VISION NEW ENGLAND

It is amazing what can come to you once you stop grasping and get grateful.

"Always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father."  Colossians 3:15-17 (NLT)

Gratitude is cardinal Christian virtue, and an essential part of the inner character and spiritual armor of a godly leader. The word itself is derived from the Latin word gratia which means grace. Gratitude is essentially synonymous with grace.

The grace of gratitude in a leader’s life has both a public and a private dimension. Constantly expressing humble gratitude and heartfelt thanksgiving in your daily communion with God is absolutely essential to spiritual health and vitality (Psalm 100). Like Paul, we should celebrate in awesome wonder the fact that God has loved us, saved us, and entrusted us to share the glorious good news of the gospel of Christ (1 Timothy 1:12).

The public dimension of gratitude has to do with outward expression. The scripture says open rebuke is better than secret love (Proverbs 27:5). In other words, it is better to be angry at someone and tell it than to love someone and hide it! Simply said, if you love someone – say so! If you appreciate someone – tell them so!  You must never keep gratitude secret.

A grateful leader is a great grace to the church. He leads with a gracious spirit and cultivates a gracious spirit in others. A church with a grateful and gracious spirit possesses a unique and powerful magnetism to attract and hold both sinners and saints to the redemptive community of Christ.

An ungrateful leader generates an atmosphere which thwarts the growth, health, and progress of the church. A thriving vital church will always elude such a leader, in spite of the his gifts, intelligence, the correctness of his doctrine or any other skill he possesses because his heart is seriously and fundamentally out of step with the heart of God.

Gratitude is synonymous with grace but scripture defines ingratitude as a symptom and characteristic of depravity (Romans 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:2).

Some signs of ingratitude:

• Frequent complaining about the church to God, spouse, others
• Preaching emphasizes shortcomings without celebrating strengths
• Frequently asking for more, infrequently expressing thanks and appreciation
• Living and leading with one eye open for a better ministry “opportunity”
• An interior life which is restless, anxious, not content, not at peace.
• Leadership which depresses and repels people.

Some signs of gratitude:

• Constant, heartfelt thanks in personal prayer and worship
• A positive view of God, presenting the gospel in a winsome way.
• A positive view of people. Seeing others as God sees them. Celebrating what is good.
• An interior life which is serene and stable, a heart which is at rest. 
• Leadership which attracts, encourages, and inspires people.

Vertical Thanks, Horizontal Praise

When a leader chooses intentional gratitude in the private dimension of his life with God and purposes to communicate gratitude in the public dimension of his life with people, he catalyzes change in both dimensions; his heart enlarges with more Christ-like love and the positive atmosphere in the church and tells members and onlookers that this is a place where love is real and great things are possible.

The Gracious Fruit of Gratitude

The last church I served started with just 42 very average folks. One of the commitments we made early on was to be grateful for the church God had given us. Every week in prayer we made it a point to tell the Lord how thankful we were for all of the grace in our little congregation. This same attitude was continually pressed upon the congregation. We preached boldly and without fear - but we never pressured people or chided them for not doing more. Instead, we celebrated grace and lovingly invited them to join us in what God was doing.  Before long, our church became a place that people loved to go to, in part because the atmosphere was positive and uplifting. Of course we always wanted to grow, but we avoided impatience, hype, and pressure, beginning with our own hearts as leaders. We learned to live in a spirit of gratitude and  in the end we saw the fruit of our faith. My last Easter service there had over 700 people in attendance and saw 31 people receive Christ. It is amazing what can come to you once you stop grasping and get grateful.

Gratitude is Essential to Victory

It is utterly impossible to be spiritually victorious in ministry or in any part of our lives apart from a heart which is grounded and guarded by gratitude. Dr. John Piper expresses this beautifully in a sermon entitled “Guard yourself with Gratitude” ¹ 

“Imagine for a moment that your city is surrounded by enemy forces who aimed to destroy you. And you are aware that enemy sympathizers live and work in the city with a view to undermining the city's defenses. And suppose you discover that there is a song which the enemy and their sympathizers cannot tolerate or approach. Whenever they hear it, they pull back and run the other direction.

