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Letters To A Young Leader
Letters To A Young Leader:
The Lord works in mysterious ways
03/04/12 11:00
Letters to a young leader is a series of leadership mentoring advice. It is written by Vic Francis who is the Chairman of the VCANZ board. Vic and his wife, Fran, pastor Shore Vineyards in Auckland and have four children.
The Lord works in mysterious ways
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“All the great religious leaders eventually learn that they must do ministry within the confines of a human body. Having a body means being finite, having limits, being vulnerable to fatigue, illness and death.”
Roy Oswald
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I nearly died a few years ago. Over several months I was in hospital three times with a range of conditions including meningitis, an abscess in my spinal column and liver shutdown due to a massive drug reaction.
Throughout that touch-and-go winter, my wife and church supported me wonderfully, while Christians around the world prayed fervently for my life and my health. It was a strange experience, though, because I never felt moved to ask God for healing for myself. Instead, I asked him to reveal himself to me in my illness.
Eventually I recovered 100 per cent – triumphantly taking my last antibiotics in the backblocks of India – and today I have no on-going ill-effects of that ordeal. But I look back at that adversity and consider it one of the most growing experiences of my life.
It was there that I received my one and only vision. It was there that I learned I won’t be afraid to die when my time comes. It was there that I once and for all proved God’s faithfulness in the tough times.
I don’t want to go back there. But I’m grateful it happened.
My somewhat Pentecostal theological background tells me that Christians have no right to get sick. By his stripes we are healed, the curse is lifted, the Garden of Eden is restored.
My experience is somewhat different, though. I see God often walking with people through health issues or life crises rather than plucking them out of them. I see God drawing closer as we cry out in pain or desperation. I see God growing in our lives during our darkest days. Recently I sat with four unemployed men who shared the small blessings of an hour or two of work, or a meal delivered to their home, or a bill which was less than expected. God was at work in the room, and it wasn’t through me, the employed one.
I have learned more through my failures than my successes. And while I don’t embrace negative experiences as a primary means of connecting with God, I do know that in his mercy he is particularly close during failure, or sickness, or depression, or fear, or despair.
The Lord does, indeed, work in mysterious ways.
Next entry: God will provide
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Letters To A Young Leader:
God loves your people more than you do
16/01/12 13:00
Letters to a young leader is a series of leadership mentoring advice. It is written by Vic Francis who is the Chairman of the VCANZ board. Vic and his wife, Fran, pastor Shore Vineyards in Auckland and have four children.
Some things you need to know about God: God loves your people more than you do
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“I can’t invade other people’s lives and inject them with commitment . . . but God can.
My role is to relax,
be as real as I can be,
do the best job I can do at church,
and trust God to work in people’s lives.
What a relief it is to get off the throne of the universe!”
Judson Edwards
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I came back from my first missions trip in 2003 knowing my life would never be the same. I had spent a wondrous two weeks serving the underground church in China, experiencing the presence of God in a new way and was exhilarated by the experience.
As I walked with my wife Fran on the beach, full of a new convert’s zeal, I suggested that she, too, might like to go on a missions trip and that what had changed me was bound to change her as well. Her reaction was sceptical, unsure about this brash new urgency to save the world.
The following year, Shore Vineyards were sending a team to northern India to work among pastors in the Nepali-speaking areas of the Himalayas. Still excited about missions, I urged everyone in our church to take five minutes to ask God if he wanted them to go.
One person who did just that was Fran. She sat at a beach and in just a few minutes found her heart warmed towards this adventure, laughing out loud as she realised her recent reading of books by William Dalrymple and other writers on India was part of God’s very sneaky preparation of her heart.
She went on that journey and we have since then regularly done missions trips together. I’m not sure if she would say missions has changed her life. But it has certainly enriched it.
Five minutes is all it takes. We can preach the most inspired sermons, make passionate pleas for response and appeal to people’s emotions, intellect or better nature. But it’s only when God speaks that lives are truly changed. We, as the saying goes, can lead a horse to water, but we can’t make it drink. And that’s as it should be.
