T. David Beck: The Simple Way of Jesus

I have gravitated toward leadership roles for pretty much my whole life. In recent years, I have begun to understand that I have held many misconceptions about what leadership is and how to be an effective leader. Here is one of them.  I have known that it is essential for a leader to have vision. I have wondered how vision gets formed. Judging from a lot of leadership literature, it would seem the leader just bursts onto the scene with an innate vision bubbling forth from his/her heart. When I read those sorts of things, I feel like I must be a really lousy leader. I don't have those kinds of superpowers. And now that I am learning more about leadership, I think the myth of the superhero leader is extremely unhelpful. The world needs a lot of leaders, but there aren't many superheros. So what will work for the rest of us? In my experience, vision is part instinct and part other factors. It comes from a process of development. We shouldn't expect it to be innate....

A lot of us are coming off of ramped-up spiritual practices during Lent and Easter. It's that season when Christians pray more, fast, confess, do without, and attend special spiritual services. If we are involved in supporting church, it is likely we poured some energy into putting together Easter weekend services. At Sanctuary, we shared two special prayer journeys, one that lasted through Lent and one that led us through the last 24 hours of Jesus' life (thanks, Laura!). And then on Easter morning, we reached a seasonal mountaintop as we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. Many of us then feasted with friends and relatives in the afternoon. Easter isn't just a day; it's a season -- arguably the highest holiday of the Christian year. Easter is over. Now what? The other day I saw where a pastor posted on Facebook, “Anyone else get the ‘creative let-down’ after Easter? I'm sitting in my office, uninspired. Almost in disbelief that there is another Sunday less t...

It's great to be rich... or is it?  If you are an American, you are almost certainly rich on a global scale. If you are an American Christian (i.e., a rich Christian), are you okay with Jesus rattling your cage about money? If so, read on. I'm not the one to say I have mastered Jesus' approach to money. I am being challenged by Jesus too. Today's Gospel reading in the Book of Common Prayer is Mark 10:17-31, the story of the rich young man. I have pasted it below. As I read the passage this morning, I was struck by how the rich young man is a reflection of Americanized Christians.  Note, not all American Christians remain Americanized, but too many do. An Americanized Christian is one who mixes Jesus in with the American Dream. In other words, we Americanize Jesus and then tell him how much we love him, because he is exactly who we want him to be. He tells us what we want to hear. Many people in the American church are growing restless with Americanized Chr...

Last Sunday in my sermon I said that if we want to experience the Holy Spirit in our lives, we need to put ourselves in the position where we really need him. It often means being uncomfortable, unsure, and undone. Sounds great, huh? Is it any wonder we shy away from such places in life? And yet not allowing ourselves to go to those places means shutting ourselves off from God. As I sit with this invitation to depend on God in my own life, I have been helped this morning by some words by Gary Haugen in Just Courage : In different times and in different ways, our heavenly Father offers us a simple proposition: Follow me beyond what you can control, beyond where your own strength and competencies can take you, and beyond what is affirmed or risked by the crowd -- and you will experience me and my power and my wisdom and my love.  Jesus beckons me to follow him to that place of weakness where I risk the vulnerability of a child so that I might know how strong my Father is and ho...

Just before Lent I renewed a personal discipline of listening prayer (sometimes called "centering prayer"). It is a practice of sitting still in God's presence, resting in him. The theological foundation for the practice is the belief that God indwells us by his Holy Spirit. If we have given ourselves to follow Jesus, he has baptized us in the Spirit, and God interacts us in all sorts of new ways. The theological reasoning goes like this: if God dwells within me, I should be able to merely sit in his presence, practicing a form of prayer that is listening instead of talking. It is a way of living out Psalm 62:1 -- "For God alone my soul waits in silence" (NRSV). Thomas Keating says this type of prayer is like saying to God, "Here I am" and then just waiting on him. This type of prayer isn't supposed to take the place of verbal prayer. It is an additional form of prayer to add to what should be an ever-expanding variety of forms of prayer we use...

I admit it -- I can't stop watching The Voice. I have never watched American Idol, nor a previous season of The Voice. This is something new for me. Here's why I like this program: Reason #1: It is a display of human passion. All the singers have talent, but the ones who do best are the singers who have found a way to give voice to passion and emotion. As a pastor, I pay attention to passion in my heart and the hearts of others. There is definitely overlap between music and living the Christian life. Reason #2: The drama is great. The singers come from a variety of backgrounds, from the pro who has worked on Broadway to the guy who makes sandwiches for a living. The pressure is immense for people who feel like this is their one big chance. I also love watching the reactions of family members. Reason #3: I love music. It's fun to watch performers laying it on the line. And there is a wide variety of musical styles, from pop to rock to R&B to blues. I have found perf...

No authenticity, no transformation. That's the way it is. Whether you are a man or a women, I would like to recommend a recent post by my friend, Suzie Lind, leader of women's ministries at King's Harbor Church in Redondo Beach. Suzie makes the point that in women's ministries, authenticity is necessary for true transformation to happen. She's absolutely right. At one point in the post, she refers to our "church face." That's the moral and spiritual face we can easily put on when we are in churchy circles. Authenticity means setting aside the "church face" in favor of our real face. If all we give people is our church face, then church events become opportunities to dress up and display our church face. In that case, there is neither authenticity nor transformation. If we show people our real face, then we can really be transformed. It doesn't matter whether we are men or women. Authenticity is necessary for transformation. Enjoy t...