The Necessary Things

A Beta Test on My Life Purpose

Since I've recently landed in a season of additional clarity as to my own strengths, weaknesses, and roles that allow these to thrive, I thought I would beta test a purpose statement that seeks to capture not only my strengths, but also how I see God wanting to use them for his kingdom purposes.

Designing future-oriented structures that allow increase God's people's capacity to serve Him.

Designing future-oriented structures that mobilize God's people for kingdom purposes.

Designing future-oriented structures that lead change and mobilize God's people for kingdom purposes.

I'm leaving the first two up to hopefully expand the amount of feedback.

These are some recent & not so recent things that have fueled this:

• Realizing I'm better at ideas than working with people
• The future and change lie at the core of almost everything I do.
• Strengthfinder tests and Buckingham's corresponding books
• The book of Ezra: realizing I'm more like Zerubbabel than Ezra

I'm sure some of you have worked on a life purpose or personal mission statement. Would love to hear yours if you have one.

photo courtesy of gwgs

Measure Your Strategies

Numbers can bridge the gap between the ideal and the real and expose misconceptions about a particular strategy.

The image is from my ministry's website on the day we passed out over 2,000 flyers (1/8 of our campus) and completed 500 individual surveys.

I assumed that hundreds of students would go to our website looking for our events and activities. Instead less than 30 ended up visiting.

So often leaders keep strategies in place because it's what's been done in the past or because they feel strongly about it. Solid metrics can allow a team to have a robust discussion about a particular strategy that is influenced more by reality than by individual preferences.

Are there strategies in place that lack solid metrics? What sort of tools do you use to measure and determine your strategy's effectiveness?

Believing the Worst

"Once there is suspicion about person's motives... everything he does becomes tainted."--Ghandi

Tim Muelhoff delivered an amazing talk on how communication affects the receptivity of the Gospel. During his talk I received a message from someone who sent me a discouraging message framed in the context of suspicion.

The message gave me pause as I realize how often I do the very same thing; in fact believing the worst or making false assumptions is one of my most frequent sins. Because it often feels like a 'white lie,' I do not grieve the broken things in my heart and head that contribute to that behavior.

Questions that I'm wrestling with:

• Why is this so prevalent in Christian culture?
• What specific challenges in ministry seem to bring this issue out even more frequently than other jobs?
• How directly do you respond when spoken to in this fashion? What is the healthy way of expressing anger/sadness without escalating the interaction and failing to redeem the differences experienced?

Refining Faith

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:6-8

Having concluded staffing a summer missions trip where the attendees were at least ten years younger than me, I noticed that what often passes as faith in one's 20's cannot pass in one's 30's.

Not that actions that seem to be in faith but are really youthful zeal 'do not count' so to speak, but that God's process of refining our faith is definitely humbling, as I realize how small my faith was during college.

What would you fill in the question mark section at this point? I would say God is cutting out my secular wisdom and wanting to replace it with biblical wisdom.

To Be or Not To Be Ambiguous

“Tolerate ambiguity, resolve ambiguity, and create ambiguity.”

I loved the way Tim O'Reilly expressed this reality that every person and organization faces in their quest to accomplish their mission.

In ministry I've observed that tolerating ambiguity proves to be the most challenging for me. It's easy for me to create ambiguity by suggesting new ideas or by questioning the current reality, but to move forward in the mission and towards one another WITH a significant level of ambiguity present requires a highly capable and mature person/team/organization.

Here's the context of that quote from a blog post by Edie Freedman, an employee of O'Reilly:

"Many years ago, O’Reilly Media founder and CEO Tim O'Reilly wrote a memo to the company’s managers about our role. One of things he wanted was for managers to “tolerate ambiguity, resolve ambiguity, and create ambiguity.” We all laughed when we read it, but in many ways it has been a key element in the continued success of the company. As the company has matured, we’ve managed to strike a manageable balance between encouraging a certain amount of ambiguity even as we continually strive for something that passes for clarity. It is not always easy to make the necessary choices."

In a postmodern world with all of its segmentation, relativism, confusion, and mystery a philosophy such as this must be engaged. Otherwise a person/company/org risks having clearly defined goals and tactics but little passion, drive, or inspiration for the leaders to lead.

Which of the three resonates most with your leadership style or personality? Tolerate, Resolve, or Create? How has that expressed itself in your current role?

Recent Links of Value to Me

I wanted to share some recent links that I have saved to delicious. If you have come across any great links, please share them with me in the comments section.

