***There is a train of thought in the comment section of this post that kind of makes me re-think this whole thought process. Feel free to read the following post but the good stuff is in the comments section. Thanks for the input guys!!***-Jer
Leaders are regular and consistent.
There is little question that a diet of high fiber, potassium, and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader would keep anyone regular. Regularity is healthy. The health of our leadership development, architecture, and strategies very well could be most accurately critiqued by our consistency.
In literature, consistency is one of the most crucial elements for the reader in understanding the implied time frames for the plot, action, and sequence described. It is simple and consistent verb usage that clarifies the environment of the story. Inconsistent verb usage muddies and confuses the storyline. It seems to me that inconsistent leadership steals the very foundation of clarity and health from any atmosphere – it becomes a pollution that might even kill an environment.
Here is something to think about; leadership that is dedicated to the relentless task of consistency creates an environment of anomaly. Variedness. Weirdness. Diversity. Creativity. I think what happens is that the great big meta storyline begins to make sense and people begin to see where they fit. People who catch the vastness and the smallness of consistent significance respond in the only way they know how > in their own uniquely unique ways. Anomaly. This is a really beautiful thing because it connects the consistent environment that leaders foster to the incredible environment of diversity in their followers.
It is very interesting to me that consistent leadership architects persistent diversity.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
::Leadership: more then just staying above water::
What you are doing might not be leadership if you are not pulling significance and worth out of people.
Every youth workers worst nightmare almost became a horrible gasping reality for our team May long weekend a number of years ago: at a youth event we almost had a student drown. It may have been that he couldn’t swim. It may have been that he didn’t know it was the deep end. It may have been that he has only one and a half arms. It may have been that he had too much trust in the lifeguards. It may have been that or something or anything else. The fact is, without someone pulling him off the bottom end of the deep-end he would have died. Most leaders dream of developing leaders, however, while many of these same dreamy-eyed leaders are wiping the sleep out of their eyes their leadership teams are slowly, and, sometimes quickly sinking to the bottom without rescue. A lucid nightmare.
It has been my experience that close to 100% of people I talk to are more ready for challenge, learning, and development then they realize. I have found that the majority of these people are simply teetering on the edge of drowning or waving waiting for someone else to draw out worth and significance from their life. Now imagine what happens when I observe and identify significance in someone’s life and I challenge them to teach me and help me learn what they are so proficient and first-class at? Leadership development happens; they are learning to teach, they are learning to have confidence in their worth, and I am learning from them. Notice that this isn’t generally in the realm of workshop or seminar but in the backyard swimming pool where there are no lifeguards; a place where we need to teach each other to swim.
Leaders highlight significance.
Every youth workers worst nightmare almost became a horrible gasping reality for our team May long weekend a number of years ago: at a youth event we almost had a student drown. It may have been that he couldn’t swim. It may have been that he didn’t know it was the deep end. It may have been that he has only one and a half arms. It may have been that he had too much trust in the lifeguards. It may have been that or something or anything else. The fact is, without someone pulling him off the bottom end of the deep-end he would have died. Most leaders dream of developing leaders, however, while many of these same dreamy-eyed leaders are wiping the sleep out of their eyes their leadership teams are slowly, and, sometimes quickly sinking to the bottom without rescue. A lucid nightmare.
It has been my experience that close to 100% of people I talk to are more ready for challenge, learning, and development then they realize. I have found that the majority of these people are simply teetering on the edge of drowning or waving waiting for someone else to draw out worth and significance from their life. Now imagine what happens when I observe and identify significance in someone’s life and I challenge them to teach me and help me learn what they are so proficient and first-class at? Leadership development happens; they are learning to teach, they are learning to have confidence in their worth, and I am learning from them. Notice that this isn’t generally in the realm of workshop or seminar but in the backyard swimming pool where there are no lifeguards; a place where we need to teach each other to swim.
Pulling significance out of people beginning in relationship is nurtured in trust and compounds in the slowness of history; this is living life together.
