The book was edited by Bishops Scott jones and Bruce Ough with contributions from eight other United Methodist bishops.
In a previous post, I listed 4 Talking Points about United Methodists, which the book expands on. As I understand it, the four areas of focus came out of the “seven pathways” (for simplification, apparently), as follows.
Focus Area 1: People: Creating New Places for New People by Starting Congregations and Renewing Existing Ones
Path 1: Planting New Congregations
Path 2: Transforming Existing Congregations
Focus Area 2: Leaders: Developing Principled Christian Leaders for the Church and the World
Path 3: Teaching the United Methodist Way
Path 4: Strengthening Clergy and Lay Leadership
Focus Area 3: Poverty: Engaging in Ministry with the Poor
Path 5: Children and Poverty
Path 6: Expanding Racial/Ethnic Ministries
Focus Area 4: Health: Stamping out Killer Diseases by Improving Health Globally
Path 7: Eliminating Poverty by Stamping out Disease
This framework is an attempt to help the UMC live out its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Bishop Gregory Palmer writes …
No matter how well stated the mission of any movement or organization, it must also have a way to be embodied (ix).
The beginning of the book talks about the state of the church. Bishop Palmer laments …
… our United Methodist internal struggles are diminishing our capacity to offer hope for the world (xvii).
The editors note that the UMC has tremendous assets, specifically …
… there are United Methodist congregations in more than 95 percent of the counties in the United States … But too many of them are declining (2).
A key point in turning around the declining denomination is clarifying and recommitting to our God-given mission. Bishop G. Lindsay Davis uplifts the value of reaching unchurched people, a task he says we have been “neglecting,” writing …
Clearly reaching out to more than 195 million unchurched people in the United Stated must be a priority again for us. In fact, many of us believe it is the number one priority (4).
Bishop David provides a lot of good content on church planting and the kind of leaders needed to plant them. Bishop Robert Schnase, author of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (which we’ve written several posts about), writes the chapter on transforming existing congregations. While transforming churches is no easy task, and “[t]here are no easy answers, quick fixes, or simple formulas (31), Bishop Schnase reminds leaders that …
Transforming existing congregations is possible (19).
Bishop Schnase discusses the role of the church, stating …
As we grow in grace and develop our interior life (what Wesley calls ‘inner holiness’), we discern the call of God prompting us to make a positive difference in the lives of others through service, mission, and generosity. … By God’s grace, we are a changed people seeking to change the lives of others and thereby transform the world. (20)
Bishop Schanse contends that leaders who transform congregations …
… know that the principal mission field is ‘out there’ and not ‘in here’ (24).
Bishop Schnase offers several points of description about churches that experience transformation. One point is that each church …
… has experienced a radical change of attitude, a new clarity of mission, and a taste for excellence; and they follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit toward the fulfillment of that mission wherever it leads (24).
Bishop Schnase also discusses the role of the conference in renewing existing churches. One observation he makes is that …
… conferences that promote transformation foster a culture of learning. The greatest difference between declining congregations and those that are growing in fruitfulness is their attitude toward learning. Thriving churches develop a culture of learning. (26)
Focus area 2 deals more specifically with leadership. Bishop Scott Jones writes about the role of teaching “the United Methodist Way” (see Living the United Methodist Way).
The editors write …
At our best, United Methodist Christians seek to evangelize, nurture, equip, and send forth disciples of Jesus Christ to transform the world (33).
I want to spend more time processing what Bishop Jones writes about the United Methodist Way (especially as we will be preparing for Board of Ordained Ministry interviews over the next several months, working toward ordination). He concludes the chapter, stating …
United Methodist Christians believe genuine human happiness comes from growing in holiness—toward being the men and women God intends us to be (46).
One of my favorite chapters is written by Bishop Hee-Soo Jung (who also shares a bit of his story from Korea). The pages of this chapter are largely yellow, thanks to my highlighter!
