Lent 4

When I was in high school my family was involved in starting a Saturday night service at our church. We were not following any models or had any idea what was going on other than we were full on Sunday mornings and Saturday night services were culturally acceptable because of the dominant Catholic influence in northern Ontario. My dad told stories. To the children officially, but anyone who has been in church with a decent story teller knows that the adults are all listening in, very interested.

Then our church spilt. It was so ugly it was funny. One of those 'God told us so you can't argue' deals.

In less than a year my dad went from storyteller to chair of the elder board. It was so beautiful it was funny. One of those 'what just happened?' deals.

After reading Intuitive Leadership tonight I thought of that history of mine and remarked to my invisible sidekick (a la Craig Ferguson) that, perhaps, it is genius to have great storytellers in leadership positions in a church. Mysteriously, storytellers have this quality of Jesus that many regular people do not have. The ability to transform communities through the telling of stories.

I wonder what would happen if, when considering people for leadership positions in the church, we considered their storytelling skills. What would happen if the key leaders were all storytellers?

To bring life with words.

Just like God.

Thank God for storytelling leaders.

Lent Blog

This year I am going to blog through my growth of lent. In our high school community called Driven (even though Marko says don't be Driven anymore...lol) we begin lent every year with an observation of Ash Wednesday. The students remark to me that they really like doing things that are tactile (not in those words) because it really helps them understand and experience truth, instead of just being taught about it. Each year on Ash Wednesday the seniors apply the ashes to all the other students and leaders while saying a blessing over them. It is such a powerful thing to see ninth grade students kneeling before a senior while they are receive the ashes. Perhaps even moreso when watching the adult leaders submit themselves to the seniors. For me, it's a beautiful picture of the kingdom of God, where no one is better than anyone else, we simply play the parts of God's story that he lets us.


So this year for lent I am going to be reading through a new book I bought with a Christmas gift card, Intuitive Leadership by Tim Keel. Tim is the founding pastor of Jacob's Well, an emerging church in Kansas City. Each day I am going to blog an interaction with what I read, or some other thoughts that are inspired by the little pieces (5-6) pages that I read.

Happy Lenting.

Leadership Tip

From Sam Chand on a Leadership Network podcast.

Your vision statement should be able to fit on a tee shirt. It should also be designed so that others can understand it.

And - about 10% of the church is there to bring you grief, pain and increase your prayer life. They are joy suckers. A key leadersh ip question is 'how many of these people can you handle?' (If you can handle 2,000 of them, then you can lead a 20,000 person church.)

Pastors are in constant pain. We play with pain, like a football player. There is a high cost to be where we are at and to do what we do. This is often overlooked for people looking from the outside. This is why healthy pastoring is so important.

Also - these are really important questions, but it doesn't matter to joe visitor to your church on a Sunday. Which makes them hard to spend time on.

Bennett, Intentional Disciplemaking

So, I was required to read Bennett's Intentioal Disciplemaking for this year's mentoring course at PESM. It was okay, kind of a holiness adaptation of Coleman's Master Plan, which I suggest you memorize.

I'm not going to give any quotes except this one:

"Spiritual generations are God's strategy for reaching the world. Any plan that ignores the natural process of parenting through successive generations is doomed to fail because it cirumvents God's design for maturity. Furthermore, failure to pass on the truths of the faith to another generation is a mark of immaturity in the church." (29)

As a pastor to young people I could not agree more. If the church is not willing to pass the faith on to younger generations it anathematizes itself. This, I believe, will be the mark of the boomer generation on the western church. Boomers are the first generation of Christians who have thought it was their right to have the kind of church that they desired. For me, this isn't a blame issue as much as it is a heart issue. The boomers, who usually don't listen to those younger than themselves, need to hear the prophetic calling of the young. The young people in America today are desperately searching for God - and can't find enough Christian adults to help them find Him.

Mike King has also blogged on this, after a recent research study showed

"that most Christian adults strongly agree that their own faith development was shaped by adults in their lives during their youth. And yet, less than half of this same group believes that they have a responsibility to nurture the emerging generation of Christian young people."

How can this be? How can the current adult generation allow themselves to fade into history letting themselves be known as the generation who thought passing on the faith was important - BUT DIDN'T DO IT!

