My servant Caleb thinks differently and follows me completely.
Numbers 14:24 (NCV)

Think of youdselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself.
Philippians 2:5 (The Message)

For some reason, I’ve put off posting this chapter. I think I had to process Day 33, thinking through the implications of serving while having a public profile.

Rick Warren today addresses the attitudes that mark genuine servants:

Thinking more about others more than ourselves.
Rick points out how difficult it is to move beyond manipulation, in which we serve others to achieve our goals or to win admiration. I appreciate Rick’s honest confession that humility is a daily struggle. I’m with him on that one. I suspect that some people don’t have the same struggle, but for me I find it hard to practice self-denial.

Thinking like stewards, not owners.
“If you’re a servant of God, you can’t moonlight for yourself”. Challenging words. Especially to a blogger building an online income. Am I developing an income for my own ends, as a wealth builder, or is this part of what Rick calls Kingdom building?

Thinking about our work, not what others are doing.
I have a vivid memory from childhood in which my younger brother was mucking around while I was busy hanging out the washing. I complained to my mother about his lack of attention. She told me to focus on doing my own task, and not to worry about his. Using the story of Mary and Martha, Rick reminds us that it is not our job to evaluate the Master’s other servants.

Basing our identity in Christ.
With the poise that comes from living in God’s acceptance and grace, there’s freedom to serve without posing. No need for name dropping. No point in impressing with qualifications, experience, titles or other symbols of status.

Thinking of ministry as an opportunity, not an obligation.
Serving gladly. That’s the byproduct of the other attitudes.

Whoever wants to be great must become a servant.
Jesus, Mark 10:43 (The Message).

Rick Warren challenges popular assumptions regarding leadership and service, writing that just as the disciples struggled with each other for the prominent position, so Christian leaders still ‘jockey for position and prominence in churches, denominations and parachurch ministries.’

Rick says that real servants make themselves available to serve, pay attention to needs, do their best with what they have, do every task with equal dedication, are faithful to their ministry and maintain a low profile.

He’s describing the classic behaviour profile of steadiness from the DiSC Model.

From a course I’ve been editing recently I’ve inserted here the characteristics associated with the person who’s behaviour is motivated by steadiness.

The steady person is content, accepting of others, helpful and co-operative, compassionate and caring, good in one-to-one or small group relationships, a good listener, obedient, reliable, modest, a good team worker and one who prefers routine.

This person needs a secure, stable, safe environment, sincere appreciation, and support with coping with change.

Steadiness people fear isolation, being in the limelight, loss of security, and unplanned changes.

Having said all that, it’s clear that people who enjoy up front work have to work on the behind-the-scenes faithfulness Rick’s talking about. It’s been said that charm can you get you into a job, but only character will keep you in it.

I’ve been watching the British comedy series, “The Office” this last week - it was a present for Christmas. Watching David Brent, the embarrassingly self-focused office boss, reminded me of the need for a servant attitude at the heart of leadership. The difficulty is that learning a servant attitude usually requires a level of humility. Humility for some is learnt through humbling times.

Rick says that self-promotion and servanthood don’t mix. Real servants don’t serve for the approval or applause of others. They live for an audience of One. He says that we won’t find many real servants in the limelight. Rick says that many leaders start off as servants but end up as celebrities, addicted to attention.

Now that’s a challenge to a blogger as much as a public speaker! Do I write as a service or do I write for the attention I might get? Or both at different times? I usually find my motives are mixed.

So that’s the challenge I face in working through today’s material. Being in a high profile position through my work could blind me to attitudes that need correction. I need the quiet encouragement of family and friends who treat me as the ordinary person I am.

I also have the challenge of being a servant in my own neighbourhood even when it might seem more glamorous to fly off somewhere else as the much appreciated consultant. Being on leave for a month has helped me rediscover the disciplines of care - feeding the chooks each day, routine housework and digging out the stump next door.

I also have the challenge of following through on my commitments. Or perhaps the call to be more careful about which commitments I take on this year.

Since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvellously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be.
Romans 13:5

What you are is God’s gift to you.
What you do with yourself is your gift to God.
Danish proverb.

