Everyday with dan...

Some of the random notes I took from Reggie McNeal and Lance Finley at our first re-gathering the end of January 2013.

From Reggie...

• "Church stuff will kill you. Kingdom stuff will feed your soul."
• 32% of Gen-Y now want nothing to do with church (was 25% 5 years ago).
• Metrics = What are we celebrating; what are we emphasizing; what are we shining the spotlight on... "When we do this we're feeling the wind of the Spirit."
• How many spiritual conversations did we have this week?
• How many hours of community service did we do this week?
• "We have to celebrate something, so we might as well celebrate something we want to see more of!!!"
• "Do not worry alone. But don't worry the same person to death."
• "Empower people without trying to co-ordinate people." (pepper them with ideas)
• Meettheneed.com/org = free service to connect volunteers w/needs
• "You've got to be so sold out that you just don't care who gets the credit."
• We (Christians) are free to be FOR everybody. The serpent created "us vs. them". We are the "we" people. (this might have been Brian Miller)
• "We need to work on solving issues at the community level rather than the organizational level."
• What movie (or song) best describes the narrative of your life right now?
• "Internal narratives are crucial in helping us fall down or up."
• "The N. American church no longer has a strong enough internal narrative. How can we make the Good News a compelling story again?"
• "Our problem is that we have put eternal life at the end of life. Jesus put it throughout." (eph. 2:8-9 AND 10).
• Helping people find freedom. Not just saved 'from'... but also 'to' and 'through.' (From slavery, thru the cross; to abundance... What have we been saved to?).
• "Sharing the prayer request IS the prayer. We don't need to do it again. God can hear."
• WIGS = Wildly important goals.
• Consider sponsoring a child locally, not just overseas.
• literacydesigncollaborative.com
• "If we are announcers of Good News, and the Kingdom narrative is a street party, what do we need to do (or learn)?" (we need to learn how to be community developers)
• valuetheperson.com
• "If we're going to lead a Kingdom movement then we've got to gain Kingdom competencies. And the competencies are gathered by gaining street smarts."

From Lance...

• Jeremiah 29:7
• Shalom = the way things were meant to be (Gen. 1&2).
• All of Jesus' miracles were to reconcile things broken/undone in the Fall.
• Bridges Out of Poverty book (understanding generational poverty and how that shapes them).
• Poor people have a skill set, it's just not a middle-class skill set. But they know things we do not.
• The theology of this is important. It's not just helping people so we can grow our church. This is part of God's narrative.

 COLLECTIVE IMPACT (from Stanford U. article):

Pre-conditions -

1. Influential Champion (somebody to call the party; people of influence).
2. Adequate Financial Resources
3. Urgency for change (realize now is the time)

5 Conditions of Collective Impact -

1. Common Agenda (What 1 or 2 issues, if solved, would make the biggest difference in this community? What builds common ground is a common threat. TED talk).
2. Shared Measurement (we need something to celebrate)
3. Mutually Reinforcing Activities
4. Continuous Communication
5. Backbone Support

Phases of Collective Impact -

1. Initiate Action (may take a couple years)
2. Organize for Impact (we need systems for sustainability)
3. Sustain Action and Impact

Backbone Organizations -

1. Funder-based
2. New non-profits
3. Existing non-profits
4. Government
5. Shared across multiple organizations
6. Steering committee driven (can initiate through but not sustain with)

I spent that last two days at the wonderful Salt Fork Lodge & Conference Center in eastern Ohio. This was our first "re-gathering" of our MLI group. It began in January 2010 and our last time together was in October 2011. We had six 3-day retreats over the two years - all at the same place. The second group is in the midst of their 2-year program, and while Reggie McNeal was here for their January retreat I guess they decided to have us come in at the end of it for an overnighter as sort of a follow-up for us. Apparently group two met Monday through Wednesday lunch, and we were there Wednesday lunch through Thursday lunch (Jan. 30-31). We could have come a day sooner and participated with the other group on a few things, but my carpool decided to just come for the 2 days.

Logistically, Tom drove this time. He picked up Steve around 7 am and then picked me up at my house around 7:20-ish. It rained most of the way and we arrived at the lodge around 11:50, with one stop for coffee and restroom (just east of Columbus). So 4 1/2 hours seems to be about right. We had just enough time to drop our bags in our room and make it to lunch. Tom and I roomed together (117), and I think Steve roomed with Paul. Tom and Steve both had colds so I held my breath in the backseat most of the way there. Coming home we left the lodge at about 12:30 and with two potty breaks and some nasty snow in several spots we were at my house at just before 5 pm.

I looked up our driving record for these, and we have each driven twice now. We all drove to the first one (with our spouses), then it went like this:

• Retreat #2 - Steve drove his Buick
• Retreat #3 - I drove the Focus (it was all 3 of us going there, but Steve didn't come home with us; he and Pam went on vacation from the retreat)
• Retreat #4 - Steve drove again (Blazer) because of bad weather
• Retreat #5 - Tom drove his Hyundai (Steve rode out with Bob E. because Tom had a funeral and we didn't arrive until the evening. Steve then rode home with us)
• Retreat #6 - I drove the Buick.
• Re-gathering #1 - Tom drove his Hyundai

It was nice to see everyone again, and I always enjoy staying in the Lodge. The food is great, and it's a nice spacious place to hang around for a couple days. I'd guess there were maybe 25 out of our original group of maybe 40, so there was a good group of people there. My cohort of 6 only had 3 of us there (me, Eddy and Brian).

We began with lunch on Wednesday, then we had our Fast-Fire Updates (where we had to draw pictures describing what worked, where we were stuck, biggest surprise, and biggest opportunity). We followed that up with a Q & A time, a talk by Reggie on Collective Impact, dinner at 6:30, then a cohort exercise from 7:30 to 9 pm (planning out an elementary reading program for a city of 35,000). I then sat and talked with Brian about coaching and counseling until after 10 pm.

Thursday started with breakfast at 8, devotional at 9, reports from our cohort exercise, then a talk by Lance on Toxic Charity/When Helping Hurts, another Q & A, and we wrapped things up at 11:30. We grabbed another box lunch and were gone by 12:30.

Overall I would say it was a really good time. Like I sad, I always enjoy getting together with other church leaders and talking "church stuff." It gets me really excited. Usually it's the unofficial discussions that are as invigorating as the formal talks (over meals and on breaks and such). I really get off on that. The talks by Reggie are pretty good - I like listening to him and he's easy to understand - but I feel like he's talking so far beyond where I'm at that it's a bit overwhelming usually. He's talking about starting city-wide campaigns designed to stamp out poverty and illiteracy and things like that, and I'm just trying to figure out things like how to get Sunday School teachers to show up on time (not really, but it's a fitting example). So for as excited as I am while I'm there, I sink that much lower when I arrive back home and and am faced with trying to find something useful for my church and how to get that across by myself. But, what are you gonna do... that's the nature of these things.