Isn't it certain that you would want to learn this song? And after you learned it, you would sing it when you went to bed at night and when you got up in the morning. You would sing it on the way to work, and whenever you were among strangers. And as your confidence grew you would even venture outside the city and sing it as you walked boldly through the enemy lines on your way to another town. The more deeply embedded in your mind the song became, the more steady and deep and serene and fearless your life would become. Others would see and hear and learn the song from you. And in the end you would conquer the enemy, and there would be no threat at all.”

And what is this “song which defeats the enemy”? Dr. Piper goes on to say,

 “...thankfulness is an essential guardian of the soul, and therefore we should guard ourselves with gratitude. Evidently we are fair game for the devil when we don't abound with thanksgiving. Unless the song of thanksgiving is being sung in our hearts the enemy outside will deceive his way into the city of our soul, and the enemy sympathizers within will make his job easy. So for the sake of your own safety, strive to fill your heart with thanksgiving! Guard yourselves with gratitude!” ¹

Gratitude is not Passive

Being grateful for what you have does not mean being passive or not wanting more for the kingdom of God. It is not a “Pollyanna” view of life which ignores problems and turns a blind eye to sin. Quite the contrary! A grateful leader wants everything God wants for the church and the world. But the grateful leader does not waste time on unproductive behavior or embrace uncharitable attitudes. He does not indulge in wishful thinking about how much better things would be if he only had a better building, more money, brighter people! The patient and grateful leader does not look down on people; he cannot do so because he genuinely loves them, even the difficult ones.

The grateful leader is not unaware of the challenges facing him but he refuses to let a negative awareness dominate his heart attitude. The sins which concern him most are the ones he sees in his own heart; so he leads in love and humility. He knows the forces of darkness gain strength with ingratitude; so he decimates them by grace with a thankful heart.

Embrace The Grace of Gratitude

The first and greatest command is to love God fully and to love people genuinely (Matthew 22:38). If you really love God and your church it cannot help but show. Practice gratitude in your worship life with God. Give thanks continually (Heb. 13:15). Let people know you love and appreciate them too! Use words and deeds.

Keep your eye on the future but always be profoundly grateful for today. You must be thankful for what you have if you ever hope to be entrusted with more.  The grace of gratitude will keep your heart and your ministry healthy.

¹ Guard Yourself with Gratitude, By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

(blog posting by Steve Poole, Director of VNE Spiritual Leadership Ministry)

Pursuing Individual and Congregational Self-Awareness

There are two important things a leader must always remember. The first is that God knows what He is doing. The second is that God has already given you everything you need to do everything He wants you to do right now.  Do you believe this?

It is a fundamental truth that God has gifted every church (1 Corinthians 12:11).  This means every congregation is a storehouse of spiritual gifts. Too many leaders indulge themselves in fruitless wishing for the gifts they want to see in the church.  But the Scripture says God has set gifted believers in the church as it pleased Him.

Remember this. You may not have the talent or the resources to do everything  you want right now, but God has given gifts and the presence of those particular gifts should shape your ministry agendafor the present.  It is of the utmost importance that you understand this.

Discerning your church’s giftedness helps you discern your mission and calling.You must look at your church and ask:

• Who has God brought here? 
• Who is God bringing here? 
• How has He gifted them? 
• What are the predominant gifts in our body? 
• What do our predominant gifts suggest about our capacity to serve?

Predominant Gifts

Every congregation I have been a part of had certain predominant gifts.  Discerning predominant gifts is not difficult; once you have gone through the process of discernment it is a matter of simple math.  As you tabulate the results of your spiritual gifts discovery process you will find that your congregation has a larger number of persons with certain specific gifts.  Depending on the outcome of the discovery process, you may find it helpful to identify the top two or three gift groups.  Here is a simple example, based on a congregation of 100 persons, and using just five gifts as a model:

Spiritual Gifts                # individuals with this gift

Mercy                                               40                               

Giving                                              10

Evangelism                                      5

Teaching                                        13

Helps                                              32                   

Based on this fictional model we can see that in this particular congregation, the most predominant spiritual gift is Mercy (40), followed by Helps (32), then Teaching (13), and so on.  From this information a leader can discern how to work with what God is already doing in this congregation.  The gifts profile of this church strongly infers the wisdom of developing a ministry strategy to mobilize people around the gifts of Mercy and Helps.  If this information is even reasonably accurate, the pastor or church leader pursuing ministry along these lines would most likely find a good number of people ready to get on board, and the people involved would find fulfillment as they rightly discern and respond to God’s calling to ministry and service.  Most importantly, others would be shown the love of Christ as the church mobilizes and deploys its greatest asset – the people of God.  As the people step out in response to God’s calling and the clear strategic plans of their leaders, the work of the ministry gets done and the body will grow and be built up.  This means more people will be added to the church with different gifts and thus more possibilities for diverse ministry.

