Success, part β'

TANK WI-FI Bus

This is a follow up to my post, On Success, and it has generated some good feedback and dialog (note the comments, good stuff there).  Benson Hines posted some other links around the same topic.  Here’s an excerpt:

defining success in college ministry: Quite providentially, several college ministry thinkers have turned their attention simultaneously to the very important topic of how we define success in college ministry. (God is a gracious Synergist, isn’t He?) HeartOfCampusMinistry began a weekly series on the topic – with a post by the much-respected Dean Thune. (I’ll be posting in that series in a few weeks!) Aaron Klinefelter wrote a great (and interesting) post on an “ecological” understanding of college ministry success. I posted on why aiming for numbers isn’t (usually) a good college ministry priority. And Ian Clark is asking the same question about how we define success.

Be sure to check out those links.

I have also been pondering “modalities” and “sodalities” as they relate to the structure and success of campus ministry.  The Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission by Ralph D. Winter is a must read for this.  Here’s a post about Ralph D. Winter (who died this past summer) from the Tall Skinny Kiwi.

Essentially the article deals with “Modalities” and “Sodalities” as two complementary structures for God’s Mission in the world.  This has been helpful as I think about what the WF is and how we come alongside Asbury Church and the other churches (UMC and otherwise) in the region.

Intervarsity thinks of itself this way, as do CCO and Campus Crusade, but we can also see this in the new monasticism of late with folks like Shane Claiborne and Communality (not to mention traditional Monasticism and those early Methodists).

Here’s an Intervarsity link about the topic:

Put simply, “modality” refers to the permanent structure, the local church. Multi-generational and geographically limited, a congregation puts down its roots and makes a long-term commitment to its community. As theologian Darrell Guder observes: “The parish must always be looked upon as the central and continuing form of the church.”

The second structure, “sodality,” focuses on a specialized aspect of the Lord’s purposes on earth. This “laser vision” may target a particular people group (e.g. Laotians), age group (e.g. high school students) or spiritual discipline (e.g. prayer).

Parachurch ministries like InterVarsity are sodalities—expressions of the local church, but not churches in themselves. “Para” means “along side.” Historical examples of such extensions of church ministry include first century mobile missionary missionary bands and medieval Catholic orders.

See also, The Order of the Mustard Seed.

My hope and prayer is that this will spur our minds as we consider what God is birthing at NKU and how the WF fits into the overall ecosystem of the Kingdom in our neck of the woods.

(oh, and I wrote and posted this while on a bus from NKU to downtown Cincinnati.  how cool is that?!)

On Success.

Been pondering “success” lately.  What does it mean to be successful?  Specifically, what does it mean for a campus ministry (or church) to be successful?  And how the heck do we define “success” anyway!?

Oak Tree by Alan Creech

Success is clearly not numerical growth.  It may involve numerical growth, but it is not exclusive to that.  An oak tree is not successful if it merely grows larger and larger.  In fact, even if it did grow larger and larger that would not be the oak tree’s ultimate aim, purpose, or telos.  Surely part of an oak tree’s purpose – and by extension, definition of success – would be to reproduce.  Making more oak trees makes an oak tree successful.

However, we can’t stop there.  Just making more and more oak trees would eventually become self-defeating.  A good forest has biodiversity as integral to its ultimate success.  So an oak tree is only successful if it contributes to the overall success (in this case, think sustainability) of the forest/ecosystem/biosphere.  In other words, it plays well with others.

How might our friend the oak tree translate into campus ministry?  I think we need a ecological approach to ministry.  How might a successful campus ministry contribute to the overall biodiversity of a college campus, of local churches, of other campus ministries?  Maybe success is living sustainably in the social, spiritual environment in which we are situated.

As a leader of a United Methodist Campus Ministry it is important for me to know how those in authority over me define success.  Here’s this from the Mother Church:

The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry is the lead agency in providing assistance in developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world – the first of the Four Areas of Focus of The United Methodist Church.

