A Place For The God-Hungry

The following is the first part of a two part interview that I did recently with Lynn Anderson of MentorNetwork.  Lynn Anderson has been a significant mentor to me for many years.  From him I have learned so much about what it means to follow Jesus, live with authenticity, and live out my calling as a minister.  I encourage you to visit his new website, MentorNetwork which is a wonderful resource.  By the way, the books that Lynn mentions below, They Smell Like Sheep (Volumes I and II), are both very good and have been very helpful to me.  Part two of this interview will be posted next week.

Jim Martin:  Lynn, you’ve written two books on shepherding: They Smell Like Sheep, Volume 1 and Volume 2.  Many ministers, and church leaders in general, are reading these books.  What kind of response are you getting?

Lynn Anderson:  Jim, the response to my shepherding books is beyond anything I might have imagined.  Volume 1 is still selling well 10 years after publication.  And, Volume 2 is steadily gaining altitude a year and a half after release.  Almost every day I hear from readers.  Of course, many readers are pastors and other church leaders but, Jim, I get regular feedback from ordinary folks in the pew as well: moms and dads, small group leaders, even Little League coaches, and even some business managers.  People  are very kind in their feedback.  And we can’t even begin to accept all of the requests for seminars and retreats on these books.  My prayer is that God is using these books to encourage Christian leaders.

Jim Martin: It seems that many ministers get into a rut and become stale in their ministries.  How does a minister stay fresh?  What have you done through the years to remain fresh and vibrant?

Lynn Anderson: What an important question, Jim, and one that I hear very often.  Honestly, I wish I had a silver bullet here.  Truth is, I cycle between flat places and mountain peaks myself.  Possibly it’s the way some of us are wired.

However, along the way I have found that some very ordinary things "feed my freshness."  I can’t guarantee they will fit everyone.

• Sabbaths help me a lot.  Not specifically meaning classical weekly "Sabbath keeping" — "remembering the Sabbath Day and keeping it holy."  Rather, my Sabbaths are mostly merely intentional periods to unplug from demands and action to just be quiet and try to pay attention to God.  I am not talking about recreation here, or hobbies, etc. but rather about focused quietness.  Maybe an hour in the early morning, before phones ring and doors swing.  Possibly a long, quiet walk away from streets and highways.  Maybe a weekend with a couple of good books.
• A homely thing like journaling always helps too.  It forces me to slow down and reflect and to re-prioritize on the move.
• And, of course, prayer.  My prayer path surrounds the Psalms.  I try to pray a Psalm a day and to memorize a Psalm a month.  Keeps deepening and stretching me, keeps my prayer life fresh and keeps me "in front of God."  Frankly, prayer has never been very "automatic" with me.  But the longer I live, the more "spontaneous" it becomes, and the more I love it.  Without prayer, my world grows cold and empty.
• Plus, I must have significant "face time" with soul-enriching people — people who read and pray and think a lot.  People who give fresh perspective and insight.  People who listen and encourage.

Thanks for coming back to this blog.  I have taken a break from this blog for the past week or so and now plan to continue posting about four times per week.  

This blog exists to encourage people who follow Christ daily.  The posts vary.  For example, I will soon continue the series, "Before You Marry."  I will also conclude the series, "41 Things Ministers Ought to Know."  Most of the posts, however, are not focused toward a specific group of people.  As I write, I think about you, a normal everyday person who is just trying to deal with life.  These thoughts generally come from my own walk with God, my reading, experiences, and what I am learning each day.  

I really do value your comments and read each one.  As time permits, I attempt to acknowledge each comment.

You may want to look closely at the sidebar.  A number of links are new.  Others have been replaced.

(By the way, I have noticed that on this new template, previous posts have an extra space between each paragraph.  Hmmm.  Not sure what to do about that.)

Have a happy New Year!

I love the New Year.

Yet, the New Year 2009 sounds rather odd.  I suppose we will get used to saying "2009" until it no longer sounds odd but normal.  Nevertheless, it is here.  For some people the New Year means little more than getting off work for a day, watching football, and perhaps having family or friends come over for a meal.

The New Year really can be much more than this.  It can be a wonderful, powerful time of the year during which we take a good look at life, where we’ve been, and where we are going.  For me, it is a time for a lot of reflection, which is usually very helpful.  I often spend time thinking and praying about where I seem to be in my thinking, my feelings, my behavior, and my commitments.  After all, sometimes we move so quickly through life that we don’t really reflect on our day, our week, our month, or even our year.  Instead, we are in perpetual motion.  Have you ever known anyone who just could not be still?  Some people have difficulty stopping long enough to think.  In fact, some may be fearful of doing this kind of reflection and having to face life as it is.

