Archives For A Thousand Words

A book review with lessons learned in 1000 words.

Missional Renaissance, by Reggie McNeal

May 15, 2013 — Leave a comment

5.15.13If you’re looking for a solid left hook to the solar plexus, read Missional Renaissance by Reggie McNeal. His thoughts are piercing, unsettling, and full of truth. If you’ve ever thought that ‘church as usual’ wasn’t working but you couldn’t put it into words, McNeal will give you the words.

I’ve heard about the ‘missional’ movement for years but have resisted it, mostly because I could never quite figure out what ‘missional’ was. People would ask, “Is your church missional?”, but they forgot to tell me what the code word ‘missional’ meant. It’s as if I needed to join the club first before I could find out what I was joining. No thanks.

Reggie McNeal does a tremendous job putting flesh and bones on the whole idea of ‘missional.’ He defines it as “a way of living, not an affiliation or activity.” It’s not another program to add to your retinue. In fact, it’s a reaction against the over-programming of the church. To become ‘missional’ you need to embrace three shifts in your thinking and in your behavior:

  1. From internal to external in terms of ministry focus.
  2. From program development to people development in terms of core activity.
  3. From church-based to kingdom-based in terms of leadership agenda.

The rest of the book fleshes out this outline, giving great examples and ideas in each area. Perhaps the greatest asset of the book are the three chapters he gives under each section titled, “Changing the Ministry Scorecard.” In these chapters he gets extremely practical. More than just throwing some great ideas at you and forcing you to handle the implementation alone, he gives the reader a clear picture of what a missional scorecard looks like.

McNeal challenges the very concept of church itself, stating “Missional followers of Jesus don’t belong to a church. They are the church. Wherever they are, the church is present” (19). He does a good job looking back through history to see where our view of church became skewed from people to a building. Throughout the book, he challenges the idea of church merely being a religious vendor of services and goods. Rather, he aims to recapture the first century ethos of what the church is. What is the biblical ethos of the church? Not to be a religious destination for the already saved, but to be a catalyst of change to better the world. As McNeal puts it, “The role of the church is simply this: to bless the world. In doing this, the people of God reveal God’s heart for the world” (46).

Embracing this mindset will force church members outside of the four walls of the building they refer to as church, which is exactly what McNeal intends. Many see this as an either/or against the attractional model of church. McNeal disputes that, stating “not all expressions of attractional church are bad. It’s a mistake to think so–and an instance of either-or thinking. Even Jesus in his Incarnation was an attraction himself. The real issues is about DNA” (50).

For McNeal, the antithesis of a missional church is a program-driven church. When he spoke on this, my heart leapt, because I’ve worked at program-driven churches before. A program-driven church exists to keep the calendar full, to gather Christians together in a safe environment and allow them to exercise societal activities without the nuisance of unsaved pagans being around. As he aptly puts it, “The program-driven church has created an artificial environment divorced from the rhythms and realities of normal life” (93). The result? “In this way, the church effectively becomes a desalinization plant, sucking salt out of the community” (54). Ouch. Painful, but true.

How does the missional church differ from this mindset? “The missional church assumes that service to others is the first step, not some later expression of spirituality” (105). With that, he makes a hard push for churches to get outside and begin serving their community. All in all, a challenging read, but well worth it.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. What makes the book so uncomfortable to read is that he so bluntly and so accurately describes a majority of churches in my denomination. As a Southern Baptist, he knows the typical SBC church. His portrayal of it is dead on. Many know it (or at least feel it), but he takes it a step further and actually says it.

2. Something has to change in the current church culture. If we can’t agree on that, we can’t agree on anything. We are losing ground in our culture. We’re losing the next generation. What we’re doing isn’t working. Missional Renaissance is a good place to start.

3. Deep & Wide and Missional Renaissance don’t have to oppose each other. A previously reviewed book, Deep & Wide, speaks to issues of the church. While some may call Andy Stanley’s Northpoint Church a purely attractional model, it would be a mistake to do so. Here’s how I reconcile the two works: Missional Renaissance talks about a mindset shift for the church in general. Deep & Wide gives a great example of what a ‘missional’ weekend worship experience looks like. It’s not enough just to serve in the community. When the lost come to church programs, they need to see a missional experience within the four walls of the church building as well. The two books complement each other.

4. When Helping Hurts is a great caveat to McNeal’s push to get the church serving in the community. McNeal makes a strong push for the church to move from program-minded to service-minded. When Helping Hurts (another great book) helps churches serve others in a way that benefits them, not harm them.

5. While not using much of McNeal’s terminology, Mt Vernon Church has been implementing many of his ideas for the past decade. We’ve made the transition from a program-heavy church. We’ve simplified our events, moving from an internal to external mindset. While we’re not there, we see God’s hand of blessing on the steps we’ve already taken.

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The Great Evangelical Recession, by John S. Dickerson

March 20, 2013 — Leave a comment

3.20.13If you’ve been in church for awhile, you can sense it: the evangelical church is in a state of decline. Churches are struggling and dying off. Our influence is waning in culture. Our image in society is becoming increasingly jaded and extreme. In his book The Great Evangelical Recession, John S. Dickerson does an incredible job of giving the reader a comprehensive view of the evangelical church, pinpointing our weakest characteristics as a whole. According to Dickerson, there are six main areas where evangelicals are declining:

Six Trends of Decline:

