DownshoreDrift

What Does God Want From Us?

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27 NIV84)

"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8 NIV84)

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28, 29 NIV84)

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6 NIV84)

God wants a relationship with us and He has provided a means for that relationship through faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice to provide us forgiveness of sins. After that, God wants us to live for Him and to represent Him well in a world that has lost its way and is given to injustice, greed, and selfishness.

Faith matters. We are to place our faith in Jesus. But then, that means something. Our faith is to express itself tangibly. Justice. Mercy. Humility. How can we see someone in need and not care? How can we see injustice and not be moved? How can there be darkness without us trying to shine the light? True religion puts us in an active stance. It causes is to lean forward toward those struggling to find their way or are in bondage or are being abused. We live lives that actively and clearly represent the ethic of the Kingdom of God, not of this world.

We do not do this alone. We are placed by the Holy Spirit in redemptive communities to live out this new life together in a "colony of heaven in the land of death," as Eugene Peterson calls it. As we love one another in communities of the Kingdom, we are in position to work together to bring true transformation to individuals, families, communities, and even nations by the power of God. Our lives are not our own. We belong to Jesus.

I write this as a hurricane is about to hit my homeland of the Gulf Coast. God has placed His people all over that region today in every facet of life from school teachers to firemen to government administrators to the military to medical personnel, etc, efc. Every person is uniquely talented to contribute to the common good for the glory of God. God has placed Christians in position to make a difference - to provide healing and hope in every situation we find ourselves in. We are on mission every day. We worship God with our lives every day. God is always working.

Hurricane Isaac Reporting Goes Crazy, And It is a Problem

I hate hurricane season. Growing up on the Gulf Coast equidistant from Biloxi/Gulfport, MS and New Orleans, it is always a stressful time of year. You watch every disturbance in the Gulf and even in the Atlantic. I first learned about the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa by tracking tropical disturbances as a 10 year old. Meterology would have been a cool profession to have gone into. One thing that I have found is that people in Louisiana and Mississippi know how to read this stuff better than even some meterologists from other parts of the country. It is literally life and death for them.

That is why when The Weather Channel reporters and other weather reporters come down for a storm, I often laugh out loud. I sometimes cry. The hype and sensationalism and overreaction is often epic. Yes, this is a big deal. Yes, Isaac will cause flooding and storm damage. But, it almost seems as though many of the reporters are just hoping that this will be something so they have something to report. I saw a weather reporter yesterday pointing to the waves in Gulfport that were already picking up, he said. The camera moved over to the Mississippi Sound and I only saw a few whitecaps and just a handful of ripples in the water. There were no waves. But, he said it was picking up.  Ok. One day, a lawn chair is going to hit one of these guys at 70 mph and we are all going to think that they shouldn't have been out there to begin with.

Eventually, we are going to have weather reporters hanging onto light poles with rain and wind in their face. Hurricane/Tropical Storm Isaac will have Jim Cantore getting blown around and he will be telling us that it is bad out there. And, we will all watch. But, we need to beware of underreaction as well as overreaction. If we don't get people to evacuate, some folks could get killed. We need to be careful. But, if we cry wolf for every Tropical Storm or Category One Hurricane because The Weather Channel has been freaking out for a week, that is also a problem. It costs money for people to evacuate. They have to find places to stay and they sit in traffic for hours and hours. They have kids and there are elderly people that struggle with this. The problem with overreacting for a smaller storm is that the next time a hurricane comes, people will remember when they sat in traffic for 14 hours to evacuate their homes and nothing happened. Then, for the next storm, they will stay put and that could be the big one.

Lots of people stayed behind for Katrina seven years ago who should have evacuated. But, the thinking for many was "we've heard this before. We are always fine."  So, they stayed. Almost 2,000 people died as a result. Sensationalism from previous storms played a part in this mindset.  People are still on edge from Katrina and that is why the media is all over the Gulf Coast. They are looking for a story. But, Isaac is a Tropical Storm or Category One Hurricane.  It's a big deal and precautions should be taken, but the whole Gulf Coast doesn't need to freak out. I kind of get the feeling that sensational reporting only serves to desensitize people for when the Big One comes again.  And, that is a problem.

 

Does Al Mohler Need to Repent of Promoting Calvinism?

By "repent," I mean to turn around. I am not asserting that he has committed a sin against God. I simply mean to stop progressing in one direction, turn around, and head in another direction. As the Calvinist/Traditionalist war continues to heat up in the SBC, the focus of the issue should not go to Lifeway's "The Gospel Project" or Founders or many of the other targets, in my opinion. The focus should go to the one SBC entity that has as its president a man who has clearly articulated a view that Calvinism is the only logical option for thinking evangelicals who are serious about gospel fidelity. I think that is a bridge too far. 

Dr. Al Mohler is a 5 point Calvinist and he has led Southern in that direction quite obviously. That is not a big problem on the surface. Calvinism is a legitimate theological perspective in Southern Baptist life and it has much merit to it. Anyone trying to remove Calvinist influence from Baptist life should be reprimanded and ignored, in my opinion. However, has Mohler gone beyond just being a Calvinist and speaking and working from that perspective? Has he actually moved into the realm of promoting Calvinism over other theological perspectives in SBC life? If he has, then he has gone beyond the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 on an essential issue. He has moved Calvinism to a second tier issue (one of the ones that you divide over denominationally), instead of a third tier issue (one upon which you can continue in fellowship but disagree). I submit to you the following evidence:

From a Christianity Today article on Mohler from 2010:

"Mohler believes that the only intellectually robust defense of biblical inerrancy lies in the Reformed scholasticism that emerged from the Synod of Dort (1618) and enjoyed its apogee at late-19th-century Princeton Theological Seminary, where James Boyce trained. Non-Calvinist conservatives, Mohler says, "are not aware of the basic structures of thought, rightly described as Reformed, that are necessary to protect the very gospel they insist is to be eagerly shared." He thinks that Reformed theology's appeal to young people proves its unique imperviousness to the corrosive forces of 21st-century life. "If you're a young Southern Baptist and you've been swimming against the tide of secularism … you're going to have to have a structure of thought that's more comprehensive than merely a deck of cards with all the right doctrines." In this regard, Mohler is just as elitist as the moderates of old Southern: he is certain he has the truth, and those Baptists who protest simply are not initiated intothe systematic splendor of Reformed thought."

Mohler, in an interview with Kevin de Young and Ligon Duncan of The Gospel Coalition has also gone on record as saying,

"If you are a theologically minded, deeply convictional, young evangelical, if you are committed to the gospel and you want to see the nations rejoice in the name of Christ - if you want to see gospel built and structured and committed churches, your theology is just going to end up basically being reformed, basically being something like this New Calvinism or you're going to have invent some kind of label for what is just going to end up being the same thing. There just are not options out there, and that is something that I think frustrates some people, but when I'm asked about the New Calvinism, I'm going to say basically, Where else are they going to go? Who else is going to answer the questions, who else is going to offer the resources they need, where else are they going to connect? This is a generation that understands that they want to say the same thing that Paul said. They want to stand with the Apostles. They want to stand with old dead people. And, they know they are going to have to if they are going to preach and teach the truth." From video.

In a subsequent speech given to the state editors of Baptist papers in 2011, Mohler qualified his statements by saying: 

"...Calvinism is the shape of the future, because the options otherwise don’t very much exist. Now if you just quote me on that and put that in the paper it’s going to make people mad. And it’s not tribal language. It is because when I say Calvinism here, I’m going back to 1845, I’m going back to 1925, I’m going back to 1963, and I’m including all of you in that. Now if you’re offended by that just realize that any outside observer looking at the SBC, looking at our confessions of faith, would put us on the Calvinist side of the ledger.

"Now I want to tell you I am a five-point Calvinist, all right? I never write about that, I don’t speak about that. If you want to know that there you have it. But I am at home in the Southern Baptist Convention of the Baptist Faith & Message. I was not raised in a church that talks about Calvinism. I am not now a member of a church that talks about Calvinism. The whole SBC, the Baptist Faith & Message and the New Hampshire Confession is clearly out of the basically Calvinist direction. Now that’s tribal. And one of the problems with this is people hear that as tribal. And one of the problems is that people hear that as tribal. And to hear that as five-point Calvinism, look, that is, that’s not what I’m talking about here. There are amongst us those who are more Calvinist and those who are less. But the Baptist Faith & Message excludes Arminianism. The SBCs founders identified Arminianism as a heresy they sought to confront." Taken from transcript of speech.

