Monday Thoughts (on Tuesday)

• Since our August month of abiding, I've been out of my rhythm in terms of weekly speaking. I see how a rhythm helps with communication. I felt "off" on Sunday. It happens. I really love speaking and love the challenge of getting better.
• Really challenged the way we see Church yesterday. In the west, the way we see Church is typically like a fortress. We want everyone to come into the fortress, we might send out raiding parties to get new people into the fortress, but we've basically failed to see that living thusly leaves massive territory completely in our enemy's hands. I think Mike Breen is right. Satan has made a pact with the Western Church. He'll let the church get as large as it wants in the fortress model as long as we take no new territory.
• Conservative stats say 60% of America does not attend fortress, I mean church, on Sunday.
• Theological proviso here: This does not mean God is not present or working in that 60%. It means we are not present or working in that 60%. And for some reason, God chooses to do the majority of his work of setting people free through people.
• I'm an ENTP on the Myers-Briggs inventory, which means I have to fight, fight, fight to do things the same way again and again. (I'd drive home a different way every day if I could) This is important because systems that allow leadership to expand and grow require doing the same thing over and over again. The apostle Paul said it: I die daily.
• To lead means to be heavily involved in your own sanctification, which means painfully facing your shortcomings everyday.
• My job description: growing leaders who are like Jesus.
• Leaders are measured by the number of leaders they produce, not the number of followers they have.
• My Huskers are back. Go Big Red!
• Been wrestling with the implications of a word given to me at the Senior Pastor's retreat a couple weeks ago: "Your first sermon is your marriage. Your second sermon is your family. Your third sermon is what you say on Sunday." Painfully, I don't think I've had the order right. I'm thinking differently so I can live differently.

What I'm Learning

A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the
public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God
Almighty, that he is and no more.

John Owen

A Muslim's Advice to Christian Leaders

Great article about what a Muslim teaching an interfaith course at a Christian Seminary had to say to future Christian leaders. In short, be more Christian, not less.

Here's a quote from him from the article:

Remember, the three most powerful narratives on the planet are narratives of religion, narratives of nation, and narratives of ethnicity/race. You cannot afford to forfeit that territory by talking about economics or the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Don't be afraid to be Christian ministers. If you don't use the Christian narrative to define reality for your people, then someone else will define reality for them with a different narrative.

Read the whole article here.

Preaching is harder than hitting a baseball

John Ortberg recently wrote an article comparing the challenges of ministry with the hardest things to do in sports. Hitting a baseball tops the list, in case you wonder.

I always love his insights into life and leadership. If you lead something in church world, you'll find yourself nodding your head in agreement. He nails the task of preaching (one of my favorite things to do).

There is the challenge of trying to preach fresh, creative, substantial messages that reflect the best in increasingly complex scholarship and are integrated into the preacher's soul. And to do this when people compare it to whomever their favorite international preacher is. And to do it again next week, and the week after that, until you grow old and die.

I can't do this...

Every leader, every pastor has to--at some point--come to terms with their own limitations.

You have to realize there is only so much you can add to the mix. Only some things you can do (well). Only some things only you can contribute. At some point you are forced to realize, I can't, by myself, do this.

I can't have enough meetings.
I can't supply enough ideas.
I can't give enough motivation.
I can't see clearly enough into the future to make this all turn out okay.
I can't do this.

Takeover the reins of something and you accept a huge load of responsibility for all outcomes of the thing you are leading. Honestly, I wouldn't want it any other way. I'd rather the decisions be mine.

But...there has to be Something More in the mix, because it won't be long before you realize, "I can't do this!"

That moment is the crux; The real moment of either freedom or soul-crushing pressure. Freedom if I realize I must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. Soul-crushing if I just shoulder on and think it's all up to my insight, ability and creativity.

