Category: Article

Hope for Those On the Brink

Posted on November 12, 2014

As I read On the Brink: Grace for Burned Out Pastors I felt Clay’s understanding arm wrapped around my shoulder, h9781596388987is words carrying heartfelt empathy, something that can be hard for pastors to find. As I collapsed on my bed in the mountains, I read and silently wept. My Heavenly Father was tenderly pulling the pain out.

I’ve peered over the fence of burnout a couple times. The first time was due to a mix of traveling too much, demands of ministry, and not enough intimacy with Christ. The second time I saw into the land of waylaid pastors from the vantage point of suffering. From either direction, I’ve found the Lord to be a great Comforter and Instructor. Both are necessary. If we receive only comfort, we will simply withdraw. If we only receive instruction, we with wither away on the vine.

I have organized some insights from this book under four important headings: Empathy, Idolatry, Suffering, & Hope.

EMPATHY IN THE DIFFICULTY OF MINISTRY

It doesn’t take long, after experiencing a major storm in leadership, of you to being to wonder if you need to and on ship. Whether it’s a seventy foot waves or just an extremely slow lead in the nice weather, there are times when walking way form the community to which God has called you to minister seems to be safer than staying put.

It is rare that all these things happen at once, but any pastor can attest that there are periods in ministry when one thing comes right after the next, leaving him exhausted and needing significant rest and renewal. Yet such rest is rare when a leader has to create yet another sermon for Sunday and get ready for yet another committee meeting…and still have time to be with and minister to his own family.

IDOLATRY IN OUR SUFFERING

Here is the danger of every pastor, church planter, and even church member: “The church we want becomes the enemy of the church we have.”

“If we demand, in any of our relationships, either perfection or nothing, we will get nothing.”

“He made a point that changed my life and left me in tears. He said that too often pastors only see areas of deficiency in their people and not evidences of grace, and therefore they become bitter and joyless…Maybe the church as we have it provides the very conditions and proper company congenial for growing up in Christ for becoming mature, for arrive at the measure of the stature of Christ. Maybe God knows what he is doing, giving us church, this church.”

HOW TO SUFFER WELL

Werner freely admits that the joy that should come from knowing Christ and being saved by him, trusting in his good promises in the midst of trials, doesnt require a cheerfulness “as to remove all feeling of bitterness and pain.”

It is necessary and essential for patient endurance in ministry, that the “bitterness of the cross be tempered by spiritual joy.”

“Patience is not about waiting for the doctor or for the cars to move in the drive-through so I can finally gey my long-awaited double cheeseburger. Patience is perseverance under provocation.”

“With whatever you have gone through or are going through, is your heart filled with compassion, humility, and meekness?”

“Are your interactions with fellow sinners marked by kindness, patience, and forgiveness? If we let these questions penetrate deep enough, we’ll find that stew need grace just as much as, if not more than, the people we are pointing our fingers at.”

HOPE FOR THE PASTOR (and everyone else)

“A vital walk with Christ is the first priority.”

Don’t just prepare meals for others; feast for yourself.

“When I couldn’t or didn’t want to pray anymore, I took a measure of comfort in the biblical claim that if all this was really true, the Spirit was interceding within me and for me with groans too deep for words.”

The resurrection, then, is good news for pastors who are exhausted and crushed by life, ministry, and their own sins. It means the resurrected Shepherd of the sheep will find you to strengthen you once again with his resurrection power (Isa. 40:11, 27-31). The King of life will breathe life into you once again by the Spirit and grant you new repentance, strengthened faith, and a refreshed heart.”

“It is the repentant heart that has the most room for the rivers of living water flowing from the heart of our King.”

“There is a deeper joy that can’t be touched by circumstances.

“If God can raise Jesus from the dead, he is powerful enough to pour life back into a hardened and cold heart.”

 

Clay’s book is just $7 at WTS Books right now.

2 Books to Feast On

Posted on November 7, 2014

A MOVEABLE FEAST (Ernest Hemingway)

Some say Hemingway did more to influence American writing in the 20th century than any other writer. His style is blunt but descriptive, not excessive like contemporary novelists Margaret Atwood or David Foster Wallace (both of whom I enjoy). It’s remarkable how much he can accomplish is so little space.

A Moveable Feast gets its title from a letter Hemingway wrote to a friend:

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as s young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.

