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AN INTRODUCTION TO

SERVANT LEADERSHIP

A GUIDED PROCESS FOR SMALL GROUPS

Little Scrivener

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface .............................................................................. ii

How To Use This Book ................................................... iii Introduction .................................................................... vii One: A Servant Leader is Contemplative .......................... 1

Two: A Servant Leader Is Beloved ................................... 3 Three: A Servant Leader Is Chosen .................................. 4

Four: Servant Leader Is Broken ........................................ 5 Five: A Servant Leader Is Given ....................................... 7 Six: A Servant Leader Is Tempted To Be Relevant .......... 8

Seven: A Servant Leader Is Tempted To Be Spectacular . 9

Eight: A Servant Leader Is Tempted To Be Powerful .... 10 Nine: A Servant Leader Is In Relationship With The

Marginalized .................................................................... 12

Epilogue .......................................................................... 14 Appendix: Instructions In Centering Prayer ................... 15

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PREFACE

This guidebook invites you to follow a process that

was developed by Gordon Cosby, co-founder of the

Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., for a course

entitled “Introduction to Servant Leadership.” Gordon

has used various formats for the course. This particular

format was used in the 2003 Spring Session of the Servant

Leadership School in Washington, DC.

An Introduction to Servant Leadership is intended to

“begin at the beginning” and to “put first things first.” As

it is presented here, Gordon’s process has been only

slightly modified to meet the needs of small,

independently led groups.

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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

This guidebook is not a reservoir of spiritual wisdom.

In fact, you will not find a single answer hiding within

these words. Rather, this book invites you into a process

of prayer, reading, writing, and sharing that may help

illuminate your role in this season of the ever unfolding

Christian story.

MATERIALS. The materials that this Guide

incorporates include:

• Instructions in Centering Prayer, a sermon by

Gordon Cosby;

• The Life of the Beloved, by Henri Nouwen;

• In The Name of Jesus, by Henri Nouwen;

• Urban Injustice: How Ghettos Happen, by

David Hilfiker.

With the exception of Gordon’s sermon (which is

included, with his permission, in the Appendix of this

guidebook), these materials are available in most

Christian bookstores.

GROUP PROCESS. Though this process is fruitful

for individual use, it is intended to be worked with in

small groups that meet regularly. The process will guide

your group in a series of steps through the materials listed

above. At every step, each participant will be invited to

read, reflect, write, and share with the group on a specific

set of questions related to the themes in that step.

READING AND WRITING. The materials you will

be invited to read are excellent, and reading them is a

crucial element of this process. The materials do not

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“contain” the truth, but they will equip you to ask

questions that may lead you towards it.

Writing is also a crucial element of this process, more

so than the reading. For the writing is the window to your

soul, however easily or difficultly it comes to you;

however simple or elaborate the words that come out. So

when you write, be honest with yourself; and be honest in

both directions—not only where you feel spiritually

immature or empty in relation to a question, BUT ALSO

where you feel spiritually mature or inspired. If you are

frustrated or angry with the Lord around a question, say

so. God can take it and you will grow more by being open

with yourself and Him than you will by keeping your

emotions locked inside.

You should make every effort to read every material

and write on every question for every step of this process.

Not to read and write at each step deprives you of a

growth opportunity and deprives the group of the gifts

that the Spirit might give through you. To repeat, you

should make every effort to read every material and write

on every question for every step.

If, however, you do not read or write, you should

still attend the group meeting and share on the

questions. Your sharing will still be valuable to yourself

and to the group, as will be your gift of listening. Your

presence will also further the growth of the relationships

in the group.

SHARING. At most group meetings, you will be

invited to share with the group what you wrote. It is,

however, more important that you write than that you

share. Thus, if you feel your response to a writing

question is for you and God alone, protect it by not fully

sharing it rather than by not fully expressing it in writing.

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At each group meeting, allow the sharing to be

voluntary and resist the temptation to expect or pressure

everyone to share. For those who are hesitant to share, be

comfortable waiting until the time is right, but do not

ignore the Spirit when it tells you that now is the time.

LISTENING. We often miss the deepest miracles

because we are not emotionally present to receive them.

