futuristguy@missionaltribe


Redemption and Restoration Part 2-The Restoration of the Powerful


Mar 16

Posted: under Missional Paradigms and Practices, Profiles of Missional Disciples.

And now as I review my memorial article for Lanny (see Part 1) 10 years later, I would add some other lessons I’m currently distilling from the life of Lanny, his story of restoration, and contemporary situations in the Kingdom. One of the things not mentioned earlier was that Lanny came from a ministry family. And, as I have discovered over the years, many times MKs (missionaries’ kids) and PKs (pastor’s kids) end up not OK. They frequently suffer spiritual wounds, whether through actual neglect by parents who are more committed to “ministry” than to their own families, and/or through unreasonable expectations of congregations, and/or through their own faulty perceptions about their parents. Whatever the sources, the damage can go deep. It did with Lanny. He felt like a “throwaway” - unwanted and unworthy of love. His convoluted self-condemnation perverted one of his greatest qualities: his kindness. It turned inside out his genuine desire to act for the benefit of others, into a twisted offering of himself for misuse by others.

It saddens me immensely that destructive wounding can happen in our churches, and not just “in the world.” That is more than a sidenote in Lanny’s story. But, just as the wounding can go from church leaders and congregations to an individual, so the gift of restoration in the life of a damaged disciple does not remain a personal gift. Its benefits cross back over into the church, and raise the level of health in the Kingdom.

What are some of the gifts that those being restored offer to the community? I spoke of one already: that a real measure of success for a church is found in how they treat their most fragile and apparently “least-contributing” members. Such children and teens, women and men hold the power to offer a huge but intangible gift of grace to a body of disciples. They give us a mirror to how we embrace our own limitations, our own fears of uselessness and abandonment, our own prejudices to prefer the best, the beautiful, the bright. Where some would see a throwaway, we should see a thermometer that measures our level of unconditional love and the strength of our spiritual structures. Will we receive what God gave them to offer us? Will we value those who seem to hold neither high potential or high profile?

For inspirational stories of families and communities who demonstrate this very vulnerable kind of love, get a copy of The Power of the Powerless: A Brother’s Legacy of Love by Christopher De Vinck. He is an amazing writer, with powerful things to write about …

It seems contradictory to suggest that those who are powerless offer a powerful gift. And yet, to quote from the Code of Dinotopia, the illustrated children’s book with good systems principles for all ages: “One raindrop raises the sea.” In a consumerist model organization, the contributions of only certain people are welcomed, or only those contributions of certain types or sizes. All others are unwanted, as they are, ironically, considered unproductive. Yet what does Jesus say about the issue of giving? It’s the heart attitude, not the amount. And it is accepting what God sends, not only embracing what we desire. I believe this ties in with ways we choose to work together, and shapes the messages we broadcast about who/what we value. This may be especially true of those in leadership roles - something that I find of growing concern these days.

For instance, Lanny was not a leader in the usual sense, either before or after his restoration process. He had no role of authority over the lives of others. And yet, I would suggest that he held a unique power in the lives of others, through his very powerlessness - yet the possibility to experience restoration in community. That was his best gift to the Body of Christ. It allowed those of us around him to embody God’s perspectives on embracing human dignity, avoiding judgmentalism, and exercising perseverance.

Which brings me from the theoretical and the past to the present and the practical. It’s no secret that I have written extensively - and as carefully as possible - on issues related to spiritual abuse and recovery. There is much going on right now that causes me concern. And lesson about restoration and power that I learned from Lanny are relevant to contemporary situations.

At this time - the end of winter 2009 - several leaders previously prominent in the North American Christian community are apparently seeking public “rehabilitation” from relatively recent indiscretions, immaturities, and failures. But it appears that the actual goal of themselves and their handlers is relocation into the same public role of authority, or its near equivalent. Might I suggest instead that the authentic goal should be restoration while remaining in a position of powerlessness? I’m not saying their past actions make them Disqualified For Life from leadership roles. However, real restoration in biblical accounts is seldom about ending up in the same place spiritually as before, as if nothing bad happened, but in a different place precisely because something bad did happen. I don’t think, from biblical evidences, we can expect that restoration of leaders always means the exact same positions are open to them - just as it doesn’t  mean they must be forever blocked from them. So the bigger question is about spiritual health, not ministerial activity.

So, here are some things I’m looking for and questions to ask as signs of genuine restoration, versus a counterfeit relocation under the garb as reinstatement to leadership:

  • When candidates and/or their advocates lobby for their reinstatement as leaders and make demands about their return to power, that’s a probable sign for discerning that the reinstatement is premature - and in fact, that the possibility may need to be removed as an option permanently. In genuine restoration, I expect instead to hear no unilateral moves, no one-sided demands, no quick timetables.
  • When there is genuine repentance and a process of restoration, I also expect to hear about the realities of their newfound powerlessness, taking responsibility for their own failures, and insights they’re learning about personal problems that led to their needing to be removed from leadership roles. And, if they are never, ever returned to a position of leadership, will they now still follow Jesus faithfully? What demonstrations of this attitude of humility are in their life, both in words and deeds?
  • Perhaps an individual’s temporary lack of position reveals a long-term lust for power. Such a “fatal flaw” is at the core of those who seek to be overlords. And overlording - demonstrating spiritually abusive/legalistic leadership that attempts to dictate and control the actions of others - is a strong biblical indicator of current disqualification from service, is it not? And this perhaps could prove a permanent disqualification unless the person deals with the tendencies and overcomes the activities. What evidences are there for whether corruption by power was/is present in his/her life? Has it been dealt with? How? Are those in an appropriate position to evaluate and restore subject to the same issue?
  • As with all of us in all things, our own “tone” is a guide to our heart attitude. Are those seeking restoration to leadership too busy to be bothered by responding to legitimate criticisms of their efforts at reinstatement? If they don’t really have time to explain things in a civil, respectful manner, however can we trust that they will (re-)lead others in a civil, respectful manner? Do they consider all criticism to be illegitimate by definition? Are they too closed to listen to voices of reason and discernment within the community and without?
  • Do they display a lack of conscience in how they treat others? Are they “respecters of persons”? In this regard, J.K. Rowling challenges us through her character, Sirius Black: “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals” (Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire). If a supposed leader shows contempt for underlings and deferential treatment of those above them and peers, what do New Testament scriptures have to say about their ability to lead others?

I wish such things would not even have to be voiced, and yet, the North American church seems dominantly undiscerning on such issues. This is as constructive and hopefully redemptive a response as I can find to ongoing rifts in the Body of Christ caused by questionable “restorations.”

