There is a place in my heart that I’ve been renovating. It’s been a crowded, noisy and daunting space that has needed much attention. I’ve tried conferences, books, seminars and such where I have learned tips and techniques that promised to help me with my life transformation. All have failed me, save one.I remember thinking that peace was a place somewhere on an island with a beautiful sandy beach with tropical trees and drinking coconut juice from cracked open husks. But I realized as you have also, that as we pack our bags to visit such places that our dirty laundry and inner chaos goes with us. No matter how serene the setting, the interior life can wreak havoc.People use to call their church buildings “sanctuaries.” God knows we need a sacred space to go to from time to time in this busy world we are living in today. But even that word is going the way of the dinosaur. We have stages today, not pulpits; auditoriums, not sanctuaries. We’re terrible confused—we modern people who have come so far, but feel so terribly lost. We are still in search of sacred space—a place where the heart can call home.The old monastics built places in the woods to retreat from the world’s noise. These little cabins were called “hermitages” and a Russian word—“Poustinia.” They were small places—simple spaces with no distractions, no competing sources of entertainment. They were rustic. Simple. Inviting. Safe.So, this year, our ministry has set out to build a Poustinia at our retreat in Colorado. It’s a small 12x16 log sided cabin with a green metal roof where you can hear the rain as you gaze out on Pike’s Peak, a snow capped mountain today over 14,000 feet in the air. There’s a small covered porch where one rocking chair will be placed. This little cabin in the woods is the modern day answer to the modern day plague that has infected the beautiful souls of we—the modern, wired and always “on” people. To be clear, I am one of you. I am not a monk nor am I thinking of becoming one.But one thing I do know, the building of the Poustinia for me, is an outward symbol of an inner reality that is going on inside of me. As the Poustinia is taking shape, I feel the same thing happening in me. My soul is taking shape. It would seem like I would and perhaps should have gotten my soul in shape by now. But in all honesty, it takes a long time for a saint to be made.My Poustinia is really a space within me. It is a space I need to build to connect with God; to relax in my own skin and to be my true self. It is a place of solitude where all of the insanity and chaos of this world, all of the “giddy-up” and let’s hurry faster is left outside. It is a place of shalom—that place of well-being where at last I can be with God and God with me. By going to the little cabin in the woods, I am really on a journey to go to the Poustinia within me—that place that Jesus described so aptly as a closet where you can at last be alone. Be quiet. Be still and know God at last.Competing demands; rivaling priorities and inner chaos flood our lives every single day. We seek balance but know in the end that balance is truly bunk. The journey to go to the Poustinia is a journey that every spiritual master I have ever read about has taken—and has taken alone.Our Poustinia, will have one chair, one table, one bed, one tiny wood burning stove and windows to look out and space to look inside. It is sacred space and in my heart that sacred space is being born.In her remarkable book, “Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer” which has mentored me in this understanding, Catherine Doherty says, “...you have, as it were, a poustinia within you. It is as if within you there were a little cabin in which you and Christ are very close; it is with this attitude that you go about your business. God forbid that you should all become recluses or hermits! That is not what is meant by being a Poustinik in the marketplace. It means that within yourselves you have made a room, a cabin, a secluded space. You have built it by prayer.You should be more aware of God than anyone else, because you are carrying within you this utterly quiet and silent chamber. Because you are more aware of God, because you have been called to listen to him in your inner silence, you can bring him to the street, the party, the meeting, in a very special and powerful way. The power is his, but you have contributed your fiat. He has asked you and chosen you to be the carrier of that silent poustinia within yourself.”So, we are all building a place within our hearts, aren't we? That is precisely what the work of spiritual formation is all about. More room for Jesus. That he might increase and I decrease. Let the renovation continue! Copyright@ 2014 Stephen W. Smith. All Rights Reserved. You may "share" this post but not copy for distribution. Thank you. Important Note: All of our retreats are fully booked for the remainder of the year. We will SOON be announcing news of 2015 retreats and our brand New Soul Care Institute, a two-three year training program.
