Wearing Out Old Books and Relearning Old Truth

Thursday is for Discipleship

My old copy of Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison disintegrated and my daughter graciously purchased another copy for me. As I reread what this brother endured for the cross, It affirms once again the conclusion that it is times of duress not peace, it is turmoil not calm, that produces in us the greatest insights into life and happiness. Here’s a piece of wisdom to drink down and be nourished with from Bonhoeffer.

“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God–the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.”

(Letters and Papers from Prison, 5)

   If we would disciple men and women to live passionately for and like Christ then we must make the whole of our lives a show of our allegiance to God, make the whole of our lives an answer to the question and call of God upon our lives. There is the echo of the apostle Paul’s words here (cf. 1 Cor. 15:58). May God make us willing to sacrifice anything to express an exclusive allegiance to Him. And may we stand immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. 

 

How to Write a Book that Will be Read for 100 Years

Thursday is for Discipleship

1. Choose a topic that will never go out of date.
2. Be a person whose life embodies the topic.
3. Think and pray hard about the topic.
4. Be willing to sacrifice everything for the topic.
5. Write a great first paragraph.
6. Sustain the power of your first paragraph for the length of your book.
7. Finish the book before you die as a martyr for the cause of Christ.

Example:  

“Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church.
We are fighting today for costly grace.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship.

 

Rethinking Conversion and How We Start Discipleship

Weekend Musings

“Could it be that in these two acts, repentance and baptism, we have the hub or locus of a Christian conversion?  Could it be that this is the twofold pivot on which the whole experience hangs, and by which the experience becomes a true and good beginning to the Christian life and ultimately to the experience of the transforming grace of God? The evangelical community recoils at this suggestion that it is both. Yet in our secular, post-Christian, postmodern, pluralist social context, we urgently need to reconsider what it means to speak of a Christian conversion.” (p. 119)

“If we are going to truly treat conversion seriously, as a deep turning that in turn establishes a person for growth toward the transformation of the whole person–then we need to embrace the biblical understanding of conversion that has, as its two benchmarks, the interior experience of repentant and the exterior experience of baptism. … Repentance is the heart of the matter, virtually equivalent to conversion: conversion, … is fundamentally a matter of a turning of the heart, a reorientation of the inner person toward Christ and toward the reign of Christ.’ (p. 120)

Ambrose of Milan (d. A.D. 397), and the man who had such a powerful influence on Augustine and on Augustine’s conversion “is said to have observed, there are two conversions for those who come into the church: ‘there are water and tears: the water of Baptism and the tears of repentance.” (Cited on page 120 of Transforming Conversion, [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2010])

 

Book Review of Bill Hybels Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs

Book: Bill Hybels, Axiom:Powerful Leadership Proverbs, (Zondervan, 2008)

Brief Review: This was a book I “knew” I would not like. I was wrong.

I could quibble with Hybels about some points of theology that slip through, but the bottom line is that this was a fantastic book on leadership. The 76 aphorisms or axioms that Hybels lays out in this book are short, practical and memorable. As such, they are bite-sized energy bars for the leader who wants to energize and focus his best efforts and grow as the leader.

I was surprised to find that the chapter titled Read All You Can (Ch. 65), was one of the most convicting and challenging. I read a lot. I have a personal library of over 4,000 books. I read broadly. History, theology, novels, magazines, blogs, biography, devotionals, church planting and more are all on the plate. But Hybels showed me that I have neglected for some time a category that once was a strength. I have neglected reading in the area of leadership. Duh? How did that happen? I’m not sure. But I can tell you I’m motivated to change.

Most of Hybels axioms are phrased as simple declarative applications.  Examples:

• #67 Always Take the High Road,
• #27 Get the Right People Around the Table,
• #53 Find the Critic’s Kernal of Truth,
• #37 Leaders Call Fouls

This makes them easy to remember and the stories told to illustrate them are mini-messages that travel with the reader easily. Others are helpful questions that capture greater concepts related to leadership and management in the local church (#26 How are You Doing … Really?, #49 Is It Sustainable?, #57 Did We Do Any Learning?, #61 Are We Having Fun Yet?, #64 What Life Are You Waiting For?)

#49 “Is it sustainable?”, I found particularly relevant and probing.

I also loved the principle of #35, The Umbrella of Mercy. How much more productive my future brainstorming sessions with staff and volunteers will be with this simple concept working to allow maximum creativity in an atmosphere of mercy and trust.

