Teen Gun give-a-way at Church Cancelled

Here's the text:

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma church canceled a controversial gun giveaway for teenagers at a weekend youth conference.

Windsor Hills Baptist had planned to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle until one of the event's organizers was unable to attend.

The church’s youth pastor, Bob Ross, said it’s a way of trying to encourage young people to attend the event. The church expected hundreds of teenagers from as far away as Canada.

“We have 21 hours of preaching and teaching throughout the week,” Ross said.

A video on the church Web site shows the shooting competition from last year’s conference. A gun giveaway was part of the event last year. This year, organizers included it in their marketing.

“I don’t want people thinking ‘My goodness, we’re putting a weapon in the hand of somebody that doesn’t respect it who are then going to go out and kill,'” said Ross. “That’s not at all what we’re trying to do.”

Ross said the conference isn’t all about guns, but rather about teens finding faith.

“You make a lot of new friends down here,” said Vikki Goncharenko, who attended the conference. “You get to meet new people. There's a bunch of things that are going on. It's just, you have a wonderful time.”

Friday evening, Ross said the gun giveaway had been canceled. Pastor emeritus Jim Vineyard, who ran the event, injured his foot and wouldn’t be able to attend. The gun giveaway was also removed from the church Web site.

Ross said the church would give the gun away next year instead. He said the church spent $800 buying the gun for the promotion.

Cancelled? Come on! How could someone get upset with this? I mean don't semi-automatic assault rifles and Jesus go hand in hand?

Link

Naked Pastor on Fatigue

Money Quote:

Years ago I read a book by Easum and Bandy called Growing Spiritual Redwoods. I don’t recall anything else about the book except one declaration that the future church would not support codependent relationships. I remember how radical and dangerous an idea that was because that would pretty much empty most churches. Imagine if you stopped supporting codependence in all your relationships. Do you wonder how lonely you’d become? Most of what we do is fulfill other’s expectations of us. We grant other’s their desires.

Link

read it and let me know what you think?

Jon Stewart weighs in on Obama /Dobson

Dobson and Obama

You knew this was coming right? Dobson blasting Obama. The problem for Dobson is that America has changed and he hasn't. I'll go further. The church has changed and he hasn't. Before Dubbya's 8 years in office, Dobson, Falwell and Pat Robertson all decided they would speak for everyone in America who follows Jesus. It worked. Just ask John McCain. It was his justified words against these guys that cost him the bid that election year. (Dobson has said he won't vote for McCain either... even thought the straight talk express snuggled up to Falwell 8-10 months ago for this new election.)

Dobson and the like, have lost their grip on the power they once held. I think this is a good thing. Dobson doesn't speak for me. I don't know what Obama said, or the context of what he said, and chances are I won't fully agree with him, but I do know that I don't agree with Dobson and his blast against Obama is nothing more than fear mongering, something most of my friends are ready to leave behind. This is the same kind of rhetoric that talks about Obama being a closet muslim and such. It's actually hate, smearing and ugliness. But this is par for many of Dobson's ilk isn't it. Fear mongering, slandering others, saying they don't believe the bible, calling them liberal, saying that they are relativist or pluralist or some other thing. Again, I don't know what Obama believes about anything, but I know smoke when i see it blowing.

So while we knew it was coming, and has now come, it's still not much fun. Watch over the next few days and see what happens.

Update: McKnight says it better than I do.

4th Century Church

Scot McKnight has a very short post I found very interesting here.

Thing that stood out:

Two things struck me about this basilica:

First, that the name “basilica” is also the name the Romans used for their central legal building.

Second, that this Christian basilica was in the heart of the city of Ostia antica, surrounded by pagan shrines and homes and legal buildings.

Speaking at NPC

I've been invited to speak at the National Pastors Convention in San Diego next February.
Here's their blog post announcing it. Dang. Humbling company.

More NPC 2009 Speakers!

Bill Hybels
John Burke
Leighton Ford
David Kinnaman
Gabe Lyons
Mark Riddle
William Webb

Link
and here's the link the whole list of speakers so far.

Full Plate

Things that I need to give attention to this week:
- Riddle Group (working with 4 different churches this week)
- New Church (impossibly long list of things to do)
- Writing - (Editing the second book is underway)
- Emergent Cohort (organization of)
-Family Stuff
What am I forgetting?

When moving toward Jesus, moves you away from the church

I sent this out to the team of folks who pray for me this morning.

