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Three More Seeds for Discerning God’s Call to Ministry
By Mark D. Roberts | Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Part 5 of series: Ivy League Congress: Discerning God’s Call
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More Seeds for Discerning God’s Call to “Ministry”
In my last several posts I sowed the first eight of eleven “seeds” for discerning God’s call to ministry:
1. Laity: All Christians have a high calling as ministers of Christ.
2. Surprise: It’s likely that God will surprise you if you seek his will openly.
3. Sovereignty: If we want to discern God’s call upon our lives, we need to be committed to his sovereignty.
4. Stewardship: We should seek to use well the gifts, talents, and opportunities God has given to us.
5. Blessing: If we want to discern God’s call for our future, we should attend to how he is blessing our lives and ministries right now.
6. Community: We discern God’s call, not alone, but in community with other believers.
7. Fluidity: Fluidity within professional ministry positions means that we don’t have to figure out our entire career before stepping out in faith.
8. Family: A person who is married and/or has children must take seriously what is best for his or her family in discerning God’s call.
Today I’ll finish up with the last three seeds.
9. Obedience
Simply put, if God is sovereign, then we ought to obey him. Specifically, this takes the form of obeying divine teaching in Scripture. For example, my professional journey from Irvine Presbyterian Church to Laity Lodge began with a passage of Scripture I was preaching on in February 2007:
“No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” (Luke 5:34-38)
Right around the time I preached on this text, a representative of Laity Lodge asked about my openness to join their staff. I told him that I was not especially interested in changing job and moving my family, but that I believed I needed to be open to God’s new wineskins for my life. One thing led to another, and five months later I had decided to come to Laity Lodge. This process began with what felt like sheer obedience to God.
10. Redemption
The Bible is filled with stories of redemption. Consider the case of Joseph, for example. Though he was sold into slavery by his brothers, and though he was falsely imprisoned in Egypt, God used these “misfortunes” to bring Joseph to a place of power and influence. (Photo: Donny Osmond as Joseph in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)
The fact that God can redeem wrong actions, not to mention well-intended mistakes, should give us a sense of freedom when we’re seeking to discern God’s call to ministry. If we happen to “get it wrong,” God is not up in heaven worrying about what to do next. Rather, in his sovereignty, wisdom, and grace, God can work all things together for good (Rom 8:28). This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work hard to discern God’s will. But it does mean that we can be set free from the fear of failure when discernment misses the mark.
11. Wholeheartedness
Wholeheartedness can be a sign of God’s call to ministry. The heart, from biblical perspective, is not just the seat of emotion. Rather, it includes feeling, reason, and will. A wholehearted commitment to a particular ministry means I think it’s the right thing for me to do, and that I am choosing to do it in faithfulness to God, and that I’m excited about doing it.
Of course there will be times in our Christian service when we won’t feel very happy about what we’re doing. Exhaustion, discouragement, criticism, and boredom can surely lessen our enjoyment of ministry. But we can remain wholehearted in our commitment when it is based on more than emotion. If I believe God has called me to serve him in a particular ministry, then I’ll hang in there even when my emotions might lead me in other directions.
Nevertheless, it’s right for a person to ask: What moves my heart when it comes to the Lord’s work? What gets my pulse racing? What would I love to do for the Lord?
Conclusion
In scattering eleven “seeds” for discerning God’s call to ministry, I haven’t provided any foolproof formulas for discernment. As you might have guessed, I don’t believe such formulas exist. God works uniquely with each person. Some are called through a dramatic encounter with God, like St. Paul on the road to Damascus. Others discern God’s call only through a long process of waiting, thinking, and praying. But I believe that if we let the “seeds” of discernment take root, if we attend to them faithfully, God will indeed lead us in our quest to serve him with our lives.
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Still More Seeds for Discerning God’s Call to Ministry
By Mark D. Roberts | Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Part 4 of series: Ivy League Congress: Discerning God’s Call
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In my last couple of posts I sowed the first five of eleven “seeds” for discerning God’s call to ministry:
1. Laity: All Christians have a high calling as ministers of Christ.
2. Surprise: It’s likely that God will surprise you if you seek his will openly.
3. Sovereignty: If we want to discern God’s call upon our lives, we need to be committed to his sovereignty.
4. Stewardship: We should seek to use well the gifts, talents, and opportunities God has given to us.
5. Blessing: If we want to discern God’s call for our future, we should attend to how he is blessing our lives and ministries right now.
Today I’ll scatter a few additional seeds.
6. Community
We discern God’s will for our lives in community. Though God may certainly reveal his plans to us in a private moment of prayer, even this must be weighed by brothers and sisters who know us well and who are seeking God along with us.
In 1990, when I first received the slightest hint that God may have been calling me away from Hollywood Presbyterian Church, I met with Ralph Osborne, a senior member of the staff there and one whose judgment I trusted. His observations were crucial to my process of discernment, as were those of my covenant group brothers.
Similarly, when I began wrestling with God’s will for my life last year, wondering if I should move to Texas and join the Laity Lodge team, I had plenty of help from my covenant group, my spiritual director, and my wife. These folks helped me to see things I might surely have missed. In the end, their support was essential to my willingness to take a big leap of faith and come to Laity Lodge.
7. Fluidity
When we talk about God’s call to ministry, sometimes we feel as if we are making a one-for-a-lifetime decision. This puts lots of pressure upon ourselves, and can inhibit us from boldly following God’s lead. In fact, reality offers much more fluidity than we sometimes think. People these days are rarely deciding to do one thing for a lifetime, whether it’s banking or pastoral ministry. Rather, there is a great deal of fluidity both within professions and among them. Therefore, it’s not necessary for a 25-year-old to decide what he or she is going to do for a lifetime. The question is more: What does God have for me right now?
One of the greatest examples of fluidity in ministry is that of Fred Rogers, better known as “Mr. Rogers” of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Though most of us think of Fred Rogers as a children’s television personality, in fact he was also an ordained Presbyterian minister, whose work on television was approved as pastoral work. One can even be an ordained pastor and do something beyond serving in a local parish.
8. Family
People who are married, or who expect to be married, and even more those who also have children, accept an additional responsibility when it comes to discerning God’s calling. 1 Corinthians 7 teaches that one who wants to serve the Lord will experience greater freedom and focus by remaining single. A married person, Paul explains, has divided interests. Notice that Paul does not criticize such a division. Implicitly, he acknowledges that the married person should indeed prioritize the needs of one’s spouse. Thus the husband or wife is not in a place to ask simply: What does God want for me? Rather, the appropriate question is: What does God want for me and my family?
