Fan or Follower?

We are in the midst of a nine-week sermon series at church that is perhaps the most personally challenging series of messages or lessons I ever have presented.  The title of the series is, “Am I a ‘Fan’…or a ‘Follower’?  (The title…but not the substance of the messages…came from a book by Pastor Kyle Idleman entitled, “not a fan”.)

Each time we prepare to start a new sermon series, I share the idea and vision with the church through a brief written introduction.  Here’s what I wrote for this series:

Some 600 years ago, a humble follower of Jesus Christ wrote these words:

"Jesus has many lovers of His kingdom…but few bearers of His cross.  He finds many companions at His feasting…but few at His fasting.  All want to rejoice with Him…but few are willing to endure anything for Him.  Many love Jesus as long as no adversities befall them."  [The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a’ Kempis]

You and I face the same situation today, don’t we?  It is so much easier to be a “fan” of Jesus than to be a “follower” of Jesus. 

 

Being a fan is fun and exciting.  Being a fan is about winning and losing.  About the adrenaline rush of the big play; the come-from behind victory; the stunning upset; the post-game celebration. 

Being a follower certainly has moments of great joy, but the life of a follower is different.  Following Jesus means we look beyond the adrenaline rush and we allow Him to invade the everyday, ordinary aspects of life and transform them.  We allow Him to fill our work and chores and relationships with spiritual meaning.

But there is more to being a follower, because Jesus wants all of us.  He wants our minds, our hearts, and our souls.  He wants to be the priority in our lives and – at times – move us beyond the comfortable routines in which we live.  He wants us to be willing to be inconvenienced in order to grow in our faith, because He is more concerned with our character than our comfort. 

Jesus wants to give us His best, and He only can do that when we give Him our best.  

So…are you ready to take a step of faith?  Are you willing to invest more of yourself in your relationship with Jesus?  Through this series of messages and LifeGroup discussions, He is extending each of us an invitation to become less of a fan…and more of a follower. 

The message this past Sunday (part four of the series) was on the cost of following Jesus.  In Luke 14:25-35, Jesus invites us to make a life-altering decision: to love Him more than anyone or anything.  He says that this should be our goal if we want to be a disciple.

I find the Lord’s invitation to be exhilarating, challenging…and oh, so convicting.  Because I recognize that there are things about this life and this world that I love, and – at times – I allow them to inhibit my faith.  At times I knowingly, willingly, choose to invest my time in activities that are not harmful…but neither do they enrich my spiritual life.

Sometimes I play a computer game, read a book, do a crossword puzzle…and then tell myself that I did not have time to meet with the Lord in prayer.  What am I actually saying to Jesus in that moment?  I’m saying that I prefer these other activities to spending time with Him. 

When I see this attitude in myself it pierces me to the heart, because it is the attitude of a fan, not a follower. 

I recognize that I always will fall short in this life, but I also know that my love for Jesus should be reflected in my priorities.  While there is nothing wrong (and much value) with taking time for some enjoyable rest and recreation, I cannot do these things at the expense of my spiritual nourishment. 

Marriage is such a wonderful picture of my life with Jesus.  I don’t need to spend every waking minute with my wife to demonstrate my love for her, nor do I need to spend every conscious moment talking to Jesus or thinking spiritual thoughts to demonstrate my love for Him.  But both my wife and my Lord need to know they are a priority in my life. 

And Jesus – my Savior, my Lord, my God – needs to be my highest priority. 

So I am praying and pondering what it means for me – as a husband, a father, a pastor – to love Jesus more than anyone or anything.  Each day.  In the myriad decisions I make about how to invest my time. 

Because I never want to be just a fan of Jesus…I want to be one of His faithful followers. 

-      Bruce

My Journey into Spiritual Direction

I first heard about “spiritual direction” a few years ago. After some encouragement from my brother and sister-in-law, I talked with a friend of theirs who had been a Spiritual Director for years. She gave me some materials to read, and – as my curiosity was aroused – I began to research the concept and practice of Spiritual Direction. Here is what I learned…

Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we find people seeking spiritual counsel. For example, the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon in order to benefit from his godly wisdom. During His earthly ministry, Jesus provided life-changing spiritual insights to Nicodemus, to the woman at the well, to His disciples, and to countless others. All of these conversations were designed to help people grow in the spiritual dimensions of life.

Most of us would understand this process of spiritual growth as “discipleship”, but the more commonly used term today is “spiritual formation”, because it emphasizes the process involved in growth and change. Specifically, when I allow Jesus Christ to work in my heart and life, I am involved in the process of spiritual formation. In other words, I am yielding to Jesus so that He can continually form me into a more spiritual person.

Spiritual direction is the practice of helping others move forward in their own personal journey of spiritual formation. Spiritual direction is a new concept in many parts of the church, but it actually is an ancient Christian practice.

In the early church, people sought out hermits in the desert for spiritual counsel. And across the centuries, we find examples of spiritual direction provided by an incredible array of faithful disciples: Irish monks, German Benedictine nuns, Charles de Foucault, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, and others. Today, Spiritual Directors come from many different Christian traditions, but they all share a common desire to help men and women become more fully formed into the image and character of Christ.

As I learned more, the idea of serving God’s family as a Spiritual Director began to take root within me, and I began to see that God had started preparing me for this role many years ago. From my days of leading small groups in college, to teaching elementary-school children and praying with them, to guiding young mothers in MOPS, to serving in women’s ministry, I always have tried to draw other people closer to God. My heart yearns to help men and women…but especially women…develop a deep and abiding relationship with Jesus.

