I got this in my inbox today from Mikeysfunnies. It’s pretty good.
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, and some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
After all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
(more…)
The Lost Art of Disciplemaking by LeRoy Eims is the textbook for one of my classes this quarter at the seminary. So, as I was reading it, I jotted down some quotes I thought were interesting.
These first two have a lot to do with that old saying “People before programs.” The italics are quotes from the book, and the rest are my comments on the subject.
- “Yet in all these programs people are still primary, for ultimately they cannot be helped by some thing but must be helped by someone.”
I think this is key to our thinking about ministry. Most of the time, we think of discipleship as a program or a class, when really it is the investment of a life in another. Programs are just excuses for building relationships.
- “The ministry is to be carried on by people, not programs. It is to be carried by someone and not by some thing. Disciples cannot be mass produced. We cannot drop people into a ‘program’ and see disciples emerge at the end of the production line. It takes time to make disciples. It takes individual, personal attention. It takes hours of prayer for them. It takes patience and understanding to teach them how to get into the Word of God for themselves, how to feed and nourish their souls, and by the power of the Holy Spirit how to apply the word to their lives. And it takes being an example to them of all of the above.”
I like the part about time and personal attention. It’s not a cookie cutter or assembly line process to share your life with someone else. It goes against a lot of what we do in traditional church, with no life-sharing. We come, sing, listen, and leave usually. Where’s the discipleship in that?
More to come…
Tony Morgan writes about Andy Stanley’s talk at the Willow Leadership Summit. I love this quote when talking about the deal he made with God that affects his leadership:
God, I don’t have time to build a ministry and take care of my family. I’ll give you 45 hours per week as a church planter. If you can build a church on 45 hours, I’m your guy. I’ll let you build has big a church as you can with that 45 hours, and I’ll be satisfied with that. But I’m not going to cheat my family.
Andy decided to cheat the church before he cheated his family. With his wife, he decided to be at home by 4:30 every day. That meant he left work at 4:00.
Andy explained that God has never commanded him love the Church. He was commanded to love his wife. He was never commanded to build the Church. Jesus said he would do that. Instead, we get it backwards. We try to go build the church, and we pray that God will take care of our family.
That’s some good stuff.
I just read this really cool story about an awkward moment in a grocery store with a lady whose puppy just died. You don’t want to miss it. It’s challenging.
I’d rather see a sermon
Than hear one any day
I’d rather one would walk with me
Than merely tell the way.
UPDATE: The eye’s a better pupil
And more willing than the ear
Fine counsel is confusing
But example’s always clear.
-Edgar Guest
Thanks to Dave for giving me the rest of the quote (see comments). I was quoting from The Lost Art of Disciple Making that had the partial quote in it.
This is another “What I’ve learned from my relationship with Nathan” post (see the first one here). We bought a mirror for the car so that I can see Nathan sitting in his carseat. It’s one of those suction cup type mirrors with a long extension arm that swivels so you can adjust the mirror.
Well, the other day, we were going out to the car, and I was carrying Nathan. I decided to bring the mirror with us and install it for our trip to the store. I thought it would be funny to put the suction cup part of the mirror on my forehead and extend the mirror. Nathan thought it was hilarious, too. We had a good laugh until it was time to take the mirror off my head. The suction cup is very strong, and I could feel the blood rushing to my forehead as I tried to pull it off. It left a very big hickey, so I had to walk around last week explaining to people what had happened.
I started thinking about how that situation (and many others) reminds me of God. My relationship with Nathan is one in which I will do just about anything to make him smile. I want to see the joy on his face when I make a funny sound or smile at him. I want to see him light up when I walk into a room. I can’t help but think that these thoughts of mine are the same thoughts of God when He thinks about us. His affection for us is one that causes Him to do a lot of things. He has given us so many things to make us smile. He has done so many things for us so that we will find joy in Him. He wants us to smile when we think of Him. That is the relationship of the Father with his children. That is what I learned from the giant hickey on my forehead.
