As an often burnt-out mid-career missions leader in early 1990’s, I remember being deeply impacted by the writings of the Dutch theologian and contemplative, Henri Nouwen. His book The Way of the Heart describes the all important role of solitude and silence in our lives to purify us from being driven by the “false self”-- the constant need to conform ourselves to the expectations of those around us rather than living life from the inside out, from who we really are in the Lord.
Ruth Haley Barton is an author and spiritual director who leads the Transforming Center, a ministry to pastors and other ministry leaders. I was refreshed and encouraged by her book Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership which is a take-off on Jesus’ warning, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Her insightful work examines the experience of Moses and how his personal encounters with God in silence and solitude both prepared and undergirded him for 40 frustrating and challenging years of leading his people Israel to door of the Promised Land.
Here are some of the rich conclusions Barton comes to through her reflection on Moses’ long and quiet experience in the desert and how that experience made him fit to lead. She observes: “Moses’whole life can be viewed through the lens of his private encounters. He did not seem to have any great strategies for leadership except to seek God in solitude and then carry out what God revealed to him there. He routinely sought God (or God sought him), there was an encounter, and then Moses did what God told him to do. For Moses, leadership was that simple!”
In emulating Moses’ simple leadership style, she advocates our leaving the company of others for a time, letting go of our need to fix things outside ourselves and attend to what needs to be done “in the deep interior places of our life” as “the most important work to be done right now.” It is essential to have such times of aloneness with God, otherwise “our leadership cannot be a force for good if it is not being refined by the rigors of true solitude, that place where God is at work beyond what we are able to do for ourselves or would even know how to do for ourselves.”
It is in such times when we open ourselves fully to the searching presence of God that we begin to see things about ourselves that were lurking beneath the surface. For Moses, it was his tendency to erupt with uncontrolled anger. She writes: “Only those who have been brave enough to ride their own monsters of anger and greed, jealousy and narcissism, fear and violence all the way to the bottom will find a truer energy with which to lead. Only those who have faced their own dark side can be trusted to lead others towards the Light. This is where true spiritual leadership begins. Everything that comes before is something else.”
She talks of the bondage of “Christian busyness” which most of us understand quite well but often are not disciplined enough to escape. She also covers the often difficult task of leaders to guard the unity of the spiritual community as their most important occupation as reflected in Jesus’ last prayer for the disciples (John 17:11) since it is the way that the devil (diabolos or divider) is defeated and the world comes to believe in Him.
Though Moses was not allowed to go into the Promised Land, she thinks that he had come to the point in life where for him “the presence of God was the Promised Land” so it was not a punishment but actually a blessing that soon followed with his exiting earth into the pure presence of the Lord. Her summary sentence captures the essence of being leaders whose souls have not gotten lost along the way: “This is a leader with strength of soul—one who continually seeks God in the crucible of ministry and for that reason is able to stay faithful to the call of God upon their life—to do their small part—until God calls them home.” I heartily commend this valuable book for your own rumination and edification.
John Robb
Justin Bieber’s 'Bigger Than Satan' shirt
26 Mar 2016
Pop idol Justin Bieber, who is a Christian, is currently travelling with his ‘Purpose’ tour and has incorporated a noteworthy shirt into the collection of clothes he wears onstage. Bieber can be seen wearing a shirt with the words ‘Bigger Than Satan’ on the back. The shirt comes from designer Jerry Lorenzo, whose brand ‘Fear of God’ aims to express a different side of Christianity. Bieber has recently become open about his Christian faith, after years of making headlines for breaking laws. The pop star said, ‘I just want to honestly live like Jesus. Not be Jesus - I could never - I don’t want that to come across weird. He created a pretty awesome template of how to love people and how to be gracious and kind. If you believe it, he died for our sins.’
Heightened security across nations
26 Mar 2016
On 22 March the European Parliament raised its terror alert level in Brussels to orange and heightened security in close cooperation with the Belgian authorities, following the bombing attacks there. France has heightened its measures to monitor suspected personnel, and David Cameron has held meetings to discuss new measures of security in the British Isles. Across the nations a wave of apprehension, coupled with the determination to thwart terror attacks, appears to be taking hold. As well as praying for the victims, their families and friends, we can pray for the cities across Europe to stand strong against the hatred which is emerging at this time.
Kingdom values
26 Mar 2016
In AD 849 King Alfred the Great wrote, ‘There is only one way to build my kingdom and that is on the sure and certain foundation of faith in Jesus Christ crucified.’ Although Alfred was never king of England as we now know it, his achievements made him the true founder of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the 10th and 11th centuries, before the Norman invasion. We can thank God for every aspect of Godly inheritance that He put within our land and for the kingdom foundations within our government, justice systems, and many aspects of our society. We can declare in prayer His purpose over this nation and for Him to display His kingdom and His kingship for our future.