This series is cross-posted on my futuristguy blog.

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Redemption and Restoration Part 1-The Power of the Powerless


Mar 16

Posted: under Missional Paradigms and Practices, Profiles of Missional Disciples.

The past few days, I’ve been thinking about restoration, what it means for someone to return to a functional life after deep brokenness, how that comes about, and what it means for the Kingdom. This turned my thoughts to my friend Lanny, who passed away a decade ago.

The last few months of Lanny’s life, he spent at his parents home in the Southeastern U.S. When he died, his sister contacted various friends of his in California to ask us to contribute our remembrances of Lanny for his memorial service. His whole family knew some important things had happened in Lanny’s life out here, but they wanted to hear it from those who knew it firsthand. This is what I wrote, to share in honor of my friend. I have added a few other details to complete the portrait, and to suggest what Lanny’s life could mean for us in understanding the real restorative and healing power in a gathering of disciples.

I met Lanny in January of 1990 at a mutual friend’s apartment in Manhattan. He was quite a character - kind, quirky …naive about some things and yet world-wise and weary on others. I remember he had several self-etched tattoos on his hands and neck, including one of a cross he’d injected onto a prominent section of his neck. He talked about the story of that one especially. To him, it was a literal marker of returning to the faith in Jesus Christ that he had known as a child. More recently, Lanny had come out of a difficult background that included living on the streets in New York City, drug addiction, and working as a male prostitute. That was likely when he’d contracted HIV, and in 1990, he was just beginning to experience the advance of symptoms from this disease.

Our first meeting was somewhere in the very early stages of Lanny’s journey to address root issues underlying his difficulties and addictions. But I really got to know Lanny better starting in 1992 when he moved across country to participate in a year-long, recovery-oriented residential program and we attended the same church. As with any relationship, there were highs and lows. I remember one of the low points, after Lanny decided to radically abandon his walk with Christ (thankfully, that lasted for only a few months). We happened to end up sitting near each other on a local bus, and could only manage small talk for a few minutes. With the spiritual dimension of our friendship not in sync right then, there wasn’t much to discuss except the weather, the 49ers, and a few other superficialities. Lanny ended our uncomfortable conversation by zipping on his Walkman and zoning out to some tunes.

But that isn’t the essence of Lanny that I want to distill for you today. It just shows the down side. Much of the remainder of his time in California was on the up side. But first he had to come to end of himself. Here’s what happened. A while after our bus incident, Lanny completely disappeared for a few months and NO ONE heard from him. Friends from his old church were worried, and with good reason. Turns out that he’d plunged into one of the most vile subcultures of San Francisco for a while, where leech-people who know how to take advantage of others saw someone ripe for use - and they abused Lanny to the max.

Finally Lanny came to his senses and re-emerged, despite fear that the church he’d gone to would reject him. They didn’t. They welcomed him back. I don’t know that I’ve ever, ever seen someone so emotionally broken and spiritually spent as Lanny was. Yet, a whole household of Christian guys from that church took him in, and sacrificially loved him back to life. Steve, Bob, and the others helped Lanny through their acceptance and with their boundaries. They weren’t out to rescue him, but to help him reconstruct a life on following Jesus Christ. They didn’t impose legalistic rules, but helped Lanny restructure his use of time and renew key spiritual disciplines. To give Lanny an opportunity to break his patterns of isolation, they re-engage him in activities that would connect him with people who saw beyond his guilt and self-loathing.

I watched as month by month, this crushed and hurting brother began to mend through the genuine love, perseverance, and care of his Christian brothers. From them all, I learned the astounding lesson that a Christian community is truly only as strong as its commitment of unconditional love to its most fragile members; though broken, these individuals serve as the barometers, measuring the atmosphere of love in a church’s environment, or the pressure toward change that is needed.

Anyway, gradually, I began to see a renewed Lanny that was more robust in spirit than in his health, which was continuing to decline, due to the effects of AIDS. His zest for life returned, and he always wanted to make appointments to do things with people. He and we and they went to movies, art displays, parties, trips out for coffee, tennis - all kinds of things. Life!

The one event I remember most fondly is when Lanny and I went to see an exhibit on Anne Frank and the Holocaust … at his request. But this was no morbid experience, even though the subject matter was our inhumane treatment of one other, and genocide! Lanny and I talked as we walked along the exhibit corridors. He was so full of questions and observations and comments about this painting or that poster. And he stopped to chat with people here and there throughout the exhibit rooms.

Afterwards, as we sat nibbling almond cookies and sipping lattes, it seemed I was in the presence of a man so transformed from Satan’s attempts at annihilating him, that I could see Jesus shine through everything he said and did. Amazing to think of how far Lanny had returned in those slow-going months of spiritual defrosting and holistic healing. He was a walking miracle of restoration, and the other men of his household were a testimony to Christ’s care for the brokenhearted.

Lanny died within a year, his body decimated by AIDS but his spiritual life restored. Vibrant, smiling widely, engaged in life. Grateful for the smallest of kindnesses. Always sending little thank-you notes that expressed his joy in time spent with a friend. Occasional phone calls just to say hello and see how I was doing. A more gentle and humble man, I’m not likely to meet until we are reunited in heaven. And those snapshots of life form the collage of “LanMan” that I cherish. The fruit of restoration … life!

This series is cross-posted on my futuristguy blog.

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Everyday DiscipLeaders 2-Rod Miles (Part 2)


Feb 25

Posted: under Gathering, Planting, and Enterprising, Profiles of Missional Disciples.

Part 1 introduced Rod Miles as a missional pastor and church planter. It showed how he learns like a crosscultural missionary would in this missional setting, and how he stretches himself and listens strategically. A Profile Addendum: Marin as a Missionary/Missional Setting provided more background on his cultural setting of Marin County, California, and showed how it differs from many places in North America as a locale where post-Christendom manifests in spiritual rather than skeptical forms. Part 2 concludes this profile by focusing on how Rod emphasizes making grace, liturgy, and narrative theology comprehensible to disciples and spiritual seekers.

Grace and Centered-Set Preaching

In March 2006, Grace Church of Marin was birthed, after a few years of preparation work. It’s still a fledgling church, but it was well named: Grace is a focal point. Rod Miles, the church planter and lead pastor, continues to work at discerning how to make this enterprise successful by being sustainable in the long run, and at trusting in God’s grace to give him sustenance and perseverance.

