And I ask Him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Think about that for awhile.

And go live it together.

Go. Vote. Now.

Every Monday I get a memo from Roy H. Williams.  It is consistently filled with interesting observations about the world we live in and specifically focuses on marketing and business practices.  Williams’ company is called the Wizard Academy.

In 2005, Wizard Academy Press published a book by Greg Farrell called America Robbed Blind.  At the time, Farrell was a reporter for USA Today.  He reported primarily on Wall Street and the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Today Farrell writes for Financial Times.  Farrell has won the Jesse Neal Award for investigative reporting and is a graduate of Harvard University.  He completed an MBA at Columbia University.

Williams made the following comments in today’s memo.  This is very interesting, in light of what is happening right now in Washington, D.C. and Wall Street.

“Greg was America’s only reporter in the courtroom for every minute of the trials of Enron, Worldcom, Tyco and Martha Stewart. As an investigative reporter Greg dug deep, full time, year after year. “Roy, the SEC is being set up to take the fall for a series of financial disasters,” he said. “This whole Enron thing is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“What do you mean?”

“The number of publicly traded companies has grown exponentially in recent years, yet the budget for the SEC had been increased by only a small amount. Think of it this way,” Greg said, “Andy and Barney did a pretty good job patrolling Mayberry, but now they’re being told they have to patrol Los Angeles without any additional help, and without any bullets for their guns.”

Greg went on to explain how Congress keeps the SEC under-funded so that big business can grow unimpeded, unsupervised, and unregulated. If Congress allowed the SEC to do its job, big business would cry, “The government has us handcuffed! We can’t compete with all these government regulations.”

Big companies donate big dollars to congressional candidates. Are you beginning to get the picture?

Page 68 of Greg’s book details the proposal made during the summer of 2000 by Arthur Levitt, chairman of the SEC at the time.

Levitt was absolutely convinced that a financial catastrophe was coming and begged Congress to give him the power to stop it.

“But several big firms whose campaign contributions to lawmakers on Capitol Hill gave them enormous clout, fought the proposal aggressively… Levitt went to extraordinary lengths to show Congress the dangers that lay ahead… But Levitt’s warnings fell on deaf ears. So he took the battle to the states… It was only in November of 2000, when he learned that Congress was threatening to cut the SEC’s budget if the new rule went into effect, that Levitt relented.” – Page 69, America Robbed Blind, (2005)

In essence, Congress told Andy to quit complaining or they would take away his budget to pay Barney.

When the whole Enron thing was over, I asked Greg if he thought anything like that could ever happen again. “You can count on it,” he said, “It’s inevitable. As long as Congress keeps the watchdog starved, muzzled and on a chain, the abuses will multiply. Arthur Levitt begged Congress to empower the SEC and they spanked him for it.”

Enron and his cousins robbed American investors of more than 500 billion dollars. Then on September 18, 2008, after it was learned that Americans would again be left holding the bag for a 700 billion-dollar bank heist, John McCain, a lawmaker on Capitol Hill for the past 26 years, said, “The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president and in my view, has betrayed the public’s trust. If I were president today, I would fire him.’’

Wow. They’re trying to hang this debacle around the neck of the SEC and use them as the scapegoat, just as Greg said they would. (Hey, if Obama had said it, I’d be equally appalled, so don’t make the mistake of thinking I have a political bias. I don’t.)

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is that Greg described exactly how to fix the problem in his book (pages 180-181,) but no one paid attention:

1.    Allow the SEC to keep the fees it currently collects from public companies. Self-funding would protect the financial health of the commission from the whims of its Congressional overlords, and allow the SEC to grow at the same rate as the financial markets it polices.

2. Give SEC attorney’s criminal enforcement powers.

3. Give bonuses to successful SEC attorneys. Plaintiff’s lawyers who bring cases against tobacco companies and asbestos manufacturers put years of effort into the cause because if they win, the financial payoff is astronomical. But an SEC lawyer has almost no incentive to take on difficult cases where the commission is outgunned by a public company’s army of lawyers.”

