Ministry Inside.12

(Normally, Ministry Inside appears on Thursdays. However, I am going to publish a day early.)

1. Two important posts by John Frye (author of Jesus the Pastor ). See Jesus the Discernment Artist and Do We Believe in the Spirit?

2. You might want to read John Mark Hicks’ post The Church Has Left the Building. John Mark, a theologian, is always thoughtful and reflective in his writing.

3. It is difficult for a church family to rise above the level of its leadership. It is very difficult for people to imagine a faith or a life of discipleship that they have not witnessed in their ministers, preachers, pastors, elders, or others whom they might look to as their models.

I don’t say this in order to be critical of church leaders. I do think we need to wake up. So often leaders believe that what they need to do is to just get the church moving in a certain direction. We may devise various plans in order to get this done. However, this can easily become just another well meaning attempt at constructing a future. Maybe one of the most important places to start in approaching the future is in addressing one’s own soul transformation.

4. There are several tools that I use for my own personal organization. I use Google calendar to record all appointments, special dates, events, etc. Google calendar is easy to use and accesible both on my laptop and iPhone. I enter the information online and also keep a hard copy of my calendar in my notebook. I also use Backpack as a way to organize my projects and the tasks that are necessary in order to complete these projects. (My organizational page is set up with an approach that I have learned through David Allen’s Getting Things Done .) In my notebook, I have a hard copy of each project (anything that requires more than one step in order to get it done.) Under each project, I have listed various actions that must take place in order to make progress on this project.

On my Backpack page and in my note book is a page called, “Next Actions.” This is the closest thing that I have to a “to do” list. The next actions are broken down into the following categories:

• Really Important (two or three actions that are really important today)
• Big Things this Week (one or two actions that really need to take place this week)
• E-Mail (someone whom I need to write)
• On the Phone (someone whom I need to call. Maybe a word beside the name reminding me of the subject)
• Talk with (someone whom I need to talk with)
• To Go (errands I need to do)
• At the Mac (something that I need to do at my computer. Maybe a book to be ordered or something I need to look up)
• Waiting on (someone whom I am waiting on for an ok, for confirmation, for information, etc.)