10ST - Promoting Talent Over Integrity

10ST is an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.

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Marking the mid-point of our excursion through 10 Stupid Things is the promotion of talent before the reinforcement of integrity. Short version: if you make a habit of ignoring character flaws in the people you're working with, you'll cripple your ministry.

Late Catalyst West Follow Up Pt. 2

I was hoping to get these done while I was out there at the end of each day, but my roommates were just so adamant about sleep that I felt like I should turn off my computer and go to bed, so... Oh well. Seriously, we had some great discussion and I didn't want to sacrifice that in order to write stuff down here. "You can't fake presence." (one of Erwin McManus' statements) was definitely in play. So, the following are some thoughts from Thursday's sessions:

Andy Stanley opened the morning with some thoughts about leading in uncertain times. His main idea is that uncertainty is why we need leaders. If everyone in the church is certain about where we're headed and how to get there, then we don't really need leaders. It's in those times of uncertainty that God shows up and brings leaders to the surface. I wondered, as he spoke, "Why do so many in leadership positions spend so much effort trying to eliminate uncertainty?"

As I think about this more, I recognize that not all in positions of leadership are truly leading. Also, there is a ton of leadership that happens outside the constructs of our leadership structures.

"It's ok to be uncertain - but not ok to be unclear." We need to be clear about the vision for our ministries. What is it that God has called us to do? What was that first spark that started the fire of leadership in our lives? "We'll never be more than 80% certain." None of us knows how every little thing will unfold, so we need to be sure to keep track of that anchor that is the original vision and keep moving forward into uncertainty. (I'm just remembering some great thoughts from Leonard Sweet's AquaChurch about using anchors to move forward and even change direction; they're not just about keeping the ship in the same place.)

"Many churches are dead because they've long ago abandoned the vision and fallen in love with their plans." When a church loses sight of why they started a particular project in the first place, that project loses a great deal of value. We need to be flexible with our plans as we stick to the vision.

The second speaker of the day was Guy Kawasaki. Rodd and Jimmy are both Macboys, so the man-crush vibe was a little strong, but he was really fun to listen to and had a lot of great stuff to say about the art of innovation. His thoughts about putting out a version 1.0 were especially helpful to hear. Sometimes, "Don't worry - be Crappy..." should be our motto. Put some wheels on the idea, get it going, get it out there, then fine-tune and fix it. Some of his stories of the early mac-days particularly flesh this idea out. He called one of the products they were shipping when Mac was first growing out of Apple a "revolutionary piece of crap", but they made exponential progress when they tweaked on great ideas "with elements of crapiness to them".

In the next session, Jud Wilhite talked about how our distorted self image need to be replaced with God's image. We need to live out of God's view of who we are: We are loved. We are chosen. We are part of a plan. Ravi Zacharias followed Jud's reminder of who we are with some thoughts about the pillars that should define our lives: Eternity, Morality, Accountability, and Charity. Ravi is a great thinker and communicator. "You can mess around with infrastructure, but the foundation must have integrity."

The last session of the night was the Aussie session. Brian Houston of Hillsong Church spoke about the church as the house of God. This is a guy who is madly in love with the church of Jesus Christ! I think he could make people want to get up and go be the church, even if they don't know what that means yet. A haunting question he asked, though - "If they can't flourish, why would they stay planted?" If people can't grow and develop and live life that is really life in our ministries, why would they stay?

Nick Vujicic spoke after Brian and talked about believing in the greatness of God. This was one of the recurring themes that hit me during the week. "I'd be dishonoring God if I didn't live my life believing I can change the world." I have to admit, I haven't been thinking of myself in those terms lately. I used to. I used to all the time. But lately I've just been 'getting ready for Wednesday' or 'working on stuff' or 'planning stuff'... I want to go back to 'changing the world'. God is big enough!

"An excuse is a skin of reason stuffed with lies." A notable quote from Nick. How many times do we stop short of God's vision for our lives because of excuses? There may be a covering of reason (good stewardship, not offending people, can't afford to lose members, avoid the controversy...on and on) but within the reason, is the lie: "it's not worth it." Hey, if you're not changing the world I guess it's not worth it, but if the struggle is into God's vision, it's worth giving everything. Nick is definitely not buying the lie and is changing the world - without arms and legs. He was born without them.

