Reflection Roundup: Embody the Message
Each week we gather news stories, notable pieces, and other important items for Christian leaders today. As always, listening broadly draws together differing perspectives from which we can learn but may not concur. Here are 10 things worth sharing this week.
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Embody the unchanging story, the gospel that is truer than true, where you are “you-er than you,” rather than living in response to an old memory tape.
1. For Ministry Matters, Steve Harper writes “There Are No Small Churches,” reminding us all that churches are made of people, folks whose spiritual needs are shared in common. There truly are more small churches than mega-churches in the United States, which makes sense when we stop and think about it. Paul’s ministry attests to the faith of just one person in Acts 27 as he admonishes a ship of hundreds. “Have courage. I trust God” (v. 25). “Where two or three are gathered,” the Lord is present (Mt. 18:20). Your ministry to God, heartening these two or three, can produce miraculous results.
2. Our strengths inform our weaknesses and, in terms of churches, resilience can also equal “resistant to change.” Rebekah Simon-Peter writes “Three Big Skills Every Small-Church Pastor Needs” with the kind of practical wisdom none of us can do without. She reminds us of important aspects of Jesus’s own ministry. He constantly brought others alongside, sharing, equipping, and being with all the people. Jesus shared his heart for the kingdom of God in spaces where the people within earshot had their own interests: in the streets, around tables, in the fields. In a pandemic season where change is inevitable, Simon-Peter encourages us to reposition ourselves in the midst of people, our greatest asset, and to “demonstrate love and leadership in tangible ways.” Resilient ministers might try a different kind of sermon – one without words.
3. Calvin Cockrell, social media specialist for the Christian Chronicle, echoes “What God will do … will blow your mind” in his “five takeaways from a panel discussion on the future of Churches of Christ.” If you’ve not found the time to listen to the “post-pandemic church” panel discussion at the Harding Bible Lectures (linked in last week’s Reflection Roundup), read through this treasure trove Cockrell has mined. Five panelists put flesh on similar ideas to those mentioned in the above two pieces from Ministry Matters. We’re all beginning to work together here and realize that, in some ways, the pandemic pressing us out of our comfortable spaces and places is a blessing.
4. How might those nearby receive the embodiment of possibility for themselves? Writing for the Christian Century, Stephanie Paulsell shares “The sounds of my mother’s typewriter,” a reflection on the memory of a daily pattern and what it nurtured inside of her. “Making time to encounter ourselves alone and to honor our creation in the image of God by trying ourselves to be creative was as much a part of human life as breakfast, a capacity that belongs to us all.”
5. Sports director Carrie Johnston shares “Purity and modesty culture and its destructive impact on the women’s psyche” in ACU’s student newspaper, The Optimist. Johnston raises our attention to the messages we were told as children regarding what is and is not appropriate for Christian girls (and boys) to wear or do, and the confusing impact they continue to have. As we consider ways in which we model embodied possibility for the young, it’s vital to celebrate the ways in which God created each of us.
6. The Systems Thinker offers several “Pocket Guides” to different systems-related topics. The “Pocket Guide to Servant Leadership” by Ann McGee-Cooper and Gary Looper is particularly compelling for ministry leaders. Literally pocket-sized as a printed, foldable cutout, the guide contrasts traditional leadership tendencies with servant-focused leadership on 13 key points, and includes six action items toward becoming a servant leader and six more on building shared vision.
7. Amanda Box writes “Don’t Ask Questions That Aren’t Questions,” a convicting discipleship piece, for Mosaic. As one who exercises the spiritual discipline of not asking questions on a cycle of regularity, I can spot an inhospitable one coming. Box unpacks the motivation of the heart in this piece, offering the reader an opportunity to examine habits and choose those that strengthen relationships with God and with other people.
8. There is a better way to utilize questions! Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, Eric Vogt, and Nancy Margulies rescue us from ourselves in their “Strategic Questions: Engaging People’s Best Thinking” for the Systems Thinker. With plenty of gold nuggets meant to vitalize systems thinking, these authors steer away from “quick fixes” and binary thinking. They suggest appreciative inquiry as well as “reflective conversations” that slow the pace of decision-making and generate more creative questions. Rather than focusing on what’s not working, readers are encouraged to shift their vision toward what is working and “how to leverage it. Stakeholders in any system already have within them the wisdom and creativity to confront even the most difficult challenges.”
9. By no means are physical responses, tingles or tears, litmus tests for the presence of God in a moment. We experience God’s nearness in multiple ways. Some us feel the presence of the Spirit deeply in our emotions, while others experience a visceral response. For those who experience goosebumps, Austin Kleon writes “A tingle in the scalp,” in which others testify to the same. Though writing about secular experiences, the spiritual connection is evident. “Trusting this kind of visceral reaction means that you are willing to let life [God] ‘come and get you.’ It means who you are is defined from the inside, not the outside.”
10. Sometimes other living creatures (besides people) embody God’s message. The Fishers are getting a new dog this week, evidencing the growing number of dogs mentioned in my bio. All God’s creatures’ actions speak louder than words; God packs great wisdom into our pets. Enjoy “The Present,” maybe even with a dog close by, and watch how they respond. First shared here.