Bishop Jung writes about strengthening leadership in the UMC building on the foundation of the call to discipleship. Bishop Jung writes …
To be leaders in the church today, we must first identify our call to be Christian disciples. Disciples make other disciples. … The credibility of our leadership grows from our modeling as we claim our call to discipleship first. (48)
Bishop Jung specifically sounds a call for visionary leaders. He describes visionary leadership as …
attentiveness to God’s leadership. Leaders are asked first of all to be open to where God is leading. … The church, after all, has a mission—to share the good news of Christ with the world. Leaders are asked to discern what it means for their particular context to share the good news. (50)
Addressing the current condition of the UMC, Bishop Jung laments …
We have forgotten that the church is a vehicle from which to offer Christ’s love; it is a tool in our mission, not the end product of our work (52).
Building on the foundation of call to visionary leadership, Bishop Jung talks about the role of pastors in congregations. Page 53 in my book is almost completely yellow but I’ll whittle it down to this …
Though it may sound oversimplified, the primary role of the parish pastor … is leadership of a congregation. Every other task that a pastor might perform is secondary. Leadership is the core of who a pastor is called to be. (53)
Bishop Jung states that pastors have three major tasks …
“to lead the congregation in perceiving the particular mission and ministry to which it is being called by God” (53).
“to develop leadership in that congregation that is able to assist the congregation in responding to its call” (53).
“to work with lay leadership to assist and equip every member in perceiving and carrying out his or her own particular ministries” (53).
I love these points. It’s about leading people in our God-given mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!
The problem, however, Bishop Jung contends, is …
Many congregations have expectations of pastors that are in conflict with the call to pastoral leadership. … [T]he congregation expects a chaplain. Congregations who want a chaplain want to be left where they are—untouched by the demands from God—with members ‘ministered to’ by a professional staff. … Congregations who seek a chaplain do not want to be led anywhere. … [C]ongregations do not need chaplains; they need leaders.” (53)
Great words!
It’s going to take transformational leaders to turn around our declining denomination. The process of transforming an institution back into a movement will be no easy task. In fact, there will be many scars. But it’s necessary, if we’re going to be faithful to who God calls us to be!
Well, there’s a lot to process, and a lot I haven’t even touched on. But I’ll finish with a quote from Bishop Minerva Carcaño …
Unfortunately, we are living in days in which too many of us United Methodists have lost our way, substituting a comfortable, self-focused, and false understanding of discipleship for kingdom-building discipleship (84).
May God have mercy on us. May God help us to be who God intends us to be. May God empower us to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!
Peterson also wrote The Message, a paraphrase/translation of the Scriptures, but I first discovered Peterson while I was in seminary in the early 1990s when I read The Contemplative Pastor, which had a huge impact on me, at the time.
In part two of Eat This Book, Peterson discusses the importance of right reading.
Reading the Bible, if we do not do it rightly can get us into a lot of trouble (81). … An enormous about of damage is done in the name of Christian living by bad Bible reading (82).
Specifically, Peterson writes about the ancient practice, lectio divina.
Lectio divina cultivates this personal, participatory attentiveness and thus trains us in the discipline of reading Scripture rightly (84). … Lectio divina is a way of life that develops ‘according to the Scriptures’ (89). … Lectio divina comprises four elements: lectio (we read the text), meditatio (we meditate the text), oratio (we pray the text), and contemplatio (we live the text) (91).
And I love this statement …
[I]t is not enough to understand the Bible, or admire it. God has spoken; now it’s our move (109).
In other words, God’s Word is transformational, not just informational.
Part three, “The Company of Translators,” deals with translations leading up to Peterson’s own translation, The Message.
It seemed that in the earliest years of my walk with God (mostly in the 1990s), there were a number of modern translations being published in this days. I think I must have bought a copy of each. My favorites are the New Living Translation (NLT) and the Contemporary English Version (CEV). I also have a copy of the God’s Word translation and I have more recently started referring to the New Century Version (NCV) online. I also like the online translation, the NET Bible, especially for study. And recently, I learned that there’s a new translation in the works, the Common English Bible.