In today’s chapter Rick pulls together the SHAPE: spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality and experience, providing helpful and healthy evaluative questions. I’ve found this approach helpful over the last month as I’ve re-evaluated where I’m heading in vocation and involvement with my local congregation. Should I apply for that job? How best can I be used at a local level?

The difficulty is that sometimes there are so many things I could do - giftedly. Choices have to be made - boundaries set, limitations accepted.

Begin by assessing your gifts and abilities.
Where have I seen fruit in my life that other people confirmed?
Experiment with different areas of service.

Consider your heart and your personality
What do I really enjoy doing the most?
When do I feel the most fully alive?
What am I doing when I lose track of time?
Do I like routine or variety?
Do I prefer serving with a team or by myself?
Am I more introverted or extroverted?
Am I more a thinker or a feeler?
Which do I enjoy more - competing or cooperating?

Working through this list helped me realise how much I enjoy online journalism. I can see it as potentially a God-given vocation rather than a distracting hobby.

Examine your experiences and extract the lessons you have learned.
Rick recommends taking an entire weekend for a life review retreat.

Accept and Enjoy Your Shape
Recognize your limitations
Don’t overextend yourself beyond the boundaries in which you best live and work.
Don’t compare yourself with others.

This last section is so helpful. The times I have despaired of myself have been when I have compared myself with somebody else. I’m learning time and time again that such comparison is a pointless exercise.

That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.  God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.
Romans 8:21-29 (The Message)

“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.”
Aldous Huxley

Rick starts this section by saying that God allowed our experiences to happen for the purpose of molding us. Once again his Calvinist approach to God’s micromanagement comes through. I’d rather talk about God using the experiences of our lives to bring new purpose and direction.

We’re given a list of experiences to consider as we look at how we serve God:

Family Experiences
Educational Experiences
Vocational Experiences
Spiritual Experiences
Ministry Experiences
Painful Experiences
Again, Rick writes about God intentionally allowing us to go through painful experiences to equip us for ministry to others.

I vividly remember sitting by the coffin of my eighteen month old daughter as a ten year old boy from the church struggled to make sense of her death. “Perhaps God has made this happen so you can support other people who are grieving.” In response my wife and I explained that we didn’t have to find a reason for her tragic death. We were sure that God could have found other ways to help us grow in that ministry of supporting the bereaved. But we were sure that God could bring meaning and purpose out of this time.

It’s the difference between ultimate sovereignty and absolute sovereignty. I don’t believe that God says ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to every minute detail of my life or anyone else’s. But I do believe that God says ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to the big picture.

Rick refers to Paul’s honesty about his suffering in Asia Minor as expressed in 2 Corinthians 1: 8-10. If Paul had kept quiet about his doubts and depression, millions of people would have missed out his acknowledgement of pain, suffering and failure as part of life.

You shaped me first inside, then out;
You formed me in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13 (The Message)

Rick Warren introduces the P of SHAPE: Personality, by saying that each of us has a unique set of DNA. There has never been anybody like us. God loves variety.

Rick talks about introverts and extroverts, thinkers and feelers. These categories come from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers during World War II, following the theories of Carl Jung as laid out in his work Psychological Types.

The Introvert/Extrovert category looks at how a person orients and receives his/her energy. The Sensing/Intuition category indicates how person perceives or receives data. The Thinking/Feeling category relates to how a person judges or makes rational decisions. The Judging/Perceiving category reveals a preference for linear approaches or subjective options. This last category would link in with Rick’s reference to routine and variety.

Rick Warren says that there is no right or wrong temperament for ministry. He refers to Peter as being ’sanguine’, Paul as ‘choleric’ and Jeremiah as ‘melancholy’. These references are straight from the work of Tim and Beverley LaHaye who popularised the theory of the four temperaments among Evangelicals in the 1960s and on.

Theories relating to the four temperaments have their origins in Greece around 400 BC. It was thought that the bodily fluids yellow bile (choler), black bile (melancholic), phlegm and blood were linked with health and temperament. the take their names from the body fluids.

Tim La Haye designed the LaHaye Temperament Analysis, a tool for self analysis and improvement. Tim has written a number of books on the subject, including Transforming Your Temperament, Spirit-Controlled Temperament, and Understanding the Male Temperament.

