We’re beginning our Worship Development RoundTable today for the Canadian Vineyards. About 10 worship leaders from across the country are gathering here in St. Stephen for 2 days of meeting. Many last minute items to be done.

Any prayers our way would be appreciated.

Thomas a’ Kempis is part of a renewal movement (The Brothers Of The Common Life) in the Catholic tradition before the Reformation.

From God: Alone you cannot do it; alone, I will not. I.e. we must work together to see you transformed.

Thomas loved to teach, wrote teaching materials for young monks, and just loved to be in prayer.

The Imitation Of Christ is his major work, written to meditate on the imitation of Jesus for Christians.

Probably the most important work in christendom other than the bible.

Would you rather define humility, or actually have it?

Quotes

“Love is a great thing, yea, a great and thorough good; by itself it makes every thing that is heavy, light; and it bears evenly all that is uneven. For it carries a burden which is no burden, and makes every thing that is better, sweet and tasteful. The noble love of jesus impels a man to do great things, and stirs him up too be always longing for what is more perfect.”

“I have never known anyone, religious or devout, who did not experience the withdrawal of grace.”

Consolation: God gives you his rich experiences so you will be strong, but leaves so you will not be proud. You’d be triumphalistic; you’d be a boor. He knows that you need to hunger for him.

We are surprised that we hurt.

Many Christians have thin souls, and are bewildered that they don’t have the strength to move forward. We need Fat Souls. “Those who trust in the Lord shall be made fat.” (Prov. 24:28, KJV)

Augustine: “Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge thou it…”

Fat Souls

Why do our souls remain thin?

Apparently it’s more important that God knows us than that we know God (Gal. 4:9). We must allow the Lord to know us.

We resist grace when we implement various forms of hiding from love.

Jeremiah 7:31 — apparently human beings can create evil that God has never thought about. Also, God seems to stay back from, in some real way, from the place He is not invited.

How We Stay Thin Souls (Gerald May)

* Rationalization
* Hiding
* Delaying Tactics
* I can’t handle it
* I can handle it
* Breakdown
* Collusion (secret agreements)

Bonhoeffer suggest that the greatest evidence that we live in isolation is the fact that we can’t look deeply into anyone’s eyes for very long.

Trusting that God is with us, improving the condition of our souls as we keep abiding in Him, even if we are not yet who we want to be.

“If you’re willing to serenely bear the trail of being displeasing to yourself, then you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter.” Therese de Liseux

Bernard’s Four Degrees Of Love

Love Of Self For Self’s Sake

Love Of Self For God’s Sake

When we can rejoice in God, and rejoice in ourselves, we have come into the fullness of beauty.

Bernard’s Three Kisses

The Kiss Of The Feet

The Kiss Of The Lips

If you rush into intimacy, without dealing with your own stuff, you enter superficially.

If you spend all your time dealing with your stuff, and never entering into intimacy, you miss joy.

From Lewis’ Weight Of Glory

Next to the Eucharist itself, your brother or sister is the most glorious object you will ever see.

To Make Good Decisions About Theology & Scripture, We Integrate:

Scripture

Holy Spirit Experience

Wesley was behind this idea.

The Good & The Beautiful Result

The good result (the one that’s official, legal and right) is to stone the adultress. The beautiful result (good theology) says, “Get up, you’re a beautiful daughter; go and sin no more.”

Why be satisfied with an epiphany, when you can become fire? (a desert father to a monk)

It’s easier to understand, than to experience; but do you really understand if you haven’t experienced?

Here’s an introduction to Ignatian Prayer; the prayer form we’re learning and growing through.

Read Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney — the 450 year old company of the Jesuits — from Ignatius

1) All Of Us Lead, Whether Well Or Poorly

4) I Never Complete The Task Of Growing As A Leader; It’s An Ongoing Task

We shallowly substitute technique for substance. Jesuits pushed away flash for substance, by

1) Pillar 1: Self-Awareness

We become aware of blindspots by self-reflection and learning; we thrive by understanding what we’re about. Only those who have pinpointed their weakness can conquer them.

2) Pillar 2: Ingenuity

We live with one foot raised. However, the ground rises to meet you. I.e. We are poised to creatively respond to the changing landscape before us.

