Friday was a full day at the Reset Conference. Here are some highlights. Look for the video and audio to posted for registrants, eventually!

First of the morning to speak was Tim Breene, author of the book “Jumping the S Curve: Lessons on Renewal.” Tim discussed accelerating change and its impact: “To sit on the sidelines is to risk irrelevance.” The number of companies that have become irrelevant in the corporate world is growing: the number exiting the Fortune 500 list has doubled. (Will this apply to mission agencies too?) Even when your core is strong and seemingly unassailable, you must be continually reinventing yourself. But what factors should you pay attention to? Most companies only focus on finances. Instead, they need to pay attention to three other curves: talent, strategy and capabilities.

Second, Norwood Davis, CFO with 12Stone Church, whose thought-provoking statement was: we are not in the midst of a cyclical change, but rather a structural shift in digital, generational and financial realms. This is the “new normal”: facing structural unemployment for next decade. The challenging thought: “90% of giving to churches comes from Boomers.” This will shrink dramatically in the short-term future. Will the next generation pick up the gap? Are we prepared for the onrushing generational downturn in giving? How will this change our missionary support models?

Friday evening we took time to honor a number of organizations with awards for excellence. The Lifetime of Service Award went to Greg Livingstone, who helped to found Frontiers. Through the service of he and his wife, over 1,000 missionaries have been sent to the Muslim world.

Following these presentations, the third address was via video by Dave Gibbons, who talked about the global shift happening in the world and how he felt the church was lagging behind. First, Gibbons felt the church was focused on the mass and the result was an “impotent engagement” with culture through “one-size-fits-all” programs which weren’t tailored to the need of indigenous communities. “Where we need to change is to focus more on the margins.” The second way the church is lagging behind on is human development (sometimes we refer to this as leadership development or the spiritual journey). In the Western framework we develop strengths, gifts and personality. The other side is the more Eastern perspective: pain and suffering. How do we integrate that into understanding one’s destiny? The church has focused a lot on putting out propositional truth, but the world is asking–”are you [the church] true? Are you talking to me, or rehashing what you’ve memorized, selling me something?”

The final session of the night was a passionate talk by Skye Jethani, who gave some thought provoking ideas about how the next generation should be mobilized. He discussed the ways in which we interact with God. Perhaps the most challenging idea to me was when “mission becomes the center of everything.” Initially this seems good–but when you think through the ramifications, it means “my mission becomes the center of everything.” Rather than bringing people to Jesus, we bring people to our mission. If they don’t adopt our mission, well… Rather, we should “bring people to the foot of the cross–and leave them there.” When people get closer to Jesus, they will get closer to His calling on their life, too.

We left the conference that night with our heads stuffed full, indeed!

Saturday morning was the final day. We began with the business meeting at which a historic vote took place: The Mission Exchange (EFMA) and CrossGlobalLink (IFMA) have voted to merge their respective organizations into one new organization. This will be a “deep change” in itself!

After that announcement we shifted in to the Younger Leaders’ Response forum, moderated by Paco Amador. Four younger leaders (representative of the several dozen who attended) gave significant feedback on the interaction between the generations. Some of the thought-provoking things said:

• “Young Christians don’t have a passion for organizations or denominations but rather in living for Jesus.”
• “Authenticity is essential [when mentoring]. Young leaders can sniff it a mile away–or the lack of it.”
• “Young leaders have  a deep desire to be given permission to dream.”
• “Give the gift of high expectations to younger leaders. Call them beyond their current level of confidence and comfort.”

As the official conference journalist I will be posting brief recaps of the sessions as well as live tweeting the conference (see twitter.com and search for the hashtag #resetconf).

The first plenary session of the night was led by Cobie Langerak, who reflected on how organizational resets must begin with personal resets. Among many thought provoking ideas she shared were three many commented on around the tables. First, while we in America are often focused on knowing and developing our strengths, we need to spend an equal amount of time understanding the things that can derail us (our personal derailment risks). While we focus on developing clear vision, we also need to understand our core drivers: the things that motivate us, the “how” of acting on vision. And third, that the Bible speaks far more about shepherd leadership than servant leadership.

The second plenary session was led by T.J. Addington, who shared 9 shifts in missions that have played out over recent history and changed forever the kind of world that missions lives in. When he first went to the field, PanAm was an airline and the Internet didn’t exist. We live in a different world today. Of the nine shifts he spoke of, two were particularly commented on: from owning and controlling to owning nothing and controlling nothing (give it away) and from competition to cooperation.

