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DC Email – Humble Ministry

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Here’s my 10/8/13 email to Elders/Deacons at Crestview:

Paul Tripp, in chapter 12, Self-Glory, of Dangerous Callingis writing about Christ’s example of humility in washing the disciples’ feet and reminds us of this lesson:  “Jesus says, “If you’re not greater than your master, and he has been willing to do this disgusting thing, you must also be willing. If you are my ambassadors, called to represent my will and way, called to be tools of my redeeming grace, then you must not think that any ministry task is beneath you. You must be willing to do the lowest, most debased thing so that my work and my will be done. You must not refuse. You must not think of yourself as too good. You must be willing to be the lowest of slaves in order that my kingdom may come and my will may be done. You must be willing to do whatever is necessary to position yourself as a tool of redeeming grace. You must not be too proud. You must not be unwilling.”
So, how goes that guys?  Been thinking of yourself more highly than you ought lately?  The precious remedy from our Lord is to simply look to Him.  His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  Regardless of our ministerial failures (and they are many), He loves us and lavishes grace upon us.  Look to Him for forgiveness, strength and perseverance in this amazing work.  

With you in this…

LRC Email – So Happy Together

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Here’s my email from 10/7/13 to Leadership Reno County alums:

With all that’s happening in our world today, I thought it would be good to reengage one of those helpful cards from the Kansas Leadership Center today.  This one, in particular, had a very relevant subject matter: Inspire A Collective Purpose.  Here’s a recap:
How do you inspire a collective purpose?
·         Make the goal attainable.  Your purpose may be lofty—the work of a lifetime, perhaps.  Keep people energized by breaking it into achievable chunks.
·         Build trust along the way.  Allow time and space for shareholders to share stories and ask questions.  Create space for people to be heard.
·         Engage others.  Look for people who share your purpose.  Ask how they want to be involved.
·         Ignite imaginations.  Build momentum by inviting everyone to dream, contribute and create a shared vision. 
·         Take action.  Nothing is less inspiring than a whole lot of talk and no action.  Harness the momentum by starting to experiment and make progress.
Why is it important to inspire a collective purpose?
One person can only do so much.  Together—with a shared purpose and through collective action—we can achieve so much more.  When we work together for the common good, we constantly exceed our expectations for strong, healthy, prosperous Kansas communities.
What does inspire a collective purpose look like?
·         Our purpose is broad enough to unite diverse factions.
·         The group is building a common language. 
·         We stay inspired by celebrating success, large or small.
·         We use everyone’s talents and assets to help make progress.
How many people does it take to inspire a collective purpose?
Leadership starts with you and must engage others.  Don’t wait until you’ve gathered a crowd to start talking about what you care about and looking for others who want to get involved.
What does inspiration have to do with leadership?
“Inspire” means “to exert an animating, enlivening, or exalting influence.”  Something got you fired up.  Now you must motivate others through your words and your example.  If you hope to make progress on a daunting, adaptive challenge you cannot do it alone.
(Based on experiences shared by KLC Alumni in a February 6, 2013 “On the Balcony” conference call, hosted by KLC President and CEO Ed O’Malley.)

So, tying all this together, what one thing could you do to engage others this work and help inspire that collective purpose?  Let’s do that thing, then, so that we can be happy together, moving our community forward.  

Weekend Recap – Sure Doom

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My 10/6/13AM sermon, Sure Doom, from Revelation 17:1-18 is now online.  The big idea I was after was showing how we are to live in light of the graphic picture presented as well as the sure doom of the world.  God calls His followers to faithfulness, as they live for the Lamb until the very end.  I hope this sermon encourages more of this kind of living.

And, I hope you had a great Lord’s Day, as well.

5 Biography Recommendations (from an ordinary guy)

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Over at The Gospel Coalition, Justin Taylor’s been tearing it up lately with biography recommendations from some amazing scholars, which, in some ways has helped give me some new ideas to read.  I wondered, what 5 bios would I recommend to someone who had some time to read…  Here’s my list:

1) George Muller: Delighted In God (HistoryMakers) by Roger Steer (Christian Focus, 1999)

Maybe the most influential biography I read in seminary, who doesn’t need a refresher to be consistent in prayer and find delight in the lover of their souls?  Steer writes in a way that is engaging and will leave you encourage and praising God Himself.

2) The Forgotten Spurgeon by Iain Murray (Banner of Truth, 2009)

The most memorable bio I read in my college years, I find that I need to return to this consistently to learn some valuable lessons.  In my neck of the evangelical woods, it’s all Gospel all the time and this bio reminds us how that is in danger and needs to be defended.

3) David Brainerd: May I Never Loiter In My Heavenly Journey by Piper (Desiring God, 2012)

Just finished this in Small Group and found it helpful.  Specifically, with many prone to complain about their lot in life on Facebook and Twitter, Brainerd is like an alien, lamenting how he needs more patience in affliction.

4) Agape Leadership by Alexander Strauch (Lewis & Roth, 1995)

Unlike 1 Timothy 1:5 commands, the aim of most instruction in the church is to be right, correct or fix something.  But, if we heeded that simple command, not only would our churches have a different environment, but hard truths might be received more eagerly.  Specifically, leading in love as Strauch models through the life of R.C. Chapman would be great for many to read today.

5) A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards (Library of Religious Biography) by George Marsden (Eerdmans, 2008)

I loved reading Marsden’s biography and seeing some basic facts on the life of one I had heard so much about.  Yes, Edwards is known for many things, but Marsden helps us understand what the life of this man was like in the amazing days the wind of the First Great Awakening was blowing.

So, there’s my list.  Most of these are fairly easy reads and would greatly help you.  I hope you find something here encouraging.

