Leadership Model

Lk 9:18-27

Peter’s Declaration about Jesus

Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ They answered, ‘John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Messiah of God.’

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, saying, ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’

Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.’

---

The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Though many have been practicing this for years, journaling is a new spiritual discipline for me. In my Christian Discipleship course through Regent University, that is the discipline the prof wants us to practice this week. Surprisingly to me, I have found it to be a tremendous asset to my time in God's Word and prayer. Here are some of my reflections on the above passage.

God's economy and the world's are in complete opposition to each other.

"For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it." That is certainly not what you will hear from co-workers, neighbors and the media!!! So often, it's all about us: how we feel, why we're embarrassed to share our faith. If we want to save our lives, we'll lose them. If we lose our lives for Christ's sake, we gain them.


The Call:

I among others, feel called to the ministry, to leadership in the church. For myself and others, this is the message I get from the above passage of scripture.

1. Who do you say that I am? If we are to proclaim the gospel, who is Jesus? That is key.
2. We need to deny ourselves, take up the cross and foll0w him.
3. If we strive to save our lives, we lose them. Losing our lives for Christ's sake, we save them.

The call is to the cross and to death of self. Of course, that leads to life in Christ! The servant leader, the Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate model of servant leadership. Those of us desiring to work in the kingdom, in his church must be servant leaders.

Peace!

A bunch of Bonhoeffer devotions

It's been crazy lately with school. I've ready so much good stuff lately that I've wanted to share it all. But though a bit behind, I'm going to post some recent Bonhoeffer devotions that are powerful. Enjoy!

Community Prayer

The prayer of the Psalms teaches us to pray as a community. The body of Christ is praying, and I as an
individual recognize that my prayer is only a tiny fraction of the whole prayer of the church. I learn to
join the body of Christ in its prayer. That lifts me above my personal concerns and allows me to pray
selflessly. Many of the Psalms were very probably prayed antiphonally by the Old Testament
congregation. The so-called parallelism of the verses, that remarkable repetition of the same idea in
different words in the second line of the verse, is not merely a literary form. It also has meaning for the
church and theology....One night read, as a particularly clear example, Psalm 5. Repeatedly there are
two voices, bringing the same prayer request to God in different words. Is that not meant to be an
indication that the one who prays never prays alone? There must always be a second person, another, a
member of the church, the body of Christ, indeed Jesus Christ himself, praying with the Christian in
order that the prayer of the individual may be true prayer.

from Life Together 57
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005

The Yoke of Christ

God is a God who bears. The Son of God bore our flesh, he bore the cross, he bore our sins, thus
making atonement for us. In the same way his followers are also called upon to bear, and that is
precisely what it means to be a Christian. Just as Christ maintained his communion with the Father by
his endurance, so his followers are to maintain their communion with Christ by their endurance. We
can of course shake off the burden which is laid upon us, but only find that we have a still heavier
burden to carry - a yoke of our own choosing, the yoke of our own self. But Jesus invites all those
travail and are heavy laden to throw off their own yoke and take his yoke upon them - and his yoke is
easy, and his burden is light. The yoke and the burden of Christ are his cross. To go one's way under the
sign of the cross is not misery and desperation but peace and refreshment for the soul, it is the highest
joy. Then we do not walk under our self-made laws and burdens, but under the yoke of him who knows
us and who walks under the yoke with us. Under his yoke we are certain of his nearness and
communion. It is he whom the disciple finds as he lifts up his cross.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
from A Testament to Freedom 315
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005

Free for Each Other
"The truth shall set you free" (John 8:32). Not our deed, not our courage or strength, not our people, not
our truth, but God's truth alone. Why? Because to be free does not mean to be great in the world, to be
free against our brothers and sisters, to be free against God; but it means to be free from ourselves,
from our untruth, in which it seems as if I alone were there, as if I were the center of the world; to be
free from the hatred with which I destroy God's creation; to be free from myself in order to be free for
others. God's truth alone allows me to see others. It directs my attention, bent in on myself, to what is
beyond and shows me the other person. And, as it does this, I experience the love and the grace of God.
It destroys our untruth and creates truth. It destroys hatred and creates love. God's truth is God's love,
and God's love frees us from ourselves to be free for others. To be free means nothing else than to be in
this love, and to be in this love means nothing else than to be in God's truth.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
from A Testament to Freedom 206
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005


