It releases today on iTunes and I'd love for you to pick it up and, if you're excited, tell your friends about it.  Chris is a great guy and awesome leader in the church.  He's pulled together 32 worship pastors on this project (including Connexus' own Andrew Walker)...the idea is to create music for the church by the church.

You can check out all the details on Chris' blog.

I imagine you would expect in keeping with new blog disclosure policies that this is where I'm going to disclose that I was paid to blog about this.

Nope, I wasn't.  I actually don't have any personal stake in the project, although he did send me a few of the tracks from the EP for free last month. (But I don't think that counts.)  I'm just telling you because I think Chris is a a great leader with a great idea.  Hope you enjoy it!

There have been a few, but I really want to find one that resonates.

Sooo....

1. What's been a game changer for you personally, spiritually, in ministry or in life?  What defining moment do you look back on and say "that pretty much changed everything?"
2. For those of you who know our ministry or me, what do you think a key game changer for us has been?  Sometimes the best person to judge that kind of thing is someone slightly outside an organization. So what do you think?
3. A third angle:  if you could pick any game changer to speak on, which one would you choose?

Love to hear your thoughts....over to you!

So if the best and brightest of the current and next generation aren't bring their gifts into full time ministry, why not?  Here are some initial thoughts.  I'd love yours:

• Not enough risk.  Face it, the church is often not known for blazing trails.  In an era when the iPhone 4 is a huge story, clearly we need a better plot line (and yes, I'll be getting an iPhone 4 this month like lots of other Canadians).  When the marketplace is leading the way, the church needs to create a better story.  We have the most powerful story, after all, at the center of our faith. The church is known for boring and timid.  We need to get known for being radical.  Talent gravitates toward the most compelling plot line.
• The wrong kind of scandal. Sadly, when the church is not boring, we often embrace the wrong kind of scandal.  When headlines spring from moral failure, emotional manipulation and eye-rolling born of intellectual simplicity, we really resist attracting intelligent people.
• An absence of power. Sometimes I wonder if the church suffers from a divine power failure.  In some churches, things are slow and traditional enough that you don't need God - a semi-retired bureaucrat could run things.  In others, we claim power, but the power is just smart leadership or semi-charismatic emotionalism...is it really of God?  Of course in some places it is, but maybe there are just not enough churches like that. What would happen if God really started to move in people's lives - not just in some churches - but in the church? Would people come running?
• Underchallenged leaders. Numerous people manage, lead, and care for huge numbers of people and major responsibilities each week, only to show up at church and be asked to wash dishes or park a car.  Don't get me wrong - parking cars and washing dishes are awesome ways to serve.  But when that's all we ask people to do - the church misses out.  What if people were asked to bring their best thinking to the Kingdom, not their leftover thinking - or not being asked to think at all?
• Overwork. I resonate with the comment that we've worked ourselves to death in this generation of church (kinda guilty of it myself - I'll preach about it in August).  The other side of the coin is this though - some in ministry are just plain lazy. So which is it?   But what if ministry became a place where human energy combined with divine energy to produce fruit no one could claim credit for?  What if the answer was not just more of our power - but more of God's power? The market place can't compete with that.

What if we risked more - took the right kind of risks?  What if we tapped more into God's heart and power and really saw the church explode with that?

Do these things keep people with great gifts for ministry from doing ministry?  What else do you see?

I'm not talking about the handful we twitter about, follow, admire or whose books we read and conferences we attend.  I'm talking about what happened to great leaders leading in churches in every province, state, city, town and even village?

Maybe it's just nostalgia, but it seems to me there was a day when the best and the brightest got into ministry.  When leadership in the kingdom was serious work and people with true hearts and skillful hands were regularly in leadership.

I'm pretty sure a lot of the smartest and most capable teens and college students sitting in church today (if they are in church at all) are not even seriously toying with ministry.  They're going elsewhere.  And, sadly, sometimes people who might not have the gifting and perhaps only think they have the calling end up leading ministries.  (I know you're wincing...so am I...I'm just sayin'.)

Is there a dearth of great leadership in the church? Do we live in an age when the most gifted leaders using their God-given talents to help corporations make better sugar water, squeeze out a better bottom line,  make music, create art or spawn design that in the end, helps people buy new mini-vans or ends up as just another voice in pop-culture?