On the theological side of things, I’m challenged to a different level by Rod’s deep understanding about grace. He consistently speaks of grace as something that every person needs, rather than as something we Christians have and others don’t. Also, he’s passionate about making sure his teachings don’t follow what he sees as the troubling trend in contemporary sermons toward moralism (just being “nice”) and toward living by the strength of human will power. Those ultimately lead to legalism and should never be accepted as a substitute for the life that is Living-Word-oriented and Spirit-led-and-empowered.

Although Rod’s perspective on grace has long been on my radar, a month ago, I finally saw that it’s a great illustration for the concept of the “centered set.” That concept pops up sometimes in semi-technical discussions at Missional Tribe. Here is a comment I posted January 19, 2009, on the group wire for “Searching for Bereans,” in response to the following question from MT member Joanne:

Hi all,

Am very thankful for the rich discussion here, and think I am beginning to understand more (am having a little bit easier go of it, trying to put things in my own words, which must mean I am beginning to understand better).

In any case, I do have some more questions - this is from a couple of days ago [...] I found this sentence in a series describing what missional is; website is http://missionaltribe.org/a-working-description-of-missional.

“Missional sees the church as a centered set rather than a bounded set.” What do these terms mean?

My response summarized a lot of what I’d seen on this subject from Rod, so I’ll quote most of the wire post here:

Hi Joanne and all … I can give an introductory thought or two on centered set vs. bound set, as I “just” happen to be working on a “missional profile” post about my reformed theologian pastor friend Rod Miles, and what I’ve learned from him. A bit more detail in the eventual post, but for the time being, here’s The Big Picture.

As I understand it, a bound set focuses on what divides a specific group of concepts, objects, or people from other items. It’s about figuring out the boundaries or borders for the group - what/who is in the group, and what/who is out of it. So it’s about what differentiates us.

A centered set focuses on what brings us together, despite our other elements of diversity. It’s about figuring the integration point(s) or areas of overlap among members of a group. So it’s about finding common ground.

Without ever using the terms “bound set” and “centered set,” my friend Rod talks a lot about the concepts. In some more traditionalist views, the gospel/grace is “something we have that everyone else needs.” That sets up an us-them mentality that we have the goods and no one else does. Instead, he believes we need to take the approach that “the gospel/grace is something that everyone stands in need of, us included.”

When we start working through some of the implications of this, the differences in approaches aren’t exactly subtle any more. The bound set - we have the gospel/grace and we’ll give it to you - leads to a sort of exclusive/exclusion mentality that can be interpreted by outsiders as quite contentious and arrogant. The centered set - we all need grace - leads to a more inclusive mentality that can be more easily interpreted as humility that keeps us on the same common ground as our neighbors.

Missional seems to require a far more “we” mentality as opposed to other approaches that seem to have an “us/them” mentality. And the countercultural “we” approach of grace doesn’t mean we accept everything as okay, but we can still learn to embrace every person and treat each and all graciously, regardless of who they are and what they do. I appreciate that kind of perspective, so perhaps Rod’s view of grace-is-for-all is part of why we’ve connected so well over the past few years. As he’s said, “When we say, ‘All of us need grace,’ that is a welcoming and safe slogan.” It fits with my understanding of a “welcoming and transforming church,” where we welcome people and help them on their journey to pursue Christ and be changed toward Christlikeness.

Making Things Comprehensible for Spiritual Seekers

Another thing Rod is committed to is making the liturgy “comprehensible.” As a member of the Presbyterian Church in America, Grace Church of Marin emphasizes the historic gospel and liturgy. The liturgy is a gospel re-enactment that moves through recognition of our separation from God due to sin, to reconciliation with Him through Christ. As the liturgist, Rod leads by linking the sections of the service together with commentary that sets up what is going to happen next and/or explains why it is important.

His intentional efforts to “frame” the flow of the liturgy make the theologically-rich story underneath the liturgy more accessible to spiritual seekers. For instance, in one service I visited, Rod explained the “Call to Worship” as a holistic view of praise and judgment: Everything will eventually be put right in the realms of heavens and earth and people, and this redemption of all things will bring praise to God.

Over time, a process that emphasizes being comprehensible leads to an understanding that is potentially more comprehensive. And I think a comprehensive theology is absolutely critical to having a holistic perspective, and a holistic perspective is absolutely critical to having a missional mindset.

Some may think it an oxymoron to combine missional, reformed theology, and liturgical worship style. However, I think what can make it work together coherently is when liturgy is wedded to a narrative theology framework (even if it isn’t welded to narrative theology as if liturgy is the only possible right worship style). The narrative approach interweaves conceptual theology with concrete actions. Historical accounts of people show forth character qualities that demonstrate themselves in real-world actions. The liturgy stylizes all this into a symbolic set of interactions, where deeper meaning can grow over time as worshippers reflect on the continuity of God’s character in showing grace and mercy to His people in general and to them as individuals in particular.

Also, I think that those who are steeped in narrative perspectives generally tend to be more missional. This is because a storying approach to Scripture emphasizes tribes, cultures, nations, and civilizations - and how both individuals and groups of people are often reached with God’s revelation through crosscultural encounters. By tracking with the Bible’s primarily narrative approach to laying out the history of God’s interactions among people, we have a built-in bias that is missionary/missional and crosscultural.

On a sidenote that isn’t really a side issue, there are definitely reformed approaches to theology that are not narrative and really aren’t all that missional, even if they are about “reaching people.” For instance, I once heard Rod graciously but clearly critique a particular reformed-theology evangelism movement as being:

“… fear-based, not Jesus-centered. It presents a proposition, not a person. There is no application of the gospel to life in it. It is reductionist, only dealing with heaven and hell. There is no present value of the gospel for a life of overcoming. We prefer to talk about the story of redemption, and how we can fit in.”

So - back to Rod and Grace Church - in my opinion, a narrative-missional-crosscultural framework that is “seeker comprehensible” is far more helpful than is a typical “seeker-sensitive approach” where a theoretical principle is presented and then there is talk about how to apply it. (I guess that’s a fairly technical subject. Maybe I can address that sometime, from a perspective of learning style theory and why the ways we construct our services and communications make a substantial difference in setting up how people absorb and apply the messages presented.)

Also, I suspect the narrative and seeker-comprehensible approaches make for a more realistic pace in the worship service. For instance, I’m intrigued that there is typically a relatively long greeting time at Grace Church, in comparison to many other kinds of churches. It’s at least five minutes, which actually gives people time to get into a reasonable length conversation with guests and/or friends beyond an obligatory handshake and hello. It’s counterintuitive, but I think the longer greeting time seems to help make the conversations less awkward, rather than more awkward.

