Dirty Jesus

He has been cleaned up beyond recognition or affinity, with us.

Neat nativities.  Crisp white linens on communion tables.  How does this remember a Jesus who came to be ‘humus’ – dirt (the root word of humanity)?

No wonder the world doesn’t identify with Him. We, His followers have cleaned Him up too much in our presentations and demonstrations.  He has become unattainable and it’s not His fault.

The real Jesus was the one who defied all convention and touched the outcasts and alienated Himself from common social and religious convention.  The real Jesus brought prostitutes, thieves and marginalized people into His regular circle of friends and followers.  He was truly dirty to the institutionalized religious establishment of the day.  He redefined how the dirty could access the divine.  Holy shit.

This is actually the Advent story.  Immanuel – God not only WITH us, but ONE of us.  Dirty humanity.

So stop purifying His image.  Put Him back where He belongs.  And if you are His follower, get out of your pious pew, your sanctuary of the sanctified and your cloister of institutional Christianity.  If the power of Christ is to make us clean, a church and a follower of Christ where no dirt is allowed is powerless.

For the love of the real God, get dirty with your fellow humans.  

Trash Talk Trashes Us

I was on the NO side.  You'd think I'd feel victorious.  I don't.


Here in Calgary, we have just come through an Olympic-sized exercise of competing visions.  Do we host the 2026 winter Games or not?  As I write, it's the day after the plebescite vote.  The No side won.   One side 'defeated', the other side 'winning'.

It's sad to me that in order to achieve something, we often feel its necessary to trash and denigrate the 'other side'.  We think that to justify one perspective or vision you have to tear down the other. After the vote, one opinion editor on the YES side who writes for a major Calgary newspaper characterized the NO side as having "the cumulative vision of a blind cyclops".

This is a very human thing, exacerbated by our current culture's growing affinity for drawing hard lines and building walls.  Discussions in the realm of politics, religion, relationships, social issues and competing visions are increasingly difficult to engage without it descending into a version of tribal warfare.

I'd like to call us to Dignity and Craft in our conversations.  Choose first to start any interaction by acknowledging the inherent dignity of that individual(s).  Their (and your) worth does not rest in their opinions. It rests in a value given to them by the Creator who made them equal.  If you don't believe in a Creator, your government's constitution in most cases underscores the value and dignity of all persons.

Then let's reframe conversation as a craft.  It's an art form, not a sport where one wins and the other loses.  Through understanding, curiosity and vigorous arguments, we can create something that did not exist prior to talking.  Art.  (check out Os Guiness' book 'The Global Public Square' for some ideas on this)

Back to Calgary's Olympic issue.  We, the citizens were split 56% No to 44% Yes.  This doesn't have to be a zero-sum game where one is declared winner and one a loser.

Whether it's the Olympics or an argument over renovating the church, or developing a new project - the issue is irrelevant.  It's HOW you approach the problem that will determine whether you can bring resolution to it at all.

Trash talks trashes all of us.   Choose Dignity.  Go make some Art instead.

The Future Isn't What It Used To Be

Future dreams are simply glorious.  Unburdened by reality, they float effortlessly like a balloon on a string, beckoning us to chase and capture it. Our naïveté and optimism push us toward that future despite all the unknowns.

At some point in the process of heading toward that dreamy future, our reality has to become unburdened by dreams.  We are forced into the present, into the hard work of implementation.   Inevitably, we discover that the future we previously envisioned, “isn’t what it used to be”.  In the process, we discover something else.  The only real future is the present moment.

I am a serial dreamer. It is not easy to acknowledge that all there is, is the now which I inhabit. It's not an easy truth to swallow in a future-gorging world.  Irrespective of our sphere of leadership, we are obsessed with promoting what and how we will make our world better.  We are, as Napoleon said, ‘dealers in hope’.   I happen to think Napoleon was right; however, I also believe there is something about our future we must let go.

In his book “Barking to the Choir”, Fr. Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries makes a profound statement about our preferred futures:

Paradise (or a preferred future) is not a place that awaits our arrival, but a present we arrive at.  A place, in fact, we are already in.  (pg. 75)

Fr. Boyle goes on to reflect that we need to let go of the desire to expect anything beyond the here and now, because the awareness of the ‘now’ keeps us from the suffering generated by resisting what is.  If we as leaders focus only on what is to come, we lose something by failing to stop and notice the now.  We lose moments with people, we miss seeing beauty, pain, or even ideas that exist in that place of now. Perhaps we even miss God passing by. We lose something of ourselves because we failed to enter in to the present and experience what that moment has for us.

This ‘now’ perspective isn’t about abandoning effort to build a better world or widget or whatever you are in to.  It is about exercising an approach to life that acknowledges that this moment, the one in which you are standing, is the only one available to you. 

The future isn’t what it used to be. Pay attention to what is. Now.

Current Church models: Railroads in the Age of Airplanes

If the people who built the railroads in North America where actually interested in transporting people, they would probably now own the airlines. But they don't.

