Lecture 6: Reception, Response and Balance

Course: Spiritual Life of the Leader

Lecture 6: Reception, Response and Balance

God wants us to be faithful to the kingdom and his son and fruitful according to his metrics. What’s the goal and what condition do our hearts need to be in to understand the goal? The Mary in us needs to rest at the feet of Jesus in order for the Martha in us to do her work. Think about when you experienced renewal and think about when you were blessed. When you have received God’s blessing, how has that resulted in demonstrating his hand of mercy to someone else? How are your activities balanced?

A. What Does it Mean to Sit at the Feet of Jesus and Work for his Kingdom?

Our course will consist of peeling layer after layer away and looking at the information at different angles, always asking the Lord to help with it and to seek his guidance and to know that he wants us to be faithful to his kingdom in following Jesus. I think he also wants us to be fruitful, not in the sense of massive metrics but understanding what are the metrics. What does the Lord want us to do in pastoral ministry and any kind of ministry for him? What is the goal and what is the condition of our hearts that need to be in place for us to understand his goals for our lives. I want us to continue in the idea that the Mary in us has to rest at the feet of Jesus, if the Martha in us is to do the work. So, it is a both/and; it isn’t just Martha’s world of activism and it isn’t just Mary’s world of just sitting at his feet. It is a both/and, but I am trusting that you can see the hierarchy in it. I am always a little hesitant when the church starts talking about hierarchy, personally having to live under such a hierarchy. Yet, our hierarchy is the Lord Jesus and his word for us. We are getting a real sense of how he wants us to order our world. I want you to see this and feel it. We are going to draw some of it out. So, what does it mean to both sit and to stand and to work in his kingdom?

B. Reception

I want you to enter into some self-reflection here, thinking about whether your last week was a normal week. If you can imagine how the Lord created you in who you deeply are, think about your greatest dignity and the fact that you were loved before the beginning of time. Think about how God created you in terms of reception and in terms of being revived. What did the Lord use to revive you? Try to be open and as specific as possible. What was it that brought a sense of renewal to you in that week? Then think about where you were blessed; where you experienced a little joy in your life. For me, it is refreshing in the sense of having clear air when in this kind of climate. I have been able to interact with other saints in Christ and all of this is a blessing. There can be ten thousand blessings in ten thousand ways throughout the day. We can think back to one of the great spiritual writers who would talk about the activity of God being everywhere and always present. But it is only open to the eyes of those who have the faith to see it. So, grace is always present. What did the Lord use to speak his grace into your life this last week? Think about ways in which you felt cared for and nurtured in the faith. One of the great joys I have now; even when I invest in students, I will have any number of those students who will grow into maturity in Christ and I will receive some of their ministry from them. Suddenly the person, who mentored is now being mentored and the one who taught and led is now be taught and led. I have had an instance like that take place. More specifically, how and where did God speak to you? Where did he bless you this last week? In regards to reception, what is it that the Lord used or what were the circumstances that the Lord brought about for you to have an influx of his love and grace in your life? It is important to look at things like this so that you can begin to see whether Mary is dominating or Martha is dominating or whether there is any Mary at all or whether Martha has it all her own way or in some cases, where there is too much of resting and reception without actually donating.

C. Response

So we have the receiving side of the human heart but we also have the responding or responsible side of the human heart. The Lord gives me the possibility of saying yes to his directives, those that come from the word and the possibility of implementing what he wants me to do. Often, this takes a great amount of courage, but the capacity is there for us to receive God’s good blessings and to be his hand of mercy for others to put into play what we receive. One instance in my own pastoral ministry, we found ourselves a little tight financially in the local church. I found myself very frustrated with the way in which the way funds were being raised in that local church. It was mainly through doing a pledge in the autumn and then counting on people living up to their pledge. At that point, I heard teaching from John Maxwell and then though that we should do away with this whole idea of a pledge and start pressing the people to tithe on their income and trust God. I took it to those who help me govern the church where some were really against it. I thought why somebody who was robbing God of his tithes and offerings, why should they be allowed to govern the church. But I heard the word to be courageous and go ahead and press the people of God that everything belonged to the Lord. In my setting, a pledge campaign seemed to promote a lack of faith. Just press the biblical standards of giving as it all belongs to the Lord. As a starting point, we give ten percent back to the Lord. So, that was a way in which I could hear from the Lord and hear from others as most of the leadership said yes, let’s do this. We wanted to trust and be bold here. This was another way of trying to change the culture and it was done by hearing first and then by moving forward. Now, think about ways in which you are donating the energy that the Lord gives you; about specific ways in which you are giving back.

So, go over your normal week. This might take a while. List out all of your roles, functions and tasks; all the things you did in this past week. When I was in pastoral ministry, I required those who worked for me to keep a log of how many pastoral contacts they made every week and how many phone calls, how many committee meetings, and how many hospital visits, everything. I didn’t do this to see if they were doing their job but to allow them to see how much they were over functioning in their jobs. It was to get them to see that it was a record before the Lord. In this, you could see that you are doing too much. So for this list write out what you have done for the Lord this past week? This is a positive thing now; I don’t want to be negative in my illustration but how are you giving yourself to help others and to seek to mole others into the image of Christ? How are you pouring love into whatever you do, from typing an e-mail or texting someone? Anytime that you are writing articles or doing anything; you should be aware that anything that you do takes energy from you. You should List out these things side by side, having the things that come under reception on one side of the page and then anything that involves a response on the other side of the page.

D. Balance

After doing this, consider how these things are balancing out. I grew up in a part of the world called West Texas, a place of farming and ranching. It was a semi-arid rather desolate place, but it has its own beauty. I loved it and was thankful for it and would not trade it for anything. One of the things you had to do in West Texas in terms of farming was contour farming. This meant that any slopes in the land needed contours plowed into it so that when the occasional rain came, it wouldn’t wash it all out and create gullies or wash off the top soil. So, in pastoral ministry or any Christian ministry, it can readily devolve quickly in terms of the nutrients in your life being easily washed away by over exertion. This is by doing more than what the Lord is asking you to do and failing to balance this whole business of reception in place. If your notes come back where you are giving and doing in terms of energy and on the reception side, there is only a small amount happening. I can guarantee that sooner or later, you are only going to only want one thing from the church and that is to get out of it. It could be that you have more on the reception side than on the giving side. Hopefully, you will also see that sometimes you will have an activity that will show up on both sides. For example, visiting someone in the hospital and it ends up being a blessing to you. So, you end up receiving more than you ever give. But isn’t that a part of ministry, that you receive so much more than what you give. This isn’t something to be stressed out about unless this side is severely crippled and unless this is set into a disposition where you put yourself in a way of living and manner of being in which the doing side just totally outweigh any kind of reception. We will look at this further.