"Weak Season"

One aspect of life here at Briercrest that I've found to be rich is daily chapel. From Monday to Thursday we gather together as a school and spend time worshiping God and hearing from His Word. Today's message, from our chaplain Cal McFarlane, introduced the Season of Lent that begins today on Ash Wednesday.

As an illustration for Lent, Cal brought his pet Labrador on stage and showed how excited and preoccupied his dog was from concerning itself with its master. The dogs tail wagged hysterically while it quickly paced back and forth on the short leash it was given. Cal rightly observed that the dogs mannerisms often reflect the spastic pace of many of our Christian lives. We are in a constant state of preoccupation with the things we invest in and the reality is that often God is pushed aside or wedged into the middle of our engagements.

After getting a hold of his dog, Cal put a muzzle on the dogs snout whose mannerisms became suddenly different. Instead of its spastic energy it was calm, attentive and humble.

This is what the Season of Lent is intended to produce in us as we prepare for Easter Sunday. Since our culture and churches are becoming increasingly secularized, this discipline of Lent is a helpful means in which we can stop, sacrifice our time and passions, and consider the weight of our sins. This is a time where, just like the muzzled dog, we can shut up, confess our total inadequacy before God, strip ourselves of pretense of righteousness, of pride, perfection tendencies and remember how needy we are for Him.

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin" Psalm 51:1

This produces a quiet expectation and a sanctification of the Holy Spirit to purge the things that do not reflect the character of God and build us up and make us more into who we truly are, a creature made by God intended to respond to Him.

I hope you can take this season of Lent as an opportunity to be receptive and cooperative with the Holy Spirit. Let us be still and concern ourselves with the heart of God and repent of the things He exposes in our lives that aren't from Him.

It will be on Easter Sunday, as Cal shared, that we will truly be able to celebrate the resurrection of the Son of God who takes away the sins of the world.

"You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:16-17

An Evaluation of Pastoral Self-Leadership and Church Health in Church Plants

         In this article concerning pastoral self-leadership and church health in church plants, the author provides statistics of how most Protestant denomination memberships are declining due to the advancement of the ever-changing post-modern era in which we find ourselves. After claiming that the church has “lost touch with the communities they are trying to reach,” he asserts that churches must change in order to carry out the Great Commission effectively in the twenty-first century and beyond. One way this change needs to happen is the planting of new churches in which he believes will allow the Lord to do a “new thing” (Isa. 43:19). New church leaders are learning that the gospel is best preached through the medium of culture and so many churches are now moving into schools, civic auditoriums, movie theaters, hotels, funeral homes, and industrial warehouses. The author then speaks of the qualifications that distinguish a pastor from an effective church-planting pastor. A church planting pastor, he insists, demands much more of a person since it requires hard work, enduring loneliness, adaptation, self-initiative, self-motivation and a high level of faith. The idea of self-leadership, which is the leadership people exercise over themselves, is an ability he speaks of that is of highly important in becoming a church planting pastor. This psychological study has proved that those who can lead and influence themselves produce positive results in their ministry pursuits. Throughout the remainder of the article, the author dives in to what the ability of self-leadership entails and defends this method as not being just another example of the “unbiblical individualistic American spirit of every person for themselves” but ensures that self-leadership is in the context of community. This method is designed to enhance the empowering of leadership and passionate spirituality so that pastors can effectively lead healthy churches of the twenty-first century.

            I appreciated the psychological idea of self-leadership from this article and found it to be very helpful for involvement in Church ministry. I agree that much of the fruit our lives produce come from the way our minds are conditioned to think. I also agree with the author that the shift from investing into church health rather than church growth is very important. Beeson’s 8 church health characteristics of authentic community, empowering leadership, engaging worship, functional structures, intentional evangelism, mobilized laity, passionate spirituality and transforming discipleship should all mark our churches. These characteristics assume an active role in all aspects of church life rather than a narrow-minded pursuit of growth and numbers. While considering the idea of church planting, I began to be intrigued by the idea of starting a new community of faith and could understand how starting a church from the ground up might be an effective way to infuse new life and passion into what God intended for His church. The church does not need new structures and programs; the church needs a transformation and renewal of the way we think (Romans 12:2). This self-leadership model gives us practical steps to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). I firmly believe, as Christians, that we need to live a life of discipline. This discipline comes, not only from our daily commitments and devotions but a discipline of guiding our minds in the right way to think. We need the mind of Christ so that we can know what Jesus would do in the context of our culture. This assumes a deep relationship with God through the reading and meditation of His Word but also a radical dependence and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. This is why I don’t consider self-leadership to necessarily be a new idea but a scientific acknowledgement of what God has already set before us in His Word. May we, through the power and direction of the Holy Spirit, train our minds to think like Christ and therefore be the church God intends us to be in this era of history.