The Labor of Prayer

When my friend Lauren was teaching first grade, she would frequently tell me stories about a child named Wesley who was forever responding to her instructions with a scrunched up little face, barely pushing the words passed his pursed lips, beneath a tightly furrowed brow, "But, Miss Ahveckio (not exactly her name, but close), that's too haaaaard!" This was particularly hilarious when I was able to spot him the very first time I walked into her classroom, no introductions necessary. I was standing in the doorway, waiting while she lined the kids up for lunch. She looked at Wesley and asked him to tie his shoes before getting in line, and he scrunched that face up just like she'd imitated for me previously, and got about as far as, "But, Miss Ah-" before she cut him off and told him to just do it. Amazingly, he bent down and tied his shoes. I was so amused!

Today, I was thinking about prayer. I was noticing that several of my facebook friends have status lines today that request prayer for one endeavor or another. And, I was thinking about some of the things I'd like some prayer about right now. And, I was thinking about how fun it is when you pray for something and God works it out as only He can do. And, then I was thinking about how it's been a while since I experienced that. But, it's also been a while, since I really labored over something in prayer. So, then I was thinking about why that is. If I know prayer works. I believe prayer works. I've seen prayer work. Why am I not more quick to get busy with it rather than trying so many other less effective things first?

And my next thought stunned me.

Too often, I don't jump to serious prayer over a matter more quickly because it's hard. It's labor. It takes time and concentration and effort. Much like Wesley, I am called to prayer, and my first response is, "But, God, it's too haaaard!" in my whiniest voice. And, much like Lauren, the Lord says, "Do it. Just do it. Call to me and I will answer and I will show you great and mighty things which you do not know. I am He who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless with great joy before His glorious majesty. I am He who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that you could ask or imagine."

Well, when you put it THAT way ...

One More :-)

Hurricane by Jimmy Needham

I have built a city here
Half with pride and half with fear
Just wanted a safer place to hide
I don’t want to be safe tonight

I need You like a hurricane
Thunder crashing, wind and rain
To tear my walls down
I’m only Yours now
I need you like a burning flame
A wild fire untamed
To burn these walls down
I’m only Yours now
I’m only Yours now

I am Yours and You are mine
You know far better than I
And if destruction’s what I need
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
Then I’ll receive it Lord from Thee
Yes, I’ll receive it Lord from Thee

And it’s Your eye in the storm
Watching over me
And it’s Your eye in the storm
Wanting only good for me
And if You are the war
Let me be the casualty
‘Til I’m Yours alone
I am only Yours
I am Yours alone, Lord

Unashamed Love

While I'm sharing lyrics, let me go ahead and post these as well. It's called "Unashamed Love" by Ten Shekel Shirt.

You're calling me to lay aside the worries of my day
To quiet down my busy mind and find a hiding place
Worthy, Worthy
I open up my heart and let my spirit worship Yours
I open up my mouth and let a song of praise come forth
Worthy, You are worthy

Of a child-like faith
And of my honest praise
And of my unashamed love
Of a holy life
And of my sacrifice
And of my unashamed love

Sweet Morning Light

I jotted down a line from one of the songs we sang during The Leadership Summit last week, and I finally got around to tracking it down. It's called "Sweet Morning Light" and is coupled with "This Pathway" by Greg Ferguson.

I will trust
Through the darkest night
What I knew to be true
When I last saw daylight

Moved by faith
And not by sight
Till at last I see
What you promised me
On the distant horizon
At the first sight of sweet morning light

Lord, this pathway
May not be easy
But it’s where I’m meant to be
In your presence You will keep me
As my mind is stayed on Thee

I will follow through the canyons
Over mountains
Across the seas
You will find me
In your footsteps
Till at last I’m home and free

Lord, don’t let me
Be dissuaded
From Your holy work in me
Till I reach your destination
And I’m finally home and free

#tls09 ... Wess Stafford: Leveraging Your Past

Whew. Wess Stafford was by far the most difficult talk to listen to, but one of the richest hours of the conference. Wess is the president of Compassion International, but his talk was about his own painful history of childhood abuse and how he's allowed the Lord to take his pain and turn it into a passion for freeing children from poverty in the name of Jesus Christ.