Real listening is emotional presence. It not only allows

you to receive the gifts given to you by the Spirit through

the other person, but it also gives the other person the

emotional space necessary to let the Spirit unfold within

him/her.

As others share, give them your emotional presence.

More specifically, after someone has shared what he/she

wrote, take a minute or so in silence before moving on to

the next person, using the time to receive the gifts you

have just been given. Save any commentary or response

until after everyone who wants to share their writing has

had the chance. If you offer a time for response at the end,

resist the temptation to “solve” one another’s problems or

to tell each other “what to do.”

ROTATING RESPONSIBILITIES. Before your first

meeting, choose a “moderator” for the meeting. This

person will be responsible for the structure of the

meeting, which includes:

• setting up beforehand;

• starting and ending on time; and

• cleaning up afterwards.

The moderator will not be responsible for the content

of the meeting—that will come through each of the group

members’ sharing and listening. Thus, the moderator

should not be looked to for any “special insight” into the

topic being explored or for keeping the group on task. It is

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the group’s collective responsibility to keep the sharing

and the listening focused.

In addition to the items listed above, moderators are

encouraged to begin the meeting with a few minutes of

centering silence and a prayer, and to end the meeting

with a closing prayer. Before the closing prayer at each

meeting, however, be sure to choose a moderator for the

next session.

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INTRODUCTION

Jean Calmet died in 1997 at the age of 122. Her life is

the longest ever to be authenticated by reliable records. A

child of 1875, Calmet was born only ten years after John

Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s

Theatre. She met Vincent Van Gogh. She outlived her

daughter. She outlived her only grandson. She also

outlived a lawyer who agreed to pay her $500 a month for

the rights to her apartment after she died—an unlucky

deal to say the least.

Calmet was active to the end. She began fencing at

85. At 100, she regularly rode a bicycle. At 115, she still

smoked, quitting at 120 only because she could no longer

see to light her cigarettes. Port wine, olive oil, a hearty

sense of humor—these are the things Calmet claims

explain her longevity.

Will you live to be Calmet’s age? No one can be sure.

What is sure, though, is that even 122 years is not time

enough to “figure out” your own brand of spirituality.

We all need to be a part of a community and a tradition.

The invitation in this guidebook is to live into the Judeo-

Christian community and tradition.

Your spirituality does not begin with you. It is

intimately rooted in the still unfolding story of the

Christian family. This story is nearly 4,000 years old!

Throughout that huge expanse of time, God has called

many ordinary, weak little servant leaders—like Moses

and Paul, like Henri Nouwen and Gordon Cosby, like you

and me—to live into the Christian story; to be the story in

this moment in history. This is our job as servant

leaders—to watchfully and prayerfully wait for God to

show us our role in this season of the Christian story, and

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to follow with reckless abandon when the call is

discerned.

Living into the story begins inwardly (over and over

again) as we watchfully and prayerfully wait for the next

call. This guidebook invites you to begin (again) at the

beginning and to put first things first. As you watch and

wait, be still. Be quiet. Give God a chance to work

within you. The roots of your inward journey must tap

into the deep spiritual waters of your soul before the

branches of your outward journey begin to reflect the new

life-giving source.

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ONE: A SERVANT LEADER IS

CONTEMPLATIVE

Read the sermon in Appendix 1 by Gordon Cosby,

Instructions In Centering Prayer1. Read meditatively, not

intellectually. We are trying to educate our spirits, not our

minds. If time allows, re-read the sermon before moving

on. Once you have finished reading, allow God’s message

to you to sink in as you reflect on it in silence.

When you are ready, write a one page paper (write

more or less as you are led) on the question below.

Before you begin writing, you may want to review the

discussion on Reading and Writing in the chapter “How

To Use This Book.”

How meaningful a part of my life is prayer?

For the rest of this process, you are STRONGLY

encouraged to make contemplative prayer a regular

discipline. Twice per week for 20 minutes would be a

minimum suggestion. Twice each day for 20 minutes

would be revolutionary if you authentically

maintained it. It will be important that you remain

faithful to this discipline, as it is in this inner space

that God, in His time, will begin to transform you and

guide you towards your role in this season of the still

unfolding Christian story.