I think this is why Paul told the Corinthian Christians: "When I came to you, I didn't come with wise or persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." In other words, Paul told them "Look, I can't do this, so I'm counting on God to make the bigger part of the difference." "Otherwise," he goes on to say, "we'll all walk around boasting about how great we are."

And that's a leadership dead end. No one wants to follow a braggart.

Whatever you are leading, there has to be some "only God" factor. If there isn't, are you really providing Christian leadership? That's certainly includes the realization that "I can't do this," but it's also got to be what you are attempting for the Kingdom of God. What is so God-sized that you can't do it unless you relinquish control and actually put your trust in God coming through?

These are the questions I am asking myself.

Why Pyromaniacs Are Right At Home in the Church

People in our culture generally like Jesus, but they generally don't like the church, so why bother? In other words, why does the Church exist?

Elton Trueblood's answer: "The Church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning." I recently had lunch with a church consultant I met through an odd series of events who echoed Elton's thoughts.

Every church exists by vision, he says, whether it's something that's articulated or not. If it's not, it's what he calls a "default vision." That default vision usually means something like, 'run our programs, keep everyone basically happy, keep the structure running that's gotten us here.' Without leadership, I suppose any group defaults to that sort of maintenance.

If the church is to burn, he says there are three crucial elements.

Vision.

Strategy (to move toward that vision).

Structure (to support that strategy).

If the default vision isn't challenged, then real vision ends up coming hat-in-hand to structure, asking if it can play a bit. A very backward arrangement. Nothing burns.

David Bosch in Transforming Mission nails it:

Mission [is] understood primarily as being derived from the very nature of God. It [is] thus put in the context of the doctrine of the trinity…The classical doctrine of the missio Dei as God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit [expands] to include yet another ‘movement’: Father, Son and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world…mission is not primarily an activity of the church, it is an attribute of God.

God is a missionary God.

Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God into the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is a church because there is a mission, not visa versa.

Then the question--and challenge--becomes what is that mission and how do we live it? Jesus was pretty clear. I'm not so sure we are. This is the best description I know of what Jesus means by that. And here's the result when we do that:

• People confront their demons and find them already overcome by the Risen Jesus.
• People change.
• The past is healed.
• Love grows.
• Hope flourishes.
• Communities are transformed.
• Kids have better parents.
• Employees have better bosses, and bosses have better employees.
• Beauty flourishes through the arts.
• Single moms find help.
• Marriages blossom.
• 13 year old girls trapped as prostitutes in the dark corners of the world are rescued.
• Mosquito nets keep babies safe from malaria in Africa.
• Clean water wells are dug in remote villages so kids don't die from some simple like diarrhea.
• The Kingdom of God comes on earth, as it is in heaven.
• Jesus is Lord.

Is anyone in their right mind not for all that? But in order for it to happen, we must be set ablaze. So then let's get on with it and burn.

Opie on Leadership

Ron Howard (aka, Opie) is all grown up now and directing films.

In a recent interview with Time magazine, he had this to say about making the transition from acting to directing. Good words on leadership.

For me it was learning to not control everything. When you're directing, of course, you're supervising everything, but if you don't trust the artists you're collaborating with, you wind up tying one of their hands behing their back. My work got much, much better when I learned to let go a little bit."

Planting Churches

Bob Roberts jump starts me. Like any great thinker/leader, his perspective is always about 6 degrees from what you'd expect--jarring enough to make you think twice, not so jarring that you dismiss what he has to say.

Church Planting is part of what it means to be missional. Here's Bob's take on why we do it. It needs to be as normal a part of the life of a congregation as having a worship service (maybe not that regular...yet). Generous churches give money, time, and people. That's just what it means to be generous.
Bob's full post is here.

For the past 25 years, over and over again, the reason given for starting churches is because it is the best known method of evangelism. Sooooo . . . we start churches to do evangelism. Acts didn’t do that. Jerusalem saw a church emerge out of evangelism, and it wasn’t just “pray the prayer”. Antioch was the same. It was disciples living in the society first and then a church emerged. I write about this in my book The Multiplying Church.

