Welcome Home JT

Loved catching up with JTimmons, who you might remember helped with Ember 14X as the first leg of his 5 leg journey around the world. His jaunts also included Greece, Turkey, Nepal, and China and we loved being a small part of his quest as he sought how the Lord might use him in another culture. John's spirit of adventure will continue to inspire all of us.

Watch this guy and I don't know either about my hair.

Some Sons of Sheng

Loved hanging with these young men - they are like the sons that we never had, especially when they eat all those cheetos. [They were interns in 2010]

Some topics from our conversation of catching up:
Auto-ethnography, Christology and different realities, college campus ministry leadership, God speaking through dreams and visions, how to help high school students ask the right questions from missionaries, church planters and kingdom starters.

Both of these guys have some kind of career goals in cross cultural ministry - perhaps vocationally. This summer, John is probably headed back to Mozi and Andrew probably back to Kenya. Andrew is helping us with a little project later this month.

These guys are great examples of what can happen with Ember interns - suburban students learn about the realities of our global world, they get some real leadership experience, they make some decisions to structure their life around those goals. And then they go and do it. Then they come home and catch us up. And they do it again. [And they come back and help Ember when they can.]

In Search Of

Interning for the Ember Cast was a truly eye-opening experience. We live in a fast-paced world where the manner in which the Gospel is advanced is changing daily. Innovation and adaptability are key components to propelling the Jesus movement forward, and these are precisely some of the tools that I gleaned from being an Ember Cast intern. Unique perspectives, coupled with practical applications made the internship an unforgettable experience.

- ARotolo, Ember 2010 intern
Always always on the lookout for students like these...

AZ team update

Lots going on with our team, all very fun.

+ Our support is at about 90% which is amazing. We bought plane tickets yesterday. With only 3 weeks to go, booking a team of 11 on the same set of flights is pretty miraculous.
+ We will be a tad over budget at the end - there was an increase in flight costs. Pretty confident that additional support will come in to cover it. If not hmm....
+ The guides JTimmons and AR are busy putting together a devotional guide. This will be the guide that all teams visiting Amadeo all through July will use. They are also tasked with running our daily team time.
+ We are hosting a fundraising evening at a local Qdoba next week. If you are local and in the mood for some Mexican food, would love for you to stop by. The team gets 20% of the evening - you have to bring this flyer with you. Thursday 4-8pm.
+ Ben is hosting teams all through July - you already know he's got partnerships all over the world. Some peeps from Canada and Northern Ireland will be there the same week we are there.
+ Most nights this week, the guides were at my house scheming. Lots of brownies...

2010 AZ team meeting #2

Team meeting #2 last night with the AZ team - the first one now that our team is finally set. Lots of fun working with this team - I'm very expectant based on the potential of each one of these guys and girls.

Here's the agenda in case you are prepping your team and need some help. Like everything on the blog - feel free to take what works for you.

+ Support update - 42%. Hopefully buying plane tickets this week.
+ Myers Briggs test - this is the really fun part. We talked a little bit about what the types mean, what it means on a team like this and gave a few examples from the past - especially about E vs. I and J vs. P. Best part is when you chart out the team.
+ Mixer - JTimmons and AR ran a mixer that included a skit, middle names and school mascots.
+ Quick glance at the 8 big questions and the treasure hunt concept from the Short Term Missions Workbook - we will spend more time on these in future meetings. [Long time readers know I love this resource - if you do a lot of this mission stuff, you should have a copy.]

1. Walk with humility.
2. Embrace with affirmation.
3. Live with vulnerability.
4. Practice flexibility.
5. Live as a student.
6. Work as a servant.
7. Speak as a storyteller.
Let the Spirit tell God’s story through you.

+ Overview of tentative in the field schedule
+ Dessert

Related:
Hungary 2008 #3
Hungary 2007 #3
Cameroon 2006 #3
Brasil 2005 #3

09-10 Ember Interns - Improvements

Two things come immediately to mind that we could have improved upon:
+ More Scripture - especially from a leadership/mission lens.
There was a good bit at the beginning but not so much as the year went on.

+ More intentional time practicing being with people.
A great filter for this is from The Forgotten Ways : presence, proclamation, proximity, powerlessness. We were hardly ever out and about with people in public third spaces.