3) Pillar 3: Love

Leaders operate out of greater love than fear. Am I losing people, do they like me? True leaders face the world with a great confidence in themselves, and are committed to unlocking that in others. They create environments bound and energized by loyalty, affection and mutual support.

4) Pillar 4: Heroism

Leaders imagine and inspiring future, and seek to extract the gold from the opportunities at hand, rather than waiting for the gold to come to them. They don’t passively watch the future happen around them. By pushing for an inspiring future, and by passionately going for it themselves, they envision others to pursue it as well.

Bernard Quotes

“The teaching of the Spirit does not sharpen curiosity; it inspires love.”

“…God himself, the soul’s Bridegroom, comes to the soul as he wishes and leaves it again. But let us understand that this is only how it feels to the soul; there is no movement of the Word. When the soul is aware of grace, she knows that the Word is with her. When she is not, she seeks him who is absent, and begs him to come to her….” (In other words, longing and desiring is a prayer of beauty)

“God is sought, not on foot; but by desire, and the happy discovery of what is desired, does not end desire, but extends it.”

That guitar means more to me than I thought.

It came.

Who knew?

I just returned from a one-day, round trip flight to Pennsylvania for my great uncle Ben’s funeral.

He had asked that I would sing at his service, so despite my classes and work, I wasn’t going to miss it.

He was a great man — a former marine with smiling eyes, a deep chuckle and physical features that remind me that I am a part of a long family line. I played some songs I haven’t played in a very long time, at the request of the family.

I had my guitar and my suitcase with me. USAir lost both on the way down (Philadelphia is notorious for that), but got them to me in time for the funeral.

Then, I flew into Bangor, ME last night through Boston. AmericanAirways lost them both, too. Only, I haven’t received them back yet.

My guitar….

Anthropologists have discovered in all rites of passage that there are three stages of process:

Separation: Leaving the familiar, the exodus

Liminality: A marginal stage, limbo, tension, shaping, regular rules don’t apply, the wilderness (from liminus, meaning threshhold)

Re-Incorporation: Re-joining a community, crossing a threshold, life renewal, healing, strengththe promised land

Our journey is cyclical, and we must traverse these terrains again and again.

The Church is on a threshold, in beautiful ways, right now. The normal rules do not apply, and we are forced by the pressures of our brokeness and our age to change.

There is a Re-Joining to come.

FROM LEWIS, A GRIEF OBSERVED

He first published it under another name, so as not to hurt anyone who loved his writing. The response to it changed his mind.

“You can’t see anything properly while your eyes are blurred with tears…”

“The time where there is nothing at all inside except your cry for help is just the time when God can’t answer it…”

“The door doesn’t open, unless you knock; it also doesn’t open if you try too desparately, too frantically, to rip it off its hinges…”

“You can’t rescue a drowning man until he’s given up…”

FROM GERALD SITTSER, A GRACE DISGUISED

Face the pain, without being consumed by it; integrating the horror of loss with the passage of living.

A stance toward pain: The stump remains of the tree you lost. But now, grass is growing around it, flowers, patio stones and beauty. Though… the stump remains.

FROM PETER FITCH, LEARNING TO SUFFER WELL

Your pain becomes a platform for further growth.

Your soul has the capacity to grow, to absorb both pain and joy as its fuel.

“Pain, if it is faced and not idolized, provides a context for the deepening of the soul.”

There is a time in suffering, when pain can become the idol.

3 Assumptions

1. Life is often hard.

3. Our response matters.

In real suffering, you don’t have the luxury of pat answers. Empathy helps, but the “unknowing” is the gift you bring — your knowledge can sometimes hurt your ability to help.

The power of unknowing is a tremendous tool to carry with you as a warrior-monk.

Both the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit are available to us in these matters. The Spirit is “Parakletos,” the “one who comes alongside. “Para” means “along side of.” Klete is from kaleo, which means “to call.” Paraclete was the title of a defense lawyer in Jesus’ day - a Comforter and support.

Ad/vocate: (latin), ad means “to,” vocate is from vocare, “call.”

1 John 2:1-2 - “…if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate….” In this case, Jesus is the one called alongside.

2 Cor. 1:3-8, “comfort,” a form of “paraklesis” is used 10 times - the Father of all “paraklesis.” The Father is the one called alongside.

The nature of God is to come to the place of brokenness, and an honest cry for help, to run like water to the lowest place.

