Frames and Gutters

Last week, The Ember Cast also had the opportunity to work with a team of ladies headed to Caribbean for a week long cross cultural service experience [last post, busy week]. This team is serving with local hosts involved in education, kids programs and poverty alleviation, as part of their church's long standing partnership. It is always an honor to spend a little time with teams like these and share some of what we have learned about high performance cross cultural teams.

Our session included:
+ Frames for Teams
+ Personality assessment results both for individuals and teams
+ Gutterball - [going upstairs]

The statistics prove it: your team will be more effective with intentional team preparation, your team members will be more engaged when they come home, and team training is one of the best investments you can make with your time and energy. Our team doesn't have any more availability for this kind of thing for summer teams this year but we always have ideas.

Italy Mtg #4

One of the best and easiest tools to help build your team - the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. This is the chart for Italy 2017.

I have done this with almost every team I have led and, even more importantly, teams have referred to it when thinking about another team member. That is what you want - a tool to help you fast forward relationships so that people become brave, vulnerable, courageous and trustworthy.

Lucky for us, I think we have one ENFJ that isn't on the list.

My 2013 Creative Revenue Plan(s)

Ember believes that missionaries of the future will rely on a 'portfolio of revenue.' [credit for this term goes to Ben Arment.] In other words, they will need to actually make some money outside of personal donations. As part of this summer, our team is required to dream and execute a Creative Revenue Plan - a way to make some income based on their talents and gifts. This unique income will go directly towards the funding of their missions experience. Prayer and financial support letters are also required.

My 2013 plan is as follows:
+ I will offer a single Myers Briggs Type Indicator workshop. This workshop can be for individuals, couples, families or teams of up to 10 people. The MBTI is a well known personality test that organizes people into 16 different personality types, based on the temperaments of 4 domains. In this highly interactive session, we will cover individuals and their types as well as how the types interact in your specific context, including your organizations goals, structure and culture.
+ The workshop will last for 2 hours and must be within 60 miles of the 21044 zip code. I will come to your location.
+ Rates are as follows: $40 per person for 1-5 people, $30 per person for 6-10 people. Payments are to be paid to The Ember Cast, Inc. All of this goes directly to support The Ember 2013 X team.
+ I will provide all handouts for you and your team.
+ Participants will take the test in advance - the session will only interact with people who have completed the test.
+ Although I'm not officially certified as an MBTI practitioner, I've walked hundreds of people through this personality assessment in over 20 years of working with the test. It's one of my favorite things to do with teams. The test you will take is not official, but will still score with a high degree of accuracy.

My Plan B, which has been executing for quite some time now, is that I have a guy that stays at my house during most work weeks. He likes to make a very nice contribution to Ember and it's a win/win because he saves on hotel charges and gets a tax deduction while Ember gets some very generous funding.

Team Training Tools - Assessments

Take your team through some kind of personality or character or decision making assessment. You know our favorites - the Myers Briggs type indicator and StrengthsFinder. The goal is two fold - to know yourself better and to communicate at a faster, deeper level with the rest of your team.

Ember AZ 12 - Mtg 2

Our 2nd meeting - the bulk of which was spent taking and talking through the Myers Briggs Type Indicator personality test. It's my fave. We almost always use this with teams including talking through the 4 pairs, how each can affect teams that work together and charting everyone's types with everyone else so that each person walks away with a chart.

We also talked about:
- cultural distance and how that is relevant to both every day mission and new faith communities
- one person leaving our team for an epic opportunity
- we swapped him for a middle school girl
[tell you more about both of these later]
- creative revenue plan updates
- some logistics and ministry tasks we are all preparing for

[Related: AZ 12 Meeting #1]

Creative Revenue - Myers Briggs sessions

Ember believes that missionaries of the future will rely on a 'portfolio of revenue.' [credit for this term goes to Ben Arment.] In other words, they will need to actually make some money outside of personal donations. As part of this summer, our team is required to dream and execute a Creative Revenue Plan - a way to make some income based on their talents and gifts. This unique income will go directly towards the funding of their missions experience. Prayer and financial support letters are also required.

