Leaders Help Others Believe in Themselves

Leaders participate in God’s mission of declaring and demonstrating His Kingdom purposes when they intentionally look around to see others who need someone to believe in them before they even believe in themselves. One of the books I’ve been reading for fun these days (do you read for fun as well as for work?) is the latest book on the life of one of my boyhood heroes, Mickey Mantle. Growing up in Nebraska in the 1950s there was no professional baseball team to root for (there still isn’t today), so you had to look around the country and pick a team. For some reason, I had become spellbound with Mickey Mantle, so I chose the New York Yankees. Playing center field, number 7, Mickey Mantle.

To this day, even though I know of his sin-filled living style, part of me still loves the Mickey Mantle I knew growing up; the one who only played baseball (not the drinker and womanizer I later discovered him to be), the one who played center field with the best combination of speed and power the game has ever witnessed – all on one good leg due to a knee injury suffered during the 1952 World Series and hindered him the rest of his career. Mickey Mantle, number 7. My first and last names have seven letters each, I was born on October 7th, and I’ve always worn number 7 in my sports career (baseball and basketball) whenever I could. Mickey Mantle. Maybe it was ordained that as a young boy I was to fall in love with Mickey Mantle as my boyhood hero.

Having read most other books on Mantle, I naturally ordered the latest treatment on his life, The Last Boy. The first third of the book is a sad story of Mantle’s trying so hard to live up to the expectations of his dad and his first manger, Casey Stengel. Neither man ever encouraged him or affirmed him to his face; they simply reminded him of his greater potential and how he was not fulfilling it. Then at that 1/3 point in the book comes the story of the new manger for the Yankees in 1961, Ralph Houk. Houk had been a coach for the Yankees so he knew Mantle. And what he did in spring training of 1961 not only changed Mantle, but leaves one wondering what could have been if Houk had been his manager from the start of his career.

Houk saw something in Mantle that Mickey did not see in himself. Mickey had only and ever thought of himself as no one special and as a follower, not a leader. Houk though, saw that the other players would follow Mantle and he believed in Mickey. He called Mickey into his office that spring of 1961 and told number seven he was going to make him the team captain. Houk told Mickey, “You should be the leader of our club because everybody respects you and you don’t like to lose. You just go lead in your own way” (The Last Boy, Kindle edition, 2010). Mantle agreed; and then went out and had the greatest start to any year of his career, even better than his triple-crown winning season of 1956.

The author notes that the biggest difference between the regimes of Stengel and Houk was Houk’s selection of Mantle as team captain because it caused Mickey to rethink himself. Mantle said in an interview, “Ralph is the best thing that ever happened to me in my life.” Imagine, said one teammate who was close to Mantle, what kind of career this one-legged Hall of Famer would have had with two good knees and confidence.

A leader who is intentional about looking around to see who needs someone to believe in them before they believe in themselves can cause someone to rethink him or herself. This in turn, can cause the course of someone’s life to take a turn for the better and lead them further into the purposes of God for their lives.

I had just such a person do that for me. Ralph Houk came into Mickey Mantle’s life; Charles Miller came into mine. Charles is a Lutheran pastor (now retired) who had been commissioned by the LCA to travel and facilitate charismatic renewal in the Church. By God’s grace he became my dear friend and mentor in the early 1990’s. I was privileged to travel nationally and internationally with Charles while I served as a youth pastor in Rapid City, South Dakota. At some point something began to stir in me and I became frustrated with being a youth pastor, which confused me because I had seen myself as a career youth pastor; one who was going to finish strong in what I considered a critically important function of ministry. I was frustrated and confused. Charles wasn’t. He saw something in me that I did not see in myself – that I was being called out of youth ministry into a different function of ministry, which would included equipping and encouraging adults in God’s call on their lives.

So, Charles and I are in Alberta, Canada one year where he was speaking to pastors and seminary students at an event called the Leadership Training Institute (LTI). I was along to play guitar, lead worship and just spend time with Charles. One day during the LTI, the one o’clock afternoon session was to be a workshop on the topic of “Vision.” Charles knew I had been doing quite a bit of reading and writing on this topic, and though the senior pastor of my own church had not initially noticed it nor been willing to make a way for me to put it to use once he did become aware of it, Charles saw something he believed needed to be given a platform. When we came back after lunch for the afternoon session he looked at the gathering and said, “I’m supposed to speak on the topic of vision this afternoon, but there’s someone here who can speak to the issue better than I can. Mike, come up here and speak to us about vision.” I thought Charles was joking and so did everyone else, evidenced by their laughing at Charles’ “joke.” But Charles wasn’t joking. In fact, he was walking toward where I was sitting. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Just go share some of the things you’ve been telling me about, with them.” I stood up on shaking knees, walked to the front of the room, stood behind the podium, sheepishly looked out at the startled faces and said, “We’d better pray.” We did, and four hours later, after some sharing from me, some time for discussion, and much prayer ministry between class participants, we were done.