What I've realized is that much of this comes from me. Systematic, intentional reading through the Bible has always been a struggle personally. And practicing those four Ps is not something I am in the habit of, but probably should be.

Granted these are small compared to what we actually did do. But feedback and continuous improvement is important so we're jotting it down. I'm making the interns fill out a feedback survey - will post those comments later on.

[This is a series of posts evaluating the Ember intern process for 2009-2010: Overview, Positives]

09-10 Ember Interns - The Pluses

What we did right:
+ Blogs.
Making the interns jot down their ideas and reflections was hands down the best idea. If for nothing else, writing helps them think. And like all blogs, they will serve as journals for a time in their life. See faithinhighdeff.blogspot.com and strikeflint.blogspot.com.

+ Great content.
Their reading list included Movements, The Forgotten Ways, and Waking the Dead - some of the favorites around here. Also current material on culture, church planting, unreached people groups, urbanization, globalization, and leadership multiplication.

+ Face to face connections.
Connected them face to face with people around here doing the work, not just talking about it. And not just church people but kingdom people.

+ Embraced creativity, innovation, and new expressions of the Church.
Most of the field trips we did reflected this. I can't think of any of them that were "traditional" or stereotypically "church" in any sense - loved that.

+ Served.
Catalytic leaders serve in a movement context - so not only was it great fun to serve with them, we gave them a context to serve and catalyze others in the process.

[This is a series of posts evaluating the Ember intern process for 2009-2010: Overview]

09-10 Ember Interns - Activities

I've loved every minute of this year working with the interns. We've had a ton of fun and the experience with them has been fantastic.

Here are some of the highlights of what these guys have experienced.
The Idea Camp DC
NCC
Catalyst One Day
Middle East welcoming party
Ember Philadelphia
The Bridge
Steve Addison
Here is a summary of their reading/writing assignments.
We've got a few more things planned before they finish school and graduate and instantly become adults. And of course, the summer.

Future posts will touch on what we did right, what we could have improved upon and characteristics of future global leadership.

[This is a series of posts evaluating the Ember intern process for 2009-2010.]

One of these things is not like the other

I've been to two mentorship receptions for each of the interns in the past few weeks. I'm always impressed with what these students take on - interning with doctors, lawyers, engineers, educators... and student ministry global catalysts.

It's been a great year with ARotolo and JTimmons - I'll have more reflections to sum up the internship in some future posts. But right now, it's enough to say that they drove a huge amount of what Ember was this year - what we did, why we did it and what direction to move in. That of course was huge. Just as big, Ember and these guys was a very vital outlet for me in light of some very difficult family circumstances over the past few months - a very, very healthy hobby. In many ways, it kept me sane.

Movements Move

In March of 2006, I started blog stalking Steve Addison. Since then, his insights have continually had a tremendous impact on my perspective on leadership, missions and students. Yesterday, I got to meet Steve face to face as well as sit in on a session with him along with the Ember interns and about 30 other people. Hearing him speak live on "Movements that Change the World" was an absolute treat. If you've ever served on a team with me, Steve has made an impact on you too. My rough notes are below.

Movements start with the unraveling of leaders - issue of who is Lord.
There is no formula - focus on God, may the Lord unravel us for his service.
See the people of God as a missionary movement. Jesus is the founder of it.

What did Jesus do.
- He moves. 175 towns/villages in Galilee. 200K people. Either he or his team had direct contact with each village and each person. Jesus moves on after the seed has been planted. Very unlike our model of settled pastor/teacher.
- Speaks to thousands as well as one on one.
- Whole nation is touched by the end of his life.
- No finances, no org, no manual, no power - nothing except God's power.

Acts 1:1 - Jesus is the key character in the book of Acts.

Must see through movement eyes. How you disciple the first convert is paramount.

Woman at the well - only stayed with her for 2 days - no follow up. Movements move.