Leaders highlight significance.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
::Credentialed Leadership::
Leadership without influence is not really leadership at all.
There does seem to be a huge cluttered mess of principles, values, how-to’s, models, and their opposites found stuck like duct-tape and hyphens in the rapidly expanding cosmics of leadership. Leadership, though a mass money maker and much sought after position, very well could be boiled down to a few bare essentials and elements that support this appetizing infrastructure. So, upon setting your stove element to high and placing leadership in a boiling pot of water, we are left with the leadership nutrient named influence.
Influence has maybe been poorly portrayed by the four p’s of peer pressure, persuasion, and power. Not that it doesn’t take a certain amount of influence to accomplish each of these goals…it is just that they are simply that; goals. Sex is a goal. Money is a goal. Career advancement is a goal. Leadership is a goal. No matter how many goals there happens to be on this dusty little planet, it does take a certain amount of personal influence to achieve those goals. If leadership is a goal then influence is all the hard work that helped you score (cf with above examples).
It is true that we can, on occasion and maybe more often then not, find ourselves in a position of leadership. Positional leadership means nothing; just because you have a title and a role to play does not mean that you are a leader. Without influence leadership is futile, frustrating, and potentially fatal for both the organization and the “leader”. It has been my experience that influence, and its by-product leadership, develops and matures at the same rate as credibility.
Credibility allows for influence. All the letters behind your name, titles under your name, and your name on a list of approved, credentialed, professional societies do not really mean a whole heck of a lot to people who don’t know what the letters mean, hold the titles as suspect authority, and simply don’t care about your professional organization. Credibility beginning in relationship is nurtured in trust and compounds in the slowness of history; this is living life together. Credibility breeds influence.
If we must lead, then we must lead from the depths of credibility and nothing else.
There does seem to be a huge cluttered mess of principles, values, how-to’s, models, and their opposites found stuck like duct-tape and hyphens in the rapidly expanding cosmics of leadership. Leadership, though a mass money maker and much sought after position, very well could be boiled down to a few bare essentials and elements that support this appetizing infrastructure. So, upon setting your stove element to high and placing leadership in a boiling pot of water, we are left with the leadership nutrient named influence.
Influence has maybe been poorly portrayed by the four p’s of peer pressure, persuasion, and power. Not that it doesn’t take a certain amount of influence to accomplish each of these goals…it is just that they are simply that; goals. Sex is a goal. Money is a goal. Career advancement is a goal. Leadership is a goal. No matter how many goals there happens to be on this dusty little planet, it does take a certain amount of personal influence to achieve those goals. If leadership is a goal then influence is all the hard work that helped you score (cf with above examples).
It is true that we can, on occasion and maybe more often then not, find ourselves in a position of leadership. Positional leadership means nothing; just because you have a title and a role to play does not mean that you are a leader. Without influence leadership is futile, frustrating, and potentially fatal for both the organization and the “leader”. It has been my experience that influence, and its by-product leadership, develops and matures at the same rate as credibility.
Credibility allows for influence. All the letters behind your name, titles under your name, and your name on a list of approved, credentialed, professional societies do not really mean a whole heck of a lot to people who don’t know what the letters mean, hold the titles as suspect authority, and simply don’t care about your professional organization. Credibility beginning in relationship is nurtured in trust and compounds in the slowness of history; this is living life together. Credibility breeds influence.
If we must lead, then we must lead from the depths of credibility and nothing else.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Significantly Why.
It’s not that I need to know what.
How has already been figured out.
Where could be anywhere.
I am simply apart of the collective who.
The when is behind me, ahead of me, and now.
We certainly spend a lot of time teaching and learning. How is it that children must be incessantly taught the answers to a myriad of dilemma but quite clearly come to questions all on their own? We force them to become masters of facts, formulas, equations, and essentials while they respond with their remorseless quest into the unmapped pursuit of why.
Why?
Why not.
