Top Three Things

I can't remember where I first read this - I think it was a Phil Yancey book - but it came up in conversation again tonight with friends.  It goes like this:
In a large sample US survey of elderly retired persons with nothing to lose from being completely honest and frank, the question was asked, 'Now that you're close to the end of your lives, looking back, what would you have changed?'
The Top Three Things were:
1. I would have made more time for relationships.
2. I would have taken more risks in life. 
3. I would have done more things that lived on after I died. 
My summary of these is:
1. Relationships
2. Passions
3. Significance
It seems to me that these mirror closely the biblical perspective on the meaning and purpose of existence.
We have been created by a relational God for relationships.  And lives that prioritise career over family, or ambition over friendship, end up in a lonely bitter regretful place.  No one has ever said to me at their deathbed, 'I wish I spent more time at the office'. 
Lives that stick to 'safe' and 'secure' paths - the career trajectory, the expected and traditional route of financial security or job opportunity - can often be not just unadventurous, but ultimately a poor reflection of the person that God has gifted you to be.  What are the specific gifts, talents and passions the Lord has given you?  What decisions will you take to prioritise good stewardship of those?  Those decisions will often be contrary to the received wisdom of what a decent or safe career looks like.  No great adventurer, inventor or pioneer in their field was characterised by doing the non-risky career-advancing thing at the time. 
Ultimately, we each have the average three score years and ten.  But at the close, our thoughts turn to the matter of significance.  What has been the meaning of my life?  What achievement or legacy am I leaving behind?  What will live on, after my death?  Is the world a better place for my having passed through it?  
The remarkable thing about the Christian God is that He chooses to use us to achieve His eternal purposes.  So our lives can make a difference for eternal things.  Actually, it's the first two Things, Relationships and Passions, that make up the key components of any Significance that we might hope to have.  See the Parable of the Shrewd Manager in Luke 16 for example!  
Relationships.  Passions.  Significance.  I hope you know what your's are in your allotted three score years and ten.  

St Alfred's Contact post 21 October

Dear St Alfred's family

Often we hear that people are 'busy' or 'tired' or 'stressed'.  The same is true whether you're managing a household and children, in paid full-time work, or a member of the church staff team.  There are seasons of harder work, and seasons of rest.  So Peter is on holidays this week and I'm going on Saturday for my first 'away-from-home' break in 3 years!  (That's what doing doctoral research might do to you...)  I'm trying to repent of my sins! 

Maybe part of the reason I'm bad at holidays is because I have the great privilege of being paid to do something I love and am passionate about: telling people about Jesus and helping them grow in faith, hope and love. So what does a typical week look like for me?  Since Monday, I've:

- run a staff meeting 

- met separately with four great young adult leaders: two for mentoring, one for programme review, and one for discussion of a future Daniel sermon

- written three references of various sorts 

- read and thought more about Luke 15 in preparation for our evangelistic service on 31 Oct

- led our Wednesday morning communion service

- met with three different persons in a pastoral capacity at church

- paid a pastoral visit to a grieving family 

- lunched with a old friend struggling with a spiritual issue

- met with other staff members to catch up on pastoral care and teaching programme matters

- and numerous other phone calls, emails and other bits of work!

Today, I'm writing this email and helping Heather with Contact.  Soon I have to be off to Ridley where I might catch up over lunch with some of our young adults who are studying there today, before teaching my class in the afternoon.  

Who says ministry only happens on Sundays?! 

But ministry also isn't only what I do, or only what paid staff do.  My most important ministry happens whenever I get home.  Typically, as our automatic garage door rolls up and my car rolls in, the door to the house swings open and through the wound-up car windows I hear Alexandra crying out, 'Daddy's home!'  The energy each of us reserves for relationships - especially those closest to us, whether at home or at work or in our other contexts - is perhaps the most significant ministry we can be involved in. 

1 Peter 2:12 says, 'Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us'.  

'Good lives' and 'good deeds' include the quality of our relationships - their integrity, love, faithfulness, hope, joy, gentleness, kindness and peaceableness.  God's Word is saying to us that these can have a direct impact on the pagan world, our Christian witness.  After all, if our lives are as chaotic, busy, stressed, 'no time for relationships', and devoid of eternal hope as everyone else's, then why would anyone bother with Jesus?  Our lives, the church's life and relationships must reflect the goodness and grace of the God.  How else are we to be salt and light? 

Well, this is a tremendous challenge to me, but thanks be to our gracious Lord Jesus!  God promises us wisdom for life and ministry, as we pray for it; and also the power to change by his Holy Spirit.  

  

Looking forward to seeing you again soon. 

Being Missional May Hurt Your Church

Here's a re-blog from http://theresurgence.com/2010/10/10/being-missional-may-kill-your-church

I didn't like the 'kill' language - why do people have to be so extreme in their statements?  Can't they trust that we'll pay attention if they have a good idea?  Anyway... enough with the gripe.  Here's the quote that I thought we could think about together:

In Breaking the Missional Code, Ed Stetzer explains how the church has shifted to missional thinking in the following way:

• From programs to processes
• From demographics to discernment
• From models to missions
• From attractional to incarnational
• From uniformity to diversity
• From professional to passionate
• From seating to sending
• From decisions to disciples
• From additional to exponential
• From monuments to movements

Surprising Insights: More on Unchurched-Reaching Pastors

OK, so I’ve been away a long time.  Blogging is a bit like that.  Let me continue my review of Rainer’s research findings.  Chapter Eight is entitled ‘What makes these Leaders Tick?’  What struck me most about this chapter was the clear emphasis on evangelism and theology.  

Rainer described four key motivational factors in these effective pastors:

1. a theology of lostness - they are personally and deeply convinced that people without Christ are lost and feel it emotionally too. 
2. passion and enthusiasm - especially for personally modelling evangelism
3. accountability in personal evangelism
4. excellence in all things - as Rainer observes elsewhere, excellence is intrinsically attractive

The chapter also lists 15 other lessons and features, well worth pondering, but I’m still getting over the emphasis on the need to model evangelism personally.  I’ve committed to that over several years, but I guess the question I’m asking now is if I’m doing enough.  Hm.  Any comments?