This was my first step out of youth ministry (a ministry I still love and have high regard for) to what I am doing now – serving as the president of a seminary and the director of a church network. All because a leader was intentional about looking around for someone he could believe in before that person even believed in himself.

Who is it around you that God wants you to be intentional about believing in? Who is it you can help “rethink” their own self-talk and sense of identity? Who is it you can create a platform for and help launch into the further purposes of God for their lives? As God shows you who that person is in your sphere of influence already, or who it is as He brings them into your life, please take the time and make the effort Charles did for me. What Ralph Houk did for Mickey Mantle changed his life. What Charles did for me changed mine. What you do for someone who needs you to believe in them will change theirs too.

Grace for a Season of Waiting

For some time now I have been seeking to hear and know God's will regarding something specific in my life; something which I've been talking with Him about in prayer. So far, no answer. Prayer, but no clear response. Maybe some of you, like me, are in a season of waiting to hear from God, or, you know someone who is. This morning (yes, over some good Sumatra coffee with Jesus), I read the following quote from a particular commentator regarding the testing of Abraham's faith in Genesis 22. Perhaps we can apply what he writes to our season of waiting for God's wisdom and will to be revealed to us.

"Abraham was suddenly confronted with that most awesome of problems - a self-contradictory God. Unbelief stumbles over such problems while mature faith waits to see how the distant recesses of the wisdom of God hidden form human reason and understanding will be made known. But the waiting can be excruciating and many people, rather than bear the pain, simply abandon the faith."

God bless with more of His grace for our season of waiting. He will answer. He will reveal His will and wisdom to us. Let's not settle for anything less than this. God bless you and your families this Advent and Christmas!

In God's Unshakable Love,

Mike

A Vision and Deepening Conviction

As we move into this season of Advent, truly a season of God-breakthrough in this world, I believe I am receiving and experiencing a deepening conviction and vision from God; something not merely for me and my family, but for the ARC, and beyond the ARC, for the body of Christ. It is related to the theme for the 2011 ARC Gatherings - Prayer - Ushering in a Kingdom Uprising.

Here it is: I believe the Lord longs to see an increase in the number of ARC members (and other followers of Jesus in the larger body of Christ) praying consistently and intentionally that we might experience an increase of God breakthroughs and answers, which will pull us, our families and churches, and not-yet Christians further out into the flow of God's purposes for our lives.

The very fact that prayer is the thing we so easily skip over, or limit in some way in our own lives and in our meetings of all sorts, may be a clue to its power; and why the enemy is so afraid of a praying church. For so many of us here in the West, though our words may not say it, our practice does: Prayer is not productive.

Programs, however, are productive - that's what our practice says we truly believe. I am not trying to dump on any of us, of come with some heavy, condemning, critical word. Don't abandon the programs God has called you to implement. But don't abandon prayer either. In fact, let's ratchet up our prayer a few notches. Let's ask God, as the disciples did, "Lord, teach us to pray," and then let's listen to what He says to us - and then let's obey what He says to us.

Prayer, not programs, is going to be the key in the coming years to our being an alliance of like-minded leaders and churches through whom God can think, speak, and act in the world for His Kingdom purposes. God is at work in the world. God is carrying out His mission. Prayer will position us to hear, cooperate, and participate with the Lord in what it is He is doing. Lord, teach us to pray! Lord, teach us to know and exercise in prayer the authority You have given us in the name of Christ!

Growing in Health and Wholeness is Not an Option in the ARC

During our ARC Midwest Gathering, speaker Lee Grady asked us, “Have you ever moved after twenty years or more, and in the process, pulled your refrigerator out? When you did, were you shocked when you saw all the gunk that was back there?” I have, and yes, there was a lot of gunk back there. And yes, I agree with Lee’s point that our lives can be like the gunk behind that refrigerator.

There can be old emotional pus wounds from the past that are influencing our present in unhelpful ways. There can be old defense mechanisms that once may have helped us survive but now need to be released. There may be strongholds, patterns of acting and reacting, that we run to when life gets stressful rather than running to Jesus. There may be unhelpful beliefs, even lies, which we have rationalized and justified with spiritual sounding language. Whatever it is, we need God’s transforming power to clean it out of our lives.

