More Lessons from Former President Ford.

I read today that President Ford's son graduated from Gordon-Conwell Seminary (in my opinion perhaps the best evangelical graduate school on the East Coast). Gerald Ford was asked to speak at the graduation ceremony and his words are included in the article below. He made some GREAT observations about leadership and dependence upon God!

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/decemberweb-only/152-32.0.html

Leadership lessons from President Ford.

As the news has been eulogizing President Ford the last couple of days, I have been contemplating 2 lessons that are relevant to your leadership.

1. He has been quoted as saying "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers." Those of you who lead children's ministry may feel very much as Ford did. Your students did not choose you, but you hope they will give you a chance. (Those who teach adults have been chosen by your students. They may not have chosen you on a ballot, but they vote with their attendance each time you meet.) This goes to the reality that God sovereignly appoints those we lead and those who lead us. Consider yourself blessed that God would allow others to follow your leadership and follow gracefully those He has called to lead you.
   
2. The defining moment of Ford's presidency was pardoning Nixon. It was not a popular thing to do and many say it cost him the next election to Carter. History has now shown that it was the right thing to do--The country needed to heal and move on, more than it needed to exact a penaltly. Our sense of fairness wants to demand justice for others, but longs for mercy regarding our own faults. The Lord challenged this notion when He prayed "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." As those who have influence over others, would "forgiving" be a quickly thought of word to describe your character?
   

In the days ahead I challenge you to consider how you can follow graciously and lead mercifully.

When Was the Last Time You Prayed for New Legs?

 As we progress through the Christmas season, I wonder if you have allowed yourself to experience AWE. The Christmas story is full of AWE-filled events: Mary was amazed that God would use her, Shepherds were filled with awe when they received the heavenly message, and villagers were in awe that Shepherds would be the messengers of Messiah's birth.

A little Awe is a good thing. Which brought me to think about the role of small group leaders and teachers. What do you expect to happen in the lives of your students? Read below for a challenge from the lips of a child.

A recent conference speaker told the story of how he and his son went grocery shopping to pick up a few items for supper. While at the store, they encountered a man with no legs. They politely said ‘hi’ and went on with their business.

Later that night, when they were praying before bed, his child asked his dad if he would pray for the man with no legs.  He said, ‘That’s a great idea”.  He said he then delivered a rather eloquent prayer for the man; asking God to bless him and help him deal with his physical disability.  Then his son prayed and asked God to give the man new legs.

How humbled he was as he thought that the next time they saw this man in the grocery store, he would be hoping to see a man dealing with his problem; while his son was envisioning a man, not in a wheelchair, but walking around with perfectly fine legs.

Isn’t it funny how our kids view God?  God isn’t just a God who can make us feel good or comfortable; but he is one who can perform the miraculous.

Anyway I look at it; I’m humbled by the view of God that some of our children have.  I wish I could approach God with that amount of innocence and expectance.  I want to learn to do that more and more each day.

So… when was the last time you prayed for new legs?  And how will that change your day today?

Source: MondayMorningInsight.com > When Was the Last Time You Cried for the Lost or Prayed for New Legs?

Small Groups - Breaking and Entering

Enjoy this summary of an article by John Ortberg about the value and importance of true community. 

One of the great stories in the Bible about community involves a paralyzed man and the friends who brought him to Jesus (Mark 2:1-8).

Imagine what life was like for a paralytic in the ancient world. This man's whole life is lived on a mat three feet wide and six feet long. Someone has to feed him, carry him, clothe him, move him to keep him from being covered with bedsores, clean him when he soils himself. He will never know the sense of independence we prize so fiercely. He has no money, no job, no influence, no family, and seemingly not much of a future.

What's he got going for him? He has friends. He has amazing friends. He is in one of the killer small groups of all time.

In one sense, this whole story takes place because of his friends. Without his friends he never makes it to Jesus, never gets healed, never gets forgiven.

Choosing community
Because of his physical condition, the deck was stacked against friendships emerging here at all. This is a fast-paced world, and it is not a very gracious place for those who can't run as fast as others.

Yet, here is a little band of men who refuse to let any obstacle stop them. And this is a key point: Their little group did not come about by accident. In the face of formidable obstacles—social stigma, inconvenience, financial pressure, a high cost of time and energy—they chose to become friends.

