Fear is reactive!

"Fear does its dishonorable work, creating maladaptive responses instead of  metabolic ones. Never underestimate the power of fear geared up and egged on by ego to keep us from moving forward......Fear causes us to hide in the face of change, and it leads to living a reactive rather than constructive life.  The choice is to be an active part of positive change, which already is upon us, or to passively and grudgingly tolerate inevitable change."
(Leonard Sweet, Viral, 2012, pg 10)

Gutenburg Generation is Confused by The Google Generation!

"Gutenburgers criticize Googlers for being shallow, obsessed with games, narcissistic, and irresponsible. They like to characterize Digital Age natives as perpetual adolescents who confuse status updates with authentic, legitimate human relationships.

But is that an accurate assessment? As I look at the waning of Gutenberg Culture and the arrival of Goggle Culture, I have to wonder if Jesus wouldn't be more at home with the Googlers. In fact, as the Western church built by Gutenbergers continues to lose ground in a world of Googlers, I am convinced that Christians need to start taking cues from the Googlers. Even more, I sense a Googler inside many Gutenbergers, crying to get out and pursue relationship with others. But the inner Googler in too many cases is held back by fear and uncertainty."    (Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival. Leonard Sweet, Waterbrook Press, 2012, pg6,7)

Get Outside For Church Tomorrow

"Technology - the knack of so arranging the world that you don't have to experience it." (Swiss playwright and novelist Max French)

Friendship

"What is almost unbelievably remarkable is that God chooses friendship, available to everyone,  a the means of changing the world, it's people, and societies." (The Midwives Story, Michael E. Williams)

Be Kind!

"Be kind, because every one you meet is fighting a great battle."

Philo of Alexanderia


AJR lost in a West African Journey.

Yes!

"Talking to, and answering, oneself aloud is the result of too much time spent offshore, and it is a habit that does not go away once formed ."

("The Angry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey", Linda Greenlaw Hyperion, 1999, pg 19)

AJR lost in a West African Journey.

Old Paradigm Leadership!

"Jesus isn't an absentee King who's delegated the task of leading His church to a small committee of Christian leaders while He's on vacation."  Neil Cole (Twitter Feb 18th, 2012)

I believe that western church Leadership has been hijacked by the market. 

In the OT we see the Prophets stepping out, we see rare anointed leaders walking before, and in the NT we see the disciples, but even  the tone about them is different.

Jesus is the anointed, and Acts begins with the church being born saying old & young men and women, will see visions and dream dreams. It is the allusion to the indwelling Holy Spirit now being in every believer. All beleivers are Anointed.
 
I don't see the future hope of the church boiling down to Eldership in the New Testament. Leadership is not a central theme of the New Testament, other than the headship of Jesus, when that comes in to doubt.

Sure there is leadership, but not this all controlling, all directing, all managing stuff we see today.
It is broader based in the New Testament, involves more people, more interaction, more coaching.

Anyway, I find it all a bit arrogant, and I was there. One day I realized I am to Lead people to Jesus, his truth, and then let Jesus, through his Holy Spirit, guide people into their service. I can be a coach or guide on that journey, but simply put, I don't want to set the direction for them or a whole church.

I have to trust that Jesus will move his people, a people hearing his voice, not mine. People sensing His direction, not mine because I am holding the page of my plans, my dreams two inches from their nose.

I guess what I am saying, is that for me personally, when I started down this popular road of leadership, I began to find it works to get things done, the things I desire to get done, but people are following the wrong guide, seeking too much direction from me, and not enough from Jesus.

I was suplanting the role of the Holy Spirit in peoples lives. I, in the name of "Leadership", was getting in the way of the Leader. People are hearing our voice much more than the guiding voice of the Holy Spirit. In fact, few people in the pew even know how to get their direction from Jesus anymore. Ask them! I'm serious, ask them! They run to church and do what ever the church says..... sure.  But I feel we need to sense his direction every day.

Anyway, maybe it is because I know me too well. My motives can be blurred, my visions can be foggy, by selfishness can be to great to be telling others "What to do" to serve Jesus, let alone
the details of "how to do" that. I'm now trusting Jesus to do that, when they are ready for it.

I do not want to be a leader who lords it over people with my vision. When there is so much other good stuff to do, in his name. I need to free people to do that too.

The real cracking point for me was when I realized I don't want to be under leaders like me. Too myopic. Leaders who, often know few of my friends, with church program that do nothing to be light where they are. Because 6 leaders vision rarely, if ever, extends to these places. So that is why I must extend into them. 

Your purpose in life is not to simply attend my church, and be a tool in the hands of it's leadership, to get our chosen job done. Oh the job, I am sure, is "Jesus stuff".  However our purpose is to be in Christ, living in community with others, loving God and neighbors, in a colorful diversity of ways relationships require. 

My vision, is to give my network vision (sight), an ability to bump into Jesus.

Old Paradigm Leadership! A few top dogs sending it down the pipe line. The New Covenant brought a change to many things, and I believe it brought a change to leadership too.

