As we are at the end our series, two questions are asked:

1. We’ve been looking at all of these streams as integrated with each other.  We have said that healthy spiritual leadership is more likely when leaders set out to make ALL these streams an integral part of their lives and leadership.  If integration is our goal, what happens if any one of these streams is practiced in isolation from any of the other streams?  In other words, what are potential weaknesses of the Compassionate Life stream, for example, if practiced in isolation from the New Life, Abiding Life, and Empowered Life?
2. So, what?  Why does all this matter?  What does all this really mean for me as a leader?

Their names were Carpus and Papylus.  And they demonstrated the Witnessing Life.

In A.D. 165, Carpus and Papylus were brought before a governor in Rome and charged with the “crime” of being Christian. The governor of the district had discovered that Carpus and Papylus did not celebrate the pagan festivals. He ordered the men to be arrested and commanded them to accept the Roman pagan religion. The men replied that they would never worship false gods.

Carpus, who was a leader in the church.  Not even torture could persuade him to change his mind. He simply kept repeating, “I am a Christian and because of my faith and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I cannot become one of you.”

Papylus was a wealthy man with many children. Papylus said, “I have served God since my youth, I have never sacrificed to idols. I am a Christian. You cannot learn anything else from me. There is nothing I can say which is greater or more wonderful than this.”

Both Carpus and Papylus were burned alive.