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Pastorum 2013

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In a couple of weeks, there is a very exciting conference occurring in Chicago — Pastorum 2013. If you are able, I would encourage you to make the trip to Chicago to attend this time of learning and connecting with other teachers, pastors, students, and scholars. Speakers include Mark Futato, Ed Stetzer, Lynn Cohick, and many more. The conference begins the morning of  Thursday April 11, and runs through the afternoon on Friday April 12.

Sessions at Pastorum begin with Bible Backgrounds, then move to Old Testament and the Intertestamental Period. On Friday, session 3 walks through the New Testament and then the conference wraps up with session 4 – Connecting the Dots. There are also panel discussions “where speakers and attendees collaborate and share ideas for applying academic subjects to the local church.”

The folks at Pastorum have been kind enough to offer free registrations to ten readers of What’s Best Next. To win one of these registrations (a $100 value!), be one of the first ten readers to email contact@whatsbestnext.com and I will send you further instructions. Note: you will be responsible for providing your own transportation to and from Chicago, as well as your lodging and meals while attending the conference.

Pastorum 2013 is sponsored by Logos Bible Software and hosted by Park Community Church.

 

If God Can Protect Those Who Go To Hard Places as Missionaries, He Can Protect Those Who Go in to Culture-Shaping Vocations As Well

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This is a great point I just came across in some of my notes, from I think the book Fearless Faith:

I’ve always wondered why we could be so quick to sacrifice our children to become missionaries but stand in the way of their becoming broadcast journalists, film and television actors, photographers, and painters. It’s almost as if we believe God is strong enough to take care of his own only as long as they stay within the safety of the Christian ghetto.

I’m all about missions and taking the gospel to unreached people groups. I think that, in addition to this, we also need to realize that the gospel also spreads through the vocations of all Christians, wherever they are (as long as we understand the proper relationship between faith and work — which most don’t!) — and that more Christians are needed in culture-shaping vocations.

In other words, the recovery of a robust doctrine of vocation is just as essential to the completion of the Great Commission as embracing the challenge of going to hard places to bring the gospel to those who have never heard.

(And, beyond that, as people come to faith through the vocations of every Christian, there will be more who in turn go to the unreached.)

The Top Five Guiding Principles for Ministries

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A friend of mine recently asked me, “What would you say should be the top five guiding principles for ministries?”

Here’s what I listed, slightly updated to make sense in a blog post. This is off the top of my head, so I wouldn’t say this is comprehensive, and of course every ministry also would have its own principles that express its individual uniqueness and calling. So this is a general, high-level list.

  1. Prayer and the word. Seeking to do all things in God’s power, which comes most as we trust his promises and are built up by his word, and fellowship with him in prayer. This includes asking him for the impossible and being set free from bondage to small dreams.
  2. Radical generosity. This is about others and the church first, not us! We are to be liberal and abundant in using all our resources for the good of others, even at sacrifice to ourselves.
  3. Servant leadership. This includes humble authenticity (not going after position, but becoming the lowest servant; this isn’t about our name but Jesus’ name), and along with this a leadership approach that explicitly seeks to build others up and unleash them, not control everything from the top.
  4. Love. Sort of repeating points 2 and 3, but it’s critical. Related to this is “respect for the individual.” Seeing people, especially employees, as valuable and letting that be the governing principle for how you treat everyone.
  5. Trust. We need to trust our people and be trustworthy ourselves, as trustworthiness is the foundation of trust. Trusting your people is what enables you to lead from values, not detailed rules, and lead in a way that unleashes their creativity and initiative.

 

Why the Church has a Shortage of Leaders

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It’s because we are weak in the doctrine of vocation. Consequently, the way many churches are run does not develop or attract leaders.

This is not to say there are no good leaders in the church. Quite the contrary. But it is to say that it is often extra hard to become a good leader within the context of a vocation that is structurally connected to the church.

These words, from a book I read a few years ago on marketplace ministry, are worth pondering:

As a whole, the modern church has not created nor attracted strong leaders. Meanwhile, the marketplace attracts and produces leaders by the truckload.

Gifted leaders gravitate to opportunity, challenge, and learning environments offered by businesses. They are repelled by the small vision, autocratic leadership [take note — I think this is more common in the church than we realize!], lack of objectivity, chaos and foolishness that characterize many church environments.

The best leaders avoid the political environment as well because of its small-mindedness, blind ambition, dishonesty and inability to address real issues [again, note that he is speaking in generalities]. In church and politics, there is often little recognition or reward for effective leadership. But in business, leaders find their natural environment. They are almost always welcomed, rewarded, groomed, and given opportunity.*

This doesn’t need to be the case. Business should and will always be a natural environment for developing leadership. But the church can and should be as well.

