Paul D LeFavor – författare

This book is for warrior leaders. Those who have been given the great privilege of leading our nation’s Armed Forces. This book is an attempt to not only define the essence of leadership, especially the kind that is required in a tactical setting, but to enable us as leaders to become decisive and make a positive impact. To that end, this book draws from numerous battles and engagements in an effort to gain theoretical experience – præmonitus præmunitus.

While it’s true that no book can reduce leadership to a set of learnable skills, we may gain an understanding of everything leadership entails by surveying various leaders throughout history who shaped events, examine their personalities, and along with a look at their critical decisions and actions, encapsulate the essence of leadership. While avoiding concepts merely in the abstract, this book will attempt to make ready use of the cogency and profundity of such great military minds as Sun Tzu, Vegetius, Saxe, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, Jomini, Clausewitz, Patton, Marshall, MacArthur, etc., as well as various classical and modern philosophers.

The purpose of any profession is to serve society by effectively delivering a necessary and useful specialized service. Most professions serve individual clients. The military serves a collective client, the Nation.

With this in mind, using various examples drawn from history, this volume is designed to apportion practical tools of leadership to the leaders of America’s Armed Forces. One might ask: What benefit does a study of historical figures afford to the study of leadership? In a word, much in every way, as John Jessup observes, “Despite vast changes in technology since World War II, the combat leader may still learn much from the study of past battles and campaigns. Weather, terrain, and intelligence of friendly and enemy dispositions, for instance, are as important today as in the days of Alexander, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon; human reactions in combat remain relatively constant.

This book consists of seven chapters. Chapter one introduces the definition of leadership, surveying its various aspects. Chapter two examines the leader as planner. Chapter three explores the leader as example. Chapter four investigates the leader as warrior. Chapter five ponders the leader as instructor. Chapter six takes stock of the leader as counselor. Lastly, chapter seven considers the leader as a disciple of war, that is, one who delves into military history and develops himself professionally, thus obtaining theoretical experience. Finally, several appendices provide the leader with creeds and principles for which to guide action.

Contrary to popular belief, eschatology drives, or at least affects in large measure, one's evangelical beliefs and efforts. We will argue, a resurrection will occur at Christ's second coming, in which all the dead will be raised up. This resurrection will coincide with the return of Christ and the end of the world, and will precede the final judgement. A prominent error in the church, which correlates to and is driven by rapture theology, presents us with a separate saving program for the ethnic nation of Israel, leading many Christians, in large measure, to fall short in their evangelistic efforts to Jews. The purpose of this study is threefold: First, to confront issues like these with biblical truth and demonstrate from biblical studies, Church history and systematic theology that the phrase "Great Tribulation" is a technical term referring to the end time trial which as already been set in motion by Christ's first advent and will culminate with His second advent; second, to argue that God has a providential purpose for tribulation, and third, to demonstrate the manner in which John's 'tribulation-kindom-endurance' triad forms a paradigmatic structure in the Apocalypse, Christ's end times discourses in the gospels as well as the Pauline corpus.

C. S. Lewis once observed, “there are theologians in the bottom of hell who were more interested in their own thoughts about God than in God himself.”  It was for this reason, Lewis counseled, that a “dogmatician” should also preach regularly. Lewis’ pithy observation underscores an immensely important point in the life of any preacher: One’s walk with the Lord Jesus must not only be genuine, it must be vibrant. This is especially true for men who have consecrated themselves to the task of leading the Lord’s people as an under shepherd – pastor. Preparing for the ministry begins by applying God’s Word to oneself (1 Tim 4:16).

    Moreover, men who serve as pastors in the church should be gifted to that end, and above all, they must have a mind for truth and a heart for God.  In other words, above all other qualifications, a man must be born again and have received God’s call and gifts to serve as pastor (Jn 3:3; Eph 4:11).

    In addition to all expected godly characteristics, a pastor must possess thick skin, as potential “slights” abound. Simply, a pastor requires the wisdom of Solomon, the prudence of Jethro, the patience of Job, and the hide of a rhinoceros. Moreover, these qualities must be undergirded by the humility and love of Christ. Possessing these and having a mind for truth and love for God and mankind, a pastor must be truly called and know it, God gifted, and motivated to serve as Christ’s undershepherd. That is quite a lot! What this therefore brings to mind is a pastor is a man who understands God’s grace and is in ready need of it.

    A pastor is also to be a theologian, as theology is the study of God as well as the application of His Word to all areas of life. This is essentially the purpose for this pastor’s handbook, to provide a simple resource to encapsulate the most important truths of our common salvation, to equip pastors for the work of ministering the Word. For assuredly, what the Church most desperately needs to recover is sound biblical teaching and preaching that is deliberately Trinitarian, highly Christocentric, and urgently evangelistic. It is my prayer that this book represents a prescription for the Church’s present need.