Reflections on Leadership & Spirit

Three Goals

2009-10-30T11:34:00.002-04:00

Here is a radical idea!

All staff members must accept three major goals. The first goal is the number of new disciples that will be brought to Jesus under their respective ministries. Setting this as the primary goal, makes outward focus everyone’s responsibility, from the person leading the nursery staff to those responsible for assimilating new people. It also creates an environment of outreach that leads staff to be creative in reaching new people, whether adults or children. The second goal is the number of new people that each staff member will train to be involved in his or her ministry each year. Congregations grow in proportion to the number of leaders and groups that are developed. The third goal is specific numbers or percentages by which that staff member’s ministry will grow during the year. Almost no one is exempt from these goals.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Removing Obstacles

2009-10-06T15:29:00.001-04:00

When a leader keeps personal ego in check—and builds the confidence and self-esteem of others—it is then possible for the team to work together.

We teach others the knowledge, skills, and strategies they need to succeed. And we work hard to get obstacles out of their way so they can make progress.
--Ken Jennings & John Stahl-Wert, The Serving Leader

Removing obstacles from another's path is a powerful and usually invisible ministry.
- Ed

Levening Your Church Meetings-Part 4

2009-09-29T14:15:00.003-04:00

4. Planning Meetings/Retreats
Though planning meetings do not happen with the frequency of the other groups that we have been talking about, they still are occasions for the work of the Spirit. Besides the creative openings and closings that have been suggested, the planning meeting can be done in the spirit of discernment. The goal for the planning is to discern God’s direction for each part of the church’s ministry. What is God calling us to do in education? in mission? in evangelism? in service? in worship?

One way for this kind of contemplative planning to take place is to use guided imagery. If you are focusing on evangelism, for example, a guided prayer could invite people to relax, close their eyes, and imagine a city or town square where a lot of people gather. Imagine yourself sitting on a park bench observing people. You notice that Jesus is coming to sit with you and you feel comforted by his presence. You begin to talk about reaching out to people with the good news of God’s love, and you share your ideas and you listen as Jesus shares his concerns. You close by asking Jesus to give you courage and wisdom to witness to those in the community. You receive his blessing. A whole group that is led through such a guided imaging experience now has not only ideas for evangelism but ideas that have been shaped in the depths of prayer. Such a contemplative planning process can add immensely to the listing of problems and possibilities on newsprint that most churches go through in their planning process.

Other prayer experiences can be designed to lead into the planning process. The Quakers use extended times of silence. Many Native Americans use a council-style discussion where everyone is encouraged to speak spontaneously from the heart when they are holding the talking stick (or in Christian circles, a chalice). Such a process insures that each person does more listening than speaking. Other groups have used pictures of nature or children to elicit prayers and thoughts on personal experiences or on subjects that are to be discussed.

Contemplative planning strives to have ideas and plans emerge from the richness of prayer. Explore guided imagery and other prayer experiences as part of the planning process for the church.

Heart and Soul: a guide for Spiritual Formation in the Local Church
Larry J. Peacock, Upper Room Books

LEVENING YOUR CHURCH MEETINGS-Part 3

2009-09-23T16:15:00.004-04:00

3. Action/Service Groups
The Soup Kitchen Committee, the volunteers who maintain the thrift shop, the Peace and Justice Committee, the Senior Citizens Housing Task Force, and the Nursery School Board are examples of a third kind of group that can have the leavening dough of spiritual formation.

The opening time is vitally important for these groups that are engaged in meeting the needs of “the least of these” and in addressing difficult and complex issues. It is hard to sustain commitment in the face of persistent evil and slow-moving bureaucracies. Prayers for strength and guidance are always appropriate. Reflections on God’s compassion (Micah 6:8, for example) provide the basis for ongoing commitment. Songs about God’s promises of shalom and justice can lift the heart. Jim and Jean Strathdee’s music could encourage many groups.

Periodically a group will want to spend time sharing responses to these kinds of questions: What are the joys and struggles of our call to serve? What new challenges is God giving to us? What scripture has given you strength as you carry out your mission? How do you see Jesus walking with us? Where did you see the winds of the Spirit blowing?

Care for the members of action groups is an important part of spiritual nurture. It may be useful to plan retreats and social gatherings to provide space for the healing rivers to flow back into active lives. The section on options will give many suggestions that will be useful for nourishing the members of action groups.

Heart and Soul: a guide for Spiritual Formation in the Local Church
Larry J. Peacock, Upper Room Books

LEVENING YOUR CHURCH MEETINGS-Part 2

2009-09-18T14:40:00.005-04:00

2. Study/Fellowship Groups
Sunday school classes, Bible studies, book discussions, youth and adult classes all have their focus on learning and maturing in the Christian faith. But often in study groups our emphasis is on information, mastering ideas or concepts, analyzing and dissecting. We try to figure out what each “jot and tittle” means. That kind of approach has value, but we have neglected the slow, thoughtful prayer dialogue that focuses on formation rather than information. This approach is grounded in the faith that behind the words we study there is always a Word to encounter. We study not just for information but for insight—and the truth transforms us.

In study classes then, we ask more than the who, what, when, and where questions. We can ask: How am I like the prodigal son? When do I feel like the bent-over woman? We can hear Jesus ask us, “What are you looking for?” and “Who do you say that I am?” We can place ourselves with Esther and Daniel and discover our faith in times of difficulty.

Heart and Soul: a guide for Spiritual Formation in the Local Church
Larry J. Peacock Upper Room Books

Many sections of scripture have been put to music and can deepen our reflection on the passage. Listening to Handel’s Messiah allows portions of Isaiah to echo in our minds and hearts. The new United Methodist Hymnal contains many antiphons for the Psalms. These musical lines can add a new dimension to our study.

Writing can be a useful tool in study groups. The members can be asked to write a prayer of thanksgiving, a psalm of lament, or a prayer from a Bible character’s point of view. The members can journal or dialogue with one of the characters or with Jesus. Or members can draw their response to entering into the passage. In studying to be formed into the life of Christ, artistic expression (writing, drawing, painting, working with clay, dancing) can open new windows.

The vital feature of this discipline is not what one studies but how one studies. We read and study not just with the mind but also with the heart. Included at the end of this chapter is a format for this kind of meditative Bible study. This model can be adapted for a variety of kinds of study groups.

LEAVENING YOUR CHURCH MEETINGS-Part 1

2009-09-16T13:27:00.002-04:00

1. Administrative/Business Meetings
Many meetings in a church focus on institutional concerns—building maintenance and improvement, job descriptions and hiring decisions, budget line items and stewardship campaigns, recruiting teachers and leaders. Wherever two or three gather in Christ’s name, Christ is present. In the midst of conducting business we can have our eyes open to see the Spirit at work through bricks and mortar, dollar signs and newsprint agendas.

Though opening meetings with prayer can become perfunctory, the opening time can become an opportunity for spiritual nurture. questions can be asked instead of or in addition to prayer. What is the will of God for this group? What gift of today do you bring to this meeting? What people will feel the tender grace of God by our actions in this committee? A time of extended silence is a good way to settle in and make the transition from being scattered to being gathered. Leaders who open the meeting with prayer might try writing their prayers instead praying spontaneously; those who write out their prayers ahead of time might try spontaneous prayers.

Think of other ways you might transform the opening time into a moment of experiencing God’s tender and supporting grace. You could invite members of the committee to prepare a short reflection on scripture. Find a song or chorus that ushers the committee into God’s presence and into a spirit of openness. Look with fresh eyes at the opening.

During the meeting, time for silence or prayer may be appropriate—not to squelch discussions or disagreements but to open group members to the ways of God, who is always working for love in any situation. I can still recall the profound silence and prayer before important votes at many General Conferences. Especially when we seem at a “stuck” point in a committee, silence and prayer can give space for a new-dawning insight.