Yesterday I was talking to a new friend. We’ll call him Tom. Tom and I have know each other since the beginning of the year and I’ve often heard him talk about God, he’s generally working with someone else when I see him, so we rarely get to talk by ourselves. For some reason yesterday I asked if he went to a specific church here in Tulsa. He said, “I used to. Not anymore. We don’t go anywhere. It’s been an intentional decision for me and my family. It’s been hard and I think about my kids and what it means for them all the time. But I take God too seriously.” I told him I understood where he was coming from and he continued. Some people have told me that I’m being rebellious and I occasionally feel guilty for not going. But that’s not God telling me that.”

Tom is a smart guy. When I share this you might think he’s being rebellious, or arrogant, or my emerging friends might say he needs community to understand God. You all may be right.

But we have something to learn from Tom. You and I both. And there are a lot of Tom’s I keep running into my friends.

What do we do when people in the church essentially say, “A move away from the church, is a move toward Jesus.”

I think I know, and guy's like Tom are one more reason we're starting a community who will live with a different rhythm than the status quo.

Can you relate to Tom? I really do want to hear from you....

Have you seen this?

Shapevine Pretty cool stuff.

Exciting Day and I'm tired

I woke up this morning and caught a plane to Dallas to meet with Mark Matlock and David Welch of Wisdom Works. It was a productive meeting about the future or both our organizations. Lot's of potential and I'm excited about what it holds for us. We're developing two consultant training modules that will be really exciting for veteran youth workers looking to make a difference in their part of the world. It's something I've been hoping to do for quite a while and has a lot of potential for supporting youth pastors and local churches around the country. Mark and David are super sharp guys and I'm humbled to get to work with them. more later.. (But if you are interested ... let me know)

anyway I'm tired. My 8:00pm flight is delayed until 10:45pm. ugh! I'm tired and not feeling 100% and I'm ready to be back in Tulsa.

Jesus is my Boyfriend

Here's a video of Matt Redman in a very candid interview on worship and writing worship songs. I like the fact that he's hoping for people to start thinking more about what they are singing.

We See What We Look For

Watch this Video

We see what we are looking for, don't we. Whether it be in presidential candidates or each other. It's more convenient to see people how we want to, rather than see what's actually there.

A Temporary New Look for the Blog

Over the next few months I'm going to be reorganizing my presence on the web.
The blog address should stay the same, but the look will change.
I'm overhauling theRiddleGroup.com site and adding two additional sites. One site dedicated to my new book, "Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors" another that is a hub for me (markriddle.net) Sometime in January I'll likely put up a new site for my other book that will be released in Sept. 2009. Oh, and I'll be developing a site for the new church we've started here in Tulsa. Ok. So I've got some work to do.

For folks who read the blog, nothing should change except the look and few more links on the side.

I'm hoping not to overwhelm folks with Book Release stuff when they come out, but rather point them to the book site. It's probably just me, but it bugs me when bloggers pimp there book every single day, every single time they post.

anyway. the new look is temporary and mainly so you can comment with ease. so feel free to comment!

How well does your Pastor define you?

Barack Obama's former pastor in Chicago is in the news and folks on the right side of the political spectrum are using it against Barack. The pastor has said some pretty bold, and an occassionally unbelievable things. But then what pastor hasn't said something crazy really?

It makes me wonder a few things:
first- video outside the context of the church is not as helpful as we hope it is. The video circulating youtube and the like means something really different to the people in the church in that local community than it does to you and me. We hear it differently. (Don't read this as a defense of what he said, I haven't heard it all. But this is true.)

second - As much as the average Senior Pastor hopes, wishes or believes that his/her congregation believes the same thing they do, it's simply not true. Often, the Senior Pastor is tolerated, while the real richness of the community is what engages people. this certainly isn't news to the people in the pews. But it might be to you if you are a Sr Pastor.

Can a person go to a church and regularly disagree with the preacher? abosolutely. it happens every week in your church.

Sister Mary Margret's Memorial Carpet

Steven Levitt of "Freakonomics" fame is discussing how Wisconsin Business school, led by Dean Micheal Knetter has raised $85 million dollars for the school, with the understanding that it will not be named after anyone (including the donors) for 20 years.

