I think the hardest thing I do every day is not to build or sustain momentum for the church. It’s not writing messages, or even giving leadership to our team.  The hardest thing I do is to keep the church outsider focused. 

That actually shouldn’t surprise me because the hardest thing I have to do in self-leadership is to keep my personal life pointing toward others, not myself.

The drift inward – for organizations and individuals – is automatic, gravitational and effortless.  Almost all organizations would rather care for their own interests, not the interest of others.  Like employees at a retail store who look bothered when a customer interrupts their personal conversation to ask for help, most communities are self absorbed.  Why? Because (no surprise), most of us are self-absorbed.  The nature of sin is self-focus.  We evaluate church through the lens of personal preferences (I like this…I don’t like that….), not through the lens of what will reach our neighbours or be faithful to the ultimate purpose Christ has for the church.

If an organization becomes self-focused, ultimately it becomes selfish, unprogressive, resistant to change and indifferent or even hostile to the needs of others.  An outward focused organization becomes more generous, more compassionate, more responsive and ultimately far more effective.  No surprise there of course, because Jesus said when we give our life away for His sake we’ll find it.

I’m increasingly convinced that when the church in North America is declining it’s because we are self-focused, and that when the church in North America is growing its because we are others-focused and Christ-focused.  We plant churches all the time that claim they exist to reach the lost but function as though they exist to please their members. 

But focusing outward is incredibly hard work.  Because an inward drift is steady and instinctual, an outward focus has to be intentional,  deliberate and sacrficial.

Every day, I feel like I am on a personal and collective journey to make this life about Christ and about others.  I wish it was getting easier, but it’s just hard work.

How about you?  What’s the hardest thing you do?  How is your life and your community becoming more inward focused or more outward focused?

So we’re gearing up for a December series on hope at Connexus.  Here’s the tension for the series:  Everywhere I turn in the Bible I read about hope, and yet hope seems so absent for so many Christians and those who don’t believe.

I twittered about hope last week and got a surprising number of DMs and even email messages from people who struggle with hope.

I’d love to open the conversation more widely today and hear what you have to say (of course, you can DM or create a pseudonym here on the blog too).

Some questions:

What makes you lose hope?

What makes you hopeful?

How do you remain hopeful in tough circumstances?

How fragile do you feel hope is in your life right now?  What’s making it fragile?

Could you share some stories and thoughts?  I find these real life stories so helpful when writing a series, and – as always, the series will be available to everyone free on www.connexuscommunity.com and on iTunes. 

Love to hear from you – post away.

At Connexus, like at many North Point Strategic Partnerships, we relentlessly ask this question:  how do we know we’re winning?  It’s another way of saying ‘how do we know we’re accomplishing our mission?

That’s a very different question than "are we growing?"  or "are we meeting budget?" or "do we like what we’re doing?"  (three easy questions to ask).  

Primarily we ask these three questions: 

- Are we creating a church unchurched people love to attend? 

- Are we leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ? 

- Are we helping parents and families win at home?

The first answers our vision statement, the second, our mission statement and the third, our family ministry philosophy. 

But I find as a leader I am tempted to dump these questions in favour of this question:  Did I try really hard?  I find this to be true: the more I invest in a message/series/project/venture the more likely I’m going to declare it a win whether it’s a win or not. 

I am constantly tempted to measure organizational success by effort rather than results.  I think it’s one of the key ways organizations get off track.  It’s how 50 very sincere Christians can end up building a church no one but them wants to attend.  It’s how artists produce music no one wants to listen to or preachers pour their hearts in messages that have little relevance.  It’s how a great organization can become a once-great organization.

Our entire team can work relentlessly hard on a project, but if we fail to reach unchurched people, don’t help people grow in their relationship with Christ or avoid helping families win at home, we’re engaged in a heartfelt exercise in missing the point. That’s not why we started the church.  It’s not why we exist. 

As we plan for 2010, we are focusing increasingly on measuring outcomes.  As I regularly share with our staff, staff spend 99% of their time planning for ministry and 1% evaluating ministry.  The congregation and community do exactly the opposite – they spend 1% of their time planning and 99% of their time evaluating.

How about you?  Do you find it easy to keep focus?  What helps you stay focused?  How do you measure what really matters most?

I’m thinking Bono might be one of the most effective communicators of our day. Better than most preachers, actually. 

More than a few musicians stand for something, but is there anyone who has gotten the message out more widely and clearly than Bono? 

So why is Bono effective?  Three primary reasons catch me:

1. The themes he uses have universal appeal. There is a God-given core longing in each of us for love, unity, peace and an unselfish use of power.

2. He always communicates the same message.  Through his words and actions, Bono continues to leverage four themes:  love, unity, peace and using power to benefit those without power.

3. Bono uses many media to repeat the message.  Words, video clips, press conferences, talks and (of course) music combine to get the message home.

What’s the lesson for preachers?  

1. Communicate what matters to everyone.  What scares me is that you could go to many churches for a month and not hear anyone talk about love, unity, peace or the selfless use of power.  Bono may have actually taken what continues to attract non-Christians to Jesus and made them his core message.  Lots of people who would never go to church are intrigued by Jesus.  They love who he was, what he stood for, and Jesus’ message resonates with the image of God inside each of us. Why can’t we cooperate with that and find some bridges in the story?  Not saying we can’t touch hard subjects (I preached on demonization yesterday), but I am saying there is a core that resonates with everyone.  Find it.  Preach it.

2. Don’t be afraid to repeat the same theme.  The temptation I feel is the temptation you feel: to be relevant we need to say something new.  Most people don’t remember what we said last week.  Live out your core convictions (if you got ‘em).

3. Remember that everything you do in a service communicates, not just the message.  At Connexus, we’ve learned to pick our music to reflect the message and structure the entire service to back up the bottom line.

 What have you learned from Bono or other effective communicators?  Why do you think his message is so sticky?  What can we learn as leaders from Bono?

On U2′s current tour, it would be easy to get lost in the sheer size of the spectacle.  The sense that what we’re dealing with is huge is very real. 

It’s also why people get hung up on God.  I have conversations every day with people who think of God as an idea – as a force – as something so large and impersonal that there’s no immediate or direct connect.  Lots of us grew up in church with that concept of God.

But Bono also did something else.  He made this huge show personal.

He talked about being in Toronto a lot.  True, musicians do that in every city.  But he also told some personal stories.  He shouted out to the people in condos next to the Rogers Center and asked them to flick their lights off and on if they were listening.  They did. (That was sweet).

In one extraordinary moment, while the intro to City of Blinding Lights played, he hoisted a twelve year old boy on stage.  He ran around the perimeter of the stage with him holding the boy’s hand.  During the first verse, Bono got down on his knee and sang the verse looking straight into his eyes.  Later in the song, Bono took off his glasses and put them on the boy’s face.  When it was over, he handed the boy back to security and to his parents.  Extraordinary.  Check out the photo from that night.

The biggest show in the world got personal.  Very personal.  Theologians call that imminence.  God is both transcendent (large) and imminent (personal).

Is that a key to briding the gap between believers and non-believers in church?  Rather than debate worship v. performance music (we use both at Connexus), maybe a key learning is that our service ‘style’ ought to reflect both the transcendence of God (being part of something bigger than ourselves) and the personal side (God is so close, so personal, and so interested in each of us).

How can we do this? Do we do this?  What could we do to better reflect this?  What do you think?