Last year, as I was puzzling over whether to come to Laity Lodge or not, I had a much harder time deciding what was best for my family that what was best for me personally. A good month before I said “yes” to Laity Lodge, I had determined that, if I were single, I was ready to move forward. But I was not single. As a husband and father, I’m responsible for the well-being of my wife and children. In particular, I needed to know that Laity Lodge would provide an optimum environment for my wife, Linda, to exercise her ministry gifts.
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Sunday Inspiration from The High Calling.org
By Mark D. Roberts | Sunday, April 20, 2008
It’s Not About You!
“Why were you so cruel to me?” Jacob moaned. “Why did you tell him you had another brother?”
The story of Joseph overflows with self-centeredness, beginning with Joseph’s dreams, continuing through his brothers’ treachery, right up to Jacob’s self-absorbed response to his sons’ report. They had risked their lives to procure food for the family. Simeon remained a prisoner in Egypt. A famine threatened to kill all of Jacob’s family through starvation. But he could only think about himself. “Why were you so cruel to me?”
Indeed, Jacob’s sons had been cruel to him, mostly by deceiving him into believing that Joseph had been killed. Perhaps Jacob sensed their hardheartedness to him again and again, and that helps to explain his reaction in this passage. (Of course, the actions of Jacob’s ten sons were, in part, a response to his peculiar preference for Joseph.) Nevertheless, Jacob’s self-pitying attitude in this passage doesn’t reflect well upon him. It invites the rebuke heard from parents who are exasperated by their self-centered children: “It’s not about you!”
As we grow in Christ, we become less wrapped up in ourselves and more invested in the work of God’s kingdom and in the lives of others. Self-centeredness is a sure sign of immature faith, whether it’s expressed at work, at church, or in our families. Following Jesus leads us down the path of self-giving focus on others.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: To what extent do you respond to life’s challenges as Jacob did, absorbed in your own feelings? How is God teaching you to care more about the lives of others?
PRAYER: Dear Lord, even as Jacob responded to the crisis in his family in such a self-absorbed way, so I have done more often than I’d like to admit. Like Jacob, I’m wired to care first and foremost for myself.
Yet, by your grace, you are changing my heart, giving me a passion for your kingdom and compassion for those around me. May this transforming work continue, Lord, so that I might be more and more conformed to the self-giving image of Christ. Even this day, gracious God, may I see the needs of others before I become preoccupied by my own. Amen.
Daily Reflections from The High Calling.org
This devotional comes from The High Calling of Our Daily Work (www.thehighcalling.org). You can read my Daily Reflections there, or sign up to have them sent to your email inbox each day. This website contains lots of encouragement for people who are trying to live out their faith in the workplace.
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You Don’t See This Every Day . . .
By Mark D. Roberts | Saturday, April 19, 2008
Last Saturday I was driving from New Haven, Connecticut, to JFK Airport in New York. I got of the highway to grab something to eat. I ended up at Friendly’s, one of my old favorites from my New England days. After lunch, I decided to make my way south along a scenic drive that bordered Long Island Sound.
Cruising along Beachside Ave. in Westport, Connecticut, I was marveling at the stunning homes when all of a sudden I saw something truly unexpected. There, in the front yard of a gorgeous home, as a giant eraser. It must have been at least fifteen feet tall. So I pulled over and snapped a picture. It’s not every day you see an eraser of this magnitude in somebody’s front yard!
By the way, for those of you under twenty, this is what we used to call a “typewriter eraser.” We used it to make corrections when typing. The bristle end allowed us to sweep the eraser shavings away from the typewriter mechanism.
When I got home, I did a little research on this giant eraser. Turns out it’s a fairly well-known work of art by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. It’s called, appropriately enough, “Typewriter Eraser, Scale X.” This piece (or another one just like it) has been displayed in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, and the IBM Building in New York City. The artists are well-known for their large sculptures of everyday items. Check out this page from their website (which, curiously enough, does not include the eraser).
Topics: Fun | 3 Comments »
More Seeds for Discerning God’s Call to Ministry
By Mark D. Roberts | Friday, April 18, 2008
Part 3 of series: Ivy League Congress: Discerning God’s Call
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More Seeds for Discerning God’s Call to “Ministry”
In my last post I sowed the first two of eleven “seeds” for discerning God’s call to ministry:
1. Laity: All Christians have a high calling as ministers of Christ.
2. Surprise: It’s likely that God will surprise you if you seek his will openly.
Today I’ll scatter a few more seeds.
3. Sovereignty
If we wish to discern God’s call upon our lives, we need to be committed to his sovereignty. In the words of Jesus, we are to seek first the kingdom of God. Everything else follows from this fundamental commitment.
Of course this is much easier said than done. As I write these words, I can honestly say that I desire God’s will and that I am submitted to his sovereignty over my life. But then there’s that part of me that really still wants my will and wants to run my own life. Thus I find myself needing to submit to God again and again. Submission is, after all, the flip side of sovereignty.
4. Stewardship
No, I’m not planning to take an offering. Stewardship means much more than it often signifies in church. It has to do with using well the gifts, talents, opportunities, relationships, and resources God has given me.
Throughout most of my adult life, I have been relatively sure that I was being a faithful steward of my life. But there have been times when I have wrestled for long periods of time with the stewardship issue. A few years ago, a seminary expressed significant interest in having me become their president. This position offered lots of opportunities for me. But, in the end, I just didn’t believe that the duties of a seminary president were well suited to my personality and gifting. In 2007, the stewardship challenge reared its pesky head once again as Laity Lodge sought to have me join their team. This time, after five months of seeking God’s will, I became convinced that I could best use the gifts God had given me in the context of Laity Lodge’s ministries.
5. Blessing
When we’re wondering about God’s call upon our lives, we ought to pay close attention to what he is already blessing. In John 5:19 Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.” Similarly, we ought to ask: What is God doing in my life? Where is God at work right now? (Photo: Phillips Brooks House at Harvard, where I did lots of teaching for the Christian fellowship there while I was a student at Harvard.
One of the main reasons I became an ordained minister was that, even before I began the arduous process of becoming ordained in the Presbyterian Church USA, God was using me in ministries of teaching and leadership. I taught my first weekly Bible study when I was in high school, and had been consistently teaching in church and/or parachurch organizations ever since. The fact that God was blessing my ministry of teaching was strong evidence that he was leading me into a more focused calling as a teacher.