My Creative Revenue Plan is as follows:
+ I will offer a single, informal Myers Briggs Type Indicator session to individuals or teams. The MBTI is a well known personality test that organizes people into 16 different personality types, based on the temperaments of 4 domains. In this highly interactive session, we will cover individuals and their types as well as how the types interact in your specific context, including your organizations goals, structure and culture.
+ The session will last no more than 2 and a half hours.
+ 100% of this goes to supporting Ember's Arizona 2012 team.
+ Rates are as follows: $50 per person for 1-5 people, $25 per person for 6-10 people. Payments are to be paid to The Ember Cast, Inc. More than 10? Let's talk. tonytsheng @ theembercast.org
+ I will provide all handouts for you and your team.
+ Participants will take the test in advance - the session will only interact with people who have completed the test.
+ Locations for these sessions must be in either Maryland or Washington, DC. Outside of these areas and still interested? Let's talk. tonytsheng @ theembercast.org
+ Although I'm not officially certified as an MBTI practitioner, I've walked hundreds of people through this personality assessment in over 20 years of working with the test. It's one of my favorite things to do with teams. The test you will take is not official, but will still score with a high degree of accuracy.

If this doesn't work, my Creative Revenue Plan B has to do with a power washer, sandals and a bathing suit. Plan C may have to do with some creative, strategic technology work.

My 2012 Missions Support Letter

"To know the will of God, we need an open Bible and an open map." – William Carey

A few months ago, I worked with some student mission leaders and gave them the paradigm of being a mapmaker. One step further than Mr. Carey, this idea conveyed that in times of constant, disruptive change, you could learn to read a map or you could learn to make your own maps. This summer, I have the opportunity to be involved in two interesting projects that fall under the mapmaker paradigm.

Most of you know about my little student missions nonprofit called The Ember Cast. I'll be helping lead a team with Ember to Queen Creek, AZ, working with my friend Ben Cloud and Amadeo Church. The team will see up close how a relatively new church works, learn about starting a new ministry in some detailed sessions with Ben and contribute to some community impact projects that form a structure that allow our team to be catalysts for what God may do in the Amadeo community. Ministry activities include serving with ReStore, their food and clothing pantry; Friends Feeding Friends, their homeless ministry; and various other community projects. Most or all of the Sheng's will probably participate on this team as well and this trip is July 7-16. My grand hope for this team of leaders and students is that this experience propels them on a trajectory where instead of reading maps, they start making their own.

The second project is with Grace Community Church, our home church. I have been invited to be on a 'vision' team, which will scout out the possibilities of some potential ministry partnerships in Brussels, Belgium as part of Grace's long term global strategy. Our team will have meetings with a variety of ministry leaders and will be observing, listening and discerning from June 28 to July 4. Our hope is that this experience helps set up a clear map with regards to potential partnerships for Grace in Europe.

We welcome and thank you for your prayers for both of these experiences. If you feel led, I'm raising 50% of support for both trips. The support target for Ember 2012 AZ is $1500 [for all the Shengs] and the support target for Brussels is also $1500. Unfortunately, support for both organizations must be kept independent, so that requires two separate donations if you give to both.

Ember believes that missionaries of the future will rely on a 'portfolio of revenue.' In other words, they will need to actually make some money outside of personal donations. As part of this summer, each person, including me, is asked to dream and execute a 'Creative Revenue Plan.' My Creative Revenue Plan involves providing one teaching session on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator personality assessment for interested individuals and teams. We will walk through each person's results, talk about how it fits with a team and discuss the assessment in the context of their organizations goals, structure and culture. All proceeds will go to supporting the Ember 2012 AZ team. If this is something you or someone you know might be interested in, please let me know.

Get in touch if you want to send financial support. If you are local and want to donate, let me know and I will come buy you lunch. Please make sure your checks are payable to either The Ember Cast, Inc., or Grace Community Church, depending on which project you feel led to support.

