Reproducing Transformation

I just finished day 2 of a 4 day conference in Orlando centered around reproducing churches. It has been a whirlwind of great information and great networking. I'm hanging out right now with 3 other church planters and have met a ton of people over the past couple of days. There are about 3,000 people from across the world attending this Exponential Church conference.

Over the past few years we have refined the purpose of New Hope, "To honor God by making passionate followers of Jesus Christ through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit" and our core value as "Transformation through Grace, Growth, and Generosity." This has really allowed us to focus what we are about and how we make ministry decisions. However, as we have been challenged to refine our vision to the point of making it portable, Andy Stanley challenged us. He asked, what is the vision of the "One" campaign that Bono is leading -- "To make poverty history" - sure, there are more details with that, but it is memorable and everyone knows what it is about. He asked, what the vision of Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barak Obama were... the only one people knew was Obama's "Change" - everyone shouted it out. The point is that vision must be simple to remember and portable. As Pastor Bill and I have chatted about our already refined purpose and vision, we started dialoguing about a perhaps even more refined vision. We toyed with "Reproducing Transformation". The idea here is that we want to be transformed and to reproduce that transformation in other individuals (through mentoring), through small groups, and churches. We are about transformation and we are about reproducing that transformation in others. Perhaps this does not discuss all of the theological elements of it, but we need to be able to clearly articulate what we are about. "Hey, what is New Hope all about?"... "Reproducing Transformation."

What is small groups about? Reproducing transformation
What is mentoring about? Reproducing transformation
What is children's ministry about? Reproducing transformation
What is Sunday morning services about? Reproducing transformation
Why do we have adult sunday school? Reproducing transformation
What is mens, womens, seniors, young adults about? Reproducing transformation
Why do we plant churches? Reproducing transformation

What d'ya think?

Future at age 93

In New York, I listened to a 93 year old guy who was still incredibly spry and intense. He did a quick little history lesson of the stock markets, interest rates, and inflation and how the sub-prime mortage issue is the same yet different from other crises the U.S. has faced. He discussed the situation in the U.S. in light of the Japanese issue from a few years ago. At the end of the brief history lesson he said, "well that is the past; we need to focus on the future and where we go from here." It dawned on me that this guy recognizes that he is just part of an ongoing conversation; an ongoing story. Most older people I know can't get out of the past because they realize their past is the majority of their entire life; their future is such a small part of their entire life that they brush past it with the greatest of ease. However, in the light of society; of humanity; of generations... the future is significant. How can we all be like this gentlman and work to solve the problems of the future even though they may not impact us directly? How can we get tear down the walls of generations that limit our decision making to how it impacts only us and realize that "generations will reap what I sow" (credit Sara Groves)?

The other part I love about old people is that they can get away with saying stuff others never could (at least in the $2,000 suit crowd I was hangin' with). Someone asked him a question about how the sub-prime mortgage crisis could impact regulations and the overall tightening of the regulatory environment. He got heated. He said, "We have the regulations we need to prevent this. We just didn't have the regulators with the balls to do anything about it!" There was stunned laughter. It was great. I don't know if I totally agree, but it was a great comment.

Book Update 2

So, I'm sitting at the MSP airport waiting for a flight to NYC. I took the offer of a $300 voucher, first class on the later flight with a hot meal, and some airport food to get bumped to a later flight. It wasn't that tough of a decision, because I feel like I had a book breakthrough last night. I've been pounding out the book since Wednesday night (whenever I wasn't lured away by Tracy, the kids, Easter dinners, Game Cube, March Madness, or family movie night). OK, so I didn't write as much as I wanted... but I did write some. I finished about 54 pages (double sided) which I was pleased with. But last night, after talking a bit with my genius wife, I got an idea that I've been running with ever since. So this morning, the decision to wait on a flight to give me more time as well as bumping to 1st class (I've never ridden 1st class) to allow me to work on the laptop on the flight, was an easy decision. I'm cranking on the book write now like a little kid in a candy store. Who knows if this new approach (which is a different lens, but still largely the same information) will stick, but I'm excited to run with it. Thanks to those of you who have encouraged me by phone or email; I don't deserve friends like you, but I'm grateful. Your encouragement has helped keep me motivated. Latedr...

Book Update

So I started writing my book tonight. I'm just approaching it as a mind dump of ideas that I'm trusting will congeal over time. I started with an introduction which I thought was kind of fun, not too serious, and gave a flavor of who I am and how I'm wired. It was about 3 pages long and just kind of a warm up; something to give me a little confidence to throw myself into this project. Excited about my first 45 minutes of "work", I was very confident that it would be "safe" to show my lovely bride.

Let me take a moment here to let you know that we've been married about 16.5 years and she is the most honest person I've ever met. It used to really annoy and anger me, but over time I've learned to appreciate that so much. I always know how she feels and where I stand. I once sang a song at church (many years ago) and when I got back to my seat knowing it wasn't that great, but expecting some comforting encouragement from my bride. Her first words to me were, "Well, once you pick a key you stick with it."

Now, back to my early story. She read the introduction I quickly sketched out. The first words out of her mouth..."It's cute." I'm not sure I need to comment any further here. Apparently I missed the mark quite dramatically on my introduction. So, anyway, for those of you who have been asking about my book and potentially might be interested in reading it... you may need to change your expectations.... my working title is now, "A cute approach to discovering leadership." We'll see, maybe we can de-cute it before it goes to print.

Bulls-Eye

So, I created a diagram, and have been working on it with my mentor, that shows my life focus as the target (the "bulls-eye") with other elements surrounding that target. I use this depiction to then look at several elements of my life: which are lined up with my bulls-eye and which are pointed in the wrong direction; which are those I am committed to do and which are optional; how is my income allocated among these versus how my time is allocated; which are utilizing my strengths; and what tools do I have in my tool shed. This bulls-eye concept has never been part of the discussion groups I lead at Thrivent, but invariably the idea would come up and several people have asked me about my bulls-eye.

Based on the interest expressed in the group and one-off conversations I have had, it looks like I am going to start a group to help others find their bulls-eye. I don't know what the process will look like, but I anticipate sharing how I went through the process (at times formal; at other times informal) and see where this leads us.

All of this is background to say that I'm still rattling around one response from a friend of mine and trying to determine what it means. This person said they would not want to participate because they are very content with their life and would not want to introduce anything that would cause upheaval. I'm interested in someone being "scared" to find out their sweet spot in life, but I think I get it. I also wonder if that response is simply an indication that the person is already in their sweeat spot - that their life is already operating in their bulls-eye.

Should be interesting if/when it gets off the ground.