1 If you would prefer to listen to the sermon, an audio version is

available for free at www.telltheword.org.

2

To begin your first group meeting, introduce

yourselves to one another. If not everyone in your group

is well acquainted, you might ask each person to answer

these questions:

What do you do with your time each week?

What is your “church history?”

How did you come to your current community of faith?

After each person has introduced him/herself, invite

each person to share what they have written about their

prayer life. Before beginning the sharing, you may want

to review aloud the discussion on Sharing and Listening

in the chapter “How To Use This Book.”

After everyone who wants to share has done so,

discuss this theme as you are led by the Spirit. Remember

to choose a moderator for your next group meeting.

When you are ready, move on to the next Chapter in this

Guide.

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TWO: A SERVANT LEADER IS BELOVED

Read the Prologue and the first chapter (“Being the

Beloved”) in Life of the Beloved. Read meditatively, not

intellectually. We are trying to educate our spirits, not

our minds. If time allows, re-read the sections before

moving on.



Before you begin writing, you may want to review the

discussion on Reading and Writing in the chapter “How

To Use This Book.”

How comfortable am I in genuinely claiming my

belovedness?

In your next group meeting, share your papers with

one another. Before beginning the sharing, however, you

may want to review aloud the discussion on Sharing and

Listening in the chapter “How To Use This Book.”





Guide.

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THREE: A SERVANT LEADER IS

CHOSEN

Read Section I (“Taken”) in Chapter Two (“Becoming

the Beloved”) in Life of the Beloved. Pay special

attention to the three guidelines Nouwen offers for getting

in touch with our choseness—1) unmask the world for

what it is, 2) look for people and places where your are

reminded of your choseness, and 3) celebrate your

choseness constantly. Remember to read meditatively,

not intellectually. We are trying to educate our spirits, not


moving on.

Once you have finished reading, allow God’s message

to you sink in as you reflect on it in silence. When you

are ready, write a one page paper (write more or less as

you are led) on the question below.

Do I feel that something outside of me is reaching

out to take me—that I am chosen?









Guide.

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FOUR: SERVANT LEADER IS BROKEN

Read Section II (“Blessed”) and Section III

(“Broken”) in Chapter Two (“Becoming the Beloved”) in

Life of the Beloved. Remember to read meditatively, not



moving on.





What is my deepest emotional pain?

When you think you have identified your deepest

emotional pain, ask yourself what lies beneath that pain.

When you have identified the underlying pain, again ask

yourself what lies beneath it. Repeat this process until

you can find no deeper pain. Be aware that your natural

tendency will likely be to resist wading into your deepest

emotional pain. You may even have subconsciously

blocked it out. Give yourself to this process. Let the

Holy Spirit overcome your natural resistance. It is only in

the brokenness that you can be healed.







6



Guide.

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FIVE: A SERVANT LEADER IS GIVEN

Read Section IV (“Given”) in Chapter Two

(“Becoming the Beloved”), Chapter Three (“Living as the

Beloved”), and the Epilogue (“A Friendship Deepens”) in

Life of the Beloved. Remember to read meditatively, not



moving on.





How willing am I to give myself away?

As you answer this question, focus exclusively on

your willingness to give yourself away. Do not discuss

your understanding of how or where you are to do it.









Guide.

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SIX: A SERVANT LEADER IS TEMPTED

TO BE RELEVANT

Read the Prologue, the Introduction, and Chapter One

(“From Relevance To Prayer”) in In The Name of Jesus.

Remember to read meditatively, not intellectually. We

are trying to educate our spirits, not our minds.





Where am I tempted to be relevant?

As you answer this question, do not become

preoccupied with how to define relevance. Allow it to

mean “whatever I or the world deems to be relevant.”









Guide.

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SEVEN: A SERVANT LEADER IS

TEMPTED TO BE SPECTACULAR

Read Chapter Two (“From Popularity to Ministry”) in

In the Name of Jesus. Remember to read meditatively,

not intellectually. We are trying to educate our spirits, not

our minds. If time allows, re-read the chapter before

moving on.





Where am I tempted to be spectacular?









Guide.

