Costly Devotion

Guest writer

Anna Blanc

Worship leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas

City

I have a confession: I am terribly distracted while worship leading when I notice older saints connecting with the Lord in the room.  It is not as though I can avert my eyes and move on; I am taken with the sight.  Tears traveling down wrinkled faces, weathered hands lifted toward Heaven.  There is something awe-inspiring in the testimony of a man or woman having lived through years, decades, of turmoil, pleasure, the mundane, pressure and sorrow, and her confession through it all, openly displayed through her worship, is that He is worth it.

I am grateful that the Lord values and enjoys even the first declarations of love from the youngest believer.  To Him, a yes is a yes, and He receives it as His treasure.  Even still, there is a sweetness that comes when there is a cost to love.  When things are not going well; when there is loss at stake.  When the believer must turn his back upon all other pleasures, treasures, desires, face the God of whom he actually knows very little, and say in truth, “I choose You”.  When the One who holds in His hand our very breath allows difficulty, pain, and loss in our lives, the choice to love Him is often made in anguish and tears.  And yet in that pain-riddled declaration of love, there is a weightiness that plumb lines inexplicable joy into the depths of the spirit of the one who proclaims it.  In finally surrendering our self-perceived rights to comfort, ease and well-being, we tear down the idol that has kept us from walking in the way of true joy and peace.

God allows pain in this life.  We can hide from this reality, but in doing so we adopt a microscopic view of the great I Am, declaring Him impotent and unable.  God allows loss.  Look at Paul.  Look at Job.  Look at Jesus.  But if God is able, all-knowing, and all-powerful, then the wrestle of the human heart in the midst of trial becomes… why?  It is in the midst of this struggle, as the eyes of the believer are blinded to its answer on this side of time that the painful depths of love are plummeted.  Yes, it’s a real fight of the heart; God is a big God with big shoulders, and He can take all the overflowing, confused emotions we can dish out.  But eventually we lean, more like crumple, into Sovereignty.  Denying offence and refusing self-pity, it is enough that God knows, and that He can be trusted.

The struggle of the heart through the testing of sorrow is in sustaining a tender spirit.  How we care for the deep wound of the heart caused by loss is pertinent to how our spirits emerge from a season of pain.  Through neglect and denial, our hearts can harden, becoming dull and unfeeling, not unlike a scar on the body.  But as we wrestle for righteousness and simple faith, surrendering our own understanding in light of His unchanging kindness, we allow the tearing in our heart to become a riverbed for the Holy Spirit.  He gains access to new depths in our devotion to Him, and we gain a fresh infilling of His peace and presence.

A young girl in my twenties, how much do I really know about living through pain and suffering?  Not much.  But I see the woman in her eighties on row twelve, fully engaged in loving Jesus, declaring, “Great is Thy faithfulness”.  And I know that I want to join her, day after day, year after year, till my confession carries the weight and beauty of a love proven by time.

The Passion Factor

One of the ways we can tell if we are in our lane and living out God’s best for our lives is the level of passion we have for what God has called us to do. Show me a passionate Christ follower and chances are they are playing to their strengths, highly motivated, and fully engaged. 

Certainly there are seasons for all of us when passion is diminished because of difficult circumstances in our life or work - the tough times we just need to be faithful. But, if those times don't give rise to a renewed sense of direction, energy and passion we may have a more systemic issue to deal with.

Lack of passion and energy around what we do – or in staff members is a warning signal that boredom has set in, we or they are not playing to strengths or there is something in the way of motivation and passion. Getting to the core of our lack of passion is critical if we are going to maximize our gifting, impact and the role God has given us.

Here are some questions to ask when our passion diminishes:

• Am I in the right job or the right role, playing to the gifts God has given?

• Am I in the right job but need to spend more time in my areas of strengths which fill me rather than in areas that drain me?

• Do I have a supervisor who disempowers and micromanages and therefore demotivates me?

• Am I working on a dysfunctional team that is impacting my passion?

• Does my lack of passion flow from working for an organization that itself does not have clarity and passion?

• Am I so busy and distracted that I do not have time for refreshment and recharging?

• Am I bored through a lack of challenge in my present role?