Leaders of four of the denomination’s general agencies are shown here during a joint presentation to the 2008 General Conference about the Four Areas of Focus

These Four Focus Areas are meant to sharpen the mission of the church and direct critical aspects of our ministry in collaboration:

• Developing Principled Christian Leaders
• Congregational Development
• Ministry with the Poor
• Improving Health Globally

“We live in a world that once had courageous Christian leaders, but now cries out for them – the kind of women and men who are set apart to show by example how to live faithfully in bold discipleship and to engage a world starving for the Gospel,” the Rev. Jerome King Del Pino, GBHEM’s general secretary, said during General Conference 2008.

How can these 4 areas guide our thinking for what is a successful campus ministry?  I’ve blogged about these elsewhere, by the way.  And while these are all related to making disciples of Jesus Christ, I wonder if these are leading indicators or trailing indicators (like unemployment numbers for this economic recession we’re in).  If we made disciples would we then see these things happen?  Or would doing these things make disciples?  The answer is probably both, but I think it is an important question.

What are your thoughts?  What is success for a campus ministry?

Of Road Trips and Men (and Women)

Ok, first off – my name is Aaron and this is my blog.  Really.  I’ve been delinquent in my posting of late and for that you can blame Twitter and Facebook and, well, Life.

But, I digress.

I’ve had the hankering of late for some networking road trips.  I’d love to go with a small group of folks from NKU/Cincy and meet-up with folks in other churches/campus ministries.  I’m thinking day trips or possibly staying one night if someone wants to put us up.  If you want to go, let me know!  Here are some of the folks/communities I’d love to meet-up (feel free to suggest more).

Road Trip #1
Lexington, KY
Aaron Mansfield and the instigators at The Rock/La Roca
Alan Creech
Kevin Clark and the folks at Vineyard Lexington
Bill Hughes and the faithful at UK Wesley Foundation
Lisa & Will Samson and subversives at Communality
and we may just sojourn to the (un)holy of Wilmore to visit the Asburians – here or there.

Road Trip #2
Columbus, OH
LoveOSU
Father Larry Rice & The Newman Center
Jacob’s Porch
Landing Place

Road Trip #3
Indianapolis, IN
Lockerbie Central UMC and Earth House Cafe
Englewood Christian Church and Doulos Christou Books and The Englewood Review of Books

Pretty darn excited about this week

I’m headed to Paris, KY tonight.  The kiddos and I are going down this afternoon and the plan is for them to hang with the Grandparents while I go visit The Rock and Aaron Mansfield tonight.  Then tomorrow (I’m really excited about this) DG and I are meeting with and interviewing some folks for the Praxis Podcast:

- Ryan Koch (at Third Street Stuff, favorite coffeeshop in Lex) – he’s the Executive Director of SeedLeaf – “The purpose of Seedleaf is to increase the amount, affordability, nutritional value, and sustainability of food available to people at risk of hunger in central Kentucky.”  And he’s part of the Communality community.

- Will & Lisa Samson – also part of Communality and both authors.  They co-wrote Justice in the Burbs (could be good book study in PRidge, NKU, or Asbury Church) and Will just came out with Enough: Contentment in an Age of Excess.

- Nancy & Matthew Sleeth – authors and Wilmorians.  Matthew wrote Serve God, Save the Planet and is a former ER chief of staff from New England.  They got all Jesusy, downsized to Wilmore, and are Green advocates for the Church.  Nancy has a new book coming out Go Green, Save Green.  I’m pretty excited that we get to have dinner at their house and see how they live green in Wilmore.

Later this week I’m looking forward to meeting with Devin Schenk and Chris Curran, both faculty at NKU and involved with living ecologically sound lives and environmental sustainability and preservation.  Likewise, I’m eager to meet Edward Goode, new pastor here in Cincy with Presbyterian Church of Wyoming (suburb of Cincy).  I’m headed downtown in few minutes (noon on Monday) to have lunch with a couple prophets….