(I have difficulty with the fast pace and short spans for various items in a typical 60-75 minute church service. In those, I feel I’m a spectator who is warp-speeded through a series of spiritual aerobics. First, there’s a micro-concert of worship songs, interrupted by a couple of bulletinfomercials, with a whack-a-mole jump-up greet-time, followed by a theological pep-talk, and perhaps a blipvert prayer or two. All of which makes me reel, as if I’ve been on a holy-rollercoaster or a spiritual speed-date with God, and not in a sacred/set-aside space for learning, asking, participating, reflecting.)

From a missional perspective, there’s a lot at Grace Church to think about in how to construct a service that creates more opportunities for participation than in just simply watching, listening, and occasionally moving. This may be worth spending some concentrated time focusing on, sometime …

Missional as Seen from the Eyes of an Outsider

Huh … who would’ve thought … the person I’ve known the shortest time in this initial group of eight may end up getting the longest ministry profile description! Maybe that’s because Rod represents someone who is intentional in being missional, contextual, and countercultural - three themes that I find essential for individual disciples and for gatherings, and it takes a while to describe all that.

Also, it took a reasonable amount of space to show the kind of courage and faith it took for an outsider to move to the far edges of spiritual post-Christendom culture resident here in Marin. My other friends I’m profiling as missional DiscipLeaders have the opportunity to serve more from the advantage and vantagepoint of already-insiders in emerging cultures. But - in the multicultural world as it is unfolding - we need all kinds, because no one kind alone will do.

I’m not sure Rod would exactly consider himself in the “emerging” vein of ministry, but he certainly seems to live out the principles of crosscultural ministry in the “edge culture” here, in terms of his conscious and conscientious attempts to listen to the culture and still be countercultural. After all, as Rod says, “Historic Christianity with its message of every person needing grace and redemption is VERY countercultural in a locale like Marin County,” which has for decades been full of people who’ve shaped the global culture shifts!

In fact, I’ve seen Rod intentionally stretch himself (and let God stretch him) in almost every way conceivable in order to understand and serve both this community and his congregation as a church planter. I appreciate Rod for his humility in being a learner-leader, and in his risk-filled choices to put himself outside his comfort zone. Craig Combs, a member at Grace Church of Marin, says of his pastor:

Rod says he’s not a natural risk-taker, but he puts himself out there in ways that he cannot succeed without grace. Most pastors aren’t willing to do that. To me, that reflects he really does believe in grace, because his whole life and ministry depend on it. I have this sense that often, the people God calls weren’t the first people He asked, just the first to say “Yes.” Rod said yes.

And for that “yes” and with all his follow-through, Rod is a hero to me …

Missional Metrics -

Compositing a Profile of Christlikeness

From themes in my encounters with Rod I see demonstrated that missional DiscipLeaders who are church planters and pastors …

  • Put themselves is situations of discomfort on purpose, for the ultimate purposes God designed for those people in that place.
  • Implant themselves for the long haul, even with the willingness to be there the rest of their lives, if God so leads.
  • Do not assume that just because they speak the same language as the locals that they speak the same “lingo.” They invest themselves in listening deeply and for a long time in order to hear and interpret their adopted community BEFORE launching.
  • Stay committed to the formation of disciples who will engage in personal and social transformation. Thus, they reject what I’ve termed a “slash-and-dash” approach to quickee harvesting of supposed “converts.” Instead, it’s about long-haul discipling, and letting the people they disciple become the church’s evangelists.

Do-It-Yourself Section

  • What qualities in the life, ministry, and message of Rod Miles seem to you perfectly suited for new paradigms and cultures that are unfolding in what was previously Christendom?
  • If you could interview Rod about what it means to him to be an everyday disciple who is a learner-leader, what specific questions would you want to ask?
  • Take some time to check out the Grace Church of Marin website, and pray for Rod, the other leaders, and the people there. And perhaps you’ll find it as intriguing as I do on how well they blend theology, theory, and practice for a missional approach. I’d especially suggest studying at least their statements of:

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Profile Addendum: Marin as a Missionary/Missional Setting


Jan 23

Posted: under Gathering, Planting, and Enterprising, Profiles of Missional Disciples.

Yesterday I posted Part 1 of an Everyday DiscipLeader profile that included this quote about Marin County and Christianity:

From a survey done in the mid-1990s, [Marin County] reputedly does have one of the lowest (if not the smallest) percentages of active, church-going Christian population of any county in the U.S. - equivalent to somewhere between the percentage found in Japan and Taiwan. Other than perhaps one or more Catholic churches in this county of 250,000, probably the largest Christian gathering is a Pentecostal denominational church with about 700 people.

Matt Stone asked me what the percentage of Christians here was. I’m not able to follow up the original sources at this time, but I did spend a few hours trying to track down notes. Here’s what I found out, and hopefully this will clarify and correct some aspects of my quotation. So, as best as I can reconstruct it from memory and notes, this is where the estimate on Christianity in Marin County comes from and it still shows the unusual context in which I live. And this may have interest in terms of missional research and some of its difficulties.

In the mid-1990s, one of the local churches here conducted a survey. The closest I can tie it down timewise is 1995, 1996, or 1997. Because I interviewed someone in July 1997 who spoke of this survey and it sounded at the time like relatively fresh statistics, I think it may have been done that year.

As I recall, the survey was run the week after Easter Sunday, and the survey team contacted every “church” listed in the Marin County Yellow Pages. They asked just one question: “How many people total attended your services last weekend?” The responses provided the base for some statistics.

I’ll get to that in a moment. But first, you need to know that the term church is in quotes because the Yellow Pages here still list nearly every kind of religious group in the section on Churches. The most recent AT&T Yellow Pages includes in 36 Christian denominational variants. It also listed 10 other groups in the Churches section: Baha’i, Buddhist, Buddhist Soto Zen, Gnostic, Interfaith, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Moslem Mosque, Religious Science, Unitarian Universalist, and Unity. Only synagogues are not listed under the Church section.

Around the same time, the local Marin Independent Journal newspaper ran an article on “Spirit Rock,” a Buddhist meditation center with presentations by spiritual teachers like Jack Kornfield. The article included information on attendance to show how popular the center had become.