I just took a couple pages of notes. I don't know if they're worth sharing or not. Maybe some other time. I mostly just wanted to get the logistical information down so we will know the driving schedule and how long it takes and things like that.

Here is a group picture of the people I went through the Missional Leadership Initiative with. I was part of the first group to go through this - from January 2010 through September 2011. That's me in the front row in the maroon t-shirt. Right next to me is Jim Wilder. Tom is trying to hide in the center of the back row. Our fearless MLI leader, Lance, is on the right side about halfway up (in the yellow shirt). And the director of our denom. is in the front row all the way to the right in the striped shirt. Not a bad bunch of folks, if I do say so myself.

Well, I guess the Missional Leadership Initiative experience is now over for me. I attended my last of six retreats this past week. It started in January of 2010, and was supposed to consist of six three-day retreats (all at the Salt Fork State Park Lodge), monthly cohort meetings, and regular assignments of books to read and other various things. For the most part that all happened (other than the monthly cohort meetings). Two of my cohorts were not at this last retreat, so there were just four of us. There were probably forty-some people altogether.

Logistically... For this last retreat I drove. I picked up Tom & Steve at 7 am Monday morning, and we arrived at the lodge precisely at 11:30 am. We stopped once for coffee (at McDonald's), and filled up with gas just before we drove onto the state park grounds. We made much better time than I thought we would, because it rained pretty hard for the first part of the trip. I was glad it settled down by the time we got to Columbus.

Coming home - we left at 12:15 pm and arrived at Steve's at about 4:25 (I think). It also rained on this side of Columbus, but we didn't need to stop on the way home. All in all it was a pretty good trip. I was glad I decided to take the Buick at the last minute though - as it drives much better in the pouring rain; plus with three of us in the vehicle, and all our luggage in the back, it was just a smoother and more comfortable ride.

I actually paid to have a room to myself for this last retreat. There were a variety of reasons, but it was worth the extra $90. Of course Tom and Jim ended up getting a room to themselves too, only they didn't have to pay extra. Whatever. That's kind of how this retreat went.

I'd had a rough go of it the week or two leading up to this retreat, so I was looking forward to getting away. I was also looking forward to hanging with some friends - which happened to some extent, but had a few twists thrown in just to keep me off balance I suppose.

As usual, we started with lunch on Monday, then a meeting, then break, supper, then a cohort meeting/exercise, then we were done around 9 pm. Monday was the same except it started with breakfast at 8 am, followed by meetings until lunch. Wednesday we had breakfast, meetings, then the closing/sendoff. Reggie McNeal is who we've paid to lead this experience, and for this retreat he brought along Eric Swanson for Monday/Tuesday. Eric did all the talking/teaching on Tuesday - and it was almost exclusively from his book 'To Transform A City.' I liked him, but we HAD all just read the book that he gave us the info from.

Unfortunately the MLI experience didn't end so well for me. As I said, coming into it I'd had a rough couple weeks. Personally I was already questioning things at my own church. I think we started on this missional journey several years ago, and I struggled at times because I felt like we had already done some of the things we were being asked to do, so it was hard to continue to make the changes I felt like people were asking us to make. In the end, it feels like we've gone backwards as a church rather than forwards. Plus I always felt like there was somewhat of a disconnect between those of us in smallish, rural churches, and most of the stuff Reggie was talking about or dealing with.

But... then came the last day. I felt like I was pretty much thrown under the bus by Reggie (and maybe some others too). He ended our time together by giving us some... what he called "brain farts." One of the first ones was to take a shot at a blog post that had recently been making the rounds. It just so happened that I had just posted this on our denomination's blog (not that it's our denomination's blog, but... it's a long story). At any rate, I felt like he pretty publicly called me out. And what bothered me was that he seemed to be merely attacking the presence of the blog post (and bloggers in general), but he refused to address any of the content of the blog. Yes, the title of the post was "How the Missional Movement Will Fail"... but it wasn't necessarily anything against the missional movement. Anyway, I was pretty shocked at how the whole thing was handled, and have since been even more shocked at some other things I've heard went on behind the scenes... so I feel pretty rotten about the entire experience. But... I guess this probably marks the end for me of having anything further to do with the MLI or our denomination in general. Leaves me feeling pretty darn sad, and even more alone than I was already feeling.

So I guess that's that. Aren't you glad I'm blogging again. I know... me neither.

This morning for our devotion at the Missional Leadership Initiative retreat #5, Reggie McNeal shared this youtube video by Benjamin Zander with us: http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html. It's about 20 minutes long, and I may share it with my church some Sunday morning (or at least the Foundations group). I thought it was fantastic. I was in tears for much of it.

It's actually about music and passion, but could so easily be about faith and passion. Some things I got out of it were:

• "My job is to awaken possibility in other people."
• "Success = how many shining eyes are around me."
• "I will never say anything that couldn't stand as the last thing I will ever say" (from the Auschwitz survivor).
• "Leaders make other people powerful."
• Everybody needs Jesus, they just don't know it yet.

And from Reggie's closing prayer: "Thanks for the people in our lives who help us believe all over again."

Awesome good day; good retreat. Feeling very humble and well. I am not perfect, and that's perfectly ok.

Peace out; and in.

The fifth (of six) Missional Leadership Initiative retreats is this week. Once again we are meeting at the lovely Salt Fork State Park lodge with Reggie McNeal. I rode out with Tom and we didn't arrive until Monday night.

The retreat started at noon on Monday, and we normally would have left around 7 am (Tom, Steve and myself). However Tom had a funeral to do at 11 am, so I just waited until he got done with that and we rode out together. We only missed lunch and the first session. We made it just in time for supper. We arrived at 6:37 (after going through Columbus during rush hour) and people were still in the food line. Then we attended the evening sessions and our first cohort exercise. I finally started to wake up again about the time I was supposed to go to bed.

Steve didn't want to wait and come late, so he rode out with Bob E. on Sunday afternoon. Steve doesn't really like coming on Monday, but I would just as soon leave Monday morning, because I would rather spend another night sleeping with my wife instead of an extra night sleeping in the same room with another guy. Plus Sunday was Mother's Day, plus I hated for Tom to be the only one to arrive late.

Jane gave me a ride to the office on her way to work and I just waited there until Tom picked me up at 2:04. It took us 4 hours and 33 minutes to get here, with a stop for gas along the way.

Steve called just before we arrived, and he let me know that I had a different roommate. Not sure why we have to change roommates all the time, but the first night went ok. I roomed with Paul (who Steve roomed with the last two times), and Tom and Steve roomed together again (they had roomed together the first time).

So, it is now time for breakfast. That is one of the best things about these retreats - we always eat good. Not that there is anything wrong with the rest, but the food is almost always good.

Peace out; and in.