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EIGHT: A SERVANT LEADER IS

TEMPTED TO BE POWERFUL

Read Chapter Three (“From Leading to Being Led”),

the Conclusion, and the Epilogue in In the Name of Jesus.

Remember to read meditatively, not intellectually. We

are trying to educate our spirits, not our minds. If time

allows, re-read the sections before moving on. Once you

have finished reading, allow God’s message to you sink in

as you reflect on it in silence.

It is here that a paradox of “servant leader” becomes

apparent. A servant leader surrenders his will and her life

to the Lord, and then follows, with reckless abandon, the

inner leadings of the Spirit. In its own time and way, the

Spirit eventually leads the servant leader to a “place” that

is beyond where society and the culture presently are. In

this “place beyond,” the Spirit uses the servant leader as

an instrument to lead society and the culture into that

“place.” Thus, it is only by faithfully following the Spirit

that the servant ever leads.

The discipline Nouwen offers to resist the temptation

to be in control is theological reflection. What he means

by this, however, is not always easily understood at first

glance. One interpretation is that theological reflection is

the discipline of staying attuned to the inner voice and

will of the Lord—literally from moment to moment—and

being comfortable with not knowing what comes next.

Because the servant leader has surrendered all control,

theological reflection is the sole source of direction for

what to do and when.



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Where am I tempted to be powerful?









Guide.

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NINE: A SERVANT LEADER IS IN

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE

MARGINALIZED

Read the Foreword, the Introduction, and Chapter One

in Urban Injustice: How Ghettos Happen. Remember to

read meditatively, not intellectually. We are trying to

educate our spirits, not our minds. If time allows, re-read

the chapter before moving on.

Once you have finished reading the chapter, allow

God’s message to you sink in as you reflect on it in

silence. When you are ready, write a one page paper

(write more or less as you are led) on the question below.

Where am I in authentic relationships

with the marginalized?

This issue is, perhaps, the most resisted element of

servant leadership and the most forgotten element among

today’s churches. As a result, charity has come to be

embraced as an acceptable response to injustice, and

authentic relationships with the marginalized have given

way to temporary service relationships on mission trips

and in soup kitchens. Make no mistake, God does call us

to mission trips, soup kitchens, and other endeavors that

relieve suffering. But charity is a mere painkiller. It does

not confront the source of the pain. God also calls us to

work for justice; to change unjust societal systems that

perpetuate marginalization.

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This being your last group meeting during this

process, close and leave the meeting in whatever manner

you feel is appropriate.

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EPILOGUE

The journey of a servant leader begins with claiming

his/her belovedness—right here, right now, despite all the

flaws. A Christian journey rooted in anything other than

belovedness is like the sower’s seeds that fell on infertile

soil (Matt. 13:3-9)—they will take no root and be plucked

away by the birds; they will spring up quickly and without

depth and be withered by the son; or they will eventually

be choked out by the thorns that grow up all around.

Only those seeds rooted in belovedness will bring forth

authentic, sustained grain—some a hundredfold, some

sixty, some thirty.

From the starting point of belovedness, we celebrate

our choseness, recognize our brokenness, and give fully

of ourselves without limitation. In so doing, we are

tempted to use our gifts to be relevant, to be spectacular,

and to be powerful. We must resist these temptations and

allow the Lord to put us into authentic relationships with

the marginalized and to lead us out beyond where society

and culture presently are. Having been led to this place,

we will find ourselves being used as instruments to lead

society and culture into uncharted territory.

May you be enough of a contemplative and a mystic

to follow the quiet voice within, and surrendered enough

that the price you pay will have no cost.

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APPENDIX:

INSTRUCTIONS IN

CENTERING PRAYER

The following is a sermon entitled Instructions in

Centering Prayer, that was written and delivered by

Gordon Cosby. It is reproduced here with his permission.

If you would prefer to listen to the sermon, an audio

version is available for free at www.telltheword.org.

In the third chapter of the book of Revelation, there

are seven churches that are addressed by Christ through

the seer John. And he writes to the angel or the minister at

the church at Laodicea. After saying a number of things to

that little congregation, the message ends this way. Jesus

is saying, “Here I stand”—he is standing at the door of

this little congregation, this little community—“Here I

stand at the door. If anyone hears my voice and opens the

door, I will come in and sit down to supper with him, with

her, and she with me.” (Rev. 3:20) It’s an amazing

invitation.