People of peace
- not trying to convert everyone, just find the people of peace
- a harvest model
- the end game is the Gospel planted - person of peace fits the culture better than you do. we are focusing too much on ourselves.
- Zaccheus
- Matthew - Jesus says I want to meet your friends.
- Demoniac - go back and tell your friends
- Rich young ruler - looking for the responsive and turn away the unresponsive
- Lydia
- Phillipian jailer - tell your families
- Cornelius - is the church planter that plants the church in his own house.
- Movements move=meeting lots of people - vs Western model=love them for a long time into the Kingdom

'What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place.' - Chesterton

Western suburb of Melbourne is the graveyard of church plants.
If you can control it, it's not a movement.
Overwhelmingly, heresy is the product of white learned men.
Insiders don't think about incarnation - they are living it.

We like to: churches -> gospel -> disciple.
book of Acts: gospel -> disciples -> churches

Studio of the Arts - Annapolis MD.
Met twitter friend @bcmddavid in real life - Team Strategist for Church Multiplication, Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware
about 50 people there, mostly church planters, pastor types. almost all white - no women there. JTimmons and AR were the youngest in the audience.

Steve: top notch speaker - great interaction with the audience. Loved that there was built in times for interaction and reflection on the material with your team. There were also a few times he made up some specific interactions on the fly - all in order that the material could be reflected on immediately.

Thank you Steve - you've impacted much more than we can see.

[Related: Book notes - Movements That Change The World]

Intern Field Trip - The Bridge

The interns and I visited The Bridge this past weekend. Jumaine Jones and I met originally in Oct, 2007 and I had been meaning to drop in ever since then. Really fun to see the Majestic theater and to worship with their community.

Downtown Silver Spring is always interesting to me - I remember it when I was a kid, I worked there in the mid 90s and lots of urban revitalization going on there now. In light of the redevelopment and the move from suburban to more urban, it's fun to watch a community like The Bridge grow there.

The interns also got a quick few minutes to chat with Jumaine about ministry, church planting and their future. This is one of the objectives of the internship - exposure to different expressions of the Church.

Networked Interns

The interns and I worked through a section of The Forgotten Ways last night. It's great material but a bit heavy for a high school kid - they've already read through small parts of it. I'm glad that we read through it together - outloud, stopping for questions and explanations with them highlighting lots of examples from this year.

Last night we worked through a section on organic systems and network theory - that's valuable because the leader of the future is going to understand the balance of movement and institution and some of that will come from understanding how networks of ideas, things and people work.

Some bullets from a section in chapter 7:

+ The organization must be adaptable and responsive to changing conditions, while preserving overall cohesion and unity of purpose.
...
+ The organization must cultivate equity, autonomy, and individual opportunity.
+ The organization's governing structure must distribute power and function to the lowest level possible.

I can't tell which part I love more. That the interns are reading this or that the interns are embodying this.

See more of their reading here.

Ember Philly - Movement, Context, Symbols

Fantastic weekend in Philadelphia as the first Ember Cast engagement. Loved facilitating this kind of experience for a student small group leader at GRACE.

We spent two days and one night in the Chinatown section of Philadelphia as a cultural immersion/service project experience. This weekend was designed around a small student ministry team from a suburban church outside of Baltimore. The Ember Cast facilitated the weekend as guides as well as implementing the weekend between leaders from the student ministry, some trusted hosts and a vision for engaging students to be global leaders. This weekend represented one expression of why Ember exists - to guide students in cultural experiences so they may be catalysts for the Gospel. Emerging leaders in our global context are going to well understand how to navigate world cultures. In this weekend's case, these cultural immersions included the Chinese and homeless cultures.

Here are some of the details - as always, feel free to take what you want.

Schedule

Fri
: interns and I met LT for dinner - freshly handmade noodles.
: Chinatown observation : what is common in that subculture, what is different from where I come from?
: settle for the night in a small apartment, 16 of us with one bathroom.
Sat
: serve at Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission - mopping, sweeping, serving or preparing food, most time and energy spent sorting food warehouse.
: lunch at underground Chinese supermarket.
: Chinatown observation in the daylight.
: hang with Joy Fellowship - CCCNC youth ministry.
: Joy Fel hosts us on a photo scavenger hunt throughout the city.
: youth worker ideation share - why Ember, rapport with families of students, what our respective ministries look like.
: cheesesteaks for dinner.
: decompression of the weekend.
: Chris Marlow sharing about social entrepreneurship, global poverty and living an extraordinary life.
: drive home - great decompression with the interns.

