June 1, 2009  

Ministry Tools
Bob Burroughs

A Zeal He Does Not Own

Quote

"I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?" 
Benjamin Disraeli
 

Scripture

Their leader will be one of their own; their ruler will arise from among them. I will bring him near and he will come close to me, for who is he who will devote himself to be close to me?' declares the LORD.  Jeremiah 30:20-22

Prayer

Father, Great Redeemer, and the One to whom we should look as we undertake the task of spiritual leadership, I pray for all the men and women who serve in leadership positions—that Your generous Spirit of love, mercy, justice, kindness and liberty will be made real and personal to them as they carry out their responsibilities. We are often prone to “lead on our own,” and not consider Your influence in decisions that must be made. Help us to seriously reflect, pray, read scripture and find Your answers to hard questions before we give our answers. Teach us to lead, as did the One who died for us, Jesus Christ. Amen.

What Think Ye?

A Zeal He Does Not Own

There is a wonderful, thought-provoking text by the hymn writer, Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863), titled, There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy.  This text speaks to this generation perhaps even more powerfully than it did to his generation. It is not sung as often as it should be these days, and this is a tragedy—for it speaks great truth that we should be hearing and singing in times like these.

You may remember the first stanza:

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
Like the wideness of the sea
There is kindness in His justice
Which is more than liberty

This is pretty heady stuff! Read it again—carefully, and see if the Holy Spirit brings some fresh thoughts to your mind. It certainly does to me. I’m prone to think about justice and liberty—not only as it relates to our country, but to the church, also. God, in His tender mercy and grace, has great kindness in His justice and liberty, and doesn’t desire to see these characteristics trampled by people who think, in their position, have the freedom to disregard this tender mercy, kindness, justice and liberty in favor of their own agenda.

Now—here is the third stanza—often omitted from many hymnals:

But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He does not own

I fear this stanza may be left out of some hymnals on purpose. The message may be entirely too close to what is going on in churches today—and it might not be good for people to sing this stanza, and be allowed to think on their own—and be reminded that some of the things that are happening in their churches are indeed from “a zeal He does not own.”

I don’t have to list these over-zealous actions or false limits, because you are already thinking of the ones affecting your life even as you read this. I also do not need to list specifics for they are too many, too varied and if Jesus were here today, He would not want to be part of such “narrow love,” our own “false limits,” and seeing us magnify His strictness with a zeal He does not own.”

Perhaps, if we began to include this great hymn—all five stanzas—on a regular basis in our worship experiences, we might begin to see our congregational leadership begin to take a fresh look at this “zeal” and see who really owns it.

What think ye?

Leadership

Who Wants YOUR Job?  -  Rob Hewell

The essence of this question applies to any ministry leader. It relates to your sense of peaceful, purposeful confidence as a leader.

Another way to state the question might be: Do what others see in you and experience through your leadership appeal to them to the degree that they believe they would find fulfillment by stepping into your shoes?

The ranks of your influence network probably influences potential, new and young leaders. Consider the following questions in evaluating your role as their mentor.

• Are your competencies, character, and commitment consistent with your call?
• Are you a learner, and is your learning compatible with your own personal mission as well as that of your organization?
• Do you share knowledge and information freely?
• Do you pray for God to call leaders out from your organization; are you watching the lives of participants to identify future leaders?
• Do you make yourself available to meet with potential, new and young leaders?
• Are you intentional in your encouragement and support of potential and young leaders?
• Do you value experimentation, curiosity and creativity; do you give new leaders opportunities to learn, grow, try, fail and improve?
• Have you identified your own mentors, and do you actively seek their influence in your own life and work?
• Are your joys obvious; do you have fun at what you do does it show?

Does your leadership connect participants and potential, new leaders with spiritual and eternal values?

Family Leadership

From www.familyleadership.org

Family leadership--especially leadership exercised by parents--is one of the defining activities of the human experience.

Why? Because it powerfully shapes how the next generation sees family, what they do in their current and future families, and the results they will get.

In terms of family leadership, parents have four basic roles:

1. To provide the basic necessities of life - physical, social, emotional, and spiritual
2. To protect family members from physical, social, and emotional harm
3. To nurture family members in love and kindness
4. To teach family members the principles and values that empower them to have rich, rewarding relationships and joyful, fulfilling lives

In two-parent homes, while one parent may take the prime responsibility for fulfilling one role or another, truly effective parents will fully support each other in their roles as equal partners.

Single parents can proactively secure help from close friends, extended family members, or church or community support groups in fulfilling these essential roles.