There’s a frustration in there of course, because often we believe a certain course of action could transform a person’s life. But we need to allow people to act because of their own convictions and their sense of the leading of God – not ours.
We need to trust God with our people. He loves them more than we do, he knows them better than we do and he has a plan for them that we can’t even begin to understand.
Of course we worry whether our congregation members will bother to take that five minutes to ask God if he wants them to go on the missions trip. But time and again I have been awed and honoured as I’ve observed the godly way people indeed seek God on big issues and the wonderful ways he answers.
Next entry:God will provide
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Letters To A Young Leader:
A relationship that grows
15/11/11 15:00
Letters to a young leader is a series of leadership mentoring advice. It is written by Vic Francis who is the Chairman of the VCANZ board. Vic and his wife, Fran, pastor Shore Vineyards in Auckland and have four children.
A relationship that grows
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“Just as we cannot love without having had the experience of being loved,
so we cannot bring the water of life to others if our own spiritual well is dry.
This means we have to be intentional about finding opportunities for spiritual growth.”
Lawrence Farris
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I don’t have quiet times any more. There, I’ve confessed. It’s now public knowledge.
When I was a new Christian, quiet times were life-changing. The regular discipline of Bible reading and prayer filled my tank and inspired me day-by-day to live for Christ.
But over the years these times dried up as the Bible became less inspirational, probably because I had come to know it quite well, and my prayers became formulaic and dull. Eventually, despite some guilt, my quiet times slipped away. John Calvin wrote that “Our religion will be unprofitable if it does not change our heart, pervade our manners and transform us into new creatures.” Quiet times were no longer changing my heart, and so it was time for them to go.
But while quiet times are now a thing of the past for me, my relationship with Jesus is again growing stronger day by day. These days I don’t often read large chunks of the Bible, but I reflect more deeply on smaller passages. I pray less, but listen more; I strive less, but trust more; I know less, but am closer to the one who knows more.
And I don’t feel guilty about it.
I’ve been married to Fran for nearly 30 years. Over that time our lives have changed hugely – five pregnancies, four children, three births (figure that one out!), plus three churches, mortgages and life’s many adventures, do that to you. Our relationship has changed too – less intense and more secure; less striving and more content; less independent and more mutual. Relationships are like that. Unless they adapt from their early difficult-to-breathe stage, someone is going to burn out.
In a similar way, our relationship with God also has to evolve. Fran, a spiritual director, has great advice for people who have lost connection with God. “Are you still doing the things that used draw you close to him?” she will ask. If not, then resume those things and you will probably rediscover that precious relationship. But if you are continuing to do the things that used to work and are discovering they don’t any more, maybe God is inviting you into a new depth of relationship with new ways of growing in your love.
Bernard of Clairvaux in his famous sermons on the Song of Solomon identified this progression of relationship with God as going from the kiss of the feet to the kiss of the hands to the kiss of the mouth. Sixteenth-century Spanish saint Teresa of Avila, in her book The Interior Castle, wrote of an internal journey towards the centre of our being where Jesus lives.
Whatever language or imagery you use, we must continually seek new depths with God. And for pastors, whose lives are ones of regular depletion, this growing relationship is doubly vital.
Next entry: God loves people more than you do
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Letters To A Young Leader:
He's constantly wooing you
09/11/11 08:00
Letters to a young leader is a series of leadership mentoring advice. It is written by Vic Francis who is the Chairman of the VCANZ board. Vic and his wife, Fran, pastor Shore Vineyards in Auckland and have four children.
Some things you need to know about God: He’s constantly wooing you
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“You would not be seeking him or loving him unless you had first been sought and loved.”
Bernard of Clairvaux
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When going on a seven-day silent retreat this year, I determined I would read the entire New Testament during that week. I am a methodical person, and worked out that if I read 40 pages a day I could achieve my target easily. So on days one and two I laboured through Matthew, Mark and Luke – and, to be honest, was somewhat disappointed. Not surprisingly, I suppose, they all told stories I knew.
