• A terrestrial calling

    “You’re crazy enough to change the world.” 

    Those were prophetic words spoken to me by an elder who wasn’t happy with me. Trust me, he didn’t mean that as a compliment. He said that because I was royally screwing up his country club. His nice little church who loved their closed circle of friends and hid behind and glass walled lie of, “We just want to protect our kids from the world” had been exposed to the realities of some radical transformation that can occur when you challenge students to read God’s Word uninterpretted.

    “What does a plain reading of this tell you to do?” 

    As I taught middle school and high school students how to do  that in a Christian school and the church that hosted it, kids started asking questions that freaked their parents out. And those freaked out parents called the elders. And the elders told me to stop teaching like that.

    Before you can change the world, you better change your block

    This has been a turn in my understanding of that phrase, of late. I can point to specific things that happen in my world and say, “Yes, I had a hand in impacting that. Those things have changed because of my being here.”

    But my conviction is becoming that none of that matters if I don’t love my neighbors enough to help them discover the truths that those middle school and high school students discovered way back when. If I don’t love my neighbors enough to royally mess up their lives by introducing Jesus’ insurrection of the heart, I say I love my neighbors but I really don’t.

    That’s my terrestrial calling. I can think and dream in planetary terms. But in reality? My calling is really, really local.

  • Hard work or working hard?

    We all work hard.

    I can’t think of the last time I met a pastor who was truly lazy.

    Instead, what I most often see, and what took me years to get past…

    I have a tendency to replace hard work with working hard.

    In other words, if I have some hard work to do in my life, things like:

    • Maybe I know I need to invest in a relationship I don’t want to invest in.
    • Maybe I need to repair a relationship I’ve busted.
    • Maybe I need to make a hard decision that will be unpopular.
    • Maybe I need to turn someone away.
    • Or turn down a proposal.
    • Or walk away from something I love.

    In those times, I try real hard to escape the hard work by working real hard.

    I can fill my calendar like a champ. I can make myself look really busy. And I can work really, really hard from dawn until way past midnight.

    But I think God’s revealed to me that I most often do that when I’m avoiding hard work in my life.

    It’s easy to confuse the two because the words are so similar. But one is noble while the other is ignoble.

    Question: What are stop-gap measures for this that have worked for you?

  • Do I have a vision problem?

    visionless: it is my claim that this is the most attractive but most insidious yeast undermining religious communities. Vision has a devious way of focusing our attention outside of ourselves to some lofty external goal, rather than keeping ourselves committed to love and service in the community, then as a result beyond the immediate community by the outpouring of the overflow. Jesus’ vision, if it could be said he had any vision at all, was to die… to hand himself over to the authorities, etc. Any other vision than the vision to be willing to die is one that decides who can play and who cannot for the longevity of the vision and it’s crafters. It defines the shape and nature of the community and the people within it, often with violence against the natural goodness and innate spirituality of its people. It is vision that eventually and inevitably changes an institution into stone.

    source

    Lately, I’ve been chewing on David Hayward’s work on becoming visionless. (His book on the subject)

    In so many ways this concept deeply resonates with my experience. And in so many ways it deeply offends my experience.

    On the one hand, my own words would argue that if you don’t have a clearly defined vision for yourself you’ll be paralyzed by your inability to say no to good/bad things that come your way. Vision permits lazer-like focus.

    On the other hand, I’m haunted by the reality that often times I’m saying no to things that are close to me, forsaking the organic opportunity for one cultivated in alignment with my vision.

    In my mind vision allows me to filter. That’s why David’s words are annoying me so much. Who am I to try to put a filter on what God puts right before me? Who am I to forsake the organic for the cultivated? 

    Question: What would your life look like if you were to reorientate yourself around Hayward’s words above. (Put aside your ability to disagree with him, just imagine what your life would be like if this were true and it became a guide. How would yourlife change?)

  • OK, let’s keep it a little less real

    A few thoughts:

    • I’m guessing this didn’t go on his eHarmony profile?
    • There is some legitimate skill involved here. Riding a unicycle while playing the bagpipes in a Vader costume? Skillz.
    • YouTube was made for these types of skills. I’m just not sure what it says about our society.
    • There’s a geek in all of us.
    • We have a couple slots for art & talents at The Summit. I wonder if we can book him?

  • The Hopeful Lean

    He leaned across the table and told me a secret in a hushed tone. “This neighbor loving neighbors thing. It really works. It’s incredible!”

    He then went on and talked about all the things that are going on in his neighborhood.

    Over the past months I’ve had several conversations that essentially went the same way. I hang out with a former youth worker, a person like me, who left full-time ministry on some sort of a quest to find their first love, ministry. And that position they take when they lean across the table? I call that position HOPE. 

    With excited hushed tones they start talking about what happened when they gave up the podium.

    • They stopped talking and started listening.
    • They stopped looking for their next illustration and started noticing what was going on.
    • And they got involved. And it lead to more cool things. And now Good News is on fire on their block.