  1. Inflated. Our numbers are too big. For years people threw out numbers stated that up to 40% of the population was evangelical, when the realistic number is somewhere between 7% and 9%. Our size isn’t what it seems. Here’s why that matters: each decade, we lose 2.6 million evangelicals. If the inflated number is true, then that would account for 2% of our number, not that big of a deal. But if we only make up 7% to 9% of the population, then losing 2.6 million means we’re losing 10% of our numbers each decade. Size matters. Sadly, we regularly inflate our numbers. I know a church that proudly boasts a membership of over 8,000, but only a quarter of that number actually attends. We’ve inflated our numbers.
  2. Hated. We’re known for what we’re against. You don’t have to look far in the news to see evangelicals coming out against this and that. As I wrote about in an earlier post, the number one thing that evangelicals are known for is that we hate homosexuals. We’re known for what we’re against.
  3. Dividing. There’s too much infighting within the evangelical community. Within the Southern Baptist Convention, we’re spending too much time fighting with each other over issues of predestination, taking our attention off the task at hand. Younger evangelicals are splitting away from the stranglehold the Republican party has been able to keep on evangelicals, leading to unnecessary political battles.
  4. Bankrupt. The giving generations are dying off. Even though younger generations are coming up to replace the older generation, they contribute at a much smaller level proportionally. Churches could see their funding cut by up to 70% in the next thirty years as the older generations die off.
  5. Bleeding. We’re losing our young people. We all know that. And we’re losing them at an alarming rate. Several research studies have shown that around 70% of millenials are leaving the church after high school. While it’s common knowledge that students leave during their college years, it’s a mistake to think that they all come back after they start a family; only 35% do. We’re losing the next generation of Christians.
  6. Sputtering. We’re not making disciples. Even as we’re losing our children, we’re failing to make new converts to the faith. That’s why evangelical numbers are slowly dwindling even though the overall population in America is soaring.

If that depresses you a little bit, it should. Evangelical churches are not in a good spot. May this be a wake up call for us to renew our dependence upon God and refocus our energies on the tasks that He would have for us. To mirror the six steps of decline, Dickerson offers six solutions for recovery.

Six Solutions for Recovery:

  1. Re-Valuing. We need to know our true numbers. We can’t grow if we don’t have a realistic baseline to work from.
  2. Good. This was my favorite chapter in the book. Instead of being known for what we’re against, we need to be known by our good deeds, as we’re told throughout Scripture. This means we need to serve more, reconcile more, and love more.
  3. Uniting. He makes a strong case for unity among churches. Unfortunately, it’s much easier said than done.
  4. Solvent. We must learn how to operate with a smaller financial footprint. Great words of advice in any age, but especially in today’s age of rapid change and instability.
  5. Healing. Pastors need to be healing, working to heal families and restore relationships.
  6. Re-Igniting. We must re-ignite the true workers of the ministry, the congregations of our churches. For too long, we’ve relied on pastors to do all the ministry, when it’s their job to equip the saints for works of service, not to do all the work themselves.

Overall, I thought this was a refreshing book for its insight and candor. As uncomfortable as the facts may be, facts are always better handholds for reality than fanciful wishes. Evangelical churches are struggling today. Our influence is waning. We can still grow and see the Kingdom of God take ground in America, but we must do things in a new way. We must be ready to pour new wine into new wineskins.

Simply said, the old way of doing church is no longer effective as a whole. We’re losing ground. We need a fresh wind of God’s Spirit in our churches. And we need churches willing to follow God’s leading into new territory. After all, there are still millions of people out there that need Christ’s forgiveness. We still have work to do.

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Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year, by David Von Drehle

February 11, 2013 — Leave a comment

2.12.13“Never has there been a moment in history when so much was all compressed into a little time,” one US senator aptly observed about the momentous year of 1862. Rise to Greatness looks at Abraham Lincoln’s rise to greatness in the presidency and the tumultuous year that forged his mythic legend. While it’s easy after 150 years to look back and take the outcome of the Civil War for granted, Lincoln didn’t have that luxury when he first took office. In 1862, “the Civil War became a cataclysm, the federal government became a colossus, and the Confederacy came nearest to winning its independence, yet suffered the key losses that led to its doom” (6).

Here’s what modern readers forget about the opening of the Civil War: nothing was assured. The South had a thriving cotton industry that looked to bring in European powers in on the side of the Confederacy. Early victories on the South sent shockwaves through the North, and the North’s lack of military leadership nearly doomed the War in its infancy. At the helm of all this was Abraham Lincoln, a country bumpkin from Illinois, a compromise candidate who shouldn’t have even won office. He garnered no respect among Washington or the Eastern elite. The military leadership mocked him. There seemed at times to be no hope for the North.

And yet, in the midst of the most dire circumstances, a president of mythic proportions rose. Lincoln’s resolve, his political skill, and most importantly, his tenacity to adapt and persevere held the Union together during its most critical phases and established the modern American nation that we know today.

In short, Abraham Lincoln deserves all of the praise he receives today. What modern readers forget, however, is that Abraham wasn’t born a legend. He became one. This book is the story of how he became the legend we know today. For fans of any type of history, this book is an absolute must read.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. Ultimate victory for the North was far from assured in 1862. Europe came tantalizingly close to intruding in the war. Border states such as Kentucky and Maryland were in danger of seceding to the South over slavery (which they still employed). There was open talk in the military of a coup to replace Lincoln with a military dictator. If you saw the outlook for the North in 1862, it would be very grim. Sometimes your greatest victories will seem like pending defeats. Don’t give up; persevere.

2. Lincoln as a leader was ahead of his country and had to patiently help them understand the difference between ‘soft war’ and ‘hard war.’ One of the problems the North lacked in 1862 was a lack of spine. They thought the South would simply roll over and accept defeat. Only after battles such as Fredericksburg and Antietam did they understand that the Civil War would be fought to the bitter end. As a leader, Lincoln could see the unpleasant future on the horizon and did his best to brace the country for it. As a leader, you must see the future and prepare your people to survive and thrive in it.

3. 1862 forged the man of legend that we know today. Reading this book gives hope to anyone aspiring to become a man of Lincoln’s stature. His natural skill was forged through difficult circumstances to produce the man we revere today. If he could make it, there’s hope for you.

