I've been in Colorado Springs for the last two weeks studying in person at Fuller Theological Seminary. I am here with my cohort of 22 leaders and we've just finished two weeks of intensive studying. I've been so blessed by the opportunity to be part of this group. I am the youngest one in the cohort, and the only unmarried guy.
The Master of Arts in Global Leadership program is an amazing online program through Fuller that enables me to study toward my Masters while remaining in my ministry context. Not only that, but it combines light theological training, practical ministry training, and leadership training with a heavy emphasis on character and lifelong development as a disciple of Christ. I will finish probably either in December 2013 or March 2014.
This trip has been absolutely incredible, and I'll be describing it over the next few posts. It struck me as I was in the Denver airport waiting to head down to the Springs that I was flying into a city where I knew nearly nobody to borrow a car from people I'd never met so that I could stay at a house of a guy I'd never met and go to school with people I'd only exchanged e-mails with online. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and take a risk. In my next post I'll let you know how it turned out...but first, I'm sure each of you have similar experiences. How did they turn out?
Friday, July 23, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Ethal
Thought this story was worth sharing...it's how my mom came to get her dog!
Hi my name is Elise and i work for Operation Kindness, I wanted to e-mail you and let you know that i am very happy that u adopted Ethel and that i rescued her.. She was hit by a car right in front of me, i didn't see it but i heard it and i could hear her crying from the street. So when i figured out were she was, I picked her up and moved her to the sidewalk, i wasn't sure what to do because she wasn't bleeding or anything, she was in shock, she couldn't get up, she was really stiff and wouldn't stop crying.so i wrapped her up in a towel and put her in the car with me.. And this is all happening around eleven p.m. so i knew we were closed at operation kindness so i couldn't take her there. I figured that she wasn't gonna make it because she wouldn't stop screaming and she was breathing so hard. I couldn't leave her there to just die, so i called animal control and told them What happened and they told me that it could take any were from one hour to twenty four hours before they could get there, and there was no way i was going to leave this poor little poodle to die alone.. so i thought that at least if she was not going to make it that i could get her some were so she can be put to sleep, and not suffer anymore. So i took her to Dallas Animal Services on Westmoreland, because they have a night drop box and you can leave the dog in there and someone will get her out on the other side of the door. so i filled the information on the card out, and then when i put her in there she stands up and looks at me and starts walking around. I'm feeling bad about even bringing her there but i shut the door, And i go home that night after all this, and i cant sleep i keep thinking about this poor little dog, and so the next morning i call up there and she if she made it threw the night and she did! I was so happy. So i told my boss the whole story and asked her if i could bring her to Operation Kindness, And she gave me the ok, And we do surgery on animals if they have broken limbs, or hips so i figured she would be a good dog to bring into the shelter for that reason. So i had to wait 72 hours before i could pick her up, because she was a stray so the owner had 72 hours to find her. I knew no one would be looking for this dog, from the matted fur, to the long nails, and dirty ears. So after 72 hours i got to go pick her up and when i saw her laying in the cage, she got up and came to the door like nothing was wrong with her. i asked them do they know her problems and the hadn't done x-rays so the were unsure. So we leave and i get her to OK and they do x-rays and its a broken pelvis. and she stayed there until you came and adopted her! And i want to thank you for giving her a good home! And i thank your both lucky to have one another. It makes me so happy when one of my personal rescues gets a forever loving home. thank you!