I wonder if somewhere along the way, and in the name of maturity and mediocrity, we have abandoned this merciless quest and left it in the hands of the few brave martyr’s of thought and discovery? I wonder how many people have traded in this mischievous delight of pursuit for the cold calculated predictability of fact – whatever that means. True, the ordered world is alluring; alluring and artificial at best, alluring and comatose inducing at worst.
It may very well be that the most significant thing that you do with your life corresponds directly to how significantly you pursue why.
How has already been figured out.
Where could be anywhere.
I am simply apart of the collective who.
The when is behind me, ahead of me, and now.
We certainly spend a lot of time teaching and learning. How is it that children must be incessantly taught the answers to a myriad of dilemma but quite clearly come to questions all on their own? We force them to become masters of facts, formulas, equations, and essentials while they respond with their remorseless quest into the unmapped pursuit of why.
Why?
Why not.
I wonder if somewhere along the way, and in the name of maturity and mediocrity, we have abandoned this merciless quest and left it in the hands of the few brave martyr’s of thought and discovery? I wonder how many people have traded in this mischievous delight of pursuit for the cold calculated predictability of fact – whatever that means. True, the ordered world is alluring; alluring and artificial at best, alluring and comatose inducing at worst.
It may very well be that the most significant thing that you do with your life corresponds directly to how significantly you pursue why.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Conference on the Ministry
Emerging Church Dialogue.
Here are five values tht Mark deHoog and I perceive to be important filters that the emerging church dialogue should be perceived through. So, in no particular order of importance and simply for a continued conversation.........
1. Allowance to ask tough questions with the possibility of not actually ever finding conclusive answers.
2. Not against existing church but for church; it may mean change and may dislike certain expressions or cultural nuances of the existing.
3. Conversation over presentation; the difference between specalists and poets. (Ask Mark about this poetic hippie crap....)
4. Value of understanding over methodology.
5. We are more concerned about the meanings of words than the collection of letters themselves.
What are the implications of these 5 filters to such things as emerging theology, emerging leadership, emerging challenges, other emerging values, etc.
What is an emerging leader in relationship to the church? What are the implications of church to emerging leadership?
Feel free to use the comment section below to add your thoughts....
PS - If you are visiting for the first or second time make sure to spend some time browsing through the archives.
Grace and Peace.
-Jer
Here are five values tht Mark deHoog and I perceive to be important filters that the emerging church dialogue should be perceived through. So, in no particular order of importance and simply for a continued conversation.........
1. Allowance to ask tough questions with the possibility of not actually ever finding conclusive answers.
2. Not against existing church but for church; it may mean change and may dislike certain expressions or cultural nuances of the existing.
3. Conversation over presentation; the difference between specalists and poets. (Ask Mark about this poetic hippie crap....)
4. Value of understanding over methodology.
5. We are more concerned about the meanings of words than the collection of letters themselves.
What are the implications of these 5 filters to such things as emerging theology, emerging leadership, emerging challenges, other emerging values, etc.
What is an emerging leader in relationship to the church? What are the implications of church to emerging leadership?
Feel free to use the comment section below to add your thoughts....
PS - If you are visiting for the first or second time make sure to spend some time browsing through the archives.
Grace and Peace.
-Jer
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
**sigh**
After much debate, dialogue, and conversation I have closed the preceding topic to further comment and would suggest that for greater clarity, learning, understanding, and encouragement that the conversation be continued in a “real life” context. I believe the statement below is a great statement to dialogue in the realms of theology, ecclesiology, and sociology and should be carefully considered with an open heart and mind.
It is interesting in Jesus’ prayer for his followers that he speaks of two worlds a Christian would be apart of; a broken culture and a restored culture. Immediately following he prays for the unity of his people. Thank you Jesus.
Grace and Peace to you.
-Jeremy.
It is interesting in Jesus’ prayer for his followers that he speaks of two worlds a Christian would be apart of; a broken culture and a restored culture. Immediately following he prays for the unity of his people. Thank you Jesus.