Right next to my door I have a two-page article called "That Sucking Sound you Hear" by Tim Elmore. I frequently use materials from Tim's organization, Growing Leaders, to train young people. I reccommend you read it in order to understand why we are in the hole that we are in, and Tim's suggested ways out. I keep the article next to my door so that every time I leave my office I remember the current task of church leaders and I remember to fight to stop the sucking.

The emerging generation is rocking about 4% adhereance to evangelical Christianity. I don't blame them for even a second. Instead I get them excited about the opportunity to ignite a revival among their generation - the generation that isn't getting this whole faith just handed to them. God loves to use generations to fulfill his mission; thankfully, He doesn't depend on them.

Organic Leadership

Over the last two weeks there has been no music at Kainos. A couple that is involved with our band were away as one of them was "enjoying" some surgery - so we thought it would be a good time to not sing. An organic congregation, I believe, behaves in this way. Instead of going out and getting some other people to fill holes, we decided the holes can stay empty if no one wants to fill them. We also went a few weeks with no childcare. It's seriously great.

Also, last week I was away for schooling and Jason preached. I'm really thankful for that. And the kids particpated in sharing and one of the 1st (2nd?) graders lead a prayer time.

To me, this is what orgainc is. I love the Kainos folks for their willingness to explore. I can't wait to see what's around the corner.

Book Nut

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Dedicated Reader
Book Snob
Literate Good Citizen
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Everything is Spiritual

So, Rob Bell has just released the website for his everything is spiritual tour. That's the one where the lady from zondervan told me I could just go down to Los Angeles to see him, that'd be my closest venue (Great west coast geography...). Hi snew tour, The Gods Aren't Angry is coming to Portland (much, much closer) but would cost me $45 to take my wife. I'm sure it goes to a good cause, but it's just not gonna happen, especially in a blog world. Last week I got to learn from Len Sweet and he talked about how people are going to pay for content less and less - what they'll pay for is a relationship. That's exactly why I don't need to pay $45 to hear something first hand - I can get info for free from blogs!

!Viva la revolucion!

Robinson, Making a Difference in Preaching

This book is a collection of writings that Haddon Robinson has published in various books and magazines. It's a great little collection to give the young preacher a jumpstart and the old preacher a check-up. I didn't underline because I was reading it fast for school, but the last two chapters on preaching on money are worth the whole price of the book. Fantastic theological preaching!

Moore, Starting a New Church

This is the first book I read for PESM this year. Ralph Moore is the founder of the Hope Chapel Movement, and he plants churches in California and Hawaii (I know - that's called 'call envy'). I found myself alternatively loving this book for it's quick tips and practical ideas and hating it for it's focus on growing the church by putting butts in seats. Here's some stuff I highlighted:

>p.39 "If there is one predictor of success...in church planters, it has to be that the good ones are voracious readers. Well-read people tend to be able to find solutions to any problem and they always seem to have a fresh supply of ideas."

>p.144 "I preach without a pulpit...we meet between services at round tables under umbrellas in a courtyard. The setup resembles a large starbucks. This is intentional because our target audience for evangelism is still under 30...we work hard to look and feel different from any other church in our community."

Then I stoppped underlining. I have two MAJOR objections to this book. The first is that he gives his doctrine of tithing by comparing it to the doctrine of marriage. One is a sacrament, the other is not. This is ridiculous. the other is that Moore calls the baby boomers the "first postmodern generation" when what he means is the boomers are the first consumption based generation. postmodernism is wildly different than consumer driven culture. What he describes is clearly the latter.

Good try though...

13

13 hours left in my day, till I can go back home. PESM classes today from 8 am till 915 pm - that's a long time.

It's been pretty good at the parts that I dig and funny to see how opinionated I am (often in disagreement) in my preaching class. Classes that make you become a type of something you don't feel called to be are an interesting discipline. Our little discussion times aren't my alley either. It appears not everyone is comfortable with being committed to each other and still being able to have robust dialogue. That, and, I still believe that pastors never shut up fast enough :)

Back At It

Today is very much a Rosh Hashannah for us - coming back from our Canadian vacation and getting LJ back into school and beginning the fall ministries.

There is a bit of anxiety around the house though that this fall is going to be more of what last spring was - over working and over stressed and over strectched. We got away from operating the way that God designed me to work and we're going to be actively committed to not letting that happen again.

And I'm committing to not "working through" burnouts anymore. lol - I love that God is still with me and working in me and through me - it's a huge blessing, as cheesy as that sounds.