Hi my name is Elise and i work for Operation Kindness, I wanted to e-mail you and let you know that i am very happy that u adopted Ethel and that i rescued her.. She was hit by a car right in front of me, i didn't see it but i heard it and i could hear her crying from the street. So when i figured out were she was, I picked her up and moved her to the sidewalk, i wasn't sure what to do because she wasn't bleeding or anything, she was in shock, she couldn't get up, she was really stiff and wouldn't stop crying.so i wrapped her up in a towel and put her in the car with me.. And this is all happening around eleven p.m. so i knew we were closed at operation kindness so i couldn't take her there. I figured that she wasn't gonna make it because she wouldn't stop screaming and she was breathing so hard. I couldn't leave her there to just die, so i called animal control and told them What happened and they told me that it could take any were from one hour to twenty four hours before they could get there, and there was no way i was going to leave this poor little poodle to die alone.. so i thought that at least if she was not going to make it that i could get her some were so she can be put to sleep, and not suffer anymore. So i took her to Dallas Animal Services on Westmoreland, because they have a night drop box and you can leave the dog in there and someone will get her out on the other side of the door. so i filled the information on the card out, and then when i put her in there she stands up and looks at me and starts walking around. I'm feeling bad about even bringing her there but i shut the door, And i go home that night after all this, and i cant sleep i keep thinking about this poor little dog, and so the next morning i call up there and she if she made it threw the night and she did! I was so happy. So i told my boss the whole story and asked her if i could bring her to Operation Kindness, And she gave me the ok, And we do surgery on animals if they have broken limbs, or hips so i figured she would be a good dog to bring into the shelter for that reason. So i had to wait 72 hours before i could pick her up, because she was a stray so the owner had 72 hours to find her. I knew no one would be looking for this dog, from the matted fur, to the long nails, and dirty ears. So after 72 hours i got to go pick her up and when i saw her laying in the cage, she got up and came to the door like nothing was wrong with her. i asked them do they know her problems and the hadn't done x-rays so the were unsure. So we leave and i get her to OK and they do x-rays and its a broken pelvis. and she stayed there until you came and adopted her! And i want to thank you for giving her a good home! And i thank your both lucky to have one another. It makes me so happy when one of my personal rescues gets a forever loving home. thank you!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Psalm 103
Such meaningful words to me, from a folded up photocopy of two pages of a book I've never read:
"The heart's fierce effort is to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. Yet the sons of earth are carrying this burden continually, challenging every word spoken against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them.
Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, 'Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself and cease to care what men think.'"
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
"The heart's fierce effort is to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. Yet the sons of earth are carrying this burden continually, challenging every word spoken against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them.
Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. He develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, 'Oh, so you have been overlooked? They have placed someone else before you? They have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? And now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? Only yesterday you were telling God that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. Where is your consistency? Come on, humble yourself and cease to care what men think.'"
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Week 2
I have been so inspired by reading Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. I’ve found myself reading and rereading sections, underlining, making notes, and even getting up from the book to put certain principles in action immediately. I have been primarily inspired by seeing the image of a devoted leader who will stop at nothing to accomplish his or her calling. The description of self-imposed discipline is encouraging me to take many personal steps, particularly as my life is extremely busy right now. The leader described by this book works very hard and is very productive with all of his time, which is an excellent goal. However, I have been feeling concerned by the message here – while describing my recent life to a friend, she quickly reminded me to take my day of rest, something I’ve been unable to do in weeks. I am reminded of leaders I have known and read about who sacrificed their personal lives, particularly their friends and families, in the pursuit of working nonstop. Finding balance in my life is extremely important, and I am still struggling to find that when between two jobs, school, and other obligations it seems like all but a few hours of each week are spoken for when the week begins. Hopefully the discipline described in this book will help me to find that balance without taking to extreme the principles of hard work described in this book.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Week 1
I am fascinated by the journey that God is bringing me on as I enter the MAGL program. When I graduated with a business degree in 2007, I didn’t have any clue what direction I wanted to go with my life. I tried to enter the nonprofit world doing world relief and development, but didn’t get any calls back, so after falling into a youth ministry job at my home church I started a Masters in International Development online at Tulane University. After two semesters I realized that another secular degree was not what God was calling me to, and that such broad-based work was very important but not for me. So I dropped out of that program and took some time off to focus on my new job in inner-city church planting and community development. I then began to enter a Masters of Social and Civic Entrepreneurship program at Bakke Graduate University, but before beginning classes the Lord convicted me that He hadn’t intended me to get another business degree. I immediately applied to Fuller and was accepted! My story since graduation has been 100% by the hand of God. I always tell people that I graduated with no job during a recession and God gave me two jobs that I didn’t apply for and helped me to start a 501(c)(3). Not only that, but despite having yet to even approach the concept of making $20,000 a year, the Lord has sustained me, even with schooling! I am truly blessed.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Things I've Been Learning
Seems to me like the past couple of months have been a pretty remarkable time of learning for me. While it's a lot of things that I pretty much already knew, getting them reinforced is great.