So, tonight, what was the most thought provoking thing you heard? Share your thoughts below!

Historian and futurist Dr. Stephen Millet has a 5-point framework of Keys which he says help understand the future. His Third Key I found a helpful reminder for those of us in missions. “Futuring and Visioning offer different perspectives of the future, and these perspectives must compliment one another.”

My mentor, Ed Dayton, used to tell me “All viewpoints are views from a point.” Where one stands often determines what one sees. “Futuring,” as Dr. Millet is using the word, demands that one anchor ones self firmly in trends, developing contexts and disruptive changes that one can see. From that factual vantage point, one can make some assumptions about the future. As an example, we know that the baby boom generation turns 65 this year, and in 10 years seniors will, for the first time, outnumber children in the world. (This is according to researcher Sheila Moorcroft). One can make some rational assumptions as to the implications of this demographic reality.

Dr. Millet pairs this more factual view with a much different vantage point from which one should look at the future. He calls this position “Visioning.” This is an “aspirational” view of the future. It deals with what we would like to see in the future. Those of us in missions tend to live in this “aspirational” world. We look toward the future and attempt to see our ministry and its impact as God would like it to be. We discipline ourselves to depend upon the Holy Spirit’s illumination for a clear and compelling future vision, and then the plan that will make it happen.

It is my fear that we don’t pair our aspirations with the more careful consideration of “Futuring.” We neglect the trends, or the recognition of those possible disruptive game changers that are evident if we just develop the eyes to see them. Such a reading of the signposts, hiding clearly in view, depends upon the same Divine illumined sight that drives a motivational vision. However, most of us do not bring to that search for meaningful markers for the future the same kind of spiritual or intellectual discipline we do to “visioning.” This lack leaves us with impaired sight and can produce misguided wishful thinking rather than true anointed visionary foresight.

Just as following the trends and projections of futurist, scholars and acute observers of the present can lead to a lot of dead-end “projection planning” so merely relying upon a view of the world as we would like it be, or we think God wants it to be, can lead us to misguided and unrealistic assumptions. As we move into a period of prayerfully considering a very needed “Reset,” let us bring “Futuring and Visioning” into their rightful clear-sighted complimentary relationship. We desperately need the Holy Spirit to help us to see what is, as well as what God wants to do in the future.

Your friend and fellow Pilgrim, … Paul

I was with a good friend, a mission leader. He enthusiastically told me that he was going to attend the Reset – Mission Leadership Event in Phoenix this September. Then he asked me a question that set me scrambling for a response. (Just a simple “I don’t know” is never enough.) I hemmed and hawed and cast about for the plausible answer to that simple question. It was one I had never even once thought of. “What specifically was Steve Moore hoping the outcome of the Reset event would be?” I really had no idea. I had never even thought to ask Steve this strategic question.

Steve’s Case Statement for the conference graphically sets out the proposition that we mission people are in a period of “deep change,” and “deep change” demands a significant organizational response: a corporate “Reset” where we assess why we exist, and how we can best fulfill God’s purpose within the new realities brought on by “deep change.” It seems that Steve sees this time of reflection and re-ordering of our organizations as essential. Without significant changes organizational irrelevancy will overtake us.

On the Mission Exchange webinar of Aug. 18^th, I got Steve’s answer to my friend’s question. However, the inquiry of a couple of weeks ago got me personally reflecting on what I hope to see as the outcomes for the Reset conference.

1. I would love to see a new or renewed understanding by each one of us of our unique God-given task. That may be different for every ministry, but we have all become full-service agencies. Our cutting edge has become dull. “This one thing we do” has become “we do everything but nothing really well.” Who are we to become and what are we to accomplish in this special time God is giving us? The execution of the answer to that question will determine each agency’s future destiny.

2. Out of our time together we need a new sense of urgency about accomplishing our God-given purpose. Far too much preoccupation, energy and too many dollars go into organizational maintenance. With the best of intentions our infrastructure has become bloated. The struggle to keep the machine running is robbing many us of our sense of missional urgency. The life and death struggle of making disciples seems a great distance from most of our offices.

