Book Notes - Do The Work

Do The Work By Steven Pressfield

Babies are born in blood and chaos; stars and galaxies come into being amid the release of massive primordial cataclysms.

Three mantras:
1 - Stay primitive
2 - Trust the soup
3 - Swing for the seats

On research before you begin:
You are allowed to read three books on the subject. No more.

On first drafts:
One rule for first full working drafts: get them done ASAP.
Only one thing matters in this initial draft: get something done, however flawed or imperfect.

On ideas:
Ideas come according to their own logic. That logic is not rational. It's not linear. We may get the middle before we get the end. We may get the end before we get the beginning. Be ready for this. Don't resist it.

Sometimes when Resistance is kicking my butt (whcih it does, all the time), I flash on Charles Lindbergh. What symphony of Resistance must have been playing in his head when he was struggling to raise the funding for his attempt to fly across the Atlantic solo?

"You're too young, you're too inexperienced; you've got no credentials, no credibility. Everyone who's tried this has failed and you will, too. It can't be done. Your plane will crash, you're going to drown, you're a madman who is attempting to impossible and you deserve whatever dire fate befalls you!"

What say Lindy through. It can only have been the dream.

Disclosure: I was provided a copy of this book for review purposes from The Domino Project.

[Related - 3 Questions with Steven Pressfield, Book Notes - The Art of War]

Friday Burn

::: But the stunning fact is that, gone unnoticed, the goal to halve global poverty was probably reached three years ago.
We are in the midst of the fastest period of poverty reduction the world has ever seen. The global poverty rate, which stood at 25 percent in 2005, is ticking downwards at one to two percentage points a year, lifting around 70 million people - the population of Turkey or Thailand - out of destitution annually. Advances in human progress on such a scale are unprecedented, yet remain almost universally unacknowledged.
Link via praxisinfo


::: Tips for speaking English abroad
Link via Dana


::: Visiting Angola
Link

Storytime with John

This is one of our very jet lagged Ember guides, JTimmons, telling a little story from his 3 week missions trip to Mozambique. A few years ago, he was a pretty normal suburban kid.

JT 2011 from theembercast on Vimeo.

One of the resources we used with middle school kids, and with some contextualization on our part, for Ember Orlando. Contact me if you are interested in getting more information about Ember's middle school missions content package.

Book Notes - On The Verge

On The Verge is a deep and challenging text for the future of the Church. It's what you would expect from Alan Hirsch including lots of paradigms, filters and lenses as well as lots of diagrams - and yes this is a good thing. I also appreciated narrative from Dave Ferguson too, which combines that deep thinking with some practical examples of execution. There is a ton of stuff in this book, so any review or notes here is going to lack. In the meantime though, the authors draw from a ton of other critical and important voices and resources in organizational strategy, movement thinking, organizational dynamics and catalytic leadership, such as: Dan Pink, Rob Wegner, Jim Collins, Blue Ocean Strategy, Steve Addison, Erwin McManus, Alex McManus, the Diffusion of Innovation scale, Scott Belsky, The Tipping Point, Bob Roberts and Made to Stick, Neil Cole and David Garrison. If any of those voices or resources resonate with you, you'll probably love this book as well. Also, if this 60:40 problem makes you want to do something, you should read this book.

There is also a ton of stuff from The Forgotten Ways [which is one of our favorite books to use with students] so On The Verge is kind of like a second volume, with more details in how to actually navigate those ideas from a leadership perspective. Here's some of the stuff that jumped out at me. Really though, you should probably read it for yourself.

One of the biggest cultural shifts of our time is the increasingly multiculture nature of the West. The brute fact is that most of the evangelical church leaders who will read this book will be white, suburban and middle-class, and the equally stark reality is that within decades, Anglo-Saxon Americans will be in the minirotiy in the US - yet our churches don't seem to be responding to this reality.

...suggest that every church, indeed every believer, has the full capacity for world transformation within, and when we can believe that, then we will begin to see the church very differently. In every apple, there is an orchard. [written in a different section...]

Our best estimate is that 10 percent of the people in most churches seem to understand that they are sent by Jesus and that they are Spirit-empowered to incarnate the gospel in their context, as Jesus was. [this shocked me. what about you?]

Entrenched myths as part of the institutional paradigm:
- Build it and they will come
- The church is the bastion of family values
- The church is the guardian of society's morals
- We need clergy, buildings and Sunday services in order to be a real church
- We are a Bible teaching church.

Dave and Alan are both 'fuzzy complementarians' - I want to know what that means. [tangent]

The movement itself is its own R&D department.

[Also, lots of talk about ethos: spontaenous recurring patterns of behavior... - probably one of the most valuable leadership principles I've ever been taught]

Bob Roberts Jr says that every church that values multiplication will measure success or failure outside its walls.

Network Like Mad - This principle of church can become an extremely powerful practice. We know from networking theory that it not only bolsters the relational fabric of the church and forms the basis of decentralized movements but also is the source of much innovation and creativitiy. so the practice of networking - getting everyone connected, everyone commissioned, and everyone accountable - can be powerful if you can figure out ways to enshrine it in the rhythms of the church.

The new vision [at Dave's church] was a dramatic missional shift toward what we called the Sixty-seven and the Twenty. If the world were a village of one hundred people, sixty-seven of those would be far from God, and twenty of those would live in extreme poverty.

We told people, 'If you aim for Acts 2 community, you will expeience real community,' but what we discovered was that Acts 2 community only came as a result of Acts 1 mission. - Austin Stone

Verge leader
1 - leads from the front, not the back
2 - leads with curiosity, not with certainty
3 - leads with a yes and asks how later

democratize innovation
Let me be clear: Yes doesn't mean you will fund the idea. And in most cases, you absolutely shouldn't fund the missional ideas of others. You may do more harm than good. Yes also doesn't mean you'll assign a staff person to oversee it.... Yes simply means you really do believe that what they are describing is needed, and by using their giftedness with God's help, it could be accomplished for the good of the Jesus mission.

Out of the box cultures
1 - beta, not better
2 - trusting, and trustworthy
3 - permission is assumed and forgiveness is expected
4 - hurry up … wait
5 - fail forward fast
6 - love the edge
7 - they put their money where your mouth is
8 - everyone gets to play
9 - no R&D department

Keeping the ethos of movement strong: ordain every Christ follower.

8 movement rules
1 - there are no rules
2 - the small rules
3 - the simple rules
4 - the reproducible rules
5 - the apprentice rules
6 - the network rules
7 - the sustainable rules
8 - the spirit rules

I have little doubt that the biggest blockage to people-movements is the professionalization of the ministry of Jesus Christ. It has two effects: 1 - it limits ministry to an elite group which inevitably replaces the priesthood of all believers/apprentices, and 2 - it lets the people of God off the hook of their God-given calling to be apprentices who are agents of the King in every sphere and domain.

The great Christian revolutions come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when someone takes radically something that was always there. - Neibuhr

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you. II Tim 1:6

Disclosure: I was provided a copy of this book for review purposes.

