Toxic Charity Seminar Notes

In late 2011, a college student we had been working with told me that I should read the book Toxic Charity. Her recommendation was right on and the book has been a vital part of Ember's ethos.

I was thrilled when I heard the author was coming to our town to do a little afternoon seminar. Dr. Lupton was fantastic, sharing insights from the book with stories, principles and reflections from decades of urban community development experience. His time was such a gift to us, access to this kind of content is not normal and I'm thankful that some of our Ember people could attend as well.

We were also able to host a smaller group for some debriefing over dinner. This crowd included Ember guides and ProtoGuides, some college kids highly invested in various community projects around their city via Wendy, and the IllumNation folks. Great crowd.

In short, if you are any kind of nonprofit/missional/charity leader, having any influence in that sphere at all, this should be required reading for you.

A subset of my notes are below with some various edits.

Change our outlook on our neighbors. See them as people with resources, image of God, having talents, everyone has something to contribute.
Homebound seniors = crime watch.
They are always looking out the window and on the phone with their friends.

Never do for others what they could do for themselves.
'proof of poverty'
Universal truth - everyone loves to find a bargain. Even poor people.
Fair rate on a desired commodity - the market. God's fabulous gift to us.

Food pantry -> food coop
someone wanted specific kind of food - she became the buyer
someone had to deal with accounting - who pays what, what about if they need credit/borrow
inventory
decisions as an org - what are the rules
peoples talents and giftings start to emerge
community cooking and sharing
someone wanted to start a restaurant -
church staffer connected them to a restauranteur and a grant writer
Tummy and Soul - an outgrowth of the Georgia Street Food Coop
** I absolutely loved this whole story. Beautiful.

Service Projects
people in community initiate
doing planning - community led
supervising
people in the community share about what is happening - evangelism both directions

We are in a key moment in history - time honored practices of charity are now being questioned
When Helping Hurts
Toxic Charity
Dead Aid
now talking about outcomes in ways we have never felt comfortable about before
downturn in charity as we shift

It's bad when you get kicked out of a poor country.
The community must be the first investor.
What the poor need is a connected, compassionate neighbor.
You can't do community development well unless you know people connected to city systems.
The poor are isolated and this perpetuates poverty.

Pastors/church leaders - get out of the one way giving business - church benevolence funds, etc. If you have extra money, start an employment training center.
Church subsidy systems are far less effective than government subsidies.

A rising economic tide raises all the boats.
All social issues can be addressed by connected neighbors.
Nothing more demoralizing for police when they arrest someone and the accused walks because they could not get any witnesses to come to court.
Healthy bodies/communities can isolate disease. Save or expel it.

The most strategic thing churches can do today - develop/preach a theology of the redeployment of the saints.
Does God have an opinion of where you live?
We have to become neighbors.
'Where we buy a house' is a sacred cow.
Spiritual gifts discernment.
Talents abilities calling strategic deployment
** spot on. talents, abilities, calling, vocation.

You cannot serve a community out of poverty.
The one thing that moves a community out of poverty is a job.
People that go on mission trips are people that serve. What we need are people that can create jobs to go on these trips.
The spiritual gift of wealth creation. Never heard a sermon on that.
Business people feel unspiritual because they can only create wealth. They haven't heard the affirmation that God has entrusted them with this.
America is full of entrepreneurs - it is in our DNA.
** He is so right. And the recent stat I read somewhere that 59% of Mils believe they are entrepreneurs.

Friday Burn

::: Paul Graham's advice after helping over 600 startups
One of my favorites - "Start with a small, intense fire."
Link


::: Summit Church in Raleigh sends high school juniors and seniors for 5 week missional experiences in SE Asia.
Link


::: A Fascinating Look at Facebook and Social Relationships.
This is really well worth the read, much like a lot of the Facebook Data Science notes. It's especially relevant if you have ever felt like you needed to create your own social network exclusively for your community [I'm looking at you, people that have wanted to implement the popular church networking platform, The City...]
Link


:::Are Selfies Spreading Teen Lice
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::: Every State's Favorite Band
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::: Every leader should remember that he is the least permanent element in the church. - Roland Allen @Ben_Hardman

Welcome back JT

John Timmons joins us this coming summer on Ember 14X. Long time readers will remember him from 2009-2010, when he was an Ember intern, the very first year that Ember existed. He also helped us run 2010AZ.

John has since spent time in Mozambique [twice] as well as helping with various small Ember projects here and there. During his time in college at JMU, he discovered he was an artist and has used art as a creative revenue plan twice so far to help fund some of his global projects.

I'm thrilled to work with John again - his passion for the world and his laidback demeanor are vital components to a potent global leader. And he prays like no one I know and that is going to be fantastic.

Announcing Ember 14X

In June of 2007, this comment was left on my blog [was using an older commenting system back then so this is a pic of the exported data...]. Later that summer, we were taking a team to serve some missionary kids at a missions orgs staff conference and Megan was the mom of a family who were going to be there too. Since then, we have continued to be in touch with the Rapps, including serving again at the same conference in the summer of 2008, attaching one of their kids long distance with us for AZ 2012, and working together last summer for Ember X13.

Today, I'm proud to announce that Ember launches Ember X14, a second year experience working with the International Christian Community of Provence and Teal and Megan and their family centered around ICCP and their summer kids outreach for the kids in the city of Aix-en-Provence.

Ember X14 represents a second round of some of the best preparation for our emerging global leaders - students who come from a context that is suburban, high achieving, and affluent. Europe and Aix and ICCP specifically provides a spectacular environment for our students to learn from some passionate church planters and missionaries - some of the best innovators in a post-Christian, postmodern, secular society.

I'm excited to get this team started and thanks in advance for your support for The Ember Cast.

Friday Burn

::: The Problem With Little White Girls (and Boys)

I don't want a little girl in Ghana, or Sri Lanka, or Indonesia to think of me when she wakes up each morning. I don’t want her to thank me for her education or medical care or new clothes. Even if I am providing the funds to get the ball rolling, I want her to think about her teacher, community leader, or mother. I want her to have a hero who she can relate to — who looks like her, is part of her culture, speaks her language, and who she might bump into on the way to school one morning.

Link via Hope


::: American Teens Are Even More Stressed Than Adults
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::: 10 Projections for the Global Population in 2050
Link via Alex McManus


::: 30 Key Movements Happening in the Christian Community
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::: How Support Raising Keeps Parachurch Ministries White
Link

Photo: Recruiting lunch. Laurel, Merryland, January 2014.

Happy

On July 3, 2013, my wife Deanna had the ridiculous experience of flying across the Atlantic all night long, running through the airport terminal with a team of 10 to catch our next flight, and having all of her insulin for her insulin pump run through an xray machine because nobody could try to explain to the French only speaking official that insulin shouldn't go through there. Not the best first morning in France.

I post that story today in honor of my wife - today is her birthday. And I think the story is symbolic of her life. Her history is one that routinely sacrifices for others - sometimes with great hardship. Most of you know that she has dealt with diabetes for the past 2 years. When she got an insulin pump last year, she decided that yes, she will go with Ember to France, despite not knowing exactly how all the travel will work, including switching time zones, figuring out ratios with different kinds of food and knowing how tough international travel can be for your body.

All of that mattered, but not enough. What mattered more was that there was this team of students who were called to this vision of coming alongside a church community that wanted to bless the kids in their city. To Deanna, all of that sacrifice was worth it.

You and I are better for her sacrifice. Happy birthday Deanna. LOVE.