Middle East special
26 Mar 2016
Brian Mills was asked by Andy Page from Prayer Alert what was on his heart for the Middle East and what burning issues we could be praying about. He said that, thinking about Easter and beyond, people everywhere can pray for the Muslim nations at this crucial time. The Middle East is the place where the passion of the cross took place, and at the cross Christ Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’. Forgiveness is the primary element of the cross, and forgiveness needs to be in and with the people of this region. Wherever you look in the Middle East you see people in conflict. That needs to be recognised as we pray for the area, particularly Jerusalem. Forgiveness is very hard to find. Brian said that he was in Jerusalem recently and noticed that attitudes have hardened compared to when he was there a few years ago. He said that wherever you go in the Middle East you will see people at war with words and with weapons: we need to seek the Holy Spirit to touch and change lives.
Brian also mentioned that he had visited the United Arab Emirates recently, to attend a prayer gathering for the Middle East. Isaiah 19:23,24 was claimed for such a time as this, a time when God’s promise will be fulfilled and He will bring about a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The scripture says, ‘The Assyrians will come to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. On that day, Israel will be the third along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing at the centre of the world.’ Brian commented, ‘Now is the time to pray for the areas of those nations to be together living in forgiveness: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel and beyond. Pray for Arab nations currently torn apart by strife to be united.’
Brian also pointed to the prayer needs of Turkey. Pray for the people fleeing to Europe, pray for the borders of Turkey that are fraught with conflict, pray for the people confined by closed borders. It’s another country in a region where people are looking for answers, living in places torn apart by conflict. We have to pray that people will find physical and spiritual refuge in the safety of belonging to Jesus. We can also thank God for the way that Lebanon and Iraq are planting churches and seeing people born again of God’s Spirit. We can praise Him for the response to the gospel that mission and aid agencies are seeing in the Middle East.
To view the full Brian Mills interview, click the ‘more’ button.
USA: 2016 election special
26 Mar 2016
The stakes are high for Donald Trump, who is attempting to present himself as a pro-Israel candidate for presidency. The real estate mogul has repeatedly said he would be ‘the best thing that could ever happen to Israel,’ but some of his other statements have sown considerable doubt. The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights-human relations organisation, announced that it was redirecting all of Trump’s donations ($56,000), citing the ‘stereotyping and scapegoating that have been injected into this political season.’ This week Hilary Clinton promised she would stand unwaveringly with Israel while accusing her potential rival, Mr Trump, of being an unreliable partner for one of America’s closest allies. ‘We need steady hands,’ she said, ‘not a president who says he’s neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday, and who-knows-what on Wednesday.’
Recently Prayer Alert asked John Robb, the chairman of the International Prayer Council, how we could pray for the United States of America. John said that over the past 25 years he has facilitated 61 prayer initiatives across the nations; God has broken through over and over again in response to the prayers of the people who humbled themselves and sought his face in prayer. 2016 is a pivotal year for them, as the result of the USA’s national election in November will affect the world. We are invited to join Americans in the coming months as they embark on two forty-day prayer and fasting initiatives for their nation. Christians will be prayer-walking everywhere across the USA, humbling themselves and ‘getting right with God.’ There will also be a Prayer Assembly at the end of October just before elections. Christian prayer networks, churches and organisations will unite to pray for the new leadership of the USA. John also mentioned a wonderful international youth prayer assembly in South Korea in July. For prayer assembly information read the article below. To watch a video of John Rob’s comments go to
World youth prayer assembly
26 Mar 2016
The International Prayer Council are calling for a global Prayer UPRISING from 26 to 30 July 2016 - a united prayer rising in Seoul, South Korea. They say, ‘With the global crisis this generation is facing and the attacks on them, we believe that it's time to gather the youth from across the nations for a prayer assembly to stand against attacks on this generation. The youth are this generation’s Davids, and they will fast and pray and face the Goliaths of this world. They will stand for South and North Korean unity as they intercede at the border of these two nations, believing now is the time to pray for their unification. They will fast and pray as they intercede for change in the regions and the nations.’
UPRISING will call forth and engage an emerging generation, tens of thousands from every nation, to challenge and empower them to fulfil their destiny as catalysts for Christ's Kingdom. It will be a springboard for new youth movements, new youth ministries and new prayer and missions movements. It could also possibly give birth to a new, global Jesus Movement, finding its beginnings at the UPRISING. Pray that God will mobilise the youth of today, in united prayer for the healing of the nations. To watch a short video of Bishop Peter’s invitation to this event go to:
Scotland in prayer
25 Mar 2016
Give thanks for the hundreds of churches and thousands of folk who have taken part in the forty days of prayer during Lent, and for the positive testimonies starting to come in from folk responding to the Trypraying adverts on buses all over Scotland and the Trypraying booklet. John Wesley said, ‘God does nothing redemptively except through prayer.’ One of Jesus’ last recorded acts was to pray for all those who would believe in Him, and that all those believers would be united in relationship ‘as one’; not as identical clones, but as one loving family with all the diverse variety and richness of character, personality, gifting and purpose you see in any family - all given by our Father, the ultimate Creator, to fulfil His plans on earth. God’s plan is nothing less than the complete transformation of society: turning from darkness to light, from sinful independence from God to complete dependence on Him, bringing in the rule and reign of His Kingdom.