I Can Spend Some $$

My tweet from a few weeks ago:

3 summers ago i helped lead a team of 26 people to europe to run a kids camp for a missions agency. total cost = $73,230.56.

One of the most challenging and amazing experiences of my life. I remember basking in the afterglow of the success of our high school students who created a 5 day kids camp from scratch, eating cheap sandwiches for lunch on the steps of Schoenbrunn castle, meeting another one of our student teams in Paris and worshipping together in our hotel lobby, watching some of my mentors and friends speak life into our high school kids. For how great those memories are, I live in the future. And in the future that begins now, I can count at least 20 of this team, 3 years later, doing remarkable things.

9 weeks in Kenya, 2 weeks in Mozambique, praying over blind women, loving orphans, dreaming about organizational systems that help indigenous leaders, teaching middle schoolers about global migration and cultural distance, studying economic variables in South Africa, consistently running an after school club in Maryland. This is probably not normal.

Every summer, the age old missions conversations starts again - are short term trips too expensive, do the ends justify the means, how much harm do they do, do these trips really change people? Don't get me wrong - these are good conversations to have. And I might be the worst offender on many parts, having spent about $160K in 6 weeks in that oh so interesting summer of 08.

You know 11 young men propagated a different world view 2000 years ago. What could 20 do tomorrow?

Friday Burn

::: Teenagers revive dead lanaguages through texting
Link via kottke


::: Tips for creative meetings at Catalyst
Link


::: REACH - church planter event south of DC
Link


::: Stop funding church plants
Instead of funding one entrepreneurial pastor, preacher and organizer to go in and organize a center for Christian goods and services, let us fund three or four leader/ or leader couples to go in as a team to an under-churched context
Link


::: An obituary for the American church
Link

No Big Deal

One of our big ideas from Ember Orlando - you are not too young to make a difference in the world right now. Image from The Girl Effect video.

Contact me if you are interested in getting more information about Ember's middle school missions content package.

Serve The City - Baltimore

I was first introduced to the Serve the City initiative from some friends at Christian Associates. Since then, I've seen some of the neat projects that run in their cities connecting people who are ready to serve to established service organizations that are serving people in need.

STC Baltimore is a fairly new creation and Trevin is helping coordinate their big week this summer. That week is July 26-30 and Dea and I will be down there for at least one evening. If you've got a small group or missional community or a youth group that might be interested, let me know and I'll connect you.

Ember Orlando

Phenomenal time with middle school kids and staff at Lake Aurora Christian Camp last week. My friend Chris Marsden is one of the trustees at the camp and in mid March, approached me about Ember being adopted by his week of camp as the 'missionary' of the week. He's been a constant encouragement since even before Ember started so it was great fun to work together on a project with him.

The original intent was to do some video teaching since 'missions' time was only 1 hour every day. Since I wasn't leading a student team this summer, I decided that we could probably make it work to be at camp in person for at least a few days and also combine it with a family Orlando visit [you know us and Florida...] We were fortunate that Trevin Hoekzema could be an integral part of the planning and execution of this project too.

I'm most proud of the content of our teaching. Obviously, teaching to middle school students is challenging enough as it is. The content of what we chose made it even more tough - adults don't always get concepts like contextualization and global migration. But that's the part I loved the most - we taught about concepts that most adult Christians have never heard of, much less students. Like I've felt and said for years, there are significant concepts about 'missions' and global leadership that no one is teaching to students. I also loved having our two girls talk for a minute or two about their experiences and how they made a difference as 'kids'.

In terms of execution, Monday bombed. Tuesday and Wednesday worked much better, probably because Trevin and I went back and spent a good amount of time putting some visuals together, including pictures, some additional video content and more interaction. We did a quick review at the end of Wednesday and were amazed at the amount of material some of these kids could recall.

We are probably going to try to package up some of this material. Not a full blown curriculum per se, but something a little more transferable. I'll post some ideas about that later, in the meantime, let me know if that might be something you are interested in. Thanks to those of you that prayed and helped finance this. I'm keeping my eyes on the community around this little obscure middle school camp knowing that God will finish what He started.

[Twitter hashtag #emberorlando and more photos here.]

O-Town

Things are going pretty well here in Orlando - thanks to those of you who are thinking of us. Monday's teaching session was stepped in ADD while Tuesday's teaching was much more engaging. I'll be writing a post later after we return outlining all of the details, in the meantime, feel free to follow #emberorlando hashtag for the updates.

The Architect of Decay

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.

- Harold Wilson. Quoted in On The Verge.

Dream Year #3 - The Dreamers

Not only was going to Dream Year fun for the content - it was a great environment to meet other people working in various stages of their ideas. Lots of varied ideas including church and ministry stuff, nonprofits, musicians, media and business ideas. Like I've mentioned before, the future will require leaders to start and initiate new things. Dream Year oozed of that.

Here's a few dreamers you might be interested in tracking:
Moo Kim - major media company
David Huey - Hungry for a Day NPO
Bittersweet Zine - quarterly publication of local and global issues
Gary Waldron - The Aragorn Project, mens mentoring journey
Joshua Symonette [who i met at vision trek]
Colleen who i have known forever
Mike Hall - youth ministry motivational speaker

One of the most interesting observations from Ben:

NCC [National Community Church] is a culture of dreamers.

This concept is especially relevant to me, having served in various roles, for small amounts of time, on leadership teams at different levels in my own church. It seems to be much easier to guard your resources, direct people towards a certain level of conformity and give people a token blessing all for the sake of 'strategic direction' rather than embracing the dreamers and releasing them. The more difficult task, of course, is to create a culture where people are free to do the things no one is doing to reach the people no one is reaching.

Home Improvement - Tool of the Devil

Home improvement is not anywhere near my realm of expertise and it always seems like something at my house goes wrong when we aspire to pursue something along the lines of student missions. One year it was a broken glass table, another year was a garbage disposal, another was tile falling off a shower wall. I'm convinced it's the great Deceivers way of exhausting us and making stressing us out. A few days ago, it was a basement flood. Sometimes it works. And sometimes, in between the stress, it makes us consider that we might be on to something good.

Appreciate your prayers for our travels to Orlando, the staff at Lake Aurora camp and the middle school kids we are hanging out with - we fly out tomorrow and then help teach Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. In 500 years, we might really know how good it was.

[PS - See some of the videos here.]

Summer Text

When a church plant grows quickly, it's usually because of the relational network that preceded it. Nothing travels as fast as a powerful cause that's laid upon a social movement. It's like a baseball that's loaded into a pitching machine. It goes from zero to ninety mph in a short time.
How many times have you heard the familiar story of a popular youth pastor who decided to plant in the same town and ended up with a megachurch on his hands? This wasn't just an overnight sensation or spontaneous move of God. It was the result of God's building his church for years and years through this leader's ministry.