I've been trying to process the following questions... both for myself and with some others. I'm not exactly having the greatest luck. Part of the problem is I still have trouble with the issue of leading from my strengths. I always used to think about what my weaknesses were, and I thought what I needed to do was improve in those areas. It has been - and still is - rather eye-opening to consider that maybe God put me together in such a way as to be useful in the way that I am. Or, in other words, maybe I am the way that I am because that's how God wanted me to be. So that's what is behind many of these questions - trying to discern who I am, and what my unique contribution to the kingdom can be. Although, another issue is then discerning what one needs to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing. Ugh. It is not very much fun right now. But I am sure it will be beneficial in the long run.

Part 1 -

• WHO AM I?
• WHAT DO I LIKE TO DO?
• WHAT AM I GOOD AT?
• WHAT GIVES ME ENERGY?
• WHAT BREAKS MY HEART?

Part 2 -

My life mission is: ________________________________________

In order to fulfill my life mission I need to:
- Start: ______________________________________________
- Stop: ______________________________________________
- Continue: ___________________________________________

Here are my notes from the fourth missional leadership initiative retreat with Reggie McNeal. If there is something in quotation marks and it doesn't say who it's from then it is likely a quote from Reggie. He is 'the man' by the way.

DAY ONE: Monday, January 24, 2011 - Afternoon/Evening

• Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) stuff... John Perkins. One of their motto's: 'You can't commute to your ministry.'
  
• "Delegation is not abandonment."
• "We're not creating missional stuff; we're deciding to join what God is already doing."
• When did I first realize I was called to be a leader???

Mission/Call stuff:

1. What do I need to say "no" to?

• DISTRACTION - The enemy of mission loves to distract us. Knowing why we're here allows us to say no to distractions.
• DEBILITATION - Don't get debilitated by things that sap your energy. Guard your time; set boundaries.
• DISCOURAGEMENT - Don't let discouragement drag you down. Learning to say no to discouragement means we need to pattern into our lives things that bring us encouragement. (The Beethoven story where the 1st violinist turns him around to see the applause because he's deaf. Who's helping turn me around to see the applause?)

2. What do I need to say "yes" to?

• Say yes to the original dream... what I wanted to accomplish at the beginning (What is my original dream???). Our sense of mission has to transcend a job; however that will give color to it.
• Say yes to core values that support your call. Not what you say you believe, but how you live. Don't self-sabotage your life mission by how you're living.
• Say yes to your talent.
• Say yes to results. We've got to know that we're making progress (however we want to measure it).
• Say yes to learning/unlearning. Growing, keeping nimble, staying afloat, are you still growing intellectually, etc.

COHORT EXERCISE: ***(I need to revisit this. Often)***

Articulate my life mission and call. Write no more than three sentences about what it is, and then answer these questions: In order to fulfill my mission I need to 1) Stop ___________, 2) Start ____________, and 3) Continue _____________?

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DAY TWO: Tuesday, January 25, 2011

• Morning Devotion - The story behind the song 'God of This City.' What breaks your heart? That's the point that you've got a mission.
• "The threshold into missional living is the point your heart was broken for something."
• We claim to be married to God (as the bride of Christ)... so do we know what touches God's heart? (Do you know what touches your spouses heart?)
• We need a refresh button at the top of our page. That's what the Sabbath is supposed to be.
• "If you don't hammer your job description to fit you, then your job description will hammer you to fit it."
• "The issue is RHYTHM, not BALANCE (balance is a myth)."
• "Jesus recruited small business owners, not seminarians."

APOSTOLIC LEADERS ARE...
- visionary
- kingdom-oriented
- entrepreneurial (risk takers) (bad weather doesn't stop Disney, they take advantage of it)
- developers (develop other people)
- team players
- spiritual

• "People can be developed into apostles" (?? I think that's what he said).
• "Apostolic leaders wake up with a different set of things on their mind than church stuff."
• Reggie said: "I don't know of another denomination in America that is being as intentional about being missional than yours."
• Random stats: 73% of births to African Americans were to single parents last year. 41% of all babies.

Four Areas of the PERSONAL LEARNING PATH:
1. Paradigm (worldview) - How we see things.
2. Microskills - competencies.
3. Resources - prayer, people, time, money, facility, technology.
4. Personal Development - family, emotional health, spiritual formation.

• Listening - if someone comes to complain, write down what they say and read it back to them ("Is this what you're saying?"). It helps you to help them process things, rather than just being a dumping ground.

Tuesday Afernoon - CREATING A CONGREGATIONAL LEADERSHIP COMMUNITY:

"Create a leadership team that is willing to charge hell with a water pistol" (I was hoping for more from this session, because this is where I need the most help. I was a little disappointed).

PARADIGM - How are we bringing leaders along?

• Ask people what breaks their heart.
• Have community leaders come and speak to our leaders about needs in the community.
• Lead them through some visioning exercises.
• You must sell the problem before trying to sell the solution.
• **Immersion Excursion - spend a night on the street, or something. Immerse yourself in a situation to see what it's really like.
• How do we train our people to be missionaries rather than just good club members? (for instance, office people can put a prayer box on their desk, etc...).

MICRO-SKILLS - What should I train my leaders in?

• listening skills
• people skills
• communications skills
• get people to fall in love with Jesus by seeing Jesus in the world
• sensitivity training
• etc.

RESOURCES

• prayer-scaping, prayer-walking, prayer-driving, concert of prayer (spend a sunday service actually praying for the community), etc.
• limit in-church responsibilities; don't allow people to spend more than x number of hours at the church; etc.
• etc.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT - paying attention to your leaders personally.

• Thank them!
• Ask what's going on in their life.
• etc.

Cross-cohort assignment (evening) -
- Create a 12-month Congregational Leadership Development Path consisting of Paradigm, Micro-Skills, Resources, and Personal Development (target, delivery system, curriculum, etc.).

--------------------------------------

DAY THREE: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 (Morning)

Morning devotion - Ebenezer... Take a moment and just celebrate the fact that you've made it this far...

Reports from Cross-Cohort Exercise - Observations I picked up on:

• Leaders selected because of: vision, influence, willingness.
• Matthew is a good missional gospel.
• Pick apostolic early-adopters.
• Have meetings in the community (at a restaurant, coffee shop, etc.).
• Personal note: I think the process is going to take way longer than we think.
• Personal note: I think it's a huge mistake to think the whole church is going to be involved in this.
• Personal question: Do you force current leaders into it, or not make them be involved?
• Send people out in "sighting groups." Then debrief.
• Tom's question: "If we were going to plant a church here, who would want to be involved in that?"
• Don't bore people to death with meetings and retreats. Confront people with a few things over and over (subversive hammering).
• On-the-job training. Sink or swim. Just-in-time learning.
• Use existing venues and recontent them (don't create new classes or meetings, just change what you're doing in your present classes and meetings).

