Hosting the Ns

In 2006, the Ns hosted a student team that I led to Yaounde Cameroon. They were the most gracious hosts and our role was to help jump start some relationships and student gatherings during our time in their city. In 2008, they hosted another team from our church, this team helping them with a leadership conference they were putting together. Again, the most gracious, humble, and culturally sensitive hosts.

Bad picture, but G is second from the left and W is all the way on the right. [Greg who helped lead in 2006 and 2008 in the middle and Terah who lead in 2008 is second from the right.] It was a pleasure to host them and two of their three kids this past weekend. And, of course, when people like us get together, the 4 day long conversation includes topics like:
+ sending churches and global missions strategies
+ their transition of ministry moving from being hands on youth workers to focusing on organizational dynamics and administration
+ psychometrics and high performance teams
+ the demand of a typical season on furlough
+ life overseas while preparing your teenagers for college in another country

I also had some great conversations with their two boys about growing up overseas, being third culture kids and the kinds of things they would love and hate if they got together with similar kids. This is info we will indirectly use for Prague. Loved our time together.

Friday Burn

::: Where Should You Give to Help Nepal?
Link


::: Production Adoption - Seth on the Diffusion of Innovation Scale
[PS I love this scale]
Link


::: The World's Languages, in 7 maps and charts
Link


::: Movement killer: telling someone with the apostolic gift that he/she cannot use it. @briansanders_

Photo: The Rocky Steps, Philly. April 2015.

Best of Luck Brent

That is Brent Lutz on the left, sitting on a tarp covered recliner with shaving cream all over his face. Our daughter Emily is in the center of the posse of girls on the right. A pie in the face - consider this a middle school send off.

Last Sunday was Brent's last Sunday in his position as middle school pastor at Grace - his family felt a call back to Ohio where they have deep roots. These girls, and our family, have been fortunate enough to have a middle school pastor that loved Jesus and was crazy enough to hang with middle schoolers for 3 years. His impact has been tangible and visceral.

Thanks Brent for investing in the middle schoolers of Howard County and best of luck!

Prague Team - Mtg #4

Served for a morning together at The Samaritan Women, a local human trafficking victim services organization, as a team, or as many as could come. They do a fantastic intro to the whole subject of domestic and local human trafficking and serving on their property is both a great project and gives you a great sense for their mission.

Planning lunch with most of our team where we outlined and put down some structure to the program we are going to execute. We got some juice now.

Friday Burn

::: Why Some People Are So Good at Persisting
Trust me on this - click the link and read it. Nathan is fast becoming one of my favorite writers.
Link


::: The Wirecutter's Travel Guide
Link


::: Dan Sadlier celebrating Hope Church Roosevelt Island's First Year
Some of the Ember team had lunch with Dan in 2011. Super insightful post.
Link

Photo: Community Garden, Salvation Army West Philadelphia. April 2015.

Young Young Adults

Pictured is the leadership team of the young adult ministry at our church - a phenomenal group of young people. I had the privilege of being with them for about 18 hours a few weeks ago for part of their spring leadership retreat. Huge privilege.

During our time together, we watched a few of the videos from the Verge Conference, best described as a gathering of future-centric church leaders. I loved the content of the talks and my role there was to help facilitate discussions with this team. Some of the concepts that we talked about included movement thinking, releasing and ordaining ordinary people to do ministry, and postures and gestures. The other idea that I walked away with was the reminder that vocabulary creates culture - the words that you use and their definitions matter and help define the ethos of your team.

Much has been said about the decline of church involvement among young people and how the American church is in crisis mode. I don't dispute any of that and certainly agree that the future of a movement of Jesus followers will see many challenges. But people like these people - who love each other incredibly through good and bad, who are bound so tightly by a sense of impacting the world for God's glory, and who are willing to break the mold of how we have done it before - yes, I'll hang with them and cheer them on.

Ember Philly 15

This past weekend, I spent about 24 hours in Philadelphia with some 10th grade boys and their leaders from a local church youth ministry. Long time readers might remember that Ember has used Philadelphia as a context for a few of our cultural and leadership immersions and this weekend was a similar experience. I loved our time together with this group, I've known one of their leaders for a long time and their leader team has been with these boys for almost five years straight. Every leader here was humble, sacrificial and fun. Every student loved learning about what we were doing and was totally engaged. Dream job.

Here are some of the elements of the weekend - feel free to steal with attribution.
+ Friday night - Chinatown immersion.
I love Chinatown Philadelphia for this kind of thing. You actually see lots of Chinese people there and it feels like being immersed in a totally different culture for a short period of time.
Dinner at Chinese restaurant with peking duck and frog.
Cultural observation - what are the icons, what is the narrative of the neighborhood and what is similar and different from where you live?
Urbanization, global urban migration, gentrification, demographics.
Dinner and discussion with Ember guide Tess and her roommate from Eastern.

+ Saturday - Salvation Army West Philadelphia
We had another Ember experience with Salvation Army West Philadelphia in 2011 so I knew a little bit about what to expect. It is part community center and part church, and the local envoys there, Tony and LaVerna Lewis are a joy to work with and really are there as pastors to the community. They have a fantastic facility that has been there since 1980 right next to a senior citizens apartment complex. The projects included weeding their community garden and sorting through toy and clothing donations.
The nonprofit dillemma of not having enough resources.
Missional imagination [like using this property.]
The requirement of missional imagination for leadership for the future.
Incarnation - when someone moves in to the neighborhood. Jesus being the ultimate example of incarnation.
The tension of bringing suburban kids into an urban environment for a few hours.