- Ben Arment, Church in the Making.
This is the textbook for our Ember guides for this summer and not because any of them are church planters.

Camp, Content and Context

Chris has been one of Ember's biggest fans ever since before we started, so its a big honor to work with him at camp this summer.

We've been in close contact in the past few weeks as our outline and content has developed. It's one of those essential ministry/missions concepts that you inherently understand but maybe can't articulate - the concept of contextualization. You know that whatever you are teaching has to fit into the context of the people you are teaching. Context and culture are important. You already knew it but when someone pointed it out to you, a lot clicked. We're convinced the same happens with middle school kids this summer.

Also in the content bag - person of peace and redemptive analogies.

Fathers Day 2011

Friday Burn

::: Minority Youth and Media Consumption
Asian youth are especially drawn to computers [my family had a good laugh at this statement...], spending nearly three hours a day (2:53) in recreational computer use (the figure is 1:17 for White youth, 1:24 for Blacks, and 1:49 for Hispanics).
Link


::: Future Travelers
+ Comfortable dreaming about and living in the future before its become a reality and in pursuing, discovering and vetting new paradigms
+ Typically in the pioneering group or very early adopter group
Link


::: Rate of Texting Slows?
Link


::: Bill Gates on being a geek for a good cause

Hey, if being a geek means you're willing to take a 400-page book on vaccines and where they work and where they don't, and you go off and study that and you use that to challenge people to learn more, then absolutely. I'm a geek. I plead guilty. Gladly.

Link

10 Days Until Camp

Doing some Ember planning last night - you probably know these two. Trevin and LexiPap. Lex traveled with us in 2008 and also has a family lineage of missions - she's been all over and has a grandfather who was a career missionary in the Far East. She's hopefully working more with us soon.

Planning tonight included topics like:
- Baltimore street church.
- what does an Ember guide really do.
- finalizing summer camp outline, including topics such as contextualization and global poverty.

Short versus Long

Wait a minute. Didn't that coach say quitting was a bad idea?
Actually, quitting as a short-term strategy is a bad idea. Quitting for the long term is an excellent idea.
I think the advice-giver meant to say, "Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can't deal with the stress of the moment." Now that's good advice.

- Seth Godin, The Dip [one of the books given to us from Dream Year DC]

Teamwork Misconceptions

Loved this fantastic article about the misconceptions about teamwork.

Misperception #1: Harmony helps. Smooth interaction among collaborators avoids time-wasting debates about how best to proceed.
Actually: Quite the opposite, research shows. Conflict, when well managed and focused on a team's objectives, can generate more creative solutions than one sees in conflict-free groups

Misperception #2: It's good to mix it up. New members bring energy and fresh ideas to a team.
Actually: The longer members stay together as an intact group, the better they do... Whether it is a basketball team or a string quartet, teams that stay together longer play together better

Misperception #5: It all depends on the leader.
Actually: The hands-on activities of group leaders do make a difference. But the most powerful thing a leader can do to foster effective collaboration is to create conditions that help members competently manage themselves.

Read the other three misconceptions too. Hopefully, if you are leading a missions team this summer, this article makes you think about some of these high capacity leadership topics.

And if you are that missions leader, hopefully you've gathered your team at least a few times this spring and summer by now. Because, like #2 up there, the more time your team spends together, the better the overall missions experience.

If you are in charge of a summer missions team and haven't done any prep work.... well good luck, and one piece of advice: don't wear the team shirts to fly out of your hometown airport. [Contact Ember if you are really desperate...]

Dream Year #2 - Idea Models

Finding a successful model for your idea is like turning the tumblers in a combination lock.

Many many of us have ideas, but not many idea models. At Dream Year, I learned that there's a pretty clear distinction and that we need both. I've been spinning over the whole concept when it comes to Ember.

Not only that, most of the young people I come into contact with have good and even great ideas. [Notice that many of them are not content with running with your ideas...] But they are missing the idea model. Plant a church, start a nonprofit, create a third space for a marginalized subculture, create mediums to tell stories about global issues - lots and lots of ideas. Their thoughts may need some help to expand.

As you can imagine, this translates into cross cultural service as well. Global missions at the core is about one idea, but throw in context and culture and the possible idea models number in the infinite. It would do us well as we to guide future global leaders to come up with the best ideas as well as idea models that support them.

Friday Burn

::: No Housing Bust in DC
Another reason why the suburban [DC] high school kid is a landmine of potential.
Link


::: Rwanda's First Ice Cream Shop
Link via gracifer


::: Wave At The Bus
Link via Marko


::: Family Time Makes Most 13-24 year olds happy
Link via jason dukes


::: TED announces their global fellows
Note: 1 - the unique and innovative set of ideas they all have.
2 - how many of them are listed as basing themselves in multiple countries.
Link

Andrew and Eric

Stunning post by Andrew, Ember 2010 intern.

When I first met Eric he greeted me with big handshake and a hug. It was clear that he would be somebody I was going to get to know better during my time here. He basically showed me the ropes of how the feeding program works, and answered every question for me that I could think to ask about Kibera. What I didn't know at the time was that he lived in Kibera himself. I didn't find this out until a few days later when he was showing me through all the streets and alleys of the slum. I think what struck me the most was that he was so overly giving, caring, and hard-working. Sometimes its easier to assume that people who are in poverty got there by their own means (i.e. they were lazy, addicted to drugs/alcohol, a criminal, etc). But I've found through the example of Eric and a lot of other people I've met in Kibera that this is simply not true. Some of the hardest working people can be found in the slums, but their efforts simply don't equate to what our efforts do because of their circumstances. What amazes me every day is that Eric keeps such a positive attitude about life, and he still gives out of his poverty, something absolutely biblical (Mark 12:41-42).

Four summers ago, he was an average suburban high school kid. Three summers ago, he traveled with a team I lead to Europe to hang with some cross cultural church planters. Last summer, his internship culminated with working with a stateside church plant and spending a week in the desert.
Captivate a high school kid early enough with how the world looks and how they could contribute and eventually, they might make decisions that will affect humanity.

Dream Year #1 - Money

The content on finances probably had the most impact on me at Dream Year. Now I'm no business guy but hearing Ben say that revenue must be more than expenses makes sense to me. =) These other ideas also resonated:
- Nonprofit is a tax strategy not a business strategy. Your idea needs to be profitable to be sustainable.

- Your idea might need other ways to create revenue.

- The 100% donor model might be endangered.

All of these ideas are certainly relevant to Ember. And they are just as relevant to how we prepare students to lead in the future - especially to those that might be interested in vocational ministry, specifically outside the traditional structure of a local community of faith. Granted, the 100% donor model, like other models, has a Biblical precedent, can invite a lot of others to be a part of your team and is a true faith walk. The other side of the equation is that we are seeing less and less career faith supported missionaries, in some contexts that status actually gives you more barriers to entry, and the global economic recession has not helped the situation. In today's global economy, you could study just about any field and there is a way that would help get you to the mission field.