Let me give you some other reasons, that I think are huge. First, it has to be the context of the Kingdom. If we focus on the Gospel of salvation, we get converts and a Sunday event. If we focus on the Gospel of the Kingdom, we still get people who follow Jesus, BUT we also focus on the “reconciliation of all things” in the world and in the community. This means that “church” becomes a force for good and transformation, not just a Sunday event. I could talk and write on this all day. We have so narrowed the Great Commission to baptisms that we have unintentionally marginalized the church in society.

Why Pastors Don't Succeed

I learned a big lesson over the last 18 months that every pastor needs to know.
I'm not responsible for people's spiritual growth. At all.

That might sound counter-intuitive or maybe even irresponsible. But if I take responsibility for people's growth, I take the responsibility out of their hands. They feel better for a bit "oh, someone's going to hold my hand for a while, I don't have to do anything. Sweet." and I start to feel overworked, overburdened and resentful. But it also feels really good to have someone dependent on me for their very life. I feel needed and valued and important. But a sick, symbiotic relationship starts to develop where neither of us takes a step forward.

Every person is responsible for their own journey. Every single one. No exceptions. And what I've realized is that many people (myself included at times) don't want to be because it's too hard.

• They'll have to think about their destructive patterns and actually confront them.
• They'll have to engage in disciplines that aren't a current part of their routine.
• They think they'll have to give up what they love (the reality is that they will realize what they loved is destroying them and that what they end up loving is better by a factor of 10).
• They'll have to look at how their relationships aren't working and examine what part they have it that.
• In short, they have to be ruthlessly honest.

This doesn't mean there's no responsibility. As Mark Waltz puts it, we have a responsibility to each other, but not for each other.

Here's how he puts it.

When I’m responsible to people I understand they have a choice. When I’m responsible for people I think I should decide for them.
When I’m responsible to people I know they must figure out their next step. When I’m responsible for people I try to tell them what their next step is.
When I’m responsible to people I allow them to bear the brunt of the consequences for their own chosen actions. When I’m responsible for people I assume the guilt, or worse the shame, for them.
When I’m responsible to people I engage in their journey, offering encouragement and teaching. When I’m responsible for people I try to direct their journey, never allowing them to wrestle, mess up or make a wrong turn.
When I’m responsible to people I talk to God on their behalf. When I’m responsible for people I talk to people a lot on God’s behalf.”

3 Ways to Change the Church

What changes do we as the church have to make to be missional, that is, on God's mission for the world? To do it requires an upending of what has been in order to become what must be.
Here are three ways to look at that change.

#1 - Become an Extrinsic Set (vs an Intrinsic Set)

In an intrinsic set, it's all about orientation to the boundaries. The basic question is: Have you done the right things to get in?

On one hand, it's very clear who's in and who's out. For example, when I was growing up I knew the people who were "out" because they smoked, drank and played cards. In an intrinsic set what matters is that you are "in," not how close you are to the center.

This is de rigueur for the American church and worked great in the culture of the 1950's. Not so much anymore. Now it only serves to create an us vs. them mentality.

What's more, people learn to hide the things that would keep them from being identified as being an "outsider" and so never admit the things that are kicking the slats out of their lives. Like Dietrich Bonhoeffer satirized in Life Together, when this sort of hiding takes place "people are genuinely shocked when a sinner stands up in their midst."



In an extrinsic set, it's all about orientation to the center. The basic question is: In what direction are you moving?
So you can be physically close to the center, but moving away. Conversely, you can be on the outer edges and moving in. This inevitably makes people uncomfortable because the boundaries are inevitably fuzzy. But isn't this part of what Jesus meant when he said the prostitutes and tax-collectors were getting into the Kingdom of God ahead of the teachers of the law?