Rick refers to the huge number of books and resources that can help people engage in a healthy approach to personality. David Keirsey, for example, has written a large number of resources relating to personality types, character and temperament.

A resource often used by churches in Queensland is the DiSC Profile. DiSC Profile was developed by William Moulton Marston using four dimensions of Dominance, Influencing, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. DiSC tests and assessments are used in hiring and recruiting, diversity training, time management, team building and personal growth. The Biblical Profile is designed especially for Christian settings. See Educating Christians for more details.

Looking around the internet I’ve found a few writers who have seized on this part of the Purpose Driven Life as evidence that Rick Warren has sold out to paganism. In some quarters there is a deep suspicion of anything that’s come out of ancient Greece or modern psychology. Jung, because of his interest in the occult, has been written off by some Christian writers. Clearly it is important not to become obsessed or stereotyped by the personality typologies of anyone, Christian or not.

What’s important here is that people don’t try and copy somebody else’s personal approach to ministry or mission. People who work behind the scenes are not likely to thrive in settings preferred by people who like to work ‘up front’. Rick encourages Christians to ‘work with the grain’ rather than against it. We have the freedom to express our gifts in different ways.

You shaped me first inside, then out;
You formed me in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139: 13 The Message

In this chapter Rick Warren helps us work through our unique shape, using the A, P and E of SHAPE: Abilities, Personality and Experience.

Abilities
Rick distinguishes between spiritual gifts and other God-given abilities by the fact that our abilities are given at birth. He says that each of hus have dozens, probably hundreds, of untapped, unrecognized, and unused abilities that are lying dormant inside us.

Rick starts with the thousands of abilities inherent in living in a body. The capacity to remember facts. The ability to smell and distinguish odours. The capacity to touch and hold. To taste. To hear.

I took my son for a driving lesson today. At this point he’s just learning. He’s only now developing a skill that has been latent. I’m sure he’ll discover many more abilities over his life. But he’ll need to practice with perserverance.

I’m reminded of a colleague who is considered by all who know him to be gifted musically. Incredibly gifted. But he reminds his friends that all the giftedness in the world would not have taken him to what he is as a performer. It was hours and hours of practice that honed those skills.

Rick says that every ability can be used for God’s glory, drawing on Paul’s encouragement to do whatever we do for the glory of God. Rick points to Biblical examples of artistic ability, architectural ability, administering, baking, boat making, candy making, debating, designing and so on. He says that God has a place in his church where our specialties can shine and we can make a difference. “Whatever you’re good at, you should be doing for your church.”

This is of great encouragement to action-oriented people who sometimes wonder if the church has any connection with their abilities. I’ve noticed that most worship services require two major skills: the capacity to sing in public, and the capacity to sit and listen attentively. Surely there are forms of being church that go far beyond that. I would say that God may well call us to use our abilities in areas where the organised church has no involvement. And so the church can shine and make a difference through our everyday skills.

I appreciate Rick’s encouragement for people to be aware of their assets and liablities. “God doesn’t waste abilities; he matches our calling and our capabilities.”

“Your hands shaped me and made me.”
Job 10:8 (New International Version)

“The people I have shaped for myself
will broadcast my praises.”
Isaiah 43:21 (New Jerusalem Bible)

“God don’t make no junk.”
Ethel Waters, African American jazz singer

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous.”
David, Psalmist

Rick Warren introduces us here to his famous acrostic, SHAPE. Everyone of us, he says, is created by God to serve God in a unique way. If Ethel Waters said “God don’t make no junk”, we could say that “God don’t use no cookie cutters”. Coming through strongly here is a value of diversity in God’s creation, along with design and consistent purpose.

As he introduces his SHAPE acrostic Warren reminds us that these five descriptors are only part of who we are. Of course he hasn’t mentioned gender, age, life style, ethnic background, theology or environment.

Spiritual Gifts
Heart
Abilities
Personality
Experience

Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gifts

Question One: Why do we talk about ’spiritual gifts’? Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14 about blessings that come from the Holy Spirit - given to people in whom the Holy Spirit is living. As Warren says, “Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from God’s Spirit.”

