Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Church Multiplication

The Ambitious Spiritual Leader – A Paradox?

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I’ve been reflecting on the idea of ambition and if its okay for a spiritual leader to be ambitious. After all, in the secular world, ambition and leadership seem to be synonymous with success. However, if God is the one who truly chooses leaders, is ambition really that important for spiritual leadership? Is ambition even okay for the spiritual leader?

1 Timothy 3:1 – Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.

Jeremiah 45:5 – Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.

When contrasting 1 Timothy 3:1 with Jeremiah 45:5, one is presented with an interesting conundrum: It is an honorable ambition to aspire to leadership, but one should not seek great things for oneself. This seems to be a contradiction, but in light of the fact that God sees our hearts and our motives, it is not (Psalm 139:1-4). In spiritual leadership, one’s ambition needs to be for the glory of God, rather than the glory of oneself; for the Kingdom of God, rather than the Kingdom of Self. As a result, ambition can be redefined as humility within the context of spiritual leadership, since all of one’s success is credited to God, rather than to one’s self. For a spiritual leader, ambition is about striving to become the best servant, rather than striving to get the highest number of servants (Mark 10:42-45). Consequently, here is a great question to help discern one’s motives in desiring leadership: Is there any sense of prestige or privilege by having a leadership position in the church? If so, proceed with caution; if not, continue onward.

These reflections are based on my reading of Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders.

Book Review: Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach by Jane Vella

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Jane Vella’s, Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach, is written for both adult learners and teachers of adults. It has the primary assumption that dialogue is better than monologue for adult education. After all, with all the life experience that every adult brings to the classroom, both teacher and fellow student will benefit significantly by dialoguing with one another. This book is basically a presentation of Vella’s Twelve Principles for Effective Adult Learning scattered with case studies and anecdotes: (1) Needs assessment; (2) Safety; (3) Sound Relationships; (4) Sequence and Reinforcement; (5) Praxis; (6) Respect for Learners as Decision Makers; (7) Ideas, Feelings, and Actions; (8) Immediacy; (9) Clear Roles; (10) Teamwork; (11) Engagement; and (12) Accountability. Using these 12 principles, Vella teaches the reader how to teach less and make more room for learning.

Instead of viewing the teacher as the one with all the knowledge, and the student as the empty vessel ready to be filled, dialogue education presupposes that both teacher and student come with knowledge and information beneficial for one another. As a result, the teacher may not actually do much formal lecturing in a class. Instead, the teacher will design the course material in a way that allows him/her to present the learning activities and then get out of the way. In and throughout the learning activities, the teacher’s role is more of a resource, facilitator, and guide.

This book has been so influential to me that I cannot imagine resorting back to more of a monologue type of education. As a pastor, I am going to be applying the principles of this book to small groups, discipleship courses, and my preaching in every way possible.

I give this book 5 stars out of 5.

Luggage Lessons – Are you processing your life experiences?

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Which image best reflects your life experiences?

I recently sat through an excellent workshop by Hugh Phillips and wanted to share one of my takeaways.

He mentioned how we all have luggage, which are processed experiences, and that our luggage will yield much wisdom and some of our greatest life lessons when they are reflected upon. This is wisdom! This is praxis! Character formation best happens through our life experiences. I love how Hugh mentioned that our luggage can either make us better or bitter, and that it’s ultimately our choice.

I want my luggage to make me better, so here’s my “work luggage” – how my most recent work experiences have shaped who I am:

  • Moving to, living in, and pastoring in Korea: I learned how important it was to place my trust in God, rather than people. Yes, people can be trustworthy, but we are called to love people and place our trust in God. Unfortunately, we too often love God and trust people. We have it mixed up.
    • Jeremiah 17:7 – “But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.”
    • Matt 22:39 – “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
    • Listen to this message by Wayne Cordeiro who unpacks this concept – http://media.enewhope.org/audio/W1046.mp3

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The Best Way to Empower Leaders

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While I was reading, Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders (click on the link to read my book review), one of the questions I wanted answered through the book was this one, “What is the best way to empower volunteer leaders?” After all, volunteer leaders are critical to the health of a church and really, any organization that is dependent on volunteers. Personally, instead of merely delegating tasks, I have found that volunteer retention and satisfaction is higher when they are empowered to a role with responsibilities.

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Why I ditched the M.Div…and am still a pastor

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dirt

Back in 2009, I wrote a post entitled, “Where to go to seminary? A preliminary comparison between seminaries in Canada, the United States, and Korea.”

Since then, a lot of things have changed – especially my outlook regarding seminary and the usefulness of theological education. I touched on that topic briefly in my post, “The Future of Seminary.”

Well, after viewing some activity over those two previous posts, I thought I’d give my view as to where I think the future of seminary education is heading by explaining where I’m at. Namely, why I ditched the M.Div (Masters of Divinity) and am still a pastor.

Here it is…

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