms.

Amanda feels bad that T-Rex has such short arms.

Unless you know Amanda well, this word probably didn’t come to mind when you think of her. But her closest friends know she is feisty. She’s so nice (more on that below) that those who cross her don’t see that side of her, but she’s got a little anarchist in her that comes out every now and again. Since I’m a lot anarchist, I love this about her.

It’s not hard to get Amanda to plan a prank or participate in a surprise party (though she hates having to keep secrets).

And this isn’t really mischievous, but Amanda is also the queen of corny jokes. Ask her where the general keeps his armies (or follow her Bridge Café twitter account) Continue Reading…

Just waiting for Families?

Just waiting for Families?

I grew up going to Christian Youth Summer Camp. The ongoing joke was that camp concluded each year by playing the Michael W. Smith neo-classic “Friends Are Friends Forever” while everyone cried and hugged their new best friends forever and swore to write to each other. Which of course never happened. (And yes, I grew up before cell phones and social media. I get it. I’m old.)

The song turned into a joke for a lot of reasons – mostly the misappropriation of the song by the camp leaders to manipulate an already-emotionally-charged environment. I wasn’t actually friends with any of those people I met at the camps. I liked them. They were (and I’m sure still are) great people. But we’d known each other for at most four days. We were acquaintances.

Despite what the song promised, those summer camp friendships weren’t real friendships.

Last week, the internet practically exploded with a different sort of Friends frenzy. Buzz erupted that the now-classic 90s sitcom Friends would return for a reunion episode – or possibly entire season. But the rumor was crushed by the sitcom’s co-creator Marta Kauffmann when she told Entertainment Weekly,

I’m going to clear this up — it’s not happening. Friends was about that time in your life when your friends are your family and once you have a family, there’s no need anymore. (emphasis mine)

Look kids! Single people! Their abject misery is hilarious!

Look kids! Single people! Their abject misery is hilarious!

You probably already knew that I’m not a big fan of sitcom theology, but this deserves special attention. Kauffmann’s remarks about the kind of friendship, indeed the kind of personhood embodied on Friends is telling. A person’s friends are not essential to their core being. Rather, a person isn’t fully human until they’re married with children. Friends, according to Friends’ creator, are fundamentally inferior to – and different from – family.

According to Kauffmann, even though Ross and Rachel and Monica and Chandler and Joey and Phoebe might still have some stories, the Friends don’t have any stories left to tell together. Their collective story is over.

The philosophy behind the most popular sitcom of the last generation says that friends are good enough until you get a family. But once you have a real family, you don’t need those friends anymore.

Such a shallow picture of friendship is as false as those summer camp relationships. Continue Reading…

Church and Baseball

April 18, 2013 — 2 Comments
This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Already/Not Yet

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JR. Forasteros - Apr 21, 2013

Church and Baseball

More From "Already/Not Yet"

Easter 2013 Mar 31, 2013 Listen
Living Between Two Worlds Apr 7, 2013 Listen
Holiness Apr 14, 2013 Listen
Church and Baseball Apr 21, 2013 Listen
Spiritual Gifts Apr 28, 2013 Listen
Pentecost May 19, 2013 Listen

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Last week, I had the opportunity to go to Opening Day for the Dayton Dragons. The game got rained out, which made me think about how similar the Dayton Dragons are to Church.

I know that sounds odd. If you’re like me, you default to thinking about Church as the Sunday worship service. “Church” is what we do one day a week (give or take). On a Sunday morning. Usually. If we’re not too busy.

In fact, if you think about being holy as being different, then this understanding of Church as a different place and different time makes a lot of sense. We go to Church to be holy because Church is a different time (Sundays, which are different from the ordinary days) and at a different place (this building, which is pretty different from your house or office). It’s special. Set apart. Different. Holy.

Makes sense. The problem is that it’s not very biblical.

Calling a worship service “Church” is far from what God has in mind for those who follow Jesus.