Ember Mantras

"We throw fire."

We believe that there are lots of young leaders that could be resourced, empowered and sent to do lots of good in the world. So the energy never ends with us and it didn't begin with us either. Hopefully we are a vital part of getting them out there and helping them prepare to do amazing jobs as well as start throwing fire themselves.

More 2014 Application Questions

Like in this post about our missions baseline questions, it seems like all great application questions - whether it's for a job at Taco Bell or for a spot on a missions team - are borrowed [or stolen.]

Here are a few more questions from our application:

What are you learning from Jesus recently?
Tell us about a recent leadership experience and what you learned from it.
Describe something you birthed from nothing.*
Describe how the next 500 years will be different because of you.*
Describe all cross cultural experience you have had in the past. Also describe how these experiences changed you.
Describe the riskiest - but not necessarily successful - endeavor you have ever attempted.*

Of course, no right or wrong answers on these. But these are some of my absolute favorite questions to ask because the types of people Ember engages have experience with this kind of stuff and their answers will always be so interesting.

I'm looking forward to sharing more soon about some of the people we will work with this summer and their answers.

*Borrowed these questions from the IMN.

Friday Burn

::: Not Just Seating Capacity but Sending Capacity
Great stuff here about a sending culture:

Without sending people out, you won’t continue to draw people in.
The more leaders we send out, the more leaders step up to take their places, because pushing out leaders creates more leaders.

Link


::: What Are the Hardest Languages to Learn
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::: 5 Things that Turn off a Potential Child Predator
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::: The Self Aware Leader

Author and psychiatrist Scott Peck wrote that one of the ways you can divide the world up is to put everyone in one of two categories: either a "neurotic" or a "personality disorder."
This is the mental health version of the doctrine of total depravity.

Link

Photo: We met these four young people in the picture on July 4 when we tried to get into town and no one else on the public bus spoke English. July 2013, Aix-en-Provence, France.

2014 Baseline

Below is a sample of some of the questions on Ember's 2014 application, from a section called 'Missions Baseline.' This app is used for all of our 2014 stuff - ProtoGuides, summer experiences, etc. And this section is intended to see how well our applicants understand these concepts.

Describe what a person of peace is.
Describe what an indigenous leader is.
Why are these leaders so important?
Describe the tension between social justice and evangelism.
What is cultural distance and provide an example.
Describe an example of contextualization.
Name a modern day example of a movement.
Who are you discipling right now?
Who is discipling you right now?

The fabulous original idea for a 'baseline' was from Trevin Hoekzema and really, the idea is fantastic. Much of what we intend to do is to help prepare our students for global leadership, potentially navigating lots of different cultural contexts and jumping in to missional leadership. We think the questions above cover some pretty core concepts. If we don't know what they know before they begin with us, then we don't know what kind of job we have done.

We have a pretty detailed application but I like it that way. Answering these kinds of questions helps you - it aligns what you are trying to do with what we are trying to do. It also helps us - if someone doesn't finish it, they didn't fit us in the first place. And of course, we ask these questions at the end of our summer to really see if it worked.

* I heard of someone screaming when they were in the middle of our app and their little brother closed their browser.
** I save off almost every great missions application I find in a google drive folder. Weird I know.

Ember's Board of Directors - Everything You Wanted to Know

I've had a few people in the past few months ask me lots of questions about my board of directors: who did you invite to the board, how do you interact with them, what is their role...and questions along those lines. This post is to try and answer most of these kinds of questions all about the Board of Directors for The Ember Cast.

As soon as Ember was approved by the IRS for its 501C3 status, I knew that I needed to put together a board - it's actually required if you are a nonprofit. I took about 6 months in thinking through it and going through a list of people that I knew well and was interested in. At the core, I chose individuals for the board who had a proven history of being advocates and patrons for student missions. They all have experience in this niche area and almost all of these people worked with me during my time with SPACE, a missions component of a student ministry for a local suburban megachurch.

As a side note, you might think that Ember 'started' in 2009. The reality is that what is now Ember was seeded in 2003 when SPACE started and even somewhat before. Lots of pivotal experiences helped me launch Ember and sometimes things start long before you think they did.

The Characters
Leslie was a student when I worked with SPACE and eventually was one of our first students turned into leaders. She gravitated towards our vision and goals and eventually helped me lead four different teams. She works full time in the social sphere.
Greg is a serial technology entrepreneur whose 3 kids we know well and 2 of whom traveled with me around the world. Greg brings an invaluable startup mindset as a small business founder and owner.
Matt is a technology professional and was involved with student small groups for 12 years - in a row. He has multiplied dozens of leaders whose full impact is still yet to be felt.
Dale is a certified StrengthsCoach - combine that with being a maximizer and a soccer coach and he pushes us to be better than we were and to unearth potential that we might not see. He works full time in the construction management field.
Joyce was at a breakfast at the beginning of when our church decided to get serious about involving students in local and global service. That meal together was the beginning of a long arc of impact. Joyce works full time in finance so she brings a financial perspective to us.

How they were chosen
Most conventional thinking about boards is that they bring influence and cash. They are supposed to have lots of connections and in turn can create lots of financial backing. I didn't care for much this advice. Instead I chose two principles that I wanted our Board to be chosen around. First I wanted people that I trusted and people that were passionate about student missions and the impact that could have in the world. Second, I wanted a personal board of advisers. Putting the board together takes intention and thought - I thought of it like a dinner party where you want the best talents and passions of your friends to mingle together through a grand evening. Each guest and what they bring to the table matters.

For more insight into these ideas, read the following articles. I don't agree with everything written in these posts, but there is a lot of wisdom in all of them.
Wanted: A Great Board Chair
The Three Stages of Board Development
A Personal Advisory Board

Board Responsibilities
Responsibilities of this Board are minimal. We have board meetings twice a year [although last year we only had one] and that's the forum where I communicate what we have done and where we are going on a broad scale.

The Board has an open invite to anything that we do. Some of the members have jumped in to various events. There is a wide spectrum on what each of them personally wants to be involved in - some want to stay at the advisory level and some want to jump in here and there. And of course, this is only one small sliver of their lives and leadership. Getting them engaged outside of Board meetings is a topic that I think about a lot.

On certain occasions I have engaged specific members of the Board for specific time bound projects, seeking to leverage their experience and expertise. Dale has done some Strengths coaching for our ProtoGuides. Leslie has connected and given advice to people interested in human trafficking due to working at IJM for a season. Joyce helps me set up archaic accounts in Quickbooks. Greg has listened to me over lunch when I gripe about people saying they are interested but never committing - a common complaint when you are starting something new. Matt has joined teams on community service experiences and joined us in 2012 in AZ for a week with a team.

Although I report to the Board, they give me wide latitude about running The Ember Cast. We have not, until now at least, ran into any issues where the Board has to reign me in. We might get there one day. They are Ember's best advocates and although we don't interact day to day, I know they take the responsibility very seriously.

Communications
During the first two years of Ember's existence, my communications during our board meetings were, shall I say, mediocre at best. They were simple bullet points on a piece of paper. In the midst of that, I started to realize that the Board, even as my biggest fans, deserved my very best. And during one board meeting, I found myself clammy and sweaty as I was going through our notes. I was legitimately nervous speaking to friends that I had known for, in some cases, a decade. Later on, I understood this simple truth: Your board deserves your absolute best and I was sweaty because I was not delivering.

