W – Widen your options.
R – Reality test your assumptions.
A – Attain distance.
P – Prepare to be wrong.
Archives For growth
Yesterday we learned that Dallas Willard passed away from cancer. While Willard’s day job was as a professor of philosophy at USC, he will be remembered for his writings on spiritual formation and discipleship. For those who met him, he will also be remembered for living up to what he taught.
I first encountered Willard’s writings in 2005, while I was undergoing that great personal transformation that most recent college graduates must endure. I was asked to help a church better understand the tangible ideas of discipleship that he expresses in The Spirit of the Disciplines. I went on to devour Renovation of the Heart and eventually The Divine Conspiracy. I now try to read one of them once a year.
I never had the chance to meet Dr. WIllard in person. It was heartbreaking to find out he wouldn’t be joining us at Missio Alliance this past month. Now we understand why. However, everyone who did meet him mentioned that he seemed just like he did in his writings, brilliant yet approachable, even grandfatherly.
This blog, in many ways, is inspired by his writings.
Here are five life shaping ideas I learned from Dallas.
via @Growth_Mission
Start Night live tweeting beginning.
I visited a hipster Church in Austin. The kids sang Father Abraham had Many Mumford & Sons
What do you do when all the excuses for not chasing your dream are gone?
The most depressing hour of the week is Sunday at noon.
The Road to Awesome ow.ly/i/20Ha6
Retirement is dead. Anyone can play. Hope is Boss.
Nobody accidents their way to mastery.
You used to believe you we’re awesome.
How brilliant of fear that it can plant a flag in 2nd grade & it defines our lives.
Covey said begin with the end in mind, not the end in stone.
Christians like to rank honeymoon sex just above the second coming.
Ready is a myth
April’s Top 10 Posts: It’s been another record month at Growth and Mission. I hope you’ve benefitted, and will… bit.ly/12S84U9
Start before you’re ready. You can’t steer from the shore.
Never compare your beginnings to someone else’s middle.
When you start something new, you have permission to be horrible.
Beware what your voices tell you.
The weight of the heroes clothes are often heavier than the fear of the villains.
Inspiration without instruction is useless @DaveRamsey via @JonAcuff
Write your fears down. Follow it with one line of truth. Share it.
We need mirror friends who reflect back the truth to us.
If you can figure out the core of who you are, your job is just execution.
1 Insult + 1,000 Compliments = 1 Insult
Don’t try to turn haters into likers into people who love to support you.
Feedback is for improvement. Hate is to create a wound.
Recently, my life got off track. Multiple things that had defined my life ended at once. I took a long overdue vacation, traveling, playing video games, reading comic books and staying up all night.
Alas, I knew this lifestyle couldn’t last. Not only would I eventually run out of money, but I needed to get back to chasing after my vocation.
These five steps are helping me get my life back on track.
Some practices or habits we engage in are thin, like exercising or brushing our teeth. We do these habits toward a particular end, to be in shape and have clean teeth. Thin practices don’t touch on our identity. “It would be an odd thing, for instance, for me to think of myself first and foremost as a ‘tooth brusher.’ These practices or habits don’t touch our love or fundamental desire.”
Thick practices or (liturgies) are rituals of ultimate concern, rituals that are identity-forming and telos-laden, that embed particular visions of the good life, and do so in a way that seeks to trump other ritual formations.
So what kind of liturgies do the people in the congregation you serve in embody? How do they increase people’s honesty and love for God? How do they help shape people for God’s purposes in the world?
JR Woodward, Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World
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