spiritual life – Page 3

The “Big Four” of Discipleship – Part 2

If you read The Big 4 – Part 1 you’ll know that the basic premise is that there is too much talking and too little understanding of Christian Discipleship which results in too few disciples…

If you read The Big 4 – Part 1 you’ll know that the basic idea is that there is too much talking and too little understanding of Christian Discipleship which results in too few disciples actually ‘doing’ discipleship and far too few able to teach discipleship.

Before outlining my simple plan of discipleship there are two things to remember:

First, discipleship is inherently simple. If it were not then most of the Christian world would not be flourishing, and it is.

And second, we have to DO it. It’s really worse than useless to keep talking about the same things that are the wrong things and not do the important things that are the right things.

So my simple plan of discipleship includes four things, what I call the Big Four of Discipleship, and they are:

Prayer – which includes learning to pray and to worship,

Witness – connecting us with Scripture and with God’s world

Service – both inside and outside the church

Life – doing life well with increasing wisdom.

If I could do these four things well I believe I would be living as an effective disciple.

And I also believe – without any doubt whatsoever – that a community of people who can do these things well together would be an effective church – with everyone ‘brought to maturity in Christ’ (Ephesians 4:13)

So that’s my simple plan. And my simple aim in life is to help churches do these four things so well that they become mountain moving, culture challenging communities of love and faith.

(… and for an effective church see G.L.A.D. – A Church Near You)

The “Big Four” of Discipleship – Part 1

Ask yourself the question: how many disciples do you know who have the facility to teach you to be a better disciple?\r\n\r\nYou know the sort of thing:\r\n

when you’re stuck in prayer they can teach you where to go next;

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when you are struggling to understand the Bible they can connect passages and themes for you;

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when you stumble over your words at work when trying describe your experience of God they can help you clarify what you really think;

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when you struggle with lowering debt or raising children they can sit alongside you and help you formulate plans that are practical and sensible and yet faithful to the Bible.

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\r\nI’ve been through my contact list (which is extensive). Leaving out clergy, I know only four people who are close.\r\n\r\nLeaving out licensed lay ministers, that leaves three.\r\n\r\nAnd two of them are women.\r\n\r\n(Interestingly all bar one have come through very hard times in which they have had their faith chiselled and beaten into shape).\r\n\r\nHow close are you? How close am I?\r\n\r\nWhile we’re thinking about this we need a plan … mine is here – The “Big Four” of Disipleship – Part 2

What to do today?

At the beginning of the week, coming off a full and challenging weekend, I wonder how to plan the week? With so many possibilities and necessities, duties and concerns, I reflect on this:

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“Cheered by the presence of God, I will do at each moment, without anxiety,\r\n according to the strength which He shall give me,\r\n that work that His Providence assigns me.

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I will leave the rest without concern: it is not my affair.

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I ought to consider the the duty to which I am called each day as the work that God has given me to do,\r\nand to apply myself to it in a manner worthy of His glory,\r\n that is to say,\r\n with exactness and in peace.

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I must neglect nothing; I must be violent about nothing.”

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Fenelon

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Or as Jesus said of Mary, “She has done what she could”

Ammerdown

Reflecting for clarity and discernment\r\n\r\nIn conversation with counsellors or friends.\r\nOr in solitude.\r\nIn Eucharist.\r\nOr in prayer.\r\n\r\nWith beauty in nature or in pictures.\r\nOr by creating pictures.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Quiet reflection in Ammerdown

Poetic Prophets – The Languange of Imagination

Is it worth the effort of finding fresh and imaginative ways to describe faith?\r\nRead what Eugene Peterson says about the prophet Zechariah …\r\n……………………………….

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Zechariah reinvigorated imaginations with his visions and messages.

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The visions provided images of a sovereign God\r\nthat worked their way into the lives of the people …

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The messages forged a fresh vocabulary\r\nthat gave energy and credibility\r\nto the long-term purposes of God being worked out in their lives.

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Zechariah’s enigmatic visions,\r\nworking at multiple levels,\r\nand his poetically charged messages\r\nare still at work,\r\nlike time capsules in the lives of God’s people … releasing

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insight\r\nand hope\r\nand clarity

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for the people whom God is using to work out his purposes\r\nin a world that has no language\r\nfor God\r\nand the purposes of God.

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from Eugene Peterson’s Introduction to Zechariah, The Message

