Innovative Leaders and the Church

My home church, Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA. has a wonderfully gifted and creative team who work hard to put together our worship services each week.This year during our Christmas eve services, pastors and staff came up with some very innovative ideas that helped them connect with and engage culture. Follow the link to view their IBand performance http://vimeo.com/34207709  I brought several groups of unchurched visitors to services and they all immediately connected with their amazing use of technology. One of those visitor was a ten year old girl from China. It was the first time she had ever experienced Christmas and she speaks little to no English. When she watched the GC IBand, she came out of her seat and began to jump up and down, her tense little expression was replaced by a huge smile. Innovation helped a ten year old who was 1000s of miles away from home and all that was familiar to her, feel welcome, at ease and connected. 

Their work inspired me to reflect on innovation. Innovation helps the church contextualize and stay relevant to culture. The only thing consistent in life is change, someone said, and we must be willing to change to stay effective in meeting the needs of an ever changing world. I love that the leadership is willing to risk and to reinvent how we do things.

But we are not always willing to change how we do things, we see things that are not working well and we fear rocking the boat, we fear change. If you are an innovative leader within a business, church or ministry, you have probably experienced the tension of trying to live with the "We don't do it that way here" culture and mentality. That short sentence can effectively kill creativity and innovation within your leadership team and the result is that the organization will stay where it is and become irrelevant and ineffective. You may also hear, we have a model for doing ______, which is a polite way of saying the same thing. Do we really believe that one ministry model fits all people? Move on friends because organizations who are unwilling to change are looking for managers not leaders, they are in the process of dieing a slow and painful death. Innovators do not stay if they are not allowed the freedom to use their creativity, because they will suffocate.

So if you are an innovative leader or entrepreneur  (like me) wherever you serve, you will most likely live in tension with your current reality, and how we imagine  things could change for the better. Expect it, this is normal, we are never satisfied, because when we reach our destination, we immediately see a new horizon. This is what lights our wick, so to speak.

As you begin to cast vision for change, you will most likely feel like a fish trying to swim upstream.You will encounter countless individuals who will tell you it won't work, that you are being too emotional (often directed at us girls),  to stop making waves, and to know your place.(remember Martin Luther??)  You will try to go along with the status quo but the Holy Spirit will not let you sit still with the idea He has given you, so you step out in faith often feeling alone and isolated. Rejoice friends, this is a GREAT sign that you are exactly where you are suppose to be...You are being obedient, you must be willing to go it alone (just you and God). As you begin to dream, create and implement, you discover this is your sweet spot and exactly who God created you to be. The Lord begins to bring people and the resources around you that will be needed to accomplish His mission and you realize that you were born for such a time as this! It's all worth it friends, find leaders who will give you the ball and let you run with it, they are not threatened when you use your voice, or dream your God given dreams... pray, create, sing, dance, love, write, teach, organize. Our God is a creative God and I believe He is cheering us on!

Favorite quotes on entrepreneurs and innovation:

Len Schlesinger

“Large organizations don't generally want entrepreneurs, unless they fly in formation.”

"entrepreneurship has the power to provide the future we desire to have.”


Seth Godin

“If religion comprises rules you follow, faith is demonstrated by the actions you take.”

“Every revolution destroys what was before in order to bring in what is new."

“Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.”

“Don’t try to please everyone. There are countless people who don’t want one, haven’t heard of one or actively hate it. So what?

“Go ahead, do something impossible. “

“Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death."

“If you could do tomorrow over again, would you?”


Brenda McNeil

“It takes courage to be a catalytic leader in your own Jerusalem. we have to face our own bigotry and ethnocentricity -

Surviving Christmas Single

It's the most wonderful time of the year. 

For months now, we singles have been bombarded with images, ads and even invitations to events that remind us that we are indeed single and alone during Christmas. 

Facebook ads on my home page daily invite me to find the Christian man of my dreams before Christmas so I can enjoy it. There are always the lose weight to find a match type of ads and now also on the scene are the, stay fat and meet a nice Christian man who is looking for a large women ads. When I Google single Christian, ads abounded such as: Surviving Christmas Single at E-Harmony, enjoy a free weekend of match making, Divine Match (sounds pretty holy to me) and of course my all time favorite, advice for singles, how to find prince charming.