When people come to me, wondering if they are being called into ordained ministry, some of my very first questions are: What are you doing in ministry right now? Are you doing things that pastors do? Is God blessing these activities? If a person can answer “yes” to these questions, this is a positive sign. If not, then I encourage people to start doing pastor-like ministries and see what God does with them.
I’m just about half way through my list of “seeds” for discerning God’s call to ministry. More later . . . .
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Ivy League Congress on Faith and Action: My Presentation
By Mark D. Roberts | Wednesday, April 16, 2008
As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend I participated in the Ivy League Congress on Faith and Action in New Haven, Connecticut – a short walk from Yale University. (Photo: Yale University from my hotel. In the immediate foreground is the New Haven Green, then the Old Campus. The prominent tower is Harkness Tower. As a Harvardarian, I hate to admit that I find the Yale campus quite attractive, reminiscent of Oxford University.)
The Ivy League Congress included many “Vocational Panels” in a variety of fields: Medicine, Law, Academy, Arts, Government, Business, Ministry, and Media. Speakers made it clear that God’s call extends to any of these fields (and others). One can serve God as a “full-time minister” as a doctor, lawyer, banker, pastor, and so forth. This theology of ministry and discipleship is right on from a biblical point of view, and consistent with the vision of the ministry where I now serve. (See, for example, The High Calling of Our Daily Work website, sponsored by the Foundation that also supports Laity Lodge.)
I was teamed up on the “Ministry” panel with Steve Douglass, president of Campus Crusade, and Chuck Tompkins, coordinator of the John R. Mott Center at Cornell University (a part of the Christian Union’s ministry). Each of us talked about our “calling” into “full-time ministry” in Christian organizations. Both Chuck and I had served as parish pastors for most of our lives. Steve, after graduating from Harvard Business School, went to work for Campus Crusade, where he has served for almost four decades.
Chuck kicked off the discussion with a fifteen-minute presentation on career and calling, urging us to distinguish between the two of them. Steve talked about his decision, after graduating high in in Harvard Business School class, to join Campus Crusade (much to the chagrin of his B-School profs). I sowed eleven “seeds” that help us to discern God’s call upon our lives. My hope was that the students present, about 125 or so, might find one or more of these seeds to be relevant to their particular situation.
Today I’ll begin to summarize my eleven “seeds of discernment.” I’ll finish up the list in the following days. I labeled each “seed” with a word, so that it might be easily identified and remembered.
Eleven Seeds for Discerning God’s Call to “Ministry”
1. Laity
Yes, yes, I know this is the first name of my current ministry, Laity Lodge. But this word is essential if we’re going to talk about God’s call to ministry. Too often we use the language of calling and ministry only for what might be termed “full-time Christian service.” (Even this phrase has problems, as I’ll point out later.) In popular Christian paralance, once can be “called” to “ministry” if it’s in the church, on the mission field, or in some sort of obviously Christian parachurch ministry. But this language is inconsistent with the biblical vision, in which all Christians are called into Christ’s service. The laity (non-clergy) are just as much called by God as the clergy.
The fact that one can be called to ministry and not enter church or parachurch work is both freeing and potentially confusing. In one has a simple view of calling, in which only ordained ministers are called, then if one feels a call to go into ministry, the path is fairly clear and simple: Go to seminary and get ordained. But if one can be a minister in all avenues of life, as a banker or a teacher or a manager, then it may be more difficult to discern what sort of ministry God is calling one into.
Nevertheless, it’s essential that any conversation about “ministry” as a career recognize that calling relates to a broad spectrum of options. In the apt phrase of Laity Lodge’s founder, Howard E. Butt Jr., there is indeed a “high calling of our daily work.”
So, then, if calling pertains to a wide range of options, how can one know if he or she is being called into parish ministry, or parachurch ministry, or missions? This leads to rest of the items on my list of “seeds” for discerning God’s call.
2. Surprise
God’s specific will is often surprising. He often leads us into avenues of service that we did not anticipate. Consider, for example, Moses’s call to deliver Israel from Egypt, or David’s call to be king, or Paul’s call to be the apostle the Gentiles. This has been the story of my life:
- When I was a freshman in college, if you had told me that I’d go to grad school in New Testament, I’d have said you were crazy, because I thought I was supposed to be a lawyer.
- When I was in grad school, if you had told me that I was going to be a pastor, I’d have said you were crazy, becuase I thought I was supposed to be a professor.
- When I was an associate pastor at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, if you had told me I’d be a pastor in Orange County, California, I’d have said you were crazy because I didn’t like Orange County, and I didn’t want to pastor a suburban congregation, and I didn’t want to go to a church that needed to build buildings.
- When I was a pastor at Irvine Presbyterian Church in Orange County, if you had told me I’d be working for a parachurch ministry in Texas, I’d have said you were truly out of your mind because I didn’t want to leave parish ministry and I never, ever wanted to move my family to Texas.
- When, in the early 2000s, I was writing books and articles, if you had told me my greatest influence beyond my parish would be through blogging, I’d have said you were smoking illegal substances because I had no desire to become a blogger and no belief that anybody would ever bother to read my blog if, for some odd reason, I started one.
So, there you go. God has continually surprised me in my life, calling me to ministries that I never anticipated. I suppose one might say that I wouldn’t be so surprised if I did a better job discerning God’s will in the first place. I agree. But I think most of us, if we are open to the Lord, will find that he surprises us over and over again as he directs our lives and ministries.
Tomorrow I’ll add more items to my list of “seeds” of discernment.
Topics: Ivy League Congress | 5 Comments »
Ivy League Congress on Faith and Action
By Mark D. Roberts | Tuesday, April 15, 2008
This past weekend I participated in the Ivy League Congress on Faith and Action, sponsored by the Christian Union. It happened at the Omni Hotel in New Haven, Connecticut, home of Yale University. Some 400 Ivy League students from all eight campuses gathered to be challenged and encouraged to live our their faith in the world. (The Ivy League consists of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale.)
The Christian Union assembled an impressive group of presenters, including:
- The Baroness (Caroline) Cox, member of Britain’s House of Lords
- Ken Costa, international banker and author of God at Work
- Richard Stearns, president of World Vision (Photo: Ken Costa speaking to the Congress; Richard Stearns is seated just to the right of me.)
