Managed Schedules

I’m one who takes pride in managing my schedule.  If you ask me, Microsoft Outlook is a wonderful tool of ministry!  I like to have all of my appointments, prep time, meetings, planning, study, Sabbath play, and family events laid out nice and neat on the computer screen in front of me.  But life and ministry is always so nice and neat, is it?

The great 20^th Century theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote:

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.  God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions.  . . . it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.”

Have you ever considered that your schedule is God’s to arrange?  Look at your calendar for the coming week.  Is there room in it for God to interrupt?  If God did interrupt, how would you react?  With frustration or grace?

Wisely managing our schedule is an important task for any ministry leader.  But let’s not forget God is the ultimate manager of what happens in the days marked out on our calendars.  May we always have the discernment to recognize God’s interruptions.

Grace to you,

Steve Ebling

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[i] From Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p.99.

A Transformational Defining Vision, Part Three

In Part One of this series we looked at how your personally utilize your congregation's Defining Vision.  Part Two examined how ministry teams might better use their Defining Vision.

In this third installment concerning the vision of glorifying God, making disciples, and meeting human need, you are invited to reflect on the questions from a big-picture view of your congregation.  One overall question to ask is: Do you believe your congregation generally knows what the vision is?  Could most of the participants in your community of faith speak the words by heart?  From the viewpoint of standing on a balcony looking at your congregation as a whole, how much of your life together is driven by this vision?  Here are questions divided into the parts of the statement:

In Your Congregation:

            1)  How are you doing as a congregation in glorifying God?  If Christians don’t

                        only exist for themselves in a church, who does your church need to be

                        thinking about in terms of worship?  Who is not in worship that you are

                        called to reach?  Does your church need to offer something in the area of

                        worship that you do not offer at this time?  And in terms of your current

                        worship services, are they planned and executed as well as they could be? 

                        Could they be improved?

            2)  How are you doing as a congregation in making disciples?  Who do you

                        know who is new to faith in Christ and how is the church helping them in

                        their faith journey?  What is your congregation’s vision of what mature

                        disciples ought to look like?  Are you being called to be more intentional

                        about helping people get there? 

            3)  How does your congregation meet human need?  Do you sufficiently help the

                        community of faith to know they are “sent” to do Christ’s work and mission

                        in the world?  Are there fewer ways that you could serve in order to be more

                        effective?  Who asks the hard questions in your congregation about what

                        God wants your church to be doing and to not to be doing in mission? 

                        What service to others for Christ brings your congregation great joy?

Perhaps you might have your Acts 16:5 Team or your session focus on some of these questions this fall.  As I said in the first blog entry of the series, vital and energized people create vital and energized churches!  That is what God has called us to be and d0.  I hope the focus on your vision will help your congregation become more focused in your life together and in your work for Christ.

In Christ,

Anne Clifton Hebert

Transformational Defining Vision, Part Two

In Part One of this series, we examined how you utilize a Defining Vision in your personal life.

In the second of this series concerning the vision, to glorify God, make disciples, and meet human need, I ask you to consider how your ministry teams and groups fulfill the vision.  What do your teams/groups consider to be their part in making this God-given vision a reality?  As a suggestion, take these questions to your next meeting and answer them together.  Another possibility is that you send them out ahead of time and ask people to come prepared to discuss them.  Groups might include older adult ministry groups, choirs, the session, the diaconate, men’s ministry groups, small groups, Presbyterian Women, prayer groups, your youth group, and your Church School classes.  How are the groups in your church reflecting the vision?

In Ministry Teams and Groups:

            1)  How does the ministry team/group in which you participate worship God? 

                        Does the team take time to do a Word, Share, Prayer?  Do you do more than a

                        quick opening prayer and a short devotion?  Are you deepening your

                        love of God together in a worshipful way?

            2)  How is your ministry team/group preparing disciples?  Do you plan activities and

                        experiences in the arena in which you lead to help people in your church

                        and/or community know God?  Has the discipleship of your own team or group

                        deepened?  Do you feel you know members of your team in a deeper

                        way in terms of faith and not just in terms of the work your team/group tries

                        to accomplish?  Are you helping others be included in your discipleship?

            3)  How is your ministry team/group meeting human need?  In what part of the life of

                        your ministry team or group are you reaching out to others and making a

                        difference in the world for Christ?

In order to help create vital teams and groups, our call is to be intentional.  The vision helps a church or organization have a common thread through all its ministry.  May God guide you as you explore these expressions of faith for your church’s teams and groups.