+ Saturday - Rocky Stairs
You cannot talk about the context of Philadelphia effectively without referencing Rocky.

+ Saturday - Tony Lukes.
Cheesesteaks - another significant icon of Philly.

Here is hoping that this weekend was catalytic for the potential in some of these students. More pictures here.

UPDATE: One item of feedback and I'm updating it here so I don't forget: we didn't walk around the neighborhood at Sal Army with the team like we should have.

Friday Burn

::: The Seven Lies of Living Cross Culturally

...the big reality shocker comes when you realize that living cross-culturally is not simply TWO cultures but it requires MULTIPLE layers of cultural adjustment.

Must read of the week.
Link via Joyce, one of our Ember board of directors


::: Passports Ranked by Power
Link via JD Payne


::: Arcade Games at Airports for Charity
Link


::: Ikea Refugee Shelters
Link

::: Walt Disney was turned down 302 times getting financed for Disney World. 303 was the number that built an icon. - @AshleyJensen

Photo: Spring in DC.

The In Plain Sight Showing

Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Great turnout for the showing of In Plain Sight this past weekend. Katie did a fantastic job and we are proud of all of her efforts over the past few months. Could not have gone better.

Packed house, the panel included some of the most influential people in our area in the fight against human trafficking and Chick Fil A was a sponsor. All this spearheaded by a 17 year old.

Prague Team - Mtg #3

+ MBTI
I almost always do the Myers Briggs Type Indicator test with teams that I have. It's an easy and fun way to learn about each other, and yourself, and how the team interacts with each other. We talk about each of the four pairs of letters, what they mean and what teams specifically have conflict around. We also pass around the chart, filling in your name in your block, until everyone has everyone elses type on their chart.
+ Logistics
When and where.
+ Theme brainstorming
What kind of theme could ground the whole experience and how could we expand on that theme if needed. And how could we provide some advance promotion to this experience? And how could we add in just pure fun activities based on this theme.

Oh and we watched this promo thing from Hungary 2008. Wow.

Friday Burn

::: Brian Fikkert, author of When Helping Hurts, on Short Term Missions

This means that one key factor in planning a healthy STM is to be very intentional about learning. Research is showing that STM do not have transformational impact unless they are embedded with deliberate pre and post trip learning that lasts about a year. We are emphasizing that STM are just one part of a longer learning process that prepares people for the experience, guides them through it, and then reflects on it afterwards in healthy ways.

Lots of good stuff in here.
Link


::: 7 Cities that are Starting to Go Car Free
Link via Alex McManus


::: The World's Economic Center is Moving Towards China
Link


::: 10 Places to Go Before They Are Gone
Link via Chris Guillebeau

Photo: Iceland cold. March 2015.

Loftstofan

One of the things we do when we can while traveling is to visit a local church. If you are like us, it's a great way to understand more of the subtleties of a given culture. So when Katie and I were in Reykjavik, we visited Loftstofan. Their gathering met in the early afternoon, perfect timing for us after staying up late chasing the Lights, and gathered at a local school about a ten minute drive outside of the city center.

Iceland seems pretty postmodern, both in thinking and in visual cues, like with art and architecture. They talk about elves and fairies as real beings and give lots of value to having the first openly gay Prime Minister. We saw a handful of state run church buildings that looked similar in design and layout. Most church planting and missions readings on the spiritual state of Iceland says that less than 1% of the population attend a church.

Loftstofan was the kind of place people like us would end up at. Emerging and organic, Gospel based, and culturally engaged, it seems to also have the DNA of reproduction and catalytic and movement thinking. Although the lead pastor was away during our visit, one of the elders taught. He had spent sometime in grad school in Richmond, but didn't stay there during the summers because it was 'way too hot.' Yup.

A New Era of Mission Support Letters

Every year, we try to raise the bar on mission support letters. We want the letters associated with Ember to look beautiful, to be thoughtfully written and to be an investment in relationships. Between this year and last year, I think we've gotten some momentum around this and a new default expectation.

Here is a quick view for some of the letters that are going out for our team this summer. Each of them meets those goals above and I personally would love to get one of these in the mail. These kids spent a good amount of time putting these together and Tess was instrumental in helping coach them to make them stunning.

Support letters are a tool. Most people that you send one to are excited to hear about your life and to be a part of your ministry. But overall, you should be trying to elevate the person that is receiving it. It is not simply about a transaction.

Friday Burn

::: The Breathtaking Beauty of Yemen
Link


::: Nick Kristof on Respect for Evangelicals

But I must say that a disproportionate share of the aid workers I've met in the wildest places over the years, long after anyone sensible had evacuated, have been evangelicals, nuns or priests.

Link


::: Is there a Silver Bullet to Ending Poverty?
Three principles and three ideas for getting started.
Link


::: What Do Those Airport Codes Really Mean?
Link


::: When in doubt, use fear as fuel. @storynashville

Photo: Loftstofan Church, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Iceland - Trips with Dad - 2015 #2

At the end of 2014, I decided to be a little more intentional about time with my kids, culminating in a decision to take each one of my kids [and my wife] on a trip, just the two of us, in 2015. This was the second of these, a trip with Katie our older daughter, to Iceland.

The quest for this trip was to see the Northern Lights, an item on Katie's bucket list, and, frankly, a little adventure would be good for me. The trip was definitely an adventure alright, we had an amazing time. Iceland is a visually stunning country that takes your breath away everywhere you look. They love tourists there, everyone speaks English pretty well and the cultural distance from American culture is small. Iceland was also highly recommended by our friend Terah who had traveled there last fall.