Stafford calls his testimony, "a story God redeemed and leveraged for good." He stands, telling his painful tell, and states, "by God's grace I am still usable in His Kingdom ... God has crafted each of us with a story of brokenness to redeem for His glory."

Then he asks the questions, "What's your cause? Does it move you to tears? What is it that moves you passionately?" As someone who truly doesn't cry easily -- I know you don't believe this about me, but it's true -- this was tough for me. "Don't live without a passion that draws you to tears -- don't lead like that."

As someone who's currently working on a new Bible Study series about the glories of being "in Christ" I thrilled when Stafford said, "We have worth because of Who gives us worth." Amen!

In addressing the issue of forgiveness for those dealing with a painful past, Stafford says, "you may not forget what you have forgiven, but you will never forget what you cannot forgive." He goes on to say that unforgiveness is the primary avenue satan uses to gain access to believers' lives. Stafford says forgiveness is giving up your right to revenge.

Speaking about allowing God to redeem a painful or destructive past, Stafford said, "Sometimes we limit the definition of the word redemption. Sometimes we are not expansive enough to know what else He can redeem."

And, finally, my favorite quote of the entire two days ...

"My prayer is that as Jesus wipes the tears from my eyes, He'll also have to wipe the sweat from my brow because I worked until I was wonderfully interrupted by His trumpet call."

#tls09 ... Dave Gibbons: Thinking Forward

The point during Dave Gibbons talk that I first really sat up to listen was just a couple minutes in when he said, "The world stops and pays attention when it sees us loving someone who is unforgivable to us." I'm always looking for ways to measure whether or not I'm truly living a set apart life, and I love being challenged to think about how the church, too, should function in a way that forces us to think radically, biblically. Gibbons points out that "normal" is when likes attract. People who have everything in common are drawn to one another and ready and willing to help one another. But, Gibbons says, the church is called to be abnormal, we are called to a painful adaptation, to a "mindset and will to love and serve in any culture," especially those that are difficult for us.

Gibbons went on to challenge our "metrics," the way we measure life and success. Our natural inclination is to view success on a graph as "up and to the right." But, Gibbons says, life rarely works that way. Most of us experience set backs and challenges, but we should not consider those failures because he says, "Your pain is your platform to humanity." "Most of the world doesn't understand success, but they do understand suffering."

Gibbons then challenges the way we view people around us. In his opinion the most important thing about a person is their story. His most oft quoted statement of the day was "relationship trumps vision," meaning it's much more important to develop relationships with people and be committed to people rather than to a grand vision without relationships. And, he points out, "you can't have a great vision without a great relationship with God."

Gibbons closed by offering four acts of obedience to help us become more "abnormal."

1. Deeper collaboration. Work together, listen better to each other, receive input from many sources, including those on the fringe.
2. Communal living. Do life deeply with those around you. Live close to others and maintain an open life out of which you minister to those closest to you, starting in your home and moving to your neighborhood and beyond.
3. Prayer. Believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.
4. Radical Sacrifice for the outsider. Offer up the things that cost you something to give and to serve.

#tls09 ... Andrew Rugasira: Aid vs. Trade

I confess, I have never ever had any desire whatsoever to go to Africa. (To be fair, I've rarely had any desire to go anywhere they don't speak English or Spanish.) It's just never been on my radar, and it's not because I haven't known plenty of people with a heart for the African continent who've gone and returned with magnificent stories. I've prayed for many of them, rejoiced with them, but never felt particularly drawn.

On Friday morning, Andrew Rugasira took the stage. He is a Ugandan man with a heart and passion for his people with a fresh perspective and a challenge for Americans. He is also the founder of Good African Coffee. His first question was "What comes to mind when you hear the word Africa?" He then gave us a few moments to settle on some images. Then, he spent the next 30 minutes challenging that image.

He says that we've heard it said many times that most Africans survive on less than $1/day, and we think "how poor!" But, then he says, "What entrepreneurship is takes to survive on a dollar a day, no?!" Rugasira defines integrity as being truthful about what you need to od oot get out of a situation. He is a proponent of finding ways to help Africans help themselves -- trade, not aid. He asks, "there is no country that has developed through handouts -- why is Africa different?"

Rugasira challenges us to look at Africa and see opportunities rather than problems, to change the dialogue of our conversations about Africa, and to ask ourselves, "what is the impact of our compassion?" He challenges us to see Africa as a country of consumers, innovators, and entrepreneurs.

