Bandits No More

Christianity Today interviews Dennia Bakke, author of the new Joy at Work. CEO of a major energy company, Bakke considers joy a missing element – both at work and at church. Read the interview & seek joy – for yourself and those around you.

The healthy countries in Africa are few. Disease is rampant. Economies sputter – when they’re not being pillaged by their “rulers for life” and their cronies. The accepted wisdom is the same as most other problems (public education, health insurance, etc.) – “Send more money!”

But at least a few Africans are tired of playing this game and want real deliverance. Der Spiegel interviewed Kenyan economist James Shikwati – check out his comments. (thanks to Vodkapundit for the link!)

UPDATE: Nicholas Kristof writes on the same subject – toa similar point – in the New York Times.

A powerful film about the martyrdom of Rachel Scott at Columbine has won a movie award. You can see the film here.

Just got off the phone with a life time friend and co-conspirator in youth ministry. Another mutual friend came up in the conversation who has been active and effective in youth ministry since the mid 70’s.

Conventional wisdom says you don’t do youth ministry for that long. You are supposed to grow out of it. I love bashing conventional wisdom!

Here’s my take, and it has borne out over years of observation and practice. There are three essential factors necessary for doing effective youth ministry, and none of them have anything to do with age. These factors are: 1) a solid and growing relationship with God; 2) authenticity; and 3) open and honesty memory.

1. The first one seems like a no-brainer, but if I didn’t include it some of you might think I was an idiot. To reach youth for Christ, grow them as disciples, and develop them as Christian leaders, one has got to make the effort and commit the time to taking care of one’s own relationship with God.
2. Many things have changed over the decades about interests, lifestyles, and distractions for youth, but this one thing has remained constant: youth have naturally well-honed fake detectors. Youth will quickly figure out the youth director or volunteer to learns the lingo and tries to dress like they do on the O.C. It is more important that you understand what it is about rap music that attracts teens than that you listen to it yourself. Be the you God wants you to be. As soon as you try to be someone else, you’ve lost the youth.
3. By honesty memory I don’t mean you are good at trivia or memorization. I mean you can remember how life as a teen was for you. Too many adults approach youth with the “You think life is tough as a youth, just wait ’til you’re an adult” attitude. Sure, when you are 40 and facing marital stress, losing your job to outsourcing and dealing with teen children of your own, it is easy to imagine how smooth life would be if your greatest worry was next week’s chem test. But don’t your remember how much it hurt to get dumped when you were 15? NOW you know that wasn’t the end of the world, but at the time you sure thought it was. Stay in touch with your memories of life as a youth.

Now here I am, 16 years into pastoral ministry, and I have a youth director. I could lose touch with the kids, reasoning I have someone on staff to handle that. But I can’t bring myself to do that. Youth keep me young at heart and fresh of soul.

Can one get too old to do youth ministry? I doubt it. Ask me again in 30 years.

Check out this week’s Carnival of Education! Week after week they have interesting and inspiring discussions of educations. Pposts range from school administration to homescholing to higher ed – and everything in between.

On the face of it, most of us would choose satisfaction over discontent. It’s so much more comfortable. But that’s only as long as we leave the issue as an abstraction. Once we ask what it is we’re discontent or satisfied with, the picture changes entirely.

Have you noticed it’s mighty hot outside? After spending a few days in California and experiencing highs in the mid 70’s I’m especially aware of our heat wave. When we lived in California we were satisfied with not having an air conditioner. We only needed it 3 or 4 days a year. Here in Texas we’d die without one. If our AC goes out even for a short time we rapidly become discontent. I bet most of you are the same way.

Consider another area: education. I’ve known quite a few students over the years who are satisfied with their level of education. “Who needs high school?” they ask each day. Or, “Who needs a degree?” Most of us know that getting more education – whether “more” means finishing high school or getting a college degree is a great good for us. How much easier would educator’s jobs be if they had students who were discontent with ignorance, who were hungry to learn?