Here are some tips if you make it there:
+ Citywalk Reykjavik is a great thing to do. Marteeen is a fantastic tour guide.
+ If you want to drive around in some awesome modified Land Rover Discoverys to see the Northern Lights, Superjeeps.is is what you want. [And you do.]
+ Fish, mens beards, the constant change in weather, and water are pretty significant cultural icons.
+ Gullfoss and Geyser are pretty easy to get to - we had a rental car and the road to both of these locations were plowed every day. You should get to these if you can.
+ The first day we were there, it alternated snow and sunshine every 10 minutes. Most of the next days were clear, sunny and cold. That being said, don't underestimate the weather in the winter, especially if you drive out of Reykjavik.
+ We saw a few short and fast snowstorms on mountain passes and those mountain roads can get covered with snow from drifting. We rented a Toyota Yaris, 2 wheel drive, but most of their rental cars have studded tires in the winter. Drive a little bit out of Reykjavik and it can seem pretty desolate.
+ Seljalandsfoss is definitely worth the drive. It is a little further out of Reykjavik as Gullfoss in a slightly different direction. Don't miss going to the fourth waterfall away from the highway.
+ The Blue Lagoon was fun but I would rank this a little lower than Gullfoss and Seljalandsfoss if you were limited on time. Other people we know loved it a lot more though.
+ Hot water smells a little like sulphuric but it's not a big deal and you get used to it. Icelanders pride themselves on the purity of their water.
+ Wifi is plentiful everywhere. I did not have an international data plan, although that might have helped with directions at times. But like I said, adventure. One day, we stopped at a gas station and I got on the wifi there and skyped with home.
+ We are definitely suburban people and got to all of this stuff pretty easily on our own. We did purchase some quality cold weather gear though - hats, gloves, and insulated clothing.

Fantastic adventure and Katie and I had a great time traveling together.

Minilik

We had been driving for maybe about 45 minutes, it's about 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside and there is still a good 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground. And there, after turning the corner, in the middle of nowhere in Iceland, just below the Arctic Circle.... an Ethiopian restaurant.

In today's world, you never know where or when you will find one element of a given global culture in another. It makes life in our world fun and the ability and navigate cultures essential.

I've been in Iceland for the past few days - more on that later.

Friday Burn

::: How to Survive as an Aid Worker Without Losing Your Soul
Link


::: The British Church in 2050
Link


::: Quartz's Favorite Startups from Y Combinator
Link


::: "You will grow only to the threshold of your pain...if you’re not bleeding, you’re not leading" @samchand

Our 2015 Missions Support Letter

Here is our support letter for this year. I'm thrilled to tell you that I think our team is going to produce some very very beautiful letters this year. And that our oldest, Katie, designed this years letter. She should start a mini business out of this.

I also got to thinking that I have never had someone contribute to a missions team just from reading a support letter [yet]. But in actuality, I've had quite a few people support some of our summer projects due to a long relationship from reading my blog. And for that, I'm grateful and gladly continue to post.




[Related: Older mission support letters: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014]

Traveling in 2015 and Global Risk

Like many of you, I'm convinced that we are living in amazing times and a big reason for that is the ease of air travel. Also, like many of you, I've followed the global news for a number of years now and the world can still be a dangerous place. I've been thinking about this for a few months now, especially in light of the weight of responsibility The Ember Cast has with the leaders that are entrusted to us.

To that end, last week, we decided to engage a faith based global risk management firm in helping us in this area. Their core competencies include intelligence analysis, security best practices focused on global faith based nonprofit staff, and helping organizations think about global risk management. Board of Director, MPM, articulates it well here [printed with permission]:

"As Ember remains dedicated to engaging young leaders who are interested in exploring other cultures, we should also be dedicated to understanding all the risks to help that happen as safely as possible. Professional-grade risk assessment sounds like the right level in today's tumultuous world...especially to help allay the fears of any parents of emerging leaders. Risk is less risky when you can plan for it."

If you have any responsibility when it comes to sending young people around the world, I implore you to do some heavy thinking about this topic. If you'd like more info on who we engaged, get in touch.

Friday Burn

::: Over The Past 150 Years, There Has Been A Profound Shift In What Humans Do With Their Time
You won't like the answer.
Link


::: Four Myths of Global Leadership
Link


::: How Ikea Took Over the World

The company, for example, did a study of 8,292 people in eight cities, examining morning routines. People are the fastest out the door in Shanghai (56 minutes) and the slowest in Mumbai (2 hours, 24 minutes), where they’re also the kings of the snooze (58% hit the button at least once). New Yorkers and Stockholmers are the most likely to work in their bathrooms (16%). But regardless of city, women spend more time than men picking out their outfit for the day, a process many find stressful.

Link


::: 5 Global Cities of the Future
Link via Alex McManus

::: Many of our churches are almost out of time to be a church of its times and for its times. Len Sweet

Photo: Amadeo Church, summer 2010.

Perspectives - Lesson 10 - Resources

I just finished teaching Lesson 10 for Perspectives for two classes earlier this week and this was the pile of books I brought for some resources. Long time readers know that besides Jesus, Perspectives changed everything for me. Each one of these books is fantastic.

Church in the Making
Youth Ministry in a Post Christian World
Movements that Changed the World
Tradecraft
The Forgotten Ways
The Short Term Missions Workbook
* all of these links are to The Ember Cast's Amazon Smile page

Get in touch if you want a copy of my class slides.

