Heading of in Gods direction.

"And what else is revival if not the willingness to see what God wants to do and heading off in that direction." (Viral. L.Sweet, PG 182)

30% Wrong

"I'm going to up front with you. Thirty percent of what I'm going to tell you is absolutely false. The problem is, I don't know which thirty percent it is." 

N.T. Wright

Hungry Season is Planting Season

"It is one of Africa's cruelest ironies that as the planting season begins, as it is now across much of the continent, so does the hunger season. The food stocks from the previous harvest are running low and it will be several months before the next harvest comes in. Whatever food remains in the household is rationed: portions shrink, meals are skipped, malnutrition rises." 

African Farmers: Surviving or Thriving?
Posted: 10/04/2012 00:00
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/roger-thurow/african-farmers-surviving-or-thriving-one-campaign_b_1405948.html

Why Have a Device that Does Only One Thing?

God question is it not?

"On way you can tell Gutenbergers from Googlers? Check their wrists. Googlers rarely wear a watch.  `Why would you want a device that only does one thing?' one of them replied when I asked, `Where's your watch?'  They have Iphones, IPads, Androids, mobiles, and Blackberries that put the equivalent of a newsstand, a library, a shopping mall, a jukebox, a video camera, and a high-tech communications center at their finger tips. Soon a handheld device also will double as your wallet, credit card, keys, bank, remote control, airline ticket, video conferencing center, and  thousand other nonvoice uses. Gurenbergers use technology, often reluctantly. Googlers live technology." Viral pg 136

Tidal Wave

Worth some time. Get a coffee, and just listen, think, ask, and pray.

Tidal Wave from simplechurch.com on Vimeo.

Slippery!

"Every issue facing the church today has a slippery Caiaphas, a vacillating Pilate, a betraying Judas, and a centurion who will drive the nails because it's his job." Lloyd Ogilvie

" Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it." Attributed to Harry Truman

Simple Church Interview

The interviewer is annoying, but I get that he is followed by people who have never head of this stuff and it's way outside their box..... first time exposure.... so he is trying to walk them through it...
But worth listening to. 
  

Same Girl!

A young playwright went to see George Bernard Shaw for some coaching. "What's the secret of your success as a storyteller?" Shaw answered. "Well, it's really quite simple. Every play boils down to the same thing. My plots are all the same. Act 1, curtain rises, girl meets boy, curtain falls.  Act 2, curtain rises, girl falls in love with boy, curtain falls.  Act 3, curtain rises, girl marries boy, curtain falls.
The playwright snorted "But Mr Shaw, whats so exciting about that?"
Bernard Saw replied with a smile saying "Same girl, different boy."

Too Simple to Beleive

"You know what I'm beginning to think..... I'm beginning to think that the reason all of this seems so difficult is because it's far simpler than I dare to believe." 

21ys old med Student commenting on simple church. Podcast with Wayne Jacobson,

"Religion is a social experiment to see how many hoops someone will jump through before they go postal."

A 15 yr teens comment to his mother about religion. 

Link: http://thegodjourney.com/2012/04/06/the-simplicity-of-a-loving-life/

Evil is Now Abolished!

On his first day as president of Yale University, the late Bartlett Giamatti issued a memo stating.

"I wish to announce that henseforth, as a matter of University policy, evil is abolished and paradise is restored. I trust all of us will do whatever possible to achieve this policy objective."  1978

"Leader" is a "Madeup" Word with a "Madeup" meaning!

When we use non biblical words, we are guaranteed to diverse opinions and meanings of what leadership is to be... And frankly, how most church consultants are using the word Leadership the last 10 years is scaring the socks off me.  Oh, this kind of leadership works to build churches  (You don't have to deal with dissenting voices), but it does not build relationships.

"Our  fundamental category is `Follower'. Even when Jesus calls us to the front of the line, we still lead from behind. For the last fifty years the church has made a fetish of a word that is hard to find even once in the New Testament (Leader) and has ignored a word that is found hundreds of time (Mathetes or `follower,' `disciple'). Leadership is, at best, a function. Followership is an identity.Christianity is all about following, but that is hard for us to accept. We want to be the leader who takes people to success and greatness...... The first words Jesus's disciples heard? `Follow me'. Jesus's words were not interpreted in a directional sense (`let's go north'). They knew he was calling them to be caught up in what he was doing. Jesus never once used the word leader or anything like it to refer to his disciples." (Leonard Sweet. Viral. 2012, pg 63,64

We've Rediscovered Fire..... Happy Easter!

"Some day, after we have mastered the wind, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the human race, we will have discovered fire."
(Teilhard de Chardin.)

How We see Ourslves- How Seen By others! Google Answers!.

"Christians are so......." How would you fill in that blank? Want to see the top ten Google searches? Type this phrase into Google "Why are Christians so.." 

You will learn something about the Google generations top ten things that most people seem to think  Christians are "So" characterized as being "So" much like... 

What, in this Easter season will make any difference in how we interact with others?