Tidbits

: what does it infer about a community when there is a huge mass transit hub there?
: our three themes for the weekend: movement [the Gospel and God's people move], context [your context matters], symbols [what is important in this culture].
: 60% of north chinatown is unused space.
: CCCNC was started by an American college aged girl who wanted to reach the chinese
: Chinatown - most culturally immersive environment I've taken student teams to yet.
: migration - Chinese they move into Chinatown but move out as they can.
: most restaurant workers are now no longer Chinese but Hispanic.
: not just for Chinese - lots of immigrants in this part of the city.
: city actually put up physical parameters for Chinatown.

Interns
The interns did great, of course. This weekend was almost as much for them as for the student team. My goal for them was to help with really running the whole thing and to see a project like this from up close - from dream to execution to feedback. And loved that they could spend a good amount of time getting to know LT and hearing his perspective.
Two highlights I loved hearing from them:
1 - They felt like they were actually leading, especially when it came to running some of the decompression discussions and the youth leader sharing session.
2 - They understand that a major component of leadership development is the selection and identification of emerging leaders. They were already doing this all weekend by asking, "Who is getting it?"

Hosts

Some amazing hosts made this happen - none of this would have worked without LT and Chinese Christian Church and Center. LT and I met via twitter [yes, believe it.] and then face to face at Idea Camp DC. We've been looking for a way to collaborate and this weekend was a great team project. Also, special thanks to Chris Marlow for sharing about HELP and for Todd Hiestand for hanging.

twitter
Here is the twitter stream - note there are a variety of people writing in here. - you'll have to find the links yourself.

tonytsheng : @ChrisMarlow dude thanks for sharing with our students - loved what you said - you've helped prep them for an extraordinary life! 10:22 AM Jan 24th
tonytsheng : Great ember weekend wow. And my dad came home from hospital. Full 2 days. 11:38 PM Jan 23rd
trevinhoekzema : intense, unexpected, totally crucial conversation on the way home from Philly. God is so much bigger than we can imagine... so should we ... 11:08 PM Jan 23rd
tonytsheng : Amazing decompress with the interns on the way home. I am lucky. 11:03 PM Jan 23rd
chrismarlow : Great to meet @TonyTSheng, and share with his group! Hang with @LaurenceTom and eat cheessteaks w/ @toddhiestand! 10:58 PM Jan 23rd
laurencetom : Love @ChrisMarlow. He killed it tonight w 9mins on the clock speaking to the EmberCast team about @HELPendPOVERTY and fresh off the plane! 10:04 PM Jan 23rd
tonytsheng : Final element with @chrismarlow talking abou help. @toddheistand is in the house too. 8:21 PM Jan 23rd
tonytsheng : Ember interns leading decompress. One of the fun parts. 8:00 PM Jan 23rd
trevinhoekzema : http://twitpic.com/zg4in - Standing in line at Tony Luke's for a cheesesteak... this line is ridiculous! 7:14 PM Jan 23rd
tonytsheng : @charlestlee learned from the best =) 7:11 PM Jan 23rd
trevinhoekzema : got 3rd place in the photo scavenger hunt but had a philly cheesesteak, saw the Liberty bell and Independence hall... worth it. 6:36 PM Jan 23rd
charlestlee : @TonyTSheng love how ur using words like "ideation" :-) 6:30 PM Jan 23rd
tonytsheng : Youth leader ideation. Now cheesesteaks. 6:28 PM Jan 23rd
tonytsheng : Photo scav hunt around Philly with Chinese youth group telling tem I'm too old to run 2:35 PM Jan 23rd
trevinhoekzema : so good @tonytsheng definitely a good call haha 1:19 PM Jan 23rd
tonytsheng : @TrevinHoekzema delicious and you? 1:11 PM Jan 23rd
trevinhoekzema : Hey @tonytsheng howd you like the beef with greens veg on rice? 1:03 PM Jan 23rd
trevinhoekzema : Great lunch at "Tasty Place" in the Chinese market. Love me some rice. 1:01 PM Jan 23rd
tonytsheng : Lunch at underground Chinese market. 12:19 PM Jan 23rd
trevinhoekzema : RT @TonyTSheng: Tour of Sunday breakfast rescue mission. Amazing story of migration. And crazy facility. (hope it rocks these guys) 11:23 AM Jan 23rd
tonytsheng : Tour of Sunday breakfast rescue mission. Amazing story of migration. And crazy facility. 11:13 AM Jan 23rd
trevinhoekzema : http://twitpic.com/zcwqf - organizing food shelves at a homeless kitchen in Philly @theembercast 7:55 AM Jan 23rd
tonytsheng : Sunday breakfast mission. On an early sat morning. 6:39 AM Jan 23rd
laurencetom : Now there's 16 of them crammed into a small apartment in Chinatown for the night. Can't wait to see them in the morning. 10:45 PM Jan 22nd
laurencetom : Just brought over a dozen teens from the suburbs of Maryland to walk around Philly Chinatown tonight and make cultural observations. 10:43 PM Jan 22nd
tonytsheng : Culture activity : id common and different artifacts. 8:05 PM Jan 22nd
tonytsheng : Dinner in china town with ember interns and @laurencetom lots of noodles 7:20 PM Jan 22nd
trevinhoekzema : Philly trip with the Dteam guys, organized by @theembercast - missions minded weekend to develop future revolutionaries. 6:03 PM Jan 22nd
laurencetom : Expecting a weekend full of opportunities w hosting mashup of @TonyTSheng of EmberCast x @ChrisMarlow of @helpendpoverty 3:17 PM Jan 22nd
tonytsheng : After a wicked am in hospital interns and I are off for first ember cast weekend 2:39 PM Jan 22nd

