Am I smoking what I’m selling? John Ortberg says we should be.
Am I smoking what I’m selling
Posted Thursday, 12 November 2009 by johnortbergI talked not long ago to a man who spends his life working with churches on stewardship. i asked him what the number one characteristic of generous churches is, and the rapidity of his answer startled me: “They have generous senior pastors.” He didn’t cite programs or teaching or systems. Just a person.
It struck me how deeply this is true of the whole area of spiritual formation. Sometimes a person will want to become a ’spiritual formation champion’ in a church. They may know a fair amount about techniques like lectio devina, they may read good writers and be able to articulate substantial ideas. But the biggest question remains: When people look at this person, do they say ‘I want to be like him or her?’When it comes to transformation, the single most helpful gift we offer is the life we lead ourselves. If I’m leading the wrong life, if I’m becoming the wrong person, no amount of information or teaching skill can speak louder than the volume of my actual life. The foundational question around transformation is always the ancient Biblical question (found in an obscure variant text):
Am I smoking what I’m selling?