Issue No. 246 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a book on how to listen to God. Imagine—if you and all of your team members, board members and volunteers heard God’s “Tap! Tap! Tap!” on what Steve Macchia calls the “shoulder of your heart” every day! Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
St. Bennie’s Trellis Team
As I write this Easter Weekend book review, I’m grateful to friend and author Steve Macchia for doing the detailed and diligent work that made this unique resource possible. You don’t write a gem like this one on an iPad at Starbucks—rich insights don’t flow from caffeine and deadlines. They ooze out from a lifetime of walking with God, loving Jesus, and disciplined listening and writing.
Macchia’s amazing sweep of Christian history (not the main point of the book—but a delightful bonus) includes dozens of poster-quality quotes, like this from J.I. Packer:
“What matters supremely, therefore is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him, because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters. This is momentous knowledge.”
Macchia is gutsy enough to imagine a 21st century Christianity that would care about a first century hero of the faith. “In his classic, Little Rule for Beginners, Benedict’s opening word is Listen! He offers a way of listening in a safe, faith-filled community environment. Here God’s voice can be heard by those seeking him through humility and obedience. In community, like-minded and like-hearted believers best learn to practice the disciplines of prayer, healthy relationships and good works.”
And so…Macchia invites Christ-followers to develop “a set of guidelines that support or enable us to do the things we want and need to do.” St. Benedict and St. Steve call these “rules of life.” But don’t let the common definition of rule scare you off because Macchia says the right “rules” will foster immense joy and freedom.
He adds, “A rule of life is like a trellis which offers support and guidance for a plant, helping it to grow in a certain direction.” Maybe you could call your small group, “St. Bennie’s Trellis Team.” (I have first dibs on the T-shirt franchise.)
The book—perfect for a highly committed small group (your spiritual community) or for individual use—has three parts: framing, forming and fulfilling your personal rule of life. It’s very, very practical—without being pedantic. (It’s also the latest in the series of Formatio books from InterVarsity Press: “Tradition. Experience. Transformation.”)
The “framing” section (five chapters) helps you drill down deep to assess your God-given Roles, Gifts, Desires, Vision and Mission. Each chapter includes a Guiding Principle, a Biblical Reflection, an Historical Insight, and then questions for your Personal Rule of Life, and more questions for your Spiritual Community.
In the Vision chapter, we read Frederick Buechner’s inspiring insight: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (Whew! That’s a keeper!)
You will love Macchia’s gracious and unspoken whacks at our long-standing mantras and Sunday School pat answers. Example: I’ve taught the “Time, Talent, Treasure” principle for years. Steve says there’s more—five T’s:
--Time (Spiritual Priorities)
--Trust (Relational Priorities)
--Temple (Physical Priorities—now he’s meddling!)
--Treasure (Financial Priorities)
--Talent (Missional Priorities)
He invests a chapter for each T and, especially in this “forming your personal rule of life” section, the historical insights include several “Drop everything! Let me read this to you!” segments. (My dear wife is long-suffering and long-listening!)
History buffs will eat up the mini-bios of 12 notable saints: C.S. Lewis, Phillis Wheatley, Harold J. Ockenga, St. Benedict, Adoniram Judson, Jonathan Edwards, William Wilberforce, Augustine (Yikes! Talk about a conversion!), George Mueller, Fanny Crosby, John Calvin and John Wesley. It’s a faith feast—with stunning connections to the rule of life theme.
I confess (like Augustine)—I read the last 12 pages first. Macchia profiles four real people who have crafted their own personal rule of life: Josh (college student), Anne (young mom), Mike (ministry leader), and Lynn (business person). The four full-page grids summarize each person’s rule of life. (And any book that has a grid is my kind of book.)
Across the top of each grid is: Time, Trust, Temple, Treasure and Talent. Down the left-hand column is: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Annually. For more examples, visit the book’s resource-rich website.
And this reminder: your own grid and your own rule of life is not about striving to please God (see my review of The Cure), it’s about loving and trusting God and building your life’s focus onto a “trellis” so your direction is intentional and God-honoring. “The enemy of our soul,” says Macchia, “wants to pull us off the trellis to wander and fend for ourselves.”
P.S. I have about a dozen measures of a good book. I just added another one. On page 131, I found myself humming the memorable tune and soul-satisfying lyrics of a Fanny Crosby hymn. (Hymn? If you’re under 30, google the word.)
To order this book from Amazon, click on the graphic for Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way, by Stephen A. Macchia.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) This book includes more than 100 questions for small groups and/or individual reflection. Macchia writes one of the best lines of the book: “Passion is the fuel that keeps the engine of your vision alive.” And then he adds this fill-in-the-blanks question, “What energizes me the most is my passionate concern for ____________.” How would you answer this?
2) The 12 notable men and women listed in this book seem like super-heroes to us (not from our planet), but many of them had dramatic conversion stories. Many were like us before meeting and knowing God. What do you think is the relationship between having a personal rule of life and being totally available for God to use you in even (could we dare say) dramatic ways?
Balanced Life-long Learning: Cause, Community & Corporation - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
One of the big ideas in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is to mentor your team members with niche books and chapters—like this week’s book—with laser-like accuracy. Don’t waste their time. Whet their appetite for life-long learning with thoughtfully selected books across the three big arenas of Cause, Community and Corporation (think of a balanced three-legged stool)—and then drill down into the 20 core competencies and action steps in the 20 management buckets. Balance is a big deal—hence this week’s book.
For book recommendations in all 20 buckets, visit my Book Bucket webpage and download Worksheet #5.1 to begin building your Top-100 Books list.
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