Discomfort

Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. This scarcity makes leadership valuable. If everyone tries to lead all the time, not much happens. It’s discomfort that creates the leverage that makes leadership worthwhile.

In other words, if everyone could do it, they would, and it wouldn’t be be worth much.

It’s uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers.

It’s uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail.

It’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo.

It’s uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle.

When you identify the discomfort, you have found the place where a leader is needed.

If you are not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader.

- Seth Godin (Tribes pg. 55)

Scandalous: The Cross and The Resurrection of Jesus

I’ve been reading D.A. Carson’s new book Scandalous: The Cross and The Resurrection of Jesus this week.  I am actually using his points from chapter 1 “The Ironies Of The Cross” for our Good Friday message tomorrow.  Love D.A. Carson and am excited to share.

Real Faith

 ”Real faith is dynamic.  it’s controversial.  It’s dangerous.  It’s constantly growing.  It asks challenging questions.  It involves mystery.  You can’t put it in a box.  You can’t keep it quiet.  You can’t outgrow it.  You can’t out-dream it.  It’s more focused on others than it is on itself.  Real faith gives me peace but makes me discontent to let things stay the same.”

Tony Morgan, Killing Cockroaches

Titles

I was able to read the book SERVOLUTION by Dino Rizzo on our way home from North Carolina last week.  I loved it.  If you’re looking to be inspired by a church and community that is impacting people by serving, then this is a book for you.

It was amazing to read how Dino and Healing Place Church responded in disaster like 9/11 and during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 

One thought stuck out to me as I was reading Servolution and it got me thinking.

It’s interesting to see that as the disciples began to follow Jesus they got caught up in titles.

They even asked Jesus, “Jesus…  Which of us is the greatest?”

Now, after reading the gospels, it’s not rocket science to see that Jesus was more concerned with serving than he was titles. 

It is also interesting to see that as the story continues and the early church was birthed that these very people that wanted a title were GIVEN the title “Christians” by the surrounding world.  It wasn’t something they made up.  It was what the culture titled them.

I don’t know if this is making sense, but I do believe that this can apply to both leadership and community.

I’ve heard this… “Our church is relevant” or “Our church is contemporary.”

While I appreciate this, the reality is that if you are what you say are you shouldn’t have to say it!  PEOPLE SHOULD SEE IT.  Let people determine who you are for themselves!

It is one thing for a restaurant to say that they have good food, but just saying it doesn’t make it true.

The same is true in leadership.  You shouldn’t have to declare who you are.  I often run into leaders who introduce themselves as Pastor, Reverent, Dr. or whatever.  While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, I have always found it awkward when somebody has to declare who they are without giving me a chance to see who they are.

In the case of the disciples, their title was coming.  Christians or “little Christ’s”. 

Tiles are not something asked for, they are something given!

The Power Of The Internet

I know that’s not new news.  This is coming from a guy who did the majority of his degree online.

The internet is a powerful thing…

I just finished dinner and we had a little argument over if something was true or not.  Where did we go to find our immediate answer?  You guessed it!

This past week I did two things I have never done before.  

A week ago Saturday I went to church online.  I know what you’re thinking… “You mean you watched a service on the Internet.” Well.  Not exactly.  I actually went to church online at lifechurch.tv’s Saturday night service.  It’s a real live service that isn’t a recording, where people log on, interact, raise their hand to participate, participate in worship, listen to a message, give and so on.  I worshipped in my underwear.  Not really .

I’m not really going to share my opinion on this, other than the fact that they are leading people to Jesus.  It is interesting that they are using such a powerful tool to reach people for the Kingdom.  It’s not something I would do every week, but it opens up an option to almost every home in North America and to people all over the world.

After my internet church experience, I had another opportunity to go to a conference session…  that’s right… you guessed it… in my underwear.  Andy Stanley is doing live sessions called Drive for church leaders.  On Wednesday I woke up and fired on my computer and joined other leaders that were interacting together.  Crazy!  I didn’t have to pay money, buy a flight or book a hotel, and I was still able to have somewhat of a conference experience.

Face it.  The internet has changed things.  We’re more connected then we’ve ever been.

The past 10 days we have had a team in Guatemala.  You would think because they are in the hills of Guatemala that we would have not connection with them.  Not quite!  Even in the hills they have an internet cafe.  Maxx has been blogging almost every day of their journey.

Tonight I’ve been on Mark Batterson’s blog.  There he linked to a free E-book that compiled a number of leadership thoughts from different bloggers.  I was reading through it.  It’s amazing!  Who needs a publisher when you have the internet?!  

It’s powerful!  Jump on it!

Two Pretty Cool People

Being apart of the Critical Thinkers Group was an honour.  The cool thing about the whole experience is that I got to meet some fantastic people.  

A couple shout outs…

One to Rob Ketterling.  He was our table leader and he’s the planter and pastor of River Valley Church in Minnesota.  He’s also on the leadership team for ARC, a church planting movement in the US.

 

We also got to meet a guy named Matt Keller.  He’s planter and pastor of Next Level Church in Ft. Myers Florida.  