The book is a memoir of reflections from Hemingway’s time in Paris, where he lived with his wife and son in the twenties. If you’ve seen Midnight in Paris, you’ll recall all the artists and literary figures that lived there in this period. Hemingway was right in the mix, living in poverty, betting on horses, spilling ink in cafes, drinking lots of wine, and sizing up the likes of Gertrude Stein and Scott Fitzgerald.

His observations remind me of the importance of place. Be present. God is EverPresent. You will discover a richer texture to life if you engage the now, the experiences and people right in front of you, the scents curling up from your hot sandwich, the crunch of your lays potato chips, the vapid look on a strangers face, the plea for attention in a child’s cry, the realism of food-encrusted dishes waiting for a wash. Life deserves a better look.

Anyone interested in writing will absorb insights scattered nonchalantly through the narrative. His realism fixes scenes in your mind with moral bluntness. His commentary on social classes, personal failures, and the human condition are brief but penetrating. I’ve found a writing friend, and I’ve so much to learn from him.

 

THE DRAMA OF LIVING (David Ford)

This is a creative work by a British theologian who integrates the poetry of Micheal O’Siadhail, exegesis in the Gospel of John, and personal reflection. It’s quite unique in this regard. Any integrative or constructive theological work is challenging. Ford succeeds in generating theological insights, honoring his poet friend, and passing on wisdom. A couple of examples:

One of John’s favorite phrases, “eternal life” is not so much about “life after death” as “life after the death and resurrection of Jesus”–life, with others, adding in him, loved by him, and loving him.

“We are invited to recognize that the full truth is ahead of us, not already possessed, and that the best way to enter into it is together, ready to be surprised.”

His emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit is dynamic, creative, and inspiring. Reflecting on the challenge of living, he writes:

Without a ready-made script, we all have to improvise. But what feeds into our improvisations?

We have been given a mind, will, body, and Spirit-dwelling heart to improvise in life. This is liberating, exciting, wonderfully human. We improvise every day but under what influence?

Ford notes that the characters who grip us most, return to over and over, will build into our consciousness and shape our character. Some of these may be literary or distant; others should be close and incarnate–friends. His use of imagery like knots, scripts, and poetic lines are formative for the reader and a good reminder how important it is for Christians, of all people, to engage the imagination.

Unfortunately, Ford imagines some things that aren’t there. Some of his exegetical work is questionable, leading to unorthodox theological conclusions. For instance, he tries to make the case that God can be called by feminine or masculine terms since the tetragrammaton, YHWH, is neuter. While it is true that God both affirms and transcends gender, taking liberties to call him by unrevealed feminine names such as “Motherhood” is a stretch.

Nevertheless, Ford’s call to relate to God in more creative ways is a good challenge. After all, in Scripture we see God described as light, flower, tree, mountain, dove, wind, and so on. There is so much more to God than our tight theological description allow.

5 Recommended Books on Discipleship

Posted on September 24, 2014

I was recently asked for a recommendation for discipleship other than Gospel-Centered Discipleship. Here are some key books:

The Master Plan of Evangelism – a classic by Robert Coleman that focuses on Jesus’ approach to making disciples: “Men were his method.”

Following the Master: A comprehensive biblical theology of discipleship that runs Old Testament to New. Solid, accessible.

Mere Discipleship – this book does a great job of showing how the already/not yet of the kingdom of God (inaugurated eschatology) should affect our discipleship. Its unique, deep, and practical.

Connecting– A great guide to sorting out different types of mentoring relationships: coach, spiritual guide, and so on.

Building a Discipleship Culture – Mike Breen is great at thinking through discipleship systems to create a culture of disciple making.

Changing Your Mind & the Magnet of Prestige

Posted on October 27, 2013

Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind.

Cultivate that capacity for “negative capability.” We live in a culture where one of the greatest social disgraces is not having an opinion, so we often form our “opinions” based on superficial impressions or the borrowed ideas of others, without investing the time and thought that cultivating true conviction necessitates. We then go around asserting these donned opinions and clinging to them as anchors to our own reality. It’s enormously disorienting to simply say, “I don’t know.” But it’s infinitely more rewarding to understand than to be right – even if that means changing your mind about a topic, an ideology, or, above all, yourself.

Do nothing for prestige or status or money or approval alone.

As Paul Graham observed, “prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like.” Those extrinsic motivators are fine and can feel life-affirming in the moment, but they ultimately don’t make it thrilling to get up in the morning and gratifying to go to sleep at night – and, in fact, they can often distract and detract from the things that do offer those deeper rewards.

Taken from a favorite, thoughtful website called Brain Pickings