As of today I will not be using this blog anymore. If you want to keep track of where I am at and what is going on, go to
http://freshconfessions.wordpress.com/
This is the new site.
Peace and love.
Drew
Monday, June 7, 2010
Writer's Block
It's not that I have nothing to say...if you know me, you understand that this is not true.
Alas, for some reason I am having a hard time writing as of late. I was talking to a good friend this morning about my struggles in writing things down, especially things that I see God doing in my life along with circumstances in general, and it seems that for this season it has become increasingly difficult for me to verbally process. I am a ridiculously analytical person, my thoughts seem to be often embedded in my head, yet I know that writing and reflecting is something I must do in order to continue to reflect and grow in my walk with the Lord and with others.
A principle that has stayed with me is the importance of reflection in general. Dare I say that most people do not take the time in daily life to reflect, I am often in this boat in terms of jotting things down. I often reflect, yet if it is not put down somewhere in a concrete manner, it is long forgotten in the near future. I was forced to learn this as I was part of the credential program at FPU. One of the teachers at the school would talk often and force us to be people who were reflecting and trying to improve upon our skill and development as teachers. This process was incredibly painful at times...however, by the end of the term I was gladly surprised at how much I was able to process and learn by looking back and analyzing for the future.
This principle is often true of my relationship with God. God is at work in the world and in my life, yes it is evident, and I often excuse myself from the discipline of reflection because of people, relationships, business, etc... It is in these moments that I can so easily forget the goodness of God and what he is doing. When times in life become dry, I need to be able to reflect back on what God has done and what he is doing in the world.
The Israelites had something going when they would so often create memorials to remember what God had done to deliver them, or how God had showed up in their midst. I realize that I do not have enough memorials in my life. I do not take the time to remember like I should. I do not give thanks enough. I guess that's why the Psalmist implores his people to "give thanks to the Lord for he is good." It is so easy to miss what God is doing. I is so easy to forget what God has done and where he has brought me (look at Judges for example). I am prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Prone to forget. Hence, memorials. Cornerstones to represent the goodness and faithfulness of God in my life. A glorious depiction of the love and grace of God in a life. My life.
Alas, for some reason I am having a hard time writing as of late. I was talking to a good friend this morning about my struggles in writing things down, especially things that I see God doing in my life along with circumstances in general, and it seems that for this season it has become increasingly difficult for me to verbally process. I am a ridiculously analytical person, my thoughts seem to be often embedded in my head, yet I know that writing and reflecting is something I must do in order to continue to reflect and grow in my walk with the Lord and with others.
A principle that has stayed with me is the importance of reflection in general. Dare I say that most people do not take the time in daily life to reflect, I am often in this boat in terms of jotting things down. I often reflect, yet if it is not put down somewhere in a concrete manner, it is long forgotten in the near future. I was forced to learn this as I was part of the credential program at FPU. One of the teachers at the school would talk often and force us to be people who were reflecting and trying to improve upon our skill and development as teachers. This process was incredibly painful at times...however, by the end of the term I was gladly surprised at how much I was able to process and learn by looking back and analyzing for the future.
This principle is often true of my relationship with God. God is at work in the world and in my life, yes it is evident, and I often excuse myself from the discipline of reflection because of people, relationships, business, etc... It is in these moments that I can so easily forget the goodness of God and what he is doing. When times in life become dry, I need to be able to reflect back on what God has done and what he is doing in the world.
The Israelites had something going when they would so often create memorials to remember what God had done to deliver them, or how God had showed up in their midst. I realize that I do not have enough memorials in my life. I do not take the time to remember like I should. I do not give thanks enough. I guess that's why the Psalmist implores his people to "give thanks to the Lord for he is good." It is so easy to miss what God is doing. I is so easy to forget what God has done and where he has brought me (look at Judges for example). I am prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Prone to forget. Hence, memorials. Cornerstones to represent the goodness and faithfulness of God in my life. A glorious depiction of the love and grace of God in a life. My life.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Now
It will soon be one hour less of my life lived as the time passes and we move the clocks ahead. I should be in bed but for some odd reason sleep eludes me at this time. I have had a lot on my mind as of late. Things ranging from conflict in the church, to pre-marital counseling, to hitting the gym regularly, to mid terms this week, to Greek and the book of Romans translation along with a ridiculously intense look at Wallace's Greek grammar. In addition, there are opportunities that the Lord is putting on the path of my life. It's amazing to see how much is going on, and yet how much God continually desires to refine my with his grace, which is ever so patient. Thank you Lord for the love that you show in my weakness.
