Cultivating the Team
Sorry for the lack of postings this week. I have in fact been writing entries, but as it turns out the subject matter is still confidential, and I don’t want to betray trust.
In our Organic Church Planting Class (which meets in a professor’s home, appropriately), we regularly have meetings where the teacher steps aside and lets a student direct the learning of the class for the day. Today, a classmate, Luke Norsworthy, guided our conversations on “Cultivating the Life of a Team”.
One of the biggest insights he brought to us was the a historical one. Apparently, Quakers of old would come together before big decisions and hold what is called “A Meeting for Clarity”. It would begin with reading Psalms and a short time of worship and silence to acknowledge God’s presence in the meeting, and would continue then with communal discernment. Usually the one calling the meeting will have been struggling with a life issue (to marry a girl/ to move to a new place/ etc) and they seek the guidance of wise counsel.
My American impulse shines through brightly here. “What right do you have to tell me how to live my life!” I would protest. But what has individualism brought us in over 200 years? It has brought isolation, fear, and finite relationships. I’m looking forward to trusting a community with guiding my wife and I humbly towards God’s will for our lives, and even more I am desperate to find God revealing himself in the people I am surrounding myself with.
Last 5 posts by Mark
- God is Wholly - October 2nd, 2008
- The Great Moderation - September 30th, 2008