Leadnet.org - supposed to be resources there.

------------------------------------

Next time our discussion will be about: Change & Transition, and Post-Congregational Church.

Reading for next time: Managing Transitions (3rd Edition): Making the Most of Change, by William Bridges.

First cohort assignment: Bring my leadership development plan for my church.

Some things I want to remind myself of about the Missional Leadership Initiative retreats being held at the lovely Salt Fork State Park Lodge and Conference Center...

• This fourth retreat was the first time we drove out on Monday morning instead of Sunday night. Personally, I would just as soon go on Monday. It's not that bad of a drive (4+ hours), and I wasn't near as tired Monday afternoon as I thought I might be. Plus it helps that the schedule usually allows for a long break (4-6:30) Monday afternoon, which is plenty of time for a nice nap. I would much rather spend an extra night at home - that makes me more rested than arriving a day early (though if I had to travel much further I would probably want to come on Sunday).
• We left home at probably 7:15 am (or so) on Monday, and arrived at the lodge about 11:45. So that's 4 1/2 hours if I did the math right. We stopped once along the way and got some putrid coffee at a Burger King, and then we stopped and got gas as we got off I-77 at Rt. 22. It was also a bit snowy, and Steve probably doesn't drive as fast as I do.
  
• Coming home... we left Wednesday at about 11:50 am. We didn't stop at all on the way home and got to my house about 3:50 - right about exactly 4 hours.
• It was about an hour and fifteen minutes from Salt Fork to Columbus; and just a hair under 3 hours from Columbus home.
• It definitely helped having the humidifier in our room during the winter. Not only did it mask my snoring, but I didn't have any static cling problems, and my nose/head felt pretty good.
• Tom usually sleeps by the sliding door, and I usually sleep by the bathroom wall.
• Tom prefers to keep the fan running constantly on the heater/air conditioner (due to noise).
• I do not need my brief case; and probably don't need to bring a book along to read. I never read it. I also don't need to bring quarters for the games, because they only take tokens. Six bottles of water is plenty.
  

That's about all I can remember at the moment. I kinda like staying at the lodge for these retreats - even though we are always there during the "off" season, so there's not much else to do there, and there aren't usually very many other people there. The restaurant and lounge weren't open when we were there this last time. But the rooms are nice, and it's kind of a neat, tucked away place. We didn't see as many deer as usual this last time, but I also didn't go outside too much.

I arrived home from my 3-day mli retreat in Ohio yesterday evening and as soon as Jane got home from work we headed to the Feipel house so I could hold my little granddaughter again. My how she's changed already. She is one cute baby though. I think maybe the cutest EVER!!!

It's funny, because I'm not a real 'baby' person. But holding her seems like the most natural (and awesome) thing in the world. It was nice to see her smile and kinda just cuddle up in my arms. After her dad fed her I held her again and that time she was awake. She was looking all over and batting her eyelashes at me. She'll pretty much get anything she wants. Every now and then Lady would come over and give her a good sniff - just keeping an eye on her. At one point we put Anna in her living room crib (after setting it up) and Lady was quite concerned about that. It was pretty fun.

Now it's back to the office today. Ugh. I had a good three days in Ohio. It's always nice seeing friends, and being able to talk church stuff, and it is even better being a grandpa, but I guess life goes on...

Reggie McNeal told us the story behind the writing of the song, "God of This City." It is pretty cool. The band 'Bluetree' were somehow playing worship songs in a brothel in Thailand, and the song kind of just grew out of that. Here are some links to the story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXh_tgjnYJw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co-RP2isqZY&feature=related

http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Bluetree__Rock_worshippers_and_one_of_the_Greater_Things_to_emerge_from_N_Ireland/29468/p1/

http://mandoron.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/god-of-this-city/

http://www.therieslands.com/2008/09/24/god-of-this-city-story-behind-the-song/

http://michaelgianopulos.blogspot.com/2008/04/their-story-story-behind-god-of-this.html

I am sitting in my room on break during the Missional Leadership Initiative retreat. This is the 4th 3-day retreat we've had. So far they have all been at the lovely Salt Fork State Park lodge. I am once again rooming with Tom (room 217). He's sitting on his bed on his computer too.

Tom and I rode over with Steve yesterday. Tom was supposed to drive, but it was snowing like crazy when we left, so Steve offered to drive his 4-wheel drive (I didn't care who drove as long as it wasn't me). They picked me up at 7 am, but we had to go back to Zanesville because Tom forgot his glasses. So we probably left around 7:15 or so, and drove through snow about half the way. We stopped once for coffee and a potty break, and then got gas when we got off the interstate. We arrived just before noon.

The retreat started with lunch on Monday. The food is always one of the better parts of these retreats. I need to learn to take smaller portions though. And the service is always superb here.

At the end of the first day I spent some time with Eddie, then went to bed around 11 or 11:30. I slept fairly good. Probably because I brought a humidifier with me. I don't care if people think I'm crazy - it helps me breathe better and I'm glad I brought it. It also kept Tom from having to listen to me snore (too much).

So far it's been pretty good, though I was kind of tired this afternoon. I was surprised I wasn't more tired than I was yesterday afternoon. I think I kind of liked just driving out on Monday instead of coming out the night before. I also liked that we had lunch in our cohorts today. I don't think we've done that before. Though I like that tonight we have a cross-cohort exercise. So far I have liked the cohort exercises, and I look forward to doing them with our group at church when we start meeting together again.

Some other things I've liked so far:

• I liked having to think back to when I first realized I was a leader.
• I liked having to think about my 'original dream.'
• I liked the exercise where we had to articulate our life mission & call, and then answer: "In order to fulfill my mission I need to: stop..., start..., and continue..."
• I liked the devotion to start us out today, about the guy who moved his family to an apartment building; and then the question... "What breaks your heart?"

I will likely post my notes about this eventually. This is the schedule for this retreat:

Monday, January 24
Noon - lunch
1:00 - Opening/Devotional/Fast-Fire Updates
2:30 - Break
2:45 - Personal Mission and Call
4:00 - Afternoon Break
6:30 - Dinner
7:30 - Cohort Exercise

Tuesday, January 25
8:00 - Breakfast
9:00 - Devotion and Debrief
9:30 - Creating a Leadership Learning Path
10:30 - Break
10:45 - Personal Learning Path Exercise
Noon - Lunch (sit by cohort to debrief - note the longer lunch break)
1:30 - Creating a Congregational Leadership Community
3:00 - Afternoon Break
6:30 - Dinner
7:30 - Cross-Cohort Exercise

Wednesday, January 26
8:00 - Breakfast
9:00 - Devotion and Prayer Time
9:15 - Reports from Cross-Cohort Exercise
10:00 - Debrief in Cohorts
10:15 - Break
10:30 - Pulling It Together
11:30 - Wrap-Up
Noon - Lunch and Depart

There ya go... more to come later (hopefully). Now I can't decide whether to take a nap or take a walk.