- Knowing yourself is the most important thing
- You can talk yourself into a new mood
- There's 3 parts of your psyche: parent, adult, and child. Not only does each part relate to different parts of different people, but you relate to yourself. The parent is either critical or nurturing, and the child is either adaptive or rebellious. In this mindset, how you relate to yourself has a lot to do with your psychological health, and how you relate to others has a lot to do with your relationships.
- If you're a people-pleaser, people don't end up liking you, they end up using you
- You've gotta be open to anything relationship-wise...those whom you discount might become your closest friends, and if you open your eyes there are lots of ladies around worth getting to know a lot better
- Take the things that you're good at in life and apply them to yourself...for example, if you're good at making a goal and building a plan to get there, do the same thing with your life
- You don't have to wait until you think you're going to marry someone to date them
- Values, passions, and interests all change. Consider people to date based on the things that don't easily change: character and personality.
- You don't have to marry someone who has all the same qualities as you, you only have to date someone who has the ability and potential to value, understand, be inspired by, and encourage them
- It's not about finding the right person to marry, it's about being the right person to marry
- In a relationship, you bring a lot to the table, the other person brings a lot to the relationship, and the combination creates a certain type of situation. The person you always have a beer and watch the game with won't likely become the person you have a great conversation with or the person you do ministry with. Therefore, in looking for someone to date, consider what kind of combination you want to have in your relationship.
- There is a lot to be considered about the relationship between how you see yourself and how you present yourself
- Focusing on other people is not only the most fulfilling thing you can do with your time, it also the most productive and valuable
- God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble, so humble beginnings are usually a good sign
- When you don't know what to do, do something
- There is no substitute for a good beer and good music
- Listening is far more important than speaking, and getting other people to talk about themselves and open up is far more important than talking about yourself
- Your place in life is where your strengths and your passions align with what the world needs
- Being intentional about building relationships with friends of friends and other acquaintances is fulfilling, exciting, and valuable
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Application Essays
I am applying to the Master of Arts in Global Leadership program at Fuller Theological Seminary. Here are the essays that I will be submitting with my application. Anybody who has the time, I would sure appreciate feedback!
--------------------------------------------------------
A. Reflect on your past Christian experience, including the most significant spiritual event/influence in your life, the role of Christ in your religious experience, the effect your faith has on your worldview, your involvement in Christian service, your perceived gifts/calling for ministry, and your reason(s) for attending your church.
Many people speak of faith in abstract terms or as something you pull out for the hard times, but for me, faith is a constant reality of relying on God. I've chosen to live my life in such a way that there has been no other option for me. Although I grew up in a Christian household, my walk with Christ took a very real turn for me in July 1998 at a youth camp when I decided to offer God my entire life. Prior to that, I had put off the decision, feeling like Christians never got to have any fun. I soon realized that my life as a Christian would be as adventurous as I allowed it to be.
Early on, God made it clear to me that He had my life in His control, but that He wasn't going to give me very much advance notice of anything or make it easy to rely on money. Each of my three summers during college really tested my faith. The first summer, I decided to do a discipleship training program with the Navigators. Having heavily relied on family and friends for three past international mission trips, I knew that God was calling me to pay for it myself. A similar thing happened the next summer, when I was planning on interning with my church when the budget was cut. I made the decision to continue with the job unpaid. The third summer, I hoped to return to Kenya and stay the entire summer with a team, but the team never materialized. I chose to go alone. Each of these three decisions had to be made at nearly the last minute, but each was incredibly rewarding. Since college, the trend has continued. It took two years after graduating to begin to earn a salary that covered my basic monthly expenses. My job change was also unexpected, but when the opportunity came it was clear that God had it planned for me. At every step of the way, I can have no doubt that God was in control.
My experiences in my life have really served to change my worldview. I have learned to see Christ in everything. I have had to work hard to know His voice and recognize it above the others. And my experiences traveling in Central and South America and Africa have continued to stretch my worldview to see the way that believers around the world see God. I have grown to love seeing different sides of God through the lenses of other cultures. I believe that I have a calling on my life for international service, but also for leadership and management. I also believe that God has called me to a higher level of holistic ministry. Fortunately, God has and is continuing to equip me for these callings, because I could never accomplish them on my own!
