Remember

The exhaused Israeli troops gathered to hear inspired mutterings from the 4 star general. Apart from encouragement he candidly asked them what they biggest concern was. Numerou troops quickly answered the need for more sleep. The general looked confused and said, "Sleep, you need to find time to sleep. I sleep a while in the back of my car while being driven around." The frustrated troops went back to their dorms wondering when they were going to get someone to drive them around so they could sleep a little more. The general had no clue and had forgotten what it was like to live like a grunt- in a world without "drivers."
In ministry, paid staff are like that 4 star general. We can't help it, we're a few levels removed from the life of unpaid ministry volunteers. We forget what it's like to have a life not revolving around church. We forget what it's like to not be committed to a ministry with all of our time and energy. We forget what it's like to not have Christian friends encouraging us towards holiness. We forget or just don't understand. This lack of understanding can cause problems in leading. We come up with a brilliant idea for service and then get frustrated at our small group leaders for not attending our service project. We think to ourselves, "If I could be there, why couldn't they?"
As leaders, we have to acknowledge the fact that we're a few levels removed from the life of those who serve. Then we have to take the time to really understand life from their perspective and service projects from their perspective. When we come up with ideas we think are brilliant, it might be worth it to run those ideas by those they will affect to make sure we're not blind to something the common ministry volunteer sees immediately.

Is Church a Business?

Is the church a business enterprise or a spiritual enterprise? There are two extremes in the church that are equally dangerous. On one extreme, the church is seen as a business. The pastor, as CEO. It believes God has given man wisdom to make decisions- so decisions can lean on the logical side, downplaying "being led by the Spirit." On the other extreme is the spiritualized church. Here, everything is "being led by the spirit." Also, this side only reads Christian books and believe all useful knowledge can be gleamed from the Bible.
I was reading numerous book on small group and got to the point that I said, "If I read one more book that spends most of the time trying to win me over to start a small group and explains why small groups are God's purpose in community, I'm going to throw up." So, I've started to read books in other disciplines to apply knowledge from there to small groups. I've read a few business books recently. I loved them so much! But, I couldn't help myself easily forgetting that church is a spiritual enterprise after reading them. I began to think about all the techniques I could employ to help people to change- to move them in the direction I wanted them to go. I've stopped recently and asked myself, "Is this what church is supposed to be, a place where I use cool logic and techniques to move people to where I want them?" In part I think the answer is yes, as long as I remember that the ultimate goal is not just to move people to make the changes I want, but to bring them into a lively relationship with a real God who really shows up in our life. Also to make them disciples to a real Jesus who asks them to die daily. This is my ultimate goal. If I lose sight of that, then I've forgotten why I'm doing what I'm doing. Someone would just be serving because that's how the process works, instead of an opportunity to meet a real God. We must glean knowledge from research that's done out there on groups, but we also can't lose sight of the reason we're learning new things. It's a tough balance.

Remember what it's like

I read an article recently that I found challenging. Do we remember what it's like to be a volunteer at different levels? A guy tells the story of being in the army and how the army worked his butt until it fell right off. Well, one day a general came to encourage the troops and asked how they were doing. They said bad and that they were too tired. He told them that that can find time to sleep and that he sleeps in the back of his car while being driven around. The troops were so angry at how out of touch the general was. The troops aren't driven around and seriously don't have time to sleep- that's what they were telling him.

What would our volunteers tells us if we asked them?
Are we listening to what volunteers are saying or brushing off their thoughts on accident.
How are we doing respecting their time?

Good challenges for me.

The Inevitable Dry Spell.

The Inevitable Dry Spell.

I like to think of myself as a creative person. I am part of the creative team at Common Ground, and I make really low-quality (but still funny) videos in that role. I also come up with silly things to do on Sunday mornings. outside church, I like to write music and poems and essays and whatever else strikes my fancy. However, I often find myself in dry spells, or in the throes of writers' block.

My spiritual side sometimes feels that way, too. Sometimes I am very in tune with what God wants from me (or at least I feel like I am), and sometimes I feel like I am going through the motions. My faith doesn't flag, but my passion is dryer. But, what's crazy is that I just keep going.