When Not Helping Hurts!

We are working in West Africa. With simple drip irrigation supplied by gravity fed water from a small five gallon bucket, we are helping people grow gardens in drought conditions, just south of the Sahara Desert.
80-90% less water than hand watering.  This

Child's family is benefiting. From this project.

 Following is picture of a garden growing on such a system. This picture is taken in Peek drought conditions. It has not rained for over 4.5 months  in temperatures reaching 40 c.

Enforcing Rules is An Exhausing Experience

Read and interesting web article: "Why Flexible Hours Inspire Performance"

It resonated with my experience as a fisherman. We don't tell people how to do their job once on the boat, they just do it, the best they can at the speed they can. Despite what "Deadliest Catch" shows we don't harass people, we set in to a self evident routine and the day goes on like that.  

"Don't waste a minute tracking your employees' hours. They'll get more done."

It resonated with my experience for 20 years with a home office. I never understood people who said they could never work at home. I crank out lots of stuff form the home office. What is more I find I can do more there in 4-5 hours than I can at an office all day. Generally by 2 I was looking at the door wondering when I could leave. The Home office allowed you a cange of pace, get up and get a coffee, make or receive a "Personal" call takes the stress down, and you are ready to go back at it guns a blazing.

It resonated with my Church community experience. The times I have been the most stressed, and unhappy with that experience was when I was in charge of getting things done, and put on myself the burden to change people. The only person who can change is the person themselves, and it's not usually a lack of opportunity or resources, it's a lack of will or desire, and some encouragement.
And I have been around faith people who have tons of rules - Man made rules they are convinced are from the scriptures. They wish the whole body to adopt these rules too. They will work behind the scenes to manipulate and maneuver things to get people in line.   I for one am tired of rule making.... I am tired of carrying the burden to make things grow, when it's not even my job.

"You could say I'm the opposite of a control freak, in the sense that I have always resisted rules, for myself and for others. Why? Because once you have rules, you have to enforce them—and there's no more tedious task in life."

No more tedious task in life than enforcing rules... 

Lost

"Christendom has done away with Christianity without quite being aware of it." Soren Kierkegaard


AJR lost in a West African Journey.

Caging God!

Truth in Strange Places

"Well, I may not know much about God, but I have to say, we built a pretty nice cage for him ." - Homer Simpson after helping some island natives build a chapel.

Frustrated

"May all your expectations be frustrated. May all your plans be thwarted. May all of your desires be withered into nothingness. That you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit." - A blessing prayed over Henri Nouwen by a friend

Sacred Cow!

"You should realize that the Bible neither describes nor promotes the local church as we know it today. The local church many have come to cherish - the services, offices, programs, buildings, ceremonies - is neither biblical or unbiblical. It is abiblical - that is, such an organization is not addressed in the Bible." - George Barna in Revolution

Check in With God!

"Generally, what I find is that the ordinary people who come to church are basically running their lives on their own, utilizing 'the arm of the flesh' - their natural abilities - to negotiate their way," he says. "They believe there is a God and they need to check in with him. But they don't have any sense that he is an active agent in their lives. As a result, they don't become disciples of Jesus." - Dallas Willard in Christianity Today

Sahara Desert has "Flip Flop" Trees in Niger

I got this note from the Dias family doing some research in West Africa in 2011. While out in Niger, a new friends spoke with a man, the only believer among his people group way out in the desert, who tried to describe what life was like where he grew up..... 

"If you stick your flip flop in the sand, toes toward the sky, it will be the tallest thing (other than people) for MILES!" 

Anyone feel called to preach the Gospel out here in the desert???

Mali Village Move!

Living and working in Mali has its days. We love the people. Village life is not for everyone, especially in hot and rainy season.
Our drought season gardening NGO project is now going. Helping curb malnutrition in one of the poorest and lest developed countries on earth.


This is our village home made of mud bricks.



Three rooms inside.



This is our water well.



This is the view from our front door.

Location:RN7,Sikasso,Mali

Something Must Happen, But Nothing Should Change?

"Many have this mindset, `Something must happen, but nothing should change.' And in that, we like a little bit of renewal, and a little bit of cosmetic change here, or there. A little new program, a little bit of excitement. But please, not too much. Please God, do not disturb the church too much.

But what is happening is God does not ask permission from people who asked these kinds of questions. He is doing it anyway."

Wolfgang Simpson Starfish Series video...

Loving people.... "Not Like You"

Our problem is our definition of Neighbor..... When Jesus talked of Neighbors he was taking about a Jew loving a Samaritan. We have defined Neighbor, in America, as someone like us in our Neighborhood. (Eastern people hear it loud and clear that Jesus means people not like you) But when Jesus told that story..... it was someone you would actually hate, someone you would not want to be around....... you wouldn't want your son or daughter to marry them.
You want to know the genius and brilliance of the church, when it becomes the most luminous, and the brightest,. It is when you can love someone not like you. Is it any big deal when you have a church filled with people like you The world doesn't take notice. But they take notice when a Mother Teresa will give her whole life and love dieing people in India. The world takes notice when a Nelson Mandela has been imprisoned for thirty years on Robins island, in a small cell, moving rocks from one side to the other, the same rocks. But then he says we need to forgive, Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said Love God Love your neighbor. Love someone not like you." David Gibbons

Africa Taxi Man - Do You Remember Me As I Remember You?

