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Tag Archives: life application

Finding Your Voice

  One of our key tasks as Christian leaders is to do the kind of interior work so that we find our own voice i.e. the voice God has given us for the world. That is no small task. This has been a life message of my mentor, Leighton Ford, over the last 30 years. When I was with him last month, he shared this wonderful poem by Mary Oliver. It has served as a rich companion to my meditation on Jesus as He bravely launched His ministry and resisted the Evil One (Matt.3-4). Too many people never find their own voice and simply repeat the things they have heard for their entire lives. Too many of us don’t lead as a result. May God give us grace to be brave and let our voices be heard. Take some time and prayerfully read this lovely poem. Then go back and read Matthew 3:13-4:11 and. Read more.

Finding Your Voice

One of our key tasks as Christian leaders is to do the kind of interior work so that we find our own voice i.e. the voice God has given us for the world. That is no small task. This has been a life message of my mentor, Leighton Ford, over the last 30 years. When I was with him last month, he shared this wonderful poem by Mary Oliver. It has served as a rich companion to my meditation on Jesus as He bravely launched His ministry and resisted the Evil One (Matt.3-4). Too many people never find their own voice and simply repeat the things they have heard for their entire lives. Too many of us don’t lead as a result. May God give us grace to be brave and let our voices be heard. Take some time and prayerfully read this lovely poem. Then go back and read Matthew 3:13-4:11 and consider. Read more.

The Mundane, Prayer and Leadership

I was driving to church the other day for a series of staff meetings and realized I was excited. There was nothing else I wanted to do! What had changed? For most of my 21 years as senior pastor of NLF, most of the time I went grudgingly, preferring to be home alone in prayer and study.  Something clicked spiritually a fourteen months ago: all of life is holy and to be lived in the presence of God. For example, managing, looking over job descriptions, discerning the best use of time, energy and money at NLF, planning, hiring, getting the right people in the right roles is sacred work, very sacred work – as sacred as my Daily Offices and Sabbath. God invited me to take responsibility and lead NLF. I am here. But I resisted this role for almost 20 years. I suspect this is related to bad models, poor teaching and faulty theology, but the bottom. Read more.