OK, so back to me, a guy trying to run a youth ministry organization that is getting impacted by the events unfolding.  When the economy suffers – our donations are effected; prices go up – food costs, insurance, etc.  In my 34 years at Youthfront we have seen several of these types of cycles before.  They have been challenging; sometimes helping to redefine who we are and what we do in positive ways.   This reality doesn’t make this season any easier especially since the scope of this current economic crisis has such huge and global ramifications.

The scripture says, “Greedy people try to get rich quick but don’t realize they’re headed for poverty (Proverbs 28:22, NLT).”  It seems to me that a significant part of this bailout effort is focused on trying to protect those who have been greedy.  I read about a man yesterday who made $250,000 a year and bought a home worth $2.7 million.  He lost his job and is now facing foreclosure hoping this bailout will help him.  You’ve got to be kidding.  When you buy a home that is worth $2.2 million more than you can afford you should have your head examined and shame on a system that will allow someone to do that.  OK, I’ve ranted enough.

So, a society based on greed and consumerism set up a puppet watchdog group to take the fall so all the major players could get rich. No way, I find that so hard to believe!

However, I think the bigger question, is how as followers of Jesus, and a God who calls us to live fully-present today and not worry about tomorrow, do we not only live graciously in these times without getting sucked into the anxiety, but also proclaim and live an alternative?

How do we live generously in a culture that is all about taking care of number one. How do we live redemptively in a system that is suffering the effects of rampant consumption and self-interest? How do we proclaim hope and a future to people that are suffering and in danger of all that gives them security? I don’t have many answers yet, but the communities that can answer these questions and actually live them out will be positioned to graciously respond and accurately reflect God’s heart to our culture. Any ideas?

My bar tending shift started at 10:15. The only problem with is that the restaurant opened at 10:00, and no other servers were scheduled until 10:45. So all of a sudden I am responsible for not only setting up and opening the bar (something I’ve only done twice before) but also taking care of any customers who come in early for lunch. Immediately I have one table to take care of, which wasn’t a big deal except that the kitchen manager cooked breakfast for all the staff, and I’m hungry. So I greet that table, they order ice tea. We don’t have any iced tea ready. So I go in the back to start the iced tea, and to dish a plate of food up. Before eating any of it, I go out to take my tables order only to find that two other tables are sat. Now the stress starts building. I get the orders and drinks, start getting the bar open (to make their drinks) and look lustfully at my warm, uneaten, breakfast. Another set of guests with a large, loud, obnoxious, 4 or 5 year old come in. They look unhappy. I approach them to get their order. I’m right, they are unhappy, and their son seems to be deaf as he is completely unresponsive to their pleas and threats to be quiet, I assume that they don’t know he is deaf so they keep threatening him. I decide I would be unhappy about my day too if I was in their shoes. Actually, I’m not in their shoes, and I am slightly unhappy with my day. I’m finally able to take their order get everyones drinks out and orders into the kitchen. It’s now about 10:50. Ten minutes until people really start coming in, and the bar is nowhere near ready.

Quickly, I start preparing the most important things to start the day, fruit garnishes, juices, ice, and the glass rimmers. Orders start coming in over the printer. Apparently yesterday was national root beer day, as everyone was drinking it. Eight glasses are ordered right off the bat. I open the cooler. We have 15 glasses total. Not good. A friend comes in and says high. It was good to see a smiling face for a brief moment as right after that all hell breaks loose. No one is in the kitchen to take out food to my tables, so between pouring drinks, and getting the bar ready I am desperately trying to run out my tables food. A lone person sits at the bar. He orders a beer. The printer prints four drink orders. the day has officially started. I pour his beer, run some checks over to my tables (that kid still won’t sit down or be quiet), and go to make a margarita. The printer keeps printing. More root beer. As I go to pour the juice into the shaker for the margarita, the pour spout decides it’s existence has ended and breaks off from it’s screw top, spilling a whole quart of juice (which I just stocked) all over the bar, my ice (which was just stocked), and the bottles in the fast bar. The guy at the bar just looks at me. I really want to proclaim some rather choice words and concepts to all within hearing, but somehow hold back. Four more people sit at the bar. And that freaking printer just keeps drink orders. Somehow I am able to keep my head above water and get enough drinks out that people don’t riot until the next bartender comes in at 12. Complete insanity and frustration. And to top it all off, my breakfast gets thrown away.

