Entries Tagged 'Spiritual Formation' ↓

Lately, I’ve been reminded about a fairly common idea/phrase — leading/ministering out of the overflow.

This is why preparation — ongoing personal growth — is so important. Last fall, I wrote about preparation in one of my posts on “The Nines” (specifically The Nines Marathon; see also More on the Nines) and continued the reflection in another post after the Provisional Membership Retreat.

Preparation is most productive when it’s consistent, over the long haul. Preparation is a value for me, but it’s also an area that I want to grow in. That’s why I wrote Daily Must-Dos (for ongoing preparation).

Preparation also helps to keep our “tanks” full (see Tank-Filling Activities). When my tank is running low, ministry/leadership can be a chore. But when my tank is full/overflowing, leadership is much more productive/effective.

In other words, in order to give, we must first receive. We receive in order to give. And the more we receive the more we’re able to give!

Are you living / serving / leading / ministering out of the overflow?

It has been fun to watch (or hear) Ethan’s repertoire of worship songs develop over the last 13 months.

At Annual Conference in 2009, I happened to be holding (then two-year-old) Ethan at the beginning of an evening service (giving him break from all-day childcare) as the band opened with “Trading My Sorrows,” a modern worship song. The song stuck and has been a staple in Ethan’s repertoire ever since! Ethan can often be heard singing, “Yes, Lord, yes Lord, yes, yes, Lord! / Yes, Lord, yes Lord, yes, yes, Lord! / Yes, Lord, yes, yes, Lord, Amen!”

Funny thing, though, it’s only been very recently that he’s gotten one of the verses right. Instead of “I’m trading my sorrows / I’m trading my shame / I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord,” he’d sing, “I’m trading for our sorrows” (not quite the message we were going for!).

A few months later, Ethan said in a somewhat panicked voice, “Oh no!” So I taught him the chorus of Matt Redman’s worship song, “You Never Let Go” …

Oh no, you never let go / through the calm and through the storm / oh no, you never let go / in every high and every low / oh no, you never let go / Lord, you never let go of me!

And again, ever since, he’s been singing the chorus of this song (it was the song we used in the music video we made for Ethan when we went to Korea to get Sarah last October). In the last few months, Ethan has started singing other parts of the song. Once during a meal recently, Ethan surprised me with a line from the song: “I can see a light / that is coming / for the heart that holds on!”

One other time (nearly a year ago?), Ethan sang part of another song that we’re not sure where he heard it (we didn’t have the song and hardly knew it ourselves). I finally tracked down the song a few months ago and it’s now one of Ethan’s favorites: “My Savior Lives” (the video of the song, recorded live, that we downloaded can be viewed here on YouTube).

When Ethan came home from Sunday school a couple weeks ago, he had a sticker on his shirt that said, “I know I can say kind things” (or something like that). I asked him what it said and he said, “I know … that my Redeemer lives” (words from “My Savior Lives”).

A couple days ago, while on vacation in West Virginia, we were in a playroom at the hotel. At first it was just the four of us. But soon another group of adults and children entered the room. Moments later, Ethan, who was working on a puzzle, started singing, “I know that my Redeemer lives / now I can stand on what he did / my Savior, my Savior lives!” and “Jesus, you are the only way!”

While traveling on vacation, Ethan has asked several times, “Can you get ‘My Savior Lives’?” Yesterday, while on the road, we went through the Ethan’s songs (a playlist on my iPod), which now includes eight songs, twice (apparently, it wasn’t good napping music, though).

Since Ethan seems to be good at learning song lyrics, we’re starting to memorize scriptures, verses from My First Read And Learn Favorite Bible Verses, which we’ve been reading with Ethan (and now Sarah) for almost as long as we’ve had Ethan.

We believe that we are formed by our practices and we hope that learning worship songs and Bible verses, as well as devotional practices, will shape both Ethan and Sarah (and us, too) into the people God desires us to be!

This is something we’re fairly intentional about. But it’s not something we *always* do well and I’m sure we could do better.

What practices are forming you? If you have children, what practices are forming your kids?

One of the biggest problems that I’ve tried to confront throughout my ministry is complacency. From the beginning of my journey as a Christ-follower, I have said that complacency is one of the biggest problems we face!

Complacency is a temptation for all of us and perhaps the temptation only gets stronger as we grow older and the longer we’re on this journey of following Jesus.