Perhaps some of us need to give more flexibility to the emerging generation and their adaptability to bring different avenues of revenue to the future ministries and organizations they will create. For instance, I was told that it was unbiblical to host a poker party to raise money for a short term missions team. Poker is irrelevant to me, but you would have to agree that its a major subculture right now. The stigma of making money and being associated with 'nonprofit', 'missions' and 'ministry' should be end. [Lots more great stuff about this idea in the book Uncharitable.] I'm thinking about how Ember is going to experiment with this too - do you like to play poker? [just kidding...]

My bet is that similar to the many varied dreams I heard about this weekend, future global leaders are going to create ministries that don't even exist yet today. They will dream them, build teams to help run them, and more now than ever, they will need to create varied portfolios of revenue that help fund them.

Unpacking the Dream

Lots to unpack from the Dream Year weekend - I'm going to try to post some of my learnings and how they relate to Ember as a business in the next few weeks. I'm also anticipating that lots of ideas are relevant in how we prepare students to be global leaders in the future as well. Advance warning though - due to the nature of the Dream Year process, there won't be very detailed notes on the concepts covered in DY. [The pic is what was in my bag from DY...]

In the meantime, I can tell you that it was a pretty intense time of learning for me. I had maybe one business class ever so those particular topics were great for me and very much behind my motivation to attend in the first place.

The community of dreamers that was gathered was also amazing. It included church planters, pastors and coaches; founders of various nonprofits; some very talented media people and various others.

Special thanks to Ben Arment for doing this. Every one of my readers [yes you] would learn something from him.

Friday Burn

::: Married US Households Now in Minority
Link
You do think about this when it comes to student ministry, don't you?


::: Bilingual people are smarter
Link


::: Extremely granular HIV map
Link


::: The World's Most Livable City - Istanbul
Link


::: Your Stock Goes Up Even If You Fail
I can make the money back. I can get back on my feet. And I can try again. But I can never recover from what I didn't try at all.
Link
Loved this post and I will be hearing this kind of stuff all weekend at DreamYear - be jealous.

June Kindling

+ Our summer camp outline is coming together pretty well I think. 3 days on site. Ah Florida.
+ Trevin has landed a part time position with Baltimore Serve the City. Love seeing the connections being made. Seems to be tons of momentum with lots of churches, npos and para service orgs.
+ Sent out 92 support email letters. Heard from lots of friends which was awesome. The walk to the mailbox is filled with anticipation.
+ Got invited to a birthday party. In Prague.
+ What's your cap on how you do fundraising? What's out of line - poker, gaming, cigar and wine bar?
+ Looking very forward to #DreamYear this Friday.
+ Even though I'm writing this last night, in one hour, I hope to have Hillsong United tickets.
+ 15 minutes in catching up with KellanD included how he flew to surprise his girlfriend in Senegal; what a remarkable experience in cultural distance that was; and info about a phenomenal internship he scored this summer in renewable energy. Tell me a career like that won't get him to the nations.
+ Participating in a little beta project with one of my virtual mentors. The project is fun enough but learning how he thinks is once in a lifetime.

Light My Fire

Swedish Firesteel - one of the best physical manifestations of Ember guides...

Friday Burn

::: Predicting the Future - Look at Today's 14 year olds
Link


::: Andy Stanley does not know of a high profile leader in ministry that has not been in counseling
Link


::: The Theil's 20 under 20
Link

Middle School Missionaries

Ember's been invited to do a little teaching about missions at a summer camp in June - you've probably seen some of the details. I'm really excited about this opportunity for multiple reasons: it's working with my friend Chris Marsden, Trevin and I are doing this together, and you know how the Sheng's love Orlando.

All those things are great but the core of this is the middle school kids that will be attending that week at camp. For too long, we've decided that middle school kids don't own the Kingdom, that they are too young to make a difference, that God will use them but not right now maybe in just a few years, that a middle schooler wouldn't be able to understand concepts we would teach to preparing missionaries.

Well, we aren't putting up with any of that this summer.

Image: Programming/scheduling ideas on a board - idea from Catalyst. On a map - idea from me.

Mobilizing from the Sofa

Ember celebrates a few bright spots this week with some amazing college students leaving the comforts of home to immerse themselves in other cultures and contribute to God's purposes around the world. I'm amazed at their courage, their ability to adapt and their willingness to change in light of these experiences. And these people were like this before they met us.

And of course, I would love to be traveling with them too. Some of my favorite experiences have been newly seeing a context through the eyes of someone else - watching a high school kid see the Grand Canyon for the first time, climbing the
Arc de Triomphe with my family, watching my daughter swim in the Danube.

Sometimes, mobilizing is traveling with some of your favorite people, helping them process, engage and learn from amazing experiences. Other times, it's watching expectantly from your international office as those same favorite people blaze their own trail of adventure.

Supporting Ember This Summer

For those of you that might be interested in supporting some emerging global student leaders.... my 2011 support letter... sort of...

Dear Ember Tribe --

I'm delighted to give you a quick update about all things Ember - thank you again for your encouragement, support and investment in our efforts to connect and resource emerging global student leaders on their way to marking human history. Ember exists to reignite the Jesus fire in each student and to launch them out to serve a world in need and I'm always thrilled at your involvement with us.

2011 got off to a slow start in terms of work that actually stimulated student missions, but we've had some fun projects this spring, including two short term mission prep sessions [for a past Ember intern and his team going to Mozambique and for Bay Area Community Church's short term summer teams]; identifying and recruiting three high school interns for Fall 2011; and continuing to connect with like-minded allies of student missions.

Here are some upcoming projects in the works for which your prayers are coveted:
+ Ember has been invited to assist in teaching about the future of missions at Lake Aurora Christian Camp outside of Orlando at the end of June. The audience will primarily be middle schoolers and at least two of our team will attend. We are also supplementing this teaching with videos from some of our favorite people around the world, helping us teach about global realities and missional perspectives.
+ Potentially facilitating an inner city immersion for a team of college freshmen at the end of July, working with Serve the City Baltimore.
+ Some of our guides, board of directors and interns will be attending a conference hosted by The International Mentoring Network in Detroit at the end of September.
+ We've been asked to facilitate a leadership weekend in NYC this fall for student leaders from Salisbury University. This is a team we have worked with in the past and this group of students has an amazing history of initiating and sustaining community impact initiatives.

We estimate that our expenses for these next projects will be about $2000. If you feel led to support us financially, know that your support would be so appreciated and would go a long way in terms of empowering current and future global student leaders that are resolute about throwing fire.

There are two quick ways to send in support if you are so led:
1 - A check payable to The Ember Cast, Inc. You can send it to [get in touch with me]
2 - A bank transfer: routing code: [get in touch with me]
[3 - If you are local and want to give a donation, I will come to you with a cup of coffee.]
All your donations are tax deductible, you can expect a receipt within two weeks and we will never sell your information. And if you have a specific project you would like to fund, notate that as well.