To that end, I now put together a PowerPoint deck with images that serve to tell our story. This deck gets professionally printed and bound and each Board member gets their own copy. If they spend their attention on Ember, they deserve more than a printed Word document. Pay attention to the details and go out of your way to make their time matter. I also print a few extras and have given those to other people who are interested in what they do. Financial details are given out on a separate handout.

During the school year, I also write a staff email almost religiously every Sunday. This email goes to our Board as well as ProtoGuides and Guides and serves to over-communicate to everyone. It is broken up until Past, Upcoming and Future sections and I try to list everything and more. Just this week, I added a Prayer section too, something that I have been personally lacking in on our orgs behalf - hopefully this changes that. Sometimes I throw in something good to read or a provocative quote too. The decision to write a consistent email every week was one of the best decisions I have made in the past few years.

Conclusion
It seems like most people that ask these types of questions about the Board of Directors are in the midst of starting some kind of nonprofit project themselves. What I hear from them is that the task of filling out 501C3 paperwork is daunting and assembling a board is insurmountable. Let me tell you instead, first, that filling out IRS paperwork is easier than doing your taxes. If you know your mission and vision, if you have some clarity on your offerings, and if you have some things you have actually executed, the paperwork will be easy for you. Give lots of thought to those things and that will lead to you finding the right Board.

What is harder than IRS paperwork and the assembling of a board is your great task of changing the world. Articulating your passion, leading your tribe and igniting those around you is the real challenge. But the world needs you doing this. So worry about those things. And one fine evening, your Board will be delighted sitting at the table with you, marveling in the different courses and offerings and tastes of how you have changed the world.

Friday Burn

::: State of the World's Kids in Numbers
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::: 6 Ways to be a Kick A** Mentor
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::: Speaking IO
Great resource on speaking, because "imagine everyone's naked" is terrible advice. I've been digging into some of this and it is really great.
Link


::: Young Bankers Seek Good Yield with Their Own Nonprofits
Link via Steven Dilla


::: National Community Church's 2013 report
Last year, they had 22 short term mission teams and they gave away 25% of their budget to missions.
Link

In 500 Years...

God has called me to preach the gospel to unreached people groups. I am going to go wherever he calls me. I am part of His greater story so that ALL people will be able to bring him glory. By going to people who have never heard the gospel, I will be demonstrating Jesus to them. Individual lives will be changed, which will change the community, which will change a people group, a nation, a continent! The kingdom of God, overflowing with peace, love, and kindness will be manifest on the earth because God has called me.

I will tell you who wrote this soon...

Why We Go Where

Ember's filter for where we go is unique. We don't go to certain places primarily because the need is great or our skills could be put to good use or the demographic is strategic. Granted, these certainly do fall into play, but they are not the primary filter for our decision making.

That primary filter is finding global leaders that can invest in our people. These leaders are catalytic - they are known to cause reactions. These leaders are entrepreneurial - sure they can start things, but they also have a mindset that expands with talent, opportunities and people. These leaders are available to invest - they spring to life when given an chance to speak into someone's life, especially a person a few years younger than them.

This is a bit contrary to popular global missions thinking and that's okay. Lots of good, God honoring people help others go to certain places because of a strategy, a need or a skill and if you are thinking about a missions experience, you are the only one that can discern why you are going where. We are still about 450 years too early to decide if our filter really works. But that's part of the fun of it.

Friday Burn

::: Food Preferences of Millennials
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::: 2 Teenagers Run the Twitter Feed for History in Pics
Link


::: 5 Questions with Don Richardson

Many mission agencies now recognize the wisdom of sending out workers with a heart to take the Gospel and help plant churches, via professions desired by the "host" countries.

Link


::: 7 Hard Lessons about Calling
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::: A church that avoids the culture can't be expected to shape it. @ryanmeeks

Photo: airplane mode. summer 2008, i think.

Toxic Charity Seminar, March 1

If you've been around here a bit, you know that I loved the book Toxic Charity by Bob Lupton. After reading the book, we started to be even more selective about the kinds of projects we work on and it's helped give us even more filters around potential projects. It's also where we got the mantra "self->service->systems."

Turns out, Bob Lupton will be here in Columbia giving a seminar on the book. I'd highly encourage anyone involved in the nonprofit or charity or global missions space to come to it. I'll be there with some of our Ember staff and would love to
see you, so let me know if you are attending.

[Related: Toxic Charity book notes and discussion.]

Meet IllumaNation

I recently had coffee [or in my case, orange juice] with Susan and Bill. Susan is the founder and CEO of a small information technology training firm located here in Howard County called /training/etc [yes they use the slashes]. They've been in business for over 20 years and if you are in technology around here, you have probably heard of them. They have recently stepped up energy and attention on a nonprofit arm of the business that they are calling IllumaNation and it's a great case study on a-for-profit business giving exposure to a nonprofit segment. I love what they are doing as well as how they are doing it.

I learned a ton of things from our short conversation, including:
+ /training/etc has a number of staff volunteer days - days where the whole staff goes and serves somewhere with a community service partner. Yes, the whole staff. They open up these days where others can come and serve as well and they utilize their staff to be 'guides' for the day.
+ They highlight a community impact partner once a month - students that come to their classes get a 5 minute overview and there is a display area with more info. Students can come serve and get a tuition credit.
+ Part of the picture is giving information and exposure to students that take training classes from them about possibilities to be involved in their community, both locally and globally. There is a niche demographic they are trying to engage - the technology professional who might not otherwise be exposed to these ideas and opportunities.
+ Some of their partners have included Academy of Hope [GED and basic computer skills], The Samaritan Women [they have plans to help network their campus], and World Computer Exchange [teaching people how to refurbish computers].

IllumaNation is one to watch. They are doing a great job executing along the spectrum of self -> serve -> systems.

Friday Burn

::: Must read - The Bill and Melinda Gates Annual Letter
3 myths that block progress for the poor:
- Poor countries are doomed to stay poor.
- Foreign aid is a big waste.
- Saving lives leads to overpopulation.
So so good.
Link


::: Grading the B and MG annual letter
Link


::: The smart contact lens project by... of course... Google.
As the husband of a diabetic, this would be incredible.
Link via my friend Travis


::: 19 hard things you need to do to be successful
Link via Ben Arment


::: Tracking the Church Planting Class of 2010
Link

::: Rule 169: People collectively have an unlimited amount of free time. - @pmarca

Photo: Sheng girls on the move, Munich, July 2007.

Book Notes - Sacred Roots: Why the Church Still Matters

In January of 2005, I traveled to Orlando to participate in a Mosaic LA regional Origins experience held at Discovery Church. The host and emcee was an Australian guy named Jon Tyson. I continued to track his ministry after he left Orlando to land in NYC. Fast forward to today when Jon pastors Trinity Grace Church, a church I have yet to visit but have admired from afar. So when he wrote a book called Sacred Church: Why the Church Still Matters, it became a must read.

That and the fact that sometimes, I'm left thinking that so many expressions of our local churches could be so much more. Be it organizational architecture, mission and values, cultural relevance or the unleashing of the priesthood of all believers, I'm frustrated more than I want to be. So this book pushes back on my skepticism and tells me that yes, the local church does still matter. If you are involved in local church leadership or are a bystander to it, you should give this book a read. Not only because of the content but because I believe Jon and his team are proving that the local church still does matter and they are proving it in one of the most postmodern cities in the world.

Christy still loved Jesus, still loved people, and still believed the gospel was good news. She just wasn't sure the church we had created was producing the kind of disciples Jesus had in mind. Sure, we had become successful in the Christian subculture, but meanwhile, we were becoming irrelevant to the rest of the world.