The Wish Dream
On innumerable occasions a whole Christian community has been shattered because it has lived on the
basis of a wishful image. Certainly serious Christians who are put in a community for the first time will
often bring with them a very definite image of what Christian communal life should be, and they will
be anxious to realize it. But God's grace quickly frustrates all such dreams. A great disillusionment with
others, with Christians in general, and if we are fortunate, with ourselves, is bound to overwhelm us as
surely as God desires to lead us to an understanding of genuine Christian community. By sheer grace
God will not permit us to live in a dream world even for a few weeks and to abandon ourselves to those
blissful experiences and exalted moods that sweep over us like a wave of rapture. For God is not a God
of emotionalism, but the God of truth. Only that community which enters into the experiences of this
great disillusionment with all its unpleasant and evil appearances begins to be what it should be in
God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
from Life Together 35
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005


Losing the Dream
A community that cannot bear and cannot survive...disillusionment, clinging instead to its idealized
image, when that should be done away with, loses at the same time the promise of a durable Christian
community. Sooner or later it is bound to collapse. Every human idealized image that is brought into
the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be broken up so that genuine
community can survive. Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian
community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions
may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial. God hates this wishful dreaming because it makes the
dreamer proud and pretentious. Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be
fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their
demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly. They stand adamant,
a living reproach to all others in the Christian community, as if their visionary ideal binds the people
together. Whatever does not go their way, they call a failure. When their idealized image is shattered,
they see the community breaking to pieces. So they first become accusers of other Christians in the
community, then accusers of God, and finally the desperate accusers of themselves.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
from Life Together 35-36
from A Year with Dietric Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005


The Gift of Community
Because God already has laid the only foundation of our community, because God has united us in one
body with other Christians in Jesus Christ long before we entered into common life with them, we enter
into that life together with other Christians, not as those who make demands, but as those who
thankfully receive. We thank God for what God has done for us. We thank God for giving us other
Christians who live by God's call, forgiveness, and promise. We do not complain about what God does
not give us; rather we are thankful for what God does give us daily. And is not what has been given
enough: other believers who will go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of God's
grace? Is the gift any less immeasureably great than this on any given day, even on the most difficult
and distressing days of a Christian community?
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
from Life Together 36
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005

Being Molded

This is a powerful illustration of God's work in our lives. Follow this link to a profound message.
http://www.nesynod.org/publications/2007_TheLink/link-may-2007.pdf

You Can Get There from Here

New Englanders will be familiar with this expression, "You can't get there from here." You hear this when you are asking directions. It seems you should be able to get to your destination. Sometimes it's even in sight, but you just don't know the road to take.

In walking with God, if we are prayerfully considering something, listening as he speaks through scripture and other members of his body, WE CAN GET THERE FROM HERE!!!

Just over two years ago I went back to school part time. I feel called to serve God and his church through the ordained ministry of Word and sacrament in the ELCA. To get there, I had to finish undergraduate study to go to seminary.

I am now one year away from graduation. The next step is candidacy. This is a process through the synod. Your church and pastor have paperwork to fill out. You complete an application and an autobiography. Then it all goes to the synod. You meet with the committee, have psychological testing and hopefully then you receive their endorsement. They discern that indeed God is calling you to ministry. After endoresment, it's off to seminary.