----------------------------------------------------
B. Reflect on how attending Fuller Theological Seminary would complement your present Christian experience and/or help you to achieve your future professional and vocational goals.
God has called me to His ministry by an unusual road. As my church believed that every member was called to serve, I grew up involved in ministry but never had a vision for it being my life calling. In college, I studied business, not out of any desire to be a businessman, but out of a desire to learn skills that would be useful in any setting. It wasn’t until during college that I began to realize that God had planned for me to be in full-time ministry. For the past two years, since graduating, I have pursed full-time ministry out of a passion to see people’s lives changed, both spiritually and in more tangible ways. Now I recognize that my business education complements skills that God had already gifted me with in a way that I can be a leader in developing new methods of ministering to people around the world holistically.
However, due to my unusual path into ministry, I am now trying to find my role in ministry without any Biblical education. I have been in public schools my entire life and so the lack of formal Christian training has become an impediment to my career progress. Not only am I looked down upon by many, but I also recognize that I am lacking some of the essential training that I need to keep myself well-grounded in a life of ministry. Just as I was thrust into a role of leading a high school ministry suddenly in 2008 without any preparation or warning, I now find that in my life I have found myself in ministry without adequate preparation. My preparation has been purely experiential, from travelling around the world to working in ministry roles. If I am going to move forward with my calling, it is essential that I receive formal Christian education to complement my already-growing body of experience.
I am eager to begin my education at Fuller as soon as possible to learn about leadership in a global world, particularly from a Christian perspective. I had initially begun learning about international development from a secular university, but I soon realized that missing theological training was not God’s will. I then began to apply to a business program from a Christian university, but then realized that God has not called me to a life of business. God has called me to ministry, and I must follow Him! Therefore, I am applying to this global leadership program at Fuller, where I know that I will receive both the character, practical, and theological training to fulfill God’s plan. I believe that He is leading me toward a career of leadership in holistic ministry on a global scale, and thus I can think of no better program than the MAGL.
-------------------------------------------
Provide a resume listing your professional experience over the last 5 years. Please provide the name of the organization, title of your position, a brief description of duties, and years of employment.
My ministry experience began during the 2005-2006 school year with co-leading a Bible study and discipling several men. I spent the summer of 2006 working at my home church as an intern for the High School ministry. I helped lead a summer camp, a mission trip to Peru, and joined a team to Kenya. During the 2006-2007 school year I left the leadership team of the Navigators to be President of my dormitory and be part of an inter-ministry effort to reach my dorm. In the summer of 2007 I returned to Kenya and remained by myself working in a slum church, teaching a business seminar, and opening an income-generating water project. I continued as President of my dorm until graduating.
In February 2008 I took a job at my church as the High School Assistant but soon found myself responsible for the program when the youth minister abruptly left. I directed the program, a summer camp, and a mission trip until August, when I returned to my role as Assistant and also became an assistant to the Young Adults and Missions Ministries. I remained in that role until November when I accepted an offer to come to LINC North Texas, where I handle the finances and human resources. I am also part of our ministry efforts all over Dallas and Fort Worth, including networking, fundraising, helping with inner-city youth, and more. I have also stayed part of the project in Kenya, traveling back two more times since graduating and recently assisting with starting a nonprofit organization to sponsor the education of youth from the slums.
-------------------------------------------
Briefly evaluate your personal ministry, and identify perceived strengths and areas needing improvement. Please indicate what has prompted your interest in the Master of Arts in Global Leadership and how you hope the program will address this need.
My personal ministry is based first and foremost on people. As a naturally relational person, I lead through relationships and minister through relationships. People say that I am dependable and reliable, a good listener, and good at speaking to people's levels. However, I add to this relational focus a strong skill for administrative work. I am naturally good at managing things, planning things, and problem solving. This combination of strengths leads me to be an adept leader, manager, and hard worker at the same time. Combined with my varied passions, which include social justice, development, and anything international, my life has taken a turn toward finding the proper relationship between spiritual ministry and practical ministry. I do have plenty of weaknesses, of course, which include being overly independent, idealistic, and sometimes self-centered. I have struggled to find my role in teams, as my natural tendency is to either sit behind the scenes and work or take charge. I have been accused before of having trouble operating under authority and of being prideful. I believe that I am a very self-aware individual and that this allows me to see my weaknesses and work on them.
