Loving, Learning, and Leading

"Each success on the Field on a Saturday is the result of 1000 unseen mornings"  Ken Mannie, Strength Coach, Michigan State University Good football coaches recognize that in order to perform well in game conditions, you need more than desire, determination, and talent.  Performance in the game is the result of hard work and discipline that comes from 1000s of hours on practice fields, weight rooms, and classrooms that is largely unseen by the thousands who cheer them on. What an incredible metaphor for our own success.  It is the small decisions, relentlessly focused on the right things, that forms our responses in the moments of true opportunity.  Just as an athlete must condition his body and mind to achieve his or her desired goal, so we must be intentional about developing our skills and our character for success. About once a month, I will meet a young man in my medical office who tells me he desires to play professional sports.  Last month,  16 yr old Derek (na

I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,  so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. I Corinthians 2:3-5 There is a tendency on the part of American Christianity to intellectualize faith.  There is a focus on the mental aspects of understanding the gospel, often to the exclusion of experiencing or demonstrating the gospel.  This is not to say that authentic Christianity is anti-intellectual, because a review of early Christianity will reveal some of the greatest and deepest intellectual minds the world has ever seen.  However, in our immediate context, there is typically an unbalanced approach, where the gospel is to be understood, but not necessarily experienced. Modern evangelism techniques often focus on explaining the theological principles of the gospel than proclaiming the reality of the gospel.  Take

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are,  so that no one may boast before him.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." I Corinthians 1:27-31 I often joke with the congregation that I have the privilege of leading ( New Hope Free Methodist Church in Rochester, NY), that in nearly all the important questions of faith, the answer is almost always Jesus.  Jesus is simultaneously the mode, the manner, the message, and the model of God's purposes in creation.  He is central to God's action from beginning (Colossians 1:15-20) to the end (Revelation 22:12-16).  You can not escape this funda

the need to leave a legacy is our spiritual need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, personal congruence, and contribution” Stephen R. Covey I live on the "backside of life" officially.  Unless I live to be 95 yrs old, I have more years in the past than life ahead of me.  Thats not a sad thing or even a bad thing; its simply the reality of life.  In the front side of life, we spend time identifying who we are and building foundations of life.  We train for careers, find significant others, build families, and strive for a quality of life where we can experience peace and some level of success. There comes a time, when we are able to see the finitude of life, and not fear, but simply appreciate it.  It is in these moments, when we like Moses who asks God to "teach us to number our days" (Psalm 90:12).  We begin to acknowledge the privilege, the beauty, and the wonder of life, and we do not want to continue moving so quickly in life, that we miss its awesome s