What would need to be true to get our best, brightest, and most gifted people who also have authentic hearts and solid character moving into ministry?  Yes, I know....I've read 1 Corinthians 1 and I know God chooses the weak of the world...but the Apostle Paul brought an incredible mind, heart and skill to ministry that led to the explosion of the early church.  Moses was no sap either. God will surprise us and use people we never expected to do great things...but being a capable leader and having a supple heart are not mutually exclusive.

I'll come back with some ideas in a few days, but in the meantime...What do you think?  Are we seeing the best head into leadership?  If not, why not?  And what would you do about it?

On Father's Day, we often say "Dads, time to get your act together...step up...accept responsibility...be a leader...we expect it, and you're not measuring up."

Try that on Mother's Day.  Exactly.

I'm not saying we should be hard on our moms (not at all), I'm just asking why we think the best way to challenge a man is to beat him up.  That's all.

What would happen if we encouraged dads?  What if we celebrated each time a man took a step toward where God wanted to be?  What if the church was a place where men felt encouraged and empowered?  I'm not saying we don't need an occasional swift kick...I'm just saying maybe it's a good idea to stop once in a while and celebrate the good.   We need to be called, but when we've answered, it might be great to come alongside and say "good job".

Maybe men don't want to go to church because men tend to gravitate toward where they are respected.  Maybe it's time to encourage the family rather than criticize parents and spouses who have heard enough criticism already.

Happy Father's Day guys...and thanks for taking steps in the direction God is encouraging you to run.   It may not feel like you're making progress, but God sees all, and there are more than a few of us who are cheering for you!

That's impressive.

What amazes me about Apple is how it produces products that dazzle many of us over and over again.  When I picked up my iPhone 3Gs last summer I thought - I don't know how the phone could get any better.  But Apple wasn't thinking that at all...they were already working on the iPhone4 (and likely now are reimagining far beyond that).  iPad lovers - be sure the iPad2 is already in development.

What generates innovation?  The threat of decline and extinction can. Dying organizations often try to innovate...but frequently they fail.  Why?  Because a desperate grasping at straws rarely works.  Secondly, a dying organization's goal is often self-preservation.  It isn't truly about innovating or doing something that benefits others.

How do you create a culture where innovation thrives, where no one is satisfied with the status quo?   I love these four principles Mark Federman outlines:

See what isn’t there. • Think what no one else can think. • Do what no one else dares to do. • Multiply your mind by giving it away.

To do that,  you need to create a culture of risk and make failure a distinct possibility.  Many people realize without risk there is no reward.  But fewer of us are fans of the truth that with risk comes the distinct possibility of failure.   You risk potential failure in at least two ways when you innovate:

• You risk failure publicly - the general consensus when the iPad was announced was that it was a dumb idea.  Critics called it big iPhone that doesn't fit in your pocket or make calls.  But selling 2 million units in less than 60 days shut many of them up.
• You embrace failure privately - the public only sees the ideas that get legs.  We can only imagine how many other ideas at Apple got tested and  knocked down before the iPad or iPhone emerged out of the mix.  To truly innovate, you need to embrace a multitude of ideas that don't work before you find the one that might.

I know as the leader of an organization I can be tempted to thwart creativity in favour of what's working.  Bad idea.  So this summer, we're adding a question to our mid-year and year-end reviews of our staff:  What did you try this year so far that failed? If the employee can't name something, we're going to ask them to risk more. You never get to true innovation without failure.

It's hard to actually live on that edge.  But you need to do it if you're going to see what isn't there, think what no one else can think and do what no one else dares to do.  It also means you need to start celebrating purposeful failure when it happens.

At the end of the day, Apple's only about iPhones and other cool things, but many of us have been entrusted with the kingdom of God.  I live in a community where 93% of the population won't be in church this weekend.  When it comes to reaching families, we can do so much better. I think the church should be leading innovation.  We don't need to change the message.  We just need to get so much better at living and sharing it.  Sometimes I think if the church ran Apple, we'd still be trying to build momentum around the first generation iPod we designed over ten years ago...watching the declining market share and blaming consumers for not being as excited as they were about them a decade ago.  We wouldn't have produced any new ideas in the last decade...we'd just have one approach we were counting on to work forever.  That's not innovation.

What do you do that helps you stay innovative?  How well do you embrace failure as a possibility?  What are some of the barriers you see to becoming more innovative? 