Thank you again for joining with us. Throwing fire with you,

tony

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

Friday Burn

::: You Version Creator - One of Fast Company's Most Creative
Link


::: 10 Reasons Not to Join a Board
Link


::: Poor People - increasingly found in middle-income countries and in fragile states
Link

2011 on the move - part 3

These three have traveled with me here and there in the past.
Caroline - raising support to spend a year in Australia learning to be a midwife in the developing world. She was also on the very first student missions experience I architected for SPACE.

Michelle - a few more months in South Africa.

Tayest - traveling to Kenya with We Are Kenya. Incidentally, We Are Kenya is a NPO started by a group of people from GRACE. Tay is also contributing to our little video project - more on that later.

[part 2]

Why I'm Going to Dream Year DC

Ok and one more... I'm attending the Dream Year Weekend in DC in early June. I've been reading Ben Arment's blog for years, starting when he had just planted History Church in a suburb of DC and then when he worked for Catalyst and now as he does his own creative projects. He's got stunning posts about leadership, teams and leveraging your gifts and talents. You should probably subscribe to his blog.

My wife gave me a requirement that before I started Ember, I take a business class. I ignored that which you know is a mistake =) But I'm pretty sure the Dream Year Weekend is a far better substitute [read through the Process.]

We are rubbing shoulders with probably the most entrepreneurial generation in history and their kingdom size dreams have the potential to do amazing things. I'm hopeful that I'll be learning some very practical stuff about bringing ideas to fruition and translating some of that to others.

M 2011

To accelerate the spread of an apostolic ethos among future-oriented, Christ-following leaders like you.

Ember is taking a little team to this. Tell you more about it later. Would love to see you if you are there.

[Related: Humana2008, Humana2007]

2011 on the move - part 2

K&K&R - K, part of the 03, who I met in 1999, and his wife K and now their daughter R, are on the way back from North Africa later this summer. Mission is not only overseas.

Julia, also part of the 03, is helping lead a second team from Common Ground Church in Fredericksburg, VA, to Haiti. Big time intention on sustainability and partnership - they are working with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission, specifically the Neighbors Project.

My good friend Ben Cloud is working with Upper Bann Vineyard Church in North Ireland for a week this summer, taking a group of students to help them with some of their community impact ministry. Ben planted Amadeo Church in Queen Creek, Arizona in 2006. Before that, he had been cultivated partnerships with students all over the world - both in sending and hosting.
[This was the one I wished we could have pulled off this summer. Remind me not to think small again.]

[Part 1]

Friday Burn

::: A USB PC for $25
Link


::: 10 complaints about American tourists
Very funny.
Link


::: Shaun King - The Leadership Lesson from OBL

Your living room or office would be a more functional global command center than the one we see Osama in. Your technology is more advanced, your television is bigger, your remote is better, your wires are better organized :-)

Link


::: Marko writes to his niece - who is going into professional youth ministry
Link

2011 on the move - part 1

Part of the Ember tribe that is on the move this summer [I'm posting about this in parts...]

Jenny - serving in Quito Ecuador with an orphanage as part of a summer university service trip.
Andrew [Ember guide] - Nairobi Kenya with First Love ministries via Duke Engage
Ethan - five weeks in Sweden with Campus Crusade
John [Ember guide ] Mozambique with Iris Ministries.

Honored to hang with these types of people. They are on the move because God moves.

[Part 2]
[Related: 2010 on the move]

B to the

Ben is one of those long haul youth pastors - he's in it for a long time and knows that, perhaps, the fruit of his labor isn't going to be realized for 10-15 years down the road. Some catalytic reactions move slow and deep.

We chatted last night about indigenous student leadership, his family's cultural transition from Florida to Ohio, and what might be some good ideas to help prep a student team in the works to tornado ravaged Alabama.

Ben is the kind of leader Ember exists to connect and resource. Globally minded, passionate about the emerging generation, willing to lead his students into crossing another culture to make Jesus known.

One Simple Lever

Trevin and I spent some time working together this past Saturday. He's our first guide and as someone who is half my age, I rely on his perspective a good bit when it comes to engaging the emerging generation.

On this afternoon, we worked to clarify who and what an Ember guide is, nailed down some logistics for two possible Ember field trips in June and September and outlined core better practices we would like to share with others. Oh and we worked on some Chick Fil A and D's awesome guac.

Ember's fantastical board of directors is really interested in growth - their belief, like mine, is that there are emerging global leaders that are high school aged right now and engaging them is a simple lever that has the potential to change the world. Growth means finding more resources to help us pull that lever but we probably don't have an unlimited amount of time.

Yeah, you would like working with the team I work with too.

Photo: Trevin on the right, Kt my 13 year old on the left.

Friday Burn

A huge amount of stuff sitting in my Reader from a while ago. Enjoy.

::: 114 of the 184 best-paid athletes in the world play soccer
Link


::: Bob Roberts [glocal.net] notes from Q Portland.
My favorite line : "Serve not to convert but because converted."
Link
The balance between social justice and evangelism is a tension to be managed, not a problem to be solved. [see Andy Stanley podcast]


::: Praxis Labs
Developed in collaboration with Q, Praxis is a mentorship-driven accelerator program for social entrepreneurs & innovators compelled by their faith to advance the common good.
Tons to learn here. Like:
+ Sustainable enterprise or donor model
+ Focus on measurable impact
+ Our Fellows are natural leaders who balance vision and execution.
Link
Also, check out their A list of mentors.


:::: Justin on Generational Future of Missions
Long post - but I'm sure you'll get something valuable from it. Lots of futuristic stuff in here so you will either love it or hate it.
Link


::: Effectiveness of Short Term Missions
What makes a difference, according to virtually all studies, is pre-trip training, on-site mentoring and follow-up after the trip. But researchers found post-trip follow-up by team leaders, usually from churches, schools or mission agencies, falls short.
Link
Another missions cottage industry = facilitating post trip decompression.


::: 200 million minutes per day
Spent on Angry Birds. Wow - that's way worse than football in the Fall...
Link via Mark Riddle


::: Marcus Buckingham's Three Favorite Books
Link
So much more in here like leadership versus managers, why the Tipping Point is so good, and chess versus checkers when you are in charge.

Imagine Alternative Structures

All humans have at least a touch of what I call the maker instinct, but most leaders have a serious dose since they must make and remake the organizations they lead. The best leaders have always been tinkerers who imagine alternative structures and love to play around with them to see what new things they can create.

- Bob Johansen, Leaders Make The Future

The Future Missions Pastor

Last weekend, I watched Casely teach on being a good guest. Born in Ghana, married to Angela who is Ugandan, I heard him deftly address subtle yet significant concepts of crossing cultures. Stuff like how cultures interpret power, are you going to a time-controlled or interaction-controlled context, and the difference between the initiative of those with a self-help value versus a birthright value. Stuff that you and I - who were born and raised here in America - think we know. I was a little shocked because I thought I knew this stuff. You probably think you do too.

