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| Our downstairs office |
I ask participants to get alone with God for an hour and meditate on Ps. 23. I instruct them to write down what God says to them.
I have found that a quarter to a third cannot get past verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd. God asks them, "Oh, really?"
Henri Nouwen says the basic question of the spiritual life is: Who do i belong to? From this, everything follows.
All authentic leadership in Jesus' name is a being-led by Jesus. I cannot do this on my own, no matter how strong my abilities are. If I am my shepherd, I shall want. And so shall my community.
Ruth Haley Barton writes:
"The raw gift of leadership may be there—as it certainly was for Moses—along with a strong sense of what is right and what we think needs to be done in this world. But our leadership cannot be a force for good if it is not being refined by the rigors of true solitude, that place where God is at work beyond what we are able to do for ourselves or would even know how to do for ourselves." (Ruth Haley Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry, p. 43)
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johnpiippo@msn.com
Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God
Leading the Presence-Driven Church