Industrial historians tell us that once railroad companies had completed the huge task of running track across the US & Canada, they lost their focus. Though their business vision was the free movement of people and goods, once the task of the railroad had been completed, they lost sight of the key end. Instead they settled in on the one means to that end.


This worked well for about a century - until the world around them changed and a new method to move people around became popular: airplanes. Had the railroad companies still had the free movement of people and goods as their vision, they would have jumped into this new technology. But over time they had allowed their model to replace their vision. No doubt the comfort of profits and the fact they faced little competition for so long developed a climate of corporate complacency.

I believe the church, for all our tweaking at the edges of our current model, may be in the same place as the railroad. Enamored and highly invested in our current model, we are not taking notice of the changes taking place in the air around us. Instead of reminding ourselves of the 'business' we are in, we remain fixated on our model of delivery.  As Adam Grant describes in his book "Originals", the more knowledge and experience we gain in  particular domain, the more we become a prisoner of our prototypes. In the case of the church, we are trapped by our model.  Worse yet, the model in some cases has replaced vision.  So to give the appearance of advance, we tweak the models' edges in hopes of gaining relevancy and impact.  However in the final analysis we, the church remain a railroad in the age of airplanes.

Born and designed by God to engage the world with the Gospel of Christ, the Church struggles to adjust its mission because it has become too tied to its model. Its functioning and organizational existence has taken first place over the mission.  Church is not first.  Mission is.  Church serves the mission of God and that means it must morph as needed to be faithful to the mission. I hear a lot of rhetoric about revival in the Church, but are we aware that revival also touches the institution and not just the individual heart? What might happen to our church model (which is not sacrosanct) if we worked backward from the mission of God to this world and asked some fresh questions?   Here's a sampling:

• What does a church staffing model look like if we were configuring it for reaching our current context? If we started over, what needs to be different?
• To what extent should we continue to foster an institutional model?
• How would we exist if we removed a service-centric focus?
• How could those who have buildings re-envision how they are used to integrate with and serve their surrounding communities?
• Are buildings a necessary element for our mission? If so, how should that building be used in light of our mission to the world (vs. a support for internal activities).
• Staffing implies salaries, which implies a system to collect funds to pay those salaries which requires maintaining group loyalty to the institution. What then does a church on mission look like without dependence on a salary-based system?
• How does a Christian community identify & release all the gifts into culture?  How will it exist organizationally when callings, gifts and skills move it far beyond its current programming model or staff capacity for coaching new mission efforts? 
• How do we really equip and release the saints for the work of service God called them to do - vs. what positions the church needs filled to advance its particular mission? (I personally believe the gifts God gives to a church community is what drives its agenda, not the corporate leadership).
• If believers were too busy in neighborhoods and vocational pursuits living out the values and ways of the Kingdom of God to attend church activities on a regular, sustained basis, how would we reconfigure 'church'?
• What does community life look like that actually embraces people from any lifestyle, culture, economic situation, habit etc. so they can experience the way of Jesus in community and perhaps come to know Him?

For the Church to keep moving into society, its leaders will need to remind themselves of the business they are in, and be ready to move beyond the current 'technology' to other forms that will accomplish the mission.

Despite the 'missional' rhetoric out there, we are a railroad in an age of airplanes.  Yet here is the greater challenge: What's Beyond the Airplane? 


Look ahead. Be courageous. Lead towards the ends. Never be satisfied with the means.

Another Goodbye

We have an expat daughter.   It isn’t easy.

As former expats ourselves, we committed early in our lives to give our children the gift of Roots & Wings.  We would root them in a foundation of family and a love for the world, and then let them know they had wings to pursue life according to their dreams no matter where it took them.  We knew that gift held the potential and inevitability of many a goodbye.  

There was another goodbye today.

You get used to this...and you don't.

Part of me wants to never say goodbye to my kids – especially to my daughters.  Sorry boys - it’s a dad thing.  Yet I have come to know as a parent that an unwillingness to say goodbye is to suppress the dreams and callings of our children. (It is even a way of holding back a parent who needs to move on to pursue a dream).  It is a selfish act to cling, to make it known overtly or passively that the others’ leaving somehow diminishes loyalty and relationship.  On the contrary, the act of leaving enhances the life of your child – and yours by extension.  By leaving, and being blessed to leave, a child is freed to fully pursue their created self.  As a result, they not only find the joy of being themselves, but also a deeper richness from the personal/spiritual growth ‘being themselves’ will bring.

Roots & Wings. A relational breathing in and breathing out.  In my view it’s as necessary for life as is oxygen.

God promises that someday we will all be gathered. No more tearful goodbyes. That promise feels so good right now, as I reflect on just saying goodbye to my daughter at the airport. Yet for now and for the sake of a world that needs people such as my children to live out who they are, wherever that takes them – so be it.  God knows where their wings need to take them and where their lives need to take root.  

