Commenting on Russell's Blog or Why Metrics are Funny

So Russell posted on a book/seminar about metrics of evaluation – “12 characteristics for evaluation of ministry in the postmodern context” from Jill Hudson’s book “When Better Isn’t Enough”. Here’s his post: The Eagle and Child: More info on transformation.

So I wanted to comment, but figured I’d ramble on and on, so I’ll just make this post and leave the link or something. Here are the 12 characteristics and my comments about them:

The 12 characteristics for evaluation of ministry
1) the ability to maintain personal, professional and spiritual balance
* I am increasingly becoming something of a mystic regarding “balance”. Meaning I believe it is a mystical state that only attained in the metaphysical… not the practical. By which I mean that i don’t think you ever really “balance” life… just enough family-time, just enough ministry-time, just enough alone-time, just enough ______-time. What I do think is mostly possible is keeping a consistent focus on a direction (think Kingdom). This orients life. Sometimes I over compensate in one area and then more in another… its not balance on a daily rhythm… rather over the long-haul in the same direction I keep moving, staying limber, keeping focused.

2) the ability to guide a transformational faith experience
* I’m not sure I can really “guide a transformational faith experience”. I think I can be attentive…. present with… persons (and myself) in a season/process of transformation. If I “guide” at all it is by wondering (and wandering) aloud (hopefully) in tune with the Spirit. I look ahead with expectation.

3) the ability to motivate and develop a congregation to be a ‘mission outpost’ (help churches reclaim their role in reaching new believers)
* agree. next.

4) the ability to develop and communicate a vision
* How about the ability to discern vision corporately with the community. The ability to listen well, synthesize, and articulate for and on the behalf of the Faith Community.

5) the ability to interpret and lead change
* Ok, sure.

6) the ability to promote and lead spiritual formation for church members
* hum…. I don’t like the word “promote”… not just the “marketing” overtones of it, but rather the outside-in-ness of the word. Spiritual formation is not something that should be conceived as an activity that is extracurricular to the Body. Rather it should be part-and-parcel for the life of the community. So I don’t promote it as much as “enter-into-with” the Body.

7) the ability to provide leadership for high-quality relevant worship experiences
* “high-quailty”… ummm…. let’s go with “No”. I need to think about this more… I’ll post this for now and add to it later.

the ability to identify, develop, and support lay leaders

9) the ability to build, inspire, and lead a ‘team’ of both staff and volunteers

10) the ability to manage conflict

11) the ability to navigate successfully the world of technology

12) the ability to be a lifelong leanrer.

Alan Creech's Birthday

FINALLY!!! A new podcast for Conversatio Fide (feed).

Last night the masses descended upon the Creech’s new home to celebrate Alan’s 39th Birthday. I recorded this little birthday blessing for Alan. I thought others would enjoy hear the voices of such blogging luminaries like Bill Bean, Chris Marshall, Kevin Rains, Kyle Potter, Bryan Sherwood, and of couse the venerable Liz Creech.

Enjoy!

Download (10MB, 15 min)

George W. Bush

So, the Christian Philosophy class here at school recently read the article by Jim Henderson re: Katrina and the government’s response. Link. So Doc is reading the responses that the students wrote. I have 2 words and a letter…

George

W

Bush

I am AMAZED at how much deep and fervent love/worship exists for this man. Many of the responses so far are passionate about how well Mr. Bush has led/responded to the hurricane. I am amazed. Shocked. Not because I disagree (which I do), but rather I am shocked at how profound the level of hero-worship is for this man. The students’ responses tap into, what I believe, is a profound devotion to authority in the worst way. A belief that God’s Ordained Man cannot be wrong, is in NO way at fault, and that it is fundamentally wrong to raise questions about those in power.

I don’t even know what to say…. I’m at a lost. Can Mr. Bush be wrong? Can he be racist? I’m not sure…. so far from what I can tell of the student’s responses he is neither.

As for me. I can (and often am) wrong. I am racist (I hate to admit it, I am actively trying to be transformed from this, but I am).

This grieves me deeply.

i got friends

yup. and good ones too.

My Friend Thurman

It honors me to call him my friend. I meet with Thurman each Weds. after school, usually at the chapel of caffeine, free wifi, and rasberry sweetened green tea (that would be Panera). Most everytime we meet he concludes by asking “how can I pray for you?”. Which is not that uncommon in standard evangelical parlance (which is probably not the right word, but it seemed good at the time), but when Thurman asks you can tell he really means it.

So, anyway, yesterday Thurman asks me “how can I pray for you?”. To which I replied, “that God would kick-start some conversations or something for getting something (like a House Church) started in Pleasant Ridge (our neighborhood) and for how disconnected I feel from myself.” That second part is another story (I don’t enjoy my own presence of late, I’m not sure why, but I don’t like how I am “being”). So I reckon Thurman was praying about that first part atleast cuz last night on our walk Sarah and Cloey and I had several interactions with neighbors that seemed particularly God-initiated. We’ll see what happens, but I feel forward movement and that feels good.

