Today, some of the church staff and I watched a video of part of Willow Creek's (a big church in the Chicago area) 2007 Leadership Summit. The video was of a talk by John Ortberg of Menlo Park Pres (picture), and his take on what a leader's greatest fear is. While failure, humiliation, and loss of interest are definitely up there for most leaders, John says that our real fear should be that we would pursue "Shadow Missions" our whole life rather than our true calling from God. A lot of time Shadow Missions can be disguised in the likeness of our God-given gifts and passions, but they ever so slightly head off in the wrong direction and become about ourselves and our dreams rather than God's call on our lives. He used the story of Esther in the Bible to bring to life what he was talking about. Go read it and it will blow your mind...I couldn't do it justice. Look for the ways in which Esther is put into a position of power to fulfill a mission that God gives her. Look for the ways that God puts people in her life to continually remind her of what her true calling is. It got me thinking about what my personal "shadow missions" were and I can sum up a big one in a sentence: "Do I have something to say, or do I simply want to be heard?" I think a lot of the time I just want to be heard, and so I spend most of my time thinking about my personal image as a communicator and not whether I really have something God-given to say. I think I've been bombarded constantly on how to reach people more effectively with a message and haven't spent much time thinking about the message that I have to say. The truth is that the message can only come from God, cause I don't have much to say that is really worthwile...I wouldn't listen to me if I was you.
3 comments:
Something I have consistently seen as a pattern in life is that when something becomes a means to support yourself or a way to identify yourself or describe who you are... it becomes difficult to live in the joy of that thing or gift without taking credit or responsibility for it. That's one thing I find so sad about professional athletes. It always seems that the sport of their choice was their passion in life as a child and all growing up, untill all of a sudden, so much pressure was put on "succeeding" at it that they forgot how to love it, or even that they ever did infact love it to begin with... they lose the ability or even the desire to thrive in it. The more time I spend around "missions" and ministry, which thus far is not so long (so perhaps I am no the person to consult on the toic), the more I see the same pattern there. Why is it that we try so hard to assume responsibility for something that is not ours to answer for? One thing I do know for sure is that there is something so breathtaking, so... (maybe the Hebrews had a better word for it)... intoxicating about experiencing, first hand, someone's unabashed chase after, and adoration of the Lord... It's enough to make you fall in love. Maybe that, that kind of passion and undivided attention to Him, might be all we are really called to do (and if you really think about that, it is a full time job, and then some overtime tacked on!). I'm pretty sure He will take that and run with it.... but that is all just speculation (and a novel!) from someone who is anything but an expert on the matter!
Great thoughts...when you're pursuing the call of the Lord, then you're right in the middle of his will and he doesn't seem to make mistakes on who or why he calls someone to something. Thrive is the right word. It's the difference between thriving and doing.
are you supposed to leave comments on your own thoughts?
Post a Comment