Okay, so here is a quote from the 1997 interview I conducted with a local church leader:

And this county is a place where Christians are 3% of the population. Sunday morning, 6,500 people will be in all of the evangelical churches in Marin County, population 250,000. But over 8,000 people from around this area will be here every weekend for a New Age service called “Spirit Rock.” That’s not going to happen in Fort Worth, or Louisville, or Dallas - yet. It eventually will. Anyway, I think the things that could be learned and taught in this cultural setting now can be taught anywhere in the United States 20 years from now. Our location is strategic.

I don’t know how many responses the survey team got, nor how they determined what an “evangelical” church is. But 6,500 evangelicals is closer to 2.5%, so the full meaning of the 3% figure isn’t clear. Was that the absolute total of those going to Christian churches, or just a rounding-up from the 6,500 figure? Also, the fact that the survey asked about attendance on Easter Sunday might inflate the percentage since there is likely some residual of the adage, “twice a year Christian,” with church-going behaviors on Christmas and Easter. But anyway, that survey is where the famous 3% figure comes from.

So, where did I get the figures to compare Marin to Japan and Taiwan?

That was something I added myself in about 2003 when talking about Christianity in Marin County. It’s meant to demonstrate that this is a missionary setting - perhaps shocking some into realizing that this kind of “unchurched” place actually exists in America. And what is the significance of this county being that close in percentage of Christian population to some “never-been-churched” countries like Japan or Taiwan?

Anyway, in 2003 a friend of mine did a presentation based on her research into Christianity in Chinese countries. She was working with estimates of the Christian populations being 5% of mainland China, 5% of Hong Kong, and 2% of Taiwan. I checked out some missiological statistics books around that time and found that Japan had (as best I can remember) around 1% Christian population. I don’t have access to those books at this time, or I’d check it out to confirm. But I did find an article on Religion in Japan which seems to confirm the 1% to 2% figures. And I used Japan as a marker because of the following piece of information, which comes from an article I wrote in about 2003 about the mid-1990s survey:

When cross-checking church-goer survey results with a listing of doctrinally sound Christian churches, [the team] found that perhaps only a total of 1.5% were theologically conservative, evangelical Christians.

I don’t know at this point if this 1.5% is an additional piece of information, or was just my rounding off of some of the original survey results as the memory of the actual statistics faded over time. At any rate, it fits more with the estimated percentage of Christians in Japan in the mid-1990s to early 2000s.

Meanwhile, I’ve corrected my blog post to state that the active/evangelical Christian population here in Marin County in the mid-1990s was somewhere around the percentage found in Japan or Taiwan.

I apologize for being a bit sloppy about this material. Talking about research is difficult, especially when you only have access to final results and not to any clear description of the process used or an exact listing of questions used. And if it was hard enough to get clarity on a rather informal survey done in the mid-1990s, then consider that I find a formal, commissioned survey done in the mid-2000s to be even more confusing! Consider this article which summarizes the results: Marin County, California Survey on Spiritual Values by Diana deRegnier.

According to her account of this phone survey of 502 Marinites, 26% claimed to attend church or other organized spiritual service weekly or more often. So, you would expect 40,000 in the pews on Easter Sunday in the mid-2000s, whereas 10 years earlier, there were only 6,500 of the population of about 250,000 sitting there. Hmmm … I often talk about how “the ways we word our questions precondition our answers.” And it appears there is a probable flaw in research method here: The question list apparently did not distinguish among types of “spiritual services,” and since this county is known for having one of the highest percentages of a county population attending 12-step and recovery groups, the attendance figures are skewed upward. There are about 200 recovery group meetings per month, and many consider these as a “spiritual service.”

So there you have it: around 3% attend church or evangelical churches on Easter Sunday in the mid-1990s. Even if that has doubled over the past 10 years, it still illustrates the main point: Marin County is a missionary setting.

Perhaps another time I can provide a more qualitative profile of this fascinating place where I’ve lived nearly 20 years. Maybe some of the topics would help in understanding roles of spiritual research in missionary/missional settings.

For instance, I talk about the serious “metaphysical syncretism” going on among some churches here with paganism, Buddhism, and/or Gnosticism.

Or what it’s like to live in a spiritually polytheistic and postmodern culture.

Or what it means for Alpha, church planting, apologetics, church gatherings, and everyday conversations for us as followers of Jesus to be among people who embrace spirituality instead of act toward it with skepticism as their core epistemological stance.

Or questions about why, when people here are so evidently spiritual seekers, and many theologically conservative churches are seeker-sensitive, there seem to be so few “finders”

Or musings on how what appears to be hardened soil may indeed be quite fertile, though it just needs significant aerating and working over time - and how it makes sense for missional/missionary-minded disciples here to consider a 100-year plan that challenges three of four generations to implant themselves for an incarnational presence here, to plow, sow, and water - and not worry so much about the reaping.

Interesting?

Interested?

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Everyday DiscipLeaders 2-Rod Miles (Part 1)


Jan 22

Posted: under Gathering, Planting, and Enterprising, Profiles of Missional Disciples.

Summary of “Profiles of Missional Disciples” Series

I picked eight people for my initial set in this series of Profiles of Missional Disciples: Andrew and Debbie, Rod, Joshua and Kristen, Shannon, Jessica, and Dave. These are the friends who immediately came to mind when I thought and prayed about “the million dollar question” posed in Willow Creek’s Reveal self-study book: What would I do if someone gave me one million dollars to invest in maximum Kingdom impact? My first thoughts were about people I personally would want to invest in, not programs or products I would spend money on. And these eight men and women are learner-leaders/multiplier-mentors I am confident in to direct the course of the future in their corners of the Kingdom. I have no doubt they will continue shaping more generations of disciples who will shape disciples who shape disciples, because that quality of multiplication is already demonstrated in their life and lifestyle.

Meet Rod Miles - Missional Pastor and Church Planter

Some of the friends in this series I’ve known for as long as 15 years. I’ve known Rod the least amount of time among this group, just over four years. But we’ve met together for a few hours of discussion every few months about local culture, life, and theology and I’ve learned a lot from him in that short time. I see Rod as a missional pastor in a missionary setting. And to profile even some of how he is missional, I need to give some background on why this is a missionary setting that calls forth cross-cultural sensitivities.

Missional Pastor in a Missionary Setting

Rod is the founding pastor/church planter at Grace Church of Marin. The Miles family came to Marin County, California, in 2004 to plant a church. This county just north of the Golden Gate Bridge creates a faith-stretching experience of culture shock for almost all church planters. For most, it is a cross-cultural enterprise because Marin’s cultural realities and spiritualities are so unlike what they are used to, and few seem to thrive in it. It requires not only being missional and implanting into a neighborhood, but being a missionary who sets aside The Usual Assumptions and stays humble enough to learn before being entrusted to lead. Not all settings are this difficult to navigate, but my theory is that we all can learn a lot from those who are led into the extremes. And Marin seems to have been a concentrated dose of post-Christendom culture for at least the past few decades - though becoming more “spiritual”/embracing than “secular”/skeptical in orientation.