Prague - Mtg #2

Frameworks:
- third culture kids
- geography
- spiritual, cultural and fun elements
- itineary

Creating this is going to be quite the experience.

Friday Burn

::: Poor Kids of Silicon Valley
Stunning series about child poverty.

"America has the developed world's second highest rate of childhood poverty."

Link


::: Where the migrants go, in one map.
Link


::: Making Disciples, Not Hunting Them Down
Heidi Scanlon, NCC's pastor of prayer, and her ground rules for discipleship.
Link


::: Engineering a Mass Transit App for a City Without Mass Transit

In Nairobi, private car ownership isn’t the norm: the bulk of its citizens rely on public transit. But when Nairobi’s formal bus system collapsed in the 1990s, the government failed to do anything about it.
So without a formal urban planning strategy, an enterprising group of Kenyans sought to fill the void.
The result was a crazy, lawless, and über-popular mode of transportation: the Kenyan Matatu.

Link


::: Fortune sides with him who dares. - Virgil via @dancumberland

Photo: Tess and Katie, Curtis Bay, Baltimore. March 2015.

The Advantage of Princesses

One of our hopes in raising our kids around faith based global work is that they would engage it as they got older and they wouldn't resent it later. So far, I think, it has worked. They've been on lots of planes. They gravitate towards people that like airports. They have heard stories from countless young people who have gone far away at God's leading and then come home and had dinner at our house. They love adventure. They are willing to go at the slightest invitation.

Ben Arment writes about the advantage of princes, "They grew up in the castle. They understood how the kingdom was run. Leading an empire is no big deal to them because they grew up watching it being done. It has nothing to do with their capabilities. It has everything to do with their conditioning." Certainly, we don't live in a castle, but the principle holds true.

Our oldest daughter, Katie, is spearheading a showing of the human trafficking documentary called In Plain Sight. It's going to be hosted at Grace Community Church in Fulton, MD, the evening of April 11. We are proud of her for using her passion, network and gifts in this area this year and are excited to see how the event turns out. Pretty good for a 17 year old. Let me know if you are interested - would love to see you there.

Update - RSVP here.

Ember Curtis Bay

I love being around people that have started things from nothing and naturally, The Ember Cast has gravitated towards this as well. One thing that makes us unique is our ability to expose emerging global student leaders to the type of people that have done these kinds of things - creative, innovative and entrepreneurial to the core. Gospel centered missional leaders of the future will need to have the skill to find a way or make a way. Last Saturday, we had the privilege of seeing lots of this kind of thing.

DK [ProtoGuide 2013] and Wendy Usher [AZ 2013] have worked with us for a few years and we love the leadership they are providing at their respective colleges. On Saturday, they brought a bunch of their friends to serve at a service day hosted by Ember.

We worked with The Well in Curtis Bay and got to know Mandy Memmel, the founder and executive director. The Well is primarily a resource for women living in Curtis Bay but talk to Mandy and you'll find a catalytic leader that is hoping to change the very culture of their community by helping the women that live there first.

DK brought about 20 college students, which is no small feat. She's been making Ember proud by working on Towson Cru's service team, heading up community outreach initiatives for their community.

Wendy Usher has been working with an after school club of sorts with some kids from her community. Recently she has pivoted that into a mentorship type agreement and has found a small group of college students willing to serve and lead and tutor these kids. In a bold move, she brought 6 volunteers and 10 of these kids in her mentorship initiative to Curtis Bay this weekend. I know you might be thinking of the liability issues in this - trust me, I know. But besides that, exposing kids that are served every week to getting outside of themselves to serve others is a huge win and Wendy and her team pulled it off.

Getting high school kids involved in service projects is almost never a bad thing. But don't forget that somewhere in the past, God birthed a vision in someone. You really win when this person who found a way or made a way shares their passion with your students.

Absolutely loved every piece of this day including the fact that it was our first Prague team excursion. And The Well has one of the most organized clothing closet I have ever seen, accomplished by someone in their mentorship program.

Friday Burn

::: Your Guide to Slang in Other Countries
Link


::: The World's Top Missionary Sending Country
Link


::: A Quarter of a Million People Use an App to Brush Their Teeth
Link


::: People Respond to Forward Motion
Classic Seth Godin.
Link

::: Great leaders don't put out fires. They fill buckets. - @csfguy

Photo: Train, Brussels, Belgium. June 2012.

Prague Leader #1

In the summer of 2013, I met Tess, who, having just come home from Brussels with a team that was working with Serve the City, was interested in how Ember could resource her to do more of the same. It was the perfect project for us - a passionate emerging global student leader and an opportunity to dream and imagine something for the future.

The original intent was for Tess to return to Brussels to work on something else, but instead, she came with us to Aix last summer. We are glad she did.

She's joining us again this summer for Prague and we are thrilled. Her first significant contribution: help raise the bar on support letters.

Photo: Tess, second from the left.

Ember in Curtis Bay This Sat

Ember is hosting a service learning opportunity with a community development nonprofit in Curtis Bay this Saturday. I'm thrilled because we get to work with DK and Wendy Usher again this weekend. Both have been pillars of community impact projects at their respective colleges and it's great to keep up with them and see how their leadership is catalyzing their peers. They have both been involved with us for a few years and it's our privilege to serve with them.

Wendy's also been involved with some after school kids clubs in her community and this weekend, she's bringing some of the kids she's been serving so that they can participate in serving others. I'm thrilled for Ember to have a small part of this and excited to see how it will work out.

Leading community impact stuff like this can be easy. Developing catalytic leaders can be more difficult but the thrill is worth it.

