Always Hope

This sermon was preached last week on the Gospel of the day: Mark 8:31-38  (NIV)   31  He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  32  He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.   33  But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”   34  Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  35  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.  36  What good is it for someone to gain the whole worl...

That's session 8, not post number eight. I've lost track of how many sessions I actually blogged on. A group of us at Kea have been working through the CPAS Growing Leaders course. What sets this course apart from other leadership material is the focus on the character and calling of leaders, rather than on the "how to" of leadership. On Wednesday we arrived at session 8, "embracing cost".  Focusing on Colossians 1, we thought about what it might mean to "rejoice in our sufferings". In context this means going into leadership with your eyes open, understanding what it will cost you, and embracing that as part of your vocation.  I think this is so appropriate, and reflects the shape of Christ's own life and ministry. But what really hit me was a small detail at the beginning.  As an exercise, we were asked to list the possible costs vs. benefits of Christian leadership - a good way of engaging with the topic.  And a great majority of our ...