My favorite section:

"Apparently, Knetter is now offering a full slate of objects not to name at the business school. For $50,000, you can have a classroom not named after you. For $5,000, you can not have your name on a plaque in the entryway to the building. For those of you with a little less to give, $50 will guarantee that the urinal of your choice will go unnamed. But only for the next 20 years."

There's something here for the church to keep in mind I think as well. Naming buildings, carpets, parlors, hallways etc after folks in our church might feel right, but we should think twice about it. If the church needs a building, raising money so it won't be named after anyone seems like a pretty good idea to me.

Link

Views on Managing Ministry

If you supervise people as a Senior Pastor, a Youth Pastor or in your business chances are you manage one of these ways. Each of these mindsets directs your actions.

Mindset:
Status Quo - "Everything is fine. What we do and the way we do it don't need to change."

Action: Nothing changes, nothing is evaluated, we never look beyond, or outside our current reality. This manager ignores voices for change, because they see no real need for change. They truly believe everything is ok the way it is.


Mindset:
Ministry by Control - "We deliver great ministry, by keeping bad ministry from happening. Great programs, led by great people with mistakes weeded out before we start."

Action:

Folks with this mindset are micromanagers. They seek perfect ministry and mistake free programs as the way to effectively minister. This mindset drives them to control the process down the smallest details. If it's a pastor, he gives the go ahead for each song the youth pastor wants to sing, gives the thumbs up or down for the topics that will be discussed. Additionally, these folks drive people away, but never are able to see that they are part of the problem.

Mindset:
Ministry by Responsive Service - "We will never have a perfect ministry, but we will do what ever our people want and need from us."

Action:
Ministers who work like this may not be organized, but they make up for it in pleasing people. Mistakes will happen and while striving to make a congregation happy, he/she may also loose the trust of the staff they are leading. The action leads them in many directions at once and causes them to be reactionary. Staff view this as trying to follow the wind and they view it as unsafe. No one wants to work for someone who wants to make other people happy at a staff persons expense. (or the visions)


Mindset:
Ministry thru a better process - "We will establish objective tools to more efficiently develop a consistant desired outcome with as few variations as possible."

Action: This is a popular approach by progressive churches who hire business folks to lead them. Large churches, especially multi-site churches do this so that ministry is uniform, effecient and that each venue, or expression is consistent with the home church. While these ministers/leaders can make changes on a dime, and have consistent product (usually what they are hoping for) it means they have little use for context, and input from those further down the line. The product is king, and people become carefully screened and selected cogs in a machine to produce the product. People who work in these environments may love being a part of the energy the church, but tire fo not being valued as a human being.

Mindset:
Total Ministry - Ministry is the transformation in the way we think, work, live and minister together and is a reflection of what we value, how we reward (or discourage) and how we measure what successful ministry is.

Action:
What do you think the action is for this mindset?

Twas the Day before the Diet

Twas the day before I started eating better
Superbowl Sunday to be exact,
when Mike brought over the 10 lb snack.
Custom baked bun.
Smoke and grilled to perfection
A larger burger than I could ever imagine.
And it was tasty.

Stephen Colbert on Evil

Stephen Colbert has the money quote of the day. It's the last thing he says to his guest at the end of the clip and how he teaches sunday school. But there's a word he uses I won't use here so go there and see it. It's a good interview.

Link

Hiring for the Future

Hiring a youth pastor to lead a program as it has always been done is not the way to the future. Chances are the for your church's youth ministry to work, it will make you uncomfortable. I might even venture to say, that if you are a church leader and your youth ministry feels nice and comfortable to you, then it's not reaching it's potential.

Tuesday and a trip to OKC

After arriving around 7pm from Atlanta on Friday night, I left for OKC early Tuesday morning.

I scheduled two phone calls during my 90 minute drive and return a few others.
Once in OKC I stopped into Panera and checked my mail, then responded to a few emails.
At 11:30 I met my long time friend John Gilstrap from Church of the Servant in north Oklahoma City. He's the Student Pastor there, and is currently beginning a search for a Junior High Pastor. Church of the Servant is rediscovering itself and it's refreshing to sit across the table from a youth pastor committed to a particular people, regardless of how fast, or slow change happens.

At 1:15 I met with Mark McAdow, Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church of Oklahoma City. FUMC is looking for a youth pastor also, or they will be in the future. Mark is a true pastor. He's committed to loving people. It's always good for me to be around him. In a precious life I was on staff with Mark at Asbury in Tulsa. I think the Riddle Group could really support the dreams and heart of Mark and First Church... we'll see.