  In February, 2006, I was in Mali, West Africa, researching the Bankagooma people for the first time. Today, December 31 2011, on the New Years Eve to 2012, I am here, living and working in Mali, about to move among the Banka people.  I want to tell you a story back when it all started..... I first published this in 2006...I'll add the story here.

After days of exhausting village research 600 Km east of Bamako, I made the long bus trek back to the capital city. With some time to kill, I had an adventure in mind. So I quickly found a place to eat and began to set the adventure in motion. I waved to a dilapidated piece of junk, it's referred to as a taxi in West Africa, that had fenders and door panels that flapped like wings. I was not totally certain whether I should get into this rust can or not. But the driver gave me a reserved smile.

I threw caution to the wind and said to the taxi man; “I will give you 5000 cfa ($11) to let me sit in the taxi with you as you pick up other clients. I would like to see every corner of the city, and drive with you all day”. He smiled and waved for me to get in the front seat. That was the first of many conversations with him smiling and nodding, but not really understanding much of what I said, because of his sparse French ability; he only spoke Bamabra. However, I did get to see every back corner of the City of Bamako, and crossed the famous Niger River 5-6 times.

Mali taxi man eventually took me to meet his son at the moto shop where he worked as a mechanic. A quick stop to greet and meet his uncle at a road side shop. Later, I was taken to meet his sister and her children. More clients picked up and dropped off in various alleyways, all over the city, and then a trip home to introduce me to his wife and kids. 

Twenty stops on the road to meet and greet other friends we happened to encounter, and conversations with everyone he picked up along the way, as well. I kind of felt a little like a freak show. But on the other hand it was just what I came to Mali for – the people. It was nice. I smiled and gave genuinely sincere greetings, and warm thanks to each person to whom I was “presented”. I was very touched.

This taxi man did not know this strange white guy, yet he saw fit to share his time and use his expensive gas to take me home to meet every person he loved and cherished most. This Malian taxi driver did not merely give me a ride, he gave me part of his life. I had received something significantly more precious than the gas money I gave him. 

We separated, and there I was standing on the side of the road, having graciously been given a mind full of memories, and a heart full of mixed emotions. I was genuinely touched by this mans gesture. A precious man, who's name I don't even remember, so in my prayers I simply refer to him as "The Malian Taxi Man". How I would love to spend more time sharing life with this Muslim man. Over the years since, I wonder if this Malian taxi man even remembers me? Does he remember the day he took this unknown Canadian to those he loves? I can't help but remember him, and what he did for me. I will never forget him the rest of my life.

The Africa No Author Adequately Describes!

Neighbor Girls, up since 5 am - preparing breakfast!

There are advantages to living in a section of town with no power. The car battery running the neighbors stereo last evening, eventually goes dead, and the LOUD "rave" style African bar music .... with the tinny electric guitar and the guy rapidly shouting Hey, Hey to the off beat..... will eventually fade, as it always does.

But then, we wake up to the 4 & 5 am calls of the myriad of Mosques around us, the roosters crowing, the sound of moto's with men going to the fields. We wake up, and the very first thing we see, as we venture out our front door, are the calm routines of real life in Africa. 

The African sights that no camera can capture. The African smells no author has yet adequately described.  And the feelings no one like me could pen to any satisfaction.

The break neck speed of the west has no place here, and would wound a new generation of humanity that, for now, still has time for life in community.

When Western Life Hurts..... In Africa!

Our neighbor getting her hair done, while we chat and giggle under the mango tree

Opportunity, adventure, possibilities; tempered by reality.....Bambara Language Study. Living as a learner first....... and last........ is a theme etched in the sands of daily life in Africa. 

Where knowing, greeting, being greeted, and sitting under the shade of a mango tree in the hot afternoon sun, is the place where the Malian people constantly remind you that being in a relationship, spending time, is one thousand times more important to them, than ALL the pre-planned programs of "things" that you, and the folks back home, feel you need to "do" to be "productive". 

They remind us that our western idea of "being productive", often means running by, or over, them. Remember "who" you came for, more than  the impersonal "what" you came for. 

Lesson #1 Malians are not nearly as impressed with our "stuff" as we are....and they really question the value we westerners place on our "plans", often over time and relationships with them.

Things Are Meant For Use!

I want to tell you about an old friend I had in my College days. I never saw him again after the day he left college. My Sister kept in touch with George some. I wish I had done the same. However, it's too late now. George died expectantly at the age of 43 a few years ago.