          
So, here is where we stand with Mohler and Southern Seminary: Calvinism is the only possible place for thinking, theological minded young evangelicals to land. Calvinists say the same thing that Paul said and that the other Apostles said and there is not really any other way to explain the Gospel. And, by the way, all Southern Baptists are Calvinists of some sort or another because we are not Arminians and we don't believe that you can lose your salvation. So, you can have varying degrees of Calvinists short of the 5 point variety like Mohler, but all Southern Baptists are actually Calvinists of some sort and that is just how it is. Mohler asserts Calvinism, but it is not 5 point Calvinism - it is any aspect of the 5 points of TULIP and he says that ALL Southern Baptists fall in that distinction.

Of course, that is my take on it. So, when Traditionalists and Non-Calvinists are upset about what they think is a Calvinist take over in SBC life and Southern Seminary has a president who is a very strident cultural critic with a sharp tone, and there are some professors at Southern who are very much focused on Calvinism, and there are graduates of Southern who are quite militantly Calvinistic, even explaining it as the gospel itself, then this starts to make some sense. It makes sense just based on the words of Al Mohler alone.

Here is the issue in Southern Baptist life: From my understanding, you are not a Calvinist unless you affirm all 5 points of TULIP. There cannot be a 4 point or 3 point Calvinist. That is a false distinction. Calvinism according to the Synod of Dort (and it is debatable if even Calvin would have agreed with Dort) is a theological system that falls apart if you remove one of the points. I do not submit to Mohler's classification of me as a Calvinist, even though I would agree with most of TULIP. I am not a Calvinist. And, the SBC is not Calvinistic just because it believes in the perseverance of the saints or eternal security or however individual Baptists describe it. That is a false designation and it is causing great controversy.

We need to decide if Calvinism is of the 5 point variety in affirming all of TULIP or if it should be applied to those who affirm 2, 3, or 4 points as well. If we cannot even agree on what Calvinism is, then we should quit using the term for any but those who claim all 5 points or are truly Reformed and baptize infants, or we should use it for all Southern Baptists, even those who just agree with one point, ala Molher. Using it interchangeably across the spectrum is a semantic disaster for everyone - and both true Calvinists trying enhance their ranks and Traditionalists looking for targets to fire upon are both guilty. Traditionalists add to this problem when they call Danny Akin and Trevin Wax and many others who do not affirm all of TULIP as Calvinists.

Some Calvinists have called me a Calvinist because of things I believe, but I reject the label because I understand a Calvinist to be someone who affirms all of TULIP, which I do not. I refuse to qualify myself under a false theological distinction just so I can be labeled by others in their attempt to create a category for everyone. I think there are a whole lot of Southern Baptists who would agree with that perspective.

Here is where Mohler is wrong in how he has gone about this: As an SBC entity head who sits under the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, he has every right to be a Calvinist. Calvinism is included in that confession's soteriology. But, he does not have permission to uphold Calvinism above other perspectives that are also within the bounds of the BFM2000 or to apply the designation to everyone. This has been my contention in these debates for the past 7 years now. There must be room for Baptists who agree with the BFM2000 to coexist together, discuss, debate, disagree, and then work together under the umbrella of orthodox Christianity. When one view or another begins to prevail and attempts to supersede or degrade another, not in conversation but or personal belief, but in delegitimizing it, then we end up in a place of massive theological and denominational conflict - basically where we are right now. We also should allow people to self-designate without be labeled by others for political purposes, whether you are a Traditionalists who wants to be defined apart from Calvinism, or whether you adhere to 3 or the 4 points of Calvinism. The labeling by the other side so they can win arguments needs to stop. It seems that Mohler is guilty of this as well.

Al Mohler is on Frank Page's Calvinism Task Force. Will one of the first acts of the Task Force be to ask Mohler to repent (i.e., turn around and back off) of his statements asserting Calvinism as the only possible theological system for thinking evangelicals? Or, should he clarify again in a way that does not enforce a controversial designation upon people who do not want it? Because as long as his stated view is being promoted, I do not see where we can have peaceful coexistence for the sake of mission. And, I fear that honest attempts at cooperation between Calvinists and Non-Calvinists on things like The Gospel Project will constantly be seen in a sinister light by those who fear a Calvinist Takeover of the SBC. We need to step away from semantic confusion and co-opting and deal clearly with these issues. It would be great if Al Mohler would lead us in this.

Head, Heart, & Hands: A Whole Faith for a Whole Person

As I have observed Christianity and religious faith over the years, I am struck by how one group will emphasize one aspect of faith/devotion while another group will emphasize another and both will claim to be right. One might say that the Christian faith is about studying the Word and knowing what it says and having a Christian worldview. And, they will have Bible verses to back this up. Another group will talk about prayer and worship and devotion and the attitudes of the heart. They will also talk about ridding yourself of sin and any impurity to be pleasing to the Lord. And they will be right as well. Yet another group will talk about service and action and sacrifice and caring for widows and orphans and how that is true religion and we need to stop praying about things and start doing evangelism and justice. And, they will be right as well.

But, the whole Christian life involves all three - the mind, the will/emotions, and the body. It is a holistic faith because we have a God who created us - our minds, our hearts, and our bodies - and He declared it all good. Sure, the Fall has marred us and sin turns us inward in an attempt to establish our own identity apart from God, but the Imago Dei upon us is good and this means that the redemption of Christ affects all of us - mind, will/emotions, and body.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. 
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy 

and to walk humbly with your God. ~ Micah 6:8

Act Justly. Hands. There are actions that we are to do that reflect God's intent for the world and our relationship with Him and others. We can think about the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 where we are to pray that God's Kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. What are things like in heaven? Is there lying, corruption, deceit, violence, abuse, or pain? Or, is life marked with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, justice, wisdom, and hope? As ambassadors for Christ here as the Kingdom is "now but not yet," we are to act in light of God's justice and character. The Ten Commandments displays God's character to us and shows us how society should be and how we personally should live in ways that reflect God's glory and His will.

Love Mercy. Heart. James 2:13 says that mercy triumphs over judgment. This is God's disposition toward us because of Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross where God's wrath against sin was satisfied. God's love for us is to transform us and capture our own hearts with His love and compassion. We are then to extend that love and compassion and mercy to others (1 John 4:7-21). We are to know and rely on the love that God has for us (1 John 4:16) and we are to love others sacrificially. Our hearts are to turn toward others who are in deep distress because of their own sin and the effects of sin upon them and we are to serve as God's instruments of mercy and rescue. How can the love of God be in us if we do not love our brother?

Walk Humbly With Your God. Mind. The loftiest human thoughts are those that can only begin to comprehend the magnitude and glory of God and then humbly bow before the Creator of the Universe. We do not seek our own wisdom, but rather, we seek to fear the Lord.  
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. ~ Proverbs 9:10

The beginning of our wisdom is found in our humility before the all-wise and all-powerful God. When we seek God's ways and recognize them as higher than our own and we offer ourselves to God as an act of worship, we find that our minds are renewed and we are able to see the world both as it really is and also how God desires it to be - and how He is working to make all things new through Jesus Christ. This requires humility, faith, and dependence upon God, and only then will we be wise and discerning.

Jesus reiterates this perspective in Matthew 23:23 in his rebuke of the Pharisees said that they had neglected the weightier matters of the Law in neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness. In Matthew 22, he sums up the Law and Prophets by saying that the Greatest Commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. Christianity addresses and affects every part of the human condition and every aspect of life on this planet. There is nothing that God does not want to reclaim for Himself and a proper walk with the Lord means that we offer Him everything.

We should beware spirituality that exalts one aspect of our experience over the other. God made us whole. We should experience and exhibit our faith intellectually, emotionally, and physically. Logos, pathos, ethos. Head, heart, and hands. 

Question: How can the Christian life in our individual experience, our families, and our churches reflect this 3 part perspective?

