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 1.) My District Superintendent, Laurie Haller, seems to be on a roll. She just posted another very fine entry in her Leading From the Heart series. This one is about the corrosive power of envy and jealousy in pastoral ministry.
An excerpt:
"If I am honest with myself, I have to admit that I have a problem with envy and jealousy, even in the ministry. Well, especially in the ministry. At the same time as I enjoy learning from outstanding pastors, I find myself continually comparing myself to others who are finer preachers, more adept administrators, more compelling writers, more knowledgeable theologians, more skilled teachers and more compassionate pastoral caregivers than I am.
?It was particularly bad when I'd go to conferences as a local church pastor. It probably doesn't happen to you, but when I heard inspiring stories about successful churches and pastors, I'd often feel deflated. All I could think was, "Our budget will never be that large, we'll never have that much staff, we'll never grow that big, and we'll never give that much money to missions."
?Rather than be encouraged, I'd feel depressed and envious, which would sometimes morph into veiled criticism and stereotyping. "We'll, I don't like their style of worship, anyway. They're so large, they can't possibly offer the same personal touch. Their theology is too shallow."
?The problem with envy is that it's all about us. It's about our spiritual immaturity and the emptiness in our heart. It's about our penchant for creating adversaries out of people who should be our colleagues. And it's about our feeling of entitlement.?
2.) There is a very fine March 14th, 2008 post by Michael Spencer over @ Internet monk on a first and only and failed pastorate.
Last paragraph:
?None of us are what we think we are, and life seldom turns out the way we think it will. It was a short journey from my excitement at a near unanimous call to my despair pleading with God to move me anywhere else. In between, I learned about myself, about churches and about the true nature of ministry. As I continue to work through the experience and its effect on me 20 years later, I am still learning.?
3.) There is an interesting post over at Theolog about Religion and brain activity.
Excerpt:
?Azari calls religious experience "thinking that feels like something." She argues that religious experience requires the brain to work in multiple ways at once, drawing from several regions of the brain.
?Religious people understand this; many have long maintained that faith and reason work in harmony, and that religious activity is not a flight from reason, but a complex expression of it.?
4.) Andrew Thompson wonders aloud why the mission statement of Claremont School of Theology (a UMC Seminary) contains ?no reference to God, Jesus Christ, or the United Methodist Church itself.?
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| April 17, 2008 |
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Sometimes when I am falling short of what I should be doing for the Lord and others. I think of Moses and his 40 years in the desert being responsible for all those people along with right before he brings them home, he gets upsets and hits that rock with his stick and asked God why he had forsaken him and his people. This is just one example, if I was as much of a Genies that some people that are on fronts street in the public view are, then the Lord would not need me, for I believe in following the Lords will one day at a time in Ministry for him.
For those on front street in the public view, many times the ones I have met, seemed to me, they got there on self will instead of Gods Will and I mean that with no jealousy what so ever. So I will continue on the path I am through prayer and work for the Lord, and be very grateful he allows me to do his work.
May the Almighty Father Bless us all. |
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| April 17, 2008 |
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It is an easy thing to do to compare yourself to others. Sometimes you feel good, and sometimes it makes you feel very bad. I constantly ask myself, "what's wrong with me?" but the Lord keeps answering me in my mind, "You are you and if you trust Me you will be what I want you to be and you will be where I want you to be." When we really get down to it...the Scripture is clear that we are nothing in ourselves and that we were chosen because we were the things that "are not" and without Him we can do nothing. So we might as well be at peace doing the best we can, and being the best that we can and let God do His thing. I think we will be surprised that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, it is going to be graded about faithfulness and love and and motives. It will not be about results, for God is the one that brings the increase.
Good Blog and thanks for sharing. |
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| April 17, 2008 |
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| After Reverend K commented I noticed that the links in this were wrong & I corrected them. They should work now. |
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