Leadership Lessons from the Ant

Photo by jurvetson, Ants in Space!

“Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise . . .” –Proverbs 6:6

Every year at about this time in Virginia ants begin to invade. You may have experienced this before. As the weather gets nicer and the spring begins these little creatures wake up in the warmth and find their way indoors to look for food. Both in homes and in offices in Washington, DC and the surrounding suburbs, the ant’s takeover begins. These little creatures are nothing if not persistent.

If you watch the ant you can see they are disciplined, industrious, committed, hard-working, relentlessly crafty, and diligent. While looking at these creatures, it is also easy to reflect on Proverbs 6:6-11, which asks us to consider the ant and to be wise.

What does it mean to consider the ant? How would considering the ant’s ways make us wise?

Eugene Peterson’s The Message translation of scripture puts Proverbs 6:6-11 like this:

You lazy fool, look at an ant.

Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.

Nobody has to tell it what to do.

All summer it stores up food;

at harvest it stockpiles provisions.

So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing?

How long before you get out of bed?

A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,

sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?

Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,

poverty your permanent houseguest!

Here are ten things we can learn from Proverbs 6:6-11 and from watching the ant:

1. There is no value in an overindulgence of slothfulness.
2. There are lessons to be learned everywhere around us, so we should watch and learn.
3. No matter how small the source of a valuable lesson, the truth is monumental and invaluable.
4. We should be watchful and observant of what needs to be done and then do it.
5. If we wait for someone to tell us what to do, we may be too late and may have missed valuable opportunity.
6. Planning ahead is essential for life, for survival, and for success.
7. Doing nothing leads us to nothing.
8. Getting up is the first step and “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”
9. A day off is good, but if they outnumber our days on, we are just “oversleeping.”
10. Our present actions or inactions will determine our future.

So the next time we see an ant scurry across the kitchen floor at home, or across our desk at work, would we stop and consider this ant and its ways so that we can be wise.

Skipping Rocks

Photo Rock Skipping by -Aero-Lite

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." - Ephesians 3:17-18

"My wife Irene loves to skip rocks when we are backpacking in the mountains. Often we find ourselves at a river bank or at the edge of a mountain lake so that Irene can skip rocks. I usually find a place to rest and watch her as she skips rocks with childlike joy and wonder. The rocks skip across the water, the more skips the better, then they slow to a stop and sink to the bottom.

As I watched this for some time, it hit me that many us, go through life like skipping rocks. Many of us are skipping rocks in our relationships with God and with one another. We rush through life at such a pace that we hit the surface of interaction and relating to God and others and we bounce to the next person or the next big thing, only to bounce on . . . and on . . . and on. In the process we miss the depth and richness that God has for us. If only we were to slow down long enough, we would sink to the depth of relationship that God has in mind for each of us to have with Himself and with one another.

Paul relates this truth well in Ephesians 3:18 when he prays that the Church in Ephesus would 'have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ' for them. Would we also be given the power and ability to understand, grasp and sink to the depths of Christ's love for us and for one another.

Lord, we praise you for the depth of love that you have for us and for calling us into that depth of love for you and for one another. We confess that we often go through life like skipping rocks and barely skim the surface of what you have for us. Grant us Lord Jesus the power and presence of your Holy Spirit to slow us down and sink us to the depths of your love. Amen!

Church of the Epiphany Partners with Souper Bowl of Caring for the Sixth Year

This past Super Bowl Sunday, February 6^th 2011, Church of the Epiphany in Herndon Virginia participated in the Souper Bowl of Caring for their sixth year. The Souper Bowl of Caring is a national organization dedicated to supporting charities that feed the hungry and help the homeless across the nation and all over the globe. As of today, February 8, 2011, over five million dollars has been raised to help people in need.