]]> http://careynieuwhof.com/2010/06/innovation.html/feed 0 http://careynieuwhof.com/2010/06/seven-questions.html http://careynieuwhof.com/2010/06/seven-questions.html#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:39:48 +0000 Carey http://careynieuwhof.com/?p=981 It's so easy to become culturally irrelevant.  I don't even need to try.  One day you're doing some awesome worship music, playing Modest Mouse and serving bold coffee, and the next minute it sounds like polka music to the next generation of kids.  It happens so fast.

At Connexus Church, we do a weekly service programming meeting where we plan out our weekend services.  We have a reputation for being 'edgy' as a church.  That's good in our books, because if you're really trying to reach people who don't go to church, using the culture to reach the culture can still be a very effective strategy. And using the culture (in music, messages, media and more) can help people engage what you're saying and apply the message to life far more easily.

Recently it occurred to me that we really haven't done much to specifically engage culture in the last month or two. We've done some songs right off the radio, but beyond that, not much.  That freaked me out.  How could we forget?  It's such a big part of who we are and what we do.

So I took out my computer and wrote down seven question I want us to start asking regularly as a team:

1. In what ways have we engaged our culture in the last 30 days?
2. What's current in our culture?
3. What's everyone talking about?
4. What's our target (in our case, a 30ish married couple with kids) talking about?  How would we know?
5. What's funny?
6. What's viral?
7. What's enduring (not trendy) that people still pay attention to?

I think of these questions as a way to ensure that we don't think we're engaging the culture around us when, frankly, we're not.  One hour of swirling around in these questions led to some great creative ideas for the coming months (which I probably shouldn't let out of the bag).

If you're in leadership, what do you do to stay current?  What do you think of the questions?  Got any better ones?

One of the worst mistakes you can make as a leader is to make tomorrow's decisions based on today's emotions.  

• You send the drippingly sarcastic or angry email...and regret it the next morning. 
• You are so hurt by the betrayal of a friend that you decide to close yourself off emotionally to any future friendships.
•  Your anger over a bad day at the office means you lose your temper at the kids and cancel the day at the park planned for tomorrow. 
• You cancel the new worship service because of opposition and decide not to do anything new for the next six months out of spite.  

You see the pattern, and you've maybe participated in it. 

The fine line is that leaders who avoid making this mistake don't avoid it because they don't feel the emotions.  They feel them full on. They just avoid acting on them.  They refuse to make tomorrow's decisions based on today's emotions.

Some personal notes:

• Years ago I decided to never send an email when I was angry or upset.  Sometimes that means I don't respond for a few days.  More recently, I decided to answer angry correspondence (for the most part) with a phone call.  It's amazing how it can diffuse a situation.
• I've been hurt by friends, and the hurt lasts a while.  But I've consciously decided to let friends back into my life.  It was a decision, not an emotion.
• I try to ensure work issues stay at work, and home issues stay at home.  
• The 'I'm just going to pick up my toys and play in my toy box and you can't come' emotion is real, but deadly.  Fight it. 

I've learned another thing...when you resist negative emotions, positive emotions follow.  Reason sets in.  There are times where my anger against person X from yesterday becomes compassion for them today.  Prayer, consulting with other wise colleagues, and inviting Christ into the situation changes so much. 

Every time you make a tomorrow's decisions based on today's emotions, you and everyone else loses too.  I have a theory that many of the bad decisions made in leadership get made because they were emotional decisions, not wise decisions.

Make decisions based on reason, input, guidance and emotions you experience that have stood the test of time.  

How does this principle impact you?  Have you ever made tomorrow's decisions based on today's emotions?  What happened?  As you've learned and grown, how have you learned to resist it? 

There was a strange justification that happened in the back of my mind that told me the harder I worked, the more pleased God would be with me.  After all - I was doing his work. And if you were working for God, why wouldn't you give it everything you had plus an extra 30%. 

People would tell me all the time: your pace is unsustainable.  You're going to burn out.  I just ignored them. I thought I was stronger than that, and the strange thing is, for the most part, I was.   I could sense burn out and pull back from the edge just in time.  And for years I just ran in overdrive.

But I've come to realize some things:

• Just because you don't burn out, doesn't mean you don't miss out.  I told my oldest son (who's 18) the other day that if I could get one thing back in life it would be some of those hours when he was in elementary school.  He's heading off the university this fall, and we've had some great times together over the last few years (as we did when he was very young), but I can't get his formative years back.  God redeems time, but I'd love to get some of those hours back.