If you read the Old Testament, in some sense leadership is a major theme that runs throughout. The judges and kings of Israel were leaders, and we have example after example of good leadership and bad leadership.

Further, God says in Jeremiah 3:15 that he will give the church “shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and insight.” This is in contrast to the shepherds that scatter God’s people and rule them harshly and for their own personal benefit (Jeremiah 23:1-2; Ezekiel 34).

Again, I’m not saying that the church has completely failed in developing leaders. There are many, many solid pastors and other leaders throughout the church. But I am saying that we haven’t done nearly as good a job as we can — and should. We need to do better. And, perhaps, it is actually prophesied that this will continue to happen more and more (Jeremiah 3:15; Isaiah 32:1-2).

The key to doing better is to recover the doctrine of vocation. Ironically, by recognizing the value of all vocations before God, we gain the framework for understanding what effective leadership really looks like in the church and how to develop it better.

*Marketplace Christianity: Discovering the Kingdom Purpose 
of the Marketplace

Trek to Mount Everest and Help the Elisha Foundation Grow

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As some of you may know, I am on the board of The Elisha Foundation (TEF), a superb organization founded by Justin and Tamara Reimer in 2005, being spurred on by their eldest child Elisha, who has Down Syndrome.

TEF ministers to families of people with special needs, pursuing Christ-centered transformation in their lives. One of their key programs is providing retreats where the families of those with disabilities can come, have a break from their ongoing responsibilities, and find refreshment and encouragement in workshops and activities through the weekend in a fun and beautiful environment. They have several other programs as well, and TEF provides all of their services at no cost to those whom they serve.

I can’t say enough good about the ministry of TEF and am very excited about what they are doing. Justin leads TEF as executive director and is a fantastic guy with a great heart, a great head, and great plans for the future of TEF.

Today TEF has just announced that it is putting together a team to trek to the Mount Everest base camp next spring (arriving there exactly one year from today) to help generate awareness and funding to support and grow the ministry. All proceedes from the Trek go to TEF to help fund and expand their programs for families of those affected by disability.

Here’s a summary of the purpose of the trek from the Trek4TEF website:

Trekking to Everest Base Camp, promotes the work of The Elisha Foundation and the opportunity to display the glory and the sovereignty of God in the lives of the disabled. We believe that those with disabilities have been created in the image of God, just as those without. We desire to show God’s glory as our disabled participants climb these mountain trails, just as they navigate the sometimes treacherous paths of their disability. What a testament of the infinite value of those with disabilities to the cultures of the world who find little to no worth in the disabled!

There are three ways you can participate in the trek and helping to fund the ministry of TEF:

  1. Join the trekking team (the trek looks incredible!)
  2. Financially support a trekker
  3. Pray for the ways the trek can bless TEF and its beneficiaries

You can learn all about the trek on the website they’ve just launched and in the video at the beginning of this post.


How to Encourage your Ministry Team in the Bleak Midwinter

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This is a guest post by Dr. Paul White, business consultant, psychologist, and coauthor of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace with Dr. Gary Chapman

Now that we are fully into the New Year and venturing into the dreary days of January and February filled with cold weather and few days off from work, ministry leaders need to take a hard look at how we are going to support and encourage our team members.  This is the time of year (especially for those who like sunlight) for people to just drag themselves through the day.

As a psychologist who trains leaders and colleagues how to effectively communicate appreciation in the workplace, let me offer some suggestions.

Understand the nature of discouragement and burnout

Discouragement and burnout, over the long haul, come from a combination of weariness and lack of hope.  We have just emerged from the holiday season with many extra activities, and now we face the daily grind of doing our normal work.  A lot of people are emotionally tired.  Add to this a potential lack of vision (“Remind me again, why are we doing this?”) and a lack of hope (“My contribution really isn’t going to make a difference…”) and you have the perfect recipe for team members either going through the motions or giving up completely.

Give your team what they need:  vision, hope, appreciation and encouragement

This is where leaders can make a tremendous difference with their team members – by providing vision (where you are going and how doing x, y, and z fits into the overall plan), communicating hope (helping them see how what they are doing does matter), and communicating appreciation and encouragement along the way.

Communicate your appreciation in ways that work

One challenge in effectively encouraging your team members is that not everyone’s “language of appreciation” is the same.  Therefore, some attempts at appreciation may not really impact them.  Most people think of appreciation as being verbal—saying “thanks” or writing a note —but in reality, studies show at least 40% of people really don’t  value words in terms of feeling affirmed and appreciated.  For another 25%, a gift card to the local Christian bookstore will not convey the intended appreciation.  Some people feel appreciated when you spend personal time with them; others just want help getting tasks done.