Passionate people are happy, motivated and effective. When we start to lose our passion, it is time to ask ourselves some questions and clarify where the loss of passion comes from. God designed us to make a specific difference in His kingdom – something we can be highly motivated and passionate about (Ephesians 2:10). Take a moment and ask yourself what level your passion is at.

A test of character

How we leave our ministries when our time is up is a test of our character and emotional intelligence. One of the greatest gifts my predecessor gave to me was his absolute full support, commitment to pray for me every day and never to criticize my leadership – even though he knew that I would bring significant change – building on the gains he had made during his tenure. Because of his wholehearted support I felt free to ask Ben to serve as a Global Ambassador for the mission after his retirement. Ben demonstrated to me how to leave and I fully intend to follow the wonderful example he gave me.

Let’s be honest! What Ben did in his transition of leadership is hard. We pour ourselves into our role, we do our very best and then one day our time is up and we must humbly give to another something that is very precious, knowing that some things will now be different. It is far easier to be impressed with our own moves and success than the decisions and success of another.

Pastoral transitions are no different. We leave behind a web of long relationships and it is easy to subtly undermine our successor when we hear complaints from friends that things are not like they used to be – as they never will be. When we get pulled in after we leave, when we subtly criticize or even sympathize with our former parishioners we are guilty of sowing discord and division and we hurt the Bride. Humble and gracious leaders never hurt the Bride, or undermine their successor. Those who do, do so out of their own pride and insecurities.

Perhaps the most difficult transition and test of our character is when we leave because we are asked to leave. No matter how it happens, that hurts and our lower nature wants to bite back and hurt those who have hurt us. It is easy to do, it is commonly done and again it hurts the Bride. Sometimes it is to defend ourselves or our reputation. Yet, it never works to defend our own reputation. God can do that but we cannot as David says so well in Psalms 37 and 73. Furthermore, things do become clear in time. God has a way of redeeming even those things that are painful in the moment for His glory.

As a leader I have had on occasion needed to move people off of my staff. Sometimes, just because it was no longer a good fit as the nature of the organization changed. I have watched staff respond with great dignity, trusting God to go before them.  I have watched others leave in great anger and I have watched some act with dignity in public and sow discord behind the scenes. Each response is an indication of the true character of the staff member. When we intentionally hurt the ministry we worked for, we are hurting the ministry of Christ. 

My model is my predecessor Ben. He taught me how to both leave well and to support the one who takes up the baton when I am gone. I want to be their greatest cheerleader when that time comes.

Soft Hearts, Thick Skin

Healthy leaders develop a well regulated balance between nurturing a soft heart while maintaining a thick skin. Leadership is both a wonderful privilege and at times deeply painful. And it always requires us to have open minds.

Leadership is not for the easily discouraged, quickly offended or easily wounded. After all, one cannot lead for any length of time without being misinterpreted, unappreciated or even maligned. If it happened to Paul (Philippians 1, 1 Corinthians) it will certainly happen to us. To survive, it is absolutely necessary to develop a thick skin that does not take issues personally, keeps life and people in perspective and even maintains a sense of humor about otherwise crazy circumstances. The ability to laugh at ourselves is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves.

While a thick skin is necessary it can also insulate us from the necessary sensitivity to people and situations that make it possible for us to lead well. We risk the temptation of becoming hard in our desire to protect ourselves from the inevitable pains that leadership inflicts – losing our sensitivity to people and becoming immune to the counsel of others. It can cause us too to quickly dismiss counsel we did not seek, especially when it is delivered poorly – which is where the pain often comes from.

I am always impressed with the Apostle Paul's gracious love and sensitivity toward people, even when they had significantly disappointed him. This does not mean he could not be hard on individuals who needed to wake up and smell the coffee but he maintained a soft heart nonetheless.

Healthy leaders understand the need for both a thick skin and a soft heart and they nurture both. Thick skin helps us keep perspective and not take things personally – even when others make it personal and even seek to inflict pain. Soft hearts keep our minds open to the possibility that even though the delivery of criticism may be faulty, there may still be truth to the message that we need to consider. And, a soft heart allows us to stay connected even with those we may disagree with - if they are willing to reciprocate.

Soft hearts are maintained by an ongoing analysis of our own motives, attitudes toward others, compassion toward even people who hurt us and being willing to consider criticism while not taking it personally. When you get it down perfect, send me the recipe.  

