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George teaches me what actually matters
I was reminded today of a lesson I first learned in my first six months of ministry with Fusion. Have you ever met someone fresh out of bible college? They are usually full of right ideas and full of themselves. As I look back, thats certainly what I was like in 1992. A fellow graduate and I stood on the bow of the boat taking us down to our placements in Tasmania and engaged in a serious discussion about what we would do in three years time, after we had transformed Tasmania. Needless to say we both quickly discovered that life is more complicated that you can ever fully grasp…
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Stop shrinking your world
How big is your vision? It was great to spend time with our Advanced Diploma students wrestling with ‘the 8th Habit’. One of the things that struck me was a truth that Covey first communicated in his book, “7 Habits of highly effective people”. As we look at the world there are two boundaries that affect what we see and how we experience it. The first is our circle of influence, namely the things we can actually influence or change. The second is the circle of concern, namely the things we care about but can’t influence. Since reading the book I have found the insight so helpful. Often I can…
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Where to start
Real apprenticeship Today I finish my series of posts on Matthew chapter 10, and its fitting that Jesus finishes the chapter with the passage that I found most confronting. I spent much of my life and ministry looking for the big things, the silver bullets, that would make the world a better place. Turns out I was looking in the wrong place:
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Who are you??
Find yourself I am continuing the journey with Matthew chapter 10 and we heard yesterday that Jesus is calling us into conflict. I pointed out that often conflict can come because of the way I see myself rather than the issue at hand. In this passage Jesus builds on the whole notion of personal identity and basically says “Get over it!”:
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What are you worth?
The Prince of Peace? Really? As I have been sharing, God had me in Matthew chapter 10 for much of the early part of last year and it really confronted the way I had been seeing the world and my place in it. I really identify with the disciples who thought the Messiah was going to bring a political Kingdom with political power. It is easy for Christian mission to fall into the trap of wanting to bring Christendom (dominion by Christians) instead of Christ and His Kingdom. I would love to “win”, to “get there”, to “overcome”, but it turns out that perhaps that’s not part of the plan:
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The plan for global transformation
You call this a plan? I have been sharing a bit of my journey with Matthew chapter 10. This chapter comes as Jesus sits the boys down and says, “Guys this is what you need to know if you are really going to be effective”. It is basically a one chapter training school I have been teaching about Christian Mission for 18 years, and very rarely have I come close to outlining a plan the way Jesus seems to here. Honestly for the first month or so of wrestling with Mathew chapter 10 I avoided this bit of the chapter because I just didn’t want to hear it. This doesn’t…
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Be here!
Stop trying to “get there” I am continuing to unpack just what it was that hit me so hard about Matthew chapter 10. It started to dawn on me that the whole chapter was like an intentional training school. It was Jesus trying to prepare the disciples for ministry. I started to notice that a frequent phrase I used (and still use) is “we are getting there”. “There” was a destination that I as a leader spent most of my energy working towards. There was this vague sense that if I kept focussed and working hard we would reach a destination that was less stressful and made more sense.
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The end of consultants
A journey to rediscover the true meaning of leadership At the start of last year I came to a series of significant personal revelations. I think I was feeling a bit as though I had pushed hard for four years and that it was time to take it a bit easier. God seemed to have other ideas, and wanted me to change the very way I thought about what I was dong, A starting point in the journey was that God seemed to have me stuck in Matthew chapter 10 for about four months, and gradually the meaning in the chapter started to become clearer and clearer.