Peace out; and in.

I seem to have a lot of disjointed thoughts at the moment, many of which I probably shouldn't share. So, anyway...

We thought we lost the cat yesterday. The first night we had her she pretty much just hid under the treadmill - which we expected. She didn't eat or drink anything. Tuesday night she came out and was pretty playful with us, but she didn't stray too far from either one of us. She was still real wary of being in open space. I suppose living in a small cage for so long will do that to you. She finally nibbled a couple bites of food, but not much. When we went to bed Tuesday night we showed her where we were sleeping, but she soon scampered away. When we got up Wednesday morning we couldn't find her anywhere. We looked in every place we could imagine. Our house isn't that big, and we have the spare bedroom closed off. I looked again at noon and still had no luck. Finally, after Jane got home from work I tilted the clothes dryer back and, sure enough, she had crawled inside the bottom part of the dryer. I finally pulled her out and she took off and hid behind the tv. Jane coaxed her out a little later on and she played with us for quite a bit, and kind of walked around the house some. This morning she was behind the tv again, later moving to under the bed. She apparently ate a few more bites of food during the night. I think she's making progress.

Yesterday I had a conference call with my MLI cohort group. One person doesn't seem to participate in the conference calls (he works a real job, so I understand), and Jim had a funeral to go to so he couldn't talk long. Otherwise everybody was there. We were supposed to talk about our reading assignment - Neil Cole's book 'Organic Leadership.' I guess it was an ok discussion, but I got off the phone and felt pretty discouraged about the whole thing. One guy just said he hadn't read the book, and didn't intend to. I can respect his honesty, but then... I sometimes wonder why people participate in things if they're not going to participate. I don't think they always think through how that effects everyone else. In my opinion, what really makes or breaks things like this is the participation, or partnership, or level of community. But... I know... I'm the difficult one. Anyway, I was pretty discouraged about the whole thing after the call. But it is what it is and I'm sure I'll get over it. My expectations are probably just too high. But it seemed the consensus was that maybe the whole missional thing is just too much, or too radical an idea, for our group. I don't think that at all, and, in fact, I think we're moving way too slow. So... I'm sure it's just me. Whatever.

This morning I went to breakfast with Tom and Steve, and we went to Spyro's in Waynedale. We have decided that rather than just meeting at one another's church each week, maybe we should start getting out in the community. So we are now meeting at different restaurants each Thursday. I like that. But I've got to start limiting myself to smaller breakfasts. I don't need to eat so much. Anyway, we talked about our cohorts, our churches, missional stuff, the book for MLI, a lenten devotional, and tri-county ministries stuff. It was good.

I've been a bit freaked out lately about the thought of taking on a mortgage. Ugh. I hate to even think about it. I am not a money person. I hate thinking about money. It really does just freak me out to even think about having a 30-year loan. Geez, I will be 78 years old then! Nuts. But... I know I need to think about it, and address it, and do something about it eventually. Er...

I have also been stressed about the whole process of moving from the parsonage to owning our own home. I don't know how to go about it. I don't want to take advantage of the church, but I also don't want to be taken advantage of. And I don't really know who to talk to about it, or who even cares. I wish I could get some input. I've tried to ask a few people, but to this point everyone seems to just be kind of... whatever. So... I don't know what to do about that.

I've also been thinking about the whole church planting issue lately too. Not for me to plant a church - but just thinking about church planting in general. I hate the term "church planting." You know, Jane mentioned something about church planting to a non-churched person a couple of weeks ago, and they thought it meant 'buying plants to put in our church.' For real. And that doesn't surprise me at all. What surprises me are the church people who think that's surprising! Church "planting" is a stupid term. I'm sorry, but it is. It means nothing to people who don't know what it means. And supposedly church planting is supposed to be geared for people who don't know what it means (at least to me). I was planning to write another post solely about this, but now it's coming out of my fingers, so... I don't get why most of our church planting people (regionally/denominationally) all seem to be such "churched" people. Make no mistake, most of them are great people, but they are so churched that they don't know how to look at things from a non-churched persons perspective. So in my opinion they are going to have very limited success reaching people for Christ who want nothing to do with our churches as they presently are. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is actually one thing where I think I can contribute. However, no one else seems to think so. I think I've been asked to serve on every stupid commission in our region OTHER THAN the church planting commission. And even though that's the only thing I've ever expressed an interest in, I have never been asked, and it's never even been insinuated that I should have anything to do with that. Honestly, it irritates the snot out of me. So I think I'm probably just a fool and nobody has the guts to tell me that. I dunno. Maybe I should just forget about it and buy a boat or take up golf or something. Argh...

Today I listened to an interview with someone from the No Labels Movement. It's not a political party, but a movement working to get our politicians to put aside the hyper-partisanship that seems to be running rampant in America right now, and actually work for the good of the people. Now THAT is politics I can like. But, again, I probably don't know anything, so... whatever.

Well, I suppose I will go try to find the cat now that my lunch period is about over, then head back to the office and do the usual Thursday afternoon stuff. Get the bulletins ready, do the powerpoint stuff, save the world and all that.

Peace out; and in.

Yesterday was an eventful little day. It started with the internet not working. Man, how did people ever use dial-up? We finally did get the wireless back, but it completely threw my day out of whack (well, maybe not completely).

Anyway, I took Jane to work in the morning (because I needed to pick her up after work - more on that later), then I headed down to Anderson for an MLI cohort meeting. It was me, Jim, Candice and Eddie; and we met at Perkins on Scatterfield at 10 am. I had reserved the back room, but since only four of us were there we just used a table in the corner of the regular room. I was about ten minutes late, and was a bit embarrassed because I am rarely late for anything. I wasn't counting on there being a cop every ten miles on my way down I-69. I don't think I missed much though. We continued discussing moving from being 'program-driven to a more people-development' church; we also discussed the "What's Next" paper; the cggc blog idiotics; and some personal stuff. It was a good visit. As I was standing in line to pay the cashier when we were done someone from my church came up and wanted to know what I was doing there. That was weird, she was sitting almost right behind us the entire time. Small world.

After our meeting I took everyone over to the Exodus House to give Eddie his first look, and Jim and Candice a look at what it's like now that people are living there. It was good to see son Isaac, and gave me a chance to drop some items off for him. It's actually a pretty nice looking place now. They've done good. We didn't stick around too long, because everyone else had a 3-hour drive home. So we left around 1 pm and I headed back to work. I didn't get much of anything done the rest of the afternoon though.