When things finally settled down and we were able to get into a rhythm, it was easy to see how people stepped up and helped me out. Randomly one of the servers I had trained cruised by and asked if I needed anything (boy, did I!). One of our bussers came by and helped clean up my ice mess, and smiled at me. Ted the 2nd bartender stepped right in and started cleaning up my mess, helped finish opening the bar, and managed to greet the 3 new guests that had sat down that I totally missed. If it wasn’t for those people, and others, I think I would have written my day off, but instead God allowed me to see how much I need others. Those people have no clue how much they “ministered” to me in the midst of my anger and frustration. They have no idea how essential their help was to keep me from loosing it. And, they have no idea that they revealed God to me.

So, today, I’m thanking God for Jason, for Carolina, and for Ted. And I’m praying that I can be just as available to entering into situations and bring God’s presence, love, and grace to others who are frustrated and at the end of their rope. It’s in those unplanned, random, mundane aspects of our days that Jesus is truly incarnated to the people around us (or to us).

“I got off the phone this morning with John, a youth pastor, who will leave his church in 20 days because of the church’s financial situation. He’s built a big youth ministry with lots of kids and very few volunteers. “The church isn’t interested in working with teens,” he tells me. John is truly heart-broken for the kids and is reaching out to me to see if I can help the church in some way after he leaves. He doesn’t want to see it all fall apart and he knows it will after he leaves.

I didn’t tell him this. It’s probably for the best.

You see, somewhere along the way we youth pastors bought into a lie. We believe our job is to make things happen, to build programs, to attract youth all in the name of ministry, or building the kingdom. We bought into the idea that our job, our ministry is to make things go. We believe that somehow, our success or failure as a pastor is dependent upon our ability to motivate people to follow through and implement our plans and our dreams in the name of vision. In fact, we in the church are infatuated with visionaries who make it happen. The lie is pervasive these days.

Chances are this is a small reason why you love being a youth pastor. You have ideas, and you get to inspire and envision people to produce your programs. Chances are you are evaluated by how efficiently you bring others on board with your vision and how well you produce the goals and objectives you declared.

But this is a deeply flawed understanding of leadership and is destructive for church staff, and those within the church as well. This is a flawed perspective because it has unintended consequences. This kind of thinking is highly colonial and creates a level of isolation, entitlement and passivity that enables congregations to abdicate their responsibility to the leaders, who often gladly take it.

The leaders become strangers and distant from the people they are called to lead in this environment. In extreme cases people can become cogs in the details of a leaders mechanistic plans. Service is reduced to volunteer positions that must be filled.

It’s important for you to understand something.

You aren’t called to make things happen in your church.

Oh, you may be paid to make things happen, but it’s not God calling you to plan, lead and pull off all that unsustainable stuff. It’s not God calling you build it all, or convince others to build your vision either.

You will always have more ideas, more dreams, more hopes, more plans than your church should pull off in your ministry. You will always see more than can be done right now. You must learn to live with this tension.

* Your job as a leader isn’t to make plans and then have others buy into them.
* The role of a leader is to declare the mission, and create an environment in which people can dream and live into it.
* By making things happen you are robbing people from the God given responsibility they have to children in your church.

The difference is in the level of commitment of the people you lead. Take John for instance. John created a lot of great experiences, but the people within his church weren’t committed to it outside of a paycheck to a staff member. When John leaves in 20 days, his ministry will crumble and it will be a beautiful thing for his church. Because it will force them to make a decision about how engaged they will be for teens.