Why I Don't Think the Calvinism Advisory Team Will Solve The Problem

Frank Page, President of the SBC Executive Committee, has named his committee to study the issue of Calvinism in the SBC. The goal, I imagine, is to make some kind of definitive statement so that everyone can have a reference point and the arguing, posturing, and political wrangling for power can cease. If the argument flares up again, people can point to the work of the committee and that should be authoritative. The committee has something like 16 members, evenly divided between Calvinists and Non-Calvinists. Baptist Press has an article on it here: http://m.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=38507

I don't think it will work - not if we do things the same way we have, anyway.

Have you ever noticed that almost all the same people are on the committees and task forces in SBC life? In just the past few years, we have had a GCR task force, a Nickname task force, and now a Calvinism task force. Al Mohler and Danny Akin have been on all of these committees. Paige Patterson is on every committee, even if he isn't in the room. He exerts that much influence. Has there ever been a committee/task force in SBC life that Al Mohler was not on in the past 15 years?

The supporting cast changes, to be sure. But, at the end of the day, the two poles of power in SBC life are Patterson and Mohler, with a little Akin/Rainer and some Caner brothers thrown in on the side. Even if there is a document that comes out of this that all agree to, when have our entity heads followed their agreements with each other? There is a standing agreement for entity heads to not meddle in each other's business, but that is ignored constantly.

Here is the real problem: I really think that this is about power - who has it, who wants it, and how you get it. "Traditionalists" want rules put in place that limits the number of Calvinists in SBC entities to the percentage of Calvinists in our churches under the guise of "proportionality." That view will not make it far. Calvinists want everyone to see that the founders of the SBC were Calvinists and that they have a place in the convention of prominence. And, the disagreement goes on.

I really do hope that Dr. Page's attempt to bring peace will work. But, the problem is that no one wants to take the lesser seat. Everyone keeps fighting for the best seat at the table. Under the guise of being "right," each side keeps grasping for power or protection or elevation. James 4:1-10 tells us that the reason that we quarrel and argue is because of the desires that are within US. It is not because of the other person, but because of us. We want something, but do not get it. So, we grasp for it. We don't ask God, and when we do, we are just thinking about ourselves. But, God wants us - all of us - and He wants us to repent and return to Him.

This is a "preacher" fight. It is not like the Battle for the Bible that made up the Conservative Resurgence years ago. This is about who gets to lead, teach in the seminaries, and speak at pastor's conferences. It is about power. It is not about theology or control of churches because both views are allowed for and protected by the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.

Unless the leaders that are on this Advisory Team call both sides to repent from trying to assert themselves - or even fight to protect themselves at the expense of others - there will be no real progress or peace made. We will continue to tear one another apart. Mohler and Patterson should lead the way in this repentance, reconciliation, and renewal. If that happens (and that is what I am praying for), then we might see great progress. Perhaps that is what Dr. Page is praying for as well. If they both negotiate for their "side" then even a consensus document will not solve anything.

So, yeah, it depends on what happens between the two leaders - and I am not talking about smiles and handshakes and nice talk. I mean something real. We haven't had very much "real" in some time.

A Baptismal Catechism

This blog post comes from an email that I sent a man in our church about how we do baptism and affirm salvation. It seemed blog worthy. 

When we have candidates for baptism in our church, I meet with each one, go over the gospel and what salvation is, and ask them questions and give them a chance to give a confession of faith in Christ and respond to the questions. In this conversation, we focus specifically on Christ's atonement and their faith and repentance and experience of salvation in Christ alone. I am always sure to tell them that I cannot affirm that they are indeed born again, but if they express faith in Christ and give a good confession of faith, then we will receive them as new Christians to be discipled and taught in the Way of Jesus. They must continue to look to Christ and not to their salvation experience, baptism, or church membership as assurance of salvation.

Here are the questions we ask and the response that we look for, based in part on 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 being Paul's definition of the Gospel. Then, we add in Acts 2 and the ideas of repentance and faith. It is kind of a baptismal catechism.

1. Q: Who is Jesus? A: The Son of God
2. Q: What did Jesus do for you? A: He died on the cross to take away my sins and rose from the dead to give me new life.
3. Q: Why did Jesus die on the cross for you? A: Because my sins separate me from God - God is holy and I am sinful and I am under God's wrath. Jesus took my sins and paid the penalty - death, and absorbed God's wrath for me (idea of Atonement).
4. Q: Did Jesus stay dead? A: No, he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and gives new life to all who believe in Him.
5. Q: Have you confessed your sin to Jesus, asked Him to forgive you, and by faith, have received new life from Him? Have you been born again? A: Yes.
6. Q: Have you repented of your sin (turned away) and desire to live for Jesus and obey Him all the days of your life? A: Yes.
7. Q: When you stand before God on the Day of Judgment, will you enter into His presence because you were a good person who did the right things, or because you placed your faith in Jesus for salvation? A: Because I placed my faith in Jesus for salvation. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith. Good works follows faith.

Baptism: Q: What is baptism? Does it save you? A: Baptism does not save. It is the response of obedience to Christ where he commanded, "Be Baptized." It follows faith and repentance and demonstrates identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection and identification with the Church as regenerated believers in Christ. It represents the old man dying and being buried with Christ and then being raised to newness of life in Christ. It is also my witness to the world that I am a New Creation in Jesus and that my life now belongs to Him.

This is obviously a short description of Jesus' atonement and crucifixion/resurrection and our response to God's saving initiative through Christ. It is not all encompassing, but it provides a chance for the Baptismal candidate to express a basic understanding of what Jesus has done and faith in Christ alone for salvation. In one way or another, I talk with every Baptismal candidate about these things, ask them these questions, and make sure that they can answer sincerely from their own belief on each one. It is conversational and often, they don't know that they are answering each question in order. I don't want it to be a formula or some rote memorization. I really try to get at what they honestly believe and have given their life too.  

We will see 5 baptized on Sunday. I will have had this conversation with all of them.

Here is another good description that I saw the other day put out by my friend, Trevin Wax. It is the Gospel in 300 words. It is actually 311 and then I add 8 more words in one area. My addition will be in parenthesis. This might be a good thing to give to baptismal candidates as they prepare for their baptism. 

God’s Word to You: A Summary of the Bible

In the beginning, the all-powerful, personal God created the universe. This God created human beings in His image to live joyfully in His presence, in humble submission to His gracious authority. But all of us have rebelled against God and, in consequence, must suffer the punishment of our rebellion: physical death and the wrath of God.

Thankfully, God initiated a rescue plan, which began with His choosing the nation of Israel to display His glory in a fallen world. The Bible describes how God acted mightily on Israel’s behalf, rescuing His people from slavery and then giving them His holy law. But God’s people – like all of us – failed to rightly reflect the glory of God.

Then, in the fullness of time, in the Person of Jesus Christ, God Himself came to renew the world and restore His people. Jesus perfectly obeyed the law given to Israel. Though innocent, He suffered the consequences of human rebellion by His death on a cross. But three days later, God raised Him from the dead.

Now the church of Jesus Christ has been commissioned by God to take the news of Christ’s work to the world. Empowered by God’s Spirit, the church calls all people everywhere to repent of sin and to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. Repentance and faith restores our relationship with God and results in a life of ongoing transformation (ME: that also manifests in restored relationships with others).

The Bible promises that Jesus Christ will return to this earth as the conquering King. Only those who live in repentant faith in Christ will escape God’s judgment and live joyfully in God’s presence for all eternity. God’s message is the same to all of us: repent and believe, before it is too late. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved.

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ME AGAIN: There are lots of different ways to talk about this with people, but I think that it is important that we have these conversations and meet with people and try and discern where they are. I have told people before that they were not ready for baptism because they did not have a good understanding of the gospel or that they were not expressing faith in Christ. I have shared the gospel in these meetings and have seen people come to true faith and repentance in Jesus. Others have been sent away because they recognized they were not ready or it was apparent that they were not really ready to confess Christ as Savior and Lord. That has only happened a few times and has always been with children whose parents were perhaps pushing them before they were ready.Salvation and baptism is a really big deal.

