I encourage every Christian leader who wants to successfully guide the congregation through the change we are experiencing in this 21st century to watch this video: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=397291465953
Happy Birthday to AA
June 10th, 2010Today is the 70th birthday of Alcoholics Anonymous and the vast networks of 12 Step programs of all kinds. One church in Arizona has a motto that “We’re all in recovery.” All of us have some kind of addiction that compels us to engage in behavior that is not healthy for us. It may be eating or working too much, watching TV or surfing the net far more than is good for us, or even engaging in religious practices in unhealthy ways. Most addictions may not do the same physical and relational damage that chemical dependency or sexual addictions often do, and some are socially acceptable and even admired – like workaholism. But the spiritual, emotional, and relational impact often undermines our leadership more than we admit.
Over these decades AA and 12-step programs have helped millions of people realize the importance of admitting when they need help and finding that help in small groups and with someone who can walk alongside them in life. These are fundamental lessons for every leader to learn and to practice. Here are the 12 Steps as a reminder to us all:
- We admitted we were powerless over [________] – that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to [___________], and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
What in the world is God doing?
April 13th, 2010The mainline Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church that dominated American religious life in the 20th century have been in decline for over 30 years. The seminaries they founded and supported – and that trained most of their ministers and priests – have also been in decline and many are in serious financial trouble. For the majority of Christian churches in the U.S. during the 20th century, ministers could only be ordained in order to serve those churches following at least three years of study at one of the recognized seminaries.
Today many of the larger churches do not belong to any of those denominations, often growing up as “nondenominational,” independent congregations. Or they belong to other Christian groups without the same restrictive requirements for education and ordination. Other theological schools have grown up to serve those churches and/or ministers and leaders have been mentored and trained within the congregations they now serve.
In the past 15 years, more and more people who feel called by God to serve in ministry are serving in leadership in congregations where they feel called. Often they have other jobs and careers, families, and homes, and they want to serve where they are. They are asking for theological education to come to them, offered in an integrated model of education with online study, mentoring, local study groups, and similar options that will enable them to be more fully educated and trained for the ministry they are already engaged in. I believe this is part of the new thing God is doing in our day.
Connecting
April 10th, 2010This new Google and Facebook world is all about connecting – with old friends and new friends, with people we’ve never met and may never meet, with people who know what we want to know or have what we want to have. It’s a world of immediate connections – instant messaging, search results in a fraction of a second, texting, videoconferencing.
It’s a new world where interdependence and the web of networks in our world have become apparent. How can we nurture the fantasy that we don’t need other people or that we can stand on our own without help? Or that other people do not need our help?
In this world that values connecting, the Church can thrive as it nurtures its calling to connect people with other people and with God. We will thrive as we offer the help other people need and seek out their help with what we need. We will thrive if we open up ourselves to the world around us, knowing that we are part of the web of life, an essential, God-called part of all of life.
Radical Change
April 5th, 2010We live in “a world that has changed radically and forever.” (Jeff Jarvis in What Would Google Do?) – If Jarvis is correct, what does that mean for churches? And what are the implications for Christian leaders? The practice of awareness includes being aware of the radical changes we are experiencing today.
Jarvis describes this new world as “upside-down, inside-out, counterintuitive, and confusing.” But it may not be what you think! I find his book helpful and hopeful as a Christian leader because the language he uses to describe the world after Google seems to me to be what God calls the Church to be – filled with:
Conversations
Abundance
Collaboration
Openness
Trust
Respect
Empowerment
Generosity
That’s just in the first chapter. The intentional pun in the book’s title – rather than WWJD – suggests that as Christian leaders we need to pay attention to how the world is changing and how Christians and the Church can play a leadership role in helping the world be all God wants it to be.
What in the world is God doing?
March 25th, 2010The mainline Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church that dominated American religious life in the 20th century have been in decline for over 30 years. The seminaries they founded and supported – and that trained most of their ministers and priests – have also been in decline and many are in serious financial trouble. For the majority of Christian churches in the U.S. during the 20th century, ministers could only be ordained in order to serve those churches following at least three years of study at one of the recognized seminaries.
Today many of the larger churches do not belong to any of those denominations, often growing up as “nondenominational,” independent congregations. Or they belong to other Christian groups without the same restrictive requirements for education and ordination. Other theological schools have grown up to serve those churches and/or ministers and leaders have been mentored and trained within the congregations they now serve.
In the past 15 years, more and more people who feel called by God to serve in ministry are serving in leadership in congregations where they feel called. Often they have other jobs and careers, families, and homes, and they want to serve where they are. They are asking for theological education to come to them, offered in an integrated model of education with online study, mentoring, local study groups, and similar options that will enable them to be more fully educated and trained for the ministry they are already engaged in. I believe this is part of the new thing God is doing in our day.
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Moral Values: What I Learned Growing Up in Church
Can the Christian church, divided over different beliefs about moral values, create Safe Places ...