Thanks for reading the update. More photos here. If you or a collection of students would be interested in something like this, feel free to get in touch.

PS - My dad came home from the hospital on Saturday. Good news, thanks for praying.

Syn-thesis

The interns are required to, among other things, write a 'synthesis paper' during their internship. This paper is to have a core idea along with some data and experience to prove that idea. We've been tossing around some thesis statements, thought you might enjoy reading some of them. The blanks are to be filled in, but I filled them in just for fun.

The highest quality of a movement leader is ______. [adaptability, compassion, love for humanity, discipline]
Communities of faith should evolve at a faster rate of the culture they are in.
The best way to ignite a movement is with ____. [indigenous people, strong leadership, outside investments]
In the future, a missionary will look like a ____. [cultural architect, engineer, tribal elder]
Comparison of cultural impact of Christian missions vs. ____. [MTV]
Christian missions is the best vehicle to save a culture.
Technology is hurtful to the movement of Christianity.
Peer driven leadership is the most effective model for local student ministry leadership.
Leadership case study - everyone likes them okay versus some love and some hate them.
The next innovation in student missions is _____. [identification and cultivating the apostolic]
Sustainability/multiplication in a missions movement.

Glad I don't have to write this paper. It would be too long for a blog post... ;-)

Migration

Most of us will never understand migration from a personal point of view. Populations of the world have been moving - and will continue to move - at unprecedented rates. I believe in the conviction that this is one of the primary shifts God is orchestrating in world demographics.

The Ember interns and I spent a little bit of time this weekend helping with a Middle East Christmas welcoming party. Through a connection with one of the party planners, we spent a few hours helping behind the scenes for a party that was focused on recent immigrants. We didn't get a ton of time actually interacting with the guests, but we did get a short glimpse into their culture.

I loved a ton of elements from the party, including: the hosts having a police officer talk about basic laws; lots of donated goods including kids Christmas gifts and gently used clothing; creating a space for recent immigrants to connect with each other; and some middle and high school kids who served as small group hosts to shepherd the little kids through crafts, games and the works-in-almost-any-culture-for-boys video game room.

Catalyst One Day - Baltimore

Huge fun having Catalyst One Day at Grace yesterday. Loved that we could be part of inspiring and resourcing leaders around the Balt/DC area and even farther.

The content of the talks was amazing - lots of great insights. Learning from Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel never gets old. Just as much fun was seeing and meeting all my friends [hey, I'm a WOO] from the Internets. This part is just as inspiring - these friends do what they do because God has called them and there is no other good reason.

