Over the years I’ve had numerous friends who left pastoral ministry for various reasons. Some found that it was not what they expected. Others left under difficult circumstances when there was financial troubles or interpersonal conflicts. But many who left, experienced significant guilt that they had failed their “calling” because they are “leaving the ministry”. They were no longer in the “higher calling” that everyone seems to refer to when they speak of ministry as if it was the most important occupation in the Kingdom of God.
But this is clearly not consistent with a biblical understanding of ministry or calling! Just because you are earning your living as a missionary, or an employee of a church or a church organization does not mean that this is a more important vocational choice than others. In fact, many who enter pastoral ministry soon discover that the interpersonal, pastoral function that they felt so drawn to, is often overshadowed by administrative functions, endless meetings, and too often, management of interpersonal conflict. If it were not for the preaching side, pastoral ministry is very similar to any other management position in our communities! Read more …
The concept of white privilege has become a political hot potato. Strangely, our Black brothers don’t seem to find it as strange as those in the White church. In fact, many reject any talk of “privilege” and will too often respond defensively when someone points out their privilege, as if they are being accused of something that they are not responsible for. The political landscape has muddied the water by coupling white privilege to demands for reparations, guilt about historic injustices, and affirmative action. We need to step away from the political discourse and return to a biblical understanding of privilege.
Caitlyn is my granddaughter, and she has Downs Syndrome. When you meet her she has the most infectious giggle and gives hugs that just melt her grandfather’s heart. She has no formal educational qualifications and cannot perform any occupational tasks. She also has some medical issues that require daily medical interventions. In contrast, I have a PhD, a history of professional occupational accomplishments, and I’m as healthy as a horse! The point that is important here is that I was granted enormous privileges at birth that was not something that Caitlyn enjoyed.
Discipleship has always been a challenge for the church. We have traditionally been excellent at gathering people together, at delivering anointed preaching, and producing amazing worship experiences. We do prayer meetings and small groups and invest in Sunday School programs, all as organizational strategies to somehow produce disciples. After all, making disciples was the “prime directive” that Jesus left for us (with humble apologies to my Trekkie friends!). Jesus said He would build His church; our task was to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).
COVID-19 has severely disrupted our organizational strategies. But even if they had been highly successful in producing mature disciples who understand the ways of the Lord, we will not be able to utilize them for the foreseeable future. Read more …
I have experienced quite a bit of loss through death in my life; parents, grandparents, close friends, and then six years ago, completely unexpectedly, my wife of 44 years! At my age, when you hear of someone who has died, you unconsciously take note of how old they were (and then secretly calculate the difference between your age and theirs!). I have lost a friend to COVID-19 and several more friends who are terminally ill from various other diseases, and they know they are dying. Death is much closer to me than it ever was, and it tends to pose some interesting discipleship challenges.
There’s a lot written about how to live a life of discipleship, but very little is written on the death process of a disciple of Christ. I had a father-in-law who was a great man of God, who loved to minister to people, and lived his life focused on the less fortunate. When he was diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer, his progress towards the end of his life was an amazing example of godly dying. Read more …
Discipleship has always been a challenge for the church. How do you effectively define discipleship? What does a healthy disciple look like? How can you measure progress? But today in a COVID-19 world, the existing approaches to discipleship have come under even greater pressure. The traditional ways that we used to evaluate discipleship are no longer available! We used to look at church attendance, volunteer involvement, small group participation, Sunday school size, or possibly even financial support levels to the ministry.
I want to introduce you to the Discipleship Dynamics Assessments (DDA™). This confidential online discipleship tool presents the disciple with a model of discipleship that challenges growth in 5 different Dimensions. It is not a curriculum but lends itself to developing a unique discipleship intervention for each disciple. The Assessment takes about 40 minutes to complete. The Assessment has excellent reliability and validity support (Cronbach alpha exceeds .700 on almost all the Outcomes). The results are immediately calculated and provide a personalized, 13-page report to each disciple on 35 Biblically based discipleship outcomes.
