Archive for leadership
Cultivating Discipline, Part 7: A Sound Mind…
Posted by: | CommentsFor God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self–discipline.
– Paul, The Bible, 2 Timothy 1:7
Why is it that all of the Christians that I know seem to struggle through life? With rare exceptions, we all have some area of fear or weakness or wounding… And I have my doubts about the exceptions…
A Christian teen who is a contact on my social-grid made an interesting statement about sexual abstinence this week… He said it “doesn’t work.” It wasn’t completely clear whether he was talking about “abstinence education” or individual, moral abstinence… But here are a few little factoids to chew on:
The Bible clearly teaches that 1.) the Spirit of God dwells in the heart of everyone who submits to the Lordship of Jesus (Romans 8:9). 2.) This Spirit is characterized by power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). 3.) Self-control is evident in the life of a person who is filled with this Spirit, in the same way that you can tell that a tree is an apple tree because it has apples on it (Galatians 5:22-23).
In the life of a believer, something like abstinence certainly does work… At the very least, it can work… it should work… A Christ-follower who believes that it can’t work or doesn’t work doesn’t understand the power of God’s Spirit at work in a person…
(At this point, I cannot emphasize enough the power of God’s grace at work in us when we fail to walk in self-control… but that’s a different discussion.)
I’m talking about the potential power that lives in your heart… Potential for power over our weakness… Potential for love to heal our wounds… Potential for self-discipline and stability…
The trick is tapping into that potential.
Our culture has conditioned us to follow our urges… emotional urges… financial urges… sexual urges… But God has called us to a life of potential and tapping that potential requires that we control those urges. So, God expresses the expectation that we control our urges and then provides us with the means to do it…
Got that? We experience the power of self-control when we practice self-control… The willingness to obey God’s expectation fuels the spirit of self-discipline, which gives us greater power to obey under greater pressure…
Older English translations of 2 Timothy use the expression “sound mind” instead of “self-discipline” but the intended meaning is the same… A person who has a “sound mind” is consistent, purposeful and not a slave to “urges”… and that’s what self-discipline looks like too.
Jesus promised that we’d have trouble… But the wacky, constant struggle to make it through another day that some Christians experience is the very opposite of what God desires for us. That’s the reason He gave us this Spirit of power and love and self-discipline…
Cultivating discipline is a process with many nuances, but the most important thing to keep in mind is this:
God is for us and has given us what we need to finish well.
Cultivating Discipline, Part 6: Making Good Decisions…
Posted by: | Comments
I knew I should've packed a map...
Good decisions leading to firm commitments are vital to developing discipline… BUT making good decisions requires discipline… This is the circular reality that always seems to bite me on the tush… So, I’ve given it some thought and reading this week and wanted to share with you guys…
Good decisions grow out of a life lived in conversational relationship with God… I can link almost every bad decision that I’ve made in my life to a lack of consistent prayer and Bible study… I have found that practicing this kind of intimacy with God is both energizing and exhausting, but well worth the effort in the face of any significant choice…
I don’t want to sound too mystical, but the truth is that when we saturate our minds with God’s Word and devote our hearts to intimacy with Him, He speaks… Often in an almost audible way (and I wouldn’t totally throw out the possibility of actual audibility either) to the simplest request for guidance…
Poor decisions grow out of a focus that is off of Jesus. So, make sure that your mind and heart are tuned to Him before you leap…
I recently found myself in the position of having already made a bad decision… I’ll tell you about it because it has a happy ending:
About a year ago, I wrote a post about artists helping missionaries tell their stories… After that, I had the opportunity to do a brand development and web presence project for an orphanage in the Philippines. This led to a similar project for the parent-ministry… Which led to an offer to join the administrative team of a small, but internationally-placed missions organization…
Up to that point, I was just using my gifts to serve these missionaries… Suddenly, faced with the decision of whether or not to join the leadership of this significant ministry, I jumped without really taking enough time to consider the decision…
I almost immediately regretted it… It wasn’t the kind of work that I feel called to do… I didn’t really enjoy it and it played to my administrative weaknesses… And it significantly sucked time away from my areas of deepest calling and vocation…
Fortunately, I was not financially bound to the position and I was able to pull-out of the higher administration role and stay connected to the promotional and marketing aspects that originally drew me into the organization…
There have been times in my life that I could not easily opt-out of a decision… I have several of these looming on the horizon… As I look forward to them, I see very clearly a truth that I’ve missed in the past:
Making a bad decision to a long-term commitment is not the end of the world IF you are positioned in close relationship to God so that He can guide you through the process of making the best of the situation… One bad decision doesn’t mean that you’re life is totally derailed… God is much bigger than that… But you may have to take the long road through the dessert to the Promised Land…
Wave encouragingly at the people you meet on that road, we like that…
NEXT in this series: A Sound Mind…
What the heck is “vocation”…
Posted by: | Comments
Once upon a time, I had an office with “Pastor” emblazoned on the door… Not that there’s anything wrong with that… But I was under the mistaken impression that the only true Christian “vocation” was being on-staff in a traditional church setting…
Forgive me for being a bit obvious, but that’s simply not the case… In fact, it never was. A few weeks ago, I had a long talk with my own pastor about my heart for ministry. I told him that while I would never discount the possibility of serving on a church staff, I am absolutely convinced that my ministry will not be one of a traditional pastor…
I see my own calling as a “pastor” to artists in the sheer numerical response to the content here on WOP… There is a hunger among artists to discover ways that their talents and gifts can translate into something transcendent: calling and vocation.
