As the population of IHOP-KC continues to grow and grow, I find myself in more and more conversations and interactions with aspiring leaders/teachers/lovers of Jesus.
One of the biggest obstacles they are facing is their lack of leadership ability, maturity in God and knowledge of the Word. They feel ill-equipped and lost at how to get there. The Western Church has told them they ought to graduate seminary and be a youth pastor for six years before they can really get going. But that doesn’t work for everyone.
If you’re so inclined- you can skip seminary, spend your days in the prayer room and in the secret place and have more wisdom then the great minds of our time, more understanding than the famous theologians of our nation and deeper revelation than the great leaders of history.
If you open up the word to the book of Proverbs Psalms, David lays out the secret to wisdom, understanding and leadership ability. It’s called spiritual hunger. It’s a road to leadership ability, maturity in God and knowledge of the Word that all can take. The greatest king Israel has ever had tells us how him and God did it -
You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they (Gods commandments) are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies (the Bible) are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients (past leaders), because I keep your precepts.
Psalm 119 is the poor man’s psalm. It’s a psalm for those of us who are desperate for maturity and understanding and wisdom from God but have no means to get it. We are poor and helpless. The only place we have to turn is to the Bible. We have no incredible mentors. We don’t have amazingly Godly parents. We’re stuck cleaning toilets while the leaders are off in another room.
We have nothing but God and a commitment to holiness. Yet God Himself will be our teacher if we will let Him.
Aaron said:
out of curiosity what are the staff numbers like these days? they don’t have the old FCF news sheet on the web :oP
Posted on July 11, 2007 at 10:31 am
Jennifer James said:
Full time is at like, 344 isn’t it?
Posted on July 11, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Kurt said:
Solid post Shawn. The secret of the Lord is with those that fear Him. Oh, that we all would long to know the secrets of His Heart.
Posted on July 11, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Sweet! « Standing on the Wall said:
[…] read Psalm 119 over and over during the forty-day fast and prayed David’s prayers. Shawn Blanc just wrote about Psalm 119 … the post is very counter-culture (Church culture, that […]
Posted on July 11, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Joel Spencer said:
The Word is our Teacher - Jesus was (is) the Word and the Word is life. All knowledge, all power, ALL is in the Word. My time in it alone defines my closeness to God’s heart.
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 8:13 am
jeremy bouma said:
I remember feeling this way when I began ministry work almost 4 years ago. I was 23 and called to minister to people in positions of power in the American government. I remember thinking, “How the heck can I minister and lead THESE people?” Sure I could speak their language because I had a Political Science degree and worked with them for a year, but I had no “formal” training in pastoring or ministry at all…
Like you, really the only thing I worked off of was my hunger for the Lord and His Words and love of those people to whom I ministered.
Now as I prep to begin seminary this fall to “train” to be a pastor, I am thankful for a beginning that was build solely on a love of God and people and not academia or knowledge and a deep down sense that my calling as a pastor was just that, a calling NOT based on a piece of paper that says Master of Divinity on it.
Anyway, thanks for this post. It was a wonderful, refreshing reminder for me!
-jeremy
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 8:38 am
novus•lumen | living in the tension of an emerging faith and postmodern America » Blog Archive » A Poor Man’s Growth In Ministry Calling said:
[…] blogger named Shawn Blanc who writes at The Fight Spot that I have just begun reading wrote a great post today. It is a post for those who long to be God’s hands, feet, eyes, ears, mind and heart to […]
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 10:22 am
{Shawn} said:
@ Jeremy: Thanks for the testimony, that is an encouragement to me. I am writing a curriculum for a private Christian high school on leadership and I feel a little unsure of what to teach them. I suppose starting with holiness is a great place, eh?
@ Everyone: I can’t believe nobody has noticed my subtle D.C. Talk reference…
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 10:36 am
jeremy bouma said:
Holiness is a fantastic spot to start! A great book on that topic is a short one by Jerry Bridges called “The Pursuit of Holiness”. I used it in my ministry on Capitol Hill in a guys small group bible study and it was very instructive to all of us as young leaders.
Blessings in your efforts, brother!
-jeremy
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 11:15 am
couch said:
Shawn! It’s been awesome being at IHOP this week, lots of hard stuff but great days. I had a great conversation with Wes Martin today that really encouraged me.
Hope to run into you before I leave Saturday. If not that’s ok - blessings man!!
Posted on July 12, 2007 at 7:51 pm