Morning Roundup - April 30, 2012
The key to coaching missional leaders is relationship.Young, developing leaders are looking for relationship, and they will receive coaching and mentoring from those with whom they have relationship.
Dr. Steve Ogne makes the following observations about coaching young leaders effectively:
1. Values are more important than vision.
2. Authenticity is more important than quality.
3. Ministry is personal and not programmatic or institutional.
4. Success is measured by the experience, not the result.
5. Accountability is found in a community of leaders.
6. Bible story is more powerful than management theory.
7. Young and postmodern leaders need holistic support.
There's nothing wrong with holding convictions about gray areas. Things like watching TV, sending your kids to public school, listening to secular music, or drinking alcohol. Scripture doesn't say anything specific about any of these actions. It neither forbids nor condones these actions. Scripture may speak in principles, and how we should operate with respect to our freedoms, but with each of these areas, it's relatively silent. (to these areas, I'd counsel someone to chase hard after wisdom.)
Turns out that the Bible also doesn't say that, for a "Bible" to be legitimate, it has to be in print form. Does God's Word cease to be God's Word when it's on a digital screen? When it's spoken aloud? When it's written on a banner at a ball game?
Pastor: when you hold up "gray" areas as if they're black-and-white, right-or-wrong issues, you needlessly alienate people. If you're going to offend someone, offend them with love. So overwhelm them with love and grace that they're disgusted by it. Preach the Gospel so clearly and winsomely that they're turned off by a God who loves and cares for them that much. Offend them with a community that loves and accepts them for who they are...people made in God's image. Offend them with radical forgiveness. Offend them with scandalous grace.
But don't offend them over what type of media they use to access God's Word.
Stott became Rector at All Souls in 1950 at the age of 29. Just shy of 20 years later he told the church council on September 20, 1969 that "he wanted to stand down." The church was not prospering as it once had. He felt his calling was to "wider responsibilities."
The council accepted the proposal and 15 months later Michael Baughen took the helm. "Within a few years All Souls was bursting again" (75). But, Chapman observes, "by almost any measure, Stott's ministry at All Souls was a success" (77).
Stott was still on the ministerial team at All Souls for another five years. When the severance was complete in September, 1975, he wrote, "I find myself pulled and pushed in various directions these days, and need divine wisdom to know how to establish priorities" (Timothy Dudley-Smith, John Stott, A Biography: The Later Years, IVP, 2001, 248).
I found this comforting. It is remarkable how many good things there are to do. And if one is ambitious to live an unwasted life for the glory of Christ, discernment is crucial. Sudden release from decades of familiar pastoral expectations can easily lead to sloth or superficial busy-ness.
Stott's discovery was that his calling was a remarkable global ministry. "As with Jim Packer, Stott gave himself to Anglican politics but in the end tired of them. Neither had an obvious, appealing role to fill in England. Both were in demand elsewhere. The result was that two of England's most gifted evangelicals spent most of the end of their careers serving the church beyond England's shores" (Godly Ambition, 111).
"Swimming the Tiber" is shorthand for conversion to the Catholic Church (the Tiber River runs alongside of Vatican City). Maybe you have wondered why someone would make such a move or how to intelligently discuss the issue with your friends and loved ones. These and related questions were addressed on Saturday, April 14 on the campus of Wheaton College when authors of the recent book, Journeys of Faith, delivered brief lectures on the subject and answered questions.
1. Dr. Gregg Allison - The Roman Road, or the Road to Rome? Why Some Protestants Drift to Catholicism.
2. Rev. Chris Castaldo - Crossing the Tiber: Why Catholics and Protestants Convert.
3. Dr. Craig Blaising - Does Accepting the Canon of Scripture Implicitly Affirm Rome's Authority?
4. Dr. Robert Plummer - Moderator