Building Christlike character in the School of God

What a few weeks I have had! I’ve been in Asia for two weeks, covering three different countries, the first of which included our national directors annual gathering, the second a combined meeting of our international and Japan boards, and the third a visit with my colleagues and friends in another.

My first day back home I went in for what I thought was a routine checkup. As I sat down on the doctor’s chair, I quickly learned that this was a schedule for outpatient surgery. Imagine that news while you are fighting jet lag! You can see pictures from my MOH’s treatment surgery below…

One of my colleagues, Jeff Johnston, sent an encouraging word and profound advice (see Facebook picture here):

Persevere my friend. Praying for you that this ongoing challenge discontinue as He heals you. In the meantime, may this thorn in your flesh draw you into a more dependent posture, leaning upon Him… and bring about more character transformation in your life. (And use an SPF moisturizer every day.)

Jeff’s advice reminded me of something another colleague frequently mentions to our team. He serves as president of Sunrise International Ministries, a great partner ministry to us at Asian Access. He often tells us that we are always in the School of God. God is always shaping our character and that this is one of the most important aspects of leadership. We refer to this profound wisdom as our second core outcome: Growing as a Christ-like Leader! The biggest leadership challenge we have worldwide is in the area of character and my friend does a great job of reminding us of it’s crucial importance.

Recently he also wrote this to me:

Joe, I recently shared with the brothers here on James 1:1-4 focusing about what to do when you face trials and difficulties. We are commanded to rejoice! The purpose is to make us mature and complete, not lacking anything. I am sure that you have heard the line before, “Many leaders are like a lake that is 10 miles wide, but only 10 inches deep.”  Too often this is true. God wants to deepen our character so that He can expand our ministry.

This friend has also developed an incredible resource for listening to the Lord in our bible study time. It’s called the Cross Bible Study and you can download a free copy below. I’ve used this several times and have found it a great way to listen to Jesus and grow in Christ-like leadership and character. I encourage you to give it a try and feel free to contact me for instructions on how to use it.

You can reach me at jhandley@asianaccess.org

The Importance of Christ-like Character

Thank you Jeff for reminding me of the importance of Christ-like character. It’s the critical component to good leadership today. And, thank you to my other friend for faithfully reminding us of this and for providing such a great resource in the Cross Bible Study!

How do you grow in Christ-like character? I’d love to learn from you!

Joe Handley
@jwhandley | JHandley@asianaccess.org

Cross Bible Study is a simple approach to help you encounter Christ personally through your daily time in the Word. This approach emphasizes meditating on passages in the Bible, hearing Jesus speak through those passages and obeying Jesus. Another primary goal of Cross Bible Study is to help you grow as a disciple of Jesus. Daily time in God’s Word is a major factor in your spiritual growth. In order to grow as Jesus’ disciple you need to learn to feed continually on the Word of God.

• If you are interesting in inspecting a sample PDF copy, English and Japanese versions may be found here.

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Joe Handley

President at A2.business

Joseph W Handley, Jr. is currently president of Asian Access and serves ex-officio on the Board of Directors.

Joe was born and raised in Southern California. He attended Azusa Pacific University where he earned a B.A. in psychology and an M.A. in Theology. Joe served nine years at Azusa Pacific University where he was the founding director of their Office of World Missions and leader of one of the first multi-national high school mission congresses in Mexico City in 1996. The Lord then called him to Rolling Hills Covenant Church in 1998 where Joe served as the Global Outreach Pastor and later the Associate Pastor for Outreach Ministries. In July of 2008, Joe answered the call of God to become the fourth president of Asian Access, a leader development movement that began in 1967.

Overarching Vision
Joe strives to develop leaders for missional movements across Asia. His passion is to come alongside local leaders to encourage and empower them in their calling to reach the world for Christ.

Other Roles
In addition to his role as president of Asian Access, Joe is a contributing blogger for the Billy Graham Center’s Gospel Life Blog. He is also the senior advisor for leader development with the International Orality Network. He serves on the advisory teams for ELEVATE, BiblicalTraining.org, and DualReach. Joe is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary.

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Latest posts by Joe Handley (see all)

• We are in this TOGETHER! - 20-March 2020
• Discipleship ROI - 18-July 2019
• God’s Tapestry - 12-April 2019