Confluence

Seeking God - A Meditation

2008-09-16T05:36:00.001-07:00

In prayer and fasting we often are seeking insight into God's will, wanting to know what it is that he would have us do. Yet we must be careful to remember that prayer and fasting are essentially about seeking God, regardless of whether he chooses to increase our level of knowledge about our circumstances or not.

We seek him, and in doing so find the confidence that God's rule (The Kingdom of God) has not diminished in power or reach. He is available to us in the details of our circumstance. And, because of our growing awareness of his character and availability, regardless of whether we obtain insights into whatever we are struggling with, we find our prayers answered. We find our Lord.

Christian prayer is essentially and inherently personal. All answers to prayer start and end with a person, and he is our sufficiency. Everything we receive is purely an act of his grace .

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The Prayer Appointed for the Week

2008-09-12T05:25:00.001-07:00

Grant me, O Lord, to trust in you with all my heart; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

From The Divine Hours.

Daily Offices Online

2008-06-26T05:17:00.001-07:00

Pray the Divine Hours at Explore Faith. Note that you need to select your timezone the first time.

This is a great way to maintain the discipline without having to carry around the book as I need to (this site is blocked as "religious" at my place of work).

del.icio.us Tags: Divine Hours, daily offices, prayer, fixed hour prayer

Update your feed

2008-06-25T20:08:00.001-07:00

Please update your RSS feed for this blog to point to http://feeds.feedburner.com/rayneronline/Confluence. This will be the permanent feed for this blog from now on.

Technorati Tags: Feedburner

The Great Thanksgiving - Anglican Liturgy

2008-06-02T05:05:00.001-07:00

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give him thanks and praise.

It is indeed right, for you made us, and before us, you made the world we inhabit, and before the world, you made the eternal home in which, through Christ, we have a place.

All that is spectacular, all that is plain have their origin in you; all that is lovely, all who are loving point to you as their fulfillment. And grateful as we are for the world we know and the universe beyond our ken, we particularly praise you, whom eternity cannot contain, for coming to earth and entering time in Jesus.

For his life which informs our living, for his compassion which changes our hearts, for his clear speaking which contradicts our harmless generalities, for his disturbing presence, his innocent suffering, his fearless dying, his rising to life breathing forgiveness, we praise you and worship him.

Here too gratitude rises, for the promise of the Holy Spirit, who even yet, even now, confronts us with your claims and attracts us to your goodness.

[Update] I thought that this was an Anglican liturgy, since it was used for communion at my Anglican church. But Paul Weary has since commented on this posting that the liturgy is actually from the Iona Community - to be precise "Liturgy for Holy Communion A" in the "Wee Worship Book" (4th edition) by Wild Goose Publications. Thanks for pointing that out Paul!

A Quiet Place

2008-05-19T22:05:00.001-07:00

My little girl. Doing one of her favorite things.

The Prayer Appointed for the Week - Monday Nearest May 18th

2008-05-19T22:03:00.001-07:00

Almighty and merciful God,
in your goodness keep me, I pray,
from all things that may hurt me,
that I, being ready both in mind and body,
may accomplish with a free heart those things which belong to your purpose;
through Jesus Christ my Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Spring Semester - Done!

2008-05-16T05:34:00.001-07:00

Today is the last day of Spring semester. It sure feels to have everything completed! You can see a picture of the task board in my office from this morning, which had most of the classwork tasks in the "To Do" column for such a long time.

The only task remaining now is to drive to Seminary this afternoon, hand in all my hard work, and start to relax a little.

Focusing the Message: Teaching for Life Change

2008-05-03T16:35:00.001-07:00

According to chapter 8 of Creative Bible Teaching, I should “…focus on helping learners bridge the gaps between the world of the Bible and the world of the student.”[1] In other words I need to develop the teaching idea by asking myself, “What do I want the students to learn?” The way to do this is to:

Begin with the bridge principle – the truth that the author of the passage intended the original hearers or readers to understand
Consider the student
State the pedagogical idea – the truth that the teacher of the class wants the students to understand from the passage

The second step is to develop the lesson aims by asking myself, “How do I want the student to change?” One tool that has been particularly helpful to me in this is Bloom’s three domains of learning. These are highlighted in the following table.

Bloom’s Three Domains of Learning
			Acts 2:37	Associated Aim
Cognitive	Thinking and knowing	“Head”	When the people heard this,	Content
Affective	Values and attitudes	“Heart”	They were cut to the heart…	Inspiration
Behavioral	Actions and skills	“Hands”	And said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”	Action

The key is setting action aims that speak to what the student will do or how the student will change as a result of the learning experience.[2] With that in mind, the book lays out four criteria for constructing worthwhile aims:

Short enough to be remembered
Clear enough to be meaningful
Specific enough to be achieved
Written in terms of the student

[1] 132.
[2] 141.