Weekend Recap – Promoting the Gospel

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My sermon from 9/29/13AM is now online.  It was entitled Promoting Gospel Work from Philippians 4:1-23.  My aim was pretty simple: to offer some applications for how the Gospel works to transform believers from the inside out.  While much of the book of Philippians showcases how the Gospel is at work and compelling us to live, chapter 4 really gets at some good outgrowths in our lives.

This was also a big morning as we launched the new Cross Cultural Missions direction of Crestview.  You can read more on that at the CBCH2Go Blog.

DC Email – Pride: Check Yourself

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Here’s my email to elders and deacons at Crestview on 9/24/13:

Reading through the recommended reading from our last Dangerous Calling video, I came across this quote from chapter 11 (pp.153-154).  Read through this slowly: “I am afraid that there is a whole lot of pride in the modern pulpit. There is a whole lot of pride in the seminary classroom. There is a whole lot of pride in the church staff. It is one of the reasons for all the relational conflict that takes place in the church. It is why we are often better theological gatekeepers than tender and humble spokesmen for the gospel. It is why pastors often seem unapproachable. It is why we get angry in meetings or defensive when someone disagrees with us or points out a wrong. We are too self-assured. We are too confident. We too quickly assess that we are okay. We too quickly make heroes out of ourselves and others. We too often take credit for what sovereign grace produced. We too often assess that we don’t need the help that the normal believer needs. We are too quick to speak and too slow to listen. We too often take as personal affronts things that are not personal. We quit being students too soon. We don’t see ourselves as needy often enough. We have too little meditative-communion-with-Christ time nailed into our schedules. We confidently assign to ourselves more ministry work than we can do. We live in more isolation than is spiritually healthy. Pastor, there is ample evidence all around us that we tend to forget who we are and that we allow ourselves to be defined by things that should not define us.”
Today, I encourage you to remember the obvious: we are sinners in the process of sanctification and very much as needy as those we serve.  Let’s flee to the only remedy for our souls, then, the cross of Christ.  That’s our standard of acceptance and being right before God.  Let’s boast in Christ and His work rather than our own and be leaders who serve the body well. 

With you in this…

LRC Email – Soup Weather

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Here’s my email to Leadership Reno County alums this AM, 9/23/13:

Hey All,
Yes, it hit.  Fall is here.  Soup weather is close (sure it’s in the 80’s this week, but when you’ve had a summer like we’ve had, 80’s feel cool).  Soup is a big illustration for helping us make progress on the issues we care about.  We served soup Friday night at home.  My boys were picking out the veggies and saying they didn’t like the way it tasted and we reminded them that the elements of the soup no longer have individual tastes, but taste differently in the soup. 
That’s what our community’s like.  On any given issue, there are lots of different viewpoints/individuals that see things a certain way.  The challenge in community life is coming together for progress.  In the KLC world, we define these viewpoints as different factions on an issue.  We’re:  “using the term ‘factions’ deliberately to uncover conflicts in the system.  Factions refer to groupings of people who assume differing, and often competing, viewpoints and perspectives on an adaptive issue.  More importantly, factions represent below-the-surface loyalties, values and potential losses…faction mapping can be useful in diagnosing the situation, especially in pushing against one’s own default interpretations and assessing the degree of disequilibrium existing in the system.”
In seeking to diagnose our situation and the factions that exist, we may ask questions like:
  • How does the adaptive challenge look to people in these factions?  What story are they telling themselves?
  • What are their loyalties (peoples, ideas, etc.), values, and potential losses?
  • What would success look like to people seeing an issue from a different viewpoint?

I say all this to say that our leadership in our community is like vegetable soup.  There are lots of competing flavors vying for attention.  They each have a value, loyalty, and want success to be found a certain way.  Our acts of leadership must engage these groups, consider them, and use this information in diagnosing the situation, so that our skillful interventions are most effective. 

Leadership isn’t easy, but when we’ve walked through diagnosing the situation effectively, we can indeed be used to move others to accomplish difficult work, and we just might walk away from our diagnosis smelling like that onion or flavor that we didn’t understand before.  Hope this helps you make progress this week…

Weekend Recap – Strategically Reckless

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My 9/22/13AM sermon, Reckless, from Philippians 3:1-21 is now online.  This sermon sought to interact with Paul’s words in Philippians 3, compelling people that their best life isn’t so much in the here and now (Paul considered his life in his flesh as rubbish) but of the citizenship that is ours in heaven.  Because Christ is better, we can live our lives with a loose hold, knowing that this stuff doesn’t matter.  This sought to unpack a missions value entitled “Strategically Reckless.”  They define it as: “We forsake our security and comforts in this life to fulfill the Great Commission and to seek our everlasting joy in Christ.”  I hope this sermon helps you live this way.
 

DC Email – Ministry Mediocrity and Our Hearts

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Here’s my email to Elders/Deacons at Crestview on 9/17/13:

In Tripp’s Dangerous Calling, Chapter 10 “Mediocrity,” we’re called to levels of ministry excellence because of who God is and the awe that He deserves.  Tripp’s contention is mediocrity isn’t so much about this or that resource or the latest and greatest things, but “Ministry mediocrity in any form is always an issue of the heart.  If this describes you, then run in humble confession to your Savior and embrace the grace that has the power to rescue you from you and, in so doing, to give you back your awe.”  Our service and ministry aren’t what define us.  We’re defined by the relationship that God has initiated toward us in the Gospel.
Today, then, take a look at your service in the church, your labors, your works, and be honest, does this reflect the awe that your heart feels before God?  Might it be that you need your awe rekindled?  Grace is found at God’s throne and it’s a merciful grace there for every moment.  Let’s collectively run there to find Him today and have our ministry hearts recalibrated. 

Running there with you…