I also must add that I have been part of an organization, of which I will leave unnamed, and sit on the board for this organization. Alas, the politics that I find here are what makes me want to have nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, the Lord has really put on my heart the desire to right the injustices that plague our systems, thus I do feel that I am put in this place for a time such as this. However, in my own flesh, I would resign and turn and walk away, never looking back. It is by the grace of God that I have a desire to seek justice, even in this way, on this board, in this organization. My hope and prayer is that God would use me in this place to bring about peace to those who have seen chaos, and love where there is animosity and resentment. May I be about the gospel, my life and my actions. May others see that it is God working through me to care about things that seem pointless and an absolute waste of time. Jesus I need you. Indeed.
I also must add that I have been part of an organization, of which I will leave unnamed, and sit on the board for this organization. Alas, the politics that I find here are what makes me want to have nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, the Lord has really put on my heart the desire to right the injustices that plague our systems, thus I do feel that I am put in this place for a time such as this. However, in my own flesh, I would resign and turn and walk away, never looking back. It is by the grace of God that I have a desire to seek justice, even in this way, on this board, in this organization. My hope and prayer is that God would use me in this place to bring about peace to those who have seen chaos, and love where there is animosity and resentment. May I be about the gospel, my life and my actions. May others see that it is God working through me to care about things that seem pointless and an absolute waste of time. Jesus I need you. Indeed.
Friday, January 1, 2010
My 2010 Journey and Other Musings
So now that it is New Years Day 2010, I thought I should probably blog a little about what is happening in my life and the things that God is doing and teaching me.
First of all, I am stoked for the opportunity to follow Jesus another year. Already he has allowed me to venture into new territory and experience him in new ways, bringing my trust in him to new levels. This is where I want to be. I can't help but believe that this year is going to have some amazing things in store for the kingdom of God, and that God is going to use me and others around me, to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.
I am venturing into the unknown by leading a team, with Michael (a brother of mine), to Africa to share the good news of Jesus and bring his love to people in need. I am taking my old band, Alytheia, with me :) Lord willing, we are going to be bridging the gap to God through music and other acts of service so that people will turn and see the living God. Africa Tour here we come. God is putting together a solid team of people that are entrusting their lives to him and striving to see the kingdom of God come to earth in a new light, while wanting to know God more and be more intimate with him personally. God is going to do some incredible things as we seek his face and strive to love him more fully and glorify the one who is worthy.
I am also in the second half of my journey through seminary and the MDIV program. It is hard for me to believe that this much of school as transpired, and I am trying to continue to revel in the place that God has placed me for the time being. My wife is a dear and is so supportive through this whole process. Thanks be to God.
I was reading on the way back to Portland from Fresno, a book by Metzger on Ecclesiology. In this book he states something that I find to be an incredibly honest assessment of the church, and frankly, so true that it can be offensive. Offensive in a good light. I have witnessed these truths in my own reality, and my heart breaks for those who have scummed to our in these ways.
While relationship with Jesus is truly personal, it is by no means private, individualistic, and consumeristic. It is public and interpersonal or communal. Prayer requests, sermon titles, and messages often reflect this individualized and consumerized Veg-O-Matic imbalance. All too often, sermons tend to follow the "How to loose weight and be filled with the Holy Spirit" pattern, not the "take up your cross and follow me" paradigm. No doubt, the problem goes back to the fall and its aftermath, where everyone began doing what seemed right in their own eyes. It is just that today we have perfected the art of individualized identity and self-realization.
The problem does not end with the individual Christian. It extends to the individual family. People may claim to community-oriented by spending time with their families. Unfortunately, the individual nuclear family too often takes precedence over the family of God. One reason why Dr. James Dobson is so powerful a figure now is how he speaks to one of America's greatest national treasures and endangered species - the nuclear family. Pastors can speak on all kinds of subjects at church. But they dare not challenge prevailing notions of success, our use of money, the American nation, and the family. Just about anything else will do. In fact, we often use our money to foster successful ministries that often cater to the American dream of stable and wholesome birth families.
