the rev. Micah Thompson joins the ADNE’s LEadership DEvelopment Team

Micah has demonstrated great wisdom and giftedness in empowering and releasing the Lord’s leaders within the congregation at St. Timothy’s. We are richly blessed to have him come and join Josh Vanada as we grow the ADNE leadership development team. This remains a key priority for us and I am thrilled that Micah is willing to serve the diocese in this way. – Bishop Drew

– Rev. Micah Thompson

I have led a lot of failed experiments in my years in ministry. It turns out that my great ideas aren’t always so great. I’ve preached flat sermons to near empty rooms, led outreaches that had no lasting impact, and published content that nobody ever read or watched. Some were poorly executed brainstorms but many were good ideas, executed with care, given prayer and study, and still complete misses. Thanks be to God, He gives us more grace, and part of that grace is growth. I shouldn’t make the same mistakes twice.

In Tim Keller’s book, Center Church, he writes about “movement dynamics.” There must be an organic, creative, experimental element to the life of the local church. An organization without movement may last a while, but will eventually run out of steam. An institution that rallies around a vision, raises up leaders, and accomplishes goals will have the ability to bring in new members, remain energized, and pass the vision on to a new generation.

Movement and failure go hand in hand. Or rather, experiments are usually only partially successful. Even those things I tried that were unattended or poorly received were part of my personal development. They were part of movement in me, and therefore also those around me. God doesn’t waste these opportunities, and our personal growth becomes leadership development within the body of Christ.

Leadership in the church is complicated. We need leaders with different skill sets like organization, mission, and finance. We need leaders with different passions like hospitality, community, and evangelism. We need leaders who hold the vision, make the rules, and do the dirty jobs. We need those who go first, those who go alone, and those who gather a team. And we need all of these leaders to operate in the skills and gifts God has given them, while remaining connected to the body of Christ. According to Ephesians 4:16, it is the call of the church and all of these leaders to train and empower the whole body to grow itself! More than complicated, this is a God-sized task!

One of my more successful experiments was the development of a program called Growth in Season at St. Timothy a few years ago. Several St. Timothy members have developed personal and missional movement in their own unique callings. This year, it has expanded beyond St. Timothy.  I will be leading a workshop on the topic at this year’s Reawakening conference, and would love to have you join me if you are passionate about seeing movement begin. 

I am incredibly excited for the new experiment in my life. Bp. Andrew has asked me to join the ADNE team to assist with leadership development. I will be helping to organize this year’s strategic planning summit, writing for Dispatches, and doing what I can to encourage personal development and movement in our church communities.

You can email me at micah.thompson@adne.org if you’d like to connect about Leadership Development. I’d love to share stories of leadership growth in Dispatches as well - so if you or someone you know has been growing and should be featured, please reach out!

Finding Our Rest in God Alone: Meditating on George Herbert’s “The Pulley”

- Canon Susie Skillen

When God at first made man
Having a glass of blessings standing by
Let us (said he) pour on him all we can
Let the world’s riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.
So strength first made way,
Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor, pleasure.
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone of all his treasure
Rest in the bottom lay.
For if I should (said he)
Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature,
So both should losers be.
Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness.
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.

George Herbert was a 17th century Anglican priest and poet. Although he lived a quiet life in the small English parish of Bemerton, he wrote some of the most beautiful and profound sacred poetry ever written in the English language. A number of his poems have been set to music as hymns that we find in our hymnbooks, such as “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing” and “Come My Way, My Truth, My Life.” Many of George Herbert’s poems describe the longing of God for us his beloved ones, and our hearts’ responses to God’ s invitation to intimacy.

In “The Pulley” George Herbert uses the pulley mechanism as a metaphor for the restlessness of our hearts, by which we are drawn closer to God. Herbert says that at our creation God bestowed upon us wonderful gifts and riches, such as strength, beauty, wisdom, honor, and pleasure. But the last gift, which was rest, God withheld. This was so that we would not be able to find contentment or fulfillment in any of our blessings or in created things, but only in God. Because God still holds the gift of rest, we must turn to Him to find it.

“Our hearts are restless, oh God, until they find their rest in you,” wrote St. Augustine in his Confessions in the fourth century. As a young man he had experienced nearly all the pleasures the world had to offer yet struggled with deep discontent and restlessness. It was that restlessness that finally drew him towards intimacy with God.

The longing we feel for God is a mirror of God’s longing for us. God misses us when we attach ourselves to the gift and are distracted from the Giver. For while the gifts of God are given for our pleasure, our pleasure is only complete when we turn to God. In God’s love there is nothing that we lack. Our restlessness is a gift, for like a pulley, it draws us to the loving heart of God, to the one place where we can truly find rest and contentment.

Meditation:

Take time to quiet yourself before God. Reread the poem. Prayerfully identify in yourself a place of restlessness or discontent. Where does it come from? Is there a deeper need or longing behind the restlessness? In your prayer bring this place of restlessness to God. What does God say to you? When your prayer is ended, write down any insights concerning restlessness in you and God’s words to you that you received.

Regional REawakening In Franklin

Thanks for praying for Redeemer Franklin last weekend as they held a Regional Reawakening weekend. We’ll have a full article in next month’s Dispatches, but here are some photos we can’t help sharing!