Inspirational Corner

Derric Johnson

Derric Johnson knows Mickey Mouse on a first-name basis! For many years, he has been the Founder/Director of The Liberty Singers, featured daily in the American Exhibition, Epcot, in DisneyWorld. His name is synonymous with a cappella singing, for he is a composer/arranger of many excellent a cappella charts. One of his best skills is that he treats the singers as an "orchestra," and what he gets out of his groups is nothing short of amazing! He is the author of several books, and he is an all-around-nice guy! Welcome, Derric, to the Inspirational Corner. If you would like to contact Derric personally, his email address is: djacapella@aol.com

Lost In Wonder, Love and Praise

Some years ag, Alice Rice walked into a Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream Shop on the Kansas City Plaza. She studied the myriad of frozen options-and decided on an ice cream cone. After making her selection, she turned and found herself face to face with Paul Newman, who was in town filming the movie, MR. AND MRS. BRIDGES.

He smiled and said, “Hello,” with his blue eyes looking deeply into her eyes. Alice’s knees began to shake as she stood there looking into the eyes of Paul Newman. She was unable to say a word…but she did manage to pay for her cone and then walked out of the shop with her heart pounding.

When she regained her composure, she realized that she did not have her ice cream cone in her hand. She started back into the store to get it when she met Mr. Newman at the door as he was making his exit.

Again, she was looking into those blue eyes, and her heart began to pound even harder. Paul Newman looked at her and said, “Excuse me, Ma-am. Are you looking for your ice cream cone?” Alice was unable to speak as she nodded her head. Paul Newman simply smiled and said, “You put it in your purse with your change!”

So--when was the last time the very presence of God quickened your pulse? When was the last time it place within you a sense of wonder and awe? When was the last time you stopped everything--and looked into His eyes--and felt Him smile back at you?

Charles Wesley had it right when he penned these words: “Lost in wonder, love and praise.” Take a good look at Jesus.

This Idea Will Work 

Talk Less...Work More

This may come as a surprise, but in today's fast-paced world, choir, ensemble and orchestra members do not come to rehearsal each week, giving up the comforts of home--just to hear what you, as the director, have to say week after week! Believe it or not, they come to work hard, to learn new music, fix wrong notes, tune bad chords, have fellowship with friends, learn names of new people, and, of course, make fun of the Tenors! 

Do you tend to talk a lot in rehearsal? If your answer is NO, you might try this experiment: give someone a stopwatch (your spouse might do this for you) and ask this person to keep a running time on the amount of talking you do in the rehearsal. Ask the person to total up the minutes (or hours) and give it to you after rehearsal—and you'd best sit down! You will be astonished and overwhelmed how much time is spent listening to the Director "pontificate" and how this has cut into actual rehearsal time. 

So, talk less—work more. Your choir or orchestra will be happier. They will work harder--and your spouse can put away the stop watch!

This Idea Will Work!

Tips for the Smaller Choir

Visitation--In It's Truest Form

Some of the most effective ministry you can have can be done prior to choir or orchestra rehearsal on Wednesday night! If you are strapped with a Wednesday night schedule that is unchangeable and can't have rehearsal till after Prayer Meeting and, if you can ask to lead a hymn/chorus in Prayer Meeting and slip out, you might find yourself overwhelmed by the amount of information you can gather from your members as you go around and visit with each one. This is VISITATION in it's truest form.  

Probably more than half of your group do not attend Prayer Meeting for one reason or ten, but they will arrive for rehearsal from 10 minutes to a half hour ahead of the scheduled beginning time. Take full advantage of this!
   
Have the Social Committee provide WEEKLY coffee, juice, and cookies or chips for those early birds to munch on. Vary the menu and have different things each week. This will be a good break for them and give an energy boost before they come under your direction--and it will be a good break for you, also.
   
As you visit with these people, you will discover personal needs, prayer requests, tidbits about the family, concerns, things for which to be grateful and you can offer private prayer, scripture, advice, counsel--all within the confines of the rehearsal room and, most importantly, individually. 
   
This also gives the members opportunity to be with you--away from the director's stand--one-on-one, so to speak. It puts them on your level--or better yet, it puts you on their level for a brief time. You will find that this time will become very important to you and to them. 
   
So, get out of the office, get away from the computer, get away from Prayer Meeting after you lead the hymn/chorus and get into the rehearsal room area among your people!  It is where the action is. It will pay great dividends.

Wisdom

Don't tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. General George S. Patton

Humor 

Staff Meeting BINGO !!  

Do you have trouble staying awake in Staff Meeting? Do you tire of hearing the same thing week after week?  Here is a way to change all of that. Play STAFF  MEETING BINGO!  How to play: Simply check off 5 words that you hear in the meeting and when you have 5, shout BINGO! It’s that easy! Here we go!

• At the end of the day
• Ball Park
• Music
• Focus on Ministry
• Budget Status
• Visitation
• Nursery
• Game plan
• Worship Service
  
• Evangelism
• Go the extra mile
• Hardball
• Mindset
• Choruses
• Blame
• Not responsible
• Out of the loop
• In the loop
• Hymns
• Raise the Bar
• Let’s revisit this
• We’re on a Slippery Slope
• Stretch the envelope
• The Big Picture
• The Bottom Line
• Watch Spending
• Think Outside the Box
• Touch Base
• Win-win Situation
• Creative

To read more of this week's MME, please click here.

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