I am very interested in becoming a better leader. The emphasis on personal development and leadership training with a global focus attracted me to the MAGL program. I place a high value on being a lifelong learner and on continual self-improvement so I hope that this program will be part of propelling me toward greater opportunities personally and professionally. I believe that I am called to be a leader wherever I am and so I know that I need as much training as possible.
-------------------------------------
What are the two biggest struggles facing the churches in your context?
As I am currently in a role where I work closely with many churches and experience many different types of churches, I believe that I get a good perspective of what the church culture is like. The biggest struggle facing churches that I work with in Dallas is to be outward-focused. Nearly all of the churches that I have experience with are focused on internal issues such as ministry styles, following traditions, and internal measures of success. This causes them to struggle to effectively outreach to their communities. With metrics such as Sunday attendance instead of real life change, they struggle to place an emphasis on reaching people outside the church and ministering to their deeper needs. It also causes churches to struggle to cooperate with other nearby churches as they are competing to be the biggest, best, and most self-sufficient.
The second biggest problem facing the churches in my context is related to the first: it is the challenge of being multicultural. Nearly all churches are essentially monocultural - not only are they segregated on ethnic lines, but low-income communities rarely attend church with middle- and high-income communities and young people rarely mingle with older generations. As the book of Acts describes the reversal of Babel with the bringing together of different cultures in worshiping Christ, the book of Revelations shows an image of all nations worshiping the Lord together, and the mystery of the Gospel described in Paul's epistles is the uniting of Jew and Gentile under one head, I have heard it said that segregated churches is one of the most dangerous heresies of our time. Through these two problems, many of our churches have become places of comfort for believers where a "club" mentality is held and outsiders feel unwelcome.
-------------------------------------
What are the two biggest opportunities that you feel you are not properly resourced for?
At my current job, I am working primarily on the administrative side of operations. I would like to be more on the leadership side of operations. We are a church planting and community development organization and so I am being held back due to my lack of experience in either of those fields. The organization is in need of leaders who are capable of running entire projects or ministries and I believe that I could be the right person, but I need more leadership training and experience. I believe that my lack of qualified education for the job is also holding me back. As I have no Bible school training and only a business degree, I feel like my education causes people not to initially trust me. I feel like the MAGL program would really help me to develop into the right kind of leader and gain the trust of others to move our organization forward.
There is also an opportunity with the project in Kenya that I've been involved in for three years. A friend and I have just started a nonprofit organization for it, but since the longest that I've lived there is 2 months, I do not yet have the ability to take more of a leadership role. I believe that I am lacking the same resources in this opportunity as well: experience and education. My experience gives me a start, but I need more. My education, however, only qualifies me to work on the administrative side of things in this organization. The MAGL program would equip me with the leadership skills and character to step forward and get more experience while also helping me to grow my capacity for taking leadership in this organization.
--------------------------------------------------------
A. Reflect on your past Christian experience, including the most significant spiritual event/influence in your life, the role of Christ in your religious experience, the effect your faith has on your worldview, your involvement in Christian service, your perceived gifts/calling for ministry, and your reason(s) for attending your church.
Many people speak of faith in abstract terms or as something you pull out for the hard times, but for me, faith is a constant reality of relying on God. I've chosen to live my life in such a way that there has been no other option for me. Although I grew up in a Christian household, my walk with Christ took a very real turn for me in July 1998 at a youth camp when I decided to offer God my entire life. Prior to that, I had put off the decision, feeling like Christians never got to have any fun. I soon realized that my life as a Christian would be as adventurous as I allowed it to be.