I can never come close to describing Rugasira or his talk nearly well enough, but I loved how it got me to thinking and challenged the way that I see poverty in general. It was a wonderful follow up to an interview earlier in the conference with Jessica Jackley, founder of www.kiva.org.

#tls09 ... Harvey Carey: Against All Odds

Unfortunately, my notes from this session are a little all over the place. It was one of my favorite sessions, but I was having a difficult time getting it all down in an easily communicable way.
Harvey Carey is pastor at Citadel of Faith Community Church in Detroit, MI. A number of years ago, he felt God's call to move from a good-paying position at a large church in Chicago to start a new work in the poorest zip code in America.
I had several "take aways" from his message.

1. We are not called to huddle; we are called to play the game. Carey said this while discussing the way that Citadel uses Sunday mornings for mobilization. His analogy is that of paying good money to go to a football game. Standing and cheering as the team enters the stadium and huddles on the sidelines in preparation for the game. However, five minutes go by, then 10, fifteen, and then thirty. Finally, after an hour, the team yells, "break!" and they all trot back into the locker room. They didn't do what they were supposed to do. They didn't accomplish what they'd trained all week to accomplish. They never played the game! Christians are really good at huddling, but there comes a time when we must get out and play the game -- do the thing -- be the church.

2. One of the more humorous but challenging anecdotes Carey shared was about something his church calls "urban camping." Rather than planning men's campouts into the woods, they take their tents and their lanterns and their chairs and their s'mores and "camp out" next to the worst crack house they can find. They sit around and roast marshmallows and sing praise songs, and one by one, they've shut down 8 different crack houses in their city!

3. Finally, Carey asks the question, "When do we take the Bible and make the promises of God real?" And his answer? "We don't experience the fulness of God's Word because we don't create context (opportunities) for the text to work." This was powerful to me. Perhaps I don't see God at work more often around me because I work so hard at living safe rather than living obediently.

#tls09 ... Tim Keller: Leading People to the Prodigal God

I picked up Tim Keller's book "Prodigal God" a few months ago after a friend recommended it to me. I read the first few chapters one weekend, found the premise fascinating, then went back to work and forgot about it. Now, I can hardly wait to pick it up again.
Before I go any further for those of you unfamiliar with this book, wondering how in the world one might rightly attribute the adjective prodigal to God, I should tell you that the definition of "prodigal" is "recklessly extravagant." Keller says that most of us assume the target audience of the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is sinners who will most identify with the younger brother. His proposition is that the real target audience was the Pharisees, the very "good", who would most identify with the elder brother. And, the main point of the story is that both younger brothers and elder brothers are alienated from the father's heart. At the end of the story, it is the bad boy younger brother who is saved, but the "good" elder brother is left outside because of his "goodness." He missed the party.
Keller says Pharisaical religion obeys to be accepted, but the gospel is for people who understand they are accepted and therefore obey. Elder brothers obey God to get things. God is a means to an end.
Keller offers a few ways to recognize "elder brothers." First, an elder brother gets furious when life doesn't go their way. They believe God owes them. Second, elder brothers can't handle criticism because their self-image is not rooted in Christ; it's rooted in their own "goodness." Third, elder brothers pray petionary prayers, rarely simply enjoy God, and have little intimacy with Him. Fourth, elder brothers constantly loathe others who don't measure up to their standards. Fifth, elder brothers can't forgive. Keller says, "you can't stay angry and bitter at someone unless you feel superior to them."
So, what do we do when we recognize the elder brother in our our lives? Keller says we must find a new level of repentance and rejoicing. We must glory in our salvation and the grace that afforded it to us rather than thinking that we're doing God some kind of favor by obeying Him. "The secret to spiritual renewal is not repenting from your wrongdoing, but repenting from your real reasons for right doing."

A quote from this session I hope I don't soon forget:

"The only reason we can be clothed in the father's robe is because Jesus was stripped naked on the cross." Keller says that Jesus is the true elder brother, the One willing to go to any length to bring us back into the Father's house. In the parable, the younger son had taken and squandered his inheritance. The only way the father could welcome him back was by taking from the elder brother. Jesus willingly paid the price for us to be welcomed back into right relationship with God.