The close of the meeting is also a time for nurture. You might ask, “How has God been present in our decisions? What signs of joy and hope did you experience?” The close of a meeting is a good time for gratitude-thanking the members for their faithful contributions. When meetings are held in the evening, the closing can be a time for blessing prayer. “Blessed are you, Loving God, for you hold us with tender care and watch over us as we rest.” Again, singing can be a way of closing and sending forth into the world.

Heart and Soul: a guide for Spiritual Formation in the Local Church
Larry J. Peacock Upper Room Books

The Gift of Disagreement

2009-09-01T12:15:00.000-04:00

Disagreement is a gift. It alerts us to something wonderful waiting to be uncovered, telling us it's time to dive deeper.
--Rabbi Irwin Kula, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life

Healthy Soul

2009-08-12T10:23:00.002-04:00

Too many people consider soul work to be primarily interior and valuable only to the person doing the work. The most important reason to attend to our souls, however, is that spiritual health and vitality determines the quality of our contribution to our world. What good is a healthy soul hidden away on a mountaintop or “purified” to the point of divorce from reality? Spiritual wholeness is not an end in itself; it is a means to participate fully in a world that is spiritually hungry. A healthy soul cannot help but love.
-- Traci Mullins and Ann Spangler, Vitamins for your Soul

Some Thoughts for the Day

2009-08-10T10:44:00.001-04:00

What if your work expressed your own highest values?
What would your relationships be like?
How would you be?
What message would you be expressing?

Urgency from Vision Not Guilt

2009-08-06T16:35:00.001-04:00

Good leaders understand that the presentation of vision must always, always be accompanied with a presentation of urgency for that vision. Without the consistent presentation of urgency, people vote with their behavior for the status quo. A good leader makes the status quo so unacceptable that people are willing to embrace a new vision.

If one creates urgency from a prophetic perspective so that everyone feels guilty about all that could be happening but is not, there will be no change. Prophets create guilt, and guilt is designed to produce repentance, which is a type of change. But changes in congregations, which may start with repentance, must be led by leaders rather than prophets. Shame and blame do not produce change.’ [healthy change or positive growth]
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Pastor as Chaplain vs. Leader

2009-07-22T11:11:00.003-04:00

While the pastor is sewing the seeds of vision, the pastor is fulfilling well those ministries and responsibilities that are designed to keep the congregation small and effective at meeting member needs. Failure to do so will cause the pastor to lose credibility and reduce any future leverage for change. The pastor still functions as a chaplain: visiting, caring, and counseling.

At this time the pastor is really living a double life, or at least performing two jobs: a chaplain and a leader. This is one major reason why change is so difficult and why most pastors decide, often unintentionally, not to pursue it. The job is just too demanding. It is much easier to go with the flow.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Three necessary Teams for Change

2009-07-14T14:00:00.003-04:00

All three of these teams are necessary. Many fail because they try to bring change on the strength of vision alone. - Ed

While the new pastor is communicating urgency and developing vision, he or she is also recruiting three key teams of people. Team One is a prayer team that will commit to pray regularly for changes that lead to health, growth, and reproduction.

Team Two is the vision or dream team. Certain people find new ideas and ways of thinking intriguing and are energized when put with others who think as they do. Also many declining congregations have some individuals who are dissatisfied with the status quo and make quite clear how they feel. Idea people and critics should be recruited for this team. The purpose of this team is to help the pastor develop arguments for urgency and create vision in order to address the urgency.

Team Three consists of leaders whom the pastor recruits and trains to help implement change. A pastor should not recruit these particular leaders or potential leaders for Teams One and Two. The pastor will need all the leaders that can possibly be recruited for Team Three.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Communication Skills

2009-07-04T14:36:00.001-04:00

Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can’t get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn’t even matter.
—Gilbert Amelio, President and CEO of National Semiconductor Corp.

Signs of Outstanding Leadership

2009-06-26T12:06:00.000-04:00

The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers. Are the followers reaching their potential? Are they learning? Serving? Do they achieve the required results? Do they change with grace? Manage conflict?
--Max De Pree, Leadership is an Art

A couple questions

2009-06-17T09:10:00.000-04:00

1. What kinds of things rob you of your joy in the Lord? How can you halt this robbery in progress?
2. How do you distinguish the voice of God from other voices? Who helped you learn “voice recognition”? Is there someone you can help with “voice recognition”?
--Gary Straub & Judy Turner, Your Calling as a Leader

Trust

2009-06-08T09:59:00.000-04:00

1. What helps you keep in close communication with the Holy Spirit?
2. To what degree can God trust you? What does this trust look like in real life? In what areas could you become more trustworthy?
--Gary Straub & Judy Turner, Your Calling as a Leader

Nourishing Ourselves

2009-05-26T12:13:00.002-04:00

If we don't nourish ourselves, joy will elude us.
We nourish ourselves whenever we enter into activities that build our energy reserves. Consider this list of common nourishment sources:
1. Music - What songs lift me?
2. Thoughts - What thoughts speak to me?
3. Experiences - What experiences rejuvenate me?
4. Friends - What people encourage me?
5. Recreation - What recreation re-creates me?
6. Soul - What spiritual exercises strengthen me?
7. Hopes - What dreams inspire me?
8. Home - What family members care for me?
9. Giftedness - What gifts activate me?
10. Memories - What memories make me smile?
Finding Joy, by Dr. John C. Maxwell

Sabbath Practice

2009-05-14T22:04:00.002-04:00

The first level of being is to cease doing. Quite simply, we need to stop the work of the week.

The first thing people notice when they begin a Sabbath practice is how work and material desires crowd out other thoughts. What I say to them is, "Congratulations, you’ve reached the second level of Sabbath consciousness?"

The next level of being is blessing consciousness. We expand our sense of who we are and treasure our lives.

I experience the fourth level of consciousness; when I feel a sense of sacred stillness and release from all worry and anxiety. I’m subsumed in love and gratitude. I feel a sense of completeness, of all-encompassing holiness and joy. I call this the "flow of being" as it can only be matched by the creative flow of work at its best. There’s no way to make it happen. This level of consciousness only can be reached after experiencing the other three; after practicing being and accomplishing not-accomplishing.
--Rabbi Irwin Kula, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life

Dying and Rising

2009-05-07T13:28:00.004-04:00

Here are transformations that are not only possible but are also likely. They fit the “dying and rising” metaphor that belongs to the church:
• Dying to hopelessness and defeatism, and rising to fresh new life.
• Dying to worrying about or obsessing over numbers, and rising to passion for authenticity.
• Dying to self-absorption, consumer thinking, and the desire to have one’s needs met, and rising to passion to reach others with Christ and to attend to the poor, powerless, and disenfranchised with the compassion of Christ that has no boundaries or limits.
• Dying to worship wars, and rising to new openness for worship that embraces all.
• Dying to saying, “We can’t,” and rising to asking, “Why not?”
• Dying to fear of conflict, and rising to welcome conflict as healthy and needful to keep clarifying that the main thing must remain the main thing.
• Dying to fiscal fears and an ethic of scarcity, and rising to lavish generosity and an ethic of abundance.
• Dying to clergy-driven ministry, and rising to ministry owned by all.
• Dying to programs, and rising to witness.
• Dying to negative energy and bashing the church, bishops and judicatory executives, and the seminaries, and rising to an awareness of being advance scouts for an emerging new church.
• Dying to a sense that the church is necrotic, and rising to a new day of optimism and vitality.
• Dying to deals, causes, and spiritual self-help, and rising to a childlike passionate love for Jesus Christ and his church.
--Rick Barger, A New and Right Spirit

The Gift of Inner Wounds

2009-05-02T21:36:00.001-04:00

I do not believe that once our eyes are opened, we will fall back into
a complacent sleep. Nor do I believe that our inner wounds, once
healed, will be forgotten and wasted. God's spirit wastes nothing! We
are told in the twentieth chapter of John that the risen Jesus showed
Thomas and the other disciples his wounds. I used to wonder why those
wounds remained on his risen body of light. Why weren't those earthly
marks of suffering swallowed up, forgotten, in glory? Was it so his
friends could identify him? Partly. But I think there was a more
important reason. I think all his friends through the ages to come
were being shown that wounds, especially when healed, can become
sources and signs of new radiance of life. No longer the sources of
pain and despair, the wounds now healed can become the channels of
healing for others. ...

