• 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!

Laying it down

Posted on January 9, 2015 by wtdavid

Many of you may have heard about the tragic events which occurred this past Wednesday here in Paris.  As I listened to an online talk show while driving to the office, the interviewer asked two religious leaders why we should continue to talk about the need to address the evil intentions of peoples’ hearts when that message, up to this point, has brought about little or no change.  The response was truly insightful: ‘Saying something once does not mean that the problem has been dealt with and will go away.  We need to repeat, repeat and continue to repeat the message for it to take root and bring about change.’

change in the skyWe all know the ‘right’ answer or response to the questions of ongoing Christian growth and maturity.  However, those truths are not sufficiently repeated so as to ‘take root’ in our hearts and cause real and visible change to occur.

“You have given us your most cherished treasure, yet we prize many other things more highly than Christ.  Forgive us for trusting in our own strength more than in his power to save us completely.  We live each day with hearts full of our own desires, minds full of our own agendas and plans for our own self-promotion.  Forgive us, Lord.” (Prone to Wander)

We know that we prize many other things more highly than Christ: the approval of others, our ministry strategy and vision, being ‘right’, and our comfort or lifestyle, for example.  We know that we prize these things and tell ourselves we need to prize Christ more, yet our actions (and our words) demonstrate that we continue to value these above Christ.

We need to ‘lay all these things down’ and that comes through a daily effort of crying out to God for His work to turn our eyes back to Him.  It comes as well through turning to others to help us take this Gospel ‘downtown’ to our hearts.

“Holy Spirit, fill us with everlasting wonder that the gospel is true.  You kept your promise to send a Savior; help us to stop trying to rescue others and ourselves.  When we are tempted as [Adam and] Eve did, remind us of Christ, who kept all your laws for us, and fix our eyes on him.” (Prone to Wander)

Slowly we will see changes occur in the way we as a WT community talk with one another and listen well to one another.  We will actually lay down our ‘right-ness’ in how we see and do things and begin to work together in community to bring the Gospel to ourselves and to the unreached.

Filed under: Change & transition, Community, Repentance & faith | Leave a comment »

Captivated by sin more than by Jesus

Posted on January 7, 2015 by wtdavid

A fellow worker from the WT community forwarded me a challenging article on: “The Danger of Fruitfulness without Purity”.  I would commend it to your reading and reflection.

The final challenge from this article got me wondering as to how such a change actually begins to work itself out in my life: “If we will simply return to the power and the beauty of the gospel, not only will the Lord grant fruit, but it will be fruit that will endure and bring his name great glory for eternity.  Let’s live and end well for that great name.”

That led me to a book that one of my mentors recently sent my way: Prone to Wander.  The authors provide practical ways to work out the exhortation of the excellent article above from Desiring God Ministries.  It comes through confession of heart difficulties and allowing the Holy Spirit to apply again and again ‘the power and grace that is ours through the work of Christ on the cross.’

repentance and faithOur hearts can so easily be captivated more by sin than by Jesus and His work on our behalf.  Let me quote a large section of one of the first prayers in Prone to Wander as a practical aid in learning to respond more quickly to the call to repentance and faith:

O God, our Father, forgive us for our many sins.  Like Eve [and Adam], we are easily captivated by the objects that our eyes desire.  We fall so often, and when we do, we run and hide in shame instead of running to you to confess our sin and find joy and forgiveness in the cross.  You have given us your most cherished treasure, yet we prize many other things more highly than Christ.  Forgive us for trusting in our own strength more than in his power to save us completely.  We live each day with hearts full of our own desires, minds full of our own agendas and plans for our own self-promotion.  Forgive us, Lord.

Jesus, you are our strong salvation. Thank you for invading our world to rescue us from ourselves.  We cannot fathom the humility, love, and commitment to your Father’s glory, which led you to give up heaven for us.  When the Holy Spirit took you into the desert to be tempted by Satan, you kept your eyes fixed firmly on your Father, your soul devoted to serving him in perfect obedience, and your mind saturated with Scripture.  You gave up your own glory to be stripped, humiliated, and shattered in death, so that you could serve us and be our substitute.  The joy or your life was fixed firmly upon the will of God, and now we find the joy of our lives to be your obedience for us and your death in our place.  How can we ever thank you adequately?  Holy Spirit, fill us with everlasting wonder that the gospel is true.  You kept your promise to send a Savior; help us to stop trying to rescue others and ourselves.  When we are tempted as [Adam and] Eve did, remind us of Christ, who kept all your laws for us, and fix our eyes on him.

Filed under: Community, Repentance & faith, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

We’re on a mission

Posted on January 6, 2015 by wtdavid

mission unstoppableKenneth Berding wrote the following in his short article, “At the Intersection of Mission and Spiritual Formation in the Letters of Paul”: The process of spiritual formation supports mission because the person on a mission is upheld in his work as he experiences ongoing transformation … This may be the area most emphasized in Paul’s writings regarding how important spiritual formation is for mission.  Paul writes: “… we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”  (2 Cor. 4:2).  There is a transformation that takes place through the ministry of the Spirit while one is on the mission – a transformation “from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:17-18).”