You may also contribute online to The Ember Cast. Online donations are done via amazon.com - be aware that Amazon takes 2.9% + .30 for each donation. The Ember Cast is a registered 501c3 nonprofit and you will receive a receipt for your donation approximately 6 weeks after your donation is received. The Ember Cast reserves the right to re-direct your support in the case that the person you are supporting is 100% funded. However, 100% of donations go to catalyzing global student leaders. Your donation is very, very much appreciated.

As always, thank you for your long standing passion for student missions. I'm convinced, like you are, that we need more global leaders than ever and that those leaders come out of students who are poised right now to make a difference in our world. I will be sure to tell you not only how we make maps this summer but how we make mapmakers that go on to mark human history. Thanks again for your support and prayers!

[Related: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 Mission Support Letters]

Catalyzing Mission Trip Preps

This is Lexi, one of our newest Ember guides on the far right, talking to a student missions team about rural, suburban and urban contexts and how being on a missions team requires you to know something about the context of the environment you are traveling to. Lexi's got the perfect blend of experience, audacity and optimism : her grandparents are career missionaries in the Far East and she believes that every student we serve has the potential for world transformation. You can see why she's an Ember guide.

Other components of this session with one of Grace Community Church's [my home church] high school teams included charting all of the teams Myers Briggs personality types and running through a bunch of team building exercises. Along with talking about people groups and contextualization, we think the combination of all of these topics form a pretty good entry point for preparing student teams. Our guides also see themselves as catalysts - the rest of the work is still up to the team leaders. But hopefully we've given them a good jump start.

Prepping a student team or thinking about how to decompress/debrief a team after they get home? Ember can help.

Prepping the Mozi Team

Had a great time on Saturday with JTimmons and a short term mission team he is on this coming summer. [You might remember him as a 2010 intern]. John and 9 others are traveling to Mozambique this May with Iris Ministries.

Our task was to help John's team prepare for this trip, which included talking through the Myers Briggs test, a team building activity inside a racquetball court, and talking through culture shock/re-entry concepts. Like most teams I've worked with, lots of light bulbs went off when people understand and are able to community in common language about their personality and behavior - hands down, the MTBI is one of the most powerful tools to help teams prepare to work as one. Loved seeing John in this context; meeting their team leader Victor, who leads gently and firmly; and seeing a team already tightly knit from living in community together.

Again, one of the best resources - Short Term Missions Workbook. Notes here if you are interested. If you are leading a short term team this summer and haven't started preparing, you better get busy. If you need some help, contact Ember.

Two of our three Fall 2011 interns came along for the ride - excited to tell you more about them sooooooon. They took their MBTI test on the way. And we had to drive to James Madison University to do this... but like Dea said, sometimes the fire gets thrown a little ways away.

April Kindling

+ Today is the end of my first week on a new project for corp 1.3. Mentally exhausted. I'm not sure that Angry Birds helped.
+ Two mission team preps upcoming this month which is going to be really fun. Working with 2010 intern JTimmons and his Mozambique team.. Elements will include myers briggs, some crazy team building and watching movies about team collision. Also helping do a one hour workshop at Bay Area church for their summer teams.
+ April is a bit crazed - our family is doing some travel. Dea is flying the cukoos nest for a few days to travel with her mom helping take care of some of our southern cousins. Then there is Spring Break.
+ Got a surprising out of the blue third application for the fall Ember internship. Already excited for the two. Can't wait to show you the impact they will make.
+ Ember's board of directors are interested in a growth strategy. I appreciate the intentional stretch.
+ It is summer support raising time. Tell you more about the people in Ember's tribe and where they are headed to this summer soon.
+ The concept of missionary support is now more than just money. Dea and I are experimenting with this. On a real live missionary.
+ My mom moved into #grannyresort and seems to be adjusting well. Very thankful for that. We are slowly moving towards being slum lords for her house.

