The Necessary Things

Campus Crusade on the Decline...

After recently discovering Google Insights, I wondered how much Campus Crusade is searched by Americans. Here's what I found:

Since 2004, searches for the words Campus Crusade has decreased by OVER HALF! Here's why it's concerning for me--the next generation of college students are searching less and less for Campus Crusade. If more and more people are using the internet every day, and if our searches are decreasing by over half, then it seems like our organization is losing its presence among our target audience.

We have been told that more and more people are finding Jesus on the internet, and coming to faith in Christ through it. I hope that's true, but it seems that less and less people are looking for Campus Crusade on the internet.

Capacity and Michael Phelps

You may have seen this if you are as ecstatic about the Olympics as I have been. It's truly extraordinary to consider how much food it takes to satiate Phelps' in the midst of his intense training schedule. Phelps needs 10,000 calories a day to MAINTAIN his weight--anything less and he loses weight, which means muscle loss, and eventually a loss in performance.

Here's the spiritual takeaway I had: If I increase my spiritual output without increasing or even decreasing my spiritual input, then my spiritual well being is not surviving but SUFFERING. My tendency when I increase my spiritual output is to DECREASE my spiritual input, while promising to make it up when the business subsides. Physically speaking I can make up for increased output, but spiritually speaking I cannot.

I can only hope to rebuild my spiritual well-being when I become spiritually drained. There is no catch-up, in the way one catches up to another in a race. I like the word 'rebuild' because it implies that something is torn down and requires energy to return it to its original state. Rebuild also captures the humility that is required of me as I seek to reallocate my time and refocus my heart on Jesus.

Learning about God...

This summer has revealed that I don't know God as well as I think. This is a good thing, as I'm relearning how to relate to him as he is, not as I want him or think he should be.

My staff team looked at Numbers 20, where Moses causes water to come out of a rock, allowing the Israelites to drink in the desert. There's too much in the passage to explain it all, but here's the realization that I made:  God's plan is never in question, but his glory is.

I waste energy worrying whether God's plan will succeed, yet the passage clearly shows that my concern should be focused around whether my attitudes and actions seek God's glory or mine. In Numbers 20, God was never going to let his people die of thirst, and brought water out of a rock to prove it. Moses did steal the glory from God by striking the rock instead of speaking to it however.

If you have the chance to read through Numbers 20, even briefly, it's worth it. There are lessons for times when you are leading and following, which is very helpful for me to explore both sides.

The Ultimate Leadership Quality...

Following my last post I considered what I believe to be the ultimate leadership quality. This is assuming that the leader has the basic skills and heart to carry out his or her role.

A sober conscience is the ultimate leadership quality. It has elements of humility, wisdom, self-awareness, and others-awareness. It's the key that mobilizes all key areas of leadership development. By sober I mean able to realistically estimate one's strengths, weaknesses, gifts, abilities, and personality in relation to God and others. Many leaders fail to develop because they either become adept at minimizing their weaknesses and developmental areas or over or under estimate the affect they have on others.

Over time it dramatically develops one's capacity to authentically lead, as it combats pretentiousness and fuels passion and conviction. It allows leaders to move forward with clarity and conviction, while also being able to say no to challenges or opportunities that are outside either their role or abilities.

Here's the questions I asked: "Have you ever had a great leader who did not know himself/herself and how he/she affects others?"..."Have you ever had a poor leader who did not know himself/herself and how he/she affects others?"..."Would your experience of that leader been dramatically different if that leader had better understood either himself/herself or how he/she affects others?"

Every leader plateau's at some point in their journey. Some rise faster than others, but eventually one's ability relatively equals or is even less than the demands of their role. Those who seem to work through this plateau possess a sober conscience, and regardless of their limitations, eventually adapt and even thrive in even high demand roles.

I know there is no magic leadership bullet so to speak, but what do you think is the most important leadership quality? If anything it reveals what you value in yourself or other leaders, which would definitely benefit others to hear what you think.

Examining Leadership Levels...

I just read a post from a pastor describing 4 Levels of Leadership by Dr. Wayne Cordeiro, pastor of a church in Hawaii. I enjoy using levels as a means of differentiating types of leadership, but those distinctions often become muddled. My first thought while reading was, 'do these levels go from good to bad, or bad to good?' My second question is, 'which level am I?' Both of those questions miss the point though, since there scarcely exists a leader who only functions out of one level, and the process of developing as a leader and becoming sanctified by the Spirit rarely work in a linear manner.

Diagnosing leaders through a linear method such as levels also separates the doing from the doer--for example Cordeiro's Level 1 leader (Control Leadership) is defined by what he does--changes moods often, threatens, favors one person or another, and relates to others in anger. The assumption could be made that this is a moody, threatening, nepotistic, rage-aholic.

Leaders who function mostly in Cordeiro's Level 1 are rarely malicious and hurtful at heart but deeply fearful of their weaknesses and insecure with being imperfect yet in charge.  Their actions in fact are the opposite of their internal experience of the world and of others. It's interesting that the 4 Levels Cordeiro describes are more about the way others experience a leader than how the leader sees himself. Thus a Level 1 Leader is not leading out of or even for the purpose of controlling others, but is rather deeply insecure and fearful (of the unknown, of being wrong, of not having it all together, of [insert your own insecurities or fears here]) and does not have the interpersonal tools or character capacity to exhibit Christ-like leadership.