We should take some time to talk with people and pray with them about what is actually going on. What we do is not the whole story. It is not the whole gospel or the implications of the gospel. It is the part particular to personal salvation and baptism. The rest comes as we disciple and train. There is much that could be added here, but I also do not want anyone to believe that coming to Christ requires a theology degree. I do, however, want people to have understanding of their own sinful state, their need for a Savior, and how Jesus is that Savior.

Why Gandhi Rejected Christianity

In preparing for our Bible Study tonight on Real Christianity, I ran across this story about Mahatma Gandhi. I had heard this before, but it is a striking story and shows us that what we do and how we live and what we witness to makes a bigger difference than we think.

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Although Hindu, Gandhi had a very close connection with Christianity and admired Jesus very much, often quoting from his favorite 'Sermon on the Mount' chapter in Mathew 5–7.

When the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him, "Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?"

Gandhi replied, "Oh, I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ."

“If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today,” he added.

Gandhi's closeness with Christianity began when he was a young man practicing law in South Africa. Apart from being attached with the Christian faith, he intently studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and was also seriously exploring becoming a Christian, which led him to his discovery of a small church gathering in his locality.

These strongly entrenched Biblical teachings have always acted a panacea to many of India's problems during its freedom struggle.

After deciding to attend the church service in South Africa, he came across a racial barrier, the church barred his way at the door. "Where do you think you're going, kaffir?" an English man asked Gandhi in a belligerent tone.

Gandhi replied, "I'd like to attend worship here."

The church elder snarled at him, "There's no room for kaffirs in this church. Get out of here or I'll have my assistants throw you down the steps."

This infamous incident forced Gandhi to never again consider being a Christian, but rather adopt what he found in Christianity and its founder Jesus Christ.

http://in.christiantoday.com/articledir/print.htm?id=2837

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What are we witnessing to? That South African Christian witness to his race and ethnicity more than Christ. But, what about us? Do we witness to our social status, our comfort, our place in life, our way of life, our politics? What do we present to a watching world more than Jesus? If it is anything, we very well could be affecting nations.

Bill Hybels - The Local Church is the Hope of the World. Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit.

First off, Jesus is the hope of the world, but the Local Church is where the people who follow Jesus dwell together and live His life in community as a witness to Christ. So, the local church is the hope of the world only as it witnesses to and draws upon the power of Jesus Christ.

Bill Hybels, Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church
The Local Church is the Hope of the World

Everyone wins when a leader gets better. Hybel's dream for the Leadership Summit is that all leaders need an annual recalibration and vision infusion and heart/gut check regarding leadership. He wants leaders from all over the world to gather together and bring their leadership before God and ask for recalibration.

Matthew 16:18 - Jesus said he would build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The local church is the hope of the world - Hybels has been saying this for years. What does he mean? Some people disagree with this.

When Hybels was growing up, he would have said that the church was hopeless. When most of what you see is lifeless and loveless, then it is also hopeless. He expected to be minimally engaged with the church throughout his life.

Acts 2:42-47 gives a different picture of the church - a church alive and giving and loving and changing lives and seeing people come together and be reconciled to God and to one another and changing the world. As a student in college, Hybels had a professor who referred to that passage and asked if Jesus was the same as he was back then? If so, then why can't we have a community of faith like that today? And, if we can, then will anyone in that class give their life to see that happen? This was getting through to Hybels.

Sometime after that, Hybels was seized by a vision from the Lord for a church like that. We need vision - we have to see how to move from "here" to "there." He became seized by what a church could be if the Holy Spirit was working and calling people and creativity and love and hope were being expressed. He became seized by this vision and gave his life to it. He moved from "the church is hopeless," to the place of thinking that "there is hope for the church."

He gave an evangelistic appeal and described what Christianity and following Jesus was - in detail. The power of God, a new life, a new way of looking at things, hope, and repentance, and change. He asked the youth to stand if they wanted that kind of life - if they wanted to follow Jesus. Hundreds and hundreds of kids wanted that kind of life. Hybels, after that event, said that he would keep calling people to Jesus if God would keep saving people through that call. Willow Creek was born after that.

He saw a fight one day on a plane between two young kids. God spoke to him after it was over with about the 9 year old boy who beat up the other kid about the direction that the kid was headed in. He was headed for destruction. What would change the trajectory of that kid's life to keep him from Hell and destruction? Only a fired-up Christ-follower who knew God's love and who was a part of a local church who loved God and was a healing community for that child could make a difference. Because the local church is the community of those who know Christ and experience His life and healing power, then the local church must be the ones who intervene in those children's lives. This was a lifechanging perspective.

If the local church is the way and the means through which Jesus is proclaiming His salvation and truth and life, then the local church needs to reach its full redemptive potential to mobilize its members in taking that life and message to a hurting world and bring more people into what God is doing so that His message of salvation is spread.

Will the local church continue on as a transformative entity as future progresses? Will we make it to the end of history? Governments empires and companies with huge amounts of assets and power have failed and disappeared. What gives us confidence that the Church will last and continue? It is because Jesus says that He will build it and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. It will continue on.

The ONLY thing that Jesus is doing between now and the end of history is building His church. He is building His Church all over the world among every tribe and nation and people and tongue. The greatest privilege in all of life is when Jesus taps you on the shoulder and says that He has a critical role for YOU to play as He builds His church in the world - and part of the reason that He calls you and equips you and empowers you is so that you will join Him as He builds His church. How can you say "No" to an invitation from the King of the Universe to join Him? How do you stay focused on building your own life and empire when Jesus calls?

Every day, we need to wake up and pray and recommit ourselves to building God's church both locally and globally - to commit our entire lives and treasure to what Jesus is doing in the world. What would happen if we all did this?

Education: Geoffery Canada, Harlem Children's Zone: Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit

Geoffery Canada is the CEO of Harlem Children's Zone

http://www.hcz.org/

We have allowed areas of our nation to become areas of hopelessness where we would not want to get lost or lose a dog. There are many areas of our country where children are growing up without any guidance at all - where all that they know is violence and sex and anger and hopelessness. A good school in a neighborhood is important, but the most important thing is if we can transform the neighborhood and community itself and then the school becomes a reflection of that. We have to go to the community.

We need to work with kids from birth all the way through to adulthood. They took a block-by-block approach to changing the entire community. They helped provide medical care, dental care, and other health, recreation, and other services for the children. Every child needs to be supported, guided, and cared for.

At some point in society, a culture begins to take place that works against every positive message and becomes stronger so that the child is overwhelmed by the negative. We must constantly reinforce the positive messages that are needed to help a child grow the way that he should to be a contributor to society. You have to reach a tipping point. When we look at the places where it is extraordinary that kids make it out, then those are the places that the church should go and make a difference.

It is simply about caring for people - caring for children and teaching them the way they should go and how they are to live. He talks about his grandmother and how she spoke into his life and told him about Jesus and truth and the way to live and she confronted him and he gives her great credit.

Is there great success? Do all the kids advance and get up to grade level and get better? No. He failed and there were people around him who knew he would fail and were happy he failed. Before he made big goals, it didn't matter. But after he went public, his failure in his vision became a big deal. A natural response is to pull back. But, instead, he stepped forward and said that he was going to try twice as hard and go after it again.

He had personnel problems. He had people working for him who were not getting the job done, but he kept on hanging on to staff that was not performing well. He kept hoping that people would work hard and get better. That was a mistake. He forgot that his focus was to be on the kids, not the staff. He still roots for his staff, but he now expects productivity. Think about who you are serving. You need to take notice of those who can get the job done and those who cannot.

Fundraising: raising money is really tough and the relationship that you have with the donor can be difficult. You have to listen to the donor and work with them, but you need to keep your focus on your work. You have to make sure that the gift does not detract from the work that you are called to do. Keep the vision in focus. Stay the course, even if you lose donors.

You have to build an organization that will tackle the tough problems and that is effective in dealing with the complicated problems of abuse and struggle in the community. We have to create capacity and make a difference. It is essential that we create solutions.

We need to keep working and following the vision. We don't know where we are in the process of moving toward victory. Keep fighting the good fight. If you are right, keep going. Never give up. Don't worry about adulation or credit or people taking notice of you. No one may know your name, but spend your life fighting for the right cause, even if you do not see it in your lifetime, you are part of the great march toward victory.

