We just returned to Barcelona from just outside of London where we had our annual leadership gathering for Christian Associates…the organization/family/group we are a part of. Last night our president, Rob, shared about his vision for the future…I can easily say that I’m as happy as ever to be a part of what CA is doing and I believe our future is bright.

At one point during Rob’s talk, he asked us to discuss a question: What are the biggest inhibiting factors to greater mission impact in the Western world? (or something like that)

This question really stirred something in me…a fire in my belly, so to speak…and I’m going to attempt to put into type what was on my mind in and in my heart. (And it should be clear that this post is just as much towards me as it written by me.)

One of the resounding answers to this question from our group was a lack of leaders who are willing to give up the comforts of their known lives to jump into to something risky (complacency). I see this as the first issue. It’s not easy or safe to leave behind ministry roles where one is clearly using their gifts, has consistent pay, a crowd to influence, access to resources, clear ‘success’ metrics, etc. Why would one want to do that?

The second layer of this issue is that it’s also not easy for a person who is not in a ‘professional ministry’ role (I hate that wordage by the way), to imagine themselves as a leader within the Church when they don’t have the experience or credentials that one may imagine would be necessary. (side note: in all of Scripture, it never says that formal education is required for leaders…it’s about faithfulness, love, and obedience. Education is often to augment these things…not replace them.) We’ve come to a place where many people within and without of the Church think that leadership comes with a stage and a microphone….there were many leaders in the first century Church that we don’t know about from Scripture who never got any ‘press’, but who were essential in how the Church came to be.

A second issue is that there may not be enough churches developing leaders from within their communities to send out of their communities. The prevailing system in the western Church is basically one where a handful of professional clergy lead the many. Things have been like this for a long time and people have clearly defined roles in the structure. There are people who prepare talks, music, ministries, and other church services; and then there are the people who listen, receive (maybe consume would be an appropriate word), enjoy what the other set of people are providing. It’s been long observed in churches that often 20% of the people do 80% of the work. The issue is that our current leaders are often so spent just doing what they are required to do for their community’s needs, that getting around to training leaders to be sent out is often left by the wayside. A second level to this is that many leaders don’t want to send out their most influential leaders because they may be difficult to replace. I would argue that creating voids in leadership requires new leaders to arise and while at the same also keeps us on our toes in regards to continually developing leaders.

The third issue I see is that many people see themselves as ‘normal Christians’ i.e: not leaders and aren’t given a greater vision for their lives in the Church. People only learn what they are being given. When the only vision that people have for their spirituality/faith/religion is that they receive services, then it’s not hard to figure out why more people aren’t growing into leadership: they aren’t taught that they should be. I could name 10 incredibly gifted friends of mine that have leadership potential but don’t step into it because their pastor doesn’t tell them they should. Beyond active leadership training in church communities, another issue I’ve experienced is that character development, lifelong discipleship and learning, and internal disciplines are not actively taught. When our ideas of discipleship only treat symptoms, we still leave the root sickness in there somewhere. Our practices of discipleship must go deeper to treating the inner-life so that when we do end up leadership positions we have the character to sustain ourselves there.

The fourth thing I see is that people think that ‘they could never do what we are doing.’ I’ve heard this so many times over the 8 years that we’ve been a part of church-planting work. “I wish I could just up and move overseas, but I can’t because…” The truth is (and this isn’t any attempt to sugar coat it) they really don’t wish that they could do what we do. If they did, they would make it happen just like many of my colleagues in CA. Many of my friends in Christian Associates not only left pastor-type jobs, but they also left the corporate world as well. They made a decision, accepted the challenge, took the step of faith, that building God’s Church around the world was worth the sacrifice and effort. If you are reading this and you’ve ever had the thought, “I wish we could move overseas to help build the Church but ______”, then I would challenge you to look at all of the obstacles God’s people faced in Scripture. Do we really believe that God is not able to remove obstacles when we choose to sacrifice for Him? Why do we so easily accept that suffering, trials, challenges were a clear part of Jesus’ ministry, then us want nothing to do with those things? And what’s worse…some of us even think that we’re doing a better job of following Jesus when we don’t experience suffering, trials, and challenges.

So we have a void…a huge need for leaders who embrace courage, risk, creativity and have a love for the Church, while our pervasive culture points us to safety, predictability, and passivity.

I guess the reason that I’m writing is because I have hope that there are people out there that are willing to step in the void. Maybe it’s you…Maybe you’ve been feeling like there is something different out there for your pursuit of God, your learning from Jesus, your place in serving the Church. I would hope that there maybe a few of my list of friends that would read this recognize their potential to do something great for the Church, the earthly presence of King Jesus.

I am also writing this because I have hope for the Church. I believe that God’s spirit is actively moving in our world and in the Church and that there is great potential in our times. While I’ve been a bit on the hard-nose side of things in this post, the reality is that I can also think of examples of church communities who are sending leaders out to harvest beyond their walls.

To end this…I hope the void disappears. We can do it. God can do it.

I am a confessed coffee addict and coffee connoisseur (and even after living in France for 2.5 years I still had to spell check that word). My morning routine involves boiling water, grinding beans, waiting some minutes, taking a sip of a local roast, and then waking up.