So yeah, the other part…. Its not that I don’t like me… its more that I don’t like being around me. Which is not good, cuz I can’t seem to get away from me. It has implications… I don’t like how I’m leading, listening, teaching, etc…. I’m not really sure why. I think it may have something to do with job transitions. I can’t really put my finger on it, I feel “intuitively-blind”, disconnected, awkward in my own skin. And at the same time, I’m rather enjoying my life, work, church, family, etc… I don’t feel fragmented… life feels pretty whole, not overly busy, and generally really good. Regardless, I feel awkward. Like I don’t belong inside of me. Like my skin doesn’t fit. Like my soul is too small for my life…. yep that’s it. my soul is too small for my life.

weird.

From: TheBolgBlog: Guide on the Side

Ryan has a good post on the changing dynamics/roles of leadership within the church (really the whole of society is similarly impacted) Read: TheBolgBlog: Guide on the Side

I was particularly struck by his comment – who is leading this community? “hopefully the Holy Spirit”. This resonates with how I’ve been moving of late. That as a leader in our community my hope is that the HS is the primary leader and that we lead along with. This ties in with seeing myself more as a corporate spiritual director than a “point person”.

I’d like to spend more time reflecting on all this, but presently my mind is on my Cisco class. They just took a test, Module 2, it was bad. Everyone failed. Really. Not good. I’m feeling like a not very good teacher. I know there’s a ton of material, new jargon, abstract concepts, etc… that we have tried to cover and I’m wondering if I failed in how I presented it. How can I communicate it more clearly? How can I help us engage it creatively that allows the students to experience true learning? We’ve got a great class and a good start to a true Learning Community… but we need to take the next step in how we are engaging the curriculum. Like Ryan I want to be this kind of teacher: “teachers serve as connectors rather than content providers. They bring their students to the information that the teacher finds most helpful and they provide contexts for working through the material.”

Lord, have mercy

Christ, have mercy

Lord, have mercy

from: the deep end w/ dave fleming: Letting go of something that is "working"

good point from Dave fleming. go read.

——————-

in other news… i’ve been thinking about why i like typing in all lower case letters. i write most of my email this way of late and have for a long time. i’m not sure if its cuz i’m lazy or if i just like the way it looks. either that or it just seems proposterous to assume that my writing could be on par with those who actually follow the rules of grammar and stuff.

who knows.

oh and here’s an interesting wordplay that i thought of while reading McLaren’s Generous Orthodoxy…. (specifically regarding heaven):

everybody sin

everybody’s in

everybody sin

everybody’s in

everybody sin

everybody’s in

everybody sin

everybody’s in

everybody sin

everybody’s in

everybody sin

everybody’s in

hum…………..

LC Update – Moving in Mission

This is an email I just sent out to VC Leaders post our meeting tonight. Thought it might be of blog interest as well…..

Leaders,

There are many things on my mind and yet I feel scattered, unfocused, and lacking in deep reflection…. which is a caveat to say, I’ll try to be as brief and succinct as possible.

We had a good LC meeting tonight at the Pleasant Perk. We had a good gathering of folks, but we did miss those who weren’t there. This email is meant to update those who were missing and provide follow up to those who were there.

1. What we did NOT talk about….. I forgot to check in about our meeting time. I am aware that some can no longer do weekend (or maybe it was just Saturdays?) meetings and I wondered what a better time would be. Please email me suggestions – - BUT we will still meet the 3rd Sat (15th) of October at the regular 5-7 time slot on the new deck at the Brownhouse. (Come hungry.) We’ll decide then on a better meeting time.

2. What we did talk about…… We updated each other on life, house church, work, vacations, family, etc….

Then we launched into a vibrant discussion of Generous Orthodoxy. Most gathered resonated with the “Why I Am Missional” chapter and we spent the remainder discussing that. Good discussion. I sensed no sweep conclusions except that we desire to be a Missional community and yet we’re not quite sure how or what that looks like (I hope I’m being fair to our conversation).

To that end I wanted to offer you this list of 12. After the Gospel and Our Culture Network (www.gocn.org) wrote Missional Church (which got most people talking about this stuff for the first time) they were constantly asked for examples…. “what does a missional church look like?” In response they did an in-depth study of a handful of churches and the result was Treasure in Clay Jars by Lois Barrett et al. Included here is a list of 12 “indicators [that] are an effort to identify what might be some of the key aspects that contribute to the church’s unique saltiness and yeasty nature in the varied and diverse worlds within our North American Culture today.”

Here are the 12 (do they characterize VC?):

1. The missional church proclaims the gospel

What it looks like: The story of God’s salvation is faithfully repeated in a multitude of different ways.

