Six Questions from Sydney

Sydney Smith was a Mission Discovery staff in Nassau, Bahamas and years ago a high school student on a Mission Discovery project in Mexico.  She sent me this request tonight:

I have a class in my graduate program on Servant Leadership where I have to interview some church leaders. Would you be one of the "subjects" of my papers? It's only 6 questions!

Here's my quick reply:

1) How did you come to realize you had a place of leadership in the church? I started working with students as a Youth for Christ volunteer in Huntsville, Alabama. I enjoyed the work, had some gifts that I discovered that worked well in youth ministry. YFC has excellent training that still benefits me today.

2) How would you characterize your leadership style? I would characterize it as encourager, coach, visionary, and servant. Willing to take the worst job.

3) How do you see yourself as a servant-leader? "Servant leadership" comes from the model of Jesus washing the disciples feet. Notice that in the verses that preceded the event, "Knowing where he cam from and whose he was." Knowing that my home is not here, my identity is not tied to me being a citizen of the U.S., I can take any job, even the lowest.

4) What kinds of conflicts have you dealt with as a church leader? Misunderstandings, adult leaders wanting to be youth leaders who are simply extending their adolescence, breaking of confidences by others, unresolved hurt, and egos.

5) What spiritual disciplines do you practice to keep the flame alive? I pray constantly, read books including the Bible, watch inspiring movies, teaching classes and speaking keep me sharp, I have met weekly with a group of 8 men for 10 years for accountability.

6) Any advice for someone who is answering a call to Christian leadership? The word "answering" is a great word. It denotes a continuing event, that God continues to "Call" all the time. I like the verse written in Revelation 3:20, Jesus is speaking and says that he is knocking on the door and if anyone hears His voice he will come in and eat and drink with you! That verse was written to believers. All of us have doors that God is knocking on. After that door is opened to God, He goes to the next door. I tend to think that the reward for opening one door, is the next hardest door. That has proved true for me. Each call, each door, is harder, but fully possible because nothing is impossible for God!

Is This Your "Corner Day?"

Who knows when those days will come that I call "corner days." A "corner day" is one of those days where a definite turn in life takes place, a sentence spoken that stops one dead in his tracks, they can either be positive or not so positive in nature.

Last night I walked into a room where an event occurred 8 years ago that allowed me to make a turn...a "corner day." The room was much the same as I remember it from 8 years ago. A rectangular shaped place with games and books on shelves filling one short wall, windows on a long wall, a huge, exposed, deafening air conditioning unit on the other long wall and I really can't remember even today what was on the other short wall....that short wall was where the "corner day" occurred. Short term mission trips in the Rio Grand Valley have started in this room for years, but this was my first time back in the confines for all these years.

Like last night, 8 years ago, I was with a group of interns preparing to start their summer of service with Mission Discovery here. A lot of laughter, prayer, great lesson from scripture and then I shared my story, how I had given my life to Christ when I was 19 and found the courage to start Mission Discovery following a question from my pastor, "Maury, will God call you to do God sized things, or Maury sized things?" The next day the ministry started. Months earlier I and all of the others in the room (staff and interns) had completed a personality profile test some call the DISC test. Stan Horrell who is on our staff now was the one who administered the test and had the results printed and in his briefcase.

Stan began to hand out the results and as he pass me he leaned over and whispered, "I'd like to talk to you about your test after the meeting." I'm thinking, "Great! I failed a personality test!" The mood continued to be festive in the room as people share the results of the test with the others and commented about how accurate it was. My palms were sweating.

After everyone left, Stan pulled me over behind a portable chalkboard on that other short wall. "You not supposed to be here are you?" he said. "The test showed that?" I thought? "Maury, your test shows that your idea of a good time is to be alone, to work in secret", and the test hinted that people scare me. He waited for my response. "Stan, the test is correct. I am the archetype of the person I invite on our trips." My sister will tell you that I was so shy in high school that I took my first date home at 8:45 pm. I had run out of things to say. It was one of the longest nights of my life! I failed many test in school, not because I didn't know the content, but because I was afraid of test! (I know you are not believing that!) I was a lifeguard in college, 19 year old and my pool manager knew I had never kissed a girl so he offered to have his girlfriend, Sonya, teach me how to kiss. What guy in his right mind would turn that down, no commitment, just one kiss. I turned it down.

It is true that when my pastor Richard Bowden posed his "God sized thing" question, I knew that God had been preparing me for Mission Discovery all of my life. I have stood before thousands of people and spoke, I have performed weddings, led chapel service for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and in every setting my palms sweat, my heart races and sometimes I feel nauseated. "Maury you can't tell by looking at you with people that you are this way. You look comfortable." Stan said. It's not that God has taken me out of my comfort zone, as much as He has taken me out of my preference zone. I prefer weekends along with Ann my wife. As God would have it, Ann prefers weekends out with our friends, parties, any event, any size.

The "corner" that day was a better understanding of how powerfully God had worked in my life. That day Stan opened a door for me to open my eyes to another way God revels himself to me powerfully.

This is not the end of my exploration of this journey of mine. I find it truly amazing how God has used me in life. Friends from school who knew me, my personality, remarked how amazed they are at the work of Mission Discovery. What they are saying is, "Are you sure you started this?" My answer is, "No, I am positive I did not start Mission Discovery....God did! Because I experience His power in my life every day!"

So, ready to take a corner? Will God call you to do a God sized thing or a you sized thing? Take the question for a test drive!

My 19th June 2nd At Mission Discovery

I would have never guessed as a disc jockey in the 70's working in Huntsville, Alabama that I would be enjoying working in my passion of helping others experience God through hands-on service projects to the poor. Even more exciting is seeing someone see the incredible power of telling the story in other lands of how God has worked in their lives. I have seen every type of person come through Mission Discovery. They fall into two basic types 1) learners who are open to God working in their lives in a fresh way and 2) people ready to "fix the world." Though category one excites me, I love watching God work in category 2. Without fail, both are deeply impacted by God's touch on short term mission trips with Mission Discovery.

Charles Kimbrough, Jr. was straddling categories 1 and 2. Tough guy, in his mid 30's, good friend of mine from Hendersonville. His goal was to build the house, help hurting people, and leave. He had some expectations of how God would use him, but God broke his heart when he connected with a child at one of the homes he was helping to build. Charles returned home to bring his wife back to the Mexico mission trip. Kara, his wife, was so impacted that she had no word, I mean she could not get words to her lips because of the flood of emotion at what God had taught her. Charles is now an advocate for Mission Discovery back home, eventually involving his cousin Macon, a former short term mission trip skeptic, now a summer staff member for Mission Discovery in Westmoreland, TN.

Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus extends an invitation, "^28-30"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (from The Message)

An invitation to a mission trip anywhere in the world is an invitation to learn, "the unforced rhythms of grace." Would you be willing to join me on a Mission Discovery project...I would love to meet you.