The Deepest Ministry We Have with Others

(Linda's footprint, next to mine)

Your worth is not the same as your usefulness. Your influence runs deeper than your advice-giving. (See "Giving Advice as a Form of Judgmentalism.")

Your character is not the same as your ability. (Relationships fail when they get this wrong.)

The people who have most influenced me were somebody. I think of them - their character, their Christlike attributes. Just knowing and being with them made a difference. In their presence, more was caught than was taught. Sometimes I catch myself imitating their behaviors.

Dallas Willard, writes Alan Padling, believed that "what God treasures in someone’s life is the person they become more than the work that they do. Dallas reminded us that the deepest ministry we have with others is who we are more than what we say or do." (In Eternal Living: Reflections on Dallas Willard's Teaching on Faith and Formation, Kindle Locations 2754-2755)


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My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

I'm now working on...

How God Changes the Human Heart 

And, when all this settles, Linda and I intend on writing our book on Relationships.

I'm collecting data for a book I hope to publish - Technology and Spiritual Formation