Promotion, Preferment, Sacrifice

Its job hunting time for curates all over the country, and on Friday mornings new jobs are advertised in the Church Times (today’s are in Ireland, Scotland and Brittany – tempting – and a school in Ashford). Depending on the rules of their particular diocese curates in their third or fourth year have to move on and many are keen to go, ready to spread their wings and take more responsibility.\r\n\r\nAnd yet.\r\n\r\nTraining for ministry is not just about ‘learning the ropes’, as it’s inelegantly called. Occasional offices. Running a PCC meeting. Preaching. Not ruining worship services.\r\n\r\nSkills aren’t enough.\r\n\r\nAnd that is because – if leading in ministry is not empowered by a tangible, dynamic, and forceful spiritual authority then it will waste the good time of congregations and fail a world that is, according to Jesus, waiting for someone to step up (Matthew 9/Luke 10).\r\n\r\nThe alternative to a ministry of Spirit Empowered Spiritual Authority is a well practised ministry that is ineffective in the spiritual world, and consequently unfruitful in the temporal one too.\r\n\r\nSo how is spiritual authority gained?\r\n\r\nUnfortunately this aspect of the job cannot be taught by Diocesan training staff or learned easily in theological colleges.\r\nIt doesn’t come with the job, and it isn’t conferred by a hopeful PCC.\r\nIt doesn’t come automatically with the Bishop’s license to minister, and it isn’t handed out with a promotion.\r\n\r\nNo, spiritual authority in leadership comes from the public and private practice of surrender and sacrifice. And as Jesus modelled in the Gospels, it is often discovered in the desert.\r\n\r\nWhich means that in trying to make sense of some of our hardest years of leadership behind or ahead we should take encouragement from the following quote about the road to spiritual authority in leadership:\r\n\r\nIt is not won by promotion, but by many prayers and tears. It is attained by confession of sin, and much heartsearching and humbling before God; by self surrender, a courageous sacrifice of every idol, a bold uncomplaining embrace of the cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering looking unto Jesus crucified. It is not gained by seeking great things for ourselves, but like Paul, by counting those things that are gain to us as loss for Christ. This is a great price, but it must be paid by the leader who would not be merely a nominal but a real spiritual leader of men, a leader whose power is recognised and felt in heaven, on earth, and in hell.\r\n\r\nSamuel Logan Brengle

Community Temperature Taker

Last week Pete Scazzero of New Life fellowship Church in New York introduced us to his Community Temperature Taker.\r\n\r\nThis tool for testing the relational health of a community was developed by Pete and Geri Scazzero from a method originally created by family therapist Virginia Satir for use with families.\r\n\r\nIt works simply like this: each person involved takes it in turn to make a statement at each of five levels, starting at the bottom of the thermometer (see picture below) and working up to the top. If it is not possible to move past a particular point that tells something about the temperature of the relationship(s). If every stage is done but with difficulty, that too says something about how good the relationships are. Of course, taking the temperature may also show that all is well.\r\n\r\nFor help on how to use the Community Temperature Taker a good set of notes can be found at:\r\nwww.oakpointe.org/pdf/sermon-notes/EHS/CommunityTemperatureReading.pdf\r\n\r\nThis tool works in one-to-one settings and groups, although Pete did clarify that it may be preferable to omit the third stage in a team group setting.\r\n\r\nI’ve tried it and highly recommend it!However, I’m still trying to remember to do Stages 2 and 3 around the home:\r\n\r\n”I’m puzzled as to why that mess is still there after three days” instead of “for goodness sake, clear it up!”;\r\n\r\nand\r\n\r\n”I notice that you never do the washing up and I prefer sharing the tasks more evenly” rather than muttering under my breath yet within earshot “Why’s it always me doing this – on my own!?”\r\n\r\n

Like Kew Gardens in a Storm

The storms of October 1987 brought devastation to a third of the trees in Kew Gardens. Around 700 trees were uprooted, many of them old (100 – 200 years) and fully mature (100ft).\r\n\r\nSome said that a hundred years of history had been lost.\r\n\r\nOthers noted that for a hundred years too few trees had been planted.\r\n\r\nWhen the staff came to investigate further they found that many of the trees had inadequate root systems. Some very tall trees had root systems that had spread great distances outwards but only one meter downwards.\r\n\r\nAn audit also showed that the pre-storm gardens had gaps in its inventory, that whole species from many countries were missing.\r\n\r\nSo Kew Gardens looked great, but it took a greater storm to develop a planting regime that ensured the garden’s vibrancy and to instigate improved ways to nurture trees.\r\n\r\nI know churches that need this.

Education and the Pastor/Teacher

A head teacher was talking on the radio about the introduction of a new exam system into mainstream education. He gave a coherent and comprehensive overview of how each facet of education will be affected by the change. It was along the lines of …\r\n\r\n“This will be good for Keystage 3 which has become a poor revisiting of Keystage 2, but not so good for overall numeracy and literacy at school leaving age. The proposed scheme segregates children on grounds of ability too soon, and expects a lower standard of achievement where we should be aiming for as high a standard as possible for all children in literacy and numeracy. And employers will not be helped by having an group of lower attainment …” \r\n\r\nAnd so on, for quite some time.\r\n\r\nWhat made me pause to listen was the speaker’s obvious mastery of the issues affecting all children in that particular group of secondary school children. It was an elegantly expressed and coherent overview of the issues. What is more, he was speaking without the benefit of time for preparation.\r\n\r\nIt was what you would expect or want in a competent head teacher.\r\n\r\nWhich made me think about how vicars and pastors would compare if they were asked to give an overview of how the way they have structured their churches and in particular their teaching programmes to aid their people in maturing in their faith, from the immature early days of faith to a competency in literacy (Biblical and theological) and numeracy (lifestyle and personal management).\r\n\r\nI think I’ll start asking my vicar friends the question: “So how have you structured your teaching programme to help people to grow in their discipleship to a place of literacy and numeracy?”

Never Too Busy Churches

“The words ‘I’m too busy’ and ‘I don’t have enough time’ reflect an inner attitude. Great men and women never give the impression of being too busy, but rather appear to be quite at leisure.”\r\n\r\nSo said Oswald Saunders.\r\n\r\nI wonder if that’s true of great churches? That is, great churches never give the impression of being too busy, but rather appear to be quite at leisure.\r\n\r\nOr perhaps it’s the other way around: a great church is one that is full of people who are never too busy and have enough time?\r\n\r\nI wonder what that looks like?