The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will not remove the lines of hard-won
experience from our faces. A new power of light, the light of the
divine passionate compassion, will shine through those lines on our
faces.
-- Flora Slosson Wuellner, PRAYER, STRESS, AND OUR INNER WOUNDS

Silence and Listening

2009-04-21T22:37:00.001-04:00

As with personal prayer, silence and listening are the starting points for spiritual leadership. This is true because without listening for God, we are leading only from ourselves, from our own minds and our own ideas. And the only way to listen for God is to be willing to enter into the silence of prayer, the stillness of doing nothing.
--Daniel Wolpert, Leading a Life with God

JOY

2009-04-12T22:37:00.000-04:00

Certain folk, by the way they live, teach us what joy is all about. These joy bearers are not jokesters…Yet they possess the quality rightly called joy. They live that joy as much in the midst of crisis as they do in days of outward celebration. Walking the way of integrity, they carry within them one of the great paradoxes of faith: The person of faith both laments and rejoices mightily.
--Steve Doughty, To Walk in Integrity

Endurance

2009-04-04T21:13:00.002-04:00

In the biblical vision, those who seek wholeness do not flee the pain that comes upon them. They endure…Those who endure draw their capacity to endure from two primary sources: the community of faith and the living God in whom they ground their life.
-- Steve Doughty, To Walk in Integrity

To Walk in Simplicity

2009-03-30T09:58:00.003-04:00

For many of us the disparity between our daily lives and the call to simplicity of action is painful. I confess that when the pain arises for me, I often resist acknowledging the presence of any grace in my discomfort. In the end, though, I can neither dismiss the pain nor what it holds out to me. The pain reminds me that a life fractured by an overabundance of obligations is not the life for which any of us was created. It invites me to discern once again my few talents and how I may most effectively apply them. The pain grants me permission to say a clear “No” to anything that will dissipate my efforts. It offers license to yield myself joyfully to the few places that most need what I can bring.
-- Steve Doughty, To Walk in Integrity

The Attraction of Integrity

2009-03-26T22:42:00.002-04:00

The attraction [of integrity] deepens as we learn how fully we can trust such persons. We may not always like what they say, but we know they will be straight with us. They will not talk about us behind our backs or say one thing to us and something else to others. Persons of integrity may not have the most sparkling personality in the room or offer the most engaging conversation, but they possess a genuineness we can absolutely count on.
--Steve Doughty, To Walk in Integrity

Building Up the Body

2009-03-18T22:31:00.001-04:00

When persons of integrity speak, they desire not to dominate or humiliate but to aid and bring forth wholeness for everyone. Whether they must share honest words with just one other or with many at once, they act from an inner prayer that has already asked, “Loving One, may what I now share serve to build up all of us.”
--Steve Doughty, To Walk in Integrity

Life in the Spirit

2009-03-14T21:21:00.000-04:00

If we are to grow rich in the life of the Spirit, we must first open to what God is actually doing among us. In this driven age, faith does not require that we pack still more items into a meeting agenda or stuff more activities into our already overcrowded days. Faith demands that we recover the good sense to stop, bow before beckoning wonders, and let the divine mystery breathe forth again in our midst.
--Steve Doughty, To Walk in Integrity

Bold Love

2009-03-10T13:32:00.001-04:00

If I asked you, “What is your plan for increasing your capacity to give and receive love,” how would you answer? If love is the greatest, if love is what God wants more than anything else, and if the world needs more love—what is your workout plan to make it happen? What is your strategic plan to increase love in your life and church?

If my capacity for giving and receiving love is to increase, I have to regularly drink from the fountain of the love of God. Remember the passage that says, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19)? That teaches that I am never going to increase my love capacity until I increase my capacity to receive love from God.
--Bill Hybels, Bold Love

Practice Sharing Faith

2009-03-05T13:39:00.002-05:00

Practice sharing faith with the other members of your small group. Invite each small group or committee in the church to forgo their usual business for one meeting and ask each person take three minutes to answer the following questions:

• When did you first know that God loved you?

• What event has recently made you aware of God’s love?

• What has been your most significant spiritual experience?

• Have you ever tried to share your faith with another person?

-- Bill Kemp, Ezekiel’s Bones: Rekindling Your Congregation’s Spiritual Passion

Try it. It's easier than you think. - Ed

What is it that today’s spiritual seekers seek?

2009-02-18T13:58:00.003-05:00

• Spirituality—Let us offer them a congregation that prays with an expectation that God is listening.

• Guidance—Let us offer them the word of God in a way that lines it up with the questions they are asking.

• Loving Relationships—Let us offer them a community that cares for their eternal salvation as well as their current loneliness.

• Transcendence—Let us offer them a worship experience that points them towards the ultimate higher power.

--Bill Kemp, Ezekiel’s Bones: Rekindling Your Congregation’s Spiritual Passion

Is God is killing the church?

2009-02-16T18:05:00.003-05:00

Back in the 1960s there emerged some theologians that claimed “God is dead.” Many people took that claim literally and angrily argued that God was alive and well. They missed the point. The real claim was that the “image” we had of God (from the '50s) was dead and that a larger image was needed.

More recently theologian Stanley Hauerwas claimed that “God was killing the church.” While I am not a follower of Hauerwas’ writings, I think that he is saying something similar to the theologians of the '60s. I believe his claim is that God is killing the “image” we have of church left over from the '50s which still guides many congregations. God is killig that "church." While that image may have been appropriate in it’s time, the world has continued to evolve and the church has not. We are reminded of the admonition not to put new wine in old wineskins.

While the Gospel remains the same, instruments for that proclamation must continue to grow and develop or they will die a very embarrassing death. - Ed

A Church Self Evaluation

2009-02-12T12:19:00.001-05:00

The marks of low spiritual passion are:

• A reluctance to witness or share faith with others;

• A lack of genuine expectation of prayer to change things;

• A loss of interest in studying the Bible or expecting it to have truth that can be applied to daily life;

• An inability to show any joy when talking about faith;

• A lifeless feel to worship, even though the worship performance may be of excellent quality;

• A disconnect between the work of the church’s committees and the faith that the church professes, that is, what we believe doesn’t affect what we do;

• A loss of hope for the future coupled with a reluctance to try new things.

--Bill Kemp, Ezekiel’s Bones: Rekindling Your Congregation’s Spiritual Passion

Congregational Passion

2009-02-03T15:25:00.003-05:00

No committee at your church may ever have voted to lower the congregation’s expectations of God. A motion may never have reached your council urging you to abandon God or to forsake the task of being faithful witnesses, aggressively engaging the surrounding culture. Yet here you may be, lacking spiritual passion for today’s religious race. Loss of zeal for the Lord is not the fruit of one bad choice or the fault of certain people in the congregation. It is, instead, woven into the very culture of the organization and evident in many things we do or fail to do each week.

Congregations with low spiritual passion do not need to change everything. They do, however, need to realize that it is normal to feel good about faith. Further, they need to practice new behaviors that will shift their attitudes about prayer, scripture, and the sharing of their faith. The proof that the depression has lifted comes when they become enthusiastic about sharing who they are as a congregation with those around them who don’t have a church home.
--Bill Kemp, Ezekiel’s Bones: Rekindling Your Congregation’s Spiritual Passion

This is true at a personal level too. - Ed

Churches and Loss of Passion

2009-01-29T11:51:00.003-05:00

As churches move deeper into their ruts…the congregation’s spiritual experience—its passion—fades. The church prays, but lacks any expectation of being acted upon by God. The church praises a holy and awesome God, but sings ho-hum hymns. A church can travel so far within its own little groove that it can no longer see how much its neighbors long to know God. When congregations cease being excited about bringing the good news of Jesus to others, they cease to be exciting.