Friday Burn

::: Quiz - Ending Global Poverty and Hunger
I didn't do that well either...
Link


::: 28 Stealworthy Productivity Tips
Link


::: Growth in US Passport Holders
Link

Photo: Ice, Charleston, SC. Feb 2015.

Tales to Tell

There are distant shores still unreached.
New friendships yet to be realized.
And brave stories still to be lived.
So go find them.
Take the long way.
Cross oceans.
Cross continents.
And make it epic.
For regret feeds on the weak.
Bones heal. Sunburns fade. Money is spent.
And miles are left behind.
But having a tale to tell is something you can never lose.
Odysseys Await.

Seen at the Sperry store, Charleston, SC.

Trips With Dad - 2015 #1

At the end of 2014, I found myself slightly disappointed in my abilities as a father for that year. I decided to be a little more intentional with time with my immediate family members, culminating in a decision to take each one of my kids [and my wife] on a trip, just the two of us, in 2015. This was the first of these.

Deanna and I escaped the snow for a few days to Charleston, SC. Her sister had gone to college here so we had spent a good amount of time here when we were dating and have always loved the city. Warm, coastal, and southern - what is not to love.

+ Boone Hall plantation, just outside of Charleston, is a fun visit to check out plantation life. The best thing here was a live presentation about Gullah culture, the slave culture that migrated from West Africa. Super great presentation. You can save yourself a couple bucks if you get tickets for the plantation at the Charleston Visitor Center in the city.
+ We stayed in Charleston one night and then a few nights on Isle of Palms, your perfect little beach town. Our hotel was walking distance to the beach, little local restaurants and the VFW.
+ We also spent one afternoon at Tybee Island, outside of Savannah, visiting with my brother in law, sister in law and my niece and nephew.
+ I got my I Love Small Waves shirt at Half Moon Outfitters, a Charleston institution.

I deem this one a success.

Happy birthday Deanna

More so now than ever before, she embodies the pioneer spirit. Whether it is travelling, like we are now, raising our girls to engage the world, catalyzing the next generation of global leaders, or dealing with diabetes, her mindset is "with Jesus, let's find a way or make a way."

Happy birthday. Love.

2015 Missions Baseline Questions

Ember uses a generic application for all our ProtoGuides and summer teams. Included in this application is a section called "Missions Baseline" which is used to gauge an applicant's knowledge on some basic missions concepts. We've used this for a number of years and, of course, keep refining our application. The application is not a simple, fill out your name, address, your salvation story and why you want to go on a summer team. Instead, it is designed to require some significant effort.

Here are the questions from our baseline section this year. The ideal is that we compare what they know before and after their experience. And our hope is that they get some real life understanding of these ideas.

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.
The name of a person that you are discipling.
The name of a person that is discipling you.
Describe something you have helped catalyze.
Describe a unique, important, modern day global phenomenon.

Students are fully capable of understanding each and every one of these ideas. In fact, teach them these ideas well enough and you might have a global catalyst on your hands. [If you steal them, and you are more than welcome to, just let me know how you use them.]

Thank You, Board of Director, Dale Swinburne

In February of 2007, I met Dale Swinburne at a gathering in Florida hosted by Alex McManus. I had connected with Dale a few months before that on social media and heard great things about him. Meeting him face to face validated those things - he was an expert at the StrengthsFinder psychometric, he was passionate about building teams and leaders and he had a view of the world that clicked with mine. Although Dale lived about 20 minutes from me, it took going to Florida to actually meet him face to face.

In 2010, I asked Dale to join my team on the Board of Directors for The Ember Cast, a new student missions organization I was launching. We had spent some time together since 2007 and I was always impressed by his integrity and his deep longing for the Church to be an unstoppable force. His time on the Board has been a huge investment in our students, various teams and especially me. Some of his contributions have included:
- Multiple deep StrengthsFinder learning sessions with individuals and teams. He is the best I know at this and his expertise has consistently erupted better performance from each Ember team he has worked with.
- In discussions about various core competencies of Ember, Dale liked to ask, 'Are we giving them what they think they want or what we think they need?' This key question has always reminded me to consider the obscure alternatives when we try to meet our clients needs right now and in the future.
- Two of his daughters, Emily and Gwen, were a part of Ember's 2010 AZ experience. It was an integral summer for us as an organization because it was the first Ember summer team ever. Emily also served as a fantastic guide for us in 2012. Dale and his wife Jen have always embraced Ember with their family.
- I will always remember the story of him meeting with one of the spiritual mentors in both of our lives and that mentor asking, 'How many people at your church are coming to know Jesus per second?' That is the kind of view about Church that Dale and I share.

As of last week, Dale's time on the board of directors has come to an end and I'm immensely grateful. His time on the board and his investment in me as a leader and a friend have been invaluable. Thank you Dale - you have impacted the future in more ways than you know.

Photo: SF session, Dale, JTimmons, ARotolo. 2010.

Friday Burn

::: A Counter Cultural Approach to Poverty Alleviation

In reality, the evidence suggests that the vast majority of the reductions in poverty have been due to the spread of one of America’s greatest inventions: rapid economic growth based on the expansion of capitalism. Indeed, economists and policy makers believe that further reductions in global poverty will require poor countries to continue to adopt the policies and institutions that have enabled the United States to sustain high rates of economic growth and material prosperity. In essence, the goal is to turn Bangladesh into America.

And this should give Christians serious pause.

