In his last address to the group, Randy H. said the church needs genuinely deep people who take God seriously. He continued, "the future of the church lies in the hands of deep people, not in the hands of brilliant leaders, wonderful worship leaders and scholarly teachers." Looking deep for him involves looking for God in all things. We must tell the world, "Come along, walk with us as we pay attention to God."
Later, Brian McLaren said that leadership should flow out of rest in God. He also asked what are the major preoccupations of the church today? and What would change if our churches were more concerned with global crises--like rediscovering our God-given role as caretakers of the planet.
He said that we have become religions of bad news rather than good news.
Gary Holloway in his workshop stressed the importance of Sabbath in our lives. He quoted someone who said that to be spiritually healthy, we must "ruthlessly eliminate busyness from our lives."
Later in another workshop, Randy Harris asked "What am I a credible witness for?" Are we credible witnesses for Christ? He listed these things for personal spiritual transformation:
1. Identification of places where God's grace has not caught hold, or which are inconsistent
2. Prayerful selection of those things you are ready to get rid of
3. Cooperation with the Holy Spirit over the long haul
4. Getting help from your community of faith
He said that simplicity was living your life with your goal of becoming a credible witness in the world.
It seems to me that a major emphasis on the spiritual disciplines would benefit us all. It has been 25 years since Richard Foster wrote the book on spiritual disciplines--how many times have we opened it in the last quarter of our lives? However, McLaren said that the disciplines are not ends in themselves. The purpose of discipleship is to out and serve. As we transform inwardly, we can bring about a global transformation.
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