Presentation March 10, 2012: The Joseph paradigm - We need both revelation and implementation skills
Dr. Roberto Miranda(Audio: English)
SUMMARY:
The speaker, a pastor of a Latino congregation in Boston, discusses the need for the church to acquire and develop a Joseph outlook in order to interact effectively with the culture. This outlook is characterized by a balance between revelational knowledge (a supernatural outlook) and strategic knowledge (a horizontal outlook). The two need to cohabit and collaborate within the same soul, being, and church. The speaker believes that we are living in times of imminence and great moves of God, and that God is going to do something spectacular that surpasses our poor conceptions of revival.
The speaker believes that we live in a time of imminence and great moves of God, and that God is preparing for something spectacular beyond anything we can imagine. He compares this time to when God used Joseph as a harbinger and herald of a great time in human history. Just like Joseph, we are in a time of crisis, but God has determined his favor on us and has a plan for his church. However, just like with Joseph, it will take time and process for all of this to unfold. The speaker encourages us to use this time to prepare ourselves, train, and develop the appropriate mentality and outlook. He also reminds us that there are certain pieces of the puzzle that only God holds, and that we must learn to pace ourselves and have faith that God will move when he is ready. Additionally, the speaker highlights the importance of Joseph's strategic and administrative knowledge, and encourages us to extract an equal amount of teaching from this aspect of Joseph's life.
The church needs to develop both revelation knowledge and strategic administrative knowledge. We are too focused on the vertical dimension of spirituality, and we need to also focus on the horizontal dimension. We need to combine the artist and the scientist, the mystic and the theologian. We need to be both spiritually minded and able to manage and administer. The church needs to be transformed on a systemic, moral, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual level. We must be ready to provide unique solutions to the crises of our time, and we must receive administrative wisdom from God to speak to the powers that be and show them the way out of their confusion. Joseph had both revelation and strategic administrative knowledge, and he knew how to implement and execute the revelation and obtain maximum advantage from it.
The church needs to know how to translate revelation into actionable wisdom and strategic information. This requires knowledge and left brain skills, which can be developed through seeking and treasuring knowledge like gold. We must become adept students of leadership and study secular manuals of leadership, sanctifying those principles according to Scripture. We should also respect and learn from other segments of the church, such as evangelicals, liturgicals, and activists. As we seek to influence the world, we must be careful not to be seduced by its worldly mentality and lose our souls. The church needs to develop administrative, political, cultural, financial, and strategic skills to reflect the great deal of excellence in organizational acumen.I’m honored to be here, encouraged, blessed, edified, all those good words. Last night was a wonderful time, just receiving from the Lord and being around men and women who love the spirit, who love Christ, who are restless to do great things for the kingdom and who are measuring the times and seeking to align ourselves with what God is seeking to do in this pregnant moment in history. So, it’s just great to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
As I sat there and listened to this amazing panel discussion, I said, either this is the greatest introduction I’ve ever been given, to what I’m going to present, or it’s just made me completely redundant. I should just say, forget about it. Everything is been said already and I don’t need to say anything else.