I got tense and exhausted just watching this short, but it makes the point. You probably don’t have time to watch it anyway…

This season of life has me a little weary tonight. It is this odd mixture of the thrill of taking part in what we think God has called us to, combined with the constant uncertainty of what exactly that might be.

I wonder how this all worked for Paul as he traveled from city to city. It seems to me that he probably never knew where he might be in a month, only that he would be helping the kingdom of God extend to wherever he was. He longed to go places, and yet God stopped him and sent him elsewhere. Surely he felt this same mixture of weariness and exhilaration swirling through his soul.

I had two encouraging conversations today that only extended some interesting possibilities. That might seem exciting, and it is, but neither yet showed enough to make either a certain option. I was listening to an old Erwin McManus message today where he was talking about sometimes the most Godly thing we can do is simply make a choice, rather than spend so much time trying to decide which is the right one. Unfortunately, the only option we have at this point which has firm possibilities is one we have decided not to pursue. (Dean…don’t panic. I’m not talking about you. )

It seems that God closes some doors to some opportunities for us, but for others, he just leaves the fog ahead of us encouraging us to take a step or two forward at a time. It would almost be nice to have a 90 foot Jesus appear at the foot of my bed tonight…

tortured wonders, by rodney clapp

I ran across this book at Barnes & Noble tonight, and it looks pretty interesting. I didn’t buy it because I have plenty of other books sitting on a shelf waiting to be read, but it definitely made it on my wish list for later. (It appears that it’s not even supposed to be released until tomorrow, but I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.) I read another book by Rodney Clapp several months ago that was recommended to me by Rob Bell. It was called Peculiar People and it’s pretty fantastic — especially if you are trying to think through what the church is meant to look like.

I’ve had a number on conversations in the last few weeks with people regarding what it means to identify yourself as emergent and where I think I fit with that. There are lots of good things the emergent conversation has to say, and much I have learned from it. I, however, don’t particularly feel a need to call myself emergent as it is becoming defined as a movement within the church. (I am aware that emergent hasn’t desired to be considered a movement, but that seems to be happening in larger circles despite their intentions.)

Maggi Dawn had some recent thoughts about this that I think are worth pointing you toward if you are trying to sort out this whole emergening thing and where you fit. I, as she suggests, simply want to be on a journey with the Spirit in order to discover all that God is trying to do in this wonderful creation. If some of the emergent conversation is part of how the Spirit does that in me, that is wonderful, but I pray that none of us ever forgets that we can learn equally from evangelicals, catholics, agnostics, athiests, and even Oakland Raider fans.

Big huge massive thumbs up for Finding Neverland. This movie captures the joy of creativity. The more I have an opportunity to be creative, the more I enjoy life. I’ve been reminded lately that I need to work to exercise my creative muscles, especially in a season of life where I’ve not felt as much opportunity to express myself creatively. This blog has been good just for some output, but still falls far short of what I need to be doing.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

First, Break All the Rules provides a good distinction between managers and leaders. There are a lot of different definitions floating around about these two terms and it confuses the issue. More than anything, I’ve heard that leaders are good because they push things forward, while managers are only capable of maintaining the status quo. Managers are often seen as a level below leaders — as potential leaders who just need to develop their skills a bit more.

Buckingham and Coffman provide a different view that demonstrates the need and value for both. Leaders are those that look outside to evaluate what is going on in the culture around the organization, and through that they seek to pilot the organization in the appropriate direction. Managers are those that look inside the organization. They see the strengths and abilities that those within have to offer and determine how those talents can best be put to use for the benefit of the cause or the organization. As I’m processing this, I have a some (admittedly unfinished and even a bit contradictory?) thoughts on how this translates into the church.

1) It seems to me that we often think the lead pastor of a church should carry both of these roles. We have rolled both of these up into one and call it the gift of leadership. Unfortunately, that means that a pastor is likely to be stronger in one area than the other, so the other will be left lacking. Those within the church that have the opposing perspective might often become frustrated with the “leadership” that their pastor provides because they see this piece missing.