The way the Souper Bowl of Caring works is through local congregations leveraging the excitement of the Super Bowl on Super Bowl Sunday by holding soup pots after Sunday services and collecting financial donations and canned goods for their charity of choice. Church of the Epiphany collected donations after their 8:00am and 10:00am services. They supported Western Fairfax Christian Ministries again this year and raised $372.00 and over 75 canned goods during their collection.

To celebrate the collection the Youth Ministries at Epiphany threw a Super Bowl Party where they collected more canned goods, watched the game, and had dinner and fellowship together. Over 47 people participated in the Super Bowl Party and Celebration and a wonderful time was had by all who participated, proving that service and celebration fit together beautifully!

According to the Souper Bowl of Caring web site, thousands of youth from churches all across the country tackled hunger on Super Bowl Sunday. Over 4,955 groups have participated so far. In 2010, youth across the country generated over $10 million for local charities through the Souper Bowl of Caring. In 2011, they hope to mobilize even more youth and generate even more money for those in need.

No matter the size of your congregation, or of your youth group, you can help provide shelter to the homeless, food to the hungry, and compassion to the needy by joining the Souper Bowl of Caring. So join the movement and act on Jesus’ call to care for our neighbors by going online today and check out the Souper Bowl of Caring: http://souperbowl.org/about/.

Relenting to the Will of God

Photo by SnapshotsofthePast.com

“And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” –Acts 26:14

When I was studying to be a cabinet maker at a trade school connected with my local high school, we learned a lot about wood and how to cut it, shape it, and finish it into cabinets. One of the most important safety lessons that we learned is that “kickback” is the number one cause of injury in a wood shop.

Kickback is a strong violent reaction that a saw has when wood binds the blade of the saw that is being used. This can occur due to operator error or through natural phenomena. When kickback happens, the saw can throw wood across a shop or into the operator, or into another person, and can severely injure or even kill them. A person can also be cut as a result of kickback if a saw gets out of their control.

In our relationship with God, kickback is also hazardous and is a momentous danger for the believer. The difference is that this type of “kickback” is not an “accident,” or a natural phenomenon, as much as it is operator error, or disobedience to the will of God. When we kickback against the will of God there is great consequence and risk to our lives, to the lives of others, and to our faith.

Saul experienced reprimand from Jesus for kicking back against His will on the road to Damascus. Saul was persecuting Christians and going against the will of God and going against His people. When Jesus met up with Saul on the road to Damascus, He said: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”

In the Greek culture there was a proverb that spoke of “kicking against the prick,” or “kicking against the goad.” This meant going against what was required or against what was right or expected. We have a modern saying in our culture that is synonymous: “Going against the grain.”

A prick or goad was a long stick with a piece of sharpened iron fastened to the end of it. It was used to prod, goad, or spur mature oxen to do their work. If the oxen got off course or went or did something that they were not supposed to do, the plowman or worker would goad the oxen and it would be unpleasant. The oxen would then get back on track. If the oxen were stubborn, did not take the redirection, and kicked back against the prick, the result would be injury and would be even more unpleasant.

Often times in our lives, in our faith, and in our ministries, we “go against the grain.” We kick against the prick. We go against the will of our God. The result is not good. Going against God’s will can be devastating to our lives, to the lives around us, and to our faith. God has a direction and a way that He is trying to lead us that is best for us. God is leading. If we, like Paul and those with him, were to fall to the ground in humility and hear Him, then we would be far better off.

May we follow God’s will for our lives and not kickback at God. Would we be obedient to the will of God and not kick against the prick, the provoking of our Lord.

From Fear to Fathered

Photo by dryhead

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” –Romans 8:15

It has been said that this current generation is a “fatherless generation.” According to the 2010 census, 34% of children under 18 do not live in a 2-parent household. Fatherlessness can lead to all sorts of fears and insecurities. Many people without fathers experience loneliness, a feeling of danger, distrust, and being unsure of life’s unpredictability and uncertainty.