#2 Infiltrate culture (vs Invite people to our culture)
Here's how Eddie Gibbs describes it:

Church leaders will need to facilitate this transition by giving higher priority to working outside the institution, functioning as teams of believers located in a highly polarized and pluralistic world. From a strategy of invitation the churches must move to one of infiltration, to being the subversive and transforming presence of Jesus.

So it's not "hey, invite three friends to church this weekend." It's, "hey, serve three friends in your neighborhood this week."

#3 - Be a Force in the community (vs. a Field)
This video clip of Mark Beeson highlights the difference. He says one is a perversion of the Bible's message.




This means that we have a challenge before us. Here's how Eddie Gibbs sums it up.

Churches in the Western world are poorly equipped to face the current missional challenge, in that they have a truncated view of the gospel (i.e., The gospel is essentially about going to heaven and not hell) and a weak doctrine of the church (i.e., "Church" is what happens from 10-11 on Sunday morning). And their leaders are largely oblivious to the extent to which secular presuppositions have permeated their own worldview (i.e., the way to reach a target group is through marketing)."

I aim to be part of the generation that changes that.

Ten (or Eleven) Things to Implement in Leadership This Year

I scored a free ticket to the local simulcast of the Willow Creek Leadership Summit held on the campus of St. Pauls Baptist Church.

I was going to "live blog" the event, but for a number of reasons didn't.

So instead of detailing the notes from each speaker (a few others did that here, here and here), following Kem Meyer's lead, I'm putting down my top ten (okay, eleven) takeaways (in no particular order), the things I want to live into in the next year.

Bill Hybels

1. Make your decision in a trial way and then walk around to see if life and peace and exhiliration come...if not, you can still make a different decision.

2. If it goes well, thank everyone. If it goes poorly, blame no one and take full responsibility.

Gary Haugen

(everything Gary said was pure gold. He should actually have his one top ten list). He is doing incredible work through the International Justice Mission.)

3. Just because I am leading and people are following doesn't mean I'm leading in things that matter to God. Are Jesus and I interested in the same things?

4. What is God's plan--in the face of immeasurable suffering--for showing the world that he is good? We are the plan.

5. He gave staggering stats about injustices in the world and then said: We can hear these stats and feel bolted to our seats. (doing something about this) can seem hopeless, scary and hard--but this is where leadership matters the most. People will pretty much take care of themselves when things are happy, safe, and easy.

6. He challenged us to avoid "the mediocrity of safe bets" and not live in a "Christian cul-de-sac" but to "take our strengths on a more demanding climb."

Bill George

7. 21st Century leaders empower. To empower means to help them unleash their power, not follow me!

8. Bill Hybels interviewed Bill after his talk and asked him: Why do leaders fail? Bill George: They failed to lead themselves--they weren't well-grounded--they weren't themselves.

Bill Hybels

(his closing session focused on the life of Mother Theresa--how a "pint-sized nun from nowhere"--became a world-shaping leader. He said it was because she gave God "carte-blanche yieldedness."

Her vows: "to refuse him nothing" "If God imparts himself fully to us, should we give him only a part of ourselves?" "Do his bidding without delay."

9. Commenting on 2 Chronicles 16:9 - Strength and power comes on them and tremendous resources are unleashed by God.

10. I meet many leaders who want to lead a bigger deal more than they want more of God.

11. If you were God for a day--seeing everyone--wouldn't you pick someone whose heart was completely surrendered to you? And wouldn't you take great joy in elevating someone who was a nobody? So if you were God for a day, would you pick you for more power and influence?

What it Means to Lead with Grace

The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them."
--George Bernard Shaw

Color Blind

Scott is my college roomate. He and his wife Gail (along with there three girls Allison, Emma and Olivia) are doctors in Papua New Guinea, all the way on the other side of the planet. He's an incredibly thoughtful, diligent, dedicated and honest follower of Jesus. I've probably learned as much from him as anyone about what it means to know and love Jesus and the things and people Jesus loves.

