It’s been a bad last month or so.
My day job at the Minnesota Baptist Conference held it’s Annual Meeting in Duluth the end of October. Among other things, this meant that the weeks leading up to this meeting was filled with scurrying around, putting things together, and planning for the two day conference. If only that were enough trouble.
I was unable to stay for the entire meeting. Friday evening I received a frantic phone call from my wife describing the rain…which was happening in our family room. Our house experienced a “perfect storm” of plumbing…on the second floor…which made it all the way to the basement. The basement, which by the way, was just recently finished. Needless to say I left Duluth early.
So, I’ve spent the past month living in a house that is undergoing some significant work. At one point, I had the entire kitchen and family room behind plastic, a dumpster full of carpet and old sheet rock in my driveway, the rockers taping and mudding, and the carpet guy doing whatever carpet guys do. While they were all there, the insurance adjuster stopped by to look at some new damage I uncovered. He had pity on our situation and offered to put us up in a hotel. (I declined because with three teens in the house, that would have been more burdensome.)
As I type this, I hear the sound of a saw as new window trim and baseboards are being put in. Next week, new carpet and linoleum. Then it’s a couple fixtures, a big check to Service Masters and dickering with the insurance company. I thought I heard someone say it’s moving into the Christmas season. You wouldn’t know that by looking at our house.
Add to this, I’m involved in some major league junk at work. A pastor who I’ve been working with has been accused of doing things that pastors shouldn’t be doing. I’ve done a little investigating and it’s disturbing what I’ve found. Then I started thinking of two other similar situations…pastors whose ministries are in going great guns, but they chuck it all by being somewhere they shouldn’t be…by doing something they shouldn’t do. Two of the three were new churches.
I’ve seen the damage to families, to churches, and to the Kingdom of God. And I say, “I would never do that.” I’m sure those pastors said the same thing at some point in their ministry and their career.
Then I started thinking about a class I took as a part of my D.Min at Fuller Seminary. The class was “Lifelong Leadership Development” taught by Dr. Bobby Clinton. At the time, Dr. Clinton was really the only person doing empirical studies on Christian Leadership. If you can make your way through his books (some of which read like the phonebook), he has a lot to say.
One of his themes of Christian Leadership speaks to the importance of finishing well. He identifies 100 prominent leaders in the Bible. Of the 100, 49 of them have enough information that speaks to how they finished. He identifies a couple categories of finishing:
- Cut off early (e.g. Josiah, John the Baptist)
- Finished poorly (e.g. Sampson, Eli, Saul, Solomon)
- Finished “so so” (e.g. David, Hezekiah)
- Finished well (Abraham, Job, Caleb, John, Paul, Peter)
- Can’t be sure
From his study, Clinton comes to the conclusion that in the Bible, less than 30% finished well. He offers 6 Barriers to Finishing Well.
Barrier 1- Finances: Their Use and Abuse
Barrier 2- Power: It’s Abuse
Barrier 3- Pride: Which Leads to Downfall
Barrier 4- Sex: Illicit Relationships
Barrier 5- Family: Critical Issues
Barrier 6- Plateauing
Which one or two or three of these barriers might be your kyrptonite that will get in the way of finishing well? Yes, you would never have an affair. Yes, you would never abuse the power of your position. We all say that now. But where’s your weakness? Where might the evil one attack?
Clinton offers some Enhancements to Good Finishes:
Enhancement 1- Perspective (Best available in Clinton’s most “user-friendly” book, The Making of a Leader.
Enhancement 2- Renewal
Enhancement 3- Disciplines
Enhancement 4- Learning Posture
Enhancement 5- Mentoring
Clinton also breaks down those whose story in the Bible reflects a strong finish. He identifies the following characteristics of those who have finished well:
Characteristic 1- They maintain a personal vibrant relationship with God right up to the end.
Characteristic 2- They maintain a learning posture and can learn from various kinds of sources.
Characteristic 3- They evidence Christ likeness in character as evidenced by fruit of the Spirit in their lives.
Characteristic 4- Truth is lived out in their lives so that convictions and promises of God are seen to be real.
Characteristic 5- They leave behind one more ultimate contributions.
I admit that I have taken a couple of Clinton’s books and a handful of his articles and compressed them into three relatively basic lists. But they are lists I need to revisit and camp-out on for a while. Why? Because I want to finish well.
Proverbs 22:3
A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences
If you want more, track down some of Clinton’s books.
Great post. Scary stuff.