A congregation can be in this downward path for a long time without being aware that it has walked away from the activity of God.
-- Bill Kemp, Ezekiel’s Bones: Rekindling Your Congregation’s Spiritual Passion

Church Structures and Change

2009-01-24T12:35:00.002-05:00

Each congregation has both a formal and an informal structure.
Wise change agents work at quickly learning the two structures, noting how each functions separately and how they work together. These agents of change also invest time in determining the real leaders of the congregations and how those leaders interact with the two structures.

Therefore, pastors and lay leaders desiring to lead systemic change must first learn both structures (formal and informal) and then determine how the con¬gregation’s actual leaders leverage those structures. If the actual leaders of the congregation really want change and are willing to use or to give up their influence to make the change happen, then you do not need to read this book. Just gather the leaders around you, and go for it!

Many will talk of the need for change while doing everything in their power to inhibit it. This is particularly true of those who brought in the pastor to lead the congregational change. When they realize that real change means a loss of their influence, they quickly turn and become the pastor’s adversary.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Finding One's Mission

2009-01-19T08:26:00.000-05:00

In the book Repacking Your Bags, authors Richard Leider and David Shapiro state that their research shows that the number one deadly fear of people is “Having lived a meaningless life.” Finding one’s mission, and then fulfilling it, is perhaps the most vital activity in which a person can engage.
--Laurie Beth Jones, The Path

Clear Goals

2009-01-13T13:59:00.001-05:00

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.
--Robert Heinlein

Presonal Life Mission Statement

2009-01-10T15:59:00.000-05:00

What is my purpose for being on this earth? Your mission is unique to you yet blesses the universe. Here are some hints: What puts a sparkle in your eyes—your deep gladness? And what pulls at your heartstrings—some hunger of the world? Avoid being too general (to glorify God) or too specific (to play the piano). Yet put your flesh on your mission: to glorify God through the song of your life in a way that speaks to working years or retirement or even disability. Rework your mission and keep it short; repeat it as a prayer of your heart; put it on a card inside your closet or desk or in your wallet.
--Kent Ira Groff, The Soul of Tomorrow’s Church

Jesus' Prayer

2009-01-05T21:41:00.002-05:00

Just before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, He prayed a remarkable prayer for the church He founded. He asked His Father, “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me” (John 17:21, KJV).

I often notice that, as Christians, we constantly ask God to answer our prayers. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that; He invites our prayers and is so faithful to answer them. But after reading this verse, I thought, Wouldn’t it be nice if just for once, we could answer one of HIS prayers?
--Wayne Cordeiro, Doing Church as a Team

Christian Community

2008-12-28T00:14:00.003-05:00

Every day brings to the Christian many hours in which he will be alone in an unchristian environment. These are the times of testing. This is the test of true meditation and true Christian community. Has the fellowship served to make the individual free, strong, and mature, or has it made him weak and dependent? Has it taken him by the hand for a while in order that he may learn again to walk by himself, or has it made him uneasy and unsure? This is one of the most searching and critical questions that can be put to any Christian fellowship.
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

What kind of community are you building? - Ed

Two Wolves

2008-12-24T22:15:00.003-05:00

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a
battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two
"wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret,
greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false
pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
"Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

I don't know the source of this story, but it seemed not inappropriate at Christmas. - Ed

Leadership Intuition

2008-12-19T10:07:00.002-05:00

If you try to lead by everything you’ve been taught about leadership, you will likely fail. At all times we must be open to the possibility that what we thought we knew is wrong. Instead, trust your gut. Intuition must be a component of decision making, especially in complex or chaotic situations, where it may be more accurate and reliable than rationalization based on past experience.
-- Leonard Sweet, Summoned to Lead

This works best when your "gut" is solidly grounded in the faith. (Sorry about the mixed metaphor.)- Ed

Saying "Yes"

2008-12-14T18:17:00.001-05:00

Moses spends forty years answering the Voice that spoke out of the bush…Nowhere does the Bible romanticize mystery or exalt religious experience for its own sake. What remains central in each instance is the response of the person to what beckons through the mystery. And the essence of faithful response is the willingness to be drawn forth completely by what calls from the heart of the mystery. What matters supremely is the “yes,” the letting go, the yielding to a whole new way.
--Steve Doughty, To Walk in Integrity

Vision Without Guilt

2008-12-09T22:12:00.002-05:00

The pastor needs to believe that God’s Spirit is at work in the lives of congregational members. This means the pastor is always seeing the congregation in its best light, hoping for the best, and telling stories of those who are doing things well. Individual and congregational confrontations will come when systemic change is attempted. However, vision never takes root in people when it is communicated through guilt, or acts of warfare. Vision is always cast in a positive light.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Good leadership and Vision

2008-12-05T15:16:00.000-05:00

A congregation is desperate for leaders who are filled with passion, have already demonstrated courage, see flexibility as a virtue, are missional because of their passion, are wise, really believe God expects them to win with a whole groups of saints who feel the same, and who take bottom-line responsibility for what God will do through them.

Vision does not necessarily start with the pastor. However, most pastors who arrive to lead congregations that lack vision, hope, and morale will find that if they do not generate vision, no one else will. Committees, vision communities, or people exploring vision as a short-term project do not generate visions that produce systemic change.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Vision and a Warning

2008-12-01T12:50:00.003-05:00

Vision is derived from the passion of a leader who has a prophetic fire burning within the soul to accomplish something significant for God. Groups may take this vision, help produce congregational ownership, and delineate its implementation, but, without prophetic fire to begin with, there are no images of preferred futures that produce systemic change. If pastors are not clear about either their role or that of the Church, most congregations will remain dormant, irrelevant to life change, and in decline.
--Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Transformational Church

2008-11-17T14:50:00.000-05:00

Is it any wonder then that people live in a state of confusion over the identity and calling of the church? Loren Mead says that the church today exists within a context of ambiguity. The culture is a mixture of openness, indifference, confusion, and hostility toward the church. It is my experience that most people enter the church not knowing just what the church is and its purpose—its identity and calling—or the notion they have is misinformed. That we live in an age of ambiguous cultural perceptions toward the church within a reality of religious pluralism means that the church has to work very hard at being clear about its own witness to the world.

The task of a transformational church in a consumer culture is to assist people to discover their gifts, assume greater ownership of the congregation’s life and mission, and do what works for them. Discipleship is not to exhaust people or fragment families because they spend too much time doing “church work.” Discipleship is putting one’s passions to work in ways that promote wellness and wholeness in the whole of life and in all arenas, in the church and the world, for the sake of Jesus. From the days of the infant church until now, the baptized live in the world among all walks of life.
--Rick Barger, A New and Right Spirit

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

2008-11-08T12:26:00.000-05:00

Flush from a mighty victory over Baal’s prophets at the contest on Mount Carmel, Elijah frantically flees Jezebel’s wrath, only to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (1 Kings 19).

So, the only person surprised when self-pity seizes Elijah’s soul and takes him down into the pit is Elijah. In this sad state of the soul, all his marvelous intuitive, spiritual strengths are turned against him, and he actually begins to believe the devil’s lie that God has abandoned him. Self-pity opens us to enormous self-deception, doesn’t it?

