REVIEW: The Leader 101 Course: Cultivating Habits of Highly Effective Spiritual Leaders
- Lesson One (June 2015). Cultivating the habit of joy
- Lesson Two (July 2015). Cultivating the habit of praying 10:2b
- Lesson Three (August 2015). Cultivating the habit of looking expectantly for 10:2b answer
- Lesson Four (September 2015). Cultivating the habit of carrying people (especially 10:2b answers) in your heart.
- Lesson Five (October 2015). Cultivating the habit of shepherding your flock.
- Lesson Six (November and December 2015). Cultivating the habit of interactive gratitude.
- Lesson Seven (January and February 2016). Cultivating the habit of attention paying
*Watch the video and then continue with the assignments below the video (click on the picture to watch this video).
Quick Review
In the last two articles (Prevenience #1 and #2), we have focused on a foundational but often overlooked aspect of God’s character. That is, that He is always “prevenient”. Here’s Eugene Peterson’s explanation of this word…
The traditional doctrine defining this truth is prevenience: God everywhere and always seizing the initiative. He gets things going. He had and continues to have the first word. It is the conviction that God has been working diligently, redemptively, and strategically before I appeared on the scene, before I was aware there was something here for me to do.
Countercultural
We agree with Peterson that the implications of prevenience are counter to the typical American church culture. In fact, in order to begin to embrace prevenience, most of us have some unlearning to do. (Some even call this “detoxing”!) Peterson describes what most of us have learned.
In running the church (or house church), I seize the initiative. I take charge. I take responsibility for motivation and recruitment, for showing the way, for getting things started. If I don’t, things drift. I am aware of the tendency to apathy, the human susceptibility to indolence, and I use my leadership to counter it.
Implications
A deep commitment to God’s prevenience leads to a central objective of the LK10 Community. We intend to train people at every level to be “Radical Attention Payers”. (And, of course, we start by cultivating this habit in our own life first.) We believe that we develop this skill of attention paying and help others develop it by practicing at every opportunity. The video above explains how we do this in many different settings…
- Our own prayer time with God
- Our CO2 relationships
- Our families around the dinner table
- Our house church gatherings
- Our Leader Team hangouts
Assignments
- As always, watch the video with the Coach. Pay attention (there’s that phrase again!) to the key ideas that He highlights for you. Dialogue with Him in your journal.
- Meditate (discuss with the Coach) all week on this phrase: Training Radical Attention Payers. How would the Coach assess your skill level of being a “radical attention payer”? How far have you come? Where do you need to grow? How are you teaching this to other people? Where do you have opportunities to practice? What questions do you have about it?
- Share what you are learning with your CO2 partner, your house church, your Leader Team. Also, if you resonate with these ideas send this post to a friend and post the link on Facebook.