Fantastic read.
Link


::: Charity: Water and Google Work on Remote Sensor Technology
And then they make the software and hardware plans available to anyone. If you've been here for a while you know how I love Charity: Water. And you should know that the nonprofit sector is ripe for technologists.
Link


::: Map - If the Size of Countries Reflected their Populations
Link


::: An African-American youth worker told me that when he meets with donors, he speaks "Caucasian." He shaves, wears khakis, and says "AWESOME!" - @DavidLivermore

Photo - Teal Rapp, director of recruiting for Christian Associates. Les Baux, France. July 2014.

Announcing Ember Prague 2015

Today, I am thrilled to announce The Ember Cast's first 2015 summer project. We are putting together a team to travel to Prague this summer to work with Christian Associates. The specific project is to run their middle/high school program during their annual worldwide staff conference. Christian Associates is an organization we love - they have a deep creative and entrepreneurial ethos and they embody the concept of missional imagination. If you've been around here long, you know that we served with student teams at these conferences in 2007 and 2008 and CA was a partner with us for the last two summers in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Camp Juice is the name of their middle/high school program and we will be hanging with a very unique blend of teenager - think a set of third culture kids whose parents are involved in the non mainstream activity of starting new faith communities or some kind of nonprofit or social enterprise. We have a few ideas that we think are pretty non mainstream as well, which should be interesting. I'll be the first to admit that this whole project is a pretty big stretch for me - I've never done anything like this before. It's a good reach though and I'm excited as our team comes together for the dreaming, planning and execution of this.

Not only do we hope our students dream big in executing Camp Juice, there is a pretty unique bigger context at work as well. We will have a team of students who are already mostly interested in the many facets of global missions, world cultures, nonprofit and social good and Gospel centered leadership. And they'll be gathered with a few hundred adults who are already doing these kinds of things in environments all over the globe. Although this shapes up to be quite a catalytic experience, our hope is of course that through this experience, Jesus continues to lead and guide their lives.

Thanks in advance for your support for this project.

Upcoming Ember Engagements

Here are some upcoming Ember events that some of you might be interested in. If you have ever wondered about what we do, why we do it, if we are any good at our core competencies, or what does it take to run student service/mission/leadership projects, these might be a good opportunity to come and learn. We don't usually open up availability for people to join us in this manner, but get in touch for more specifics if you are interested.

March 7 - Baltimore, MD
We are hosting two sets of college students to serve with a community development org in Curtis Bay. The most interesting thing about this experience is that Wendy, who we have worked with lots and who also runs a few after school programs in Salisbury, is bringing some of the kids that she serves so that those kids can be involved in serving someone else.

April 14 - Location - TBD
We are helping facilitate an overnight service and culture experience with a small group of high school students. This will involve some real time cultural observation and engagement and a service project in an urban environment.

May 29 and 30 - Columbia, MD
We are helping run a series of student missions leader and team preparation sessions for a local church. Their student missions experiences will comprise 4 teams and over 50 students and leaders.

Contact - tonytsheng AT theembercast.org if interested.

Friday Burn

::: The Crisis Text Line
Fantastic read about teenagers, texting and how it all comes together in The Crisis Text Line, the first and only national, 24/7 crisis-intervention hotline to conduct its conversations exclusively by text message. Must read if you work with students.
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::: East Asia's Massive Urban Growth
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::: 8 Ted Talks to Watch Before You Speak
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::: Diagnosing HIV with a smartphone
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::: If you blow it at home, you’ve blown it as a leader. >> Leadership begins at home - @ToddAdkins

Photo: Paris, 2013.

Welcome Home JT

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

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

3 Tips for Communications for Mission Team Leaders

The fastest, most effective way to derail your upcoming missions project is to ignore all responsibilities for communication. I have seen this time and time again and it is unfortunate, irresponsible and easily fixed. Here are our better practices for communications when it comes to student mission teams.

1 - Be committed to over communicate.
I have, unfortunately, run into situations where communication with potential partners is almost nonexistent. Think like 2-3 months of nothing, even after we have agreed to work together, even when you try to reach them repeatedly. Sure I know they are in another time zone, they are busy with the day to day stuff, their personality lends themselves to being less structured, and blah blah blah. All of that is a bad excuse. I've pointed teams away from hosts that will not communicate with teams regularly.

In contrast, the very best partners we have worked with over communicate. Their interactions are timely - we interact when needed, sometimes multiple times a week. They use various mediums when needed - we jump on Skype, we text, we email. They are fully engaged and in the loop. Both sides do everything they can to make sure plans are clear.

Over communicating is not rocket science and I'm convinced that communicating well is more an act of the will than anything else. Having a habit or system to help you do this is good but at the core, it takes a commitment.

2 - Partners
For our partners, the best thing we do, I think, is send a letter of intent at the kickoff of a project. We send this letter to our partners/hosts at the outset of any large project - typically projects that are overseas, that are more than just a few people and that require significant travel and related logistics.

In this letter, we include:
+ Language that states that serving and working on this project is our intent, barring serious disaster or circumstance.
+ Rough dates for our travel for our teams.
+ What our major milestones are, such as support, team preps, and finalizing logistics.
+ Who the point of contact is.
+ What to expect in terms of communication moving forward.

For Ember, this letter serves as an internal kickoff for the project, making it official to our team. Hopefully it also serves as some kind of milestone for our partners and hosts too.

3 - Communicating with Your Team
Regular, consistent communication will do wonders for your team. When we are months away from departure, I typically send an email once a week. These include support levels, upcoming meetings and any developments about our project or hosts. I put together a travel packet about 3 weeks before departure that contains all travel details. In the week before we depart, daily emails are a habit. You might think it too much but you could never say that the information was not communicated.