Give your kids roots in love, meaning and relationship.  Also gift them wings to fly away with the knowledge those roots provide them the courage & confidence needed to bring life and renewal to a tired world. 

Roots and Wings. These are the gifts of love to our children. 

Go ahead now, hold them close.  Then let them go.

Bureaucracy as Story

BUREAUCRACY.  

Not exactly a hot topic for summertime reading.  Yet your bureaucracy is a story.  Have you read it lately?

The administrative system governing your organization is what defines its bureaucracy.  The word evokes negative connotations for most of us.  Who hasn’t been caught up in a process or system that seems so prolonged, complicated and disconnected from the actual ’thing’ we are trying to accomplish or obtain?  Though bureaucracy isn’t inherently evil, it does have a natural instinct for ignoring reality.  It is prone to developing unnatural structures that have little connection to on-the-ground reality.  A classic example is how colonial European bureaucratic powers carved up Africa. Borders were drawn up that ignored river lines, mountain ranges, tribal realities and trade routes.  Peoples once naturally connected found themselves scattered and splintered along arbitrary borders that defined these new countries.  Those countries were drawn and defined by bureaucrats who never set foot on African soil! A European bureaucrat, instead of aligning their story (formation of countries) to fit reality, forced reality to fit their story.  A classic bureaucratic disconnect with disastrous and lingering consequences.

Your organization no doubt has a story it wants to tell. There is a purpose for which you exist and your hope as a leader is that that purpose is the prime story that comes across when people encounter your organization.  

 I have had to deal with civic authority multiple times when developing a property in my city over the past few years.  Although the story I hear from my city officials is all about functional, sustainable neighbourhoods and healthy communities, our civic administration’s reality is encased in by-laws and codes.  As time goes on this bureaucratic ‘story’ only seems to expand as rules and regulations are added.  Bureaucracy becomes its own story.  I recall a meeting with an official prior to our purchase of a facility to assess whether we could utilize the land for our purposes.  That official carried into our meeting a physical binder of codes that was literally 8 inches thick.  What a metaphor!  What a ‘story’!  As our project progressed, when our on the ground reality & needs did not match their bureaucratic story, it became clear which story (“healthy, functional community” vs. “building codes and regulations”) was the ‘real’ story.  Left unchallenged, the city’s bureaucratic story would have prevailed unless I insisted they come on site to see my situation.  Thankfully, more often than not they found ways to accommodate our needs within the codes and regulations.   They changed their story to fit our reality.

How ‘on-site’ is your bureaucracy?   

When was the last time as a leader you put your boots on the ground to see whether the policy, procedure and execution that defines your bureaucracy, truly contributes to creating the pathways to accomplishing your purpose? 

Do some good old management by walking around.  Walk the front line with your employees and discover whether your Story of Purpose is heard over the Story of your Bureaucracy.

The Out of the Way Life

So, you want to change the world.  How does your world tell you to do that? It says: “Roll up your sleeves, dive in and get a plan and people together.  Then get set for what could be a long game.  Be diligent to show up in the right places and in front of the right people at the right times.   Persevere.  Stay the course.  Regularly revisit the mission to be sure you are heading in the direction of your vision”.  

All good.  All true.   

Now find a way to get out of the way. 

By this I mean that unless and until you develop a 'get out of the way'  life practice, you may lose the perspective and voice needed to reach your change goals.  Marginalizing yourself from your work is essential so that you don’t succumb to the classic inability to see the forest for the all trees.

In August of 2017, I went for a walk on the Camino. An unplanned sabbatical because I had failed to practice an 'out of the way life'.  The overinflated importance I placed on myself in my work was a contributing cause to my burnout.   I was about to enter a forced time of being truly marginal to my work.  

Marginal – a word that evokes thoughts of  isolation, insignificance, and ineffectual existence.  However, I want to introduce it to you as an essential leadership practice.

En route to Spain I read a book called “The Jesus Way” by Eugene Petersen. Petersen made a comment about a Biblical leader named Elijah who had for various reasons had chosen, and was occasionally forced into, an 'out of the way' life.  The following quote struck me as it pertains to the outcome of a more deliberate, ‘out of the way’ leadership practice: 

“…his out of the way life, marginal to everything we assume is important and significant, is foundational to whatever effectiveness he will have when he has the attention of the world. (pg. 108)

I know you want the attention of the world because as a leader you want to change a system, a way of thinking, a product, or a people.  Yet to accomplish that, at times you need to practice an out of the way life for a time and be marginal to your leadership engagements. Practically speaking it’s time away where you re-calibrate your mind, body & soul.  

The constant noise of leadership demands makes us hard of hearing. The pace of activity our leadership produces makes our bodies tired. The multiplicity of detail that our goals require makes our vision blur.

 

Therefore, get over yourself and step out of the way. Go do whatever renews your mind and soul.  Let something or Someone, take over your attention for a time – an hour, a morning, a day. You will be surprised at the deep impact these ‘out of the way’ times of life have when you finally have the attention of the world you are seeking to change.