ChOG Postmodern Thinktank
because of extreme pressures from the the powers that be i am making an 'official' post...enjoy it!!
just had a very interesting conversation...
there was a guy [we'll call him bob] just in my office talking to me about someone that was interested in joining the youth staff. bob was telling me that this guy [we'll call him jim] has a tendancy to over commit and maybe even jump in too quickly. the whole tenor of bob's'caution' was that i would be careful not to over involve this jim. now, to be fair, i understand the caution. the church has a history of 20% of people doing 80% of work. but there was something else to what was being said. can't quite put my finger on it.
anyway, it made me think of some things related to leadership and how we do church better. what i said to bob were a couple of things.

1st - i'd rather have jim and his passion for the youth than the host of pew sitters we seem to have every sunday. we've got lots of people who say 'i don't have the right training. i need to read another book go through another study or be mentored for another year before i do anything.' we've got more training going on than there are steroids in baseball. ok, so the steroid thing hasn't been proven just yet.
question: how much training did the disciples actually have before they were in the market preaching and teaching. the evidence of scripture says they didn't have much. and yet, we're training people like crazy like that's the thing that Jesus called us to do.

2nd - there seems to be a fear of the uncontrollable. jim's passion and willingness to get involved is interesting. jim had a real desire to begin a mens group but the timing isn't working for that to happen. so instead of demanding that the mens group get started or pouting that the staff isn't supporting him in the effort [how am i doin'?] he's simply shifted his passion. jim love students and spends time with them regularly, so working with the youth at the church didn't seem like a stretch to him.
for the modern mind set this is scarry. for bob, jim seems to just be jumping on the closest band wagon [kind of like what's happening with me and villinova in the tournament - my bracket's a mess]. the modern world thrived on the measurables and the controlled environment. and because of those controllables unbelivable progress has been made in science and industry. and i appreciate those advances everyday. but i'm not sure that those kind of controllables and certainties work real well with people.

on the other end of this is that i appreciate bob's willingness to come and talk to me. for too long i have been on the outside of conversations like this in others willingness to talk around me. not in gossip, but unwilling to have face time and work through difficult issues.

part of the job of leadership, to improve how we do church, lies in how we mentor and communicate with those that have a passion for ministry. not just equipping them with resources, but giving them the face time they need to do the ministry well, and reminding them not to neglect their families at the same time. anyone else struggle with that?!?!