Saturday, June 23, 2007

Reflections on leading a faith community

Some of my mentors on leadership and belonging to a faith community:

...I can never be involved in creativity except by entering the mess. Mess is the precondition of creativity. The tohu v'bohu of Genesis 1:2. Chaos.
...if we in fact believe in the Holy Spirit, then we must not at the same time try to moonlight as efficiency experts in religion. We cannot nurture the life of the Spirit in a parishioner while holding a stopwatch. We cannot apply time management techniques to the development of souls."
E. Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant, (Eerdmans 1992), p163-4.

To listen, when nobody else wants to listen, is a very beautiful thing.
Mother Teresa

Let us be very sincere in our dealings with each other, and have the courage to accept each other as we are. Do not be surprised or become preoccupied at each other’s failures-rather, see and find in each other the good, for each one of us is created in the image of God.
Mother Teresa

The road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
Dag Hammarskjold

Prayer and action, therefore, can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows into powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates in into questionable manipulation. If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will also give rise to concrete acts of service.
Henri Nouwen




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