New Podcast – How Paris Hilton Made Me a Better Trainer of Young Leaders pt 1

This is the first episode in a series that I will be doing on training young leaders in their twenties, using my book the Trouble with Paris as a guide. In this episode i discuss the reason why so many young leaders encounter difficulties in their twenties and I discuss how understanding how our culture has influenced our expectations of life is crucial to leadership development. I also of course talk about Paris Hilton and how watching TV for seven months straight almost sent me insane.

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The Truman Syndrome

“Researchers have begun documenting the “Truman syndrome”, a delusion under which people are convinced their lives are secretly playing out on reality TV. Scientists say the disorder underscores the influence pop culture can have on mental conditions.”

From the Age Newspaper Read full article here

RIP Men and Women. We are all kids now.

Over the weekend I was watching an old movie from the 40’s called the Blue Dahlia. It was one of those old Film-Noir movies in which there were lots of tough guys in hats, and hard drinking dames, you know the kind, lots of fights, slaps and one liners. At one point in the movie, the police put out an APB on the hero of the flick, they said they were looking for a man with brown hair who was 28 years old. 28! I almost fell of the couch. The way this character acted, the way people treated him, seemed a world away from the 28 year olds that I deal with. This guy seemed like a full grown man, I realised that being 28 in 1947 meant something very different to what it means in the 21st century. Today’s 28 year old see themselves as kinds of older teenagers, or rather as twenty somethings. Rarely do people describe themselves as adults. It seems that today you try and postpone your youth for as long as possible and then one day you wake up and you are old. It is almost as if the old category of being a man or woman (someone who is aprox 21-55) has been eradicated to the point where anyone under 55 is a guy or a girl. We have culturally run away from the idea of adulthood for  number of reasons.

• We don’t want to be adults because we are afraid of commitment and responsibility. By admitting that we are adults, it means that we will have to do some stuff that needs doing.  
• We don’t want to be adults because we are secretly afraid of dying. We have been affected by our culture’s materialist worldview. We are afraid of being adults, because it mean that we have to admit that we are no longer young, that we are aging, and that the countdown to our death is ticking. Our culture has no answer to this problem, many of us as believers have forgotten that we do posses the answer to this problem.
• We prefer youth to adulthood because the young are pampered, they have things done for them, they have others looking out for them. By being young you expect others to meet your needs.
• We prefer youth to adulthood because the young have not learnt to delay gratification.
• We prefer youth to adulthood because the young tend to be more self-focused than adults.

We expect children and the genuinly young to make mistakes as humans they are in a process of learning and growing. However when we move into adulthood, if we do not grow, we stagnate.

All of the listed factors poison the well of our culture. Anyone who is in any position of leadership must take the challenge of examining their own lives, to locate and eliminate the areas in which have bought into the cult of delayed adulthood. We must learn to move others into adulthood. Our future as individuals, the church and our culture are dependant upon it.

Leadership Lessons from the Toilet

Recently after giving a talk an enthusiastic young adult bounded up to me and asked “Wow, I want to do what you do, how do I get into ministry?”I at first thought that they were asking me how they could become a pastor, so I began to tell them. But then they interrupted me and told me that they wanted to know how they could speak to large groups, write and consult. I did this thing that I do when I am not sure how to answer someone which consists of me with one hand scratching my head, sort of half laughing and looking down at my feet. “Oh man……I don’t know” I replied. I could see that they were disappointed. How on earth could I distill all of the events, trials, errors, lesson, mistakes and people who have gotten me to this point in one conversation let alone in one Yoda-like aphorism that this young keen bean wanted to hear?