In the 22nd chapter of Revelation, the last chapter of

the New Testament, we read these words (Rev. 22:17):

“‘Come,’ says the spirit and the bride. ‘Come,’ let each

hearer reply. Come forward you who are thirsty, accept

the water of life, a free gift to all who desire it.”

On last Sunday, we talked about contemplative prayer

and how important it is to move from the more surface

levels of discursive prayer—meditative prayer, vocal

prayer—to what traditionally has been called

contemplative prayer. We said that the first step to this

whole dimension of contemplative prayer is centering

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prayer—it’s the first rung as we move into this deeper

dimension of union with God.

So I want to talk a little about centering prayer and

how we do it. What are the steps in this centering prayer.

And I want to work again with Thomas Keating’s two

books, Open Mind, Open Heart and Invitation to Love.

He’s been teaching this for a long long time and he’s

been, perhaps, the most helpful teacher for me for this

kind of prayer.

He says to facilitate letting go—and contemplative

prayer is all really about letting go and letting God, and it

can be summed up in just that way—to facilitate letting

go, take a relatively comfortable position so that you

won’t be thinking about your body. So when you get

ready to practice it, do that—you can get comfortable now

if you want to. But he says to choose a place which is

relatively quiet. It’s hard to find a place which is quiet,

these days, anywhere. But choose a place which is

relatively quiet. And he says it’s a good idea to close your

eyes because you tend to think what you see. Therefore, if

you close your eyes, you are not seeing something that

you will tend to think about. By withdrawing the senses

from their ordinary activity, you may reach deep rest.

Once you have picked a suitable time and place, and a

position that is relatively comfortable and close your eyes,

choose a sacred word that expresses your intention of

opening and surrendering to God, and introduce that word

on the level of your imagination. He says let it be a single

word of one or two syllables with which you feel at ease.

Some examples: God, Jesus, Spirit, Abba, Amen, Peace,

Silence, Open, Glory, Love, Presence, Trust, Yes, Come.

A simple word of one or two syllables, and introduce it on

the level of your imagination. Gently place the word in

your awareness each time you recognize the intrusion of

some other thought.

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Now, the sacred word is not a means of going where

you want to go. It only directs your intention toward God,

and thus fosters a favorable atmosphere for the

development of the deeper awareness that we’re seeking

and to which your spiritual nature is attracted. Now your

purpose, says Keating, is not to suppress all thought

because that is impossible. You will normally have a

thought after half a minute of inner silence unless the

action of grace is so powerful that you are absorbed in

God—and most of the people that I know don’t have that

problem.

Centering prayer is not a way of “turning on” the

presence of God. Rather it is a way of saying, “Here I am.

The next step is up to you, God.” It is a way of putting

yourself at God’s disposal. It is God who determines the

consequence. Keating says if you’re nervous about what

seems like doing nothing for a fixed period of time, let me

remind you that nobody hesitates to go to sleep for six or

seven hours a night, doing nothing. But, he says,

practicing this prayer is not doing nothing. It’s a very

gentle activity. The will keeps connecting to God by

returning to the sacred word, and this is normally enough

activity to stay awake and alert.

Twenty to thirty minutes is the minimum amount of

time necessary for most people to establish interior

silence. And you remember that I made a promise to those

of you who were here last week that if you would practice

two periods of twenty minutes each for ten years, that I

promise you other people would recognize the inner

radiance. It always happens. Transfiguration does take

place if one will continue to do it.

So this is the state that we are attempting to enter

into—this interior silence—and to get beyond the

superficial thoughts that most of us spend our time with.

You may be inclined to remain longer than twenty

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minutes, but that is what we will feel is right for our own

particular temperament and person. But then when the

time is over, then you begin your ordinary thoughts again.

