{"id":293,"date":"2014-02-26T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=293"},"modified":"2014-08-12T22:01:29","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T22:01:29","slug":"3-times-a-charm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/3-times-a-charm\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Times a Charm?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>As district church planting director for my denomination I was really enjoying the ministry! \u00a0Talking with leaders, both pastors and others, who showed some interested in see an new church planted was not a chore, it was invigorating. \u00a0And then, quite involuntarily, God threw a curve ball. \u00a0Move to Hungary? \u00a0As a Christian and Missionary &amp; Alliance person I was very supportive of missions, but I was 50 years old and figured my time for that was well behind me. \u00a0During the next few months I did go through an abbreviated time of isolation. \u00a0It was a paradigm shift (culture and ministry) that I was assessing. \u00a0Long story short, God made it unmistakably clear that I was to go. \u00a0The process was important. \u00a0I clearly heard God\u2019s call which would later be reaffirmed beyond doubt to me and to others, but I also heard that I should not go because I was too old (from my own denomination no less) and that missions was better left to the professionally trained missionary.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>After serving for eight productive years in Hungary I went through another isolation period. \u00a0I decided to move back to the US, take an employment opportunity which would allow me to scale back my ministry and also give me the opportunity to build a retirement fund. \u00a0What looked like a wonderful opportunity turned into a nightmare. \u00a0The result was an isolation period that left me not knowing where to turn to nor what to do. \u00a0I decided to take some proactive measures. \u00a0I began a doctoral program and quite interestingly, the overseas ministry grew beyond my expectations. \u00a0I am still in transition. \u00a0But I have hope. \u00a0At 64 years of age I did not think that I would be \u2018starting over again.\u2019 \u00a0But, in many ways that is what I am doing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Reading Shelley Trebesch\u2019s book was like reading bullets out of my biography, not that I have always navigated the isolation process with flying colors! \u00a0But she identified the dynamics that one does experience. \u00a0Previous to this book I would not have identified my transition from church planting ministry to mentoring and discipleship as a transformative period. \u00a0But it was! \u00a0During my second period of isolation the ministry that grew was not church planting, but mentoring and discipleship. \u00a0This caused me to take a look at what God had done in my life and was doing. \u00a0It seemed as if the church planting had been stripped away revealing a deeper identity regarding mentoring and discipleship. \u00a0This did and is giving me revitalized hope for future ministry.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I really appreciated Shelley\u2019s six ways to embrace isolation for positive results:<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Be honest, not only intellectually but emotionally<\/li>\n<li>Remember God\u2019s work in your life, his call, his purpose, his promise<\/li>\n<li>Hope, perspective<\/li>\n<li>Get a mentor<\/li>\n<li>Listen for God<\/li>\n<li>Embrace isolation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>I want to elaborate on two issues that I think bear affirmation. \u00a0Shelley encourages getting a mentor. \u00a0She encourages one to interview several and determine who you can respect and listen to, who can identify with you and connect with you. \u00a0This must not be downplayed! \u00a0Both expertise and relational capacity and connection must be present! \u00a0And if only one of the two is present, make sure it is relational capacity! \u00a0If push comes to shove, you can find expertise in another. \u00a0The need to talk through, to bounce ideas, to verbalize hurts and dreams uninhibited is crucial. \u00a0Relational capacity and trust are paramount requirements for a mentor for this purpose.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Second, I want to affirm Shelley\u2019s focus on how a leader must move from a performance or positional identity to an identity that comes from our being. \u00a0Not that we end up \u2018being\u2019 without working or doing, but that our ministry begins to flow from who we really are rather than from an egocentric performance identity, a false aspirational identity. \u00a0Indeed, this only takes place after our aspirational identity is broken and counted a failure. \u00a0Then we can begin to function out of who we really are and our new transformational self based on the image of Christ in us.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In conclusion, Shelley\u2019s theme of encouragement to the leader to be prepared for isolation because it will take place is very apropos. \u00a0It has happened a number of times in my life and is taking place even now.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As district church planting director for my denomination I was really enjoying the ministry! \u00a0Talking with leaders, both pastors and others, who showed some interested in see an new church planted was not a chore, it was invigorating. \u00a0And then, quite involuntarily, God threw a curve ball. \u00a0Move to Hungary? \u00a0As a Christian and Missionary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"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":[2,116],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-trebesch","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","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\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1617,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions\/1617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}