First Steps in Using the Discipleship Dynamics Assessment™ in your Congregation
Dear leader,
Thank you for your commitment to the Great Commission and Great Commandment of Jesus to “make disciples” (Mt. 28:18-20) that love God and their neighbor with grace and wisdom (Mt. 22:37-40; John 13). Thank you as well for leading your group through the Discipleship Dynamics Assessment ™ process and discovering the strengths and weaknesses of your group.
The members of your group each have detailed reports and you have the overall scores detailing the trends in your community. This is biblically grounded and empirically verified information found in no other resource. You can now target your discipleship goals and process to cultivate the strengths and improve and mature the areas that need growth. Read more …
Self-discipline is a skill that must be learned early. It is listed by Paul as one of the fruit that the Holy Spirit is trying to develop in our lives (Galatians 5:25-6). When self-discipline is underdeveloped it results in an entire host of social and psychological problems. Not only is a lack of self-discipline related to overt behavioral problems like sexual acting out and interpersonal violence, it also affects our cognitive and emotional worlds. When you are unable to control your impulses you find it difficult to delay gratification. At school children who cannot focus on the difficult tasks of reading, mathematic problem solving and studying for an examination will fail to make the grades that they are intellectually capable of attaining. Teenagers who pass through puberty and into adolescence will find it difficult to harness their sexual urges. Persons without self-discipline will find it impossible to control urges to buy things they do not need, or to resist the temptation to engage in behaviors that bring immediate pleasure but have significant social, moral or medical consequences later. Adults without self-control are prone to sexual misconduct, interpersonal conflict, financial stress, health issues and anxiety.
In the late 1960s and early 70s Stanford University psychologist Walter Mischel did some experiments on the capacity of children to delay gratification. His experiments have become classics in the study of human behavior. In his research a child was offered a choice of having a marshmallow immediately or, if they could wait, when the researcher returned they would receive TWO marshmallows. Watching the videos of how these children reacted while the researcher was out of the room is hilarious! You can see it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_oy9614HQ I’m sure you would be able to identify with many of these children as they squirmed under the pressure of trying to delay their gratification! Some of them licking the marshmallow, sniffing it, touching it, ignoring it…but oh the joy of the little boy who waited till the end and when he got his reward stuffed BOTH marshmallows gleefully into his mouth!
But what is even more interesting, Michshel and his colleagues have found that those children who were able to delay their gratification, waiting for the better reward also tended to have better educational achievement, better body mass indices and generally better life outcomes. When the Holy Spirit urges us to postpone gratification He is not trying to punish us, He has a much better future in store for us. Psychologists are only discovering this now!
Practicing the spiritual disciplines, learning to wait, postponing gratification and teaching our children to do the same is not only financially, psychologically and educationally wise, it holds great reward in the Kingdom of God!
So, don’t eat those marshmallows!
…and don’t forget to take your own Discipleship Assessment!
Boko Haram, al Shabaab and ISIS are frightening new words that are being added to our political vocabulary. The vitriolic hatred of these radicals and the violence that they’ve perpetrated against Christians are revolting! A friend of mine has just returned from Egypt where the Coptic Christians are mourning the martyrdom of the 21 Libyan Christians after ISIS publicly beheaded them in February. This week, as our Holy Week draws to a climax, al Shabaab terrorists from Somalia crossed the border and killed 147 Christian students in northeast Kenya on Thursday.
Of course there are various ways to respond to such atrocities. The military option would be to send in drones armed with missiles and destroy their bases, if we could find them. The development option would be to preventatively work with the poorest of the poor in those regions and destroy poverty, hunger, disease and joblessness that render these people vulnerable to the lies of terrorist organizations. The economic option would be to cut off their economic ties with the rest of the world and to starve them of capital to fund their war of hatred. The legal option would be to indict them before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
But what is our Christian option?
This sounds completely out of touch with reality! Jesus said, “Love your enemies”! Eugene Peterson has a gift for putting the Bible into very understandable, modern-day language. Here’s his translation of Matthew 5:43-48:
You’re familiar with the old written law, “Love your friend,” and its unwritten companion, “Hate your enemy.” I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves….If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. In a word, what I’m saying is, GROW UP. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.
