Ran across this excellent post from Sam Metcalf. I find myself so often “passionless” about building the kingdom. How can that be?
Let others complain that this age is evil. My complaint is that this age is paltry. It lacks passion.
— Soren Kierkegaard
If there were only one prayer which I might pray before I died, it should be this “Lord, send Thy Church men filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Give to any denomination such men, and its progress must be mighty: keep back such men, send them college gentlemen, of great refinement and profound learning, but of little fire and grace, dumb dogs which cannot bark, and straightway that denomination must decline.” Charles Spurgeon
There are a variety of criteria I look for in those who should be serving Christ in ministry that is missionary or apostolic in nature. Most of those competencies can be grouped into four broad categories:
1. Spiritual maturity and character
2. Emotional and social Maturity
3. Theological, ecclesiological and intellectual acuity
4. Leadership giftedness and apostolic ministry skills
But there is one intangible woven throughout these characteristics to which I am instinctively drawn. This intangible is, at least for me, a game breaker. That attribute is passion. Passion for God. Passion for God’s calling on one’s life. Passion to make a difference. Passion to live a life of ultimate significance
Certainly, passion can be misdirected and immature. It can be misused, manipulated and expended foolishly. But even when less than perfect, I would much rather pull-in-harness with those who have a sense of holy unction than be held back by those unmotivated, stifling souls who “cannot bark. I want to labor the rest of my days with men and women who are, as Spurgeon describes above, filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire!
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