My sermon today focused on the conversation Jesus had with two disciples on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus a few hours after Jesus rose from the dead (see Luke 24.13-34).

Upon nearing their destination, the two disciples could have simply gone home and let Jesus continue on his journey, but the Scriptures report, “They begged him, ‘Stay with us!’”

As followers of Jesus, we all reach a point where we decide if this is far enough!

And frankly, we reach many points in life, not just one point. For these two disciples, it was only after they were persistent that they discovered that it was Jesus whom they had been walking and talking with. They could easily have said, “This is far enough. We’ve had an enlightening conversation, we’ve learned a lot, our hearts burned within us, but this is far enough. We’re ready to move on now.”

They decided that it wasn’t far enough, that they wanted to go deeper. We, too, must decide that we want to go further in our walk with Christ. We must go deeper. Many times, it’s a matter of being persistent!

In fact, we should never reach a point in our lives where we say, “You know, this is far enough. I don’t need to go any further!”

As long as we live, there’s room to grow.

So, don’t get stuck at the surface. Be persistent. Next time, let’s hang around God a little longer and see how he will reveal himself to us in a special way!

Jeremiah 29.13 (NLT) …

“If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.”

One of the books I’m reading during this Lenten season is Off-Road Disciplines by Earl Creps.

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!

Recently, I was reflecting on my journey, specifically as it relates to formal (ministry/leadership) education. A long time ago, I came to believe that the highest goal of education (for me, at least) was formation, not knowledge acquisition, or the diploma at the end of the program.

Formation is a goal of all personal growth (reading, seminars, etc.), of course, but a formal education setting offers an extra intensive personal growth environment.

This may not apply as well to more technical kinds of education, but the focus in ministry education isn’t just the content (Bible, ministry, and leadership); it’s also about being shaped/formed into the kind of person God can use for a lifetime in ministry. It’s more about character development and formation as a person than it is about attaining all the knowledge you’ll ever need (which isn’t really possible, anyway).

In my Master of Divinity program in the 1990s, the goal could not have been to learn everything about the Bible. In fact, I had only three specific Bible courses (Psalms, Ezekiel, and the Johannine Epistles) in addition to broader courses on the Old Testament and the New Testament.

While part of the goal was to learn as much as possible about the particular topics I got to focus on, the more important goal was to learn how to learn/study, so that after graduation, I can make the most of lifelong study of the Bible.

Now, it’s also possible that I came to this realization as a way to make me feel better about how little I actually remember from all those years of studying! Seriously, I know I remember some things, but I also know there’s simply no way to remember everything I learned. There *has* to be a higher goal!

I have had a sense (or at least a hope) that Lent 2010 will be an especially transformational time in my life, in my home, and in my church. Knowing that we have to be intentional about our own spiritual growth, I’ve been thinking specifically about my growth plan for Lent (this continues the thinking from my recent posts: Personal Growth Plan and Daily Must-Dos).

I didn’t do so well with last year’s attempt at Reading Eugene Peterson for Lent, but that was because we hit a major crunch time in finishing up some work for our commissioning/ordination process. I’m hoping to do better this year!

Here’s the list of books I plan to read this Lenten season (in order) …

Off-Road Disciplines (Earl Creps)

Eat This Book (Eugene Peterson)

Raising an Emotionally-Intelligent Child (John Gottman)

Secrets from the Treadmill (Pete Briscoe and Patricia Hickman)

Hearing God (Dallas Willard)

Emotionally-Healthy Spirituality (Pete Scazzarro)

Cadences of Home (Walter Brueggemann)

Leadership Gold (John Maxwell)

A Resilient Life (Gordan MacDonald)

When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box (John Ortberg)

Some of these books have been on our list for a long time, including the Reading Pile 2.5 years ago. I’m just now recovering from the doctor of ministry program we completed in 2008!

Observations …
In this list, I’ve tried to include mostly spiritual formation/development types of books along with one leadership book, one preaching book, and one parenting book. Normally, I read mostly leadership books, with a few of the others thrown in occasionally.

Two of the books, including the parenting book, deal with emotional health. I also wanted to include something by Eugene Peterson, Dallas Willard, and Walter Brueggemann, and I settled on these particular ones.

I wanted to include at least one preaching book. I’ve been thinking recently that, while I really don’t usually read a lot of books on preaching, that I should occasionally. Since it’s something that I do virtually every week, it’s an axe I need to continually sharpen. I just finished reviewing Communicating for a Change (Andy Stanley and Lanes Jones) in the last few days, after having read it twice (and I almost never read books more than once!) a few years ago (see my One Point Preaching post for more on that). I’m planning a couple posts on preaching next week.