(He then goes on to talk about how churches closed their doors on Christmas when it fell on a Sunday, so that people would in turn spend time with their families. "In doing so, this pastor placed the birth family over the born-again family." What about those who had no family to go to and were looking for their church family for their fellowship?)
Churches often cater to this tendency to overvalue the nuclear family in the American culture. Ironically, those churches that cater more to the family - making Christ and the church a predicate of family values - often become more successful churches. And not so ironically, it tends to produce competition between churches where families shop for the best children's ministry...
**** We have before us three problems: overemphasis on the individual, the individual family, and the individual church. How shall we respond? The individual is important to God, just not in isolation from the church. The family is important to God, but not to the detriment of God's family. The individual church is important to God, just not in isolation from other churches.
When Christianity places undue emphasis on the individual, it reduces the church to a group of believing individuals or, worse, sees Christian identity as separate from participation in Christian community.
The problem is not limited to the individual person. When the church places undue emphasis on the individual family, it tends to disregard the church as the ultimate family. As a result, it also tends to disregard the single person or the single parent raising a family. However, when we see the church as God's family, and ourselves as part of that family, we realize that our spouses and our children are our brother and sisters in the Lord. So too we realize that single present and their children, orphans and widows in their distress, and those who visit our fellowship, are members of our family.
It is important for us to emphasize that members of our church families are members of our nuclear families, and that our nuclear families are part of this larger church family. This would keep us from prioritizing family over church, and visa versa.
Just as God is indissolubly communal, so too human identity is a relational being...Just as God gave his Son to save the world, so God gives his church to the world. The church is a microcosm of the world, and of the transformative work God is undertaking through his Son and Spirit to make all things new.
These statements are powerful ways in which to view the family in light of the culture in which we live. I love when people chose to use their families for the betterment of the greater family, God's church, of which Christ is the head. If we alienate ourselves from the body of Christ, we take away from what God wants to use to change the world. May we live in such a way that Christ is the center of our lives, and nothing else. May all idolatry cease to exist in the lives of those who follow the Savior, including such things as mentioned above.
First of all, I am stoked for the opportunity to follow Jesus another year. Already he has allowed me to venture into new territory and experience him in new ways, bringing my trust in him to new levels. This is where I want to be. I can't help but believe that this year is going to have some amazing things in store for the kingdom of God, and that God is going to use me and others around me, to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.
I am venturing into the unknown by leading a team, with Michael (a brother of mine), to Africa to share the good news of Jesus and bring his love to people in need. I am taking my old band, Alytheia, with me :) Lord willing, we are going to be bridging the gap to God through music and other acts of service so that people will turn and see the living God. Africa Tour here we come. God is putting together a solid team of people that are entrusting their lives to him and striving to see the kingdom of God come to earth in a new light, while wanting to know God more and be more intimate with him personally. God is going to do some incredible things as we seek his face and strive to love him more fully and glorify the one who is worthy.
I am also in the second half of my journey through seminary and the MDIV program. It is hard for me to believe that this much of school as transpired, and I am trying to continue to revel in the place that God has placed me for the time being. My wife is a dear and is so supportive through this whole process. Thanks be to God.
I was reading on the way back to Portland from Fresno, a book by Metzger on Ecclesiology. In this book he states something that I find to be an incredibly honest assessment of the church, and frankly, so true that it can be offensive. Offensive in a good light. I have witnessed these truths in my own reality, and my heart breaks for those who have scummed to our in these ways.
While relationship with Jesus is truly personal, it is by no means private, individualistic, and consumeristic. It is public and interpersonal or communal. Prayer requests, sermon titles, and messages often reflect this individualized and consumerized Veg-O-Matic imbalance. All too often, sermons tend to follow the "How to loose weight and be filled with the Holy Spirit" pattern, not the "take up your cross and follow me" paradigm. No doubt, the problem goes back to the fall and its aftermath, where everyone began doing what seemed right in their own eyes. It is just that today we have perfected the art of individualized identity and self-realization.
The problem does not end with the individual Christian. It extends to the individual family. People may claim to community-oriented by spending time with their families. Unfortunately, the individual nuclear family too often takes precedence over the family of God. One reason why Dr. James Dobson is so powerful a figure now is how he speaks to one of America's greatest national treasures and endangered species - the nuclear family. Pastors can speak on all kinds of subjects at church. But they dare not challenge prevailing notions of success, our use of money, the American nation, and the family. Just about anything else will do. In fact, we often use our money to foster successful ministries that often cater to the American dream of stable and wholesome birth families.
