Here and Now

Managers vs. Leaders Here's Seth Godin's take on it: The difference between management and leadership I've talked about it  before  too. Godin is right in this: we need both - managers and leaders.  But we ALSO need to know the difference between the two, and we need to know when and where we need the two... And we need to know who we are in the church - leaders or managers. Some other links on the topic: Future Vision Changing Minds A Couple Steven Covey Quotes on the Subject Leadership Tools

I found this image on  Morguefile * and, though I changed the background (it's a "sandcastle" and there was an out of focus kid in the background), when I saw it I thought: "That's a world I wish I could explore." And I write...so, yeah, I actually can. That can be the Melted Mountains of Arias where Princess Emily and Umpleby and Fluffy have to go to escape from the Wood Witch in the stories that I tell the girls at night. Or the Dragon Mountains where, as the name implies, the dragons live in the world of Daen Ral. Or they are the Mountains of the Gerian Monks  who live in utter silence, for whom speaking is a sin and to whom the sound of wind carries the sounds of prophecies. Or the Halls of the Grey Watchers who wait for the return of the True King... Images inspire all kinds of ideas, don't they?  I love just surfing the 'net for pictures and artwork and inspiration... What is this place?

Pre-Pork Rind... on the hoof morgufile We just saw a commercial for...was it really?... batter dipped pork rinds?  Anyway, Rachel asked, "What are pork rinds?" "Deep fried pig skin," says I, wise in the ways of junk food. "Yuk.  Who would eat that?" "Um...  Apparently, a lot of people.  Not me, though..." And so I did  Extensive Research * and found out I was pretty much right...and convinced that I will, in fact, not ever eat pork rinds in the future** (not that I've ever eaten them in the past, though, either). * Does anybody even use encyclopedias anymore? ** Not that I'm opposed to deep fried animal skin, 'cause deep fried turkey skin is mmmmmm... but pork rind just sounds so...gross for some reason...bleah....

So, yeah, I think maybe the "Good Luck" was photoshopped in (funny the verbs we've added to the language these days - like this on facebook, if you've friended me, that is...and if you don't know what that means, just google it...) - but even so...  If this is real street sign... sheesh... And the reason I think there's some possibility that it might be is that there ARE stupid street signs around.  Check this one out: Um...MOVE THE TREE!!! or cut it down.  Or ... well, just, wow...

Seth Godin the other day posted the  The Math of Favors  where he talks about the transactions we enter into regularly thusly: 1.  I'm doing you a favor 2.  You're doing me a favor 3.  Business as usual (he says, "favorless transaction" but later calls it B A U) Here's another example of "the rest of the world" catching up to Jesus.  Godin ends his post with this: The shortcut to success is this: why not always act as if the other guy is doing the favor? Of course a few thousand years ago, Jesus said it like this  "Do to others as you would have them do to you." Do you think it could work?

from Morguefile For Posting, that is.  Probably be a pretty busy day here at Otterbein and Tidioute churches, though. I was remembering the girls playing soccer as I was getting ready for my message the other day.  I used a brief story in the sermon (which will soon be available  here  - the October 16th sermon from that page, probably toward the bottom once it's posted) of Elie playing soccer.  Anyway, I considered using the video of that event, and I tried to find it.  Maybe I didn't catch it on video, that's possible.  But it's just as likely that's it's somewhere on one of the five different format video tapes that I have laying around...argh.  What I searched through was some avi files that I had dumped from Lori's digital camera.  Not the greatest quality...but...it was 5 year olds playing soccer... All we wanted to capture was the moment, the memory...  That's all we wanted. I've been on an endless quest for better quality ...

So over on the right you see some great links (some are so-so, I keep them because...well, I keep them) that I read often.  One is  Home Studio Corner , which is all about recording.  Now, maybe you don't care about recording, I get that.  No biggie.  But his latest post was  Stop Reading This Website  which, in addition to being a provocative title, makes a lot of sense. To summarize: If all you're going to do is read about something, stop it.  It's all about putting it into practice. I know a lot of pastors and leaders who don't even read about leadership or church growth or evangelism or frankly anything that could remotely bring a new idea into their worlds.  But those that DO read, most read voraciously.  Lots of books. And too many of us stop there.  We read about it, it sounds great.  And then we read the next book.  And so it goes.  Nothing changes. We do that with the Bible too, don't we? ...