Casely represents the future of American mission pastors. In the future that's presenting right now, Christianity booms in the global south. Suburbs are exponentially getting diverse. The context for 'missions' is becoming a varied mix of global+local. An emerging generation natively understands diversity, inclusion and community. This is the future where our churches need a kind of leadership that deeply understands the developing world, has a pulse on the way the globe really looks and is able to walk their communities through deep engagement of being a good guest.

There's a handful of missions pastors whose work I know is phenomenal. But global Christianity isn't orbiting around America. So I'm hopeful that more and more Caselys take on this kind of leadership for their communities of faith.

May Kindling

+ This summer looks a lot different and low key than previous ones. Some different kind of projects that are still at the core of getting students moving. But I get this strange sense that something is brewing.
+ Collaborating with one of Ember's biggest fans, Chris, to put some of our better practices
and favorite people doing some video teaching for one of his student ministry venues.
+ Also working with a small group of college kids for something probably local, urban and catalytic.
+ Dropped in on a Perspectives class last night. For all the great content that the class gives, there needs to be some kind of follow up on discerning God's call, what's next in training [taking the class doesn't mean you know everything about missions], and why teams function on the mission field exponentially times better than individuals. [maybe future post]
+ Short term missions team preparation could be a cottage industry.
+ Since it's May, I'm supposed to tell you that if you haven't done any team gatherings to help prepare your summer missions team, you are shirking your leadership responsibility. Email me for more abuse. And some help.
+ Last May was probably one of the worst months of my life. My mother was in major meltdown and I was grieving a loss of the life I had known. This May is much, much different. Better.

Missions Prep with Bay Area Comm Church

Short term mission teams are notoriously unprepared. This, however, is starting to change, especially among church based teams. I had the privilege to join Bay Area Community Church for their short term missions team 'one day prep retreat' over the weekend. Really fun time, here's some content and observations.

+ Sessions included the Biblical Basis for Missions, How Short Term Teams Fit in with the Task Remaining, How to Travel as a Gracious Guest, Staying Healthy on the Field, and Bay Area Logistics.
+ The first two sessions were led by two of the local ACMC guys, Dave and Joe.
+ My session was How to Make the Most of your Missions Trip, which included tips on before, during and after. See the notes here.
+ About 60 people, all ages. 1 team of college/high school students going to El Salvador this summer. The host there was a Bay Area member who moved there long term after going there on a short term team. Other teams included Poland, India and Mexico. Another team going to Ghana, but they weren't there today.
+ Bay Area has medical evacuation covered in their missions insurance policy.
+ They had a great resource table for missions books and every person got a copy of The Short Term Missions Workbook [you know how much I love that one right?]
+ Casely Essamuah is the missions pastor there. He was at Park Street Church in Boston for a number of years, before coming here. He's originally from Ghana and his wife is Ugandan and works as a medical doctor for the state government. He is the archtype of the Western American church missions pastor of the future [another post]. Here are some gems throughout the day from him:
- On time versus human interaction focused cultures: "Take off your watch the whole time you are in Africa, except for the last day, because on that day, we have to get to the airport on time."
- Home Depot is a cultural icon in America. It represents a can-do spirit.
- Do you know the independence date of the countries you are going to?
- On recent revolutions in the middle east: "How does a country that has a siesta every day do revolution?"
- On learning another language: "You can learn a lot of language if you practice on google for 5 mins every day for a week."
- On if you are left handed and traveling to a middle eastern country: "Depending on where you are going, you might need to learn to be right handed for 2 weeks".
+ At the very end of the day, Casely had everyone find out where their shirt was made from and we went around the room and told everyone what country. People would then respond with "God bless ." Amazing list of countries and incredible perspective.

Bay Area has done this type of thing the last 3 or 4 years for their summer short term teams. It requires a lot of work but the investment is worth it. [Related, but not really, check out the Sent Network, a separate but affiliated org they started focused on church planting.]

Friday Burn

::: Justin on the BRICS
Brasil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Like always, great, great info.
Link


::: Social contagion and the smart phone
Link


::: The Future of the Global Muslim Population
Link
via Ed Stetzer

Decoding Culture on Vacation

A short while ago, the concept of engaging another culture was for career missionaries. Today, however, there are subcultures all around us and in order to be an effective leader, you've got to see deeply into those cultures around you. And this can happen even on vacation.

Dea and I just spent a few days in Aruba - yeah, rough I know. We spent most of our time in our resort, but did get a chance to get out a bit on a bus tour and walking downtown for a few hours. We also went into a grocery store too, which is always a must-do when traveling since it can easily highlight differences between the culture you are visiting and the one you come from. Here's some of my observations about decoding Aruban culture, even while on vacation.

+ 80% of Arubans are Catholic. On Good Friday, almost all business were closed. Compare that with religious surveys in the US and business productivity on Good Friday.
+ All Arubans learn four languages in school: Dutch, English, Spanish, and Papiamento.
+ The government owns all the land. Arubans lease the land for their homes in 65 year periods.
+ There is a dispora of Chinese that live in Aruba, we were told practically every grocery store is Chinese owned. Think global business opportunities driving tribalization.
+ 2 unreached people groups out of 8 total, 25% of people groups, or about .4% of the population, according to the Joshua Project.

Effective global leaders of the future understand that the present is full of multiple cultures, contexts and subtribes.

Permeable

But making a difference demands that we do, in fact, act. We can no longer outsource our security or our foreign policy the way we might once have. The line between our lives and the world is ever more permeable. In our comfortable cars and houses, in our wealthy-looking nations and our secure-feeling businesses, we can't delude ourselves about the facts: we're in history now.

- The Age of the Unthinkable

AW

Dea and I had a fantastical 5 days in in Aruba. Amazing time, highly recommended. Iguanas, flamingos, lots of beach and pool time, I've never had so many mixed drinks in such a short time [I became a Christian in the 80s...,] I went on a boat and I went snorkeling for the first time [those last two facts are unrelated.] [More pics]

And now, back to real life: work, school, our family in one house and significant mission that makes us human.

No Time Like ...

Can I remind you again - it's an amazing time to be alive. Not only that, it's a once in a millennium time to be a Jesus follower.

I mentioned this to the 2011 interns during our time this past weekend. There's this amazing convergence of large, global stuff that stand alone, would be incredible. But it's all coming together and colliding and that is both daunting and very exciting. Stuff like the decline of the cost of information; the connectedness that technology is allowing; the movement of masses of people; the ease of global travel; the passion, entrepreneurship and responsibility
of the emerging generation; the challenge and therefore potential of generational leadership transition. It's all amazing.

I've got an even better front row seat, I think. Watching up close some of the emerging generation and the way they think, what they are dreaming about,
what they are learning about leading - that is an incredibly fun perspective.

So you might still love Medieval times. Or the challenge of the Vikings. Or Elizabethan literature and architecture. But let me try to sway you. Those times might have been fun and intriguing. You might have made a dent in doing something
noble if you lived back then. But we need you now, because, literally, there has never been a moment like now. 2511 will thank you for it.