George was a typical “take life as it is” person from Cape Breton. I remember the day I bought my first brand new car – a shiny deep red 1990 Volkswagen Jetta with a 1.5L Diesel that got 55 miles to the gallon. I took the new jewel over to the student center and told George what I had done. Grinning ear to ear, he said; Let’s go to Tim’s for a coffee and try it out”. We climbed back into the fresh new smelling car and drove to Tim Horton’s for coffee and muffins.

We ordered, and George came out swinging his coffee cup and coffee was running down the sides of the cup as usual. He got into my new car and set the dripping coffee cup down on my new dash, with the coffee drops running in every direction. I bit my tongue. George then opened his muffin bag and took out the first muffin and tossed it up on the dash with crumbs flying everywhere, including down the defrost vent, and then proceeded to peal the paper off the second muffin. I finally blew! “George, take it easy on my new car will ya!”, I said. He looked at me and snorted; “What? Got a new car now and you can’t even use it?”
George was right. We enjoyed the old car better because we did not care so much how clean or dirty it was. We just did what guys do and enjoyed "out" time.

I know my friend George had a hard life. But you know, he taught me what it meant to value friends, and enjoy your day as it comes. Life, people, are more important than things.
I needed to be reminded of this more. Things are meant to be used, people are not.

Tell Your Story Before You Die!

This Story reflects the sentiment of the people in Mali very well...

"Two old African men were sitting on that bench, but there was room for me, too. In Africa people share more than just water in a brotherly or sisterly fashion. Even when it comes to shade, people are generous.

I heard the two men talking about a third old man who had recently died. One of them said, “I was visiting him at his home. He started to tell me an amazing story about something that had happened to him when he was young. But it was a long story. Night came, and we decided that I should come back the next day to hear the rest. But when I arrived, he was dead.”

The man fell silent. I decided not to leave that bench until I heard how the other man would respond to what he’d heard. I had an instinctive feeling that it would prove to be important.
Finally he, too, spoke.

“That’s not a good way to die — before you’ve told the end of your story.” 

By HENNING MANKELL The Art of Listening. Published: December 10, 2011 

(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/opinion/sunday/in-africa-the-art-of-listening.html?_r=3&src=me&ref=general)

People Are More Than A Flash Drive!

We often have stopped short of the personal reality of discipleship. Spending time! Walking with, hanging out with, over an extended period of time like THE disciples did with Jesus.
Myself,  often approached those canned home personal Bible study studies with a lot of preparation and study so that I could wow people with all the information. Needed information, at some point. However,  they had a whole lot of Jesus stuff, but maybe not so much Jesus, as his person.

Read this statement today:

Jim Downing of the Navigators taught me that information transfer alone is inadequate; guided experience is also necessary to impart the skills and motivation for disciples to reproduce. Robby Butler

I think in the past we often saw "Sharing Jesus" more like an information giving session. You know, we are the computer with the processor and ram, and our job is to plug in the little Flash drive from time to time and transfer some little its of information on to it. Certainly, biblical information is always required, and helpful However,  I have come to see that people want to walk where this is all lived out, and weaved into a life that makes sense.

The Dreams of Distorted Leadership Leaders do not need to be "The Marlboro Man"

This is modern leadership- You're to be this rare, special, elite visionary, charting a path no one else has ever walked....and you need to bring the muddling masses of people along to that vision, as they will have noting to do without you.... 

Ideas and plans are great, and I have my share of them. However, I have come to realize I don't need to "create" an "sell" vision. The vision is Jesus, and the vision comes from Jesus. I need to do more pointing to him, as He can keep his children busy enough, if they are actually looking at him and listening.

CEO views of leadership- we have to go back to the OT, where we find these rare and special anointed figures. In the NT, we are all the anointed and our direction comes from him. What about accountability we ask,,,, Well, what about that in the NT? I'm not seeing what many are talking about.... Lately, I have been sensing that Jesus is enough. He will move us to serve others, if we are looking to serve. And we can nurture that in the body... But this "out to make a mark" smacks more of "in the eyes of men", than of Jesus. 

I want to get off the platform. I don't want people thinking I am such "Hot" servant. I think all new leaders wrestle with that, and its an ego thing, not a God thing.

I am just so glad to hear others are seeing a different path. My friends, yes, you with the huge Kingdom heart. You do not need to be this kind of leader to be "Sucessful". Share and live the vision of Jesus. His Yoke is easy, and his burden is light..... When the churches is not, you know there is a real misalignment.... Be you, as light, free to follow Jesus, and flow with him into the various relationships before you. And step out of the muddling crowed. How? By willingness to plant your light in the very dark place of this community, and world. That is the core of kingdom vision being the light of Jesus, where their is none.  You are released to be you, doing your part as you point others to His path... You need chart no path of your own. You just need to look, find darkness, and go there and love your neighbor, and keep loving God.

Your young family will thank you.

 Jesus and the Marlboro Man

Posted on November 27, 2011 by kinnon

I’ve been away from blogging for a little longer than I intended. More on that in a later post.
I originally mindmapped this post in the spring with plans to make it part of the Celebrity Driven Church series (which has multiple mindmaps but no prose as yet).