I know what you are thinking. His church won’t step up. They will lose kids.
Could be. It’s pretty common.

This is the commentary on how well we lead in the church though, not so much on the church itself. The people of the church are being faithful to how they were led. They are living out their ministry teens the way it’s been expected of them.

How many of our churches are this way and how many churches would lose people if the staff stopped making things happen? There is an entire culture of leadership within the church rising up based on this faulty understanding of leadership.

You see, not only is top-down leadership often manipulative, colonial and patriarchal, but it’s also reactive. It only creates more of the same problems that it’s trying to solve.

Whereas leadership that declares the mission and then cultivates an environment within which it can happen is restorative. It produces energy, not hype. It confronts people, and forces accountability. The kind of leadership creates accountability, without directly calling for it.

So is this the end of visionary leadership? Absolutely not. It is simply a change in the way churches approach the role of staff and the way the mission blooms within your church. There’s a difference between helping your community imagine a world beyond their currently reality (vision) and convincing them to live it your way.

What kind of leader are you? Do you feel the need to make things happen? Have you always been this way? If not, what taught you that this was the right way?

Or do you cultivate an environment in which people can engage deeply, or superficially? An environment where you let go of the implementation to the people of your church?”

Wow! “Service is reduced to volunteer positions that must be filled.” While Mark is directing his comments to youth pastors it is very easy to extrapolate them to leadership within the church as a whole. In my 7 plus years in vocational ministry I’m not sure I ever viewed service any other way. It’s not that I didn’t want to, it’s just that I was never challenged to think outside that box. The weekly (daily) complaint was the need for volunteers to help run all the programs that were going on in the church. Not once (that I can remember) did anyone (myself included) ever ask, “Maybe we need to redefine, what we are asking of the people in our community. Maybe we need to free them up to serve out of the overflow of their hearts rather then what we think they need.”

I’m slowly learning a new paradigm of leadership (and service) that comes out of the community. That isn’t top down and authoritative, but rather is open, communal, and grace-filled. It seeks to cultivate passions and ideas rather then plant my own. I’m not very good at it yet, and I’m certainly in a learning/failure mode, but I believe it will eventually reap benefits beyond what I can imagine. Reading Mark’s words inspire me to think of all kinds of churches with that kind of leadership. Multiple congregations of people serving out of their passions and energy rather then compulsion and guilt. What a beautiful thing that could be.
Make it so God for you glory, make it so.

I’ve been devouring Darrell Guder’s (and others) foundational book, Missional Church:A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. First published in 1998 this prophetic call for change is both affirming and wrecking many of my ideas and convictions of living as an incarnational community. Two things amaze me. First, is the fact that I am just reading this book now, and second is that, for the most part, this book seems to be completely ignored by most church leaders. I’ve found myself getting so into reading that I actually have to go back and re-read whole sections because there is so much good stuff in here. The writers do a great job of pointing out the fact that the church must be open to change in order to respond not only to the culture surrounding it, but also to what God is doing in that culture. Followers of Jesus must recapture the idea that living as a “church” is not about a building, or offering programs, or even having a weekly time of worship and teaching (as good as those things may or may not be). Following Jesus is, first and foremost, about living together as a sent people: a people on mission to proclaim and demonstrate the in-breaking of the reign (kingdom) of God.
Guder writes (you may have to read this a few times to get the full effect of it):

“It is not hard to see that at many times in the church’s history this central affirmation of good
news [the kingdom of God is at hand] has suffered a pattern of omission or ‘eclipse’. Two tendencies
in the long history of Christendom help to explain this troublesome pattern. First, the church has
tended to separate the news of the reign of God from God’s provision for humanity’s salvation. This
separation has made salvation a private event by dividing ‘my personal salvation’ from the advent of
God’s healing reign over all the world. Second, the church has also tended to envision itself in a
variety of ways unconnected to what must be fundamental for it–its relation to the reign of God.
If it was Jesus’ announcement of the reign of God that first gathered the fledgling church into a
community, and if that church grew and matured around the way that reign found meaning and hope
in His death and resurrection, then the church must always seek its definition with the reign of God
in Jesus as its crucial reference point.”

