A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Calvin Brown is the Executive Director of the Renewal Fellowship.
“What a joy it was to have had the opportunity to see you again and explore issues of ministry with you (and with all the others who participated at Crieff Hills) for the Empowered Pastor Program. I personally found those few days to be both stimulating and a revitalizing tonic for my ministry. Many good things and ideas came of it.”
The above positive comment was one of many from those attending the Empowered Pastors Program we co-sponsored with Crieff Hills. We are planning on another national conference again next year and perhaps some regional pastor and spouse Conferences organized by the Regional Renewal Task Forces that we are establishing across the country for prayer and the work of renewal. We continue to work with the Colleges to encourage renewal in theological education and have recently established a Committee convened by Peter Bush, who is keenly interested especially in the area of developing lay ministry. Our mission and outreach project to assist Knox College participate in the Wycliffe Institute of Evangelism is off to a good start and we are looking to congregations to get behind this effort as well. Financially as a Fellowship we still need increased support in order to do the work we believe God is calling us to, and ask for your ongoing generous support both as individuals and as members of congregations committed to renewal.
Besides eldership training events, evangelism workshops and preaching in congregations I am looking forward to our Annual Meeting and Renewal Day to be held at Knox Church, Spadina (Toronto) February 28 and March 1, 1997. The theme for that meeting is “Life in the Spirit” and Dr. Brad Long of PRRMI will be the speaker. A month later on Saturday, April 5 we are co-sponsoring a Renewal Day with Woodbridge Presbyterian Church in Woodbridge, ON with Dr. Archibald Hart, Dean of Fuller School of Psychology. He is a man who can help us gain understanding of ourselves through both theology and psychology so that we can deal better with the healing of life’s hurts.
It is gratifying to have so many Presbyteries asking us to come and share in the work of renewal with them through events that we co-sponsor with them or at which I am asked to be the speaker. It is even more exciting to get feedback that what we have shared in has begun to make a real difference at the congregational and personal level. Please continue to pray that God continues to bless the church through the work that the Renewal Fellowship and others are able to do.
The Board has encouraged me to develop relationships with other renewal groups and this year I have attended conferences, or been in contact with the four United Church Renewal Groups, Presbyterian and Reformed Renewal Ministries International (PRRMI) whose programs we are thinking of adopting, Ligonier Ministries, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and the Renewal Leaders Network. Please pray for continued cooperation and mutual stimulation that God can use as we work together for the renewal of church and nation.
How happy we should be to be included in the Lord’s work!
I count it a high privilege also to be able to encourage ministers who are often facing serious discouragement in the church. Often just being there to listen, offering a renewing perspective and sharing in prayer together, as we lift our hearts to God, makes all the difference.
There is always lots of work to be done, and as Jesus observed it seems like the fields are white unto harvest but the labourers are few. How happy we should be to be included in the Lord’s work! Sometimes I hear complaints that there just isn’t enough time to do all the work, but I believe if we are doing what God calls us to he gives us the time. That doesn’t mean that everything will always be smooth and we won’t feel a time crunch because in fact we are often poor time-managers but beyond that even if we do “everything right” there will still be times when God asks us to go the extra mile. It is professionalism, not pastoring, that puts strict time limits on service. (I don’t do windows!) Sometimes we need to take the time to “do windows” even if it is unfair for anyone else to expect it of us. It is wise and good to take time off and to try to protect that time for renewing our family life and our own souls but this doesn’t always happen on a strict schedule. Jesus and the disciples were sometimes in situations that demanded that they worked overtime. We often hear how they took time away on the mountain to pray – and in fact they did and this was vital – but they also had times of intense and unrelenting ministry such as the times they missed meals and became exhausted. That is not to say that the demands of the people set the agenda because we see that sometimes the crowds demanded Jesus’ attention and he left them to go to rest. The biblical time management is not so much a matter of stricter scheduling and the business model of time management as it is a matter of listening to the Holy Spirit and having the discipline of life and love of God to do what the Father shows us to do. It can only be done in a life lived in the Spirit, a life without guilt that knows the joy of purposeful living.
As my wife, Phyllis, read the original draft of this she said it sounded like Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and in looking at the book I gleaned this comment: “People have begun to realize that ‘efficient’ scheduling and control of time are often counterproductive. The efficiency focus creates expectations that clash with the opportunities to develop rich relationships, to meet human needs, and to enjoy spontaneous moments on a daily basis… rather than focusing on things and time … expectations focus on preserving and enhancing relationships and on accomplishing results, in short, on maintaining balance.” St. Paul puts it this way: Forgetting everything else 1 press on towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus urges us to “Seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” May his promise be fulfilled in us!