The New Year has come and 2009 brings many exciting changes and challenges for me personally. It’s the first year I have had all of my speaking engagements booked before January 1. It’s the beginning of a second full calendar year of working under the oversight of elders, which I am so thankful for. Yesterday, our shepherds set our goals for the congregation for 2009. Some of the specific goals relating to me are a goal of fifteen baptisms for the congregation (we had twelve in 2008) and the announcement of a Summer Preaching Internship for 2009. The selection process for a young man willing to be trained by me is currently underway.
In preparation for that internship, I’ve been doing some more reading to get a reading list together for the summer. The young man will have to read one book a week. Recently I began reading a book entitled “Teaching to Change Lives: Seven proven ways to make your teaching come alive” by Howard Hendricks. Hendricks is an author I was introduced to through a clearance book twelve years ago entitled “Standing Together: Impacting your generation.”
The first chapter in “Teaching to Change Lives” deals with the concept of teaching. Two things stood out for me so far. First, Hendricks makes the point that we need to be teachers because when we teach we are actually students. Teachers are students of the greatest kind. They study to be able to teach. They search the Word of God for new knowledge. All who have made the commitment to teach understand this principle. Personally, I always learn more when I teach than when I am a student. I take my studies more seriously. That’s the greatest benefit of teaching.
Second, he tells the story of a professor who was older, wiser and more experienced. As a young man, Hendricks asked the professor why he continued to study. From Hendricks perspective, this older professor already knew all there was to know. The older professor told Hendricks, “I’d rather have my students drink from a rushing stream than a stagnant pool.”
Wow! That statement made a huge impact on me. There is a true danger for all of us. Sometimes we think we have learned all there is to know. We think we’ve filled the file folder with all of the knowledge we need. As a result, we are tempted to sit back and coast through without continued study. What happens when we do that? We become a stagnant pool.
Stagnant pools are trouble. There is a house across the street from us that burned over 18 months ago. It has been rebuilt but the problems with the reconstruction have it tied up in court. It sits empty. This summer, the swimming pool was half-full of sitting water. The city got involved after the mosquito infestation became so bad. Stagnant pools are full of bacteria and bugs. Why do you think pools have filtration systems that recycle the water and keep it moving?
Is it possible that our pulpits and classrooms are filled with stagnant water? I am afraid so. We need to be drinking from rushing water. If you notice the picture on this blog, it’s rushing water. We need nourishment from deep, rushing waters. That is what causes growth and spiritual maturity.
So I encourage to seek rushing water. Open up your Bibles and drink from the water that provides spiritual maturity and everlasting life. Drink from rushing water and avoid becoming a stagnant pool.
1 Comment
January 6, 2009 at 5:21 pm
All I can say is, “WOW!” What a great reminder. Thanks for that.