And then I got to the Gospel of John and my 40 pages a day evaporated. That day, I read a mere 18 verses of John chapter 1. I was captivated by the first five verses about God becoming flesh – it was as if I’d never read them before. I was heartbroken by verse 11 – “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him”. I was theologically stirred by verse 17 – “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Of course none of this was any newer to me than Matthew, Mark or Luke had been, but that day John stole my heart. As I discussed this with my spiritual director a couple of days later, I had a moment of inspiration. “Do you think God’s inviting me to a ‘John’ relationship more than a Matthew, Mark or Luke one?” As the words fell out of my mouth, I didn’t need her to confirm that God was inviting me to intimacy, closeness and love like I’d never experienced before.
The great 19th-century Baptist preacher C.H. Spurgeon talked of God “driving you away from the shallow waters and bringing you into deeper seas, where your nets shall bring you larger draughts”. Jean LeClercq, writing of the 12th-century Cistercian mystic Bernard of Clairvaux, says: “Jesus comes so that the soul will cling to him; he goes away so that the soul will call him back. He wants us to love him and takes certain steps to win our love: He gives himself so that we will enjoy his presence; he then leaves so that we will then long for it even more”.
God is passionately interested in a deepening relationship with you. He loves your labour for his kingdom’s sake – he’s called you to it after all – but never at the expense of his invitation for you to know him more.
And so he woos you constantly – by moving close and, at times, paradoxically, by moving away – always, though, inviting you to discover new depths of his love.
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Letters To A Young Leader:
He is God, and you aren't.
18/10/11 10:00
Letters to a young leader is a series of leadership mentoring advice. It is written by Vic Francis who is the Chairman of the VCANZ board. Vic and his wife, Fran, pastor Shore Vineyards in Auckland and have four children.
Some things you need to know about God: God will not fit in your box
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“But it would not be good if our will were always done because we would then become too sure of ourselves.
It is enough for us that we have a gracious God.
Why he permits this or that evil to befall us should not trouble us at all.”
Martin Luther
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I have a file on my computer littered with three, four and five-year plans. You know how they go – if we do “a” and “b” we’ll inevitably get to “c”. These days, though, most of my precious plans are locked away out of the public eye, and I’m not sure whether any of them has really eventuated the way I anticipated.
But, and this is important, our churches have grown, people’s lives have been changed and the kingdom has been and is being extended. God has moved in and through and sometimes despite me and the people of the Shore Vineyard Churches.
I’m not against three, four and five-year plans. Just a few Sundays ago I spoke to our churches about the next decade and what I see God doing in and through us.
But I have also learned that while planning is everything, the plan is nothing; that God’s plan dwarfs our plan; and that what he wants must trump what we want.
The first commandment remains the first commandment. You shall have no other gods before him.
When we travel in India, those “other gods” can be pretty obvious – Kali, Krishna, Shiva et al. But in the West our other gods are perhaps less obvious – try materialism, independence or cynicism for starters. Or even your call, your agenda or your five-year plan.
It doesn’t take long for leaders to realise that God is outworking his plan with and despite us, rather than the other way around. Let’s spell it out. It is God’s church, not ours. They are God’s people, not ours. It is God’s plan, not ours. It is God’s glory, not ours. It is God’s responsibility, not ours.
This is surprisingly hard to accept sometimes when we burn so brightly with the plans and dreams and callings that we are so sure God put on our heart in the first place. But hold them a little lightly, realising with Martin Luther that just being loved by and knowing him is “enough”. Anything else is pure icing on the cake.
Next entry: He’s constantly wooing you
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Letters To A Young Leader:
Some things you need to know about God - God will not fit in your box
07/10/11 13:00
Letters to a young leader is a series of leadership mentoring advice. It is written by Vic Francis who is the Chairman of the VCANZ board. Vic and his wife, Fran, pastor Shore Vineyards in Auckland and have four children.