Elaborate company Christmas party's pressure us to find a date and buy a little black dress (or for us over 40s a semi little, little black dress), go to the party alone, or find an excuse to stay at home. We are bombarded with subtle and sometimes not so subtle messages that we are not really enough if we are single. Call Mom and Dad and they ask questions about your love life like: "Are you seeing anyone yet", "We want you to be married before we die so we don't have to worry about you" (we won't worry when we are dead folks)

At church we are not excluded from these messages, though I think most faith communities work very hard to be sensitive to the plight of us singles. We have lovely young families come up front to light the advent candle each week, we offer Christmas tree lighting ceremonies and other celebrations advertized as family events in the bulletin. We search hard to find our place in Christian community, but the reality is we are not the majority, most Life Community Groups are for young families , women's ministries tend to be filled with June Cleaver type role models who do crafts, and those Christian singles events can actually be pretty depressing. (I still have nightmares about a particular speed dating event)

Okay so here is the good news for us at Christmas, we may be single, but we are not alone. As a matter of fact God is with us! That's what Christmas is all about, God came near, He came to walk among us and by the way Jesus stayed single His whole earthly life (how comforting is that for those of us in our forties, who are not sure if God will call us to remain single or bring us a spouse) As our pastor reminded me during his Christmas message last night, God came to people on the fringes first. He came to those who were not the majority first, to let them know that He was for them. That they mattered, that they had a voice and a purpose, and to let them know that they were enough just as they were. They would never be alone again! How cool is our God?

I am convinced that those Norman Rockwell type images we all have of families and holidays are a tool of Satan that cause us to strive for an unattainable normal.The more I live, the more I am convinced that normal is only a cycle on the washing machine! There are many ways to feel single within our faith communities: Are you the only believer in your family? Do you long for your loved ones to know the real meaning of Christmas? Are you divorced ? A single parent? Are you grieving the death of your spouse? Are you 1000s of miles away from your homeland and all that is familiar to you? Do you find yourself far away from loved ones? Are you a Christian women with the gift of leadership but a part of a faith community that doesn't allow women to lead? Are you having marital problems? It's easy for many of us to feel like we are single, on the fringes or alone. But we are not alone, God is with us, He is for us, and He knows what you are feeling. If you have opened your heart to receive Him, you are a member of the family of God. He included us, He adopted us into His royal family. Take comfort and hold on that. I know that Christmas is a challenging time of year for me, I am not going to lie or try to sugar coat it. But these are the truths of God that I hold at the center of my being. After all we are just passing through this life on the way to the next one (and we will all be so complete in heaven, that no one will feel the need to be married there)

Have a joy filled Christmas my friends! May we each be surrounded by the love of Emmanuel, God with us!

A Sold Out Life

Recently I attended a memorial service for a friend and brother in Christ. As I watched people arrive and fill the chapel, some known to me but most unfamiliar, I was so moved by how many individual lives had intersected with Bill's life somehow. We came together from so many different backgrounds and worldviews, to celebrate the life of a Jewish Christ follower. 

As I listen to people recall specific encounters with Bill, I heard over and over again these reoccurring themes: Bill loved the Lord Jesus Christ and he made it his every day ambition to share that love with people he encountered in the hopes that they would come to know Jesus and have life. Bill's love for Jesus was at the center of His life, and it was out of the fullness of that love, that He loved and served all of us as well as countless others.

Bill was a very simple man who, like all of us, had flaws. He wasn't perfect, he didn't have fancy degrees or initials in front of his name, and he wasn't rich and famous, yet somehow God had used an ordinary man to make a profound impact and help many come to know Jesus.

Bill's presence in our lives brought so many extraordinary memories, yet he was a simple man who led a simple life. As I remembered how Bill's friendship had impacted my life, I wondered, do I make the most of the opportunities the Lord gives me everyday, to share Jesus with those that don't yet know him? I so want to see and take those opportunities everyday, to love people, to serve them, to make an eternal difference. 

It is God's joy to use ordinary people like Bill, like you and like me...He is looking for people who are sold out for Jesus, to make an eternal impact in the lives of others. He did it with Peter and John and He is still doing it today! Lord help us each live a life sold out to you, and help us see and take those everyday ordinary opportunities to love people towards you!

 

Acts 4:13-14 (MSG)
They couldn't take their eyes off them—Peter and John standing there so confident, so sure of themselves! Their fascination deepened when they realized these two were laymen with no training in Scripture or formal education. They recognized them as companions of Jesus, but with the man right before them, seeing him standing there so upright—so healed!—what could they say against that?