Then last night we got to see John Mellencamp at the beautiful Fort Wayne Embassy Theater. This was actually our present to Drew Carrie for their first wedding anniversary. I picked Jane up from work at 6 pm and we stopped at McDonald's for a quick bite of salty grease, then we swung by and picked up Drew Carrie in the rain and headed downtown. I paid the $2 to park in the garage because that way we could walk across the enclosed crosswalk into the Embassy and stay dry. I will probably write a review of the show later, but let me just say that it was awesome. I am not afraid to admit that I LIKE John Mellencamp. And probably as much now as I ever have. They played a documentary from his tour of small baseball stadiums and the making of his new album from 6:45 to 8 pm. We arrived just after it started. Then the show started at 8:30, and he played almost non-stop until 10:40. He did a nice mix of old stuff and new stuff; solo stuff and the full 7-piece band; quiet and loud... it was quite the array of music. And it was almost ALL music - very little chit-chat. He really knows how to put on a nice show. And we had really good seats too: front row of the upper balcony, section k, row j, seats 1-4; which put us right smack dead center of the stage. I think a good time was had by all. Grandma even got to feel the baby move! I suppose my favorite song was a new one: Save Some Time To Dream. Had tears running down my face.

Well, I suppose now I should do something.

Peace out; and in.

Now that we have started in on The Present Future DVD Study, some of the other things I've been thinking about doing, either individually or as a church, are:

• The idea of a 'prayer place' that I mentioned the other day in this post.

• Adding the element of texting to my sermons. Putting my cell number in the bulletin and letting people know that if they have a legitimate question dealing with the sermon they can feel free to text it to me while I'm preaching. I will then take a few minutes at the end to address any questions. Not that I can guarantee any answers, but I'm sure there are sometimes good questions that people have, and texting will allow them to be asked somewhat anonymously (at least to the rest of the congregation). I'm somewhat hesitant to do this, because I don't think on my feet real well - I prefer to contemplate things for awhile - but I think it could possibly help people feel a little more included in the Word portion of the gathering. I dunno. We'll see.
  

• Praying through the neighborhood - I've been considering this for awhile. I would like to go door to door in the neighborhood around the church and just ask people if there is anything I can pray for them about. I will probably take a notebook to write things down and to keep a record. I'm not sure exactly how to convince them that they don't need to "come to church," but I think it's a start in building some relationships and hopefully showing that the kingdom goes beyond church walls.

• Practicing Hospitality - The last book I read had a link to Alan Roxburgh's website and they have a bible study called "Practicing Hospitality." I've just glanced through it, but this looks like just the thing I've been looking for - a way for people to invite others into their homes to have spiritual discussions. So I downloaded the study, and I'm thinking that once we're through with the Present Future study I may offer this one for anyone that's interested. I really think this could lead to something, not only for our church, but, shoot, it could even be the start of something entirely other.

• The Basement - We are also looking into maybe redoing the church basement next year. I would really like to do this. Put some carpet down, paint the ceiling and walls, add a fireplace, do some decorating. I think we need a place that is less institutional looking. While not really "outward-focused," I think it could change our attitudes somewhat and be a little more inviting.

• Also, while not really something I am going to "do"... but something that I just realized maybe needs emphasized... I try to talk often about "change" in the church - if for nothing else just so people know that it is to be expected. But I realized that maybe it is a bit unsettling for people to think that we are instituting changes just for the sake of change. Perhaps I need to emphasize that the change isn't really being instituted by the church - CHANGE HAPPENS in life - and the church merely needs to be constantly addressing the changes that occur in life. I mean, people get older, kids grow up, ailments develop, people split apart, get married, change jobs, lose jobs, make money, move, economies change, cultures, and all sorts of other things. Now, certainly the the message of hope that the church has to offer doesn't change... but where and how it applies to peoples lives does. So we need to be constantly aware of the changing shape of our lives and the world we live in. I think I need to begin to address change more from that aspect (though in a more concise way).

Stuff like that...

These are some of my notes from my recent Missional Leadership Retreat with Reggie McNeal. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing these. I probably have them all wrong anyway. And part of these were Tom's notes that he was nice enough to send me (minus the cool drawing he did, which I can't seem to duplicate on the blog).


DAY 1 - SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

"We've got to be working on better problems than the ones we're working on solving now." Reggie McNeal

"When people don't own their problems they don't see themselves as part of the solution." Reggie McNeal

SPIRITUAL PREPARATION:
How do we prepare ourselves for the future God wants to give us?

5 Key Components To A Preparing Modality:

1. Vision (What are we looking for?) - We don't create vision, we discover it. How do we create a culture where vision can arise?
2. Values (How we're behaving) - What do we have to do to make sure what we are saying is actually what we are doing?
3. Results - How do we create a culture where people are motivated? How do we know when we're winning? We need to re-teach what a win is. "What is it that I want to see God do?"
4. Strengths - Focus on our strengths (what has God given us; what do we have going for us; where do we already have influence?).
5. Learnings - People who are prepared know what they need to be investigating. "Initiatives" instead of "goals". What initiatives do we need to take?

DAY 2 - MORNING SESSION - SEPTEMBER 21, 2010

"Christianity starts in a garden and ends in a city. It's a very worldly religion."

"There's not a reference in the NT of a church that is smaller than a city. There is no 'church'... it's about the city. The church is not the destination, the kingdom is."

****What is different in our town because of this? If the city is not better, then we're not being the church.****

What are the 1 or 2 things, if solved, would make the most difference in our city, or school? (good question for a mayor or principal or someone)

Transition Tips - (transition to missional)

It's not change that does us in, it's the transition.

5 Stages of Transition (there is a chart that helps explain this):

1. Denial

• You know you are here when there hasn't been change for a long time.
• You have to sell the problem, not the solution
• Use biblical examples

2. Resistance

• Expect resistance, but don't push for it
• This is why we need a scorecard - to see/show where we're "winning"
• If you don't handle this there is a danger of looping back to denial
• Expecting this does not mean heighten resistance, but work to lower it
• Sell specific solutions
• You must be present, seeable, touchable
• You must have an unanxious presence
• We've simply got to learn to "take it"
• Understand their pain - empathize. Some people will be grieving the loss of a culture they remember from the past. Anger is a part of the grief process. Help people grieve.
• People need to have their say - let them talk. People expect to be heard even if you don't agree. Sometimes they will accept that you don't agree but they will not accept not being heard.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate
• Make sure the problem/solution is in context because people will make up what they don't know.
• People won't hear anything we've got to say until they've been able to say what they want to say.

3. Exploration

• Exploring how you will get where you want to go.
• The crazies will come out in force in this stage because you have created an environment that encourages open-mindedness to new ideas. Don't let them hijack the mission.
• Be able to say, "No, that won't get us where we want/need to go."
• You still need to fulfill basic expectations - worship, congregational care, sermons, etc.
• Study how God showed up in the wilderness
• Explore the boundaries - where will the boundaries be for your church
• Learn to create and celebrate short-term wins

4. Commitment

• You will get there first so give time for your people to enjoy it even when you are ready to move on to the next cycle.