Focusing the Message: Truth into Life – Part II

2008-05-03T16:19:00.001-07:00

Chapter 8 of Creative Bible Teaching goes on to describe 5 Levels of Learning Transfer, with the contention that: “Creative Bible teaching is teaching to constantly raise students’ levels of learning toward realization”

The five levels of learning transfer given in the book Creative Bible Teaching are as follows:

Rote: ability to repeat without thought of meaning
Recognition: ability to recognize biblical concepts
Restatement: ability to express or relate concepts to biblical system of thought
Relation: ability to relate Bible truths to life and see appropriate response
Realization: actualizing response; to apply biblical truths to daily life

And, in terms of the teaching emphasis, here is what the book lays out:

Facts – basic but insufficient: Rote, Recognition
Meaning – in terms of worldview: Restatement
Meaning – in terms of life experience: Relation, Realization

The authors work through each of the learning levels and explain how each level leading up to the highest – the Realization level – is necessary but not sufficient for teaching. The Realization level:

“…is the goal of all Bible teaching: realizing, in the sense of making real in experience. Here is truth, applied in life… This is the level for which every Bible teacher vaguely hopes, but for which he must consciously teach…The Bible teacher must teach in such a way that his students, understanding the truth of God, discover and are led to make an appropriate life response to the God who speaks to them through His Word. Only when God’s work is learned in this way can God’s Word transform.”[1]

Creative teaching – “…consciously and effectively focusing on activities that raise the student’s learning level.”[2] Unfortunately, according to the authors, there is evidence that the Recognition level “…is the level at which many Sunday school students learn Bible truths.”[3] What this means is that most Sunday school students never even gain the ability to express or relate concepts to a biblical worldview (Restatement), let alone develop a deep biblical worldview and relate that to their daily life (Relation and Realization).

As the authors point out, even at the restatement level:

“Learning characterized by this ability is significantly different from the teaching that takes place in most of our Sunday schools. Too many of us are satisfied to check and see if our students recognize the truths we’ve taught. Too few of us consciously seek to help students achieve mastery of the teachings of God’s word.”[4]

In order to move students to higher levels of learning, the teacher must ask “probing questions that force attention to meaning…And then you hear students talking, discussing, testing their ideas, exploring until the meaning of God’s words becomes clear and relevant to contemporary life… the dividing line is not the use or nonuse of methods. The dividing line is focus. The creative teacher finds time for a thorough exploration of the meaning of the truth taught.”[5]

This active process of discovery is critical, since “...to move up even to the restatement level of learning, students must be led beyond listening. They must personally think through the meaning of Bible truths. They must toss ideas around in their own minds to formulate and express them in their own words. For this kind of learning, the students have to participate, to express their own ideas and their own insights… The creative teacher makes sure that his students take an active part in exploring meaning.”[6]

The Non-Creative Teacher

According to the authors, the methods of a non-creative teacher have two characteristics:

They are designed merely to communicate content, and
They are primarily teacher activities.

This describes accurately most of the teaching that I have done in the past. May God redeem me from that and allow me to become the teacher that he would desire me to be.

The Creative Teacher

Now I want to be focused on the students and their learning. I want to create student-centered activities that engage student thinking. I want to serve as a guide to learning and strive constantly to structure situations that will stimulate my students to discover meaning. I should use methods that are chosen to focus attention on meaning and create student involvement in this process of discovery.”[7]

In summary:

“...creative Bible teaching…is teaching the Bible in ways that cause learning on the significant levels of restatement, relation, and realization. To cause this kind of learning the Bible teacher must (1) focus on the meaning of the Bible truth taught, (2) involve his students in active search for meaning, and (3) stimulate and guide his students in this discovery process.”[8]

[1] 126.
[2] 127.
[3] 123.
[4] 125.
[5] 128.
[6] 128.
[7] 129.
[8] 129.

Focusing the Message: Truth into Life - Part I

2008-05-03T15:36:00.001-07:00

Chapter 7 of Creative Bible Teaching starts with this bold statement:

“Education is based upon an assumption that what is learned in the classroom can and should be applied outside the classroom. By definition, learning requires that the student be able to meaningfully transfer a concept from one setting to another. But the transfer of truth from one situation to another is not automatic. Effective teachers know this. They know that there is a difference between parroting answers and transferring those facts into life scenarios.”[1]

I think that I am probably good at getting my students to the “parroting answers” stage, but have had limited success in getting them to transfer the facts I teach into their life scenarios. Maybe I am being too hard on myself. But I strongly suspect that any life-application that has occurred has been in line with my intentions, but in spite of my execution.

