Loving, Learning, and Leading

Last week, I was invited to participate in a pastoral prayer movement, that was to initiate a ministry planting movement within the city of Rochester.  The other participants had been gathering for the past several months and were seeking others to develop a multi-congregational vision for the city of Rochester.  This is exciting stuff, as Jesus himself stated that world should know a genuine movement of his by its unity (John 17). I met with the pastor who was representing this burgeoning prayer movement and we got along very well.  We talked about ministry experiences, divine calling, and the missionary movements, both domestically and internationally.  It was a great conversation. But.... The wheels began to fall off when we spoke of the role of women in ministry.  He went on to explain to me that the participants of this prayer initiative were strong advocates of male-only leadership.  When I mentioned that the Free Methodist Church, as well ...

Recently, I have engaged with a number of people who are struggling in their spiritual lives.  Some are overwhelmed by the problems of life, some are beset with habitual sins, and other feel alientated from the presence of God.  As I have been praying with and for many, I believe that that there is a simple, biblical cure that is so simple, that most feel that it can not be effective. The cure is community.  God specifically places his people in community for blessing, bonding, and believing.  We were never meant to walk our spiritual journey alone, but need others, who are filled with the Holy Spirit, to ground us and help us focus on the important, over against the urgent.  We need others to help keep us accountable for those sins that would chain us and keep us from experiencing the abundant life that Jesus promised to his followers.  We need to see that the presence of God is not always a mystical experience within the ecstacy of worship, but resides ...