If you are responsible to get a team of high school kids from one country to another and maybe one more, spending tens of thousands of dollars to do this and the vision of having students change the trajectory of their lives to serve a bigger cause through this experience, you should be committed to communicating clearly and consistently. Communication is one of the most easily neglected leadership habits of mission team leaders and when it isn't done well, most of the time, people have lots of excuses but no good reasons.

Friday Burn

::: Six Mistakes in Leading High Performers

British explorer and Mount Everest climber George Mallory identified three core characteristics of any high performer:
+ Inborn Initiative - They are drawn to complete things, to "win."
+ Positive Perseverance - They are not easily swayed, distracted, or stymied.
+ Superb Skill - They have exceptional abilities in at least one area, and can handle complex tasks and learn quickly.

Link


::: Making a Career from Adventure
Or turning a hobby into a job.
Link via kottke


::: A Path Appears - Part 1
Nick Kristof writes about Magdelene, a two year residential program in Nashville for victims of human trafficking, and the subsequent business called Thistle Farms. This article is some great background to part 1 of the PBS special called A Path Appears, focused on domestic human trafficking, that was on earlier this week. Fantastic show - part 2 is on next week and the conclusion is on the following week. Highly recommended.
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::: Can You Guess the Language Being Spoken
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Photo: moving violation, Yonkers, NY. Jan 2013.

2015 Dream Session #5

This is Trevin - long time readers will remember that he was Ember's first guide. Trevin traveled with us pre-Ember and is now on staff at Bay Area Community Church where one of his responsibilities is coordinating their local community service projects.

Bay Area also has about 17 overseas short term teams this coming year and Trevin will be leading one of them. Because we both believe that team training is just as important as what you do on the field, we might be scheming to do some of that Mission Advancing together.

You might or might not have a team or destination yet. But a good part of dreaming is thinking about how to prepare them well.

2015 Dream Session #4

In the spring of 2013, after having served in the global missions arena at my church for over 10 years, I was released from all responsibilities. This was after five years with student teams, two years with a team to redefine the vision and three years as an advisor to the director of global missions. In what might be content for another post, I know I'm not the best team player - I can be highly cynical, sarcastic when I think I'm being funny and sometimes like to do things my way. The release was because I didn't quite share 100% enthusiasm for the vision and strategy, which was and is accurate.

In a suburban, affluent, faith community of over 2000 people that was seeking to better engage the world, my experience, talents and gifts were irrelevant? It was in pondering that question that I noticed an undercurrent of bitterness that started to affect my emotions as I thought about church world and missions and leadership. It was not healthy and I thought about therapy more than a few times.

About a year later, our high school pastor asked me if I would be willing to help some student mission teams again. There were some tactical needs - help with team training and investing in some leaders. I was delighted and it was where I could help without getting into issues about vision and strategy. Two weeks later, for completely unrelated reasons, our director of global missions was terminated.

Second from the right is Kristen. She is one of our guides and we've worked on a few projects together including 2012Belgium and I'm proud to tell you that this year, she is the point leader for Grace's student mission teams. She is a fantastic leader and I'm thrilled about Ember working on retainer with her and her teams.

In the economy of the Kingdom, sometimes things have to die to be reborn. Seeds die before they grow. Winter is cold and dark so that Spring can bloom. The Gospel means that sometimes, life comes from death.

Friday Burn

::: The Biggest Barrier to College Students Going to the Mission Field
This is a fantastic read that should be required for global missions pastors and people that work with students. Hint - it is not debt.
Link via Julianna


::: 2015 Bible Minded Cities
If you are looking to start something from scratch related to missional imagination, you should seriously consider the column of cities on the right.
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::: Are You as Passport Expert?
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::: 3 Simple Forcing Functions That Will Multiply Your Productivity
These are super good.
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::: Can You Name These Cities By their Subway Maps?
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::: 8 Reasons Full Time Pastors go Bivocational
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::: A Teenager's View on Social Media - 2015
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::: Good leaders get decisions. Great leaders get committments. @RobJacobs_

Photo: JTimmons, Bandol, France. July 2014.

25 Years at Grace - Thanks Mark Norman

This past weekend, we at Grace celebrated Mark Norman's 25th year of being lead pastor there. Those of you in church world know that a milestone like that is just an incredible feat and Mark himself would tell you that this achievement is by the grace of God. That is the kind of leader he is.

I've been privileged to serve under him on a variety of projects since the mid 90s when we first came to Grace. Here's a few things I've learned from him that I'm extremely grateful for:

+ When we first came to Grace, they would gather ministry leaders once a month for a thing called Leadership Community. It was a vital part of Mark's responsibility and he would spend an hour every month pouring into leaders from every spectrum of the church. This was like no other church our family had been a part of - there was an intentional leadership pipeline and the lead pastor took responsible for it.

+ When I was invited to join the elder team for a season, one of the desired behaviors was what Mark called a "Pan Body" perspective - the ability and desire to see and act for the faith community as a whole. This is an uncommon skill but one that can be cultivated.

+ The elders have a mantra that says, "Never say no for someone else." Applicable to every leadership experience I have had but I saw it in play lots when working with that team.

+ On women in leadership - see here.

+ When Mark took me out to lunch a few times, he would pay and say, "It is all His money anyway." When sitting in a meeting to talk about missions, he mentioned at least once that there were people who would start their own initiatives and they were people that needed to pioneer something. Mark doesn't shy away from innovation and welcomes the fact that the Kingdom is bigger than his church.