4. Lincoln was forced to make the best out of a bad situation. When you begin to understand the scope of the problems that Lincoln faced, your respect for him only increases. One of his paramount problems in 1862 was his chief general (inherited from previous times): George McClellan. McClellan was soft, slow, narcissistic, and at times inept. Yet he had the hearts of his soldiers and could not be fired. Lincoln walked a delicate balancing act with his chief general.

5. Lincoln’s view on slavery evolved over time, as did his leadership. Lincoln did not immediately believe that emancipation of the slaves was the best option. He actually favored a gradual emancipation over a number of years. He also toyed with the idea of a forced expulsion of the slaves to a colony in Central America. Yet over time, his ability to process and grow allowed him to make the fateful decision of his generation: the Emancipation Proclamation.

6. Leadership sucked the life out of Lincoln. He paid the ultimate price in his leadership. Let this be a warning to those who flippantly aspire to leadership. Lincoln’s closest friends noticed how Lincoln’s health suffered dramatically because of the presidency. As we all know, as assassin’s bullet cruelly took his life. There is a price to leadership. True leaders are willing to accept it.

7. Leadership is not meant for all. One of the greatest heartaches that Lincoln had to endure was his wife: Mary Lincoln. Mary was by all means not fit for the rigors and pressures of the presidency. Her scandalous use of White House finances, dabbling in seances to connect with her deceased son and rumored affairs brought untold grief to the President. Some people can withstand the pressures of leadership. Some cannot.

8. Your future has not yet been written. Although God knows all things, you do not. No one at the beginning of 1862 would have believed that Abraham Lincoln would become one of our most revered presidents, the man of myth that he is today. Everyone wrote him off. If God could raise him up for a unique purpose, he can do the same for you. Never underestimate what God could do through your life.

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The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson

January 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

1.8.13The Circle Maker is a call to action. A call to prayer, specifically. After reading this book, my first response was spiritual: I knew I needed to pray more. Through the mediums of spiritual truth, historical examples, and personal experiences, Mark Batterson is relentless in his pursuit to inspire you to pray.

And not just pray; pray big. Pray God-sized prayers. I’ve read books before on prayer, about the need, the necessity, or even step-by-step methods on prayer. Batterson’s aim first and foremost is simple: he wants to inspire you to pray. He wants to stir up your spirit, break through your lethargy, and drive you to your knees in prayer. In that regard, he is successful. More than simply sharing familiar Bible stories on prayer, he shares well researched historical examples of prayer.

Yet Batterson’s greatest argument for prayer is the example of his own life. Through story after story, miracle after miracle, it’s impossible for him not to believe in a miracle-providing God, and it’s hard for the reader to as well. What makes The Circle Maker so effective as motivation is that it comes out of a place of personal passion and conviction for him. It’s difficult not to get swept up in his passion for prayer and his vision of the greatness of God.

The title “Circle Maker” comes from the Jewish legend of Honi the Circle Maker. A century before Christ, Israel suffered a calamitous year-long drought that affected the well-being of the entire nation. On that fateful day, a man of faith and determination took his six-foot staff and drew a circle in the dirt around him. When he was finished, he called to heaven and prayed: “Lord of the universe, I swear before your great name that I will not move from this circle until You have shown mercy upon your children” (12). And the rain came. As Batterson writes, “It had been difficult to believe the day before the day.” The day after the day, it was impossible not to believe” (13).

The “Circle Maker” is a beautiful metaphor that captures the determination and faith necessary to see God move in mighty ways. Too many times our prayers are self-centered, sporadic, and anemic. Way pray only for ourselves, not for God’s glory or the good of others. We sporadically, perhaps only at meals, as if God only cares about us getting enough to eat. And we pray anemically. We pray for things that we know will already happen. We pray for weak things, small things. God has more power than simply blessing a meal, helping on a test, or keeping someone safe on a car ride.

Somehow, someway, God has tied his power and supernatural intervention to the prayers of his saints. So, if we want to see God move mightily, to perform miracles and transform lives, we need to have the faith and determination of Honi the Circle Maker. The layout of the book draws three circles, three different aspects of prayer that are critical for us to understand:

  • Dream Big – If we’re going to see miracles, we need to expect miracles. We need to believe in the greatness and the power of God.
  • Pray Hard – Prayer is about persistence. If prayer was easy, then everyone would be doing it successfully. Circle-Making prayers are prayers that don’t give up, even if we don’t see immediate results.
  • Think Long – To see the full answer to our prayers, we need to view life from the lens of eternity. Prayer doesn’t change God so much as it changes us and how we view life. Prayer brings our perspective on life in alignment with God’s.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. This book drove me to my knees in prayer. This book did exactly what I needed it to do. It drove me to my knees in prayer. I was inspired by the God who answers big prayers, and by the believers with the faith to pray big prayers. One of my Personal Growth Goals in 2013 is to spend a solid week (168 hours) on my knees (literally) in prayer. This is far above and beyond what I do currently. I want to pray more. I need to pray more.

2. I don’t see the miracles in this book in my own life. Is it because I don’t see the prayers in this book being prayed in my life? I have a confession to make: I don’t pray like I should. I know since I’m a pastor I probably ought to see miracles happen in my life regularly, but I don’t. I constantly see God’s blessing on my life, but I don’t experience the miracles. I believe it’s because my faith is too small. My persistence in prayer is too weak. I aim to change that.

3. There is so much more that God wants to do for us than we give him credit for. We live like God only wants us to ‘get by’ in life.  One of the greatest values in this book is that it helps us escape our prison of normalcy and catch a glimpse of a grand life that God wants for all of us. We can get so used to simply surviving in life that we forget that God wants us to thrive.