This is not rocket science; it is not new information.  Yet it is surprising to find just how many leaders will dismiss or overlook this clear pathway to congregational awareness and ministry engagement and as a result struggle with frustration and immobility.  A leader who wants to avoid this pitfall must cherish one simple rule:

You can only lead the church you have, not the church you wish you had.

Too many church leaders are guilty of attempting to impose a vision on the church which was not prayerfully developed in the context of realistic congregational self-awareness.  If you want to go forward you have to start where you are. Ignore this simple wisdom and you will frustrate yourself and everybody else in the process; respect it and you will almost always begin to get ministry traction.

A Final Word

Realistic Self-Awareness

To understand your capacityto serve is to have a spiritually realistic understanding of yourself and your church body.  Stated simply, our gifts and our aspirations must be congruent if we are to experience life and ministry grounded in reality.

What is congruence? The (Latin) root of the word congruō means to meet together or to agree.

• When our gifts and our aspirations agree we have found our calling.
• When our gifts and aspirations do not agree we are dissonant (out of tune)
• Grandiose ambitions and a conspicuous disconnect between our gifts and aspirations is usually a sign of immaturity, not faith.
• This applies to both individuals and congregations (SELAH).

Pursuing Individual and Congregational Self-Awareness

How to begin

Vision ONE is a transformational ministry process that has been designed to help local churches develop a church “culture” within which disciple-making becomes a more normative and expected part of everyday Christian life.  This process provides a customized disciple-making solution developed around specific biblical principles.  It is a localized solution that takes into account the individual context, demographics, needs and gifting of each church. To learn more about how you and your church can experience the benefits of Vision ONE, click here.

(blog posted by Steve Poole, VNE Director of Spiritual Formation)

You have need of patience so that when you have done the will of God,  you will receive what he has promised. Hebrews 10:36 (NIV)

What’s Your Vision?

This is one of the questions most frequently asked of church leaders and it reveals a lot about our prevailing mindset. We are future oriented; sometimes so much so that we are impatient in the present. Impatience in a leader usually looks something like this:

• I am discontent with where we are right now.
• I am anxious  to get to a better future. 
• Hence, I am impatient in the present!

Everyone of us has felt this way, but when impatience becomes a prevailing attitude it sickens our souls and deadens the ministry.Impatience with the process of change is a leading cause of pastoral failure.

I think the besetting sin of pastors, maybe especially evangelical pastors, is impatience. We have a goal. We have a mission. We're going to save the world. We're going to evangelize everybody, and we're going to do all this good stuff and fill our churches. This is wonderful. All the goals are right. But this is slow, slow work, this soul work, this bringing people into a life of obedience and love and joy before God. ¹

How long will it take?

“While longer tenure itself is not the key to effective leadership, a series of short-term pastorates rarely allows one time to establish lasting leadership in a church. In one of our national surveys of pastors, we found the average pastoral tenure to be 3.6 years. But in different studies of effective leaders, those pastors had an average tenure ranging from 11.2 to 21.6 years.” ²                 

Research consistently shows that the most effective ministries are led by long term leaders. Though there are exceptions to the rule, it generally takes a lifetime to build a great church. In other words, some leader has to give all or most of his life to make it happen:

“When we started Willow Creek, I had the sense that I wanted to spend my life in the same church. I remember thinking, “It may take a lifetime for me to grow up to become a good leader, and it may take a lifetime…The arbitrary number that was always in my mind - and I’ve rarely spoken about it - was 40 years. I knew I would like to give the major portion of my life to the same church,..”³

The Priority of Patience

For a Christian, patience is one of the most valuable virtues of life. Patience is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Patience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay, exhibiting grace under strain, especially when faced with longer-term challenges. Patience is the level of endurance one can manifest before succumbing to negativity. It is also crucial to the character trait of being steadfast. The opposite of patience is hastiness and impetuousness.

