The Receptivity of Partners

Receptivity is one of the key things that we look for when deciding who our summer teams work with. A host or partner that is receptive is one that is available, has capacity and is interested in both our teams having a great experience as well as furthering on their project. Good hosts are also receptive to their community - they usually have a deep understanding for what is going on in their context and are well connected and well respected. They see and imagine with a catalysts perspective. They don't subscribe to the faulty theology of 'these teams are bringing God here.'

Ask yourself: Am I getting timely responses to my questions? Do they seem to have the capacity and availability for us or are they too busy? Can they imagine how this will be good for their momentum as well as our team? Do they have a solid strategy for follow on relationships after my team leaves? Are they well connected? What is their reputation like?

Trust me and do yourself a favor - only send teams to work with hosts that are receptive. If they don't have time or availability for you now, they also won't after you get there. You are hoping that it will be better but it won't.

Friday Burn

::: How to Survive in Aleppo
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::: The Isobar - invented by a 22 year old

Will Broadway's "Isobar" has been designed to keep vaccines at the ideal temperature while in transit in developing countries.

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::: The Power of Distant Social Connections
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::: If we're going to reach the nations we have to move from churches that build ministries to ones that equip ministers. @jeffvanderstelt

Photo: Hervey Bay, QLD, Australia. On the 4th of July. 2016.

Perspectives Discussion Sample

Always fun teaching at Perspectives. Even though some people think it might only have 10 years of life left [old bald white men, no succession plan, what does learning look like in 2016], it is still one of the best mediums to expose people to a big world.

Some interesting and intruiging questions from the class last night:

+ Going to another culture means being a gracious guest, but sometimes, we get really sick for days. What do we do about that?
+ Are there unreached people groups in Europe?
+ Where is the line between understanding a culture and making sometimes wrong assumptions about that culture and how do we be smarter about this?
+ What do we do about young people who say they are interested in Jesus but not interested in church and how does that relate to a post Christian culture?

Lots of classes will be held in Merryland in the Spring, registration is now open. Of course, I'm a big fan.

Ember Board of Director Notes - October 2016

Rough high level notes from the October 2016 Board of Directors meeting for The Ember Cast. I will never tire of saying how grateful I am to this group of people for their experience, guidance and encouragement for what we do with students.

+ Financials
Goal of meeting with a CPA before 1 January. The short term goal is to set up QuickBook accounts to make sense instead of how it is done now. Long term goal would be a solid financial system in place.

+ Disaster planning for summer experiences
The Board and I spent a lot of time interacting this spring over a 'global security plan' for the Italy team. The process of putting together this plan was extremely valuable and this will be a standard document for all future summer experiences. We will also encourage this type of planning when coaching other student mission leaders. Hopefully, it never gets executed.

+ Board members meeting with ProtoGuides
Starting with our last ProtoGuide, setting meetings between the ProtoGuide and members of the Board is a good thing. They get to pick their brain, potentially hear and see about the life and ministry of a Board member and the Board member gets to know them and hear how Ember is helping them.

+ Intentional Staff get togethers
We need some kind of name for this but even with a weekly Staff email [I wrote about this here], and even though our Staff is project centric, it would be good for everyone to understand who is who and what are they doing. This idea came from Matt, who got it here.

Friday Burn

::: Redefining Global Cities
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::: Move Over, Millennials.
Here comes Gen Z.
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::: The Passing of Thailand's King
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::: Disciples are much cheaper to develop than consumer Christians. A little more time is needed but much less money. @HughHalter

Photo: side view, Forcey Christian School's chapel service earlier this week.

Out and About - Fall 2016

I have the following speaking engagements coming up and would love to connect with you if you are at any of these:

+ Tuesday March 25, Perspectives, Lesson 10, Forcey Bible Church, Silver Spring, MD.
+ Sunday November 6, Maryland Orphan Sunday, Grace Comm Church, Fulton, MD.
+ Sunday November 20, Perspectives, Lesson 12, Univ of DE, Newark, DE.