My decision to sit down and finally write this was triggered by a recent post from my blog world friend, JR Briggs. The post was about his response to the image on the right - you can see a much larger version of it at his blog. He wrote this,

I absolutely love this image.

It reminds me of the role of the leader, the visionary, the church planter, the pioneer, the entrepreneur, the kingdom fire-starer, the person with an apostolic wiring.

Visionaries do the hard work of going ahead, going before and creating paths that no one else has thought about or dared to travel . (Emphasis in original)

I asked, in the comments, whether he was being ironic. No response. So. I’m assuming he wasn’t.

The image he professes to love leaves me cold. It’s an image that fits with America’s love of the mythic super-hero. The one who saves the damsel in distress and by extension the world.

This is the myth of the rugged individual and it is one, I’d suggest, that has done more damage to the church in the west than we care to realize.

As I was lamenting JR’s post, an email from Leadership Network arrived in my InBox talking about the latest study by Thuma & Bird on Mega Churches. This bulleted point from the email reinforced the American Church Leader myth:

— The leader at the helm makes all the difference.
Seventy-nine percent say the church'€™s most dramatic growth occurred during tenure of current senior pastor.

It’s all about that one man at the top, now isn’t it. (The document tells us that these leaders are, on average, 51 and male.) As my friend Sonja said in an email exchange,

“ As I read that report all I could think was, “well, of course, most of that data is self-identified. I wonder if the surveyors did any kind of independent quantification of those markers?” That’s what you think when you’ve grown up with a statistician for a dad ”

And as I read the report, I was reminded of the saying popularized by Mark Twain, “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” And yes, I have used that one here a time or two before.

However, the original trigger for this post was Darrin Patrick’s book, Church Planter. Note the image from the front cover. The mythic pattern persists. Darrin, a leader in the Acts29 network promotes the prophet, priest and king model of church leader.

Kings develop strategies for bringing the vision and mission of Christ-centered living to fruition. They tend to ask the question How? They function like executives of the church because they spend a great deal of time and energy building and executing plans to sustain and grow a healthy church. Church Planter (Darrin Patrick) Highlight Loc. 1464–71 (Kindle)

I don’t quote Darrin approvingly. In fact, I heard this same kind of language in my charismatic mega church days and witnessed (first hand and otherwise) the kind of damage done by this warped belief to both the “kingly leader” and his subjects. (Jesus’ powerful statements on servant leadership in Matthew 20 and Mark 10 are strangely missing from Darrin’s book. ) Darrin writes a lot about the need for and qualifications of elders - but then focuses on the single person church planter/senior pastor (with hopefully a wife supporting him.)
The full title of his book is Church Planter — The Man, The Message, The Mission.
The Man and thus my concern with those who buy this message and buy the myth that they are singlehandedly called to plant God’s next great church in whatever neighbourhood.
Believing they are called to be, in J.R.’s words, visionaries (who go) ahead, going before and creating paths that no one else has thought about or dared to travel. No wonder so many of them fail.
This is far different from the Matthew and Mark passages mentioned above, as well as the equipping and sending that Jesus does in Luke 10. A hint, he sent them out in twos "into the harvest" with no resources other than prayer. The single "harvester" on the front cover of Darrin's book runs counter to what Jesus teaches in this passage. How odd.
The American church (along with its global acolytes) has bought the myth of the rugged individual as conqueror and builder,€” represented well by the iconic Marlboro Man a character created by Ad Agency, Leo Burnett. It’s a fabulous marketing image… for selling toxic substances.
A final aside: A horrible irony is that two of the men who portrayed the Marlboro Man died of cancer from consuming what their images had been promoting. (http://kinnon.tv/2011/11/jesus-and-the-marlboro-man.html)

I Resign from Your View Of Leadership!

 This article so resonated with me. It addresses the warped practice, dialogue and view of leadership today. Leadership philosophies that are placing impossible burdens on people, crushing the spirits of men and women with a huge heart for Kingdom. Where the huge emphasis on management, and juggling the "Stuff", far out weighs any actual ministry to the community happening, other than a few token "projects' here and there.

If the sentiment resonates with your experience you may wish to also read How Leadership is like the Marlboro man...... (http://kinnon.tv/2011/11/jesus-and-the-marlboro-man.html)

Leadership is viewed as being, my vision - trumps your vision (Non "leader").... and it leads to manipulation because we will not allow another other "vision" to be voiced as we use people as tools to move our wheels, and pay for it too. But the avergae person is not really suppose to step out an live as a priest of the light, as God leads them.

I here by make it known. I tender my resignation from your kind of leadership....  

AJ

 

The People formerly known as The Congregation

Posted on March 28, 2007 by kinnon

Jay Rosen created the meme of The People Formerly Known as the Audience – those of us who are no longer content to be content consumers – but have become content creators ourselves.

