On Leadership

Last Sunday and this Sunday, I am not preaching. This is the first 2 Sundays in a row that I have not preached at church. I asked our elders board if I could have the first 2 weeks of July to do some thinking, praying and reading about the church. Primarily I had 2 goals:

1. Plan out all my sermons from Sept. 2009 - August 2010 - I have a good start on that, although there might still be a couple of changes to the preaching schedule.

2. Do some studying and thinking around the whole area of leadership and management, in regards to leading the church.

I have been reading books on leadership and management, and solicited some friends recommendations for leadership books. The 2 books that seemed to lead everyone's lists were:

In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen and

Good to Great by Jim Collins

Incidentally you couldn't find 2 more different books! Nouwen is one of the authors I have read the most of, and I have read this particular book twice already - it is quite short and can easily be read in a few hours.

Good to Great is one of those books that have been on my radar for several years, but I never got around to reading. Last month I was at a friends house admiring their newborn son. I glanced over their book-shelf and noticed 2 copies of Good to Great. I asked, why they had 2, they said both had been gifts.

I then bluntly asked if I could have one! They said sure. So, I finally cracked it this week - man, I wish I had read this book much much earlier! The book is the compilation of a 15 yr. study of companies that had really taken off, while other companies in their same field stayed stagnant or actually declined. Collins and his team of researchers wanted to find out what the difference was.

This book is very easy to read - I started it yesterday, and will probably finish it tomorrow. His discoveries are very insightful, wise and practical. I am toying whether or not I will have the elders board read through it this year. I think instead, I might just present some of the findings over a leadership weekend away.

One thing I have discovered this past year is that leadership and management are both delicate art forms. Leadership can be learned, but a lot of it is inherent - you either have certain gifts in this area or you don't.

I have always felt I have had a gift of leadership - I have held student gov't postions from elementary school through to grad. school. But, I am finding that the art of management is basically having above par people skills, in navigating the intricacies of managing people.

Leadership is casting vision, and gathering a strong core who will rally around that vision, and then discipline themselves to get the job done. Managing is the daily grind of working towards the vision.

Anyways, its been a productive 2 weeks, and I am looking forward to preaching again next Sunday.

The Baby

Hats that Adam and Sophia made at Golden Spike Days at Rocky Point Park today.

Adam loves his.

Listening to the new Coldplay son, "Glass of Water" - It's awesome. I'm still pretty buzzed by that concert last week.

Felicia is having a baby. Unplanned, but not unwanted. I was pretty shocked when she told me, but have now warmed up to the idea of having a third little one running around, and running my life. I come from a family of 3, and it is fun having more than one sibling. I'm pretty sure Adam and Sophia will prove to be good older brother and sister. Adam will keep Sophia from poking the baby's eyes out or trying to break his or her arm.

I have a couple of weeks where I am not preaching - I have planned out all my sermons from Sept. 2009 - Aug. 2010 which is pretty cool. Now I am going to re-format oops - Sophie is crying.

Ok - changed her diaper, and her shirt - it was soaked with sweat, put some cream on her exczema, had a brief talk on the greco-roman hellenized world of first century judaism wherein the early church was formed in..... and now she's asleep.

Now I am going to re-format our leadership team - any books or resources on how to have an efficient eldership structure in churches, please send them my way.

Been really hot around here lately. Looking forward to buying a bike (mine got stolen). I think I am going to buy a used bike on craigslist, for the same reason I will always buy a used car - chepaer, and apart from the smell, I can't really tell the dif. from a new one.

Still Listening to Snow Patrol

Sophie leads the way.

I had this super long post about this church in Kentucky that hosted a "bring your guns to church day". But, the post got too long and convoluted and sorted of imploded in on itself.

Thus, you have this post instead.

I spoke at Trinity Western this past weekend to a Mar Thoma Youth Conference. It went really well - really enjoyed my time with them.

Preached on the Holy Spirit this Sunday - I said most Christians treat the Holy Spirit like the weird uncle you try to avoid at family reunions - he's family and all, you just don't really want him to do anything weird.

Someone mentioned to me at how rare sermons on the Spirit are in evangelical churches. That struck me as quite odd. Maybe we are over reacting to charismatic excesses. Personally, I hope our church has more manifestations of the Spirits presence in our congregation: healing, words of knowledge, etc.

I have seen first hand the destruction of the excesses. But, still the dry intellectualism isn't really getting the world attracted about our faith.

I am on a 2 week study leave, which basically means, I have 2 Sundays where I am not preaching. I haven't had 2 Sundays off in a row since starting last year. (By the way - tomorrow will be one full year as pastor of this church).

I plan on doing some strategic planning around our leadership structure, and also try to map out all my sermons for the coming Sept - August time line. Right now, I am thinking the following:

UnChristian series: a 6 week series in the fall focusing on 6 of the biggest objections that 20somethings have towards Christianity.