We need to stop making excuses.
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Sorry this is a bit long, and the shotgun method may not be the best, but I wanted to get some of this on here while it's still fresh. Oh, the free Chick-Fil-A was awesome at lunch and Claim Jumper for dinner was a great choice by Rodd!

I Saw Jesus at Wal-Mart

I want my students to go beyond a mild-mannered exploration of their parents' religious bent, so I'm talking for a few weeks about the question, "What does it mean to be a Christian?"  Just wanting the students to know they need to dig deeper than they can go with a few spoonfulls of Sunday sugar.  They need to aim a little higher than "faithful attender".

Last week, we talked about how being a Christian means we care about people.  Matthew 25 even shows Jesus equating how we treat the poor, hungry, imprisoned... with how we treat him.

Today as I was at Wal-Mart picking up some stuff for the office, I saw a perfect example of someone with a faith that means something.  A faith that has translated itself into caring about someone else.  It was a college student I know.  She saw a lady in a wheelchair trying to push a cart.  This was an older lady, not very physically proficient...  She had one foot which seemed to be pretty much under control that she used to push herself - one step at a time, while she pushed a cart and tried to steer her wheelchair with her hands.  

When I first saw them, my assumption was that my college friend had found some part time employment helping this elderly lady with her errands.  The truth is that she just happened to see her struggling and wanted to do something to help.  I was really encouraged by seeing her in action.  It was Jesus I was watching care for this lady.  I can't imagine how she would have done on her own - though she emphasized to both of us that she could manage if she had too (she seemed as grateful for the company as for the help).

How many times do we wander through our day, not noticing those who struggle all around us?  How many times do we turn a blind eye and walk by on the other side of the road - away from somone who needs us?  It's not a chore to help someone else - it is an act of worship to the one who created us.  It's an act of emulation of the one who left heaven to beat down the gates of hell.  It's time to wake up and live the faith we claim to hold.

Being Known

I've not posted much of anything lately. And the little bit that I have written here recently has been way on the 'lighter' side of content ~ I mean, "greener" bombs??? Come on...

It's not that I haven't had anything to say. I've actually had quite a few things that I wanted to write about lately (working with a summer intern, fixing my race car, visiting the art gallery, reading Dostoyevsky, new music, moments with students...). But whenever I begin to actually put the words together, I find myself insanely filtering what I want to say. Then I decide this distilled, nuetralized (or is neutered?) version of what's on my mind isn't really worth saying anyway. So I delete it and move on to something else.

(I'm fighting with myself right now even ~ finish the post or filter it then scrap it? I'll keep going and see what happens...)

I think this may just be a part of my tendency to question everything - especially myself. In that case, I'll just keep digging for answers, writing and deleting my way along. But it also may be some fear of something outside of me, looking into the part of me I put on display, and deciding they don't like what they see. When I started this blog, I was feeling pretty secure. I knew if anyone had a problem with what they found here, we could deal with it together. I had a confidence in what I had to say, even when difficult issues led me to say things I knew people didn't want to hear. I was known. I knew myself and felt like I was on firm enough footing to defend if I needed to.

I feel like all of that is missing now. I'm not known. I don't want to say what people who don't know me don't want to hear. (We're not very nice to people we don't know when they say things we don't want to hear, are we?) I feel like Jeremiah maybe, with a message to deliver that I don't really want to. But he couldn't keep it in, and I'm sure I can't either...

Not that I'm trying to stifle the message of God for the sake of my own security. Or maybe that's exactly what it is. Maybe I know deep inside that the masses of consumer christians don't want to hear the call to create and produce something in keeping with the faith they claim. Maybe I know within my soul that the herds will always value conformity above true beauty. Maybe I've just been listenning to too much Coldplay...

The Many, The Few

An e-mail I recently received contained this quote from Thomas a Kempis,

"There will always be many who will love Christ’s heavenly kingdom, but few who will bear his cross.
Jesus has many who desire consolation, but few who care for adversity.
He finds many to share his table, but few will join him in fasting.
Many are eager to be happy with him; few wish to suffer anything for him….
Many are awed by his miracles, few accept the shame of his cross."

I'm reminded of Solomon's statement that there's nothing new. This could have as accurately been written today as it was in the 15th Century. It seems the modern fascination with having all the blessings of God without actually taking up my/your own cross has been around a long time.

We've made the cross ornamental, when it should be a core identifier of who and whose we are.
We've turned it into a decoration to hang on our walls, instead of the self-sacrificing Way that we follow.
We've reduced the cross to jewelry.

