It moving towards Thanksgiving and there are many things I could write about being thankful for the blessings God has given to each of us, but I want to suggest something to you. If you are reading this and you are a leader or a part of a team of people… think about those you work together with, think about the gifts, talents, abilities, and unique aspects that these folks bring to your life and work.
Take some time to notice, to thank them, to remind them they matter to you, and most importantly to God.
A priest was walking down the road and found a monk praying on his knees. He stopped the monk and said, “You must be very close to God.” The monk replied, “Yes, God is very fond of me.”
My initial reaction to this story is how self-centered and off base the monk is to respond that way. I thought for sure the next commentary in my book on servant leadership would be something about how he was self focused and needed a reality check… BOY WAS I WRONG!!
Instead, the author (Greg Ogden) suggests that in order for us to really be servant leaders as Jesus was we need to know how much God loves us already, regardless of performance, regardless of all the good things we do to further his kingdom, regardless of how much we pray or how little we seem to screw up… God loves us, that is why we love others.
Its simple right? You may be thinking, “Traci, this is not rocket science 1 John 4:19 says we love because he first loved us; John 3:16 says for God so loved the world that he gave his son… there are many other passages that describe this same thing, what is so special about this realization?”
My answer is, I have known all of those verses and have studied and incorporated them into my life over the years in many different ways, but as I am working with our church and trying to empower people to use their gifts and think about serving I have been challenged. I recently read an account in John 13 where Jesus washed the disciple’s feet. This passage was prefaced with Jesus knowing that all things had been given to him by the father and the assurance that he had about returning to be with him.
Jesus probably wouldn’t have gone to the cross if he didn’t have that assurance. Guess what, we have the same assurance! In our fears and failures, we have the love of God and have been called his children as well. There is no need to strive and get acclamations for our gifts or our deeds. We serve a God who is very fond of us.
Do you believe, deep down, that God is fond of you?
I have the privilege of working with the new home groups that are starting throughout our community. This morning I just spent some time reflecting on Mark 4:30-32
Again Jesus said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.”
I started praying and dreaming for our church. The smallest of all the seeds… it grew into a huge tree that birds are perching in… I am encouraged. I am excited. Lets continue to plant our seeds.
Most of the reading I have done over the past few days has pointed me towards grace and humility. The challenge I have for each one of us to ask ourselves,
Why am I serving?
Where does my motivation come from?
Am I excited about what God is doing in my life and the lives of those around me?
If you are anything like me, you probably get pulled towards wanting to gain your own recognition or glory for things that you do. You may even feel a pull towards striving for perfection every step of the way. You may fill your life up with busyness and repeatedly extend your “to-do” list to make yourself fell important… (maybe that is only me
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort by his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves.
No room for comparison.
No room for beating ourselves up with merit based expectations.
As Jeff or Solomon might say, “smoke or bubbles”… LOTS OF ROOM FOR JESUS!
I started thinking… What encouragement do I have from being united with Christ? What comfort have I experienced by his love? What power have I received from the Spirit? How has my heart become tender? Where has my compassion expanded?
There are plentiful and abundant answers to these questions in all of our lives. We get an opportunity to extend this joy and peace to others!!!! How awesome is that???
As we serve together let us look to the greatest humble servant as our example and come together around common purposes and goals to see His Kingdom come!
This may be a word that is scary for you or it might be something that you run towards, but I am learning that having times of solitude is essential to my relationship with Christ and being an effective leader for our church.
When was the last time you turned off all the noises around you, separated yourself from contact with other people, and just sat and listened and let the clutter of life fade away? For many of us, this is only something we would like to do or something that seems unattainable. We say things like, “I’m too busy”; “I can’t find the time.” “There are immediate needs that I need to solve or fix or deal with.”
I have found that when I am most overwhelmed and have the most on my plate are the very moments that I need to step back, Be Still, and Know that God is God…
I hope you will take some time to listen and still yourself this week.
Today is one of those days where it just hit me… I love my job! I spent the last hour and a half reading and studying the Bible and thinking about how what I am learning about spiritual gifts can help our community develop as the Body of Christ. So cool!
Ray Stedman has written, “Somewhere this idea found deep entrenchment in Christian circles that doing what God wants you to do is always unpleasant; that Christians must make choices between doing what they want to do and being happy, and doing what God wants them to do and being miserable.” But when we operate within our giftedness, we are being carried along in a current of love that says, “You were made for this.”
I am in need of repentance for this one. Its easy for me to think that in obedience is some how putting me on lock down, but the reality is, it is freeing. My dream for our church is that we would discover the “current of love” (okay that is a little cheesy), but that we would discover together the joy of living as the body.