I always enjoy reading John Ortberg, whose books have great titles (e.g., If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat and Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them). I’ve also been greatly influenced by John Maxwell over the last two decades through his books, monthly audio clubs, and conferences.

Well, I will probably blog some learnings along the way. I’m looking forward to it!

If you’ve followed our journey, you probably know that we are Provisional Elders in The United Methodist Church working toward ordination. As part of the process, we attended a retreat Sunday evening through Monday afternoon. On Monday, Revs. Greg Myers (Wilkes-Barre District Superintendent) and Mark Webb (York District Superintendent) each led us in a discussion about transformational leadership.

Being → Doing
The event amplified some things that I have been feeling challenged about recently, specifically the importance of being, not just doing. A few weeks ago, I wrote the following in my leadership paper (presented to the Board of Ordained Ministry in preparation for next week’s interview) …

Maintaining the connection between being and doing … is vital for me as a Christ-following leader. I want my doing to naturally flow out of my being. As my spiritual gifts develop and strengthen, it becomes easier for me to rely on myself and less on God. In other words, sadly, it’s possible to go through the motions of performing the work of ministry without being vitally connected to God.

In light of this challenge, I am committed to following Christ faithfully, to maintaining a vital connection with God, and to growing in my relationship with God. I seek to maintain a vital connection with God through the practice of spiritual disciplines.

Monday afternoon, Mark Webb specifically talked about being and doing in a session that was especially meaningful/challenging for me, personally. Here are some statements from the day (direct quotes and/or personal reflections on what I heard) …

The old model of ministry leadership emphasizes doing while the new model (i.e., transformational leadership) emphasizes being. Truth is, only leaders who are personally being transformed themselves can help others experience transformation.

God has called you to be a leader!

Churches often expect leaders to be a …

• Leader
• Manager
• Chaplain
• Hospice Worker

While pastors will perform each role at times, leader is the primary call! However, many times, leaders are simply not willing to lead (fear, lack of confidence, unwillingness to change, etc.).

On the call to lead, I love the statement at the beginning of the article, “The Work of Leadership” (Harvard Business Review), which we were asked to read in preparation for the retreat …

Followers want comfort, stability, and solutions from their leaders. But that’s babysitting. Real leaders ask hard questions and knock people out of their comfort zones. Then they manage the resulting stress.

On the importance of the spiritual formation of a leader, Mark said, if you are spending all of your time visiting, preparing Bible studies, writing sermons, attending meetings, you will not be the leader God called you to be.

The role of the leader is to REPRODUCE (see the Easum quote below).

Finding the big YES: What has God called us to do and be about, primarily? Say no to other things. (You control your calendar!)

God ➞ Family ➞ Church
The order matters. Too many clergy who have made the church first, then God, then family, which has negative consequences. Getting the order right helps to put being before doing (so that doing can flow out of being), which leads to one of my favorite statements from the day. Mark said …

Being must lead to doing. Doing must be based on being.

Mark also discussed a “plan for personal growth,” which was adapted from John Maxwell’s plan in Your Road Map for Success (formerly, The Success Journey). But I need to write another post on that.

During the afternoon break, I took a brief walk and reflected on what I sensed God was saying to me, then wrote …

I am committed to my own spiritual formation. When I leave my current appointment (and/or any other place I serve), what will my legacy be? What will I be remembered for? While I certainly want to be productive/fruitful (doing), I want my legacy to be something like, I really grew more like Christ (i.e., experienced ongoing spiritual transformation) in this part of my journey (being) and I helped a lot of other people experience spiritual transformation as well (being → doing).

Throughout the day, there was a statement running through my mind, a statement I heard Bill Easum make on the early-September event, The Nines (which I wrote about here and here). Easum, who was making the point that leaders must set their own agenda, based on their call and their vision, said …

I can’t tell you how many pastors reach age 55 and look back over their ministry and they never have done what God called them to do, they did what the church wanted them to do.

That’s a regret I want to avoid!

Incidentally, The Nines videos were just posted today. For more on being, David Foster’s video on preparation is a must-see!

Well, as I said, God must be trying to get my attention about this being/doing stuff!