This is the one that really gets me:

“Too often we equate knowing what the Bible says with knowing God…When a Sunday school teacher merely teaches the Bible as content, he implies that to know about God and to know God are the same… There is a profound relationship between knowing about God and knowing God, but it’s a relationship over which many stumble. Information about God and from God, applied to and responded to in daily life, leads to a growing knowledge of God.”[2]

So am I implying that to know about God and to know God are the same? It is certainly not intentional, so I plead guilty as charged. And it is certainly no excuse or consolation that so are most other Sunday school teachers. I think that is what has been modeled, and so that is not only what everyone does, but also – sadly - what everyone expects.

On the subject of how to structure the content, the book says that: “Creative Bible teachers understand this principle of learning: Learning most powerfully transfers and transforms when the material taught has meaning to the student’s life and experience.”[3] They go on to say that “…a basic principle of learning and, therefore, of teaching – order and structure give meaning to information and ideas…for students to learn a concept, some sense of structure and order is important. Random ideas are not retained and transferred to life as well as ordered concepts.”[4] I think I do a reasonable job of selecting and working through the material in a way that at least communicates the facts and ideas. But I do need to devote more attention to structuring the content so that it is memorable and easily digestable.

[1] 113, [emphasis mine].
[2] 114, [emphasis mine].
[3] 115.
[4] 115.

Focusing the Message: Student Needs

2008-05-03T15:28:00.001-07:00

The second part of the book is concerned with focusing the message, and starts with an emphasis in chapter 6 on understanding and assessing student needs. This emphasis was a new idea for me, since I have always assumed that I would communicate the content, and the students would work out themselves how the content meets their own needs.

But, as the authors say:

“By understanding your students you will also avoid the common pitfall of Bible teachers – teaching lessons rather than teaching students. Creative Bible teachers are student aware. They know that the content counts, but it is students that they teach… Some teachers focus on the content they desire to cover in the class as the primary factor in teaching. Creative Bible teachers do not. They recognize the necessity of teaching the truth of the Bible and the importance of strong content, but they also know that they teach students, not lessons. Student needs and student learning are a priority. Creative Bible teachers see themselves as a link between the content and the student. By knowing and caring for their students, they are able to connect the content in meaningful ways with students’ lives.”[1]

I am not inclined to be a very empathic person, and every Myers-Briggs test I have ever taken has labeled me an INTJ (think Picard from Star Trek TNG!). Introverts really have to go out of our way to get to know anyone, let alone a whole class full of people. One description of an INTJ goes so far as to say: “INTJs spend a lot of time inside their own minds, and may have little interest in the other people's thoughts or feelings.” And while who I am is certainly not defined by any personality profile, this certainly feels true for me a lot of the time!

So this book issues a strong challenge for me: “Do you see each member of your class as individual persons, or do you see them as a collective, a class, a group only? How well do you know and understand your students? Do you know their names, interests, concerns, and needs?”[2] I would have to answer that I will really need to work outside of my comfort zone in getting to know my students and their needs, since this is not something that comes naturally for me.

This is following Jesus’ example, since “Jesus recognized the basic educational principle that the student’s needs, interests, and readiness determines what is to be taught and how it is to be taught.”[3]

[1] Pp. 108-109 [emphasis mine].
[2] Ibid, 105.
[3] Ibid, 94.

The Goal of Bible Teaching

2008-05-03T15:18:00.001-07:00

The book Creative Bible Teaching argues that:

“The student is at the heart of the teaching-learning process. The ultimate objective in teaching the Bible is not Bible knowledge, though that is very important; it is applied Bible knowledge in the student's everyday life.”[1]

I think that I have always agreed with this statement, but have never really known how to accomplish it in the teaching that I have done. It has seemed like an admirable – but somehow unattainable – goal. Maybe I have thought this because I am a part-time teacher, and thus don’t have the time resources available to improve my skills to the kind of level that would make such a goal possible. Or maybe I just thought that I don’t have the innate teaching “chops” for this goal, even if I had the time to improve my skills.

Most of the teaching I have experienced has either been the lecture-format “cognitive dump” style, or the inductive Bible study approach where it feels like everyone is always sharing their ignorance. Neither of these seems to get anywhere close to the goal – either falling into the ditch of good content with no meaningful application to my life, or tumbling into the opposite ditch of sharing personal applications and off-the-cuff ideas that lack any meaningful connection to the content.

So while I would have agreed in principle that, “The task of the creative Bible teacher is to make the biblical material meaningful to the contemporary learner”[2] and aimed for that in my teaching, I have generally thought that perhaps it is just too hard and maybe something that the Holy Spirit is responsible for rather than me.

Creative Bible Teaching not only contends that this goal is attainable, but actually provides the resources and tools to accomplish it. The first part of the book is concerned with the foundational step - how to study the Bible. It also includes valuable discussions of the need for and nature of the Bible, as well as the message and role of the Bible. This section of the book ends with an excellent sample Bible study to show how a well-informed inductive method can work. The remaining sections of the book are on focusing the message, structuring the lesson, teaching the class, and evaluating the results.