Old Testament Series: Leviticus

Advent Series

6 week whole church series in January - home groups will all do the same curriculum and I will preach on it on Sundays

Gospel Focus - maybe Matthew - life of Jesus

Lent Series

I suspect that the series on Leviticus might be 1-2 months, and the series on Matthew could go on for a long period of time.

I'm really looking forward to charting these all out, and doing some preliminary work on each series, and possibly even each sermon as well.

Prayer Request

I am speaking at this conference tomorrow:

http://www.bornagainidentity2009.com/

I finished writing my message on Tuesday, and am going over it one last time. There will be a few hundred south asian young adults there from up and down the west coast - from California to BC.

I am excited about the opportunity to speak to this group.

Please pray that the Spirit empowers my words.

My friend on the plane

Walking Together.

My post today is part of a larger initiative of more than 50 bloggers all sharing their thoughts on how to ‘bridge the gap’. You can check out the other links at: http://www.btgproject.blogspot.com/

Ten years ago I was flying back to Vancouver from Saskatoon. I started chatting with my seat mate. I was reading a book on spirituality by M. Scott Peck, so we also started to discuss spirituality.

I asked him if he had a religious background. He said "Yes, I was raised fundamentalist." I was quite taken aback by his response. As we kept talking we discovered that we had attended the same evangelical churches at different times in Saskatoon. He said in college, he abandoned his faith and the church and has never looked back..... until now. He said in the past few months he had felt like he was missing out on something due to the lack of any kind of faith in his life.

As the plane began to land, we exchanged contact information and promised to be in touch. A week later I went for coffee with him in the westend part of downtown Vancouver. He was an artist, so he invited me to first meet him in his home studio to see some of his work. His art was very good.

We headed to a local Starbucks and kept talking. I explained to him my own faith journey and where I was at in terms of my beliefs in Christ and the church. He shared a bit more of his story, and the abruptly blurted out, "But.... I'm gay!"

I said "Ok. But your sexuality is only a part of who you are. I don't think it defines you completely, does it." He said, "No." At this point he related his journey towards the acceptance of his homosexuality. He was currently single and feeling lonely.

It was time to wrap up, and we promised to meet again, and he even expressed interest in attending a worship service sometime. As we were leaving, he stopped me and asked me, : "Why are you so open to keep talking to me? Most Christians I know would have ended our conversation when I brought up my sexuality, but you have just sat here and listened to my story."

I responded that Jesus never had any criteria for who he would meet with, so why should I have pre-requisites for the people I will have coffee with. He was quiet as we left the shop together.

What my encounter with my friend taught me is that people on both sides of this dialogue are not really engaging other human beings. Instead we are engaging with media caricatures of each other. Evangelicals think the gay rights lobby are a bunch of rabid promiscuous people who want to recruit our kids. The gay rights lobby thinks all evangelicals are a bunch of narrow minded bigots who want to sweep them back into the closet.

But, it is not until we actually engage one another IN PERSON, will true dialogue and understanding be possible. My hope by my post today is that people on both sides will seek out a friend on the other side of the debate. And have no prior "conversion" agenda - simply enter into a relationship with the hope of understanding one another's perspective.

Who know? Maybe you will make a friend among a group of people you had written off a long time ago as the "enemy."

(Note - I lost touch with my buddy after a few months of meeting together. But I trust he is staying true to his own spiritual journey, and moving closer to discovering his place as the beloved of God.)

New friend

Check out Jason Boyle. He's another blogger that I have started reading on a regular basis. I think most of you will like him. He is a thoughtful young Christian thinker and writer.

http://blog.jasonboyett.com/

Also Beth Malena wrote an awesome post on dealing with our confusing relationship to money:

http://bethblogever.blogspot.com/

"Father"

Sermon notes and Starbucks.

Fathers day is this Sunday. I've recently been thinking about why Catholic priests are called "father". I think it is because pastoring is a lot like parenting. From my vantage point, I see a lot of mini squabbles taking place between people, and sometimes I have to try to keep the big happy dysfunctional family from either imploding or exploding.

Most "fights" I am not directly involved in - I just observe, and offer counsel if asked. It is the toughest part of my job, trying to be empathetic and sympathetic to people who are processing their own hurts, by attacking or hurting others.

But then, I also get the joy of baptizing people and walking alongside them as they wrestle with their faith. I also have the awesome privilege of opening up the Word of God on a regular basis, and helping a community journey through what its implications are. And for those things I am grateful.

Good day today overall - had a meeting with a couple of other pastors about some minstry opportunities during the coming olympics. Then I did some admin. and then took Sophia for a walk to a nearby playground.