Grace and Peace to you.
-Jeremy.
Friday, February 24, 2006
The True or False Game.
True or False?
If you read this, response is required.
The Christian who does not adapt Jesus and the gospel message to culture is hypocritical and has anti-Christian motivation.
If you read this, response is required.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Valentines in April
Ok, I know I said I wouldn't post for three weeks, however, my fingers were growing hair and itching to post something. How could I let a momentous occasions such as Valentines pass by without comment? Exactly. So, with a brief hiatus from the worship series I bring you February Fools.
Have you ever thought it strange that Valentine's Day is in February instead of April? I mean seriously, April Fools Day, (which is only a holiday to pranksters and moms who want to get back at their teenagers for the years of abuse they put them through), could be any day of the year, say for example like February Fools - it even roles off the tongue better! Valentine's Day would naturally fit much better into April; you know, the birds and the bees, spring is in the air, Mickey meets Minnie, boy meets girl, lovey-dovey-role-in-the-bushes-mumbo-jumbo?! It all would work so perfectly! Nevertheless, Valentine's Day is in February - the dreariest, rainiest, cloud covered, coldest, and, thankfully, shortest month of the year.
Seeing as we are fated to celebrate this special day in February, we may as well make the best of it by celebrating with a challenging game. Here are the rules:
1. Guys can communicate to girls i.e. phone calls, emails, sign language, billboards, showing off, and those pesky little notes that say, "Please check yes or no."
2. Girls must ignore.
Simple, fun, and exciting! Girls, feel free to thank me later with large unmarked bills.
Love, and feelings of love, have had a tendency to manipulate, confuzzel, drive to insanity, drive to heroism, or simply leave the mind of a man completely blank for centuries and centuries and centuries and centu......a long time. I've seen guys do the funniest and strangest things to get the attention of a certain girl - it's nothing I obviously ever would have done - but I'm telling ya, some guys make the rest of us look really bad...
So I wonder why God created us with this incredibly strong instinct to love and be loved by people? It's not as if we gain or accomplish anything measurable or even live at any higher standard of living. In fact, if love was measurable it would be bought and sold like a common commodity - traded freely on the Toronto Stock Exchange or TSX NASDEC at an extraordinary price; much beyond what the common person could afford. So why such a high price? Supply and demand. All of us hunger for genuine acceptance, love, and support from somewhere; meaningful deep relationships in our lives that add support, passion, and life to the mundane Monday morning that is today. Unfortunately, our homes, schools, churches, and whatever else we are involved in are increasingly becoming love-less - not loveless, but love-less. There is less love going around. As a result, there is greater demand for it from all sides. Parents, children, spouses, employers, employees; all are feeling neglected from not receiving a full portion of love from the people who are closest to them! And we wonder why job satisfaction is low, why there is a high divorce rate in our country, and why there is an alarming number of children disassociating from their families. We have forgotten to love.
In February we see all kinds of love symbols. We eat candy hearts, we make lacey Valentine's Day cards out of last years male lingerie, and we sing along to teary-eyed emo love songs on the radio that are trying to trick the masses into believing that love is wrapped up in a Hershey's Kiss or having friends with benefits...it's not. Love is patient and it's kind. Love does not envy, love is not boastful, rude, selfish, easily angered and it does not keep a running total of all your rights and wrongs, victories and defeats. Love finds enjoyment and satisfaction in the truth and hates evil. Love protects. Love trusts. Love hopes. Love stands the test of time.
Some of you have forgotten how to love and must love more - your families and your friends depend on it! Some of you have lost all hope that you are loveable or even acceptable - you are loveable! In fact, the whole reason that Jesus left the glory of heaven to live in a smelly human-skin suit was because he loves you. It is my hope that this will be a time in each of your lives where you experience long-lasting love and acceptance and a time where you move beyond superficial relationships to deeply-rooted friendships that are based on a God who loves you and a Jesus-following community of people who love each other.