At the start of this new year, knowing that there are several ‘bends in the road’ ahead of us, it is important to remind ourselves that all our work is an overflow of our deepening relationship with Christ and the ongoing transformation being worked by His Spirit as He searches our hearts (Psalm 139) and drives us back to our only Hope: Jesus.

We’re on a mission.

However, that mission is not just the task of taking the Gospel to others.  It is the work of daily putting self to death and learning to live more and more to righteousness.

We’re on a mission.

Part of that ‘putting self to death’ may involve opening ourselves up more and more to others, so that God might use those people to build us up more and more into the image of Christ.  The mission of transformation goes through community.

We’re on a mission.

This means that there will be attitudes and reactions we will lay down as individuals and as a community this year, so that we might affirm more loudly with our voice and with all our heart: We’re on a mission … giving thanks to Jesus for working in us and through us.

Filed under: Community, Gospel, Transformation | 5 Comments »

Miss trust

Posted on December 22, 2014 by wtdavid

Decision making may not be an easy science, but we can grow in our competence in regards to the various decision making approaches. Several of you suggested tools that are available to help us get needed training in the different ways to process decisions in groups or individually. The real sticking point, however, comes when we start talking about the context or the atmosphere in which decisions are made, particularly when a decision is made where one doesn’t have a ‘vote’.trust sandy

Trust has a major bearing on the context created.  Trust means that I give or grant you the right to influence my life and work.  I don’t do that quickly necessarily, but once I give you my trust, I know that you will act with my best interests in mind.

However, because we are often more self sufficient than other centred, we can chafe under decisions made by others.  We don’t like it when others ‘make decisions for us’ or ‘in our place’.  Our words and thoughts at that moment often communicate that my world is no larger than myself; that though I may speak about accountability, I am ultimately believe I am accountable to myself alone.

This stance runs counter to the biblical call to community.  Yes, community implies sharing of tasks and responsibilities.  However, it also implies that others may be making decisions for the group because group members have chosen to ‘trust’ that person to lead the group well.

When we ‘miss’ trust, we can end up doing everything ourselves.  We can hold back from sharing responsibilities with others.  We can become islands unto ourselves that ‘bump’ into each other at meetings rather than deeply intersect with one another’s lives.

Trust takes time to build, but it begins when we simply say to another: “I trust you.  I know you have my best interests in mind.  I will be a Christ like follower, bringing my best part to the work of this group.”

Filed under: Community, Trust | 2 Comments »

How am I (we) supposed to decide?

Posted on December 18, 2014 by wtdavid

Decision making is not an easy science.  It is complex in part because it relies on a number of different factors both external and internal.  We need to differentiate as well between what is an individual and what is a group decision.group_decision2

There are a host of articles and books on the subject.  We could summarize several possible approaches in the following categories: avoidance; analytical; intuitive; and chance. The avoidance approach is taken when there is insufficient information to be able to make a reasoned decision.  The analytical approach works from facts in a logical process.  The intuitive approach relies more on strong feelings and a godly ‘hunch’.  The chance approach is more impulse decision making that does not rely on thought or analysis.

Call the approaches what you would like. The real issue is that each of us has a default approach to decision making which makes us suspicious or distrustful of all other approaches.  Add to any of the above approaches a ‘congregationalist’ process for a group decision making and misunderstanding is bound to arise.

A couple of takeaways at this point:

  • Any group needs to understand the various approaches available to them in a decision making process.  Group members need to consider what approach(es) might serve them best in being able to make a sound decision in light of all the variables and how their own default approach impacts a team approach.
  • Learn to differentiate between decisions that need everyone’s approval and those that call just for each person’s input.  Being heard is as important as holding a vote.
  • Proactively create a culture that nurtures trust.  One thing that comes through in a number of articles on this subject is the importance of environment, context or culture in the process of decision making.  Mistrust undermines an effective process.  Trust facilitates good decision making processes.   How?  That’s for another blog post.

Filed under: Decision making, Trust | 7 Comments »

“Congregationalist” decision making

Posted on December 11, 2014 by wtdavid

I remember the first ‘business meeting’ I attended at a local French church.  It seemed endless.  What might have taken two hours, ended up lasting over five hours.  Families who had brought kids were at the end of their rope as their children were running wild everywhere.  Non decisions became decisions as people wearied of the length of the meeting and little refreshment.  It appeared that every person needed to have an opportunity to express himself or herself on most every subject. group-decision-making

I later described this experience as ‘congregationalist’ decision making gone awry.  You know, the kind of decision making process where everyone needs to be informed, speak to the issue and all come to agreement.  It certainly sounds just and fair.  However, it is one kind of decision making process; and not the only one.

Most of us have a particular bent or default method for making decisions [similar to the different leadership approaches associated with situational leadership]. Our difficulty is that we can make that particular bent our one and only approach, avoiding other approaches for a variety of reasons.

We as a WT community have a bent for and often call for a ‘congregationalist’ decision making process to the exclusion of any other kinds of decision making processes.  What can drive this desire is not so much a concern for the involvement of the largest number of workers, but a distrust of those who have oversight of us.  By focusing on only one approach, we can inhibit true delegation and slow needed change.

We would do well to consider the source of our mistrust and examine the various approaches to decision making so we could determine the best approach for each situation.  What might that look like? That’s for another blog post.

Filed under: Decision making | 3 Comments »

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