The people formerly known as the audience wish to inform media people of our existence, and of a shift in power that goes with the platform shift you’ve all heard about.
Think of passengers on your ship who got a boat of their own. The writing readers. The viewers who picked up a camera. The formerly atomized listeners who with modest effort can connect with each other and gain the means to speak— to the world, as it were.
Now we understand that met with ringing statements like these many media people want to cry out in the name of reason herself: If all would speak who shall be left to listen? Can you at least tell us that?

The people formerly known as the audience do not believe this problem—too many speakers!—is our problem. Now for anyone in your circle still wondering who we are, a formal definition might go like this:

The people formerly known as the audience are those who were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another— and who today are not in a situation like that at all.

Let me introduce you to The People formerly known as The Congregation. There are millions of us.
We are people – flesh and blood – image bearers of the Creator – eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.
We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons – attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us – it just doesn’t seem to jive with yours.
Money was a great concern. And, for a moment, we believed you when you told us God would reward us for our tithes – or curse us if we didn’t. The Law is just so much easier to preach than Grace. My goodness, if you told us that the 1st century church held everything in common – you might be accused of being a socialist – and of course, capitalism is a direct gift from God. Please further note: Malachi 3 is speaking to the priests of Israel. They weren’t the cheerful givers God speaks of loving. 

We grew weary from your Edifice Complex pathologies – building projects more important than the people in your neighbourhood…or in your pews. It wasn’t God telling you to “enlarge the place of your tent” – it was your ego. And, by the way, a multi-million dollar, state of the art building is hardly a tent. 

We no longer buy your call to be “fastest growing” church in wherever. That is your need. You want a bigger audience. We won’t be part of one. 

Our ears are still ringing from the volume, but…Jesus is not our boyfriend – and we will no longer sing your silly love songs that suggest He is. Happy clappy tunes bear no witness to the reality of the world we live in, the powers and principalities we confront, or are worthy of the one we proclaim King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

You offered us a myriad of programs to join – volunteer positions to assuage our desire to be connected. We could be greeters, parking lot attendants, coffee baristas, book store helpers, children’s ministry workers, media ministry drones – whatever you needed to fulfill your dreams of corporate glory. Perhaps you’ve noticed, we aren’t there anymore.

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We have not stopped loving the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nor do we avoid “the assembling of the saints.” We just don’t assemble under your supposed leadership. We meet in coffee shops, around dinner tables, in the parks and on the streets. We connect virtually across space and time – engaged in generative conversations – teaching and being taught. 

We live amongst our neighbours, in their homes and they in ours. We laugh and cry and really live – without the need to have you teach us how – by reading your ridiculous books or listening to your supercilious CDs or podcasts. 

We don’t deny Paul’s description of APEPT leadership – Ephesians 4:11. We just see it in the light of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 10 and Matthew 20 – servant leadership. We truly long for the release of servant leading men and women into our gifts as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We believe in Peter’s words that describe us all as priests. Not just some, not just one gender. 

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We do not hate you. Though some of us bear the wounds you have inflicted. Many of you are our brothers and our sisters, misguided by the systems you inhabit, intoxicated by the power – yet still members of our family. (Though some are truly wolves in sheep’s clothing.) 

And, as The People formerly known as The Congregation, we invite you to join us on this great adventure. To boldly go where the Spirit leads us. To marvel at what the Father is doing in the communities where He has placed us. To live the love that Jesus shows us.
Addendum: This is a polemic. The first-person plural pronoun, “We”, is not used as Pluralis Majestatis (the Royal We) but rather is based on the post-charismatic/post-evangelical conversations that are occurring in the blogosphere. I have no more right to speak in this voice than any other person living in the liminal reality of the church in 21st century.
Please note also that I have many good friends who lead within a more traditional church context for whom I have great love, as well as deep respect. They are doing their very best to be missional within their worlds.


(http://kinnon.tv/2007/03/the_people_form-3.html)

Fonio is a Lost Crop of Africa

Great sustainability potential for the health and wealth of Africa. Look it up Fonio on Wikipedia.

 Found this little cultural tidbit there too.

According to the mythology of the Dogon people of Mali, among whom it is known as pō tolo, the supreme creator of the universe, Amma, made the entire universe by exploding a single grain of fonio, located inside the "egg of the world".

Oh, Baby Baby!

My Fried George Smith died in his mid 40's, in the fall of 2008. I want to share a few stories about him.

While we were attending College, “Oh, Baby Baby!” was the phrase George would say to a passing flock of good looking young ladies in the mall. I use to die of embarrassment every time.

You have to understand George. George could not whisper. He was a jolly short big man, with a deep voice. When he said something, everyone heard. However George was convinced that the flocks of young ladies NEVER heard him say; “Oh baby baby!” Let me tell you they almost ALWAYS heard. George was always a free spirit, and not very self conscious about much. I liked that about him.

The College we attended was in my young brides home town. My greatest fear became this; Being introduced to some 21 year old friend of Lynn’s from earlier days, and having this young lady remember or recognize me as the guy who “Oh Baby Babied” them in the mall. Guilt by association – know what I mean?