But the moment of our importunity is often God’s opportunity. The still, small voice ministers mercy even while posing the question: “What are you doing here?” What is he doing indeed! What Elijah desperately needs and longs for but cannot name in his muted and defeated condition is the healing of the purpose of his life. This healing of purpose happens only when we are pushed up against the reason for our existence. Only when God begins to ask the core questions of our lives can we hope to recover any sense of the Divine calling upon our lives.
--Gary Straub & Judy Turner, Your Calling as a Leader

Leadership Character

2008-10-28T16:14:00.000-04:00

Spirit Leaders don’t need to have a heavy-duty ego stake (“See, I told you I was right!”) in the outcome of personality clashes. They don’t even need to hear an apology because they choose to live on the Easter side of the cross, where the selfish self is dead, buried, and out of the way, so the deeper self that is aligned with Christ may rise to faithfully serve.
--Gary Straub & Judy Turner, Your Calling as a Leader

Walk with Integrity

2008-10-22T15:29:00.000-04:00

Those who walk with integrity heed the call to repentance. Their longing for wholeness will not let them do anything else. They know their own weaknesses. They understand that even if they have committed themselves to an upright life, the old capacities for lust, greed, sloth, and pride remain. Their honest humility is in no small part born of knowing that they, like all others, have fallen short of the glory of God and, no doubt, will continue to do so.

Those who walk in integrity act with humility. In the midst of crisis, the completeness that speaks through their lives sounds a very different tone in our world than the arrogant boast, the power-asserting threat, and the proud claim to absolute righteousness.

To act with humility is in no way to cower or to hold back. Indeed, when it comes to acting on difficult issues, the humble often become the boldest. Knowing their limitations, they stand free of any need to pretend to be more than they are. Knowing their finite place in relation to the One who reaches toward all, they open to God and others in a way that pride will never allow.

--Steve Doughty, To Walk in Integrity

Healing and Forgiveness

2008-10-17T08:08:00.000-04:00

How many times have you heard someone say, "Even if God could forgive me, I could never forgive myself"?

I thought of the apostle Peter and how he denied Jesus. (See Luke 22:61-62.) What if Peter had been so full of self-condemnation that he had languished for the rest of his life, refusing God's forgiveness because he could not forgive himself? A life of valuable witness and all that Peter did in the early church would never have come about. But Peter, despite his failures, accepted God's grace and moved forward.

Lack of forgiveness can keep us from serving God. For that reason we are called upon not only to forgive others but to forgive ourselves.
--Taken from the Upper Room Daily Devotional

To be an effective leader it helps to have as little unfinished business as possible. Forgiveness is one of those things we tend to push to the back. As a result, this unfinished business saps our energy, drags us down and even unconsciously distracts us from the current work before us. To not forgive ourselves when God has forgiven us is to set ourselves up as a higher court than God. Finally,there is strong evidence that when we have not forgiven ourselves of something, we become more judgmental of others. From the Kingdom point of view, a judgmental leaders is an ineffective leader.

Holy Spirit Healing

2008-10-13T13:35:00.000-04:00

Part of the inner journey of growing in Christ is allowing the Holy Spirit to peel back the layers, heal the underlying hurts, expose our pride, and show us how to make creative and redemptive responses to things that happen in the external world. As we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this work of inner transformation, the ego’s false-self weakens; and the true self in Christ emerges.
--Gary Straub & Judy Turner, Your Calling as a Leader

Listen to Your Life

2008-10-01T22:53:00.000-04:00

We cannot live our lives constantly looking back, listening back, lest we be turned into pillars of longing and regret, but to live without listening at all is to live deaf to the fullness of the music. Sometimes we avoid listening for fear that we may hear nothing at all but the empty rattle of our own feet on the pavement. But “be not afraid, for lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” He says he is with us on our journeys. He says he has been with us since each of our journeys began. Listen for him. Listen to the sweet and bitter airs of your present and past for the sound of him.
Frederick Buechner in Sacred Journey

Desire

2008-09-29T10:04:00.000-04:00

What would it feel like to lay your head on your pillow at night and say, “You know what I did today? I teamed up with God to change the world”?
The desire to be a world-changer is planted in the heart of every human being, and that desire comes directly from the heart of God. We can suffocate that desire in selfishness, silence it with the chatter of competing demands, or bypass it on the fast track to personal achievement. But it’s still there. Whenever we wonder if the daily eight-to-five grind or our round-the-clock parenting tasks are all there is to life, that divine desire nudges us. Whenever we feel restless and unsatisfied, the desire whispers in our soul. Whenever we wonder what a life of real purpose would feel like, the desire calls us to something more.
--Bill Hybels, The Volunteer Revolution

Taks this seriously and listen more carefully to the deeper longings of your heart.

The Mind of God

2008-09-14T18:25:00.003-04:00

The story is told of St. Augustine that one day as he was walking along the seashore, his mind deep in thought, his reverie was interrupted by the sight of a little boy running to the water with a seashell in his hand. The little boy filled the shell with seawater, then poured it into a hole he had made in the sand. “What are you doing, my little man?” Augustine is purported to have asked. “Oh,” said the little boy, “I am trying to put the ocean in this hole.”
Augustine immediately “got it.” “That is what I am trying to do; I see it now. Standing on the sands of time, I am trying to get into this little finite mind, things which are infinite.”
--Leonard Sweet, Summoned to Lead

It is possible to get a sense of what God is up to. However, if you think you understand the mind of God, you had to shrink God seriously to get the Lord to fit your thoughts..."Now playing at a mind near you: 'Honey, I Shrunk God!' (sic)"

My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, says the Lord. Isaiah 55:8

Vision and Passion

2008-09-03T16:32:00.001-04:00

Vision and Effective Congregations

2008-08-28T16:29:00.003-04:00

Effective congregations are led by pastors and a team of leaders who are clear about their mission and focused on achieving a vision. Unlike the majority of congregations that are either on a plateau or declining, effective congregations are healthy, growing, committed to reproduction, and open to changes that will move them from one level of effectiveness to the next...Vision does not necessarily start with the pastor. However, most pastors who arrive to lead congregations that lack vision, hope, and morale will find that if they do not generate vision, no one else will. Committees, vision communities, or people exploring vision as a short-term project do not generate visions that produce systemic change. .
Paul D. Borden, Direct Hit

Thoughts on Vision

2008-08-22T22:50:00.003-04:00

There are dangers connected with not having a vision. Here are three.

Without a coherent vision...
1. energies of leaders go in many different directions and produce little benefit;
2. leaders feel like they are competing with each other for the available resources;
3. leaders are more vulnerable to the attacks of the forces in the congregation that are opposed to change.
--Gary Straub & Judy Turner, Your Calling as a Leader

Being Present

2008-08-20T08:55:00.001-04:00

God dwells with us. He is always at home within us. But alas, most of the time we are not home.
--M. Basil Pennington, OCSO, The Way Back Home

In order to pray, you have to stop being "too elsewhere" and to be
there. ... You have to care enough so that you will collect yourself,
move back into your own soul from the distant suburbs where much of
life tends to be spent, and honestly be there.
-- Douglas V. Steere, Dimensions of Prayer

Voice Recognition

2008-08-13T10:26:00.001-04:00

Amidst the chaos and moral confusion, God raised up a new generation, mentored by Eli, who learned to distinguish God’s voice among the myriad of competing voices. A very unlikely young person learned “voice recognition” long before the technology was ever invented. The boy Samuel spent time in God’s house and quieted his soul enough to hear God calling in the night. Spirit Leaders are people trained to listen and distinguish the Word amidst the words of culture.
--Gary Straub & Judy Turner, Your Calling as a Leader

How much time do you spend quieting your soul so you can distinguish the Lord’s voice from all others? Most people think that sitting quietly is a waste of time when we could be doing ministry.

Years ago one of my sons asked me how I distinguished the voice of God from the ramblings of my own mind. I said “Time and experience. I have spent a lot of time listening to God and a lot of time rambling around in my own mind and I’m getting pretty good at telling the difference.” When I like Samuel was too inexperienced to recognize God’s voice, I leaned on the Eli’s around me to help me discern God’s voice.

If we have not spent the time in quiet listening to hear God’s voice, then whose voice are we listening to as we do ministry?

