Updates from April, 2006 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Mark 12:50 pm on April 25, 2006 Permalink | Reply  

    A Breather 

    DSC00839.JPGI’ve officially gone insane. Abilene:the crazy little town I live in right now, the one that brought me here ONLY because of the education it provides me at a local institution of higher learning, is going to be my home voluntarily beyond what I could do if I finished this degree at break neck speed. You heard me correctly: I don’t plan on rushing through my degree at an insane pace and high-tailing it out of here before I have a chance to catch my breath. …I must be going crazy.

    Over the past year, I’ve realized in my life the deep need for honest-to-goodness LIFE. Really, I don’t have an all-out crazy lifestyle: I’m not working 40 hours a week while trying to keep a full load of courses or anything; but I’m floundering. I’m barely able to stay above water, and I’m certainly not able to live into the residency I’m a part of as deeply and as completely as I’d like to. I’m looking for a life that graciously accepts each event, relationship and learning experience as a gift. I’m looking for LIFE.
    I’ve heard that true learning is a stool that is propped up by three legs: content, praxis, and reflection. Right now I feel like I’m living full-on the edge of content, with a little relfection I’m able to do on this blog and in my personal journal. I’ve tasted the sane life this semester, meeting with professors and friends who are actually trying to spend a whole day in Sabbath (no matter how much work they may have to do that day) and truly letting that day bring LIFE to the rest of the week. If I’m going to live this life for Christ, I’m going to do it with all I have – TODAY. Forget the “sponge it all up to maybe use it someday” method of learning. Give me a daily mixture of learning new content, then walking away from it to find some immediate use for it, and then a chance to prayerfully reflect deeply on what I’ve experienced.

    All this to say: I’m dropping down to part-time status in graduate school. I’m giving up the dream that says I can do it all. I’m stepping down from my 1,000MPH mentality of learning, and deciding instead to cultivate relationships and communities of learning. This means I’ll be in Abilene for about another year to finish my degree. This is a tough pill for me to swallow, since my dreams of Chicago still loom enticingly large in my mind. While I can’t wait to move on, I’m going to savor the bite God has given me to chew on. I’m going to live the LIFE that is truly a full LIFE, right here, right now.

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    • Jared Cramer 3:31 pm on April 25, 2006 Permalink

      you’ve made a hard decision and i pray that it results in blessings in your life.

    • miller 10:34 pm on April 25, 2006 Permalink

      DUDE!

      you rock my world!

      i am so impressed and encouraged!

      i thought i was the only one in the world who felt like full time school minus the full time job was too much!

      i am looking forward to the year we just gained.

      peace

  • Mark 2:17 pm on April 24, 2006 Permalink | Reply  

    A Kernel of Wheat 

    Some major shakedowns happening in our little LTG (Life Transformation Group).  For almost 7 months now two or three of us have gotten together each week intentionally to build relationships with each other and to raise our awareness of what God is doing in each of our lives.  It has been so amazing to sit across the table from two men I have come to love dearly these past few months, remain completely transparent with them about my life, share in the story of God’s Word each week, and regularly pray for the other and for those lost in each others’ lives.

    In the last week, something has changed.  I am under the pressure of the semester’s finals and papers, unfortunately pushing most of my time spent with these friends to the periphery.  Another has found a new lovely lady in his life, and the mix of a busy schedule at work and giving needed attention to this gift in his life has left him at his wits end.  Our third brother is facing a crazy work schedule, and besides that he has a new baby boy and family to look after.  This may be God calling us to take a break for awhile.

    Or could it be something even bigger than that?  Could it be that we are finding our specific schedules are no longer compatible because the Lord is ready to start several more LTG’s/similar accountability groups?  Sometimes the death of something old, gives way to a new life.  Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “Unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone.  But its death will produce many new kernels – a plentiful harvest of new lives.”  How frightening to be that kernel of wheat!

    If we are serious about “seeing a vibrant family of Jesus in close reach of every person in our city, we have to be willing to allow things we have cherished to die when they need to.  I never feel ready to say goodbye to something that has meant so much to me, but to think of what it might be like to see the three of us starting brand new LTG’s with other friends makes it all worthwhile.  And I’d like to think that as we work with new groups, the three of us would occasionally meet up again to discuss the joys and struggles we face in our little communities.

    God’s people are the kernel of wheat.  Everytime a church dies, we mourn its death.  But if that death gives way to a new church (or multiple churches) we can totally see that as a blessing from God!  We keep the KINGDOM at the forefront, and let the LTG’s, churches, networks, etc follow in line.

    I’m scared of what might happen – but I keep thinking about the image of the seed.  You’ll never have anything more than a seed as long as its gripped firmly in the palm of your hand.  Let it go.  Let it die.  See what God is waiting to do in his resurrection power!

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  • Mark 6:52 am on April 22, 2006 Permalink | Reply  

    Pathways 

    Meeting with Ben and Susan Cheek, Hugo Monroy, and Chadd Schrader was such a blessing yesterday! They are working on a Pathways project together with Kent which looks like is turning into a book of sorts. It follows the life of Christ, and asks how he brought seekers along to become servants and finally “sons” of God. In the meantime, Jesus was proclaiming his identity to the crowds, and really God was proclaiming that through Jesus’ righteousness (not his deeds) he was God’s Son, and he was very pleased with him. Jesus then heads to the desert to be tempted; this begins the formation phase of Jesus’ ministry, where he is disseminating information, teachings, wisdom, discipline for those who rejected God, etc – kind of creating a beginning place for those who want to follow after him. Finally his impartation stage: he puts his mind to the Cross, and begins to step down as a “leader”, letting others then lead instead.

    The result is that within three years, Jesus pours all his time and energy into 12 fishermen, who then become disciples, who finally become world church leaders. Their experience is what church planters are looking for today: how do we bring common people to faith in Christ, then to grow in their discipleship, and finally to become church planters on their own who can train more disciples? Your work is not truly done until you have seen your ministry replicated to the third and fourth generation. I anticipate that with all I have within me as a follower of Christ. The buck doesn’t stop here – I pass it on to others who will do the same.

    This morning I read about Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet. This is the move I think from being a teacher who leads his followers to a servant who moves to the background. Jesus is empowering his disciples to take over as leaders – but to be servants in this leadership role. Servant leadership is not just a catch phrase, doing your work as a leader with a flashy-looking smile on your face; it is doing the background grunt work so that others can step up and try their hand at doing what you have been showing them. It is allowing the curtain to close in front of you so that you can begin to work the lights for other’s center stage moments. Leadership starts with teaching and discovering, but it reaches its fulfillment with a basin and a towel.

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