He sent out this email about his youngest daughter and I thought it was just great. With the impending race card that's going to get thrown around a lot in the next few months now that Barack Obama has sealed the deal for the Democratic party, I thought this was fitting.

Tonight Gail was asking about someone that came over and was trying to figure out who Olivia was talking about. Gail asked if the person had black skin or white skin. Olivia said, “black skin” but Gail didn’t know if Olivia really knew. So then Gail asked, “Olivia, do you have black skin or white skin?” Olivia looked down and said, “white” but then Gail said, “where is it white?” She pointed to her pajamas (which were yellow).

Wouldn’t it be nice to have to really think about what color your skin was or what other peoples skin was without really caring either way?

I'm a Work in Progress

I frequent Leading Smart, a great blog by Tim Stevens, a pastor at a very innovative church in Granger, Indiana.

Reading his post yesterday on advice to a new blogger, I was stopped by number 8. Here it is.

8. Don't Criticize. This is a life lesson, not just a blog lesson. So many people have to validate what they think by cutting down someone else. Just don't do it. You can elevate what works, what you believe, what you think--without criticizing the opposing view.

Which made me, er...ahem...uhhhhhhh...gulp, realize I'd done just that. Not in a huge way, but I'd done it against Perry Noble. So here is my personal vow. No more criticism of a person. Ideas, concepts, approaches--all fair game, but no labeling/name calling/pejorativizing (I just made that word up) of people.

I think Tim is right. More is gained by putting an opinion out without also having to bring someone else down. It's a fine line, but I'll do my best.

To Sum It Up

Here's what the pastoral ministry is for me: Every day, as I go about my tasks as a pastor, I am a follower of Jesus. I am therefore a parable of him to those I encounter. The parable of Jesus works the power and presence of Jesus in their lives.

From David Hansen's, The Art of Pastoring: Ministry Without All the Answers.

John Wesley Rides Again, part 3 of ?

More thoughts on the life of the great John Wesley, who in the 1700's traveled 250,000 miles on horseback, preached over 25,000 sermons and changed England. His heritage in our day and age includes the Church of the Nazarene, and local, innovative churches like Granger Community Church and the Church of the Resurrection.

• He sacrificed his personal preferences for the sake of the mission: after 33 years of open-air field preaching to the unchurched, confessed that "To this day field preaching is a cross to me. But I know my commission and see no other way of 'preaching the gospel to every creature.' " Doesn't this challenge the status-quo thinking in our day that I should minister "where I am gifted and feel most passionate?" Mission is bigger than preference.
• He thought big. His goal were to "renew the church", "spread scriptural holiness", "reform the nation." All of which he achieved.
• He was a behavorial scientist. Always asking, observing, questioning to understand people--not foist his already developed opinions about what he thought was best on them (ouch!). To that end, he conducted thousands of interviews with people. I would imagine he asked questions like: "What do you need?" "What is the biggest hindrance to your life right now?" "What helps you connect with a sense of the divine?" What are the hurts in your life?" Then he listened.
• He loved the truth: "Let us make a conscience of magnifying or exaggerating any thing. Let us rather speak under, than above, the truth. We, of all men, should be punctual in what we say; that none of our words may fall to the ground."
• He didn't start with the powerful and influential. From his journal: "...preached at Haddington, in Provost D's yard, to a very elegant congregation. But I expect little good will be done here, for we begin at the wrong end: religion must not go from the greatest to the least or the power would appear to be of men."
• He knew about incarnational ministry and being missional before it was a buzz-word: The Wesley's realized that any form of outreach had to "fit" a people's cultural form for them to "hear" the message at all. That said, he and brother Charles met people on their turf and sacrificed their own preferences and upbringing to do so.
• They put the cookies on the bottom shelf: "The most obvious, easy, common words, wherein our meaning can be conveyed, we prefer before others, both on ordinary occasions, and when we speak of the things of God."
• George Hunter says that much of Wesley's strategy can be broken down in these four maxims: (1)Preach and visit in as many places as you can. (2) Go most where they want you most. (3) Start as many classes (small groups) as can be effectively managed. (4) Do not preach where you cannot enroll awakened people into classes (small groups).

