30,000 lego blocks.
40 volunteers.
18 months.
1 very cool display of Jesus.
Read about it here.
I can’t believe no one is reporting this. We now have confirmation on the existence of a video from the terrorist outfit responsible for the Swine Flu Pandemic spreading across the land.
You can watch the video here. Be sure to pass it on with the tools at the bottom of the post.
Admittedly, I don’t like the process they require you to go through to perform this assessment. You are required to buy a book, read the first 30 pages, and then you can use the access code (good only once) to take the assessment online.
With that complaint, I think this was one of the best assessments I’ve taken in the past year… and I’ve taken several.
The main idea of the book is that, most often, we spend the bulk of our time focusing on strengthening areas of weakness, rather than capitalizing on areas of strength.
You cannot be anything you want to be – but you can be a lot more of who you already are.
With that in mind, I wanted to share with you my top five strengths according to this assessment tool:
- Belief - Believers have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their life.
- Connectedness - Connectors have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.
- Learner - Learners have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
- Achiever - Achievers have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.
- Responsibility - Those who are responsible take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.
“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” -General George Patton
Wow. That hit a little close to home for me when I read it.
So what are you doing to succeed out of failure. What are you bouncing at?
I’m a reader. I admit that. I read Neil Cole‘s Organic Church in the course of 3 days. The author advocates a different kind of church planting theology, method, and strategy. Throughout the book, I found myself resonating profoundly with some statements, while cringing at others.
Instead of bringing people to church, so that we can then bring them to Christ, let’s bring Christ to people where they live. We may find that a new church will grow out of such an enterprise, a church that is more centered in life and the workplace, where the Gospel is supposed to make a difference.
If you want to win this world to Christ, you are going to have to sit in the smoking section. That is where lost people are found, and if you make them put their cigarette out to hear the message they will be thinking about only one thing: “When can I get another cigarette?”
Though, I stand in absolute agreement in regards to this world’s need for believers to step out of the church and live on mission within their everyday context, I am skeptical and concerned with the house church movement.
My fear in regards to house churches (or organic churches in this case), is the lack of training. Despite Cole’s best efforts, I remain less than convinced that new believers have any place as church planters / pastors. Interestingly, so was the apostle Paul who instructed Timothy that new converts were not to be installed as elders. Even Paul, who was led to Christ by Christ himself, was discipled by God for a period before entering into evangelistic ministry.
Ultimately, this is a point that I disagree with humility. After all, he’s led a movement that has seen hundreds (thousands?) of churches planted. I have not planted one.
And there is an enormous amount that we agree on. I love how he states it, “Every Christian is a church planter, every home is a church, and every church building is a training center.”
The book is a great resource for anyone interested in a different kind of church that is certainly able and apt to reach those that most churches would not reach. And that’s the sort of thing that different parts of Christ’s Body are supposed to do.
And I’m pretty sure pagans love the Giants, Redskins, and Eagles.
Just sayin…
Feel free to talk trash about the draft here.
Today we’re continuing to the group blogging project hosted by www.churchcrunch.com. As a community, we’re walking through Seth Godin‘s book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. Today’s post is hosted here!
Leadership is a choice. It’s the choice to not do nothing.
There has always been talk of leadership as a naturally-endowed ability. We look at certain people and describe them as “natural-born leaders.” But Seth Godin clearly disagrees. He believes that leadership is a choice that we make – and it’s actually the most logical choice – the choice not to do nothing.
If think about it, the hardest thing to do is hold absolutely still and not do something. Try to sit still as you read this post, if you don’t believe me. Movement is natural. We all have that natural desire to do something, to move forward, to accomplish, to step-forward… to lead. But often, that desire is discouraged by well-intentioned teachers and managers who themselves found leadership too large a task in their life. (Teachers who dream of teaching encourage their students to dream!) So why would we (why would they) not urge students to step forward and lead?
Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead.
In the movie 300, King Leonidis fought as the point of the phalanx formation of the Spartans. He stood before the majority of his Spartans, facing more spears, more swords, and more soldiers than any other fighter in his army. This is the role of the leader. The leader is on the frontlines of the fight facing more criticism and attack than others in their tribe.
But those who take their stand in the frontlines, leading their tribe into the future, have the potential to change the world – in victory and defeat. Choose your favorite epic movies. In movies such as 300, Braveheart, and Gladiator, the leader lost his life for the sake of his cause – his tribe.
Some of Seth Godin’s readers will think that a bit of an extreme takeaway, but for Christ-followers, something resonates with that reality. Pastors understand facing criticism and attacks. Ministers resonate with the costs – financial, emotional, physical, and mental – of leadership.
But ultimately, Christians understand that Jesus command that we “take up our cross and follow him” means death. It means giving up everything for the sake of the cause. We don’t have the priviledge (or shame) of standing motionless and not doing anything. We’re all on mission.
So these are the questions I have for you:
- In what capacity have you chosen to lead?
- What has leadership cost you?
I just finished reading John Piper‘s Desiring God, and was struck by this quote towards the end of the book.
The suffering of sickness and the suffering of persecution also have this in common: They are both intended by Satan for the destruction of our faith and governed by God for the purifying of our faith. (257)
This is why we hold on through difficulties. This is why we cling so tightly to the cross.
Because while it is intended for our downfall, God uses it to build and cleanse our faith.
It’s the context through which God teaches us the hard stuff.
It’s the context where someone looks you in the eye and says, “you were wrong.”
It’s the context where you either run and hide from accountability, or man up, own your mistake, and make things right.
It’s the context where healing comes from.
But for now, it’s the context where I feel like an idiot. The rest will come. But for now, there’s only the idiot part.
Accountability sucks. But I wouldn’t trade it for anonymity and foolishness.
Photo by striatic
You didn’t think I forgot, did you? Today’s Earth Day. Now I’m not an uber-hipster-neo-tree-hugging Austinite. Part of me wants to be, but I’m just not. But I am participating this year in our apartment community.
Krista and I are hosting an Earth Day Community Trash Walk this evening in order to clean up our apartment community. Our kids are getting in on it.
The big question is, what are you doing?
At least hug a tree 
Photo by honbless