Monday, February 3, 2020
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Friday, January 17, 2020
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Introducing Deep Dive Spirituality: A Dynamic Coaching and Formation Program for Pastors and Spiritual Leaders
I've had the privilege of working with pastors and spiritual leaders for over twenty years. In the process, I've learned that many of us, even those who are publicly successful, hold "secrets" close to our heart. They sound like this:
My ministry sometimes feels more like a burden or cross to bear than a joy-filled calling...
I'm profoundly lonely because I have to keep a wall around myself...
I sometimes struggle in my faith with doubt, uncertainty, and fear...
I have a difficult time slowing down and enjoying meaningful hobbies outside of my ministry...
I feel like I have to care for others before I can take time for myself...
I'm worried about the ways my ministry affects the persons whom I love the most (my spouse, children, parents and friends)...
I'm exhausted by the demands of my calling and fear that I'm on the edge of burnout...
Life and ministry do not need to feel this way!
What if you could design a rhythm of life that nourishes your soul and frees you to be your best self for ministry and for your family?
What if you could apply simple tools and resources to rethink your understanding of mission so that you can look forward to the next decade and beyond?
Introducing Deep Dive Spirituality with Dr. Brian Russell
I've been there. I preached my first sermon at age 19 and became a pastor of a local congregation at age 24. Since then, I've served rural, urban, and suburban churches as a pastor. I've also planted a church. Plus over the last twenty years, it's been my privilege to mentor and teach over a thousand students as a seminary professor and to speak in dozens of churches, camps, and conferences.
I know the heavy load that we carry. I've experienced the pain and disappointment of working in difficult contexts. I've lived through personal trauma. I've struggled to balance work with my heart desire to be a loving husband and father.
I've had to ask deep questions of myself. Besides continuing to cultivate my expertise as a biblical studies and missional thought leader, I've read hundreds of books on personal development, burnout, recovery, transformation, spiritual growth, time management, and psychology. I've worked with multiple coaches and spiritual guides who helped me to work through my pain and to reboot my life for the highest purpose.
In the process, I've gained deep insights into the love of God and grown in grace in ways that I'd never previously experienced. I've been sharing bits and pieces of my personal revival with students in class and more deeply in private mentoring. But I believe it's time to share these lessons with frontline ministry leaders like you.
I invite you to join me for a spiritual deep dive:
–Cultivate life enhancing habits rooted in ancient practices that are uniquely designed for your personality and that serve your highest and best self
–Take immediate control of your time and learn to move through overwhelm and hidden fears
–Create goals for a truly abundant life
–Transform your study into times that feed your soul, mind, and body
–Uncover and experience transformation and healing for your deepest wounds that are sapping you of energy and joy
–Grow into the person God created you to be in a dynamic group experience that you can then replicate in your ministry context to expand your impact on the world
–Work with other like-minded spiritual leaders to create solutions to your most difficult challenges in ministry
The Process
We'll meet as a group via Zoom video conferencing for two live sessions per month. Each session will involve guidance from Dr. Russell, group reflection to apply the new ideas, and a time for a "hot seat" coaching conversation on a ministry challenge or question. Members will covenant to put in the time to do the deep work of growth in between the sessions. Sessions will last roughly an hour.
Interested? Email me at deepdivespirituality@gmail.com
For those desiring a more private process, I am accepting a small number of clients for one on one coaching.
Brian D. Russell, Ph.D. is an academic dean, professor of biblical studies, Licensed practitioner of NLP, Life Coach and Business consultant.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Centering Prayer, Deep Surrender, and the Way of Jesus
The process of surrender in centering prayer is critical to the taming of our need for control. When we pray, we commit to sitting in solitude with God. This is a form of self-denial. Recall Jesus’ summary of the essence of discipleship: “If any want to come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and continually follow me” (Matt 16:24 cf. Mark 8:34 Luke 9:27). The focus of discipleship is on consciously following Jesus. Jesus’ words in Matt 16:24 serve ably as a model for centering prayer.
Intending the Things of God
In Matt 16:21, Jesus had laid out the necessity of his journey to Jerusalem. There Jesus would experience suffering, death, but also resurrection. In response to this revelation (16:22), Peter attempted to rebuke Jesus by saying, “May this never happen, Lord!” Jesus responded to Peter with “Get behind me Satan. For you have not set your mind on the things of God but on the things of humanity.” In other words, Peter struggled because he assumed that his plans, desires, and will should govern the actions of Jesus his Lord.