The growth of the early church is arguably the most remarkable sociological movement in history. The numbers are staggering. In AD 40 there were roughly one thousand Christians in the Roman Empire, but by AD 350 almost 30 million.4 A remarkable 53% of the population had converted to the Christian faith.

The early church leaders didn't have the things we now consider essential for our faith. They didn't have official church buildings, vision statements, or core values. They had no social media, radio broadcasts, or celebrity pastors. They didn't even have the completed New Testament. Christ-followers were often deeply misunderstood, persecuted, and some gave their lives for their faith. Yet they loved and they served and they prayed and they blessed, and slowly, over hundreds of years, they brought the empire to its knees. They did it through love.

I believe two major factors have negatively shaped people's expectations of what it means to be the church in our time: the entertaining church and the individualistic church.

The impact of consumerism on American culture has been repeatedly discussed. From documentaries, the rise of Occupy Wall Street, and our media exposure on how the rest of the world lives, we understand the concept of consumerism and wonder about its implications for our culture. But we rarely ask how it forms our longings and expectations as disciples of Jesus. When we apply these same consumer standards to church, we end up approaching our Sunday worship with an attitude that can be summed up in this one simple phrase: "I want experts to put on exciting events that meet my expectations."

We expect brilliance from the pulpit, but often accept mediocrity in our souls. What is presented up front is often exceptional, yet most of us live average lives. ** so so good.

In fact, most of Jesus' invitations were not simply personal invitations to personal salvation; they were invitations to communal salvation — ​and shared responsibility as a result. Jesus made this clear when he said in John 13:34 – 35.

Yet the reality is that relationships take time to form. To love our neighbor means we have to know our neighbor. Beatrix Tafoya, one of our leaders at Trinity Grace Church, often says, "In other times of history the great commission was to go, but maybe the great commission in our generation is to stay." For those of us called to serve God in a Western context, these are words worth considering. ** this is a pretty significant idea, especially for the emerging generation

What would the church look like if the members chose to buy homes in the same neighborhoods or subdivisions, lived in the same apartment buildings or blocks, and sent their children to the same schools? What would love look like if it showed up dozens of times a week in small but profound ways: meals cooked, prayers prayed, songs sung, Scripture studied, games played, parties thrown, tears shed, reconciliation practiced, resources given? What if we stopped attending community groups and became groups of communities? What if our homes stopped being the places we hid from the world but havens to which the world comes for healing?

Seeing What Sticks

January and February are typically the months where we 'see what will stick.' In other words, we are throwing some stuff out there and seeing what gets traction. I love the variety, the process of these things coming together, the potential.

Along with the tossing projects into the air, I spend some time doing some recruiting. Brainstorming who will work great with what project is a way my StrengthsFinder developer gets put to good use and it is truly generative for me. Then it's writing a dramatic description of what we are trying to do and with whom.

People routinely ask me what I've got planned for Ember coming up or what a protoguide year looks like. I tell them that every year is always different because we have crazy, interesting, and different opportunities every year. In just about 10 years of doing this student missions thing, God has always brought us the best ideas. I'm excited to tell you about them pretty soon.

Friday Burn

::: The Collateral Damage of a Teenager
The subtitle says it all: "What adolescence does to adolescents is nowhere near as brutal as what it does to their parents." Great read, lots of it resonates with me.
Link


::: 5 Things That Will Never Be The Same Again
4. Young adults will not flock back to church when they have kids.
5. Loyalty to the institution will no longer motivate people.
Link via Ben Kolarcik


::: A World Map of Aspiring Tech Hubs
Link


::: The average Briton has visited seven countries.
The research, published today, found that almost one third (31%) of Brits have visited 10 or more countries, with one globetrotter claiming an impressive tally of 42.
Link


::: A $100 3D Printed Prosthetic Arm in Sudan
Link

::: It is impossible to give thanks and simultaneously feel fear. -Ann Voskamp via @boSEEcah

Photo: student missions teams praying for their summer. May 2013, Fulton, MD.

Six Months Later...

we asked the Ember X team:
- what was your best memory?
- how did the experience change you?

It is almost never too late to ask these questions of students that travel on your teams. Six months or six years, they will remember the experience and hopefully it will serve as a pivotal time to change their trajectory so they can serve the world better. Ask them.

And you should really ask. Lots of teams come and go but seldom dig deep within the lives of the students to erupt passion, calling and vocation. If you are going to spend all the energy to take students somewhere, it only takes a little bit more to follow up with them once they come home.

Photo: not such a great one... Ember 13 X.... Columbia MD.

Why We Exist 2014

2013 has been the best year of my life thanks to the Ember Cast. And I am not just saying that to make Tony Sheng happy. Nope. It’s the absolute truth. I’ve been able to have so many experiences this year, completely unique to Ember. I’ve made new friends from all over the world. I’ve had cross-cultural experiences this year that I never thought I’d be able to have. When I went overseas, I was equipped with the knowledge I needed to adapt to new cultures. My friend from France moved in with my family and I learned how to live alongside someone from a completely different culture. And lastly, and probably most importantly, I have strengthened my faith upon deep roots and solid soil which will not falter when I go to college. - Hope Koumentakos, Ember ProtoGuide 2013-2014.

500 years from now, you can say you read about Hope. This is why The Ember Cast exists.

1-3

Dear Em --

Happy birthday and welcome to officially being a teenager. You've already realized a little bit, I daresay, that the teenage years can be filled with angst, chaos and confusion. These past few months have not been easy for you. Mommy and I have been so proud of you though - you have persevered, believed the best and acted better than we would have. We will always stand up for you even if people hate us for it.

Even with all of that, you have had a great year. In Aix, we saw you contribute to an idea bigger than yourself. It was a team that you jumped in to, and not just because your dad was in charge. I'm confident that 500 years from now, you will see the impact of your investment there. In Oreo, you have found a middle school girls best friend. Truly that dog loves you to pieces - rolling over only for you is proof enough. Don't worry though, no one else in the house is bitter than he only listens to you.

We love you. Keep following the Light that shines in the darkness. Remember to come visit me and Mommy with your dogs when we are old.

Who God Is versus Where God Is

I've encountered this conception of God countless times over the years, a perspective that isn't as much about who God is as where God is. I've heard people pray and ask God to be with them; I've heard songs inviting God to come near; I've heard a good event described as a God thing - all of these undergirded by the subtle yet powerful belief that God is somewhere else and then comes here to this world from time to time to do God sorts of things.

The problem with this as one's only conception of God is that it raises questions about when and where and why God chooses to act.

Or not act.

- Rob Bell, What We Talk About When We Talk About God

Ember Advance

Over the past ten years, a conviction we have held has been that most student mission teams could be better prepared. As we've been fortunate to be involved in helping fix this, we've worked with some amazing individuals, teams and leaders. It's been a joy to interact with them months before they leave, track them while gone, and hear about how well their teams did after they come home.

Some of you are probably putting final touches on your summer plans. Our plans are not quite there but we wish we were. In either case, let me implore you: don't forget about the vital task of preparing your teams. Even though our plans are not quite final, we are already thinking about Ember Advance, a weekend with all of our Ember tribe preparing for summer experiences.

If you need some ideas or help along these lines, get in touch, we would love to help.

