the postmodern pop pastor

I've asked a handful of folks surrounding my life to take part in a 360 degree assessment of my leadership. Its been interesting so far seeing how folks see me compared to how I see myself. My hope is that God uses this to confrim the strengths he has given me, to confront the way in which I present myself and to help me hear more voices in my life rather than just the loudest ones.

This APEPT evaluation is based on Alan Hirsch's book, The Forgotton Ways, where he suggests the best leadership in the church is a leadership among equals consisting of those gifted in the five-fold gifts of Ephesians 4. While my circles would not use the world "apostolic" easily, he doesn't use it in a crazy way. Some time ago, Alan, myself and Len Hjalmarson had a little discussion about his use of Aposlotic on Len's blog, you can see that here.

Here is a link to the chapter in Alan's book where the idea comes from.

Alan, I understand you're in Southern California for a time. I'd love to know where you are speaking so I could attend. Thanks for all the work. Its been good for me.

Labels: identity, leadership, pastor

My girl meg at the Relay for Life last weekend. I am still recovering from the all nighter. I guess Im older than I thought. Simple tiredness is the reason for the lack of activity on the blog this week.

Labels: photos

Last week at Caleb & Meg's school, every child wrote a short story and read it to a small group of kids. Caleb was selected (1 of 4) to read his in front of the whole school. There were over 1000 people! Looks like a preacher in the making. (and never mind the part about Dad having trouble with the map).

I've been reading George Barna's Revolution. Like so many of the books in the Emergent camp I find myself resonating with much of the book but also going No! No! No!

The following section on being part of a community I found to bring together the aspects of cynacism and idealism that I find necessary to be a healthy Christian in North America today.

Individuals involved in teh Revolution of faith that is currently redifining the American Church are predisposed to communal activity. Why? They've been exposed to biblical teaching that emphasizes the relational nature of God and the connectional character of ministries...Integrating into a pool of compatible change agents has tangible benefits. Each Revolutionary's impact is mulitplied by being part of a larger, harder-to-ignore group of compatriots. An individual's personal skills and gifts are exploited to maximum advantage, while the community compensates for each person's deficiencies. Affirmation from fellow transformers leads to increased strength, and being part of a larger force builds self-confidence. Both the cause and the individual are better off because of accountability in relations to thinking, message, behavior, and resource use. Revolutionaries take pride in their connection the community of fellow zealots. As in any society, it is the community to which they belong that sustains them and nurtures them through the good times and the bad. This adopted community anchors them both to reality and to the idealism to which they aspire.

Labels: church, community, discipleship, kingdom, stewardship

This week’s discussion with my DMin cohort revolved around my own question. This question comes out of my experience, is integral to who I am and has become the center of my dissertation work.

1. Do you have true close friends within your congregation? Are you vulnerable with those friends in regards to your struggles with the pastoral role? Do the spiritually formative benefits of community apply to the pastor as well as the congregation? Do you participate in the same discipleship process that the rest of the congregation participates in?
2. Are there ways that you find a pastor is able to relate uniquely within a congregation? That is, are there uniquely pastoral tasks that enable him/ her to participate in community as a pastor?

These being my questions, I already had much formulated thought in my own mind and heart. However, the beauty of discussion is that even detailed thinking can be added to, challenged and improved.

My understanding is that close friends are required for true spiritual leaders in the congregation. These are the kind of friends with whom we are vulnerable. True spiritual leadership will lead by participating in the same process of discipleship developed for the congregation at large. This way, we avoid the accusation of being hypocritical in leadership and we are honestly submitting to the congregation in mutuality. The discussion with my brothers highlighted that we as pastors do have the right to choose our friends wisely according to trust and our perception of their ability to handle our struggles. Most agreed that vulnerability to fellow leaders is essential. We must be humble and courageous enough to say, “No,” to unrealistic expectations and to stand up against the inevitable jealously that arises in such situations. In addition, our wives certainly play this role for us as well, though I wonder if she is an unbiased friend.

Pastors uniquely relate to the congregation through our practices of preaching and governance, these tasks belong to us and enable us to participate with the whole as no one else does. The brothers added the simple practice of presence as a way to offer praise and encouragement and as a way that we make ourselves approachable to all, even though we are not able to provide friendship with all. Weddings, funerals, hospital visits and counseling also allow us very real, usually one-sided connection with others in the congregation. The reality is that we pastors are often the recipients of the greater blessing in those circumstances.