[1] Creative Bible Teaching, 94.

[2] 116.

Teaching to Learn

2008-05-03T15:14:00.001-07:00

In the past in my teaching I have focused primarily on content, and the communication of that content to a class. Being an analytic learner, I have always tended to spend most of my time researching and studying the material that I intend to teach. Then I have selected the things that I think are important to convey, and for the lesson take the class through the material in a way that seems to make sense to me. I have tried to make it interesting for the class, and have usually included some kind of general application at the end in the hope that the students will be impacted by what they have just heard and be able to apply it to their lives. This has typically been my approach.

I have learnt much, but perhaps three of the most significant things I have learnt from Creative Bible Teaching can be summarized as follows:

1. Teaching is not primarily about the teacher, but about the needs of the student and what the student learns.

2. It is the responsibility of the teacher to strive for application of the material and change in the life of each student.

3. The best lessons will have flexibility within a well-defined approach to the lesson plan structure.

Learning to Teach

2008-05-03T15:11:00.001-07:00

This semester at Denver Seminary I have been taking two classes focused on making me a better teacher: Teaching Practicum and Mentored Academic Professional Development. The first is taught by the Department of Educational Ministry, and is intended (according to the syllabus) to instruct “in the art and skill of communicating the Bible in a classroom teaching style with the purpose of facilitating the learner’s spiritual nurture.” The second class is my final mentoring class, and is therefore a self-directed learning project where I have focused on improving my lesson planning skills.

I took both classes online, so that I could combine the class requirements with the adult Sunday school class on the gospel of Matthew that I teach from 9am-10am each Sunday. I love teaching this class – I have the best group of learners anyone could hope for - and it has been a great way to develop as a teacher for my The Light of Christ Anglican Church community. My students have been very supportive and encouraging and are a joy to teach.

As part of my course requirements I have read the book Creative Bible Teachingthis semester. This book has dramatically changed the way that I think about teaching and I am seeing that it is helping me become a better teacher as I have started putting it into practice. I will work through the book here, highlighting things that have stood out as important to me.

The Privilege is Ours to Share in the Loving

2008-02-20T21:40:00.001-08:00

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, the privilege is ours to share in the loving, healing, reconciling mission of your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, in this age and wherever we are. Since without you we can do no good thing:

May your Spirit make us wise;
May your Spirit guide us;
May your Spirit renew us;
May your Spirit strengthen us;

So that we will be:

Strong in faith,
Discerning in proclamation,
Courageous in witness,
Persistent in good deeds.

This we ask through the name of the Father.

Church of the Province of the West Indies.

From p.76 of The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime (Tickle, Phyllis)

People First – In Missions and in Business

2007-12-03T21:54:00.001-08:00

I am part of a relatively new movement in the software development industry. The movement is called agile software development, and is centered around four core value statements:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

One thing I find interesting about these four values is that I think they all boil down to a recognition of the importance – even centrality – of people and relationships in software development. It is a recognition that the major focus needs to be on people.

This is certainly not a new idea in software development. Fred Brooks[1] pointed out over 30 years ago in his classic text The Mythical Man Month that the Tower of Babel failed not because of technological limitations or lack of resources. It failed because of communication problems and the disorganization that followed because of lack of communication. The same problem can be applied to large software engineering projects. Many large system programs fail because of communication problems among the programmers and among the implementers.

Steve McConnell wrote in Rapid Development that “peopleware issues have more impact on software productivity and software quality than any other factor…technology is not the answer; the most effective practices are those that leverage the human potential of their developers…Taken collectively, peopleware issues matter more than process, product, or technology. You have to address them if you want to succeed.” (pp. 12-13)

This idea about the importance of people in software development is the central theme of Peopleware, by DeMarco and Lister, which states that: “The major problems of our work are not so much technological as sociological in nature"). It seems so obvious, yet somehow it gets lost somewhere in the meetings, in the coding, in the other day to day activities. And I think that if this key insight is lost to those inside of the information technology camp, then how much more is it not seen by those who watch us from the business side – the ones relying on us to help solve their problems.

The key point I want to bring out here is that this central value is right in line with Jesus’ teaching on the value of people. To him the most important commandment in the Law was to love God, and the second to love your neighbor as yourself. Our relation to God is paramount, and rightly so - since God is the Creator and we are the created. But this then provides the context for the need to value the people in our lives and our relationships with them above all other created things.

In Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus answered the question, “What is the greatest commandment in the law?” with the statement, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “ Love your neighbor as yourself.”

His teaching on loving one’s enemies is radical, and implies an even greater love for one’s friends than perhaps we typically see or give.