(He then goes on to talk about how churches closed their doors on Christmas when it fell on a Sunday, so that people would in turn spend time with their families. "In doing so, this pastor placed the birth family over the born-again family." What about those who had no family to go to and were looking for their church family for their fellowship?)
Churches often cater to this tendency to overvalue the nuclear family in the American culture. Ironically, those churches that cater more to the family - making Christ and the church a predicate of family values - often become more successful churches. And not so ironically, it tends to produce competition between churches where families shop for the best children's ministry...
**** We have before us three problems: overemphasis on the individual, the individual family, and the individual church. How shall we respond? The individual is important to God, just not in isolation from the church. The family is important to God, but not to the detriment of God's family. The individual church is important to God, just not in isolation from other churches.
When Christianity places undue emphasis on the individual, it reduces the church to a group of believing individuals or, worse, sees Christian identity as separate from participation in Christian community.
The problem is not limited to the individual person. When the church places undue emphasis on the individual family, it tends to disregard the church as the ultimate family. As a result, it also tends to disregard the single person or the single parent raising a family. However, when we see the church as God's family, and ourselves as part of that family, we realize that our spouses and our children are our brother and sisters in the Lord. So too we realize that single present and their children, orphans and widows in their distress, and those who visit our fellowship, are members of our family.
It is important for us to emphasize that members of our church families are members of our nuclear families, and that our nuclear families are part of this larger church family. This would keep us from prioritizing family over church, and visa versa.
Just as God is indissolubly communal, so too human identity is a relational being...Just as God gave his Son to save the world, so God gives his church to the world. The church is a microcosm of the world, and of the transformative work God is undertaking through his Son and Spirit to make all things new.
These statements are powerful ways in which to view the family in light of the culture in which we live. I love when people chose to use their families for the betterment of the greater family, God's church, of which Christ is the head. If we alienate ourselves from the body of Christ, we take away from what God wants to use to change the world. May we live in such a way that Christ is the center of our lives, and nothing else. May all idolatry cease to exist in the lives of those who follow the Savior, including such things as mentioned above.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Knowing and being known
Spiritual Development is much more than living life with an unadulterated sense of the divine, rather it is a commitment to know, understand, appreciate, and love that which is divinity come to life. I was speaking with a man recently that has two young boys, both in their primary years. While I was speaking with him, he mentioned that raising children is much more complex and rigid than he had anticipated. His thought surrounding children had completely changed and there was some sort of method he was discovering that dealt with the intricacy of raising children. He was trying to relay to me that this was not a fluid challenge, but it was one that was constantly changing and had to do with each of the individual kids and their personalities, gifts, etc… This is true of the spiritual development of a person as well. One cannot assume that just because one has a sense of the divine that there is a reality there that shapes and defines that person. The creator God deals with people individually, often using a corporate setting to shape and challenge, yet every person is built with the capacity to know God. This of course is in tension with one’s worldview, however God has made it possible that every person know him, and it is in this sphere of understanding that the pursuit of the divine can happen. This is the essence of spiritual development, knowing and being known by God.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
gospel musing
An interesting thought:
Friday, October 23, 2009
Some thoughts on biblical leadership
The Psalmist David writes in the twenty-fifth Psalm saying, “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”[1] David appeals to the Lord to teach him, so that he will act according to the will and agenda of God. What better way to lead then follow the greatest leader of all, Jesus Christ. The sincere manner, in which David presents his heart to the Lord, is an amazing example of a heart that God can mold and shape for the leading and guiding of the kingdom. In this paper, the examination of biblical leadership will be measured against non-biblical leadership and their elements will be scrutinized as they are put up side by side. There are two major categories under which all other differences between these two methods fall. Biblical leadership starts with the heart, as seen by David’s comment above, and these two methods of leadership will sit juxtaposed to each other as their qualities are examined.