Transforming Alchemy of Listening

2008-08-08T13:16:00.001-04:00

[The world needs] the presence of empathic listeners:
—listeners who are interested and who really care about others,
—listeners who are willing to forego ego and the need to spout opinions,
—listeners who seek neither to add to nor to take away from what is being said,
—listeners who are patient and willing to withhold judgment for a while,
—listeners who can say, “Yes, I really hear you”—and mean it.
There is a transforming alchemy in such listening.
--George Leonard & Michael Murphy, The Life We Are Given

There is a place and a need for leadership development programs, but before you spend big bucks on a program, try listening. See how much transformation comes from that.

As Dennis Miller used to say, “It’s just a thought. I could be wrong.”

What is your purpose for being?

2008-08-04T22:46:00.003-04:00

Here is something worth spending some time reflecting on:

1. What would you say is the specific purpose for which God caused you to be born?
2. What do you think God wants to accomplish through you?
3. What is your specific, divine assignment on this “scratch”?
4. Why do you think God placed you where you are?
--Wayne Cordeiro, Doing Church as a Team

Response to Challenges

2008-08-02T08:34:00.002-04:00

We have a choice about how we deal with life's endless challenges. We can react with hope or despair, with courage or fear, with enthusiasm or indifference.
--Maggie Pinkney, Pocket Positives for Living

A reader responds:
I choose Hope, Courage, and Enthusiasm, as undoubtedly Maggie does as well.

But to be Hopeful one must plan comprehensively and expeditiously, and execute effectively.

One can't help being Courageous in one's quest if one is Hopeful.

And finally, if one carefully implements all of the above in sequence, one's attitude certainly must be one of Enthusiasm!!

With that Enthusiasm under one's "utility belt," one has no guarantee of ALWAYS being successful, but it sure empowers one to keep on trying.... it gets a bit tiresome sometimes, though!! :) - José

Lovett Weems on faithful vs. fruitful leadership

2008-07-28T12:46:00.002-04:00

"Faithful ministry," the watchword of my generation, was typified mostly by Mother Theresa’s statement, "We’re not called to be successful; we’re called to be faithful." I believe that, and I’ve said that. But I don’t say it anymore because it plays to a lack of accountability that many clergy feel. It’s almost as if faithful is more a condition. It’s part of being instead of doing.

Faithfulness is always directional. It’s not riding a stationary bicycle—it’s a Boston marathon! It’s faithful in a direction—faithful toward the reign of God. You’re faithful toward justice. You may not end up where you are headed. You may plant one kind of seed and another crop grows—God has that kind of sense of humor—but it’s not, "Oh, I’m not doing this. I’m not doing that. I’m being faithful." No, it is faithful in a direction. You are risking. You may make mistakes in that. You may not be successful.

John Wesley had a set of three questions: is there faith?, is there fire?, and are there fruits? The concept of fruitfulness led Wesley to do things that, in his mind, he really didn’t believe. He was not convinced, in theory, that women should preach—but it was the fruits of their preaching that led him to sanction it. He didn’t think that there should be lay preachers; but he supported it because he saw its fruits. In a sense, he was able to rise up above his principles by seeing the reality of what advances the gospel.

I’m not as concerned about thinking about fruitfulness as setting a goal so we’ll know if we’ve made it or not. I’m convinced that when you focus on the outcome, you make the journey. It’s only when you say we will do this program so that...that you know how to run the program.

The Reverend Doctor Lovett H. Weems, Jr. is Executive Director of The Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary, where he is also Distinguished Professor of Church Leadership.

Lincoln: Prayer and action in the little things

2008-07-26T08:37:00.004-04:00

Prayer often clarifies our vision of what needs to be done, but we should not expect to emerge from prayer with a lightening bolt of divine insight. The interplay of prayer and action is usually more subtle. Usually the understanding of one’s task unfolds gradually as a sense of reverence, and prayerfulness starts to permeate our life as a whole.

Psychologist, Ira Progoff, relates an event in the life of Abraham Lincoln that reveals the subtle, yet profound connections between prayer and action. Lincoln had a rich prayer life and he’s regarded as one of our most spiritual presidents. In his early years he had intimations that meaningful work lay ahead for him, but that he would have to refine his intellect and acquire professional skills if he was to fulfill his destiny. In his frontier environment, however, few tools or opportunities for professional development were available and Lincoln feared that his hopes would never be fulfilled. One day a stranger came by with a barrel full of odds and ends and old newspapers and he offered to sell the lot to Lincoln for a dollar. Realizing the man was needy, Lincoln, with his characteristic kindness, gave him a dollar, although he had no idea how the barrel’s contents would ever be of use. When he later cleared out the barrel, he found among the junk, an almost complete edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries. These books helped Lincoln become a lawyer, and eventually enter politics. The reverence Lincoln felt for others, which are often the fruits of prayer, created an opening for a life changing event, that otherwise might not have happened. You see Lincoln did not get zapped during prayer with a sudden revelation of his life’s work. Humble ingredients: a barrel of junk, a stranger down on his luck, a dollar, and Lincoln’s innate compassion, combined unspectacularly to help shape the destiny of a nation and affect millions of lives.

I suggest that Lincoln’s prayerfulness made him sensitive enough to respond to a nudge from the Holy Spirit to buy a box of junk. Who knows what God can do in a life prepared by prayer? Who knows what God could do in your life if you were prepared?

Don’t you sometimes feel an itch that begins with questions like: “Is there more to life than what I’m experiencing?” “Is the meaning to my life gone now that I am retired/my children are grown?” If you are looking for answers to questions like these, talking to your pastor is a good place to begin. There are also several good “itch-scratching” programs you might plug into like Sunday school, Companions in Christ, Disciple Bible, Emmaus walks, mission work and many more that can help you explore the changing meaning and purpose of your life. Maybe the itch you feel is to start a class or program that will scratch someone else’s itch.

One last thought, perhaps you have moved beyond the resources of your local church. Check out the seminaries in your area or the religion departments of your local colleges. Think about it, pray about it and act.

A spiritual practice

2008-07-24T08:55:00.001-04:00

Here from one of the spiritual classics is a useful spiritual practice.

What is here urged are internal practices and habits of the mind. What is here urged are secret habits of unceasing orientation of the deeps of our being about the Inward Light, ways of conducting our inward life so that we are perpetually bowed in worship, while we are also very busy in the world of daily affairs. What is here urged are inward practices of the mind at deepest levels, letting it swing like the needle, to the polestar of the soul. And like the needle, the Inward Light becomes the truest guide of life, showing us new and unsuspected defects in our¬selves and our fellows, showing us new and unsus¬pected possibilities in the power and life of good¬will among men. pp.31-32

How, then, shall we lay hold of that Life and Power, and live the life of prayer without ceasing? By quiet, persistent practice in turning of all our being, day and night, in prayer and inward worship and surrender, toward Him who calls in the deeps of our souls. p.38

A Testament of Devotion, Thomas Kelly

Nourishing Ourselves

2008-07-22T22:04:00.003-04:00

If we don't nourish ourselves, joy will elude us.
We nourish ourselves whenever we enter into activities that build our energy reserves. Consider this list of common nourishment sources:
1. Music - What songs lift me?
2. Thoughts - What thoughts speak to me?
3. Experiences - What experiences rejuvenate me?
4. Friends - What people encourage me?
5. Recreation - What recreation re-creates me?
6. Soul - What spiritual exercises strengthen me?
7. Hopes - What dreams inspire me?
8. Home - What family members care for me?
9. Giftedness - What gifts activate me?
10. Memories - What memories make me smile?
Finding Joy, by Dr. John C. Maxwell

Symptoms of an undernourished soul

2008-07-19T08:41:00.004-04:00

Leaders need to be spiritually mature and healthy. The busy pace of our lives can lead us to a place where we are not taking in enough spiritual food to keep ourselves healthy. Pastors are at greatest risk, because we can fool ourselves into thinking that our time spent in Scripture preparing for a sermon counts as devotional reading. It does not! Years ago Harvey Cox identified some of the signs of an undernourished soul which now describe our whole society.

