Here being Quest, that is.

Over the weekend, I made a remarkable discovery. I realized that what I previously viewed as my most crucial role was actually only a small part of a much greater responsibility.

Previously, I viewed my chief task at Quest as discipling young men to help them towards maturity in Christ. This seems straightforward enough; after all, we are to be in the business of making disciples and my particular part in that work involved young men. Quest, as it turns out, is all about helping young men in that transition to manhood. Discipleship is at the core of Quest. So, as the head guy at Quest, naturally, it makes sense that my primary responsibility is to work on that discipling (through organizing, coordinating, managing, teaching, counseling, etc.).

But this weekend I made the critical discovery that I had been wrong. My primary role includes the above, but only as a small part. My real job is to recruit, train, equip, empower, mentor, and counsel disciple-making leaders.

The realization came in part as I spent time thinking (a useful discipline!) about how to make Quest do a better job at its core mission: Discipling and challenging young men. I realized that effective discipleship has to happen on a personal level (I was helped towards this by observing how William Borden, who’s biography I am reading right now, engaged most significantly in personal work). A large group of 80 guys might work well for teaching; and certainly, the larger the Quest program gets numerically, the better we can do with the teaching; however: A large group does not lend itself easily to discipleship. The key, then, is to work in small groups. Two years ago, I had a big birthday party with my training unit here at ALERT. We went camping, had a big bonfire, hot chocolate, smores, and cookies. From the ALERT officer ranks, two Col.’s, one Lt. Col., two Maj.’s, three Cpt.’s, and two Lt.’s showed up. I ended up spending quite a while talking with Col. Ron Furhman (the founder of ALERT and currently leading Whetstone ministries) and Isaac Millard (a dear friend) about discipleship. He made the astute observation that the most effective discipleship happens in small groups of men focused on Bible study, prayer, accountability, and generally building up each other.

So the key to making Quest tick is to build small groups inside of the large group, and to focus these small groups on discipleship. This is, in effect, what the teams are meant to be. Each team is aimed at right around 5-8 guys with a team leader. My encouragement to the team leaders each year is to be a leader (as in an influencer and discipler) not just a manager (making sure people follow rules and schedules).

My striking revelation over the weekend was that I need to be a lot more deliberate about developing these team leaders as true leaders with a focus making disciples. This is going to be the key to making the small groups actually work as force for change, which is the key to making Quest fulfill its mission.

As I thought on this, I realized how little I actually know about teaching and equipping and developing leaders. And how inadequate our current processes are. And how “impossible” it is to take 16-20 year old guys and turn them into dynamic leaders able to inspire and disciple and guide their teams for 600 hours straight. Its a marathon scale race for these guys and they tend to wear out about the second week. The successful ones (about 90% of them) discover the secret of relying on God’s strength and looking towards Jesus as the foundation of that strength.

Fortunately, God loves the impossible and He has done amazing things each year at Quest so far. To Him be the glory!

Sunday was a low day for me. It seems that there were a tremendous amount of problems; a handful (less than five!) guys were consuming me with frustration over their folly, pride, and general spiritual blindness. The day got worse in the evening as I dealt with some incidents of poor judgement with my leadership. By the time I hit my pillow, I was despairing, crushed, and broken.

But His mercies are new every morning.

I woke to my alarm at 4:45 feeling refreshed and well rested. I had a solid time of prayer, study, and Bible reading and hit the day feeling encouraged and excited.

The day was a rough one. I spent it jumping from one crisis to the other; dealing with leaders pushed past their limits and students making grand errors and parents calling. I had several leaders who were discouraged and hurting deeply–and I hate to see my leaders hurting.

But through it all, I was able to hold fast to these truths God gave me this morning.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8

This is not my ministry. It is not my burden. Not my work. God gave me the passion in December 2004, God gave me the vision over the summer and fall months of 2005, and gave me the mission in April 2006. I may plant or water, but God gives the growth. I may preach, teach, or rebuke, but God is the one who grants repentance. God doesn’t ask me to work miracles, or to change lives.