The question then becomes, what does it mean for a community of God’s people (the local church) to be defined by the fact that “the Kingdom (reign) of God is at hand. How does one as an individual and as part of an intimate community live that out so it is “good news” for the actual community that we live in? I’d love to hear your thoughts and answers, and maybe I’ll post some of mine later.

Hang on to the end. I think it’s worth it. Even though it moved my heart I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Let me know what you think.

BTW its perfectly clean. What were you thinking?

In fact, I think I even came up with a new term, institutional matting (IM). IM is what happens when a successful organization becomes so comfortable in itself that it stops exposing itself to risk or challenge. When an organization does this it subtly begins to grow stagnant and institutionalize, forgetting the very values that made it vibrant and successful. If this process remains unchecked it will eventually begin the downward spiral to complete loss of effectiveness and even institutional death (a fate worse then death in that an institution can hang on for a long time sucking resources and creativity that could be applied in successful organizations). The problem with matting is that the very thing that keeps it from happening (challenge, risk, change, obstacles) are the very things that a successful organization seeks to avoid to remain “successful” (Much like Fergi and the brush).
Once an institution develops “mats” it takes a drastic effort for them to be removed. This is where re-visioning, outside consultants, and new executive hires come in to play in order for the institution to become revitalized. Unfortunately many times this process is only a band-aid. Unless the entire organization buys into and commits to the re-visioning or the new leaders vision (which in turn brings the side effect of becoming a differently focused organization), those “mats” will remain, and while they will temporarily seem to be gone they will soon  reappear more matted then ever.
While I’m not an expert on institutional lifecycles or theory, I have experienced matting first hand and have seen the disasters that it can cause. I’m wondering if the same solution that was employed for Fergi needs to be employed with Institutional Matting. When the vibrancy of of a cause and a mission have faded, and a successful cause has made the turn to institutionalism and risk-management, perhaps a “shaving” is in order. Perhaps all the trappings of institution need to shaved off, and the organization brought back to the heart of what it was established for in the first place. All the trappings of risk-management, “stewardship”, and “success” must be stripped away if the organization wants to re-become what it was created to be in the first place. Scary proposition, but perhaps just like for Fergi, it is a necessity.

So anyway, thats about all I have developed on that right now. I’d love to hear your thoughts if this has proved true in your experience. AND I’d love to hear your ideas on how to build “brushes” into organizations to keep them from matting.

On a side note, have you noticed this tendency in your personal life? I’ll have to think about that one.

After sharing these with my wife, it was really good to hear that she really liked them and felt she could share them with me (good thing for our future happiness and our marriage :)). I though I would share them here and then develop them over the next few weeks with you. Hopefully this will do 2 things. One, help me flesh this out in my own life, and Two, challenge others (you) to think through your own personal convictions. I’m beginning to believe more and more, that until individuals really have a handle on their own personal calling, we are unable to live missionally either as individuals or as a community.

All of these come from the context of desiring to put the reality of the Kingdom of God on display for others around me to see and experience. Also, I want to be known more and more for what I am for and what I give to others, and less for what I am against or what I desire from others. So having said all that, here you go:

1. The world doesn’t understand grace, I need to live it out for them to see.
2. Church is who we are and what we do together, not where we go or how we gather.
3. I’m blessed to bless others. I need to constantly be looking to give something back especially to the community I live in.
4. Loving my wife and kids takes priority over everything else and shows off Jesus in the process.
5. Following Jesus is meant to be done together. We need others to walk with us on the journey.
6. Injustice and oppression breaks God’s heart and it needs to break mine as well. When I see it (locally or globally) I need to respond.

I really appreciate whatever feedback you can give me on these, wether you agree or disagree with them. And perhaps even more, I’d love to hear what convictions you come up with to guide your life. I’m looking forward to developing each these in the next week or so. Stay tuned…