Friday Burn

::: God's Broad Canvas of Calling
If you don't have the broad canvas of calling, you have a highway with signs that read, "God calls these few people to these few tasks." If you get the broad canvas of calling, the exits on that highway are limitless, and both the individual journey and the national landscape are transformed because of it.
Link


::: A Nonprofit takes on Poverty by Bringing Digital Jobs to Emerging Markets
Samasource creates living-wage digital jobs for women and youth in emerging markets, including sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia and the Caribbean. It collaborates with in-country partners to recruit prospective employees and tackle client needs such as data augmentation, digital transcription, image tagging for SEO and machine learning.
Link


::: Can do vs Can't Do Cultures
Big companies have plenty of great ideas, but they do not innovate because they need a whole hierarchy of people to agree that a new idea is good in order to pursue it. If one smart person figures out something wrong with an idea–often to show off or to consolidate power–that's usually enough to kill it. This leads to a Can't Do Culture.
Link


::: Developing Special Teams
One of the most helpful things you can do as an organizational leader is look for ways to stretch staff without completely upending the organizational chart. My favorite way to do this is by creating special teams or task forces for unconventional projects.
Link

Photo: train BRU, June 2012.

2013 in cities

1 - NY, NY, USA
2 - Fairfield, CT, USA*
3 - Annapolis, MD, USA
4 - Durham, NC, USA
5 - Cocoa Beach, FL, USA
6 - Orlando, FL, USA
7 - Lake Anna, FL, USA
8 - Aix-en-Provence, France
9 - Marseille, France
10 - Queen Creek, AZ, USA
11 - Virginia Beach, VA, USA
12 - Rehoboth Beach, DE, USA

The map is below. Travel this year was a lot of fun.
* multiple times


View 2013 in cities in a larger map

[2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 in cities]

2013 in Books

Western Christians in Global Mission, Paul Borthwick
The Catalyst Leader, Brad Lomenick
Renegade, Vince Antonucci
Tradecraft : For the Church on Mission, Larry McCrary [Notes]
Overcoming Five Dysfunctions of a Team Field Guide, Patrick Leincoini [Notes]
The Meeting of the Waters: 7 Global Currents That Will Propel the Future Church, Fritz Lang
Creating a Missional Culture, JR Woodward
Multipliers, Liz Wiseman
Strengths Based Leadership, Tom Rath
David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell
All In, Mark Batterson
Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls are not for Sale, Rachel Lloyd
Shark Tales, Barbara Corcoran
The Sending Church, Pat Hood
Youth Ministry in a Post Christian World, Brock Morgan [Notes]
The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau [Notes]
Redefining the Role of the Youth Worker, April Diaz [Notes]
What We Talk About When We Talk About God, Rob Bell

[2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 in books]

2013 in posts

Some of my personal favorites from this year...

Ember NYC

Not All Suburban Kids Belong with the Poor [3rd most popular post in 2013]

This is What Trust Looks Like

The Tipping Point Student Missions Training Event

2013 Creative Revenue Plans Summary [2nd most popular post in 2013]

Ember X Meeting 10 - and all of Ember X for that matter

The 30 Day Rule [1st most popular post in 2013]

Future Casting from 2013

[2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 in posts.]

Christmas 2013

Sweet 16

Dear Katie

On this, your 16th birthday, we still marvel at your sense of wonder, adventure and possibility. The world is your stage and you know no limit to the possibilities that life has, even the ones maybe not even offered to you yet. For this large view of adventure, we admire you. Granted, you could plan ahead a little bit, but you'll agree I've been telling you that too much lately. ;-)

In any case, we are infinitely proud of the young person you are becoming. You love those around you unselfishly and give your time and attention to them. You have pursued both individual interests like volleyball and music while still devoting some of your energy to those less fortunate around you, like Allied Bowling and Special Friends. And in all of it, you have kept one of the abiding principles of our family and faith in your head and heart - that you are blessed to be a blessing to others.

Ever since you were a little toddler, we have known that you would have the perspective of abundance, optimism and expanding borders. We have seen it more even this year. As your biggest cheerleaders, it excites us. As your parents, it's daunting to think about you leaving our nest but we know that's the role of parents. But in either case, the world needs you at your best. Happy 16th birthday - we love you and are continually inspired by your life and heart.

LOVE

Friday Burn

::: Facebook Tracks Global Urban Migration
Link


::: How Charity Water Won Over the Tech World
Link


::: Bill Gates as a Secret Santa
Link


::: Ronnie Smith, Libya.
Link


::: Are the Millenium Development Goals Too Low a Bar?
Link


::: Homeless Resumes on Billboards
Link


::: I want to be famous in my home - @MarkBatterson

Photo: train station, Brussels, Belgium. June 2012.

Women in Ministry Leadership - What I've Learned

In early 2009, during my time serving as an 'elder intern' at our local church, I attended a meeting with our church's elder team and a small group of women whom requested the church leadership revisit the position of women in leadership. So when the internet blew up a few weeks ago around this topic, I certainly was interested [here is a good summary] . If this topic doesn't interest you, you should spend your time somewhere else. But if you are interested, certainly read on...

Here is what I've learned about the topic and all the credit for it goes to my pastor Mark Norman for walking myself and the elder team at that time through this. Most of this was gleaned at this specific sit down meeting although there was lots of background discussion before this. As you can imagine, it's a big topic.

1 - The New Testament office of elder or pastor relates to a very very small subset of people. This is irrespective of gender. Meaning that even among men, the ones who are elder qualified or desire to be an elder or lead at that level is very small. Now of course, lots of people lead without the official title or role or office. Like John Wimber used to say, "You know your elders because they eld."

2 - Each person must decide for themselves how important the issue of women in leadership is with regard to the church home they choose. Is it a negotiable or a non-negotiable?

3 - Each person must study the Bible for themselves. There are lots of good, God-loving people that fall on both sides of the discussion and we probably won't really know the real answer in this lifetime. I can still vividly remember one of our church leaders articulating that perhaps he didn't like the decision either, but he was firmly convicted about what the Scriptures taught.

4 - Your leadership team must be able to articulate your position and how you arrived at it. If you cannot or will not do this, you won't have much credibility with the emerging generation.

Some other resources that I've found helpful:
Book Notes - Two Views on Women in Ministry
Can Men and Women Lead Together
The Theological Journey of a Female Pastor, Heather Zempel, one of the pastors at National Community Church
Evangelicals and Gender Equality, from Bill and Lynne Hybels.

And this final paragraph, from the book Two Views on Women in Ministry, is valuable to continue to work towards, I think...

Once you have decided as best as you understand it, what Scripture does permit women to do, can any reasonably objective observer of your church and your ministry quickly recognize you are bending over backwards to encourage and nurture women in these roles? If not, then you can't possibly be obeying Scripture adequately, even on your interpretation of it. Interestingly, over the years, I have had a number of outspoken egalitarian women, some of them well known in evangelical circles, confide in me privately and tell me that if complementarians would just do this much consistently, they could live with the remaining areas of disagreement and even stop lobbying for further privilege.

If it is perfect

If it is perfect, it will be difficult to reproduce.*

In fact, you can do what I do.

1. Give yourself permission, like Seth Godin says.

2. Take responsibility for someone or some place.

3. See the world as different cultures. Note the differences and why.
This could mean a lot of time in different countries or a lot of time in different subcultures in your city or region.

4. Read a lot.
Use an RSS reader like feedly. Again, hardly any cost especially since information today is just about free.

5. Post your thoughts, reflections and what you are learning.
Blogger, tumblr, facebook, twitter. [And I don't mean all of them. Just one.] They all cost nothing except some of your time. One of the reasons I've used blogger for the past 10 years is that if I can do it, most people can as well.