He deserves better. If we are going to wear His name, we're going to have to pick up our cross. We're going to have to actually die to ourselves and live with a willingness to suffer for His sake.

Sacrifice?

I was thinking about Ananias and Saphira this morning.

I don't know why, I just was...

People in the church who had a lot were noticing that other people didn't have much at all, so they began to sell what they had, giving the money to the apostles to use to help whoever needed it. It's awesome to see people sacrificing what they have for the benefit of someone else. I think it looks a lot like Jesus, who even though He was God "made Himself nothing" for the benefit of mankind.

We're not given a lot of details as to how the plot unfolded, but what what we do know is that Ananias and his wife sold some property and brought money to the apostles. A noble act of generosity, but something was not quite right. It seems that they presented their offering as something it was not: they kept back a part but presented it as the whole.

Their deception cost them their lives.

As I thought about these two, I thought about the way we often play church. We come, we do the things we're supposed to do in a worship service, we drop a check in the offering, we sit politely while someone speaks... but are we presenting our offering (I don't just mean the check) as something it is not? Are we keeping back parts, while letting people think we're giving the whole?

Later in the morning, (I wasn't thinking about Ananias and Saphira and keeping up appearances anymore) I read through the book of Malachi (and my thoughts returned to the 'less-than-wholehearted' motiff). Malachi had some pretty harsh words to deliver to the leaders of God's people. They were offering blemished sacrifices and God hated it. He didn't want anymore of it.

And I returned again, to wondering how closely we reflect that attitude. "I'll give God what I can give without really sacrificing." "I'll be there, as long as it doesn't take more than an hour or I don't have a softball game to watch or there's not a good football game on or I don't have to work or... (insert your favorite excuse here)" When will we give God ALL? When will the church of consumption die and live a life reflective of Jesus? When will I bring to God a sacrifice that is fitting and pleasing to Him?

Struggling...

A note was found that had been inadvertently left behind by some students the other day. Scribbles back and forth - made to pass the time during a time of worship on Sunday morning. But the content was not just some innocuous bantering back and forth to fend off the boredom. It was sexually explicit declaration of mutual intent between a couple kids.

At this point, I'm not sure exactly who wrote what, but every student in that section has grown up in church. Something is very wrong when someone can spend every week in church for 15 years and be so far from Christ... I know that attendance is not an indicator of any depth whatsoever to relationship with God, but you'd think that somewhere along the way something would have sunk in.

I'm tired of seeing people play the game. Tired of the shiny, happy faces hiding very dark hearts. I am sick of seeing kids and parents keeping up appearances while they trash their own lives. And yet, I know these kids are only pawns in Satan's attempt to derail the church from God's mission. They may be casualties or prisoners, but they are not the enemy. May God illuminate the corners of our lives that have stayed in darkness. May he continue to use me to bring life to dead students...
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An interesting article has popped up on several youth ministry blogs that I've read recently. Learning to Lie shares some interesting sociologic insight gained from recent study into understanding why kids lie. It's interesting to think about this article in the context of the church. Are we inadvertently teaching kids to hide sin by never really exposing our own?

Deadly Viper

"Character isn't a destination, but a journey towards becoming a more whole, fulfilled, and healthy person."

Recently finished reading a fun, but challenging book called Deadly Viper Character Assasins by Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite. Basically the book is a warning to pay attention to your character before the Assasins tear you up. An essential part of being a person of integrity that can stand up under attack is to have someone fighting with you. Mike and Jud have made a commitment to fight for each other - to help the other maintain his own honor.

That kind of relationship is something all of us need, and sadly, few of us have. We may have a lot of business associates, work buddies, or just 'the guys' - but how many of us have real friends who know us well enough to see when we're slipping and love us enough to tell us so? How many of us will dare to be real enough with someone else that we allow them to see the cracks in our lives and the wounds in our souls?

The warning in Deadly Viper is that to fail to do exactly that will likely lead to catastrophic failure of your character. Don't go there. Find someone to help you maintain your integrity. The hope of the book is grace. As much as it is a warning to watch out for life's common pitfalls, it is also an offer of a chance to climb out of the muck you may have found yourself in. Grace. Mistakes. More grace...

I'll probably come back to some of the topics of the book in further blogs, but for now, check out the Deadly Viper Site for more, and get a couple copies of the book for you and a good friend and start today to build the character you need to survive.