Church boards and church culture

I do not believe that most church boards understand the direct correlation between the health of their relationships and practices as a board and the health of relationships and practices within the congregation. Generally speaking, there is an almost one to one correlation between how a board does relationships and behaves and what happens in the congregation itself. To put it directly: The congregation takes its cues as to what is acceptable behavior from its leadership.

I once worked with a board that was not unified over an important decision – even though the board had made a decision. Because this board did not have a covenant of behavior, several board members who didn't agree with the decision continued to bring their issues up at the board level. And, they shared their views outside the board meeting so the lack of unity on the board spilled over to a lack of unity as a congregation – a situation that could caused the congregation great pain in days that followed.

Here are some issues for boards to consider that directly impact the congregation as a whole.

• Do we encourage candid discussion in board meetings but once a decision is made all support that decision in all settings?

• Do we keep board discussions confidential?

• Do we resolve personal differences quickly and biblically? 
• Do we have a covenant of how we work and relate to one another and deal with board members who violate the terms of that board covenant?

• Are we able to set personal agenda’s aside for the health of the church and are we able to set our pride aside and support the decision of the group even when it is not the one we would have made?

• Do we have a culture of spiritual dependence in our deliberations?

Boards must understand that their commitments and behaviors will be mirrored in the congregation as a whole. To the extent that they are healthy they are likely to have a healthy congregation – or the opposite if unhealthy. The health of your church is directly related to the health of your board.

If you serve on an unhealthy church board I would encourage you to speak up and name the elephant in the room. Don't simply accept poor board behavior because in doing so you are hurting the very church that you are called to lead. There is too much silence in too many church boards over too much problematic behavior that directly impacts the spiritual health of the congregation.

Leaders as culture creators

Every organization has a culture that is unique to it. That culture is a combination of the ethos its leaders bring, past history (and leadership), as well as the spoken and unspoken values of its constituency. When we label a congregations with terms like legalistic, grace-filled, warm, loving, hard to break in or conflict adverse, what we are describing is its culture.

In most cases, organizations will have a combination of culture to celebrate and pieces of their culture that are problematic. For instance, a congregation may be very loving and caring and at the same time be unable to resolve conflict well. The former is healthy culture, the latter is unhealthy.

One of the key roles that leaders play is that of being “culture creators.” Leaders don’t simply accept the current culture as what should be. Rather they think deeply about what parts of the culture of their organization are healthy and worthy of celebration and those parts of the culture that are unhealthy and need to be addressed. For instance, when I took leadership in my current role I found huge loyalty to the organization among its staff – a positive and helpful part of our culture. On the other hand, we did not have an ethos that invited honest, robust dialogue over issues – a weakness in our culture. We have therefore worked hard to create a culture where such dialogue is always encouraged as long as it is not a personal attack or contain a hidden agenda.

Leadership teams, whether church boards, staff or other senior teams would do well to white board the cultural traits of their organization and then divide the list into two parts, “healthy cultural traits” and “unhealthy cultural traits.” Then create a third column “preferred culture” and describe what you would really like to see. Then start working together to create that culture by taking specific steps that will start to reinforce the cultural traits you desire.

Often this will mean that leaders must change their own behaviors which contribute to both healthy and unhealthy culture. Defensive leaders, for instance, cannot create an open environment where healthy dialogue is the norm without finding ways to lower their defensive reactions which create barriers to robust dialogue. Leaders who don’t deliver on their promises are unlikely to create a results driven environment. Instead they send a message that execution does not really matter.

Good leaders don’t ignore the culture question. They are always watching and thinking about the organization’s culture, both the healthy and problematic. And, they are intentional in celebrating and reinforcing the healthy and modifying and dealing with the problematic. Changing your culture is not easy but it is critical for those organizations that desire to be all that they can be. The most powerful cultural clues to an organization are the commitments, attitudes and behaviors of their leaders. That fact alone ought to motivate us to think about culture – we create most of is for better or for worse.

It's in the instructions

I admit it. I don’t like to read instructions! I figure that if it isn’t intuitive enough to figure out without instructions it’s not well designed. It usually works, although never for television remotes I have discovered. For those, even the instructions don’t help!