- Steve Douglass, president of Campus Crusade
- Darrell Bock, author and professor at Dallas Theological Seminary
- Michael Lindsay, author of award-winning Faith in the Halls of Power
I was invited to participate on a panel to talk about professional ministry.
Many of my readers will not be familiar with the Christian Union since it is a relatively young ministry. Founded in 2002 by Matt Bennett, the Christian Union has the following mission:
The mission of the Christian Union, by God’s power and with the help of other ministries, is to change the world by bringing sweeping spiritual transformation to the Ivy League Universities, thereby developing and mobilizing godly leaders to transform all sectors of society.
Whew! Now that’s what I call a vision!
In particular, the Christian Union has established as a goal “to see 20% of students, faculty and staff involved with a Christian ministry by the year 2020.” This goal responds to the sorry fact that only 3% to 8% of Ivy League students participate in any Christian ministry. The percentage for faculty is even lower.
Why focus on the Ivy League? Here the Christian Union has a pragmatic vision. It recognizes that graduates from these universities are disproportionately influential in the world. (Consider the fact that eight of nine Supreme Court Justices graduated from Ivy League Schools, as did George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. FYI: John McCain graduated from the Naval Academy.) If students of the Ivy League can be drawn to Christ and encouraged to live out their faith in action, this will have a major impact on the world, according to the Christian Union.
I have known about the Christian Union for some time, but this was my first direct experience of this ministry and its people. I was impressed by the quality of people involved with the Christian Union, their talents and commitment to Christ. Moreover, I was glad to see the breadth of their vision. Students were not being challenged to go only into “the ministry,” i.e., full-time Christian service, but rather to live their lives in whatever realm or field as disciples of Christ.
The Christian Union also brings a refreshing willingness to team up with other ministries. Sometimes campus ministries (InterVarsity, Campus Crusdade, Navigators, etc.) can feel as if they’re in competition with each other. And churches quite often feel as if they are in competition with the parachurch ministries. This sort of narrowness is nowhere to be found in the Christian Union. In fact, quite the opposite is true. They welcome partnerships with all sorts of like-minded Christian organizations.
As I mentioned above, I was involved in this Congress on Faith in Action as a member of a panel on “Ministry.” Tomorrow I’ll say a bit more about this panel and our presentation.
Topics: Ivy League Congress | 1 Comment »
What Can We Do to Make Room for the Holy Spirit in Strategic Planning and Goal Setting: Section F
By Mark D. Roberts | Monday, April 14, 2008
Part 7 of series: Planning and Goals: Is There Room for the Holy Spirit?
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So far I’ve outlined six attitudes and/or actions will help us be open to the Spirit’s guidance in the midst of our strategic planning and goal setting:
1. Acknowledge the sovereignty of God.
2. Listen for the “bass note” of biblical theology.
3. Respect the ways God has led in the past.
4. Recognize that God’s new wine requires new wineskins.
5. Acknowledge that God uses all we are for his purposes.
6. Be open to the supernatural gifts of the Spirit.
7. Recognize that the gifting and discernment of the Holy Spirit happens primarily in Christian community.
Today I’ll finish up this series by adding two final items to the list.
8. Pay close attention to the “kernels.”
There are times when God reveals his will at length and in specific detail. Perhaps one of the best examples of this comes in the Old Testament, when God gave to Israel the design for the Tabernacle (Exod 25-27). But, for the most part, God’s vision for the future doesn’t come with precise blueprints. Rather, we receive visions (literally), images, or words that are more suggestive than descriptive. (Photo: A model of the biblical Tabernacle in the desert near the Dead Sea. Photo from Holy Land Photos.)
Thus, if we’re to be attentive to the Holy Spirit in our planning, we must pay close attention to the “kernels.” What are these? They’re the mustard seeds of a plan, the portholes into God’s future.
Kernels rarely come to us in raw form, however. They’re usually imbedded in something larger. People who are genuine conduits of the Spirit’s guidance usually add to whatever the Spirit has inspired, providing lots of packaging for the divinely-inspired kernel. For example, God may be leading a church to start a new ministry to homeless people in town. And this vision comes from someone who is truly in touch with God’s direction. But in presenting this vision, the person adds lots of inessential details (like what ministries to partner with, what sort of services to offer, etc.). If it turns out that some of these details are unworkable, it might be tempting for a planning team to reject the whole idea, thus discarding the genuine kernel of divine guidance.
Specifically, paying close attention to the kernels means listening carefully, both to what the Spirit is “saying” to us, and to what the Spirit is saying through others. We must listen, not only to the words, but to what lies beneath them. Here we might very well find God’s will in mustard seed form.
9. Seek first the kingdom of God.
Okay, okay. I didn’t make this up. Jesus did. We find it in Matthew 6:33: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” So what does this mean when we’re in a planning process.
First, it means that we underscore the first item on my list: Acknowledge the sovereignty of God. As we plan, we agree that God is Lord over everything we’re talking about, and that our planning effort is really just a way of discovering his will.
Second, seeking first the kingdom of God means that we surrender our own agendas. To God and to each other we say: I would really like to see X happen, but I’m giving this over to God. Of course it might well be that X is in God’s plans. But we won’t know whether or not this is true if we force our own agenda into a planning process.
Third, seeking first the kingdom of God comes from a passion for God and his glory. As human beings, we are easily prone to seek our glory, or that of the institution we serve. But as we grow in our faith, we come to desire God’s glory more and more. Thus we seek his kingdom, not only so that his will might be done, but so that he might be lauded as King of kings and Lord of lords.
I recently had the opportunity to meet Eugene Peterson, author of many books, including his hugely successful translation of the Bible, The Message. I was immediately impressed by his warmth, his openness, and his humility. He was not the least impressed that he was “Eugene Peterson.” His passion in life, clearly, has not been for his own glory, but for God’s glory. In my opinion, this helps to explain why, in fact, he has been so successful as a writer.
So, when we gather together for planning, we need to surrender our agendas and ambitions, and seek God’s kingdom. This commitment, perhaps as much as anything else, will help us discover God’s plans for the future.
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Sunday Inspiration from The High Calling.org
By Mark D. Roberts | Sunday, April 13, 2008
One Discouragement After Another
Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.
Sold into slavery by his own brothers, wrongly imprisoned by the master he had served loyally, Joseph continued to serve the Lord even while in prison. There he had the opportunity to interpret dreams for two of Pharaoh’s top servants. Knowing that the cup-bearer would soon return to his place of influence alongside Pharaoh, Joseph asked to be remembered to Pharaoh.