Cultural Realities

Culturally speaking, Marin has been home to a significant number of highly recognized paradigm shifters in just about every field of academics, business, ecology, entertainment, and technology. And joke all you want about California being considered the “Left Coast.” But remember the underlying truth that people who are here, or their forebearers, ended up here because they “left” behind what they didn’t like or felt too ordinary in order to forge their way out West. So, those who are here often have inherited a pioneering spirit.

And indeed, this has been an epicenter for the creation and exportation of the new “global culture” of pop culture, media, green development, etc. Over the past century, Marin has been home to many of this country’s recent and next-edge intellectual, socio-cultural, and financial elites. (For example, Howard Rheingold, Anne Lamotte, Eric Erickson, George Lucas, Isabel Allende, Ram Dass, Philip K. Dick, Joan Baez, Frank Herbert.) In fact, it seems it could be a capital city in the Empire of Postmodernity. Culture and spirituality are inseparable here. And wealth is a factor as well - according to the 2000 census, Marin had the highest per capita income in the U.S., at $44, 962. People here get so many props and have so many props that they certainly don’t seem to be interested in a Savior - and yet, they are deeply spiritual … perhaps because this is about as close to the Far East as one can get from the continental U.S.

Spiritualities

“Everybody here does religion. But historic Christianity is shockingly foreign to Marin, as much as Zen Buddhism would be to someone from Mississippi.” ~ Rod Miles

In my nearly 20 years here, I’ve had only three discussions with atheists or agnostics. Many other conversations or drive-by listen-ins involve people who have some kind of system of spirituality.

Yet for all its spiritual focus, Marin is not a particularly Christian or even pro-Christian place. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Often enough I’ve overheard and read overtly anti-Christian statements where Christendom kinds of behaviors were blamed for all sorts of social problems from the environment to the economy to “low cosmic consciousness.” And true to form for post-Christendom people, they often like Jesus but really have a problem with Christians, as witnessed by a fleet of (r)evolutionary Darwin fish stickers, and the bumper sticker I’ve seen on multiple cars: “Lord save me from your followers!”

From a survey done in the mid-1990s, this place reputedly does have one of the lowest (if not the smallest) percentages of active/evangelical Christian population of any county in the U.S. - not even 3%, which puts it near the range of percentages found in Japan (1%) or Taiwan (2%) and less than Hong Kong or China (5%). (See the Profile Addendum for more details.) And other than perhaps one or more Catholic churches in this county of 250,000, probably the largest Christian gathering is a Pentecostal denominational church with about 700 people.

Also, by comparing several local reports on religion around that same time, it was clear that more Marinites and guests went to meditate at Spirit Rock - a huge boulder situated in a grassy field - than went to all the churches in the county combined during a typical week. And that trend doesn’t appear to have changed much in the last 10 years. Eastern practices like Buddhism and Tantra in their pure and Americanized forms flourish here, as do Western alternative spiritualities like Course in Miracles and paganism, and global traditions of tribal eco-spiritualities. Enlightenment-era alternative religions like Christian Science are dying out here.

And so, church planters who think they will “rescue” Marin County for the Kingdom by importing their brand of church from elsewhere generally get a very rude awakening. Marin presents a different reality in religion, and, when it comes to church planters, this place has a reputation for “chewing ‘em up and spitting ‘em out.” Numerous church plants here have faltered or failed over the past few decades - and I believe two main reasons are an unwillingness by leaders to listen to the local culture, and their inflexibility by importing and implanting a church model that doesn’t fit here. Often, church planters move on within a couple years, their Marin experience becoming a line on their resume. But, sadly, they’ve often swathed through a quick layer of harvest which then gets left aside to spoil when the planter departs. So much for commitment to a setting and sustainability, it appears, which means it probably wasn’t a very missional endeavor from the outset.

However, for church planters to come here and survive, they need a compelling spirit, both in the missional/missionary and pioneering senses of that term. Rod arrived here with both. Here are some ways he’s lived them out, and some things I’ve learned from him in our journeying together.

Stretching and Shining, and Listening Strategically

“Everybody contextualizes. I listen to what questions local people or groups are asking, and seek to relate the gospel to them.” ~ Rod Miles

When I think of learner-leader lessons from Rod’s life, I think especially about his balancing what I call “stretching” (functioning past our comfort zone) and “shining” (functioning within our strengths and giftings). He also exercises intentional listening to culture, in order to be both relevant and countercultural.

Given Rod’s background in career and ministry, you might expect him to take a more traditional perspective of pastor/leader as “vision-caster.” (He used to work in the banking industry with financial securities accounts, which would seem to be a very linear kind of a profession. And his church denomination is Presbyterian Church in America and its theology is Reformed - which can sometimes turn out quite rigid and yet the PCA seems to encourage a significant amount of innovation in church planting.) But Rod has not followed a typical leadership template. Instead, he embodies his faith as a “vision-carrier.” He doesn’t just point people to where they should go or tell them what they should do. I see him living it out himself first. For instance, he connects with people in his neighborhood and kids’ schools through coaching a sports team. Also, in recent months he’s spoken with community members who are dealing with crisis from financial reversals - as a former banker, he can provide a distinct level of understanding of those issues and their personal, family, and spiritual implications. The conceptual and ideal are consistently backed up by embodying the concrete and real. Rod didn’t just create a strategic plan, he lives strategically.

A typical visionary leadership approach to church planting involves a crash course of developing a team in just six months before “the launch.” Also, even if you have a pioneering mindset, it’s quite easy to arrive with preconceived methodological models in place, and you hit the ground running to implement plans developed off-site, before you were even living in your new home culture. (And given the unusual characteristics of Marin, one’s previous home-base culture was seldom in sync with that of the new!)

Rod had the pioneering spirit to come here, as have others before. However, he assumed little about how best to plant a church here. And although he’s lived in the Midwest, Northeast, and South, he didn’t attempt to superimpose onto here the ministries designed for there. Instead, Rod took the route of a cross-cultural missionary. This required him to work far slower, longer, and deeper. During his first two years here, he served with CityChurch in San Francisco, one year as an intern and another as an elder. (He’d already been an elder in his church before moving here.) And all the while, he continued his path as an “Everyday DiscipLeader” by studying Marin cultures, interviewing local insiders, developing networks of relationships, and strategizing how best to create a church start-up here.

