Got Intimacy?

Britt Merrick was giving a talk recently and it was put into the Catalyst Leader online magazine. This is such a great talk about what I believe to be basic to leadership. Britt talks about how we should stop trying to lead and start trying to love. He believes that loving God and being intimate with God must be the first thing. We need to stop doing doing, doing and get in the face of God. He talks about John who was reclining on Jesus’ chest. John wanted to be close to Jesus more than anything else and so he pressed in and got intimate. This priority of intimacy led to the longest ministry and the greatest revelation. When they tried to boil John it didn’t work! John was concerned primarily about intimacy with God and leaders must also be concerned primarily with intimacy.

What would it look like to be intimate with God? As a leader what would it look like to have a non-negotiable of intimacy with God? To have time set aside as the leader to be intimate with God? That you were paid to be intimate with God (hours in your work week dedicated to intimacy)? What if we had a seminary that valued that? We have a seminary that requires 40 hours a week of coursework and an internship. We must also eat and so we must work. Does our seminary value intimacy? Do we have a fundamental lack of intimacy and does that explain the horrible statistics in our culture for pastors?

Do a Few Things right

This is a great article talking about doing a few things right. I love the concept of simple church and simple leadership. This article is about how what you spend your time on as a leader reflects what you value. If you spend lots of time on many different things you value many different things right? Wrong. If you spend your time on many things you value nothing. Simple leadership is finding what you value the most and then spending your time on what is most effective in achieving this goal.

“I can’t be involved in 50 or 75 things. That’s a Noah’s Ark way of investing – you end up with a zoo that way. I like to put meaningful amounts of money in a few things." – Warren Buffett

This takes some serious planning and some serious vision for your life. If you simplify you get some very interesting benefits. You can measure more what you are doing and you can say really what you do with clarity. If you value preaching as a leader but spend 4 hours out of your 55-60 hour work week you probably value preaching as much as reading emails. Here is an interesting statistic according to Nielson, that average person spends 10% of their time on email during a week not to mention other online activity. So you are saying basically that emailing is more important than preaching. I understand that you have to spend time on email but what else can you get rid of to communicate preaching as a priority.

Do For One

This is a great podcast where Andy Stanley explains why we must “Do for one, what we wish we could do for everyone.” Andy Stanley has been a dynamic leader at Northpoint Church in Georgia and the leadership systems and structures that he has set up have greatly impacted the current church that I work at. The concept is that as leaders we begin to be pulled in many directions. It becomes easy to then decide that since you have little time, resources, and energy, investing into others becomes something that cannot feasible or fair. The result often times is to pull away from doing for any. This becomes a great hindrance to leading the people you work with. Andy says that you must do for one what you wish you could do for others so that you are giving and so that people are gaining from your gifts of time, energy, experience ect. The way Andy Stanley illustrates it is that he does employee reviews of the organization. He reads these and saw that someone asked for a better paper cutter. He decided that he would purchase the cutter for the individual and give it to them. Could he afford to give a new paper cutter to all of the people on his campuses? No. The individual who received realized that they are important.

Practically, I was down at the Drive conference in Atlanta last week. There, they used this concept practically by creating a “drivewish” twitter account. They didn’t really announce it but they used it for people to tweet what they wish could happen for them at the drive conference. The account was filled tweets about materials, backstage passes, individual time with different people and other things. I asked for a drive t-shirt that was only available to the staff. I received a T-shirt from them and was blessed by their desire to create a great experience. The next example is that I was asking a question of one of the Breakout presenters after a session. She did not have the answer but invited me to sit down with another of the team members for about 45 minutes. Finally, I was given materials from one of their leadership classes utilizing theology. These resources are not even available for most people! Out of 5,000 people there was no way they could provide one-on-one time or a t-shirt for everyone, or give everyone access to these resources but they did for me. Andy’s concept of doing for one what you wish you could do for all is practically lived out in his ministries that he leads.

Ministry Mulligan (person in leadership)

In Ministry Mulligan, Jack Connell looks back at his ministry after retiring and writes about what he would have done over, if he had the chance. He spoke of collaboration with other ministries, the importance of friendship, and rest and though I found this article serving as a reminder of what is important it also was a warning against failure.Jack had realized too late that he had concentrated on achieving a large congregation instead of pastoring a congregation. He had spent himself rushing around and achieving at the expense of his time and energy, and had resisted true friendship. In the end, Jack ended up hating his job and retiring. This was not a story of looking at his life and changing the situation. It was a story of burning out.

I don’t want to have a story like this. I want a story of starting out right and constantly revisiting my ministry model. I want a story of growth, not a story of becoming spent. Collaboration with other ministries within my community has already been something that I find invigorating and exciting. I look forward to the community being changed by the church (God’s body) not our numbers being large. I recognize the value of rest and do not have a problem carving time out for that. What I must continually be pursuing however is friendship. Without being truly known I will never be able to see when these ‘change’ moments happen. These moments that will define whether I grow or like Jack, burn out.

Article

Delight In

Last night as I sat with my wife in Starbucks and listened to the man behind complain that Starbucks is the worst coffee in the world(clearly since they are failing as a business). I was completely blown away that if it is the worst coffee in the world, why was he here? I saw then when I discreetly turned around that he was with what appeared to be his adult children. I saw that he was there, to be with them. Granted, saying something like that to the children who brought you to this place is kinda a "jerk" move, but it showed that there father wanted to be there despite the oppression of the 'worst coffee' on the planet.

This preceded a discussion with my wife about whether God likes us. I mean we all know that God loves us.

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong.

Yes! Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!

Yes Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.

The question then is whether God likes us. I mean we struggle with our family and we deal with them because they are a family but most of us wouldn't be friends with them if we were to just meet them in the street or in our lives. I know I wouldn't (no offense family, I like now that I know you). So when we think of God we sometimes put ourselves in the 'family we have to deal with' category. Does it diminish his love? No. His love is complete and amazing and could never be diminished. But I believe that if we believe that God's relationship with us is only love we would miss out on something big.

Knowing that God likes us or delights in us is a powerful, powerful possession. With it we gain more value, confidence, and security. When we know that God likes us, it validates who we are. If God likes us, then I could care less if anyone else does(if I truly understand the implications for my value in God's eyes). Here is an example from the Bible. Adam and Eve, perfect relationship with God. Walking through the garden and interacting with God everyday. God communicated that he delighted in them and they gained their self esteem from him. Boom! sin happens and what is the reaction of Adam and Eve? 'We are naked!" hmmmm then they hid from God. When that relationship broke they began to need affirmation from other sources and they were no longer secure in who they were.

Had they lost value? I don't know that they did. Their relationship was damaged but was it because they were no longer able to engage with God like they had because of their sin or that God was no longer able to engage with them because of their sin? I am struggling with that difference. Anyways the point is that they still had value and God did not stop liking them. He created them as a delight, "it is good". They still give God delight. YOU give God delight, I give God delight. God like me, as I was, as I am , and as I will be.

Psalms 18:19b "he rescued me because he delighted in me."

God sent Jesus to the earth because he loved the world, he loved us. Jesus who was the ultimate savior(rescuer) came and died for us because he loved us. Because of that sacrifice, we have value. The thing is, we don't just have value because Jesus died for us. We have value in that we are created by God and he delights in how we are made. He likes us. Psalms didn't say "he rescued me so that someday he could delight in me" it says that he delighted in me and so he rescued me.

God likes you.