“The idea that there is nothing beyond our personal spiritual development isn’t meant to be satisfying—-for our rescue is not the ultimate destination; it is the indispensible means by which God works out his plan to rescue the world.”  (p. 29)

Just Courage makes a powerful case for God’s call to his people to engage in the work of justice. And, not just for the redemptive impact on those struggling with injustice, but for how responding to this call is liberating for Christians as well.  “God specifically uses the work of justice as the pathway for liberating us from the Christian cul-de-sac of triviality and small fears.” (p. 39)

Haugen’s book fits on a larger page that God has been writing in my life. It is a call to all of us who follow Christ to move outside the walls of ecclesiastical safety and into the lives of people touched by the brokenness of our world. It is a call to follow Jesus in the world he was motivated to reach. It is an invitation to participate in the redemptive work that God is all about.

I could go on, but what I would love is for you to get a copy, read it, and drop me a note with your thoughts. Let’s have a dialog.  {Click the image of the book and go straight to Amazon to order it.}
[P.S. I’ll post thoughts on the two runner-up books in next week.]

It seems that we are collectively waking up to the power of mentoring these days, however at the same time, behind this momentum at least two illusions sabotage access to mentoring for most people.

The first illusion is the romanticized notion that mentoring relationships should be dramatic experiences of breakthrough replete with fireworks in the sky and a soundtrack in the background. It is as if we expect mentoring to feel like semi-magical encounters with an all-knowing guru. However, real mentoring feels pretty mundane most of the time.

The second illusion actually discourages people who are in the game. Most days, the real experience of mentoring feels more like the simple exchange of friends over a cup of coffee than a lightning bolt of earth-shaking insight. At any given moment in a mentoring relationship, the conversations feel small, slow, incrementally laborious…anything but glamorous.

This second illusion is the subtle deceit which makes people doubt the value of the time they are spending together. It is the lie that these mundane and incremental conversations are unremarkable. The opposite is actually the truth. The remarkable impact of mentoring is not in the drama of a single moment, but in the cumulative impact of one person sharing their life and their experience with another over time.

The true illusion of mentoring, is that the small non-glamorous interactions between mentor and “mentoree” add up to life-changing influence over time. Operating under the radar, mentoring can actually change the world, one life at a time.

And that is my point. If you can let go of the grandiose guru-like or overly structured academic notions of mentoring, you will see that there are scores of people around you who might help you with the growth, challenges, or possibilities you are facing. Seek them out for a simple conversation where you learn from their insight and experience.

Let go of the fanciful notions of mentoring and you will discover that you have scores of life experience and insight that might serve people around you as well.

So…
Who could you share your life with?
And, who could help you with the things you face?

Can you guess who said it?

The answer is Alice Cooper!  For my birthday, my son gave me his autobiography, entitled “Alice Cooper: Golf Monster.” What a fun romp through the world of rebel rock and the life of someone who epitomized that world. Here’s a guy, who changes his name to a Alice, wears eye makeup, and who not only kicks life-destroying addictions, but eventually decides to follow Christ.

His testimony confronts our notions of Christianity as the polite, unremarkable, religious pablum of the conservative old-school American. Even Alice’s choice of words scrape against the sensibilities of our tame images of what it means to be a Christian.

However, what if he is hitting the nail right on the head? What if becoming a Christian is literally a counter culture, revolutionary, even rebellious, action? What if following Jesus is the pathway away from the insignificant and dead end search to a whole new kind of life?

Jesus lived the most amazing life ever lived and his invitation to us is an invitation to a radically different life–a life that participates in the fundamental redemption of a world mired in brokenness. To quote Gary Haugen, the real stuff of Christianity is far from the recycled adventureless uncompelling life of Bill Murray in Ground Hog Day. It is a revolutionary life.

Thanks for the reminder, Alice.

Gary

[for another great read, I highly recommend, Gary Haugen's book, Just Courage.]