Have you ever thought it strange that Valentine's Day is in February instead of April? I mean seriously, April Fools Day, (which is only a holiday to pranksters and moms who want to get back at their teenagers for the years of abuse they put them through), could be any day of the year, say for example like February Fools - it even roles off the tongue better! Valentine's Day would naturally fit much better into April; you know, the birds and the bees, spring is in the air, Mickey meets Minnie, boy meets girl, lovey-dovey-role-in-the-bushes-mumbo-jumbo?! It all would work so perfectly! Nevertheless, Valentine's Day is in February - the dreariest, rainiest, cloud covered, coldest, and, thankfully, shortest month of the year.
Seeing as we are fated to celebrate this special day in February, we may as well make the best of it by celebrating with a challenging game. Here are the rules:
1. Guys can communicate to girls i.e. phone calls, emails, sign language, billboards, showing off, and those pesky little notes that say, "Please check yes or no."
2. Girls must ignore.
Simple, fun, and exciting! Girls, feel free to thank me later with large unmarked bills.
Love, and feelings of love, have had a tendency to manipulate, confuzzel, drive to insanity, drive to heroism, or simply leave the mind of a man completely blank for centuries and centuries and centuries and centu......a long time. I've seen guys do the funniest and strangest things to get the attention of a certain girl - it's nothing I obviously ever would have done - but I'm telling ya, some guys make the rest of us look really bad...
So I wonder why God created us with this incredibly strong instinct to love and be loved by people? It's not as if we gain or accomplish anything measurable or even live at any higher standard of living. In fact, if love was measurable it would be bought and sold like a common commodity - traded freely on the Toronto Stock Exchange or TSX NASDEC at an extraordinary price; much beyond what the common person could afford. So why such a high price? Supply and demand. All of us hunger for genuine acceptance, love, and support from somewhere; meaningful deep relationships in our lives that add support, passion, and life to the mundane Monday morning that is today. Unfortunately, our homes, schools, churches, and whatever else we are involved in are increasingly becoming love-less - not loveless, but love-less. There is less love going around. As a result, there is greater demand for it from all sides. Parents, children, spouses, employers, employees; all are feeling neglected from not receiving a full portion of love from the people who are closest to them! And we wonder why job satisfaction is low, why there is a high divorce rate in our country, and why there is an alarming number of children disassociating from their families. We have forgotten to love.
In February we see all kinds of love symbols. We eat candy hearts, we make lacey Valentine's Day cards out of last years male lingerie, and we sing along to teary-eyed emo love songs on the radio that are trying to trick the masses into believing that love is wrapped up in a Hershey's Kiss or having friends with benefits...it's not. Love is patient and it's kind. Love does not envy, love is not boastful, rude, selfish, easily angered and it does not keep a running total of all your rights and wrongs, victories and defeats. Love finds enjoyment and satisfaction in the truth and hates evil. Love protects. Love trusts. Love hopes. Love stands the test of time.
Some of you have forgotten how to love and must love more - your families and your friends depend on it! Some of you have lost all hope that you are loveable or even acceptable - you are loveable! In fact, the whole reason that Jesus left the glory of heaven to live in a smelly human-skin suit was because he loves you. It is my hope that this will be a time in each of your lives where you experience long-lasting love and acceptance and a time where you move beyond superficial relationships to deeply-rooted friendships that are based on a God who loves you and a Jesus-following community of people who love each other.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Would you like to get together.....say in 3 weeks at 11am?
Hello and welcome to an ongoing rant. As you may have noticed, this blog is not an online journal. I'm not too fond of any weirdo and wingnut having the ability to peer into my life.....though most of the people in my life are, in fact, weirdo's and wingnuts!
Anyhow, I would direct you to continue to add your thoughts to some of the discussion below on the topic of worship, significance, and creativity. I will certainly be keeping tabs on how that conversation plays out and responding in kind. However, due to 2 weddings, 3 conferences, moving day, snowboarding, and a crazy speaking and teaching schedule all with in the next few weeks...I will be taking a short sabbatical from writing here.
