Convergence

I have a men's discipleship study on Saturdays with the Central church. We'lve been studying a Life Development Planner book from The Center for Church Based Training. It's a church development movement out of Gene Getz's churches. The book takes a chapter out of Bobby Clinton's book, The Making of a Leader. Dr Clinton traces a life development timeline meant to span one's life. The steps are 1) Sovereign Foundations 2) Inner-Life Growth 3) Ministry Maturing 4) Life Maturing 5) Convergence 6) Celebration.

Though used for church leaders, in my opinion, the timeline can be used for anyone. In steps 1-3, God is primarily working in the person, and not through the person, bringing about circumstances that enable him to grow. Step 4 is when God begins to use that person in the lives of others. Step 5 is convergence, a very satisfying step where God matches a person's gifts, abilities, circumstances, and his ministry/work situation. The book states, "The role not only frees the leader from ministry for which there is no gift, but it also enhances and uses the best that the leader has to offer."

We thank you so much for your help because both Judy and I feel that working with Central, we are in step 5 now. We really enjoy ministry here; we are grateful for the opportunity to work at Central. We feel that we are working towards our gifts and abilities esp as we disciple, counsel, and run small group Bible studies.

We look forward to vacation with our folks (see next post about the Earls in my life).