Day 4: Building on the right foundation

Praise God for a good last day in Buruburu with fellow farmers and builders (1 Cor. 3) from the ACK Nairobi Diocese. We began with the warning to the Corinthians that they had forgotten the foundation - Christ crucified - and so the church was falling apart in arrogance and pride just like the world. I was particularly struck by the warning that construction with is not in accordance with the foundation (i.e. preaching which is not founded on Christ) will one day be seen for the flimsy and worthless thing it is and burnt up.
Encouragingly there was some very good construction work going on in the group sessions.

Two groups in particular came up with brilliant outlines of Genesis 22 ('The Sacrificial Lamb of God', linking to John 3:16) and Genesis 39 ('In accordance with his promise (Gen. 15:31) God is saving a nation through Joseph the faithful sufferer who is a type of Christ').
It was a great privilege to be with these (elder) brothers and sisters over these few days and share together.

In particular the week was a great reminder of the value of Article 7 of the Anglican 39 Articles:

The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ, who is the only mediator between God and Man.

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10 things servant leadership is

Having cleared away 10 things servant leadership is not , here are 10 that it is. Credit to Harrison Mungai for his help in observing many of these features and helping us to think through this really important area. I used to think that all that was necessary in gospel ministry was faithful Bible handling. Preach the Word carefully and surely everything else should follow? But I was wrong. Sadly it is possible to have high quality expository preaching and ungodly leadership. It shouldn’t be possible but it is. And it’s a very ugly thing. Peter Mead has written on the danger that can be done to a church or ministry when appointment of leaders values ability over character. So here are ten aspects of biblical servant leadership, specifically in relation to gospel ministry leadership, from 1 Thessalonians, especially chapters 2 and 3: Servant leadership is, wherever possible, Plural . A lot of articles and books on leadership assume that it is a personal project. Search Google

4 combinations of workplace relations

Ephesians 6:5-9 gives a beautiful picture of healthy workplace relationships: servants who serve and leaders who serve . But that mutuality is not the only combination. Here are 4 different models of interaction between leader/boss and servant/employee: OPPRESSIVE LEADER AND SUBMISSIVE SERVANT This tends to be the pattern in settled traditional societies and modern totalitarian societies. Here hierarchy is strong – the pyramid model. Those at ‘the top’ very much see themselves as ‘above’ others and those at the bottom know their place and submit. Leaders are dictators who cannot be questioned, ‘strong leaders’ who make harsh demands and place heavy burdens on the people ‘under’ them, accumulating resources, power, control and status for themselves (1 Sam. 8:11-14; Neh. 5:15; Eccl. 5:8-9). In this model, leadership is the privilege and ability to make things better for yourself or to push your own agenda. It is certainly not servant leadership. This pattern ‘works’ in a sense in that

Utumishi wa Neno taster

It's finally starting! We had our first taster day for the church-based Utumishi wa Neno preaching course on Saturday. It was great to spend a few hours with 14 or so brothers and sisters and just spend soak in the Word. One of the crazy things we did was to read through the whole of Philippians out loud. How long did it take us? 15 minutes. And all of us enjoyed the experience and heard things we'd never noticed before. More thoughts on the day here . And for those who asked for the notes, they're available to download here . If you're in Kenya and want to get involved in the on-going Utumishi training see more info on the iServe Africa website .

Looking at Christ

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