Many of these thoughts are from George Hunter's article on John Wesley the Strategist that can be found here.

Cancelled (or, why new paradigms aren't always good ideas)

I'm sitting at home when I should be sitting in Columbus, OH. (Note the useless boarding pass in the photo).

I booked a very cheap ticket on the much ballyhooed "internet only" (those being the two key words) airline, Skybus. Our flight was just cancelled.

Now when they call themselves "internet only" what they mean is...internet only.
No ticket agent.
No 1-800 number.
No one to help you navigate a frustration in your schedule.

Everything is done online (I think a pilot might fly the plane from his living room by watching videos of the cockpit posted to YouTube). To their credit, they fairly quickly posted info online and let me rebook for later tonight.

But to make it frustrating, I got up at 5:45 this morning to be there. I pulled an all-nighter on Friday night pursuing a wild-hair resource idea for our April series on discipleship that I needed to have done before I left, so I was operating on 6 hours of sleep in 48 hours. Pretty tired.

Now granted, they didn't force to pursue my idea, and Ohio just got hit by the worst snow storm in 96 years, but I'm wondering about their long term viability. Basically, because there was no one there to help anyone. With "those other airlines" that actually employ humans, I'd at least have an assurance that my flight tonight will happen (even if I were to be bumped to another airline), but I've got to say that my confidence level is low about tonight's flight. I love the price I paid, but now I'm questioning it's value.

I can just hear the conversation that spawned the airline.
"What if we started from scratch on this whole airline thing? This is the 21st Century, we do everything online, why not fly that way? Those stodgy big players won't even know what hit them. It's their overhead that's killing them and their rigid paradigms of what's 'needed' that keep people from trusting them! Ticket agents? Just a useless salary on legs. Call Centers? Excuses for people to surf the internet while on the job. How about a whole new paradigm in air travel. We'll clean up! Who's in?"

Of all people, I am game for challenging the status quo, but this is making me think that maybe all quantum paradigm shifts in method aren't good ones. We'll see. I'm off to catch a few zzz's before my (potential) flight tonight.

The Gift of Life

I gave blood yesterday. I hate needles and can't even look when they put it in and take it out.

But people need blood more than I need to nurse my fears, which I suppose isn't a bad metaphor for doing the important things in life--leading, being in relationships, contributing my gifts, loving, etc. At any point I can say no to those things because I might get hurt. But (and this is universally true), people need my gift more than I need to protect it.

"Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good."

1 Corinthians 12:7

Good Leadership Defined

I found this in the middle of something my Aunt sent to me. It struck me so profoundly because of how I understand Jesus to be a leader. This is what leadership in the Kingdom means. A leadership that is "under" and not "over." Now how do we pattern our leadership after his?

Jesus had no servants, yet they called Him Master.

Had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher.

Had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer.

Had no army, yet kings feared Him.

He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world.

He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him.

He was buried in a tomb,yet He lives today.
Feel honored to serve such a Leader who loves us .

The Church Needs Toyota

The Big Three auto makers are closing plants, laying off workers and losing billions of dollars. But not Toyota. Why?
One of the differences is the Big Three's ethos of change. It's discontinuous. A change is a big deal, gets a power-point and publicity splashes across the company.

But not Toyota. Changing the process continually is simply part of the way they see the world. A 1% change by the end of the month (all the time) is de rigeur rather than shooting for 15% by the end of the quarter. And not only that, problems are expected and talked about. "Problems first" is one of their mottos.

What if the church was the same way? We are a lot like the Big Three. We grab the latest model, program fad and make a big splash. What if we went for continuos improvement and tweaking? "How can we do that a little better" instead of "what program, tool, idea will change everything?"

Check out the article from Fast Company.