Early on, God made it clear to me that He had my life in His control, but that He wasn't going to give me very much advance notice of anything or make it easy to rely on money. Each of my three summers during college really tested my faith. The first summer, I decided to do a discipleship training program with the Navigators. Having heavily relied on family and friends for three past international mission trips, I knew that God was calling me to pay for it myself. A similar thing happened the next summer, when I was planning on interning with my church when the budget was cut. I made the decision to continue with the job unpaid. The third summer, I hoped to return to Kenya and stay the entire summer with a team, but the team never materialized. I chose to go alone. Each of these three decisions had to be made at nearly the last minute, but each was incredibly rewarding. Since college, the trend has continued. It took two years after graduating to begin to earn a salary that covered my basic monthly expenses. My job change was also unexpected, but when the opportunity came it was clear that God had it planned for me. At every step of the way, I can have no doubt that God was in control.
My experiences in my life have really served to change my worldview. I have learned to see Christ in everything. I have had to work hard to know His voice and recognize it above the others. And my experiences traveling in Central and South America and Africa have continued to stretch my worldview to see the way that believers around the world see God. I have grown to love seeing different sides of God through the lenses of other cultures. I believe that I have a calling on my life for international service, but also for leadership and management. I also believe that God has called me to a higher level of holistic ministry. Fortunately, God has and is continuing to equip me for these callings, because I could never accomplish them on my own!
----------------------------------------------------
B. Reflect on how attending Fuller Theological Seminary would complement your present Christian experience and/or help you to achieve your future professional and vocational goals.
God has called me to His ministry by an unusual road. As my church believed that every member was called to serve, I grew up involved in ministry but never had a vision for it being my life calling. In college, I studied business, not out of any desire to be a businessman, but out of a desire to learn skills that would be useful in any setting. It wasn’t until during college that I began to realize that God had planned for me to be in full-time ministry. For the past two years, since graduating, I have pursed full-time ministry out of a passion to see people’s lives changed, both spiritually and in more tangible ways. Now I recognize that my business education complements skills that God had already gifted me with in a way that I can be a leader in developing new methods of ministering to people around the world holistically.
However, due to my unusual path into ministry, I am now trying to find my role in ministry without any Biblical education. I have been in public schools my entire life and so the lack of formal Christian training has become an impediment to my career progress. Not only am I looked down upon by many, but I also recognize that I am lacking some of the essential training that I need to keep myself well-grounded in a life of ministry. Just as I was thrust into a role of leading a high school ministry suddenly in 2008 without any preparation or warning, I now find that in my life I have found myself in ministry without adequate preparation. My preparation has been purely experiential, from travelling around the world to working in ministry roles. If I am going to move forward with my calling, it is essential that I receive formal Christian education to complement my already-growing body of experience.
I am eager to begin my education at Fuller as soon as possible to learn about leadership in a global world, particularly from a Christian perspective. I had initially begun learning about international development from a secular university, but I soon realized that missing theological training was not God’s will. I then began to apply to a business program from a Christian university, but then realized that God has not called me to a life of business. God has called me to ministry, and I must follow Him! Therefore, I am applying to this global leadership program at Fuller, where I know that I will receive both the character, practical, and theological training to fulfill God’s plan. I believe that He is leading me toward a career of leadership in holistic ministry on a global scale, and thus I can think of no better program than the MAGL.
-------------------------------------------
Provide a resume listing your professional experience over the last 5 years. Please provide the name of the organization, title of your position, a brief description of duties, and years of employment.
My ministry experience began during the 2005-2006 school year with co-leading a Bible study and discipling several men. I spent the summer of 2006 working at my home church as an intern for the High School ministry. I helped lead a summer camp, a mission trip to Peru, and joined a team to Kenya. During the 2006-2007 school year I left the leadership team of the Navigators to be President of my dormitory and be part of an inter-ministry effort to reach my dorm. In the summer of 2007 I returned to Kenya and remained by myself working in a slum church, teaching a business seminar, and opening an income-generating water project. I continued as President of my dorm until graduating.
In February 2008 I took a job at my church as the High School Assistant but soon found myself responsible for the program when the youth minister abruptly left. I directed the program, a summer camp, and a mission trip until August, when I returned to my role as Assistant and also became an assistant to the Young Adults and Missions Ministries. I remained in that role until November when I accepted an offer to come to LINC North Texas, where I handle the finances and human resources. I am also part of our ministry efforts all over Dallas and Fort Worth, including networking, fundraising, helping with inner-city youth, and more. I have also stayed part of the project in Kenya, traveling back two more times since graduating and recently assisting with starting a nonprofit organization to sponsor the education of youth from the slums.