May Grace and Peace with a Divine Origin Rest on my house and yours...

Sweet 18

Picture yourself in a future time when every person on earth has a personal mantra - three words or less that captures the essence of his or her mission. What would your mantra be?

break the numb.

Batterson, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day

At the very least you should notice this book because the title is about as long as your arm. Mark Batterson is a pastor of a multi-site church meeting in movie theaters, an author and a blogger. Everytime you turn around it seems we are seeing him right now and he's not even published by zondervan!! That is until Zondervan buys Multnomah...

Anyways - this book is good. Not my kinda gig, but inspirational in a get off your but kinda way. He wants us to go out there and tackle the lions that are affecting us. Kinda like the time me and my friends attacked a bear with sticks. Or like the time my wife and I loaded up the van and moved to another country. Or the time we moved 3 time zones away to follow God's call...yeah - I could write this book.

There are a couple nagging questions for me in this book though - like how age affects lion chasing and how careers develop, even the main character's in this book, Benaiah. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

three things: Zero and Five and encouragment

This morning I took a challenge from Pastor Hacks dot com and decided my production goal for today would be to get my email inbox down to zero. I am not the most organized person in the world, and so my skills are not exactly compatable with responding to emails in a timely manner. Unfortuanately, if I want to not suck as a leader I need to get back to peeps and deal with details. So I sucked it up and went through an inbox that was up to 192 emails last week.

Also - I did a strength finder 2.0 thing that our whole staff is doing - it's a cool and fastidious way for our staff to interact and be mutually encouraging and complimentary. My five strengths are:

Ideation - People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena. Input - People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.
Learner - People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
Self-Assurance - People who are especially talented in the Self-Assurance theme feel confident in their ability to manage their own lives. They possess an inner compass that gives them confidence that their decisions are right.
Strategic - People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Thidly, I was really encouraged today by a random email from someone in our church today and twice more over the past week. Unsolicited people letting me know that they think I am on the ball and they are praying for me and my family. It was plain stinking awesome. So, go open your email program and send your pastor (not me, 'cuz i just told you to and it wouldn't be as cool) an email listing all the things you appreciate about him/her and that you are praying for him/her. If you do that then you are awesome and you may comment on this post.

Sanders, Spiritual Leadership

I've read and reviewed this book before, but I had to read it again for my PESM program this year. This book is good, but has a lot of old school feel. It's a collection of sermons also, which makes it a little bit of an awkward read sometimes.

Anyways - I read it again and didn't have any great epiphanies excpt wondering how the old guys feel knowing that those crazy young guys are going to outlive them and do whatever seems right to them after the old guys are dead. I think the only way to feel good about this is to develop wise, godly and good-thinking young leaders so that all your work doesn't go to crap. So, perhaps, the most telling indicator of extended-future effectiveness of an organization is the measurement of their developing of great young leaders.

Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership

I have read a ton of books recently for finishing up this year's worth of my master's program at PESM. So I am going to blog a bunch of them to get a record for myself - and to catch up to Nick or at least look respectable next to him...some of these I read in 2006, but haven't blogged yet, so they didn't count for my count in 2006. This is kinda like rolling over my 401k...

So Spiritual Leadership by Henry and Richard Blackaby is a book I tried to read fast but it was so good I was constantly being slowed down. It is a really stellar book on spiritual leadership without the big ugly old school references. It doesn't make allusions to 'pastors used to work harder' that another book I will blog does.

The book does seem to contradict itself sometimes, but I think that catches the tension that spiritual leadership presents in Amercian culture. Pastors need to be really hard workers who are really good at their family and really good at slowing down to rest and pray. Inevitably, the juggler drops a ball every now and then. There's also ample references to President Truman, which makes me want to research that guy and his career path a bit.

I borrowed, my copy and am returning it today, but this is one that needs to go on the wish list (when I finish my book buying fast after I read the 38 books on my 'next to read' shelf).