Strengths - APEST

More than any other organization or movement on this planet, the church should be a safe haven and incubator for audacity.

- Steven Furtick

Similar to the Strengths is the APEST profile. Read up on it if you've never heard of it - it's good. If you like the Myers Briggs and Strengths, you will like this. Picture adding a spiritual leadership development to both of those other assessments. Like the others, even better if you take it as a team.

My APEST results are shepherd + apostolic. Shepherd meaning one who nurtures and protects, creates environments for change, and has a vision for others growth. Apostolic is one who is sent, uncomfortable with the status quo, pioneers new endeavors and needing to sense movement and change. Sound familiar?

In other words, I will want to spend all of the budget you want to hold on to. I could probably talk for a few hours about developing people and projects for them to grow. I will love to meet someone who is innovating something from old to new. Talk about maintaining existing processes and systems and I'll start playing with my cell phone. Change too slowly and I have to get some fresh air.

PS - If you absolutely love that quote above, I want to talk to you.

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

Student Missions Advice on Twitter

I tried an experiment on Twitter last Friday where I tweeted snips of advice for student missions. Tagged as #studentmissionsadvice, I intended to update 3-4 times an hour with little snippets of advice, ranging from global concepts to strategy to mundane details.

What actually happened was that a whole group of people jumped in to also offer their advice. All of them are people that I think the world of - either having worked with them on SPACE or Ember or people that I have connected with about student missions. All in all, a lot of fun. Sorry if you got inundated with my updates - if you work with students, hopefully you got at least a few that were helpful.

Here is the whole collection - with links to resources and people you should know:

TonyTSheng: I'm tweeting today about #studentmissionsadvice. Should be fun - feel free to jump in. 8:37
TonyTSheng: Get a passport. #studentmissionsadvice 8:37
leslitab: Hand sanitizer. #studentmissionsadvice (via @tonytsheng) 8:47
TonyTSheng: RT @leslitab: Hand sanitizer. #studentmissionsadvice // you made me a believer! =) 8:51
FlexibleDreams: @TonyTSheng Try the "local food" before you leave. #studentmissionsadvice 8:57
TonyTSheng: RT @FlexibleDreams: @TonyTSheng Try the "local food" before you leave. #studentmissionsadvice // great tip!! i'm getting hungry! 9:05
JoyceElizabeth: @TonyTSheng Be adaptable - plans change #studentmissionsadvice 9:06
TonyTSheng: RT @JoyceElizabeth: @TonyTSheng Be adaptable - plans change #studentmissionsadvice // we all love plan A don't we.... 9:14
TonyTSheng: Think in these roles: learner, trader, storyteller [http://www.urbana.org/articles/the-learner-servant-storyteller-posture] #studentmissionsadvice 9:16
erinobrien: @TonyTSheng Nothing is wrong, it is just different. #studentmissionadvance 9:25
TonyTSheng: RT @erinobrien: @TonyTSheng Nothing is wrong, it is just different. #studentmissionsadvice // nonintuitive but oh so important! 9:27
leslitab: De-brief, de-brief, de-brief. A lot. Learn to tell the story. http://ow.ly/1orqc (via @sethbarnes) #studentmissionsadvice via @tonytsheng 9:32
FlexibleDreams: @TonyTSheng Pointing, with a jaw dropped look of shock on your face, is rude in any country. #studentmissionsadvice 9:42
TonyTSheng: RT @leslitab: De-brief. A lot. Learn to tell the story. http://ow.ly/1orqc (via @sethbarnes) #studentmissionsadvice // seths info is gold. 9:50
TonyTSheng: RT @FlexibleDreams: Pointing, with a jaw dropped look of shock on your face, is rude in any country. #studentmissionsadvice // self ldrshp 9:53
The world is going to be urban [via @alex_mcmanus] #studentmissionsadvice 9:54
TonyTSheng: RT @BrianJRussell: though probably going w/a desire to impct/chnge, open your heart to be more impcted/chnged urself #studentmissionsadvice 10:11
TonyTSheng: Concept: cultural distance [via @alanhirsch and ralph winter] #studentmissionsadvice 10:30
TonyTSheng: The world is going to be brown and yellow [via @alex_mcmanus] http://bit.ly/beko5U [link via @BobbyGWald] #studentmissionsadvice 11:00
Get some tangible skills from college. Or marry someone that has them. ;-) #studentmissionsadvice 11:23
TonyTSheng: Get a world map or globe. Have fun with it. #studentmissionsadvice 11:46
TonyTSheng: Concept: extreme poverty and the ladder of economic development. http://bit.ly/d5YOfz [link to ppt] #studentmissionsadvice 12:11
TonyTSheng: Id pockets of internationals in your community and find out how they got there. #studentmissionsadvice 12:51
TonyTSheng: Experiment with ethnic food. #studentmissionsadvice 1:09
leslitab: Ride public transportation in every city you visit, and have students navigate together. #studentmissionsadvice via @tonytsheng 1:10
boSEEcah: Journal, journal, journal! #studentmissionsadvice @tonytsheng 1:12
TonyTSheng: RT @leslitab: Ride public transport in every city u visit, have students navigate 2gether. #studentmissionsadvice // loads of fun stories! 1:13
TonyTSheng: RT @boSEEcah: Journal, journal, journal! #studentmissionsadvice // love it! 1:14
TonyTSheng: Carry ziploc bags. One with toilet paper. #studentmissionsadvice 1:29
colleensamantha: @tonytsheng Be FLEXIBLE!!! #studentmissionsadvice 1:30
erinobrien: @tonytsheng Pepto Bismol!!!! #studentmissionsadvice 1:31
TonyTSheng: RT @colleensamantha: @tonytsheng Be FLEXIBLE!!! #studentmissionsadvice // agility and staying nimble love it! 1:32
TonyTSheng: RT @erinobrien: @tonytsheng Pepto Bismol!!!! #studentmissionsadvice // yes we are all friends here 1:32
TonyTSheng: RT @erinobrien: @Tonytsheng Pack for at least 24 hours in your carry on in case your luggage gets lost #studentmissionsadvice // great tip!
leslitab: Defer to your host no matter where you are; they'll be there long after you. #studentmissionsadvice via @tonytsheng 1:36
FlexibleDreams: @TonyTSheng Baby wipes are good for so many things. #studentmissionsadvice 1:36
TonyTSheng: RT @JoyceElizabeth: @TonyTSheng Pray pray and pray some more #studentmissionsadvice // yes!! 1:37
TonyTSheng: RT @leslitab: Defer to your host no matter where you are; they'll be there long after you. #studentmissionsadvice // sooo true 1:38
TonyTSheng: RT @FlexibleDreams: @TonyTSheng Baby wipes are good for so many things. #studentmissionsadvice // learn from the moms!! 1:39
TonyTSheng: RT @JoyceElizabeth: @TonyTSheng Always be willing to have significant conversations #studentmissionsadvice // part of why you are there 1:41
TonyTSheng: Concept: global youth distribution. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/qanda.htm #studentmissionsadvice 1:55
TonyTSheng: Christianity is moving south and east. http://www.thetravelingteam.org/node/408 #studentmissionsadvice 2:10
TonyTSheng: Learn basic words in another language. #studentmissionsadvice 2:27
TonyTSheng: RT @robwegner: Christianity is moving south & east. / This is why @gccwired is in India! Go where God is at work! #studentmissionsadvice 2:32
TrevinHoekzema: know at least a brief history about the culture you are reaching out to #studentmissionsadvice 2:34
TonyTSheng: RT @TrevinHoekzema: know at least a brief history about the culture you are reaching out to #studentmissionsadvice // context and culture! 2:37
TonyTSheng: RT @gulia3: hash through expectations before hand-then get rid of them-God usually has something even better. #studentmissionsadvice 2:45
TonyTSheng: Take the Myers Briggs personality test with your team. Discuss the results. #studentmissionsadvice 2:53
TonyTSheng: Concept: redemptive analogy. http://www.internetevangelismday.com/redemptive-parallel.php #studentmissionsadvice 3:12
TonyTSheng: RT @JoyceElizabeth: @TonyTSheng Also recommend Strengthsfinder 2.0!! #studentmissionsadvice 3:25
TonyTSheng: Scan and email yourself your passport, medical id card and visa forms. #studentmissionsadvice 3:47
JoyceElizabeth @TonyTSheng PS password protect that file when you e-mail it!! #studentmissionsadvice
TonyTSheng: Practice telling your Gospel story in 2 minutes. #studentmissionsadvice 4:07
TonyTSheng: RT @JoyceElizabeth @TonyTSheng Don't be afraid to ask questions #studentmissionsadvice 4:16
TonyTSheng: Concept: the person of peace. http://www.kncsb.org/resources/PersonsofPeace.pdf #studentmissionsadvice 4:27
TonyTSheng: Sensitive stomach like me? - BRAT diet. Get motion sick like me? Sea bands. #studentmissionsadvice 4:45