This is not to say that our goals and ideas have no value. As we live in the world, we will continually take decisions and actions. But the process of growth in grace involves removing the idolatry and injustice out of our decisions. The challenge of the spiritual life is that, when we learn about the mind of Christ, we discover that our truest humanity resides in living fully as the person whom God created us to be. The irony is that we are often the greatest impediment to our growth. Our false self attempts to block access to discovering who we are at the deepest level.
To set our mind on the things of humanity means that it is our will and talents that remain in control of our destiny. It is the full flourishing of our flesh apart from reliance on the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:1–17).
To set our minds on the things of God involves realigning continually with the will of God. Our guide is Jesus. Centering prayer allows us to practice this ongoing surrender of the will.
Invitation to Surrender
16:24 begins with an invitation: “If anyone wishes to come after me….” Jesus calls would be followers to set an intention. Decide and commit to go in the way of Jesus. Jesus calls us to a person–the Son of God. When we take the decision to sit in solitude, we are answering the call of Jesus.
What does this intention or decision involve? It involves surrender to a new mode of being. In centering prayer we do not set the agenda. In fact there is no agenda. The moment we seek one we have gone the way of Peter and set our mind on the ways of humanity.
Centering Prayer and the Meaning of Surrender
What does surrender look like? Jesus uses three phrases in 16:24: deny self, take up cross, and continually follow me.
Deny self. This is not merely a call to a disciplined life involving deprivation. It is more radical. To deny self means to orient fully to the way of Jesus so that the cross shapes our goals, desires, rights, and privileges. In centering prayer, this means a steadfast recognition that my stray thoughts, emotional baggage, and even brilliant insights must give way to being present with God.
Take up the cross. In the ancient world, the cross was a terrifying symbol. Crucifixion was gruesome, humiliating, and meant certain death. To take up one’s cross meant literally lifting the wood upon which one would soon die and walking under its weight to the place of your death. A person taking up the cross was a dead man or woman walking. In solitude, we come to God empty handed in the surrendered posture of one whose life is over. This frees us from both past and future in order to be with God in the moment.
Continually follow me. If the first two phrases involve a letting go of one’s rights, privileges, past, and future, Jesus’ final phrase points to the pathway for the present. Disciples follow Jesus moment by moment. This was true during Jesus’ earthly ministry. It remained true for the Christians to whom Matthew was writing in the first century. Jesus’ words are still vital for us in the 21st century. Discipleship involves a deep ongoing relationship with Jesus. This is why Jesus came to earth. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is Immanuel “God with us” (1:23). In Matt 18:20, Jesus promises, “For where there are two or three gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.” In Matthew 28:20b, the risen Jesus declares, “Behold, I myself am with you all the days until the end of the age.”
Centering Prayer and the Practice of Surrender
In prayer, denying self and taking up the cross serve as the means of purging our rights to ourselves. Whatever thoughts, feelings, desires, dreams, goals, visions, triumphant memories, or nightmarish recollections arise in solitude, we surrender them and continually follow Jesus. This means using our prayer word to realign ourselves with our Lord.
Imagine yourself taking a walk with Jesus. He leads you down a path. You hear birds singing so you look up for a moment. You then turn your gaze back to Jesus. Then you get an idea for a project at work followed by a worry that you don’t have enough time to accomplish your goals for the day. You catch yourself and again return to the master. A few moments later you reach a point in the path that triggers a painful memory of great loss. Yet again you turn to Jesus. Martin Luther’s dictum comes to mind in this process: “You can’t prevent a bird from landing in your tree but you don’t have to allow it to build a nest.”
Recognize that the process of centering prayer is to continually return to the Lord. Period. Thoughts are thoughts. Feelings are feelings. Memories are memories. The call to discipleship challenges us to turn away from self and follow Jesus. This is the way of prayer too. The question is trust: Do I trust God enough to release my attachments to whatever the hamster wheel inside my head offers up?
Merton writes on the need for continual surrender, “to have a will that is always ready to fold back within itself and draw all the powers of the soul down from its deepest center to rest in silent expectancy for the coming of God, poised in tranquil and effortless concentration upon the point of my dependence on him;…”
There is a dynamic tension between surrender and our role in the surrender. Merton’s words capture it well. It is not that our will disappears. Our will remains. Its intentions have become aligned with the divine will. The Lord’s prayer becomes reality in our inner world, “on earth [in me] as it is in heaven.”
In fact, the process of recentering is the critical discipline that opens us up to God’s presence and grace. There is no contemplative moments apart from the our conscious return to God every time that we find ourselves lost in a stream of thoughts. This is how souls are made. It is a moment by moment journey.
© 2019
Brian D. Russell
Interested in learning more about centering prayer. Check out
Brian's YouTube Channel for a series of videos on centering
prayer:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)