Seth Godin points out that we typically try sell people on our ideas based on our own point-of-view, not our audiences. He concludes:

The challenge lies in helping them see your idea through their lens, not yours…. Marketers of successful ideas rarely market the facts. Instead, they market stories that match the worldview of the people being marketed to.

It is easy to see the validity of this when you consider that the Bible is largely story. It is a big story told through many smaller stories, and much more focus is given to stories then to dogma. And through these stories, we begin to see ourselves, to learn about ourselves, and to learn about God.
In pondering how to better do what we do at Quest, I find myself considering the impact of story more and more. The trend in the 20th century was about teaching people facts and expecting them to change based on those facts. I expect the 21st century will find us focusing on building relationships and telling stories. We can’t understand another person’s worldview until we listen to them, building that relationship. And we can’t expect to change a person’s mind with facts. We can change a person’s worldview with stories, however. This approach, after all, has worked out okay for God for the last several millennia.

From a friend’s Facebook profile:

Can I change the world?
Doubtful.

Can I impact 10 teenagers?
Absolutely.

Can those 10 teenagers impact 10 friends each?
Definitely.

Can those 110 teenagers change the world?
Watch and see.

Live exponentially.
It’s called “discipleship.”

I love it.

What makes a man great? As G.K. Chesterton points out, it can be difficult to express the dictionary definition of the word great.
Great men are so because of the influence they have when alive, and the legacy they leave when dead. They cast a broad and long shadow over the land of mere men.
Picture, for yourself a small figure standing in a street, with a large shadow on the brick wall behind. In order for him to be casting a shadow, there must be a source of light. How much of a shadow is produced depends entirely on where this man is in relation to the light and to the wall. In fact, to produce the largest shadow, the man must be far away from the wall. And if that shadow is to be sharp and well-defined, he must be quite close to a singular point of light.
When we look at great men in Christianity, men who have left a mark of significance on the rest of us, we consistently see two things: First, like that figure in the street, they are quite close to one light: the Light of the world, Christ. Second, they are far away from the world on which their shadow lands.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul explains how to walk close to the light.
“Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.  Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them… Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:8–11, 15, 16)
As Christians, we are children of the light. We have been redeemed from the darkness and been invited to walk in the light. It is imperative that we walk as children of the light. This involves, first and foremost, discernment as we seek to please the Lord. We must reject the works of darkness, and live carefully. Our time is short, therefore we must make the best use of it.
Great men across history have made a choice. They have chosen to give up things, good things, in order to grasp at the great. Great men have recognized that they must deliberately not be average. They have stepped out of the crowd of typical, mediocre, good men, and pursued that which is greater.
One such great man is Jim Elliot, who wrote this famous line:
He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.
Great men are defined, in large part, but what they give up. What they give away defines what they become. And so, a man steps out from the crowd, gives up the comfort, peace, affluence, of being “normal”, walks into the light, and behind him leaves the mark of greatness.
Anyone can be great. Anyone can choose to reject the mere good and embrace the great. Anyone can change the world.
The real question is: Will you?

I just read a great article on the design/creativity side of church communications. To me, the author hits the nail on the head here:

So if the Church is not in competition with popular culture, how does it fit within society? And how does it continue to remain relevant to an ever-changing populace? The Church is, in some sense, similar to the position of a hospital in a community. It doesn’t exist to sell something, but to offer a cure to a sickness. In the case of the Church, the price of this sickness is more severe: eternal death. The message of the Church is cheapened when it is placed in the same category as a product to be marketed or a program to be promoted.

Seems to be echoes of Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. God doesn’t want us to market the Gospel, to peddle a “magic cure” like other snake oil religions. Instead, God desires us to be genuine and authentic, living the gospel message out in our lives and demonstrating that it is true.

via Collide Magazine | ARTICLES +.

As a design fanatic, I love this video. And as a ministry leader, I found it inspiring in a spiritual sense as well.

The Orange Conference 2008 Intro from ItLooksGood on Vimeo.

Some of my favorite quotes:

We must become less impressed with our latest program, and less impressed with our latest website, and less impressed with our own creative idea, and become more focused on becoming less and making Jesus more in everything we do.

Craig Groeschel, LifeChurch.TV

We’ve said to the world that the primary task of the Church is the penetration of the whole world with the Gospel. We have our marching orders from the Great Commission, and we will not surrender nor retreat nor become discouraged by circumstances and events.

Billy Graham, 1966 Berlin Germany

I make a lot of mistakes.
Normally, it seems like I’m the only impacted by them. I hit the snooze button, so I miss my devotions, so I go through the day without being strengthened by God’s grace. I choose the wrong entertainment, so I end up wasting my time, so I end up missing out on something great because I have to play catch-up with work.
When you become a leader, all of a sudden your choices effect others dramatically.
I miss my devotions, and now not only do I suffer, but those under me also suffer. I waste time, and others pay the price. I make a bad decision, and the effects ripple out and cause needless extra work for many others. It seems like the impact of a bad choice is exponentially related to the number of people I am leading.
This hurts. When I fail, which I do often, I see many people needlessly suffer. They did nothing wrong, yet they pay the price anyway.
Bad calls happen. As I’ve grown in experience, they happen less, but they still happen. What is far worse for me (and those I lead) is when I ignore the Spirit’s voice.
I’ve been at this long enough to recognize the still, small voice of God. Why, oh why, do I not heed it always? When I do things counter to it based on my own reason or the counsel of flawed counselors (peers or those with a conflict of interest), inevitably I make a grave mistake. And I’m stuck with it. And stuck watching everyone else pay for it.