To properly prepare myself for this new ministry, I have embarked on a spiritual and academic training program to become a “certified” Spiritual Director. This program is called “The Journey” and is run by The Leadership Institute in Orange, California [http://www.tli.cc/]. I will participate in six four-day sessions, as part of a community of about two-dozen people, over 18 months. [I’ve already completed two sessions as noted in earlier posts: “The Journey” (02/12/2010) and “New Life on the Mountain" (05/02/2010)]. Between sessions, I complete homework assignments (reading and papers) and meet with my program mentor. I am learning a great deal from my studies, from the discipline of learning to spend extended time alone with God, and from the other members of the community who are working through this program along with me.

So what will happen once I am certified? I will be able to set up monthly appointments where people can meet personally with me, and my task will be to help them cultivate their personal relationship with Christ. I will provide a safe presence and a listening ear as a guide, so these “directees” can draw closer to Jesus and be able to more readily recognize where and how God is leading them.

This role can be understood in several different ways: a Spiritual Director can be viewed as a spiritual coach, or as a person who provides a specialized form of pastoral counseling. One of my leaders in The Journey describes spiritual direction as “holy listening”, where we strive to listen to the directee’s unfolding story to help discern the movement of God’s Spirit in his or her life. Spiritual direction shares some affinity with counseling, or teaching, or inner healing ministries, but its unique role is to focus on the developing relationship between a person and God.

As part of my own unfolding journey, I have been meeting monthly with a Spiritual Director for almost two years. It has been a rich experience for me, because she lovingly supports me and guides me through prayer, through listening, and gentle counsel. This relationship has been a tremendous blessing, particularly during this amazing season of transition in which I find myself. And when I complete my program and begin to serve others as a Spiritual Director, I look forward to being a conduit of God’s blessing…in the same way that my Director has been a source of God’s blessing to me.

- Julie

New Life on the Mountain

This past week, I went to the Pine Springs Ranch outside Idyllwild for Session 2 of my Spiritual Direction program (Session 1 took place in January). Between each session I read, study, and write papers. Then, during the 4-day gathering on the mountain, I participate with the rest of my group in seminars, devotional Bible studies, and discussions. We also are expected to spend one entire afternoon (5 hours!) alone with God. We call this “Extended Personal Communion” (EPC).

Back in January, I started my EPC by taking a walk…sensing his presence through the beauty of His creation around me. So this past week, I decided to begin my afternoon in just the same way. As I did, I was struck by the incredible contrast between then and now; at the changes that have occurred in me during these past few months.

How different I felt back in January! I remember that I cried during my walk as emotions bubbled to the surface. I was grieving all of the losses of the past 10 years: my parents, my brother, our church family, and our very special fellowship group. I was crying not only for the losses that had already taken place, but also for the fear of further loss. I did not know what God had in store for our future, and I realized that I was not looking forward to further change.

I even found myself questioning God’s love. How could He allow so much to be taken, leaving us feeling stripped and abandoned?

The environment where I was walking seemed to be a perfect metaphor for the way I was feeling. Snow was covering the paths at the retreat center, just as the paths of my future were covered. Why was this? Was it because God wanted to prevent me from walking in the same ruts and patterns of life as before? Was He removing these things because I had depended on them too much?

As I pondered this, I sensed God saying something profound: He was covering the visible road (a future I thought I knew) so that I could step forward in faith on the invisible road (a future I did not know.)

Three months have passed since that walk and my first visit to Pine Springs. And how was the April walk with God different from the January walk? This past week there were no tears; there simply was a sense of celebration and joy in God’s presence. He has helped me to grieve the losses, and lay them to rest, so that I can move forward. I feel a sense of hope and anticipation; of new opportunities and new experiences and new insights into the ways that God wants to work in me and through me. Once again, the very environment served as an appropriate metaphor for what was taking place in my life, because the snow had melted and spring was arriving. New growth was all around me…just as new growth was taking place within me.

At times during this sabbatical I felt as if God had abandoned me. But this time of slowing down has been so necessary to deepen my relationship with Him. My work…my busyness…my driven-ness… were keeping me from Him. And because of His great love for me, my Father removed these things so that I could know Him better.

Isaiah 40:31 says,

Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

God is removing my weariness. He has helped me to move beyond the pain of the past. And every day, I feel myself gaining “new strength” as He prepares me for the next step in His unfolding plan.

- Julie

The Journey

During the last week of January, Bruce drove me to a retreat center outside Idyllwild (in the mountains above Palm Springs) to participate in the first session of my Spiritual Formation/Leadership Development program. I was meeting with about 20 other church leaders who – like me – were starting a new spiritual and educational journey.

I was excited, nervous, and hopeful. After researching a variety of such programs, I had decided on this one – simply called “The Journey” – sponsored by The Leadership Institute [http://www.tli.cc/]. The purpose of The Journey is to help Christian leaders more effectively connect their “inward journey” with their “outward journey.” In personal terms, this means deepening my own relationship with Jesus, in order to increase my effectiveness as a spiritual leader...because the best way for me to feed others is by allowing ministry to pour out of the overflow of my relationship with Christ.

Over the next two years, I will join these same people six different times at the retreat center. In between, I will have projects to work on, books to read, and extended quiet times with God. I also will meet regularly with a spiritual mentor who will help me process what I am learning.

It’s hard to describe my experience up on that mountain three weeks ago, because it was less about “learning” (like most seminars or retreats) and much more about “relationship” – my relationship with God and with others. My week was filled with communal and individual prayer, times of communion and laughter, moments of solitude, tears over sin and regret…and tears of joy. We were taught by wise brothers and sisters, we ministered to one another, we learned to listen more closely to God, and we experienced God’s peace and presence in a powerful way.

Our group will gather again in April, and I can hardly wait to reunite with my new friends. In the meantime, I will be listening…reading…and learning. Learning how to better care for my soul, so I can – in turn – better care for God’s people.

- Julie