+ Finally, if you know him, you know about the "Freedom Box." I led one of his kids in a high school small group for 4 years. I know all of his other kids and their spouses pretty well and they are some of the most tremendous people that I know. The Freedom Box, and more importantly, the balance of freedom and responsibility that parents are entrusted to teach to their kids, well, they did it phenomenally well. All that I learned about ministry pales in comparison to the example that Mark is as a father. That is a priceless gift to me.

Thanks Mark for 25 years at Grace. Here is to the future - the best is yet to come.

2015 Dream Session #3

MK and Katie, chatting about internships, nonprofits, education, kids ministry, refugees, urban migration. You know, the usual stuff that 11th grade girls talk about.

Friday Burn

::: Watch Google Translate Decipher Foreign Signs in Real Time
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[Related: Ember spawn uses Google Translate]


::: Cultural Intelligence in an Age of Terrorism
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::: NOLA Finds Homes for All It's Homeless Vets
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::: Compassion Intl Delivers on Promise for Schools in Haiti
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::: Jesus' dining experiences became a lifestyle around which he formed a school of disciples - Len Sweet via @fitchest

Photo: Mary, who was our shot lady, and her calendar with money from around the world. Sadly, she is now retired.

2015 Dream Session #1

With some of our ProtoGuides and Guides... talking about emerging possibilities and what sounds exciting and fits into why Ember does what we do.

So very excited about 2015.

Thank You, Board of Director, Greg Klassen

In 2009, when I was toying with the idea of starting a nonprofit, I knew I needed someone who had actually started and ran a business, or preferably, multiple businesses. Having had a career in technology and always working for a business, but never starting something like this from scratch, I knew I had no idea what I was doing. And looking back now, that is quite the understatement.

After starting The Ember Cast, I invited Greg Klassen the join the Board of Directors. Greg's two daughters had traveled with us pre-Ember and through our interactions, I had nothing but the highest level of respect for him and his family. Greg and his wife Vicki were two of the most ardent supporters for student missions our church community had ever seen and Greg had started and ran multiple technology companies. My respect for him grew even more after getting to know him even better through his board activities with Ember.

Seasons change and there will be times when board members want or need to be invested in different things. As of last week, Greg has decided to step down from the Ember board. I am incredibly grateful for the 5 years of service Greg has devoted to Ember. Some of his accomplishments include:
+ Seed funding at the very beginning to get some of our operations systems and budget in order.
+ Strong enthusiasm for Ember purchasing Directors and Officers insurance and getting us connected with a local insurance agent. Insurance issues were lost on me and because of his enthusiasm for this, I am much more serious about insurance. I still strongly counsel other nonprofit leaders to purchase this insurance.
+ Multiple conversations with me about working on the business not just in it.
+ Making me think long and hard about the 'unique business proposition' - what makes us unique and why we exist.

I'm immensely grateful for Greg's investment in my life, not only as a business founder but as a father and husband. Thank you Greg - you have marked human history.

Photo: Catalyst West Conference, April 2009, Orange County, CA.

Happy 14th to Emily

Dear Em --

Happy 14th birthday! You've had a great year and we are so proud of the person you are becoming. We've watched you take initiative and influence seriously this year and it's been a joy to see. You've served others in a few key areas this year and surrounded yourself with some good friends. For us as parents, that is thrilling.

The biggest example of that was in Aix this summer, where we pushed you to stick at it even when you weren't feeling well. Of course, later we found out you had mono. At least you got your blood drawn for the first time ever in another country.

Keep growing and making the right choices and pushing yourself to influence others in the right things. And make that dog obey me.

Love.

Friday Burn

::: Seating Chart for Hell Airlines
Link via Kottke


::: 6 Reasons You Are Losing High Capacity Volunteers
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::: Each MBTI's New Years Resolution
Link

Photo: Paris, summer 2008.

The Strengths That Bind

On the last day of 2014, we finally were able to execute on an idea that my wife has had for a few years - having our extended family take the StrengthsFinder assessment. If you've been around here for long, you know how much I love the tool and it's ability to fast forward relationships, help make teams better and actualize leadership.

Now we know a lot more about why my family does what they do. Like the value of getting along to my sister in law Stef and her husband [they both have Harmony] and how my mother in law Cheryl spent decades in the field of education [Developer and Empathy], and why my brother in law Doug researches everything in fine detail [Maximizer].

You also might know that I have a large graph of everyone that I know who has taken the assessment listing their top 5 [and even people I don't know...] The picture here is a piece of it. Sometime last year, I re-arranged it based on the 4 domains - sometimes when working with teams, this perspective can help.

Talking about your talents and strengths might be a great way to start the new year with people you are close to or work with.

Dream Months

I'm absolutely thrilled about 2015. From a personal point of view, I've got lots of dreams for this year that I'm excited about making happen. It's the same with Ember, I'm at the edge of my seat about the experiences and people God might bring to us this year.

Typically, January and February are our 'see what sticks' time. This year, I'm calling it something different unofficially. It is our 'Dream Time.' We will ask our guides to dream a little, to do some missional imagination, see who is interested in what out there and ask God for some clarity and to walk ahead of us.

Excited to tell you more soon.

Friday Burn

Happy 2015!!

::: When Other Cultures Celebrate New Years
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::: Genius Ways to Manage Email
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::: God isn't Dead in Gotham
Fantastic read about Tim Keller and Redeemer Pres in NYC
Link via Rudy


::: The most useful members of a church are usually those who would be doing harm if they were not doing good - Spurgeon via JD Greear

Photo: Family NYE StrengthsFinder session.