“Prayer will keep changing your life.” So said the words I read during my coffeetime with Jesus. Words penned by R.T. Kendall in his book, Did You Think to Pray?

“The Christian faith is the beginning not only of a relationship with God but also of an ongoing changing of your life. Paul calls it being changed from “glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18, KJV) which means being transformed into Christ’s image “from one degree of glory to another” (ESV). I am seventy-two years old as I write, and I would blush to tell you how much changing I am still having to do. It is embarrassingly wonderful. My first reaction is, ‘Lord, why didn’t You show me this before?’ or ‘Lord, how could You keep loving me so much when You knew all the time what horrible faults I have?’

When I retired from Westminster Chapel in 2002 at the age of sixty-six, I was not prepared for how much I would learn about God and myself in what is supposed to be my ‘retirement’ years. We never stop learning, and we never stop growing” (Kendall, pg. 31).

I want to be like R.T. Kendall when I grow up. I want to be that humble, that vulnerable, that teachable, that mold-able before the Lord. If R.T. Kendall realizes he still has changing to do, how much more do I? How much more do you? However, will we be as courageous as R.T.? Will we dare to admit that we still have changing to do, seek out safe place relationships, and with those friends, intentionally cooperate with the Lord so He can heal us, free us, and transform us by the power of Holy Spirit?

In the ARC, growing in relational, emotional and spiritual health and wholeness is not an option, Beloved; it is a must. It is a must because the people we have been called to lead and serve will catch more from who we are than what we have to say or teach.

Keep growing in health and wholeness. Don’t stop, don’t settle for less. The more healthy and whole we become the more we will speak, think, act, and lead like Jesus.

God bless you as you invite the Lord to work in your hearts; and as you cooperate with Him that we might be transformed more and more into the image of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen!

Spending Time with God Will Help Us Know Him and His Ways

Prayer helps us to get to know the true God. Moses said to God, “If you are pleased with me, teach me Your ways” (Ex 33:13).

R.T. Kendall writes: “My wife knows my ways. She frequently knows whether I will like a particular film, TV program, book, or person. She often knows how I will answer most questions put to me. She knows my ways. The main reason Louise knows my ways is because of the time we have spent together. We know each other’s ways. When you spend time with a person, you get to know them” (Kendall, Did You Think To Pray, p. 29).

God wants you and me to know His ways (see Josh 22:5; Isaiah 55:8-9); not the world’s ways, not the latest marketing technique ways, not the latest church fad - His ways. God wants us to know His ways and in knowing His ways, make decisions and take action out of revelation from Him; and that revelation may or may not reflect the latest hot fad in the world or the body of Christ today. But moving out of His revelation will keep us in step with God and His purposes being accomplished in and through us by His might, His Spirit.

The world’s ways and the latest marketing techniques often seem to produce fruit quickly. But will it be fruit that lasts? Will it be fruit that pleases Father? Will it be fruit that brings glory to Him? The world’s ways and the latest marketing techniques often seem to bring glory to us more quickly than they do to Father. In the ARC, there is only one person we want the glory to go to and that’s the Lord. In the ARC there is only one person we want getting the acclaim and the credit to go to, and that’s the Lord. In the ARC we want to be bragging on only one person, and that’s the Lord!

So, brothers and sisters, let’s be intentional about making time to be with the Lord. Maybe that’s your (or my) growing edge this year. Maybe that’s where God wants to be working in our lives right now. Maybe that’s where He wants to be helping us to reorder our priorities and schedules. If so, I urge us all to cooperate with Him.

I love spending time with my wife, Debi. I don’t have to force myself to make time for her. May that be the way it is with us, and the Lord; may it not be something we have to do, but want, long, crave, desire, to do.

Holy Spirit come and do whatever You need to do in us so that spending time with you, Jesus, and Father is something we want, long, crave and desire to do this year. And Lord, if it is true that you look favorably on us, let us know your ways so we may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen!

A Prayer of Revolution and Hope

In all this talk of "postmodernity" and "we have to do church differently" today, I fear we sometimes throw the baby out with the bathwater. With little or no reflection we turn our back on anchors of the faith that have served the Church well for centuries. For instance, with little or no reflective thought, some criticize the praying of the Lord's Prayer in our worship services, calling it merely vain repetition. Can it be that? Sure it can. But it doesn't have to be. Praying the "Our Father" can be a prayer of intentional warfare, a prayer of revolution, and a prayer of hope.