Later as I drove home I tried to think of Zen Master-ish statements that I could have uttered to this young person that would have made me look cool or wise or hopefully a combination of both, but alas nothing came to me. Yet one image stuck in my mind when I thought of my 15 year journey in full time ministry. It was the image of being stuck in a hole and looking up at the sky. This image was first burnt into my consciousness when I read the novel The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. In the novel at a number of key points in the plot the protagonist Toru Okada finds himself stuck at the bottom of a well; all around him is silent, dank darkness. As he looks up, all he can see is opening of the well through which he can see the moon and the night sky. Murakami uses this image as a allegory of the human condition, so much of our time on this earth seems to consist of fumbling about in the darkness and seeming hopelessness of life, yet there are those times when we lift our eyes upward and see that small circle of clouds and blue sky, and rays of light and meaning floods our enclosed world of darkness. This image paints a picture of my experience of leadership, so often it has been exhausting, painful, lonely and confusing, but then there are these moments, when God lifts my head and I forget the darkness and see again the sky, and I again start dreaming God’s dream for the world.

The bible also contains it’s own leader in a hole story. In the book of Genesis we encounter Joseph, a talented ‘dreamer’, a spiritual gifted, handsome young guy. Of course we know what needs to happen with this guy, he needs to be placed on staff, he needs to lead the worship band, he needs to be keynote at the next conference, he needs to be branded. That is what our culture tells us to do to the young and talented.

However what happens next in the story surprises us, this young leader, the guy ‘most likely’ finds himself in the most healthy place for up and coming leaders to find themselves in, that is a depressing  hole. Now lets remind ourselves this is not the nice old well that Murakami places his hero in, rather Joseph is placed in what my bible politely describes as a cistern. Translation, a dirty big hole in which you do you business in. Joseph sits naked, surrounded by excrement and ripped off by people who he trusted. Basically its the perfect place for a gifted and up and coming young leader. Why? Because God wants to test Joseph’s mettle, there are no short cuts to leadership. God is not a helicopter parent in the business of rescuing us from the unpleasant. God is not santa claus dishing out toys to his favourites. Rather God is in the is in the process of shaping and preparing. He has a bigger and better plan in place than we can imagine.

The reason that God allowed Joseph to literally be thrown in the toilet, was that Jospeh was going to be thrown in some non-literal toilets soon, namely that place which symbolized so much of what God was not about, the soon to be prison of the chosen people, Egypt.

Joseph was called to be a leader in a pagan nation, his leadership and his witness would at times be incarnational at other times counter cultural. Thus at several key moments his character would be tested. Joseph would prevail, and he would become a blessing to not only himself, but to a whole nation. His leadership and holiness would radiate through generations. The bible would remember him as a great leader as a man of exceptional courage and character. However the roots of this public victory I believe can be traced back to those first moments in the hole, that first test.

So for those of you out there who feel like they are sitting in a hole, a well, or even a toilet. Look up. It might just be the making of you.

New Podcast – So Sexy it Hurts

This podcast is from a talk that I gave at the So Sexy it Hurts Event held at Mayfield Baptist Church in Newcastle a couple of weeks ago. Sorry, but the final couple of minutes are missing. In this talk I discuss how the way in which we view ourselves has radicaly changed, the origins of the myspace shot, how everything is now porn, why everyone is a personal PR firm, why ’sexy’ has become the 21st century adjective of choice and why the image of God is so important to life today. (Those with a keen ear for regional Australian accents will note how with my Melbourne accent I mispronounce Newcastle, thus offending the locals throughout my talk.)

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What if Starbucks was Church

Funny Video Via Julie Glavic which poses the question, what if Starbucks was run like the Church?. Don’t what this means in light of Starbuck’s withdrawl from Australia?

What the Church can learn from the failed McCain Campaign

John McCain found himself painted into somewhat of a strategic corner during his failed run for the Whitehouse. Due to the record unpopularity of the Bush administration he could not ally himself too closely with his own party. Therefore he portrayed himself as a Maverick who had bucked up against his own party on numerous occasions. However this created a dilemma, that is a line of logic that goes like this,

A) I hear you and understand that you have a negative opinion of the Republican party

B) I am a Maverick not at all like your typical Republican, often I have opposed my own party 

C) Therefore this election make sure you vote Republican

Yes it is overly simplistic and no metaphor bears too close an examination, and this post is not at all a political comment, but I am sure you get my point. By positioning himself against his own party, he was almost convincing people not to vote for himself.