What does God ask me to do?

To do justice.

To love kindness.

To walk humbly with Him.

In my mind, this is a simple, straightforward manifesto for leaders in ministry. Here is all God has asked us to do. Justice. Kindness. Humility.

The issue of justice is key for a leader. Much of my role as the top leader in Quest is administering justice. Many of my mistakes have been because I didn’t do justice. I didn’t make justice a priority–I was more concerned with fairness or with popularity.

To love kindness is straightforward: We are to mirror God’s love for us in our love for others. God’s mercy for us in our mercy for others. God’s covenant faithfulness for us in our faithfulness to others.

In leadership, it means that that love motivates us and our actions are rooted in that and not in selfishness or in pride.

But the key thing God asks: That we walk with him in humility. For me, that means remembering in the way I walk that God is the one doing all the good. He is the one that is worthwhile.

So this is my encouragement: Its not my job to change guys lives; all I need to do is focus on these three things. He does the rest.

The Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what man can do unto me.

As I am facing the greatest leadership challenge I’ve ever had before, I am turning my thoughts towards Jesus Christ, the greatest leader ever (and the very model of a real man). I’ve been focusing my devotions on reading in the gospels to observe how Jesus led and worked and lived.

This morning, reading Mark 6–10, I was struck by the importance of “downtime.” My experience as a leader has indicated that there are two distinct periods of time in my day: “Uptime”, where I am feverishly running around working, and “Downtime” when things are bit more relaxed and I have choices as to what to do.

Reading in Mark, I noticed six key characteristics of downtime:

1. Downtime must come after work.

   In Mark 6:30, the twelve apostles return to Jesus after going out throughout Israel on a training mission. After this great work, which involved casting out demons, healing illnesses, and witnessing God’s power for His people, they returned to Jesus. After we do work for God, we must come back to Him. It is all to easy to finish a great, hard fight, and then collapse into bed exhausted or plop down in front of a movie, trying to escape. It is at these times that we are weakest and most vulnerable, so it is essential that we return to the safety of the camp with God.

2. Downtime involves reviewing the work with God.

   The apostles told Jesus all they had done and taught. This meant that they themselves reviewed it as they discussed it with God. After we do ministry work, we should review it in prayer with God. We should carefully evaluate our actions and what we taught to make sure that is in accordance with God.

   Do you remember what it was like when you were little and your dad came home? I remember being so excited to run out and tell my dad all about my day. It should be like that with our heavenly Dad. We should be so excited about what we did following his commission that we can’t wait to come home and tell Him all about it.

3. Downtime should include separation

   Jesus told the apostles to go away by themselves. They were to remove themselves from the busyness of ministry and separate themselves from others. We must be cognizant of doing this as well. Sure, we should be ministering to others, but we also must create boundaries in our lives and be able to step back from active ministry to rest.

4. Downtime should involve solitude

   In addition to going away from the crowds, the apostles were instructed to go to a desolate place. They were to be separated from the crowds so that they would be able to spend uninterrupted time with Christ.  Jesus also followed this principle when He went up on mountains to pray at night. We must realize the importance of solitude in refreshing our souls. Stepping away from active ministry only to spend time with friends and family will contribute to burnout, not refreshment.

5. Downtime should be in rest.

   Jesus specifically instructs the apostles to rest up. The importance of regular rest cannot be overestimated. God set the example in Creation when He instituted the Sabbath as a day of regular rest. Even when this isn’t practical (as it isn’t for many in ministry), we must follow the spirit of God’s law and set aside time to stop working, to get alone, and to rest.

6. Downtime is when God reveals His truths to us.

   In Mark 4:10-11 and Mark 4:34 (among other places), the writer explains that Jesus “explained everything” to his disciples in private. It is when we get alone with God that He is able to explain things to us, to clarify things for us.