And that’s actually really good news. After all, if we’re talking about the massive difference between God’s way and the ways of the world, if we’re claiming that one of these paths leads to life and all the others lead to death, but then we say, Well the main difference amounts to what you do for about 4 hours a month… That seems a little silly, doesn’t it?

Surely the sum total of our life with God isn’t what goes on in this room an hour a week? Surely when we make these grandiose claims about Jesus rising from the dead and offering us new life that doesn’t just mean… now you get to spend a bit of your time listening to some guy talk and wave his arms around!

Obviously that’s not it.

Our problem with Church is really a problem of language.

How we talk about Church reflects our assumption that Church is this place. We “go” to church. We say, “it’s time for Church”, “Hurry up or we’ll be late for Church”. I don’t want to “miss” Church. Can you tell me how to “get to the Church?”

All of that says that Church is particular time and particular place. We can mark it on a map. We can set our clocks by it. We can miss it.

It’s too bad we don’t speak ancient Greek. Because the word the Bible uses for “church” is ekklesia. It literally means “called together”. When the first Christians experienced the resurrection of Jesus, and they started meeting together and doing a lot of the same things we do in here, they wanted a word to describe what they were doing.

And they chose the word “ekklesia“. They said, we’re the “called together”. It was a word Greek people used to talk about a group that met for a purpose (as opposed to people who were just hanging out, or a mob, or a crowd).

An ekklesia met on purpose, for a purpose.

Why isn't this Church?

Why isn’t this Church?

In that regard, a Church is much more like a PTA or a Rotary Club, or even the crowd at the Dragons game. In fact, that’s what I meant earlier about the Dragons game being sort of like Church.

What constitutes a Dragons game? Clearly not everything that happens in that stadium is a Dragons game. Little league games that get to play in the stadium are clearly not Dragons games. Neither are the concerts they hold in there.

And I tried to go to a Dragons game on opening day. But it got rained out. So even though the players were in the stadium and it was full of fans and they were selling hotdogs, it wasn’t a Dragons game.

It’s not the building (or stadium) that makes for Dragons baseball. It’s the team, and the fans. It’s this group of people when they are called together for a particular purpose (in this case, baseball). In fact, the Dragons can play baseball somewhere else, and it’s still a Dragons game.

It’s not even necessarily that the things we do in Church are that different from what we do at a baseball game. We all know sports fans who have what we would describe as a religious zeal for their team. They’re evangelistic in spreading the Gospel of their team pride. And when we go to baseball games, we all stand up and sing songs together. We have rituals to open the game. And I’m not saying peanuts and crackerjacks are exactly the same as communion, but it’s pretty fascinating that eating and drinking together is so fundamental to big groups of people getting together.

No, what really makes PTA different from the Dayton Dragons or the Rotary Club or a Board Game Convention is its purpose.

The Church is not a building, it’s the people. We are the ekklesia, the “called together”. So the question we should ask is: Why are we called together? What’s our purpose? What makes us different, unique? What makes us the Church and not the PTA or the Dragons or the Rotary?

Join us Sunday as we explore what the Church’s purpose is, and what that means for how we “do Church”!

Click to check out Catalyst Leader on Amazon!

Click to check out Catalyst Leader on Amazon!

For more than a decade, Brad Lomenick has led Catalyst, the premier leadership brand for young Christian leaders. He’s finally distilled his 20+ years of leadership experience and his time at the helm of Catalyst into a simple, accessible and straight-forward guide to what it takes to be a next-generation leader.

Brad defines a Catalyst Leader as a “change maker”:

A leader who wants to make a difference. To make your life’s work count. To leave the world better than you found it. A change maker is someone who leverages his or her influence for the betterment of the world, to collective good of others, and the greater glory of God. And living out the 8 essentials of a Catalyst Leader is crucial for a leader to be a change maker.

What are the 8 essentials of a Catalyst Leader? Continue Reading…