Actually, this exciting week started yesterday.  I had the honor and privelege to speaking at Asbury Church in Northern Kentucky.  We talked about Matthew 13 and some of the seed parables there.  The mp3 will be up on here soon (I’ll post it on this blog and Facebook when it is).

Here are a few links, including the videos I used, from the sermonizing that may be helpful for those who heard/hear it:

Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living, by Rueben Job – book

1. Do No Harm
2. Do Good
3. Stay in Love with God

Swarm Theory, article in National Geographic by Peter Miller

“how swarm intelligence works: simple creatures following simple rules, each one acting on local information. No ant sees the big picture. No ant tells any other ant what to do. Some ant species may go about this with more sophistication than others. (Temnothorax albipennis, for example, can rate the quality of a potential nest site using multiple criteria.) But the bottom line, says Iain Couzin, a biologist at Oxford and Princeton Universities, is that no leadership is required. “Even complex behavior may be coordinated by relatively simple interactions,” he says.”

YouTube – 300,000 Starlings in motion

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIzlcH2q6Vo]

YouTube – Timelapse film of growing cress

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky1kBLwCBHg]

Scriptures:

Matthew 13:3-9

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Mark 4:26-29

John 12:20-26

and, for those who were there, don’t forget to plant those wildflowers!

Christmas reflections

I suppose with a title like that you’d assume this was some profound spiritual or theological pondering on the meaning of the incarnation and God’s missional call to incarnate in our contexts and locale.

Nope.

I can’t sleep.  It is 3:46 AM.  I think it is a combination of acid reflux and Christmas excitement.  And before you feel sorry for me, I have slept – from 8:00 – Midnight.  Lately, when I put the kids to bed I fall asleep too then get up at midnight (which is nice because I get to welcome Sarah home from work).  Usually I am up for an hour or 2 and then go back to sleep.  Not tonight.

This is all exacerbated by a general feeling of malaise.  Not sure I can pinpoint it… and I haven’t even been able to articulate it this much for months.  I think it is a combination of starting a new job/ministry venture (www.nkuwf.org), lack of exercise, and lack of personal spiritual discipline.  Let me be clear, the new gig is great.  It feels like a great fit for my call and gifting.  It really is nice being back in the United Methodist Church orbit again – something of a homecoming.

And at the same time, I’m basically starting from scratch at NKU.  It is a lot like church planting.  A lot.  This is good and exactly was I was hoping for and expecting…. but it is still hard and tiring.  It feels a lot like driving in a new city without a map.  If I’m honest, I’ve been in a funk about it the last couple months.  It is hard to know where to start, what works, what doesn’t work but we should do anyway, what patterns are we initiating that will form the DNA of this ministry, what bad habits are we starting (and how do we recognize them before they turn cancerous!), who do I spend most of my time with, etc….?  We’re truly starting with a blank slate – no structures, buildings, programs, and very few people.  Every student I’ve met with this past semester (and there were many) is interested in what we are doing, they would like to be involved, but it seems like life gets in the way more often than not.  I don’t think I’ve ever met a busier group of students!

I need to reflect more on all this…. I think I’ve even been afraid of reflecting or lamenting.  I think I’ve lived under the weight of (and myth of) if I’m starting something I need to be enthusiastic and positive at all times!  That is categorically dumb.  I need to fess up. Maybe, just maybe, that’s what the incarnation is about…

Timothy’s awake.  Gotta go.

A Prayer Insurrection

So, we prayed.  I was a bit late (traffic) but Liz and Jackson and I spread out across campus and prayed that God’s Kingdom would come to campus as it is in heaven.  We “marked” our prayers with blank post-its or sidewalk chalk.  If you see random post-its (like this pic) or marks on campus – those are reminders of prayers!.  We’ll do this again sometime soon.

NKU WF

I’ve been keeping a pretty low profile on the blog and about life happenings.  It seems that we’re moving into a new and exciting adventure….