What role does faith have? He grew up in the 1960's in Harlem and he lost faith in the church. Inside the church building, everyone was celebrating, but they were not making a difference in the world and its suffering with drugs and crime and human devastation. His grandmother became worried about him and began speaking into his life. His grandmother was dying of cancer and he became angry and asked her how she could still have faith in God. She told him that the real test of faith is when you are faced with something so powerful and that only your faith will keep you believing in God and His love for you. It was through the suffering of his grandmother that he began to rethink things and has seen his faith in God return.

If you are a leader, you have to be 100% in on what you are doing and what you know to be right. We have to get the moral compass right. You have to think about those who are watching you and that they are trying to figure out if what you say is real based on the way that you live it out.

Geoffery Canada was profiled in the documentary, "Waiting for Superman."

Also see Michelle Rhee with Student's First.

http://www.studentsfirst.org/

John Ortberg on Jesus: Who Is This Man? Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit

I missed taking notes on some of the other sessions in the late morning. They were very good and were about an Indian woman working for justice for the oppressed in Chennai and a South American pastor calling for integrity in leadership based on the Samuel/Saul experience. It was good to just listen instead of trying to take notes.

John Ortberg: Pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church
Author: Who Is This Man?

http://www.amazon.com/Who-This-Man-John-Ortberg/dp/0310275954

Jesus is the central organizing personality of human history. Jesus is the "dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries." - Jerislav Pelikan, Jesus Across the Centuries.

Who was this man?

Jesus, in the midst of a dark and oppressive world 2000 years ago, had a vision of what the world could be. We often argue about Christianity without meditating or marveling over the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus never had position, led an army, wrote a book, or did anything of that nature. His followers were unschooled, ordinary men. How did Jesus start the greatest movement the world has ever known?

Look at Colossians 3:11. The Church was fundamentally different than any other group we had ever known. Before the church, there had never been a community that included all people from all races, tribes, and tongues to bring transformation to the world. It was Jesus' idea and the germination of that idea has transformed the world. How did an unschooled carpenter initiate this?

Jesus changed how we see history. Without Jesus, we have no idea of progress. The calendar used to be based on the reign of rulers, the Caesars. But, as their influence waned, by the 6th century, there was a shift and a new idea. The West decided to shift the focus from Caesar to Jesus and make Him the Hinge of History. Every time we name a date, we refer to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Jesus changed how the world shapes and expresses compassion. The beautiful, noble, and strong were admired in ancient Rome. The weak and the marginal were not generally valued in the ancient world. Seneca said that they drowned children at birth when they were weak and abnormal. The girl-child was killed because she was unnecessary. Rodney Stark says that there were 1.4 million boys for every 1 million girls because the girl-child was killed. But, the followers of Jesus expressed Jesus' idea of "let the little children come to me." Christians changed the view of children.

"When Children Became People: The Birth of Childhood in Early Christianity." OM Bakke.

Jesus and His teachings and His followers changed the way that women were treated as well.

In the first 2 centuries, there were plagues that killed up to 1/3 of the population of the Roman Empire. People would take those who were sick and suffering from the plague and they did what Jesus did in caring for the lepers and the blind and the lame and the mute. "Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me." Benedict started the first hospital in the 4th century. The Red Cross was influenced by Jesus. Instead of discarding the weak and getting rid of them, the teaching of Jesus influenced people to care for those in need.

Jesus and the Shaping of Education. In the Greco-Roman world, education was reserved for male children from elite families. But, the Church - this odd community - began to teach everyone, as they followed the example of Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20). By the 4th century, monasteries were formed where the teachings of Jesus were preserved and eventually universities were developed. In America, 92% of universities started before the Civil War were begun in the name of Jesus. In Massachusetts in the 17th century, the first law to fund mass education was called 'The Old Deluder Satan Act' because they believed that God wanted people to learn.

What made it possible for science to emerge? The medieval insistence on the rationality of God. Science existed before this, but it never was codified in the way that it was in the Middle Ages as a response to worship of God through rationality.

Jesus followers developed the written languages of more ethnic groups than any other movement. His followers initiated the arts in their modern expression and education as we know it.

The Jesus movement changed political theory. "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God." This is the first time that we see any kind of separation between the religion and the state. There are things that do not belong to Caesar. There are things in life that do not belong to the culture and to the Powers that Be. Jesus said, "My Kingdom is not of this world." That changes His followers.

Jesus changed how we think about human rights and dignity. Look at the "self-evident" "inalienable rights" in the Declaration of Independence. For those who say that they believe in a "God of Love," where did they get that idea from? It was not from the ancient gods. It came from Jesus and His followers. Jesus showed us that God is a God of love.

Galatians 3:28 - neither Jew, Greek slave, free, male, or female - you are all one in Christ Jesus. Thomas Cahill says that this is the first expression of egalitarianism in human history.

Jesus uniquely taught love of enemies. No one thought of this before. Turn the cheek. Go the extra mile. Love your enemy. When Jesus was being executed, He asked the Father to forgive His executors. They did not know what they were doing. His followers remembered this and they followed Him and died the same way. Nero would take Christians and cover them with pitch/tar and light them as human torches to light the gladiator games.

Forgiveness as a concept in human affairs was initiated by Jesus of Nazareth - Hannah Arnedt.

Tolstoy was affected by the Sermon on the Mount and he influenced Ghandi. Jesus was at the root of their writings and movements. Martin Luther King, Jr. departed from his script in his great speech at the Washington Mall in 1963 to speak of the Dream - it was not a secular dream. It was Jesus' dream.

Who IS Jesus? What impact has he had? What if we followed Him today? What if we carried His teachings into the next generation? Will you be the one to follow Jesus - He alone conquered death, took our sins, is the Son of God, rose from the dead, and give new life to all who believe in Him. He is the Savior of the World - will you follow Him?

All that God is doing in the world or is going to do - God's vision and future for the world is summed up in Jesus Christ. He is worth giving your life to.

The message of Jesus has been primarily entrusted to churches to live out before a watching world and to spread out to the world. It is a life-changing, world-changing message.

Patrick Lencioni and William Ury: Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit

Patrick Lencioni

http://www.tablegroup.com/

New Book: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business

Lencioni, who I really like a lot on almost all that he says, is talking about organizational health, values, communication, and how to bring people together along your values. I am just summarizing at the end some of what I heard that sticks out to me instead of the rapid note taking I took yesterday. He says that you have to do things in creative ways to make sure that your values are communicated. You don't go off of minimum standards, but you spend serious time thinking about who you are and what you want to be and do. Why do you exist? What is your purpose? How do you communicate that and bring people along in it? You need to identify those things and stick with them and communicate them over and over again. You have to communicate at least 7 times before people begin to understand what you are saying.

Clarity of Values. Commitment to those values. Communication of those values. Organizational health requires that kind of clarity, commitment, alignment, and communication. Southwest Airlines was used as the prime example of a company that exhibits all of this really well.

My thoughts on this are that it is essential to know who we are, why we exist, what our message is, who we are trying to speak to, and how we communicate this and bring people along in our mission. At Gateway, we are a congregation of people under the Lordship of Christ in Montgomery, AL. Jesus has brought us together. We exist for the praise of God's glory and to love God and love people to the ends of the earth. Our message is the gospel of Jesus Christ and His teachings on how to know God and walk with Him. We are wanting to speak into the lives of the people in our community from all walks of life who are far away from God and/or who are disconnected from a community of Christ followers. We communicate this message through our lives, our ministries, and through our gatherings.

Now, all of that is very general and those things are the things that any church would say. But, how do we specifically do this at Gateway? This is worth thinking about and articulating more clearly and specifically to our body and our context. What does our organizational health mean for us? For new leadership development? For our community? For what God has called us to? These are questions worth answering and acting on.

William Ury
New Book: Getting to Yes.

www.williamury.com

Ury is speaking about the art of negotiation and how we help people work together. We have to learn how to negotiate, listen, and work together with others. The goal is not the elimination of conflict - conflict is natural. Nothing substantial is ever addressed without conflict of some sort. The issue is, can we deal with conflict is a constructive way that helps us move us forward, or will be be destructive?