4. “Circle-Making” Prayer must become a staple in anyone’s life for them to be used mightily by God. The next movement of God will be birthed by prayer. If you want God to use your life in mighty and miraculous ways, dream bigger, pray harder, and think longer. Let everyone else live a pedestrian life. Pray like it depends on God, and work like it depends on you.

 

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Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption, by Katie Davis

December 11, 2012 — Leave a comment

12.11.12Kisses from Katie wrecked me. I knew a little bit of her story, so I thought I was prepared to hear her heart-wrenching story of life in a third-world country. I was wrong. If you have a soul inside of you, you cannot encounter stories of poor, neglected and abused children fending for themselves in Uganda and not have your heart ripped out a little bit.

Katie Davis is a 24-year-old who grew up in Brentwood, TN with a life typical of many Christian girls raised in America. Yet she willingly gave up her “good life” to sacrifice herself for the poor and the orphaned living in Jinja, Uganda. Here’s a bit of her story in her own words:

“Slowly but surely I began to realize the truth: I had loved and admired and worshiped Jesus without doing what he said . . . So I quit my life. Originally, my quitting was to be temporary, lasting just one year before I went to college and returned to normal, American teenager life. But after that year, which I spent in Uganda, returning to ‘normal’ wasn’t possible. I had seen what life was about and I could not pretend I didn’t know. So I quit my life again, and for good this time . . . I have a joy and a peace that are unimaginable and can come only from a place better than this earth. I cannot fathom being happier. Jesus wrecked my life, shattered it to pieces, and put it back together more beautifully” (xviii).

This book is her story, her journey from her “normal” American upbringing to moving to Uganda, adopting thirteen precious daughters to raise as her own, and starting a non-profit that is bringing hope and healing to thousands of people. Never intended to be a professionally written narrative or deep theological treatise, Kisses from Katie captures the essence of her journey through story, vignettes of her life that show both the deepest hurts of the human experience and the deepest love of a gracious Heavenly Father.

Through her experiences with third-world disease, poverty, starvation and neglect, the veil of first-world ignorance will be forever ripped from your eyes. In a country (America) where suffering equals only having one fast-food restaurant to choose from, Katie’s real-world experience in Uganda is a sucker punch to the gut. While we’re busy keeping up with the latest elimination from American Idol, millions of precious children are simply fighting to stay alive. Here’s how Katie describes her first conversation with one of her new daughters, five-year-old Joyce, “What struck me most about that first [conversation] with Joyce was what she said to me: ‘Thank you for food, Mommy. Today I am still alive.’ My heart stopped. This little girl, at five years old, is simply thankful to have something to eat so she can stay alive” (87).

Numerous stories like that will rip your heart out with compassion and compel you to do something with the excess that you’ve been blessed with. Through all of the trials that Katie has gone through, she continues to inspire with her unadulterated faith in God: “God teaches me, and Masese (a village she works in) teaches me, this: Resurrection is real. Life is more powerful than death. Light can pierce darkness. I may never see the end of horrendous situations on this earth, so instead of trying to fix the situations here and now, I will focus on helping these people come to heaven with me” (192).

Get this book. Let it inspire you to do something meaningful with your life. To keep up with Katie’s work in real time, check out her blog here.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. Real Christianity is more than just church attendance and another Bible study. The end result of our faith is not another church service or more Bible knowledge. It’s loving God with all our heart and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Katie Davis is a beautiful picture of what it means to live out your faith in its purest form. More than simply attend more church or read another Christian book, Katie decided to live out her faith. How uncommon, yet how life-changing.

2. If you want to touch God’s heart, work with the poor and abused. If you look throughout the Old and New Testament, God continually shows his heart for the poor and oppressed. He constantly calls us as believers to show love to those he loves. If you want to work with those closest to God’s heart, get out of the finely manicured suburbs and go work with the poor and neglected.

3. I’m thankful for those who sacrifice their resources to make a real difference in the world. Katie’s non-profit ministry, Amazima Ministries, works to provide meals, education and many other needs for those who desperately need it. I’m also extremely thankful to be a sponsor for Children of Hope, a ministry helping Haitian refugee children living in the Dominican Republic get an education and a shot at life.

4. Everyone needs to go on an overseas mission trip. If you’ve never experienced life outside of the United States, then you live in a bubble. There is a tremendous world of need out there. There are millions of American Christians who can be the arms and feet of Jesus to a suffering world. But we’ll never know what’s out there until we go. Find a quality mission-sending organization and go overseas. It changed Katie’s life. It changed my life. It will change your life.

5. I want to be a part of a church that meets the needs of the poor and hurting. Who are the lost, the oppressed, the hurting, the neglected in your town? What is your church doing to love them and share the hope of Christ with them?

6. If you never meet Katie Davis in this life, here’s how you can find her in heaven: look for the really huge mansion up on the hill with the best view. Her rewards will be massive in heaven one day. She deserves it. Look for her on Mother Theresa’s street.

 

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The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, by Patrick Lencioni

December 4, 2012 — Leave a comment

12.4.12If you lead part or all of any organization, then you need to read The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni. Drawn from his decades of work in business management consulting, his insights into organizational health are a must read, whether you’re a business owner, school principal, or pastor.

I first encountered Lencioni through the Catalyst Conference. Every time I heard him speak I walked away impressed with his insight into organizational health. This year, I bought his book, his “how-to” manual on organizational health. It’s been one of the top three books I’ve read all year (for a guy who reads dozens and dozens of books a year, that’s at least saying something).

The Advantage is simply this: “The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health. Yet it is ignored by most leaders even though it is simple, free, and available to anyone who wants it” (1). The reason organizational health is ignored is because it’s intangible, theoretical, touchy-feely and difficult to quantify. It’s easier to stay in the concrete world of numbers and profits. And yet, tangible metrics are only part of success. Lencioni correctly states that for a business to succeed, it needs to be smart and healthy.