2) Is the gift of leadership described in the NT more like a manager who looks inside or a leader who looks outside? Or does it encompass elements of both? The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament makes this statement about the word translated as leader in Romans 12:8: “According to the context the task of the προϊστάμενοι (leader) is in large measure that of pastoral care, and the emphasis is not on their rank or authority but on their efforts for the eternal salvation of believers.” Admittedly, I fit more in the manager category, so I’m a bit biased, but this and other statements the TDNT makes about this word make it look like the role the Bible defines as leader equals Buckingham’s definition of a manager. It is one who who cares for those within the flock to help them to grow and offer what they have to the body.

3) If #2 is true, then where does Buckinham’s definition of a leader fit. Is it exclusively the role of the Holy Spirit to give future direction to the church? If so, how does the Spirit communicate that? Is it given to one person in a point position, or discerned through a team of people seeking the Spirit together? One could argue that Paul as an individual clearly had a vision and a drive to plant churches. However, he pretty clearly received that mandate through the leadership community in Antioch (Acts 13:1-3). Of course, through the course of his journeys, Paul seemed to receive pretty clear direction as an individual about some of those places he was to go. (Acts 16:6-10).

I see the main role of the pastor as one that fits within Buckingham’s definition of a manger, but operating under and seeking the leadership of the Holy Spirit. He/she is one who shepherds a community of people to move each of them toward growth, health, and fulfillment through using the gifts God has given them. Through the passages above, and life experience, I conclude that the Sprit sets a large vision before a group of people (plant communities of faith), and places a more distinctive direction (where, how, what should this community look like?) into the hearts of the individuals that he has called to pastor those communities. This individual should always receive confirmation from the Spirit through intense disciplines and interaction with others who abide in the Spirit (the discipline of guidance).

Sherri and I recently returned from assessment with a church planting organization called Stadia. It was intense, but insightful. We still don’t know for sure what is next for us, so I’d like to ask for continued prayers from those of you who have been praying for us.

They closed out the assessment with two either/or recommendations for us. First of all, they recommended that we go work for a short time at a recent church plant. They are concerned that I have no experience in a smaller church (I’ve been at a megachurch for the last 11 years), and that it would be good to get a taste of how different it is. Their second recommendation is that we go ahead and plant in the next year. They would support us if we choose to do that as well. We are now trying to determine which direction to go, and that brings us to the second set of circumstances…

Some of you are aware that we have been interested in planting in Austin, TX. Stadia is preparing to do work in that area, but they aren’t ready yet. They perhaps will be in a year or so. My next step is to talk to the regional rep for Stadia to see what some of the immediate opportunities are. So, here are the two options ahead of us:

1. We could go ahead and prepare to plant immediately, which means we would likely launch a church next fall in either Arizona or Southern California. The biggest hurdle to this is that I am done in my current position on December 31, and Stadia wouldn’t be ready for us until March or April, so we would have a few months to cover some living expenses. A good friend, who might not know what he is in for, has graciously offered for us to live with him, so we at least know we have that covered.

2. The second option is to work with Stadia toward a future plant in Austin and find something to do in the meantime. Perhaps we could work with our good friends who are preparing to plant a church in Seattle for a year or two, I could go back to school full time, or maybe something else entirely will emerge.

This will be an interesting holiday season for us, but hopefully one that will help define at least the next few years of our life. If you have any insights or questions for us, please pass them along.

The latest issue of Fast Company has an interesting article about the hierarchy (or lack of) at Gore — the makers of Gore-tex and Elixir guitar strings. Essentially no one has bosses and they believe this allows them to have a more creative environment. For those of you who are asking questions about what some different kinds of leadership could look like, it’s an interesting read.

I’m addicted to The Amazing Race in a rather pathetic sort of way. There is something special about seeing people’s ugliness come out in the world’s most beautiful places. One thing I’ve noticed is that, no matter how ugly the people act, there is always a sense of joy and satisfaction when they are eliminated. They never state that they just wasted how ever many days because they didn’t win the million dollars. Everyone of them talks about how great the experience was. That was never better illustrated than this past week, when one of the Jewish gents who was eliminated said: “It’s about the journey, not the destination.” This is a good example of a Jewish mindset that we often miss in western culture.

