David Ralph

Heading Home

I have been away from home for 45 of the last 49 days.  It seems like forever.   Tommorw I head home.   I am so looking forward to it.   Knowing that I would be going home eventually,  has had a influence on how I approahed most days over the last month.  Although I have been blessed to be staying at an awesome home that has an incredible view in a place where the weather is great, I want to go home tomorrow.  Home is where the people I love the most are.  Home is where life is at its best.    Home is where I belong.  The reality of home makes a difference.  For example, there were some days over the last month when I felt a little  lonely, but I knew I was going home, so I could handle it.   Looking forward to going home made all the difference in so many ways.

I got thinking about home and I got thinking about heaven, which will be our eventual and eternal home.  The thought of going home to heaven when I take my last breath on this planet should influence everyday of my life – just like going home tomorrow has.  When life gets hard or difficult, when I feel lonely, when things don’t make sense, when I hit a “wall”, when there is relational heartache, when the diagnosis is terminal, the hope of going home to heaven should have an influence on how I handle these life realities or how I respond to them.  Shouldn’t the reality of heaven cast it’s shadow over this life and make a difference to the way I approach life?  It will be a place where all the struggles and challenges I face now will never happen again.  It is a place where there will be no more pain – no more tears – no more heartache – no more brokenness.  It will be a place of renuion where I will reconnect for all eternity with those I loved – whose graveside I have stood at. 

The challenge,  I know heaven is my reality because of the promises of the Bible, but sometimes it doesn’t provide the hope that it should.  Sometimes I forget that it will be my reality.  Sometimes the here and now seems more important and I get so caught up in it.  Sometimes life gets a little overwhelming and I am filled with fear and doubt and I forget that someday I am heading home.  My hope and prayer is that the longing for going home tomorrow might so home influence my thinking about my eternal home – or at least remind me of it a little more often.

Great Words of Wisdom

This morning I had an awesome opportunity to sit and be mentored by one of the greatest “pastor to pastors” that I know.  He sat at my table and he poured out his heart, sharing with me some of the most incredible ministry insights.  Most of them were reminders, but they were reminders that I needed to hear.  I wrote dozens of pages in my journal.  I thought I would simply share the insights that he shared with me.  There are 37 of them – so this might be a little longer entry than normal.  He shared them with me in more detail – but I will give you the highlights as a series of bullet points.  Here they are:

1. It all starts with prayer – so be prayerful in all that you do.
2. Your faith needs to be sincere and bold and visible to everyone.
3. Be completely passionate about the ministry that you have been called to – gifted for – ordained in.
4. Don’t be fearful or intimidated by the negative critics in your life – instead lead with a balance between power and love and self discipline.
5. Never be ashamed about the mission that God has called you to – defend it boldly.
6. Know that there will be negative critics of who you are – what you do – how you teach – how you lead.
7. Rely completely on the power of God for ministry.
8. Live a “holy life”.  Not out of obligation or fear but out of gratitude for the grace and the mercy and the work of Jesus in your life.
9. The good, life changing teaching of Jesus should be at the heart of all of your teaching.
10. Your teaching must always be biblically grounded, Holy Spirit guided and presented with the love and grace of Jesus.
11. People will leave the ministry that you lead – including those who once were close to you.  It happened to Jesus (John 6:44) and it will happen to you.
12. Others will stay committed to your leadership and the mission of the church no matter what.  Encourage and build up these people.
13. Make sure that you are continually turning over the ministry to young, called, gifted, trained and qualified leaders.
14. Make it your aim to please Jesus and don’t worry about pleasing others, unless it also pleases Him.
15. Know that there is nothing that you will encounter in ministry that Jesus didn’t go through.
16. Don’t get into useless, unproductive quarrels with negative people – that only leads to a negative outcome and can leave you feeling negative which can distract you from the ministry you were called to.
17. Focus your energy and passion on doing your very best – your best teaching – leading – serving – caring – helping.
18. Practice repentance before preaching repentance.
19. Use your passion and energy and focus to be a better servant leader.
20. Pursue love and peace with everyone, out of a pure heart.
21. Be kind to everyone – like Jesus was.
22. Get rid of all resentments towards your critics and those who have been negative about you.
23. Understand where you critics are coming from – see it from their perspective and hope for the best for them instead of hoping that bad things will happen to them.
24. Have a positive influence over the negative aspects of our culture without being influenced by it.  He gave me a list of 20 negative things to watch out for.
25. Be a protector against any kind of false teaching coming into the church.
26. Know the power of how the Bible changed your life and teach it to others so their lives are transformed.  Transformational teaching is the goal more than informational teaching.
27. Always have someone who is mentoring you.
28. Teach the truths of the Bible – whether it is popular or not.
29. Walk alongside those who are struggling with obeying God’s truths – lovingly and graciously and courageously – in a one on one setting – show then where they are offside – carefully and patiently guiding them back to obedience – knowing some people will shove you away.
30. Keep a level head in all situations.
31. Make spiritual explorers (outsiders) the primary focus of your ministry.
32. Carry out your ministry responsibilities with passion and diligence.
33. Leave a legacy by doing life and ministry well.
34. Be on guard – there will be critics of you message and your mission – they will do it in subtle ways.  Confront them in a loving and gracious way.
35. When you feel all alone in ministry – know that Jesus is right beside you helping you to carry out His mission.
36. Rejoice that God is leading and building the church…not you.
37. Be positive about everything you do – it is infectious on the people you lead.

