Emerging Leaders and Wounded Warriors

If you are like most leaders I have met and served over many years, you have very likely seen some of your vision and many of your dreams become buried under a mountain of unrealistic expectations and urgent demands.  Your vocation and “God-call” has turned into an occupation (a.k.a. “job”).  Perhaps at times your pursuit of the Lord in personal devotion gets lost in the stream of these cries and demands.  Even when you become aware of the things that distract your heart, diffuse your vision, and rob you of strength, you may be unwilling or unable to share them with the people close to you for fear of losing their respect or confidence.  You may even feel trapped in circumstances, patterns, and habits from which you have little hope of escape.  Whether you are in what some call “burnout” or are walking as many leaders are in a season of discouragement, The Haft and the resources we have should be considered as a gift of grace to you, your family, and your leadership team.   We offer a quiet place, with comfortable accommodations, and some alongside help – customized to your needs and situation.

Perhaps you are just beginning as a ministry leader.  Perhaps you are a young person considering the call of God of your life and wondering what that might look like, where it could take you, and how to get there.  Even though you do not have the experience of many veteran leaders, you may already feel buried under some discouragement and frustration as you seek to find your way.  The Haft could be just what you need.

Perhaps you are a business or professional person and don’t see yourself as a ministry leader.  If so, The Haft is definitely ready and able to challenge your assumptions about being a second tier leader in God’s Kingdom.  In our view and based on solid biblical ground, for those who are called according to the love and purposes of God, business is ministry and ministry is serious business.  It is only because of religious categories and failed traditions that the walls between the great co-mission and the marketplace have been erected and moved much of the church and most Christians into a place of irrelevance and disdain in the eyes of the world and even honest seekers for truth.

I’m writing with a sense of urgency to leaders within earshot.  First, let me say a few words of personal introduction.  My wife, Joan, and I have committed ourselves at this season in our lives to serving emerging leaders in the Body of Christ and veteran leaders who are at critical junctures in their ministry and personal lives.  We are currently leading The Haft in its own transition to better serve such leaders, wherever they may be and from whatever denominational and cultural context they come.  If you’ve never heard of The Haft or are not aware of the significant changes that have taken place here over the past few years, I invite you to check our website at www.thehaft.org.

Our world and our nation are in the grips of a crisis of leadership on every front – economically, socially, politically, morally, and spiritually.  The Haft has been put in place to be a part of what God is doing in the earth in these critical days.  We desire to refresh, retool, and rebuild men and women who can inspire, enable, and deploy those in their circles of influence to be agents for communicating, exemplifying, and equipping others to be agents of the redemptive message and truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in these days.  Time is running out.  These are “the best of times and the worst of times.”  Into such times 2000 years ago, God’s Son became flesh.  Into our times, God is sending disciples of his Son to flesh out the purpose, passion, and power that is burning in His heart and that can reignite hope and transform the lives of people and communities all over the world.

Please give serious thoughtful and prayerful consideration to getting in touch with us at The Haft.  The voice of God continues to speak to the open hearts and minds of people who come here for short and long periods of time.  Never has there been a clearer and more urgent need for hearing that voice than in these days.

Joan and I thought you should know about The Haft as you prayerfully and thoughtfully consider the needs and desires of your heart.

Blessings on you, your family, and your organizational team,

Bruce

Bruce J. Boydell

Director of Ministry and Operations – The Haft, Inc.

P.S.  Joan and I are willing to travel or use electronic media to connect with you and serve leaders.  Check The Haft website for more information about us under the People/Directors tab.

REIGNITING PURPOSE PASSION AND POWER !         Click this link to download a copy of the letter to send to those you know!   

There are so many parables and vignettes that employ the imagery of the cycle of planting and harvest.  Mark 4:26 -28 describes the planting, the waiting, the sprouting, and the maturation of the crop – “first the blade, the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”  It is all beautiful and inspiring, alluding to the mysterious patterns of God at work while we sleep and the miracle of growth unfolds.  Thanksgiving hymns play softly in the recesses of my mind, when I am suddenly jolted awake by verse 29.  “But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” 

Just when it all seems to be going well, and the grain is resplendent in the sunny fields and the leaves rustle their musical tunes in the breeze, “at once he puts in the sickle.”  Grim Reaper imagery replaces the amber waves.  Is the song over when the sickle comes?  Mechanical giants tread the ground, flattening out the foliage, ripping out the seed.  It seems that the mystery is over.  Cutting tools slash and clash, and I want to stay their progress.

I have the wrong idea of harvest.  I was not called to idle forever in verdant but fruitless valleys, sheltered from the gristmill and threshing floor.  Harvest means that I will be multiplied, not destroyed.  I will join him in the broken bread and the crushed wine, set before the hungry world.  I will walk more closely with Him, hear his whisper, and feel His breath.  It is not a matter of encroaching uselessness but exploding fruitfulness.  Come, sickle, come.  The harvest is the season of glory.           – Joan Boydell

Now is the time….   to sign up for the April 10-12 Couples Retreat for Pastors and Ministry Leaders.  A flyer with the details is available for your viewing and also an application form for you to complete and return if you want to get in on the limited number of reservations being offered. CLICK on the links below.

COUPLES RETREAT for Pastors and Ministry Leaders – APR 2012 (PDF flyer)

2012 Application Form – Couples Retreat for Pastors and Ministry Leaders

As I look over my life, even current life, I see things that just “don’t fit” my hopes, expectations, and plans.  Some people, including my friends, may from time to time feel that I don’t fit either.  Perhaps you can identify with this problem of fit or have had times when you viewed others that way.  If so I highly recommend you read an article that appeared in the May 2011 issue of Christianity Today.  It’s written by Mark Galli and titled – What to Do with Aunt Julie:  Harold Camping and our problem relatives.   Camping has,  on more than one occasion,  made a name for himself and embarrassed many of us by declaring with great conviction the specific date of the end of the world and return of Christ.  In the process he raised quite a following and a lot of money. It’s an article well worth the couple of minutes it will take to read it.  Here’s the weblink:  http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/mayweb-only/auntjulieharoldcamping.html?start=1

I don’t read Camping’s stuff or track his latest predictions.  However, like one of my favorite childhood stories, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, I believe that sooner or later he or someone like him is going to be telling the truth.  In the meantime, I’ve been spending some time with some ancient writers like Jeremiah and Hosea, who also were the Aunt Julie’s of their times. We are living in times that are shaping up  like the opening paragraph of Charles Dickens’ great work, Tale of Two Cities.  To save you the trouble of finding it in the library here it is:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Bruce Boydell – Haft Director of Ministry and Operations

Christianity Today May 2011 – posted by Mark Galli | posted 5/26/2011 09:50AM

WELCOME to the first posting on the brand new Haft website.   We hope you like it and will keep in touch.

Earlier today I watched a large blue heron take off from the pond and fly low over the garden area.  The other night some deer were startled in the woods between The Barn and the Garden Cottage, their pawing and snorting registering a protest as they took off for denser woods.  Now there are three squirrels cavorting on the tree limbs just outside my window.  There is something in nature to wonder at each day here at The Haft.  The beauty, variety, and power of God’s creation is displayed all around us no matter where we are, but it seems so much more evident here in this rural pastoral setting.  Away from most of the crush of highways and the sensory overload of flashing signs and crowded stores, one is prompted to slow down and see things with new wonder.  This is a good place to come away and draw on a fresh experience of  seeing and hearing  the evidence of loving design and whispered affirmation, the nearness of God discovered in His handiwork.  Come and see that God is good.