Responding to these terrorists in a Christian manner is where the discipleship rubber meets the road! I’m not suggesting that the other peaceful options to respond to these tragedies are not valid, but I have to admit it’s taking me a lot of effort to formulate an appropriate reaction to this commandment to love these enemies! So here are my attempts during this Easter Weekend to respond in the way that a kingdom subject is supposed to respond…and, I’ll readily admit, it’s HARD and I’m struggling with it!
“Lord, forgive these men for their atrocities, they really don’t know what they’re doing” “Lord, don’t hold their ignorance and violence against them…” “Lord, may the truth of your ways penetrate into their hearts so that they would turn from their violence and discover the Way of peace” “Lord, (this one was the most difficult for me!) bless them. Don’t let the folly of their ways backfire onto them or onto their loved ones. Protect their wives, their children and their families from harm. May they find peace. May they flourish. May they discover the joys of your presence. May they prosper! When two of my best friends had to flee from the violence in central Nigeria after their pastor friend was hacked to death in front of his family by Muslim extremists, this was (and still remains) the most difficult demand of discipleship for them! How do you pray God’s blessing on the people who publically mutilated your friend because he was a follower of Christ? How do you forgive those who despise and hate you? How do you LOVE these people???
This is what Easter is all about! Don’t hate. Don’t retaliate. Don’t hold it against them.
There is no such thing as a “self-made” millionaire. Of course there are many creative people who have used their talents and skills to be innovative and to grow very rich in the process. Many like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have created amazing products and services that have made our lives much easier and in turn, these have made them exceedingly rich. But a few years ago Forbes Magazine published an article on “Rags to Riches Billionaires” in which the claim is that billionaires “made their fortunes from scratch, relying on grit and determination, and not good genes” (Forbes Magazine 2007). The assumption was that you don’t need anyone, or anything else when you have the brilliant talent of a self-made millionaire!
But this argument overlooks some fundamental issues that these billionaires need to acknowledge before they proudly promote themselves beholden to no one but their own ingenuity. Although many are college dropouts, all of them enjoyed the privilege of school systems that taught them to read and write. All of them lived in nations where there was respect for law and order. Their nations enjoyed the protection of an independent judiciary where their business contracts and patents would be protected and enforced. They had access to a health system and to nutrition that ensured their personal well-being. They were indeed, blessed of the Lord long before they became rich. Without all these invisible assets they would never have been able to succeed.
In a recent book, political commentator Chrystia Freeland tells of her interviews with some of the wealthiest 0.1 percent in the world. In “Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else” she provides interesting insights into the arrogance of some of the super-rich who see themselves as deserving victors in a cut-throat world. Many of her subjects look down on the poor who should have “picked themselves up by their bootstraps” and made something of their lives (as they had done). The plutocrats portray a sense of persecution for their wealth, comparing the Occupy Wall street movement attack on them to the Kristallnacht attacks where Hitler persecuted the Jews (Politico, 2014). In the meantime their enormous wealth obtains political influence for them, and this in turn begets even more wealth and while the super-rich get very much richer the poor get very much poorer.
According to a recent Oxfam report the wealth of the richest 1% in the world will overtake the combined wealth of the other 99% of the global population by 2016 (Oxfam, 2016). This explosion in inequality comes at a time when 1 in 9 people don’t not have enough to eat and more than a billion people live on less than $1.25-a-day.
This brings me to my Christmas tree analogy. There’s a significant difference between a Christmas tree and a grape vine. It would be absurd of a Christmas tree to boast about the gifts that hang from its branches, or about the splendor of its decorations. These shiny trappings do not reflect on the quality of the tree, but on the wealth and creativity of the householder who decorated the tree. Grapevines are different. The quality of their fruit is directly related to the quality of the vine. Unfortunately the so-called “self-made millionaire” is more like a Christmas tree and not a grapevine. The wealth is not “self-made”; it is bestowed.
“Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:16-18 English Standard Version). We are what we are by GRACE. Whatever assets we may possess, be it wealth, influence, intelligence, good looks or the talent to make beautiful music, we need to remember that we are custodians of the assets the Lord has entrusted to us.
Let us use our assets wisely and allow the grace of God to produce the fruit of gentleness, love and kindness in our character.
About 25 years ago professional psychology turned “positive” and I think we can learn something from them in our theology. For decades the field of psychology almost exclusively focused on mental illness but in 1998 the newly elected president of the American Psychological Association, Martin Seligman decided to make Positive Psychology the theme for his term of office. Instead of focusing only on how to help people move out of mental illness, he wanted the profession to also promote well-being and happiness and to focus on what the things are that help people to grow and thrive. The resulting Positive Psychology movement has flourished as they promote strengths and virtues, and produce research on what psychological flourishing and the meaning of life would look like; how one could increase happiness.
The movement has much to contribute to our understanding of life and happiness and I am constantly impressed by the research that this field produces. But we can also learn from them in the Church. I think that a theology than only deals with resolving sin, failures, disappointments and hurts from the past can become a one-sided theology. Dallas Willard in his award-winning book, The Divine Conspiracy called this the gospel of sin management. He suggests that we have replaced the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed with a gospel that only deals with sin. We make an appeal to people to make a decision for salvation so that their sins would be forgiven. This decision has been the focus of our global evangelistic efforts to make sure that people go to heaven when they die.
But Jesus’ gospel was more than a fire-escape from hell. He was appealing to people to become His apprentices, to learn from Him, and to become LIKE Him. While we are so often obsessed with getting people to make a decision, the apostles were obsessed with making disciples. After all, was that not what Jesus’ Great Commandment was all about? “Go into all the world and MAKE DISCIPLES” (Matthew 28:19-20). This is the essence of what we could call a positive theology, a theology that does not ignore sin, or the salvation message that Jesus’ death provided for us. But it is a theology of how to live a life of obedience to the Spirit. It is about developing the character of Christ so that the world can tangibly experience the love of God when they come into contact with us. It is about being a disciple.
At Discipleship Dynamics our passion is getting people to make a more significant decision that is more than just managing the sins of their past. We want people to be disciples of Jesus.
Over the years I’ve had numerous friends who left pastoral ministry for various reasons. Some found that it was not what they expected. Others left under difficult circumstances when there was financial troubles or interpersonal conflicts. But many who left, experienced significant guilt that they had failed their “calling” because they are “leaving the ministry”. They were no longer in the “higher calling” that everyone seems to refer to when they speak of ministry as if it was the most important occupation in the Kingdom of God.
The concept of white privilege has become a political hot potato. Strangely, our Black brothers don’t seem to find it as strange as those in the White church. In fact, many reject any talk of “privilege” and will too often respond defensively when someone points out their privilege, as if they are being accused of something that they are not responsible for. The political landscape has muddied the water by coupling white privilege to demands for reparations, guilt about historic injustices, and affirmative action. We need to step away from the political discourse and return to a biblical understanding of privilege.
Discipleship has always been a challenge for the church. We have traditionally been excellent at gathering people together, at delivering anointed preaching, and producing amazing worship experiences. We do prayer meetings and small groups and invest in Sunday School programs, all as organizational strategies to somehow produce disciples. After all, making disciples was the “prime directive” that Jesus left for us (with humble apologies to my Trekkie friends!). Jesus said He would build His church; our task was to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).
I have experienced quite a bit of loss through death in my life; parents, grandparents, close friends, and then six years ago, completely unexpectedly, my wife of 44 years! At my age, when you hear of someone who has died, you unconsciously take note of how old they were (and then secretly calculate the difference between your age and theirs!). I have lost a friend to COVID-19 and several more friends who are terminally ill from various other diseases, and they know they are dying. Death is much closer to me than it ever was, and it tends to pose some interesting discipleship challenges.