The Essence of Patience

The word “patience” is derived from the Latin word pati, which means to suffer, to endure, to bear with. The most common Greek word for patience in the New Testament is makrothumeo, which means “to bear with long delay”. It is translated by the word longsuffering in the KJV. This passage from the Epistle of James is direct and to the point:

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. …Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. James 5:7, ff:

Pastor C.J. Mahaney sums it up beautifully:

“You may have noticed that the most common biblical metaphors for ministry are drawn from the world of agriculture: sowing, watering, harvesting. Agriculture is slow. God is patient. Most of the time, he works out his purposes gradually. He is comfortable with seasons, years, and generations. For me, a month is a long time. My time frame is days, minutes, seconds. I don’t like to be patient.

My pastoral ministry can be more informed by the world of technology than by the world of agriculture. I turn on my iPhone and I want a signal now. If I count one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three-Mississippi and there’s no signal, I want to know what is taking so long! But if I look up from my iPhone and bring that attitude to a conversation with a church member, someone for whom Jesus died, I am being unfaithful to the pastoral charge. My pastoral ministry cannot be informed by the world of technology; it must be informed by the world of agriculture.  God won’t be rushed.” ⁴                                                  

As the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, You have need of patience so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  (Hebrews 10:36 - NIV)

Patience is an essential virtue for a Christian leader.

We are often tested in this area, and because we are imperfect we may often fail to manifest the fruit of patience. God is gracious and he will certainly forgive us, but we must still hold ourselves accountable to the daily pursuit of this virtue. Just as the presence of patience is evidence of our growth in grace, its absence is a conspicuous sign of our lack of it. 

Writing to pastors long ago, the 5^th century church father Gregory the great said, “The very virtue of love, which is the mother of all virtues, is lost through the vice of impatience. for it is written, “Love is patient…”. Therefore, wherever there is no patience, there is no love.”  Pastoral Rules, Book III

Another voice from our own time frankly observes, “When I am impatient with others, I have temporarily lost sight of God’s patience with me. At the root of my impatience is self-righteousness and pride. Daily remembering God’s patience with me protects my soul from sinful impatience with others.”⁴              

Patience is a grace from God designed to bless us, sustain us, and grow us into the likeness of Christ. James 1:2 says, “My brothers, you will always have your trials but, when they come, try to treat them as a happy privilege; you understand that your faith is only put to the test to make you patient, but patience too is to have its practical results so that you will become fully-developed, complete, with nothing wanting.”

The Secret of Patience

It can be hard to think about the long road. Younger leaders may be in a hurry, older leaders may worry about the clock running out. Like Martha of Bethany, we may be anxious and worried about many things. But there is always enough time to do what God wants us to do. We need to seek God humbly but deliberately to grow in the grace of patience. It will bring us peace and serenity and show the face of Christ to those we love and lead.

The following prayer has become a part of my daily prayer discipline. I don’t mind telling you I still struggle to embody its lofty aims; but I find it helps greatly to prepare me to face the challenges of the day – and of serving people – in the patient spirit of Christ:

Lord, give me the strength to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in everything to rely on your holy will. Reveal your will to me every hour of the day. Bless my dealings with everyone. Teach me to treat everyone who comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with the firm conviction that your will governs all. In all my deeds and words guide my thoughts and feelings. In unexpected events, let me not forget that everything is sent by you. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others. Give me the physical strength to bear the labors of this day. Direct my will, teach me to pray, and yourself, pray in me. Amen. ⁵

¹ Interview with Eugene Peterson, Christianitytoday.com, 3/04/2005

²Thom Rainer,“8 Traits of Effective Church Leaders”

³ Bill Hybels, “It May Take A Lifetime”- JOY Magazine, October 2010

⁴ C.J. Mahaney, Ordinary Pastors Blog, 5/27/2011

I used to attend a church that had a fancy pipe organ, but no one could play it. On special occasions, we hired a local gentleman to do the honors. He was not a member of the church, and his talent did not come free, but he knew what he was doing, which is more than could be said for the rest of us. We had to book him well in advance because we were sharing him with several other congregations who had pipe organs that no one could play. I am not sure he was a Christian.