How excited Joseph must have been when he heard what happened with the cup-bearer. Just as Joseph had promised, this man was restored to his position as one of Pharaoh’s key servants. Surely the cup-bearer would mention Joseph to Pharaoh, securing his release from prison. But, in fact, the cup-bearer forgot all about Joseph.
The narrative of Genesis 40 does not tell us how Joseph reacted when he realized that the cup-bearer had forgotten him. But if you’ve ever been in a place like Joseph’s, you know how it feels to face one discouragement after another. As your hopes are continually dashed on the rocks of disappointment, you easily lose heart, perhaps even faith. It’s bad enough to be in desperate straits. How much worse when it feels as if God is toying with you, giving you hope and then snatching it away. From God’s point of view, it all makes sense, but from our vantage point, life can seem impossibly unfair, and God untouchably distant.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Have there been times in your life when you experienced one discouragement after another? How did this impact your faith? Did you feel free to tell God how you were feeling? Why or why not?
PRAYER: Dear Lord, knowing how the story of Joseph plays out, it’s easy for me to jump over this chapter. It can seem like simply one step forward in your plan to elevate and exonerate Joseph. But when I step back and consider how Joseph might have felt, I’m struck by how hard it must have been for him to have hope, only to have that hope devastated by reality.
It is so hard for us to be discouraged, Lord, especially when you’re the one who is the source of our discouragement. Whether we’re dealing with infertility, or facing serious illness, or watching a beloved family member spin out of control, or seeing our financial security threatened, one of the hardest things in life is to have hope and then to see our hope evaporate. We pray and pray and pray. Just when it seems as if you have answered our prayers, reality crashes in upon us. We wonder where you are and why you don’t care.
In times of discouragement, help us, dear Lord, to trust you. Sustain us with supernatural patience. Reassure us by your presence. Renew us in your grace. Amen.
Daily Reflections from The High Calling.org
This devotional comes from The High Calling of Our Daily Work (www.thehighcalling.org). You can read my Daily Reflections there, or sign up to have them sent to your email inbox each day. This website contains lots of encouragement for people who are trying to live out their faith in the workplace.
Topics: Sunday Inspiration | 1 Comment »
No Food Allowed!
By Mark D. Roberts | Saturday, April 12, 2008
Yesterday I was riding on the AirTrain at JFK Airport in New York. This ride came after a eleven-hour travel day thanks to a canceled American Airlines flight and a two-hour-delayed JetBlue flight. While standing on the AirTrain in my travel induced stupor, I was staring at a couple of signs. One indicated “No Smoking” and the other “No Eating and Drinking.”
Nothing new here. But I started wondering about the “No Eating and Drinking” sign. Who, I wondered, decided which images to use? Why settle on what appears to be a hamburger and a drink with a straw? Why no french fries with that order? Have a burger and a cold drink become the universal food? Why did someone feel it necessary to add the straw? Could the burger be a big fat hot dog viewed from the top? Would vegetarians object to the use of a hamburger? Or would they simply interpret it as a veggie burger? Out of context, I wonder if we’d recognize that burger symbol as food? Perhaps if you saw it near a parking lot, you’d think it was a tire skid? Too much waiting around in airports can make one think strange thoughts!
Then I wondered if other countries used different symbols for food. When I finally arrived at my hotel, I did some Net surfing. I found a couple of British signs that do not use a burger. One uses images of silverware and a tea cup. Oh, those British are so civilized! The other British image is harder to decode. It probably includes a half sandwich, an ice cream cone, and a drink. But it could be a piece of cake, the Olympic torch, and who knows what else? That drink icon doesn’t look much like any drink I’ve ever had.
Germans, those who gave us the word “hamburger,” do not use this symbol for food. Instead, like the Brits, they give us a fork and knife. Presumbably they’re including finger foods in their prohibition. The Germans don’t employ a tea cup. Nor do they give us the American soda cup with a straw. Instead, they use a partly filled glass. Note: it is glass or transparent plastic cup, since you can see the beverage quite plainly. I’ve got to wonder if this is a glass of beer.
A few years ago I was visiting Monaco. At the entrance to the cathedral I noticed a curious prohibition sign. I think it means: “No bathing suits (or shorts?). No food. No dogs.” Here the symbol for food is an ice cream cone, quite a fancy one, actually, with two scoops and a drip. I’m assuming the sign is prohibiting all food, not just dripping ice cream cones. Likewise with the bathing suits. It surely means “No bathing suits at all,” not just “No yellow suits.” And I’m guessing that the implication is you need to be wearing more than a bathing suit, not less.
I couldn’t find any “No Food” signs from countries that use chop sticks or tortillas in the place of silverware or hamburger buns. But I’ll keep looking.
My favorite “No Food or Drink” sign reminds me of myself on vacation. I like this sign, even though it means I can’t eat or drink by the pool! It’s hard to tell what this man has been eating and drinking. One might assume that someone with such a belly is probably drinking beer. But aren’t experts warning us about the empty calories in sodas? So who knows? If you look closely, it seems as if the plate still has some onions on it. This would suggest that man ate a hamburger. But I am impressed that he ate an apple. How healthy! We don’t know anything for sure about the woman in the picture, other than the fact that she’s none too happy with this man. Is she upset because he ate food in the pool area? Or is this the man’s wife, who’s upset because he’s snacking before dinner? Her look of disdain is priceless, as is her hairdo.
Topics: Fun | No Comments »
Lessons from Odd Jobs: P.S. - The Wonders of the Internet
By Mark D. Roberts | Friday, April 11, 2008
Yesterday I put up a story about the strangest job I ever had: trimming the grave marker of my boss, Mrs. Bivans. Today I want to jump off from that story to marvel on the wonders of the Internet.
I don’t remember much about Mrs. Bivans. I know her last name. I know that she lived in a giant house on Cleveland Rd. in Glendale, California. I know that her husband was buried in a nearby cemetery, and that he was a successful businessman . That’s all I remember.
Just for fun, I thought I’d try to see if I could learn anything about Mrs. Bivans from the Internet. I Googled on “Bivans Glendale.” 519 links appeared. The first was for the Bivans Corporation, which is the company founded by Mrs. Bivans’s husband (or, at least, by one of his relatives).