How many times had I made George promise he would not do this? Before I would agree to go to the mall with him I would threaten him about it every time. However, “Oh, Baby Baby!” would slip out of this training preachers mouth at the most embarrassing times. I realize he meant nothing insulting by it. He was just saying to himself, so he thought, they were pretty and God creates some very nice things in this world. But they always heard him say it to "himself", and it was wearing thin with me.

One day George “Oh Baby Babied” a group of 4-5 young ladies passing by. Immediately after the young ladies passed by I elbowed George, HARD, and said; “George, will you please lay off? They hear you saying it every time.”

Right out loud George bellows; “What? They did not hear me say Oh, Baby Baby! What are you elbowing me for?”

I said; “Yes they did hear George, they are looking at us right now”

The 4-5 young women had already stopped 10 feet away, turned around, and were laughing as I chewed out my friend for “Oh, Baby Babying” them, and giggling as George insisted at full volume that they did not hear him “Oh Baby Baby” them, and that I had no right to elbow him.

I have often found myself using this phrase very endearingly for my wife over the years. She knows the story behind it, and she likes the sentiment I give with it as well. When I know she needs a compliment, when I just "notice" her, or maybe she asks me how a new outfit looks; at times there is only one phrase that really says how I feel. I say to her; "Oh Baby, Baby!" and she smiles a big grin back. When I haul that phrase out, she knows full well that I really really mean it.

Mali, West Africa for next 5 months

All I wanted to do now was get back to Africa. We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.
~Ernest Hemingway

What are We Doing To Help The World?

Then something happened last year that changed my life. I stood in a city dump in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I saw men, women, and children who were living in a dump where they scoured for food and shelter.
Humbled by the reality of parents raising their kids in a dump, I reached my breaking point when I saw a woman eight months pregnant walk by me, looking for food. I couldn't decide which was worse--the fact that the baby was conceived in a dump or that it was going to be born there. In the middle of this scene, God asked me, "What are you going to do with what I have given you? How are you going to use your influence, your leadership, and your resources in the world around you?"
Business mans speech to his company managers
((Radical, David Platt, kindle line 1139)

Church Has Become A Meaningless Word!

It's here!

How The Church Helps Us Loose The World

Church as It Should be!

This describes what we "Actually" do very well. And it describes what we "Desire"  to be as a Church very well too!\

What is the Church?

What else can I say? It says it all!

Who's To Be on Mission?

“The calling of the missionary to the heathen is a glorious high calling. He who thinks himself above it, ought not to call himself a follower of Christ” – Samuel Mills, 1806

Poverty - A Child Who Never Pealed a Bananna!

A Story from a fellow international Worker. In The Burke's in Burkina Faso. It's a story worth repeating. 

It's a powerful story. October, 2011

Hey Mr. Tally Man, Tally Me Banana

Posted: 26 Oct 2011 08:42 AM PDT

I have to admit that one of my guilty pleasures is Harry Belafonte (What?  You don't know who Harry Belafonte is?  Where were you in the 1950's? See video below).  I sometimes enjoy dancing around the living room holding my 5 year old son, Dylan, in my arms and listening to Harry Belafonte.  Dylan is getting to where he’s almost too big for me to do that.  He’s getting so heavy.  My oldest graduated from that years ago.

Other pleasures I really enjoy are enchiladas and tortilla soup, spinach lasagna, chicken parmesan, pepperoni pizza, and a number of other things laden with fat and rich sauces.  My wife has become too good of a cook during our 9 years here and I always have to be careful not to eat too much.

In the song “Day-o,” Mr. Belafonte is actually portraying the plight of a poor laborer who only gets paid in bananas. I don’t remember saying this to my parents, but I probably did say at one point, “ You just don’t remember what it’s like to be a kid.”  If I did, my parents probably laughed at me.  However, what if the poor, the truly poor, could say to us rich Americans, not only do you not remember being poor, but you’ve never even experienced what that feels like.  Can you imagine getting paid in bananas?  What would you ask for as a raise?  “Come on, boss, I’d like to try apples this month?”

We are saturated in poverty in Burkina Faso.  However, the poorest of the poor here are orphans.  Orphans in Burkina are often treated like non-persons.  They do not eat meals together with their host families, if they even have someone who will take them for a while.  If a mother dies in childbirth and the newborn survives, it is assumed that the child has a curse and is left unattended during the mother’s funeral.  If the child somehow survives this ordeal, then the nearest relatives debate who has to take the cursed baby.  Unspeakably sad.

We are blessed, however, through outside donations and a relationship with a local medical organization here in Burkina to be able to assist them in doing medical clinics for school children about once a quarter.  A team of doctors and nurses and other volunteers supplied with rapid malaria tests, urine testing equipment, eye charts, stethoscopes, thermometers, and trunks and trunks of medicine, and a children’s program about hygiene come to serve these children.  Many children at these clinics suffer with disease for months because their families cannot afford to spend the $1 for a consultation at the local nurses station, or the $10 or $15 maximum it might take to pay for medication.  At the last set of clinics we saw almost two hundred children in two days and we collected 136 positive malaria tests (some of them were accidentally thrown away - so the final count was more than that).  