1. Not Alone: Why Are Christians So Hateful?
2. Why Conservative Christians So Often Fail the Common Good
3. Why are Christians so close minded? - Yahoo! Answers
4. Why are Christians so notorious in sinning throughout the world ..
5. Why are Christians So Judgmental?
6. If Christianity is all about love, why are Christians so so desperately obsessed with all the people they hate?
7. Why do Christians so adamantly support a false religion?‎ - 30 Mar 2012
8. Why are Christians so cruel to other religions?‎ - 27 Mar 2012
9. Why are Christians so gullible?‎

 

Sadness is Part of Life

The article says that we see happiness as control, and if we are sad it's because we are out of control.   To be balanced sadness and what we learn from the experience is healthy, and part of normal ife.

"Thinking positively is better than thinking negatively. But thinking realistically has even more to commend it."

(Hugh Mackay; In Praise of Sadness, Readers Digest, Nov 2011, pg32)

Shallow End Journey

"The church is like a swiming pool; the splashing goes on at the shallow end."
(Former Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie)

Love Is Proven By A Walk!

"Give them time and see what their love amounts too. The kind of love we are talking about here is something that pervades ordinary life, lifts the burdens of trying to be righteous, and easily flows out to those around us in a degree that you don't see in people, even in people who talk a lot about love..... The teachings of Jesus are actually expressions of a person who has been transformed, there not telling you how to be transformed. When you put them into practice you immediately discover you gotta have help, and help comes, and that is how you know God is with you..."
 (Dallas Willard in an intervene with Drew Marshall on The Drew Marshall Show Toronto)

Times Change.

" When I was born teenagers went into a drug store, asked for some cigarettes, and then, in a whisper, asked for some condoms. Today teenagers go into the drug store, ask for some condoms, and then, in a whisper, ask for cigarettes." (Viral. pg 51, Sweet)

Adults As Immigrants To New Culture.

"When I was born, children accessed information through authority figures. We are now raising the first generation of children that do not need authority figures to access information. It is the total reversal of historical learning modes. Looked at objectively, children need adults to help them assess, understand, and process information. The reversal here is that, now, adults need their children to help them access information. In immigrant societies, the children teach their parents the new culture,  the language, and the ideas. Today, adults need to listen to their children, because they are the natives and adults are the cultural immigrants." (Viral, pg 52, Sweet)

Not One of "Your Own"

"Character is how you threat those who can do nothing for you."

YWAM Values Are Good Values!

I'm sitting here in Truro Nova Scotia getting ready to "lead" a YWAM DTS...... but after returing from Mali West Africa, my head is not on straight. I usually need 4 weeks to get back to my normal self.  Its been a week and a half, and I am here.

Honestly, I don' think I have never felt more unprepared for anything in my life. Oh I prepared, but still so un prepared as my head is so full I can't seem to organize anything to get it out. So I have to rely on him. But I determined I was not coming to "Do it for them- Do it To them". We will have a conversation about these things, and we will share.

With that vision in mind I came feeling woefully in adequate to speak.... and instead, God spoke..... to me.

It's a two way street here. I will share, and I will have things shared with me I need to hear. The first morning I am sitting here as the students worship, and yes, as I type this blog. I had too. The first thing I encountered today was YWAM's (Youth With a Mission's) core values. 
I like them, and I needed to be remined of them.

1. Know God
2. Make God Known
3. Hear God's voice
4. Practice worship and intercessory prayer.
5. Be Visionary
6. Champion Young People.
7. Be Broad-Structured and Decentralized.
8. Be International and interdenominational.
9. Have a Biblical Worldview.
10. Function in teams
11. Exhibit servant leadership.
12. Do First, Then Teach.
13. Be Relationship Oriented.
14. Value the Individual.
15. Valule Families.
16. Rely on relationship based support.
17. Practice Hospitality.
18. Communicate With Integrity.

And right now, I have nothing more to say about that.

Complex Structures Hide Our Flaws

"My family home is furnished with heavily carved, high-Victorian couches and chairs that showcase the woodcarver skill. I'll never forget the day I stood in an antique store, staring at a Shaker chair. I admired its simplicity and then looked at the price. I almost passed out. Six figures.When the store's owner came over, I asked why the chair was so expensive. It was so plain it almost made you want to apologize. The antique dealer said, 'In fancy, florid, Gothic furniture like yours, the flaws of the material and the flaws of the artist don't show. The defects and mistakes are covered up by the ornamentation. But when you look at the simple lines of this Shaker chair, you can see very quickly whether there are any mistakes or defects. There is no margin of error. Only a master artist can make a Shaker chair.' It's that simple. We need to strip away the fancies and embleshments. We need to call upon the skill it takes to carve the simple. Discipleship is the process through which we strip away all that impedes the love and mercy and grace of Christ through us to the world." (Leonard Sweet. Viral, pg38, 2012)

I don't Like to hear it.

