Dr. Tim Elmore wrote a book series called Habitudes (I read book one of four, “The Art of Self-Leadership“), that I would recommend for spiritual leaders or someone who wants to become a spiritual leader. Elmore pursued a degree on commercial arts and theology, and Habitudes teaches biblical lessons through images that act as triggers for your life. The idea is that after reading this book, when you see the image again, you will remember the ideas attached to that image.

Thirteen small chapters talk about a different principle for growing and self-analysis of yourself. Each chapter has a image, a main principle in bold font, a historical example, the metaphor explained, some bible verses that relate to the topic, a series of questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion, and finally a weekly challenge to live our what you’ve learned. I think this book would make a great small group material, especially at the college level where semesters are 15 weeks.

This isn’t a book you can read overnight, and in fact I recommend taking only 2 chapters a day at the most. I feel it would make a great 3 week study for an individual, because you could take Mon-Sat going though a chapter per day, and then reflect on what you learned overall.

I cannot and will not reveal all of the secrets to the book because I want to encourage you to purchase it and read it on your own, but I will reveal perhaps a chapter or two:

Image_Two : The Starving Baker
The starving baker is about a story of a new bakery that opened up in town, and the baker had created his own recipe for pastries and bread and sweets. Business picks up, but then you start to see a problem with the baker. You notice after watching him one afternoon scurrying around trying to take care of everyone else that he’s getting thin. He’s burnt out, and something’s wrong. He has lost that joy that he had weeks ago, and after watching him, you realize the problem: the man never stops to eat. The irony of the situation is he is baking bread to feed others, but he doesn’t stop during the day to take the time to feed himself.

Two students are compared to each other, Jason and Stacy. Jason got burnt out of trying to live the perfect Christian life, and was tired of class, his job, his commitments, his work with the campus ministry, of leading a bible study, everything - and sometimes took out his frustrations to his girlfriend; Stacy, on the other hand, had an equally busy schedule that was always packed but somehow always had a smile on, an inner peace. People remarked that something about Stacy always kept her going, giving her steam. What was it?

Stacy gives a story of two lumberjacks who were in a competition to cut down as many trees in one day. At daybreak the first lumberjack jumps and furiously chops down several trees, while the second lumberjack takes two hours to sharpen his axe. The first lumberjack was so proud of his initial trees, but by mid afternoon the second lumberjack had caught up, and in the afternoon he was chopping trees down faster because his blade was sharper. In the evening, the second lumberjack had won by several trees. She gives this metaphor of sharpening her axe to personal study and application to her faith before she is able to go out and chop down trees and do ministry with others.

The spiritual lesson to learn is that we must first ‘feed’ ourselves, before we can ‘pour’ out to others. When we study the bible for personal application and self-growth to really learn something, we are feeding ourselves. Without an individual growth, how can we expect to lead others to follow after us for growth in Jesus, if we ourselves are stationary?