From 2:30pm to 5:15 I added some tasks to my list so I could get them out of my head, sent some email and blogged a bit, but mostly I prepped for my meeting with the Student Leadership Team of Westmoore Community Church in south OKC. By the way WCC's sermon series always make me chuckle (in a good way). Their LCD sign out front says, "Victorious Secret" nice.

6:00pm - I met with the Student Leadership team (a totally volunteer team) who have been leading and expanding the youth ministry for about a year and a half.

We broke early and I headed for home at 9:30.
On the drive home I spent 60 minutes on the phone with David Welch from YS.

Home.
No more travel for about a week!

6:00pm

Andy has caught on

My friend Wade went to Catalyst this past October and sent me the following notes from Andy Stanley's talk to pastors in the room. It's nice to hear people like Andy catch on to systems thinking, or at least to finally be talking publically about it. This was Andy's final address to the people of Catalyst.

Here are the notes:

Liberating Your Organization – Creating a Leadership-Friendly Culture.

The bottom line … it’s all about developing, implementing, and improving systems to affect change in your organization. Here’s much of the content from Andy’s discussion:

Introduction

1. There are organizational systems that are conducive to ministry and organizational systems that impede ministry.

2. There are organizational systems that free leaders to lead and organizational systems that obstruct leaders.

3. Defined: Systems are your organization’s approach to getting things done.

I. Systems create behaviors.

A. Examples: Family vs. Student Ministry, Marriage vs. Marriage Series, Western vs. Middle Eastern

B. The systems you inherit, adopt, or create will eventually impact what staff and volunteers do.

C. Examples: Anytime you hear, “Well, our people just won’t …” you are listening to someone who doesn’t understand the influence and importance of systems.

D. Components of a system: 1) Expectations/Rules, 2) Rewards (or lack of), 3) Consequences (or lack of), 4) Communication (content and style), 5) Behavior or Behavior Patterns (of those in charge)

E. Systems have a greater impact on organizational culture than do mission statements. This principle explains why it is so difficult to transition an organization. If a new leader casts a new vision and never addresses old systems, nothing changes.

II. The NT does not present us with a comprehensive system or model.

A. In the NT we discover what the early church did. The NT does not lay out a comprehensive plan instructing church leaders what to do.

B. Always differentiate between what is pre-scripture and what is de-scriptive.

C. The NT and OT do offer some principles that should be integrated into our systems. 1)Delegation: Acts 6/Exodus 18, 2) Accountability: Acts 15, 3) Authority: Romans 13, 4) Interdependence: Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts, 5) Point Leadership: Modeled in OT and NT, 6) Seeking council: Proverbs, Acts 15

III. Systems Imperatives

A. Your system should allow you to involve and hire the best person for the job.

B. Your system should provide you with the flexibility to get the right people to the table to make a decision.

C. Your system should allow you to make complex decisions within the context of a small group of empowered individuals.

D. Your system should ensure that only one person answers to “they.”

Andy concluded with a recommendation to:
1. List the 3 behaviors you want from your staff.
2. List what you're doing to encourage these behaviors.
3. List what you're doing to encourage the opposite of these behaviors.

Systems thinking … it’s the key to improving the effectiveness of your ministry.

Intro to Ikon - Not your typical church's welcome

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for joining us this evening at our intimate, humble gathering. Take a seat, make yourselves comfortable and prepare yourselves. Tonight we would like to share a secret with you, a sacred secret that must be kept strictly between us.To be honest it is a secret which cannot be told, for it cannot be understood or even experienced, but only birthed within us and lived through us. Nonetheless this evening is a futile but necessary attempt to place this sacred secret into some kind of language, for language is the only messenger we know, fallen angel though it may be.

My first encounter with this secret occurred a number of years ago while I was walking home, late one evening. As I weaved my way through the half-dead trees that inhabited a piece of wasteland connecting my origin to my destination I heard an inner voice calling my name. I stood still and listened intently to what I took to be nothing less than the solemn, silent voice of God. As I stood there, rooted to the ground, God spoke to me, repeating four simple words, “I do not exist”

“I do not exist”? What could this possibly mean?

One thing for sure was that this was not a simple atheism, for it was God who was claiming God’s non-existence. In that wasteland I was confronted with something different, I was confronted with the erasure of God by none other than God. I was confronted with the idea that, while God may not be something, that did not imply that God was nothing.

