One-liners from #li2012

I went back to school last week.  Or should I say - I got schooled. 

I'd heard of the Church of the Resurrection Leadership Institute, but it wasn't until this year that I really felt the need for a real continuing education experience.  I'm very grateful that my church gave me the resources to make the trek from Dallas to Leawood, KS.  My mind is still reeling in mighty ways from the week, and I've found myself regurgitating random tidbits into conversations.  I've already posted once on the week, but I thought here I'd just share some of my favorite quotes from the institute.  The institute is broken up by workshops, general sessions, and a keynote session.  It was a wicked lot of info.

My apologies to Revs. Hamilton and Acevedo if I didn't write down your stuff exactly right, but you both talk pretty fast. 


"Leadership starts with a radical commitment to Jesus Christ."  Rev. Adam Hamilton

On how they plan at Resurrection ... "We need to think of everything we do from the perspective of fishing for people."  Rev. Hamilton

On evangelism and hospitality ... "Are you intentionally reaching out to people and then are you following up?"  Rev. Hamilton.

On criticism of leaders, reminding us of when Jesus' family and friends tried to throw him off of a cliff ... "Sometimes everything you said and did was good ... and still people won't like it ... Moses, Paul, and Jesus were all criticized, why do you think you won't be?"  Rev. Hamilton

On contemporary worship ... "We've got to get it into our heads that this is what's happening ... God chose this generation to bring is this new thing ... and its tough."  Lance Winkler, Workshop: The Future of Contemporary Worship

On intentional evangelism ..."Who are you inviting?" Rev. Scott Chrostek, Workshop: Creating a Culture of Invitation

"If Jesus needed to step away and pray, how much do we need to?" - Rev. Hamilton

"If you're supposed to make disciples, you should probably know what one looks like."  Rev. Hamilton

"Leading a church is dangerous work."  Rev. Jorge Acevedo, Lead Pastor, Grace Church in Southwest Florida, Keynote Session

On who Grace Church seeks, their prayer ... "Lord, can you send the people to us that nobody else wants and no one else sees."  Rev. Acevedo

"Vital congregations create an incubator for the Holy Spirit to work on people."  Rev. Acevedo

"Exegete the community."  Rev. Acevedo

On preaching your story ... "Are you telling your story for God's glory, or yours?"  Rev. Acevedo

"Have you created a safe place for dangerous truth?"  Jim Lucas, Workshop:  Ten Timeless Prinicples for Next Generation Leadership

"It's never the wrong time to do the right thing."  Jim Lucas

"Jesus has friends in low places."  Rev. Hamilton

On loving your neighbors ... "Who are the lepers in your community?  Ask yourself:  what will happen to me if I help?  Or [more importantly] what will happen to them if I don't do anything?"  Rev. Hamilton

On being indispensable in your community ... "Do non religious people see you as important in the community by the work that you do?"  Rev. Hamilton

"If we have this many people here, we ought to be able to change the world."  Rev. Hamilton


There's so much more.  Just the tip of the iceberg here.  But I got a couple of little (maybe big) ideas to implement and share.  I feel energized.

#li2012 Benediction

As I write this out my wife and I are sitting in the Southwest Terminal of the KCI airport, decompressing from a long but wonderful continuing ed experience at the Church of the Resurrection Leadership Institute.

While there will be much to break down in future posts, I thought it would be great today just to leave you with the simple benediction that Rev. Adam Hamilton closed worship with at the final session.  There will be more to come, but for now, here's this:

Lord, I offer my life to you.
Help me to walk in your way.
Make me the person you want me to be.
Lead me in your path that I might lead your people.
In your name, Amen.

The Big Announcement

I haven't been able to write a whole lot lately, mostly because I've been waiting to write this post.  I stress authenticity in ministry, and it's hard to be authentic when you're keeping something be to yourself.

This one has been a long time coming, but with joy I finally get to announce that I've begun the candidacy process to become an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church.  God has really been working on me over the last several years.  For a while, I genuinely thought that my call was towards being a Deacon and pursuing excellence in worship ministry.  But for a while now my focus has been moving away from a worship focus to a truer liturgy focus - really working with people and meeting them where they are in life.