The requirement for true intimacy is unhurried time. If you think you can fit deep community into the cracks of an overloaded schedule—think again. Wise people do not try to microwave friendship, parenting, or marriage. You can't do community in a hurry.

You can't listen in a hurry. You can't mourn or rejoice in a hurry.

Many people lack great friends for the simple reason that they have never made pursuing community a high priority you can't carry somebody's mat in a hurry. And everyone comes with a mat.

The Fellowship of the Mat
Think about what the paralyzed man goes through in order to be friends with this group of men. He must have wrestled with his sense of dependence. It is a very vulnerable thing to have someone carry your mat. When somebody's carrying your mat, they see you in your weakness.

There is the gift between these friends: trusting vulnerability and dependable faithfulness. This mat, which according to society should have created a great gulf between him and them, instead became an opportunity for servanthood and acceptance. This group becomes the Fellowship of the Mat. Wherever human beings love and accept and serve each other in the face of weakness and need, there is the Fellowship of the Mat.

If you want a deep friendship, you can't always be the strong one. You will sometimes have to let somebody else carry your mat.

A gang of roof-crashers
Then one day Jesus comes to their town. These four men find out about it, and naturally they want to hear this famous rabbi.

One of them says, "We can't just go ourselves. We've got to get our friend there. To do that is going to make things harder logistically, but they're not thinking about themselves. They are thinking of him. Friends do that. Friends serve each other.

When they get to the home where Jesus is teaching, it is standing room only "There was no room left, not even outside the door," the Bible says. Then one of them gets an idea—probably the youngest guy the tattooed and pierced guy, because he's an outside-the-box thinker.

"Dudes! What if we make a hole and lower him through the roof! Whoaaa!"

The man's friends must wonder how Jesus will respond to their unconventional plan.

Jesus looks up and sees the faces of four friends staring down at him. They have nothing to ask for themselves. Their only thought is, "If we can just get our friend close to Jesus … " That's what great friends want to do for each other.

Then the text says an amazing thing: "When Jesus saw their faith … "

Usually healing stories speak of Jesus seeing the faith of the one asking for healing for themselves or their child. Here it's the faith, not primarily of the man, but of his friends.

A big hole in the ceiling, four faces in it—sweaty, dusty, anxious, hopeful faces thinking only of their friend and trusting somehow that Jesus will respond. Jesus sees a group that possesses and acts on an irrational commitment to the well-being of one of its members.

Jesus turns and looks down at this twisted, motionless body on a mat. He sees not only a broken body but—as in every one of us—a broken, fallen soul.

He speaks tenderly: "Son, your sins are forgiven."

I wonder what the man on the mat thinks at this point. He hadn't really signed up to have his sins talked about.

It is striking that Jesus knew the man needed forgiveness as well as healing. A friend of mine asked recently, "What sins can a paralytic do, anyway?" Jesus understood, of course, that the deadliest sins—resentment, arrogance, judgmentalism, lovelessness—are ones we can commit without lifting a finger.

The gift that keeps living
A key part of this story is that there are others present in the room—teachers of the law, people who were thought of (and thought of themselves) as spiritual giants. They apparently arrived on time and got good seats. But you will notice that they had no friends to bring to Jesus. They were supposed to be the spiritual ones—but apparently no one they knew was hurting or confused or needed Jesus.

There is an important implication to this. It is simply impossible to love the Father without also sharing his heart for people.

I grew up in circles where many people thought they were becoming more spiritual because they attended many church services or watched many preachers on television or memorized many Bible verses. But their hearts for people—especially for people far from God, for the lost, for the searching, for people with bad habits—got a little harder and colder and more judgmental year after year. What is bad is not just that this happened but that these people thought they were growing spiritually.

The truth is, the more spiritually mature you grow, the more you will find your heart drawn to people. You want to reach out to people, especially those neglected by society or far from God.

The man stands up. He lifts his mat off the ground. He folds it up. He has spent his whole life on that thing. And suddenly—never again.

His world has enlarged from three-by-six to as far as his feet can carry him. Not just his body has been healed. His heart has also. His soul. Every sin has been forgiven. Physically, relationally, spiritually, he is the healthiest guy in the room.

