MENTORING: Spiritual Fathers & Mothers

Larry Kredier’s book on The Cry For Spiritual Fathers and Mothers says it all. It is a cry. The deep longing and need of the human heart for love, acceptance, affirmation, and guidance is a part of our makeup as human beings and it is no lesser needed on a spiritual level than on a physical. The absence of fathers and mothers is acutely felt in today’s leadership. Young leaders go from conference to conference to learn as much as they can about the “how to’s” and “must do’s” of ministry, but a void is present if you look deep enough.

I would suggest that this void is also present in the lives of those senior to us in the faith. In our Disney church society where many on stage are under 30, the older generation in the Western world often feels too geriatric to continue to make a difference and their wisdom is many times unappreciated. One of the older women in my church came to me yesterday and said, “Pastor Cindy, give me something to do.” Though we were joking around about her helping me with the menial task of moving books, I knew she was wanting something deeper, something more significant that she could do with her life, time and experience.

 

 

What struck me about the mentoring relationship between Paul and Timothy was how personally Paul saw mentoring and the deep love and care he had for those he mentored by calling them his sons. They were family to him and he was there to help guide them but also to receive from them as well. He was proud of them and their work and that pride gave them a deep sense of affirmation and confidence.

There exists today a desperate cry for fathers and mothers from this next generation. I, for one, will respond.

SELF-AWARENESS

“Let the person without sin cast the first stone.”

-Jesus

Raise a Hallelujah-The Power of Praise

MORNING MEDITATION- Please join me!
I raise a hallelujah, in the presence of my enemies 🥁
I raise a hallelujah, louder than the unbelief 📣
I raise a hallelujah, my weapon is a melody 🎼
I raise a hallelujah, heaven comes to fight for me 💪🏽

May you be encouraged and strengthened by God today to raise a hallelujah in your most challenging situations and see God’s hand of mercy come to your rescue. Today, my weapon is a melody.

Sing the song that God has written on your heart! 

 

Shaping the Journey of Emerging Adults- Book Review

Dunn and Sundene establish “the three pillars of identity formation: love, work and ideology” (110) as a pattern among emerging leaders and I believe that the balance between the three make up a healthy identity; each one is equal to the other and plays a vital role. Love played out in our relationships; work as an expression of our God-given talents and skills; ideology as our belief in God and how we perceive and engage the world.

I can think of no better time than now for Paul Tillich’s message of “the courage to be” to be propagated in the fashion of Dr. Martin Luther King (124). When speaking of identity, I find one of its most challenging tests comes when you stand for what you believe in while still respecting others. Dr. King’s presence of mind while in the midst of chaos and riots was astounding. The depth of his conviction based on God’s Word and the dignity of every human being speaks to my heart of a man who knew God and who made a righteous stand in his unjust social context. Civility and mutual respect are being sidelined as an all-out assault is being waged for the young emerging mind.

The age distribution being nineteen to thirty-five for the emerging adult surprised me (17). I wondered if this wasn’t based more on Western cultures as in other cultures it would seem that the age would be younger. This leads me to consider how the emerging adult sees and engages responsibility in a generally narcissistic and noncommittal Western environment.

Dunn, Richard R. and Jana L. Sundene. 2012. Shaping the Journey of Emerging Adults: Life-       giving Rhythms for Spiritual Transformation. Downer Grove, Il : InterVarsity Press.

Preserving Culture *

Culture cradles the story of each people group and is the blueprint of identity. To erase culture is to erase identity. In an interview with Live Science, Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London, provides us with this definition, “Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we greet visitors, how we behave with loved ones, and a million other things.”

As a former missionary to Spain and a current student of global leadership, I champion the preservation of local culture as an indicator of the traditions and beliefs of each nation which make them unique. I lived in Spain for almost 3 decades and the people and culture of Spain enriched my life as I respected and adapted to their customs.

¡Viva España! #flamenco #olé #arte

Experiencing the Trinity – Devotional Book Review

Johnson, Darrell W. 2002. Experiencing the Trinity. Vancouver, British Columbia: Regent College Publishing.