Two days ago, my wife, Margaret, and I were part of an organized “century ride” on California’s central coast. (1oo mile ride in one day on a bicycle.) Unfortunately, her batteries were a little low. She’d been sick a week earlier and after a couple hectic encounters with traffic motivation to continue was waning. At the turn around point, she felt a bit unsettled and would have preferred to stop.  However, she made a conscious choice to override her emotions at the moment and continue the ride. It was raw courage. There is no other word for it. It moved me, and it reminded me how much courage it takes to choose to continue when the initial thrill of adventure wears thin.

Every time a leader or an organization attempts change, they face moments it would be far easier to stop moving forward. Every time you or I try to change our ways or accomplish something worthwhile we hit the point where the initial thrill of the project is over and the strength of our courage is tested. When those you lead are pushing back against your because of the price tag of change, it takes courage to continue moving forward. When you are stepping into the unknown, courage is what keeps you from turning back to what was familiar and ‘safe.’

I became convinced long ago that leaders of influence exhibit four qualities that set them apart. They have a clear sense of Calling (passion, direction, etc.) They possess the Competencies demanded by a complex and challenging world. They have Character that runs deep, making them the people others can trust when the chips are down. And the fourth, they demonstrate that often overlooked quality, Courage.

While competency and character are familiar territory, the demand for courage might be the most often overlooked. Without courage you won’t pull the trigger when the going gets tough.  Without courage you will sabotage your capacity for influence by choosing the easy road. Without courage, it is easy to give up halfway.

You can have all the insight and ideas imaginable, but when the going get’s tough, what’s in your head won’t translate into behavior unless you also have courage. There is always an easier way out.

Courage is an amazing thing. It inspires others. And it is the fuel that gets things done. I watched Margaret make a courageous choice to keep going last Saturday and watched her ride strong through the finish line because of it.

I hope I can live as courageously this week.

Speaking of lessons learned from a week of prayer and fasting at church, Todd said, “we are learning that if we create space for God, he will fill it. Our task is making space for him.” Most of us live crowded lives that travel at breakneck speed. Into those lives, we need to create space for our souls, space for God.

I have long taught that God is more eager to speak to us than we are to listen. But something about Todd’s comment takes me to a new level. Meeting with God is more about showing up and less about all the things I do when I get there. It is not about what I do to manage my “quiet time” rituals, but what I do to quiet the noise inside of me in order to listen.

Intellectually, this is an easy discussion. However, integrity means admitting that this is not an intellectual challenge. I recognize that this is a call to trust God’s pursuit of me more deeply than ever. It means releasing any internal pressure to “fill the space” and pay more attention to simply making the space.

You see, for most of my Christian training I have been taught methods for having a “Quiet Time,” for meeting with God, for studying Scripture, for prayer, etc. I have found a number of those methods to be radically significant. In fact, I have endeavored to teach others many of the tools and approaches that have been meaningful to me. However, I am not the manager of an appointment with the King of the Universe. By definition, he is the initiator and I am the responder. It is his agenda that matters. It is his voice that I need to hear.

OK, so are all the things I have done over the years wrong? No. Should they be scrapped? No. But just maybe, the greatest work I need to do is to make space. Maybe my energy needs to be focused less on the things I am going to do in my “quiet time” and more on the radical task of being quiet in his presence.

If I make space for him, HE will know how to fill it.

Here’s the problem, my brain is always thinking about possibilities. What else could be done? What new projects could we tackle? What new goals? What improvements?

However, impact is directly related to focus and focus is about doing fewer things not more. Impact is not the result of doing a lot more. Focus is a process of saying no - so that you have the time and energy to say yes to the right stuff.

In a culture where habitual drivenness is the water we swim in, there is an invisible pull to say yes to more. And if your wiring is at all like mine, some of those possibilities and projects dangling before you are so alluring that it is easy to be deeply invested in far too many commitments to make a focused impact.

