7 Paths of Christian Devotion

Recently downloaded to my Kindle: Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion by Richard J. Foster (founder of Renovare) and Gayle D. Beebe (president of Westmont College). Reading it is a spiritual journey I’m enjoying chapter by chapter.

From the Introduction:

The title Longing for God alludes to Augustine’s famous teaching that because we have been made to find fullness of life in God, all our activities in life, even our sinful ones, result from our longing for God. The paths in this book serve to orient us toward God so that we may satisfy this unquenchable longing rather than have it frustrated by inadequate or perverse sources.

In every age, great Christian saints have cultivated their life with God using the writings of Scripture, the theological reflections of others, the capacities of human reason, the cultural resources of the day and the spiritual disciplines. Through their reflections, the great saints witness to the work of the Holy Spirit and, when we study them, guide our spiritual life as well.

Here are the seven paths of Christian devotion with the “great saints” whose works are discussed and quoted under each path:

PATH ONE: THE RIGHT ORDERING OF OUR LOVE FOR GOD

• Origen of Alexandria: The Quest for Perpetual Communion with God
• Augustine of Hippo: Loving God with Our Body, Mind and Heart
• Bernard of Clairvaux: The Desire for God and the Ascent of Pure Love
• Blaise Pascal: The Right Ordering of Body, Mind and Heart

PATH TWO: THE SPIRITUAL LIFE AS JOURNEY

• Evagrius of Ponticus: From Deadly Thoughts to Godly Virtues
• George Herbert: Weaving Life into a Meaningful Whole
• John Bunyan: The Pilgrim’s Path to God
• Thomas Merton: Finding Our Home with God

PATH THREE: THE RECOVERY OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOD LOST IN THE FALL

• Thomas Aquinas: Learning to Love and Know God Fully
• Martin Luther: Growing in the Freedom of God’s Love
• John Calvin: Knowing God and Knowing Ourselves

PATH FOUR: INTIMACY WITH JESUS CHRIST

• Francis of Assisi: The World as Our Cloister
• St. Bonaventure: The Fullness of Life in Christ
• Thomas a Kempis: Imitating Christ
• Ignatius of Loyola: Guided by the Mysteries of Christ

PATH FIVE: THE RIGHT ORDERING OF OUR EXPERIENCES OF GOD

• Julian of Norwich: Enfolded in the Goodness of God
• George Fox: Learning to Follow the Light of Christ Within
• John Wesley: The Role of Our Religious Experiences in Knowing God
• Friedrich Schleiermacher: Making Sense of Our Experiences of God

PATH SIX: ACTION AND CONTEMPLATION

• John Cassian: Balancing the Active and Contemplative Life
• Benedict of Nursia: Learning to Live by a Rule
• Gregory the Great: Living the Active Life Contemplatively

PATH SEVEN: DIVINE ASCENT

• Pseudo-Dionysius: Loving God Through the Threefold Way
• The Cloud of Unknowing: The Sharp Darts of Longing Love
• Teresa of Avila: Entering Christ’s Mansion
• John of the Cross: Illuminating the Dark Night

Rockbridge Seminary students who have completed the fully online course “Practicing the Spiritual Disciplines” may want to add this book to the course’s optional reading list. For MDiv and MML students who have not taken the course (an elective for both programs), it is usually offered in the January Term each year.

Learning to say NO in ministry

It doesn’t seem right … saying “no” sometimes in the practice of ministry, especially when the “no” is to people and rather than projects.  In a recent blog post, Seth Godin commented about the importance of saying “no” in business leadership. Perhaps he comments apply to ministy leadership as well.

If you’ve got talent, people want more of you. They ask you for this or that or the other thing. They ask nicely. They will benefit from the insight you can give them.

The choice: You can dissipate your gift by making the people with the loudest requests temporarily happy, or you can change the world by saying ‘no’ often.

You can say no with respect, you can say no promptly and you can say no with a lead to someone who might say yes. But just saying yes because you can’t bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do the work.

Saying no to loud people gives you the resources to say yes to important opportunities.

Who are the loud people in your life getting more ministry attention than they truly need? Who are the quiet people in the background who really need you?

I’m thinking in particular of Rockbridge Seminary students who completed the online course “Pastoral Care” and the difficult ministry priority choices that sometimes have to be made. Should you be saying “no” more often as a ministry strategy of caring … to reach the people who really need you?

Go to Seth Godin’s blog post

The key to forming community? Missional small groups

Here’s one pastor who would admit it- his church stinks at forming biblical community. 

Matt Carter, senior pastor of The Austin Stone Community Church, realized that their small group ministry was not working at building biblical community. The challenge sent Matt and his leadership team back to Scripture to rediscover what formed community. The answer? Mission! Mission is what forms the bond of community.