[Related: Expert Mission Trip Advice]

Myers Briggs in Community

I spent some time with a high school guys small group the other night, facilitating them through the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. I always have a lot of fun walking teams through this assessment and this was no different. [And it made me miss my small group that I ran from 1999-2003.]

I was surprised at how different each one of these guys was - all kinds of different talents and interests, ranging from the very cerebral to the artistic to the entrepreneurial. The group had math geniuses, musicians, writers, athletes, one kid owned his own landscaping company [with employees] and another one had just started a t shirt company. Even more interesting, there was a real sense of community among them - they have been meeting for four years - different people with different interests but a common and deep sense of belonging. In this case, their cause was to seek God while encouraging each other through their high school careers.

Uniqueness + community + cause = the perfect intersection for talking about Myers Briggs.

Resources - Salisbury Peeps

For my new friends at Salisbury Cru...

+ Some great reading
- The End of Poverty
- Waking the Dead
- The Forgotten Ways
- Fast Company magazine

+ Some missions orgs I have positive personal references for:
- Christian Associates
- YWAM San Francisco
- InterVarsity Global Urban Trek
- Youth Ministry International

+ Personal Development
- StrengthsFinder
- Myers Briggs descriptions
- Vision Trekk

About

From 2003 to 2008, Tony Sheng served as the coordinator of student missions for a local church, investing in students in the areas of culture, global missions and leadership through a ministry called SPACE. During his tenure with SPACE, he helped form a student missions ethos based on partnership, cultural engagement and long term perspective. With a sharp focus on leadership, he pioneered the following:

- the use of the StrengthsFinder and Myers Briggs Type Indicator as tools for leaders and teams to optimize performance and impact, not only with his mission teams but throughout his faith community.
- Mission Advance - a weekend long collective training experience for all summer teams.
- funding and support guidelines and support materials, including two experimental support-based events.
- initiating some of the first teams to visit and serve GCC long term missionaries.

He is also a technology professional and lives in Columbia, MD, USA with his wife and two daughters. He is currently involved in very informal mission/leadership guiding and coaching and is part of an elder internship program for the 2008-2009 year.

MB type: E N T/F J
StrengthsFinder: Developer, Woo, Futurist, Positivity, Arranger

+ Connect : [tonytsheng at gmail dot com] : LinkedIn : Twitter

Vision Trekk Wisconsin

I had a great time at Vision Trekk Wisconsin this past weekend. The focus of the weekend was to learn a bit more about how to guide people through their personal results of the StrengthsFinder, Myers Briggs Type Indicator and APEST assessments, all in an effort for personal and leadership development as individuals, teams and leaders. The weekend was held at Green Lake Conference Center, about 90 miles north west of Milwaukee - GLCC has it's own interesting story of renewal and mission.

