Leadership: This Election and Social Justice

"I voted for "change" so I might have some left in my pocket!" Actually I voted my conscience regarding the issues of life and liberty.

I have been struggling to decide how to blog for this month's Synchroblog. It is on "Leadership", so I decided to wait until I knew what leader we would have. The following is my first podcast. It is a reflection on the election results and it's apparent theme, and while my bias is obvious, I think it is what I ultimately wanted to say on the subject.



Here is a list of other Synchrobloggers writing on "Leadership":


Jonathan Brink - Letter To The President

Adam Gonnerman - Aspiring to the Episcopate

Kai - Leadership - Is Servant Leadership a Broken Model?

Sally Coleman - In the world but not of it- servant leadership for the 21st Century Church

Alan Knox - Submission is given not taken

Joe Miller - Elders Lead a Healthy Family: The Future

Cobus van Wyngaard - Empowering leadership

Steve Hayes - Servant leadership

Geoff Matheson - Leadership

John Smulo - Australian Leadership Lessons

Bryan Riley - Leading is to Listen and Obey

Susan Barnes - Give someone else a turn!

Liz Dyer - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Polls...

Helen Mildenhall - Leadership

Tyler Savage - Moral Leadership - Is it what we need?

Bill Ellis -Leadership and the Re-humanizing of the World

Ellen Haroutunian - A New Kind of Leadership

Matt Stone - Converting Leadership

Julie Clawson - target="_blank">Leadership Expectations

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Spiritual Maturity And The Examination of Conscience

I do not presume to speak about Spiritual Maturity with the intention to teach or direct. Many of who will read this are pastors and leaders who have already found your own path to maturity, which are as varied and individually specific as each member of God’s flock. Each of us are guided by the shepherd’s staff and I can only speak my personal thoughts on the subject.

I have two teenagers who will be receiving Confirmation this year. I’m proud of their reaching this landmark in their spiritual passage, as I am sure they are both ready. How it is that I am so sure is 1) because I raised them, and 2) by their attitudes and actions, their concern for the poor and suffering, and what they are willing to do or not do for the Lord. Not that they are there 100% of the time. Like all of us, they sometimes need “the sincere milk of the word, that [they] may grow thereby” (1Pe 2:2).

Confirmation, in the liturgical traditions, communicates the grace that it signifies. Namely it is the gift and seal of the Holy Spirit, given by the laying on of hands and anointing with oil. It is a major milepost in the Christian life and the first step in the pathway to maturity in the faith. While spiritual maturity is an immeasurable yet noticeable depth in a believer, it is definitely aided both by the Holy Spirit and by the cognition of the disciple.

“Recall then that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God's presence. Guard what you have received. God the Father has marked you with his sign; Christ the Lord has confirmed you and has placed his pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts.” (Ambrose, De myst. 7, 42)

St. Ambrose is stirring up the cognition of the faithful telling them to remember the “seal” they received. A life geared toward spiritual maturity will be one of remembering, rehashing, and revisiting “ the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jud 1:17) and of course, those of the Lord Himself.

In everything we do as Christians we ought to be cognitive of this choice – is what I do of the Holy Spirit or of the flesh, the world, or the devil. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1Jn 2:15-17)


Regular examinations of conscience act as a fast track on the road to spiritual maturity. In our church services we pray that God would forgive us for where we have failed him, “in our thoughts, and our words, in what we have done and what we have failed to do.” It is in this spirit that we examine our day and our deeds. And we decide how, with God’s help, to best get it right when faced with the same trial or temptation next time.

It is good to meditate on the works of the flesh:

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Gal 5:19-25) But so much better to meditate on how we may have failed to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, gentle and good etc.

As it becomes habit, examination of conscience helps us to live with the knowledge that , as Justin Martyr put it, it is ” impossible for the wicked, the covetous, the conspirator, and for [even] the virtuous, to escape the notice of God”. (First Apology Chap XII). We all live under God’s eye .

Living otherwise has it’s consequences that detrimentally effect our spiritual life (and some might argue physical life itself). Of it’s effect on Holy Communion, Paul tells us, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” (1Co 11:26-31)

In the Franciscan tradition, of which I am a part, it is a part of our rule of life that one should pursue conforming our lives through a “daily conversion”. “United by their vocation as "brothers and sisters of penance" and motivated by the dynamic power of the gospel, let them conform their thoughts and deeds to those of Christ by means of that radical interior change which the gospel calls "conversion." Human frailty makes it necessary that this conversion be carried out daily.” (SFO rule 7.)