Up until then I had considered God to be just one more thing in the world, albeit the greatest. But after this event I wondered whether this was an inappropriate way of approaching God. Perhaps God ought not to be thought of as an object in the world but rather as that which transforms my interaction with all objects in the world.

What if I was being taught that every time I affirm God I simultaneously affirm something less than God? What if this God I affirm is always a delusion formed from the materials of my imagination and desires? What if one of the steps toward God rests upon a rejection of God? And thus what if God ought to be thought of, not as that which I affirm but rather as the event which causes me to make the affirmation in the first place?

And so I began to wonder if it was possible to think of God otherwise than being and nothing… to think of God as speaking, as happening, as an event, as life but not as an object. To approach the God beyond, behind and before God.

If this is the case then God ought not to be thought of as the patch of Meaning which covers over the wound of our unknowing… God is the wound itself, the wound which inspires the industries that make the patch. If this is the case then God is not to be located in the fabric of our beliefs but rather as the holes within the fabric. We must cloth ourselves in our creeds for they shelter us but these creedal garments, if we are to truly honour them, must eternally be allowed to unravel and be reformed, for they testify to God, not by the reification of their words, but by their kinetic, fluid life.

If this is the case then fidelity to our Creeds and our God will involve betraying them.

We have often thought that the cross we carry is one upon which we must be crucified, that this is the highest call of Christianity… but what if we are asked to go further. What if the cross we carry, like that carried by Simon of Cyrene, is not for ourselves but rather for that which we love more than ourselves. What if the highest call of Christianity involves crucifying our God precisely for the sake of our God?

All that is left for me to do is hand over to the management and say… Welcome to ikon

(Written and preformed by Peter Rollins)

Wink

Counting People in a Room

What if every week the schools in your town, maybe the school your kids attend, announced the total number of kids attending the school. It might look like this.

This week at Elementary PS 101 we had 504 kids and 36 teachers/administrators in attendance! This time last year we at Elementary PS 101 we had 404 kids. That's a lot of growth! We are excited about how well we are educating the kids of the city! Next year we hope to grow 20%! In addition during the past week 189 of the kids raised their hand to respond to a question we asked. Success!

If the schools in your area did this you would laugh at them.

What if the the Walco down the street measured like this? What if their business report went something like this?

On Sunday morning at 11:00am we had 800 people in our store. Some even bought something! That's up from 750 on this time last year!

Business people who measure like this primarily would be fired.

Counting people in the room is a pretty lame way to measure success in the church. Anyone can count people in a room. Getting people in your building is not the same thing as spreading the kingdom. It's just getting people in a room. Anyone can get people in a room and count them.

People in the room may or may not care about what you have to say.
People in a room is a pretty low view of success.

Interestingly enough it is the churches who declare themselves most creative (and maybe they are actually really creative) can't come up with a better way to measure than with attendance figures.


Here's my friendly challenge to these churches. If you really want to pave the way for the church to make a difference in the world, then find a different way to measure and then use that measurement to broadcast your enthusiasm to the world. You are creative. Will you rise to the challenge.

Look, I get it, I know you spend a lot of time and money to get people to show up in the room so you can do the show, but that's not really all that creative in the big picture is it? Rearranging the furniture, maybe, but not a make-over.

If you really want to be innovative rethink measurement.

What you measure is what you value. Show you value life change more than numbers.
Schools value learning.
Businesses value profit.
Churches value the kingdom being built. Will you lead us with something other than numbers?

Why would I want to come to your church?

After you've been in the church for a while it becomes something of a habit. It's just something you do. It's normal. After a while, most of the people you know probably go to church too. It's just something they do.

After a while you know what to expect. Who will say hi and who won't. You know more than faces, you know names and stories that accompany each name. You belong. It's normal. It's natural. It's just something you do and you know how you fit. You know that 6 months ago they changed the 4th grade classroom from the room that actually says, "4th Grade" on it, to an unmarked steel fire door down the hall and around the corner. You know that you need to bring your own Bible, or which book of prayer you need to use or when to refer to the church bulletin. All of this is normal. Even the things that confuse you have become normal. You know how to drink from the cup or to signal dipping the bread. You know that the bread will taste more like styrofoam or a doughy tic-tac. It's normal. It's just what you do.