Friday Burn

::: Billions of people buying tickets and investing countless hours on something of absolutely no significance.
Seth on spectator sports. I would email this post to everyone all over the world, especially during football season, if I could.


::: Thank God for innovation. Thank God for creativity ... Spontaneity is our friend in the church. - Brian Houston

You may be shocked to hear we don't sing 'Shout to the Lord' anymore at Hillsong Church. It's not 1993. If you come all the way to Australia and you hope to hear 'Shout to the Lord,' your chances are slight. We don't even sing 'Oceans' much anymore.

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::: Wifi airport passwords around the world on one map.
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::: We are kept from our true goal not by obstacles but by a clear line to a lesser goal - @willmancini

Photo: Hillsong Conference Sydney 2016. We definitely did not sing 'Shout to the Lord.'

Book Notes - Growing Young

Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church by Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Brad Griffin.
Great read if you are in any kind of church or faith based nonprofit leadership including pastoral staff, campus staff, elder teams, or board of directors.

Almost weekly, someone at Fuller Theological Seminary quotes this powerful axiom from beloved senior trustee Max De Pree: "The first job of a leader is to define reality." The unfortunate reality is that most churches are not growing, and they aren't getting any younger.

All around the country, these hundreds of "bright spot" congregations are effectively loving and serving young people. Some of them quietly, and without flash. Others with great magnetism and fanfare. We call these churches that grow young because
1. They are engaging young people ages 15 to 29;
2. They are growing - spiritually, emotionally, missionally, and sometimes also numerically.

By keychain leaders, we mean pastoral and congregational leaders who are
* acutely aware of the keys on their keychain; and
* intentional about entrusting and empowering all generations, including teenagers and emerging adults, with their own set of keys.
[Keychain leaders - great illustration.]

The 'priesthood of all believers' doesn't mean leaders are absent.

If we are going to empathize with today's young people, we have to explore these questions. They are often what keeps today's teenagers and emerging adults awake at night.
Who am I?
Where do I fit?
What difference do I make?

As today's young people seek a more coherent sense of identity, the stress that formerly hit them in college, or even after college, now begins in middle school (or younger).
[Profoundly true. If you don't believe it, offer to housesit a high school junior or senior for a few days during the school year.]

Moralistic therapeutic deism still threatens to distract young people from Jesus.
Moralistic - equtate faith with being a good, moral person.
Therapeutic - faith becomes a means of feeling better about themselves.
Deistic - God exists, but this God is not involved in human affairs with any regularity.

Warm is the new cool.
* The chapter entitled "Fuel a Warm Community" is totally worth the price of the book.
See this article

Create both on-ramps and road trips. [Metaphors for increasing levels of commitment to community.]

Churches growing young prioritze young people not just for the sake of making young people happy but because the whole church benefits. One pastor of over 40 years put it like this: "Everybody rises when you focus on children and teens." Adults in another church reflected, "Young people are like salt. When they're included, they make everything taste better."

Myth: Good leaders and programs automatically lead to priority.
[Written about making young people a priority, but this could be said about a lot of other things too.]

Wise neighbors help young people discover their calling.
Churches that grow young people provide this vocational guidance by helping teenagers and emerging adults locate themselves and their work in light of a grand narrative.

Experiment on the margins.

Being a Curator

The mindset that makes your missions experience great or just average is the mindset of being a curator. This is infinitely more than just a 'leader' or a 'tour guide' or a 'chaperone' although you can use those titles, except for the last one. Instead, you become an anthropologist, a futurist and a talk show host all at once.

You help your students understand the past and present - why does this group of people function like it does, what are the predominant values of this city, what elements of the past inform why people act this way in the present.

You envision a path for the future - what do my students learn from this and how does that affect their behavior 5 or 50 years from now, what latent dreams and passions are erupted out of this experience, you say to them, "You know, you could do this too."

You ask a lot of pointed, intentional questions that form a bridge between where your students are, where they could be and how hosts, co-workers and people with the same calling help your students get there. You've done a lot of research on the people you are working with before you landed in-country, so that you can have an intelligent discussion with them about what they actually do. You interject, stop here and there to chat about this or that, keep a running list of notes in your pocket for discussion later.