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.

Thursday Burn

::: How To Get A Real Education at College
By Scott Adams of Dilbert fame.
Best line - "By the time I graduated, I had mastered the strange art of transforming nothing into something."
Link


::: Fearless
The third edition of National Community Church's missions newsletter.
Link


::: 5 top books on poverty
by Rudy
Link

Revolution

In a revolutionary era of surprise and innovation, you need to learn to think and act like a revolutionary.

- The Age of the Unthinkable

Youth Group Conspiracies

One of GRACE's high school small groups snuck their students away this weekend. I don't think that's too uncommon - leaders conspiring to have fun with their students. What was uncommon was their leaders conspiring with the boys parents to fly them to Boston for the weekend. While there, they worshipped with another youth group, participated with a local community in a service project, and did some sightseeing. Of course, there was much much more. [I got these details from Trevin, one of our Ember guides, who is also one of the leaders with this small group.]

Love how these youth workers aren't interested facilitating holding tanks with pizza.

Friday Burn

::: 11 Gap Year Ideas
I'm liking gap year even more and more for my own kids based on some interesting things I'm reading about college.
Link


::: India - population and growth rate
India's recently completed census shows that while its growth rate is slowing, its population is now bigger than the U.S., Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Bangladesh combined.
Link


::: Minorities among 3 year olds
In the U.S., census data shows that minorities are in the majority among the next generation - today's 3-year-olds. [Some of you reading this now might be leading this demographic in the future.]
Link
Both links above via JWT.


::: Crisis Response, Google Style
Link via Justin Long


::: Marcus Buckingham on 4 Levers of Culture
Ritual, Heroes, Stories and Informal Communication Network.
Via a series of tweets.

Leader Resource - Ben Horowitz's blog

Like rap music, run some kind of organization or team, and want to grow in your leadership skills? Read Ben Horowitz's blog. He's a technology executive and some of the stuff I've read on there has stunned me. Even if you don't like rap music.

He consistently visits topics such as leadership, communication, delegation, innovation, team cultures and organizational life. In fact, along the lines of organizational life, the posts are up there with Andy Stanley. Really that good.

Here's some recent posts I loved:
+ Managers must lay off their own people.
[Sidenote: I witnessed multiple rounds of corporate layoffs and as a manager, decided I was not going to be a part of this. But this post made me re-think that.]
+ Being effective in a company also means working hard, being reliable, and being an excellent member of the team.
+ ... the measure of the quality of a leader: the quantity, quality and diversity of people who want to follow her.
+ Training is, quite simply, one of the highest-leverage activities a manager can perform.

Read it. You will be thinking and you won't be sorry.

It Takes Only One

One man with courage is a majority. - Thomas Jefferson,

quoted by Craig Groeschel

Future File : Ember 2011 Intern

I believe that the future is different because of me because I am not afraid to be alive in my faith and take risks. I know that with God leading the way, I have been able to introduce friends and strangers to the love of Jesus Christ. I know that I have left some kind of mark on certain people's hearts who I have met. I think the future could be different because of me because I have dreams of going and serving in other countries and cultures. It would be great to help lead an organization or lead a missions team or youth group at some point. I think that I have the ability to have an impact on the future and have an impact on some people's lives.

Yup. Sometimes, these kind of students emerge. And sometimes, they are erupted.

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.

Thursday Burn

::: Dan's got a great series on leadership in Detroit.
Here is part 3.
[Love a lot of the stuff that he is writing about and many ideas resonate with me]

Yet as a generation of gentle leaders come into the city to love and do good (including myself), we often forget that we are not just going up against poverty we are going up against

- Generational Sin
- Systemic Sin
- Bureaucracy
- Racial barriers
- Pride
- Already Established assumptions about the “Savior Leadership” mentality

::: The New Cities of 2025
Link


::: Why Eat at McDonalds When You are Traveling Overseas
Link

Book Notes - The Art of Non-Conformity

[Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life you Want and Change the World] by Chris Guillebeau
Really fun read. Here are some quotes I loved.

When faced with a choice between abundance and scarcity, choose abundance.

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one." - Elbert Hubbard

The pain of making a change must become less than the pain of staying in the current situation.

Most remarkable people are not remarkable by nature. Instead, they made a few key choices along the way that helped them overcome their fears.

"Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: you have no one else to blame." - Erica Jong

No one else will be responsible for you or care about your well-being as much as you.

The One-Year, Self-Directed, Alternative Graduate School Experience including:
[some of my favorites and things I should do]
Subscribe to the Economist and read every issue religiously.
Memorize the names of every country, world capital and current president or prime minister in the world.
Acquire at least three new skills during your year.
Become comfortable with basic presentation and public speaking skills.

"The absence of fear is not courage; the absence of fear is mental illness." - Po Bronson

"Progress is a nice word, but change is its motivator. And change has its enemies." - Robert F. Kennedy

Your Own Small Army: Prospects, Followers, True Fans, Allies and Friends of friends.

Work toward financial independence, but never retire.

A good savings program also includes investment in others. It's not about guilt; it's about gratitude.

"One can resist the invasion of an army, but one cannot resist the invasion of ideas." - Victor Hugo

Context Switching

I'm starting on a new project this morning after just over 4 years on my previous one. Same company just moving to a new team and my job responsibilities as a database engineer are going to be relatively the same, from the purely technical details. What is going to be vastly different is cultural.

I'm joining a new team. I'll be working for a new leader. I'll be interfacing with other new teams of people. They will all have their own ways of getting work done, new things that are important, new habits and stories, new leaders.

Here's some questions I'm going to be asking this week:
+ Who is the leader by title and formality? Who is the leader by influence, informally?
+ What things are important to ____ and why?
+ What are things this team does when no one tells them to?
+ Who are the heroes and why?

Cross cultural experience, starting a new job, moving across campus - decoding your culture is all a part of engagement.

[Related: Culture and Career Notes 2007

One Sentence

I'm a big fan of Andy Stanley's Leadership Podcast. You should at least listen to a few of these - there is always one or two ideas that grab me. One of the concepts I love is the 'one sentence job description.' I haven't executed on it a lot, but I know it has a lot of value.

Those of you that have been here a while know that there was a very large transition with Grace's global missions in terms of the teams, vision and strategy. I'm serving in an advisory role - there are three of us in this role, giving guidance and support to Patti Hewat, the missions director [although she probably needs a new title.]

Here's the one sentence description she has given me:

Provide accountability and support to Patti, bringing your unique gifts of embracing current culture and the cutting edge, discipleship and passion for generational involvement.

If you influence people, you might consider writing one sentence descriptions for those you serve with.

Thursday Burn

::: Google Building Better Leaders
Link
via JVD


::: Toddler Internet Usage

23 percent of parents with children under five say that their children use the Internet. Of those plugged-in toddlers, 82 percent reportedly go online once a week.