Now the fundamental disposition in centering prayer

is opening to God. That’s the main thing—opening to

God. And Christian practice can be summed up by the

word “patience.” In the New Testament, patience means

waiting for God for any length of time, not going away,

and not giving into boredom or discouragement. That’s

what patience is, it’s just staying there, waiting for God. It

is a disposition of the servant in the gospel who waited,

even though the master of the house had delayed his

return until after midnight. So no matter how long God

delays His/Her coming in the way in which we want God

to come, we will wait—patience. If you wait, God will

manifest Himself/Herself—always will.

Now as we wait, we have to go often to the sacred

word. The sacred word simply expresses your intention to

open yourself to God, to ultimate mystery who dwells

within you. It is a focal point to return to when you notice

that you’re becoming interested in the thoughts that are

going by. The basic rule is to let all thoughts on the river

to go by—on the river of consciousness. As long as they

are going by, no matter how many there are, you don’t

need to do anything about them. So you don’t have to

worry saying, “I can’t stop those thoughts!” You let them

go by. But when you want to look onboard at one of the

boats and to look at what is hidden in the hold of that

boat, then you come back to the sacred word. As long as

they’re going by, fine. But when you stop and begin to

work with what it is on the surface of the river, you come

back to the sacred word, which is the intent that what you

are waiting for is God.

And he says do it gently and without effort. Now this

is paradoxical. In this practice, you only return to the

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sacred word when you notice that you’re thinking some

other thoughts. As you become more comfortable with

this kind of prayer, you begin to find yourself beyond the

word in a place of interior peace. And so the less often we

have to come back to the sacred word, the better. Because

the sacred word is just the intent to get us to the place of

silence. Then you’ll see that there’s a level of attention

beyond the sacred word. The sacred word is a pointer, and

you have reached that to which it is pointing. Interior

silence is the sacred word at its deepest level. So long as

you experience the undifferentiated, general and loving

presence of God beyond any thought, you don’t go back

to the sacred word. You are already at your destination.

Now we have to make effort to withdraw from the

thoughts that keep coming. But as the will goes up the

ladder of interior freedom, its activity becomes more and

more one of consent to God’s coming—to the inflow of

grace. The more God does and the less you do, the better

the prayer. We simply, through the sacred word, consent

to God’s presence. Eventually the will consents of itself

without need of a symbol—and the sacred word is the

symbol.

The work of the will in prayer is real work, but it is

one of receiving. Receiving is one the most difficult kinds

of activity there is. To receive God is the chief work of

contemplative prayer.

Now the method of centering prayer is a way of

opening to God at 360 degrees. Surrendering oneself to

God is a more developed form of consent. Transformation

is completely God’s work. We never change ourselves,

we consent to God who comes in and does the

transformation. We can’t do anything to make it happen.

We can prevent it from happening, because God will not

do the work of inner transformation unless we consent.

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In the beginning, we bring to prayer our false self with

its expectations and preconceived ideas. That is why, says

Keating, in teaching this prayer I do not speak of effort.

The word “effort” is immediately translated in our work

ethic into “trying.” “Trying” dilutes the basic disposition

of receptivity that is necessary for the growth of

contemplative prayer. Receptivity is not inactivity. It is

real activity, but not effort in the ordinary sense of the

word. If you want to call it effort, keep in mind that it is

totally unlike any other kind of effort. It is simply an

attitude of waiting for the ultimate mystery. You don’t

know what that is, but as your faith is purified, in one

sense you don’t want to know. And, he says, of course, in

another sense you are dying to know. This is the paradox

of it, you see. You realize that you can’t possibly know by

means of any human faculty, so it is useless to expect

anything. And if you’re expecting any results from this

contemplative prayer, you won’t get it—nothing that you

can measure with your senses in the usual sense. So in

one sense you are doing nothing—just waiting for God.

So this prayer is really a journey into the unknown. It

is a call to follow Jesus out of all of the structures, all of

the security blankets, and even spiritual practices that

serve as props. They are all left behind insofar as they are

part of the false-self system. Humility is the forgetfulness

of self. To forget self is the hardest job on earth, but it

doesn’t come about by trying. Only God can bring our

false self to an end. The false self is an illusion. It is our

way of conceiving who we are and what the world is.

Jesus said, “If anyone will come after me, let him deny

himself”—that is the false self—“and take up her cross

and follow me.” And where is Jesus going? He is going to

the cross, where even his divine human self is sacrificed.