Most mission experiences are good - people get there and back, they serve somebody and the students are exposed to another culture. Being a curator takes this experience and turns it into a time when your students learned to peel back elements of a culture and deduce significance, they envisioned a future that was bigger than themselves, and they heard deep stories of calling from people they worked side by side with.

Curation is catalytic leadership at its best. You know, you could do this too.

Friday Burn

::: The number of people in extreme poverty fell by 114 million from 2012 to 2013.
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::: Why the Best Leaders Want Their Superstar Employees to Leave
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::: The Church in Iran has become the fast growing in the world.

It's a simple story that can be summarized in just two sentences: Persecution threatened to wipe out Iran's tiny church. Instead, the church in Iran has become the fastest growing in the world, and it is influencing the region for Christ.

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:::‏ 53% of the world speaks 2 or more languages. - @DavidLivermore

Photo: morning team meeting, Italy, July 2016.

SparkBizLive - Scott Harrison from Charity: Water

The Shengs have been huge fans of charity: water for a number of years now so when I saw a event here in DC to hear founder Scott Harrison speak, I signed up immediately. The event was hosted by Inc. Magazine and Capital One as part of their SparkBizLive series and was last Monday night. Held at the great Capital View at 400, which overlooks Union Station, it was a perfect DC October evening.

When I got there, I was able to try out the new charity: water virtual reality headset which was cool. Free food and drinks and then Scott was interviewed by Jon Fine, the executive editor for Inc Magazine. Some of my notes:

CW was a digital charity from the start - no mass mailing or paper marketing.
The numbers can't humanize people - need to tell your stories instead. The water problem is too big in numbers for people to get. 'You numb out.'
Never paid for marketing officially.
Stories that share.
The 'giving back' language is not quite the right message.
Giving of your time is not enough. Bad excuse. You must also give money sacrificially. His family of 4 live in a 900 square foot apartment in NYC to live below their means on purpose.
The Well - their fund/account for paying for overhead. Distinct and totally separate from public well projects. 115 currently families fund The Well.
3 year commitment with 6 levels high touch donors treating them like investors, return on their money, get to see people get their children involved with generosity.
What is next if you fix the water problem: Grow the community of generosity for what is next.
Current trend is to have your nonprofit finish a task and put itself out of business. Scott doesn't necessarily buy into that idea.
'Do not be afraid of work that has no end.'
Favorite charities right now: Invisible children although they now have a skeleton crew. Watsi.org
'You offer people the opportunity to make their money greater than who they are'
Institutional givers - 'I have heard it is hell.'
Invited himself to speak to Twitter's staff when they were only 20 people. Getting speaking engagements can help your org at the beginning but you have to tell the stories.

I also hung out with Erika, wife of long time friend Joshua and some of her friends in the social entrepreneurship world. Erika runs Pulchritude, Sarah runs Kicheko Goods and Meagan runs Ethic Goods.

Most profound moment of the night: During the Q&A, a lady spoke about her starting a nonprofit for the water crisis in a country in Africa and her coming to the end of funding and having to raise more money or shut it down. Scott said, "Email me tonight and I'll make a donation." Jon Fine then added, "Yes email me and I'll donate too."

Thanks charity: water for continuing to always inspire all of us.

Made on the road

Disciples are made on the road, not in rows. - Kim Hammond

When you design a leadership development event or strategy, it is tempting to center it around the idea of people sitting down to learn content. This is the primary paradigm of learning for most of us - it is what most of us default to. Unfortunately, it isn't that successful. Just look at the quantity of events that are called 'leadership retreats.' And you know what 'retreat' means, right?

The sentence above is one of Ember's mantras and helps us stay centered around the idea that most people learn best by doing. You start with the concepts that you want people to experience and you build the road trip from that. It is more work than just getting a speaker and chairs but far, far more rewarding.

You can do this too.