Wednesday, September 19, 2007

“When the sky is the limit, its easy to neglect foundations."

Len has a great post:

Jimmy Long in his great little book “Generating Hope,” wrote that, “When the sky is the limit, its easy to neglect foundations.” In charismatic circles the sky is always the limit. I’ve seen so many people burn out.. hyped on the hope of renewal; eyes focused on distant lands and great coming events; missing the ordinary and sacramental opportunities God places in our path day by day.

Apostolic movement is like a great tree, and has these twin dimensions: downward, setting roots, establishing foundations. These foundations allow individuals and communities to find nurture in the living water that is Jesus, and move beyond the “leadership cult” tendencies that create dependence and foster immaturity. The second dimension is outward, spreading branches and sowing seeds on the wind. This outward movement prevents preoccupation with self and prevents us from travelling in circles. Faith communities which neglect the first dimension are soon exhausted pursuing the vision. Faith communities which neglect the second dimension soon lose any real dimension of love.
-Len Hjalmarson, link




To switch the metaphor a bit, if we are not prayerful/careul, we "jump off the foundation" in a futile attempt to fly:

"Without the continual denial of self, which simply means saying no to what we want...there will be no complete repentance from dead works. Without this repentance, we as living stones will keep jumping off The Foundation Jesus, simply because we do not understand what the hell we are doing.
-John Tschetter,link



No comments:

Post a Comment

Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!