After a while you are a family. After a while you find deep meaning in worshiping God together. or maybe you don't find meaning in the worship, but you attend out of duty. It's just normal. It's what you should do, so you do it. Some kind of compliance with your parents who may or may not be alive any longer. You do what you do because it's normal. You always have.


But when I show up, none of this is normal. I'm not even sure why I'm here and since this is normal for you, you assume I'm there for the same reasons you are.

I'm not.

I don't know how to dismiss my kids to "children's church" and I'm not really sure what "childrens' church" is. I don't trust you with my kids, so I walk my kid to the 4th Grade class. It's empty. We keep walking and discover another room with a lot of kids in it. This is normal for you. But it's not to me and I'm trusting you less and less each moment.

My kid REALLY doesn't want to walk into a room full of chaos and since I can't find the teacher I make the decision to take him back to the service with me. My mind is racing about my experience and I'm confused by other things happening in the service. All I can think is, this can't be normal. Assuming I don't bail on you after my first week and write off the church thing all-together. (Which is a big assumption that you should not make because in today's world you get one chance to connect with a visiting family. One. ) But let's assume I'm stubborn and I'm willing to overlook the chaos of the children's ministry, the stubbornness of my kids who throw no less than 3 fits during the morning because they don't want to go and don't understand why we are going, to which I have no real response.

Let's say I overcome all that.
Why would I want to come to your church?
Duty won't do it. I'm not going to do something simply because someone tells me I should. That kind of guilt and manipulation won't work for me.

Since I don't know you, feeling like I belong isn't the answer.

I know it's normal for you, but why would anyone come to your church? Really?

If you can't answer that question I'm either going to quit looking for a church, or I'm going somewhere else.

I know this is normal for you. But this isn't normal to me.

Reggie McNeal Conference

A couple folks have asked me to blog more about the Reggie McNeal conference I attended on Monday. I'll do so quickly.

Reggie is a nice guy who likes to undermine his listeners assumptions.

The gist of his message was:
Get out of the church business.
Get into the kingdom business.
God is already out there go join him.
Stop doing ministry/ buildings for yourself, build them for your community.
People will lead you in how to lead them into the kingdom.

Here's what resonated with me but wasn't all that new:
The kingdom is bigger than the church.
The church is out of touch with the world outside it's walls. (ie. my conversation about being unchurched)

Here's what I really wanted to ask Reggie.

How does it feel for you to come in a give a seminar and then afterwards no one really does what you suggest.

The Hidden Secrets to Dialogue and her strange cousins:. Part 4

The Grand-daddy named Generative

Remember Advocacy and Inquiry are the keys to dialogue.

Before I explain what a Generative Dialogue looks like, It's helpful to know that each of us have a natural way in which we engage in conversation. These are the ways in which we have learned to engage the world around us. Observing, Telling, and Asking are all natural means by which different personality types flow, but Generative dialogue is a skill.

1. Politicking: Every cousin has it's dysfunctional side. Politicking is the act of giving the impression of balancing advocacy and inquiry, while being close-minded.

2. Skillful discussion - Balancing advocacy and inquiry really well. (close to dialogue, but not quite) The Skillful discussion participant is genuinely curious about what others think and their reasoning, while also clearly articulating their personal reason explicit. What makes this person great is that they begin to unearth the other persons assumptions without being critical or accusing. This person asks questions and inquires to get at the foundational work done in the other persons mind, not simply for information, but for better understanding.

3. Drumroll please. Finally, it's Dialogue!

Dialogue suspends all assumptions creating a container in which collective thinking can emerge. A dialogue does not mean I give up on all my ideas, opinions and thoughts, but that I'm able to suspend those ideas and the assumptions that support them so that I can engage in collective thinking. Collective thinking is the ability for a group to have a growing conversations that moves all of it's participants forward. It is generative. It is free from agenda, other than the teams purposes. It's free of people simply observing, telling or asking.
It's the wonderful blend of advocacy and inquiry.

Not Best... Better

Transformation doesn't come at once. For individuals, communities or organizations.
For the past 10 years I've heard a lot of folks all of them in churches larger than 3,000 people on any given Sunday, say something like, we want the a World Class Ministry, or we want to be the Best in Class.

These terms have always bugged me for a variety of reasons.
One of them is that churches who struggle to be the "Best" will never arrive. Never.

I think I get what they are saying though... at their heart they are saying they want to be better than they are now. That is the heart of innovation.

Neuralize...

From this site.