The symptoms of an undernourished soul appear in countless ways: violence, lethargy, alienation, alcoholism, deterioration of the family. The shrunken modern psyche is “just as much a victim of industrialization as were the bent bodies of those luckless children who were once confined to English factories from dawn to dusk.”--Harvey Cox, The Feast of Fools,

Lest we fall into despair, P.L.Berman offers this word of hope:
“It does not matter how long your spirit lies dormant and unused. One day you hear a song, look at an object, or see a vision, and you feel its presence. It can’t be bought, traded, or annihilated, because its power comes from its story. No one can steal your spirit. You have to give it away. You can also take it back.”
--P.L.Berman, The Search for Meaning

The work of the church is to bring back to life the souls of people who don’t even know they have a spiritual problem. This is one reason why churches need leaders who can do more than just chair a meeting.

Leading with Soul

2008-07-18T12:55:00.005-04:00

Here are some quotes from Bolman and Deal worth reflecting on. - Ed

Perhaps we lost our way when we forgot that the heart of leadership lies in the hearts of leaders. We fooled ourselves, thinking that sheer bravado or sophisticated analytic techniques could respond to our deepest concerns. We lost touch with a most precious human gift---our souls. p. 6

The heart of leadership is in the hearts of leaders. You have to lead from something deep in your heart.

Like what?

I can’t tell you what’s in your heart, nor would you want me to. Would you want someone to offer you fruit but chew it up before giving it to you? On1y you really know what’s in your heart. p.21

The essence of leadership is not giving things or even providing visions. It is offering oneself and one's spirit. p.102

If you show people you don’t care, they’ll return the favor. Show them you care about them, they’ll reciprocate.
When people know that someone really cares, you can see it. It’s there in their faces. And in their actions. Love really is the gift that keeps on giving. p.84

Leading with Soul, Lee Bolman & Terrance Deal, Jossey-Bass Pub.

The Power of Intimacy with God

2008-07-15T13:00:00.003-04:00

I hope you read and meditate on John 14:8-14; 17:18-23. These verses really capture a glimpse of the large view of the Christian life. We have the potential for developing an intimate relationship with God like the one Jesus had. In 17:21 Jesus prays for that very thing, “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.” It is out of this connection and unity with God, that real power for prayer and ministry come. If you are working hard at being a Christian, you are doing it wrong. Jesus didn’t work on his own either. Listen to his words in John 14:10, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”

Anyone can be a superficial Christian in their own strength. It is even possible to be a work-a-holic “super-Christian”, burning ourselves out in self-righteous glory, in our own strength. But to be a healthy, empowered Christian requires listening, slowing down, more listening, opening ourselves to a deeper relationship with God, still more listening, and allowing God to do God’s thing in and through us. It’s not as easy as it sounds since most of us want to be in control our own lives. This is important for all Christians, but crucial for leaders.

The rhinoceros approach to spiritual growth

2008-07-13T09:09:00.004-04:00

They say rhinoceroses have poor eyesight and small brains. Therefore, if while you are walking across the African plain, a rhino charges you, you should stand still. The reasoning is thus: If you stand still, the beast will have a hard time seeing you. Then because he has a tiny brain, he will forget why he is charging, his full gallop will slow to a walk, and he will look puzzled and just wander off.

Many of us are like that in our spiritual lives. We move toward "perfection” which is being formed into the likeness of Christ. Along the way we forget where we are going and wander off. Worldly concerns like family, work, health, and busy schedules sidetrack us. We forget where we are going on our faith journey because the way is long and the goal hard to see.

For more than 200 years Methodist bishops have asked pastors at their ordination, "Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?" While the expected answer is "Yes", once a young ordinand, in a graduating class of one, hesitated in his answer as he stood alone before his bishop and the community. His crusty old bishop peered over his glasses and said, "Well Bill, if it happens, don't you imagine it will be rather late in life?"

Perfection in love, if it comes, will probably come late in life because the way is long and the goal hard to see. This is why we need role models, spiritual friends, knowledge of the varieties of religious experience, a faith practice, and a Christian community which can help us on our way. Church was intended to be a community of soul support. It takes spiritually mature leaders to help a church become what God dreamed for it to be from the time he called it into existence. Therefore, who are your role models and spiritual friends and what is your faith practice to help you become the person and leader that God needs you to be?

Do you hear his voice?

2008-07-10T11:33:00.001-04:00

Over the years I have taught a class I called Prayer 101. The first session is a review of common forms of prayer like Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication (Intercession and Petition). The second session focuses on how to pray for one another more effectively. The last three sessions will be a combination of lecture on and practice of meditative and contemplative prayer. In English this means learning ways to quiet our minds enough to listen to God and hear God speak to us.

Morton Kelsey, an Episcopal priest and author, tells this story on himself. Earlier in his life there was a time when he kept waking up in the middle of the night and was not able to get back to sleep. Concerned, he finally asked his therapist what might be going on. His therapist suggested it might be God and that the next time he woke up in the middle of the night, he should get up, put on his robe, go downstairs, sit in his comfy chair and say, “God, if that’s you, I’m listening.” To his surprise, when he tried it, Morton heard God say, “Yes, it is me.” Morton then asked, “God why do you keep waking me up in the middle of the night?” Again to his surprise, he heard God say, “Morton, you are so busy during the day, this is the only time I could get your attention!”

My thought is this, why wait for God to take drastic action to get your attention? Learn some simple skills to improve your ability to listen to God. As an added bonus these skills can also be applied to human relationships. Think of the possibilities.

Part of my early journey

2008-07-08T10:29:00.001-04:00

The famous American editor, Horace Greeley, told of receiving a letter from a woman who wrote: "Our church is in dire financial straits. We've tried everything to keep it going: a strawberry festival, an oyster supper, a donkey party, a turkey dinner, and, finally, a box social. Will you please tells us, Dr. Greeley, how to keep a struggling church from disbanding?" Dr. Greeley wrote back to her a message in two words: Try Christianity!

While this is humorous, it is a painful description of too many churches. Part of the problem is that for generations in North American churches those activities have been the very description of being church and being Christian. Dr. Greeley's statement makes no sense to many people. He is pointing to a vision of Christianity that goes much deeper than the way we have been doing church for decades. When I was in my 20s, having grown up in church, I knew that in the first 3 centuries of church history believers willingly died for their faith. This puzzled me greatly because I hadn't seen anything in church worth interrupting one's social schedule for let alone dying for. Then I read the book of Acts and I got a glimpse of what was so important. That was the beginning of my adult spiritual journey. The next step for me in the late '60s was a program offered through St. George's Episcopal Church called "Christ and the Meaning of Life" produced by Rev. Edward Bauman pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church. This spoke to my questions in that era: "Was there a meaning to life and did Christ have anything to do with it?" The answer was a resounding "Yes!" Eventually this journey led me to seminary at UTS.

The purpose of Church

2008-07-07T08:16:00.001-04:00

This is a vision of church worth building. - Ed

Barbara Brown Taylor in her recent book, Speaking of Sin, gives this description of the church. “The church exists so that God has a community in which to save people from meaninglessness, by reminding them who they are and what they are for. The church exists so that God has a place to point people toward a purpose as big as their capabilities, and help them identify all the ways they flee from that high call. The church exists so that people have a community in which they may confess their sin — as well as a community that will support them to turn back again. The church exists so that people have a place where they may repent of their fear, their hardness of heart, their isolation and loss of vision and where — having repented — they may be restored to fullness of life.”

Theological Education

2008-07-04T15:23:00.001-04:00

An Excerpt from an Interview with Kitty Blackburn, Dean of Keymark Theological School (www.christianleaders.org)

Ed: What is wrong with the obvious goal [for theological schools] of making ministers? Isn't that why most students come to seminary, to become religious leaders of some kind?

