Community 4:12

Random Thoughts from Leadership Summit 2009

Spent the past two days being inspired and challenged at the Willowcreek Leadership Summit.  Some great speakers, and for more details on what some of them had to say, check out Dave Ferguson's blog.  But here are some random thoughts churning around in my head . .  .

• "A leader's main job is to mobilize, connect, and support." --Gary Hamel
• "Relationships trump vision" and "the third culture leader leads from the fringe" and "obedience is more important than passion" --Dave Gibbons
• "How we perceive Africa is how we respond to Africa."  "We need to change the way we portray Africa---look at it as a country of entrepreneurs and opportunity."  "The best kindness you can show is helping Africans help themselves."--Andrew Rugasira
• Wess Stafford's story and how he has used what Satan intended for evil to change the lives of millions of children through Compassion International.
• Bono's praise for how the church has responded to the global crisis of poverty and Aids over the past three years since he first criticized us for doing nothing at a previous Leadership Summit.  We still have a long ways to go, but we are making progress.

Movement towards Diversity

I spent part of this week at the Exponential Conference in Orlando with about 3,000 church planters and leaders.  This was my second year at the conference, and I have to say I walked away feeling quite encouraged this year.  I sensed an emerging desire to make diversity an intentional priority in the predominantly white, male driven culture of church planting.  Granted the majority of church planters attending were still white and almost all male, the speaker line up did have ethnic (but not gender) diversity, and there was a whole tract devoted to multi-ethnic church planting that was quite well attended.  And then today I see this recent post on Dave Ferguson's blog about women church-planters and the buzz emerging around that issue.  What do you think?  Is real change on the horizon?

God is on the Move

Tonight we unveiled this beautiful mural, designed by Angela Malloy and painted by Angela and Obe and Jack Arellano, at the Lighthouse at our Neighborhood Team dinner.  The evening was designed to give CCC attenders an opportunity to hear more about the vision and dreams we have for our work in East Aurora.  About 160 people gathered in our new downtown space.  We ate, we sang worship songs in Spanish and English, we prayed, we talked about our dreams, and then we gave people an opportunity to make a "pre-commitment"--letting us know what they anticipate giving during our annual Celebration Generosity offering that will take place March 14th & 15th.  Last year, through that offering, Community 4:12 raised a little over $75,000.  Tonight, 38 families pledged almost $40,000.  By all objective and worldly standards, our country is in an economic crisis.  But, clearly, God's economy is not measured by worldly standards.  All I can say is, "God is on the move!"  I am so glad I am along for the ride, and especially glad that so many of you are on the ride, too!  And if you aren't, come on and join us---you might find that it's even more fun than Disney World!

"Student Success Should Not Depend on a Zipcode"

This article wasn't surprising . ..  it's the reason we are doing what we are doing.  But it is sobering nonetheless.  It cites an Illinois study that "found that the difference in resources between property-poor and property-wealthy districts is immense and has led to disparities in eventual student outcomes . . .Illinois relies on property taxes to fund public education more than any other state in the nation. Local officials said this must change."

America the Empire?

Our small group is discussing Rob Bell's book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians and what a tough and passionate talk we had tonight.  I'll leave the commentary out, and let a few lines from chapter 5 speak for themselves . . .

America is an empire.  And the Bible has a lot to say about empires.  Most of the Bible is a history told by people living in lands occupied by conquering superpowers...This can make the Bible a very difficult book to understand if you are reading it as a citizen of the most powerful empire the world has ever seen.

In an empire of entitlement . . .luxuries can begin to seem like necessities.  Excess can become normal.  And it can be very easy to lose perspective on just how much we have.

The US accounts for 48 percent of global military spending . . .In 2008, the US spent more on defense than the next forty-five countries combined. 

If you have the power, it can be hard to understand the voice of those who have no power.

How do kids who are surrounded by more abundance than in any other generation in the history of humanity take seriously a Messiah who said, "I have been anointed to preach good news to the poor?"  How do they fathom that half the world is too poor to feed its kids when their church just spent two years raising money to build an addition to their building? . . .This is the revolution?  This is what Jesus had in mind?

What do you think?  Is America an empire?  If so, what does that mean for those of us living in the empire who call ourselves Christ-followers?

Fans or Numbers?

I'm reading this book, and it's giving me some good things to think about regarding leading groups of people.  But my favorite take-away so far can be found not far into the book on page 33, where Godin writes, "Too many organizations care about numbers, not fans . . .What they're missing is the depth of commitment and interconnection that true fans deliver.  Instead of always being on the hunt for one more set of eyeballs, true leaders have figured out that the real win is in turning a casual fan into a true one."

