Day: May 16, 2012

7 Rules for Self Discovery

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

A.W. Tozer has a wonderful way of cutting straight to the heart of things.  This is true of his writings whether he is speaking about the Attributes of God, about Worship, or about knowing ourselves.

Tozer postulated 7 Rules for Self Discovery. I have adapted Tozer’s rules and put them into the form of questions. Regularly ask yourselves:

1. What do I want most?
2. What do I think about most?
3. How do I use my money?
4. What do I do with my leisure time?
5. What company do I enjoy? or What kind of friends do I enjoy most?
6. Who and what do I admire?
7. What do I laugh at?

If we know these things about ourselves we are taking great steps toward knowing ourselves.  Once we know these things, the next question, which is an important question, is to be able to answer “Why” to each of these things.  This question will reveal our values, and our idols – to which the gospel can then be applied. But in answering these questions we should be mindful of what Jeremiah 17.9 cautions us about ourselves:

The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?

Don’t doubt this truth for a second. And don’t underestimate the effects of your lyin’ deceitful heart.

Christian Leaders Learn to Think Theologically

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

Here is an important thought for my fellow pastors, and other ministry leaders. It is also important for shaping what church members should value in and expect of their pastors and Elders:

Few ministers and priests think theologically. Most of them have been educated in a climate in which the behavioral sciences, such as psychology and sociology, so dominated the educational milieu that little true theology was learned. Most Christian leaders today raise psychological and sociological questions even though they frame them in scriptural terms. Real theological thinking, which is thinking with the mind of Christ, is hard to find in the practice of ministry. Without solid theological reflection, future leaders will be little more than pseudo-psychologists… They will think of themselves as enablers, facilitators, role models, father or mother figures, big brothers or big sisters, and so on, and thus join the countless men and women who make a living by trying to help their fellow human beings to cope with the stresses and strains of everyday living.  But that has little to do with Christian leadership.

~ Henri Nouwen, from In the Name of Jesus