⁴³ "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48, TNIV[2])

As I said in a previous posting, “When I do a good job at work, when I pursue excellence in what I do, I am loving not only my coworkers, but the customers, the shareholders, and the clients. Most of whom I will never meet.” So we need to remember that the people we work with are made in the image of God and thus deserve our respect, and that it is these very people that we rub shoulders with everyday that we are called to love.

[1] "He is married to Nancy Greenwood Brooks. They have three children: Kenneth, Roger, and Barbara, and nine grandchildren. Dr. Brooks became a Christian at age 31. He chaired the Executive Committee for the Central Carolina Billy Graham Crusade in 1973. The Brookses advise a chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and he has taught an adult Sunday School class for over twenty-five years." (from his biography at http://www.cs.unc.edu/~brooks)

Let Us Give Thanks

2007-12-01T01:02:00.001-08:00

I am so grateful right now. Grateful for the new friends that I have met here in Vancouver. Grateful for being able to (Lord willing) go home to my family tomorrow. Grateful for life. Today's Vespers prayer says it well:

Let us give thanks to God our Father for all his gifts
so freely bestowed upon us.
For the beauty and wonder of your creation, in earth and sky and sea, I thank you Lord.
For all that is gracious in the lives of men and women, revealing the image of Christ,
I thank you Lord.
For my daily food and drink, my home and family, and friends,
I thank you Lord.
For a mind to think, and a heart to love, and hands to serve,
I thank you Lord.
For health and strength to work, and leisure to rest and play,
I thank you Lord.
For the brave and courageous,
who are patient in suffering and faithful in adversity,
I thank you Lord.
For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice,
I thank you Lord.
For the communion of saints, in all times and places,
I thank you Lord.

From p.268 of The Divine Hours:Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime, by Phyllis Tickle (see also ExploreFaith)

Technorati Tags: Daily Offices, Divine Hours, Virtual Genius, Grateful, Let us give thanks

Sermon: "The Place God Calls You To"

2007-11-30T18:37:00.001-08:00

These are the notes for the sermon I preached for the Sunday services at The Light of Christ Denver on the 7th of Oct 2007. The transcript is also available in pdf format. Since they are only my notes the actual words spoken on the day were different, so download the mp3 audio of the second sermon to hear what was actually said.

The Place God Calls You To

Today I want to focus particularly on God’s calling, on understanding what it means to live meaningfully in the place God calls us to. What does God think about what we do? Not so much what we do here in this building on Sundays, important as that is, but what we do the rest of today, and the rest of the week. The other 166 hours. What about our jobs, our work, our families, our hobbies, the little things that bring us joy and make life interesting for us? What does God think about those things? How do those things fit in with God’s calling on our lives? What does God think about our volunteer work, or our school work, our eating habits, our sleeping habits, how we take out the trash, and how we take care of our kids? What does God think about those things? The everyday, mundane, trivial things that fill our time and make up what it means just to be “human.” Do those things matter to God? And how do they fit in with the calling of God? These questions have been burning a hole in my mind for a long time now. I’d like to explain why, because I think you might find some common ground in your own life.

I love developing software. Always have. I must have ridden hundreds of miles around the neighborhood on my bicycle when I was a teenager (and delivered thousands of pounds of junk mail and newspapers in the process) to save up enough money to buy my first PC. After high school I ended up with a graduate degree in computing science and then worked for 10 years as a software developer in Australia. By the end of the 90’s I was travelling Australia and also the world as successful software consultant with a solid job and a bright future.

As I’ve said, I love my job and find it hard to see how I could feel close to fulfilled doing anything else. But I always got the impression from fellow Christians that doing this kind of work didn’t matter to God as much as things like prayer, and church, and Bible reading, and mission trips, and other more “spiritual” pursuits. It seemed like the heroes of the faith that I heard about in church weren’t software developers, or high school students, or elderly bed-ridden people, or bankers, or lawyers, or regular people like that. They were saints, monks, missionaries, pastors, and other types of people who had committed full-time to serving the Lord. So I always felt a little second-rate. That if I was really serious about God and his mission then I wouldn’t be in a regular job. I even heard some Christians say that working a job was good for paying the bills, “but it was not going to count for anything in eternity.”

I decided early on in life that I would never be satisfied with mediocrity, and have always desired to follow God’s leading in my life. Every step I’ve taken has been with the confidence that God would lead and guide me. So in 1999 I went on a short-term mission trip to Papua New Guinea and visited a remote tribal group. I felt like my eyes were opened in a new way to what God was doing in missions around the world. He reached through my analytical mind and touched my heart with a desire to experience something more. I decided that I needed to become a missionary and devote myself fully to what I felt God wanted me to do. It made sense to me that if I wanted to be a success at cross-cultural missions work then I should train in a cross-cultural setting. So in a matter of months I quit my job, sold my company and just about everything I had, said goodbye to my family and friends, and moved to the USA to get training in missions.

