It's always nice to receive encouragement, although, tonight, my encouragers didn't know they were doing just that.

You see, recently, we made a few changes on the fshbwl, one of which means that the blogs of site users are featured on the front page of the site under the "live" heading. The basic idea is giving visitors and opportunity to look in on the lives of people who are trying to live out this faith. As a result of this change, I'm far more aware of what others are posting.

Well, tonight, as I was clicking through "live", I ran across this post which is basically a summary of earth in the elemental life. Then, the next post I read in "live" was this one, which really jives with the whole idea of wind in the elemental life.

So, where's the encouragement? It's always cool to see that you're not way out there in what you're thinking and, if nothing else, you're resonating with others. Thanks for the encouragement Paul and Jay!

In my previous post I argued that, at one level, all religions are the same in their attempt to fill a fundamental human need and in providing similar guidelines for how to live your life. This is what most people see on the surface of all religions and, therefore, from what they see, all religions look the same.

At this point, Christians might attempt to argue that they are different than this because they don't believe in a works righteousness, but that they need Jesus and grace. But, at the same time, when they talk about Jesus, they talk about making a decision, or making him Lord of their life, or going through certain rites or rituals, or some other thing that they have done that sets them up for grace.

Consider this in light of a comment a friend of mine made a while back. Basically, he argued that the Muslim doesn't deny a need for grace, rather, they believe that it is through the five pillars of Islam that they receive grace. We make a decision, they pray. We have certain rites at church, they fast. Once again, at that level, all religions are the same, it's just a question of what you do to get what you need from God.

This is where classic Christian teaching, something we find very little of in popular Christianity, comes into play. Whether it's God going to Abraham, the nation of Israel, or us as individuals, at its root, Christianity says that while there is plenty we can do to maintain right relationships with our neighbor (the level where it's all the same), it is impossible for us to do anything that will give us a right relationship with God (the second level), which is why we need God to come to us (without us doing anything to prompt God's coming). From what I've seen this is what makes Christianity, at least classic Christianity, different from other religions.

Note: I also address this in the closing section of the elemental life.

My final talent, once again, doesn't sound like something you'd think of as a talent, but, again, it blends in very well with my other talents in that I'm a learner. It doesn't matter if it's formal or informal, I love to learn, which is why, more often than not, I'm in the midst of multiple books on a variety of topics that, more often than not, apply to some specific project that I'm a part of.

The key advantage I see in all of this is that, when going through the process of seeing the system, coming to understand all of the connections, envisioning a future, and determining how to get there, there's bound to be something I don't know enough about and it demands that I learn more in order to accomplish the goal at hand.

So, given how all of my talents link together, I'm forced to ask how I can use them in a way that they are strengths in ministry. Given that so much of what I'm good at is conceptual, the obvious answer is that I need to focus on projects that are either very conceptual, or projects that involve a number of other people who need someone like me to provide an overall direction so they can make it a reality.

Given this, right now, Genesis certainly doesn't play to my strengths because I've never had a core of people to help make the ideas become reality (this was made really clear when I started helping out at Christ). With the fshbwl, our current structure of me needing to track multiple authors and make sure they're turning in content is something I'm horrible at, which is why I default to writing more and more of the content, even in areas where I'm not strong. Of course, some changes we're going to make at the 'bwl will fix this in the near future. the elemental life is great with my strengths ... although the marketing side of it is an area where I'm seriously lacking.

How about you? How do you play to your strengths? Or are you struggling as you seek to work in areas of weakness?

The third of my top talent sounds a bit more like what you'd expect in a list of talents ... I'm strategic. The basic gist of this is that, where other see complexity, I can see patterns. As a result, I'm able to play out a variety possible scenarios and determine what route is best for a group to take. Similarly, I'm able to look ahead, see potential obstacles, and avert them.

However, while the idea of strategic sounds more like what you'd expect on a talent list, I can't help but see it in light of the first two, connectedness and ideation. After all, connectedness means I see the big picture, ideation helps me understand how the elements of the picture connect, and strategic helps me figure out where to go next.

The other thing that strikes me is that all of these talents (and the two I've yet to explore) are all very cerebral and abstract, which explains why, with the exception of the elemental life and other projects that require a study, think, tell approach, if left to my own devices, I rarely get anything done. On the positive side, this is good for ministry when it comes to preaching and teaching, as well as things like writing.

In addition, I could excel in a setting where I cast vision, assuming I have a team of people behind me who are gifted in ways that they can take my abstract thoughts and make them reality. Feeding from this, how do you see your talents working in concert with others?

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It sounds a bit odd to describe my top talent as a talent, but according to the strengths finder, my dominant talent is connectedness. So, what does that mean? Basically it means that I'm a systems theory kind of guy who doesn't see the individual parts, but rather how all of the parts work together.

There are a few places where this has come in handy for ministry. One is systematic theology, which, in turn, really help in the writing of the elemental life which is, essentially, a basic, life application, systematic.

It's also been quite helpful in hermeneutics because, when I read a passage of Scripture, I can't help but think of it in light of the entire Biblical story. Of course, the primary place I use the interpretation of Scripture is preaching and the 27-Hour Service on the fshbwl.

For me, the biggest challenges with having this talent comes when talking with people who don't have any sense of the butterfly effect. People who see commonalities amongst various cultures, things like religion, marriage, and laws, not as a sign of some distant common story, but as nothing more than coincidentally matching cultural constructs. The same could be said for people who have no sense of responsibility towards others and or feel a overarching human imperative to love our neighbors.

Since this is so foundational in the way I see and understand the world, it's the place I naturally start from when talking about faith. At the same time, when people don't see things this way, it can be a blast to help connect the dots. In many ways, this is what I've been doing in ongoing conversations with people in downtown Denver.

So, does anyone else out there see things this way? What other ministry benefits do you see? What other challenges come to mind?