Leadership 2.0 — I Need an Upgrade!

by The RevNo Comments
Michael Hyatt the CEO of Thomas Nelson recently published a blog on what he calls “Leadership 2.0” and it really fits into some of things that I have been wrestling with in light of my series on Leading With a Limp. Here are his bullet points on Leadership 2.0: Leadership 2.0 embraces change. Like Web 1.0, old-style leadership was fairly static. Leaders resisted change and were more focused on preserving the status quo. However, Leadership 2.0 embraces change. New-style leaders are on the cutting edge of experimentation. If something doesn’t work, they change course quickly. They are more concerned about driving the right outcomes than maintaining business-as-usual. Leadership 2.0 demonstrates transparency. Old-style leaders were opaque. They wouldn’t tell you anything they didn’t have to tell you. They kept themselves shrouded in mystery. (Think of “Oz.”) New-style leaders are open and transparent. They let you see them for who they are — warts and all. They risk self-disclosure, preferring to acknowledge the truth of who...
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What is Community?

by The RevNo Comments
Community. It’s a buzz-word. It’s a television sit-com. It’s a longing in our hearts. But what is it? What does community mean? There have been books, long books, written on the subject. There have been many sermons preached. There have been many university seminars given. I have to be honest with you, I have talked about community and thought about community and yet I do not think that I could define community. Community. Community. Community…Then I read Wendell Berry’s essay, “Writer and Region” in What Are People For. His definition of community is astounding: “a common experience and common effort on a common ground to which one willingly belongs.(85)” Consider with me for a brief moment what the ramifications of this definition are for us. First, a common experience. People who seek to have or be a part of community must have a common experience. This means that they must actually do something. I think that often people think community...
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“Pastor” Pat…

by The RevNo Comments
The scene is Haiti is horrific. The cries for help. The reality of people being buried alive. The dead littering the streets. The pain, chaos, and heartbreak enveloping a country that is already impoverished and broken. To this situation Pat Robertson on the 700 Club today spoke. He stated among other things that it was a “blessing in disguise”. Check out this video and then read my response:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5TE99sAbwM&w=425&h=350]This response is heartless, cruel, and un-pastoral. My good friend Scott Crocker has posted a wonderful response and I would encourage you to read it. Near the end of this clip Mr. Robertson speaks of a pact made with the devil. This is a rumor, an urban legend. It may have happened, it might not have happened.We seek to find meaning out of tragedy, it is our natural response. To make this tragedy into something other than it is simply smacks of pretentious self-righteousness. The sad fact is that we live in a...
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The Cost of Vision

by The RevNo Comments
I am learning that you must be careful about what you ask for, you just might get it. That’s right, I think I am getting what I asked for. Heaven help me!In my quieter moments, a number of years ago, I would have told you that I would like to start something from the ground up. I think at the time I looked at things like history and tradition and fel that they were rubbish. I still feel that way, most of the time. However, I am learning that history or backstory is important. It provides you with a road map for the reasons why people are the way they are. It gives you insight into ministry mindsets and culture. Backstory, history, tradition: they are important.Important though they may be these things are the cost of vision. If you have a vision, a dream, a desire it comes to you in power only if you are unhappy with the status...
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Potential, Passion, Power

by The RevNo Comments
Youth Specialties just dropped a post over on their blog about Passion 2010. The heart of the post was that college students in any number have incredible potential to change the world. This is so true. It’s the whole reason movements like Campus Crusade for Christ, InterVarsity, and Navigators exist. I love that conferences like Passion are springing up and highlighting the potential of the emerging generation. I think that there is a larger conversation that needs to take place and that is a conversation about power. In the church (and in every other institution) there are multiple generations existing together under one tent. The question is how will the generations that are older begin the process of taking on new roles? The generation that populates the leadership of most churches is the generation of the Jesus Movement. It saw incredible mobilization toward causes that was bigger than itself. It was a generation of radicals that forcibly took power in politics...
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Review: Equipped for Adventure

by The RevNo Comments
Equipped for Adventure: A Practical Guide to Short-Term Mission Trips by Scott Kirby was published in 2006 by New Hope Publishers. It is a handbook for making short-term mission trips happen. This is a holistic treatment of the process of making short-term missions a centerpiece of your church’s ministry. Kirby casts vision, answers criticisms, and then proceeds step by step through the process of planning, organizing, actuating, and following up a mission trip.I found this to be a helpful text. Kirby provides the busy minister or volunteer with a guide to make missions a reality in any context. I thought one of the most enlightening conversations in the book was in reference to partnerships. The discussion helps to provide a matrix for understanding when and with whom a partnership ought to be formed.I also found the Appendices to helpful. These provide the resources to carry out the ideas and concepts taught in the book. This is key. So many other...
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Review: Spiritual Leadership in the Global City

by The RevNo Comments
Spiritual Leadership in the Global City was written by Mac Pier and published in 2008 by New Hope Publishers. This is a book of stories and mission combined to get your mind and heart thinking about what it means to reach a city. Pier’s text looks at twenty different churches and Christian organizations in New York City. He walks you through their development and growth. Each church and organization provides you with a key spiritual leadership insight. It has a unique, engaging, and accessible format.Quite honestly this is one of the most encouraging reads I have encountered in a long time. I am pastoring in Metro Detroit which by all accounts is a city on the verge of failure. From what I understand this is similar (on a much smaller scale) to what New York was going through in the 70s and 80s. Upon finishing this book I was encouraged that there is hope for our city and surrounding region....
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Review: Compelled By Love

by The RevNo Comments
Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living was written by Ed Stetzer and Phillip Nation and published by New Hope Publishers. Stetzer is the director of LifeWay Christian Resources and Nation is a church planting missionary in north Metro Atlanta.Compelled is broken up into three parts. The first, “Death by Love: God and Mission” looks at how the three persons of the Trinity love and how their love applies to our relationships and ministry. The second part, “Identifying Love: The Church in the World” looks at how we are shaped by love. This section really highlights the way that love works itself out in the context of the Christian community. I would say that this is the central argument of the text. The third part, “Formed by Love: Believers and the World” looks at how the church is to interact with the non-Christian world within which it finds itself. This section I think is the most important...
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Review: Trolls and Truth

by The RevNo Comments
So, I have this awesome opportunity to read and review books from New Hope Publishers. It’s a great way to score some free books and have some accountability to read! Anyway, here is review number one (review number two will come today or tomorrow). Trolls and Truth: 14 Realities About Today’s Church That We Don’t Want to See is written by Jimmy Dorrell. He is the lead pastor of Church Under the Bridge and also the Executive Director of Mission Waco in Waco, TX. This is a little book and quick read. It hits on 14 key issues that Dorrell has found to be truths that the first world American church needs to hear. He argues that most of the American church ignores the poor and broken in their communities. He is writing from his own experiences as a pastor to those very people. He tells the stories of 14 different people. Those stories each function as a parable for a...
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Discipleship…who knew.

by The RevNo Comments
So it turns that some of the greatest thinkers in the Christian world are coming to the conclusion that the church has missed something. It has missed “discipleship”. We are not training, building, developing, and sending mature believers into the world. It seems to me that this is the “cost” of the great “evangelical” movement that has developed over the last fifty-five years. Prior to the fifties the church trained people well. There was a commitment to “catechism”. There was an emphasis on education. However, there was a cost. The cost was that of evangelism. We were not inviting people into the community of faith. So, were we really training people well? Probably not. But, now we get the message out and get people saved but we are not building and sending. We need now not a pendulum swing but a re-centering on the life and ministry of Jesus. I think that this is a good article and points us back...
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