Leaders Needed

I had a conversation a while ago with an officer from a philanthropic foundation. He had just declared that their immediate giving priority was going to concentrate on leadership development for the church. I actually think this is a very good idea. But when this man, whom I respect very much, told me that this priority would be practically applied through existing seminary efforts I was dismayed. My question is, "What kind of leadership is needed for a church that needs to become more faithful to her missional calling? And what kind of leadership will emerge from church and seminary trained Christians who haven't engaged effectively in evangelism?"

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Vision De-Clarity

I have operated for years with an appreciation for the need to create vision statements to guide my leadership. This week I began to wonder where that impetus came from in my life. It's been delivered to me from some of the dozens of leadership books on my shelf. There are a number of those books that are written by Christians who have scoured the Bible for evidence of how to apply such business best practices to ministry. Nehemiah has become the patron saint of how one man who is compelled by God with a clear vision can accomplish some amazing things.

Anybody open to revisiting these assumptions?

Here's my postulate. Vision needs to be the exclusive domain of God. Every time an organization articulates a vision it is going to be different from the vision God has for all of us who are his people. In most cases it will be only part of the story…and therein lies the danger. We are like offensive linemen who have a gloriously clear picture of what it looks like to block for our quarterback but have no sense of what else we are supposed to do to contribute to our team's victory. Our concentration on anything that is less than ushering in the Kingdom of God in our midst means that we might unintentionally disrupt God's Kingdom-growing agenda in and through us.

So in YFC we (famously) are possessed by the vision of reaching every kid. When that vision is allowed to govern our world of operations and strategies it can lead us to some sort of elevated organizational arrogance that is a true hindrance to humbly collaborating with others under the Lordship of Jesus. It has led us in the past to practices that settle on decisions for Christ rather than making disciples of Christ.

When a Christian college articulates a hybrid vision so that it accommodates current best practices in higher ed it can fail to explore other Kingdom agendas, the ones that might be most catalytic in bringing about amazing and lasting impact. Unquestioned assumptions choke off the life-giving connections to God's ultimate picture of how he wants to rule in our midst.

Let's let the full witness of Scripture describe God's vision for us; then we align to what he wants for us all. We won't be clueless and floundering without direction. Rather, we will find the detail and precision we need to operate when we break out our particular assignments as mission statements. YFC gathers people who have a similar mission assignment from the Lord into an organization…each YFC community chapter operates with a contextualized version of that mission…each of us who work in YFC need to understand our particular roles as contributors to that mission--roles that we must discern in part because the Lord Jesus, Keeper of the Vision, has given each of us gifts to pull of the tasks for which he created us.

Revisit Nehemiah against the backdrop of this rant. God's vision was so much greater than rebuilding the wall. Nehemiah had mission clarity that fed into God's ultimate plan for bringing his people back together as a witness to the nations. That was enough.

(For my YFC family, I think that much of the exciting sense of progress that we sense right now can be explained by how we are moving to more fully embrace a Kingdom way of life for how we live and work together. For instance, humility is hardly a strategic initiative!)

Can we let go of the need to articulate any vision other than what God has already declared? Rather, can we confine our scrutiny to knowing what our assignment is and trusting God to move all of us into position for HIM to bring about what HE promises? We will likely lose some of our distinctiveness, maybe even our funding appeal. But if God is going to get ALL the glory, we'd best be ready to embrace our most ultimate assignment of dying to our organizational and personal selves for The Cause.

Gotta Order My Rosetta Stone

Geordon Rendle joined our YFC/USA national board for the first time last week. He's an employee of YFC International, lives in Buenos Aires, and only has oversight responsibility for all of the YFC member nations in the western hemisphere! I am really encouraged to have him on board with us, though I know he's spread a bit thin.

He didn't come empty handed to his first meeting. Geordon, who is a missionary kid from Canada who has lived most of his life in South America, is as engaging a translator as anyone you'll meet. I love hearing him interpret himself as he prays! The nugget he gave us was this: 22% of young people under the age of 18 living in America right now are Spanish speaking.

We have some staff and strategy catch up to do if we're serious about reaching young people everywhere…

All ideas welcome right now.

Refreshing Exhaustion

Our Youth for Christ national staff conference ended yesterday afternoon, with a national board meeting following until noon today. Such an experience gives us all a chance to get a "feel" for what's going on in our mission across the country. Very unscientific stuff, to be sure.

But if, for instance, we bumped into complaints and cynicism as often as we jostled our way through the hallways we'd be pretty discouraged with what our YFC family was feeling. Not to mention the fact that it's pretty hard to lead when there's a lack of trust or credibility.

The really cool thing is that we seem to be riding a crest of confidence in our national leadership, especially as it's concentrated in our YFC president, Dan Wolgemuth. It's hard to compare Dan as a leader to anyone else I've known. His desire to follow Jesus with abandon as we engage in our mission to reach kids far from God is compelling. And he invites us to join him without the slightest hint of having a cheesy or choreographed style. Authenticity and transparency are staples of Dan's character. His sacrificial work on behalf of the mission is viral.

I love the challenges and opportunities of leading in the environment that has been largely created by the favor of God beaming out from my boss. I find a weird sort of refreshment even on the tail end of exhausting service like I engaged in this week. When I'm weak, I'm strong. Go figure.

State of the Union rant

A friend and I just had a vigorous exchange on Facebook. It's my fault. I tossed out a status update that stirred the pot, stating that I am moving away from my lifetime Republican voting patterns because I'm fed up with win-lose styles that guarantee nothing will happen. I don't mean to suggest that this is only a Republican style; Dems do the same thing when they don't have the votes. My buddy actually embraced this sort of "preventionism" as a defensible political philosophy.

I'm thinking about that.

But my concern is that in that sort of political climate neither party will get the chance to actually learn if their policies are flawed or not. Everyone entrenches as "true believers" because it's all theoretical. In the meantime folks on both side toss out shameful mischaracterizations of a policy position--there's no attempt to represent the other side's position accurately because the goal is to win the argument at all cost.

As a follower of Jesus I can't rush fast enough or far enough away from that approach. With Christians passionately identified as both Dems and Repubs can't we at least be the voices of integrity that blow the whistle on unfair fighting techniques? Truth. Love & respect.

In the meantime I just want to know who wants to GET SOMETHING DONE??? I don't want to concede on policies to prove they don't work. But I think I have elevated political logjamming to the top of my value pile when it comes to my vote. And I think that's because of my love for Jesus and belief that peace-makers are bridge-builders who need to have skills and character that stands out among the fatally, sinfully flawed human beings that we all are. Who is it that is skilled enough in politics--not the art of getting and staying elected--but the ol' fashioned horse trading it takes to move us from an unacceptable status quo? That's who I can vote for. I'm stuck.

It's been a while since I've written anything. Both kids got married, so that's something. Anyway, I hope I've not disappointed. A friend told me that he liked my stuff and asked why I don't keep it up. So I think I'll try harder.

Wish I had a more spiritually endowed phrase at this time then "I'll try harder." Feels like by this time in my life (I'm 55) and journey with Jesus (since I was 16, but it still feels new in some ways) I should be able to draw upon some nearly Christian-bumper-sticker-worthy way to describe how I will re-engage an effort which started well and has since lapsed.

Help me out if you can. Maranatha. And stay thirsty, my friends.

Oh, by the way, one of my inspirations for writing again is the joy I've gotten the last couple of weeks from reading Jon Acuff's blog. Pure fun and admiration for the art of articulation. Here's the link, if you haven't been introduced: http://stuffchristianslike.net/