Imagine when he becomes an old man and hits 80. The other members of his small group are using walkers and canes. His legs are still running strong.

Source: Small Groups - Breaking and Entering

The Faith of Advent

I received the following from a long-time colleague and friend in ministry. I thought it was a seasonally appropriate devotional.

As I've been studying for this weeks sermon, I uncovered two quotes about faith that I just had to pass along.  Mary and Joseph demonstrated such incredible faith, the shepherds lived out faith, and the wise men were men of faith as well.  Oh how I need to grow more in this area and be a better man of faith!  So what is faith?  Philip Yancey said: "Faith is believing in advance in something that will only seem logical when seen in reverse."  Stop and ponder that thought for a moment.  As Americans, we want all our ducks in a row and we want to know the logical conclusion before we ever step out, but is that really faith?  I don't think so.  Mary and Joseph weren't like that.  They didn't have all the facts.  The shepherds weren't like that.  They didn't know all the details.  And the wise men for sure weren't like that.  They didn't even know where they were going when they started out their desert journey.

Father of the Bride

I found the following article interesting. It takes the scriptural allusion to the "Bride of Christ" and draws lessons for those in leadership of the Bride. It was first written for pastors, but has implications for teachers and small group leaders also. 

Provide.  A father provides the basic needs of life for his daughter: food, shelter, clothing.  He also provides education, discipline, and many of the mere wants of life.  In the same way, a pastor provides spiritual food appropriate to the maturity of his daughter, the church (1 Cor 3, Heb 5).  He provides for at least some physical needs (Ac 6).  He provides training (Ac 11, 15; 2 Tim 3) and discipline (Mt 18; 2 Tim 3).  Certainly the pastor is a provider.

Protect.  A father protects his daughter from disease, from external dangers, from her own self-destructive potential, and even – if he is a wise father – from his own failures and shortcomings.  A pastor protects the church from false teachers, legalism (Ac 15), doctrinal errors, and from the church’s own tendency to get caught up in needless, fruitless arguments (1 & 2 Tim, Titus). 

Nurture.  A father nurtures his daughter spiritually, emotionally, socially, intellectually.  He helps her to be healthy in each of these areas.  This is a harder concept for me to grasp because it is less concrete, but a pastor must love and nurture his church to healthy growth in these areas, as well. 

Prepare.  A father prepares his daughter generally for life, but he also prepares her specifically for her role as wife and mother.  He provides an example of a godly man, a godly husband, a godly father.  He prepares her to choose wisely the man she will marry, prepares her to meet her new husband and to be united with him.  A pastor prepares his church for life in a hostile world, for its role as salt and light in that world, for its roles as defender of the faith and attacker of the gates of hell.

Present.  On the day of her wedding, a father presents his daughter to her new husband.  There is great significance in this, not only for the daughter but for the father as well: he is turning over responsibility for these tasks to the man with whom she will be united in marriage.  Will he be able to say that he has done his job well?  Is his daughter prepared?  Has she been well-protected, provided for, and nurtured?  Will you, pastor, be able to say to Jesus that the bride whom he has entrusted to you is well-prepared for her union with him?  Have you protected her?  Trained, nurtured, and provided for her?

Source: MondayMorningInsight.com > Father of the Bride

Top Ten WORST Small Group Ice Breakers

 I received this list and was reminded that often our creativity gets in the way of what God wants to accomplish in people's lives. I know I have been guilty of doing things in a classroom that later caught up with me. Usually because I acted spontaneously, rather than doing the necessary work of preparation. Read through this list and take a moment to contemplate the possible negative results.

10. Share the worst sin you’ve ever committed.

9. If you were God, who would you punish first?

8. Which person in this group do you think needs to find Jesus the most?

7. Which people at your church do you wish would find a different church, and why?

6. If you could erase any verse out of the Bible, which one would it be?

5. Share the juiciest piece of gossip you know so we can pray about it.

4. If you could have anything from your neighbor’s house, what would it be?

3. What’s your favorite of The 10 Commandments to break?

2. If you could change anything about your spouse, what would it be?

1. If you could commit any sin and get away with it, what would it be?

Source: scotthodge.org: Top Ten WORST Small Group Ice Breakers