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     “Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. (II Corinthians 5:14-15, Mg.)”

Those words from The Message paraphrase of the Bible have stuck with me since I first read them (at least first read The Message version) in my devotional time last fall. I want them said over my life and ministry as a bishop. I want to live out of a focused center based on Christ. I am also convinced that the sense of a focused center based on Christ is critical to the future of the Christian movement in this wilderness way.

Last Summer I read a story from Jim Collins’ new book How the Mighty Fall. He wrote: “… leaders atop companies in the late stages of decline need to get back to a calm, clear-headed, and focused approach. If you want to reverse decline, be rigorous about what not to do. In the early 1990s, I invited a former Marine turned entrepreneur to guest-lecture in my course on creativity at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He’d done multiple tours of jungle combat in the Vietnam War. When asked what lessons, if any, carried over to his civilian life as an entrepreneur, he thought about it for a moment and then responded, “When you have just a few people, and there is enemy all around you, the best thing is to say, ‘You take this section from here to here, and you take this section from here to here, and do not fire on automatic. Take one shot at a time.’”

            This is great advice for us as a wilderness people. We need to be calm and breathe (see The Wilderness Way #27). This is a central component of trusting God. We need to think. Old habits and strategies will not do in this new age and on this wilderness way. We must focus on the heart of the faith – Christ our Lord. Do you remember the story from the 11^th chapter of Acts? “The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. ²² … they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; ²⁴for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord. . . So it was that for an entire year they associated with^* the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians’.” (Acts 11:21-26)

            It is my intention (hope?) to start a blog this coming January entitled This Focused Center based on this passage from II Corinthians. I hope to share what I am reading and wrestling with. Together I hope and pray that we can live out of the focused center of life with Christ. Truly he came for all and he came to include us “in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.” (II Corinthians 5:15)

By: Bishop Mike Lowry On 12/23/2009

Topics: Bishop Columns