Fear is an emotion that has relentlessly haunted humanity since the garden and the fall. It began with distrust of the Father’s love and our disobedience forcing its way onto the scene. The result of this fall was our hiding from our true Father out of our guilt and shame. We have been hiding in fear ever since then, “fatherless.”

God, in His love and mercy, chose not to abandon us, disappoint us, or fail us, as some of our earthly fathers have. God has sought us out in our hiding. When he found us, He drew us gently toward Himself, in His great mercy and love, in order to restore us and give us His resurrection life. As Jesus said in John 6:34, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

While we were rebelling against a Holy God and hiding in fear and shame, God gave us His Spirit to eradicate all our fears and insecurities and to adopt us as His very own sons and daughters, allowing us once again to walk with Him in the cool of the day and call him “Papa!” or “Abba, Father!” never to have to fear again.

Jesus, thank you for drawing us to yourself through your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your resurrection life, and for adopting us as your children, removing all our fears. May we allow you to be our ‘Abba, Father,’ listen to your teaching, and enjoy your everlasting life. Amen.

Courage vs. Fear in the New Year

"Fear is the mind killer." - Dune

Photo: By Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." -2 Timothy 1:7

In our day and age, especially in the Washington DC area, fear is an extremely powerful emotion. Fear can drive us to our automatic “fight or flight responses” that are designed to protect us. Fear can also paralyze us so that we cannot “move,” make decisions, or live “normally” or healthily. Fear can cripple us relationally and professionally. Fear can lead us away from boldly making intentional and well thought out decisions. Fear can send us running in the wrong direction, or in all directions, aimlessly, and unintentionally. Fear is deadly and must be dealt with.

A well known minister of the gospel and author A.W. Tozer said, “The prevailing attitudes of fear, distrust and unrest permeating our world are known to all of us. But in God's plan some of us also know a beautiful opposite: the faith and assurance found in the church of Jesus Christ. God still has a restful ‘family’ in His church." Tozer recognized, even in his day, the power of fear and its default position in our lives. He also recognized that God’s church is to be different. God’s people are to be the “beautiful opposite” of fear. The church is to be faithful, assured, and restful as God’s family.

The scriptures teach us so much about fear. We are instructed many times by God not to fear and it is clear from scripture that fear is not of the Lord. In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul instructs Timothy that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but has given us the Spirit of power, love, and of sound mind. This is God’s will and the result of God’s Spirit at work in His church. God’s design is that the believer not be fearful but that they are powerful, loving, and of sound mind.

As we enter into a new year, would we be courageous as God’s church. Would we be “beautifully opposite” of fear and live faithful, assured, and restful lives that are filled with power, love, and of sound mind as we live as God’s family. May we, as Tozer put it, “Only fear being out of the will of God.”

Plans for a New Year

Photo by cory schmitz

A new year is right around the corner. For many this is a time of anticipation and joy for a new beginning. For others it can be a time of introspection and reflection. Some are excited to reflect on the year gone by while others are filled with regret. Many look forward to change and a fresh start. Others require change and a fresh start out of necessity from a year gone badly. As A.W. Tozer puts it, “For some of us last year was one in which we did not acquit ourselves very nobly as Christians, considering the infinite power available to us through the indwelling Spirit.”

The start of a new year can be strange. This is almost an arbitrary time of ending and beginning as the close of our calendar year sets upon us and the beginning of another year transitions in seamlessly. The temptation of any day, or year, can be to go about life as we always have. Many go from one day to the next and from one year to the next year without much reflection, anticipation, planning, or change. Proverbs 26:11 speaks of this tendency, concerning those default tendencies that should not bear repeating, the verse says, “As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”

So how should we approach new beginnings; be it the beginning of a new year, or the beginning of a new day? The Psalmist David, in Psalm 138:8, writes: “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever— do not abandon the works of your hands.” The apostle Paul also makes it clear, as David does in Proverbs, that it is God who works out His will, purpose, plans, and good works in our lives. Paul states, in Philippians 1:6, “There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.”