Here are some of my selected notes:

+ Andy - Gaining and Sustaining Momentum
three components of sustained momentum - new, improved, improving
:: New - triggers momentum
Org momentum is often triggered by
new leadership
new direction
new product <-> program
Do we need a new leader, direction or product?
Momentum is never triggered by tweaking something old. It is triggered by introducing something new.
New does not guarantee sustained momentum. But new is an essential trigger for momentum.
:: Improved - new must be noticeable difference over the old.
If cost is an issue for something new, you are probably doing too much.
:: Improving
momentum is sustained through continuous improvement.
Continuous improvement requires systematic evaluation.
Continuous improvement requires unfiltered evaluation.
Continuous improvement requires that nothing and nobody be off limits. - everything is on the table.
Evaluation must be built into rhythm of your org.

+ Craig - Busting Barriers with Mindset Changes
3. think differently about the mission
we can't hurt someones feelings vs. we can't allow someone to hold back the mission of the church
roles -we hire for current instead of for future capacity
5. think differently about limitations
we can't because we don't vs. we can because we don't.
limitations -> innovation

+ Andy + Craig - Elder teams
: lifechurch:
14 people
5 staff
6 lay
3 pastors of other churches
can only fire him for big breaches - immorality or heresy - not for other stuff
no congregational vote
: NorthPoint
10-12 elders
Andy is permanent
elder selection team, only serve for a term
elders meet with andy once a month - their only job is to evaluate andy
church is staff run

"get the right people to the table to make the decisions"

+ Craig - Creating Personal Spiritual Momentum
1. do something to defeat your dark side
identify your dark side: my leadership dark side is ____
4. do something only you can do
You can only be the husband of your wife, the father of your children, only you can seek God on your behalf

+ Andy - Don't Be That Couch
[If you liked this talk, you should also read Erwin McManus' chapter entitled "Change Theology" from An Unstoppable Force. This talk also reminded me of Built To Last]
The Dip - Seth Godin
How The Mighty Fall - Jim Collins
Whereas programming begins as an answer to a question, over time it becomes part of org culture - it becomes to beat up old couch that people are emotionally tied to.
We must continue to be more committed to our mission than to our programming or our model.
"If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what would he or she do? Why shouldn't we walk out the door, come back in, and do it ourselves?" - Only the Paranoid Survive - Andy Grove [don't you love that book title?]
Leaders must bring the underlying assumptions that drive company strategy into line with changes in the external environment.

Here are two of my big takeaways:
+ If you want to know your dark side, ask your wife. Or your family. With some healthy and uncomfortable discussion [and I know I'm better for it,] mine are probably: a high aversion to risk, not nearly praying enough, a tilted view of success, and a gradual lessening of deep friendships. Yup, that's going to take some soul work.
+ Evaluation for improvement. Consistent and unfiltered. Like the item above, nothing about what we do should be off limits when we talk about whether it is working or not. Very relevant for Ember since culture and context are high values of ours - we have core tenets but seek to engage those in very adaptable ways.

The twitter hashtag for the event was #catoneday. Also, take a look at one of the intern's posts about the day.

Thanks again to the Catalyst team. DC will not be the same because of yesterday.

[Related: My Catalyst West Coast 09 notes.]

Intern Field Trip to NCC

The interns and I took a field trip this weekend to the Union Station site of National Community Church, in DC. I've long been a fan of NCC - it's a vibrant and dynamic community that has a DNA of movement and innovation. Even more fun is having old friends who are part of the body there like my friend KellanD who you might remember from last May.

KellanD helps run their "In Service" ministry, which seeks to connect to the homeless population around Union Station by providing lunches on Sunday mornings and a Wednesday night dinner and gathering. As opposed to suburban-drive-by homeless experiences [I've done my share to facilitate tons of these] you see a real relational connection with the way NCC does this. One of the goals of this field trip was for the interns to see relational piece first hand.

NCC just learned of a huge change [updated - post from Batterson] in their operations earlier last week, so we got to hear Mark Batterson speak to their body in a pretty pivotal, vulnerable and exciting transition. Powerful message and fun to watch someone communicate in such transitional times.

Like Mark mentioned, leadership is not experienced in the classroom, it's experienced in transitions like this one. That advice and real time lessons in community and movement - that's a pretty good field trip.