Let’s look at another similar example. In their book The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR Al and Laura Ries, point out that a companies need to be extremely careful in trying to communicate to the public that they are rectifying past wrong doings. For example would you book a flight on with an airline who’s slogan was,

“Sayers’ Airlines: We no longer crash!”

Even though Sayers Airlines may now have a perfect flying record, just their admission that they once crashed places a seed of doubt in your minds. Even this slogan would probably put you off.

“Sayers’ Airlines: Unlike the others we don’t crash!”

Why? Because when you are advertising air travel, even if you have a perfect record of never crashing, you should never utter the ‘c’ word.

The church finds itself in a very similar position to John McCain, we know that the wider culture does not view the church in a favourable light. Therefore all kinds of churches from new pentecostal, to emerging, to missional, to mega all position themselves as ‘maverick’ compared to what has gone before, we say to unchurched people “come to our church because we are not like typical church”. But when we adopt this point, we find ourselves in a tricky place, we position ourselves against other forms of church, and promote an alternative form of church. This position is tricky because it assumes that the unchurched person will have enough of a sophisticated understanding as to be able to differentiate between differing church styles. We are faced with a dilemma of understanding that we need renewal but also of encouraging others who look on what we are doing with skepticism to join us.

So how do we get out of this conundrum? Well I am not going to even begin to pretend that I have all the answers. But I do believe there is a clue in the story of Pentecost. Up till that point in the story, Israel had been called to operate as something of a lighthouse, that their holiness would shine out to the surrounding nations and that people would be drawn in. Often we see the New Testament as a reversal of this trend, that the people of God are called to ‘Go outward” (To be really technical we are talking about Centrifugal and Centripetal forces).

However the force that is created by Pentecost is more akin to an explosion that goes indiscriminately in every direction. Not only does the Holy Spirit push the church outward, it also renewed and refreshed a depleted band of believers. The Church is moved from being a small collection of followers to a vital and global movement. Thus it is not a new management theory, a new theology, or a new communication tool that manages to both renew and ’send out’ the people of God, but rather it is a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Mind the Generation Gap

Gen Ys should learn the language of older generations, writes Anne Fawcett. Read whole article here

Starting Legal Proceedings Against the Almighty

Man in Nebraska sues God. Read full article here

Cambodian text chat

Text Conversation between me and my brother who is in Cambodia this week.

My Brother “Hey. How is this for Hyperreality? I am in Angkor Wat, talking to a Buddhist Monk who just showed me a video history of Cambodia on his I-Phone.”

Me ” How is this for reality? I just rocked up to  church and in the door way was toilet paper and a full specimen bottle of urine. I don’t want to touch it.”

Bob Goudzwaard on Idolatry and the Current Economic Crisis

“Clearly, an idol has stood up, bringing with it fear, even terror. We have put our trust in the financial markets to save our real economies. But now the idol is staggering, as idols usually do, and we can make out more clearly its profound betrayal.”

Bob Goudzwaard

The Dutch Christian politician Bob Goudzwaard’s book Capitalism and Progress  is a classic read for anyone interested in the intersection between faith and culture.  For an interesting analysis on the links between idolatry and our current economic crisis check out Bob’s article A Note about the Credit Crunch, Climate Change and Environmental Responsibility

Made In America

Like most people around the world I spent yesterday following the results of the US elections. I have followed the campaign closely since the early part of the primaries. However I was on a plane when it was announced that Obama had won so missed the crucial moment. But watched with others as we collected our baggage at the carousel.

Later on as I watched Obama’s acceptance speech I was struck by the religious nature of American politics. I don’t mean the influence of Evangelicals or the religious right; but rather as a non – American observer I cannot help but be struck by the implicit religiosity of American culture. The sermon like speeches, the fervour of the crowds, the Messianic view of leadership, the faith in the divine calling of their nation, the reverence for the flag and anthem; all combine to create an environment that seems to the outside viewer as something akin to a religious rally. In Australia, my home, such rallies would never be seen. Sure, during elections we have rallies, but only those who are inside the political machine would turn up. You would never see thousands turning up to support a candidate, we here in Australia are simply too cynical about the political process. I would vouch that it is the same in most other Western English speaking democracies.