I made it over the first hurdle last night. I met with our church council president. He was very encouraging and said he would put me on the agenda for the next council meeting. I expressed concern about the cost considering some of the financial struggles the church has been going through. He is also on the finance committee. He just told me there are some things you just have to do in spite of the cost. Needless to say, that was a load off my shoulders. With his lead, I am confident the council will approve the funds for this and I'll be set for the next step. God is faithful.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

I was looking over paperwork I received a few years ago from the New England Synod of the ELCA about the process of going into ordained ministry in the ELCA. My first communication and thinking about this was in 2004. At that time, I had a long way to go to finish school before going to seminary

With move from full time work/part time school to part time work/full time school, I will be finished with my degree in 1 year. I couldn't believe it! It was years down the line...now the goal is within reach.

When I was discouraged with one of my classes (math!), Pastor Paul told me, "Keep your eyes on the prize." That stuck with me. I can see it now. " You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised" (Hebrews 10:36).

The Search

Thursday night a representative from the bishop's office will meet with our church council. The subject is the next steps in the process of obtaining a new pastor. Pastor Paul's last Sunday will be Pentecost Sunday. Of course, the issue arises of what are we looking for in a pastor. Dietrich Bonhoeffer pretty well nailed it. Check out his thoughts below:

Genuine Authority

Ultimately, the craving for inauthentic authority reasserts its desire to reestablish some kind of
immediacy, a commitment to a human figure in the church. Genuine authority knows, however, that all
immediacy is disastrous, particularly in matters of authority. Genuine authority knows that it can only
exist in the service of the One who alone has authority. Genuine authority knows that it is bound in the
strictest sense by the words of Jesus, "You have one teacher, and you are all brothers" (Matt. 23:8). The
community of faith does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and of one
another. It does not lack the former, but the latter. The community of faith will place its confidence only
in the simple servant of the Word of Jesus, because it knows that it will then be guided not by human
wisdom and human conceit, but by the Word of the Good Shepherd. The question of spiritual trust,
which is so closely connected with the question of authority, is decided by the faithfulness with which
people serve Jesus Christ, never by the extraordinary gifts they possess. Authority in pastoral care can
be found only in the servants of Jesus who seek no authority of their own, but who are Christians one to
another, obedient to the authority of the Word.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
from Life Together 106-107
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005

Let us pray: Father give your wisdom to each that are asked to serve on the call committee. For all your churches going through this process, we pray for your insight. We look on the outward, but you look on the hearts. Open the eyes of our hearts. Amen.

What would it look like?

Revelation 11:15 (NRSV)

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord
and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever."

What will it be like when that day comes...when the kingdom of the world is all his? The Revelation of John vividly, apocalyptically describes the future reign. But what about now? How can we live an incarnational life here and now?

For Christ's reign to begin now, it must begin in the hearts of his people, our hearts. As I was pondering this and its outcomes, a chorus came to mind. Part of it is, "...may your kingdom be established in our praises, as your people declare your mighty worth!" Establishing his kingdom with our praises, not just verbally, but with our very lives, days, moments. "For to me to live is Christ..." (Phil 1:21) was Paul's affirmation.

Just think of the ripple effect this would have. What would our lives, marriages, relationships, work, churches look like? How would they be different if we let Christ be the king of our lives, let him into the corners of our hearts and minds where we haven't let anyone, the places we don't like to go?

The noise of this world demands our attention, draining our energy. Let's spend time in his presence, allowing his grace to wash over us, renew us, so he can reign in us.

Let us pray. Dear God, there are so many areas of our lives we keep to ourselves. There are the dark places no one knows about. Help us to let you in to pour your healing love and grace upon us. Amen.

Awake!

Some relish the sound of the alarm in the morning, but I am not one of those people. But what about the sound of the Lord's voice through the word calling us to awake? Once again, I was challenged by the words of Bonh0effer.

Awake!

For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and haunted by the various kinds of
concerns they face during the working day. The Lord stands above the new day, for God has made it.
All the darkness and confusion of the night with its dreams gives way to the clear light of Jesus Christ
and his awakening Word. All restlessness, all impurity, all worry and anxiety flee before him.
Therefore, in the early morning hours of the day may our many thoughts and our many idle words be
silent, and may the first thought and the first word belong to the one to whom our whole life belongs.
"Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Eph. 5:14).