Question Two: Do we have the capacity to choose which spiritual gifts we will serve God with? Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12 about the sovereignty of God’s Spirit. It is the Spirit who decides which gifts to give each of us. (1 Corinthians 12:11)

Rick acknowledges two common dysfunctions when it comes to spiritual gifts: gift envy and gift projection. Gift envy is comparing our gift with others, leading us into dissatisfaction, resentment, jealousy. I’ve seen this mostly with envy of upfront high profile gifts such as teaching, healing, miracles and so on. Mind you we sometimes buy into a culture in which public performance is more readily rewarded than behind the scenes hard slog. Gift projection is expecting everyone else to have our gifts, do what what we are called to do. Classic cases are prayer and evangelism - when people with these gifts get frustrated with the limited enthusiasm and capacity of others.

Warren finishes with a short warning - “Spiritual gifts can be over emphasised to neglect of other factors.” I must admit it’s not too often we hear about people signing up to do a course on passion, or a course on experience. Spiritual gifts and personality both have a feeling of novelty to them.

Listening to Your Heart

Warren begins the H section by pointing us to the meaning of “Heart” in the Bible. The brain of course wasn’t referred to by anyone in ancient times. In the Bible the heart is referred to as the source and indicator of desires, hopes, interests, ambitions, dreams, affections. We’re talking about the source of all our motivations - what we love to do and what we care about most. Rick could have talked more about our thoughts here as well. The heart in Hebrew culture was as much the source of thought as the source of emotion. Interestingly, the bowels and kidneys were also referred to in the Bible as the container of emotions and soul. But most translations today replace them with heart to avoid confusion!

In Matthew 12:34 Jesus talks about his critics revealing with their hearts what is in their hearts. I don’t think he’s trying to distinguish between thoughts and emotions here. It’s more about making explicit what was before implicit.

Warren gives us another word for Heart - Passion. He invites us to consider the subjects and experiences that we feel passionate about. What is it we pay attention to? This is a turn around for some people I’ve worked with. For many years passion or fervour has been distrusted and has been replaced by a strong sense of duty, loyalty. Of course passion can lead us astray. But unless passion is stirred in people, a passion connected with staying power, loyalty usually leads to resentment and dropout.

Throughout Scripture leaders call their people to serve the Lord with all their heart. That implies, from my perspective and Warren’s too, serving with a sense of passion, rather than merely out of duty. That doesn’t mean we have to feel gushy everytime we think of God and serving God!

Rick uses an argument I’ve heard often. We know we’re working in our passion or God-given heart if we are able to sustain enthusiasim in our field and if we are able to grow in effectiveness. True - if we hate the work we’re doing maybe it’s because we’re not wired for it. And if we have to work twice as hard as everybody else, perhaps there’s a field in which we could achieve our goals more naturally. But as Warren said earlier, there are always other factors at work. It may be a relationship or an internal attitude at work.

Warren finishes with a challenge to money-motivated careers. He encourages people not to waste their lives doing something that is unfulfilling. If we are to use our God-given passion we should be able to find a way of doing that even if it means taking a cut in pay.

It is God himself who has made us what we are and give us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.
Ephesians 2:10 (Living Bible)

I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do.
John 17:4 (The Message)

We’re on to the fourth out of four purposes of the purpose-driven life, service. Rick Warren tells us we’re here to serve God, with five points…

1. You were created to serve God
2. You were saved to serve God
3. You are called to serve God
4. You are commanded to serve God
5. You will be evaluated on how well you served others with your life

Reminds me of Bob Dylan’s song, “You gotta serve somebody.”

I appreciate Rick’s challenge to live in a counter cultural way - living our lives to serve rather than consume. Likewise the reminder that we’re saved for service, not by service.

Rick introduces us to the idea that God gives everyone a ministry in the church and a mission in the world. Hmm. I wonder why we put service in the context of Christian community and not in the wider world. Is it a reflection of the mood of the New Testament church? The early Christian community was an illegal sect of Judaism. It would be natural for believers to focus on pouring their energy into supporting one another rather than people outside the Christian community. But where I live, we’re in a different context.

Everything on earth has its own time and its own season.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (CEV)

I am sure that God who bean the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.
Philippians 1:5 (Living Bible)

It’s taken a year to get to Day 28 on this Driving With Purpose blog. The first post was on June 3, 2004. Hopefully we’ll get to Day 40 before the day when Jesus Christ returns!