The next link was to freepatentsonline.com, a website that lists patents. According to this link, Elbert L. Bivans invented an “Accumulator for Cartoning Machine” and had it patented in 1970. I was not sure whether this man was Mrs. Bivans’s husband or some other Bivans relative.
The rest of the “Bivans Glendale” links didn’t seem especially helpful, so I decided to try and find Mrs. Bivans’s house on Google maps. Using the Satellite function, I scanned the homes in the area where Mrs. Bivans lived. I’m almost sure I found her home, though I can’t be positive. I did find a house on Cleveland Rd. that has a pool and tennis court in the locations I remember, more or less. Then I summoned up Google Earth, which allowed me to zoom in on the property and get its precise coordinates. It looks like the property has not been kept up since I was last there in 1974. The pool appears to be empty and the tennis court, no longer with stripes, is cracked and aged.
While looking for Mrs. Bivans’s house on Google maps, I noticed that Grand View Memorial Park was right around the corner. Surely that was the cemetery where Mrs. Bivans’s husband was buried. Googling on “grand view memorial park,” I was surprised to find several web entries, including one called “Grand View Memorial Park (dot) Info.” This site describes itself as: “A source guide for news and information about Glendale CA’s oldest, and currently troubled, cemetery.” Well, it turns out that what bothered Mrs. Bivans in 1974 got much worse, so much so that the cemetery was closed to visitors because the grounds were so poorly kept up that they were deemed a safety hazard in June 2007. In 2005 it was discovered that approximately 4,000 bodies buried at Grand View were not properly interred (whatever that means).
The Grand View Memorial Park (dot) Info website contains links to many photos, including the ones in this blog entry. The photo I posted yesterday of overgrown grave markers also came from this website, ironically enough.
On the Google page that came up in response to “grand view memorial park,” I noticed a link to “Find a Grave.” Could I find Mr. Bivans’s grave through this site? The link led me to page of famous people buried at Grand View, a group that did not include Mr. Bivans. But I noticed a note that said if I was looking for someone who wasn’t famous, I should visit the main “Find a Grave” website. Clicking on “Search 22 million grave records,” I was taken to a page where I entered “Bivans” and “USA” and “California.”
Lo and behold, my search returned three entries, including Bivans, E Litton (b. 1908 d. 1971) and Bivans, Gail Roy (b. 1904 d. unknown), both of whom are buried in Grand View Memorial Park. Voilà! Immediately I remembered that Mrs. Bivans’s full name was Gail Roy Bivans. When I worked for her, I thought it odd that her middle name was what I considered a man’s name. It seems that my visit with Mrs. Bivans to the cemetery came three years after her husband’s death at the too-young age of 63. Mrs. Bivans died later, and was buried with her husband at Grand View.
Next, I Googled on “Gail Roy Bivans” and “Gail Bivans.” Nothing came up, except a gift of some photographs once given to “Mrs. Gail Bivans,” who in turn donated them to the Colorado Historical Society. It does appear that the father of the man who gave the photos to one Mrs. Gail Bivans lived in California. But I cannot determine whether she is the same Mrs. Bivans I knew. It would be consistent with her character to give generously to a museum, but who knows?
Next I searched for “litton bivans” on Google. Sure enough, I found that an Elbert Litton Bivans had invented and patented a Pepper Mill in 1946 and a box-making machine in 1954. The Bivans Corporation, presumably founded by Mr. Bivans and still in existence today, sells cartoning machinery. Mr. Bivans was also one of the trustees of California State University, serving until 1971, the year of his death.
After it seemed as if I had exhausted what I could learn from Google, I went to the Los Angeles Times website. I searched the archives for “Bivans,” and found an obituary dated February 2, 1992. I took a chance and purchased the article. There I found among those who had recently died: “Bivans, Gail R., 87, of Glendale, homemaker. Scovern Mortuary, Glendale.” I also found a letter to the editor dated August 30, 1987 from Radford Bivans, who identified himself as President, Bivans Corp. Perhaps he was a child of Mr. and Mrs. Bivans. Surely he was a relative, since Bivans isn’t a common name.
I found another article from the Los Angeles Times dated June 12, 1943. This article, entitled, “New Units of Voters Pick Chiefs,” identifies a Gail R. Bivans as the corresponding secretary for the Los Angeles League of Women Voters.
So, thanks to the Internet and a free hour, I now know lots of things about Mrs. Bivans that I hadn’t remembered or even known before:
Her full name: Gail Roy Bivans
The date of her death: February 2, 1992 (about 18 years after I worked for her)
The place of her burial: Grand View Memorial Park
Her husband’s name: E. Litton Bivans
Her husband’s ability: inventor
The likely state of her former home: poor
The condition of the family business: good
The name of a likely son: Radford
Her political involvement: League of Women Voters
I also learned that Grand View Memorial Park, which, according to Mrs. Bivans in 1974, did a poor job of upkeep, got so bad that it was closed to visitors, and is only now being re-opened.
Isn’t the Internet amazing? When I’m doing fun searches like I just did, I’m reminded of the treasure hunts I loved as a kid.
Topics: Lessons from Life | 6 Comments »
Lessons from Odd Jobs
By Mark D. Roberts | Thursday, April 10, 2008
Members of the HighCallingBlog.com community are writing on lessons learned from odd jobs. The questions are: What is the strangest job you’ve ever had? And what did you learn from it? As a member of that blogging community, I’m weighing in today. You can find links to other entries at goodwordediting.com. There’s more info at Middle Zone Musings.com. At any rate, with no further ado, here’s my entry.
What is the strangest job I’ve ever had? And what did I learn from it? I’ve been plumbing the depths of my memory, trying to remember strange jobs I’ve done. For a while I was a coin dealer, a numismatist to be precise. That was a little unusual. In college I cleaned bathrooms in the dorms. I did it for three years, to be exact, by choice! It wasn’t the most pleasant of jobs, but it paid very well and the hours were flexible. But neither of these was my strangest job.
During a couple of summers while I was in grad school, I worked as the junior high intern at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. In this role I took kids to the beach, counseled them at camp, rode down grass hills on ice blocks, and tried to help a bunch of hormone-driven junior high girls and wiggly junior high boys listen to my Bible lessons. That was an odd job, but it still wasn’t the strangest.