* In conversation with Zak Eltzroth.

Friday Burn

::: New Life Christian Church runs the nZone, an 83,000-square-foot athletic training facility, as a nonprofit organization.
Link

::: Entrepreneurship is a Spectrum
Link


:::61 Languages are Found on Twitter - Here is their popularity
Link


::: Camden, NJ, America's Most Desperate Town
Link


::: Derek Snook and In Every Story Labor Services.
"People spend so much time trying to start programs to help the poor, and the reality is that probably one of the best programs we could start would be a bus system that runs on time."
Link


::: Six Ways Millenials are Shaping the Church
Link

::: Your lack of clarity on your great gift to the world is sabotaging you. - @BenArment

Photo: Sheng girls, good morning Paris. France, July 2013.

Book Notes - Redefining the Role of the Youth Worker

Redefining the Role of the Youth Worker by April Diaz.
+ 3 current overarching characteristics of national youth culture and the specific ways they played out in our local context:
1 - We live in a coffeehouse culture. More 'attractive' youth ministry doesn't work like it used to.
- Bigger isn't better. Relational closeness and depth is far more effective (even if it's fabricated intimacy from social media connections.)
- Relational boldness and challenging our students' faith are priorities.
2 - Family systems value education and college resume building more than church involvement.
- The church doesn't dictate involvement. Students select what they will achieve and what will better their future success.
- 'If you build it, they will come' doesn't work unless it adds explicit value to their lives.
- If the church can respond to the culture through service hours and leadership development, this will add value to the students' resume building. This will speak to the real and felt needs of students.
3 - Focus activities or eliminate programming because students are too busy to gather more than once per week.
- Asking students to meet as a youth group during the week is complicated.
- Retreats are mini-monastic experiences for students.
- Local and global experiences are priceless.

+ We articulated our goal as missional life together, while creating age-appropriate experiences that would prepare teenagers for the next season of their lives and engagement with the whole church community.
- Thinking about initiatives, not programs.
- Altering the 5:1 ratio, with five adults investing in every teenager, not just one adult ministering to five teenagers.
- Customizing the development of our juniors and seniors to more intentionally prepare them for life after high school.

+ In the big picture, the role we envisioned for our Student Integration Pastor was to contribute to and collaborate with the broader church for meaningful, intentional and mutual ways of integrating teenagers into the life of the church.
- third culture person
- intergenerational approach
- collaborative and big picture
- highly relational, not programmatic and segmented
- champion for teenagers

Our lead pastor, Dave Gibbons, frequently says we are a church for the "next" generation...

+ Fuller Youth Institute asked youth workers who'd participated in past Sticky Faith Cohorts to share about the mistakes they had made in leading change. The common responses were:
- Timing of the change - when change happens is just as important as what changes are proposed.
- Initiating too much change too soon - This can feel like whiplash if people aren't prepared to enter the change.
- Experimenting on the margins more - Instead of making changes that affect everyone right away, experiment by implementing changes within smaller groups before increasing the impact.
- Pushing for change too fast or not fast enough.

+ Two years later...
- a high school specific gathering on the first three Sundays of the month and then the students would attend the main service on the last Sunday of the month.
- giving our leaders permission - actually a mandate - to focus on the few. Traditional models of ministry pour the most resource investment (time, financial, energy) into the largest events or programs.
- The whole point of having a Student Integration Pastor is to debunk the notion that a paid youth ministry professional and volunteer team are the primary people who can care for and walk with teenagers in their faith journeys and only through innovative youth ministry programming.

Loved tracking with Newsong Church for a few years on and off and I think they are definitely on to something here. The characteristics about national youth culture are right on, especially the one about students being so busy and tracking activities that will help with college. It's all the more powerful if you are in an affluent, suburban, achievement focused context - hello Howard County... And one more point about those characteristics, I've noticed these changes in fairly recent years, and they are subtle but contextually important. Even in a short 10 years, the students I led back then weren't even close to being as busy as they are today. So I'm making that observation as a youth worker and as a parent. These facts must inform how you disciple students.

Great short read that will get you thinking about the way your church interacts with your students.

Coursera Class - The Age of Sustainable Development

Just kidding. I'm not really going back to school. But in January, I am taking a course called The Age of Sustainable Development, offered through Columbia University and Coursera. It looks like a great course in some of the stuff we love to learn about, like economic development, the MDGS, poverty and disease and urbanization.

Two other things which are going to make this great. First, it's taught by Jeffrey Sachs. He's had a lot of influence on me and Ember so to take this from him is a fantastic opportunity. And secondly, taking a class via Coursera should be a cool experience, and this will be my first MOOC. Higher education is in the midst of disruption so I'm excited to experience what college might look like in the near future.

This class is free. Let me know if you end up taking it too.

Friday Burn

::: Meet the Families of 2030
Link


::: What Leaders Won't Do

But the one thing that amazes me more than what leaders will do for their enterprises, is what they so often won’t do – endure emotional discomfort at work.

Lencioni is almost always on the mark.
Link


::: Your Help is Hurting
Solid interview with Pete Greer from Hope International
Link


::: How the Internet is Killing the World's Languages
Link

Photo: Hope, ProtoGuide but not gang member, and moi. Baltimore, November 2013.

Book Notes - The $100 Startup

This blueprint to freedom is fully customizable and highly actionable.

Follow your passion model
Low startup cost
At least $50,000 in income
No special skills
Full financial disclosure
Fewer than five employees

Convergence
passion and what others care about collide

Skill Transformation
To succeed in a business project, it helps to think carefully about all the skills you have that could be helpful to others and particularly about the combination of those skills.

The Magic Formula
(Passion or skill) + (problem + marketplace) = opportunity

Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

No one values a $15-an-hour consultant, so do not underprice your service. Since you probably won't have forty hours of billable work every week, charge at least $100 an hour or a comparable fixed rate for the benefit you provide.

When I asked our group of unexpected entrepreneurs about the follow-your-passion model, I frequently heard a nuanced answer. Almost no one said, "Yes! You should always follow your passion wherever it leads." Similarly, almost no one dismissed the idea out of hand. The nuance comes from the idea that passion plus good business sense creates an actual business.

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world. - John Le Carre

The decision making matrix
Impact, Effort, Profitability, Vision

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. - Peter F. Drucker

Offerings
Understand that what we want and what we say we want are not always the same thing.
Most of us like to buy, but we don't usually like to be sold.
Provide a nudge.

A good launch blends strategy with tactics. Strategy refers to why questions such as story, offer and long-term plan. Tactics refer to how questions such as timing, price and specific path.

When you're presented with an opportunity, don't just think about its merits or how busy you are. Instead, think about how it makes you feel. If you feel only so-so about it, turn it down and move on. But if the opportunity would be exciting and meaningful - so much so that you can say "hell yeah" when you think about it- find a way to say yes. [Derek Sivers]

The One Page Promotion Plan
Daily - maintain a regular social media presence, monitor 1 or 2 key metrics.
Weekly - ask for help or joint promotions from colleagues, maintain regular communications with prospects and customers
Monthly - connect with existing customers to make sure they are happy [is there anything else i can do for you?], prepare for an upcoming event, contest or product launch.

There is nothing wrong with having a hobby, but if you're operating a business, the primary goal is to make money.

The average business can improve its odds of success greatly by getting paid in more than one way and at more than one time.

