Seeing New Possibilities

While in South Africa, my wife and I spent a week visiting the JLZwane Presbyterian Church in Guguletu.  The pastor there, Rev. Spiwo Xapile, had begun a ministry that, in hindsight, doesn’t seem all that trendy, or fresh, or whatever new things are called in the Church today.  And yet, it is incredibly effective.

Here it is:

• Gather pastors together for several days,

• Ask them to articulate their faith journey -  including their struggles and joys, both personally and as a pastor

• Then, in a time of mutual discernment, and in the midst of much discussion; ask them to pray to the Holy Spirit to reveal the next “Chapter” in their lives.

What Rev. Xapile had realized was that pastors in South Africa were defined by their past to the point of being hostage to it.  The issues they faced  -  Apartheid, HIV/AIDS, poverty, and the frustration, anger, and pain these things engendered, blinded them to the new life the Lord was calling them into as both a brother of Christ and leader of His Church. 

Rev. Xapile's work has proved fruitful in helping pastors create a space in which the Lord can help them write the next chapter in their personal life and ministry.  Instead of the next chapter being almost entirely determined by haunts from the past, new possibilities are revealed.  

 

It has become clear to me, that for pastors and elders in our churches, the Acts 16:5 Initiative can be an effective “space” for helping to hear the Lord and to recognize the next chapter in our personal lives and ministries.   It is a process that puts meat on the bone for so many pastors, who contemplate their lives and ministries and really have no idea what to do next. 

I recently visited a Presbyterian Church that was thriving at levels I honestly had no idea were possible within the PCUSA.  I mean, this place is going bonkers.  People’s lives are being transformed by the grace of Jesus.  Being there, opened my eyes to the possibilities for the next chapter in my own ministry. 

Likewise, Acts 16:5 can be the process that begins to open our eyes to new possibilities.

With Grace - Chris Bullock