The New Year is a great time to make a new beginning and to start again. It’s a great time for reflection and for planning for the future. We can learn as much from our mistakes and failures as we can from our successes and achievements from the previous year. All these can propel us, with God’s strength and power at work in us, to move us forward. As Tozer goes on to say, “But through the goodness of God we may go to school to our failures. The person of illuminated mind will learn from their mistakes, yes even from their sins. If their heart is trusting and penitent, they can be a better person next year for last year's fault—but let them not return again to folly.”

We know that next year, with God’s help, will be a good year filled with all the goodness of God’s perfect plan and will; knowing that God has begun this good work in us and He will see it out to completion. May we trust it to be so as we follow the Lord Jesus into a new year in 2011!

Happy New Year!

Robbie

Bibliography

Peterson, Eugene H.: The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, Colo. : NavPress, 2002, S. Php 1:6

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ps 138:8

Tozer, A.W. Topical Reader. WORDsearch Corp. © 1998, 2007

Leadership: Imitation, climbing the coconut tree

Photo by Robbie Pruitt

"pye kokoye"—What climbing coconut trees can teach us about leadership and discipleship.

In Haiti coconut trees are abundant. These tall trees present a challenge if you want to enjoy the delicious coconuts that they produce. Coconut trees can grow up to 30 meters tall, or about 98 feet. This makes getting to the coconuts at the top of the tree a very difficult and arduous task. In order for the Haitian people, or anyone else, to enjoy coconuts, someone has to climb the coconut tree. This can be a dangerous and daunting task.

Haitians are skilled climbers and can shimmy up a coconut tree barefooted, with machete in tow, with ease, skill, and precision. This is not a skill that an ordinary or average American possesses. How does someone learn a skill like this? There is hardly room for error forty to ninety feet up in a tree slinging a two foot blade at a cluster of coconuts.

If you visit Haiti an answer to how one learns to climb coconut trees comes into focus, and clarity can be gained. The Haitian people take great pride in learning and teaching and you can often observe a young Haitian boy or girl watching their parents or neighbors as they work. There is as much education going on in the normal day to day activities as there is during regular school hours. Young Haitian boys study their fathers as they climb the coconut tree; they watch and observe, they stand closely and study every move, they imitate their fathers.

Photo by Robbie Pruitt

Leadership and discipleship have everything to do with imitation. As leaders we are to be what we want to see in others, so that in imitating us, people look like what we want them to become. As leaders, we reproduce in others who we are. If we want to see in others what we would have them become, then we must exhibit these same traits ourselves. We must "climb the coconut tree of leadership” to develop leaders who can “climb the coconut tree of leadership.”

Jesus models this imitation for us in John 5:19-20 when he said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.” Jesus imitates the Father. He does what he sees the Father doing. If we are to make disciples, develop leaders, and help lead others to Jesus, we must be doing what we see Jesus doing, through His power, work, and grace in us.

The Apostle Paul modeled this imitation as well, and imitated Jesus’ imitation in the above verses, in his ministry with the church in Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 11:1-3, Paul asked the Corinthians to “Imitate him, just as he also imitates Christ.” He goes on to say, “Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ.”

Paul is exhorting the Corinthian church to do what he does as he imitates Jesus. This is effective only as long as Paul is imitating Jesus. His desire for the Corinthian Church and for us is that we remember the entirety of all he has taught us and that we recognize Jesus as the “head” or the leader that we should all be ultimately following and imitating.

May we "climb the coconut tree of leadership,” imitating Jesus, recognizing that others are watching us follow Jesus as we lead, and that they are eager to learn to follow Jesus and to lead as well.

Finally, may we rest in this blessing from Hebrews 6:9-12 as we imitate our Lord: “Beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. . . For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Bibliography

The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1982, S. Jn 5:19-20

The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1982, S. 1 Co 11:1-3

The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1982, S. Heb 6:9-12