3. I would love to see coming out of our time together the birthing of a wave of collaborative efforts between ministries that would build on our diverse God-given organizational distinctives. Efforts producing greater synergy and less overhead as we each play the special role the Master has prepared for us as we move into His future.

4. I am tired of focusing on organizational techniques and the skills of leadership/management, useful though they are. I long to see our community on our faces before a Holy God. I desire to be overwhelmed by His grace and the awesome certainty that the Holy Spirit waits to empower His people to answer His call for this “Reset.” It is only from this foundation that His vision, courage and the faith to trust God for the impossible will burst forth.

5. More than anything else I desire for our meeting the sense that the Almighty has touched our lives. Our ministries would be forever marked by such an encounter. Azusa Street, The Great Awakening, John Wesley’s revival in the UK, the Student Volunteer Movement and many other Sovereign visitations changed the world far more than the mere application of new structures, strategies or methodologies for world evangelization.

These are five things I am asking God to do in Phoenix. What do you hope for as an outcome at Conference? What do you want to learn? What would you like to take back to your ministry? Join me in making up your own list of things you want God to do as we meet together. Then with focused expectation you can join us at the Reset Leaders Conference in Phoenix. Let’s all trust God for what only He can give us.

Is your ministry right or left handed? Perhaps your ministry is even ambidextrous. Let me ask that question a different way. Is your ministry more adept at “exploring” or “exploiting?” These terms come from Professors Sebastian Raisch, and Michael L. Tushman, ofHarvard Business School. Most missions I know are “exploiters.” In fact, most came into being because a gifted founder had a proven ministry or program. People gathered around that idea or program. The ministry then grew as it successfully exploited those foundational ideas or programs. The seminal exploring had been done by the mission founder or founders.

If you need to re-invent or renew your ministry, you will probably have to become ambidextrous. You will have to empower or create a group of explorers, as well as maintain your exploiting staff functioning at peak efficiency. That means as a leader you may have to develop an ambidextrous leadership style, one that thrives on contradictions and ambiguity. You will have to live in two worlds where consistency no longer reigns supreme.

In a Harvard Business School Publication put out August 4, 201, I found an article with a somewhat daunting title. Here is the article’s imposing title: A Dynamic Perspective on Ambidexterity: Structural Differentiation and Boundary Activities by professors Sebastian Raisch and Michael L. Tushman. The idea of corporate ambidexterity seems extremely relevant to our “Reset” process.

To re-invent themselves, all organizations must “explore” for new opportunities and new ways of going about fulfilling their calling. On the other hand, to be productive, every viable long-term organization or ministry must “exploit” or execute existing programs and opportunities. These activities of “exploration” and “exploitation” demand hugely different kinds of cultures, leadership and structure.

To “explore,” people need freedom and flexibility to be creative and try new things. To “exploit” a proven idea, product or program there is the need for more centralization, alignment and control. A successful exploitive culture and structure is deadly to exploration. These two activities demand very different leadership styles. The leadership challenge becomes one of enabling both to exist and be productive within the same organizational family.

Expecting a whole ministry that has been built on exploitation and execution to suddenly become explorers is not realistic. The exploitation culture is too embedded. It even unconsciously determines what we see and are blind to. Unprotected, exploitation will always trump exploration. The established will always deprive the new effort of legitimacy, support and resources. Renewal demands both exploration and exploitation. Ambidexterity is essential for organizational renewal.

Harvard Business Review has just posted a new article, “Communicating Change as Business as Usual,” which has some instructive thoughts about our topic. The article advocates an organizational model promoting “change readiness”—intentionally positioning one’s organization to seek out and take advantage of change. This framework assumes that change is coming (indeed, comes every day) and embraces it. Worth a read: if we positioned ourselves to engage daily incremental change, perhaps the habit of embracing change would more easily slide us into deep changes as required.

Of late I have been convicted that in this discussion of a missional Reset, we have almost omitted God. We unconsciously neglect His crucial position of preeminence as we become absorbed in our thinking and strategizing. We naturally assume that He is essential and likewise assume that He will bless our efforts. But we have majored on the recognition of contextual changes that have made a Reset necessary. We have discussed the organizational imperatives and reflected on strategies that can guide us in the Reset process. We have even dealt with motivational issues and how a Reset might penetrate our systems that so desperately need change. However, the hard cold fact is that a ministry Reset is not a matter of technique, dedication or even aspiration. The Bible says that “what is born of flesh is flesh” and further declares that our battle is “not against flesh and blood.” The fact of our inadequacy is cast in the inalterable cement of our humanity.

