A fellow MTS-er shared these categories to reflect on (drawn from 1 Thess 2-3):
- the faithful proclamation of God's word under pressure.
- love for people
- persistence in prayer.
I should spend some time thinking about the things I've been involved in this year and how effective I have been in those areas. Another set of categories I will reflect through is this:
- conviction (theology)
- competency (skills)
- character (godliness)
I suspect that I will see many areas that need more attention (such as prayer - I'm not so persistent or intentional about that).
Hi Rebekah, thanks for this post about reflection. Reflection is so important, but for me it often gets waylaid by other more 'pressing' matters. I'm often ready to just move on instead of thinking about the past, but I've been reminded by several people lately about making time for reflection as the year comes to an end. I really appreciate the categories that you've shared above (as well as the way the fellow MTSer shared with you and you passed it on to us!), and I'm going to try and incorporate them into my own reflection!
ReplyDeleteFrom AJ (fellow MTS-er):
ReplyDeleteI think in ministry it can be tempting to look at others to measure the 'fruit' of what God has done through us - and it is very easy to forget his powerful, life changing work in us! I really appreciated the categories your fellow MTSer suggested for reflecting, I think that 1 Thess is a great book to draw those kind of categories from. I find it so helpful looking to Jesus when thinking about all of this. If it wasn't for Jesus I wouldn't be living for ever, if it wasn't for Jesus all these categories wouldn't mean anything. And Jesus wonderfully blows all my shortcomings and mistakes right out of the park - when I fall short in these different areas, I know that I can look to him.