I came to a little Bible College in Michigan. I did well at the classes, but gradually began to realize that I would make a lousy tribal missionary. As my wife Becky will attest, I am not a handyman type of guy, and would probably pay someone to mow the lawn if I felt like I could get away with it. So it became clear that while I was willing to do it, maybe living in the jungle, and everything that goes along with that, was not going to be a wise thing both for me and for the tribal people that would have been stuck with me.

The plus side of attending that particular Bible College is that I met Becky there, and it wasn’t long before we knew that we were made for each other and married. When she met me, Becky was on staff at the Bible College and had already worked for over 10 years as a career missionary in both the USA and South America. Her parents were also missionaries and she had grown up in Bolivia as a missionary kid. When our son Jack was born, we decided what it would be best if I went back to work and continued my studies part time and Becky would stay home and look after our kids. This was a big change, and not an easy one. The lack of adult stimulation and an awareness that this is not her primary gifting has led Becky to struggle sometimes in finding meaning and purpose at this stage of her life. But I really admire the way she has embraced God’s calling on her life to be a mother and continues to provide such wonderful love and guidance to our kids.

So I went back to working in software development, and ever since then I have been taking seminary courses part-time. I completed the bible college degree, a master of arts in theology, and now I am taking courses towards a masters degree at Denver Seminary. This whole time I have been working full-time in software development.

Because of this message that secular work is second best, and despite my confidence in God’s leading, I have felt a great deal of guilt and confusion concerning my return to a secular job instead of following through and working as a missionary. I felt uncertainty about whether I should stay in software development, or move into a more “spiritual” and “significant” vocation. So a big part of my journey over the past year has been a quest to find some answers with that. To know what God thinks about my work. The same as knowing what God thinks about your work, whether it is taking care of kids, comforting your friends, doing your chores, or whatever it may be. And not just your work, but every seemingly insignificant part of your life that makes you - you.

So I started to read, and ask questions. And I think God has opened my eyes to some insights that show me I am on the right path here. I know that, because I am not only seeing my thinking slowly being transformed, but also my whole outlook on life. I feel that I am a better employee, husband and father as a result. And I would like to share a couple of these with you, in the hope that God will inspire you to join this quest to uncover the glory, sacredness, and significance of ordinary life.

At least once a week we pray the Lord’s Prayer, yet have you ever stopped to think about your request for God to provide us with our daily bread? Matthew 6:11 says, “Give us today our daily bread” (NIV). So simple. So profound. But how does God answer that prayer? Because, he does – right? Every day we not only have the food we need and our basic necessities provided, but much more beyond.

God answers that simple prayer through the work of others. God is at work answering that prayer through the farmer, truck driver, granary employees, bakery staff, quality control people, packaging workers, and many unknown others long before you even pray that prayer. If you asked any of them, they would say they are just doing their job. And maybe just because they are trying to make ends meet. But the reality is that God is at work. Through the ordinary work that is done by people who may not even profess faith in him. God is at work to provide our needs. That giant interconnected network of business relationships and exchanges is how God answers that prayer. Every day. God is hidden behind everyday things, and ordinary people. Theologian Karl Barth said, “The Christian knows that all work, even that of the non-Christian, has meaning and necessity as ordained by divine providence with a view to this goal [the coming of his Kingdom]. He regards the work of all men as their preparation for the service in which he is engaged as a Christian.” So God answers our simple prayer for daily bread through the work of others.

Let’s start with the second commandment to love our neighbor.

I used to think that loving my neighbor meant doing some kind of physical act for someone I meet, like raking someone’s leaves, or shoveling their drive, or the other kinds of things that boy scouts seem to do so well. I’m horrible at those kinds of things and, while I still try to do them because they are good ways to love one’s neighbor, they just don’t do it for me. So how am I supposed to fulfill that commandment? How do I love my neighbor?

I now know that my work is a key way, in fact the chief way, in which I can fulfill the commandment to love my neighbor. The beauty of this is that I can love my neighbor by employing my professional skills, experience and passion by doing the very things I enjoy most. When I do a good job at work, when I pursue excellence in what I do, I am loving not only my coworkers, but the customers, the shareholders, and the clients. Most of whom I will never meet. Also, in my calling as a husband, when I serve my wife by making her coffee and emptying the dishwasher every morning, I am obeying that commandment. And in my calling as a father, chasing my son Jack around the back yard, or playing toy cars with him in the basement, that fulfills the commandment. And changing my daughter’s diaper, while not glamorous, is also a practical way of living out the commandment. God can use any good thing I do to create value. So it all matters. All of it.