Two chapters that really stood out for me where numbers 1 and 10, Language Matters and The Value of a Good Idea. For years I have said to my congregation, that a “large part of a pastor’s counseling role is to gently and sometimes not so gently remind people of things they already know. In these two chapters, I felt like Hybels was reminding me of things I once practiced and somehow grew weary of doing. (Shame on me. Lord Jesus, forgive me.)

About the only thing that I might feel uncomfortable with is Bill’s bluntness. At times, it sounds arrogant in my ears. But I am willing to give him grace. My “ear” might be inaccurate and the book is so helpful overall that I am too appreciative to discount the rest. I think I am going to reread the chapter on Create Your Own Finish Line every week until I get it down in my own experience.

[To comment return to the top of this post]

 

Brief Book Review of Leadership Next: Leaders in a Changing Culture by Eddie Gibbs

Title of Book: Leadership Next: Changing Leaders in a Changing Culture, Eddie Gibbs, (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2005)

Overview: Eddie Gibbs offers a look at leadership that is neither overly academic nor too narrow to be of any value. Gibbs wants to suggest a path for Christian leaders that is in sync with changing global realities. Styles of leadership are changing. Hierarchies are giving way to networks; “Departments” are giving way to “connectivity” and informal relational structures. Leadership Next is about beginning to rethink what leadership looks like in the 21^st century.

Critique: I felt that a number of times, Gibbs (and others for that matter) seems to make too much of the older/younger distinction. I.e. “Younger leaders” while “older leaders …” Here’s an example, “For younger leaders, the greatest concern isn’t how to get people to come to church but how best to take the church into the world.” (p. 44)

This is less and younger/older issue than it is missional/attractional issue. Missing this distinction mutes some of the force of the observation while at the same time creates barriers to persuading younger and older leaders to adopt more missional positions.

Applications: Model leadership development after Jesus: (see page 38)

1. Allow young leaders to learn by listening and doing.
2. Allow young leaders to see you in real life interaction with people from all walks of life (“which included responding to their needs as well as challenging their assumptions”).
3. Allow them to learn by being under supervision for a time.
4. Allow them to learn by sending them out to do ministry on their own.
5. Allow them to learn by leaving them. Don’t keep them dependent on you but help them to depend upon the Spirit of God.

Best Quotes: “A Christian leader is a person with a God-given capacity and the God-given responsibility to influence a specific group of God’s people toward God’s purposes for the group.” – quoting J. Robert Clinton (p. 25)

“There is increasing evidence demonstrating that such high-profile, charismatic leadership is not sustainable in the long term and ultimately has a debilitating effect on the entire organization over which it has been imposed.” (p. 25f)

“Those churches that have the most significant influence among the under-thirty-five-year-old generation are those with 15-20 percent of the members in the over-sixty-year-old category.” (p. 36)

 

Disciples or Admirers?

More Quotes from the Weekend Reading

“We may see a wide variety of so- called Christians, but the Bible recognizes only one kind—disciples. Disciples are those people whose hearts burn with an unquenchable hunger for God, desiring to know Him better every day. They are not perfect, but they love Him and continue to draw near Him to learn how to trust Him more and be changed into His likeness.”  – Wayne Jacobsen, The Naked Church

“Mentoring is very important in raising leaders for the harvest. Organic mentoring is dictated by the needs of the person being mentored, rather than a program designed by the mentor. I find that early on, a new Christian is eager to be mentored, but he hasn’t done anything yet. I don’t spend a lot of time with him at this stage, but I throw out the challenge for him to do something in ministry. I’ll spend time with him informally at church; then when he becomes fruitful, I will take more time with him.” —Neil Cole, in An Army of Ordinary People, by Felicity Dale

“Planting churches and revitalizing churches is not a choice we must make between two ideals. Rather it is choice we must make to fulfill two ideals. On the one hand, if you are interested in leading a movement from an established church, then help your people see that possibilities that lie ahead. Don’t be surprised to see a revitalization of that established church. On the other hand, if you have no core group, no building, but a heart for a city or a group of people, then strike out with all the faith you can summon and watch as God calls up laborers to go with you.” —Viral Churches, p. 58

” … a new church will draw most of their new members (maybe 50 percent) from the ranks of the unchurched, with some of the rest coming from existing churches [and new arrivals to the community]. That is probably inevitable. At this point, the existing churches need to examine their kingdom motivations, asking ‘Will we rejoice in the 50 percent–the new people that the kingdom has gained through this new church, or will we bemoan and resent the families we lost to it?’ In others words, do churches care more about their own institutional turf or about the overall health and prosperity of the kingdom of God in their area?” —Viral Churches, p. 59

 

1 Peter 1:13-16 (ESV)

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “you shall be holy for I am holy.