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
from Life Together 51-52
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005

I love the above words, "The Lord stands above the new day..." Let's put him in charge.

Joy in the Morning

Not being a morning person, I was challenged by this writing of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. See if you too aren't stirred.

Joy in the Morning

What do we, who today no longer have any fear or awe of the darkness or night, know about the great
joy that our forebears and the early Christians felt every morning at the return of the light? If we were
to learn again something of the praise and adoration that is due the triune God early in the morning,
then we would also begin to sense something of the joy that comes when night is past and those who
dwell with one another come together early in the morning to praise their God and hear the Word and
pray together. We would learn again of God the Father and Creator who has preserved our life through
the dark night and awakened us to a new day; God the Son and Savior of the World, who vanquished
death and hell for us, and dwells in our midst as Victor; God the Holy Spirit who pours the bright light
of God's Word into our hearts early in the morning, driving away all darkness and sin and teaching us
to pray the right way. Morning does not belong to the individual; it belongs to all the church of the
triune God, to the community of Christians living together....

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -
from Life Together 49
from A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Carla Barnhill, Ed., HarperSan Francisco, 2005

Please Don't Mess with the Psalms!

Many years ago, Reader's Digest, which puts out condensed versions of many books, put out a condensed version of the Bible, prompting many jokes about "which two Commandments will they cut out?" and the like, as well as a sense of outrage among many conservative Christians. While I agree that there are many parts of the Bible which are less than edifying, and even my fundamentalist Southern Baptist minister father told people to skip over the long genealogies of unpronounceable Hebrew names by just saying "and all God's children" and skipping ahead, I agree that the idea is a bit cringeworthy -- but am happy to refer people to the more edifying parts.

However, it is really annoying that many of the liturgical churches -- even the conservative ones -- have done exactly that to the Psalms. The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (1979) puts a few Psalms in brackets, with more verses in parentheses, as suggestions for omission. At least Episcopalians get a choice in the matter -- the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours omits Psalms 58 and 109 and mangles many other Psalms. Also, while encouraging laity and religious to shorten the office by only reciting Morning and Evening Prayer, rather than coming up with a Psalter distribution that enables one to recite all of the Psalms in those two offices, they retained a distribution scheme that requires one to recite at least five offices in order to cover all of them (except the parts they threw away). It would have been much better had they created a scheme similar to the historic 30-day one used by Anglicans (and still printed in the text of the 1979 Psalter) or the 7-week scheme in the Daily Lectionary of the 1979 BCP. (I will absolve the Lutherans for past sins in this area since both the ELCA and the LCMS worship books just published contain all 150 Psalms. And I will be silent about the fact that our Jewish brothers and sisters omit NOTHING from the Psalms, including the titles and the word "Selah" -- I make a point at least once a year to read the Psalms from a Bible rather than from a BCP/Breviary/Diurnal just to read these.)

Mark Hoemmen, an ICCC member in San Francisco, has an outstanding post for April 26 on his blog, in which he recounts being startled by the violent ending of Psalm 139 (138 in the Septuagint/Vulgate numbering) put onto the bulk of the Psalm, which is a beautiful meditation on the comforting omnipresence of God. Mark goes on to reflect on how important it is to read even these disturbing parts of the Psalms -- because they teach honesty before God.

One of the reasons that the Church places the Psalms before us as the greater part of the liturgy each day is precisely because of this ability to lay bare our souls, not only to God but to ourselves. If we cannot face this soul-baring, we cannot truly enter into that relationship with ourselves that is required before we can healthily relate to God or others. I don't know that we can authentically pray Psalm 150 if we skipped Psalms 58, 109, and the horrifying last three verses of Psalm 137. Even if we don't see those Psalms reflected in our soul, they at least teach us about the potential we have within ourselves, so that we may safely "ground" these energies without having them express themselves in unhealthy ways in other parts of our lives.

So -- please -- put the scissors away, and read ALL of the Psalms!