It is vital that we focus on utilizing downtime effectively. We cannot lead others where we haven’t been, and we can’t make disciples if we are not actively following Christ. It is truly important that we set time aside to spend in focused rest and in fellowship with God.

As I was preparing the schedule and asking men to share in these informal sessions with the senior leadership, I tried to determine what the different facets of leadership (especially leading leaders) were and sought out men to teach on each area. When I thought about the area of organization and management, I immediately thought of Lt. Col. Russell Moulton. Having been at ALERT for over 10 years, Lt. Col. Moulton has a solid track record of producing results and managing projects and people with a high level of efficiency and effectiveness. As the director of operations and executive officer, he was heavily involved in the first two Quest programs and thus brought a level of familiarity with the program that was valuable. Since last fall, he has been in charge of the ALERT facilities staff and thus has been less involved in Quest and more involved in the day-to-day aspects of upper management.

He started by addressing the core question of "What is Leadership?" (answer: A leader must have followers!), he said that leaders must  learn the importance of being efficient and effective.

Quest is about helping young men embrace their calling to be men. "Men have to be efficient and orderly and must be expedient in getting a task done," he shared, "otherwise we become dead weight, and we cannot be deadweight in our organizations."

He emphasized that we (the core leaders) need to learn efficiency in everything we do, because we are the picture of Quest: What we do, what we say, what we show in our lives is what they (the students) will learn from Quest. We are Quest. Quite the weighty responsibility!

He encouraged us that the Lord is faithful, and God wants Quest to succeed. As long as we follow God and are faithful to Him, the Lord will make us a good picture.

He then delved into the topic at hand. He told us that he isn’t the kind of accomplished, detailed leader like Maj. Farr, but that "There are things I major on to get through my day-to-day tasks efficiently." He outlined the seven steps to efficiency:

(after the jump)

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As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Bob Allison, an experienced leader, counselor, pastor and disciple-maker, met with the core Quest leadership for an informal time of discussion and teaching. He chose to address the issue of discipling and leadership from a discipling mindset.

He started by working with us to identify problems, fears, concerns and so forth we had moving forward this summer and then shared some lessons he learned as a young Christian working with the Navigators at their Summer Training programs.

He emphasized the importance of humility, being ready to serve instead of wanting to be served; perceiving people’s unspoken needs and trying to meet them.

(More after the jump)

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One of the amazing privileges I have in my position with Quest is to develop relationships with and be mentored by some amazing men. One of my major influences has been Bob Allison, a devoted disciple of Christ currently working as the lead counselor with the Texas branch of Deeper Walk/ICBC (his offices and house are both on IAA’s campus). My relationship with Mr. Allison started during the counseling class in ALERT ERT (2nd Phase) training. That class and the Day of Prayer we did at the end of it were instrumental in turning my heart towards ministry and allowing me to be captured by a passion and thirst for God. Since then, I have gone to Bob for counseling and counsel on many different issues. His experience working as one of the first EMTs in the state of Iowa have given him the tools to help me deal with the stress and emotional trauma of work as a paramedic. Having worked at all levels of ministry, he has been able to help me out significantly in being a capable and effective servant of the Lord.

Last night, the core leadership for Quest sat down and we had an informal discussion/class with Mr. Allison. He shared his heart on leadership with a focus on building discipleship relationships. Frankly, it was an amazing talk. Learning from his experiences and seeing his insights into the Scripture were very beneficial, and having the discussion directly oriented around the problems and challenges this group of leaders will be facing was amazing.

I am hoping/wanting to post notes from this class; unfortunately, I am writing this from my home and my notebook was left at the office. Watch for a "Part 2" post later!