Here’s how the Austin Stone website describes a “missional community”:

A Missional Community is a partnership of Christians on mission with God for our city, who demonstrate the gospel tangibly and declare the gospel creatively to each other, their neighbors, and to the world.

A Missional Community is not JUST a:

1. Small Group
2. Bible Study
3. Support Group
4. Social Activist Group
5. Weekly Meeting

It can involve these sorts of things, but it doesn’t stop there. Our missional communities Worship Christ, Live in Community, Get Trained for ministry, and Make Disciples together… over time. Being involved in community is critical to being in church rather than simply attending church. Missional communities are different from “small groups” or “community groups” that function as a program in the church; for us, they ARE the church.

Rockbridge Seminary students who have completed the online seminary course “Building a Small Group Ministry” may be helped by listening to Matt share about his journey in leading his church to form missional small groups.

Hat tip Learnings @ Leadership Network 

The Show: Strategic Conversations on the Church takes a look each week at what is happening in the church world- the innovative, the provocative, the interesting, and the important things that are changing the way we all do ministry. 

Personal worship enhanced by Examen.me

Since discovering Sacred Space (daily prayer online) from Tony Jones’ book The Sacred Way, I’ve found my personal worship helped by following online-directed prayer and worship pathways (but only after some intial skepticism).

That’s why I was particularly interested to learn more about a new online devotional website called Examen.me.

What I found is a personal worship tool that offers more function than Sacred Space- the ability to type devotional thoughts and prayers that can be stored and reviewed later. 

“Examens” (prayer and meditation pathways you can choose) are offered for Scripture (Gospel, NT, OT, Psalm), Prayer (prayer of examen, center out prayer), and Journal.  

Rockbridge Seminary students who completed the online seminary course “Practicing the Spiritual Disciplines” may find this spiritual disciplines tool to be useful.

(Hat tip Cynthia at The Digital Sanctuary)

Ministry responses by churches to economic recession

Leadership Network’s study “How the Economic Slump Is (or Isn’t) Hitting Churches” documents how some churches are responding to the economic recession.

Here are excerpts from the study:

In response to the economic downturn, churches are almost universally budgeting with greater caution and increased transparency. They want their people to know they are exercising great care in financial stewardship. Churches are also doing specific things to help their own people and the surrounding community.

A significant number of churches (85%) are planning at least two initiatives in 2009 to help the people in their congregations learn to manage their finances and giving consistent with Biblical principles. This includes:

• Offering financial classes, groups or seminars
• Preaching a sermon and/or series on finances and/or generosity
• Conducting an annual stewardship drive
• Making financial/generosity pamphlets available
• Having volunteer budget/debt counselors available
• Offering increased online/electronic giving options

Nearly a third of the churches he surveyed indicated they would be increasing their dollars for benevolence ministries to help people in their church and/or communities weather difficult financial times.

A great, specific example is from the Vineyard Church of Columbus, OH, where Rich Nathan is pastor. They created a task force consisting of Vineyard pastors and business people from the church. Ways they are helping people deal with the challenges of the recession include:

• A series of job networking events designed to connect qualified job candidates with employers and HR professionals
• A series of symposiums on subjects such as home foreclosure, accessing unemployment benefits and other public benefits
• On-going classes and programs in areas such as starting your own business, practical job search skills, career coaching, buying a home for the first time, and financial counseling
• Support groups and weekly intercessory prayer meetings for people who have lost jobs
• Provision of free health care at their two health clinics, plus baby clothes, diapers, and formula
• Collaboration with a local immigration services agency to care for the specific needs of international refugees
• A food pantry available for church members and those who live in specific zip codes in Columbus

Another great example of a church responding to the economic downturn comes from Toby Slough, pastor of Cross Timbers Community Church, Argyle, TX . Cross Timbers is continually raising the bar for caring. On March 1, 2009, Toby instructed the congregation, “If you need money today to feed or house your family, please take money out of the offering plate, rather than putting money in.” Two weeks later, the church collected its biggest offering of the year—and Toby responded by announcing that the church would pay the utility bills for any members who had lost their jobs. Notably, by the time of that record-breaking offering, Toby and the other church leaders had already decided to give substantial sums to those in need, but had chosen not to announce their intentions in advance. Toby insisted that he wanted to help people because it was the right thing to do, not because he thought it would spur greater giving. The church has also given out financial gift cards to people in need—and recently decided to donate 100% of its Easter 2009 offering to people in need.

The varieties of creative ways churches are helping their peoples and communities seem endless. Healing Place Church, Baton Rouge, LA, and Celebration Church, Jacksonville, FL, have each done largescale gift card giveaways for WalMart. North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, GA, has developed a support group for people seeking a new job.