If God’s nature is to come, then times of ministry are easy. God will rush to that place. Our job is to create an access point.

Biblically, suffering comes from evil, from our response to evil, from our society’s response to evil, from God’s judgement, and from our participation in Christ’s sacrifice as we enter into the suffering in the world. We live in a war zone.

Possible benefits of suffering: perseverance, character, hope, humility (a lack of glibness in speech)

We’re always looking to the end of suffering, when we must learn to find God within it. Why? Because there is more suffering in your future on planet earth.

Suffering comes in fits and starts.

It’s easy to be good parents with easy children; it’s harder to be a good parent with hard children.

midbar - the word for wilderness, debar - the word for word. We find our debar in the midbar. We find our word in the wilderness.

Why suffering doesn’t defeat us - Romans 8.

“Present sufferings can’t be compared to future glory.” (don’t say this to someone who is suffering for a long time) Childbirth.

“God is with us in our weakness.”

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness.” (God’s help is incremental, in steps. Not all at once. Gifts of the Spirit help us get to that one step of help.)

“God uses these things to transform us into the image of Christ.”

FROM VICTOR FRANKL, MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING

…man’s main desire is to see… a meaning in his life.

…nobody made it through the concentation camps who didn’t have a reason to.”

Ways Of Finding Meaning

Active: Meaning that is active, because we’re building something. (enjoying creating)

Passive: You can enjoy recieving pieces of life. (enjoying recieving)

There is a time, when these are taken away.

The Last Of The Human Freedoms: Meaning that comes from the last of the human freedoms; our choice of how we will respond to suffering.

Carlo Carretto, a modern desert father, wrote, Why, O Lord: The Inner Meaning Of Suffering

Humility is an accurate perception of your strengths and weaknesses, given in submission to God for the benefit of others. (Peter Fitch)

True humility builds community; humility is made to go somewhere.

We die to our own I sense of right and wrong, for the sake of developing us.

We are called to live in a subversive humility — a humility that is an affront to the self-absorption of the age.

The secret motive behind so much of our chatting and talkativeness is a hidden attempt to glorify ourselves. Humility is our fight against this.

Our class attended a night of worship, 3 hours of ancient/present worship laced with ancient prayers, communion and a Stomp percussion fest to end the night.

Here are your InResponse questions. A few paragraph thoughts on each, reflective and analytic, would be best.

What did you love about the event? What elements rose to the top for you as living worship experiences? Think of words from our studies such as accessibility, intimacy and integrity.

What did you not like about the event? What kinds of elements distracted you, or frustrated you?

Speak about those who led in generic terms, such as “the drummer,” the “background vocalist,” the “worship leader,” the “communion leader,” etc. Was there anything any of those participating did to especially enhance your time, or to detract from it? Be honest, and be specific. This is a case study.

Target areas you loved in the way they did what they did, and things you noticed that distracted you.

Note elements of musicianship and planning and how they affected you — arrangements of songs, physical postures of team members, etc.

Note any overall, or final impressions. You will be drawing on these insights when you lead worship, in teams of 3, at an upcoming SSU chapel in a few weeks.

In the end, all things will come right.

We’re going to have to trust God for the well-being of the world.

Creativity is the most proper form of medication for grief.

To create is to breathe again.

Share your story.

More Insights From Gregory The Great and Thomas Oden

Autonomy above goodness, is the choice we make daily.

We began with a pure “We.” We were made in the image of a pure “We.” When “I” became alive, it moved from individuality (the gift we give to the pure “We”) to Individualism (the I taking from the pure “We”). The corrupted “We” can be as dangerous as the corrupted “I” (Ayn Rand - Anthem, Corrie Ten Boom on nationalism), and the corrupted “I” can be toxic to the “We” and to itself.

How do you administer your gift to the need of the community, without drawing your strength from their appreciation?

Something in a pastoral leader must always turn him or her back to the people. Administration, organization and visioneering must never steal this call.

Contemplative and Outward — always fighting for balance.

Romans 7 — we long to do good, but struggle to do it. The longing speaks of the ImageBearer we are. We are bent; we are a mix. Many of the most damaged people come from the most conservative backgrounds, that emphasize how nasty people are and can be. Likewise, liberal traditions that say that we are all good, produce people without the capacity to live in light of their great weakness.

It is a small thing what others think of me, or even what I think of myself — it is only what God thinks of me.