How have you experienced joy from using your gifts?
I read a passage of scripture this morning (1 Corinthians 9) and it made me think about us pursuing our spiritual gifts. I am going to focus on the end of the chapter.
The first thing I took away is that following God is not easy, it actually takes work. Sometimes I think… “oh I know what my gift is, it should just come naturally and I don’t need to work at developing it…” However, I don’t think we can read this and have that perspective. It seemed like Paul worked pretty hard to develop his gift of preaching.
Secondly, Paul says that we are like athletes, training for a race, training for a prize that will last. The year that we won nationals while cheering at NCSU we had practice 4 days a week at 5:30AM, games, 2-3 workouts with a trainer per week, and then got together outside of practice to work more. We gained a prize that means a lot to me, but this prize is not eternal. My national championship ring isn’t what determines my worth and value as a person. But it did take a lot of work to get it.
Some questions:
How come I was/am able to spend so much time disciplining myself to meet these athletic goals?
What things help me to pursue spiritual formation?
One thing I want to pursue more is listening to God. I talk to him a lot, but I don’t listen very often. It will take some time to develop this ability, but I’m excited to do it. Actually, I’m a little nervous… what if he tells me something I don’t want to hear? I guess I’ll learn to listen and grow through that. Here goes…
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almight; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried, “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the alter. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here I am, Send me!”.
As soon as I read it I was reminded of my favorite Hymn from growing up…
*WARNING* I searched for about 30 minutes for something that would be more our style… but was unsuccessful. This may be a bit boring of funny to watch but it is the best I could do to get the lyrics and the music to the song. Just think about the creation and the calling…
I grew up in a traditional presbyterian church where we had hymnals and full choirs… some of these hymns have deep meaning to me.
The reason I like this song so much is because I think it captures the essence of what Isaiah must have been feeling and what it feels like to hear God calling us to go…
Awe, wonder, majesty… God is so HOLY, and huge and amazing, the creator
Guilt, shame, confusion, who me? i can’t? I’m unclean!
Grace, forgiveness, a clean start…
Humility, Wow, God, you care enough to cleanse me…
Response, I will go Lord, will you lead me?
Lord, King, Creator! My words cannot express how wonderful you are. You are huge and big and wide and powerful. Angels can’t even look at you… that is pretty amazing! But, God, you sent your son to cleanse me, to cleanse us… you want us to be able to come to you. Then you call us to GO, Go out, spread your kingdom… really? Can we do it? I am afraid? You are perfect and I am not! How can I do this? Oh, I can’t? Really, oh, can’t without your power… I get it… I need you Lord! I need you Lord! I need you Lord! So, you really are sending me? Are you sure? Okay, I will go… I can’t wait! Where do you want me? Help me to listen to you today.
On Sunday mornings we have just spent the last few weeks learning about “truth” and “spiritual formation”. The next two weeks we include “mission” and “interdependence” . Today I was reflecting on some notes that I have on helping to cultivate vision and motivation for our community and it hit me once again… these values are more connected than we realize.
Read on if you are curious…
It is easy for us to focus on building community as a goal, especially in our home groups. We want to grow together and have support and friendships and fun. We do have the need for and longing to belong, love and be loved. But, community cannot be our goal.
Our home groups and church will thrive as we pursue God and engage in mission together. The gift process that we are/have been going through is an opportunity for us to get a better understanding on how we can pursue this mission together… interdependence…
• When community becomes our focus we create dependence, dysfunction, etc.Community alone is an insatiable thirst.
• We do a disservice to ourselves when we elevate community to the thing which brings us together. When we do this we often become drawn by a desire for an idealistic “college dorm life” experience or for a place that meets personal needs without owning a commitment to mission.
• It is engagement in mission that raises the urgency of true spiritual formation.
This last statement hit me like a ton of bricks. Last night we were talking about this at our Jubilee meeting. The more that we engage with the problems and challenges we wish to face the more we will realize our need for God and run to him.
Are we pursuing lives where we need God? Where we need each other? Are we in touch with the brokenness around us and in us enough to feel and act on urgency to seek and show the face of God?
I just came across this article by Gary Mayes. He has a leadership blog called “No Red Capes” and an interesting perspective on leadership. He tries to offer some tangible practices for those of us who are trying to lead towards a larger vision.
I found it very helpful in thinking through how I want to communicate new processes that I am coming up with with our leaders and think that applying these same strategies within our home groups could be very helpful.
