This is the story of two men who decided to keep sharing the gospel in the face of personal tragedy.
In a previous post, I proposed regarding the analogy of the vine (John 15) that we sometimes mistake our leaves for fruit, thinking that if we’re “getting involved” in ministry, we’re producing fruit. But ministry activities are just leaves—an essential part of the health of our ‘branch’, but not what makes God’s mouth water. Leaves aren’t yummy to him; fruit is.
A Christian is “at the same time justified and a sinner” (simul iustus et peccator). It is one of the more well-known phrases of the Reformation. God in his grace and mercy has declared the Christian to be righteous due to the atoning work of Jesus Christ. And what God declares something to be, truly is. And yet at the same time, sin is still at work in our flesh.
Doing things well and developing new leaders are both valuable and necessary objectives. The trouble is that these two agendas often clash. Training someone up means, almost by definition, that in the beginning they won’t be particularly good at whatever it is they’re learning to do. And they almost certainly won’t be as good at it as you are.
Today, on the 9th of September, 2015, Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest reigning monarch of Britain, eclipsing Queen Victoria’s reign of 63 years and 7 months. (She is already Australia’s longest serving monarch, since in modern nation state terms, we are such a young nation!)
Sandy Grant focuses his reading list on the European refugee crises, as well as marital faithfulness, the problem of youth-driven culture, and more.
Recently I was talking with a neighbour about church, and he asked me “So what is church all about?” He was curious, and wanted to know what I think is central to what we believe, sing about, pray about and how we relate to one another.
Married life was typical. It was filled with good times and hard times as the challenges of family set in. He was very open about seeking help and exploring new support groups, and so I thought he was progressing. So it came as a complete shock when he said, “There's something I need to talk to you about. Yesterday I did something really bad.”
I love personality tests. That’s not surprising, because people with my personality type enjoy self-analysis. My husband, on the other hand, dislikes personality tests. Yet he still uses them in ministry training because he appreciates how useful they can be in helping people understand themselves and others a little better.
Sometimes when you first start out as a leader it can be tempting to look at the people higher in leadership over you and think to yourself, “I can’t wait to be in that position. I’ll be able to do what I want and I’ll have lots more flexibility. The more authority and responsibility I have, the more freedom I’ll have to do what I want.” But that’s not how it works—and especially not in Christian leadership.