Manifold Wisdom--Manifold Church
“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” –Ephesians 3:10-11 My life has been about the church. I have lived all of my life within the church. My folks starting taking me to church at six weeks of age and I have not stopped going since.But here’s the truth. I have not always liked the church. I’ve seen beautiful people marred by the church and within the work of the church, I have seen people shoot the wounded, not help them. They have hemorrhaged and bled and been wounded only to find people within the church still kick, abuse and kill them in God’s holy halls. But the paradox is this, I have also loved the church--loved and been lost in the work of the church--loved the positive, good and noble purposes of the healthy church led by healthy leaders.I have been on a journey in my recent years of understanding the church. I watched my own four adult children join me on this journey—because they, like me were raised in the church as well. I call myself a “recovering Baptist.” I’m recovering in most areas of my life where I messed up. Recently, more light has been shed into my path regarding the nature of the church and the nature of its leaders.In working with thousands of leaders who work in the church, I’ve grown weary, tired and disillusioned to be honest. I’ve witnessed so much abuse by men who wear robes and leaders who wear authority that I’ve grown suspicious. Yes, suspicious is a good word to describe my taking a step back and evaluating the relevance, the need, the look and feel of the church in the 21st century.To say that I stumbled upon a verse in the Bible is not the correct way of telling you what shifted my entire paradigm about the church today. This verse had been there all along—throughout the entire birth of the church until this very day. It’s just that I missed it. I overlooked it on my way to find what I felt might be even more verses to help me and to help others.Ephesians 3:10-11 leaped out at me and has nearly knocked me unconscious. “The manifold wisdom of God.” I have sat with that word—“manifold”—trying my best to figure out precisely what Paul intended by choosing such a word.The word “manifold” means: “having many different forms, features, or elements: manifold breeds of dog.” The manifold wisdom of God regarding the wisdom within and about the church is just this: The church too has many different forms, features and elements just as the breeds of the species we call dogs.Because of my work—the work with leaders who feel called to live their life; do their life and give their life because of the church, I’ve seen passionate leaders feel like their church is the right church; the only church; the best church; the hippest church; the most multi-sited church, the largest; the fastest growing and then it morphs into something darker. Every church should be like my church. Since I am with the right church, then everyone else is experiencing something less; something outside of God’s intent. It goes on, as you know.Pride, authority and a seminary education can create the perfect storm for leaders of the church to suffer a malady that infects their own soul and the ministry to which they feel called.Some leaders might feel like their church, call it a blue church, is the way to do church. You have to think blue. You have to be blue. You have to hang with blue people to really be in the blue movement.Then in another state; perhaps another city or even across the street are the orange folk who think and feel exactly the same way that the blue folks do in the blue church. Then there is the red church. The green church and yes, even a pink church.But now, let’s use this word “manifold” here…. And see if we can ease our tension a bit by embracing that from God’s perspective, it is not about the right color. And what is this is true because from God’s perspective there is no right color. There are just a manifold of colors—all seeking to do the same thing but in different ways. Who can say that blue is right and red is wrong? The colors just are. The church just is--and is in every form we find it.As some of you will know, no person on the face of the earth, living or dead has impacted my life more than that of Dallas Willard. It was Dallas who told me years ago when I went to a Catholic (Is Catholic a color?) Monastery with him for a month to recover from my toxicity and my addiction of being a pastor, “Steve, Jesus only spoke the word, “church” two times in his entire life that we know of. Why have you made “church” your God?” That question undone me and I have never, ever recovered from his question. I don’t think I will ever recover either. Perhaps now, 20 years later, I am just now beginning to understand the depth’s of Dallas Willard’s question to me in that Prayer cell were monks fled to do their own version of church.Now, there is more wisdom…. And it is this, if you are in a blue church and I am in a red one, can we surrender our efforts to compete against, degrade and throw rocks at the people who do their life in a yellow church?Perhaps from God’s perspective, it takes all the reds and hues of red; all the blues and hues of blue; all the yellow and hues of yellow to express what God has intended. Perhaps this is so because no human system has dibs on the truth. Not the Lutherans, not the Presbyterians, not the Charismatics, not the Bible-believing-fundamentalist, not even my church or your church. We lay down our efforts to defend our color church and we surrender our dogmas to the fact that in history and through history—no creed has survived in all colors but Jesus. No book has been lifted higher than our Bible. No god has been worshipped but our God—the God who created the manifold ways in which we try every six days to “gather to gather to ask the Lord’s blessings. We hasten and chasten his truths to make known.”Stephen W. SmithCopyright 2014All Rights Reserved.
Leadership: The Work Below the Waterline Matters
This is an excerpt of my new book: Inside Job: Doing the Work Within the Work. I'd value and appreciate your feedback as this book comes together in upcoming weeks and months. Please leave your comments here or email me at Steve@pottersinn.com. No copies can be made and this should not be used or distributed in print form. Thank you for your attention.
