CenturionXL

Centurion (Xtreme Leadership)

Hello & Welcome! So, if you found this site, it probably wasn’t an accident. However, I don’t promote this site. It’s just a place that I hang out and work through my thoughts and ideas for writing projects and teaching resources I’m developing. I welcome constructive feedback! I’ll post the feedback if it’s constructive. Occasionally, I’ll get a destructive personality that wants to pick a fight or argue about something. That’s not why I come here to work through my thoughts. If you found this place, and you see value in a discussion, I welcome your input and honest engagement.

It’s also a place where I’ve been working through the concept of operations (CONOP) for Centurion, a 501c3 ministry that we will be launching some time in 2022.

Centurion will become a light in the darkness for warriors and leaders. Rising from the ashes since 1984 and honoring the life of a brother fallen in spiritual battle, Centurion will provide extreme leadership (XL) for difficult times. A vision from the Lord to two young men of faith, who would walk together in faith for over 35 years. A story of struggle, battle, and endurance. Years ago, they called it “Morning Star.” It was new, and to them, the vision represented the light of Christ rising in a dark and fallen world from which they had both been radically saved.

In 2006, while in Israel and at the gates of Capernaum, the vision became known as “Centurion.” After years of endurance and life struggle, like the Centurion that met Jesus in Capernaum, both the vision and the men have become something of grit and tenacity. Not by choice, but by the brutality of a world that tried many times to cast them down. But even the strongest of men sometimes fall to the whiles of the devil and the lures of the world.

Warrior Suicide: Death calls us all, but for one man who was called by God, he fell too early. He was my closest friend for 36 years. He gave in and turned on the very principles he lived and taught. Trauma overtook him. We fought these demons together many times – but in the end, the darkness won that battle. I was away on travel, as I so often am called to do. The guilt at times would be overwhelming. The pain since has also been challenging at times. If you’ve lost a good buddy or someone you love to suicide, then I know you understand. Doctors would be the indirect cause of his falling, but he fell, nonetheless.

Military veterans and law enforcement officers are taking their lives in record numbers. The tremors of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress) and depression are coursing the veins of America’s veterans and first responders as never before. Centurion will address these issues and provide strong answers to many of life’s questions facing our leaders and warriors of today.

Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. ² And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. ³ So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant. ⁴ And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, ⁵ “for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.”

⁶ Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. ⁷ Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁸ For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

⁹ When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” ¹⁰ And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick. (Luke 7, The Bible, NKJV)

When life gets real, then generally, so do we. If you would like to have that kind of faith, then journey with me. I call this my “Journey to Authentic.” After you’ve seen and experienced the kinds of things that warrior-culture professionals experience in life and work (Romans 13), you just can’t ever un-see what we’ve seen. How we choose to deal with it makes all the difference in the world, and with the strength that Jesus gives us, we can actually use our lives during and after our professional service is over – to make a difference in the world.

It doesn’t have to be over brother or sister. It can just be the beginning of the rest of your story! For those who are strong, we’ll learn to stand by our brothers and sisters and help build them up, so that we may all “stand firm”

“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” (1 Corinthians 16: 13)

“Write the vision

And make it plain on tablets,

That he may run who reads it.

³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time;

But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

Because it will surely come,

It will not tarry.

Habakkuk 2: 2 – 3