In asking around I discovered one of the reasons the pipe organ seems headed in the direction of Darwin’s Dodo is that apparently too few organists have taken it upon themselves to train others in the craft.

Discipleship, in the basic sense of the word, means teaching what you know to someone else. The word disciple(mathetes) literally means one who has been taught. Whether we are talking about understanding the gospel or imparting a useful ministry skill, it stands to reason that if we are not intentional about sharing what we know, eventually no one will know what we know, and I believe this is a major challenge in the church today. 

How do you understand your responsibility in ministry? Effective churches, without exception, give priority to helping people identify and use their God-given gifts. We are told it is our responsibility to use the gifts or talents God has given us for the glory of God and the good of others. I agree. But is this the full extent of our responsibility in ministry?

If you believe effective ministry means doing what you do to the best of your ability, you are only partially right. The other part of your job is to multiply yourself. Any ministry which depends on the gifts and talents of one person is precarious.We all know that sometimes in the church we have no choice. Sometimes it is a question of limited resources, human or otherwise. But this dependency should always be regarded as a temporary and undesirable state. A disciple making church must have a clear and well articulated plan for duplication and succession in every area of ministry. What are the obstacles to ministry duplication in the local church?

• Tradition – we’ve always done it this way. I would venture to say that this is probably the norm. The fact is most churches are not adept at duplication. A church which emphasizes and insists upon ministry duplication will be the exception and not the rule. So break the rule! Every church needs to examine its assumptions and beliefs in the light of scripture and have the courage to make changes wherever necessary in order to become an exceptional church.
• Pride and insecurity.There is a dark side to leadership which sometimes equates the possession of expertise with job security; as long as I am the best and the only one doing this, my place on the team is assured and my identity is secure. Whenever we see this tendency in ourselves and others we should address it with grace, but such an attitude can never be left unchallenged as it is utterly contrary to the spirit of Christ. The leader who is committed to duplication is never concerned for his own relevance, or that someone will eclipse him in the church. On the contrary, such a leader delights in the success of his or her protégés and longs to see the student excel the teacher. The animating passion of the duplicating leader is concern is for Christ’s kingdom; he wants to see it advance by any and all means. Petty insecurity cannot abide in his heart; the more he gives the more he receives, his worth increases because his leadership is truly extraordinary.
• Money – we can hire somebody to do that.On the surface, having the resources to solve problems with money appears to be a strength of the larger church. Often it is. But if we are hiring because we have not developed a “duplicating” culture within the church, meeting our ministry needs with money may actually be a sign of weakness. A strong church produces strong people. As a rule, it is generally easier to hire talent than to develop it but whatever your church size, disciple making and duplication should be a clearly expressed requirement at every level of leadership. Every church needs to be developing its “bench” strength; this means every leader needs to be developing a protégé. If you are hiring new staff, make sure they understand this expectation from day one, and keep them accountable to it.
• Sloth and lack of discipline. Have you ever heard someone say “It is easier to do it myself than to explain it to someone else”? They were right! It is true. Training others takes lots of time and patience. It is labor intensive, especially at the front end of the process. Sometimes it does not work out and we have to start all over again with someone new. Lots of work. But it is not half as much work as the church is stuck with when its leaders fail to train, disciple, and duplicate. The disciple making leader must constantly remind himself that duplication is a non-negotiable and indispensible part of the work of ministry and he or she must be willing to “take the pains” necessary for duplication for the sake of the kingdom. It is not the normal way but it is the only way.

Whatever you are doing for Christ today,be sure you are investing in the continuation and expansion of the ministry tomorrow. If we are not intentional about sharing what we know, eventually no one will know what we know. Failing to attend to duplication is to plan for obsolescence, and the cause of Christ’s kingdom is too important for that.

(blog post by Steve Poole, Director of Spiritual Formation, Vision New England)

The Secret of Going the Distance

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.   Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV)

Why are you here, and what makes you stay?  Back in the old “church growth movement” days (it seems like a thousand years ago now), there was a lot of discussion about discovering the “glue” that holds people to a church i.e., the reasons why people join and remain faithful to a community of faith.  Even today, if you “Google” the phrase“The glue that holds people to church”, you will be served over thirty-five million separate search results in under 0.28 seconds.  Apparently this is still a question which pastors and ministry leaders are asking today.