Community is a creation of God and a gift to the participants. We intrinsically long for community but the North American context is not particularly fitted to such relationships. I find that I am constantly struggling to maintain the necessary cynicism in regards to what is passed off as community in our society and to avoid what Bonhoeffer calls the “wish dream,” that artificial version of community that ultimately kills the real thing, while at the same time keeping a hopeful ideology that longs for true biblical community in my real world.

Labels: community, friends, leadership, pastor

Julie and I were married 14 years ago yesterday.

"So many times I have been reminded that we do not give anything up for the Lord, not really, because He repays us a hundredfold in this life; in the life to come, we cannot even imagine the surprises He has in store for us."

"But, looking back, the wonder of it is the realization that God was answering prayer for direction, not with big supernatural signs, but quiet and definite leading....We have a Person to whom we may communicate, and our cries and requests do make a difference in history"

Labels: prayer

Labels: photos

If I was in Geneva right now... I'd have a cup of tea; I'd write something profound in my journal; I'd take my picture (again) at the Reformation Wall along with Farrel, Calvin, Beza and Knox; I'd walk slowly in drizzle and pretend like it was the 16th century; I'd eat some real swiss choclate; I'd eat a bowl of muslei with whole milk; I'd have an egg and a glass of wine at noon (that's a Calvin thing); I'd stand on the platform at St. Peter's (or the Calvin Auditory) and preach up a new reformation.

15 Things I Believe about organizational leadership from Robert Sutton, author of The No A**hole Rule. I read this book for my dissertation literature reviewa and really enjoyed it. It was fun, to the point and uncomfortably revealing. What do you think of point #2? In the book he makes an arguement that purposeful disengagement and indifference might be the key that helps you survive a work environment that inlcudes at least one "difficult person," you can see in the book title what Sutton calls that person. How could you do this in a ministry context? Our hearts are committed to what we do, and more particularly, to the people we serve. Perhaps it is possible to be passionate about the people and the common mission while disengaging with the organizational structures.

Take the "Are You A Certified A**hole?" exam.

15 Things I Believe

1. Sometimes the best management is no management at all -- first do no harm!
2. Indifference is as important as passion.
3. In organizational life, you can have influence over others or you can have freedom from others, but you can't have both at the same time.
4. Saying smart things and giving smart answers are important.
5. Learning to listen to others and to ask smart questions is more important.
6. Learn how to fight as if you are right and listen as if you are wrong: It helps you develop strong opinions that are weakly held.
7. You get what you expect from people. This is especially true when it comes to selfish behavior; unvarnished self-interest is a learned social norm, not an unwavering feature of human behavior.
8. Getting a little power can turn you into an insensitive self-centered jerk.
9. Avoid pompous jerks whenever possible. They not only can make you feel bad about yourself, chances are that you will eventually start acting like them.
10. The best test of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power.
    The best test single question for testing an organization’s character is: What happens when people mistake?
11. The best people and organizations have the attitude of wisdom: The courage to act on what they know right now and the humility to change course when they find better evidence.
12. The quest for management magic and breakthrough ideas is overrated; being a master of the obvious is underrated.
13. Err on the side of optimism and positive energy in all things.
14. It is good to ask yourself, do I have enough? Do you really need more money, power, prestige, or stuff?
15. Jim Maloney is right: Work is an overrated activity

Labels: books, communication, humility, leadership, vocation

I took the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment from Gallup. They desribe it this way.

In StrengthsFinder 2.0, Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular assessment, language of 34 themes, and much more. Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this new online program will change the way you look at yourself — and the world around you — forever.

My top 5 themes were:
Connectedness: People who are especially talented in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.

Input: People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.

Learner: People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

Ideation: People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Intellection: People who are especially talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

Labels: communication, family, friends, identity, insanity, leadership, pastor, preaching, writing

Last week we (our whole pastoral team) drove down and spent the morning with Doug and Dick from Harbor Presbyterian Church. They desribe themselves as a mulit-congregational, multi-site church. In other words, the one church community is made up of mulitple congregations in multiple towns and several of those congregations meet in more than one site. This continual multiplication process has enabled them to minister to 1500 folks in 6 different communities in only 7 years. Their congregations are very diverse and serve the specific needs of their neighborhoods: mercy ministry downtown, marketplace ministries in the city and so on.

It was an amazing morning and I walked away thrilled with the movement of God in San Diego County. Take a look at what they are doing, if you think ministry should be a team, these guys believe it and are acting on it.

Labels: church, church planting, leadership, pastor, team

Its been a fast week since Ive been back. This is a pic from our camp site at night in yosemite.