It’s too bad we can’t think that way more often. We get bogged down in goals and results. We get so focused on where we need to be or what we need to do, we often fail to enjoy the process of accomplishing it — or even of failing to accomplish it. When we read the Bible this way, it causes us to miss some things. We read it with our results oriented mindset and sometimes miss the point.

John 14 is a clear example of this. Through our western, results-oriented thinking, we have convinced ourselves that Jesus is only talking about getting on the road to heaven through him, but there is so much more in this. Jesus never actually mentions heaven in this passage. He mentions the “Father’s house” in verse 2. There is only one other time Jesus uses this phrase (John 2:16 — It’s in Luke 2:49 as well, but only in English, not in Greek.), and he is clearly referring to the temple. Being in an upper room when he said this, it is very reasonable to assume that they had a wonderful view of the temple which Jesus might have gestured toward even as he said this. The temple represented to them the presence of God himself. I think that his point in this passage is not that he is the way to heaven as a destination, but that through him they (and we) could experience the presence of God on the journey.

As we dig a little further in verse 2, Jesus describes the many rooms or mansions in the Father’s house. The original word for this meant “dwelling places” and is only used one other time in the New Testament. That other time happens to be a few verses down in John 14:23, where Jesus describes how the Father would come and make his dwelling place alongside us! Again, the point is not that we will go see God, but that he is with us even as we are on the journey.

Perhaps we need to think of John 14:6 in a different way. It has often been used to say that Jesus is the only way to get to heaven, but this kind of cheats the passage of its fullest meaning. It is not only that Jesus will show us the correct path to get to God, but that through Jesus, God is on this journey with us. Followers of Jesus would be better off if we quit using John 14:6 as a proof text to show why we are right, and instead, looked for God in everything we are doing along the way. It is not the destination we have that is right, it is the journey we are on.

When I’m on a road trip, I often get obsessed with pushing forward to get where we are going as soon as possible. So much so, that I often miss some of the beautiful scenery and things to do along the way. Wouldn’t it be too bad if we got to the end of this life, and God revealed to us how much we missed?

We had a great week. No details yet, but I can say that a door that was cracked open has opened a bit wider. Please keep praying for clarity and direction for us.

Sherri and I are off on a trip this week. We are in midst of a journey which will determine some direction for our life for the next several years at least, and these next few days should help to bring some clarity to all of it. Your prayers would be appreciated.

I did a little spiffing up around here today. I added images to the list of books I’m reading, and added a list of some of the albums I find myself most commonly listening to right now…

Found the following at Slashdot:

Associated Press profiles Jeremy Jaynes, charged with sending out unsolicited e-mail messages, who just got a 9-year jail term recommendation from the state jury. With the help of 16 ‘high-speed’ lines (Associated Press probably meant T1s) Jaynes would send out 10 million e-mails a day. His best month in terms of gross income netted him $750,000. Acccording to the article, ‘In a typical month, prosecutors said during the trial, Jaynes might receive 10,000 to 17,000 credit card orders, thus making money on perhaps only one of every 30,000 e-mails he sent out. But he earned $40 a pop, and the undertaking was so vast that Jaynes could still pull in $400,000 to $750,000 a month, while spending perhaps $50,000 on bandwidth and other overhead, McGuire said. “When you’re marketing to the world, there are enough idiots out there” who will be suckered in, McGuire said in an interview.’

Spamming is not such a bad gig…except for the fact that it is pure evil.

So about 1 in 30,000 people bought something from his spam. Lemme see here….about 50 people visit this blog each day. That means that .002 of you are purchasing products in response to spam. If that .002 represents you, please stop.

From Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person.

I’m an expert in “half an ear” listening. If this were a skill worth learning, I could teach a class on it. My mind is always calculating, always sorting, always developing. Ironically enough, even as I read this quote, I was thinking through how I could blog about it.

I suppose I could argue that this response is natural, because two of my primary gifts are teaching and wisdom. (In fact, I believe I have made that argument in a conversation with my wife at least once. ) Those are gifts that seem like they are meant for response and direction. However, that would be an immature form of those gifts. They do not excuse me from listening. If anything, they require me to listen all the more. I cannot fully use these gifts until I have fully listened to God and others.