While I was interviewing Jason Tockey for the FeaturedArtist post, he talked a lot about this idea of calling and vocation. He believes that the main Biblical emphasis “in understanding what it means to be a Christian, stems from our creation as image-bearers of God.” In other words, the big epiphany is that we should and CAN reflect what Jesus is like in everything that we do… We were literally created for that and then REcreated for it when we started following Jesus…
And by everything, I mean by my relationships, my speech, my ethics, my morals, my work, my play… my artistic pursuits… everything.
So, it’s not just the Pastors and the church-staff that surrender their “vocation” to Jesus… It’s the ditch-diggers, the daycare teachers, the bus drivers… Yeah, it’s the painters and dancers and filmmakers and writers…
Which is not to say that a Christian who is a filmmaker should only make “Christian films”… But shouldn’t her films reveal something of the nature and truth of Jesus? Not in a trite or canned way, but in a truly artistic and authentic way…
For Jason, that means that finding his identity in Jesus’ kingdom is centered, at least in some measure, on discovering what it means to be “a photographer who is a Christian.”
What does it mean for you?
Cultivating Discipline, Part 5: Suck It Up…
Posted by: | Comments
Aw... Poor thing... Suck it up...
The “path of least resistance” is virtually the same as the “road of good intentions”…
Think about this: If you have a goal (let’s say you intend to lose 10 pounds) but you skip the gym every time you come to an obstacle or time conflict, you are never going to reach that goal…
Because all of our worthy aspirations are met with resistance…
I don’t really have an explanation for this, but I have a theory:
Since our best, most worthy goals are designed to improve us or our world, they are likely to run afoul the status quo…
I’ve never made it my goal to gain 10 pounds of fat, unlearn an instrument or narrow my friend-network to something manageable like 2 or 3 people… Those outcomes can happen all by themselves because I am introverted, lazy and tend to medicate with Oreos…
Paul has this to say:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. – Paul, The Bible, Philippians 3:13-14
It always makes me smile when I hear Christians talking about “pressing on” or “pressing in” because that’s so 15th century… Modern paraphrase: “Suck it up.”
To conquer the inertia of the-way-things-are, I have to suck it up to reach for the-way-things-could be…
Here’s an example:
I’ve been trying to interview an artist for the site for 3 months. We’ve set appointments and I’ve missed them… sometimes through no fault of my own… but I feel like a schmuck every time it has happened. The temptation to just quietly stop trying is overwhelming to an introvert like me…
But the goal is more important than my insecurity… The prize more appealing than the comfort of retreating into my embarrassment…
So, I suck it up and keep trying…
The payoff is that I’ll have the opportunity to learn from this artist, share his encouragement with you and move closer to my own larger goals…
So, what inner turmoil is holding you back? What does it look like when you “suck it up” and push toward your goals?
NEXT in this series: Cut Yourself Some Slack…
What Makes Artists Succeed…
Posted by: | Comments
Arguably, the most famous work of an artist in church: Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling...
I’m primarily concerned with what makes artists succeed in the the context of church and christian life… Some of us make it work: finding ways to use our gifts… Others struggle and never really find their niche…
What I’ve observed as I work with artists in this context has been pretty interesting… I’m not attempting an exhaustive list, so feel free to add your thoughts in the comments…
The first quality that leads to success is a willingness to be “commissioned.” I am working right now with an artist on some preliminary set and graphics work for a production of Godspell. It’s especially fun for me to cast vision and then let an artist go off to create… but as a leader in church, I recognize that sometimes that creativity needs a bit of direction.
A successful artist will take direction (even from a square)… This is not just the key to success for artists in the church, but it is the key for many areas of commercial art and graphic design.
This leads me to the second quality: humility.
And, wow, do I struggle with this one…
In fact, humility is the underlying foundation for the entire christian existence… It keeps us loving, prevents us from judging and makes it possible for us to collaborate.
I can trace almost every conflict that I’ve had working on artistic projects in church to my own pride.
I hesitate to say that I’m getting better, but I am working on it… This verse helps:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
-The Bible, Philippians 2:3
The last thing that I want to mention is this: using your gifts should give you pleasure… it should be fun. Many of us grew up in church cultures that looked down upon people who took pleasure from their service, but that’s so backwards.
Your gifts come from God… He created you to be most alive when you paint or dance or sing or do whatever it is that you do… It’s ok to enjoy serving…
Anybody want to add anything? What makes artists succeed? or fail?
