It’s been a long time since I posted anything on leadership, so here goes. What follows is a link to a great site called lifehack.org and an article called “10 Great Ways to Crush Creativity.” lifehack.org isn’t a “Christian” site, but I do have to say that many of their principles are just Scripture applied (truth is truth).
Following the link I’ve listed “churchy” paraphrases of Mr. Sloane’s witticisms. These paraphrases are compiled from attitudes we at Worship Concepts Network have encountered at a few select churches among the many we have partnered with. The irony is that these comments were made at some of the churches that sought us out to help them increase their quotient of innovation, creativity and effectiveness. OK, I couldn’t resist the sarcasm, go figure…
Ten Great Ways to Crush Creativity
1. That’s questionable etymology/hermeneutics/eschatology and doesn’t properly translate the original Hebrew/Greek/Pig Latin I studied for my MDiv/DMin/PhD/XyZPdQ at Muchsmarterthan U. Seminary.
2. Too many ideas muddy the waters; the church needs clear direction from the Senior Pastor. Jesus didn’t have a committe, He had disciples. (This, of course, ignores the fact that very few pastors are Jesus and that “we are the body,”not ‘he’ (i.e. the pastor) is the body.”
3. The congregation just doesn’t have the Pastor and staff’s leadership perspective. They couldn’t possibly grapple with this issue.
4. We already have a clear vision of the Great Commission; we just need to apply it like we did in the good old days.
5. Vocational ministry is a lonely business which requires 80-90 hours work per week;I just need to keep my nose to the grindstone. If I just apply everthing thing I learned from Tony Robbins/Steven Covey/David Allen I can do all the ministry of my church; after all, I am the Senior Pastor.
6. People are still people. Regardless of the current drop in involvement, our strategy has worked for the last ninety years. Besides, the internet and social-networking are just a fad much like radio and TV.
7. The Pastor-Parish Relationship Committee requests your presence at meeting convened to review the Video Game Night that resulted in Kool-aid stains on the Fellowship Hall carpet (in spite of the attendance by 300 teens who would not have otherwise darkened the doorstep of a church in one million years).
*The contemporary version of this is: That didn’t seem to be your sweetspot; we didn’t set you up for a win…let’s try you in this position that we haven’t equipped you for, you have no passion to fulfill and will probably result in your being miserable and leaving the church. That way we’ll be able to tell people that it wasn’t our fault at all, but was because you didn’t fit as a team player.
8. part a. That may have worked at other churches, but we don’t do things that way here. You might not be a good “mix” here.
8. part b. We’ve been pillars of this church for decades (centuries). Inviting the Lutheran/Mehtodist/Baptist/etc. church from down the street to join us in starting a soup kitchen might theologically confuse people.
9. Contempt breeds comtempt. (OK, we’ve never heard a church leader actually say that, but many of them promote only from within and then wonder why there aren’t any fresh ideas or that poor attitudes stay the same from one leader to the next.)
10. This isn’t rocket-surgery; it’s just ministry in an increasingly diverse and everchanging culture. The principles that we learned in seminary at Smarterthan U. forty years ago still apply; people are people, afterall.
I’m still in OOB with my folks and taking every chance I can to take pix. This self portrait was taken at about 11:30 at night after shooting over 300 exposures at the OOB Pier and fireworks. While walking the mile back to my folks, and jamming out to Israel Houghton’s The Power of One on my iPod, my shadow in the streetlight caught my eye. I’m pretty pleased at the DoF (those who frequent “Sallie Alley” should recognize the sidewalk).
It might be hard for those of you who don’t know what OOB means to Salvationists (yes, I still consider myself a Salvationist) to understand, but the sight of our shadows at this point brings precious memories of decades at camp meetings. There are generations of “Sallies” that have walked along this same stretch of sidewalk accompanied by our shadows…
…there’s just something about it that brings a contented sigh; sea breezes, fresh summer air, brass bands, camp meeting choruses, “forever” friends, Bible studies, the beach, prayer teams, ministry at the pier, amusment lights, Pier Fries (I had to wipe the salt and vinegar from my hands to take this pic) simply good times.
I’m currently in Old Orchard Beach, ME with my folks. Dad was in the hospital with diverticulitis. It was actually a blessing because it led to the doctors finding a mass on his kidney that they wouldn’t have found otherwise.
I flew up on Saturday and have plans to be back home on September 2nd, but might stay longer depending on if the doctors decide to perform surgery or not and how they plan on doing it.
This, of course, follows my notebook crashing and being out of commission for a week. So, I’ve been out of my routine for a while. That’s good news and bad news. The good is that it’s been a welcome break from my routine. The bad is that it’s been an unwelcome break from my routine. Thus, no Insurgent Love blog posts.
But, I promise to make it up. It’s going to remain top secret for now. Stay tuned…it’ll be worth it…I promise.
In a previous post I featured the naval branch of Insurgent Love, Mercy Ships. At the end of the feature I made an offhanded comment about needing an Insurgent Air Force. Thanks to Brendan, who left a thougtful comment you should all read, we’ve learned there are several out there.
The first to be featured is Mission Aviation Fellowship. The name just about says it all, but here’s a passage from their website:
http://www.maf.org
“Our passion is to see individuals, communities, and nations transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We promote this transformation by positioning Christ-centered staff in strategic locations worldwide utilizing aviation, communications, learning technologies, other appropriate technologies and related services. In accomplishing our mission, we collaborate with churches, subsidiaries, partners, and networks.”
Mission Aviation Fellowship focuses on five specific areas of activity in reaching out to help those in need:
- Evangelism and Church Support: Connecting missionaries and local pastors with unreached people, transporting national church workers to isolated villages, and theological eduction by extension.
- Community Development: Supplying and transporting Christian staff and supplies for health and community improvement projects, village enhancements such as water wells, and small MAF-built hydroelectric plants.
- Medical Assistance: Providing medical emergency evacuations, transporting medicines and health workers to the sick and injured.
- Crisis Relief: Transporting food for the hungry, and critical relief supplies and agency personnel to disaster areas.
- National Training: Educating pilots, mechanics, avionics technicians, radio and electronics specialists, and administrative and support personnel.
How cool is that? An Insurgent Air Force. Who else out there knows of Insurgent Ministries that need to be featured? Leave me a comment about them.
* The following is copied from the comment below left by Brad Rhoads about the distance learning program of MAF. This is some innovative thinking:
“Besides all that you listed above, MAF-LT is about doing distance, theological education for pastors in the developing world.
There are about 3 million pastors in the developing world that don’t have any training. Most of them will never be able to leave their village to go to a big city or come to the states to get any training. And turns out that 9/10 that do leave, never go back.
So we’re using computers all kinds of technology to take training to them, right where they live and serve.”
Thanks, Brad.