Being ‘smart’ is what we know: offering the best products, having the best marketing, staying ahead of technology. Being ‘healthy’ is something altogether different: minimal politics and confusion, high degrees of morale and productivity, and very low turnover from good employees (5). And yet, both are absolutely critical.

You’ve walked into business environments that were smart but unhealthy. Your experience was probably horrible. Literally the night before I wrote this review, my family and I went to a restaurant that had spent tens of thousands of dollars renovating their restaurant. The exterior and interior looked fresh, new, and modern. There was even a state of the art play area for my children. Yet at the end of the experience, my wife and I vowed never to return there. Why? Not because it wasn’t smart (everything was slick and up-to-date), but because it was unhealthy. The employees were slow, rude, and uncaring to the customers. It was painfully obvious that they didn’t like working there, so there was no incentive to give their customers a positive experience. The food was mediocre, prepared in a haphazard way. They were out of several small items that you’d usually expect to go with a meal. The supplies were in the back, but no one had come to refill those items for customers to come and get. It was a horrifyingly frustrating experience. A smart organization that’s unhealthy will ultimately fail.

And it’s not that non-profits have the corner on organizational health. Just because they might have a loftier goal than simply making a profit won’t ensure that their organizations are healthy. I worked in three different churches in my first ten years of ministry. Some were healthy, some were disastrously unhealthy. The mission was the same, but organizational health had a huge impact on whether they were ultimately successful in their mission.

With the necessity of organizational health established, Lencioni walks the reader through his four stages of organizational health. As a warning, when you read these four steps, they will seem simplistic, perhaps not tangible or complicated enough to affect your organizational effectiveness. Don’t be fooled. These steps are an incredibly practical tool to help your organization become healthy:

  1. Build a cohesive leadership team.
  2. Create clarity.
  3. Overcommunicate clarity.
  4. Reinforce clarity.

Now as for the specifics for each of the four steps, I’ll let you discover them on your own. This is a book worth purchasing and taking your organization through. His chapter on meetings, for instance, has completely changed how I think of meetings and how I will lead meetings in the future. Whether leading a for-profit or non-profit, an organization will be successful only if it is healthy. The Advantage is worth the read. Trust me.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. Organizational health matters. I know this first-hand. As I stated previously, I’ve worked in three churches during my first ten years of ministry. Some may look at that as me simply “climbing the ministry ladder.” For me, it was more about finding an organization to work in that was healthy. If an organization is healthy, its employees won’t want to leave. The reason I believe there is such a high turnover rate among ministers is because so many churches are unhealthy as organizations. Pastors learn all the theology they need in seminary, but many times none of the leadership skills needed to create a healthy organization.

2. Organizational health trumps ‘smarts.’ In the companies Lencioni worked with throughout the years, he came across a number of healthy organizations that made ‘smart’ business decisions that helped the organization separate itself from its peers. He noted that the media would always attribute these decisions to the intellectual prowess of the leaders. Yet Lencioni found something different. Many of these leaders had only average or above average educations, and yet their organizations made smarter decisions than their competitors with Ivy League educations. Why? Because their environment was healthy enough to produce smart decisions (10).

3. Health must start at the top. Lencioni consistently states that organizational health must start with the point leader of the organization. If the leader is unwilling to roll his or her sleeves up and embrace the process of organizational health, then it will never happen. If I believe the work of organizational health is beneath me, then my organization will never be healthy.

4. Churches are not immune to the requirements of organizational health. In his section on building a cohesive leadership team, Lencioni speaks against artificial harmony, which can destroy trust among the leadership. He states, “Nowhere does this tendency towards artificial harmony show itself more than in mission-driven nonprofit organizations, most notably churches. People who work in those organizations tend to have a misguided idea that they cannot be frustrated or disagreeable with one another” (44). Churches have to work at organizational health like everyone else.

 

 

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Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, & Life Together by Mark and Grace Driscoll

November 27, 2012 — Leave a comment

Do you ever wish a pastor would shoot straight about sex? Not the pie-in-the-sky sexual idealism that preachers rant about and many people break by the time they graduate high school. I’m talking real truth about the sexual messes that too many people find themselves in. If so, then this book is for you.

Real Marriage is a somewhat controversial book in Christian circles, not because anything in there is unbiblical, but because Mark Driscoll ventures into sexual issues that some consider taboo. Driscoll doesn’t venture here to be shocking or to make headlines, but because as a pastor he ministers where his people struggle. As a pastor to thousands, he’s encountered numerous stories of heartache and pain associated with sexual episodes. So, this book is him being an incredible pastor: taking the real-life struggles of people and shining the light of Scripture on them, to help them find a way out.

The book itself is broken up into two main sections: marriage and sex. The first section is helpful, looking at men and women in marriage, and marriage as friendship. As a Christian husband, I loved reading this bit of research, “Churchgoing husbands express more positive emotion to their wives, are more attentive to their marriages, serve their wives more, take more time for date night and time together, and invest more in their wives” (58).

The book really starts to steam up (pun intended) with the second section on sex. Here’s the value of the book: Driscoll deals with the raw and messy sexual struggles of real-life Christians today. Teaching at a marriage conference, Mark and Grace Driscoll encountered the brutal reality of what couples struggle with. Here’s what they encountered as people came up to talk with them: “Women who were molested as children, weeping so hard they could not breathe; husbands who had been caught, yet again, viewing porn; a married couple who had not had any sexual contact in more than a decade; a woman who had sex with her husband twice a day and was still unsatisfied, wanting more; a few couples who had been married more than a year and were still virgins; one woman who had not told her husband she had dozens of partners before they met; a wife who asked if her husband was guilty of raping her; and a Christian couple who wanted to know if they should keep watching porn together” (107).