To that end, I've chosen (requested, really) to focus on new church ministries.  I realize with all of my heart that the UMC's focus can't be solely on new church starts, that vital ministry needs to be cultivated and maintained in our established churches.  I do, however, feel a call towards the new frontiers in ministries, in communities that are brand new themselves and in communities that have been left behind by the church over time.

I feel blessed to have had the experience in so many ministry situations, and having a wife who has been active in many different ministry scenarios over her time in ministry.  All this has helped to form the call in me towards a new venture and opened my heart to seek the Lord's purpose for my life in ministry for myself and my family.

It was my wife who first pointed out something different in me.  I've been writing an awful lot about hospitality, how we welcome our guests, how worship is supposed to create encounters with the divine, my struggles with broken systems.  We were on a walk when she called me out - "Are you sure you're not supposed to be a pastor?"  It wasn't two weeks later that my father asked me the very same question.  I can't avoid the question, or now, the call.

I'm thankful that my ministry and seminary experience gets me pretty far down the candidacy road, but I do know at some point I'm going back to school!  For now, I'm in holy conversation and prayer with pastors, mentors, and wonderful cabinet members to help discern the way forward for my family.  There's no true time table yet, but I couldn't be more excited!

To God be the glory!

A Prayer for Guidance

As we seek this day to be more of Jesus and less of ourselves, I find this Korean prayer, #366 in the UMH, to be something I need to pray:

O God,
   just as we look into a mirror to see any soiled spots on our face,
      so let us look to you
         in order to understand the things that we have done amiss.
   We are like a reed shaken in the wind;
      we are inexpressibly weak.
   Leave us not to ourselves,
      but dwell in our hearts and guide our thoughts and actions.  Amen.

A Prayer of Saint Patrick

Every once in a while, in true liturgy nerd fashion, I like to thumb through my United Methodist Book of Worship and search for prayers.  Sometimes it's part of my work, sometimes it's just because I need a few words for myself.

As we get ready to worship the Lord this weekend, I invite you to pray this prayer I found in this week's studies:

Christ be with us, Christ before us, Christ beside us,
Christ in us, Christ beneath us, Christ above us,
Christ on our right, Christ on our left,
Christ where we lie, Christ where we sit, Christ where we arise,
Christ in every heart of every one who thinks of us,
Christ in every eye that sees us,
Christ in every ear that hears us.
    Salvation is of the Lord,
    Salvation is of the Christ,
May your salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.*

As we learn how to put on Christ in worship, may we put on Christ for the whole world around us.  Amen.


*Attributed to Saint Patrick, Ireland, 5th Century, UMBOW #529

A Prayer for the Church

Let us pray for Christ's Worshipping Body - the Church:

Most merciful Father,
  send your heavenly blessing upon this your Church,
  that all its members may dwell together in unity and love.
Keep far from us all self-will and discord.
Endue your pastors with righteousness,
  and enable them faithful to fulfill their ministry,
  to bring again the outcasts, and to seek the lost.
And grant to us so to receive their ministrations,
  and to use your means of grace,
  that in all our words and deeds
    we may seek your glory and the advancement of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.*

*From the Book of Common Prayer

Are You Ready?

As we prepare for Sabbath worship, may we tonight pray with John the Baptist, the one for whom Isaiah prophesied, and who came to be the Prophet of the Most High God.  He who was the voice in the wilderness, crying out:

“Prepare the way for the Lord;
        make his paths straight.
Every valley will be filled,
    and every mountain and hill will be leveled.
The crooked will be made straight
    and the rough places made smooth.
All humanity will see God’s salvation.”*

As it was in John's time, it still is in ours: it is up to us to make the way ready for the Lord.  John called to the people of the time, and to us to repent, and make ourselves ready to meet the Lord.

Almighty and Merciful Lord,

On this day, we pray for readiness.  Readiness to hear the Your word preached and ready to sing Your songs. 

That we may then be ready to go out into the world and make the paths straight and the way plain for You, the Lord of Lords, to move into the lives of our loved ones and neighbors.

Amen.