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Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 3/4

January 15, 2012 By Daniel Im

Desert experiences are one of the hardest things about life and extremely difficult to navigate through. In fact, when we are in a desert experience, the only thing that many of us think about is how to get out of it – quickly and with as few scars as possible.

In part one, I described the rationale behind desert or isolation experiences in ministry. Click here to read about it.

In part two, I described the different types of desert experiences that one might experience in ministry. Click here to read about it.

Today, I’m going to explore why moving out of a desert experience prematurely is one of the worst decisions that you can do.

The whole process of moving back to Canada in 2010, after pastoring in Korea, was a defining desert experience in my life. We were displaced and without a home, ministry position, income, etc for about 5 months. Upon arriving back in Canada, the first thing I wanted to do was get a job and start providing again for my wife and newborn, but God had other plans. In fact, out of all the resumes that I handed out, absolutely no one called me back for the first couple of months. It was hard at the time, but in hindsight, I can see how God wanted to keep me in that desert experience.

Re-Imagining Theological Education

November 30, 2011 By Daniel Im

I just came across some excellent videos (see below) illustrating the thoughts on theological education and seminary that I’ve been wrestling with for the past couple of years. You can read about my thoughts here.

You can also read a great article by Leonard Sweet about how seminaries have to reinvent themselves here.

I am encouraged to not only see 3DM working through this concept, but also Fuller Seminary.

Here are pertinent sites discussing the matter:

http://thefutureoftheologicaleducation.com/
http://future.fuller.edu

Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 2/4

November 28, 2011 By Daniel Im

In part one, I described the rationale behind desert or isolation experiences in ministry. Click here to read about it. Essentially, God uses desert experiences to accomplish things through us that we would never be able to accomplish apart from these desert experiences.

Today I would like to go a bit more in depth and define the different types of desert experiences one might experience in ministry. There are two broad categories of desert experiences. Shelly Trebesch calls them involuntary and voluntary isolation experiences in her book, Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of a Leader.

Another way of looking at them is: unplanned and planned desert experiences.

Eating as a Holy Act

November 22, 2011 By Daniel Im

Did you know that over the past three decades, there has been a 45 percent decrease in entertaining friends and a 33 percent decrease in families eating together? And more than half of those families watch television as they eat together – I know it…that’s what my family did growing up (research from Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone).

What did you eat today? Whom did you eat it with? When’s the last time you had a meaningful time of relationship and community with another person? Was it around food? Most of us not only organize our day around our meals, but is is the social glue that connects families and friends together. Isn’t that why the big holidays, like Christmas and Thanksgiving are celebrated with family, friends, and a big meal?

However, we oftentimes eat without knowing and understanding the significance of it, other than satisfying that hunger or satiating that palette.

So what would it look like if we began seeing food and our meal times through the eyes of Jesus? How did he view the table?

Well, in the New Testament, here are three of the ways that the sentence “The Son of Man came…” is completed:

…not to serve, but to serve (Mark 10:45);
…to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10);
…eating and drinking (Luke 7:34).

[Read more…]

Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 1/4

November 19, 2011 By Daniel Im

Although leading, serving, and being with people is a central component to ministry, every leader will go through desert experiences, or isolation experiences, where one is forced out of one’s context, or where one will voluntarily leave one’s context.

If you haven’t yet gone through one, then expect to. If you have, then you probably know that these experiences are the most formative experiences in our lives: personally, spiritually, and ministerially.

This is part one of a four part series where I will explore these desert experiences in ministry. Today I will explain the rationale behind these isolation experiences.

God uses desert experiences to accomplish things through us that we would never be able to accomplish apart from these desert experiences. In fact, some of our ultimate leadership insights and contributions may come from these desert experiences.

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