You know, you might be one of their youth pastors one day...
Link via JWT intelligence

[JWT is fast becoming one of my favorite blogs. You'll have incredible perspective on both the present world and the future that is already here if you only read JWT's weekly round up and Foreign Policy's Morning Brief.]


::: Third Culture Kids
Link - fascinating 8 minute video. via KGN.

Gen Y Bribery

might look like a facebook post for a free lunch at Wendys [I had to throw in a frosty too...]

Favorite Ember Stories... so far

Had the chance to share with a small house church/home group last week about the vision of Ember and some of the students we've had the privilege of serving with. Here's some pictures from the stories that we told - some of you are in here. [Click on the image for full size.]

Funny demographic - all of the people in this small group were just about grandparent age. All growing in their global missions understanding, mostly due to the leader of the group, who has been inviting different missions people to come in and share. The best part, by far, was having some of them tell us how encouraged they were about the next generation. Every generation wants to have a reason to hope in the future.

Intern Possibilities

Met with two potential interns for Fall 2011 yesterday. Both amazing amazing kids - honored to have a chance to work with them. Both are already multi-talented and involved in lots of leadership opportunities. Like all of the students we've worked with, they've come to us with so many gifts, experience and passion.

The intern process is really at the core of what Ember does. Identifying and resourcing emerging global leaders at the high school level and helping those that serve them is really why we exist. It's by far the best investment of our energies, talents and experience and definitely the most generative. And because it's working with the next generation, we always learn a ton about the future.

I'm pretty sure they are both in [as well as the boyfriend of one of them, which we will just drag along to everything.] Excited to tell you more about them in a few months.

One of those emails

I got one of those emails yesterday that said, "there has been a horrible tragedy..." Not good. An old friend and coworker passed away suddenly. He was 43 and leaves behind a wife, two daughters ages 12 and 9 and a son who is 6. I'm still in shock.

Curtis was a Marine who had served in Desert Storm, an athlete who had finished an Ironman Triathlon, a solid database engineer who had worked with me for over 9 years in a very grueling telecom industry, a mortgage banker, and had recently returned to school to study physical therapy. All of that, but even more important, a devoted husband and father, and a guy who would bend over backwards to make your life better.

We should all live a life that full.

Skype with Teal

This is Teal, director of recruiting for Christian Associates. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that we admire CAI and have worked with them in 2007 and 2008. Love their DNA of church planting, urban centers, high impact leaders and creative, innovative expressions of Church. Teal and I caught up for an hour this morning.

Teal's recruiting role is new as of January 2011, although he was a corporate recruiter in a previous life. They are also about to transition from Aix-en-Provence, France back to the US. We actually met them first via their blog when the Internet told both of us that we would be seeing each other at Connect, their worldwide staff conference, in 2007.

Teal is one of those types of people that Ember loves to connect students to - experienced cross cultural leader, loves students, dreamer and executor, and leads himself and his family well.

All Of Us

All men can be criminals, if tempted; all men can be heroes, if inspired. - G. K. Chesterton

quoted by Mike Foster [but I don't remember where.]

Outside of compliments about my family, this is about the coolest thing anyone has ever written about me. So flattering, hopeful and future-centric - helping erupt a global catalyst out of a high school student is one of the joys of my time with students.

The best question from that summer, "If the future of humanity were dependent on one person from your team, who would it be and why?" I don't think Trevin knows that his name came up as one of the answers. Uh until now.

I'll go one more step than Chesterton did - all of us [you and me included] can inspire.

Those Team Shirts

You know those team shirts.... the ones that student mission teams wear in the airports - when they are being too loud or cramming up the line at Subway or singing along to their iPods... yeah those. Don't wear them too soon.

All of us are trying to build a team identity. And a team shirt is one of the most effective symbols of who is in and who is out. But you should be building the team way before you wear the shirt.

Spend as much time together as a team. Go through some kind of team assessment where everyone gets to share what kind of personality or strength they have. Do a shared project together - whether it's a crazy team building activity or a community service project. Celebrate, laugh and have fun together. Imagine together the impact you could have.

After all of this, the shirt is just icing on the cake.

What Can Only You See?

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see." - Arthur Schopenhauer

quoted by Brad.

Thursday Burn

::: Balt/DC Church Planting Study Results
Part 4 from Ed. Really valuable info - I'm sure the next few parts are going to be even better.
Link


::: The Next 25 Years in Emerging Tech
By the time most of you readers are my age, be ready for webwear, programmable matter, retinal displays, and interplanetary internet. Love it.
Link


::: The Face of the World's Most Typical Person
You've probably already seen this. The question is, did it remind you of me?Link

A New Breed of Lead Pastor

There's a new breed of senior/lead/in-charge-of-everything pastor: they are taking a huge responsibility for the students in their communities of faith. They are in small to mid size churches, new church plants, hybrid congregations. They aren't youth pastors now but they spent a great deal of their experience as one. Although they are in charge of literally everything, they aren't willing to sacrifice the future of humanity by paying hirelings to do less-than-phenomenal work with kids that call their church home.

I commend them. Their passion is going to win.

2011 Bright Spots

Catching you up with some of the bright spots in emerging global leaders that I've had the honor to serve with.
MichelleK traveled with us in a previous student missions life through Europe in 2007 and 2008 and went on to study International Development and Economics in college. She's currently on a study abroad program in South Africa [looks like fun huh?]. She's writing a blog about her experience. But of course, she can't help but try to inform the rest of us about her perspective about global food prices, questions Americans get, and international macroeconomic indicators.

Andrew, one of two 2010 Ember interns, is capitalizing on a summer cross cultural extension that his school offers called Duke Engage. The fun thing about this program is that although it's associated with school, the student gets to take the initiative to set it all up. In other words, you own it. Andrew is serving in Nairobi, Kenya with a ministry that our good friend KellanD worked with in 2009, which includes an orphanage environment, some educational opportunities and some sports ministry.

John, the second 2010 Ember interns, is putting some plans together to serve in Mozambique this coming summer. Tentative plans include three weeks in an orphanage in Pemba, along with outreaches to village communities outside of the city area. Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 187 out of 207 in 2006.

You've probably got some high school kids in your midst that might be interested in these kinds of global leadership concepts. Like these three, kids that care about global issues also probably care a great deal about their own culture. Give a high school student enough experience and exposure to global leadership and you might get something like this.

When You Were Called

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. - I Cor 1:26

A few people have asked me what kind of family did I come from. They assume that passion comes from environment. Let me be the first to assure you, my family history - as I'm finding out more and more everyday - was kind of a wreck. I've been kidding over the past year or so that I'm a 'miracle child.' It's partially a joke and partially true - among other issues, I came from a family that had 0 interest in Christianity. To see who I was when I was called and my experience up until now - no other explanation except to boast in the Lord [v.31].

Some of you are on this path written by the apostle Paul - you are incredibly wise for your age, you are influencing influencers, you are noble by your character. Don't forget to remember.