Looking forward to continuing the conversation on worship.
Apply inside.
Anyhow, I would direct you to continue to add your thoughts to some of the discussion below on the topic of worship, significance, and creativity. I will certainly be keeping tabs on how that conversation plays out and responding in kind. However, due to 2 weddings, 3 conferences, moving day, snowboarding, and a crazy speaking and teaching schedule all with in the next few weeks...I will be taking a short sabbatical from writing here.
Looking forward to continuing the conversation on worship.
Apply inside.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Worship: the splattered paint canvas.
And if beauty is hard or impossible to describe where does that leave creativity?
Some would say that creativity is as impulsive and essential as breathing. Really? Maybe. Probably not. I would say that it is more important then breathing.
What is life? It is only the result of a creative process of combining carbon and protein into long twisted hexagonal chains of genetic information that make up a staggering 100% of carbon based life which, I’m told, excludes Pam Anderson, Twinkies, and paint. Life. A byproduct of creativity. Interesting to think about isn’t it? I trust you find it fascinating.
It is no wonder people are trying to bring back the baby mullet, jump canyons on motorcycles, wear silk underwear, write follow-up film scripts to blockbuster films, and photograph pregnant nudes and hang them – the photographs - in coffee shops (which was an unusually stimulating caffeinated experience for me). Why are such tragedy’s allowed to happen? Autonomy, diversity, and creativity. Apparently, creativity is like that greased up potbelly pig that nobody could ever quite catch at summer camp; you just can’t quite hold on to it long enough before it slips away and paints a beautiful masterpiece or drives a scientist mad.
Funny thing about creativity – it belongs to no one and everyone.
Worship is a creative act, thought, or moment where time slows and maybe space is tweaked enough that the velocity of our creativity is pointed towards something….something…..something, lets say, significance, irreplaceable, or otherwise. Have you noticed what happens when creativity is pointed at something? Life. Life happens. Not the kind of life that is found under a scientists microscope, but rather, the kind of life that evokes the mystery, longing, and enjoyment of something beyond the basic sensual. A spark in someone’s eye, hope in someone’s heart, dreams in someone’s cerebral, and life in someone’s life. We don’t get creative in how we worship; we worship when we get creative.
Creativity births life.
Some would say that creativity is as impulsive and essential as breathing. Really? Maybe. Probably not. I would say that it is more important then breathing.
What is life? It is only the result of a creative process of combining carbon and protein into long twisted hexagonal chains of genetic information that make up a staggering 100% of carbon based life which, I’m told, excludes Pam Anderson, Twinkies, and paint. Life. A byproduct of creativity. Interesting to think about isn’t it? I trust you find it fascinating.
It is no wonder people are trying to bring back the baby mullet, jump canyons on motorcycles, wear silk underwear, write follow-up film scripts to blockbuster films, and photograph pregnant nudes and hang them – the photographs - in coffee shops (which was an unusually stimulating caffeinated experience for me). Why are such tragedy’s allowed to happen? Autonomy, diversity, and creativity. Apparently, creativity is like that greased up potbelly pig that nobody could ever quite catch at summer camp; you just can’t quite hold on to it long enough before it slips away and paints a beautiful masterpiece or drives a scientist mad.
Funny thing about creativity – it belongs to no one and everyone.
Worship is a creative act, thought, or moment where time slows and maybe space is tweaked enough that the velocity of our creativity is pointed towards something….something…..something, lets say, significance, irreplaceable, or otherwise. Have you noticed what happens when creativity is pointed at something? Life. Life happens. Not the kind of life that is found under a scientists microscope, but rather, the kind of life that evokes the mystery, longing, and enjoyment of something beyond the basic sensual. A spark in someone’s eye, hope in someone’s heart, dreams in someone’s cerebral, and life in someone’s life. We don’t get creative in how we worship; we worship when we get creative.
Creativity births life.
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