{"id":291,"date":"2014-02-27T15:53:28","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T15:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=291"},"modified":"2014-08-12T22:00:53","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T22:00:53","slug":"isolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/isolation\/","title":{"rendered":"Isolation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isolation\u2014A Place of Transformation In The Life of a Leader\u00a0<\/em>is written by Shelley Tresbesch an Assistant Professor of Leadership and Organizational Development at Fuller Seminary. She identifies two types of isolation. The first is \u2018the setting aside of a leader form normal ministry involvement in its natural context usually for an extended time in order to experience God in a new or deeper way.\u201d This \u201csetting aside\u201d can take a variety of forms from sabbatical, to a minister being forced out from a particular ministry. The second form of isolation occurs when a leader is left within the ministry context, but the symptoms of isolation are still prevalent even though the leader may not be isolated in the physical since of the word.<\/p>\n

As I look back at my short-life in ministry, I can\u2019t identify any substantial moments of isolation as Tresbesch describes, but that doesn\u2019t mean that they won\u2019t come or that I\u2019m immune from them. I\u2019m fairly certain of this because Tresbesch outlines the moments of isolation that many of the biblical characters faced. If God didn\u2019t spare the heroes and heroines of scripture, I probably shouldn\u2019t think myself immune from it.<\/p>\n

Knowing that moments of isolation will come is a blessing, because you can prepare yourself. Tresbesch has six points for when the isolation comes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Honesty \u2013 Call a spade a spade. Don\u2019t try to convince yourself that everything is great. The faster you can admit that you\u2019re in isolation the quicker you can begin learning the lessons God has for you.<\/li>\n
  2. Remembering \u2013 Don\u2019t have a short memory. Allow your history with God to guide you through this moment.<\/li>\n
  3. Awareness \u2013 This isn\u2019t God picking on you! God regularly uses these moments to shape and refine leaders.<\/li>\n
  4. Mentor \u2013 You\u2019re not alone. It can be hard to discern the voice of God when you\u2019re in the middle of an isolating moment.\u00a0 Find someone who\u2019s been there before and allow him or her to guide you and discern with you.<\/li>\n
  5. Listening \u2013 Listening requires intention. While one might think this is common sense, I can see why Tresbesch specifically states this. I can imagine being in a moment of isolation and wanting to numb myself to everything. For example, to begin watching the entire series of The West Wing<\/em> and emerging from a TV comma a week later having not listened to God, just the voice of Martin Sheen.<\/li>\n
  6. Embracing \u2013 God has something for you. See this is a blessing and embrace this time with all of your being. Don\u2019t seek to rush out of it quickly, but allow God to lead you out in his timing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I don\u2019t want to have a time of isolation (what extrovert and optimist would?). But I can\u2019t be na\u00efve and assume they won\u2019t come. Reading this book from Tresbesch has been a great way to prepare for those times.<\/p>\n

    Some questions:<\/p>\n

    Have you been in a moment or season of isolation?<\/p>\n

    What was that experience like?<\/p>\n

    What did God teach you?<\/p>\n

    As one who hasn\u2019t been in isolation before, what words of advice do you have for me when I do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Isolation\u2014A Place of Transformation In The Life of a Leader\u00a0is written by Shelley Tresbesch an Assistant Professor of Leadership and Organizational Development at Fuller Seminary. She identifies two types of isolation. The first is \u2018the setting aside of a leader form normal ministry involvement in its natural context usually for an extended time in order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[121,116],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dmingp","tag-trebesch","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1615,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/1615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}