Lately, I’ve been getting ready for Quest. This consumes my every waking hour at this point and so I wasn’t too eager to have to work on anything else. However, God had different ideas, and led me, through my authorities here at ALERT, my parents, and several mentors, to spend my weekend reassessing my life purpose, coming up with a statement of purpose, and creating a 1, 3, and 5 year plan for my life. They say not to try to do this overnight, so I did it over two nights. It was a fast paced endeavor. In the past, I’ve struggled to see the point of so-called “Life Purpose Planning”. Every time I hit it, I felt like I struggled to find the common elements of my life experiences and skills, I failed to find a specific life purpose statement and always ended up with something too general to be useful, and I felt inadequate at planning since I really had no inner idea of where I was going.

I spent much of Saturday reviewing old journal entries and notes from previous sessions of life purpose planning, striving to identify the “Golden thread” that eluded me in the past. I began seeing some aspects falling into place, and then got to the part of the process where I identify “activators”: Those needs, events, and stimuli that trigger my creativity, my spiritual gift, service, ministry, and delight. I realized that in the past year, God had allowed me many unique opportunities–experiences, conversations, revelations–that gave me a clear insight into where my passions lie. I was truly excited as everything seemed to come into place and I arrived at a purpose statement that was specific and dead on accurate for me. Reading this statement hit all of my triggers and elicited a passionate, delighted response.

I seek to challenge young men to be captured by a radical passion for God and turned into mighty warriors for God’s Kingdom by revealing to them the greatness of God and connecting them to the needs of the Kingdom.

I will do this by communicating the truths of their Calling through my life and my words using effective and relevant channels. I will communicate the works of God and the needs of the Kingdom through documentary photojournalism. I will radicalize young people by helping them get involved in frontline missions work so that they can see the needs and experience God.

My ultimate desire is that young men would delight in Him, commit to raising up generations of Christ-centered disciples, and be driven by a missional mindset.

I called my parents (who generously dropped their evening plans for an hour and a half conversation) and discussed it with them. They felt that it was spot-on, another confirmation. We then discussed what this statement would mean moving forward. I spent Sunday building a 5-year plan, which I discussed with my parents. It allows for the spontaniety I love, places my previous plans and ideas into a purposeful context, and forms a framework to prepare for the future.

The really cool thing I’ve found is that God has already given me the opportunity to pursue this personal mission through my ministry here at ALERT: Quest. Quest is built around the vision of helping young men transition to manhood. It’s central goals revolve around challenging young men to God-glorifying manliness. Quest has connected with my personal passions in a way few other experiences have.

So the end result of this weekend spent pursuing purpose instead of pursuing the present is that I’m equipped with a new level of vision, excitement, and passion for the present ministry God has for me.

For some reason, Christians in America can make great employees/employers but then are allowed to forget they’re entrusted with a message. On the flip side, missionaries are allowed to completely disregard the need for training and sacrifice excellence, effectively ripping off their students/clients/employees, so long as they speak for Jesus. Somehow the wires get crossed, and we end up with a poorly represented Jesus on the one side, and a complete lack of representation on the other.

Quoted from Fake Plastic World article in RELEVANT magazine.

One of the things that really irritates me is Christian ministries doing things with less than excellence. Sure we may be getting the "message of Jesus" out there, but at what cost? As they say in advertising, "The medium is the message." When we publish documents with cheap/non-existent graphic design, hideous, amateurish typography, or snapshot-quality grainy photography, we are doing the cause of Christ a grievous harm. Our words may communicate the greatness of God and the truths of Scripture and the Gospel, but our presentation, I fear, is communicating the exact opposite. Instead of saying that the message of the Gospel is one of supreme, eternal importance our design (lack thereof) is saying that this message is not all that important, that it doesn’t warrant the cost and effort of excellence, and—most concerning—most people would equate it (before even reading it!) with the likes of e-mail spam and those ubiquitous flyers for snake-oil and weight loss. Our words may be good, but our design is screaming: ‘Get the Gospel! Free information on escaping Hell! Lose your guilt in 3 Easy Steps! Only $9.99+shipping and tax! Order now and we will throw in a free Blessing ($15 value!)!!’

Does this really do the eternal, mighty God of the universe justice? Aren’t we just getting in the way of God? I fear these efforts are doing more harm to the cause of Christ than good.