Actually, we met because Rod wanted to listen. Rod did something done by no other church planter I’ve been aware of since the early 1990s. He conducted extensive personal interviews with pastors and other church leaders in the county, to find out more about the cultures and the Church here. Certainly others have done at least that. But then, one of his interview questions was always, “Who else would you recommend I talk with?” And then he followed up on those suggestions - every one of them. Someone referred him to me.

I believe I’m known for speaking forthrightly, and I hope I’m known for investing significant energy into discerning so I can speak forthrightly. And so, for some, one conversation might give them more than their fill of me. And yet, Rod and I have continued meeting on at least a quarterly basis for four years now. I can serve him as both a “culture reader” on the local scene, as well as a “person of peace” who welcomes his presence.

The “visionary leader” kinds of church planters I’ve met have more typically arrived here with preset strategies and plans, created before doing any kind of significant on-site research. Rod’s done it right to create a firm base for ministry that is missional and cross-cultural. I suspect it has cost him in some ways during the short run, but I also expect it will prove the wiser investment in the long run. After all, he’s still here, going into year number five in a place known for confounding planters who are intellectually bright, spiritually sincere, and initially enthused. But you know what? “Success” isn’t about IQ, EQ, GQ, or SQ. It’s about faithfulness and tenacity in relying on God for the guidance, empowering, and blessing to keep going forward.

Maybe it’s seriously cross-cultural for Rod to live here, and therefore it’s quite stressful. But I see consistently over time that he lives in a culture of the Cross, and that gives an anchor of security. Rod has said, “I learn a lot from Pascal, whose motto was to live the Christian life with joy and authenticity.” He does, and it shows …

To be concluded in Part 2, focusing on Grace, Centered-Set Preaching, and Being Missional as Seen from the Eyes of an Outsider - plus another “Missional Metrics” and Do-It-Yourself section for the series.

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Everyday DiscipLeaders 1-Andrew and Debbie Jones


Jan 05

Posted: under Profiles of Missional Disciples.

Meeting Andrew and Debbie Jones -

Extraordinary Missional Team

You may already be acquainted with Andrew and Debbie, but know them as Tall Skinny Kiwi and Mum Jones. We met in 1995 - which was even before Andrew was a blogger(!), as I mentioned in a 2008 post about Andrew’s birthday. Andrew and Debbie contacted the organization I worked for at the time as a resource and publication specialist. They were considering a move to the San Francisco Bay Area and I happened to have a lot of info about specific cultural and ministry issues of interest to them. So I guess you’d have to say we’ve had a cultured friendship from the start. (Okay, so that was a totally bad pun, but then, welcome to my world! Have to get through the bad and so-so ones to get to the good ones.) (And might I just add that some friends have been waiting for a very long time to get to the good ones …)

Anyway, through his blog and speaking engagements and consulting, Andrew has probably helped more people at the entry level of questions of [fill-in-the-current-ministry-label] than anyone I know of. He has done this when the fill-in ministry labels were GenX and youth (sub)cultures in the mid-1990s, to postmodern and post-postmodern in the late ’90s and early ’00s, to emerging and missional in the mid-2000s.

But don’t think Debbie is just some side character in Andrew’s storyline. She is equally engaged in discipleship, and fully his counterpart/ner. Mum Jones carries on a ministry of her own. She contributes at summits, shares at events, encourages newcomers and oldgoers, sparks connections for women and for families, co-catalyzes social enterprises.

When we find too many unfortunate examples in the history of church and missions where one marriage partner forced the other into crosscultural ministry, the Joneses offer us a living example of both spouses having a heart for missions and working together to discern the details of where, why, and how. Not only do the Joneses model supportive spousehood in every way that I’ve been able to observe, but they are one of those couples who cause me to ponder how two together in marriage can enter a ministry together that never would have been possible to either as a single. I don’t totally know what that means yet, but I keep thinking about it. I see it in a number of couples where their spiritual gifts and ministries as single people take a different direction and/or amplification when they marry.

The Late 1990s to Mid-2000s

The Joneses have opened their lives to me, and kept connected over a long period of time. I appreciate their authenticity and vulnerability. They are an amazing couple, and from them and their children, I’ve learned a lot about living missionally. After they moved to San Francisco, I had the opportunity to interview both Andrew and Debbie multiple times during their stay in the Haight-Ashbury District from early 1997 to early 1998. Those interviews became part of a case study on “Godspace 4 The New Edge” and “The Celtic House” - which is what kids on the street in the Haight called the dozen people who lived in the huge flat on Ashbury Street.

We went to a lot of GenX/postmodern events back in the day when those were the labels used. In fact, Andrew and I and several others from the Bay Area attended Leadership Network’s “Emerging Urban Leaders” Conference in Washington, D.C., in 1997. I’ll never forget that Andrew willingly slept on the floor on some pillows when we ran out of beds and couches in the room our group rented. That’s just one of many memorable examples in a series of personal snapshots showing how the Joneses do some of the harder things themselves now so others can experience a bit more comfort later. But isn’t that generally the way of pioneers?

The Joneses moved from California to Texas in mid-1998 to start a ministry to people from alternative cultures. (That in itself is a wonderful story of where God took them, and how it led to them helping resource the rest of us on the cultural edges for the past decade, including many events related to the Tessera Learning Trail.) I remember their now famous and very way cool van that was home back then, and they lived on the road a lot in those days.

We’ve stayed in touch since they left California. We’ve been at a few conferences together. I’ve tracked their journeys to Texas, Prague, the UK, Orkney. (They even invited me to Orkney to be their monk in residence and stay in their upper room/attic!) Until September 2008 - after the Missional-Tech-Geek Gathering - I don’t think I’ve seen Andrew and Debbie together since the Houston Doxology art exhibit in 2005, when the entire Jones clan was here in the states. In 2006, Debbie and I were at a Houston summit on bridging established and emerging culture ministries. And perhaps I saw Andrew in person at the 2007 Allelon Missional Order Summit at Seabeck after that. It gets hard to remember sometimes in this age of virtuality, because we’re emailing and reading each others blogs and commenting, and there is so much info going back and forth at times that I simply can’t recall if the connection was IRL or URL.

