Winning on Purpose

I have set a goal for myself this week in reading John Kaiser's book Winning on Purpose: How to Organize Congregations to Succeed in Thier Mission (2006) Abingdon Press. I desire to gather some needed background on how to strategically help a plateaued or declining church get back to its God-given purpose in making disciples for Jesus Christ. The organizational strategy developed in this book is called "Accountable Leadership". If I believe that mission happens naturally in congregations through business as usual, then the only kind of pastoral leadership I need is operational leadership: someone to preach the Word, conduct services, oversee programs, and keep the campers happy. If, however, I believe that mission happens only through the courage to continually realign an organization's culture with the values of Christ, then I need something more as a pastor. I need to exercise transformational leadership that comes with entrusted authority and accountabilty toward the objective of making disciples. Good leadership goes where good leadership is supported. As a pastor looking for my next charge, it is very important that I be intentional in my questions when I ask search committees what they are looking for.

Prayer of Examen

Over the last while I have been reminded to keep short accounts of what is happening in my private world. Psalm 139:23-24 has prompted my reflective moments to dig further into my daily experience and see if their is any "hurtful way in me."
Another tool that I came across was St. Ignatius Loyola's "The Prayer of Examen." This practice seeks to grow me as a follower of Jesus in my coapacity to discern God's will, find the movement of God's Spirit in all things, and enhance my understanding of God's good creation and special revelation through His Word. The prayer takes between 10-20 minutes and the majority of time is spent reviewing my day. In a nutshell, here are the six areas of focus as I go through this examination:

1. Recall that I am in the presence of God - as I sit in silence, I focus on God's deep and abiding love for me.
2. Recall my day with gratitude - after a few moments, remember the small pleasures of my day: a good night sleep, a good apple, a good conversation, or a beautiful sunset.
3. As for guidance from the Holy Spirit - ask the Holy Spirit to help me recall my day with clarity and an understanding of my limitations.
4. Review my day - I go back to the start of the day and allow it to play like a short movie in my mind. Where did I fail? What were my sucesses? Where did I experience joys? etc.
5. Reconcile and Resolve - As I picture myself next to Jesus, tell him where I felt dissappointment and sorrow and and give thanks for Christ's ability to restore me through forgiveness and restitution.
6. End my time with the Lord's prayer.

Mentoring a Lonely Leader

Recently (in the last 2 months), I have slowly meandered through the book "Mentoring Leaders" by Carson Pue (published by Baker Books) and have discovered some insightful hints in how to provide wisdom in developing character, a senxe of calling, and compentence in a leader. Pue's model for mentoring is very analytical from self- awareness to sustaining yourself (or another) in ministry for the long term.
This last chapter I read dealt with Fear, Lonliness, and other challenges leaders face. The one section in this chapter that caught my eye was "how can a mentor guide a lonely leader"? Besides encouragement to take an honest appraisal of their life by surveying to relationships of significance, the author noted, "Assess the amount and frequenccy of leader's television viewing." Good observation. The amount and frequency of television I watch, I can sense this awkward numbness of having spent all this time doing but really profiting me very little. Carson made a very interesting and true statement, "Encourage a reduction, but don't eliminate television, for it is often the fodder for many discussions with people I know, such as the neighbors and those I work with.

Following the Bouncing Ball

Today was a unique Lord's day. It started with our family going to New Life Church pastored by Mark Buchanan who has written extensively on spirtural formation and in particular about how a Christian should preceive a God who is beyond our imagination of Him. This morning's message was on Genesis 15 and How God made a covenant with Abraham and how it relates to the kingdom of God now. It was great to see the way Abraham believed God and it was deemed unto him as righteousness. Mark related it to how we need to live under the new covenant and to live by faith and not sight.

This afternoon Wanda and I went golfing . It truely was the experience of "...folowing the bounceing ball...". We went with a couple from Lake Cowitcahn to Marsh Meadows in Honeymoon Bay just North of Maschie Lake. I will not reveal we scored but let me say there was a lot of extra walking and much laughter. A great day on the Links.

Attempted Transparency

Today, Wanda and I had the privilege of catching up with some friends from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Garth and Hazel Schierling were parents of a few College age students that we had in our small group when we were associate pastor @ Dalmeny Bible Church. We connected with memories of their children and how things had changed with them.

It was a noticable focus on their lives by the way the conversation went. In relfecting on the visit, it weems that so often the majority of our dialogue with others is focused on their experiences. This is good since one needs to be selfless when maintaing friendships. Yet it does seem odd that when others, who we haven't seen in a while make very little attempt to ask or pursue details of our life expereince. I feel like sometimes my story is not as comfortable to remenice in because pastoral life is difficult to understand and requires sensitivity in how one feels about content share--not always pleasent. Attempting to be transparent is not easy to do if one sensed that it is to self-focused and not worthy of focus. Maybe that is why one rather would keep the conversation light and not go to great depths