The biggest obstacle for us to get resolution in conflict is not some other difficult person - it is ourselves. We are the problem. Our own anger and frustration is the biggest barrier. (ME: This is James 4:1-10 - the desires within you). We need to step back and get clarity and think through what our response needs to be based on wisdom and a right perspective. One of the greatest powers that we have in negotiation is the power "NOT" to react. We often need to just step back.

The most significant skills that we need to become good at is to focus on people, their interests, their needs, and then fairness. We must separate people from the problem. We need to draw a line between the people and the problem so we can be soft on the people while being very hard on the problem. We need to listen more than we talk. Be empathetic.

The key to negotiation is to probe behind the presenting issue and ask the question "why" someone wants something. We need to get behind the surface and get to the real issue.

We need to develop multiple options to get to something that can be seen as a mutual gain for all parties involved. If we can get behind the argument and get to what people really want, we can take into account the real desires of people. He used the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel as an example. Egypt really wanted sovereignty over the Sinai Peninsula and Israel really wanted security. So, the compromise was to give the Sinai to Egypt but to demilitarize it.

In Conflict Resolution, we need to work from some kind of objective standard that are independent of each side's will/ego. Develop an agreement on the basis of fairness that goes beyond the desires of each side.

BATNA - Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement.
What is the walkaway if we don't succeed in the negotiations? What is the alternative? Having a BATNA gives you confidence because you know what you are going to do if you don't reach an agreement. Any negotiated agreement must be better than our BATNA or we know that we can walk away. You think ahead of time about your alternatives if things do not work out.

Ury believes that the way of peace in the Middle East is to go back to the shared heritage of the Middle East back to Abraham, the father of all of the warring nations. What do they have in common? Where can they find common ground? Can they travel from Haran to Hebron together? He actually organizes pilgrimages (www.abrahampath.org) for people to come together and work together for peace - ME: This is a good thought, but I think that it misses the point that conflict can become intractable within a person as their position becomes their identity and their conflict with the other side becomes what defines them. We must find some way to affect change of identity and security.

Abraham Lincoln spoke kindly of his enemies during the Civil War and a woman confronted him for it, saying, shouldn't we destroy our enemy? Lincoln said, "Madam, do I not destroy my enemy when I turn him into my friend?" Great thought. Jesus showed this through sacrificial love and loving His enemies.

Sheryl Wudunn - Leadership in the Face of Oppression. Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, Session 5

Sheryl Wudunn and her husband and taken on the tragedy of the global scourge of sex trafficking. They wrote the book, "Half the Sky" that exposes and addresses these atrocities.

Young girls in China are sold into sex slavery to make money for the parents because they cannot afford them and they do not provide financial resources. There is "gender inequity." The girls are forgotten and drop out of school and are abused because they do not have any ability to be an asset. The central moral challenge of our time is gender inequity. Sheryl and her husband spearheaded a project to help rural Chinese girls get an education. When they got the education, then they went back and got salaried jobs and helped their families and became an asset.

The problem in the developing world is that the boys get the resources, food, and have the hope for the future of the family. The girls are left behind, do not get educated, and they do not get the resources. Sheryl Wudunn believes that educating women/girls is actually a help to society instead of a problem. They are the solution, not the problem.

Girls, of no use to their communities, are then trafficked into slavery. During the time of the Trans-Atlantic African Slave Trade, 80,000 slaves were brought across the Atlantic Ocean per year. Now, there are 800,000 slaves that are trafficked across borders each year. African slaves cost around $40,000 each, adjusted for inflation. The current price of a slave is $150-250.

Female infant mortality is very high in the developing world as well as women dying in pregnancy. There is not much political will to address this because the women are poor and they are women.

Microfinance and Microsavings: this is a significant way to empower women in developing countries by putting tools in the hands of rural women so they can become self-sufficient and help others as well. When we put tools in the hands of others, one thing leads to another. People are given tools and they improve their own lives and their children and then they help others who help others and a rising tide lifts all boats. It is called the Virtuous Cycle.

We have to create sustainable models and teach people how to fish instead of just giving away the fish.

With our great fortune comes great responsibility. Every American has won the lottery of life. We all get to live in a country full of wealth and opportunity. What will we do with this privilege?

Mark Kielburger, Free the Children, Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, Session 4

Co-Founder of "Free the Children," an organization that works to free children from child labor slavery as well as adopting villages and building schools, etc. http://www.freethechildren.com/

Free The Children believes in a world where all young people are free to achieve their fullest potential as agents of change. We are a charity andeducational partner that empowers youth to remove barriers that prevent them from being active local and global citizens. Our domestic programseducate, engage and empower hundreds of thousands of youth in North America and the UK. Our international projects, led by our holistic and sustainable Adopt a Village model, has brought over 650 schools andschool rooms to youth and provided clean water, health care and sanitation to one million people around the world, freeing children and their families from the cycle of poverty.

They are doing all kinds of things for kids in local villages by building schools, providing clean water because the girls cannot go to school because they have to spend the whole day getting water, etc. They engage children when they are very young in the West to be advocates for children in the developing world and they help these villages become self-sustaining. Mark was asked the question: What type of legacy do you want to leave?This question turned him around and got him moving. They don't sell anything tangible. They sell hope. They allow people to find meaning, gratitude, community, and a legacy. Where do we find meaning in life? How do we express gratitude? Why community and what does it look like? How do you develop a legacy?
500 full-time employees with 16 branches arund the world. They do "WE Day" 8 times with 20,000 kids in stadium across the country. www.facebook.com/wedayThey have 2 leaders, Mark and his brother. They are able to do this because of two things: Communication and Alignment. Organizations fail to scale up because they do not communicate down. Organizations that are not growing often fail to communicate - people in the organization only get 10% of what the leadership is saying. You need to constantly communicate and align. Show, not tell. Do something. Be a shameless idealist. Translate you ideals to action. Identify gifts and match them opportunities and need. Take young people out of their comfort zone and take them to places where they can do the work to make a difference. 1 billion young people on earth between the ages of 12-18, with 90% of them in developing countries. We need to engage our young people now, because they don't just turn 18 and develop a social conscience. Mother Theresa said to them when they met her year's ago: "Remember boys, we can do no great thing, but we can do small things with great love."We are the generation that we have been waiting for. Have these conversations with young people now to encourage them to change the world.

Jim Collins: Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit Session 3 #wcgls

Jim Collins

Why do some leaders thrive in difficult circumstances while others do not?

Collins and his team have spent over 9 years trying to answer this question.

Answer: the differences in the leadership behaviors between those who thrive and those who fail has to do with an X factor, which is Humility combined with Will.

Illustration of the two groups who tried to make it to the South Pole in 1911 - one made it and one died. Amundsen and Scott. Why? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_Amundsen_and_Scott_Expeditions

3 distinctive leadership behaviors that sit on the X factor of Humility/Will:

Fanatic Discipline, Empirical Creativity, Productive Paranoia

Fanatic Discipline - a 20 mile march every day. Someone will just keep going and do what needs to be done no matter the circumstances. It also involves not pushing too far and getting beyond your capability. Hold to your values and philosophy no matter the circumstances. They manage themselves well in good times so they will survive in bad times. They do not overstretch.

Southwest Airlines is a good example of this. Do the same thing every day and do not overstretch. They managed themselves in bad times so they can do well in good times.

He brings in the Flywheel and applies it to the discipline of the 20 mile march. Consecutive performance and be disciplined. You will hit it not as an average, but as consistent, consecutive performance.

What energy burst do we need today to hit our mark with consecutive consistency. The true signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.

Empirical Creativity

It is good to be creative, but you need to test your creativity and new technologies. Try to figure out what will actually work. Ask questions. Test.

Innovation is great, but those who can blend creativity and discipline. We don't need more and more innovation without discipline. Creativity is not the hard part. Being disciplined to test and learn and apply and figure out what will work - that is the key. Creativity is natural. Discipline is not. Creativity is the infinitely renewable human state. The challenge is to get rid of the obstacles. The rare skill is to marry creativity to discipline so that you can be effective. Fire bullets before cannonballs and do a 20 mile march each day.

Productive Paranoia

It is what you do before you are in trouble and difficult times come that makes the difference so that you can be strong when people most need you. If you are only strong when conditions are good, you are engaging in malpractice. We should always be prepared. We should be strong so we can get through the bad times and help people in need.