So, anyway, it was a delight to get together with TSK and Mum Jones at the “Squat & Gobble” deli in the Haight-Ashbury a few days after the Missional-Tech-Geek Gathering for some chai, citrus coolers, and what not. It is such a delight when you’ve known people long enough to get perspective on the big picture of their lives, and think in terms of “videos” or “flip books” instead of just individual snapshots, and no longer be more concerned about the scratches or underdeveloped parts than about the overall flow of things in the right direction. And I see the Joneses doing now much as they have done since we first met: planning strategically, living intentionally, mentoring regularly, and - a favorite aspect of mine - outrageousing (yes, I verbed an adjective!) periodically, which actually makes for sanity-keeping creatively. In their presence, I always ALWAYS feel welcomed, honored as a peer, included in whatever’s happening. If JonesKidz are with them, then you’re part of the whole family.

Third Culture Kids and the Futures of JonesKidz

And speaking of their children, what an amazing heritage they are passing along, helping forge lives that are both international and intercultural … a sort of “Third Culture Kid” redemptive purpose … and the world hardly knows yet what this unusual cultural group could accomplish, as it is just beginning to emerge from subcultural status to a position of enough size and prominence to be noticed.

Third Culture Kids, or TCKs as they are sometimes called, were often referred to formerly as “MKs” - missionary kids. But the borders of that tribe have been expanded to include other groups, such as children of diplomats, international business workers, and military personnel. These young people grow up not necessarily identifying with the culture in their country of passport, nor in their current country of residence. Thus, a virtual third culture has been created. TCKs frequently connect with each other through attending international schools or international churches.

Because of their early life exposure to racial and cultural diversity, they tend to develop a cultural fluency that is a lot like learning a second language, but without an accent. Given their cultural sophistication, third culture kids seem to belong everywhere. And so, TCKs have been called cultural brokers, bridge people, and peace-makers. Andrew and Debbie have been rearing a family of disciple-leaders who have every possibility of playing important roles as “mobile people of peace” in a global-gobee generation. It will be a delight to see how each of them continues growing into their faith

Personal Impact and Possible Futures

Meanwhile, Andrew and Debbie can more than handle the oddness that is (sometimes) me and love me exactly where I’m at. I’ve seen them demonstrate that same kind of grace and ease with others anywhere on the scale from traditional to transitional to radical. Doesn’t matter. You’re included. There is a graciousness, patience, and kindness there that is magnetic! And yet, they also challenge me to be and do more than I think is possible. For instance, I am certain Andrew must take the award as The Person Most Responsible for Getting Brad to Blog. And that is not the only element of inertia in my life that Andrew has gently prodded me to push past. Like teach more, connect with this or that person, go to such-and-such summit. Debbie frequently asks questions, and offers deeper insights and creative perspectives, that challenge me to stretch my thinking. And her courage, flexibility, and perseverance in being mobile and global especially encourage me.

Anyway, since I want to live with as few regrets as possible, I’ve been making it a practice to say in person what I would write in a “when I think about you, this is what comes to mind” card. And so, at our parting after the Squat & Gobble connection, I thanked Andrew and Debbie for the role they as a couple have had with their family in nurturing new waves of disciples who were fumbling to find their footing in the worlds of emerging cultures.

We will look back 20, 30, 50 years from now, and see that Andrew and Debbie Jones stand among the most influential people in offering a portal for possibilities in this new era of ministry. First, by understanding a new set of questions about ministry in the here and now, and second, by serving as stabilizers for many, many people young and old who needed a word of welcome or a place of relief and restoration. These have come at a cost to themselves and their family. But with their sacrifice has also come an immense investment in a more constructive Kingdom future for all of us. Andrew and Debbie and their kids are heroes to me!

Missional Metrics -

Compositing a Profile of Christlikeness

From themes in the lives of Andrew, Debbie, and their family, I see demonstrated that missional disciples …

  • Take on situations and make a way forward so those who come along later have at least a route to follow, though not a totally paved road.
  • Consistently welcome people into their life, and it’s about an expansive heart more than an expensive home.
  • Follow the Holy Spirit’s leading faithfully in whatever place or process to which they are called, whether that is global or local, rooted or mobile.
  • Can live creatively, frugally, and outrageously because they have embraced freedom in their followership.

Do-It-Yourself Section

  • What qualities do you see in the lives of Andrew and Debbie that seem to you perfectly suited for new paradigms and cultures that are unfolding in what was previously Christendom?
  • If you could interview the Joneses about what it means to them to be everyday disciples who are learner-leaders, what specific questions would you want to ask?

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Welcome to “Profiles of Missional Disciples”!


Jan 05

Posted: under Profiles of Missional Disciples.

In September 2008, I planned to start posting a mini-series on “Everyday DiscipLeaders” on my futuristguy WordPress blog. This series was meant as a sequel to my analysis of the falling apart and fallout of the Lakeland Outpouring. This reconstructive side of Kingdom futures is what I most had in mind, in response to Brother Maynard’s invitation in his post on Reinterpreting the Lakeland Fallout to spend some time in September blogging about what real “apostolic leadership” looks like - to SHOW WHO demonstrates real leadership - not focus on concepts of WHAT leadership should be.

I picked eight people to profile initially: Andrew and Debbie, Rod, Joshua and Kristen, Shannon, Jessica, and Dave. These are the friends who immediately came to mind when I thought and prayed about “the million dollar question” posed in Willow Creek’s Reveal self-study book: What would I do if someone gave me one million dollars to invest in maximum Kingdom impact? My first thoughts were about people I personally would want to invest in, not programs or products I would spend money on. These eight men and women are learner-leaders/multiplier-mentors I am confident in to direct the course of the future in their corners of the Kingdom. I have no doubt they will continue shaping more generations of disciples who will shape disciples who shape disciples, because that quality of multiplication is already demonstrated in their life and lifestyle.

I’ve known them anywhere from four years to almost 15. We’ve all had lesser to greater points or periods of conflicts, but frictions in our friendships have never quenched them, thankfully. These are people I think about regularly, pray for as they come to mind, support in what ways I can. They are among those who inspire me by their usually quiet but always tenacious pursuit of living out and figuring out what it means to follow Jesus.

Let me introduce them to you in this category of Profiles of Missional Disciples. In these posts, I want to share enough specifics that support my conclusions about lessons in Christlikeness and Kingdom culture that I have learned from each of my friends. And then, I’ll transfer a summary of those discoveries to a post in my Missional Metrics category. Hopefully that growing profile of character qualities, skills, and perspectives will help all of us consider how to embody missional lifestyles for Kingdom impact.

Right. Okay, then. And here we go …

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