As I had my coffeetime with Jesus this morning, here are a few thoughts I read from N.T. Wright that may help breathe some freshness into praying the Lord's Prayer in your worship services this week:

The first occurrence in the Hebrew Bible of the idea of God as the Father comes when Moses marches in boldly to stand before Pharaoh, and says: Thus says the Lord: Israel is my first son, my firstborn; let my people go, that they may serve me (Ex 4:22-23). For Israel to call God “Father,” then, was to hold on to the hope of liberty. The slaves were called to be sons.

When Jesus tells His disciples to call God “Father,” those with ears to hear will understand. He wants us to get ready for the new Exodus. We are going to be free at last. This is the Advent hope, the hope of the coming of the Kingdom of God. The tyrant’s grip is going to be broken, and we shall be free. The very first word of the Lord’s Prayer, therefore (in Greek or Aramaic, “Father” would come first), contains within it not just intimacy, but revolution. Not just familiarity; but hope.

The national hope seemed to have slipped away for Israel; yet they clung on to the fact that God had said He would set them, His first born son, free. Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Egypt, Syria, and now Rome; when would the tyranny of evil end? When would Israel be free? The very first word of the Lord’s Prayer says: Let it be now; and let it be us. Father…Our Father…

The word “Father” concentrates our attention on the revolutionary message and mission of Jesus. It is the Exodus-message, the message that tyrants and oppressors rightly fear. But it isn’t a message of simple human revolution. Most revolutions breed new tyrannies; not this one. This is the Father’s revolution. It comes through the suffering and death of the Son. This revolution comes about through the Messiah, and His people, sharing and bearing the pain of the world, that the world may be healed.

At the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus says to His followers: As the Father sent me, so I send you (John 20:21). We live between Advent and Advent; between the first great Advent, the coming of the Son into the world, and the second Advent, when He shall come again in power and glory to judge the living and the dead. The first and second Advents are actually what Christianity is all about: celebrating the decisive victory of God, in Jesus Christ, over Pharaoh and the Red Sea, over sin and death – and looking for, and working for, and longing for, and praying for, the full implementation of that decisive victory.

Beloved, to pray the Lord’s Prayer in integrity, is not only a prayer of intimacy, it is a prayer of intentional warfare. To pray the “Our Father” is to be kicking at the darkness until it bleeds daylight. Let us join with millions upon millions of Christians around the world this week and pray this prayer of warfare. Let us recapture this anchor of our faith, breathe new life into it and continue to pass it on to new generations to come that we all may increasingly experience now between the Advents the benefits of God's Kingdom way of living life.

No Place for Narcissism

I am meeting with the Lord in the Gospel of Mark these days, and as Jesus and I were having coffee this morning my attention was arrested by the words of one commentator regarding John the Baptist in the opening verses of Mark, chapter one:

"Most of us find it difficult to identify with John the Baptist. He cuts directly across the grain of self-interest and the glamor of being Number One that continues to plague us. Think of it. If you were asked to choose the dominant symbol of our generation, what would it be? A flag, a cross, a missile, a television antenna, a dollar sign, a test tube, an oil barrel, a bloated belly, a handgun, an automobile, a peace symbol? My choice would be the sight of a forefinger pointed into the air and accompanied by the chant, 'We're number one.' The symbol, of course, comes from the world of sports, where winning has come dangerously close to being everything. More than a game is at stake in the symbol. Number One has come to symbolize the personal and national self-interest of the 'me' generation. Christopher Lasch sees these tendencies as self-destructive in his book, The Cult of Narcissism."

Oh Beloved, let us not allow any hint of narcissism to worm its way into our lives or ministries. Let us ask God to give us His grace and His healing that we might be so whole and holy that like John the Baptist the only One we point people to is Jesus Christ. Let Jesus be the only One we draw attention to in the ARC and at The Master's Institute; and let us be courageous enough to acknowledge where we need God's healing touch in our lives so that we are free of any need to draw attention to ourselves whatsoever. Let us refuse to rationalize and justify with spiritual words, a hidden desire to be the one to whom others are drawn to. Where we have an unwholesome, unmet need for validation, affirmation, and significance, let us ask God to bring healing and freedom so we are whole and holy enough to point other people to the One who can truly set them free - Jesus Christ.

There is no room in the ARC or in The Master's Institute for anything less. So, Beloved, have the courage today to pray the prayer David prayed in Psalm 139:23-24, and wherever God may show you some "grievous way" in you, find someone you trust, find someone who for you is a "safe place," find someone who will give you mature, godly counsel, not counsel that calms your itching ears, so that you can submit yourself to a work of God in you that brings healing, freedom and further maturity in your life.

In the end may it be said of the ARC and of The Master's Institute: They always pointed us toward Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.