Remind people that profit is the difference between revenue and expense. This makes you look smart. - Scott Adams

Easy growth option including adding a service to a product-based business (or vice versa), deploying a creative series of upsells and cross-sells, and making a few key tweaks.

I'm not a businessman; I'm a business, man. - Jay-Z

A business that is scalable is both teachable and valuable. If you ever want to sell your business, you'll need to build teams and reduce owner dependency.

Absolutely loved this book. It really contributes to some of the ideas that we've been pondering about missions the past few years, ideas such as:
1 - You need a portfolio of income.
2 - The global recession is making nonprofit support harder and harder to come by. It is not impossible but it has become much more difficult.
3 - Calling, vocation, skills and your network all inform each other when it comes to income.
4 - A tangible skill may get you to the mission field with more legitimacy than a degree in religion.

Lots more good stuff in the book about actually starting a business.

Missions Foci

Focus has been the en vogue trend in global missions for the past few years. Nothing inherently bad about teaming up with someone you trust and concentrating on momentum together for the long haul. Various implementations around this idea includes focusing on specific demographics [peoplegroups], physical areas of the world or causes [PEACE plan] All the big churches are doing it. Leadership Network cites this as one of the important strategies for the future.

In some cases, the move to focus has been a response to the shotgun approach to missions - having too many superficial relationships scattered all over the globe. The issues coming out of that have included how do we care for so many and how do we decide about allocating resources to these that are scattered. You can spend lots of attention and energy on being focused - that might be the right thing to fix the symptom of being too scattered if that really is your problem.

Or, starting with the end in mind, perhaps the real issue isn't focusing on one of those things above. Maybe what we need is focusing on creating more missionaries - we clearly do not have enough. Unpacking this includes talking about lots of stuff, like leadership development, ensuring character and competence, vocation and calling, and the role of sending churches and agencies. But before all of that, focusing on one might cost you the other.

Friday Burn

::: Thanksgiving Through the Eyes of Missionaries
Link via The Upstream Collective


::: Language Facts Around the World
Link


::: Millennials and the Mega Church Bubble
Link [youtube] via Skye
Skye nails it. If you have 7 minutes, it's well worth the watch.


::: Lets Kill the Aid Industry
Link


::: "No matter what happens, it will have been worth the trying." –Amelia Earhart, in a telegram to her mother, 1928. - @BenArment

Photo: Oreo [and Emily] graduating from beginner dog class.

Book Notes - Youth Ministry in a Post-Christian World

The first time I heard about post-Christianity was when a fellow youth worker told me something he'd overheard. He said a friend of his asked a young pregnant woman if she and her husband had thought of any names for their baby. She answered with this little bomb: "We really haven't thought of a name yet, but one thing we do know is that it won't be a biblical name." This took him aback, so he asked her why. She responded matter-of-factly, "Oh, because we live in a post-Christian world."

This is the world in which our students are growing up today, and they and their friends are no dummies. For Christian students with a faith that really matters to them, growing up in a post-Christian world will cause them to feel like the minority... because they are.

In our post-Christian world, no value is placed on the Sabbath, so our children have some scheduled anxiety seven days a week. This has created the most anxious and stressed-out generation in history.

...this is the world our kids are growing up in, and they need to feel safe as they study, research and try on different faiths. But this Starbucks spirituality is a growing trait, and it's something we need to really think through. In a post-Christian world, you're going to hear this kind of stuff. You're going to hear that students consider themselves "Buddhist Christians" and a plethora of other mashups. How will you respond?

In the past, sometimes I've felt less like a pastor or a shepherd and more like a used car salesman. (I sincerely apologize to any used car salesmen who are reading this right now.) Have we made youth ministry just another product for teens to consume?

In his book Working the Angels, Eugene Peterson says, "The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper's concerns - how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customer will lay out more money."

A sage has a heart for the next generation - Psalm 71:18

Embrace:
Christian relativism
Tolerance
Spirituality
Intellectualism
Mystery
The Miraculous
Answers
[These sound sketch but trust me, they are not.]

This is a solid read and the first three chapters outline the state of things in western culture - evangelical student ministry in crisis. If you don't think that is true, then you'll need to get out of your cave and look around. Then go buy this book.

It is also a great read because it helps those who lead students navigate the culture that our kids are growing up in. The post-Christian world is nuanced and complex, confusing and different. But you know how it goes, once a sold out, passionate leader or two gets it, the students that they care about get it too. And that will make all the difference in the world.

Looking for Just One

If you've been around a little while, you've heard us talk about the journey of self -> service -> systems. Some of it comes from various service experiences we have been involved with and some of it has come from reading current practitioners in the charity/nonprofit/missions space. The real clincher is the third step - getting to a point where you have a system that will help people help themselves.

I will be the first to tell you that it is all talk. It's a mantra that we use that has no real experience behind it. It is experimental thinking. And no one associated with Ember has made that third step. I'm optimistic and I'm desperate for just one.

Here are two great examples of what something like this might look like:
My Congregations Experiment in Using Market Values

Why I Finally Wear Toms Shoes

Friday Burn

::: Four World Changing Products
Link from the current issue of Wired magazine, edited by Bill Gates.


::: The 15 Most Popular Cities for Millennials
Link


::: The Date - 8 countries in 21 days without changing clothes
Link


::: Google's Nine Principles of Innovation
Link


::: Names for Change
From the same people that brought you playspent.org, all to benefit Urban Ministries of Durham
Link


::: "If God be your partner, make large plans." D.L. Moody - @jdgreear

Photo: NYC, March 2009.

The IMN - Strategic and Ideational Leadership Immersion

Anticipatory. Ideational. Strategic. Futuristic. Holistic. Systemic. Relational. Leadership. http://t.co/VNXHydVyhN - limited seating.

— Alex McManus (@alex_mcmanus) November 20, 2013

I have learned a ton from Alex McManus in the past number of years and I know that these immersions that he runs are some of the best if the words in that tweet resonate with you. The IMN has opened registrations for both the online and onsite sessions. Be forewarned though, Alex's gatherings always feel like you are meeting with a different species of human.

Get an idea from some of these notes... Orlando 2005, Humana 2007, Humana 2008, M2011

Ember Baltimore

Ember facilitated a short leadership service experience last weekend based in Baltimore with some of our friends from Salisbury. If you've followed along here for a little while you know about Wendy and us sending her to AZ last summer. She's the current ring leader for a group of college kids at Salisbury who are deeply invested in a bunch of different community impact projects. Wendy approached us a few months ago about setting something up around the theme of churches with unique impact to their communities.

There seems to be a groundswell of stuff happening in Baltimore - lots of recent new churches starting and some interesting under the covers service stuff. If you follow any of this, you probably know the name Colleen Smith. She is a Baltimore legend. We first met many moons ago when she was Kt's Sunday school teacher. Fast forward through her journey with the inner city, serving at Charm City Church, hosting block parties for Mission Advance and her most recent move to work with Captivate Church. [Read the story about their inner city property.] When we thought of the theme, Colleen certainly came to mind.

We spent the morning with Colleen and some of her kids club kids, walking with her around her community and listening to her stories, like: the police raiding her house multiple times, her now babysitting the kids of the first homeless man she ever met, and executing a bedroom makeover for one of the teenagers in her neighborhood. If you ever get a chance to walk her community with her, you'll see that she literally knows everyone and everyone knows her. Just so you know, this is her life pattern and it's amazing to see.