As uncomfortable as it might be, situations like this exist in too many marriages today. Preachers like me get off too easy if we simply stick to the “don’t have sex before you’re married” message. That works if you’re preaching to teenagers, but what about the rest of us? What about those who have already made mistakes? What about those who are still trying to put together the pieces of a broken sexual life? What about those who are scarred from childhood experiences too horrific to recount? What about them?

As a pastor, Driscoll wades into the mess, rolls up his sleeves, and tries to help people find a way out. He and his wife are open about their sexual experiences growing up and how it negatively affected their marriage. Neither of them were virgins when they were married, and Grace was the victim of sexual abuse growing up. Their story is one of redemption and hope as they found healing and wholeness in Jesus. Grace’s willingness to open up about her sexual abuse as a child is invaluable for the millions of girls who suffer abuse growing up. Because of the stigma attached to it, too many girls don’t deal with the pain of it and carry that into their marriage. Grace’s journey points to the reality that sexual abuse does affect sexual intimacy with your spouse, and unless it’s properly dealt with, it will poison your marriage.

Chapter Ten raises the most eyebrows with ultra-conservative Christians, because Driscoll ventures into taboo territory and tries to apply biblical truth to areas that ‘good’ Christians aren’t supposed to talk about. Titled “Can We _____?”, he looks at eleven different categories of sexual reality that couples encounter today, including masturbation, anal sex, oral sex, role-playing, and whole host of other things that Christians want to know about but don’t feel comfortable asking. Because there is no sexual checklist in the Bible, Driscoll applies three scriptural principles to all of the categories and helps couples get scriptural truth applied to their sexual questions. While uncomfortable, this chapter is invaluable to a Christian couple just trying to get some answers to real-life questions. I applaud his bravery for venturing into such a taboo area and treating the issues with dignity and respect.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. Your sexual past has in incredible impact on your marriage. Through page after page of research and real life stories, Driscoll brings to light the convincing reality that sex always has consequences. If engaged in the wrong way, it can be devastating to a marriage.

2. Christian couples deal with sexual issues just like everyone else. Although everyone looks clean and dressed up on Sundays, they deal with sexual issues just like everyone else. I’m incredibly thankful for a book like this that tackles these issues head on.

3. The pain of sexual abuse is real. Grace’s story of abuse and its after effects are too often repeated in society today. My heart breaks for girls who are first victims of abuse, and then victims of shame that prevents them from finding help.

4. There is hope and healing for every sexual issue in Jesus. Greater than the pain of sexual mistakes, the light of Christ shines through this book as Mark and Grace continually point to the wholeness that anyone can find in Jesus.

5. Pastors need to talk about this more. Although many of today’s sexual issues aren’t specifically mentioned in Scripture, there are biblical principles that can bring hope to millions of people struggling with the consequences of sexual sin. We just have to be brave enough to walk towards the mess.

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The Art of Intelligence: Lessons From a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service, by Henry A. Crumpton

November 13, 2012 — 1 Comment

With the release of the latest James Bond movie, it’s fitting to do a book review on a real life James Bond, the CIA’s Henry Crumpton. Written by a former CIA operative about the shadowy world of US Intelligence, this is one of the few books written by an insider with deep ties to the intelligence community.

As I was reading it, my most reoccurring thought was, “they let him write this?” It was fascinating to read about some of the inner workings of the CIA, and although I know all of the information was vetted and scrubbed, I still felt like I was let in on a dirty little secret.

Crumpton walks us through his recruitment, training, and early days of running operatives in Africa. He does an excellent job maintaining his sources’ anonymity, while at the same time painting a real enough picture that the reader feels like he’s in the thick of the moment with him. His vignettes of dusty African roads and sweaty apartment blocks tickles the senses and thrusts the reader into his world. In the end, this book is an incredible public relations coup, giving an intriguing glimpse into the inner workings of the CIA without revealing classified information.

The crux of this work surrounds his work in counterterrorism and ultimately Afghanistan, as Crumpton played an incredibly critical role in the early days of the war in Afghanistan. Crumpton gives us a birds eye view of the formative years of counterterrorism and early attempts to get Usama bin Laden. He speaks tantalizingly of several close encounters with bin Laden before September 11, 2001. The tension and angst of the reader is thick as he realizes that September 11 might have been averted, but the United States did not have the technology (at times) or political will power to take him out.

With the terrorism of September 11, the Bush administration took the leash off of the CIA and allowed them to effectively run the early days of the Afghanistan war. Incredible turf battles ensued as the Department of Defense attempted to take over what had always been their forte: war. Effectively run by the CIA, the early Afghan war was an incredible departure from the wars of old.

Crumpton’s narrative leaves Afghanistan as the war drags on, bin Laden disappears into Pakistan, and the United States initiates a war in Iraq. Interestingly enough, Crumpton makes perfectly clear what many Americans have always felt: that the war in Iraq was a war of choice, pursued by a few within the Bush administration in spite of the cold hard facts. Crumpton leaves no doubt with the reader (his assertion) that the war in Iraq was founded on faulty (and possibly construed) evidence. Many smart Americans have suspected that over the years, but to see it in print by a high ranking CIA official is chilling.

Crumpton’s book peters out as his role in the intelligence community ends and he takes a variety of other high-standing assignments before retiring. His behind the curtain look at the formative days surrounding the Afghanistan war make this book well worth the read.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. The CIA is a moral necessity as a result of sin in the world. Ideally, there wouldn’t need to be an organization dedicated to subterfuge, lies, and deception. But with the presence of sin and evil in the world, I fully believe the CIA exists to keep greater evil from running amok. Unfortunately, the CIA can only act against evil when it’s in the national interests of the United States, but it still has many times kept great evils from being unleashed on innocent people.