First Posts From the Interns

The interns officially started last week and with that, their blogs came alive. Check out the posts about our first reading from AR and JTimmons. So excited to see things start.

I'm loving the opportunity to have interns - it's like a huge stamp of permission to experiment, turn on the fire hose and give them everything that people have invested in me. The big challenge, constantly for me as well, is to make sure we act.

The Ember 09-10 interns

I'm proud to introduce you to the 2009-2010 interns - AR and JT. Both of these guys came to me together last winter and started a discussion on doing a mentorship with me through their respective high schools. They wanted to learn more about global leadership, engage world cultures and be catalysts for their communities of peers. As you might have guessed, it wasn't hard for me to sign on.

Both of these guys have traveled with me before, specifically the SPACE 2008 Hungary team. You might remember that AR was baptized on that trip by yours truly. They are quality guys, not only committed to the core but understanding that with commitment comes responsibility. They are responsible for a lot and you and I are expecting really big things from them.

A consistent clear indication of emerging leaders is desire. When someone around you is paying close attention, taking detailed notes, or asking for more, you might want to take notice.

I'm excited - excited for you to get to know them a bit better soon and excited about how they are going to throw fire this year.

Idea Camping

Here's a short recap of The Idea Camp DC that me and some friends [Ember Cast friend LB; JTimmons, one of Ember's 09.10 interns; and one of Grace's Africa partnership facilitators] went to over the weekend. The best way to describe it is a group of highly innovative, creative, dedicated friends that got together to collaborate to move the Kingdom forward. The keywords are "highly innovative" and "collaborate" but the scale of those keywords is uncommon. If you and I innovate at 10 [and I'm not saying I do], the people in this room were at 700. Most of them were serial social entrepreneurs, meaning they've started *multiple* nonprofit organizations.

It was definitely a very organic unconference, there was a lot of focus on conversations, interviews and open source, meaning 'you can have what I did' and 'I will help you however I can.' All the sessions - breakouts and main - had the focus on discussion and interaction. The main sessions were always in interview format. I also appreciated seeing lots of online friends that I have never met in real life. Yes, weird. And yes, very very cool.

Here are some rough notes, links, etc that you might be interested in reading up on:

+ Charles Lee and Jeff Shinabarger - Idea to Implementation
You must nurture unrelated ideas. Idea Camp was birthed by unrelated relationships - majority of on twitter - relational equity, technology, social media. Ideas come at an incredible sacrifice. Try to invest 1 hour a day in your idea. Jeff recommends The War of Art [see my notes] and reading up on Scott Belsky. Originating an idea may limit the person who originated it. First Idea Camp was $4000 for 500 attenders. Jeff started Gift Card Giver, among other things.

+ Shannon Moriarty and Mark Horvath
the key to homelessness is the combination of "housing PLUS jobs." That should be our mantra. Latest HUD report: there is no county in us where someone earning min wage can afford median housing. Charles' idea that he is giving away - someone should invent a mobile app to aggregate social services based on a specific location.

+ Transforming New Churches
Todd Wilson
Church purchased an ice cream truck. Never better opportunity for nonprofits to partner with government. Never greater stigma of "church". Concept of planting a church and vital investment of relationships. Starting a 501c3 - community based organization [CBO] - at the same time as planting allows opening of those relationships.

+ Greg Russinger
He and Charles created Laundry Love. The economy of enough - using trashcans to give people just enough. Listening is a huge part of creativity.The beauty of lament has been lost. My question for most organizations - will you return? If you are in it, you are in it for life. [from the good samaritan - "when I return"]

+ I caught up with Jason Dukes whom I told you about many years ago. Check out Restoration Concept a for-profit venture associated with Jason's church.

+ Probably my favorite story from the event was this story from Charity:Water. [didn't want to embed the video.] The quote that gives me chills - "We will not stop until every single person on the planet has clean and safe water to drink." Yup, they are in it for life.

+ The twitter hash tag was #icdc.

I'm convinced that the next generation of leaders are going to resemble the people at Idea Camp. They are going to be innovators. They are going to be highly adaptable. They will let their ideas go, they will openly share their resources, processes, best practices. They will start something because no one else will. They will fail fast, collaborate deeply and encourage many. They will do it because the world waits and can only wait for so long.