When I serve, as Nancy Ortberg has stated, I am most accurately reflecting the character and nature of God. So whatever you do, whether it is pouring coffee, or visiting someone in hospital, or helping another student with their study, or caring for someone who is sick, or teaching third graders, or playing guitar in a coffee shop, playing well on a sports team, or just spending good time with friends. All of these human activities are ways of serving others, and thus loving them. That gives each activity a unique sacredness, because God partners with us to serve and to love them through us. When we do this, we are putting the same value on things that God is.

But what about loving God? (the first and greater commandment). How does this fit into what we are saying?

In the very beginning in Genesis 1:28 the first man and woman are together commanded by God to work creatively in relationship with each other to fill the earth and subdue it. They are to rule over God’s creation and shape it as they best see fit. It says just after this in verse 31 that “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” The creation of humanity as imitators of God in creating new relationships and cultures and work environments was a good thing. Work is not the result of sin, though our sin can sometimes make work, or school, or whatever we do, harsh and unproductive and unfulfilling. But the image of God is still there in people. And creation, despite being corrupted by sin, is still good. One day God will, through the resurrected Christ, complete the healing and restoration of what he has made. Romans 8:21 says that “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage of decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Then our relationships, our work environments and our cultures will truly be right - the way God originally intended them to be.

So one way we can love God is to pour our heart and soul and mind into whatever things that God gives us a passion and ability to do in his creation. Not something that would take the place of God and become an idol in our life, but rather something we delight in doing that brings us closer to God. It might be running or some other kind of exercise, it might be art, or music, or some hobby or sport that we can excel at, it might be reading great books, or even showing hospitality to others. When we imitate the creativity and excellence of God in enjoying creation, we are most truly what God made us to be. As Nancy Ortberg says, “Work is another way in which you and I can work out the image of God that resides in us.” And it doesn’t even have to be what we would normally think of as a “spiritual” activity. This is because when we are in Christ, which we are as His followers, then all of life is spiritual and sacred because it all belongs to him. Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

So, what does God think about what we do? The everyday, mundane, trivial things that fill our time and make up what it means just to be “human?” Those things do matter to God, so they should matter to us too. In the place God calls us to, we can feel God’s pleasure in what we do, even when those things seem so ordinary to us.

I like how Michael Wilkins emphasizes that, “all of our service in the kingdom is inherently valuable, whether it is in sacred or secular realms, whether it receives a greater or lesser return. Our responsibility is to plan for the long haul and use our giftedness to advance to kingdom of God.” (p. 819). Thus those of us who are followers of Christ, every part of our life is infused with the presence and power of God. We just need eyes to see it.

Every workday around noon I go to a quiet room and pray the Lord’s Prayer. I think about my role in bringing the reality of the Kingdom of God on earth in my workplace. I ask for God’s will to be done in my work and in the lives of my workmates. I pray for just and fair dealings with people. And honest and open communication with them. I ask that God would use me in his desire to create a work environment where there is a “nobility of service.” That he would remind me that it is a noble thing to serve, even in the menial tasks. I want to have the same mindset in my family life too. In fact, all of my life.

Working through these thoughts in the last year has been both a very liberating and energizing experience for me. I still am passionate about missions - that hasn’t changed. But even though I still have so many unanswered questions, I now see a bigger picture. I am part of God’s activity all over the world, we all are. And in as much as we participate in that divine activity through finding and following our spiritual callings, I think we will more and more, as Paul said to the Ephesians, have the eyes of our heart enlightened to know the hope to which he has called us and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

In my many interrelated callings as husband, father, employee, student, etc I sense a deepening awareness of the working of God in the everyday things of my life; an awareness of the sacredness of the everyday. We can be confident that we are able to participate as coworkers in his mission to restore all of creation back to himself in Christ. Why? Because God is hidden, yet active, behind everyday work, mundane things, and ordinary people. People like you and me. Last year I read a quote by Frederick Beuchner (“Beekner”) that said, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Have you found that place?

Technorati Tags: Work, Virtual Genius, Software development, agile, vocation, calling

Becoming a Missiological Software Developer

2007-11-29T15:20:00.001-08:00

It is not the Church of God that has a mission in the world, but the God of mission who has a Church in the world. Tim Dearborn (quoted in chapter 5 of Mission Shaped Church)

This semester my learning contract relates to understanding the relationship between work and mission. Included in this is the notion of business as a part of the more general category of work.

The Dictionary of Missiological Terms at www.missiology.org notes that "mission is not the invention, responsibility, or program of human beings, but flows from the character and purposes of God. . . . Mission is defined, directed, energized, and accompanied by God" (Murray 2001, 39). The mission of God is something that we join and then participate in as we engage in plans and activities to accomplish his mission. So missions is defined by Van Rheenen as "the plans of committed believers to accomplish the mission of God" (Dictionary of Missiological Terms).