Some things you need to know about God: God will not fit in your box
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“Things never happen the same way twice, dear one.”
Aslan to Lucy
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It was my first evangelistic sermon. I was a fresh-faced youth pastor about to speak at an evening youth “rally” at our church. I prepared fanatically, polished my message, prayed on my knees during the afternoon, dressed in a suit (yes, a suit!) and was nervously ready to give it my best shot.
I suppose 50 people were there as I launched into my sermon, starting with Genesis, describing the fall, the exodus, the arrival of Christ, the reconciliation offered by God and giving the invitation to become a follower of Jesus. Then I drew a deep breath and called people to respond – every head bowed, every eye closed. And when I looked up, at least a dozen people were standing in front of me making a commitment to Christ.
A miracle was taking place before my eyes.
The next week, another youth rally was scheduled. Well, why wouldn’t you when the last one was so successful? I prepared fanatically, polished my message, prayed on my knees during the afternoon, dressed in a suit and was nervously ready to give it my best shot. After again preaching my heart out, I drew a deep breath and called people to respond – every head bowed, every eye closed. And when I looked up, not a single person was standing in front of me.
It took me all of one (successful) sermon to put God in a box. The response at that first youth rally became the blueprint for every similar event to come. When you prepare a certain way, pray a certain way, dress a certain way, gesticulate a certain way . . . God will magically appear. Not true.
Somehow on that first night I had tapped into the grace and power of God and lives had been changed for eternity. By the following week, having become instantly formulaic, the grace and power had departed and I was left looking a little silly.
Things never happen the same way twice. In his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis says, “He’s wild you know. Not like a tame lion.”
I’m all for good systems, for preparing diligently and for maximising the abilities of myself and my people. But put God at a box at your peril. He just won’t allow it.
Next entry: Things you need to know about God - Part III
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Letters To A Young Leader:
Some things you need to know about God
29/09/11 11:00
Letters to a young leader is a series of leadership mentoring advice. It is written by Vic Francis who is the Chairman of the VCANZ board. Vic and his wife, Fran, pastor Shore Vineyards in Auckland and have four children.
Some things you need to know about God: God is nice and he likes you
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“Tony dear, you will only be able to love when you understand how much you are loved.
You are loved, dear with a limitless . . . fathomless . . . all-embracing love.”
Father Joe to Tony Hendra in the book Father Joe
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As a young Christian in the 1980s, I loved the comical-yet-profound writings of an English Anglican named Adrian Plass.
I was a pretty serious twentysomething following Jesus with great fervency and more than a little legalism, and yet Plass’ gentle and sometimes not-so-gentle prods at Christians and the church amused me in an I-hope-God-doesn’t-send-a-lightning-bolt kind of way.
So, as a Christian journalist, I was delighted when Plass came to New Zealand and I had a chance to hear him speak and to interview him. I asked this “great big yeti of a man” (his words) whether, among all his topics and characters and messages, he had one over-arching, fundamental theme.
He said something that I have found profound ever since: ”God is nice and he likes you.”
When God looks at you, does he smile or frown? Is he facing you or is his shoulder turned? Are his arms outstretched or are his hands in his pockets?
The answers you, or others, give to these questions will tell you a lot about how you or they see God. For some, God is distant, disinterested, judgmental. For others, he’s something of a Santa Claus, an endless source of blessing and gifts. For yet others, he’s mystical and unknowable.
In my early Christian years, I was definitely in the I’ve-got-to-work-hard-to-please-a-somewhat-disapproving God brigade. But Adrian Plass and others have convinced me that God is, indeed, nice and he likes me. It’s the foundation of my relationship with him and one that carries me through good times and bad.
Oh, there are plenty of times he doesn’t do what I want him to do. He’s certainly not a Santa Claus. But neither is he distant, disinterested and judgmental. My God looks at me and smiles. My God faces me directly. My God’s arms are outstretched. And that’s the God I want to introduce to my congregation.
What is your God like?
Next entry: God will not fit in your box
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