This year, Quest started July 11. Working with a slightly smaller group (62 students and 21 leaders) has allowed us to have a more hands-on approach with the Quest students. As always, this has been challenging for me. This year, I have the best leadership team ever. My group leaders (the senior leadership) all have several years of experience with Quest and are among my closest friends. All of the leadership have set an example for me of dedication and passion, spending much time in prayer and really focused on the needs of their teams. I have been richly blessed.

This year, more than ever, I am learning the importance of prayer. The days I spend much time alone in prayer, things go better for the whole group. When I figure I’m “too busy” to pray, invariably things go all wrong. I am also seeing the fruit of three years of people development as my senior leaders are able to effectively run things in my absence (which happens one third of the time since I am still working as a paramedic full time).

I love seeing God change people’s lives. Being part of God’s work is truly exciting. This is what I was made for.

One of my favorite responsibilities at Quest is assembling and growing the team of leaders each summer. At this stage, that means poring over leadership applications looking for candidates with vision, character, and a strong walk.

Today, I read this:

“I was once asked…whether I would rather have a huge effect on one person’s life, or a small effect on a large group of people. Today I would have to say that I would want to have a small effect on hundreds of people’s lives…let’s say that I have a little bit of input in hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people; and let’s say that is enough seed planted in just 100 of them, well that’s 100 people that can go out and have huge impacts one on one, and create a domino effect….in 50 years I would love to look back and see 100 dominoes lying on their faces in front of God.”

Isn’t that cool? I love this guy’s vision. I love this picture.

In my room, I have an aquarium. Its empty. It looks good, with the fake green plants (and a couple real ones!), the plastic rocks, and the constant flow of air bubbles highlighted by the fluorescent aquarium light. Now, those of you that know me, know that I love my aquarium and my fish and that it really does add a lot to my small dorm room. But there’s a problem. Right now, my aquarium is empty.

Sure, it looks good. The bubbling white noise puts me to sleep. The beautiful colors and light adds a cheerful ambience to the room. But there are no fish in it. Taking care of my aquarium is easy–no fish means no food, no changing the water, no changing the filter.

You see, live fish are such a pain! I have to change the water regularly, monitor the chemicals in it, change the filter periodically, adjust the heater, and all in all, do a lot of work to take care of those fish.

I realized, this morning, that my empty aquarium is a lot like many organizations and churches. My empty aquarium looks good and is easy to take care of. But it is empty: An aquarium was made to hold fish, and mine is just full of fake plants, plastic rocks, and artificial bubbles. Just like a lot of churches and Christian organizations.

So many organizations look good on the outside and are easy to lead and take care of. They are full of fake Christianity, artificial Christians, and people who look good on the outside but are fake on the inside. This is actually a pretty easy situation for a lazy leader: When people don’t have actual problems (or won’t show them), everyone can continue acting out this farce in which everyone is perfect and no one causes problems.

Problem is, this is empty. Churches and ministry is supposed to be messy. It is supposed to be hard. It is supposed to have people with problems. When Christ ministered on earth, he had harsh words for those religious folks who looked good on the outside.

Tellingly, Jesus spent his time amongst the rough and tumble elements of society. His dinner companions were known drunkards and gluttons. He would go hang out with tax collectors and thieves. In fact, his inner circle of trusted assistants were a ragtag group of blue-collar workers and societal embarrassments. When he needed them most, they all deserted him. But not before pulling weapons and making a fool of themselves by cutting off the ear of the religious leader’s slave.

Christ built his ministry around troubled, problematic people. Why should we do any differently?

When a wierdly dressed, obviously struggling person shows up in church, what is our response? When someone speaks up about a rather embarrasing sin they are struggling with, what do we tell them? Do we write them off as lost or show mercy and grace? What do we do when someone close to us in ministry offends us? What if they ignore us, overlook us, or call us names? How do we respond?

An equally important question is: What do we do with our sin? Do we hide our problems behind a white-washed facade of personal perfection? Do we compartmentalize our life and hope people don’t find out about our failings? Do we realize that a failure to be authentic and transparent will drive people away from Christ?

An empty aquarium looks good but is fake. It is a farce; an aquarium was designed to hold fish. So with churches: A church was designed to be filled with sinful, failure-prone individuals. When an aquarium is empty, we know something is wrong. When a church has few problems and a lot of good-looking “perfect” people, we should also recognize that something is wrong.

Henry Scudder, in his highly acclaimed work The Christian’s Daily Walk, lays out some useful guidelines for those in leadership:

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As usual, keen words of insight from a puritan well-regarded in his days but not oft-remembered in these times of Scriptural and historical illiteracy. Even though this revised 2nd edition was published in 1674, his words ring true today.