My co-pastor and I were working with a church recently, talking about church growth, plateaus, difficulties in growth, etc.  We said, "We often ask the wrong question, which is: What can we do to grow the church? We need to ask the right question: What is preventing the church from growing?"* You see, we often focus on doing things to grow the church - strategies, gimmicks, programs, whatever - things that other churches have done, books have said will work, ideas we've dreamed up or something else that we think  might grow the church numbers.  Some things work, some things don't.  The core thing that is guaranteed to grow the church is the movement of the Spirit of God, but we don't control that.  What we DO control is how we act. And that is the question we were asking.  What do we do that prevents people from coming to church?  And there's a lot.  We act...badly.  I read a book called  Lord, Save Us From Your Followers  ...

Both? Neither? Um... I'm on the Fringe, I guess... True?  False?  You?

From Morguefile Did you ever do something stupid and not realize it?  Trample somebody's feelings and have no idea?  Say something insensitive or do something unkind without a second thought? Of course you have.  Me too.  Dealing with it right now. Just heard about it this afternoon, in fact.  Happened several days ago, I had no idea that what I said and did hurt someone's feelings, but it did.  Immediately, I tried to make contact, I wanted to reconcile with this person, I wanted to make sure that the relationship remains intact ( as Jesus tells us to do ) but I couldn't - person won't be available until tomorrow... And this hurts me. And it should.  I should hurt when I have hurt someone else.  I should ache to make this right.  When I am wrong* I need to confess to God, I need to confess to the person I have hurt. Here's the thing about broken communities (churches, neighborhoods, families, etc): there's rarely compassionate ...

I was over in Tidioute the other day for office hours and did some visiting and some work around the church.  When it was time to come home, though, I flew  down the road to get home.  I knew that I was going to get home about the same time as the girls were going to get off the bus, and I knew that Lori was going to be at the house and I just couldn't wait to get there and see the three people I love more than anybody in the world.  So, yes, I pushed the car a bit above the speed limit a time or two (or three of four) but I was so excited to see my family - I just couldn't wait.  I hadn't seen them for HOURS.  It was important - urgent - I HAD to get home. Yeah, you probably know where this is going, right? That night I had a meeting at church. Was I as excited to get there?  Did I break any speed limits to get to the meeting?  Was I as excited to see those people - who are also my family - who I also love (sorry, not quite the same way or ...

from morguefile So last Sunday we hit a wall at church - one we've hit before, but we keep forgetting about it... The parking lot was full.  The sanctuary wasn't full, so it would be easy to not ever think about the parking lot, but somebody mentioned it and I had a facepalm moment...  We've talked about it before, why do we keep back-burner-ing this? Because things are going okay...  But have we missed anybody because they pull up, see no spaces, and drove away?  Church growth people say if the pews are more than 80% full (which ours aren't) then that's where you stop growing...but what about parking spaces?  What if you're at 105% full?  I mean, not every Sunday, or we'd think about it all the time.  But we can't only think about it when it happens, right? So this made me remember working at another church where we had some parking issues - again, not all the time, but just on occasion.  So, during a staff meeting we were encouraged to pa...

Found this last week online (click it to see the whole thing). So, which one am I?  I'll post who I THINK I am on Friday...

We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others . -Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (1623-1662)  I have been hit by the truth of this time and again the past couple weeks - as people keep saying the most obvious things...that OTHER people should be doing... but it's only when a person finds the truth within themselves that true change occurs.  That's why we can't be Holy Spirit for other people, why husbands and wives can't change their spouses, why family members can't force addicts to quit...  Even when it's obvious to everyone else in the world, until it's true for me, it's not true for me... And that's why the Christian faith can't be second hand faith, either...

Not my picture, not really relevant... But, awww :) This morning I hung out in the car with the girls at the end of the driveway, waiting for the bus ('cause it was a bit chilly out this morning).  Well, I hung out in the car with A  girl, Rachel, because Elie was bouncing around the outside of the car alternately making faces at Rachel or just laughing and dancing in the wet grass.  At one point Rachel was play-teasing Elie through the window by looking at the wrong side of a homework page which, for whatever reason, really bugged Elie.  She kept trying to open the door (which Rachel had, of course, locked) and kind of poking the window and saying turn it over... I finally rolled down a window a bit and said, "You know, you can fight a lot easier if you get in the car."  And Elie's face lit up and she got a big smile on her face and ran around the car.  Rachel giggle-shrieked, "Dad!" as I unlocked all the doors and Elie jumped in the car...  And...