We spend so much of our lives being slaves to others’ opinions of us. Then we

“If you can serenely bear the trial of being displeasing to yourself, then you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter.”

Therese de Lisieux (died at age 24; Mother Theresa took her name from this Theresa, not the great Theresa (of Avila), but the “little” Therese (of Lisieux) — to do small things with great love — to never miss a chance for some small kindness)

People notice that you would be an unbelievable friend, so they look to you. But caregivers often have too many friends, and they’d love to be yours too. They then try to leave relationships.

ENFP is the common pastor’s type. 50% of Presbyterian pastors are this. Naturally pastoral.

“Few learnings are more important to the pastor than to learn when to keep silent and whenn to speak. Two equal dangers must be avoided: either pspeaking what should be left unspoken or failing to speak what must be spoken. The pastor must at times be like a bell — an open, clear, ringing public witness.

Excessive loquacity is a little like lechery, like one who spreads his seed promiscuously. Good speech is more like a garden that is carefully weeded or a plant well-pruned. One produces a progeny of excellent thoughts with spare, well-ordered speech. But by spreading oneself out “in immoderate wordiness, he has an issue of seed, not for the purpose of progeny,” but for self-asserive egocentricity.”

From The Care Of Souls In The Classic Tradition, Thomas Oden, p. 66-67

Tonight is a blowout, 3 hour worship night we do for the churches in the area. It’s a blast — we usually close with a 1/2 hour Stomp, percussion fest.

I’m at about 87.5% after my illness this week. I’m having to let go of alot of the organizing and tightening I would typically do. This is good for me. If I can conserve my energy through the day.

INSIGHTS INTO SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

You will heal others out of the deepest wounds you have suffered.

This is your gift to us.

The gift of caring helps others plow their ground, like a tractor for them. Some people’s ground is a swamp, and your tractor will get stuck. Be willing to just be one link, not the savior.

Everybody needs more than just you; they need God. Just do your part.

While in the UK, I ask people what makes them feel “fully alive” — that is their lens for worship and life before God. One girl said, “I love to study biological defense systems on leaves.” The whole place, there in the middle of Oxford, roared with joy (with her) over her discertation topic. What a joy.

It’s hard to be a pastor.

We usually fight darkness with our wound, not our strength. We need a limp to remind us of our great need — it’s our gift, our ladder to climb, our thorn to nurse. In humility then, we can walk among the paradoxes of life.

Do you have an interior life that is as strong as your external life?

The person who is farthest away is the closest.

The most satisfying moment is just before a craving is about to be satisfied, and that moment is especially satisfied when someone else (Piglet) gets to come, too.

People’s praise in not always accurate, and from a pure motivation on their part.

Those that are privileged to have less responsibility for others have greater responsibility for themselves.

Too many words, and too much laughter, can be a cover.

GREGORY THE GREAT: IDEAS

Spiritual leader: Monk and Ambassador, Contemplative and Active, Alone and in Community, Authentic and Restrained.

“He (Gregory the Great) taught that surest witness to the authenticity of a teacher is his embodied behavior.” Thomas Oden

“What is needed is not the training of religious technicians, but rather the formation of spiritual leaders.” Richard John Neuhaus

Gregory’s genre of music has lasted 1500 years. Not bad for an artist’s longevity. Ooooh, go Beatles.

Great leaders are often reluctant to take their post.

Gregory emptied the treasuries of the Vatican to care for the poor and dispossessed. He even formed an army to protect the poor. Which had devastating effects in the Renaissance. Gave away all his wealth. Gave away his high position to become a monk. Stopped 88 miles outside of town to be drawn into papal responsibility — we wants to be a missionary. His book, Pastoral Care, was the main book for training priests/pastors for over 1000 years.

Incarnate into the historical period, and understand what the pressures are before you judge.

We know our tribe by our shared joys and scars.

Walt Thiessen says: Look at Jesus life. Cynicism is a false substitute for proper Christian anger, lament and faithful action.

Young friend Zoe Fitch says, “Cynicism is a gateway drug to everything nasty.”

The goal of the Christian life to extract the precious from that deemed to be worthless, to extract the beautiful from the broken.

These eyes see the ImageBearers. These eyes see the Created Order in its beauty and protect it. These eyes see a God who is loving, and exerts justice as a last resort.