That’s the list.  You want to know who this great pastor/ leader is, don’t you?  His name is Paul.  He lived 2000 years ago.  He wrote a pastor to pastor letter to a young man named Timothy.  2 Timothy records the details of this letter.  I spent four hours today studying it.   God’s spirit spoke so clearly to me.  I prayed through what I discovered.  The final part of my prayer today was that it is my desire and hope to live these truths out in my life and ministry.  I am so glad Paul showed up at my table this morning.    His advice was awesome and exactly what I needed to hear.  It has really excited me for the next leg of my ministry at Lakeside.

The Eye of the Storm

I have been sitting under the lanai here in Florida and very quickly, without much warning other than some early claps of thunder, a severe storm has blown in.  The wind is howling between 40 and 50 miles per hour.  In fact, it has blown one of the screens out that protects the pool area.  The waves on the water I overlook are anywhere between a foot and a half and three feet with whitecaps on the top of them.  The rain has reduced visibility to less than 100 feet.  The lighting and thunder are loud and intense.  I haven’t seen a storm like this in a long time. 

As I sit protected under this lanai (although I can feel the mist from the rain) I was thinking about the story where the disciples were in a boat and a “furious squall” came up and the waves began to fill the boat with water until it was nearly swamped.  As I looked at this storm and look across the water, I couldn’t imagine being caught out on the small body of water that I overlook let alone on a larger of water like the disciples were on.  It must have been terrifying.  But then they look in Jesus direction and he is asleep in the back of the boat.  The disciples wake him and ask him if he really cares about them.  As if his sleeping while they are in trouble is an indication that he doesn’t care.  But it had nothing to do with his care for them.  It was his ability to calm the storm that allowed him to sleep while they were terrified.  He did it by simply saying the words, “Quiet, Be Still”.  He then encourages them (maybe it is more of a gracious rebuke) to trust him – to have faith in him – to rest in his power – when the storms come.

Life can be like this can’t it?  All can seem to be going so well.  The phrase we use is “smooth sailing.”  But without warning, a furious circumstantial storm can blow into our lives.  It can be a relational storm – a financial storm – a vocational storm – a physical health storm – an emotional storm.  The winds of hurt and heartache can blow pretty hard.  The waves of discouragement and disappointment seem pretty big.  The circumstantial rains reduce our visibility and make it hard to look into the future.  We, like the disciples can be anxious and filled with fear.  We can be terrified.  The water is coming into our little “life boat” and we think that we are going to be swamped.  Our first reaction is often, “Where is Jesus in this storm?”  We wonder, because of his response or reaction to what is going on in our life, whether he really cares.  This is the pattern that happens to me sometimes when storms blow.  I begin to panic long before I consider praying.  But when I get to prayer, I can hear those words of Jesus as he spoke to the storm, “Quiet! Be still.”  I can hear him say – sometimes as a rebuke – but most often as words of encouragement, “trust me – have faith in me – rest in me – I am with you in these storms and I care about you.”

As I finish writing this today, the storm has already stopped.  I look towards the east and the sun is beginning to shine again.  The storm has passed.   There is a quiet calmness again over the water.   It is going to be alright.  At least until the next storm comes, maybe tomorrow.