We need to commit, as Christians, to do the work of God with excellence. We need to commit to spend the time and money necessary to do things right. After all, who is funding us? Does he have any budgetary shortfalls? Can’t he afford to do things right?

I found this great article on Catalyst from one of my favorite bloggers, Carlos Whittaker (Ragamuffin Soul), a worship leader and "Service Programming Director."

I especially like this quote:

I am a believer in doing a few things excellently rather than lots of things poorly. If you have a great worship leader and a bad drummer, have acoustic Sundays until you get a better drummer. Don’t be scared to strip things down until you can pull things off excellently.

In a conversation with my folks this morning, I was bemoaning the misalignment I felt between my personal values of excellence and the ministries I’ve been working with. It is refreshing to find someone else committed to doing things right or not doing them at all.

So the challenge is:

What should you not do in order to pull things off excellently?

I’ve struggled to figure out to write this story. As I’ve told people it, I always end up choking up and starting to cry, tears of joy and emotion. Its just that, well, its hard to tell.

Friday, I saw God. I saw His hand working and moving and touching. I saw His voice speaking to hearts, including mine. I looked in the mirror and saw myself, inadequate, unprepared and unable and then I saw God, carrying me, preparing me and working through me.
I saw God’s people, I saw men crying and turning to God. I saw women weeping as they met God and surrendered. I saw young people sobbing as they realized the time they had wasted and taking God seriously. I saw a revival, a spontaneous work in entire families.

I was allowed to be a witness to spectacular events and was allowed to photograph God’s work. To capture the amazing things that happened here at this campus in Texas Friday. Just thinking about it now, the tears are flowing. God is SO GOOD!!! I can honestly say that I will not be the same after what I saw and experienced Friday. I cannot be the same.

Thursday night, I was pretty pumped. My CI story had come together well, and my instructor definitely liked it. I think it scored an A+ (although we don’t actually have any formal grades). Then they gave us our assignments. Mine was “Anointed.” I started to despair. That is so conceptual. Sure, its the theme of the conference, but how do I tell that story? What is the story, even? I wasn’t even sure I knew what Anointing was—I wasn’t really paying that close of attention during the conference. I came back to my dorm, whining to my buddies about the cruelty of the IPS instructors and how would I ever get this story? Oh, and it wasn’t just a story. The assignment was a 10-shot photo essay but output to a news story template with strict size and crop ratio restrictions and a lengthly article. All on a tight deadline that I had barely met the previous day without having to write an article.

I got up Friday morning still despairing. I realized this had to be a God thing, so I walked out to class praying, giving God my camera, my voice, my work, and crying out to Him to show me His story to tell. Now the funny thing about God’s work is that even though we still have to work. So I sat down to do my hour of pre-planning, and just started hitting brick walls. I went over to the convention center, bought Mr. Gothard’s recent book on anointing and skimmed it. I then spent time with Will, trying to get a handle on what I was doing. I decided to do my story on some mid-level staff member who was clearly anointed and doing good works of ministry service. As I was about to call Sarah P. to find out who that was, she called me.

“Sam, I just heard that God is doing some amazing things over at the library in the men’s session.”

This was just as it started dumping rain and storming majorly hard for about 45 minutes. She offered me her keys, so I grabbed my backpack of camera gear, jumped in her pastel green Bug and took off. Once I found a parking spot, I ran inside, deposited my backpack on a table, and grabbed my body and two lenses. I got upstairs, and it was amazing. My story should tell you what was happening, so I won’t explain it here, but suffice it to say that I was astounded at how gracious God was to me. My story was “Anointed” and a full-out anointing ceremony was going on. The lighting was gorgeous, the people’s faces were great and God put amazing things in front of my lens. I shot primarily with Will’s 70-200 f/2.8 VR, which is a sweet lens and one I will have to get. Anyway, I shot for a couple hours, then returned to the classroom and commenced downloading. I knew what I had gotten, and I knew I had my story now. I wrote out all ten captions and a story outline, then keyworded my images and sat down with Will to rate them. We were excited; I got some really cool shots!