I have devoted a great deal of time over the last year to rethinking my theology of vocation, particularly in the context of work and family. But I originally came to the USA to prepare for missions, and I am concerned that I have not spent sufficient effort on working out how to effectively integrate my theology of vocation with my theology of mission. Since each major life and career decision in the last few years has been carefully and prayerfully considered and executed, I want to be able to see more clearly not only why where we are now is the right place to be, but also reflect on how God has led us to this place.

I don’t want to use my work as an excuse not to be involved in God’s mission, but want rather to have a good understanding of how work and mission should fit together in my life. While I now understand that my work does have intrinsic value for God’s kingdom, I still want my work to be located within the larger scope of Christian mission in an intentional and therefore meaningful way.

We are all embedded – implanted - in a particular social and cultural context, and it is within that context that we must live out the gospel in a genuine manner. In doing this we imitate our Savior.

If the church is to be in a position to offer all men the mystery of salvation and the life brought by God, then it must implant itself among all these groups in the same way that Christ by his incarnation committed himself to the particular social and cultural circumstances of the men among whom he lived. (Mission Shaped Church, p. 87)

This context involves, to a large extent, our work. Whether our work is in business, sports, education, or other more difficult and important pursuits such as parenting and homemaking – these are the things that consume our time, and shape our lives and give them meaning. These are the activities and the milieu of our salvation – the primary context in which we work out our salvation (Philippians 2:12).

Through my reflection during this last year I have accepted the idea that God wants software development to be my work (for now at least). And that has made a world of difference for me in how I view not only my work, but also myself as a person. So I want to continue on with finding a more meaningful understanding of my work and how that fits together with every other aspect of my life and God’s mission. Since I still have a strong passion for missions, I want to uncover how what I spend most of my time doing can be a part of that passion.

The Dictionary of Missiological Terms defines Missiology as follows:

Missiology: "the conscious, intentional, ongoing reflection on the doing of mission. It includes theory(ies) of mission, the study and teaching of mission, as well as the research, writing, and publication of works regarding mission" (Neely 2000, 633). "1. the study of the salvation activities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit throughout the world geared toward bringing the kingdom of God into existence, 2. the study of the worldwide church's divine mandate to be ready to serve this God who is aiming his saving acts toward this world" (Verkuyl 1978, 5).

It is precisely through conscious, intentional, ongoing reflection on the doing of mission that I will have a greater awareness of missions and deeper understanding of how to incorporate that into my work in meaningful ways. I would hope that my return to placing missions at the center will better equip me both as an entrepreneur and employee to serve others in the context of my work. It should also show me how better to place myself within the church in the context of missions.

But it has to move beyond reflection, and into practice.

This is the road. This is what I see as I look forward. Towards becoming a Missiological Software Developer.

A Midday Prayer

2007-07-04T13:10:00.001-07:00

Most gracious God and Father, you are with me as I make my journey throughout this day. Help me to look lovingly upon all people and events that come into my life today and to walk gently upon this land. Grant this through Jesus who lives and walks among us ever present at each moment. Amen.

From The Divine Hours - Prayers for Summertime (p. 202)

Note - flowers photographed today in back garden.

Patrick's Breastplate - A Reading

2007-06-07T05:25:00.001-07:00

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever,
By power of faith, Christ's incarnation,
His baptism in the Jordan River,
His cross of death for my salvation,
His bursting from the spiced tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom,
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rock.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, his might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need,
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, his shield to ward,
The Word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in all the hearts that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
Of whom all nature has creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word,
Praise to the Lord of my Salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

From p. 652 of The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime (Tickle, Phyllis)

Using Scripture

2007-05-02T18:22:00.001-07:00

In the book The Family by Jack Balswick and Judy Balswick the first chapter starts with the crucial question, "How can we best use Scripture to learn God's intention for family life during the new millennium?"

They describe the common approach as that of picking out the key verses from the various scriptural passages dealing with the family. The problem with this, and I think that this criticism applies to the method no matter what the subject matter being discussed, is that it so easily leads to selective analysis and faulty synthesis of the passages.

As the authors put it:

This method of selecting certain verses about the family can be compared to strip mining. Ignoring the historical and cultural context, the strip miner tears into the veins of Scripture, throws the unwanted elements aside, and emerges with selected golden nuggets of truth. Too often, searching for God's truth about the family ends up with truth that conforms to the preconceived ideas of the miner doing the stripping.

In all Scriptural reading, it is essential to consider the total context of scriptural passages about family life. Usually the Bible student is encouraged to take a bottom-up approach, starting with the verse itself, then the immediate context, then working up from there. But a far sounder approach is to begin with the larger metanarrative and ask if there is anything we can learn from the total context before progressively drilling down into the details.

The authors do this by considering the relationship between God and Israel as a fruitful model for the development of a theology of family relationships, based in general on the scriptural descriptions of God in relationship.

Spring is Here!

2007-03-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

Sunrise over our backyard this week