General Tips:

• The transition phase can take 4-6 years and then you can plateau in the Commitment phase for 2-4 years. So 1 cycle can be about 10 years. The length has a lot to do with the power behind the change.
• Learn to describe the change that you are after.
• Get good at describing change in just a few sentences.
• Make sure to think through the details and make appropriate assignments.
• Understand WHO has to let go of WHAT - including maybe you.
• Create boundaries for closure - celebrate your past so you can move on.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate...
• Be able to articulate new behaviors.
• Remember that some of the people who are angry are actually grieving (the loss of a culture). Anger is a phase of grief. We need to help people grieve.

DAY 2 - AFTERNOON SESSION - SEPTEMBER 21, 2010

From Program-Driven To People-Development
(How to create a culture that develops & deploys missional people - Making people successful, rather than programs)

• Things must be customized. We have to start with people, not programs.
• Intergenerational. Program culture tends to isolate generations; we need to bring them together.
• Service. Help people learn how to serve. How do we create a culture where everybody gets to serve.
• Debrief.
• Life-centric rather than church-centric.

DAY 3 - SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

"The future has arrived, it's just not been evenly distributed" (The kingdom busting out is the distribution - God sightings).

"WHERE DID YOU SEE GOD THIS WEEK?"

Strengths Finder...

• Don't underestimate your strengths/talents.
• These come from nature, not nurture (if they could find language for a 3-year-old they could measure them with this - we're BORN this way; we don't become this way).
• They are in order of strength, but we can equally access all of our top five.
• Don't imperialize your strengths. They are unique to us (don't expect others to be like us).
• We are equally capable in the top five, but we don't always employ them equally.
• Your strengths are also your needs. I was made to use these talents, and when I don't get to use them I feel cheated. Using them feeds my soul. Most burnout comes from dealing with trivia rather than using our strengths. If we don't use our strengths we die.
• We need to learn how to get to do the things we're good at.
• "The purpose of team is to make individual weaknesses irrelevant." Peter Drucker
• Compare StrengthsFinder results to SSP. How do I express my strengths? How does it show up in my life? It will show how I prefer to do my work.
• Practice your strengths.
• Allow other people the grace to practice their strengths.

COHORT ASSIGNMENT:

Create a 4-week scenario where you adopt a more aggressive people-development agenda.

• What shows up on the church calendar?
• What shows up on my personal calendar?
• - Relate it to my strengths
• - Remember external focus

(In other words, in a month of time what would I do differently based on what I'm learning?)

My strengths from the StrengthsFinder are: Restorative, Empathy, Deliberative, Connectedness, and Intellection.

Here's something I'm thinking about, and I'm not sure if it's a good idea or a stupid idea.

In an effort to better utilize our facility (use it for more than just Sunday morning), and to reach out to those outside of our church, and to be more people-development minded rather than program-driven, and to be more of a 'spiritual director' than the traditional 'pastor'... I'm thinking of putting a sign out by the road and asking people if they would like prayer. We have one of those yellow signs that you can change the letters on (like in front of a business). I would just put something on it like, "Do you need Prayer? Stop inside" (unless someone has a better idea). I would be available to pray for anyone that stopped, or they would be free to just go in the sanctuary and pray themselves if they wanted to do that.

I was thinking I might just get a sign to put on the front door that said "open" or "closed," so people would know if anyone was here. And when I'm not here, I would have a box affixed near the entryway with pen and paper, where people could just write their prayers and leave them if they wanted.

I don't know... I suppose this could create several problems, and it could get somewhat ugly at times, I suppose. It actually sounds like what I used to think a lot of Roman Catholic churches were like, but... I don't know. I mean, you just never know, right? So, I don't know. Just thinking.

Peace out; and in.

This week I attended another Missional Leadership Initiative retreat at the Salt Fork State Park lodge near Cambridge, Ohio. This was the third three-day retreat out of six, with Reggie McNeal leading about 40 pastors and leaders from our denomination (plus Tom). I drove this time, in the Focus, and Tom and Steve went with me. Only Tom came home with me, as Steve's wife (who works with Jane) picked him up Wednesday and they left for vacation from there.

We left for the retreat on Sunday (9/19) about 3:45 in the afternoon. It took us 4 hours and 45 minutes, but that included about a 45 minute stop for supper. Note to self: don't stop at the Burger King in Columbus. Geez. Tom waited 25 minutes to get his chicken sandwich and we were about the only people in there. Anyway, we arrived around 8:30 at the lodge. From the lodge entrance to the first turn is 4 miles, then it's another 3 miles after turning. We checked in, and this time I roomed with Tom (last time was with Jim). When we checked in they told us we were supposed to pay for our first night, but we informed them that was not right. They also didn't give us our breakfast coupon. They did give us a free internet code though.

There were actually more other guests there than the previous two times we've been there. The outside pool looked nice, with lots of lounge chairs and whatnot, but apparently closed after Labor Day. It was very nice weather while there - warm during the day, but cool at night. We were in room 226, and our shower had so much water pressure it almost hurt. Man, it was like a fire hose. This is a really nice place though, and the ladies that serve our food are superb.

MONDAY -
Monday morning I slept in until 7, then Tom and I ate breakfast at the lodge restaurant (someone slid our coupons under the door during the night). I had 2 pancakes and several cups of coffee. Later I went on a walk with Steve down by the cabins. The retreat began with a lunch at noon, then we had devotions and prayer time at 1, followed by: Fast-Fire Updates (we each had to share 2 new metrics we've implemented since May), a general session on 'Spiritual Preparation', Dinner at 6:30, and a cohort exercise "Seeing Our City Like A Medieval" until 9 pm. We had to draw pictures. I was really tired and was having allergy/sinus issues. We also got our books for the next reading assignment: Neil Cole's 'Organic Leadership.' During the afternoon break I went on a walk with Eddie.

TUESDAY -
I got up at 6:30 and took a shower. Listened to Neil Young's new cd preview (thanks Joan). The day began with a group breakfast at 8 am, then started in with devotions at 9. Then we had a session on "Tips for Transition", break, a cohort exercise on Transition (I was not in a very good mood during this), lunch at noon, a session on "people-development culture", a group exercise on Scenario Building, dinner at 6:30, and a group exercise "Scorecarding for People Development" until 9 pm. I sat around and chatted with some other folks until 11 pm or so. During the afternoon break (3-6:30) I went into town with Eddie, then tried to take a brief nap before supper, but there was a group who had a dunk tank right outside our room. My head finally started to feel a little better in the late afternoon.

