Vision For Life

Despite prolific resources on the topic of time management and work-life balance, the ability to manage the many demands placed on our time and to devote ourselves to the worthy pursuits to which we’re called can often feel impossibly out of reach. Author Jordan Raynor offers seven time-management principles, supported by corresponding practices, to help readers thoughtfully respond to the constraints we face and manage our time so that we can be purposeful, present, and productive.

In this episode, Hunter and Autumn discuss principles five, six, and seven offered by Raynor:
- Accept Your “Unipresence”
- Embrace Productive Rest
- Eliminate All Hurry
These principles encourage us to cultivate our capacity to be present where we are and to integrate practices that maximize our time and presence.

Resources mentioned in this episode:
"Redeeming Your Time" by Jordan Raynor (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593193075/)
"Getting Things Done" by David Allen (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142000280/)
"Deep Work" by Cal Newport (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1455586692/)
"The Lazy Genius Way" by Kendra Adachi (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525653937/)
"The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry" by John Mark Comer (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525653090/)

Despite prolific resources on the topic of time management and work-life balance, the ability to manage the many demands placed on our time and to devote ourselves to the worthy pursuits to which we’re called can often feel impossibly out of reach. Author Jordan Raynor offers seven time-management principles, supported by corresponding practices, to help readers thoughtfully respond to the constraints we face and manage our time so that we can be purposeful, present, and productive.

In this episode, Hunter and Autumn discuss the first four principles offered by Raynor:
1. Start with the Word
2. Let Your Yes be Yes
3. Dissent from the Kingdom of Noise
4. Prioritize Your Yeses

Resources mentioned in this episode:
"Redeeming Your Time" by Jordan Raynor (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593193075/)
"Getting Things Done" by David Allen (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142000280/)
"Deep Work" by Cal Newport (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1455586692/)

The first-century Ephesian church withstood cultural pressure from numerous external sources and internal pressures toward theological and social compromise. And they managed to maintain biblical fidelity through the melee. Even so, in Revelation 2:1-7, John authors a message from Jesus to the church in Ephesus cautioning them that they had lost their “first love” and the “first works” that flowed out of that love.

Hunter and Autumn discuss the letter to the Ephesian church and consider parallels to our modern context. How might we be tempted to abandon our “first love” and the “first works” to which we are called?

In a continuing conversation about the album “Rebuild, Renew,” Adam Anglin, Jordan Lucas, and Daniel Perez join Autumn to discuss three specific songs. Adam, Jordan, and Daniel each wrote one of the songs considered in this episode. They delve into the songwriting process, the ideas and Scripture that inspired the lyrics, and their hopes for how this album will enrich and enliven our worship as both the gathered and scattered family of God.

Resources mentioned in this episode:
"Rhythms of Grace" by Mike Cosper (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1433533421)

Fellowship Denver’s bands wrote, recorded, and produced a worship album entitled ”Rebuild, Renew” that is set for release on September 16th. The album is a compilation of original works created by over 30 musicians. Three significant contributors to ”Rebuild, Renew,” Adam Anglin, Jordan Lucas, and Daniel Perez, sat down with Autumn to discuss leading worship, the process of creating a collaborative album, and why it’s meaningful to contribute to this sort of project.

In a two-part discussion, Autumn and Hunter consider a book by Pastor and Author Mark Sayers entitled “A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World Will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders.” If, as Sayers states, “crisis precedes renewal,” and non-anxious leaders are a primary means God uses to bring about renewal, how can we develop this sort of presence? Via deep, abiding connection to God. Being people of hope, light, and truth in an era of cultural crisis is impossible without connection to God via Jesus, his Son. Connectedness to God allows us to be curious, compassionate, adaptable learners who joyfully accept the place and time to which God has called us.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

"A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders" by Mark Sayers (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0802428576/)

"The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't" by Julia Galef (https://amazon.com/dp/0735217556/)

In a two-part discussion, Autumn and Hunter consider a book by Pastor and Author Mark Sayers entitled “A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World Will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders.” Sayers observes that the moral, geopolitical, and cultural norms of the past many years are being challenged and will eventually give way to a new order. We are moving into an undetermined era which Sayers calls a “gray zone,“ filled with upheaval and tension. In a modern gray zone, super-charged by our complex, networked reality, tension manifests as collective anxiety. However, a more compelling, brighter reality comes into focus in Sayer’s writing. God repeatedly uses these moments in history to bring about renewal through leaders who maintain a non-anxious presence, deeply connected to God regardless of the cultural and political melee.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

"A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders" by Mark Sayers (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0802428576/)

"A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix" by Edwin Friedman (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1596272791/)

Three Fellowship Denver Pastors, Hunter Beaumont, Rich Dugan, and Clark Nunnelly, recently traveled to Spain to attend a conference with church leaders from Europe, Africa, Australia, and the United States.

In today’s episode, Hunter and Rich reflect on their time in Spain and share three ways the global church challenges and sharpens the modern church in America. They note the motivation, urgency, and clarity of the European church leaders and how that vitality confronts our own temptation toward complacency.

It is a sobering reality that God the Spirit uses the church in mission and not the other way around. The church does not wield God the Spirit as its tool, to do with as it pleases. The church takes its mission plans directly from the Spirit (Acts 13). The church must be humbled by this knowing that we are not necessary for God to advance his mission. God has always been able to turn rocks into sons, graft wild olive branches into the natural, and return to the natural root as he pleases.

However, the normative pattern in the New Testament and in church history is that God uses the church to house, resource, and advance God’s mission. The New Testament authors assume that the family of God is participating in and carrying out the “Missio Ekklesia.” Dave and Autumn discuss the importance of an ecclesial theology of mission and two principles, the incarnational principle and the pilgrim principle, by which it must be carried out.