Wise leaders are constantly clarifying and focusing their personal “DO and DON’T DO LIST.” That is, they continually focus their activities and commitments so that maximum energy can be directed for greatest focus. They are clear about when they should say yes and when they must say no.

I think there are at least three major areas of vulnerability that lure us into an over-committed out-of-focused life. These are the areas where saying no does not come naturally.

Passion:
Leaders are generally people of passion. They long to make a difference, to leave the world a better place. Charlatans masquerade as leaders, but are actually concerned about recognition, self-advancement, and the like. True leaders seek to give themselves away. And this is where the trouble lies. When you are passionate about making a difference, it is easy to yes to that one more responsibility.

Competency:
Over time every one of us develops some legitimate competencies. Some of them were developed at a great price–with great pain and effort. When opportunities arise to leverage some of your core competencies it is easy to feel needed and valued. It is seductive to say yes when you get to use what you have learned to do well.

Relationships:
You know how this one works. A friend asks you to take on a new responsibility because your abilities would meet a need they have. You know you are already overly committed, but it is just one more thing and this relationship is important to you.

My point: Less really is more. There is a direct correlation between the narrowness of a leader’s focus and the depth of their impact. The key to focus is to say no to more so that you might say yes to the right stuff.

Two suggestions:

1.) Define your DO and DON’T DO list. In light of the focus of your life - the one thing that is most important for you to give yourself to - make a list of the responsibilities and behaviors you must do and a second list of those things you must (even painfully) say no to.

2.) Schedule a monthly review where you pull up a few thousand feet to review what has climbed onto your plate that you shouldn’t be doing and the things that have slipped off your plate which you must be doing. Then plan your schedule forward accordingly.

For some reason, even when heinous leadership behavior occurs in Christian circles it is common to gloss over these behaviors with polite and spiritually baptized verbal gymnastics.

I want to lobby for a new day. I want to suggest that it is time we name inappropriate behavior for what it really is. I think it is time we recognize that there are “sins of leadership” which do long term damage to the very people leaders are called to serve. By becoming more honest in the way we describe our actions, we have the chance of becoming more aware and more accountable for them as well.

Just two categories of such behavior.

THE COUP
You know what a coup looks like during a hostile military takeover. In the church or other organization, it is a coup when one person or party which is not in power, manipulatively or clandestinely consolidates power and then forcibly ousts currently appointed leadership.

An example:
A church planter seeking to build a culture of shared leadership in his church, was caught by surprise when one of his elders had been working his relationships in order to develop a larger personal platform. Ultimately, this elder had gathered enough support to call for the “philosophically-driven” decision to eliminate paid ministry staff and in the process oust the founding pastor. What happened in phase two of his effort was that he maneuvered himself into the role of senior pastor. It was a coup.

BLACKMAIL
Blackmail is the act of holding someone or a group of people hostage through either the threat of painful action or an expensive demand of some sort. The key threads to recognize are: 1.) there is always a threat; and 2.) that threat carries very painful consequences to it.

Example:

A ministry leader, unhappy with the direction of his church, networked a group of wealthy church members and presented an ultimatum complete with specific demands and details about what should be done to please them. The bottom line of this ultimatum? If the change we seek is not made, all of us will withold our financial support.

We need to look each other in the eye and call that kind of public threat what it is, blackmail. To threaten a group like that, to give an ultimatum, puts the entire congregation into a no-win situation. It forces people to choose sides and creates only painful options. It is an intimidation tactic. It is blackmail.

Power plays might be one way to get what we want, but this kind of political maneuvering leaves radioactive fallout that takes forever to dissipate. There are always other options for how people, decisions, processes, and leaders can be treated. But when people act this way, it’s time we call power plays like these what they really are. Furthermore, it is time that all of us pay careful attention to the way we wield influence of leadership.

What if the true legacy of our lives is something completely different?