In my last post, I blogged reflections from Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Bishop Robert Schnase. In this post, I’ll share some practical ideas that are coming out of Centre Grove church council’s discussion of the reading.

Earlier this week, we talked about what we’re currently doing in the area of faith development (including Sunday school, occasional short-term studies, etc.), but we spent most of our time dreaming about what intentional faith development might look like for us. Specifically, we responded to the group activity that Bishop Schnase suggests in the book to …

outline a year’s worth of learning opportunities that you would like to attend if they were offered (78).

At first, several specific studies were named (e.g., the case for creation, etc.) but we also spent a good bit of time talking about various kinds of small groups and how we might get people involved in them.

The next day, three of us met together and we came up with a plan to help us be more intentional about faith development. In September, we are going to invite people to participate in The Essential 100 Challenge, which is a Bible reading program built around 100 selected passages of Scripture divided equally between the Old and New Testaments.

Along with the Bible reading program, we’re going to encourage people to participate in small groups (at church or in individual homes) beginning with ten weeks in the fall, which will take us through the Old Testament readings. In January, people will have the opportunity to continue in groups for the New Testament readings.

We have a few goals with this program: (1) to help people read the Bible consistently, (2) to give people a good overview of the Bible, and (3) to get people involved in small groups.

It’s a start. In our next discussion, we’ll talk about ways we can effectively cast the vision for this new ministry, as well as other ways we might practice intentional faith development beyond the next few months.

I grew up in a denomination that was pretty much King James Only (KJO). I don’t think we were as militant about it as some groups, the King James Version (KJV) was simply the preferred/accepted Bible translation. (Of course, many of the modern translations started being published around the time I left the denomination, although there were certainly some newer translations available.)

But as a seminary student in the early 1990s, I started reading other Bible translations. Today, my favorite translations are the New Living Translation (NLT) and Contemporary English Version (CEV). They’re particularly good for readability, which is vitally important in teaching/communication! There are many other good translations as well and I usually read several when doing sermon prep. I also do most of my daily Bible reading online at Bible Gateway where I can read a number of different translations (see my recent post, Online Bible Study Tools for more).

Interestingly, though, even today, around 17 years after immersing myself in the KJV of the Scriptures for 3+ years, I still often remember wording from the KJV and have to go to Bible Gateway to look it up in a another translation.

When I stopped reading the KJV in the early 1990s, I felt a bit like a rebel (which didn’t really bother me too much). In fact, I felt that way for years, even after becoming a United Methodist pastor of small, rural congregations (who seemed to prefer the KJV), even though United Methodists generally prefer the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), another good translation, particularly for its use of inclusive language.

I am grateful for the translations that have come before us, including the KJV. It served the world well, especially when its language was the language people spoke (that’s no longer true). I don’t think that the people who gave their lives so that Bible translations like the KJV could be printed hundreds of years ago gave their lives for us to be dedicated to any one translation; I believe they gave their lives so that people could read God’s Word in their own language!

I express my appreciation and gratitude for the Scriptures and for those who labored to translate God’s Word — its Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic words — into languages people can read, understand, and, ultimately, be transformed by!

For more on Bible translations, check out the Better Bibles Blog.

On Sunday, I challenged the people at Centre Grove to give up something (e.g., sweets, TV, etc.) or take up something (e.g., a spiritual discipline, etc.) for Lent.

I’ve decided to go with a taking up practice this year, namely, reading Eugene Peterson, perhaps best known for his monumental work, The Message. I discovered Peterson when I was in seminary in the early 1990s and I remember reading The Contemplative Pastor, which had a huge impact on me. I subsequently read other books including, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction and Working the Angles (all non-required reading in seminary, I believe).

Unfortunately, I haven’t read much of Peterson since I graduated from seminary, except that Joleen and I read Living the Resurrection a couple years ago. He didn’t write much while working on The Message, but now that he’s back to writing and working on a series on spiritual theology, I want to get back to reading Peterson.

This Lenten season, I want to read two books that have been on our reading pile for a while: Eat This Book and Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. I also plan to read the Psalms from The Message as well.

I started in Eat This Book, which is “a conversation in the art of spiritual reading.” Peterson contends that how we read the Scriptures is as important reading them. The key is reading the Scriptures “on their own terms” (xi). Peterson goes on to say …

What is neglected is reading the Scriptures formatively, reading in order to live (xi).

I’m looking forward to immersing myself in the inspirational, challenging, and thought/heart-provoking writings Eugene Peterson!