When it comes to writing, if I have writers' block, I keep writing. When it comes to serving, if I feel disconnected or dry, I just keep serving. And inevitably, the dry feeling goes away. EVERY TIME.

I'm currently feeling some writers' block, hence the long absence from blogging, but I'm just writing to write, and starting this post with no agenda, I now know to add one more thing to my considerable list of things to teach about and that's even though your passion may flag, God's does not, so if you keep serving, you will encounter him.

Feeling like an insider

I'm not sure if this has a specific application. But, I've been working at Starbucks for the past 2 weeks as a part-time job. I haven't liked it at all. I haven't felt connected to the store and have felt like an outsider- and haven't felt cared for.

Well, tonight I worked with the manager for an entire shift. It was my first time since I started working at this Starbucks. I was surprised that I suddenly felt more connected to the store. My theory is that it was primarily b/c I worked with the manager and I felt like I got to know her better and felt like she got to see a little more who I was. It made me feel cared for. I just found this interesting.

I'm not sure that there's any leadership lesson or church lesson. The only thing I could think of is, as a leader, people will naturally feel more connected to what I do by feeling more connected to me. So, it's at least worth being aware of that. Just something I was thinking about tonight.

Critique.

Everyone's a critic with big long fingers that point out flaws with the greatest of ease. I appreciate these people sometimes. They are the ones that open my eyes and heart. They show me where I can improve and close the gap between where I am and where I want to be. I think churches need to invite criticism to some extent, but where is the line?

It always seems to me that so many critics have no desire to get their hands dirty and make any changes themselves. At work or at church or at home, it is so easy to say there is something that is less than perfect, but if you aren't willing to sacrifice time to help make it perfect or to teach me how I can make it more perfect, then don't get mad if your criticism is ignored. If you talk to me about something someone else is doing in a less than perfect way, don't be surprised if it falls on deaf ears. The truth is that I don't want to hear it. That is a slippery slope into a mud pit of gossip and misinformation. The reality of things is often that things aren't perfect because there aren't enough hands to craft a perfect product or gossip has undercut the foundation of trust required to make a perfect product. It is my opinion that if you aren't willing to be constructive if even in the providing ideas and alternatives to the status quo, then your criticism isn't helpful. It is only a chisel nicking away at what apparently is already a shaky foundation.

This is why I'm sick of reading editorials in newspapers and why I don't subscribe to half the number of blogs I used to. My challenge is how does church leadership inspire a system or gracefully inform people that criticism is always welcome so long as it is intended to be constructive and aimed at improvement rather than undermining and focused on creating division?

In a World of Information

If there is one thing I notice the church realizes and is trying to work on is information overload. Americans get too much info. Yahoo is my homepage. I look down over the homepage, read the head lines and that's where I get most of my news. Sometimes I click on an article and read half of it- sometimes not. And I probably remember none of it. Sometimes I'll watch t.v. while looking on the internet- I wonder how much information I've been given in a 30 minute time span. I think the church sees there's a problem.

We can either A. Compete and try to put more info out there. Or B. Find a different approach.

Dallas Willard said, "We have counted on preaching, teaching, and knowledge or information to form faith in the hearer and have counted on faith to form the inner life and outward behavior of the Christian." He notes that we've used the concept of give people info and they'll go do it as our mode of spiritual transformation in the church. He doesn't think that's working, especially in our world of info overload today.

Another book I'm reading called, "The Big Idea," talks a lot about how we need to simplify what we tell people. The author talks of one pastor in South America who preaches the same sermon over and over until he feels his people put it into action. The author's church come up with one big idea for a sermon series and then every part of the church works around that idea- small groups, kids stuff, worship, etc.

Simplicity is in. Another book called, Simple Church talks about how church needs to simplify down to be as basic as possible. I think that instead of the church competing for our attention, maybe we do need to streamline and try to make everything more simple. Give every sermon one clear point- find ways to make it easily applicable. Make the church easily accessible for anyone. I'm not quite sure all the ways to do this, but I know that when you have a contemplative theologian like Dallas Willard and a cool church on the edge guy like the author of "Big Idea" and "Simple Church" saying the same thing, you need to listen.