It is the Triune God Who breathes life into dry bones and they live. It is the Holy Spirit Who illuminates God’s Word, and the printed page becomes the mighty sword that defeats the powers of the enemy. He is the One who sets out the path of the righteous beforehand and without His action in our lives and ministries, nothing of lasting value takes place. We are totally dependent upon His Divine intervention.

The path to a productive ministry future does not flow from focus groups, research projects, better methods or reorganization. Kingdom progress starts with dependent desperation as collectively we seek His guidance and enabling for the way forward. The awesome fact that He desires to illuminate and reveal the way we should go dictates that the first step in any Reset process is to repent of our presumptuous self-sufficiency, meditate on His Word, and desperately seek after the One who is “the Author and Finisher of our faith.” He is the giver of dreams and the originator of visions for those whose passion and commitment are given to obedience and faith, who “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

The future, no matter how shrouded in uncertainty, is not a mystery to the Creator of the universe. As we who share His Spirit gather together to seek His face in recognition of our total dependence, He has promised to guide us. Only then can we move ahead with confidence. As we collectively face this Reset moment, we dare not relegate the Almighty to the status of “mere assumption.”

God’s plan to be glorified through the reconciliation all things to Himself together with the recognition of our desperate need for His power and direction are the beginning and culmination of our journey. They are the sure foundation for our Reset.

It is all fine to talk about a reset moment, but when you or I push that button, what is going to come up on the next screen? What should my ministry look like? What will be my context of ministry 5 – 10 years from now? These are questions any responsible leader must ask. Here are a couple of things to consider:

Futurists say that 80% of what will exist 25 years from now is with us today. That is true of the people we know, the institutions we serve, as well as the buildings and material artifacts that surround us. This important assumption means that, in all probability, there will be significant continuity between the future and the world of today. The future will probably not be discontiguous with the present. But don’t get too comfortable!

Do you remember those pictures from high school or college that were examples of “negative space” where the drawn image is only half of what is there? The young woman’s face hides the image of an old lady. Then there is the image of a vase. When one looks at the white or “negative space” around the vase we see the profiles of two men facing one another. Then there is the beautiful woman who in the “negative space” is really a sax player.

In many instances we see what we expect to see, and the realities of the “negative space” are lost to us. What things that make up the future’s 80% hide other images that we must be alerted to. What are the things so familiar to you that the implications of the “negative space” around them don’t even register on your consciousness?

A wise man made a statement that has been with me for 35 years or more. The saying goes like this, “The most common reaction to a revolution is not, “I supported it” or “I opposed it” but, rather, “I didn’t know it was happening.” This speaks to that comfortable familiarity we all have with today’s 80% of the future. It also emphasizes the truth that revolutions are often hidden to those who should have seen them. They often reside in the “negative space” around what we know and expect to see. We must all cultivate the skill of looking beyond the familiar and expected to those societal movements that exist in our contemporary “negative space.”

Before you hit that reset button, ask God to give you the eyes to see what is in your “negative space.”

A final thought:  “Negative space” is no mystery to God. He is the all knowing, all powerful, Sovereign of the universe. “Negative space” exists in His providence. We are not even at the mercy of that 20% of the future which resides in the unknowable far side of the knowledge horizon. The One who breathed the very stars into being is in control. This awesome God has commissioned and empowered you and me to be a part of His unstoppable process of reconciling all of creation to Himself.

by Paul McKaughan

Way back in 1993 Joe Pine popularized the term “mass customization.” He stated that soon the customer would be able to buy most anything built or created to his own personal specification. Time has proved Pine right.

Today Dell computers’ big selling point is that they will build a computer to your specs. A lot of firms are shouting at the top of their electronic lungs, “You can have it your way.” Everything from the daily news one reads on your electronically aggregated news feed to modest homes can be molded to your specific needs. You can even create your own nightly TV lineup with the aid of simple technology-simple to engineers and the average 6 year old but unfathomable to me. Today we make our likes and dislikes known with a simple keystroke. Yet most missions still insist that we do mission in the mission’s way.

Far too often our structures are set up for the convenience of the mission organization. Structures and procedures evolved from service to prior generations and may be out of step with the needs of today’s follower of Jesus. Rather than the ease of use by one who wishes to offer his life to God’s cause of discipling the nations, our structures serve us. We resist this spirit of “mass customization” as well as widening of personal choice. Who is serving whom?