In Christ,


Anne Clifton Hébert

Following

Building One Another - Vol. 10, No. 24
Dear Friend,  Yesterday I realized I was following a car whose license plate said, "His W1ll." I thought, "That's nice" and drove along until it hit me that at this moment in my life I was actually following His Will! As we flowed along a pleasant suburban street it was fun to think about that. Until the driver chose to drive below the speed limit for awhile and I wanted to go faster than His Will.  I chewed over the times I have wanted to do just that! The pivotal moment came when the driver signaled a right turn at a stop light.  Was I going to drive straight on to my destination (home) or follow His Will? I followed His Will. Another driver inserted himself between me and His Will.  I thought about other times I have permitted that to happen. As I finally drove home along a route that was unfamiliar to me it was good to realize that the Lord who loves us more than we love our next breath has a will for our lives that is good and wonderful even in the moments that are the most challenging for us. May you find joy as you follow and trust in the will of our good Lord! “We know that all things work together for good*for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28*
With joy - E. Stanley Ott Copyright 2011 E. Stanley Ott  *Scripture from the NIV
To view archived issues and to subscribe:  www.buildingoneanother.org

A Transformational Defining Vision, Part One

A few years ago, the church where I serve adopted our church vision: Worship God, Prepare Disciples, Serve the World.  It is similar to the Acts 16:5 Initiative focus of glorifying God, making disciples, and meeting human need.  Since most of us in churches are starting a new program year, I thought it would be helpful to revisit the vision and see how it is playing out in three areas: our personal lives, our ministry teams/groups, and in our congregations.  In three blog entries, I’m going to ask a series of questions that I invite you to pray about and to act upon from the standpoint of where your congregation is.  In this article, I invite you to reflect on these questions in regard to your personal life.

In Personal Lives:

            1) Are you taking time to glorify God in your own life?  Are you attending worship

                        services on a regular basis?  Are you taking time to worship God daily?

                        Are you reading the Bible and spending time with God?  Are you inviting

                        others to worship with you or to attend a worship service with you?   What

                        worship service in the last six months really got your heart pumping in

                        God’s holy presence?

            2) In what part of your life are you being prepared as a disciple?  Are you in a small

                        group, a study group and/or a church school class?  Are you not only reading the

                        Bible but also studying it?  With what portion of your life are you devoting

                        and developing mature faith in Jesus Christ?  Who are you inviting to walk

                        with you in discipleship?  Who are you discipling in the Christian walk?

            3)  How are you meeting human need?   How do you offer service in Christ’s name to

                        others?  When is the last time you participated in a service ministry of the

                        church or in a community organization?  To what form of mission is God

                        nudging you to pursue?

It might be overwhelming to read all these questions.  You may have answers to some of them and not to others.  I encourage you to pray about these questions and, then, to write answers to them in a journal or record them in the notes section of your smart phone.  Later you can go back and see what movement you have made, with God’s help.  Perhaps the vision doesn’t fit with where you are in your personal life.  You may want to form your own vision.  Whatever your vision is, God gives all of us opportunities to glorify God, make disciples. and meet human need every day.  It’s a vision that offers us a great adventure in faith. 

Vital and energized people create vital and energized churches!  That is what God has called us to be and d0.  May we reflect our love of God in the way we personally live and fulfill God’s vision.

In Christ,

Anne Clifton Hebert

God Sized Vision

“So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul, in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations were around us were afraid… for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.”  Nehemiah 6:15, 16

Nehemiah’s calling was bigger than his ability.  The scope of what God wanted to do in his people was greater than that people’s treasury.  What people though impossible, God accomplished through weary people in fifty-two days.  What the church needs is God sized vision.

It was about a year ago that I was moved to begin to pray a very specific prayer for the congregation I serve.  As I looked at all of the activity of our congregation, I saw a lot of hard work coming to fruition.  People were joining the church in impressive numbers.  The congregation had unanimously approved the search for an associate pastor of family ministry.  Our bottom line was well in the black.  Ministries were going well across the board.  Attendance was up in every facet of church life.  There had been very positive “same-minded” discussions around where we were headed as a church.  I was very busy planning, teaching, leading, and visioning toward a bright future.

Then, in a time of prayer and reflection one morning I was overcome with conviction.  I had been busy and prayerful concerning things within the ministry over which I had a lot of control.  Most of my prayers involved God using me for His purposes in the life of our wonderful community of faith.  Never one short on vision, I saw God answering those prayers faithfully.  But with this wave of conviction I was moved to pray in a different way.  I felt God was moving me to begin praying for something over which I would have no control.

Books I had read, passages of scripture, and a sense of smallness flooded my conscience at once as I became aware that I ought to be praying for something much more significant than what God could use me for.  I was used to being pretty specific with God about what I wanted Him to do through me.  But here I was, at a loss for words, as I was moved to pray for God to begin an awakening that at the end of the day couldn’t be credited to good leadership, a healthy budget, creative preaching, or a forward thinking session.  I was moved to begin praying that God would do something that only God could get credit for; something beyond my ability to vision or bring about.

I had no clue what I was praying for.  This prayer was unattached to programs, facilities, music, or events.  I could not see what I was asking for God to do.  It was pleasantly humbling to discover that God doesn’t need me to bring about the awakening he laid on my heart to begin praying for.  I found myself saying, “Lord, you might not need me for this, but I want to see it when it happens.”

One of the dynamics of the Acts 16:5 Initiative is creating a hope-filled expectation of God sized activity in and through your congregation.  If the hopes and expectations of a church are pastor sized or session sized, then we are expecting far too little of God.  Nehemiah’s vision was a God sized vision.  And at the end of the day God got the credit and the glory, even from His enemies.

Grace and Truth,

Scott Castleman