Chapter 1 – Finding the Trinity

That God is one, but not so much in the sense of digit or number, but rather in “once for all”, “unique” (22) sheds light on the subject of the Trinity beyond grappling with a number. I was aware of Elohim as a plural noun, His “three-fold-ness” (16), but not that it is always followed by a singular verb. The facts of the Trinity are interwoven throughout Scripture and when I encounter them, they lead me to worship the resurrected Christ (15).

Chapter 2 – Understanding the Trinity

Relationship and community are central to the universe as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are central to reality (37). I cannot find examples in nature for the divine Godhead but rather “in God’s self-revelation” (45) and as we, the church, are called to preserve rather than resolve the mystery (40). “To be is to be related” (O’Donnell 1983) appears to me to be the antithesis of, or at least parallel to, Descartes’ “I think; therefore I am”.

Chapter 3 – Joining the Trinity

 I find myself in communion with the Trinity as you draw me to yourself and reveal to me who you are (60). You are not solitary or isolated, but forever in relationship, in community, in fellowship (61). If “God is love” (I John 4:8), the nature of God beckons us to join him in fellowship for love cannot exist in solitary, only in relationship (62). As disciples, being “co-lovers with God of God, with God of one another, with God of the world” (64) gives our meaning and purpose.

Chapter 4 – Entering the Trinity

Darrell Johnson refers to being with the Trinity “within the circle” (74) which reminds me of Psalm 25:14,”The secret counsel of the LORD is for those who fear Him, and He reveals His covenant to them.” Apart from a sense of intimacy with the Lord, the idea of the round table of God comes to mind as He reveals his covenants, his secrets to us. I believe it is within this circle of intimacy with the Lord that he reveals himself where the us-ness is experienced (73). The “rich inter-connectedness”  shared within the Trinity is ours to know and enjoy (78). In this inter-connectedness I find the inner issues of being, doing and belonging come full circle as I “live and move and have my being” in You (Acts 17:27-28). There is no longer a sense of groping in the dark as he reveals himself.

Chapter 5 – Experiencing the Trinity

There is something to quieting ourselves, as the Psalmist says, in the presence within the circle of the triune God to simply know him intimately and openly (Psalm 46:10). Within the circle there is no more striving, but rather an experiencing, an enjoyment of fellowship with the Community. I am at rest. To experience the Trinity in prayer, or as Johnson says, to “pray the Trinity,” (91) is to not only direct your prayer to God, but to experience Him in it. To join with him in the fellowship that is in him. It is interesting to note how Johnson, in reference to the six movements of Paul’s prayer that starts and finishes with him calling on his “big God” (92) for the church at Ephesus, that all six points begin the same way, “I ask the Father to grant you out of the riches of his glory…” (93-100). Paul must have experienced something of those riches and intimacy with the Fellowship.

Chapter 6 – Epilogue

The Nicene Creed- Amen.

Conclusion – Reflection on the Experience

Experiencing the Trinity introduced me to the experience of the triune God in a way that is intimate and powerful. Going beyond the traditional approach of attempting to figure out the best way to explain the triune God with our limited finite ability helped me to tap into a deeper sense of experience where my mind gave way and I was able to experience Community within the circle deep in my heart. Johnson’s reference to Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians made it come alive and I was able to see things that I had never seen before and taste for myself something new in prayer with God. Sitting here quietly on my sofa, I have a renewed sense of the Holy and a burning desire to always have present the us-ness and to not offend God with small prayers. I am reminded of how we are made in God’s image and how that image is one of relationship, fellowship, and community. Knowing this is healing my heart of the pain of isolation.

            Father, I derive my name from You. I acknowledge my weakness. Strengthen me with power through your Spirit in my inner being. May I be rooted and established in Love and grasp all it’s dimensions to the full. (Ephesians 3) Amen.

Additional works cited:

O’Donnell, John. 1983. Trinity and Temporality. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

By Cindy Vermillion