• Jump Into the Stream: Techcrunch post discussing the changes real-time search is having on the internet. Favorite quote from the post: "A stream. A real time, flowing, dynamic stream of information — that we as users and participants can dip in and out of and whether we participate in them or simply observe we are a part of this flow."
• Charlene Li's Slideshare Presentations: I highly recommend taking a look at Convincing the Curmudgeon. I heard Charlene give this presentation at the Inbound Marketing Summit and she did a great job.
• Men@pause Seminar: Jeff Widman, Generation Y-Manifesto: Jeff is a great thinker and solid believer in the tech industry. I had lunch with him recently and tried to learn as much as I could from him in a short amount of time.
• Working with the Wrong Students: BlogTalkRadio Discussion: My staff team at Chico State discusses the dynamics of working with the wrong students and how it affects movement building. I really enjoyed this one because we had quite a few guest callers from campuses around California.

Hyper-Sensitive To Dualism

"The estimation of the world, owing to the above, as flawed or a production of 'error' but nevertheless as good as its constituent material might allow. The inferiority may be compared to the technical inferiority of a painting, sculpture, or other handicraf to the thing(s) of which those crafts are supposed to be a representation. In certain other cases this tendency to view matter negatively becomes more extreme; materiality, and the human body, is perceived as evil and constrictive, a deliberate prison for its inhabitants;" definition of Dualism from Wikipedia.

I seem super-sensitive to dualism when I'm in a new setting. Whenever I hear a new Christian pastor/speaker I seem extraordinarily capable of sniffing it out, even finding it where it may or may not exist. 

Today instead of dwelling on the hints of dualism I paused to reflect why this seems to happen. I knew it had something to do with my own patterns of living as well as the hypocrisy of my own life in separating the spiritual from the secular.

In new settings I become dualistic; usually making that which is uncomfortable secular and that which is comfortable spiritual. I find it difficult to allow that which makes me uncomfortable to be spiritual. I resonated with the part of the definition that said, 'This tendency to view matter negatively becomes more extreme.' Stress increases my tendency to view matter negatively; particularly new people.

The Limit of Leadership

I recently led my staff team through a time of learning where their personality intersected with Campus Crusade for Christ's Leadership Model. This is definitely one of my passions to see staff members understand how they fit within our organization, and to pursue experiences and training that develop their strengths, not just minimize their weaknesses.

Often times I tend to focus on the core of one's ability; the central place where strengths, spiritual giftings, talents, and past experiences come together. This time I also encouraged staff to think about the limit of their leadership defined in this way: the extent to which you are more effective as a leader rather than a follower.

The experiences that we have where we realize that we were not the best person for the job are extremely helpful in understanding how God has wired us. Once we understand our limit, we can delegate more intentionally and have better eyes to see those around us who can do what we are only moderately capable of.

Have you ever had an experience that revealed the limit of your leadership? What steps have you take in light of that learning moment? Have you become better at delegation as a result?

Capacity Driven Development

My family embarks on a three month journey that will take us to both a short-term missions assignment and CCC's national staff conference.

In the past these experiences would often take me by complete surprise in terms of how the Lord uses them to refine me and develop my capacity.

This year I know that He will surprise me, but I'm also significantly more aware of my strengths and weaknesses, and can understand how to integrate my experiences with his heart shaping work in my life.

The most helpful categories for me to think about the Lord's development is through vivification and mortification; in other words what is the Lord seeking to breathe life and kill in my heart that will make me more like Him? This usually kick-starts the process of discerning where He is at work and what He wants to do.

I've noticed when leading that most people lean naturally towards one or the other; a significant area of redemption in leading others is helping them discern not only their natural bend, but also helping them see the areas that they have yet to discover. If they are made aware of only what they know or pointed only to what they have yet to see, then they miss receiving a complete picture of the Lord's work in their life.

How do you see vivification and mortification at work in your life and in those you lead? What sort of redemptive experiences have you had that have developed your capacity?

Secularizing the Spiritual

I received a comment on my last post inquiring about the Holy Spirit in the formula I shared that connected with evangelism.

My friend Dave Goffeney has been passionate about this dynamic, so I thought I'd throw him a softball and use this post as a diving board for a broader discussion.

It seems that many postmodern Christians secular-ize the spiritual. If something has a hint of logic, reason, or linearity, some quickly dismiss it as secular. This reckoning denies the part of God that values and created reason, logic, and linearity as well as mystery.

I enjoy reading Justin Wise's blog; he explores the intersection between culture, faith, and technology. His last post compared the creativity of Frank Lloyd Wright the architect with Jackson Pollock the painter. One stays within the lines; the other avoids them at all costs.

Just because our culture values the genius of Pollock more than Wright at this moment does not diminish Wright's brilliance. In the same way, I believe many Christians miss out on learning from those who value logic, reason, and staying within the lines because it's not popular.

Have you ever noticed Christians secularizing the spiritual? Where do you see this happening in Christian culture?

Hopefully Dave can chime in and provide some insight into this.