• Our hope-filled future is bound up in sharing the story of Jesus, in discipling others, in bringing those disciples together into communities of believers, and in developing and releasing those believers to create other communities... till Jesus the King comes again!

Out of office and out of context

Posted on August 9, 2010 by wtdavid

I was on a hiking trail with my wife in southeastern France when it hit me.  It was an idea, an innovative idea let’s say, for how we could structure a training time with a group of summer interns.  Of course, I was “out of the office” on vacation and was supposedly not to be thinking about work related matters, but the idea just seemed to come together at the moment. 

I’m sure that being on a “pilgrimage” trail to the chapel of St Pancras helped in this process.  You may remember that St Pancras was a Roman citizen who converted to Christianity and was martyred for his faith at the age of 14 (304 AD).  I’m sure that the book I had read during the week had provided some necessary input.  Maybe you, like me, use vacations to read more widely and broadly since the time is there.  And I’m sure that the idea would be worthy of a discussion because innovative ideas and processes are refined and improved in community.  However, in thinking back over the whole process that led me to this idea, I realized it was more than just the location, the resources or the innovative plan.  I was “out of context”.

What I mean by that is getting out of my usual life and ministry “context” allowed me to look at an idea, plan or ministry project from a different perspective.  Often I (we) have a tendency to tread the same water in discussions about new ideas.  Within our given “context”, we may not perceive unique avenues to pursue in discussion.  We may find ourselves immediately turning to certain reasons why an idea, event or plan will not work.  We might hear ourselves say, for example, “It’s not the right time of year,” or “We don’t have the resources,” or “I just don’t have the time to give to that.”

Granted that these may be true at certain times, but stepping “out of context” from time to time would free us to consider other ways to address ministry needs and concerns.  You don’t have to physically step “out of context” as I did while on vacation to hold this kind of discussion, but I would challenge your team or your field to look back over any recent idea or project that was set aside, and ask the question as to whether your discussion was limited to just “in context” thinking.

Filed under: Innovation | Leave a comment »

Prayer Walking: prayer on the move or efficacious prayer?

Posted on July 23, 2010 by wtdavid

(John Wilson is the guest blogger presenting practical questions for his, and our, ministry applications.   What are your convictions?  What has been your experience?)

I am looking for insight and theological opinion about Prayer Walking.  I know this has been practiced in a number of WT ministry areas, but I am not aware of any discussion of the theological merits or otherwise of prayer walking. Most people seem to do it without questioning.

Looking at what has been written and said about Prayer Walking indicates there is quite a wide spectrum of thought.

At one end, is the idea that this is simply a form or posture of prayer—kinetic rather than stationary or immobile—no different than the prayerful attitude of Brother Lawrence (The Practice of the Presence of God) doing his chores in the Carmelite monastery.

At the other end—apparently going back to Graham Kendrick and Steve Hawthorne in their book Prayer Walking (1993)—there is the view that this activity is an efficacious act contingent upon corporate participation in a specific location.

Of course, there is another range of opinions which goes from an uncritical view that simply sees it as a way to engage people in committed prayer for a neighborhood or city, to outright condemnation on all sorts of grounds: theological (it is unbiblical); missiological (it is animistic); or fanatical (it doesn’t fit with our fundamental position).

In some ways, I have considered this practice innocuous; however, because it has come up as a possibility in our local community of churches, where Gloria and I live, I have begun to think about it more critically.

Help me with your experience and thoughts:

  • Why do prayer walking?
  • What ideas or presuppositions lie behind it?
  • What benefits are there to prayer walking compared to just praying at home or in a prayer meeting?

John Wilson

Filed under: Mission, Tool Box | 5 Comments »

How Missionaries Lost Their Chariots of Fire

Posted on July 20, 2010 by wtdavid

Jay Weaver here.    During David & Rebecca’s well-earned vacation, he has asked Chuck Sutton and I to foster some interchange here at our blog site.   Thanks for YOUR part!   Have you read the Wall Street Journal article, “How Missionaries Lost Their Chariots of Fire”?    We’re grateful for Dave Dougherty pointing it out.  Click on the link to read it now.  It’s a bit amazing to find this candor and insight into evangelical causes in a world-class business paper.   We invite you to reflect and comment on what we learn and how we minister in light of this article.  Some starter questions:

  • In what constructive ways can we wield influence as missionaries in the churches who send us out (or among whom we serve)?
  • How do the cited trends compare to what you are seeing in the churches where you live and serve (if available)?
  • Is this just a USA phenomenon?  To what extent to these trends differ in churches from Canada, Australia, Europe or other sending countries? 

Filed under: Mission | 4 Comments »

In the box thinking

Posted on July 16, 2010 by wtdavid

I used to tell our kids that every philosophical question should be answered by a “yes” and a “no”.  What I meant by that is that you had to approach such questions from multiple perspectives.  Shouldn’t it be the same when we talk about innovation? I am often very good about arguing or looking at an issue or a problem from one perspective, but struggle to be able to examine the same issue or problem from other perspectives.  Often people will say to me (and I find myself saying the very same thing as well) that we need to “think outside the box”.  By that, we imply that what we are currently doing represents “in the box thinking”.  It’s actually answering the question by choosing only one response.

