What's Your Thing

So if you were at church council or staff meeting this week, you saw Ken Cross offer an interesting insight into vision.  He gives us an opportunity to see what it is we are doing as our vision.  He invites us to do what we want to see. 

See what I mean?  So does your vision include discipleship?

Looks like it should.

Vision

Do you have it?  Or one?  A friend recently challenged me with the question:  What do you want out of life?  I don't know.  "That's not an answer,"  he said.  I know.  

Another friend asked me to think about my 85th birthday.  Who will be there?  Why will they be there?  More importantly he asked: Who won't be there?

Anyway, so you have vision or you don't.  You don't have to have vision to have a vision.  The organization has a vision or it doesn't.  The organization doesn't have to have vision or a vision for you to have a vision.  Your ministry area has a vision or it doesn't.  If it doesn't, though, it's your fault.  Is it in your head?  Does you ministry team leader know what it is?

In the Energy Bus, Jon Gordon says rule one of your energy bus is that you are the driver.

As driver, you are supposed to know where the bus is going.

What's cool about his advice is:  in order to determine this vision, you don't just grab a white board and a cup of coffee and come up with the vision with/for your ministry team.

You identify and articulate your vision for yourself.  You identify and articulate your vision for your significant relationship(s)/family.  You identify and articulate your vision for your ministry team.  

Ready to get started?

Balance Delicate?

About two years ago, the concept of leadership became important to me.  And the more I learned about leadership, the more I came to learn about the various styles of leadership.  I heard about the 360 degree leadership style and the indisputable laws of leadership and have recently been transformed by the concepts of the tribes leadership method.  I've even heard there is a leadership style based on the knights of the round table.

I have also come to realize that not all forms of leadership are especially good.  Some forms of leadership are, in fact, powerfully bad.  

So leadership in my current thinking is: connecting people to a cause or movement that they all care about a lot.  And connecting them to each other and connecting them to the leader, or the guru, or the heretic of this movement: whether that be you or someone else.

And so, what happens with leadership styles that aren't especially good?  Maybe connections or intentionally not made or perhaps even connections are loosened or weakened?  Why would that happen? 

One especially poor leadership style I have come to recognize is the "keep them off balance method" (no google hits, sorry).  This involves recognizing some form of intentional connection or cause identification and activation on behalf of an emerging leader.  The idea is to then throw her off balance or cause her to question the importance of the connection of the group to each other or to her.

A well placed sarcastic comment or pointing up of weakness, real or perceived, or even a compliment where a compliment isn't called for can do it.  Why would this happen?

Is your leadership balanced or does it seek to throw others off balance?

Why? 

Offer them Christ

We served communion to the confirmation class on a recent retreat on a pier out into the Frederica River overlooking the Marshes of Glenn at Epworth by the Sea.  It sounds cool.  It was cool.  45 degrees with gusts of 20 mph wind making it feel like the world was ending.  So we didn't spend a lot of time at it.  Afterwards, we walked back to land and began to pour out the remaining juice and put the bread out for the birds.  

I had recently noticed two large pieces of communion bread on our church grounds.  They stayed there for a very long time.  I chalked it up to the fact that the pieces were to big for the birds to get at.  So I learned my lesson.  I began to break the bread up on this day into smaller pieces.  

The confirmands took an interest and soon they all joined in.  Of course almost instantly, the sea gulls showed up.  The youngsters were fascinated by trying to throw the bread to the gulls and watching some of them catch it in the air.  What a moment.   Those soon-to be-members-of-the-church and the body of Christ sharing the bread with the world.

For some reason, I thought back to another image--from our tour of the Museum of Methodism.  A picture of John Wesley landing in America to "Offer them Christ".  The museum docent shared with us that Wesley wasn't very successful in evangelizing the indians of St. Simon's Island.  But he offered them Christ none the less.  

I was struck by the willingness and the seemingly natural way our confirmands "offered them Christ" in a different sort of way.  For at least a weekend, they offered themselves--to learn about the way they were soon to embark upon, and they offered some bread to some seagulls.  And for me: they offered me Christ.

Cry For Me

Bullies, as opposed to opponents, are dangerous.  What happened along the way?  How did they get to the point of this?  What are they trying to achieve? What's the agenda?  What is the desired outcome?

Can you keep yourself from being drawn in to the taut?  Do you really have to just hit them in the nose?  Is it as simple as pulling a Ralphie?

I once heard that j'had is a war on evil, but not on the evil "out there".  It's a war against the evil within yourself.  I guess bullies more than anything else cause us to punch the bully within in the nose and then maybe we won't end up as a bully one day.

What's exciting about a Charter Bus?

I saw a charter bus roll up to church this morning and had that great feeling of anticipation and excitement that charter buses always stir in me.  I thought a bit about why:

1.  It cost a lot of money, so somebody, somewhere really cares about the reason it's here.

2.  It probably came from somewhere pretty far away (usually).  A group of people have been on a journey together.

3.  I think about the luggage compartment: what are they bringing with them?

4.  Drivers are usually pretty cool people.

5.  The people on the bus have learned or are learning how to live with each other.

6. There are probably lots of new experiences represented on the bus.

7.  From time to time, new people get on the bus.  Others get off.

8.  The people on the bus don't always know where it's going and it doesn't seem to matter.

9.   We represent a destination at that point.

10.  The people on the bus are there for a reason.

If you chartered a bus for your ministry, where would it be going?  Who would want on?  Who would want off?  Would you fit my profile of "most drivers"?  Why would people get on it?

Opponents

As long as you pick and choose what you are not about, it's pretty easy to get by.  Once something catches you in the sweet spot of available resources, passion, need, want, desire, right timing, and call of God, you got problems.  Now you have to declare what you are about and you are going to make people mad.  Because there are people that aren't about that.  

Usually people will identify into a few categories:

1. Brothers and sisters in arms.  They are in the fox hole with you.  They are in.  You can run by their house and commiserate following the difficult people who are now decidedly against this new way you are talking about.

2. Supporters.  They like the sound of the idea.  They hope you do well.  They like you.  Always have.  If you need their help, they are there for the most part, unless it interferes with something else they have going.  

3.  Skeptics.  "Really?" they ask.  Not going to work.  Won't work.  Already tried it.  Didn't work.  You are wasting your time.  Body language: limpese.  shruglish.  eyes rollian.

4.  Opponents.  I'm against you.  You are messing with my thing.  I'm not changing.

The funny thing as long as they aren't terrorists, the opponents are what will make the idea work and keep you sharp.  You might scrimmage with the skeptics, but they won't challenge you to go the distance and discover whether or not your thing is the real deal or not.  

Got opponents?  Be grateful.  Don't necessarily try to "keep them closer than your supporters" or whatever.  But don't try to avoid them.  You might learn something from them that will make the supporter a brother or sister in arms or the skeptic a supporter.

Or it might make you an opponent to your own idea and lead you to a new idea.  And a new set of opponents.