• Rest is a gift.  It's also great strategy. We all know that God rested on the seventh day.  But life was also designed with regular pauses scripted in.  There was to be no work done once every seven days.  And if you've ever read the Old Testament, you might realize God loves a party.  There were regular holidays, festivals, and even mandated celebration in Old Testament life.  For us A types, remember - God wants us to enjoy life. As the creators of our bodies and souls, he also realized that we function best when we're rested and full of good things.  Most of us realize that we're not nearly as productive on hour 12 of a day as we are on hour one.  Pay attention to that.  Rest is also a strategy.  We're so much better at work when we've rested.

• You'll actually get the rest you're ignoring one way or another.  Even though God mandated regular rest, there's little evidence the Israelites took him up on his advice.  The Sabbath was probably broken more than it was observed. And most people believe that the Sabbath of Sabbaths - (the year of Jubilee, where work was shut down for a full year every 50th year) was never actually celebrated.  Well, that's not exactly true. Consider this:  

So the message of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The land finally enjoyed its Sabbath rest, lying desolate until the seventy years were fulfilled, just as the prophet had said. (2 Chronicles 36:21)

Did you hear that?  I mean, seriously... Did you actually see what God is saying there?  He's basically pointing out that if you don't take the rest, the rest will take you. Israel never celebrated the Jubilee, so God said "I'll make you take it - you'll be invaded, and against your will, you'll be in exile for seventy years. There's your Sabbath.  There's your Jubilee."

I wonder if burn out and stress leave are the modern equivalents of exile. 

Over the last number of years I've had to work a rhythm of rest and refuelling into my life.  It's meant huge changes.   In fact, we've programmed Connexus so that staff and volunteers are home most nights.  I actually take my vacation now.  I have work from my home Mondays and Fridays because I write best when I'm alone out of the office.  I'm only good with people about 50% of my work week.  Being home Monday means I can pour into staff and volunteers Tuesday - Thursday with enthusiasm. That might not be your rhythm, but it's mine. 

This principle is not a blank cheque for laziness. This isn't about counting your 37.58 hours down the minute to make sure you've got what's coming to you. Not at all.  But it is about realizing that ministry happens deepest and most profoundly when you pursue God's work using God's ways and not your own.  You end up accomplishing more in every sphere of your life. 

When I started, I wanted to run this marathon like it was a sprint.  I still sprint in seasons, but I've come squarely to terms with the truth that this is a marathon.  A marathon God actually even intends us to enjoy. 

In what ways are you tempted to cheat rest?  Why?  What rhythm of rest and refuel works best for you?  

So it hurts me to see how they are responding to what is emerging as the greatest crisis Toyota has faced.  I want them to do better.  I want them to sell more cars.  But right now, I'm not sure they're helping themselves.

Most of us non-caver dwellers have by now heard that Toyota has halted sales on eight models (representing over 50% of its sales) and recalled millions of vehicles because of gas pedals that stick.   As this piece points out, Toyota's not saying much.   They haven't apologized - really.  And while every defective vehicle will likely be fully repaired, somehow their handling of the situation has been less than optimal.

Here's what great companies and leaders do when facing crisis:

• The top leader are involved.  Sending the VP of marketing (or associate pastor) out to do your dirty work is a failure of leadership.
• Great leaders name the problem honestly.  Any "probably most of you won't die from this so it's not that serious" talk from the CEO is not helpful.  Tell people it's a serious situation and tell them you are aware of the consequences.
• Top leaders take full responsibility.  This is not the time to point fingers, assign blame or play they "it really isn't my fault" card.  People who take responsibility inspire confidence in followers.
• Great leaders fix the problem.  Honestly admitting you have a problem is different than doing everything in your power to make it right.  Even if you are not sure how to fix it, publicly announcing that you will do everything you can do to find a solution is helpful.

I know that as a leader, it's hard to do these things.  There's something inside all of us that wants to turtle when crisis hits.  We'd love to cover up, underplay it and hope it would go away.   But that undermines confidence among your followers.  Doing the hard thing and owning it, assuming full responsibility and fixing the issue inspires confidence.  This has been one of my key learnings over the last number of years.  The more I do this, the better I (and the rest of our team) lead.

But I'm learning over time that the very best response I can have to bad news is to get on top of it and accept full responsibility.

What do you think?  What are some practices you've seen in crisis that either inspire or diminish confidence?