There and Back Again

Last week was a whirlwind for me (Nate). WorldVenture hosted a Global Summit in Estes Park, Colorado that I was able to attend. This was an organization-wide conference to discuss changes that are happening and to offer input on how these changes would be implemented. This post could go really "inside baseball", which in turn would make it really boring. So instead, I want to offer a few quotes, ideas or themes that really struck me from this conference.

1. The Pastoral Difference
The CEO of our organization gave the initial greeting/message when we all arrived and one idea he offered really struck me. We were talking about the concept of ethos and who were as a community. He said that as a leadership team, they are a community of shepherds doing organizational leadership, and not managers. This concept resonated with me. I think we often see organizational leadership within the church that grabs whatever is popular or trendy within the corporate management world and pulls it into the church. To hear that instead they see their roles as pastors and shepherds first and managers second, was very powerful to me.

2. Encouragement is Gold
This whole week was spent with people who have become my peer group. There were so many times sitting around a circle or at a meal and asking questions like, "what is the visa process like for you?" or "how do you convert money into the local currency?" (our first answer is a lot more interesting than our second) was so encouraging. Having people to compare notes with about language learning faux pas and cultural differences that you have come to love and cherish, was something that was very special.

3. The Home Office
Every organization has invisible walls. Accounting never talks to anyone, or IT does their job through magic and no one is allowed behind the curtain. For us, the biggest wall is between those that are spread across the globe and those that serve in our home office. Everyone is aware of it, but these sorts of events can bring divides to the forefront. The great thing was to see these walls continually torn down and understanding and care to be built in their place. There are many people in ministries and organizations across the globe that work hard in obscurity so that the world of God can move forward.

4. Setting Matters
This conference was held in Estes Park, Colorado. If you have never been there (it was my first time), I cannot explain how beautiful the setting was. Longs Peak stood majestically in the distance and all around were beautiful mountains and rock faces. It created a restful and God focused atmosphere for us to meet (even though we spent most of our time inside in meetings or fighting jetlag).

All this to say, I was encouraged at what God is doing through WorldVenture across the globe. We are excited to be a part of what God will do through her to reach the nations.

YMCA of the Rockies

Hearing from the WorldVenture leadership team

Local wildlife

Surviving the Shelling

I just read an interview on Leadership Journal with Tullian Tchividjian about the very public challenges he faced when he took over Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.  He faced something that I hope most pastors won't ever have to face: open and personal opposition to his pastoral ministry.  What resulted from this intense period of time is a wonderful closeness with his savior and a renewed passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ!  Here is one of my favorite sections.

"There is only one thing that will enable you to survive, and that's the gospel. It's not whether your church grows or not. It's not having the right leadership principle. All of those things might be helpful, but the gospel is the only thing that will save you in ministry." You inevitably face crises, slander, unfair criticism, pressure to perform in your professional and personal life.

While this quote is directed at pastors, we can just as easily say that the only thing that will keep you alive in ministry, in marriage, in your profession or in family is the gospel.  


Most of us will never encounter someone sending out slanderous mass emails about us or anonymous blogs decrying our professional abilities.  But we will be given things we can't handle.  God uses the things we lose sleep over to pry our idols out of our hand and sets our focus on Himself.


Here is the link to the full interview "War and Peace" LeadershipJournal.net

Your Turn: How is God prying idols out of your hand? Pop your answer into the comments below.

Lessons Learned from First Year of Belief Blog

This grabbed my eye recently:  One year ago (and about 5 days) CNN started their Belief Blog.  I have to say, I haven't visited CNN's "Belief Blog" very frequently, but their observations about the climate of faith in the US today interested me. Here are a few that stood out.

Photo credit: clarita from morguefile.com

#3 People are still intensely curious about the Bible, its meaning and its origins.  

So often we hear that the youth are walking away from the church and that church has lost all relevancy. I think rumors of the scripture's (and the church's) demise have been grossly overstated.  People are searching now as much as they ever have been.  Recently, I heard in a sermon, "it isn't my job to coerce you or trick you into showing up on Sunday or to meet in small groups." The gospel is compelling, even to those that will ultimately reject it> The question of meaning and existence is something we are all wrestling with.  It is a part of the human experience.  And people know that the scriptures address these issues.

This is counter balanced by...
#4: Most Americans are Religiously Illiterate.

If you are involved in the local church, you see this all the time.  Many people are not able to lay out the basics of their faith.  The Belief Blog pointed out that oftentimes the ones with the most 'religious literacy' are atheists.  And most of that is in the form of tools meant to fight belief. 


In the name of sensitivity, I think we have stripped out "unpopular" areas of the church that ultimately make the church stronger and feed Christians that need knowledge.  I am excited to see ways that we can feed the quest for meaning and not just stop at "spiritual milk", but build strong and mature believers in the church.

Are Multi-Cultural Leaders the Future?

Over on Out of Ur, Skye Jethani just returned from a trip to Spain where he was training and speaking to missionaries.  Besides affirming the "from everywhere, to everywhere" reality of missions - which is another post - Skye made some keen observations about the challenges that the American church leadership community will face as the church becomes increasingly non-white, non-American, and non-western.  Here is a quick quote from his post:

 Most of what I’ve read/heard about church leadership says we should fight tenaciously to maintain clear purpose, vision, and values within our organization. And recruiting other leaders who conform to these is vital. Allow too many people inside who hold divergent ideas and you’ll derail the organization. But this mindset assumes that efficiency is the ultimate value to which all others must surrender. But in many cultures efficiency is not the highest good. And third culture leaders understand that in many cases clinical efficiency simply is not possible when seeking to lead diverse populations.

Read the rest of his post The Post-American Church (Part Uno).

My question related to all of this is:
Do you think that the current church leadership structure will make this change, or will it take an emergence of new multi-cultural leaders?


Do you disagree with these ideas entirely?