Excuse Me While I Single-Handedly Neutralize Al-Qaeda

Alan, in his book, points out that Al-Qaeda is almost impossible to stop. This is, in large part, due to the way the its message works, and the way the work gets carried out. And he's absolutely right.

So, in the service of national defense, I propose the following, in order to effectively neutralize the movement. Let's get Al-Qaeda to...

1) Complexify the message

Right now, it's so simple, it can pass from one to the next, and be easily grasped by the uneducated, the young -- everyone. This is dangerous, because it's highly contagious, and people on the street feel capable of enlisting others in the cause.

2) Construct a less "flat", more hierarchical structure

Currently, small, underground groups can move nimbly and autonomously, complicating efforts to thwart them. A more regimented, stratified approach, where some members are left thinking, "I can't know enough to do anything" would bring the movement to a halt.

3) Foster "expert" culture, and barriers to entry to the expert class

Promote the idea that the message is not only highly complex, but only some can truly understand it. Construct extensive barriers to entry to the presumed expert class. Promote idea that cells lacking a certified member of expert class, it is not equipped to be activated.

4) Focus on knowledge, rather than doing

Complexification and expert-class development will make cells spend immense amounts of time studying the work, even debating theories of the work, rather than doing it. Better yet...

5) Equate STUDYING the work with the work itself

The cells are called to ACT, of course. But if we can convince operatives that the work, itself, is in trying to understand the complexity of the work? They'll be effectively neutered. We need to get them to spend large amounts of time in study, gathering to study, believing they don't know enough, hiring new experts to teach them again and again, and attending teaching events.

They'll actually believe they're doing their work when they attend events held by experts. This will render the cell, and the whole movement, harmless! Convince them that the most radicalized, militant among them are merely called to bring other non-activated members to the cell events.

See the rest of the article here

(thanks to Jim)

Insight from outside

I though this post from Don Johnson was excellent.

I've seen this kind of emerging snootiness before.
If you are a part of an emerging church and someone shows up in a suit, it's an opportunity to welcome them and show them grace. Otherwise you are living the exact opposite of what you've expereince when you show up at the church across the street in shorts.

Oh and by the way... if emerging church is about dressing cool then you are missing the point people.

A Thought

As I read several popular blogs, attend conventions or summits that there is often a similar theme.

If you find just the right technique your church will reach people.

So people blog about technology and say if you use technology just right then you will reach people. Others will say, if you use instruments, if you have great teaching, if you increase your leadership potential, if you do small groups just right... then you will reach people.

Technique.

But I think these folks are wrong.

Technique is only a result of why some churches reach people and other don't.

Some would spiritualize it and say it's only God that reaches people, but frankly that's bogus too. The Holy Spirit may woo people to him, but God uses people reach people. And yes, God works through people and sustains people, but it seems likely a cop-out theologically to say that only God reaches people.

Churches don't reach people because they don't want to.
and
Churches don't reach people because they have puny theology.

but it's not technique.

Technique will come if there is a will and theology to reach people.

The subtle difference between Me and Us and Him

A couple of things have been standing out to me recently as I talk with various church leaders and more recently read other blogs.

First. Everyone is talking about outreach, missions, and service. Some use the term Missional, other simply want their congregations to get beyond themselves.

I've heard a Senior Pastor of a large church in Colorado say, "God is the Author of the Story and he's the main character. You are not." Then he spent the rest of the sermon talking about how each of the individuals can grow in their relationship with God.

I've talked with a kingdom minded Associate Pastor or a different large church who desires people to get beyond themselves and our American Individualistic Faith. But when I talk about the studies the adults of the congregation are doing, they are are studies on "me and God".

I've heard Senior Pastors from across the country drone on and on about leadership, leadership styles, and management priorities which is the church leader equivalent of me and God.

If you want your people to get beyond themselves it's going to take more than you telling them to do so. It's going to take you doing it yourself. It's going to take you talking about something else. Something other than me.

At some point we have to talk about Us and how we follow Christ. But more importantly, we need to start talking about God, his plans for the world and what it means for Us to join him in what he is already doing.

More Bible Study is not the answer.
Telling people they are too self centered is not the answer.
Spending all your time educating people on how to be the church and how they as individuals can follow Christ is not the answer.
More baseball diamonds are not the answer. We don't need any more classes on me.

So if you want your church to get over themselves. Start living into Us and more importantly, in to his plans... not as individuals, but as the people of God.