I already liked Peterson’s translation, The Message, but after reading these last to chapters, my admiration/respect for this translation has gone up.
Stating that the “Bible is the most translated book in the world” (121), he discusses the challenge and the necessity of translation…
There is plenty of translation that takes place everyday in getting the American English I speak into the American English that you hear. … We all use words differently. And we misunderstand frequently. Language is ambiguous. We have to repeat often and explain patiently (168).
And finally …
Translation is interpretation. Always. It is interpretation because words always convey far more meaning than the dictionary assigns them. Words have histories, emotional associations, story-influenced connotations. And interpretation requires–to one degree or another–paraphrase (173).
Peterson is always challenging and inspiring, and this book has given me an even greater appreciation for God’s Word.
During Lent this year, my sermon series focused on the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life, leading up to his crucifixion on the cross. One of the key study resources that I used for this series was Adam Hamilton’s recent book, 24 Hours That Changed the World.
I enjoyed reading the book personally and will probably go back to it periodically, especially when I want to remember and refocus on what God did for us!
There’s also a small 40 Days of Reflection devotional book to go along with it as well as a DVD (with leaders’ guide) that would be good for small groups (or supplemental resource material).
I think I first saw the book in the Cokesbury bookstore at Asbury Theological Seminary a few years ago. I thought it was a creative look at a different set of spiritual disciplines in the 21st century, specifically for missional leaders.
It’s certainly not your typical disciplines (e.g., prayer, Scripture, worship, etc.). They’re disciplines for missional leaders, divided into personal and organizational categories. Personal disciplines include: Death, Truth, Perspective, Learning, Witness, and Humility. Organizational disciplines include: Assessment, Harmony, Reflection, Opportunity, Sacrifice, and Legacy.
Here are a few statements I highlighted …
Both …
This book argues that missional leadership derives not from methods or strategies but from the work of the Holy Spirit to rearrange one’s interior life (xiv).
and …
A missional perspective springs from a transformed interior life that gives us moral authority to lead God’s people (14).
address the importance of the Holy Spirit in the work of missional leaders. It’s not our ministry/leadership — it’s God’s — and we depend on God’s presence and power for effectiveness.
Saying ‘I need you’ crucifies my impersonation of omnipresence (as well as omniscience and omnipotence), opening the way for a kind of humility that brings isolated individuals together into healthy communities (82).
The practice of evangelism involves making room for the Spirit to draw the sought into a saving encounter with the Seeker through Christ. The Church’s job is not to save people but to shape the space in which God calls them to himself (145).
Caring profoundly about the sought and developing venues in which to interact with them creates only the potential for mission. Nothing else happens without the agency and power of the Holy Spirit (150) … The Spirit dimension involves the infusion of God’s presence and power into the venues (personal, electronic, institutional) in which the Church interacts with the sought (152).
Finally, a quote from Gen. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army …
The tendency of fire is to go out; watch the fire on the altar of your heart (181).
Missional leaders must guard their hearts, making sure their passion stays strong!
I haven’t completely re-read it yet, but I have done a little reviewing. Based on research, Gottman says there are four styles of parenting — Dismissing, Disapproving, Laissez-Faire, and Emotion-Coaching. Those are fairly self-explanatory and the good one is pretty obvious.
A small part of the description of emotion-coaching is that an emotion-coaching parent …
respects the child’s emotions
does not poke fun at or make light of the child’s negative emotions
does not say how the child should feel
does not feel he or she has to fix every problem for the child (52)
The benefit of emotion-coaching is that children …
learn to trust their feelings, regulate their own emotions, and solve problems. They have high self-esteem, learn well, get along with others (52).
Gottman writes, “Emotion-Coaching parents serve as their children’s guide through the world of emotion” (63).