With this in mind, we are urged through Scripture, “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.”
(Lam 3:40-41) While this may not be a very good explanation or measure of spiritual maturity, hopeful this could provide a means to it.

Peace and Good.

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Here is a list of other bloggers synchroblogging about "Spiritual Maturity"

Phil Wyman asks Is Maturity Really What I Want?
Lainie Petersen at Headspace with "Watching Daddy Die"
Kathy Escobar at The Carnival in My Head with "what's inside the bunny?"
John Smulo at JohnSmulo.com
Erin Word at Decompressing Faith with "Long-Wearing Nail Polish and Other Stories"
Beth Patterson at The Virtual Teahouse with "the future is ours to see: crumbling like a mountain"
Bryan Riley at Charis Shalom is Still Complaining
Alan Knox at The Assembling of the Church with "Maturity and Education"
KW Leslie at The Evening of Kent
Bethany Stedman at Coffee Klatch with Moving Towards True Being: The Long Process of Maturity
Adam Gonnerman at Igneous Quill with "Old Enough to Follow Christ?"
Joe Miller at More Than Cake with "Intentional Relationships for Maturity"
Jonathan Brink at JonathanBrink.com with "I Won't Sin"
Susan Barnes at A Booklook with "Growing Up"
Tracy Simmons at The Best Parts with "Knowing Him Who is From the Beginning"
Joseph Speranzella at A Tic in the Mind's Eye with "Spiritual Maturity And The Examination of Conscience"
Sally Coleman at Eternal Echoes
Liz Dyer at Grace Rules with "What I Wish The Church Knew About Spiritual Maturity"
Cobus van Wyngaard at My Contemplations with "post-enlightenment Christians in an unenlightened South Africa"
Steve Hayes at Khanya with "Adult Content"
Ryan Peter at Ryan Peter Blogs and Stuff with "The Foundation For Ministry and Leading"
Sound and Silence considers Inclusion and Maturity
Lew A at The Pursuit talks about Maturity and Preaching
Kai Schraml tells us about Mature Virtue

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Peace and Prosperity

Edited from an earlier post this month for inclusion in SynchroBlog:Poverty. This is a few days late and maybe a couple of dollars short... a perfect metaphor for poverty.

Having struggled a bit this week with a case of "more month at the end of the money", I think about the poor and those who chose poverty for a greater purpose. My thoughts and prayers go out to them both. I think of the wishes we have for peace and prosperity and wonder if the two really walk together. One would have to think of the joy of St. Francis, who embraced "Lady Poverty" as a privileged state in which to serve God and others.

Indeed, for Secular Fransicans like myself, we are admonished to order our living for that purpose.


"Trusting the Father, Christ chose for Himself and His mother a poor and humble life, even though He valued created things attentively and lovingly. Let the Secular Franciscans seek a proper spirit of detachment from temporal goods by simplifying their own material needs. Let them be mindful that according to the gospel they are stewards of the goods received for the benefit of God's children.

Thus, in the spirit of the Beatitudes, and as pilgrims and strangers on their way to the home of the Father, they should strive to purify their hearts from every tendency and yearning for possession and power.

Witnessing to the good yet to come and obligated to acquire purity of heart because of the vocation they have embraced, they should set themselves free to love God and their brothers and sisters." The Rule of the SFO, 2:11-12


This part of our way of life is not as easily managed as one would think, in this day and age, believe me. It is hard to be free to love within the chaos of an increasingly "invoicing" world.

As scripture states in Luke 12:48 "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." I'm sure that the demands on the prosperous are many, whether they fulfill those demands or not. I personally know many business owners whose thoughts are consumed obsessively only with their accounting, with little thought for those in need. I contrast that in my mind with poor Francis and the little brothers. How great must have been their peace and prosperity before God.

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These are the bloggers SynchroBlogging on Poverty so far:

Sonja Andrews: Fully Known and Fully Loved
Phil Wyman at Phil Wyman's Square No More
Adam Gonnerman: Echoes of Judas
Cobus van Wyngaard: Luke: The Gospel for the Rich
Lainie Petersen at Headspace
Steve Hayes: Holy Poverty
Jonathan Brink: Spiritual Poverty
Dan Stone at The Tense Before
Jeremiah: Blessed are the poor... churches...
Alan Knox: Boasting in Humiliation
Miss Eagle: Poverty and the Hospitable Heart
Jimmie: Feeding the Poor
KW Leslie: There’s poverty, and then there’s me without cash.
Joe Speranzella: Peace and Prosperity

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