Reclaiming The F Word

Pursuing Vision

Over at A Renewal Enterprise (A.R.E.), we're preparing to lead another webinar tonight. The topic: Pursuing Change. If you're a leader in any type of organization - but especially if you're working to help your church reclaim the f word - you might want to log on. We'll get started at about 7 PM Central time tonight (Tuesday, May 27). To read more about it go to the A.R.E. website. It's free. But you do have to sign up ahead of time in order to get the information you need to log on. To register, go right to this link - https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/980290581.

Link To Love

So, I'm blogging about Barbara Walter's new book and the importance of love as you're leading organizations through change over at A.R.E. today. And I think it might be helpful and interesting to anybody out there who cares about revitalizing the mainline, especially church leaders who occasionally get sucked up into thinking that "the secret" to renewal is found in a business seminar somewhere. There's good stuff coming out of the business world, of course. But nobody beats Jesus when it comes to knowing a thing or two about transformation. "Love God," he said. "Love one another. And love your neighbor as yourself." Could it be any simpler? Anyway, here's an excerpt (below) from today's A.R.E. post, "The Power Of Love":

Closed: Retooling In Progress

So everyone on the planet has heard this news by now: In in the face of sagging sales and customer disenchantment, the CEO of Starbucks has announced they are closing nearly all of their stores - over 7000 of them - for 3 hours tonight (5:30-8:30 p.m. local time) in order to retrain and retool their baristas for the sake of "unleashing" their creativity and passion again. This startling action is upsetting some coffee drinkers; others are suspicious that 3 hours will make much of a difference given the widespread mediocrity that has seeped into the Starbucks system; still others are giving Starbucks credit for taking dramatic steps to make sure they're living up to their own high standard. Here's what I'm wondering:

Why didn't we think of this first?

Google This

Each year around this time, I look forward to this issue of Fast Company magazine arriving in my mail box: The World's 50 Most Innovative companies. This year the company in the #1 spot is Google. On the cover is a quote from Google's Chief Information Officer:

Innovation is super fragile. It's very easy to kill. We need a stubborn, rebellious attitude.

This is great news for those of us who have been fired a time or two (ok, or three, in my case!) for insubordination. But it is very, very bad news for a lot of organizations - including most churches I know. Rebels, especially stubborn ones, are hardly embraced. They rock our boats, asking questions we'd rather not hear and making suggestions we'd rather not consider. Sometimes they even dare to DO things differently.

What would it look like if, instead of trying to shut them down, we asked them for their help? What would it look like if we gave them permission to help us dream big dreams...and step OUT of the boats we're clinging to? It might look like this description of this year's #1 most innovative company:

$800 & a mule

"Quick, everybody! Look busy!" That's the tone in Washington D.C. these days where lawmakers sense that the American public seems to finally be waking up. Does the whole "$800 & a mule" economic "stimulus plan" being rushed through Congress, with all the weight of the White House behind it, strike anybody else out there as the most cynical and insulting government act of the past four decades? Nobody behind this plan can possibly believe that putting an extra $800 in my pocket (or yours) is going to do a freakin' thing to avoid the economic train wreck we've set in motion. Just for starters, there's this: The average American is carrying $10,000 in credit card debt. No way anyone can seriously argue that the problem is we've been spending too little.

Italian Christians See Red Over Red Bull

Muslims worldwide have had a lot of pretty negative press lately around their protests over cartoons and teddy bears. I think it's important to note that Christians are not exactly innocent when it comes to wacky overreactions.

ROME (Reuters) - An angry Italian priest has persuaded soft drinks company Red Bull to withdraw an advertisement setting its product in a nativity scene on the grounds it is disrespectful to Christianity. [Read the rest of the story here]

And, just for fun, watch the ad yourself below:

God Beats Google!

Apparently, God is still one up on Google...well, one up on Google's You Tube, anyway.

The most watched video on the web these days - 3.7 MILLION hits so far - is at rival God Tube. What's interesting is that, according to Andy Greenburg writing at Forbes online, the guy who got God Tube started did it because he read someplace that by 2025 way fewer Christians will be sitting in the "church" building on Sunday mornings. Technology is where the church is headed, he figured. And then he quickly did what every full blooded American would do. He capitalized on the idea.

What do you think?

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Have We Been Leapfrogged Over?

Postmodernism, post-Christendom, post-denominationalism, secularism, pluralism, blah, blah, blah. These are just some of the many reasons the experts tell us mainline Christianity is struggling today. And, while I buy a lot of it, I'm thinking the bottom line explanation may be something even more obvious.

Reality Check About The "Emerging" Generation

Uh oh. We all know mainline Protestantism is in trouble but now it appears that things may be worse than we thought. All along, many of us have had our hopes pinned on the "emerging" generation. They'll lead us in change, we've assumed. They'll show us the way. They'll take all the risks that we have been too chicken to take. Think again.

In direct contradiction of conventional wisdom about Generation Y (the mainly under 30 crowd also known as Millennials and, sometimes, iGen), Andrea S. Hershatter, the director of the undergraduate business program at Emory University, is reporting that this rising generation is not all about "change, change, change," as has been previously reported and assumed by almost everybody.

Wanna Grow The Church?: Stop Being Normal

The editors of Fast Company magazine, one of my must-reads each month, has published a list of 30 "Fast Cities" in this month's issue. They describe Fast Cities as "cauldrons of creativity where the most important ideas and the organizations of tomorrow are centered. They attract the best and brightest. They are great places to work and live."

I think there might be a lesson in here somewhere for those of us who are interested in reclaiming the f word and cultivating healthy, vibrant, growing, progressive congregations...