In our research for appreciation in work and ministry contexts, Dr. Gary Chapman and I have found that for people to truly feel valued, four conditions need to be present.  Appreciation needs to be communicated:

a)  individually (rather than a blanket thank-you to all involved),

b) in the language that the individual values (see our online inventory to identify each person’s preferred appreciation language),

c) regularly (not just at their annual review or at the end of a big project); and

d) in a manner that the individual perceives as being genuine (versus forced or contrived).

To be honest, it takes some time and effort to communicate appreciation effectively. But it is worth it when you “hit the mark” with a team member, and you watch as they start to glow (or become teary-eyed) and their commitment to you and the ministry deepens dramatically. And you will be able to help them endure the long, dark days of winter – they may even smile occasionally and report enjoying their work!

 

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Author Bio: Dr. Paul White is a business consultant and psychologist, and is the coauthor of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace with Dr. Gary Chapman. For more information, go to www.appreciationatwork.com .

About the Book: The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace applies the “love language” concept of New York Times bestseller, The 5 Love Languages, to the workplace. This book helps supervisors and managers effectively communicate appreciation and encouragement to their employees, resulting in higher levels of job satisfaction, healthier relationships between managers and employees, and decreased cases of burnout. Ideal for both the profit and non-profit sectors, the principles presented in this book have a proven history of success in businesses, schools, medical offices, churches, and industry. Each book contains an access code for the reader to take a comprehensive online MBA Inventory (Motivating By Appreciation) – a $20 value.

 

The Best Mission Statement for a Christian Organization Is Two Words:

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Jesus Christ.

If you want to know how to live as a Christian, what to believe, what to do, what kind of attitude to have, what God is like, or anything else about ultimate things, all you have to do is look at Jesus. He is the foundation, goal, sum, essence, and everything of life and any organization that calls itself Christian.

I know we need to be more specific in our mission statements about what our specific goal is, within this framework.

But my point is that every Christian organization is imitating Jesus in some specific way, seeking to act in his power, and proclaiming his message. So Jesus does sum up what any Christian organization is seeking to do. Anybody should be able to look at what your organization does, then look at the portrait of Jesus in the gospels and epistles, and say “yes, that follows.”

And thus, if you are going to make a mistake in your mission, it’s better to make the mistake of being too broad and high-level, but getting the core (Jesus) right, than being highly specific but leaving the core implicit or assumed.

This is for Christian organizations. Secular organizations, or even businesses run by Christians, do not need to have Jesus in their mission statements explicitly. The “main actor” can be off stage at times, without undermining the fact that everything is about him.

I’m talking specifically about Christian ministries and churches — organizations that exist specifically to proclaim Jesus and make him known. For Christian organizations, Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of the entire mission, and it is right and wise to make that explicit.

Cape Town Anniversary

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The Lausanne Movement blog has a series of post from two weeks ago in recognition of the one-year anniversary of the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization last October.

What Was the Most Important Thing About Cape Town 2010?

Here’s a key reflection from one of the posts on the most important outcome from the Congress last fall:

In an interview at the close of the Congress, Doug Birdsall, Executive Chair of The Lausanne Movement, said he believes the personal connections made by leaders were among the most important accomplishments of the gathering.  Additionally he said leaders were able to sense the magnitude of what God is doing around the world and that together the Church regained its footing and regained its nerve for world evangelization.

I agree 100%. Making connections and seeing what God is doing are the central purposes of any conference — most of all a convention such as Cape Town 2010 that brought together delegates from almost every nation in the world. And from the results of the past year, it looks like these outcomes have born much fruit — and will continue to bear fruit for a long time to come.

Here’s a closing video that looks back on the congress: Cape Town 2010: Looking back at the Congress

Piper Up Now

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Piper is starting his message now, “Let the Peoples Praise You, O God Let All the Peoples Praise You!” He is preaching from Psalm 67 and Genesis 12.

David Platt Up Now

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Piper introduced David Platt with two things he loves about him most: his love for the Scriptures and passion for God’s glory among the nations.

Platt remarked how the passages he planned on speaking on are the same ones Louie Giglio went to last night — so maybe the Lord wants us to go deep into these passages.

Reading from Isaiah 6 now.

“There is no one like our God. It is folly to compare anything to our God. All of the earth is a continual explosion of the glory of God. ‘He brings the stars out one by one and calls them each one by one.’ And he is sovereign over all nations. Go to Isaiah 46. This is part of the purpose of Isaiah — to show the sovereignty and supremacy of God over the nations.”

This is a key point he is making: God’s sovereignty over nature is meant to buttress our confidence that God is sovereign over human history as well. We shouldn’t think “God is sovereign over rocks and trees and stars, but human history is out of his control.” He is sovereign over human history just as much as he is sovereign over the course of the stars and workings of nature.