New York City stands host to the infamous and spiraling Brooklyn Bridge. This famous architectural wonder was initially designed in 1857 and completed nearly thirty years later in 1883.
John Roebling and his son, Washington designed and oversaw the construction of the magnificent bridge in which over 20 men lost their lives during the construction period. A bridge of magnitude included loft stone towers, steel cables making it a suspension bridge and have the ability for both trains and traffic to cross back and forth over the infamous East River.
The work began and nothing was visible for years. All the work that was done was work below the waterline. While the bridge was being built, citizens of America’s greatest city could see no action; no progress, no development for several years. The bridge along with it’s designer became the butt end of jokes. What people did not see was all necessary and crucial work. The work below the waterline would be the foundation for all else that was soon to come. But it was work that happened way down deep on the river’s floor.
The bridge’s importance could not be overstated. The Brooklyn Bridge would connect major parts of the city which were cut off from each other by the East River. Many factors had to be considered. The East River was New York City’s major shipping lane. The bridge’s suspension cables would have to be high enough to allow large ships to pass underneath. There was also fierce turbulents in the water as it’s flow was governed by the tides.
To build the two massive towers, John Roebling designed colossal caissons—enormous wooden boxes with no bottoms to be built on the river’s bottom. These giagantic but unseen structures were essential to form a framework for the concrete and stone towers to be anchored. Compressed air was then pumped into the caissons allowing men to dig at the mud and rock to sink far down into the river’s shifting sands to secure the entire bridge.
This was the work within the work. This unseen yet necessary work was required in order for the enormous Brooklyn Bridge to be erected. Unnoticed and unseen the necessary work of building the foundation was key. What skeptics could never envision, became a reality and the Brooklyn Bridge opened for traffic on May 24, 1883. It cost the designer his life and was delivered over budget but it stands glorious, still strong and absolutely necessary to the traffic patterns of New York today.
John Roebling died in 1869, years before the completion of the Bridge as a result of an accident during it’s construction. His son, Washington Roebling was tapped to stand in his father’s stead to finish the construction. Washington had proven himself in leadership during the Civil War and was highly esteemed.
There are lessons in leadership development for us to consider in the story of the Brooklyn Bridge. The necessary work in leadership development is often unseen and unnoticed. The lesson a leader learns about character, integrity and honesty are truly issues that are below the water line. We don’t “see” someone’s character on paper or even by looking at them in their finest dress. Our inner markers of success are inner. We do not wear them on badges. We don’t write “Joe Brown is a person of integrity” on our name tags. Yet, what is inner and unseen—that which is below the water line of our life foundations is critical.
Without the foundational work—the erecting of the massive and underwater caissons, the bridge would never endure massive weight, the changing of tides and storms. It would topple over in stress if not designed and built properly. The foundation for a leader’s work and life cannot be overstated. It is essential and there are no short cuts to the development of a leader.
The stuff below the water line needing our Inside Job and an understanding that these issue really are the work within the work center around Peter’s list of virtues—these inside markers that define us and make us. These are the building blocks that provide structure for growth—a skeleton to give stature, prominence and security. Without the work that goes unseen, we set ourselves up only to be attracted, if not addicted to the outer markers that allure us and entangle us.
I've noticed in working with thousands of market place and ministry leaders, the work below the waterline seems to be offered as a short-cut. It seems to be offered after the fact of a leader falling in disgrace or in scandal. But what if we did this kind of work before and during our work. Pastors are eager to study theology but most seminaries do not offer courses in ethics, leadership development and soul formation. Pride and ego take over when success is tasted in the marketplace and ministry and the insatiable appetite for more and bigger begins. Business leaders who dismiss ethics and being a person of integrity are jailed and disgraced. But what if the inside job could begin sooner in our lives? What if the work within the work took on importance rather than our salary figure. What if we built a solid foundation before we lead and lead well?
Chasing the Bitch-goddess of Success
Chasing the Bitch-goddess of Success
by Stephen W. Smith
Copyright 2013: Stephen W. Smith. This material may NOT be re-printed, used or copied in any form.
We are in trouble. We are living in a corrosive and corrupted culture that is shaping the souls of men and women more that the Divine Potter is forming our very own souls. We are chasing the wind and reaping the whirlwind.