Around lunch time, we took some pre-made lunches to a spot where lots of homeless people gather. The original plan was that each of our team would give out 3 lunches and actually eat with homeless people. Instead, we ran out of food and spent a little time having conversations with some of the people there. Interestingly, most of our team felt a little awkward about the whole exchange. That's healthy to see because it certainly was an inequity of power [a la Toxic Charity.] It's also healthy because a number of years ago, young people I served with would have been fully satisfied by this - now, they want to serve the less fortunate while caring about their dignity. Of course, trusting your local host is one great step towards the right balance in this tension.

After lunch, we distributed some flyers around the neighborhood for Freedom Church, whose staff is in the midst of starting up a Sunday night church service. Instead of actually starting a gathering, they have hosted a number of community open forum nights to hear from people about what is good and bad about where they live and how could a church help with some of those issues. The flyers we distributed were to publicize another one of these coming up that Sunday. Absolutely love that approach.

Be encouraged about the emerging generation. They desire to connect and learn from legendary practitioners like Colleen. When they execute on their passions and principles from those that have come before them, the world will be a better place.

A Letter From...

When Ember ProtoGuide Measu wanted to get in touch with the author of a significant book she read but couldn't find an email address, she wrote him a letter. Like with a paper and pencil. An envelope and a stamp.

Finding a resource, raising some funding, shaping a team, starting a movement. Emerging global student leaders find a way. The rest of us have no excuses.

Perspectives - Lesson 12 - Ekklesia Church

Fantastic time teaching the Perspectives class at Ekklesia Church last week. The lesson I taught was #12, Christian Community Development and I loved being able to bring some emerging global student leaders to listen in on the class.

Here's a few items to note:
+ There was about 20 people in the class, maybe half spoke Spanish and the other half English. The original intent of the class was that it was to have used real time translation via a translator and Spanish speakers wearing headsets to hear the translation. They ended up not doing that anymore because the people that really needed that stopped coming to the class. In either case, fun to see a class like this move to something like that.
+ Perspectives typically has an older demographic, much like anything else you term 'missions.' There were however, a few young adults in there. I'm a firm believer that if more young people heard about this class, they would take it.
+ Worship was in English and Spanish.
+ Met a girl who had lived in Brussels all through her high school years and we knew some of the same people [small world].
+ She was also family friends of someone who sits on our Ember board of directors [smaller world].
+ We also dropped in, before class, on a good friend of mine and his family who lived in Bangkok and Okinawa. Loved hearing them talk to young people about crossing cultures.
+ My slide deck. It's going to go through some major rewriting though. As always, steal or borrow what you wanna.

Friday Burn

::: Superzips - Washington DC
This week's must read if you live in or near Howard County. Stunningly accurate article about life in Howard County. Pick the cultural idols apart of out this article and let it inform how you make disciples.
Link


::: The 10 Smartest Cities in North America
Link


::: NorthPoint and their bazillion short term trips in 2014
Link


::: Tension, not balance.
So so true
Link


::: Plan to Reach 50 US Cities
Link

Photo: elevator, Vienna City Hostel, 2008.

Plan to Prepare

Some of you might be planning your summer 2014 adventures. Let me encourage you - it's not too early to think about how to prepare your students and leaders in the right manner for those adventures. Think leadership, team building, acclimating to navigating a different culture. Ember is booking student missions prep sessions and would love to help.

Meet Tess

That's Tess on the left [and ProtoGuide Measu on the right... but you knew that...] Ember is at the very beginning embryonic stage of a little project with Tess - it's one of those throw-and-see-what-sticks kinds of things.

Tess spent a little while in Brussels last summer and fell in love with the city, the culture and the people there. Even better, she came home with a new realization of how western culture is post evangelical, post modern and post Christian. Along with all of those posts comes a sense of urgency - humanity is desperate for something.

Tess is a great example of what Ember likes to call an emerging global student leader. She's traveled a little, interested in global cultures and already has lots of influence and responsibility. If this little experiment works, we will all be thrilled.

Friday Burn

::: How Fast Food Eaters Split Along Ethnic Lines
Wait - Asians visit Panda Express?
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::: Top 10 Countries for ExPats
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::: "I'll pass on waiting for the torch. I've got a fire to start"
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::: On the day of their IPO, Twitter chose a nine year old girl to ring the bell on the NYSE

But instead, when time came to pronounce Twitter public Thursday morning, a 9-year-old girl dressed in a “little bluebird” tutu dress appeared behind the bell. She is Vivienne Harr, who recently raised more than $100,000 to fight childhood slavery by spending 365 days behind a lemonade stand....
"Can I say one thing?" Harr asks me before our interview ends. "I just want to say that today I ring the bell to open freedom. And you don’t have to be big and powerful to change the world. You can be just like me."

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Photo: WWII memorial.

To Benefit All

Again, we felt God calling us to a deeper commitment to His glory among the nations. We had developed partnerships after our first Sacred Gathering but, this time, we began to feel God leading us to send teams to live in an unreached or unengaged people group to share the gospel and train local leaders to start indigenous churches. On the last day of the Sacred Gathering, Kyle came to my office and said he couldn't get Belgium off his mind. I think we both knew what was happening. After weeks of discussion and prayer, I told him that if God was directing him to Belgium, then He was directing us to Belgium. I believe when God gives direction to pastors and church leaders, it's not just for their benefit; it's for the church. - The Sending Church: The Church Must Leave the Building by Pat Hood.

The Kyle mentioned here is Kyle Goen, Brussels campus pastor for LifePoint Church.

My Nonprofit Gives

I sent myself two gifts a few weeks ago from my little nonprofit. Sounds kind of self-serving doesn't it? I sort of agree too, I felt a little strange doing it.

On the other hand, I'm a firm believer in people investing in themselves. Whether it is taking a class or buying some books or learning a new skill, at some point, someone might choose to provide something like that for you. But in the end, the only one that is looking out for your own development is you. There is quite simply no one else as interested in your growth.

So gift yourself something that will make you grow. And be happy about it.

NovEmber

+ Working with a team of college kids led by the infamous Wendy Usher to work on a weekend project with a church with a unique impact to the community. Love this kind of thing. You might remember Wendy as the college kid went sent to AZ for 6 weeks this past summer. More so than usual, this one has been a struggle to get together. That might be the dip that is worth working through.
+ Our host for this project is Colleen Samantha, who I have known for years. She was Katie's Sunday school teacher long ago and we've worked together on multiple projects, the most significant being two block parties that were integral to Mission Advance. Her and Captivate Church have such a unique impact to the city - exactly the theme this team is looking for.
+ Getting final wraps done for my Perspectives session next week. I read that Steve Jobs practiced 1 hour for every 1 minute of his presentation. I need to get 20 hours in this week...
+ You know that phrase that someone 'is unemployable...' In the same way, there are people that are 'unchurchable.' I apologize to you in advance for visiting your church.
+ Thrilled to have ProtoGuides finish reading Church in the Making and start The Forgotten Ways. They've gotten a ton out of the first book and I'm sure will get a ton out of the second. Tell me what other high school students are reading stuff like this.
+ Spent Friday evening with Sarah A, the student transplanted from Aix-en-Provence where the Ember X team worked this summer. Sarah is doing a gap year here in DC and we gave her the night time monument tour.
+ Katie got her learners permit and is in a week of club volleyball clinics and taking drivers ed.
+ 6 weeks after getting our dog, Oreo absolutely loves Emily the best.
+ To parents of younger children - don't believe the lie - it doesn't get any easier.

Halloween 2013

And.... welcome to NovEmber!