Must be Preached

More and more I am trying to view Scripture as something that is happening, as well as something that did or will happen. The stories and the prophecies, in many ways, are current truths for me. Here's another example; last weekend I had the opportunity to enjoy the National Youth Workers Convention, taking my wife and two interns down to Anaheim. It was amazing to me to watch the development of my interns, but also very scary. You see, I have two interns who committed to learn under me - which generally means they committed to become like me as a youth pastor. Both of them are different, but have similarities with me. James 3:1 kept going through my head, where it talks about not many of us should presume to be teachers because they are held to a higher standard and judged more strictly. This seems like a future tense prophecy. But, over the last weekend, I came to see it as a current truth as I was judged by my interns development. I could see myself in them - both in good ways and in ways that will get them in trouble later. You'd think I would sit them down and warn them, but I realize that I didn't listen to those warnings...

It is such a priviledge to watch the future develop. As a parent, teacher, pastor and leader it is easily my favorite pay-off. So this past weekend was judgement for me. If I want my interns to come out a particular way, I have to be that way. Correcting them will just turn them into more of what I currently am - and I want to help them (and my students) become what I am trying to become.

So, my sermon that needs to be preached is this: Judgment is a good thing for the righteous. So the righteous should be seekng leadership opportunities because that will give them fast and harsh feedback/judgment on themselves.

I want to post a bunch on the NYWC, but that will have to wait. I think I am going to schedule my reflections for next week.

Pragmatic Pope Phishes phor Promulation

The title link goes to a london times article about the pope, Benedict 16, making some changes to the unofficial Roman Catholic doctrines. Specifically, the Catholic church no longer puts unbaptised babies (i.e. stillborn) into the "limbo" zone; now these children will go on to heaven. You can read the article for details on the shift. There are some specific ramifications here that should be thought through. and, I don't care if you think you are protestant and so the pope doesn't matter - tell that to the 1 billion catholics on earth - and to your ancestors pre-1500 who would pretty much call you a heretic for not venerating the pope.

Notes of Interest:

• The pope may be bowing at the altar of pragmatism. In thrid-world, muslim countries, Islam says that babies go straight to heaven, so, they seem like the more loving religion. If your baby died (with high infant-mortality rates in the third world, this has either affected you or a close family memeber or friend) wouldn't you want a religion with a god that had mercy on your child? So, the pope may be changing doctrine to create a more attractive Christianity. Personally, I hope that he's right - because that would make me more attracted to God.
• The Catholic church seems to spend too much time talking about who's where after they die. This move by B-16 makes it seem like the children are being freed today! This is a perverted form of dispensationalism, if that is the impression. Instead of the pope granting anything, they should be putting out statements that say they were wrong for the last however many years - and now they think they got it right.
• Lastly, I think it is good to make our religion more attractive, but I don't think doctrine is always the best way to do that. Perhaps, the pope could increase humanitarian aid to muslim countries. Then there would be no doubt on what the message of the gospel is.

I love the pope. Jesus loves the pope. You should too.

Taylor, The out-of-bounds Church

I was drawn to this book first by Jeremy and then by Scot McKnight. It is an interesting journey through emerging expressions of church around the world. Steve Taylor, a dedicated blogger, goes through the way birth, pilgrimage, community, creativity, DJing, leading and following. This book is intimate in its observation of the emerging church, while, at the same time, wise and insightful in its conclusions.

Here's some fodder:

taylor begins with an examination and comparison of Zeffarelli's 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet with Luhrmann's 1996 version. Remarkable.

p.26 "In many ways, body modification is the natural offspring of a culture in which identity is found in how we look and the experiences we live out."

p.53 "The church is experiencing this transition as well. When to push toward birth and when not to push? Some things said in transition are best left in the birthing unit. Times of transition require grace, sensitivity, and multiple mission strategies. They require the help of midwives."

mayBe

p.104 "the point of redemptive community is not community. The point is to send you somewhere, to reveal the body of God in the world that God loves."

The side-notes, by Taylor and others, are worth the price of the book on their own. If you are wondering what emerging churches are doing around the world. Buy it.

Interesting things

I am going to post a couple of interesting things. I am not going to post my thoughts on them. If you want to know my thoughts, post yours in the comments.

1. Mars Hill Michigan: In this week's message Rob Bell tells the people that they need more volunteers in the children's ministry because the last couple weeks they have had to turn kids away. He says that it is wrong - they need to take care of their own children. What are the implications of telling this (being honest) to your congregation?

2. Leadership Network: Has put out a report on finances in larger churches. Our own church is facing some similar issues...how are our finances helping/challenging us? It is a question that SACC'ers have to answers.


endnote: Sacc'ers? What a dumb term James.....but better than SACCians, or SACCites, or SACCese...I guess.