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Term two is about to begin at GTC. That means its time for me to get back to writing a fresh batch of "Insights" to send to you in the weeks ahead. I hope you still find these stimulating and useful. We write them as part of our commitment as a College to do all we can to encourage those in leadership and ministry roles in the church.
You will recall that before the break we were discussing the issue of the "inner world" or the "heart life" of Christian workers. We were using Gordon MacDonald's well-known book, "Ordering Your Private World" as a basis for this discussion, gleaning insights from his wisdom, but at the same time, endeavouring to give them a more distinctly Christ-centred twist. We were only part way through this process when the term ended. Because there is still so much useful material to consider on this important theme I've chosen to continue with it this term. Hang in there! There are some choice pickings to come!
Gordon MacDonald wrote his book, you will remember, to address the critical problem of "inner collapse" in Christian workers in the USA in the 1980's. Busy Christians were crumpling under pressure at an alarming rate. MacDonald believed this was because they were failing to cultivate their inner world - their heart-life. In an activity-driven (and rewarding) society, it is easy to be outwardly busy but inwardly empty. That's the problem MacDonald addresses.
To have a strong inner life, he maintains, we need to bring order to five different sectors. We need to have our motivation right - by living called rather than driven lives. We need to use our time well, seizing the moments and resisting time-wasting tendencies. We need to have our minds renewed through serious reading and thinking, our spirits refreshed through daily communion with God, and our whole being renewed by observing regular Sabbaths. We've looked at the first two of these disciplines and in the weeks ahead, the Lord willing, we will consider the remaining three.
The third sector of our inward world that needs attention, Gordon MacDonald says, is the sector he calls "Wisdom and Knowledge". "If my private world is in order," he writes in his introductory "Memo to the Disorganized" at the beginning of this section, "it will be because I have determined that every day will be for me a day of growth in wisdom and knowledge" (p. 87). In essence, this means we must feed our minds to be strong in the inner man.
Let's look at one or two more comments MacDonald makes on this subject. "The ordering of our private world," he says, "cannot take place without strong mental endurance and the intellectual growth this endurance produces" (p. 90). Our minds, in other words, must have a certain toughness and vibrancy about them if we are to retain inward strength and keep up the pace in a busy world. "Dulling the mind, " he insists, "leads to ultimate disorganization of the private world" (p. 92).
More than that, an undisciplined mind makes us vulnerable to the world and its ways. "In our pressurized society," he writes, "people who are out of shape mentally usually fall victim to ideas and systems that are destructive to the human spirit and human relationships... Not having the facility of a strong mind, they grow dependent on the thoughts and opinions of others. Rather than deal with ideas and issues, they reduce themselves to lives full of rules, regulations and programs" (p. 90)."
These words are right on target. The issue they identify is so important we will take it up again next week.