We don’t believe the wise old Jewish preacher who once said:
“One handful of peaceful reposeIs better than two fistfuls of worried work—More spitting into the wind.”[1]
We scorn one handful of anything—but less peace, tranquility and a serene life. We strive for two handfuls of everything. More money. More pleasure. More income. More square footage. More. More. More! We find ourselves living in the illusion which says, “More can be yours if you work your butt off for it.” We live in a time and space which reduces the value of a human being to what you have; not who you are!
The voice of our culture says, “Hurry up and win! “ “You can have it all! But only to those who work the hardest!” “The one with the most toys win.” It’s very interesting to note that in the history of Christianity, men and women who achieved “saint” status were never measured by their accumulations. The amassing of fortunes has never inspired any saint I know of to do more. Their movtivation came from a deeper place—a place inside of them that was not broken; corrupted or wrecked. They were not looking for the outer markers of success as so many are today. Instead, their inner radar honed in on something true; something right and something eternal.
Today, we are shaped by the Fortune 500 list which you will never be on. We are shown fabulous automobiles that we cannot afford. We are mesmerized by beautiful people in ads and commercials which we will never become. We live in a perpetual place of suspension—always longing for but never, ever arriving.
Spiritual pursuits have been replaced by capitalists achievements. We strive. But come up empty. Leaders chase the wind and then spit into it when failure comes. We have swallowed the pill that influences our sense of security, conscious and character. We are confused and we are burned-out from chasing the bitch-goddess of success. That one, seemingly true god which is a hybrid, culturally defined bench marker of what makes a man or women.
The bitch-goddess of success inspires us to believe that self-esteem is found in having more and doing more. Money and success becomes the true currency to get you somewhere. Effort and achievement are heralded as the way to being successful. We read books to help us understand how we can manage our time more to achieve more.
In the end, but at the beginning of the 21st century we are tired, worn out and exhausted---calling it all the abundant life. We are believing the lie that the bitch-goddess haunts us with. “If you do more, then you will be more and then and only then will you have more.”
[1] Ecclesiastes 4:6, The Message
The Work Before The Work by Stephen W. Smith
I'm beginning a new book. Here's my writing today to introduce the book to you. I'll write it here. Let you read it and I based whether or not I'm hitting the bulls-eye by your response and reaction, so don't be shy. Let me know what you think and how this stirs you in one way or the other.
_______________________
The news today is filled with stories of leaders who self-destruct in their path to be successful. On the way up, leaders find that there are many forces, pitfalls and dark allies that catapult them ever so quickly into a spiral and fall.
One CEO of a mid-western company was arrested for embezzlement and fraud. While a prominent member of his mega-church, his family now lives in disgrace while he serves his remaining term in prison.
The pastor of a large church was recently fired when it was discovered that he was having an affair with his secretary. The books he had written had to be pulled off the shelves of bookstores and he is now selling automobiles.
A fast rising “superstar” who is 35 years old, married with three children was fired from his multi-million dollar company as President. His spiral began with marital infidelity on one of his many business trips.
A missionary couple was sent home because of team conflict and his inability to be a team player on the mission field.
The President of a college was discovered to have a sexual addiction and was terminated after it was discovered that thousands of dollars of the college’s funds were used for his sexual escapades.
All of the above and thousands more assumed a job and became noticed, celebrated and promoted because of charisma, giftedness, skills and expertise. Yet, somewhere on the road to even greater success, each faced an ethical, moral, character crossroads that could not be navigated well. Wrong choices were made. A budding career is ruined. A leader fails. The carnage of such self-destructing ways spills over into organizations, churches, missions and into the souls of children and spouses.
Many who have aspired to do their work have fallen and failed because something was left out of their formation as a leader. I call it “The Work Before the Work.” The real work of a successful leader is to do the work—the development of character, the fostering of moral excellence, the maturity of soul of a leader has been left lacking.
We are not the first to see such a crisis. This problem is sadly recorded throughout the pages of the Bible where we see men and women with undeniable promise and gifting become snagged in unwise choices because of a softness or even weakness within their own hearts.
Abraham, the celebrated hero of both the Jewish and Christian faith succumbs to influences which engage him in sexual trafficking and an erosion of his moral fiber.
David, the celebrated poet, king and warrior fell into the arms of the awaiting Bathsheba because he could not control desires which led him astray with catastrophic consequences.
Barnabas, Paul’s companion on many of his missonal journies could not find a way in his own heart to do “team” and a split resulted in their leadership.
