Book Review  – Questioning Evangelism  

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Login Leadership - Spiritual Leadership and Your Calendar

By Tom Hanover

I was working with a coach to press the priorities of my responsibilities into my calendar.  One of those four priorities is spiritual leadership.  How do I schedule spiritual leadership?

“Spiritual leadership” my coach replied, “is not something you do but the way you do it.”

“How do I put that in my schedule,” I thought?  I guess I still didn’t get it. 

But my coach was right.  Spiritual leadership is not a task or a project, but an identity from which my performance of leadership flows.   It is the manner in which I live out relationships and interact with other people.

Pastor Johnson is greeting people at the door.  Dear Mrs. Snobgrass shakes her hand and in a harsh tone complains, “We didn’t sing one song I know today.”  How should Pastor Johnson reply? 

A.     “Life is tough.  Get a helmet!”

B.     “Here’s a quarter.  Call somebody who cares!”

C.    “Better luck next week.”

D.    “I’m sorry.  How about if I call you each week to get your approval on the hymns?”

E.     “That’s unfortunate.  But what did you think of the lyrics?  Didn’t they speak to your heart?”

Personally, I like the first response.  But it is not the response of a spiritual leader.  Response “D” capitulates to the complaint and gives away spiritual leadership the pastor should perform.  The last response expresses concern and affirms relationship while pointing back to the whole issue of why we sign hymns in the beginning.  Is God speaking to me through this hymn, whether I know the song or not?  Worship is not entertainment.  Worship is encounter with the Living God.

Father Richard Rohr, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in New Mexico and author of several books, writes in his book, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer,   “Spirituality is about seeing.  It’s not about earning or achieving.  It’s about relationship rather than results or requirements.  Once you see, the rest follows.  You don’t need to push the river, because you are in it.  The life is lived within us, and we learn how to say yes to that life.” 

Rohr asserts that our task is to awaken from the trance of our culture.  We are sleepwalking through life.  Prayer awakens us to realize that our lives are not about us and not about our fulfillment, but about God’s Spirit flowing around and within us.  It is like a river.  And spiritual leadership need not manufacture the river or manipulate the river.  The river is already there.  Effective spiritual leadership learns to read the currents of the river and how to float in its energy. 

Awakened to the awareness of God’s spiritual flow around me and within me, I can respond to the Mrs. Snobgrasses of the world with a calm peace and gentle acceptance instead of defensiveness or anger.  Attentive to the realization of God’s yearnings for Mrs. Snobgrass and others, I can choose interactions that demonstrate grace and truth.  My responses can represent God’s presence for her.  That is spiritual leadership.

Do I schedule time for spiritual leadership?  Not in the same way I schedule other priorities.  To schedule time for spiritual leadership, I schedule time for awakening and attentiveness.  For me that means time alone and away.  It means time for pondering and praying.  It means time for reading and reflecting. 

I also work to schedule time for accountability.  Whether it is a support group, a spiritual director, a personal coach, or a share group; I need someone who will help me reflect on my life as a disciple.  I need people who love me, but are not impressed by me.   

Tom Hanover has served in a variety of pastoral leadership roles for over 30 years, the last four as a District Superintendent supervising the ministries of more than 100 pastors and churches in southwest Ohio. He has a BA (cum laude) from Taylor University, the MDiv and DMin degrees from United Theological Seminary in Dayton.

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Transforming YOUTH - Current Events and God’s Providence : The Tsunami, Missions, and Youth Ministry

By Shane W. Parker

In the January 10^th edition of Newsweek, journalist Kenneth Woodward penned an article entitled “Countless Souls Cry Out to God.”  The following words served as his opening:

The waters that rose up from the deep last week, drowning tens of thousands of people across a wide arc of South and Southeast Asia , were a cataclysm of Biblical proportions.  But most of those who survived to weep and mourn—like most of those who died—had never heard of Noah or the Biblical God of Wrath, figures so familiar to Christians and Jews; they were instead, Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists (37). 

It is quite interesting that a secular journalist’s first realization is that the vast majority of the individuals killed were without any knowledge of Biblical Truth.  Do your students have that perspective?  Do they immediately think of the need to serve the affected peoples of Sri Lanka , Thailand , and Indonesia by providing food, water, and financial support?  Do they think of the opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  To ensure that your students not only see the need to reach out to the unreached people in the current crisis, but also develop a lifelong desire to be involved in missions, you should concentrate on significant global events that will broaden their view of the world and God’s work for his glory among “every tribe, tongue, people, and nation” (Rev. 5:9d). 

Before December 26^th, the majority of youth ministers, let alone students involved in youth ministries, did not know where Sri Lanka and Phuket , Thailand were.  In South Asia alone there are an estimated 1.364 billion people who are lost.  One of the largest missions sending agencies in the world notes that in this region they have one missionary for every 8 million lost persons (Source: www.imb.org). 

Because of the attention these areas are now receiving on a daily basis, youth should be encouraged to pray for those affected, and pray for their own openness to go and minister in these regions.  Regardless of the theological conclusion which you may reach in looking at what has taken place, get your students to realize God’s providence in opening up opportunity for relief workers to love and share the truth of Christ with those who might have otherwise closed their borders, or at least their hearts and minds.

Along with a concerted effort to infuse a passion for the lost peoples of the world through your formal teaching and prayer, think in terms of connecting the need for global evangelization to your summer missions experience.  Focusing on the crucial nature of missions, while educating students on the wealth of destinations and opportunities for mission service, provides students and their believing parents with a biblical perspective of the place of global evangelization as priority over personal safety.  This does not, however, negate the need to be cautious and safeguard your students when involved in cross-cultural ministry, specifically if you are dealing with minors. 

The key is to wisely distinguish between perceived danger and actual threats.  Having been a speaker, staff member, and youth pastor involved in youth mission trips, I fear that we believe that preparing students for a one-week summer trip, with some missions work tacked on, is going to somehow lead to their unwavering commitment to take the message of Christ to the ends of the earth, no matter the cost.  When, in fact, it only teaches them that benign, superficial “missions” experiences, which focus solely upon making them feel good, equal fulfilling the Great Commission.  The pain and anguish that is represented on your students’ television screens each day, as the death toll rises above 160,000, pales in comparison with the innumerable souls that await a Christless eternity.  This is the reality of the need for missions, and this reality should serve as the fuel for your careful selection of mission experiences, as well as your motivation for preparedness. 

Perhaps one day the students you encourage to see the world as their place of ministry may end up on the shores of Sri Lanka , or a fishing community in Indonesia , and in a place where the Gospel was never heard before. Perhaps one day the nationals will thankfully declare that God brought them the truth through your student.  This hopeful future outcome begins by your present, deliberate effort to focus their attention on such events as the Tsunami and their urgent need to be a part of the effort to reach a lost and dying world. 

Shane Parker has served as a Student Minister in North and South Carolina, and as a student event and conference speaker in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Washington, Utah, Wyoming, and Southeast Asia. He holds a (BA) from Columbia International University (B.A.); and an (MA) from Columbia Seminary; and Southeastern Seminary (M.Div.). Shane and his wife, Lydia, reside in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is currently engaged in Ph.D. studies in the areas of Education and Student Ministry.   

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