A few weeks ago I was in the Chicago area-my old stomping grounds.  While there I spent a nearly perfect afternoon at a reunion of old friends for whom I had once been their Youth Pastor. We told stories, we laughed, we gagged over how old our children are, and we caught up on different ways God has been at work in our lives. The fact that these “former kids” are now in their 40’s is more than a little frightening. Their age says more than I’d like to admit about my own.

At one point in the afternoon, I was standing off to the side watching these old friends interact with each other. I couldn’t stop thinking about what quality people they had become. Lost in my thoughts, I failed to notice when another friend came up beside me. He put his arm around me and said, “these ‘kids’ are the legacy of your life-it must make you feel proud.” It does.

I think about all the things that we did together back in the day. The camps, retreats, mission projects, outreach efforts, etc. it was all terrific stuff, but none of it was the stuff that lasts. My legacy is not in all the stuff I have done, it is the people God allows me to do stuff with.

In the 21 years since I moved from that town I have been a privileged man. I have had the chance to lead and serve people in a huge variety of contexts in a number of states and a host of foreign countries. I have created programs, designed curriculums, written books, and spoken at a host of gatherings. It has always felt meaningful. It has usually been challenging. And, while there have been some very forgettable efforts, most of what I have done has had some level of influence.

But the legacy of my life is not in all that activity. It is the people of my life who go on to touch and shape the world beyond my reach.

As a leader I have to remember this lesson. It creates breathing room when I am under pressure. It gives perspective when I feel driven by a big project. It reminds me that the things I do actually create the context in which I get to share my life with someone else. It helps me pull up when I am preoccupied with details and demands, because it reminds me that what really matters in all of this is people.

The imprint of my life lives in the people of my life. The same is true for you. And that is our real legacy.

“I know it sounds like a squirrel, but since this is Sunday School, the answer must be Jesus,” answers the eager student.

Yeah, I know you know the joke. The story is so familiar, most of us can jump over the punch line and joke about Jesus vs. the squirrel answers that dominate our religious-speak. But the thing is, sometimes the answer is a squirrel-plain and simple.

There is this habit of talking in spiritually coated words when we are in church or around other Christians. Whether in leadership meetings or in the pulpit, we struggle to talk plainly about the issues staring us in the face. We gloss over ugliness with candy-coated optimism. We speak of tragic dilemmas with platitudes. We attempt to be cheerleaders for God’s reputation. We rarely call a squirrel a squirrel. Sometimes our spiritual lens coatings are so thick, we don’t even see the obvious in front of us.

Behind it all is a deep-seated dualism, a man-made divide carved between the secular and the spiritual. We operate as if church-related activities, (Bible studies, church services, small groups, mission teams, etc.,) are spiritual and therefore good. Then we treat everything else in life, (doing laundry, going to work on Monday morning, paying bills, family vacation,) as secular and therefore second-class, only a necessary evil, not necessarily bad, but not truly good.

However, there is one Lord of ALL heaven and earth. He is not only the sovereign of so-called spiritual life, He is the beginning and end of all life. As a result, all of life is deeply spiritual. There is no secular-sacred divide. All work is spiritual. All creatures are holy. ALL of life is a sacred created thing. Every vocation is a holy calling-a chance to live on mission in a broken world.

Following Christ is a journey into reality not away from it. Jesus was never interested in disconnecting from the tangible issues of life that surrounded him nor did he urge his followers to do anything less. He talked about and engaged the real stuff. It is part of what made him so attractive. He was truly one of us.

It’s no wonder that people who live outside the bubble of Christianized vocabulary don’t see our faith as a relevant answer to a complex world. We would connect with that broken world and the people trying to navigate through it far better if we learned to speak directly about the things right in front of us. Let’s call conflict conflict. Let’s be honest and straightforward about our emotions. Let’s voice our confusion or hurt or fear without conditions attached. And, let’s celebrate without apology when life calls for it.

I think it’s time for leaders who’ll champion the squirrel.