Transcript Postmodern Evangelism
Spiritual Leadership: Deadly Sins and Saving Virtues
Tom Bandy [email protected]
Spiritual Leadership
• Helping congregations and individuals realistically assess where they are – Accountability • Helping them start to grow in concrete ways – Coaching
The Traveler’s Confessional
• Used by medieval pilgrims as conversational accountability tool • “How much am I enslaved by sins?” • “How open am I to the virtues?”
Deadly Sins & Saving Virtues • Pride • Envy • Greed • Lust • Gluttony • Anger • Sloth
– Faith – Hope – Love – Prudence – Temperance – Justice – Fortitude
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Elevating the institution to ultimacy
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“The world should accommodate to our forms, habits, and mental models”
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Egotism that mission field can be addressed at church’s convenience
Pride
Faith
• Surrender of the church to the ultimacy of Christ • Constant adaptation to the micro-culture of real people • Urgency to walk with Jesus into mission, wherever & however • Selfless conviction that all that matters is the Gospel, and everything else is just tactics
Envy
• Desire to be other than what God created you to be • Jealous imitation of another’s lifestyle • Blaming others for your failures • Habitual complaining
Hope
• Desire to become whatever God wills • Conviction that God’s power will bear fruit • Owning failure and learning from mistakes • Celebrating “getting out of the boat” as a prerequisite for “walking on water”
Greed
• Institutional or personal desire to possess what isn’t ours • Obsession with material security and elevation of “things” to a core value • Preoccupation with debt freedom, savings, security, property use, and balanced budgets
Love
• Institutional or personal audacity to give away life – Risk property, modify plans, and change agendas to bless others • Acquiring wealth only for the purpose of maximizing mission • Readiness to adore enemies
Lust
• Abuse of others for personal or corporate satisfaction • Desire to control others or make them dependent on us • Readiness to use individuals for institutional agendas
Prudence
• Respect for another’s intrinsic autonomy and worth • Readiness to give permission for self-fulfillment beyond institutional commitments • Wise balance of self-sacrifice and self-affirmation
Gluttony
• Consumption, excess, self-puffing • Desire to bring people in rather than sending them out • Valuing: – Size over quality – Accountability over productivity – Rules over results
Temperance
• Self-control, moderation, and boundary thinking • Desire to shape Christian lifestyle rather than bringing people to church • Valuing excellence over (mediocre) excess – trust rather than control • Dogged slimming in pursuit of what really matters
Anger
• Desire to harm or hurt physically, spiritually, or relationally • Habitual negativity • Twisted, smug joy in retribution, delight in humiliating or splitting adversaries
Justice
• Desire to redeem toward holistic healing • Tough love with a goal of reconciliation • Unbearable restlessness in the face of inequality, bigotry, or cultural insensitivity • Visionary delight in “both/and” situations and solutions
Sloth
• Lazy “I don’t care” • Lack of discipline • Expectation that others (staff? volunteers?) will do your mission for you • Unwillingness to grow personally, spiritually, professionally • Easy readiness to give up
Fortitude
• Energy, discipline, & courage to discern, address, and accomplish the mission • Passion to grow in every way • Risk-taking experimentation to tap hidden resources and accomplish the impossible
On a scale of 1 to 10 …
Where is our church?
Where am
I?
• • • • • • • Pride ……….. Faith Greed …….... Love Lust ………… Prudence Envy ……….. Hope Gluttony …… Temperance Anger ……… Justice Sloth ……….. Fortitude
Then, two questions:
1. Where is there the greatest need?
• Ask various groups in/out of the church and compare notes • • Or ask people who know you Accountability: where are we now?
2. Where do we start first? • Coaching: where do we need to go next?
Spiritual Leadership: Deadly Sins and Saving Virtues
Dr. John P. Chandler www.rasnet.org
Copy right John P. Chandler 2003