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Wisdom from spiritual mentor: Part 2
I have been fortunate and blessed to have three tremendous mentors in ministry who have guided me, warned me, coached me, prayed for me, and were selfless enough to even watch me flourish. I would like to tell you about each of these men individually and encourage all of us toward some shared action steps at the end of each article. In this second installment of a 3 part article series, I would like to tell you about Chris Adams.
3 pieces of advice from my spiritual mentor
I have been fortunate and blessed to have tremendous mentors in my ministry who have guided me, warned me, coached me, prayed for me, and were selfless enough to even watch me flourish. I would like to tell you about one of these men and encourage all of us toward some shared action steps.
Am I listening?
My buddy and I were sitting by the community pool watching our sons swim when he tells me the craziest story about a work situation. Short version: He was going to record an interaction with a boss who’d been giving him fits. So he hits “record,” walks through an empty hallway, walks by the boss’ office, has a quick and harmless interaction, and heads out to his car — recording wasn’t necessary. Where the story went from ho-hum to hair-on-your-neck-stands-up is on the recording.
What baseball teaches us about change & growth
I love baseball but can barely watch the sport these days. At some point, teams began to shift infielders from traditional positions on the field to these lopsided defensive positions based on hitters’ tendencies. With a left-handed batter, like David Ortiz when he played for the Sox, a team would have three fielders on the first base side and one hovering just away from second base on the third base side of the field. Because of these calculated alignments, batters have a completely open opposite side of the field to which they can hit the ball. And that’s where I start getting annoyed.
Welcoming the critics
My wife, Natalie, was about to criticize me. She prepared me for it. She assured me it wasn’t personal. She even confessed that she might not be right in what she was about to share. And then she said, “From my perspective, I think you…”
I was busted. She was right – and she loved me enough to say something.
Lessons from The Grinch
In a year of true controversy and arguing with loved ones in person and “friends” on social media about masks, politics and why the Sox traded Mookie, I’ve got one more question that could spark some controversy and heightened feelings:
Which of the Grinch movies is your favorite?
Know your town: The key to starting ministry in a new location
I was coaching a church planter recently who is soon to move to the community where he is going to plant his life, his family and his sense of mission for years to come. He has sought the Lord for a long time, and is now only days until he lives in the city and plants the church for which God has been preparing him. In our conversation I asked him, “What are you going to do first when you get there and get everything unpacked?”
Becoming an inefficiency expert in relationships
COVID-19 totally changed my pastoral rhythms. It seemed like the weekly tasks quadrupled! I felt like what was once 45-50 hours per week in a pre-COVID world became 60 or 70 hours per week in spring and summer. I learned to cut corners and do in 10 minutes what once took 15. Because traffic was less dense, I could get to a spot in 30 minutes that once took 50. Every trip and every task became an area where I was looking to save time and energy — get things done with excellency but increased attention to efficiency. I felt like one of those bike riders in the Tour de France, speeding downhill through the Alps, trying to lean into the bends and turns just right at terrifyingly blistering speeds, saving inches to beat an opponent by seconds or less.
Kingdom collaboration: raising, maintaining and honoring partners
Anything Kingdom-sized in our lives and ministries will require Kingdom collaboration. While I have learned so much over the past twelve years of church planting, including four years of planting in New England, that one reality would be near the top of my list.
Sacrificial leadership gives a glimpse of Christ’s character
How much Netflix have you watched during COVID-19? Or Prime Video, Hulu, or Disney Plus? Be honest. I’m not telling you how much I’ve watched because I don’t want to cause you to stumble into judging me! But I will say that the best thing I’ve watched during this time of lockdown and social distancing, hands down, has been The English Game on Netflix. I’ve never been a big fan of soccer or Downton Abbey, and this show is basically a mash-up of those two, but for some reason, it drew me in like a neon light beckoning a moth.
The poison of deflecting credit while shouldering blame
Everything that could go wrong did. It was bound to happen at least once during COVID-19, and the Sunday before Memorial Day was our day.
Wineskins and new wine: Preparing for our future
As I mentioned in a previous blog, pastors and leaders (and, frankly, all Christ-followers) will not have the post-COVID-19 luxury of returning to pre-COVID-19 ministry norms...the "old wineskins." Contrary to what common sense would tell us, however, neither will we have the luxury of combining our pre-COVID and during-COVID practices to chart our way forward; pragmatically stitching two old wineskins together will result in the tearing of the skins and the spilling of the new wine given by God.
This realization forces the question: What should we be preparing for? We can't even plan because we don't fully know what is ahead, but we can prepare so when the future becomes the present, we have been thinking critically and anticipating what could be.
Wineskins and new wine in a post-COVID-19 culture
COVID-19 has changed everything. As technology has changed at light speed over the past few decades, the Church in our country has been blessed to be insulated from seismic changes. Of course, before COVID-19, we added some online platforms and adjusted in mission as technology improved and the Church realized we’d moved from the center of culture to the periphery. (In truth, we were always more peripheral than we wanted to admit, but over the past couple of decades we’ve reframed our missional approach in light of our decreasing authority and influence.)
Discipleship training wheels
I taught my boys how to ride bikes recently, and I was pretty pumped about it. I was beaming. Natalie was bragging on them. (I was slightly jealous I didn’t hear more bragging on me.)
The three percent
Our family arrived in Charlestown in late 2016 to plant our lives and a church. We took photos, found our coffee shop and grocery store, discovered a park our boys loved and began to navigate Boston driving. But one thing we needed to settle on was how to meet people. If we were going to plant a church, who did we need to meet; where and when would we meet them; and how many people should we meet?