What about church life? One of my jobs as pastor – one of the hardest – is to create and manage discontent. Does that sound strange? Let me give you some examples.

• We have a goal of bringing our average attendance over 200. This goal is rooted in discontent. We are not content to have only a small portion of the body in church any given Sunday. We’re not content to not be reaching our community.
• Less than a quarter of our membership is in a small group or study group each week. I’m not satisfied with that. I want to see every member hungry for God – hungry enough to not be satisfied with their current relationship.
• I’m not content to just have people attending Sunday School. Over the years I’ve known people who have been in Sunday School longer than I’ve been alive. Yet they protest that they’re ignorant and don’t know much about the bible. They don’t know how to pray. They don’t know how to lead their children or friends to Christ. I’m not satisfied with classes whose only product is fellowship (though fellowship is a good thing) or adding knowledge to one’s brain.

Do you get the idea? Creating discontent is one thing. Managing it is another. We need healthy discontent – discontent that leads to action, not to despair or defeat. Hebrews 12 tells us that for the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross. We endure the hard work of moving from discontent to satisfaction, not settling for mediocrity, because we follow the example of Jesus.

What’s the difference between healthy dissatisfaction and negativism? We’ve all been around negative people and know how draining they can be. Someone who is dissatisfied in a healthy way has the following characteristics:

• Their dissatisfaction is rooted in what God wants, not what they want. They know that if God gets what He wants it will likely cost them more, not less. They know they must apply themselves to be part of the solution, not just stand at a distance and lob criticism.
• Their dissatisfaction is exercised in love. At the same time they urge the Body on to fulfill its mission of holiness and outreach, they seek to build up the Body and each member.
• Their lives are oriented toward joy – knowing the blessings God has in store for those who patiently endure.

The Dallas Morning News tells the story (registration required – but free) of the Nguyen family of the metroplex. A generation ago poor immigrants from Vietnam, now they are a large family of doctors, engineers and educators. By their reckoning they’ve received so much, now it’s time to give back. They’re starting a school – St. Ignatius of Loyola – where they themselves – the extended family of educated thankful people – will do much of the teaching. Way to go Nguyens!

Let’s try another step. In the recent issue of Books and Culture Alen Guelzo, professor of history at Gettysburg College, writes “Cracks in the Tower: A Closer Look at the Christian College Boom.” Booming they are. But will it last? In his examination the question isn’t only will the colleges keep booming – or stay open – but will they stay Christian. In Guelzo’s analysis, the never-ending quest for adequate funding leads these colleges to dilute their Christian identity until – like Harvard, Oberlin, USC, etc., that identity is left as not much more than a historical footnote. Looks pretty bleak.

I can think of a couple of possibilities.

First, instead of (whell, for now it’ll be “in addition to”) operating colleges, Christians can operate a network of seminars and workshops that function as “add-ons” to educations gained elsewhere. Some Christian institutions are already doing this. There’s loss involved here – particularly in the lack of ongoing sustained relationships and the deeper dimensions of learning they make possible. But with the economics of higher ed for so many entailing working full time on the side and/or commuting to school, or from another point of view the commodification of higher ed, this loss is too common to education in general.

Second, what about small, local schools – akin to what the Nguyens are doing on the high school level? Could Christian faculty from nearby schools – and well-educated non-faculty start a non-localized school? They could get library privileges at other local schools – maybe even require their students to take a set number of classes at other institutions so they could have access to those big things that take serious capital investment. The obvious problem here is accredidation. Since a college degree is a commodity, the only way to regulate them and guarantee it actually means something is to have experts overseeing the process.

If educators dared to start such a school – would anyone come? Some may dare. Whatever model we find – whether an adaptation of current models or something new (or ancient!) – Christian higher education is worth doing.

Rock and Rap and Pop are going global today with the “Live 8” event. A next-gen version of 1985’s “Live Aid,” this re-do is again headed up by Bob Geldof.