In my last post, I commented on the large number of people who have "signed on" to the Neighborhood Team.  I wonder how many of those are currently merely "eyeballs" and how many are truly "fans."  My challenge as a leader is to move every single one of them into being fans who are passionate and sold-out to the mission of "Uniting People to Restore Communities," so that we have a prayer of truly fighting poverty and injustice.

Is MLK's Dream Fulfilled?

Interesting article on CNN today.  Evidently a recent poll shows that 69% of Blacks think that MLK's dream has been fulfilled (up from 34 percent last year).  But only 46% of whites (up from 35% last year) think that.  What do you think?

I have hope . . .

The East Aurora Referendum passed by a margin of 60% to 40%!  I have hope for the children of District 131.  Obama is our next president!  I have hope for our country.  I know that ultimately neither of those things is worthy of putting my hope in, but for one night I am going to celebrate these worldly victories.

Historic Meeting

  I just came from what I think and pray was a historic meeting in the life of the American Church.  We are here in Miami at the annual Christian Community Development (CCDA) Conference, and we convened a small group of representatives from three parts of Christ's church---the Church Planting movement (NewThing & Stadia), Christian Community Development (CCDA), and Social Justice (Sojourners). The purpose was to talk about how we can bring these three historically distinct areas together to bring a holistic gospel message to our country.  I don't know that I have ever been in a room with so many influential people---Brian McClaren, Shane Claiborne, John Perkins, Wayne Gordon, Adam Taylor, Jon Ferguson, Brent Faulk, Mary Nelson, Troy Jackson.  It was incredibly encouraging to hear every one of them acknowledge the need for unity and commit to working towards that.  Obviously talk is cheap and easy.  But, that each of these people showed up at 7:00 on a Saturday morning in the midst of incredibly busy schedules demonstrates at least some level of commitment.  I really have no business being a part of such a conversation, but since CCC convened a small gathering to start this dialogue last January, I got invited to the table and so far haven't "lost my place."  Mostly my role is behind the scenes praying and helping to keep CCC/NewThing engaged in the dialogue and journey.  It is too early to say what the next steps will actually be, but some pretty bold asks and statements were thrown out, so I am excited to see what transpires.  I am sure it will take time and there will be many challenges, but there is no doubt that God's desire is that we have more new churches that are focused on community development and social justice in this country, so it is crucial that these three groups work together and inform each other's movements.  I wonder if we will look back in 10 years and remember this meeting as the beginning of a new kingdom movement.

Immigration Issue Gets Personal

If you have been reading this blog for very long, you have read about the Parent Mentor Program we do in East Aurora.  This year w received funding to expand the program from two schools to four schools in the district, allowing us to have a total of 30 Parent Mentors.  Because the scope of the program is growing, the school district, understandably, wanted to formalize some of the procedures we use.  One of the procedures they asked we implement is having each Mentor undergo a fingerprint background check.  No one really thought twice about that until last week when the mentors who had been selected went to get the check done and realized that they were required to provide a social secruity number.  More than half of them do not have that.  They all have tax ID numbers, but very few have SS#s.  Women who have participated in the program in past years were devastated to learn that they would not be allowed to return.  We also learned through this that the district's policy requires that ALL school volunteers working with children must undergo a fingerprint background check.  They discovered that that has not actually been implemented at the schools, which is why this issue had never come up before.

So, the good news is the district decided to waive the requirement for this first semester, and all we will do is call references and check the women against the sex-offender list.   The bad news is, they hope to have a policy in place by January, 2009 whereby all school volunteers will be fingerprinted.  That will wipe out this program, and in this district will be a devastating blow to Parent Liaisons who work so hard at all the schools to recruit parent volunteers.

I can understand the district's position, as children's safety has to be their highest priority.  However, my heart aches for the women who came to our training today and left in tears knowing that they will probably only be able to be a part of this program, that gives so many of them meaning and purpose and a support network, for a couple of months.  All I could do was promise them that I will explore every possible option for providing an alternative solution.  I tried to use this as an example of what it means to advocate for what you believe in, and they all got a bit fired up. So, that is what we will be doing over the next few months.  I know there are very strong opinions about this issue, and I'll probably get a few unpleasant comments, but for me today the immigration issue became very real and very personal.  I want my friends to have the simple right to be involved in their child's education.