The public we wish to engage can’t understand why in every other facet of their lives they can have it “their way,” but when it comes to God’s eternal mission, it must be the mission’s way. The issue is not submission to the Holy Spirit or Scripture that is usually settled. As hard as it may be for mission pros, God’s way and the mission’s way may not be synonymous. Delighting those we wish to serve may be a metric that can show a new way forward.

After referring to the miracle of His deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea, God says to His chosen people, “Don’t live in the past. I am doing a new thing. Can’t you see it? I am providing an abundant supply of water even in the driest of places.” God says through His prophet, “Even the dumb animals get it, but they are not the focus of My provision, I want your praise. My provision is for you My chosen people.” (Is 43:16-21)They didn’t see (and we often don’t see) God’s “new thing.”

God is doing a new thing in our world, and far too often we are blind to it. We have no room within our organizational world for His miracle of grace. The “new thing” doesn’t fit our neat well organized world. The very Church we say we serve doesn’t remotely look like our mental construct that was formed in the past. The growing Church is no longer white and wealthy. It is coming to be made up of immigrants and refugees from the world’s nations. They are not as well-educated as we are and speak English with strange accents. Yet, these represent the new thing that God is doing in the US. They are declaring that it is their right (within Biblical boundaries) to have missions their way and not ours.

Our structures are always documents from the past. The huge stadium-like churches that exist today may soon only be monuments of the past miracles of God’s grace just as the empty cathedrals of Europe give testimony to the Church’s once pervasive influence on that continent. Will our missional structures go the same way?

Delighting those we wish to serve, rather than satisfying our own protocols and sense of order, may indicate a way forward. If we don’t alter our patterns to fit their preferences and needs, they will form their own structures, and we will be left insisting that our way is proper while God energizes His people to fulfill His mission according to their own gifts and callings. Within the constraints of Scripture, “Have it your way” in the age of mass customization should become a corporate value. Discerning and making way for the new thing God is doing should become foundational to positive missional leadership.

I am glad that I am too old for mission leadership. I leave this leadership challenge to all you young men and women. Plug in to the new things our Creative God is doing.

Mostly, we’ve focused on deep change in terms of organizations. While there is a great deal involved in organizational deep change, most of the “work” of organizational deep change is administrative. The cause of organizational deep change, however, is always personal deep change.

This is why I think “deep change” is so difficult. It’s because it’s not just about organizations changing, but about people changing. The resistance to change can be phenomenal–but it’s rarely, I think, at the organizational level. Instead, it’s at the personal level.

Sometimes individuals don’t see the need for change. They look at a situation and think it is one to be endured. This is a challenge that Seth Godin has written about in “The Dip”–when to give up and when to soldier on. You see a situation which calls for change in how it is handled, but they see a situation that’s just the result of persecution, or difficulties, or whatever, and needs to be endured.

Sometimes individuals think the proposed change is wrong. They see the need for change but they don’t like what’s been proposed, for one of many possible reasons. Perhaps they don’t think it’s a Godly change. Or perhaps they don’t think it’s a workable change. Or perhaps they don’t think any particular change will work at all.

Sometimes individuals are just apathetic about change. They may see the need for change but just feel like they can’t do it, and so they’ll soldier on as best they can–that whatever “deep change” is required, isn’t possible for them. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” they’ll tell you, with a mournful sigh.

Getting an organization to change is never about the organization. It is always about the people. Dealing with people is perhaps the most complex, messy, difficult challenge facing us. First, to help people see the need for change. Then, to help them decide on the best way for change. And finally, to get them to actually execute.

I don’t have any silver bullet solutions to recommend. But in my experience, the one implication of the personal nature of change is that it cannot be easily mandated from the top down. Consensus for the change must be built from the bottom up. So if you’re anticipating change–it’s time to consider whether you’ve got enough frequent flyer miles, or at the very least what you’re going to do with all the ones you’re about to earn.

Some Questions (because I learn from Paul):

1. How many people in your organization see what you see of the need for change? (A tenth? A quarter? Half?)

2. Do you have an idea of what change is required? Can you clearly communicate it? Even to your spouse?

3. Are you willing to go visit with people, share what you think, listen to what they think, and build some consensus?