2. The missional church is a community where all members are involved in learning to become disciples of Jesus.

What it looks like: The disciple identity is held by all; growth in discipleship is expected of all.

3. The Bible is normative in this church’s life.

What it looks like: The church is reading the Bible together to learn what it can learn nowhere else – God’s good and gracious intent for all creation, the salvation mystery, and the identity and purpose of life together.

4. The church understands itself as different from the world because of its participation in the life, death, and resurrection of its Lord.

What it looks like: In its corporate life and public witness, the church is consciously seeking to conform to its Lord instead of the multitude of cultures in which it finds itself.

5. The church seeks to discern God’s specific missional vocation for the entire community and for all its members.

What it looks like: The church has made its “mission” its priority, and in overt and communal ways is seeking to be and do “what God is calling us to know, be, and do.”

6. A missional community is indicated by how Christians behave toward one another.

What it looks like: Acts of self-sacrifice on behalf of one another both in the church and in the locale characterize the generosity of the community.

7. It is a community that practices reconciliation.

What it looks like: The church community is moving beyond homogeneity toward a more heterogeneous community in its racial, ethnic, age, gender, and socioeconomic makeup.

8. People within the community hold themselves accountable to one another in love.

What it looks like: Substantial time is spent with one another for the purpose of watching over one another in love.

9. The church practices hospitality.

What it looks like: Welcoming the stranger into the midst of the community plays a central role.

10. Worship is the central act by which the community celebrates with joy and thanksgiving both God’s presence and God’s promised future.

What it looks like: There is significant and meaningful engagement in communal worship of God, reflecting appropriately and addressing the culture of those who worship together.

11. This community has a vital public witness.

What it looks like: The church makes an observable impact that contributes to the transformation of life, society, and human relationships.

12. There is a recognition that the church itself is an incomplete expression of the reign of God.

What it looks like: There is a widely held perception that this church is going somewhere – and that “somewhere” is a more faithfully lived life in the reign of God.

(p. 160-161 Treasure in Clay Jars, Lois Barrett et al, 2004)

From: The Eagle and Child: The Theological Depth of "Jesus Loves Me"

Nicely done Russell. I particularly like the trinitarian flavored stanza:

“God in heaven made all things

Jesus Christ salvation brings

The Holy Spirit lives in me

The three in one, the Trinity

Yes Jesus loves me….”

I added this in the comments:

“thanks for putting this out there. i may adopt for another young lady’s bedtime routine.

tho i remix it thusly:

“We are weak but He is strong.

Yes Jesus loves you

Yes Jesus loves me

Yes Jesus loves us

The Bible tells us so.”"

That’s been one of my pet peeves with the song… its all about “ME”. The only mention of anybody else (besides jesus) is “They are weak”… so how about “WE are weak” and “Jesus Loves US”. I guess I’m just a collectivist, communist, communitist or something.

Many Thoughts

Thought #1 – A Gathering for Prayer and Action for Victims of Hurricane Katrina

7:00 PM @ St. Elizabeth’s in Norwood
Come for prayer, reflection, meditation, conversation, decisions, and action

Thought #2 – Cisco CCNA 1 class in full swing

The reference page is working – go see it.

The class is going very well. We are already behind. But I’m hopeful that this first bit has been part of the natural “ramping up” phase and that we’ll get going faster. I really enjoy all of the students and they each bring a unique perspective and character to the class. Some are more computer savy than others, but I’m hopeful that if we work together that we can all learn a lot as the semester progresses. We have LOTS to cover…. of which I feel particularly overwhelmed by…. but I think we’ll get there. One of the things they are going to have to learn really fast (and if they are reading this …. take note!) is that there is NO WAY to cover everything in class and that they will have to do significant self-directed learning on their own outside of class time – whether I assign it or not (again… ** hint, hint).

Thought #3 – CCS in general

I feel constantly behind. Is this normal? I feel like I’m in perpetual catch-up mode…. as if I’ve put stuff off and now I’m having to cram….. Except I haven’t put stuff off and I’ve worked as diligently and thoroughly as I can and I still feel behind! I’m trying to learn to take one day, one task, one hour at a time and just do what I can and not worry about the rest. But that is an acquired skill for me and I’m slow to learn it. I’m also adjusting to the academic life and the “real” IT world and to CCS culture and to the 2 other jobs that I have (which are also IT jobs). Oh yes, and I have a family, a church, and a soul. I’m being a bit overly dramatic to make a point, mind you, but it is kinda how I’m feeling at the moment. I truly love my job. Actually truth be told, I really like all three of my paid gigs. I love my family. And I love my church. I’d just like to feel….. oh…. I don’t know…. “caught up”. I hope I can get to some semblance of that soon.

Thought #4 – I think I’m done and I’m going to go hanging out with The Cloe and The Sarah. Oh, and I might watch O, Brother Where Art Thou tonight (if bedtime goes well).