#tls09 ... Gary Hamel: Manage Differently NOW

During the second session yesterday morning, Gary Hamel challenged the way we think about church leadership in our rapidly changing world. His first question was, "Are you changing as fast as the world around you? Are you part of the vanguard or the old guard?" He discussed data that shows an increasingly negative cultural perception of Christians, particularly "born again" and "evangelical" Christians. He states his fear that "Church today has become a weekly convocation for the converted and content," and that we are "losing market-share due to apathy and antipathy."

Then, just about the time his talk was starting to feel depressing, he says, "Maybe we should be grateful that so many people are no longer willing to just go through the motions." In other words, it's not necessarily a bad thing that "cultural Christianity" is dying off and fewer and fewer people are willing to play church. This got my attention.

He then went on to describe the pace of change as hypercritical and exponential, observing that the future is less and less an extrapolation of the past. Then he said, "the world is becoming more turbulent faster than organizations are becoming more resilient." Our visions became strategies that became policies that turned into procedures which became habits. He says this is why "success is a self-correcting phenomenon." ;-) Hamel says, "Coming up with a vision is not the difficult thing, reinventing that vision from the root and branch is." WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE WAY WE CHANGE.

As if I wasn't already busy working through that, he began giving "points" after this!

1. Overcome the temptation to take refuge in denial. He says, "we miss the future, not because it's unknowable but because it's unpalatable." Dang! That one stuck somewhere deep in me. How often do we refuse to prepare for the future because we don't like what we see coming? How ridiculous does that sound when we really examine it?! Hamel says, "Face the facts. Question your beliefs about practices. Listen to the renegades and dissidents."

2. Generate more strategic options. "The job of every leader is to make sure change sounds more fun that staying put." I smiled when I heard this one. Cornerstone is lead by someone like this. Mike never uses the word "challenge" or "obstacle" but "opportunity." Hamel says those truly committed to effective change must develop a process that is open and participative.

3. Deconstruct what you already believe. Ask yourself, "What hasn't changed in the last 3-4-5 years? Why?" If the answer isn't because it's still the best practice, then do something about it. The quote of the day may have been "The longer you're down in the trenchese, the easier it is to mistake the edge of your rut for the horizon!"

In his closing remarks, Hamel asks the question, "How unconventional does God expect you to be?" Again. Dang! If I'm to become more like Him, then I have to guess I'm to be pretty radically unconventional. Hamel challenges, "Are you more committed to redemption and renewal than to practices/policies of your church?" Of course I want to say, "well, duh," but then I examine my own life and how easily flustered I am by changes ... :-/ The last note I made on this session was something Hamel pointed out. "The early church was spiritually powerful, but institutionally weak." I'll be working over that one and what it means for me today for a while to come.

#tls09 ... Bill Hybels: Leading in a New Reality

It's time again for Willowcreek's annual Leadership Summit. I had almost forgotten how this conference made my head spin last year, but I remember now. Trust me, I remember now.

Hybels began by describing our current economic/cultural situation as a "rogue wave" -- unexpected, unpredicted, inexplicable. Five minutes into the day, my head was swimming with the idea that "leaders are energized by uncharted waters, recognizing opportunity for creativity, hearing the affirming whisper of the Holy Spirit that they were called and gifted for just such a time." He says, "rogue waves draw things out of us that calm seas never will."

Hybels offers four lessons from his own experiences leading through the last year:

1. Be the church to one another no matter what. Follow the Acts 2 model. The church is still God's plan to offer hope to the world. Offer people serious church. Nobody's coming to church looking for a mild dose of God.

2. In Kingdom Economics, the math makes no sense. Revenues are down, and needs are up, but people will still give generously and sacrificially to a white hot kingdom vision.

3. God does great things through people who are fully surrendered to Him. (2 Chronicles 16:9) Are we attracting and hiring fully yielded followers? Are we mentoring people toward this? Are we talking with people who seem to be losing this passion?

4. Live a sustainable life. Have an adequate replenishment strategy. Hybels admits to writing in his own journal 20 years ago, "The pace at which I'm doing the work of God is destroying God's work in me." The best thing you bring to the table everyday is a full bucket. He offers two strategies for this. First, have a planned negligence strategy -- say "no" more often. Second, reorder relationships. Who replenishes your bucket? Who depletes it?

This was just session one, and I was already thinking I could chew on the information for a week!