leadership

As always, there are more quality blogs than I could possibly link. These are what I found via Twitter and there, it’s just a matter of timing- if I see a link while I’m on, I’ll click it. So my apologies if I missed you. I hope to catch you next time. Best (worst?) example was the effort of @ivoryjohn to raise money for Blood: Water Missions via retweets on Twitter. I retweeted the announcement that he was going to to this yesterday and then totally spaced it last night. I hope he does it again and I hope then I’m less flaky.

I also want to lead off with this post from Maurilio Amorim on the narcissism behind blogging and social media. It is a definite temptation, which is one of my main motivations for doing the “weekend readings“. I’m not in it for my glory, or even to hype these other bloggers, but for God’s glory. My hope and prayer is that through these links you might read something you might not have otherwise or catch a post you missed, and through the thoughts, convictions, and writings of others grow in your walk with Christ. Ok, on with the show…

A common theme I’ve found over the weeks is that of pastor burnout.

Perry Noble credits his wife and daughter for their encouragement and stresses that family remain a priority.
Ron Edmonson gives tips from his marathon training to avoid burnout by pacing yourself. (I personally love this, with my wife being a marathoner!)
Darryl at DashHouse posted on the value of sabbaticals to avoid burnout. A welcome suggestion and something I’m going to pursue for my own pastor.
Amy Sorrells challenges us to think like a Chilean miner when we get stuck. Good advice, pastor or not.
Johnathan Pearson reminds us that we need to continue to add fuel to our fire if we want to continue giving light and heat without burning out.

A couple of how-tos for pastors and lay leaders.

Steven Furtick reminds us not to be ashamed to call others higher, in fact it’s a compliment to do so.
Scott Couchenour offers his usual input to leaders and offers some additional links on don’t stop growing. (It helps to link to others who have lots of links ‘causse it saves me space! Yes, that’s cheating)
Nick Croft (aka Nick the Geek), guest posting at Make a Difference to One, encourages us to pray not only for our own children, but also for the children in our church and to not take children’s salvation for granted. (As a former youth leader, I really appreciate this post)

Another common theme is rethinking Church.

I’m participating in a discussion on Michael Spencer’s Mere Churchianity. You can follow that conversation over at Bend the Page (with links back here and to other bloggers in on the discussion). We’re only on Chapter 3, so there’s time to catch up and join us!
Shawn Smucker pulls no punches observing that Democracy is an easy crutch for our Church.
Jason Stasyszen (and many others- more links!) is reading and discussing The Hole in the Gospel and notes (pun not intended) that we’ve reduced the symphony of the Gospel down to a single note.
Alise writes a scathing letter to the American Church (TM) reminding us that we need to deal with the plank in our own eyes before we can remove the specks outside our church’s walls.
Brandon O’Brien writes on how we take a Pagan approach to our relationship with God: we do good, he owes us- and how wrong that is.
Bethany Keeley-Jonker wonders if you can have an online church. (a means others like Brand New Church and Lifechurch.tv are testing out)
Darrin Patrick challenges the Church that we have a “man problem” through a video promoting his new book.

Of course, part of Church is each of our own personal journeys.

Pastor Mike uses a personal anecdote to remind us that our story has a reliable witness.
Michael Perkins is living on the edge.
Sarah Salter reminds us that we need light (and to also be that light) to see all that God has in store for us.
Glynn Young wrote a powerful poem on the hurts and burdens so many carry.
Sarah Markley remembers that she is called to be uncomfortable.
Gary Taylor struggles reconciling his personal health with his theology. Please keep him in your prayers.

Relating back to the Blood: Water Missions fundraiser above is also a fundraiser of 30 bloggers in 30 days that is worth checking out and following (and obviously contributing towards).

Also relating back to the news of Glenn Coffee abandoning his NFL career for ministry (and other similar stories) is news of Ben Roethlisberger’s comeback on the field and in his faith. Compare then and now.

And after you get through all of this, don’t forget the purpose of this weekend. Rest and celebrate the Sabbath.

Phew, I opened this window a couple of hours ago and just now getting to this. Normally I suggest pouring a cup of coffee, sitting back, and reading what I read last week. By now, that pot of coffee is probably empty (at least mine is). But I still encourage you to sit, enjoy, and reflect on blogs that hit home for me this week.

If you read my blog much, you know one of my passions is the current condition of the Church in America. It’s easy to criticize and make blanket statements. A point I stress when it comes to the interplay between Christians and politics is that not every evangelical, fundamentalist, social-gospel, and so-forth, church is the same. The lesson holds true when it comes to the health, spiritual growth, and appropriate focus of the same diversity of churches. But as a comment in the above link noted, the discussion needs to take place. Right now, I’m approaching this from two angles reading both Mere Churchianity and Transformational Church, because I think both points of view are valid. You’ll see that reflected in these links. Having said that, on with the show…

Making the same point is made by Maurilio Amorim in response to the Brett McCracken’s article in the Wall Street Journal on ‘hipster Christianity’.
Meanwhile, Katdish wades into the debate by reminding us to remember ‘what’s so great about church.‘
But an article in USAToday warns us that we’re not reaching today’s teenagers. Regrettably fingers are pointed and no solutions are given. Maybe that’s worth a future post?
Dusty Rayburn asks us to reflect on how we praise and worship God (and not just on Sunday mornings!).
Rick Howerton encourages small group leaders to listen to 100% of the story, not the 90% we are usually told.
I think we would all agree that (generally) leadership is one of the issues. Perry Noble gives us signs of leaders we should never follow while Pastor Mike shows us what we should do when the Shepherd beats up the Sheep.
And as we have this debate, we need to watch our words. Jonathan Pearson reminds us that we never know who may be reading.
The discussion on Mere Churchianity carried on at Bend the Page, Faith Fiction and Friends, Poems and Prayers, and here. More to come next week!

But “as for me and my household…” The best thing we can do as disciples of Jesus is to surrender our lives fully to him, regardless of what’s happening in our churches, our leadership, or even our homes.

Jezamama writes an awesome post on what it takes to surrender all and be stripped bare.
Similarly, Michael Perkins writes out what he’s giving up for God.
Jim Foreman takes a lesson from David that we need to choose the hard things to see what lesson God has in store for us.
A real-world example of all the above is found in Glen Coffee who just walked away from a promising NFL career to follow wherever God is going to lead him.

It’s that time of year when our children head back to school. This is a time of transition and transformation and of rites of passage.

Billy Coffey writes about the lessons learned while doing back-to-school shopping.
Ron Edmondson shares what he wrote to his son as he saw him off to college.
Jay Cookingham shares about the passage of his son into manhood and the lessons to be learned from the older brothers who have gone on ahead of him.

The end of summer is also a bit of a letdown. Sometimes we need to take a deep breath and find ourselves again while continuing to push on.

Sarah Salter unwinds at the end of a busy summer while Duane Scott finds himself everywhere he looks (imagine that!)
Jim Foreman shares an inspiring story to encourage us to never rest on our laurels and to keep pressin’ ahead.

Lastly, not really fitting in any category but worth sharing, Chuck Salser tells us how Twitter has helped his faith.

Public Christianity

Weekend Reading, 4 September

Weekend Reading, 21 August