Rick Warren uses a couple of metaphors to explore the slow process of maturity:
1. Vine-ripened tomatoes (as opposed to gas-ripened)
Rick reminds us that quality is best achieved with slow growth.

2. Occupation of Pacific Islands during World War II (Lane Adams, Spirit, 1985) Rick uses Lane Adams’ analogy of God’s pre-conversion ’softening-up’ through ‘bombing’, the initial beachhead in our lives, followed by the longterm campaign to take over more and more territory until all of our life is completely God’s. It’s a violent image but it makes the point that God’s in for the long haul with us.

It takes so long to grow into maturity because:
1. We are slow learners
2. We have a lot to unlearn.
3. We are afraid to humbly face the truth about ourselves.
4. Growth is often painful and scary.
5. Habits take time to develop.

I appreciate Rick’s reminder that what takes years to learn can take years to unlearn. I remember the year before I started as a minister telling a friend I needed to develop stronger spiritual disciplines in the next two months. He wryly smiled and reminded me that spiritual disciplines took years to develop. So true.

We can co-operate with God in the process
1. Believe God is working in your life even when you don’t feel it.
2. Keep a notebook or journal of lessons learned.
3. Be patient with God and with yourself.
4. Don’t get discouraged.

I appreciate the image of seasons Rick uses to describe the times we seem to be shooting ahead and the times we seem to stagnate. I’ve found this especially applies to periods of fresh creativity that tend to be followed by times of dryness.

This chapter is a welcome alternative to the “Easy steps to maturity” approach to spiritual growth we can find ourselves pining for. Rick finishes with the sentence, “Even the snail reached the ark by perservering”. Nice.

Run from anything that gives you the evil thoughts… but stay close to anything that makes you want to do right.
2 Timothy 2.22 (Living Bible)

Remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (New Living Translation)

Rick Warren in today’s chapter reminds us not to become defeatist when it comes to temptation. He starts with a claim that God will not allow us to face any temptation that we cannot overcome. And then goes on to tell us that all will be OK if we are proactive and follow his 4 point Biblical plan.

1. Refocus your attention on something else.
2. Reveal your struggle to a godly friend or support group.
3. Resist the Devil.
4. Realize your vulnerability.

Hmm. Rick’s running with Paul’s promise that God won’t test us beyond the point of endurance. I’m not too sure. I’ve seen many Christians crack under pressure, sometimes ending up in moral failure or with mental illness. I don’t think it’s God’s fault. We take on challenges and expectations that sometimes are unrealistic projections of what we think God wants. But we are fragile and vulnerable people.

Rick’s chapter is based on the second part of the 1 Corinthians verse: finding a way out of temptation.

Refocusing is a brilliant idea. And I appreciate Rick’s acknowledgement that this takes a lifetime of practice, particularly when it comes to addiction. The addictive mind is more devious that we allow.With the Holy Spirit’s help we can reprogram the way we think.

Yes - keeping an honest accountability with peers or supervisors is a healthy way to go. The AA recovery movement has a lot to teach us in this area. The moment of confession takes the power out of pride and self-deceit.

Helping others face up to their areas of weakness is a tricky business. As a parent I feel responsible for helping my kids develop self-awareness in the areas of their strengths and limits. They don’t always enjoy it when I confront them over discrepancies between action and word. But they seem to act on it in the long term. Between friends or colleagues honest confrontation is no easy task. Many friendship have been lost. But if friends can’t do it, who can?

Rick talks about resisting the Devil in terms of memorizing and using scripture. Looking at the number of times he quotes scripture in his book, that’s obviously the way he works. I’ve memorised lots of scripture but I can’t say it really helps when under pressure. I think it’s more the principles that I’ve developed while studying scripture. The principles of purity, of faithfulness, honesty, gentleness, patience and so on.

And once again, I’m not keen on the idea that we are neutral members of a conversation between God and the Devil. We are quite capable of having inner ethical dialogues without supernatural interference.

I agree wholeheartedly with Rick’s last principle. Avoid temptation by realizing your vulnerability. If that means not turning the computer on so be it. If it means staying out of bakeries and DVD stores, so be it!