We want to be emotion-coaching parents, but we also know we have some growing to do. Due to the transition of bringing Sarah home from Korea, the last few months have been, and continue to be, pretty challenging. Reviewing/Re-reading this book comes at an important time (maybe Sarah was giving us a hint after all!).
Gottman describes five key steps that are part of the emotion-coaching process …
Become aware of the child’s emotion.
Recognize the emotion as an opportunity for intimacy and teaching.
Listen empathetically, validating the child’s feelings.
Help the child find words to label the emotion the child is having.
Set limits while exploring strategies to solve the problem at hand.
The book includes a self-assessment to help parents determine their parenting style (81 True/False questions). There’s also a self-awareness assessment to help you take a look at your own emotional life (84 True/False questions).
The book also offers a lot of practical guidance. And the final chapter describes what emotion-coaching looks like with children from infancy to adolescence.
It’s a good book for parents and those interested in emotional health/intelligence.
Picking up where we left off five months ago (due to parental leaves), our Covenant Groups resumed last night (see Simple Church 1.0).
Our Covenant Groups (a requirement of our ordination process) are discussing Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger’s book, Simple Church. Since we had only read chapter one for our September 2009 meeting, we basically started over and covered the first two chapters this time. At this rate, we should be able to get through the book by the time we’re ordained! We meet every other month until ordination in June 2011.
The premise of the book (which grew out of an extensive research project) is that, “simple churches are growing and vibrant” (14).
Here are some quotes from the first two chapters that stand out to me …
To have a simple church, leaders must ensure that everything their church does fits together to produce life change. They must design a simple process that pulls everything together, a simple process that moves people toward spiritual maturity. (26)
To have a simple church, you must design a simple discipleship process. This process must be clear. It must move people toward maturity. It must be integrated fully into your church, and you must get rid of the clutter around it. (26)
Chapter two presents case studies of two different churches — a simple church and a complicated church. As expected, the simple church was the growing church. We’re reading chapter three for our next meeting (in April), but because this book has huge implications for our current work work with Five Practices, especially Intentional Faith Development, I’m reading ahead — and there’s lots of good stuff, which I’ll write about later.
A few sections of the book can be read online at Google Books.
In chapter four, Peterson talks about story and suggests, “Story is the primary verbal means of bringing God’s Word to us” (40). Peterson writes, “Story doesn’t just tell us something and leave it there, it invites our participation” (40).
This has implications for preaching, of course. Since the Scriptures are primarily story (narrative), then preaching should be storytelling.
Peterson rounds out the chapter by discussing exegesis, which he describes as “focused attention, asking questions, sorting through possible meanings. Exegesis is rigorous, disciplined, intellectual work” (50). Peterson writes, “exegesis is an act of love. It loves the one who speaks the words enough to want to get the words right” (55).
But exegesis does not mean mastering the text, it means submitting to it as it is given to us. Exegesis doesn’t take charge of the text and impose superior knowledge on it; it enters the world of the text and lets the text “read” us. Exegesis is an act of sustained humility: There is so much about this text that I don’t know, that I will never know. (57)
Exegesis isn’t just for preachers and teachers, it’s for all disciples (i.e., students). This section challenges me to be a better student of God’s Word. Peterson writes, “All our masters in spirituality were and are master exegetes” (50).
As part one of the book nears an end, Peterson discusses the difficulty of reading the Bible. He notes, “eating the Bible gave John a stomachache” (63). That is, “There are words in this book that are difficult to digest” (64).
But it is not just the hard sayings, it is the way the Bible comes to us. There are moments when it strikes us as totally strange, impossible to fit into our scheme of thinking and living. We try our best to domesticate this revelation, to fit it into our version of the way we would like things to be. (65)
The Bible is the most comforting book; it is also the most discomfiting book. Eat this book; it will be sweet as honey in your mouth; but it will also be bitter to your stomach. You can’t reduce this book to what you can handle; you can’t domesticate this book to what you are comfortable with. You can’t make it your toy poodle, trained to respond to your commands. (66)
Peterson concludes this section with good advice …
Eat this book, but also have a well-ctocked cupboard of Alka-Seltzer and Pepto-Bismol at hand. (66)
I must not just accept that God is kind, I must embrace his kindness as my own.