Saan-ba-ire

I’d like you to meet one of the boys we saw.

Meet Saan-ba-ire (pronounced saw-n bah ee-day).  He is seven years old.  He lost his Dad when he was two and his Mom left him at his Dad’s brother’s house and moved to Ivory Coast.  He has been living with his uncle ever since.  

Are you sitting down?  He is 7 years old and he weigh’s only 23 pounds.  It makes you sick.  I wonder if his uncle has ever danced around with him like I get to do with Dylan?  I wonder what he feeds him.  I wonder if anyone has ever delighted in him?

I’m not a medical professional, but I was fortunate enough to be used as an interpreter for the doctor in treating Saan-ba-ire.  He had malaria like so many of the others, but his biggest problem was malnutrition.  We prescribed vitamins and moringa powder.  We had a sack of snacks with us because it was a very hot long day, so Dr. Peter reached in our snack bag and offered Saan-ba-ire a banana.  

Bananas are available in every market in Burkina, but Saan-ba-ire, for seven years, has never been offered a banana.  He didn’t know what to do with it.  He started to bite it without peeling it and I had to show him how to eat it.   

At first, I was shocked.  I think about all the rich foods I eat on a regular basis and my culture with entire television programs dedicated to people who are eating themselves into an early grave, and then I think about this child who for seven years has lived around vitamin rich fruit like bananas, but has never been offered one once.  It defies logic.  It doesn’t even seem real. 

Then my shock turned to anger at his mother for leaving him and at his uncle for neglecting him.  I chastised him (to the extent that I could in a culturally appropriate tone) and told him he needed to do everything he could to get some vitamins in his nephew.

Then I watched my two very healthy boys run around and play at the clinic, and my anger turned to deep sadness.  The difficulty is that there are millions of Saan-ba-ire’s in Burkina.  Sometimes I wonder if we’re doing enough, and I think of the starfish analogy.  You know the story where the adult laughs at the kid throwing starfish back into the ocean on a beach strewn with starfish?  The adult tells the kid, “stop doing that and go play. You’re not making a bit of difference.  Look at all these starfish.”  And the kid says, “I’m making a difference for this one,” and he throws another starfish into the ocean.  So, hopefully we made a difference with Saan-ba-ire on this day.

And then. . . then. . . sometimes I wonder whether we are any better than Saan-ba-ire’s uncle.  He does almost nothing to take care of this child, but we also do almost nothing.  Just because he’s closer to him does that make him any worse than we are?

Have you met any really poor people this week?  If not, why not?  What are you doing to help them feel more human?  More alive?  To let them know that you don’t think that you are better than them?  How have you shown Jesus love to a poor person this week?  I hope you've done so.  If you have please share your story here.  I understand not letting your left hand know what you’re right hand is doing, so if you want to leave a comment anonymously and even change the name of the person whom you helped to protect the (what shall we call it?) “separate hands principle,” then do so, but please share your story.  It would do my heart good to hear what’s going on that’s good for the poor.

YWAM's Beginning!

"The tougher we made the conditions, the more the kids volunteered."

Loren Cunningham, YWAM pg 67

(After sending out Hundreds of YWAM kids all over the Caribbean islands - here was his reception home by his churches leadership) 

"The Problem, I gathered as we sat talking quietly, was that new works like ours needed to be brought under the organizational umbrella - not outside and autonomous. He said that their was a place for me in the Assemblies, but of course would have to be a full team player. In the end I was offered a job. A good one, too, there at the headquarters, complete with a fine salary, a staff, and a budget. `You can continue with your vision, Loren, but you'd be taking out a more manageable number , say ten or twenty young people a year'.  My heart dropped to my knees at the very gracious offer he was extending to me. It sounded so reasonable, so secure. Only it was far from what I believed God had told me to do: send out waves of young people from all denominations into evangelism all over the world........It was much, much bigger than twenty kids a year, and larger than nay denomination. `Sir', I said, `there's another generation coming. It's different form anything we've ever seen.'

I floundered, for I could hear how foolish my reasoning sounded, Brother Zimmerman assured me he had worked extensively with young people for decades and knew them well. As he tried to explain his reservations about my plans, I could truly see his dilemma. If I had his responsibility of leading a large movement, I would need submitted people - ready to play by the rules for the good of the whole. But here I was, hearing a different drummer, out of step with my own denomination. That's more or less what Brother Zimmerman said, too. He was sorry, but I'd have to leave the team - resign - if I couldn't play by the rules. ...." p79

"Don, I said, we're finally getting the message, aren't we? God wants us to focus our attention on His call, not on His tools."  pg 186
(Speaking about YWAM mercy ship, and buildings for the University)

(Is that Really You God, Loren Cunningham YWAM. YWAM pub, 2010)