Cool guy and we bought his book Up The Middle Church.  It’s a book for pastors, mainly church planters and it’s all about taking ground one yard at a time.  I’m almost done the book and it has been helpful in a number of different areas.  I think every leader would benefit from the practical tools this book provides.  

Sometimes we look at churches who have grown at a rapid pace and we think that this is the norm.  We hear stories of guys like Rob Bell who did no promotion and had over 1000 people at their first gathering.  Though this is exciting, it’s not normal!  Matt Keller’s book really helps identify church as taking ground bit by bit.  He shares struggles and joys, disappointments and victories and he gives a very realistic picture of how most churches will grow over time.  He has been at it in Ft. Myers for seven years and he shares some fantastic examples from his church.

I’ve found it encouraging and informative!  To often we celebrate a quick success instead of the steady consistent road.

Wild Goose Chase – The Cage Of Responsibility

For Christmas, Heather and I bought our EMG leaders the book Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson.  This book had the biggest impact on my life this year and I thought it was important to share this with our team.  So…  for the next number of months we are working through it together! 

For the month of December we looked at the first two chapters.  Batterson talks about 6 cages and for December we looked at the Cage Of Responsibility.  Here are some thoughts from the first couple chapters and some insight from yours truly.

The Cage of Responsibility

“Every man dies, not every man lives.”  – William Wallace

The first two chapters of Wild Goose Chase have been motivating and challenging!  I found it fascinating that early Celtic Christians named the Holy Spirit the Wild Goose.  It puts things into perspective.  Sometimes it is very easy to see our pursuit of God as ritual or boring.  It is easy to loose the adventure in what following God should truly be.

Yet through the adventure there are some unmistakable realities in life.  We all have responsibilities!  You need to take out the trash, save for retirement, pay your bills.  But as we’ve read we see that it is very easy to get buried in your day to day responsibility and miss out on the adventure that God has called us to.

So where’s the balance between being responsible and stepping out into the adventurous things that God is calling us to?

Batterson gave two primary examples.

First, was the right young ruler in Matthew chapter 8.  This young man had everything and asked Jesus if he could follow him.  Jesus instructed the young man to sell everything, give it to the poor and follow him.  The young man obliged saying that he had to go and bury his father who had passed away.

Was the young man being irresponsible by saying that he had to bury his father?  No necessarily, yet Battherson points out that this young man was turning a responsibility into an excuse.

We can often do that can’t we?  It is easy to take everyday responsibilities and turn them into excuses.  Even when we look at the local church we often see people who neglect to serve because of certain responsibilities that they have.

Ask yourself: Am I turning everyday responsibility into excuses as to why I am not following through on the things that God is calling me to?

Second, Batterson looked at the example of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah saw his city Jerusalem in ruins and knew something needed to be done.  He even quit his job to return and help rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

From the outside looking in it appears that this would be a very irresponsible thing to do.  “Dude.. you’re going to quit your job to do that?” 

That’s exactly what Nehemiah did and even though it may have appeared to be irresponsible his succeeded because it was what God was calling him to do.

Like Batterson said, “If you succeed in the wrong things you fail.”

Ask Yourself:  What is it that you want?  What is your God ordained passion? What makes you cry or pound your fist against the table?  What brings your life joy?

The great thing about being in ministry is that you run into all sorts of people that seemed like they were being irresponsible, yet because they were stepping out and taking a risk for God they are seeing incredible things happen!  I love that!

Think about the areas that God is calling you to.  What’s holding you back?

I guess the challenge is to be people who are irresponsibly responsible!

What I’m Reading

No baby yet!  We’re waiting.. It’s hard!  We want her to come.

Here’s what I’m reading this week!

Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll

The Multi-Site Church Revolution by Geoff Surrat and friends

Epicenter by Joel Rosenberg (this one will keep you up at night)

Making Vision Stick

Today I took a few minutes to read through Andy Stanley’s book Making Vision Stick.  Here’s a summary.

Making Vision Stick – Andy Stanley

“When the leader blames the follower for not following, the leader has ceased to lead.”

How To Make Vision Stick

1. State The Vision Simply

“If it’s a mist in the pulpit it’s a fog in the pew” – Howard Hendricks

“It is better to have a vision statement that is incomplete and memorable than to have one that is complete and forgettable”

2. Cast The Vision Convincingly

a)     Define The Problem

b)    Offer A Solution (offer a solution to the problem)

c)     Present A Reason

3. Repeat the Vision Regularly

4. Celebrate the Vision Systematically

5. Embrace The Vision Personally

Vision Slippage Indicators

1. New Project
2. New Programs
3. New Products
4. Requests
5. Stories
6. Complaints

 

Pagan Christianity

Earlier this year I read the book Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna.  To be honest, after reading the entire book, I am surprised that George Barna attached his name to this.  At any rate, Ben Witherington is doing a chapter by chapter response to this book on HIS BLOG.

Witherington knows Viola and has engaged in discussion on a number of questions that Viola has had for Witherington over the years.  He shares his surprise in part 1 for not getting any credit in the bibliography for the many questions he answered.

So far Witherington has a response to the first four chapters.

You can see PART 1 HERE, PART TWO HERE, PART THREE HERE, and PART FOUR HERE.