Then it happened. Again.

One of the IBLP conference staff walked in the room and said, “An MGA [Mr. Gothard's Assistant] has requested a photographer over at the library west wing. They are doing anointings.” Will looked at me with this big grin and said, “Go for it!” And then he gave me a couple instructions, based on the photos taken so far (most of which were shot with the telephoto from about 10-15 feet away). He said, “Shoot wide and shoot close. Get in as close as you can, take the picture, then back out.” Right before I left, he said a short prayer asking God to silence my shutter sound and make my presence invisible. I grabbed my backpack, headed out the door, and started running over to the library. I walked in, pulled out my camera, and started shooting. What I was seeing was remarkable—indescribable, although I’ll give it a shot. Dads were bringing their whole families forward, and Mr. Gothard was praying blessings over young people and fathers and mothers. Mr. Gothard asked each person what they thought God had in their future and then each person prayed a prayer of surrender, confessing sins and personally committing themselves to God. Mr. Gothard prayed a prayer of blessing and so did each father. Then Miles Seaborn anointed each person with oil.

Tears were flowing. God was moving. He did a mighty work. Being in close, I heard the prayers: Fathers asking God to forgive their failings and make them better husbands and dads. Mothers confessing selfishness and recognizing that their strongest calling was raising God’s children. Young people grieving wasted years and surrendering to do be vessels for God’s service. As the rest of the room joined each blessing with their own silent prayer, the feeling of the weight of God’s anointing was electric. I don’t know how else to describe it. I knew I was in God’s presence, I knew that I was witnessing God’s work. You can’t be in God’s presence, seeing Him, without it changing your life. For me, I suddenly became aware of faults and sin and omissions. I confessed those, and as my subjects were surrendering to God, so was I. And I found myself praying, silently, privately, as I looked through the shutter. I found my eyes welling up with tears. My heart was full of joy—a joy that I knew comes only from God. A joy that is all-satisfying but also never-satisfying. I always come away from these encounters with God wanting more God. I guess that is a drive for heaven. But while it is there, it is intense and it is soul-filling and heart-rending and shakes you to the bone. God is there, and He is not silent.

After a few lens changes and swaps, I ended up shooting the event mostly with Laura’s 17-55mm f/2.8 and Will’s 70-200mm f/2.8 VR. I can see God’s hand in letting me shoot with these two very nice pro lenses. After what was probably an hour, I decided to focus my shooting a little more. Instead of jumping in, finding the shot, and click, click, clicking on the shutter, I sat back, figured out the optimal shot, then went in. David Waller, the MGA at the scene, mentioned that they needed these sort of images for some of their books. He had actually talked to me a few days earlier about needing images that they couldn’t find in stock photography sources. So in addition to shooting my story, I began looking for illustration images.

After two and a half hours of shooting, I went back to the classroom rejoicing in God’s exceeding greatness to me. I downloaded my images, and then Mandy stepped in where Will left off to rate the 1031 total photos from the day. I was excited to see that more than 1 out of every 3 frames were 5 star images. This was a testimony to the emotional impact God put in front of my camera.

Of course, at this point I had to put together a story. Having several hundred 5-star images to choose from was nice, but it also made the image selection process take far longer than I had wanted. With the finished stories due at 7p, I didn’t have a finished set of 10 captioned images until 6p. The templates were in Word, which is horrible for page layout, so I received permission to do mine in InDesign, as long as it followed the template exactly. I spent about 30 minutes putting together the InDesign document and dropping my photos in. With 30 minutes to go, I began feverishly writing my story. Fortunately, Will came along and granted us a deadline extension to 8p. I was able to finish up my story, a couple rounds of edits and get it output to PDF by 8p.

God was good to me.

My assignment story, in PDF format is: Anointed Article.pdf