In my experienc, it’s just hard to do both.  It’s hard to free ourselves and others to creatively imagine new approaches to ministry needs (for example, discipling, mobilizing new workers, or engaging those who come for 1-3 months of ministry) all the while working in a defined framework of guiding principles and strong community.  It is thinking “in the box” and thinking “out of the box”.  The sandbox metaphor used by T.J. Addington in his book, Leading from the Sandbox is one effort to try and capture this idea.

If I fail to think both “in the box” and “out of the box”, I may find myself:

  • Proposing innovative ideas, but being “closed” to the input of others in my community which would refine and improve those ideas;
  • Arguing against changing certain structures of ministry because it might challenge what I “know” as life and ministry right now; or
  • Working as if no one else is in the “sandbox” with me, and missing the fruit of interdependence (or the gift of accountability) which would allow me to grow further in my journey with Christ.

I can get stuck very easily in one type of thinking, but then again, that’s why I need community; that’s why we need community.

Filed under: Innovation | 2 Comments »

Another look at self-forgetfulness

Posted on July 14, 2010 by wtdavid

I thought I would try out my last post on some friends who were visiting.  The husband is actually a mentor to me in many ways.  As I read through the post, he listened intently without stopping me to add his take on what I had written.  When I was done reading, I remarked how few are the names that come to mind when we look for an example of a humble person.  In an offhand way, I added, “And the number of people who would come to my mind would probably only be one or two.”  Without skipping a beat, my friend responded, finally, by saying, “It just shouldn’t be that way.” 

I was taken aback.  What did he mean, it shouldn’t be that way?  That’s the way it is.  Humility is so hard and elusive.  My friend graciously went on to say that self forgetfulness [not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less] must arise from an ever deepening understanding of the Gospel and our need for Jesus.  That understanding and experience of the Gospel will lead us to cry out daily, even hourly [remember the hymn: I Need Thee Every Hour?], for the Spirit and His ongoing work of applying the Gospel to our lives in very tangible ways … such as learning to think more of God and others than ourselves; learning to “serve” God and others before ourselves.

In his mind, the fact that we weren’t seeing many “humble” people was a reflection of our shallow grasp of the implications of the Gospel, and our satisfaction with self.  That’s when it hit.  Self-forgetfulness is more than just a nice concept to talk about in theoretical terms.  Simply talking about self-forgetfulness can end up putting the focus back on self.   Self-forgetfulness must anchor itself in very practical ways for us to see the Spirit begin to “displace” our fascination with ourselves with something bigger, something more important, and something that calls forth our heart and our service. 

Self-forgetfulness could anchor itself in our community in the offer to come alongside a teammate in another location, and participate in his/her project for a specified time period.  Self-forgetfulness could anchor itself in the decision to physically move to a new location and offer one’s gifts to the team there.  Self-forgetfulness could anchor itself in conversation about missions where we described multiple opportunities rather than just one local work.  Self-forgetfulness could anchor itself in the simple commitment to pray for another worker or another team over this coming year.

What other ways might you see to anchor self-forgetfulness?

Filed under: Humility | 13 Comments »

Self-forgetfulness

Posted on July 12, 2010 by wtdavid

One indicator of a “closing mind” is addressed through active listening to others or demonstrating “intense interest” in another’s journey (James 1:19). A second indicator which I described as “an unhealthy confidence in my own cultural (and spiritual) journey that would keep me from looking at new ideas, new perspectives,” is more difficult for us to address.  Put another way, this indicator points us to the need to deal with our very own pride.

Now this is where it gets sticky.  We are well aware of the statement that James makes a little later in his letter where he says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (4:6). We know then that the ultimate objective is humility rather than pride.  Yet, how does one become more humble?  The moment that you think you are making progress in becoming more humble, you have immediately become prideful about that very progress.

C.S. Lewis in his witty yet insightful work, The Screwtape Letters, struggles with this very question. It is the fictional story of Screwtape, “a self-described under-secretary of the department of temptation,” and his nephew Wormwood a “junior tempter.”  Though this quote is extended, I think it is worth the read:

“All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is especially true of humility.  Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, “By jove!  I’m being humble,” and almost immediately pride – pride at his own humility – will appear … But there are other profitable ways of fixing his [the Christian] attention on the virtue of Humility.  By this virtue, as by all the others, our Enemy [God] wants to turn the man’s attention away from self to Him, and to the man’s neighbors.  All the abjection and self-hatred are designed, in the long run, solely for this end; unless they attain this end they do us little harm; and they may even do us good if they keep the man concerned with himself, and, above all, if self-contempt can be made the starting point for contempt of other selves, and thus for gloom, cynicism, and cruelty. 

You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility.  Let him think of it, not as self-forgetfulness, but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character …

To anticipate the Enemy’s strategy, we must consider His aims.  The  Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another.  The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour’s talents … For we must never forget what is the most repellent and inexplicable trait in our Enemy; he really loves the hairless bipeds He has created.”

A “closing mind” is addressed by a certain “self forgetfulness.”  As one friend put it, not thinking less of oneself, but thinking of oneself less.  So one way this can happen, or can begin to happen, is when God becomes so BIG, so major in our lives that other pieces of our lives truly become secondary.  It happens when we are overwhelmed by Him and His love (read Psalm 136 for example) to the point that it actually influences how we relate to others, how we do ministry.  

 

Filed under: Community, Humility | 3 Comments »

« Previous Page — Next Page »

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 202 other subscribers

  • Categories

  • Recent Comments

  • Archives

  • Goodreads