Do you hear that? Wait. Listen hard. Hear it now? How often do we get alone with God and just listen? I know I do not nearly as often as I would like. Nor as often as I should. And, unfortunately, not as often as God probably calls me to. But as I ponder the direction of Destination God, I increasingly see the need to not only spend more time listening to God, but training others to do so also. As I have outlined in Without A Vision, and am beginning to detail in Vintage Foundations, Destination God is a ministry dedicated to training others to be missionaries in today’s (and tomorrow’s) culture in America and abroad. I believe it will be increasingly important for those in ministry to be apologists as much as preachers. We will need to know the doctrinal truths upon which our faith is founded. We will need to be able to recognize heretical thought, and refute it soundly, but in love. But we will need to be able to do this in common, everyday language. But also, “new age” missionaries (that is, missionaries in this new age) will need to overcome the problems and failings that have consumed some of the leaders in the church and evangelical movement. And overcome the stigma of distrust placed on us due to the failings of those others. And this may well be the hardest part. But if done well, this may also be the part that will have the greatest impact on the generation the church is in gravest danger of losing. And that is why I call this essay Destination Transformation. Not only do we need to be transformed as individuals, and not only do we need to bring transformation to the unsaved world, but I feel God would lead us to transform the training of future leaders and to transform the way churches and ministries operate on a daily basis. Having worked in a church office, and having grown up in a pastor’s home, and having spent most of my life around ministerial offices, I feel like we have not always done the best job preparing ourselves to do the job to which we are called. And if those in formal ministry struggle in these areas, how much more do lay people involved in ministry (which should be all of us) struggle also. I graduated from college with a degree in education. But I did not enter the work force prepared to teach. I had not been trained in all the areas a teacher’s job requires. Just as high school had not trained me to be able to handle all the requirements of being in college. I speak specifically of the disciplines needed to correctly carry out those responsibilities. And I cannot even tell you how woefully unprepared to be an adult, and then a husband, I was. As I thought about this, I believe there are eight areas we do not spend enough energy on in ministry. And all of us, whether in occupational ministry or voluntary ministry, need to spend as much time on these matters as we do any other aspect of our ministry. Those areas are Bible reading, prayer, study, meditation, thanksgiving and praise, sermon and lesson preparation, and vision development. The training process of Destination God will incorporate these areas in significant doses. And as the Destination God staff develops, those individuals will also include these elements in their daily work life. And starting now, I will begin making them a part of my life too. As I see it now, this is how the daily routine of someone involved in Destination God will be. Each day a minimum of one hour will be spent in reading the Bible. In addition, one to two hours of each day will be spent in one of the other items in the above list, so that the whole list is covered each week. Here is an example of how that could be accomplished
Monday – 1 hour of Bible reading and 1-2 hours of intercessory prayer Tuesday – 1 hour of Bible reading and 1-2 hours of study Wednesday – 1 hour of Bible reading and 1-2 hours of meditation Thursday – 1 hour of Bible reading and 1-2 hours of thanksgiving and praise (as psalm, song, or poetry writing) Friday – 1 hour of Bible reading and 1-2 hours of thanksgiving and praise (as some other sort of artistic expression – drawing, painting, dancing, etc.) Saturday – 1 hour of Bible reading and 1-2 hours of sermon or lesson preparation Sunday – 1 hour of Bible reading and 1-2 hours of vision development My vision for this ministry is that as Destination God develops at least one of these things will be ongoing 24-hours a day, whether by staff or those in training. And why, you may ask, would I ask everyone to follow such a pattern, especially since not all of us are artistic, or expressive (like me for instance)? God made us as whole people. And no matter how underdeveloped a particular area is, we were nonetheless created with at least some aspect of that area. Not only that, but we do not always have a choice as to the type of person to whom we will be called to minister. We need to be ready to relate in any given area. And the best way to do that is to prepare to do that. You may also ask why I only give 1-2 hours to sermon or lesson preparation. If you count the period of study, there is actually 2-4 hours. But, most importantly, if we have spent 6 hours in a week in Bible reading and 5-10 hours in a week in prayer, then study, then meditation, and then thanksgiving and praise through various artistic expressions, writing a sermon or lesson should flow quite easily. As for all the Martha’s out there who wonder when any work will actually get done, recognize this only takes 3 hours or less of your time in a given day. That would leave 5 hours in a typical workday to accomplish the other necessary tasks (if you are working full time in ministry or training for ministry). And if you look closely, that would actually mean you would be tithing your time to God. If we take God’s Word seriously, how much blessing might God pour out on our families, our ministry, and us if we gave 10 percent of our time to Him? Talk about transformation.