Sunday Extra: Holy Vessels – A Season of recovery
Jenny Warner is one of the most creative, innovative, and wise leaders which we have been privileged to journey with at Leighton Ford Ministries. This is part of a prayer which she recently shared with her congregation:
God of All Possibilities,
Made in your image, you have tasked us as co-creators of a better world. You bestowed imagination and the ability to learn and progress.
But we are tired. Our energy wanes and enthusiasm wanes.
The call for ideas, solutions, work-arounds and adaptations has been non-stop for us all–whether we are needing to find ways to keep children engaged and well, or figuring out how to maintain a passion for our work in the midst of trying times, or needing desperately to undo systems of oppression too long affecting our lives and the lives of our neighbors.
Not only our livelihoods, but our liveliness is at stake. Too often we want to give up, declare it all too hard and simply isolate, waiting out the time for better days.
Do you feel that today? There has been so much upheaval and isolation over the past year. As we re-emerge, how do we as holy vessels once again stand with what God is doing in our midst and covenant to God’s presence with us in the future?
Rev. Jenny Warner is lead pastor of Valley Presbyterian Church in Portola Valley, California, about halfway between the headquarters of Facebook and Apple. She is a member of an LFM mentoring community co-led by Kevin Ford and David Swanson, and is currently exploring launching a new LFM mentoring community as part of our Thriving in Ministry Initiative.
On this week’s Sunday Extra, Jenny teaches us from Jeremiah 31 … “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant … I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.”
Dr. Jim Singleton
Executive Director of Missional Leadership
Leighton Ford Ministries
Dr. Singleton also serves as Associate Professor of Pastoral Leadership and Evangelism at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Conversation with a Mentor
LFM mentoring is different!
Despite his incredible experience, Leighton’s model for mentoring is less “master and pupil” and more “friend on the journey,” or perhaps, “iron sharpens iron.”
Mark Slaughter, Director of LFM’s Thriving in Ministry Initiative, recently spoke with LFM mentor Sarah Breuel for the Lausanne Movement’s Conversation with a Mentor podcast. Sarah has been a member of LFM’s Rolling Stones mentoring community for 13 years and recently launched a new LFM mentoring community for emerging revivalists in Europe.
Here’s how Sarah describes the unique impact of LFM mentoring:
“There’s something about the community, searching God’s voice together, and doing this through the longevity of people who have seen you … you know, in 13 years I’ve moved countries, I’ve had children, I’ve moved ministries … but they know my heart. They know what God created me to be, and my struggles and my joys, and I know theirs, so they can call me out, the best of me and what God has for me, and I can call them out. There’s something about ‘iron sharpens iron’ in the best of senses. It’s really a gift.”
Sarah served as Chair of the Global Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering in 2016 and has been named to Christianity Today’s “33 Under 33” Christian leaders to watch. She has served for more than 15 years with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Brazil, Canada, Norway, and Italy, and also served as Director of Revive, a conference for young adults and college students seeking revival across Europe.
Click here to listen or watch the podcast and be encouraged by how God is raising up and sustaining young ministry leaders around the world!
Kevin Ford
Chief Catalyst
Leighton Ford Ministries