Another place it does not work is in negotiating life without God’s instructions – Scripture. One of the greatest favors we can do to our congregations – or friends is to encourage people to simply read the Bible on a regular basis. I know congregations who actually do this together to encourage one another to develop the habit of being in the word regularly. Whenever people read His word, God meets them there. So simple, so powerful!

In the Middle Ages, the Bible was inaccessible to most people. Illiteracy was high, and the Scriptures, where they existed were usually in Latin. People were at the mercy of what the priests told them about the word. Ironically, with all our translations today, the Bible is accessible to most of us but is simply neglected by many – thinking that they can negotiate life through second hand knowledge – what they pick up at church services or in their small group.  

Spiritual transformation is on the minds of many of us today. Foundational to all such transformation is a personal knowledge of God’s word to us. First hand, not second hand! One of the greatest favors we can do to the people of our congregations is to find creative ways to get them into Scripture. So simple but so basic.

Pray for God's people in Egypt

The world is watching with fascination the turmoil in Egypt. As believers we need to be praying for our fellow believers in Egypt who will be impacted by whatever outcome there is. Many do not realize that there is a vibrant evangelical community in Egypt that works closely together for the evangelization of the nation. While the ministry context there is difficult – especially in evangelism of Muslims, the church exists legally and has enjoyed protections that are often absent in the Middle East.

Many Christians (evangelicals, Catholic and Coptic) fear that instability in the nation could give the Muslim Brotherhood the opportunity to seize power and move the nation toward an Islamic state. If that were to happen, the Christian community in Egypt would come under severe pressure, lose the protections it has enjoyed and face significant persecution. In addition, instability gives radical Muslims the opportunity to persecute believers with impunity.

Here is something to think about. The west, particularly the United States, has made “democracy” one of its highest goals for nations around the world. The problem with that goal is that in many places in our world, the majority does not protect the rights of the minority. For instance, India is the world’s largest democracy but the rights of believers are often violated. Ironically, under Saddam, the church was protected in Iraq. Under the current “democracy” believers have been killed, churches closed and believers by the tens of thousands driven out of the country.

The Apostle Paul encouraged us to pray for peace and stability so that the church could flourish. We don’t know what will happen in Egypt but we do know that we have a responsibility to pray for our brothers and sisters there and for a context where the church can have an impact on society.

One of my Christian friends in Egypt wrote this yesterday. “All in all we are strengthened and encouraged by the Lord and we know that He is in control of it all and nothing passes His eyesight. We believe the future of Egypt is being shaped and molded for a nationwide movement for the spread of the Gospel.”

The events of history are not as random as they often appear. Paul indicated this in Acts 17:26-27 where he says that God uses all the events of our world to build His church and bring people to Himself. Let’s pray that His purposes for the church in Egypt will be fulfilled at this time in their history.

Who are you investing in?

Generous living is not only about money and possessions. Generous leaders are leaders who regularly mentor and develop other leaders – especially the next generation who will be taking our place.

I think back to my early years in the pastorate where I walked through some very deep waters. I wish that there had been an older leader who would have come alongside to provide encouragement and council. It was lonely! One of my great privileges is to come alongside some of the next generation of pastors and leaders as they walk through similar challenges. This is exactly what the Apostle Paul did with Timothy and Titus as Barnabas had done for him.

We often think of legacy as what we will accomplish in this life. I think that is only one piece of the equation. I can multiply my influence and legacy by faithfully building into others, sharing lessons learned, providing perspective and hopefully helping others not to pay the dumb tax I paid along the way. Our greatest impact will not usually be what we did but the people we invested in who carried the torch further and deeper than we ever could.

The catch is that this investment in others will usually never be publicly seen. It is a quiet, behind the scenes ministry but for those who are motivated by maximizing their influence for Christ it hugely multiplies that influence. Those looking for accolades won't find it here. Those who build into others out of a humble spirit will find much joy in equipping others. 

All of us can come alongside others to encourage and provide perspective and council. I really believe that once we hit fifty (yes I have done that) one of our highest priorities is to come alongside the next generation of leaders and help them become all they can be. It is no longer about us (actually never was) but about those who are coming behind us. It is an opportunity to generously give away what we have learned and to equip the next generation to take leadership and kingdom impact to a higher level than we did or could. It is one of the best investments we can ever make.