This difference in politics reveals to us a key cultural difference between America and other Western Countries that those engaged in mission must understand. That is that the US is at its core is a deeply religious country. This is one reason why Church attendance is so much higher in the United States when compared to Canada, France, Germany, Britain, New Zealand and Australia. But there is a deeper religiosity that pervades American culture that seems to even be evident in the actions and attitudes of those who would not describe themselves as people of faith.There seems to be in so many American souls a latent sense of hope and faith, a belief that their country is called to be something special. Americans posses a sense of optimism and enthusiasm, that is not seen in other Western Cultures.

Much of this can be traced back to America’s beginnings. America at it’s inception was influenced by two streams. One of these streams was the influence of the Christians fleeing religious persecution, who saw the United States as  place to in freedom get to the business of creating the Kingdom of God on earth. The Second influence came through the founder fathers who were deeply influenced by the European enlightenment, and saw a chance to break away from despotic rule and create a republic of Enlightenment with Deistic sensibilities. Thus America represents both these influences, and the sense of hope in the future that undergirds these philosophies creates a different religious environment in the United States to that in other Western democracies. Even through many American Christians would point to the way in which post-modernity and secularism seems to have begun dismantled much of the framework of the church, there is definitely much more of a structure left tstanding than what we find in other Western countries.

So why is this important for those engaged in Mission? Well what this is all means is quite simple really. Often missional practices and methods that work in the United States will not work in other Western countries. The secularism that those of us outside of the United States face, may posses some of the similar traits to the beast that we must battle, but in many ways it is a different animal.Therefore we have much to learn from what happens in America but we must always remember that context is key to mission, and not all practices will be transferable.

The missional context we find ourselves in

We find ourselves as the church in the developed world in a strange position. I have heard others say and have said myself often that the church has returned to the place that it found itself in the book of Acts. We are in a missional situation. With the influence of Christendom fading, we find ourselves confronted with a pluralistic missionfield. We are forced to reconfigure ourselves to reach this new reality.

However there are many ways in which our situation is different to the book of Acts. The church in Acts was energised. It was filled with Jewish beleivers, who were motivated and excited by their discovery of the Messiah. Gentile believers were turning to faith as the Roman world began to collapse. Thus the gospel was moved forward on a fresh wave of excitement. We face a different situation, whilst our missional situation is something akin to the book of Acts. When it comes to the reality within the church we find our situation something more like the book of Hosea. In the time of Hosea, the people of God found themselves compromised by their worship of both God and the gods and Idols of the surrounding nations. So it is the same with us today. When we look inside the church we find the people of God struggling to live holy lives as they encounter a whole gamut of new idols, that is new gods who go by modern names, materialism, consumerism, technology, image and security. Although these gods seem new, the corrosive effect that they have on faith is the same as the ancient idols of Baal and Moloch.

So to position ourselves as the church, we must confront both realities, if we are to be missionaly effective we must also take note of our cultural captivity.

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Gen Y about to face nasty shock

“THE Facebook generation always got what it wanted. A place at university, laptop, iPod or, for that matter, a job.

Here is a generation that does not remember the time without mobile phones or computers. Raised by doting parents who told them they were special, they played in competitions where there were no losers and everyone got a trophy. It is a generation who have never experienced economic hardship in their working lives and are too young to remember the last recession of 1991, but they will see hardship now.

“Generation Y are about to enter a world that looks very different from the one they faced six months ago,” says Dominic Thurbon, managing director of the Centre for Skills Development. “We’ll see the heat come out of the employment market and gen Y will find their ability to debt-finance their lifestyle will get tougher.”

From the Age Newspaper. Read full article here

Leadership as Stardom – The Christian Version

A while ago I wrote this post Leadership as Avenue to Stardom about how increasingly children’s toys are about being a star on stage. Now Christians are in on the act check out Guitar Praise. (Notice the Hyperreal Slogans Live the Dream – Play with Rockstars ) To quote Marge Simpson ‘Hhhhmmm’.

(Thanks to Rohan for the heads up)