I know I've just scratched the surface with this idea of Living Bridges.  The images, when I first saw them, captured my imagination, and I wanted to begin processing the ideas here.  This is a place for ideas - for the temporary and the transient - to brainstorm and think out loud and welcome others into the thought process.  So...it's like a living bridge, too, kind of... The realization that there's more to this life than me occurs to everyone at some point, right? Wikipedia's Questionable List of Philathopists Nobel Prize Bill & Melinda Gates Warren Buffett Oprah Yeah, I could go on and on.  But that's been the point of faith...well, from the beginning, right?  God said of Adam, " It is not good for the man to be alone. " Jesus said, " Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do to Me. " Among other things like, " Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yours...

We're here to put a dent in the universe.  -Steve Jobs, entrepreneur and inventor (1955-2011) 10 Ways Steve Jobs Changed The World  as long as it stays at CNN.com...

...I'm saddened by the news that Steve Jobs has died.  There is no question that he was one of the great visionaries and geniuses of my generation and I can't imagine what has been lost - or what won't be created - with his passing.

So let's move on here.  Living bridges are those living, breathing connections we make, right?  Okay, it's a metaphor, but I think it works. Mission is the big thing in the church right now.  Rick Warren's post Purpose Driven Life  have been outreach oriented , there's a  Missional Church Network  and  Ed Stetzer is plugged in .  It's a huge focus of  Ginghamsburg Church ,  Willow Creek , you name it.  Now, don't hear this as critical.  It's a good thing.  It's a God thing.  Really it is. But, alone, it  fails.  Like Failblog fails... "No, no, no," you may say (you may not, but it's my blog...), "Good John Wesley was ALL about the outreach stuff.  Talk about Mr. Missional.  Mr. 'The World Is My Parrish.'  What about Jesus?  What about 'Go and make disciples?'  Huh?  What do you have to say to that?" Well... They didn't fail. Because they didn't do Missional alone. ...

Hmmm, thought I had talked about this whole me to we stuff before... I know I've preached about it...twice, even... but my blog-search-fu fails me... So, our society has caught on to this idea of living bridges.  The idea that it's not institutions that connect us, but it's in real, live, face to face ways that we are truly connected.  Those are living bridges.  I'm told (meh, you can do the research I suppose, you've probably read the books too) that the, say, under 35 generations are more and more committed to what we in the church would call mission - what society at large would call "social justice" - and what I think is more aptly called Living Bridges - than nearly any generation previous.  People want to live FOR something - to have purpose and meaning - people want to connect - not just virtually (though that is HUGE important - as  this commercial * mocks...but has a point nonetheless).  Connecting matters. Creating Living Bridges - making rea...

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.  -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) It is sad that 100+ years later this must still be true...

So again this morning my 8 year old, Elie, was waiting for the bus (normal) and she said, "I really like going to back to school on Mondays."  Really?  I don't remember feeling that way. Wise, like Yoda, I say, "Why is that?" "Because it's not too much work, today.  And we get to do science.  I really like science."  Oh yeah, I remember, they studied butterflies again this year* and I figure that's what she's excited about... "Butterflies, right?" "No.  We're done with that.  We released our butterflies last week.  We're learning about insects.  Did you know that ants have a queen?" "Yep." "And she has wings." And so the excitement for school goes.  It's partly about learning, partly about socializing.  I know I've  said this already recently  but it bears repeating.   She loves school - not just because second grade is easy (because it isn't) or because she's bri...

This is maybe the coolest engineering thing I've ever seen (well, this week, okay?).  Bridges, in India, that aren't built, but are GROWN.  Talk about the ultimate "green" industry. So here's the reason.  They get a lot of rain.   Okay,  Seattle , I know you think you get a lot of rain.  But this place in India - Cherrapunji - gets a LOT of rain.  No.  A WAAAAAY lot of rain.  Like two Guinness Book of World Records for rainfall amounts of rain.  In the 1860s in one month they got over 30 feet - yes THIRTY FEET of rain.  And that year they got almost 75 and a half feet of rain.  Holy cow.  You put traditional wood bridges in that kind of rain and they'll rot in a couple years.  Apparently some of these root bridges are a hundred years old - no cut wood bridge could last in the wet that long.  But living rubber tree roots do just fine.  'Cause they're ALIVE... Here's what they do.  They cut and ho...