    This life reorientation is disorienting at first. It causes them to lose their balance and go through a period of questioning, often times slipping into a period of depression.

    And what they find in that dark place of self-reflection is that they live in a neighborhood. There are people, often just like them, living next door. And this newfound disequilibrium causes them to be open to something they never were before… listening to what God wants them to do… regardless of if their church is behind it or not.

    That was funny to write. That people who have spent decades working at churches started to listen to what God wanted of them only after leaving their church work. And I’m sure that some may take offense at that. All I mean is that these folks feel free to listen to God’s voice in a different way, not through the filter of leadership, but with a more simple posture, “Lord, what will you have for me to do?”

    And almost universally the answer to that question involves simply reorienting their life around serving the needs of their block. It’s not a program and it’s not a paycheck. But it’s the ministry they always wanted.

    It Was There All Along

    It’s kind of funny having these conversations. Each of them is unique. With each person finding a new kind of ministry that fits their neighborhood differently. Big smiles emerge as they share this secret they’ve discovered: It was there all along. 

    Hope has a flavor to it. It’s having tasted the bitter root of despair, rejected popular fast-food cynicism, and popped out the other side with a big smile on your face. Hope is like taking an overcooked steak and decided to chop it up and put it on a salad. What was once not-quite-right is now the star of the meal.

    Hope has derivatives. It’s contagious. As one neighbor ventures out of the front-door and meets others, others do likewise. Suddenly, hope spreads down the street. A person shares a garden. A guy cut a neighbors grass when they are sick. A block party pops up. And neighbors begin to slow down and enjoy where they live as opposed to just seeing it as a place to store their stuff and relax between activities. Kids start to play outside again. Kids start to be kids again. Crime goes down. On and on and on.

    All because a family on the block decided to reorient their lives.

    The Bible doesn’t lie. Each of us were created in Christ Jesus to do good works. (Ephesians 2:10) And when we lean into that the rewards are everywhere.

  • A lover and a fighter

    A lover and a fighter

    People look at me sideways a lot. As if to say, “You don’t really get it, do you?” 

    Oh no I get it. Inertia and entropy are hard at work in youth ministry. The weight of this is how we do things and the gravitational pull of this impacted me so it’ll work today are powerful. It’s hard to imagine anything else working better. When you are working so hard it’s hard to step back enough to ponder, “Is my strategy even working? Can I change these trends with small changes? Or do I need a reboot?”

    People look at me weird because I’m a lover and a fighter. It’s easy to leave youth ministry and go into another area of the church. This is why so many youth workers plant churches. It’s not that youth ministry is unfulfilling. It’s that inertia is so strong and leaders don’t think they have the power to turn it around. And all the fighting to innovate into something different is just too difficult. I get it, it’s totally understandable.

    But that’s not me. I love this thing enough to fight for it. And I have a feeling a lot of folks who are reading this are the same way.

    So how do we fight our way forward? 

    Here are a few things I’m learning.

    Jerry Maguire and Martin Luther both got fired

    It’s important to remember this fact. Both Jerry Maguire and Martin Luther wrote manifestos and ignited their own pyre. It might have been the only way to make the changes they needed to see. But that doesn’t mean it is the only way for us to lead the change process. I love manifestos. But the reality is that you don’t need to write one because it’ll probably just get you fired! Instead, live a manifesto!

    Too often I talk to folks who can see the problem and think their only option is something radical. Their youth ministry is reaching almost no one. And the weight of those they are reaching is costing them the freedom to reach others. (You have reached the wrong 1% of the population! Let’s call them the easy 1%.) So they think the best way to create something new is to change everything. Trust me, this almost always gets you fired from a church.

    Soft innovation is the process of intentional incremental adjustments to what you are doing that can increase the productivity for the whole operation. You know those safety triggers on lawn mowers? Those things drive me crazy because I have to hold my hands in a weird position to keep the engine running on the mower. And sometimes I want to leave the engine running while I clear away a stick or ball in the grass. For me, a velcro cable tie is a soft innovation which solves this problem. I can wrap that around the safety so that I can let go of the mower and not have to constantly restart the engine. It increased my productivity, decreased my frustration, and is fairly simple and safe.

    In churches, that’s often the best way to lead the change process.

    Lead experiments, don’t change things

    One thing I’ve learned recently is to not call change, change. It seems silly by positioning things as experiments but I’ve found that people are willing to give it a try. Change feels like high commitment. But an experiment feels like it’s OK to fail. It’s low committal and it makes people feel like they are part of the process as subjects as opposed to victims of change.

    So rather than use a phrase like, “We’re going to change some things around here because we’re stuck in a rut.” I’ve learned I get a better response by saying, “I’d like to try a couple of experiments. Let’s try this for a few weeks and see how it goes.” (Which is absolutely true. If it sucks we’re going to kill it!)