The first way in which these two methods of leadership will be observed is by is the fact that biblical leadership submits directly to the authority of Christ as the supreme chancellor, while non-biblical leadership places a human person as the final authority. Paul writes to the Colossian people that “he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”[2] Paul reminds the people in Colossae that Jesus is the “senior pastor” of the church. He is the end-all be-all, so to speak. The “main man.” No human authority will override the authority that Christ has in the church. The people of God must submit and listen to the call and mission that God gives to the church, and willingly obey despite the consequences. The main idea surrounding biblical leadership is the God is the head, the final authority over his people. The human leaders of the church must be quick to listen and heed the will of the Lord. Strauch points this out when he says that, “Most important, biblical eldership guards and promotes the preeminence and position of Christ over the local church.”[3] Keeping Christ as the ultimate authority figure over the church is all important when desiring to function in righteousness. One must be reminded that personal struggle and inner conflict, regarding who is in control, must never overtake the authority of Christ. Ironically enough, Jesus is desperately needed in the lives of those who lead, to help keep Him first. As one author put it, “We must realize that no amount of success or achievement will ever fill the holes created by our own unmet needs. Ultimately those needs can only be fully satisfied by a correct understanding and personal ownership of all that God has provided for us in his son, Jesus Christ.”[4]
Unlike biblical leadership, non-biblical leadership places human authority as the final judgment call and the vision and passions of the organizations stem from human derived agendas and not God’s plan. This is where people lead and burn bridges, hurt others, and pave the way for disaster. Now this is not always the case, but what wisdom the Psalmist David had when he beckoned for the Lord to teach him his truth. Humans have an amazing capacity for leadership without God, and there can be a lot of good that comes out of a leader whose vision is sincere and upright. Yet, there is nothing like submitting and listening to the leadership of the one who holds the world in his hands. The greatest problem with this method of non-biblical leadership is that a human, whose flesh is corrupt, is replacing the voice of God, for his or her own. This is where following a biblical model of leadership is paramount for kingdom work.
Secondly, biblical leadership ironically mimics Christ and his attitude and lifestyle which displayed servant leadership, while non-biblical leadership seeks to massage and inflame one’s own ego and sense of self-worth. Biblical leadership is about service, and there was no other person in all of humanity that displayed this like Christ. Jesus exemplifies this attitude and lifestyle of leading by serving when he washes his disciples’ feet. After he had performed an act of the lowliest person in a household, Jesus tells them, “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you…a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”[5] Jesus performs an act of service that boggles the minds of his disciples. They are stunned at his act, and what an act indeed. Jesus transforms the way that his followers thought about leadership, and the attitudes and actions they should live out as leaders of the coming kingdom. Paul reminds the people in Philippi of Jesus’ servant leadership saying, “Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”[6] Biblical leadership demands the character of Christ, a servant’s attitude, reiterating the likeness of Christ, which is steeped in contrast with non-biblical models.
Non-biblical leadership screams the exact opposite of servant leadership. Finding an opportunity to advance one’s own self and ideas becomes the goal of those who are in charge and not living according to the example of Christ. This is seen by Allender’s statement that hits the proverbial nail-on-the-head when he says, “No one is humble by nature…Humility comes from humiliation, not from the choice to be self-effacing or a strong urge to give others the credit.”[7] Servant leadership is the last form by which people would choose to lead, because it goes against who we are inside. No one is automatically humble and wants to lead by serving. Hence Jesus’ demonstration of servant leadership to his disciples that night he washed their feet. Non-biblical leadership is without a doubt a circumstance of self-proclamation, an egocentric phenomenon that propels one forward by an innate desire to be the “top dog.” In a striking paradox, Blackaby points out that “leaders who are unable to love their people and who are unwilling to consider their needs, are insecure in their own identity.”[8] Even though they are in leadership, loving others above one’s own self is critical for effective biblical leadership; an element that is not found in non-biblical leaders. Jesus turned this model of leadership upside down when he proved that real leadership was surrendering one’s self to the call of God, and putting others in front of one’s own desires.
[1] Psalm 25: 4 – 5
[2] Colossians 1:18
[3] Alexander Strauch, Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership, (Littleton, CO: Lewis and Roth Publishers, 1995), p. 115.
[4] Gary McIntosh and Samuel Rima Sr., Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997), p. 148.
[5] John 13:15 – 16
[6] Philippians 2:6 – 7
[7] Dan Allender, Leading with a Limp, (Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2006), p. 69.
[8] Henry and Richard Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership, (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman, 2001), p. 166.
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