KB: Well, that is what Edward Farley means by the "clerical paradigm." The clerical paradigm refers to the notion that the best way to teach ministers to be ministers is to teach them to be proficient at the skills and activities that make up a pastor's life. So, you teach them to preach, to counsel, to run a meeting, and to teach the Bible. And you assume that to the extent that they do each of these well they are good ministers. The problem, as Farley shows in tremendous detail, is that the paradigm does not actually work. If you only teach skills, you get lousy ministers. They have no heart. They are automatons that can go through the check-list and, say, preach a technically pleasing sermon. But they have, in the end, nothing to say. There is no depth of thought, no working through the crises of faith that make faith strong. They end up like the seed planted in rocky soil. They prosper initially but soon wither under the heat of ministry.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Lay people have known for years that something was wrong with modern theological education, but they didn’t know how to articulate it. It usually came out as some variation of “our pastor is not very spiritual.” Pastors tended to hear this as a judgment on their more liberal theology and to react negatively. Both parties were wrong.
I think Ms. Blackburn has named the problem in the structure of theological education. This is an issue primarily in Protestant seminaries. Catholic seminaries have known for years that the spiritual formation of the pastor is a critical part of the process of preparing for ministry. When I started as a student at United Theological Seminary (Dayton) 37 years ago UTS was a pioneer in making “formation” part of the program. Although it was more psychological than spiritual in those days, the process was in place.
Today the concept of spiritual formation for clergy (and laity) has gained traction across many denominations and theological education continues to evolve. We have not yet reached perfection.

Overcoming Fear

2008-06-30T10:52:00.001-04:00

I see churches paralyzed with fear because their numbers have been dwindling for years and they don’t know what to do about it. I see pastors and lay people frustrated because they have tried many of the quick-fix programs which don’t work. Quick fixes don’t work, but appropriate education and training for clergy and laity do.

We in the Pohly Center for Supervision and Leadership Formation, www.united.edu/pohlycenter are trying break the cycle of fear by coming along side congregations in consultation and in providing meaningful training to enable both clergy and laity to work together more effectively. See especially our Principles and Practices of Supervision July 21-25 http://www.united.edu/institute/rwsupervision0708.shtml and our Equipping Leader program July 28-Aug 1 http://www.united.edu/institute/rwequippingleaders1p0708.shtml

Fear cripples people & congregations

2008-06-27T11:31:00.001-04:00

My experience is that fear cripples both people and congregations.

Leonard Sweet wrote in The Gospel According to Starbucks (not the best book he has written, but there were a few quotable lines)
“The greatest gift my mentor gave me was helping me learn to move through my fear and to embrace creativity and spontaneity. When I learned to trust God and act on the ideas, dreams, and passions he placed in my heart, that’s when my life and ministry took a new energizing and fruit-bearing direction. What would your life look like if you were no longer controlled by your fears of what others might think?”

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

If only we would claim the power that is from God.

The Nature of Church

2008-06-25T10:39:00.001-04:00

I have always felt that the purpose of church was much more than I had experienced in most congregations. There are several authors whose writings have helped me articulate this vision. Rick Barger is one of them.

“The church was born out of the Spirit of God. Its purpose was to witness to the saving activity of God, not as proffering a deal, cause, or spiritual assistance but to be a transparent sign in which and through which Jesus is encountered, experienced, known, and lives. The church’s relationship to Jesus is not simply to be identified with a historical person. The church’s identification with Jesus is its DNA. Jesus not only gives the church its DNA. Jesus also is the church’s DNA. Jesus abides or lives in the church (John 15:4 and others). Thus, Jesus can speak about his being “the vine” and the church being “the branches” (John 15:5). Vine and branch are of the same DNA. The church as the Body of Christ is more than just a metaphor. It is reality.”
--Rick Barger, A New and Right Spirit

The church I grew up in had as it's theological framework Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. "Experience" wasn't even in the mix. I grew up not understanding what "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" was all about. I have come to understand/experience that while the relationship is personal it is much more than just "you and me, Jesus." The longer I am on this journey, the more challenging it becomes.

Am I becoming who God calls me to be?

2008-06-23T07:28:00.001-04:00

I think Straub and Turner point us in the right direction.

The most important question is not, “Have I found the ‘thing’ God wants me to do with my life?” The most important question is, “Am I becoming who God calls me to be in Christ?” Some indicators help us affirm that we are fulfilling our primary calling from God. We know this when we can say: I am...
• sensing and enjoying God’s presence more than I did yesterday
• trusting God more today than I did yesterday
• expressing more compassion and concern for the people around me than I did yesterday
• realizing I am more trustworthy today than I was yesterday
• caring less about what our culture values than I did yesterday
• caring more about Christ’s values today than I did yesterday
• devoting more of my resources to God’s work than I did yesterday
--Gary Straub & Judy Turner, Your Calling as a Leader

God's Dreams

2008-06-21T11:20:00.001-04:00

I believe God has dreams for us. I have a personal problem with the “God has a plan for our life” language, because it suggests to me that God has planned out every second and every detail of our life. I don’t believe that is true. I do believe that God has dreams for our lives in a way similar to the dreams our parents had for us when we were born except that (with few exceptions) God dreams less about what our job will be and more about what our character will be and what our relationship with God/Jesus will be.

Jim Collins in Good to Great said:
"Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of (congregations) never become (vital), precisely because the vast majority become quite (complacent with the status quo) — and that is their main problem"

One of our problems is that we dream too small for ourselves and for our churches and God is dreaming the Kingdom of Heaven come on earth. Our task is to discern God's dream and move in that direction.

More on the leadership XY graph

2008-06-19T10:59:00.001-04:00

Below is a chart that is a little more developed than yesterday’s.

The reason I like the XY graph is that it makes it easy to see the importance of these two qualities, (leadership ability and spiritual maturity). A person who is spiritually mature, but who is at the “Individual Contributor” or “Group Contributor” level is not ready to be an effective leader. Likewise someone who may be a high functioning leader in the marketplace, but spiritually immature, will not make a good church leader, if for no other reason than that the church operates by a different set of values and from a different world view than the marketplace. The church gets itself in trouble when it offers leadership positions to anyone who’ll take the job. Don’t give me the “We don’t have anyone else to take the job” argument. I have been a pastor in small churches. My experience that it is better to leave a position unfilled than fill it with an unqualified person.

Reflections on Church Leadership

2008-06-18T11:41:00.001-04:00

As you can see from my bio I am a United Methodist pastor (retired). I spent 22 years in active service and another 10 hanging around doing good things. Before coming to UTS I spent 4 years co-teaching a series of 3-year leadership courses at Bethany UMC in Austin Texas. The program was developed by John Robertson (LeadershipID.com and PrepareGodsPeople.com) and also co-taught by our senior associate pastor, Rev. David Minnich. Because we are Methodists our program is Christian leadership grounded in the Wesleyan tradition. As a result of that work, in 2007 I was asked to head up the “leadership formation” portion of the work at The Pohly Center for Supervision and Leadership Formation which is part of The Center for Applied Theology which is part of United Theological Seminary in Dayton Ohio. (It’s not quite as impressive as it sounds.) After almost 30 years in Texas, this was an opportunity to return to my home town and the seminary from which I graduated in 1975.

I bring a varied background to my work in leadership. In this blog I will share my unique reflections on the subject including books I am reading and have found helpful and quotes from various authors. My particular focus is the vital connection between good leadership and spiritual maturity. My friend Alan Goldsberry, (ServantLeaderFramework.com) developed a simple XY graph to illustrate the relationship of these two factors.

I have suggested to pastors that they use this as a tool to begin the conversation with a member or staff person about personal growth. Simply ask the person where they see themselves on this graph and then ask them in what area they want to grow next.

Enough for now.