-------------------------------------------
Briefly evaluate your personal ministry, and identify perceived strengths and areas needing improvement. Please indicate what has prompted your interest in the Master of Arts in Global Leadership and how you hope the program will address this need.
My personal ministry is based first and foremost on people. As a naturally relational person, I lead through relationships and minister through relationships. People say that I am dependable and reliable, a good listener, and good at speaking to people's levels. However, I add to this relational focus a strong skill for administrative work. I am naturally good at managing things, planning things, and problem solving. This combination of strengths leads me to be an adept leader, manager, and hard worker at the same time. Combined with my varied passions, which include social justice, development, and anything international, my life has taken a turn toward finding the proper relationship between spiritual ministry and practical ministry. I do have plenty of weaknesses, of course, which include being overly independent, idealistic, and sometimes self-centered. I have struggled to find my role in teams, as my natural tendency is to either sit behind the scenes and work or take charge. I have been accused before of having trouble operating under authority and of being prideful. I believe that I am a very self-aware individual and that this allows me to see my weaknesses and work on them.
I am very interested in becoming a better leader. The emphasis on personal development and leadership training with a global focus attracted me to the MAGL program. I place a high value on being a lifelong learner and on continual self-improvement so I hope that this program will be part of propelling me toward greater opportunities personally and professionally. I believe that I am called to be a leader wherever I am and so I know that I need as much training as possible.
-------------------------------------
What are the two biggest struggles facing the churches in your context?
As I am currently in a role where I work closely with many churches and experience many different types of churches, I believe that I get a good perspective of what the church culture is like. The biggest struggle facing churches that I work with in Dallas is to be outward-focused. Nearly all of the churches that I have experience with are focused on internal issues such as ministry styles, following traditions, and internal measures of success. This causes them to struggle to effectively outreach to their communities. With metrics such as Sunday attendance instead of real life change, they struggle to place an emphasis on reaching people outside the church and ministering to their deeper needs. It also causes churches to struggle to cooperate with other nearby churches as they are competing to be the biggest, best, and most self-sufficient.
The second biggest problem facing the churches in my context is related to the first: it is the challenge of being multicultural. Nearly all churches are essentially monocultural - not only are they segregated on ethnic lines, but low-income communities rarely attend church with middle- and high-income communities and young people rarely mingle with older generations. As the book of Acts describes the reversal of Babel with the bringing together of different cultures in worshiping Christ, the book of Revelations shows an image of all nations worshiping the Lord together, and the mystery of the Gospel described in Paul's epistles is the uniting of Jew and Gentile under one head, I have heard it said that segregated churches is one of the most dangerous heresies of our time. Through these two problems, many of our churches have become places of comfort for believers where a "club" mentality is held and outsiders feel unwelcome.
-------------------------------------
What are the two biggest opportunities that you feel you are not properly resourced for?
At my current job, I am working primarily on the administrative side of operations. I would like to be more on the leadership side of operations. We are a church planting and community development organization and so I am being held back due to my lack of experience in either of those fields. The organization is in need of leaders who are capable of running entire projects or ministries and I believe that I could be the right person, but I need more leadership training and experience. I believe that my lack of qualified education for the job is also holding me back. As I have no Bible school training and only a business degree, I feel like my education causes people not to initially trust me. I feel like the MAGL program would really help me to develop into the right kind of leader and gain the trust of others to move our organization forward.
There is also an opportunity with the project in Kenya that I've been involved in for three years. A friend and I have just started a nonprofit organization for it, but since the longest that I've lived there is 2 months, I do not yet have the ability to take more of a leadership role. I believe that I am lacking the same resources in this opportunity as well: experience and education. My experience gives me a start, but I need more. My education, however, only qualifies me to work on the administrative side of things in this organization. The MAGL program would equip me with the leadership skills and character to step forward and get more experience while also helping me to grow my capacity for taking leadership in this organization.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)