About forming a Core Identity - "To cultivate a people in our local churches who are asking questions about what the Spirit is up to in their neighborhoods requires a church environment where people feel safe enough and encouraged to learn to listen to God and one another as a basic habit of their lives. Missional map-making requires an environment in which the ordinary people of God are invited to re-experience the biblical narratives in the conviction and confidence that they can hear and discern the ways of God among them as a people. Core identity also involves rediscovering some basic habits and practices of Christian formation critical for discernment and the capacity to cultivate environments in which that way of life can reemerge in local churches. It will be among the ordinary people of God that the ability to discern what needs to take place in their neighborhoods and communities must emerge."
Alan J. Roxburgh, Missional Map-making, (San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010), 137.
"The layered liability is egoism and overload as we try to live up to the demands of inflated importance. The lie, and an idolatrous one at that, is to bow down to the god of personal irreplaceability."
Kirk Byron Jones, Rest in the Storm, (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2001), 27.
I feel my confidence as a leader has grown as a result of being in this class. I've learned a lot about different types of leaders and what their names are. It helps to know a coercive leader from an authoritative one. Although I didn't quote it, the Emotional Intelligence book was very helpful in helping me learn more about myself, including some hard truths (like how my ego is getting in my way) that I didn't want to face and need to work on. The above quotes are things I hope to live up to in my ministry. I would love to lead a congregation to understand what it is God wants for them as a Body of Christ, to form a Core Identity, giving them the "tools" (prayer, listening for God, Bible study, and more) that will help them discern what God wants for them as individuals and as a community. But I recognize that I can't do it all by myself, and I shouldn't try. I would establish boundaries and stick to them strictly so I don't burnout.