Working through the assessments also included a larger backdrop of spiritual formation including Erwin McManus' The Character Matrix and Alan Hirsch's Missional Incarnational Impulse Frame. Although it's important that leaders guide people through knowing themselves, character and mission form a vital context for influence. A core value of the weekend was also "movement" and therefore, many of the skills we learned were meant to be implemented "on the move." There was very little classroom time - instead most of our learnings were out in the woods. Cold, Wisconsin woods.

I can't divulge a lot of what we actually did this weekend, since I think for some of you readers, a Vision Trekk would be a really fun thing for you to experience [Developer.] Suffice to say that even as someone who has worked with lots of teams - building, recruiting, walking them through exercises so they work together better - I was pleasantly surprised at a few of the elements of the weekend. I didn't expect them at all and they helped bring the knowledge into reality.

There are a few other steps in the process to officially become a VT Guide - we'll see where that all goes. Besides the fun of being Mr. Cubicle trying to keep up with a ton of adrenaline junkies, it was a lot of fun to be immersed in this type of leadership community for a weekend - lots of these people are doing transformational things and it will be neat to see how God uses each of them for impact [Futuristic]. I also got to spend a ton of time with my friend FrankW, who is a church planter in Paris, France. We talked lots about mission, culture, teams, family and how he won't room with another Extrovert anytime soon. [Well, maybe I did most of the talking...]

If you are looking to engage your team along the lines of leadership, adventure, Strengths, personality and impact, a Vision Trekk could be for you. Get in touch with me to find out more.

More ideas that I'm documenting here for myself [and maybe for you]:
pilgrim bands [Tom Bandy]
The glory of God is man, fully alive - Irenaeus [Wild at Heart]
John 10 - gatekeeper - shelter inside the gate - impact outside the gate
'Without giving our lives away, we risk becoming little more than many possibilities that slept.'
'Nothing that has not died will be resurrected.' - CS Lewis

Images: ENTJ - big time E, barely T; my team during the urban trek phase, outside of an Octagon house that was part of the Underground Railroad, Ripon, WI.

Vision Trekk Guide Training

Vision Trekk is an identity centered leadership development program that combines elements of adventure travel with instruments and assessments to better understand who you are, what your style is, where you are best fit and why you lead.

I'm flying out to Green Lake Conference Center in Wisconsin late next week to participate in guide training for Vision Trekk. I originally connected with the VT guys during our first summer in Hungary - they are on retainer with Christian Associates to come in and optimize and catalyze all their church planting teams. Not only are they serious about contextual leadership development, they realize that their investment spans an impact of generations and nations.

I'm looking forward to getting some formal training with each one of the assessments [StrengthsFinder, Myers Briggs and APEST.] Long time readers remember that we have used the first two assessments with many SPACE teams and leaders and I think my experience is only the tip of the iceberg. Combine all three tools together, contextualize it among a team, all while serving in a different culture and you fire on an amazing amount of potential. It's going to be like a weekend of Tony-Sheng-graduate-school.

Book Notes - Type Talk

Most of you know how much I love the Myers Briggs. These notes are mostly for me - from Type Talk.

If you are new to the Myers Briggs, this link is a good introduction. Having used the tool for the past 15 years in all kinds of individual and team settings, I'm still learning how to leverage it for helping people understand themselves better and how to work together better in team contexts.

I used to score ENFJ but now score ENTJ. In other words I used to be more fluffy and fun.

We believe the T-F function to be the one most closely related to how intimacy is defined: an F wants to experience intimacy, a T wants to understand it.

Js and Ps
1. Perceivers must generate alternatives. This is their true nature.
2. Judgers, after listening to P's alternatives, take charge. Ps will be grateful for this, as it helps them focus on what they want or don't want.
3. It is the nature of Js to moan. They must complain immediately if something interrupts their schedule or changes their plan.
4. The 'hit-and-run' method - in which you introduce a new idea to a J, then leave the room for a few minutes - allows the J necessary time to moan without getting into a needless interpersonal conflict.

Sensors are impatient with fanciful schemes; iNtuitives are impatient with many details.