It might surprise you.

Just a Thought

I was reading a somewhat popular church marketing blog recently which talks often about what hours during the day are the best for advertising on the radio for churches. Advice for churches so they can stay "relevant".

My thought:

If you have to advertise for your congregation it's a good sign that you are irrelevant.

Coaching Day

Today I'm spending the day in one-to-one coaching sessions with the youth workers of Westmoore Community Church. I started this morning at 9:30am and end a bit after 10:00pm. I do this once a month for WCC.
They don't have any youth staff but are making a big difference in the lives of kids in South Oklahoma City. The folks I'm meeting with have said "Yes" to God, though most of them have never lead a team, or been on a team like this before, and even less have any experience working with teens God is honoring their faithfulness. I don't really ask how many kids they have coming to their large program, but it's somewhere in the range of 600. Their program meets 5 weeks on, then 3-4 weeks off. Which defies all conventional thinking and assumptions church leaders have about Momentum.

They are ramping up their Middle school small groups to a new level this fall and starting a student leadership program as well.

Such a fun church to work with. One of my favorite things about this church is that most somewhere around 85% of the people involved in the church didn't attend church anywhere or know Christ before WCC.

Lives are being changed.

These youth workers are dealing with all the issues that come with a group of kids this size. Cutting, drug use, abusive homes, and absent parents all en masse... without a professional youth pastor or any youth staff.

When I sit with these folks, they seem to know the gravity of their responsibility, and the task at hand.

One day they'll hire a youth pastor, but they aren't really looking right now. There is no need to. The church is owing/learning to own the spiritual formation of their kids.

YouVersion - My thoughts

Here's a few thoughts on the new YouVersion of the Bible.

I really don't like the name. I think this will be a hang up for anyone who is a church leader who thinks the world and the church is already self-centered enough. The name may lead them toward the worst case scenarios of what a Bible like this could be.


I really like the potential something like this has for good.
I consider myself to be a technorealist and understand that technology is not neutral. Each new technology brings within it the potential for good and bad. It generally delivers both.

First the Good I think it will bring: I will do what Bobby mentions in his blog post. It will bring a personal narrative to the scripture that has immense potential. Though it will likely draw criticism from those even outside the church as more people suggest their wild interpretations of various texts.

I think more importantly it will give people an opportunity to level the playing field a bit for armchair theologians to engage with experts on what God is telling us. This then provides a platform by which folks from various walks of life can converge to discuss theology.

The Bad: Scripture was written in a particular context with a particular intent. YouVersion will further contribute to the problem of making scripture say what I want it to say to me, because God spoke to me in this verse and told me he wanted to give me a big hug. Frankly, the printing press has already taken done this, which is why I hear more and more pastor saying, we need to take the Bible's away from some people for a while.

It will likely contribute to people taking particular verses out of context with the rest of the text.

I think it's a grand experiment. We'll see if the good outweighs the bad.

I am hopeful that it will.

YouVersion

A week or so ago I had coffee with Bobby Gruenwald of Lifechurch.tv and he told me about what is now named "YouVersion"

This is the Bible with Web 2.0 capabilities.

He explains more here

Here's some of what he says:

"Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450. Four years later, he printed the first copy of the Bible using this new moveable type system. This accomplishment began what is known as “The Age of the Printed Book.” Over the following centuries, this technological advancement revolutionized the surrounding culture by making it possible for the Bible to be accessible to nearly everyone.

Currently, we are in the beginning of another revolution that is defined by the ability for almost anyone to publish content and quickly distribute it worldwide using the Internet. This revolution is at the center of what is called “Web 2.0.”

At LifeChurch.tv, we are working on several initiatives to leverage this revolution in our effort to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. Today, we are revealing one of the most significant and far reaching of those projects:

We’d like to introduce you to YouVersion.

YouVersion is a free online Bible that allows users to associate video, audio, images, text, tags, and links to other websites with any verse or series of verses in the Bible. Each piece of contributed content can be labeled as public or private, so the application can be used both as a personal study tool and a public expression of user-generated commentary. In addition to contributing content, Scripture can be organized by assigning user-defined “tags” to any verse of the Bible.

For users who are skeptical about whether the Bible has application for their lives, YouVersion provides a platform to learn from the experiences and perspectives of others from around the world in a non-threatening and easily navigated environment."


My thoughts in the next post