SMaC Principle - Specific, Methodical, and Consistent. Get the Flywheel going.

The greatest danger is not failure, it is to be successful without understanding why you were successful in the first place.

Southwest Airlines only flies 737s. Every pilot can fly every plane. All of the gates are the same. Maintenance costs are lower. Safety practices are higher. Everything is more efficient and thus, more profitable.

Every church should have SMaC Principles - You follow them with discipline, you are always questioning, and you bring change with empirical testing.

You must preserve the core no matter what - protect your values. But, you must also stimulating progress though changing practices. Having a SMaC recipe constantly evolving is like having a Constitution with Amendments.

Luck - a specific event that meets 3 tests: You didn't cause it, potential significant consequences good or bad, you weren't expecting this - it is a suprise. You could also call this a miracle.

The great winners in business are not luckier or have more miracles in the sense that they experienced more. Rather, the ones who win and have a greater Return on Investment are not the ones who experience the greatest events but are the ones who do something with it. They do not squander the good events that come their way. They make the most of the events that they were not expecting - whether good or bad.

Great leaders engage in the 20 mile march with great discipline and when unexpected events happen in moments of distortion, they zoom back, see the whole picture, and make the most of it - whether good or bad. If you are granted a miracle or blessed event or bad event, it would be the height or irresponsibility to squander it.

Is great leadership a matter of what we do or what happens to us? It is more important what we do than what happens to us. Good things and bad things happen all the time. But, what do you do with those things? How do you react? How do you navigate both the good and bad? Greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance. It is a matter of conscious choice and discipline.

A truly Great Organization has the following characteristics:

1. Superior Performance relative to your mission (what you were put on the earth to do).
2. A Distinctive Impact - what would be lost if we disappeared? Who would miss us and why?
3. Achieves Lasting Endurance beyond any one leader. An organization is not truly great if it cannot be great without you. It is not just that you are Good to Great, but also that you are Built to Last.

Will you be there when people need you? Will you be there for your community? For other people?

A great definition of true friendship is to be always there for someone so that you are never alone.

We should all, in our life, be a part of building something enduring and great. What are you building? A ministry? A business? A friendship? A marriage/family? A nonprofit? You don't do this because of what you can get, but because it must be done. It is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work done with people that we love. Creating something of intrinsic excellence and beauty that makes a distinct contribution to the people and world around you and that you mattered by how you spent your time, your discipline, and your energy.

Condoleeza Rice: Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit Session 2

Condoleeza Rice

Over the past decade, the world has been through 3 significant shocks.

1. September 11. If you were in leadership that day of any kind, you developed a different view of your concept of physical security.
2. Global Economic Shock of 2008. Changed people's view of what constitutes financial security. 3. Arab Spring of 2011. Reminds us that Authoritarianism is not and cannot ever be stable. The Ceausescu moment: when what separates the dictator from his people (Fear) breaks down and gives way to anger and anger is a terrible way, even an impossible way, to lead.

There is a basic and universal desire for Freedom. But Freedom is not the same thing as Democracy. Democracy is the institutionalization of freedom. With Freedom comes responsibility and it takes us time to get there. Stable democracy requires more than the institutionalization of rights - it requires understanding. The rights of the minority must be protected as well. The strong cannot exploit the weak. But, that is not just the work of government - governments can only do so much. But, they cannot put into the hearts of every person that there should be no weak links. The strong should only not exploit the weak, but they should also help bring the weak up and make them stronger. We need other social institutions to help strengthen everyone.

Another principle of democracy is that every life is worthy. There are no permanent stations in life and there are no kings and queens. Every life is capable of rising up and is capable of greatness. We have an obligation as citizens of a democracy to make sure that everyone has opportunity to rise up. As Christians, we recognize that we are all equal before God. We cannot see any one person as more worthy than anyone else. Jesus died for each of us, no matter our station in life or our circumstances of life or the depths of our since, our Lord Jesus Christ died for each of us. It is not surprising that action on that basic fact that every life is worthy has often been the role of the church. Government can do a great deal, but it cannot deliver compassion. The Church can bring compassion and value to the work that is done for those who are in need. The Church can also deliver hope and shelter as it knows that God loves people and He is good all the time. Those who help lift people up are doing the work of God and the work that it was intended for Christians to do.

The best thing that you can do for a person in helping them is to give them control of their own future by granting them education. Her grandfather, John Wesley Rice, understood that education means that it doesn't matter where you came from, it matters where you are going. But, when you can now look at someone's zip code and you can tell where they are going, we find that we live in troubling times. As a leader, it is a privilege to live in these troubling times.

As a leader, it is not just important to see people following you, but to also help them lead and become leaders as well. We have a model for this in Christ Jesus. He had a vision for a better future for those who followed Him. As leaders, we must have a vision for a more optimistic future. No one wants to follow a negative person. They cannot see where they are going and they cannot see how they can be leaders to help us get there. Perhaps things are not as bad as we think they are, though. We need to keep perspective. Today's headlines and history's judgment are not the same. Keep an eye on history's judgment and stay positive.

Out of struggle comes victory, however. The central message of the Christian faith is that out of Friday comes Sunday. It is a privilege to struggle. It humbles you and keeps you on your knees. Romans 5:1-2 - we glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character, hope and hope does not disappoint us. Out of struggling do we find hope.

We often cannot see what is going to happen when we are in difficult times. We must keep our eyes on our destination. She references Nelson Mandela, who while in a prison cell maintained hope. Lech Walensa, a Polish shipyard worker believed that he could help bring Communism down. And, it happened. How could a little girl in segregated Birmingham, Alabama come to believe that she could one day be Secretary of State?

Those outcomes were not inevitable. They were the work of people who sacrificed everything for a principle - who led by belief and faith and put themselves on the line to make the world better. They never accepted the world as it is - they always worked for the world as it should be. That is the calling of leaders.

Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit Session 1: Bill Hybels

Over the next two days, I will be posting insights from the speakers of the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. Basically, whatever I find interesting or helpful I will just post in phrases and non-exact quotes in the form of notes. Here we go:

Bill Hybels:

Everyone is helped when a leader gets better. We must humble ourselves to learn from others to grow in leadership.

Parable of the Sower and the Seed: Luke 8 - 75% of the seed that was spread around was rejected. Only 25% of the seed was accepted and produced a good harvest. 75% of the seed fell on the path or rocky ground or among the thorns. Satan plucked it out or the thorns choked it out. Only 25% of the seed fell on good ground. How do we see more trees planted? If there is a 75% rejection ratio of the seed, then we need to plant more seed so that the 25% grows.

Are we planting seeds? Are we helping people grow in the Lord and be transformed and changed? Are we inviting people and letting people know about what God is doing in our midst? Do people know that we are here? Do they know we exist? Do they know what we stand for and and who we witness to? If everyone in your community doesn't know about you and what you believe in and who you belong to, then it is time to plant more seed. 75% will be rejected, but perhaps, 25% will bear fruit.

Willow Creek has started using ALPHA as a way to introduce people to Christ. Many have become Christians. They have also begun a "Getting Started" initiative to help people get started in their faith in Christ. They are training 1800 people in sharing their faith and are developing a way to get people in their services together in small groups in their services. They are trying all kinds of things and are planting more seeds all over. They saw several hundred baptisms recently. They want to see changed lives and to see that, they need to plant more seeds.

Whether you like it or not, the whole organization takes its seed sowing cues from the leader/pastor. If you keep sowing the same seed and never expand, then your harvest will decline. We need to stay curious and keep leading. We need to fight off apathy and entropy. Keep experimenting. Keep learning. Keep doing different things. Keep planting seeds. Keep tinkering. Do things better and different and try new things. The trees that we are hoping to see grow are worth it. We are planting seeds for an eternal harvest.

Self Leadership: YOU are the most difficult person you will ever lead. We need to improve our work habits. The most important leadership asset is not our time. It is our energy and our ability to energize other people - ability to energize culture and new initiatives. What are the things that you can do to strengthen your organization/church? What would God have you do over the course of a month? What are 6 things that you can do over 6 weeks to most impact your organization/church? Or, 4 things over 4 weeks? 4X4 or 6X6. We cannot sprint for 6 months. We can only sprint for a short time. We lose focus over a long period of time. What if we initiated energy bursts over short periods of time to get things done? What if we focused to plant seeds in specific ways?