2. The CIA represents a moral quandary for Christians. Is it morally acceptable to kill others, even if the cause is just? The Ten Commandments state that killing is outlawed, yet God commanded the Israelites to wipe out the nations of Canaan. Jesus taught us to “turn the other cheek,” yet God consistently commands us to defend the defenseless. If that includes killing a sadistic dictator, is that morally acceptable? Is it alright to murder someone if by murdering him you’re knowingly saving thousands of other innocent lives? I’ll let someone a lot smarter than me figure all of that out.

3. Unnecessary distractions can quickly become disastrous. The United States government became unnecessarily fixated on Iraq, while the war in Afghanistan was still in its critical stage. Although we’ll never quite know all the facts, there were no weapons of mass destruction, the impetus used by the Bush administration to justify the lengthy and costly war in Iraq. How many lives were lost; how much money was unnecessarily spent; how much damage was done to our economy and image in the world; all by a war that should not have been started. When we allow ourselves to be fixated on things that distract us from our central goal, disaster awaits.

What lessons can we learn from the War on Terror? 

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A Faith Of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars, by Jonathan Merritt

November 6, 2012 — Leave a comment

On the day that our nation is deciding its future for the next four years, it’s fitting to pull back for a moment and reflect on evangelical Christianity’s impact on American politics over the last few generations.

Jonathan Merritt is uniquely positioned to offer words of insight into this delicate subject. Born and raised in an environment that actively engaged in religious culture wars, he had a front row seat to watch conservatives such as Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority have its run of influence in American politics. Merritt even went so far as to attend Liberty University, the fusion of evangelical Christianity and politics in America today.

His critique of Christianity in politics and religious culture wars is scathing. Looking back at the addiction to power and lack of movement on any of the touchstone moral issues (such as gay marriage and abortion), Merritt correctly calls the Christian culture war a failed experiment.

The fundamental question that Christians struggle with is this: how involved should we be in our political system? In the end, the answer is balanced and nuanced. The Bible commands Christians to engage in the world, not withdraw. When you go to either extreme, you diverge from where Jesus would have us walk. Some take the extreme withdrawal approach, where Christians should remove themselves from all societal involvement. This extreme only removes the light from an already dark world, making it even darker.

Merritt uses this book to argue against the opposite extreme: the over-involvement of Christians in politics to the point where we look to the political system (not God) for societal answers, where evangelical Christianity becomes synonymous with the Republican party, and where Christians attempt to legislate morality for the rest of society.

Drawing on personal experience and hefty research, Merritt makes a strong case that evangelicals over-engaging in the political process has not changed the moral fiber of America. Instead, it’s corrupted the moral fiber of the church. The result is a generation of young Christians actively disengaging from anything they see as partisan religious politics.

Merritt’s case in point was the 2008 election of Barack Obama. Seen as a blow to the ‘religious right,’ many scratched their heads to understand why so many young Christians would vote for a Democrat. As Merritt aptly states, the 2008 election “pointed to a larger narrative about a whole generation of Christ-followers who believe the culture-war model is broken and want to liberate their faith from its partisan captivity” (38).

Drawing correctly on history, Merritt looked at the early church and why it resisted the temptation to enter partisan politics in the Roman Empire, “they knew that politics is not the true threat; it’s thirst for power. Power can shipwreck even the most faithful follower” (65). Once Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and thrust upon it power and influence, Christianity diverted onto a path that it would not break free from for another thousand years.

Merritt and I grew up in similar backgrounds (pastors kids in Southern Baptist churches, educated at evangelical colleges), and while he had a much closer seat to the front line of the culture wars, we both experienced the same disenchantment.

As a ‘young Christian’ (since I’m 34, not sure how much longer I can use that label), I completely identify with Merritt’s description of the frustration my generation feels with the culture wars of our parents’ generation. For me, watching the Southern Baptist Convention vote to boycott Disney for its stand on homosexuality was the height of ineptitude. A body of churches that was supposed to be about spreading the gospel got more fired up about making a political point.

For me, the best quote in the book was actually from Tony Campolo, who said, “All too frequently, Christian activists at both ends of the spectrum see power as the primary instrument for saving the world. ‘If we just had the power,’ they say, ‘we could set everything right.’ I want to say to them, ‘I wonder why Jesus didn’t think of that!’” (80)

LESSONS LEARNED

1. Politics is not the ultimate answer. While evangelicals (Republicans) may decry the downward spiral of America over the past four years, recent history shows that evangelicals had incredible influence under the Reagan and Bush presidencies, and the decline did not stop.

2. The religious leaders that tried to dictate moral behavior in Jesus’ day were the Pharisees. While we castigate and demonize the Pharisees in our sermons, too many Christians act like them in society at large, giving everyone who calls on the name of Jesus a black eye.

3. The churches seeing the most life change seem to be the ones that operate outside of a denominational structure. The rise of non-denominational churches has been dramatic over the past generation. A reflection against the negative connotations of denominational politics, a new generation of churches have risen up to reach people without the denominational and political clutter.

I’m writing this review the day before the presidential election of 2012. I have no idea who will win. Most commentators are hedging their bets and saying it’s too close to call. Either way, 50% of the country will be disappointed by the end of the week. But politics isn’t our answer, nor is it our hope. Jesus still reigns, and the church still has everything it needs to change lives. We just need the church to remember that her power comes from Jesus, not from the political system.

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Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek

October 30, 2012 — 1 Comment

Why do Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Harley-Davidson have cult-like followings? What separates them from their competitors? They start with WHY.

My first encounter with Simon Sinek was his famous TED Talk. He briefly shared his concept of the Golden Circle and how it applied to businesses today. A few weeks ago, I saw him speak live at Catalyst Conference and was impressed with his presentation of the same subject matter.