The theme this time is poverty. This world-wide concert event is billed to promote poverty awareness. Allegedly as many as 5.5 billion people will witness some part of the concert. One would think that if 5.5 billion people were made aware of poverty dome real differnce could be made.

But the artists show up in their limos, sing their songs that depersonify people, especially women, glorify violence, sexual activity and materialism, then go home to their posh cribs.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have high hopes for the New Poverty Awareness.

Christianity Today has a feature on Jack Hayford, pastor of Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California. I’ve never been to the church, and haven’t had much opportunity to hear Jack Hayford or read his books. I did meet him in a pastor’s conference about 12 years ago. It was one of those few conferences that attract only a small number – I suppose there were about 50 of us. In that small group I was able to meet Jack and fellowship with him over a meal. He was not only the main speaker for that event but also the worship leader. My impression of him was of a man of great humility – and flowing from that, great power in the things of God. May God raise up more like him!

Over the past couple of years the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has invested much time and energy in defining pastoral effectiveness. By the quality of the handouts they distributed, one can tell this was very important.

But is it still relevant?

As presented in “Faithfulness in the Clergy: A Call to Effectiveness,” we see a fairly traditional portrait of what pastors are to be and do. Left out entirely is accountability. We are to “oversee” the ministries of the church. Anyone can do that. Apart from clear standards, many can even do it well.

But times are changing.

I hear that Bishop Huie has been reading Paul Borden’s Hit the Bullseye: How Denominations Can Aim the Congregation At the Mission Field. If she takes Borden seriously and applies what he has to say, we’re in for some big changes.

Borden’s big idea is that the purpose of the church is to make disciples and that the church hierarchy needs to hold pastors and churches accountable to this mission. Nothing new here – except that a denominational leader is saying this and acting on it. For Borden’s region of the American Baptist Church these ideas no longer just get lip service.

From her episcopal address it sounds like Bishop Huie agrees with Borden. She says it is no longer acceptable for a church to

• have no one join on confession of faith in a year
• baptize no one
• have stable or declining attendance when the population is growing

These expressions of discontent are straight out of Borden.

Will Borden’s approach work in the TAC? When a pastor sticks the traditional pastoral model – the pastor is the chaplain who takes care of people – Borden and his leadership team would offer that pastor training to move out of that role to become a leader, or, if the pastor was not willing to make the change, would suggest the pastor needed to find another line of work. The pastor’s chief job is leadership. Not a priestly administrator of the sacraments, not a shepherd tending the sheep, but an apostle out winning people to Christ and growing the church. As long as the United Methodist Church has guaranteed appointments, this will not happen. But if we see our leadership – the Bishop and the cabinet start pursuing accountability on these issues I believe some change will happen.

Are we cut out for the job? I don’t have the spiritual gift of leadership. I’ve been doing tons of study on leadership over the past ten years. It’s hard work. As an academic introvert, it’s not at all close to my nature. I like change. I think my current congregation is like the vast majority of churches I’m familiar with. We NEED change. But when the conflicts arise and I feel my own deficiencies, I wonder if there is any place in leadership for people like me whose leading gifts are in teaching and knowledge. I’ve read numerous books on church leadership that tell me that people like me (the theologian types) are a blight on churches. They need extroverted entrepreneurial type leaders. I’d like to be one of those (at least sometimes), but I’m not.

But then I consider the fruit. I’ve never led the flashiest and most impressive groups. I’ve never been the charismatic leader of the multitudes. But over the course of my ministry I can look back and see fruit that lasts. How do we count that?

As a theologian and scholar, I can see we – the church – have a huge job ahead of us. The entrepreneurial skills of making something out of nothing (or very little) – which lead to numerical growth – need to be married to the theological skills of contextualizing people in the story of God and increasing their articulacy about the faith. Given these goals and our current reality I know two things for sure. First, we have a lot of work to do. Second, I have a lot to learn.