WEDNESDAY -
I got up around 6 or 6:30 and took a walk. I like seeing the deer out early in the morning. After that I took a shower and packed. Once again we had group breakfast at 8 am followed by devotions at 9. At 9:30 was a group reporting on the previous night's exercise, then a session on Leading from Strengths, then a personal exercise where we had to create a 4-week scenario of a more aggressive people-development agenda for ourselves and see what does and does not show up on our personal calendar, as well as the church calender, related to our strengths and with an external focus. This is what we'll be working on in our cohorts over the next few months. Then we wrapped things up and we got a box lunch at noon. Tom and I stayed and ate with a few other people, but a lot of folks headed out.

We started for home around 12:30 I'd say. I think we stopped in Zanesville, Ohio or somewhere and got gas. I didn't want to have to worry about running out. That was the only stop we made though, and we made it home in about 4 hours and 15 minutes. It was kinda nice to process things with Tom on the way home.

Overall it was a good time. I really enjoy these types of things - it fits with my strengths (restorative, empathy, deliberative, connectedness, and intellection). I think it took me a day to adjust to all the trees and outdoors stuff, but after that first night we decided to just turn off the air and fan at night and I started to feel a little better. I was glad I brought warm clothes though, because even though it was hot outside (upper 80's), it was kind of cool inside - at least I thought so. I may or may not post my notes eventually. I probably should, because I just scribbled them down on the hotel writing pad; but I'm just not feeling real talkative at the moment. There was a lot on my mind when I left for the retreat, and there's even more there now. We'll see.

Peace out; and in.

Yesterday was my monthly MLI Cohort Meeting. We met at Perkins restaurant in Anderson (on Scatterfield). I thought it worked out nice since they have a back room you can reserve, so we had a spot that was removed from everyone else. Anderson also seems to be centrally located for our furthest members. I think it was about a 3 hour drive for Eddie, and also for Jim & Candice (from opposite directions). Ryan and I were both about an hour and 15 minutes away. Unfortunately one member wasn't able to be there, which was discouraging because that makes 2 of the last 3 meetings, and I miss his input, plus just the whole 'community building' aspect. But I know how these things go.

At any rate, Jim & Candice drove from Findlay to my place, then we rode together the rest of the way. So it was nice to chat with them on the way down and back. Eddie drove his new $1200 convertible from Sullivan. Afterward the three of us in my car stopped by the Exodus House and got a tour from son Isaac - though we interrupted him from tearing down the north fence.

The meeting started at 11 am, and our discussion was to center around new metrics regarding facilities and technology. There's not a lot you can say about those two, especially when two of our members aren't pastors, so we didn't seem to have a lot to talk about yesterday. I think we were done about 1:30. I had a turkey club and french fries to eat, and shared a couple pots of decaf coffee with Eddie.

Other than that... not much to say. Last night we drove around and looked at some houses.

Part 2 of my highlights from Alan Hirsch's book, The Forgotten Ways (Go here for part 1):

• p. 184 - "Failure to deal with dysfunction will always undermine the organization or community's health."
• p. 185 - "Rather than thinking of the early church as noninstitutional, we need to think of it rather as 'preinstitutional.' All living systems require some form of structure in order to maintain and perpetuate their existence."
• p. 188 - "As far as I am aware, no historical denomination has ever been able to fully recover its earlier, more fluid and dynamic movement ethos again."
• p. 191 - a working definition of a "movement."
• p. 193 - Characteristics of movements: A thirst for renewal, A new stress on the work of the Spirit, An institutional-charismatic tension, A concern for being a countercultural community, Nontraditional or nonordained leadership, Ministry to the poor, Energy and dynamism.
• p. 196 - chart detailing the differences between "organic missional movement" and "institutional religion."
• p. 197 - "Liquid church is essential because it takes the present culture seriously and seeks to express the fullness of the Christian gospel within that culture."
• p. 198 - ** Part about the difference between "the body of Christ is the church" or "the church is the body of Christ." "The reality of the church is to be found only 'in Christ.' Christ is our origin and truth. To be a Christian is to be joined to Christ and to be joined to Christ is to be joined to his church."
• p. 214 - "If we are to recover our latent Apostolic Genius in the West, we need to ask exactly the same question of ourselves. What is the irreducible minimum of the faith? What can be done away with? What is too complex and heavy to carry into a new missional situation and an adaptive challenge." ****
• p. 215 - ***"If the only tool you have is a hammer, then everything begins to look like a nail. We need other tools."
• p. 221 - "Communitas... happens in situations where individuals are driven to find each other through a common experience of ordeal, humbling, transition, and marginalization. It involves intense feelings of social togetherness and belonging brought about by having to rely on each other in order to survive."
• p. 226 - ***"...the Church is always in a state of crisis and... its greatest shortcoming is that it is only occasionally aware of it." "...to encounter crisis is to encounter the possibility of truly being the Church."
• p. 232 - "Mission is, and must be, the organizing principle of the church." (?not sure. what about worship or glorifying God??)
  
• p. 233 - "Roxurgh and Romanuk... say that the role of leadership within the church is to cultivate environments wherein the Spirit of God might call forth and unleash the missional imagination of the people of God."
• p. 235 - (Atlantic Olympics organizer) "I have always thought the way to engage life - in business and personally - is to set enormously high goals that seem absolutely unattainable, and work from the conviction that you're going to pull it off. By doing that I'm convinced that you are going to reach half of them. As for the others, you're going to go further than you would have otherwise."
• p. 240 - "The fact is that God is everywhere. He is already deeply involved in human history and in all people's lives."
• p. 245 - Questions with clear "yeses" and nos." (post this separately).
  
• p. 248 - "...at the edge of chaos is the sweet spot where innovation takes place if handled correctly."
• p. 252 - "following Jesus into the mission field is either impossible or extremely difficult for the vast majority of congregations in the Western world because of one thing: They have a systems story that will not allow them to take the first step out of the institution into the mission field, even though the mission field is just outside the door of the congregation." ****
• p. 252 - "It's futile trying to revitalize the church, or a denomination, without first changing the system."
• p. 260 - "...the theologically most fertile parts of the Bible are all, yes all, set in the context of the people of God facing significant danger and chaos." *****
• p. 265 - Seven critical disciplines (Pascale et al): 1) Infuse an intricate understanding of what drives organizational success; 2) Insist on uncompromising straight talk; 3) Manage from the future; 4) Reward inventive accountability; 5) Harness adversity by learning from prior mistakes; 6) Foster relentless discomfort; 7) Cultivate reciprocity between the individual and the organization.
• p. 266 - "God never intended his leaders to be people with all the answers and all the vision. Rather, our role is to help God's people discover the answers for themselves through the activity of leaders who awaken their imagination and stimulate a search. Our task is not to control, but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit try to both harness and direct the flow. We move from being managers to being servants or, even more specifically, cultivators of fields or environments wherein certain behaviors or actions take place." ***
• p. 268 - "...there are 111 million Christians without a local church in the world today. These people claim to take Jesus seriously but feel alienated from current expression of church."
• p. 271 - "...it is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." *****