Feinberg says that kindness is largely learned: God displays his kindness through people who give us mini lessons of kindness. When we grow close to God, we can’t help but encounter his kindness.
That kindness invites us to recognize the needs of others and take the steps necessary to meet those needs.
Feinberg recognizes that there are people in the world who are “unappreciative, difficult to be around, or down right obnoxious.” How are you kind to these people? How are we to “love our enemies” (Luke 6.35-36). She gives some pointers, starting with looking inward. “I’m forced to reflect on just how kind or unkind I really am.”
The full text that instructs us to love our enemies goes on to say, “do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.”
Feinberg adds …
The hard truth is, when I show kindness, I expect something in return … a sense of satisfaction, a smile on a person’s face, or a word of thanks.
Feinberg’s first word of advice is, “Drop your expectations,” and her second word of advice is, “People cannot give you what they do not have.” She goes on to explain that there is a freedom in realizing that people cannot give what they do not have.
This realization can set us free to be kind again. There’s “a renewal or restoration” that “takes place when I give up the sense that I am owed something. … I can give freely, not expecting anything in return. I can put aside the fear of exploitation” (that I am being taking advantage of).
I believe Feinberg has discovered the gold mine of kindness. As we set out to offer kindness to others, we will be tested. Sometimes our reservoirs will seem depleted. But these two tips will help us grow.
And we must remember to draw on the reservoir of God’s kindness, “the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3.3-4).
Several years ago, the “Herding Cats” commercial (for EDS) caught my attention as a great description of leadership. The one-minute commercal is jam-packed with language and imagery about leadership and mission.
Here’s the commercial, with the complete transcript below.
Transcript:
This man right here is my great grandfather. He’s the first cat herder in our family.
Herdin’ cats … don’t let anybody tell you it’s easy.
Anybody can herd cattle. Holdin’ together ten thousand half-wild shorthairs, well, that’s another thing altogether.
Being a cat herder is probably about the toughest thing I think I’ve ever done.
I got this one this morning, right here. And if you look at his face … it’s just ripped to shreds, you know?
You see the movies, you hear the stories. It’s … I’m livin’ a dream. … Not everyone can do what we do.
I wouldn’t do nothin’ else.
It ain’t an easy job. But when you bring a herd into town, and you ain’t lost a one of ‘em, ain’t a feelin’ like it in the world.
I haven’t thought about this commercial in a while, but I remembered it the morning before our recent covenant group meeting. We showed the commercial to open out group meeting. In the context of Simple Church, it communicates that while the mission is simple (that is, it’s known, “bringing a herd into town”), it’s NOT easy.
But it’s worth it. There “ain’t a feelin’ like it in the world!”
In July, we began meeting with our covenant groups (that are meeting together), which is a requirement in the ordination process of The United Methodist Church. Meeting every other month, we met for the second time earlier this week.
First, we discussed the leadership paper we’re required to write for the Board of Ordained Ministry. The paper, which is due September 14 (in preparation for our interviews with the Board on October 6), addresses: (1) Who You Are, (2) How You Function, and (3) What You Accomplish. The focus is on transformational leadership.
Meeting in separate groups for the paper discussion, we each shared what we wrote and our groups had the opportunity to respond and offer feedback. We may share more about our papers once the final drafts are complete.
We also began discussing the book by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger, Simple Church. Our initial discussion (on chapter 1) was pretty introductory. We reflected on the book’s opening look at current examples of simplicity: Google, Apple, and Real Simple magazine.
At our next meeting, we’ll get deeper into the book as we move onto the next two chapters. We especially look forward to a discussion/reflection on “Pastor Rush.” Anyway, we should have more to say about the concept of Simple Church then.
We meet every other month until ordination in June 2011.
