A couple of weeks ago our Thursday morning Bible study was in 1 Timothy 1. We kind of got off on a rabbit trail, but it was a good one… 1 Timothy 1:9 tells us that that we are saved according to, on the basis of, God’s purpose. That raised a question what was the purpose? Was it just our salvation or was there something else involved?
Ephesians 2:10 may suggest an answer. Coupled with Psalm 139:1 – 6, 13 – 16, we get a picture of the Lord intimately involved in our intentional creation for a specific purpose. As we kicked that around the breakfast table, we began to ask how we find that purpose and how the reality of that intimate, intentional creation should impact our lives and ministry as believers.
We further began to talk about how leaders in the church are chosen and the role of the pastoral staff and how that is informed by God’s purpose and plan.
From there we noted that there is a fairly high instance of burnout for leaders and pastors in the Church. We wondered if it was connected to people working outside of their purpose. Another way of putting that is people taking on jobs they are asked to do without regard for the intentional way that the most intelligent being in the universe intentionally designed them. That led to the reality that the Church, like most institutions subscribes to the 80/20 rule…
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that one is not going to figure out God’s purpose for their life if they are not abiding in Christ, John 15:1 – 16. In that passage the word “abide” occurs 11 times. It is central to the argument. One problem may be that churches are not really very good at telling people how to abide. They are good at telling them to do so, not so much about how…
We kind of scraped the universe in that discussion. But it was good. I caused a lot of brain cells to activate in ways they may not have in the past.
We further began to talk about how leaders in the church are chosen and the role of the pastoral staff and how that is informed by God’s purpose and plan.
From there we noted that there is a fairly high instance of burnout for leaders and pastors in the Church. We wondered if it was connected to people working outside of their purpose. Another way of putting that is people taking on jobs they are asked to do without regard for the intentional way that the most intelligent being in the universe intentionally designed them. That led to the reality that the Church, like most institutions subscribes to the 80/20 rule…
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that one is not going to figure out God’s purpose for their life if they are not abiding in Christ, John 15:1 – 16. In that passage the word “abide” occurs 11 times. It is central to the argument. One problem may be that churches are not really very good at telling people how to abide. They are good at telling them to do so, not so much about how…
We kind of scraped the universe in that discussion. But it was good. I caused a lot of brain cells to activate in ways they may not have in the past.
Hi Mike,
ReplyDeleteWhen you started down this road, you asked me what I thought. I absolutely love your work! You have always been a very special person to many, especially to me. Your writings, lessons and insights into what is going on in the world today and how we bridge/connect/see it all through Our Lord's eyes and teachings is very effective...like a GPS in our walk! I hope that makes sense to you, sure works for me! Thank you very much Michael
Jeff Davis