Probably the strangest job for which I ever received pay came as a part of a gardening gig I held while I was in high school. My employer was Mrs. Bivans, a gregarious, assertive, older woman who lived on a giant piece of property in Glendale, California. I spent a dozen hours each week mowing, edging, trimming, sweeping, and, well, you name it. Mrs. Bivans was always very business-like with me. She had high expectations and wasn’t above letting me know when I didn’t meet them. I’ll never forget one time when she was displeased with my sweeping. She told me I was doing it wrong, and proceeded to demonstrate the right technique with great zeal and speed. For a woman of about seventy years, she was a fast sweeper! (Last Sunday as I swept leaves in my yard, I did so exactly in the way Mrs. Bivans taught me some thirty-five years ago.)
One day as I was toiling away, Mrs. Bivans said to me: “We’re going on an errand together. Grab some clippers and meet me at your car.” Obediently, I hurried to do just as she said. I had no idea where we were going. I didn’t ask, and she didn’t tell.
Mrs. Bivans directed me down her tree-lined street. We made a couple of turns, and in a couple of minutes we entered a small cemetery. I parked the car where she directed, and we hopped out. Mrs. Bivans walked decisively in a direction I surmised she had trod many times before. At about twenty-five yards from my car, we stopped in front of an inconspicuous grave stone that was flush with the ground. There I saw the name of Mrs. Bivans deceased husband, someone she had never mentioned previously.
“The grass has overgrown my husband’s grave marker,” Mrs. Bivans said in a voice that was just a bit softer than usual. “Please trim the grass around the stone, Mark.” And so I did as she watched closely. I felt awkward, as if I had intruded into an intimate moment between wife and husband.
“I wish they’d do a better job keeping the grass trimmed,” Mrs. Bivans finally said, in what was a sad, tender tone. “They’re really letting things go around here.” I didn’t respond, other than to make sure my trimming was picture perfect.
“Thank you, Mark,” she said, finally. “That looks fine.” High praise from Mrs. Bivans.
After a moment’s hesitation, Mrs. Bivans turned and headed back to my car, with me in tow. We climbed in and started back to her house.
“My husband died two years ago,” Mrs. Bivans said without preamble. “He was a fine man, an inventor, a businessman, and a loving husband.” I wanted to say, “I bet you miss him,” but somehow that seemed to be too personal for our professional relationship. I simply drove along in silence.
When we returned to Mrs. Bivans’s home, she said, “You’re probably thirsty. It’s a hot day. Come on in for some lemonade. I made it fresh from the lemons in the yard.” Indeed, her lemonade was delicious and wonderfully icy.
After I finished my blass, Mrs. Bivans had decovered her professional, polite demeanor. “Time to get back to work, Mark. Why don’t you sweep the tennis court before you finish for the day.” And so I did.
I never returned to Mr. Bivans’s grave because I stopped working for Mrs. Bivans before the grave needed another trim. The demands of my high school life didn’t allow me to work as much as Mrs. Bivans needed. When I quit, Mrs. Bivans was complementary and encouraged me in my academics. “School matters most,” she said. “But I’ll miss you and your work.”
What did I learn from that strange episode in the cemetery? That my boss had a life. Beneath her professional exterior there was a grieving widow who missed her husband. For a brief moment I saw just a bit of Mrs. Bivans’s heart.
In a work environment, even in a church or Christian ministry such as Laity Lodge, it’s easy to look upon those with whom we work as merely workers. They fulfill functions. They give or receive instructions. They sit in meetings. Yet I first learned from Mrs. Bivans a lesson I keep on learning: that our colleagues, bosses, and subordinates are also real human beings, people with emotions, histories, loves, and losses. Even as we maintain appropriate professional boundaries and demeanor in our work relationships, it’s helpful to see the people with whom we work. . . not just the workers, but the people.
Thus endeth my story. Tomorrow I’ll add a P.S. on the wonders of the Internet.
Added Note:
Check out this fun piece on odd jobs by Robert Hruzek of Middle Zone Musings. Also, learn how Marcus was a guinea pig.
Topics: Lessons from Life | 9 Comments »
What Can We Do to Make Room for the Holy Spirit in Strategic Planning and Goal Setting: Section E
By Mark D. Roberts | Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Part 6 of series: Planning and Goals: Is There Room for the Holy Spirit?
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What We Can Do to Make Room for the Holy Spirit in Strategic Planning and Goal Setting: Section E
So far I’ve outlined six attitudes and/or actions will help us be open to the Spirit’s guidance in the midst of our strategic planning and goal setting:
1. Acknowledge the sovereignty of God.
2. Listen for the “bass note” of biblical theology.
3. Respect the ways God has led in the past.
4. Recognize that God’s new wine requires new wineskins.
5. Acknowledge that God uses all we are for his purposes.
6. Be open to the supernatural gifts of the Spirit.
Today I’ll add yet another item to the list.
7. Recognize that the gifting and discernment of the Holy Spirit happens primarily in Christian community.
In the period of the Old Testament, God spoke to Israel primarily through inspired individuals. Moses was the singular lawgiver (with Aaron as his spokesman). Similarly, the prophets delivered God’s word in what was often a solitary, lonely occupation. (Photo: Charlton Heston, who provided on of the great cinematic portrayals of Moses, died two days ago.)
To be sure, God continues to speak to and through inspired individuals. But, in the New Testament era, the context in which the Spirit of God speaks and leads is the community of gathered Christians. This point is assumed throughout much of the New Testament, and made explicit in several places, most obviously in 1 Corinthians 12-14. There, the gifts of the Spirit are given through individuals for the community. The community discerns what is authentically from the Spirit.
Practically speaking, the communal context for the Spirit’s guidance means that if a planning process is going to be successful in the effort to clarify God’s will, then each person involved needs to be willing to participate, both in giving and receiving. Ideally, each individual will own the possibility of being a channel of the Spirit’s guidance. And, each individual will be open to hear and to discern what the Spirit says through others.
The willingness both to speak and to listen doesn’t come naturally to most people, in my experience. Some folks are comfortable with speaking but not very good at listening. Others are great listeners, but reticent to speak out. To some extent this is fine. But extremes are to be avoided. Those who are more inclined to speak must learn to quiet down and listen attentively. Those who are afraid to speak must develop the courage to let others know what God might be putting on their hearts.
The fact that every person can contribute to the building up of the body of Christ, whether in a worship setting or a planning meeting, is suggested by Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 14:26:
What should be done then, my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
Actually, the original Greek of this verse lacks the telltale word “or” in “or an interpretation.” In Paul’s view, every person can add one or more gifts, according to the leading of the Spirit.