Rockbridge Seminary students who have taken the online course “The Theology and Practice of  Ministry” may be helped by reading more or even downloading the full study (Learnings @ Leadership Network).

Why you might need to leave a ministry position

When is it time to leave a ministry position? 

If you are a Rockbridge Seminary student, think about the Time Line of your life that you built in “Developing the Focused Life,” your first course. The Time Line helped you identify people, events, and circumstances where God was at work shaping you into the person you are today.

Could it be that your present ministry position is coming to a close and, in Time Line terms, you need to transition to a new ministry chapter?   

My experience is that ministers leave ministry positions far too often for the wrong reasons and sometimes resist leaving for the right reasons. 

Author Gordon MacDonald suggests 8 reasons why you might leave a ministry position:

1. Incompatibility.

Good church, good pastor, but a bad fit. Both pastor and congregation develop a suspicion of the other’s agenda, and no amount of mutual reflection brings about convergence.

2. Immobility.

The congregation has become trapped in an ecclesiastical whirlpool—lots of programmatic motion but little sense of direction. There is an inescapable sense that the congregation is a closed community that plays church as a way of meeting the social needs of its constituents.

3. Organizational transition.

Healthy organizations inevitably reach growth points where a new kind of leadership becomes necessary. A wise and humble pastor learns for which era of church life he is best suited.

4. Stagnancy.

Sometimes pastors conclude that they can no longer personally develop in giftedness or leadership effectiveness in their present situation. When a congregation prevents its pastor’s personal growth, the result will be boredom and mediocrity for everyone.

5. Fatigue.

Looking back, I feel I often created problems for myself by promising people more of myself than I was capable of delivering. In the end our congregation was too large; the programs were too many; the staff wanted more of me than I knew how to give. I grew weary of trying to please everyone—and often feeling as if I pleased no one. My problem, no one else’s. The result, however, was exhaustion and disappointment. When the fatigue reaches the chronic stage, going over the side may be necessary.

6. Family morale.

Occasionally there comes a time when it’s impossible to ignore the fact that one’s spouse or children are being more harmed than helped by the present situation. No pastor can afford to sacrifice the family to unrealistic expectations of the congregation. Perpetual financial suffocation is not a healthy thing. Living conditions that embitter children, or church contentiousness that constantly humiliates or demeans a pastor in front of his own family, are strong indications that a leave-decision is called for. Nothing has been gained if a pastor is successful in the church and a failure in the home.

7. Closings and openings.

This one—hopefully, the best of them all—is tricky and demands thoughtful, spiritual listening and the counsel of trusted advisors. One intuits that ministry in a particular church has reached a point of conclusion. Word comes that another congregation is seeking a pastoral leader. The new situation fits one’s sense of call and giftedness. There is the concurrence of a spouse, a bishop, or trusted advisors. Most of all, one feels that God is in the decision.

8. The age factor.

There comes a time when a pastor can no longer keep up with the pace of ministry’s demands. Usually this reflects one’s age. An aging pastor faces the terrible temptation to hold on to the job too long. The love he has for the people and the love they have for him is life giving. 

Read the full blog (Off the Agenda: Conversations for Building Church Leaders)

 

 

 

1. Incompatibility.

Good church, good pastor, but a bad fit. Both pastor and congregation develop a suspicion of the other’s agenda, and no amount of mutual reflection brings about convergence.

2. Immobility.

The congregation has become trapped in an ecclesiastical whirlpool—lots of programmatic motion but little sense of direction. There is an inescapable sense that the congregation is a closed community that plays church as a way of meeting the social needs of its constituents.

3. Organizational transition.

Healthy organizations inevitably reach growth points where a new kind of leadership becomes necessary. A wise and humble pastor learns for which era of church life he is best suited.

4. Stagnancy.

Sometimes pastors conclude that they can no longer personally develop in giftedness or leadership effectiveness in their present situation. When a congregation prevents its pastor’s personal growth, the result will be boredom and mediocrity for everyone.

5. Fatigue.

Looking back, I feel I often created problems for myself by promising people more of myself than I was capable of delivering. In the end our congregation was too large; the programs were too many; the staff wanted more of me than I knew how to give. I grew weary of trying to please everyone—and often feeling as if I pleased no one. My problem, no one else’s. The result, however, was exhaustion and disappointment. When the fatigue reaches the chronic stage, going over the side may be necessary.

6. Family morale.

Occasionally there comes a time when it’s impossible to ignore the fact that one’s spouse or children are being more harmed than helped by the present situation. No pastor can afford to sacrifice the family to unrealistic expectations of the congregation. Perpetual financial suffocation is not a healthy thing. Living conditions that embitter children, or church contentiousness that constantly humiliates or demeans a pastor in front of his own family, are strong indications that a leave-decision is called for. Nothing has been gained if a pastor is successful in the church and a failure in the home.