And the women are not exempt. There’s Eve, the original female who receive God’s curse for her darkened leadership of Adam. Potiphar’s wife, the spouse of the leader of Egypt could not control her sexual appetite and plotted the downfall of Jospeh. Deliah did the same with Sampson. Two women in one of Paul’s first churches nearly split the church because of their uncontrolled tongue and poisioned hearts for each other. Then we see in the early church, Sapphira who could not influence her husband or even herself to make good choices regarding money and fell into hoarding and thus became an bad example for all regarding being stingy with our God given resourses.
Something happened in the hearts of these men and women that caused their fall into disgrace. They, like so many leaders today had not done the work before the work.
Explaining the Work Before the Work
Author, Parker Palmer tells the story of the Chinese man who long ago began his career making bell-stands for huge bronze bells to hang from in Buddist temples. As the story goes, this particular man was prized and celebrated for making the best, most elaborate and long lasting bell-stands in the entire region. No other person could make the bell-stands which such strength and beauty. He was sought after all over the land to make bell-stands and his reputation grew vast. One day, the celebrated woodcarver was asked, “Please tell us the secret of your success!” He replied. “Long before I start making and carving the bell-stand, I go into the forest to do the work before the work. I look admist all of the hundreds of trees to find the ideal tree—already formed by God to become a bell-stand. I look for the bows of the tree to be massive, strong and already shaped. This takes a long time to find the right tree. Without doing the work before the work, I could not do what I have accomplished.”
What set the celebrated woodcarver apart from all the rest was his decision to first do the work before the work. Skip this step and he would have been like every other wood carver. But implement this priceless step and reputation, success and achievement follow.
In my work with hundreds of leaders across the world, I find that far too many have quickly set out to begin and to do their work. They are eager to enter the workplace, marketplace or mission to give their long, earned knowledge away. Many move quickly from college or trade school into their chosen field of work. They begin the long, arduous process of establishing themselves into their work. But many who start have not done the work before the work. They are fired for ethical violations. They are let-go because they don’t know how to serve on a team. They succumb to the dark sides of money, sex and power. They find themselves trapped somewhere in the beginning, middle or even end of their career path.
This book reveals the pathway that leaders need to follow in order to be not only successful but strong in their souls as they lead. Based on the extraordinary leadership and writings of the Apostle Peter, we will discover the much needed and absolutely necessary character building blocks that assures one of “never falling” (2 Peter 1:10) and will keep leaders and potential leaders of becoming “ineffective and unproductive.”
Peter’s Voice is for Leaders in the 21st Century
Peter is a champion of a leader. Every single time we see a list of the twelve disciples of Jesus listed in the Gospels, Peter’s name is always first. In the New Testament church, Peter’s leadership is vast and unquestioned. Evidently, his charismatic personality; persuasiveness of speaking and leadership skills catapulted him to be first, perhaps among equals in the first century world and that influence continues to this very day.
Chronicled for us in the New Testament, is Peter’s journey of becoming a great leader. Eugene Peterson has written, “The way Peter handled himself in that position of power is even more impressive than the power itself. He stayed out of the center, didn’t “wield” power, maintained a scrupulous subordination to Jesus. Given his charismatic personality and well-deserved position at the head, he could have easily take over, using the prominence of his association with Jesus to promote himself. That he didn’t doit, given the frequency with which spiritual leaders to exactly that, is impressive. Peter is a breath of fresh air.” (Message, p. 574).
In today’s world, we need this breath of fresh air to help us find our way admist the plethora of books, conferences and seminars on leadership. Here we find, one solid leader who led well and finished well and whose legacy is still felt today, 2000 years later.
In Peter’s life and legacy we see an ordinary man transformed into becoming an exceptional influencer of men and women. His doubts transformed into steel convictions. His humility aligned with that of Jesus, himself. His ability to model a life that is worthy to be lived amidst suffering, persecution, competing religions and scandals is noteworthy. His voice is needed today more than ever when scandal, ethics and virtues are colliding at the intersection of our very lives today.
Peter’s Work Before the Work
In the last of Peter’s letters to the New Testament church, we see outlined the work that men and who aspire to lead, manage and influence need to do. At the end of Peter’s life, he writes what he feels compelled to say not only HAS to be done but NEEDS to be done in the shaping of a leader’s soul.
The aging, accomplished and able leader says this:
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters,[a] make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.”
In Peter’s own words, we find our much needed gateway to begin and to continue to do the work before the work—no matter what work we aspire to do or are now doing. Peter feels the need to “remind” us these things and to “refresh” our memory and with this we begin our journey into the heart, mind of Peter but also a clearly marked pathway for every aspiring leader to follow.