Christian practice aims first at dismantling the false self.

But we can’t do it. We can consent to God’s coming in

and doing it.

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Centering prayer is an exercise in letting go, and that’s

all it is. An exercise in letting go. It lays aside every

thought. One touch of the divine love enables you to take

all of the pleasures of the world and throw them into the

waste basket. Reflecting on spiritual communications

diminishes them. The Dharma Sutra2 says it all: “Try to

develop a mind that does not cling to anything.”

Stay with it. Don’t be discouraged or indulge in guilt

feelings. You will fail again and again. Failure is the path

to boundless confidence in God. Always remember that

you have a billion chances. God keeps approaching us

from every possible angle. God lures, draws, measures,

pushes us, as the case may demand, into the place where

God wants us to be.

Eventually, you may get used to a certain degree of

interior silence. The delightful place that you have

enjoyed in the early stages of contemplation become a

normal state. Habitually, you settle down at the beginning

of prayer and move into a quiet place. And that’s all it is.

If thoughts are going by, you feel no attraction to them.

You can be confident that you are in the prayer of quiet

when all the faculties are grasped by God. Then you’re in

full union.

And in this time of practicing this kind of prayer, you

don’t stop and say, “Man, this is a powerful insight. I

better write it down. I’ll forget it. Won’t have it for my

class next Sunday. Won’t have it for my sermon.” You

don’t stop. You let that go with God for that period of

time. That sort of openness, that sort of total attention to

God.

However, the end of the journey occurs when the

union established during prayer is integrated with the rest

of reality. The presence of God then becomes a kind of

2 The Dharma Sutra is an ancient Hindu text.

22

fourth dimension to all of life. Our three dimensional

world is not the real world because the most important

dimension is missing. Namely, that from which

everything that exists is emerging and returning in each

micro and cosmic moment of time. So we are going to

learn to be in the river rather than working with the things

which are on the surface of the river. We move into

another whole dimension of life and we live life out of

that presence of God. So it’s not 20 minutes in the

morning, 20 minutes in the evening. It’s the fact that it is

the state of our being. And so then we become

contemplative persons, not a person engaging in

contemplative prayer. We become a person who is a

contemplative person, living out of that dimension of

existence.

The contemplative state is established when

contemplative prayer moves from being an experience or

series of experiences to an abiding state of consciousness.

The contemplative state enables one to rest and act at the

same time, because one is rooted in the source of both rest

and action.

Now we start this kind of prayer. And I don’t know

how many times you’ve started and stopped. I’ve started

and stopped hundreds of times. But if we seriously start

this prayer, then I think the deepest issue of our life will

be worked with in these two periods each day. And

what’s the issue? The issue is the issue of control. Letting

go all control. Finally knowing that we are in control of

nothing. Not just in control of the river, we are in control

of nothing.

When we come to the place of wanting and yearning

only for the mystery to come and to shape us into

whatever He or She longs for us to be, no longer resisting

the mystery. When we go into this kind of prayer, you

don’t hold onto any kind of control. We let go of our way

23

of thinking. And we let go of our whole epistemology, if

you will. We let go of our feeling. And we let go of any

and every security that we think is security. And we let go

of our need for fulfillment in all of the forms that we’ve

been taught to expect it.

This prayer is really a prayer of consent to be taken

over. Consent to be taken over. “‘Come,’ say the spirit

and the bride. ‘Come,’ let each hearer reply.” So God is

saying, “Come, I want you to come.” And we are saying,

“God, I want you to come.” “Come forward you who are

thirsty, accept the water of life, a free gift to all who

desire it.”

But I think the reason we have so much trouble with

this kind of prayer is that we know that when we inwardly

say, “Come,” we are consenting to a total takeover. God

will never come into our deeps without our consent. But

when the consent is given, it’s all over. We will spend the

rest of our lives, as well as eternity, living out of the very

being of Jesus and following Jesus wherever he goes. We

will be able to say, “for me to live is Christ and to die is

gain.” (Php 1:21).

Let us pray.

2004

This Guide is available for free at

www.littlescrivener.org

an introduction o servant leadership · entitled “introduction to servant leadership.” gordon...

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