How different?

I was talking to a staff memeber yesterday who mentioned that in a previous job, people who had completed a doctoral degree often went through a personal life crisis. I wondered why but got no real ideas. So it got me to thinking, how has this experience changed me and will it be the cause for me to have a personal life crisis? One question at at time...
How has this changed me? A lot in some ways and not at all in others. This process has forced me to be more serious about my ministry and my call than I have ever been before. I was forced to take a very hard and personal look at what it means to be a leader and what it means to be both committed to lead something like a church or any group for that matter and at the same time to be led by and have the heart and mind of Christ. I have found that to do that I must have Christ' passion for people, while being highly aware of how to lead this organization in a healthy and godly manner. I am, I admit, much less tollerant of church leaders who seem to be coasting or whose passion seems to be gone. All the while I feel a deeper passion for people, for their spiritual state and for their soul. So, yes this has changed me.
Second question, will this cause me to have a personal life crisis? Probably. Not in the sense of me doing something stupid, but I can find less reason in my own life to not want the best service to God from myself and those around me.
At the same time, I am really no different at all! A title doesn't change us, it is the experience that changes us. It is now my task to make my experience mean something in the course of my life and minsitry. And in that, comes the real challange.
hmmm.....

Feeling different?

Met several people oevr the weekend who I had not seen in a while. They made a pretty big deal of congragulating me on the Doctorate Degree. I was admittedly pleased that they knew, but at the same time a bit taken back.

While I am sure that the process has changed me, the degree hasn't. I started this process becasue I wanted to grow in my faith, my knowledge, and my ability to be the best leader that God wanted me to be. There was never a desire to be somehow seen as now 'more' than I was before becasue I have a title.

I keep telling people that I am still Ken, and not Dr. DeMaere. If first names were good enough for Paul and Jesus, first names are good enough for me. I ahev many times said that the four most important titles I carry are husband, father, friend, and Pastor. I intend to spend the rest of my life living up to those four titles, I don't need too many more. My plate is pretty full with those.

Have a good and safe and close to God week!

The process of writing...

While i didn't really set out to do this, what I ended up doing was that I read through the scriptures and highlighted every instance where the scriptures had praised or highlighted a leadership characteristic or quality. I then catagorized them. Much to my surprise, I discovered that there were basically nine characteristics, which incidentially closely alligned to the fruit of the spirit. That was one very cool ah-ha moment!! And sadly, also a moment when I realized that that discovery was too much for this particular work to deal with in its proper depth.

I read something over 300 books, both secualr and religious on leadership. The four that stand out in my mind are...

Courageous Leadership by Hybels
Visioneering by Andy Stanley
Spiritual leadership by Oswald Sanders and
Spiritual leadership by Blackaby...
and hopefully someday
Restoring Church Leadership (to the principles of the Bible) by DeMaere :-)

ken

Doctorate

Without rewriting my abstract, my theses was on leadership in the context of the church. Basically I believe that Jesus was the greatest leader that ever lived. Yet I fear that the modern day church is opening its doors to leadership principles that have their roots in the business world. And the business world often has its roots in ideas and values that are contrary to the leadership practices of Jesus and principles of the scripture.

I am particulairly hard, I admit, on Maxwell, and particulairly hard on his book "The 21 Irrifutable Laws of Leadership" where I believe that more than half of those laws are absoloutly refuted by the life and ministry and teachings of Jesus. maxwell clearly states that Leadership is Leadership and leadership principles work in every and any situation. Wrong. Nada. Not true.

The result of that is an effort on my part to give a process whereby a church leader can look at a leadership idea, principle or process and determine if it is in line with the values and teaching of the scriptures.

OK, wake up now, I am done. :-)

This is me, I was tempted to send a picture of some handsom skinny guy, but... :-)

Posted by Hello

Back in the routine

As exciting as graduating was, it really doesn't change the process of every day life. The Dean of the seminary told us that as Doctors we might be asked to give prescriptions, and he suggested that the only one we dare give might be "read two Psalms and call me in the morning."

So, what did this strenuous process actually do for me? In wish that I could name a bunch of concrete things, but more than anything else it has given me a greater sense of confidence in my ability to do the tough work if I need to, while at the same time pointing out just how limited my personal knowledge is about a whole host of subjects.

Painful realization. I had a professor once who had two doctorates and who told us that when he graduated from High School, he knew that he knew about 90% of all there was to know. After his BA, he realized that he only knew about 60%. After his masters he realized that he only knew 30% and after his first doctorate he realized that he only knew 10% of what there was to now. So in a quest for greater knowledge he pursued a second doctorate. However upon that achievement he realized that he only know about 1% of all there was to know, and he decided to give up the educational process before he ended up a blithering idiot.

Well, I don’t want to be a blithering idiot, but at the same time I don’t feel like I have achieved any sort of higher plane. People do listen more I think, but I am not sure I have anything more significant to say than I ever did, so I find myself speaking less.

Hmmm.

First Thoughts

Welcome to my Blog!

As I have started a kind of new phase in my life, I decided that this is a good time to start my blog site.

After a 4 year journey, this last weekend I received my Doctorate Degree. It was a great experience. However I am not sure that I know how I am supposed to feel right now. I think that it is supposed to be some kind of utopiam joy. Instead it is a kind of relief. I can see why so many doctorial candidates do not finish their disseratation, as it is such a load of work.

I don't feel any smarter, that is for sure.

I do feel like I am more sure of who and what I am, and what I am not, however.

I also have a new appreciation for writers and what they go through to write well! Whew!

Thanks for being a part of my journey.

Ken