A few years ago, while on one of our longer stays in the US I bought a mug from Ikea that I really liked. I used it every morning for over a year and it became a part of my routine. I packed it in my suitcase when we moved to Barcelona in 2009. Shortly after our move, one fateful morning, I dropped the mug whilst trying to escape the fog that follows me around before coffee (yes, a real addict). I was without this trusty companion for the first time in years.

So I did what any normal human being would do when they break an inanimate, replaceable object: I bought another one.

This one was a big beautiful, more artsy looking, mug from Starbucks. It was also a huge mug and only made my coffee intake in the morning more intense. (With a downside of the coffee at the bottom of the mug ending up cold.) During our first 2 years in Barcelona I used this mug every morning. In truth most mornings during our first two years were pretty tough. It saw me through some tough times for sure…It’s dark blue tones were maybe a bit too appropriate for my emotional state though.

But just like two years before, one fateful morning this mug too took the plunge to the tile floor and ended it’s reign over my delicious morning coffee. It seemed like things were happening in slow motion as the mug slipped from my wet hands to the dry floor. This mug represented more to me than just an inanimate object…this mug was an icon of a chapter of my life; the most challenging and difficult chapter of my life.

So Jen and Maisie went out and bought me a new mug…a cheery yellow mug. Maybe it’s a prophetic sign of the good to come, or in the way that we’ve found the sun through the intense shaded of blue. But regardless, I really like it. It’s smaller…so that will maybe help me cut back on my problem.

But through this reflection I’ve realized that I’ve had one mug for each of the past three chapters of life:

Preparing for Barcelona -> Settling in Barcelona -> ???? in Barcelona

I am hopeful that the chapter marked by my yellow mug will be about:

New Beginnings, Further Growth, Living well in Community, Strong Faith and Love, and Stepping into Giftedness.

Am I the only one with distinct chapters in life? Anyone else have obscure, random, inanimate markers of these times?

You can read this article first if you want to see what inspired this post: Colombian Cyclists Dream Of Racing Out Of Poverty : NPR

I originally wrote this post a couple of days ago, but it got deleted for nerd reasons I won’t go into. But here’s my second try…

I just read the article above and a line in it hit me,

“If you can’t suffer,” Johan says, “what good are you?”

We just got back from our annual Christian Associates conference called connect. This year, our main sessions were taught by other church-planters within CA. The main text we were being taught was Hebrews 11. As each of my friends taught through this, one theme resounded from the lives of the people of faith in Hebrews: their faith lead each of them to some sort of significant suffering that resulted in their character being developed. Because of who they became through their suffering they were able to live lives of faith that made a difference in the world around them…and subsequently be considered by the writer of Hebrews some of the most noteworthy followers of God in history.

I like to ride my bikes. I like to work on my bikes. I use my bikes to get around town faster or take my daughter to school on. Basically, I use them for convenience. But I really don’t set out on my bike to suffer because I’m not competing for anything like the Columbian young men in the story, or like the riders in the Tour de France.

I watched the Tour de France a lot this year…mostly because of my newfound passion for bikes (which is evident in my last three posts). In the stages in the mountains I couldn’t get over the effort that there were exerting. They were riding 100′s of miles within a few days in incredible heat, altitude, and mental strain. For a rider in the Tour, winning a leg is pretty remarkable. Winning the whole thing is incredible. But the agony on their faces proves that they must suffer to get there. They are suffering for a prize.

In the story of Johan above, it’s not just him suffering on a bike. His mom has opened a new business, his parents sold their home, his dad is working construction as an older man. They are suffering together…but not just for the sake of suffering or riding a bike. They are suffering and sacrificing because they hope that cycling will take them out of the poverty they were living in.

This reminds me of a line in the Bible: (Hebrews 12:2)

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

It’s clear to me that there is something significant with suffering in the Christian journey. I think that there is a transformation that takes place within in us that enables us to become the type of people that God can use to join him in his good intentions on earth.

I think that the quote rings true:

“If you can’t suffer, what good are you?”

I think that I need to come to terms with something spiritually. Am I a casual bike rider when it comes to suffering? Do I just want faith for convenience? Or do I want to ride like I’m competing for a prize? (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) Do I want to push on in the face of difficulty? (2 Corinthians 4:7-10) Do I believe that partnership and relationship with God is worth it? (Philippians 3:7-14)

I think I do…

I came across this article via twitter (@hopefulskeptic) and thought that it was interesting thing to think about. It’s an atheist father explaining in a letter to his 11 year old daughter why he doesn’t pray. I obviously don’t agree with the conclusions of the author, but I do think his perceptions of what Christians pray for and who the God we pray to are worth reflecting on.

I also think that it’s worth receiving the criticism that praying for things that only benefit ourselves or our desires is selfish…I don’t think this because I don’t believe that God answers small prayers. I say this because I think that it’s worth us really being thoughtful about what we pray for. I would hope that my prayers more reflect what God desires on earth, not the way that they may reflect my desires on earth…

Enjoy…(tongue in cheek)

Without a prayer | Psychology Today

“Let the just rejoice,for their justifier is born.
Let the sick and infirm rejoice,For their saviour is born.
Let the captives rejoice,For their Redeemer is born.
Let slaves rejoice,for their Master is born.
Let free men rejoice,For their Liberator is born.
Let All Christians rejoice,For Jesus Christ is born.”

- St. Augustine of Hippo

Thanks to my friend Tim Bower for posting this earlier.