Weakness and the Gospel

Our church is on a journey right now that is somewhere between very exciting and terribly frightening.  In all of this I have never felt less competent as a leader than I have recently.  Because of that this whole "preach the gospel to yourself every day" thing that a lot of us talk about has become more real to me than ever. 

As I am trying to get the gospel I am trying to lead our leaders to understand and better apply the gospel and have been reading Dan Allender's book Leading with a Limp. I'll blog more on it later, but suffice it to say it is unlike any leadership book I have ever read and and is the first book in years that I have a desire to read again.

For now though, while you are waiting for Allender's book to arrive in the mail let me encourage you to read Glenn Lucke's post Phone Booth Confession.  Glenn quotes the phone booth confession of Stu and uses it as an illustration for the church.  Here are a few of his best thoughts from the post:

The Church, as a corporate body, is to do daily life like this scene of confession. Why? Because the Church is filled with people who are, in Luther's words, simul iustus et peccador. In English, this means simultaneously sinning and justified. If we regularly enacted this scene from Phone Booth, we would honestly and brokenly proclaim our peccador-ness. If we confessed our sinfulness to our spouses, children, parents, friends,  colleagues, neighbors, then others around us wouldn't feel the pressure to display only  their iustus-ness.

And . .  .

. . . why are we wasting so much time and energy on displaying our self-righteousness. Why not just live according to Scripture…and boast in weakness?

And . . .

We are scared to death to boast in our weakness because it violates culture (best foot forward, turn your good side to the camera), but if all of us in the Church would boast in our weakness together, we would become a Gospel-suffused community of honesty, brokenness, repentance, grace, forgiveness and restoration. In short, we would be a community of joyful intimacy.

Read the whole thing.

Comments

[Rocks In My Dryer]

Looks like the link to Phone Booth Confession heads to Amazon, not to Lucke's blog. Would love to read it--any chance you could update the link?

[David Wayne]

Hey - thanks for catching that - I fixed it.

[Bill]

David, I can't wait to hear your thoughts on Leading with a Limp, I have been reading through that book during my Days of Prayer with Lord (which I take every other month - so needless to say I am going at a slow pace.)

[Milton Stanley]

On those occasions when I've tried to share my weakness with the congregation, I've received one or more of the following responses: 1) someone tells me my weakness is no big deal; 2) a brother or sister urges me not to worry about it and that there's no need to share that kind of information in the future; or 3) someone uses the information against me.

Maybe it's just the inadequacy of my delivery, or maybe I've only been stating the uncomfortable obvious. But I get the impression that the congregations I've worked with don't want to hear about their minister's shortcomings.

I hear a lot of preachers talking about how Christians appreciate leaders who are humble and open about their shortcomings. I know that I do. But is it possible that those of us saying such things are in the minority?

[Elaine N]

As a member of your congregation, beside you on the frightening and exciting journey, I'm here to tell you, David, that you are loved and not alone.

I'm having difficulty with the three responses in Milton's comment, I don't see any of that happening in our church. Instead I'm hearing kudos for the humility. I admit, it is not easy to listen to your pastor speak of such things, however, we're family. We'll get through it together.

[Matt Dabbs]

You are in my prayers that you will have discernment and direction in these matters. God bless