I would like to turn this question around and aim it back at the Christian leaders who may be reading this.  Why are you here in the community of faith, and what makes you stay?  What is the glue that holds you true to your faith and calling?

At the time the beloved Apostle Paul penned these words to the Philippians (above), he had been in the race a very long time and yet remarkably he showed no sign of wearing or wearing down, quite the contrary.  In fact, even though he was by then an old man he seems rather to be renewed.  One commentator captures the essence of this remarkable resilience:

You might be interested to know that when Paul wrote this he had been a Christian for about 30 years.  And when he says I have not already obtained and I am not already perfect, he is speaking as a man who for three decades had been pursuing the knowledge of Christ and he still wasn't there.  Three decades of the most intense, loyal, dedicated, faithful pursuit of knowing Christ and he still was not spiritually satisfied, but spiritually dissatisfied. He was not perfect. He had not attained the full knowledge of Christ; the pursuit was still on. ¹

Thirty years in the service of Christ, and the man was still in hot pursuit.  These words inspire and convict me for a couple of reasons, the first being this just happens to be exactly how long I have been serving the Lord in ministry, and the second being that in all honesty I have wearied and lost my steam manytimes along the way.  As I ponder the “secret” of Paul’s passion, I am reminded again of what I already know – nothing but love for Jesus can sustain a life of vibrant faith and devotion over the long haul.

How did you get here?  I have asked this question many times in my work with pastors.  We “ministry” people can easily get lost in the work, and in the process lose sight of the reason why we are doing it.  It happens all the time.  When it does, it helps to retrace our steps.  Why are we here, and how did we end up being where we are and doing what we do?  These incredibly important questions hold the key to joyful longevity in the life of faith and for most of us (I hope) the answer is essentially the same; we are here because like Paul, our lives and our plans were interrupted by a personal encounter with Jesus!  It is difficult to describe the effect of that encounter; it transcends description, words fail. Each of us may describe it differently but for every one of us, nothing would ever be the same again.

I find myself deeply stirred whenever I read Augustine’s incredibly poetic description of the life altering impact of God’s grace upon his life.  He so beautifully describes the strange mixture of anguish and exhilaration a sinner feels upon discovering heaven’s great Treasure, which of course is God Himself:

Too late did I love You, O Thou Beauty ever ancient and yet so new! Too late did I love You! 

Behold, You were within, and I searched abroad for You; I was deformed, plunging madly among the beautiful things which you have made. You were with me, but I was not with You.

You  called, and shouted, and finally burst through my deafness. You flashed, You shined, and scattered my blindness. You exhaled vapors, and I inhaled - and now I pant for You! I tasted, and now I hunger and thirst!

You touched me, and now I burn for Your peace! ²

Augustine powerfully captures the exhilaration of redemption, the passion³ of repentance, and the ravishing affection of a soul which has been captured by Perfect Love.

And this is essentially what we hear Paul saying in his own “confession” to the Philippians. The great lion of God ⁴ had experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. He had already endured more pain than most of us ever face in a lifetime and yet his zeal was undimmed; he was out to apprehend the One who had apprehended him so long ago on the road to Damascus and he would not rest, indeed he could not rest until his ransomed heart had achieved its desire.

Paul had dealt with difficult churches, as many of us have. He also endured severe persecution, cruel hostility, withering exhaustion and heart breaking abandonment.  Yet we find no trace of bitterness or self pity in Paul, and he never appears to have breathed a single word about giving up.

What can sustain a person through so much suffering and still leave him with so much hope and energy for finishing the fight?  In spite of what we modern-day “people of action” may be tempted to think, Paul’s primary motivation was not the mission but the Master.  Everything he did came out of a deep, abiding, and very personal love for God.

There is nothing so powerful as Christ incarnate in the life of a leader who knows and loves and cherishes Him above all else.  Nothing else can produce such fruit, and nothing else can ever rival it.  As we head to the finish, God give us the grace to keep our eyes on the One who is the Prize; “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things” (Philippians 3:15, NIV).

1. John MacArthur, Evaluating Your Relationship to Christ

2.  Augustine, Confessions, Book X

3. Passion in the original sense of the Latin word, which means to suffer

4. The Great Lion of God is the title of the book by Taylor Caldwell on the life of Paul