What if you set goals over short period of times (6 weeks) so you could move things ahead and become more effective in bringing transformation to lives. What can you do over the next 6 weeks to powerfully move this organization/church ahead? What would it look like if you had energy to move things ahead? Leadership matters. You only have a finite amount of energy with which you can energize people in your organization. Use it with focus and move ahead with faith into what God has in store for you.

Leadership Succession Plan:

Willow Creek is beginning to move toward a succession plan. 80% of the thousands of megachurches are less than 30 years old, but they are about to go through a leadership transition. How will they do it? How will these founding pastors or pastors who have grown their churches to great size transition to new leadership? Will they do so effectively?

Planning Phase of Transition: Who will choose the new pastor? What is the time frame? How will the church honor the previous pastor? Will the pastor have any role in the church after he leaves?

Internal Leadership Search for Successor is the next phase.
External leadership search if the internal search does not happen is next.
Transition phase to the new pastor is next after the new pastor is identified and this is expected to take 18 months or so. At this point, Bill Hybels will step away. He expects this to take place in the next 5-10 years.

The job of leaders is to move people from "Here to There." Don't paint the picture for "There" until you make the case that we cannot stay "Here" any longer. Give reasons why "Here" is unacceptable. Once people understand this, then tell the story of what "There" might look like.

Leadership is a privilege. Very people people get to lead organizations. When you lead a church, you are investing in something eternal that matters and will last and that gives glory to God and that changes lives. It is a privilege and is something that we should value and appreciate and never take for granted. We should praise God every day for the chance to lead people in His purposes.

Sent from my iPad

Sent from my iPad

My "Friday" Experience at Chick-Fil-A

With all the controversy this week of the appreciation day at Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday and the "Kiss-In" day on Friday, I decided to go to CFA on Friday of this week to see if there was another story to be told that would perhaps proclaim good news to people. I walked into the restaurant at about 6:52, not quite sure what I would find. The restaurant was fairly crowded, but not with any "same-sex" protestors or anyone who looked like they would kiss at all. I guess they had skipped this restaurant, or perhaps the homosexual community in Montgomery was not interested in making a spectacle of their sexuality.

At about 6:56, I was in line at the counter to get a tea and something pretty dramatic happened. It came out of nowhere and it was not something I've seen in a restaurant before, least not a Chick-Fil-A. There was a woman at the counter about to place her order - and then things went badly for her. She turned around in my direction, her eyes rolled in the back of her head, and she slowly slumped down the side of the counter to the ground. It happened so fast and was so unexpected that, at first, I thought she was joking or something. I moved toward her and she was unresponsive. Fortunately, standing next to us was an off duty fireman. He began to attend to her and said she was having a seizure. People sprung into action. I started to call 911, but the lady behind the counter beat me to it. As the woman who had the seizure began to come to, people all around her were caring for her and encouraging her. I got to pray with her while we waited on the paramedics to arrive. After they got there, I looked around to see if anything else was going on and, since it was not, I left. The lady, Stephanie, was doing just fine at that point. I was probably there about 20 minutes.

There was no protest at Chick-Fil-A last night. No political or social statement. No anger. No division. Just a lady who had a seizure and passed out and a bunch of people rushing to her aid. What happened last night will never make the news and it isn't very controversial, but it was real and significant and I am glad I was there.

Life is full of moments like those. God is always working.

Having Different Thoughts About this Whole Chik-Fil-A Thing . . .

I love Chik-Fil-A. My family does too. If I am not in the right frame of mind, diet-wise, you will see CFA bags or a sweet tea cup in my car. The chicken sandwiches are amazing and the waffle fries are perfect and every once in a while, there is nothing better than a cookies 'n cream milkshake.

I also love their customer service and their stand for Christian values and their support of traditional marriage and the family and their scholarship programs and charity work and, well, just about everything.

In addition, I think that Dan Cathy, the Chik-Fil-A CEO had every right to answer a question about his support for traditional marriage and the family the way he did. That is his belief and he should be able to speak it. He was also right to speak out in favor of his Christian convictions on marriage and the family and more of us should do the same. I also think that it is totally wrong for the mayors of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and other protestors around the country to try and keep Chik-Fil-A out of their cities because of their beliefs and positions.

One more thing: I also think that today's support of Chik-Fil-A is generally a good thing and I am glad that people have a desire to see businesses who stand for the right things do well.

But . . .

I am feeling a bit uneasy as the day goes on. Something in my gut is wondering if those supporting Chik-Fil-A by eating a chicken sandwich today did not end up accelerating the culture war to a new height, and not in the way that is best.  Here is what I mean:  Dan Cathy did not specifically say anything against gay marriage.  He simply said that he supported the traditional family and marriage. But, this protest is very clearly a response to the backlash against Cathy and Chik-Fil-A by homosexuals and their supporters. So, by nature, the long lines of people at Chik-Fil-A today are counterprotesting the protestors, thus, making a statement against them that Cathy and Chik-Fil-A still have not made. They have just kept doing their work.  Is this what Chik-Fil-A would have wanted?

Secondly, buying a chicken sandwich and waffle fries today and standing in long lines to do so does not really support the things that Cathy and Chik-Fil-A said they were in favor of.  It can come across more as a show of power to those who would try and exercise power against us.  Where does Jesus' teachings on "do not resist an evil person" (Matt. 5:39) come into play here?  Granted, this is not resisting in a negative way, but instead, it is a positive affirmation of Chik-Fil-A. It is almost a silent protest of support. No problem there - it can actually be a good thing, but I wonder if in the contest of protests and counter protests, it doesn't come across as a show of power, especially when we get really excited about the long lines and how many people are on our team?

As Fox News said today,

"It used to be that taking a bite of a chicken sandwich just meant you were hungry. Now it has become a symbol of whether you stand for or against same-sex marriage, or – alternately – the right to express your personal views without fear of retaliation."

Chik-Fil-A will now forever be known as the "anti-gay" restaurant chain, which is not who they are at all. They are not "anti" anyone nor are they discriminatory. They have no policy in either hiring or service against homosexuals. Instead, they are "pro" traditional marriage and family. But, I wonder if that message is being lost in the sound and fury of the culture wars?

A lady in our church, Molly, updated her status on Facebook today by saying something very poignant, I think, which stopped me in my tracks and got me to look at the larger picture here. While not criticizing those at CFA today to show support, she asked how many people would be at Chik-Fil-A on Friday night when the homosexual protest took place to show love, concern, compassion, and to engage in conversation and share the gospel.  That got me thinking and I have not been able to shake the thought all day.  Standing in line to buy a chicken sandwich and support the business of Chik-Fil-A can be seen as more about us (not saying it is, but it could be construed that way).  It could be seen as Christians and Conservatives trying to protect those institutions that promote our way of life and to give them more power - economic power. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, per se, but I wonder if Jesus would have shown up to buy a chicken sandwich today, or if he would be sitting in a booth on Friday night dining with "sinners?"  I wonder if the way of Jesus here is not something altogether different - not exercising power to build up Chik-Fil-A or attack sinners and also not saying that homosexuality is the right course and the issue doesn't matter. Perhaps the way of Jesus would be to bring something altogether different to the conversation - the new life found only in Him, forgiveness, and the crucifixion of our way of life so that we can walk in His way.

These are just thoughts. This blog is the workshop of my mind and it is often a big mess. I am not questioning the motives of a single person who went to Chik-Fil-A today. I am NOT criticizing anyone who went to CFA today to show support for their family friendly values. I would have gone there too and was pretty excited about the whole thing this morning. I might go tomorrow. But, I am attempting to think "big picture" here. I am trying to see this through a gospel lense. If it wasn't for Molly, I probably would not have thought too much of it. But, apart from the individual motives of all the people who went to Chik-Fil-A today because they wanted to do something good, I just wonder if collectively we didn't fall for the world's old ploy that tries to get us to protect our way of life through trying to hold onto our place in the world instead of realizing that we already have a place in God's Kingdom and we are free to lay our lives down in love - even for those who would take action against us? 

Just thinking.