This verse also suggests the attitude that is necessary for such a group process to be successful. Those who participate, either in speaking or in listening, must seek to “build up” the body. If they’re too wrapped up in themselves, seeking either their own glory or their own safety, then the process will be impoverished. When Christians gather in unity, seeking most of all to build up the body of Christ, then the planning process can be an effective vehicle of the Spirit’s guidance.
Topics: Planning & Goals & the Spirit | No Comments »
What Can We Do to Make Room for the Holy Spirit in Strategic Planning and Goal Setting: Section D
By Mark D. Roberts | Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Part 5 of series: Planning and Goals: Is There Room for the Holy Spirit?
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To this point I’ve outlined five attitudes and/or actions will help us be open to the Spirit’s guidance in the midst of our strategic planning and goal setting:
1. Acknowledge the sovereignty of God.
2. Listen for the “bass note” of biblical theology.
3. Respect the ways God has led in the past.
4. Recognize that God’s new wine requires new wineskins.
5. Acknowledge that God uses all we are for his purposes.
Today I’ll add another item to the list.
6. Be open to the supernatural gifts of the Spirit.
Scripture teaches us that the Spirit of God dwells in each believer and also in the midst of God’s people as they gather. Though we usually associate the gifts of the Spirit with gatherings for worship and/or intentional ministry, we mustn’t limit the Spirit’s power to these settings alone. The Holy Spirit is surely able and willing to gift God’s people in the mist of strategic planning processes.
Which spiritual gifts are most relevant to strategic planning? I’d say: wisdom, knowledge, and prophecy, perhaps teaching as well. Now I realize there is a wide range of opinion about exactly what these gifts entail and how they operate. At some other time I should do a whole series on spiritual gifts. For now, let me offer my sense of what these spiritual gifts are and how they might operate in a strategic planning process.
Wisdom: The spiritual gift of wisdom provides special insight to guide us to make right choices. This gift often is given to a community through people who are acknowledged to be wise, but it can also be given through any individual in whom the Spirit dwells. In my experience, gifts of wisdom are given by the Spirit when a decision-making body faces a complicated and difficult decision. When the individual through whom the gift is given speaks, others recognize that what is being said is more than just a fine idea, but a genuine gift of God’s wisdom. I expect that this gift, above all others, is most useful in a planning process.
Knowledge: The spiritual gift of knowledge involves receiving factual information from the Spirit that is otherwise not known, though it could be discovered by ordinary means. This gift has often been distorted and almost parodied by so-called faith healers, who stand up on a stage and appear to miraculously call out diseases that God intends to heal. I believe that such a ministry can in fact be legitimate at times. Unfortunately, however, much of what one sees on Christian television is unbalanced if not deceptive. Nevertheless, God can reveal knowledge through the Spirit that can be helpful to a planning process. (Photo: The so-called “word of knowledge” has been popularized by “faith healers” such as Benny Hinn. In such a theatrical ministry it’s hard to distinguish what’s real from what’s just show.)
Prophecy: Biblically speaking, Christian prophecy is not necessarily telling the future, though it could be. Prophecy is speaking forth God’s word. Notice that I did not say “God’s Word.” The prophecy we find in Scripture, though related to Christian prophecy, is of a different order altogether. For one thing, it comes to us in God’s authoritative revelation. Therefore, we’re to take prophecy in Scripture as God’s full truth. Christian prophecy, on the contrary, should be evaluated by the community in which it is given. As Paul writes to the Thessalonians: “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thess 5:19-22). Similarly, “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said” (1 Cor 14:29). Christian prophets, when they speak forth God’s will, do not necessarily speak God’s specific words. In my experience, most instances of prophecy come in the context of preaching or teaching, though they could surely be part of a Spirit-inspired planning process.
Teaching: A gift of teaching enables someone to explain some aspect of theological or practical truth with clarity, truthfulness, and relevance. I would distinguish this gift, which comes in a moment and is used in that moment, from the God-given ability to teach, which lasts over time and is something we can improve upon through study and hard work. I can imagine a scenario in which a gift of teaching was exercised to help a planning team understand something in Scripture.
Again, I realize that my approach to spiritual gifts in general and to the specific gifts I’ve mentioned differs from other theologies of spiritual gifts. You may want to recast what I’m saying in a way that makes sense to you as you interpret biblical teaching on spiritual gifts. The main point is wish to make is this: the Holy Spirit will give specific, supernatural help in a planning process if we are open and available.
Topics: Planning & Goals & the Spirit | 2 Comments »
What Can We Do to Make Room for the Holy Spirit in Strategic Planning and Goal Setting: Section C
By Mark D. Roberts | Monday, April 7, 2008
Part 4 of series: Planning and Goals: Is There Room for the Holy Spirit?
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So far I’ve proposed that four attitudes and/or actions will help us be open to the Spirit’s guidance in the midst of our strategic planning and goal setting:
1. Acknowledge the sovereignty of God.
2. Listen for the “bass note” of biblical theology.
3. Respect the ways God has led in the past.
4. Recognize that God’s new wine requires new wineskins.
Today I’ll add another item to the list.
5. Acknowledge that God uses all we are for his purposes.
Different Christian traditions tend to emphasize different ways that the Spirit guides us. This is fine, though sometimes people can, besides emphasizing certain modes of guidance, reject others that are legitimate. For example, I swim proudly in the stream of Presbyterian, Reformed rationalism. I believe that God has given us the capacity to reason so that we might use it for his purposes. By thinking clearly about needs, purposes, opportunities, and resources, I believe we can formulate plans that are consistent with God’s purposes.
But I do not embrace rationalism to the extent that I deny other means of God’s guidance. I have Reformed colleagues who almost entirely deny the value of emotions in discerning God’s will. Though I share their worries about emotionalism, and though I agree with their critique of the overly emotional character of our culture, I do not reject the power of emotions to help us discern God’s will. Often, I believe, the Spirit guides us by moving our hearts. Our compassion, our anger, and even our joy can tell us something about God’s will.
Yet many Christians rely too much upon their feelings to guide them. I once had a brother in Christ tell me that he knew God approved of his adulterous relationship with a friend’s wife because it felt so right. Would that he had used his brain a bit more, and remembered the Ten Commandments, which contain God’s idea of whether adultery is right or not.
For the most part, strategic planning involves our thinking. But, as we reason individually and together, we should also be open to the movement of our hearts.
Topics: Planning & Goals & the Spirit | 1 Comment »