How I have lived and served in the church for over 20 years, though ment to enage people, has really served to cut me off from life with people in the community. I had to spend so much time in an office studying, managing, running, organizing all the "Stuff" in the name of reaching people. That became a lonely life.
I have come to see that it was really a dysfunctional one too. A life that never enabled us to build the relationships we need to be healthy, nor to to accomplish what we said we wanted..... opportunities to introduce the the person of Jesus to others. We have this contrived "goldfish bowl" approach to our faith. Members, and ministers alike,  see their job as herding the fish into the goldfish bowl (Church building) and let the preacher do the fishing from a raised platform. The fact that the method does not work any more in the west, for the majority of churches, is rarely questioned....you are just accused of not working it well enough (You are always the problem - not hip enough). God bless that road too. However, there is a more enjoyable relational way these days. Public teaching has it's place, but it should never be seen at "The Thing" as it is often seen to be these days.
Here is a good quote from "Viral". This has been an insightful book that is challenging my view of culture and "the times". Frankly what most are writing about this culture, at this time, has proven, for me, to be a waste of time. Because we Gutenbergers are reading other Gutenbergers books -who often see a black hole on the horizon, or a new hip restructuring of what we have as the answer. I love the new connected and relational dynamic that is emerging in the western googler. It has great possibilities, and a more joy filled life of interaction, rather than isolation as one rally's the wagons in a circle. I'm tired of all that sentiment.....I'll stand for the same truth, but not this disjoined apporach to life, ministry and the world, that we are calling church today.

"I believe it is more natural incarnate the gospel in TGIF Culture (Texting, Googling, Iphone, FaceBook) than in the world of the Gutenbergers. In other words, Googlers (be they disciples or not) are better positioned to encounter and engage with the Jesus of scripture than the Gutenbergers have been, since Gutenburgers were inclined to refashion the Jesus of Palestine into a Western-size-fits-all Savior. The church may wake up to find that Jesus's time has come for the TGIF Culture becuse it is more organic than linear, more kinesis than stasis, more circle than square. For this reason, Googlers may be the best hope for the future of the church in the west.
Gutenbergers suited their times well. But in the Googler world - the age of experience, participation, image, and connection - Gutenbergers have proven to be unwilling to let go of their fixed position. Meanwhile Googlers, for a variety of reasons, are more adaptive to the future while being anchored in the past. To add to the sadness, many Gutenbergers are putting more and more distance between themselves and what God is doing in the world.
While the Googelers expend enormous amounts of energy seeking to satisfy their urge to connect, Gutenberger Christians continue to per sue their fascination with terminologies, definitions, formulas, and what Sigmund Freud called 'the narcissism of small differences'. While Googlers are getting by with acronyms and finding friends everywhere, Gutenbergers are delving into words about words that have been written about God's words. It's an overstatement, but in place of vulnerable, transparent, biblical relationships, Gutenburgers often choose a spiritual path that leads away from the practical outworking of life and faith and people."
(Leonard Sweet, Viral: Social Networking.....pg 18)

My Office Time Never Really Produced Much!

Have to say that after spending 18 yrs as a Gutenberger, all the office study time did me wonders in my mind, but made me and my church dysfunctional in being a relational people. We are at the place where we have to "encourage", "coax", and "intentionally plan" for people to be together in small groups in the church. While in our Google culture, this is not forced, or pushed...... It is happening naturally at every moment of the day for them. They are connected and with people in many more ways and times than any of us churchy Gurenbergers are.

We as a church are out to lunch these days. If we have to "encourage" people to join a small group, there is something contrived about the way we do small groups. Anyway, Leonard Sweets Book Viral is pushing us to realize we don't have to fabricate in the church, what this generation does naturally. All we have to do is get out of their way..... it's us older guys who have to "learn" how to connect to our community again.....Read the book VIRAL. This quote is a corker...

"If we had any doubts that God wants a relationship with us, Jesus's life on earth supplies the final proof. God didn't send us a treatise; God sent a Person. And in our culture, either Googler or Gutenberger, it's often hard to find Jesus amid the clutter of words. While it might seem that Googlers (the thumb-texting acronym crowd) treat words too lightly, they are driven to find and maintain connection with one another.
In their dogged tweeting, blogging, Facebooking, and IMing, Googlers have stumbled onto the heart of Christian faith and meaning. Oddly, they have arrived at a place that echos the earliest Christians and their faith communities. I'm not saying that TGIF Culture is more consciously in tne with God than are the Gutenbergers. But I am saying that Googlers (Of any age) recognize a need in their lives and they act on it. Repeatedly. Some would even say constantly...... Gutenbergers might be more apt at describing in words what a relationship is and why it is needed. But Googlers are light-years ahead when it comes to the practicum."
(Leonard Sweet: Viral: Social Networking.)

Time With Others......

"While Gutenberger Christians keep busy parsing a Greek root to uncover the exact meaning of `submit' in Ephesians 5, the Googlers of the world are friending another two hundred people, reading the twenty text messages that came in during the last ten minutes, and meeting someone for coffee. The Gurenberger church might think of Googlers as superficial and bent on wasting time, but what is superficial about devotion to relationships."
(Viral: How Social Networking is poised to Ignite Rivival, Leonard Sweet pg 15)

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)