I recently accepted a position as a Campus Minister at Northern Kentucky University with the Wesley Foundation.  The WF is a ministry of the United Methodist Church.  NKU is only about 15 minutes/miles (about half the commute I presently have) from our house and we won’t be moving.

This means that I’ll be leaving Cincinnati Christian Schools (last day is next Friday, the 22nd) where I’ve served as the Technology Director these past 3 years.  It has been an honor to be at CCS and I will miss the students and staff.  God has taught me a ton working at CCS.

The process of interviewing included a written answer to this question: “How and Why I feel God has called me to serve Him in this position?”  Here’s my answer:

I am honored to be considered for this position of service and ministry at NKU.  The ministry opportunities are enormous and the impact that an effective campus ministry can have at NKU is vast and far-reaching.  I see NKU as an educational institution poised for continued growth and development.  It has quickly become one of the premier places for higher education in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky metroplex.  Further, as a growing school with a relatively larger commuter constituency, the opportunity to impact a broad geographic and cultural area is exciting.  Likewise, on campus with the burgeoning of residential students there is so much potential for a depth of Christian community and service in which I hope to be an active participant.

God has given me a passion for developing community and creating space for those outside the church.  My heart breaks for the postmodern college student who is searching for a place to belong, a faith to call their own, and a mission to guide their life.  Campus ministry presents an amazing opportunity to foster Kingdom communities of students that will nurture, disciple, and serve.

In many ways, my calling to serve Christ and His Kingdom at NKU feels like a “for such a time as this” moment.  It has the distinct flavor of something God has been preparing me for my whole life.  As early as junior high I felt a call to serve God in a ministry leadership role.  This calling grew and developed as I matured during high school and college while participating in the ministries of Paris First UMC Youth and Aldersgate Camp.

As a Christian Education and Youth Ministries Director at First UMC of Hamilton, OH God began to show me how the status quo of church ministries was not effective in reaching younger, postmodern generations.  I realized that both locally and beyond, there was a great exodus of youth after high school.  Unlike the Baby Boom generation they were not necessarily coming back when (and if) they had children.  I began to realize then that there was an increasing need to think like a missionary in our postmodern context and to do that I needed new tools for the task.

God led me to Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.  It was at Fuller, far from familiar Central Kentucky and the Ohio Valley, where I became more in tune with the Missio Dei, God’s own mission, and my participation in it.  My wife, Sarah, and I helped start a house church that was connected with NewSong Church in San Dimas, CA which was an early adopter of culturally relevant ministry to postmoderns.  At Fuller I was immersed in the missional theology of Lesslie Newbigin, Eddie Gibb’s research on the emerging church, and the “now and not yet” understanding of the Kingdom of God.  God has used and continues to use these and other influential experiences and people to shape me and my philosophy of ministry.

In January of 2004, my wife and I, with our two-month old daughter, took a leap of faith as we left Pasadena, CA to move into one of the community houses of Vineyard Central, a house church network in Cincinnati.  We were thrust us into a community that was deeply committed to communal, missional living in an urban setting.  Our experiences during this year and the relationships that have since grown have deepened our commitment to cultivating communities of nurture, discipleship, and service.  Likewise, Vineyard Central was and is highly effective in reaching postmoderns.  We have served in various pastoral leadership roles within the network, including hosting and leading a house church in our home.

The “how” and the “why” of God’s call for me are intertwined with God’s story of my life.  I feel called to the NKU Wesley Foundation because it is a wonderful opportunity to extend and participate in God’s Kingdom Mission.  God has placed a calling and passion in me for seeing communities of Jesus-followers birthed among the postmodern generations.  And the college campus is far too often an “unreached people group” in postmodern culture.    My ecclesial, educational, and ministry experience has prepared me well for campus ministry.  I believe it would be a wonderful next step in God’s unfolding narrative and call.  I would be incredibly honored to serve as the Director of the Wesley Foundation at NKU.

I’ll be sharing more about this new ministry endeavor and all that God is up to in our midst… but for now I just wanted to spread the word and ask for your prayers!