Organizations whose goal setting is determined largely by Judging types often turn into the slow-gain, solid, steady, Fortune 500 types. P-type goal setting often leads to organizations that are high-risk, rapid turnover, innovative and sensitive to changing markets and trends.

Perceivers don't always say exactly what they mean. In typological terms, Ps, as their name implies, usually share their perceptions instead of their judgments and think they sound more definite than they actually do - particularly as far as Js are concerned - because they need to hear very definite concise statements.

An SJ - I love schedules. I make them and I stick to them. I can tell you exactly where I'm going to be at six o'clock tonight.
An NJ - I love schedules too but I don't stick to them. I always have a schedule but I'm always changing it.

ENTP - A few years ago at our wedding, one ENTP couple showed up a day early. Another ENTP gave us our present a year and a half later, although she purchased it a month before the wedding. As iNtuitive-Perceivers, ENTPs aren't particular well grounded in specific, time-oriented details.

A key thing to understand about Introverts: They need to do everything at their own pace, a pace that is internally directed. When the pace is dictated by others, problems can result.

J parents - P children: Perhaps a better technique - and one that speaks to Js needs for structure - is to make a list of all the areas in which the child needs shaping up. Negotiate which demands the child can meet. The danger, for a J, is to make each demand as important as the other, without recognizing the need for trade-offs.

Sensors, true to their names, tend to be more in tune with the sensual aspects of a party - what people wear, table decorations, the food. iNtuitives tend to be far more tuned into the event as a whole - who is there and who isn't, what's going on, with whom can they talk or dance, are there any good contacts they should make, how it's all going to end. They are more in tune with the overall ambiance than with its specific components.

2005 SPACE missions prep meeting

What an awesome day yesterday! We had about 35 students show up for a 10-3 training day for all summer teams. We had four teams - Brazil, Trinidad, Light Company (middle school) and DC. Great turnout, there were only a few people that couldn't make it.

The morning had four workshops, with the four teams rotating to each one, for about 20-25 minutes each. The workshops were:
1 - learning in a different culture
taught by a couple from GCC that had served in Tanzania for four years
2 - team personality
a combination of Myers Briggs and Love Languages discussion, led by one of our SPACE leaders who has been to China, Panama, Germany and various other places
3 - developing your story
how to communicate your story about Jesus, taught by three post college guys and gals who are on a team from GCC going to Turkey for a few years, leaving in September.
4 - the state of the world
taught by me, going over basic concepts including the 10-40 window, unreached people groups and the latest State of Christianity 2005

We had lunch after the workshops. My wife slaved away the night before cooking 15 pounds of ground beef for taco salad. She IS a gem. She gets dragged into all the details of SPACE.... haha

After lunch, another friend MAB, came and did some team building exercises for us. Another set of 3 exercises, rotation style.
1 - team relay including spinning your head on a golf club 10 times.
2 - walking as a team with the hand/foot ski things
3 - team communication while on a balance beam

After being outside, the same teams got a few bags of big and small marshmallows and a tub of toothpicks. The object was to build the largest structure that we could in a certain amount of time. I think the middle school team won. Theirs was massive. My teams, on the other hand, was an art deco piece. Ha.

The final piece of the day was a debrief. MAB and I go way, way back, so it was fun to have him come out and do the team building stuff for us. His favorite phrase is "For every physical lesson, there is a parallel spiritual truth." The discussion was very engaging, lots of kids were willing to talk and dive in to discussing that principle from the stuff they just did. Some ideas that came up included: its not easy being first, you have to learn to work together, chaos is not always bad, and it's hard to know when to lead.

Overall, I think the day was a really big success. My two main goals were [1] to give these kids some great perspective from people that have been involved in missional experiences and other cultures and [2] to have a great time of bonding with their teams.

Photos: The Brazil team, minus one female leader; our SPACE 05-06 intern, E, spinning her head on the golf club; the LC marshmallow structure; the Trinidad team on the beam; the Trinidad team minus three team members