Live The Vision

It would be easy to see the concept of a ‘living sacrifice’ as an oxymoron. However, the imagery of a living sacrifice can become a revolutionary metaphor for a life of service. To experience the abundant life that Jesus offered by becoming a ‘living sacrifice’ (Rom 12:1) one must follow His example and pursue a counter-cultural lifestyle in at least three ways: orienting our lives around what is important, learning to choose the best over the good, and incorporating rhythms of personal renewal.

Often we think of learning as a very personal or private activity. One person locks themself into a room with some resources in order to research and understand a particular topic or issue. While this can be a very effective way of deepening our grasp of a particular subject, it’s not an effective method of leading us to life-changing learning. If we are to be faithful servants of Jesus, then we need to be more interested in deepening our transformation than acquiring more information.

One of the ways that we can deepen the learning experience is to be involved in a ‘small group’ learning process. This is where we meet together with two or three others in order to share our understanding and experiences, to give feedback to one another, and to help each person keep the commitments that they make. Such groups go under different names: small groups, learning cells, learning clusters. Whatever we choose to call them, when they work well they become centres for encouragement, discussion, deeper relationships and accountability.

 Leading a small group discussion is an art, not a science. The sciences depend on predictable results: 1 + 2 = 3, and will continue to do so evening if the dinner burns, the rain falls, or if the boss gives you a raise. Whereas, if you ask a person a “how was your day”, you could get completely different results on two different days. This article aims to look at some principles that will help in leading discussions.

Imagine that you are in charge of an internship programme in an organisation, and that you want to teach your new recruits about servanthood. In particular, you want to teach them that servanthood is at the heart of leadership. How do you do it? You could do a Bible study on the subject, but you decide that you want your ‘interns’ to experience servanthood, not just hear about it.

Your first idea is that you give them a task to wash the senior pastor’s car. However, does this really accomplish the goal? Do they learn that leadership is serving others, or do they actually learn that becoming a leader means that you can get others to do things for you? If Jesus ran an internship programme, what would He do?

 Learning to ride a bike is one of the early steps towards independence that many of us experienced as a child. The bicycle provided us with the means of going further and faster. I have good memories of exploring our neighbourhood and the nearby countryside on my bike, accompanied by my friends. However, learning to ride a bike is a tricky business, which usually involves the painful experience of falling off. That process is greatly improved by using training wheels - a pair of small supporting wheels that are fixed to the either side of the rear wheels of the bike. They help you to gain a degree confidence and control on the bike, while the training wheels keep you vertical.

Training wheels, though, are not just used for cycling. Most of us go through life with the training wheels on in at least one area of our lives – where we are dependent on some form of support system that will prevent us from failing. While these support systems provide a degree of stability, they also prevent us from becoming all that God wants us to be. God’s intention for all of us is to reach a point of maturity - where we are not reliant on these external influences and support systems. The Apostle Paul describes maturity as a point when we are no blown of course by every wind of adversity the hits us (Ephesians 4:14).

Isn’t it great when God speaks to us? Isn’t it fantastic when the God who made the Universe makes a promise to us? We get inspired, we cry tears of joy, we’re moved, we’re so grateful to God. We go home, we go to bed, we wake up and God’s message to us warms our hearts. Maybe that inspiration lasts a few days, maybe a week, maybe even two weeks, but slowly the inspiration wears away and disappears. All we’re let with is a distant memory.

The inspiration and the promises of God are wonderful, but many times we find that it fades away before we see those promises fulfilled. Sometimes the pressures and challenges of everyday life take over, and we lose faith and lose hope and find that we are far from the promises of God for our lives.

Our experiences with formal education greatly influence our approach to learning. Here learning is often defined as acquiring more information about a certain subject in order to produce the right answers to questions and problems. Most of us have been students at some stage of our lives and know the pressure of assignment deadlines and studying for exams. We have memories of intense study before an exam and late nights completing assignments just before they are due. These techniques are often sufficient to get us through academic studies, but are totally inadequate to meet the challenges of daily living. 

Jack was a skilled factory worker, and he had been for years. Although the job helped pay the bills, he found that it was a drudgery to go to work. After lasting out over two decades at the company, he was made redundant in a spate of cut-backs at the factory. He needed to find a new job, but he didn’t want to return to the kind of life he was living before. As he thought about the kind of role he’d really like, he realised that he wanted to work with the mentally handicapped. So he started to do some volunteer work to see how he would cope in that sort of environment. Though the work was challenging, he loved it. A couple of months later he applied for a job working with some mentally handicapped children in a day care centre. Jack had landed his dream job! He is energised and passionate about his job, and he is loved and appreciated by the people he works with. Jack is a new man.

 The images carved into the side of Mount Rushmore in America are a tribute to several people that shaped their nation: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Those who visit the mountain are powerfully reminded of the values and contributions that each of these men made to their nation.

I feel sorry for Samson, one of the judges mentioned in the Old Testament. He was a great man, a hero. But when we think about him, or if we were to ask someone about him, what immediately comes to mind when we hear his name? His story is of a few individual events, some positive, a few sad ones. No long term goal achieved, no followers left, no new land gained.