A Great Promise and Prayer

There are many times I forget that the letters in the New Testament were not written for individual application but were written to a community with a communal application in the mind of the writer.  Sometimes, I read the text as if it is written just to me, and that the application is very personal and individualistic.  But, by doing this, I can misunderstand and misapply what the original writer had in mind.  I was reading Philippians 1:6 yesterday and I started to think again about how this applies to me as an individual.  Listen to the verse, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  But it wasn’t written to an individual.  Instead, it was written to a church community.  The “you” in the verse is a collective, communal “you”.  As I thought about this verse in that context, it hit me.  What an awesome promise for any church community that is striving to be the kind of church that Jesus wants them to be.  The work that God has started in the community, He will carry it out to completion.  Then a different thought came to mind.  I hope and pray and even believe that this is God’s promise for Lakeside.  That the work that He began almost twenty one years ago, that he will continue to build it and shape it and mold it and use it for His honour and for His glory.  That work that He began is not mine to complete – or the staffs to complete – or the community at Lakeside’s to complete.  It is His community and He will carry it out to completion.

But then Paul shares a prayer that he has been praying for this community of faith.  Listen to his prayer – “That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.” .  What a great prayer.  I spent some time studying what he was really asking for the community.  First he was praying that they would be filled with love for each others.  Not a love filled with sentimental feelings but “agape” love which is the full and abundant love of God that is demonstrated through tangible actions.  Then he prays that just as much as they get love – they also gain insight and knowledge.  The word “insight” refers to discernment in moral and ethical matters.  The word “knowledge” refers to the knowledge of the divine and His ways.  He is praying that this community would be filled with greater insight into God and his ways.  Then he prays that the purpose of this knowledge and insight would allow then to discern what is “best”.  They wouldn’t settle with what is okay or so-so or good but they would seek out the very best and pursue that.  He wants them to have discernment.  Then he wants them to display proper conduct in the greater community around them.  He wants them to be pure.  The word “pure” means to let the sun reveal any imperfections.  He wants them to be blameless – a word that describes what “outsiders” see – conduct that doesn’t cause them to stumble or puts an obstacle in their way.  He wants them to discern, display and then “demonstrate the fruit of righteousness” which is likely synonymous with the fruit of the spirit.  All of this is to bring “glory to God” which is the primary purpose of each follower of Jesus – “to bring glory to God.” 

I thought to myself, what a great promise and a great prayer”.  I believe and hope and trust that this is a promise for Lakeside.  That God will continue to do His work in and through our community.  But I also want this to be my prayer for our community – that we would love each other abundantly – that we would discern God’s best – that we would display proper conduct in our world – that we would demonstrate the fruit of the spirit in our lives.  Let’s claim this promise together – let’s make this our prayer for our community.

My Purpose

It is hard for me to believe but my sabbatical is already half over.  Today I start week seven of twelve.  But the last six weeks have been incredible – especially the last three – as God has prompted my spirit in so many ways. 

Today, I want to share what I believe that God has revealed as the purpose for the next season of my life and ministry.  Through a couple of seasons of prayer over the last few weeks - this purpose just gets clearer and clearer and I am so excited about it.  Here it is…

“My purpose is to lead the ministry of Lakeside through a team environment, that ensures that the mission is followed carefully, that the core values are adheared to completely,  that the right strategies and plans are in place to accomplish that mission and to teach the word of God in clear, practical and relevant ways UNTIL a group of called, young leaders are well trained, equipped, mentored and coached by me and others to take over the leading and teaching and planning THEN I will continually turn the ministry of Lakeside over to these young leaders.”

My key verse for all of this is 2 Timothy 2:2 – “Throw yourself into this work for Christ, pass on what you have heard and learned to reliable young leaders who are competent to teach others.” 

“Throw myself into this work for Christ” is about me continuing to do what I have done for the last 11 years at Lakeside – teach and to lead.  “Passing on what I have learned and heard to reliable and competent young leaders” is about continually mentouring and coaching and training young leaders while I continually hand over pieces of the ministry to them.  I feel very excited and passionate about this calling.  I love doing what I do – teaching and leading at Lakeside but I am also excited about handing the ministry over to these young leaders.  We have dozens of great young leaders at Lakeside who are already stepping up to the plate in so many way and I look forward to spending increasing amounts of time coach and mentoring and training these young men and women. 

This renewed purpose has given me a real sense of excitement for the next season of my ministry.   I hope it will drive everything that I and we do.  I hope it will provide focus and clarity to all the choices and decisions I  and we make and I hope it will influence the selection of leaders and staff as we move into the future.    Since this has become clearer to me I have been surrending each day to this purpose of God for my life – willingly giving my all for it.

I have been reading a book about “wasting your life” and I believe that if I follow this purpose – that my life over the next season will not be wasted but enhanced and vital and alive.