His book, Start With Why, encapsulates his philosophy and is a must-read for leaders and visionaries. He begins with the Golden Circle (as illustrated). His thesis states that the difference between great companies and their competitors is the fact that they start with WHY as opposed to WHAT. His classic example is Apple and the computer market.

Apple isn’t the only company that sells computers. Nor are they the only company that sells good computers. You could make an argument that on some points other competitors produce better computers. Yet Apple creates a cult-like following not generated by any other company. Why? Because Apple knows their WHY and starts from there.

Here’s what most computer companies sound like:

“We make great computers” (WHAT).

“They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly” (HOW).

Wanna buy one?

Apple, on the other hand, starts with WHY:

“Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently” (WHY).

“The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly” (HOW).

“We happen to make great computers” (WHAT).

Wanna buy one? (p 40-41)

Sinek uses the Golden Circle as template that pierces the fog surrounding great companies like Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. All companies that stand out above and beyond their field. We know there’s something that makes them stand out above the fray. Sinek uses the Golden Circle to identify their secret.

Once that’s established, Sinek uses the rest of his book as an opportunity to talk about the power of WHY, why many companies fail to capitalize on their WHY, and how to identify your WHY. It’s all abstract, without simple guidelines or how-to’s that many love to walk away with. And yet, his book is absolutely priceless for those wanting to differentiate their lives or their businesses from the fray of the marketplace.

Of particular interest to me was his discussion of the way the human brain is wired. The two main portions of the brain are the neocortex and the limbic brain. The neocortex is the outer portion of the brain. It controls language and rational thought. It’s how we form words and communicate. And yet it’s not where we make our decisions. Our decisions, our most primal motivations, come from the limbic brain, the inner portion. It controls emotions and all human behavior, but it has no capacity for human language (56). If you’ve ever made a decision based on your “gut,” then you’ve decided from your limbic brain in a way that you couldn’t describe in words.

Here’s where things gets really interesting. When we use words, manipulations, or offer our products based on rational arguments, we are describing our WHAT to the neocortex. But decisions aren’t made there. Decisions are made in the limbic brain, where the HOW and WHY reside. Great companies are companies that start with WHY because they appeal to the core of the human decision making process. They penetrate through the fog of WHAT and appeal to the WHY, to the part of the human brain that makes decisions. As Sinek says, “People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. A failure to communicate WHY creates nothing but stress or doubt” (58).

This is where the power of WHY really takes flight. If you’re interested in shaping or influencing human behavior, you absolutely must now the power of WHY and the limbic brain. Too many people, organizations or churches rely on the WHAT to drive their success. To effect real influence, you must speak to the WHY. WHY do you do the things you do? WHY does your organization exist?

Sinek finishes with some good advice on how to discover your WHY, and the positive affects it will have on your life and career. Discovering your WHY makes you more than just an effective leader. It makes you a charismatic leader. “Energy motivates but charisma inspires. Energy is easy to see, easy to measure and easy to copy. Charisma is hard to define, near impossible to measure and too elusive to copy. All great leaders have charisma because all great leaders have clarity of WHY; and undying belief in a purpose or cause bigger than themselves” (134).

LESSONS LEARNED

1. This book is an incredible reminder of the truths we can learn from the “secular” world. Although Sinek is most likely not a Christ follower, his insight into the human condition is incredible. There were numerous points that he made that speak to the way God designed us. Although Sinek might not agree with it, I see God’s fingerprints are all over the truths of this book.

2. Too many churches rely on WHAT to fuel their growth. A church in some ways is like any other organization. Churches can get caught in the cycle of relying on WHAT to market themselves to the world. They can advertise their great facilities, high energy programs or remarkable staff to set themselves apart from other churches. It’s nothing but WHAT.

3. Churches need to rediscover their WHY. This can be a little tricky, especially since we can all point to several Bible verses to back up our beliefs. But the question is worth asking: WHY does the church exist? To glorify Christ? To be a witness to what Christ did through his death and resurrection? To make disciples of all nations? I think all are valid WHYs (with Bible verses to back them up), but they still need to be captured and communicated in a way that inspires action. Here are some WHYs that aren’t found in Scripture but are used by too many churches: to continue the tradition of a long-standing congregation, to promote family-friendly activities, to teach the Bible (easy now, don’t stone me), or to promote the platform of the pastor. However and whatever you describe your WHY, I think the reason that many churches are dead and dying is because they lost their WHY, the reason they exist.

4. When churches market themselves, they need to start with WHY. Playing off of the last point, how do we present ourselves to prospective members? What do we advertise? Yesterday I spoke for a few minutes at our Discover Mt Vernon class, where prospective members find out more about our church. Looking back at my notes from the previous session, I realized that I had started my pitch with WHAT, not WHY. I fell into the trap. So yesterday, I started with WHY we exist: we’re a part of the movement that’s changing the world. We’re about changing lives and changing the world. That’s a much better selling point than “great facilities, new environment, contemporary worship.”

5. Once you discover your God-given WHY, your life takes on a new level of purpose. Sinek speaks to reality that we’re all made for a purpose. I believe that purpose comes from God. Once you drill down and discover what that purpose is, you’ll find a whole new reality of living. I’m still working on capturing my WHY from my limbic brain to my neocortex, where I have the use of language. But here’s my first attempt. My WHY is to inspire others to reach their full potential in Christ. That’s what I love to do. That’s what gets me up in the morning. That’s what gives me the most joy. I do that through preaching, blogging, personal interactions, and training others. When I get to be a part of someone taking a step towards their full potential in Christ, my soul sings. That’s what I want to do my entire life.

QUESTION: What’s the WHY for the church? WHY does the church exist?

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