Vol 4:19 Mission and Leading Christ’s Community – Part 15: Leading New Wineskins

I recently picked up a book I have had on my shelf for a number of years and began reading it – They Call Us Dead Men: Reflections on Life and Conscience by Daniel Berrigan, S.J. In it, among numerous other things, he talks about the church and advocates for regaining a sense of church as youthful. He states, “Genuine youthfulness in the Church never canonizes human beings or their works. ...

Vol 4:18 Mission and Leading Christ’s Community – Part 14: Leading and Praying

Our church board includes as a regular practice the reading of a missional book together. This year we are reading Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns of Missional Faithfulness. This past week at our board meeting we talked about Pattern 6 – Dependence on the Holy Spirit – which is a chapter on the role of prayer in the life of a missional church. Prayer is not only a key aspect of discerning...

Vol 4:17 Mission and Leading Christ’s Community – Part 13: We are God’s Workmanship

In our community, we are hearing from different persons from within the community as they share on Scriptures which have been transformative in their lives. We are hearing the back stories of these Scriptures, how God has used them in shaping them as the people of God in their journeying with Christ, and we are hearing what God is saying to us today, right now, through these texts. We are...

Vol 4:16 Mission and Leading Christ’s Community – Part 12: Leading is Not Controlling

In the adult class of the community I serve as pastor we are exploring Jack Levinson’s book, Fresh Air: The Holy Spirit for an Inspired Life. In the chapter on Joel’s Dream, Levinson expresses something about the gift of leading: “A better leader, a greater leader, a preeminent leader, allows the spirit to authorize people who lie outside of his or her control. And those who lie outside a...

Vol 4:15 Mission and Leading Christ’s Community – Part 11: The Brokenness within God’s Mission

I do not know what to make of the brokenness within God’s leading, but it is there – and it provides a sobering perspective on how we go about leading. I am in the midst of reading through the Scriptures once again, this time through the lens of The Message. Today I was reading a section from Genesis which included Genesis 38, a break in the story of Joseph, to tell about Judah, his affair...