Maybe a good place to begin is to look at both our "outside" and our "inside."  Think of your life as a house.  Most of the time, we only see the outside of someone’s house.  We may drive through a neighborhood and see house after house.  Yet, the outside of these houses really does not say that much about what is going on inside.  You’ve heard stories about the police entering a nice home only to discover scores of cats, filth everywhere, and piles and piles of garbage/trash.  What may look nice when you are driving by may actually look quite different once you get beyond the front door.  Beyond the front door may be a family that is barely functioning.  In fact, they may be strangers living under the same roof.

What are you like beyond the "front door" of your life?  Once you get beyond your appearance, your image, and what you hope to project to others, what are you really like inside?  Let me encourage you to join me in looking beyond the front door.  The New Year is such a good time to do this kind of work.

Is there a particular "room" in your life that needs attention?  For example:

1.  Health — Are you a good steward of the body God gave you?  Do you pay attention to how you care for and nurture your body?  Are you attentive to your need for nutrition, rest, and recreation?  Or, do you pay little, if any, attention to caring for your body?

2.  Relationships — What is it that characterizes your relationships?  Do your friends and family see you as "high maintenance"?  Are people in your life seeing Jesus in you?  Do they see you as a person who is serious about life as a Christ-follower?  Or, do they see you as little more than a person who "goes to church" on Sundays?

3.  Money — Are you growing in your stewardship?  Do you give liberally to your church and other kingdom-advancing causes?  What about the financial crisis that we, as a nation, are experiencing?  Are you learning to trust God during this time or are you worrying more?

Do you desire intimacy with God more than anything else?  After all, he deeply desires to have an intimate relationship with you.  As Ken Boa (Conformed to His Image, p. 32) has said, "Our Lord invites us to the highest calling of all — intimacy with him — and day after day, we decline the offer, preferring instead to fill our stomachs with the pods of short-lived pleasures and prospects."

"Thanks be to thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits which thou hast given us; for all the pains and insults which thou hast born for us.  O most redeemer, Friend, and Brother, may we know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly; for thine own sake."  (St. Richard of Chichester, 1197-1253) 

2009 is a year with promise.  The promise of the year is rooted in the goodness and sovereignty of God.  Thanks be to God that the future does not rest with us alone.

I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas.  I continue to be grateful that you read this blog.  

I will have some good news after New Year’s Day about a series of interviews that will be posted.  In the meantime, I will take a break from this blog until New Year’s Day.

Thanks.

In front of me are the first two issues of a new journal.  The journal is entitled "Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care." One of the first articles I read was by Keith Meyer (Church of the Open Door, Maple Grove, Minnesota).  Meyer wrote a few paragraphs that I found nourishing and encouraging.  For example:

Yes! 

I read this quote once and then read it again.  I highlighted it in yellow and came back to it once again.  My life is my ministry and my ministry is my life.  I am called to live out of my own authentic life in Christ.  This speaks volumes as to who I am called to be before Christ and the world.  

I am not called to live a transformed life because it looks good on my resume or because it makes a difference in the quality of my preaching/teaching.  I am not interested in spiritual transformation because this seems to be the thing to do if I am going to stay current.   The point of a transformed life is not to get me somewhere in my work with a church.

The reality?  Every man and woman in Christ is called to live out of an authentic life in Christ.  This life is my ministry.  My ministry is my life.  This morning as you are at home with your family, your ministry is already happening.  As you go to work, your ministry is already being lived out.  Your ministry is happening wherever and whenever you live and are present in another’s life.

Ministry does not begin with an assignment at church.  It does not begin when you take on a program or a "ministry" at church.  Ministry does not begin when you have an office in your church building or when you keep office hours.  Ministry does not begin when you have a church leadership role or even some kind of authority that seems to go with your "ministry."  Ministry does not begin when you are the center of attention at church.   

Some people who talk about authority in the church, in reality, have such little true authority because of the massive gap between the reality of their own lives and what they want to project before others.  Meyer is correct.  The authority of one’s own life and its transformational power are critical. 

The good news? 

The fulfillment that one finds in such ministry is not grounded in success, statistics, visibility, or some stroke of the ego.  The real fulfillment of such ministry is in finding satisfaction in God alone.

What do you think?   What difference might such a perspective make in various churches?