    Open the process to everyone

    Here’s the last thing that I’ve learned as a lover and a fighter. It sucks to fight alone. It’s even stupid to think that you can fight alone for very long. (Actually, if you’re completely alone you’re probably wrong in your hypothesis.)

    I’ve learned that once I create an environment of experimentation, soft innovation, and failing fast… it spurs on new ideas from EVERYONE. And if you really want to unleash an energy bomb in your midst, start empowering these ideas that come to you. The phrase, “OK, let’s try it!” has earned me a thousand smiles and helped me discover some really cool stuff I never would have found on my own.

  • Why are YOU here?

    “Next.”

    I walked up to the counter and handed the woman my passport and paperwork. She examined in closely, scanned my passport, and looked over my paperwork.

    30 seconds go by.

    60 seconds go by. She is still clicking on things on her computer. Tension builds.

    “Tell me why you coming to Canada.”

    “I’m speaking at an event.” She types that into her computer.

    “OK… what type of event.” 

    “It’s a retreat for Lutheran church leaders. I’m just here for a couple of days.” 

    “OK… but why are YOU here? Why did they invite YOU to speak?” 

    This went back and forth for about 5 minutes. She would type on her computer and occasionally ask a vague question. I stood there waiting for her to give me my passport back.

    I’ve visited about 30 countries and gone through tons of passport checks. I know that the longer you stand there the worse it is. The first stage is standing at the counter answering questions. Then, if they aren’t satisfied with your answers, they take you and your passport into a side room and ask more questions. And if that doesn’t go well you officially get detained. Time is not your friend. You want this process to go quickly and on this night it wasn’t going quickly.

    In the back of my mind I was trying to figure out why this wasn’t going well. After all, I’m an American and I’m going to Canada for 3 days to speak at a small gathering of Lutheran youth workers. Our countries are friendly. Lots of people travel back and forth for a wide variety of reasons each day. But the longer I stand there the more introspective I get. I’m wondering if my newly renewed passport has an error. I’m kicking myself for checking the “business” box on my declaration. I’m wondering if I have an unpaid parking ticket or something. And I’m wondering if her computer told her that my dad was recently deported from Canada when he made a wrong turn and illegally entered Ontario on his way to a coffee shop. Why DID this group invite me to speak? Yeah, what made ME an expert on those topics? Why didn’t they bring a Canadian to do this?

    Finally, I put on my smile and asked her, “What haven’t I told you that you need to know?”

    She smiled, (always a good sign) and said “I’m trying to figure out if you need a work permit. Is this event open to the public?”

    I described the event to her, that is was just for denominational pastors and wasn’t open to the general public, and 30 seconds later she handed my passport back to me and loudly said, “Next.”

    Why are YOU here?

    Her emphasis has stuck with me. It’s a great question. And a question we all need to wrestle with, no matter what God has called you to do.

    Why are YOU here? Why you? Why not someone else?

    He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

    Ephesians 2:10 The Message

  • Dad’s and Technology

    Yup, we’ve all had a moment like this with our parents.

    How’s your German this morning? 

  • The reasonable middle

    It’s been my experience that really, really wealthy people are a bit nutty. Most people know that even if they’ve never met really, really wealthy people. So we collectively and instinctively know there’s money in the extremes. 

    And it’s these extremes you see people appealing to these days. Appealing to the extremes is always a sign of desperation!

    The vast majority of the population lives in the reasonable middle. Resonate with the middle of the market and you’re as golden as Wal*Mart or as profitable as Apple or as popular as Adele. That’s the middle 70% of the market… the fat part of the bell curve.

    But businesses and political leaders know that they can make a quick buck by appealing to an extreme, where someone with deep pockets will fund them. The logic is that even if their political position or business isn’t good enough to make it with the general population… if you go far enough to one of the crazy extrmemes some billionaire will fund you.

    Dollar Per Person

    It’s a dollar-per-person game. If you appeal to the middle 70% you can get $20 or $30 per person. But if you appeal to a nutty billionaire you can increase that to $5 million per person.

    Oooo….

    That’s why some Christian organizations can be so extreme and survive with so little support. And that’s why a couple of the Republican candidates are still in the race. They aren’t good enough to appeal to the middle, where actual viability is. But if they move far enough to the extremes where a sugar daddy will fund them.

    Unfortunately for the extremes… the middle always wins in the long run. Getting popular always moves you to the middle. Why? Because that’s what most of us are.

    The reasonable middle. 

  • Open Journalism

    So this is how The Guardian, a U.K.-based news entity, would like to see themselves. They are the hero allowing justice to flow through the free and open exchange of information. In their vision The Guardian isn’t necessarily a news agency but rather a conduit by which emerging facts and opinions flow. In their vision, as a conduit for new media, people get the information they need to revolt against the government.

    It’s a very slick commercial. And it’s not a bad vision for a news agency.

    But does anyone really believe that this is who the big players in the news work?