7. Closings and openings.

This one—hopefully, the best of them all—is tricky and demands thoughtful, spiritual listening and the counsel of trusted advisors. One intuits that ministry in a particular church has reached a point of conclusion. Word comes that another congregation is seeking a pastoral leader. The new situation fits one’s sense of call and giftedness. There is the concurrence of a spouse, a bishop, or trusted advisors. Most of all, one feels that God is in the decision.

8. The age factor.

There comes a time when a pastor can no longer keep up with the pace of ministry’s demands. Usually this reflects one’s age. An aging pastor faces the terrible temptation to hold on to the job too long. The love he has for the people and the love they have for him is life giving. 

How to be a smart church innovator

Church leaders today have to be innovators. I’ve tried my share of innovation, but what I tried wasn’t always smart. Larry Osborne, senior pastor of North Coast Church in Vista, CA, recently posted some helpful innovation tips on his blog. 

Students who have taken the Rockbridge Seminary online course “Leading Change” will remember the change analysis assignment using the Nelson Change Formula, a tool used to predict the effectiveness level of an innovation. Remembering Osborne’s tips may make the formula even more useful. 

1. Whenever possible, innovate at the edge of the organization – or even outside the existing structures. 

Over time, our best innovations will often be so successful that they swallow up the old.  But the goal is to have past gains swept aside by the success of the new rather than tossed aside in anticipation of the new. The difference is critical in terms of organizational chaos and pain.

2. Make sure you have both Champions of the Future AND Protectors of the Past.

If your bias is innovation, you may need to identify someone within the organization who naturally wakes up worrying about the negative effects of any proposed changes. If your bias is for protecting the past, you’ll need to find a way to give someone in the organization the freedom or even the job of rocking the boat. That doesn’t mean you’ll do everything they suggest. It does mean they’ll have a place at the table and the opportunity to have their risky new ideas carefully considered rather than relegated to the nut pile.  

3. Remember, the startup phase ends the moment we’ve gathered critical mass and some raving fans who love what we’ve created. 

When we started a video worship venue called The Edge, it quickly grew to over a thousand each weekend. But with the speed of cultural change, it wasn’t long until what was once edgy no longer pushed the envelope to the same degree. Some of my team wanted to make wholesale changes to make sure The Edge stayed edgy. But doing so would have driven away six to seven hundred of those who loved it just the way it was. Our solution was a series of subtle changes to keep things moving along and the startup of a new edgier edge called LAST CALL. It allowed us to continue to innovate without losing all we’d worked so hard to gain.

4. Have an exit strategy. 

Serial innovators make their plans with a clear exit strategy in mind. They don’t burn the boats. They unlock the back door in case they or their idea have to make a quick exit. Sometimes it’s with the words they use. Think how much easier it is to shut down an experiment than a new initiative.

Osborne’s full blog posts:

Innovation’s Blind Spot: Protecting the Past as Important as Creating the Future?

Innovation’s Dirty Little Secret

A NEW small group ministry resource

If you have anything to do with small groups, this is one web resource you’ve got to check out.

The Small Group Exchange is Bluefish TV’s NEW web-based support center for small group directors and leaders.

The first thing I noticed were the 6 questions organizing many of the resources: 

1. I’m leading a small group
2. My group wants to serve others
3. I don’t know what we should study
4. I want to take the group deeper
5. My group struggles with internal group dynamics
6. How do I lead my volunteer leaders?

Click any of these questions and you’ll be shown top 5 training videos, top 5 articles, and top 5 resources, all related to the question you picked. 

Here’s the site’s mission:

Our heart is in small group ministry. As more and more churches move away from the Sunday-School model and transition into the home or church-based small group format, new challenges and opportunities arise. New leaders are formed and often these leaders have difficulty finding quality resources and training so that they can be an effective small group leader.

That is why we have launched The Small Group Exchange. The Small Group Exchange is a place to exchange ideas and will feature relevant bible-studies from a variety of producers, reviews, and engaging articles to help you become stronger as a leader and in your relationship to Jesus Christ. 

The Rockbridge Seminary online course “Building a Small Group Ministry” links students to resources throughout the course. If you’ve already taken the course, you can add The Small Group Exchange to the list. 

Go to The Small Group Exchange

What if Starbucks acted like a church?

Admit it. Seeing your church through the eyes of a newbie is not easy. Sometimes it takes a parable to show us what we cannot see.

Rockbridge Seminary students who have completed the online course “The Theology & Practice of Evangelism” will remember the “Church Readiness Paper” that included the perspective of a non-Christian whom you invited to attend a service of your church. Think about that assignment as you watch this video.

Video by Beyond Relevance

Kudos to Solar Crash