I'm not here to demolish Cordeiro's levels but to surface a paradigm that plagues our culture--separating the doing from the doer--character from skill, heart from hand, etc. Level 4 leaders are not less fearful or less insecure or more gifted or better people, their heart simply is much more integrated with their hands. Leaders that I love to follow ooze this integration--it's fairly easy to spot.

I would love to see more leaders explore the ways people translate their inner experience into outward behavior. Less of an emphasis on ascending to the next level of leadership and more emphasis on discerning the broken ways we translate our weaknesses and strengths when given power and authority.

Living in the Gap

This summer provided significant time for personal reflection. The Lord showed me a large gap exists between what I know in my heart about God and what I think about him based on challenges I faced recently. For many people the gap is the other way around--they know lots of information about God, but live in a way that contradicts that information. I've allowed negative experiences to change my thoughts about God in a way that contradicts my behavior. By and large I'm living by faith, but with corrupted thoughts about God.

I'm rewriting those thoughts and learning many things about myself in the process. Here are 3 of my corrupted thought patterns...

1. My feelings determine my future--if I feel good, then good things are on the way. If I feel bad, duck and run for cover.
2. I am completely responsible for negative events that happen to me and those around me. I exclude any reasons beyond my own for
3. A bad decision means I am bad.

The last couple days I have spent time writing out some of the thoughts related to these 3 corrupted thought patterns, and rewriting them with biblical truth and common sense. To see the truth side by side with the lies has been humbling. It's hard for me to admit that I have these thoughts and think so poorly about God. I have been in this gap before, and it seems God uses this gap to refine the way my heart and head interact to produce faith-filled actions.

Student Culture Part 2--Client-Driven Interaction

"Now ask the question: when intellectuals act as clerks and students act as clients, how do college teachers differ from corporate accountants?"--Former Harvard Professor John H. Summers, from this article

You could easily substitute 'Campus Crusade Staff' for 'teachers' in the above sentence. Most college campuses have many Christian groups from which students can choose to participate. Chico State has at least 7, and I believe UCLA had around 25 last time I checked. Although the growing presence of Christian groups on campuses is great in some ways, I've noticed a growing trend toward students seeing themselves as clients rather than a members of Campus Crusade.

As students see themselves as clients, their commitment level diminishes, especially if the group decides to go in a different direction than they like. Rather than stay and take ownership of problems, I've noticed students simply move on to another group. For non-Christian student organizations this seems like a minor annoyance, but for a group like Campus Crusade who is committed to developing students in their relationship with Christ, this dynamic has a profound affect on our ability to move forward.

Also, as leaders of ministries (including myself) sense that we are being evaluated in terms of what we can offer, anxiety and insecurity rises and we can tend to cater to students' needs to the extent that we compromise our mission, vision, and values. Last year I even received an email from a student's mother asking why her son was not selected for a leadership position. It seems that not only are the student's perceiving Christian leaders as a 'spiritual accountant' but also parents.

This trend will only increase in the years to come. I wonder how both in my job and in Christian culture in general we will be able to live in ways that redeem this. From my perspective, it decreases ownership, leadership, commitment, trust in the follower and increases anxiety, performance, and people-pleasing in leaders.

Student Culture Part 1--Potential

"Since the students were young, apparently, their parents and teachers have bathed them in ambitious glances, so that the source of their very identity has come to lie in their potential. Perhaps this is why, though they demand to be graded, they resent the teacher's claim to judgment based on performance, which implies a stable set of values. A relatively low judgment may be met by the always available thought that they could have done better."--John Summers, former Harvard Professor.

I came across an article from a former professor of Harvard writing on the student culture he experienced while teaching there. I believe that Ivy League schools set the tone for the entire university system in our country, and there were many attitudes, values, and beliefs that I too notice to be a trend amongst college students.

I was impressed by the connection the Professor makes between a student's identity and their potential. When I think about the consequences of one's identity being rooted in what they are not yet, it's frightening. How can one soberly assess their life if they see their actions as separate from their core identity? Also, this paradigm diminishes personal responsibility and creates a unhealthy dependence on others. Idealizing one's potential often results in blaming others and putting a greater expectation on someone else than what that person can realistically give.

Within Christian culture, I see this playing out in how students understand guilt and sanctification. Many students seem to deeply deny that they are truly guilty before God, which prevents them from serving others out of grace(because they demand something in return), and from taking steps of faith in areas that they are not 'good' at (because they don't believe they need to change anything about themselves). Thus guilt becomes more of a philosophical than a personal issue, and sanctification is confined to the positive, happy parts of the soul.

Redemptively, this surfaces the need to make absolutely sure believers understand how what we are saying connects to Christ and the Gospel. In the modern/duty-driven era, you could tell someone to do something and they would do it. In the post-modern/authenticity-driven era, the why is so much more important, and if the why is connected to things other than Christ, it will no doubt fail to powerfully capture student's hearts and souls.

Is believing in one's potential good if it diminishes personal responsibility and taints other-centered behavior?

 

Everyone Is An Artist

I've noticed that each generation below me has become increasingly artistic. From designing fonts to photography to poems, it seems younger generations value and enjoy expressing their artistic side.

I've started reading Story, by Robert McKee. It's a handbook for screenwriters, but he has many great insights about culture that I've enjoyed. Here's one that I read today:

"The novice, therefore, wanting to be recognized as an artist, falls into the trap of writing a screenplay not for what it is, but for what it’s NOT. He avoids closure, active characters, chronology, and causality to avoid the taint of commercialism. As a result, pretentiousness poisons his work."

I've noticed that so many students fall into the same trap McKee observes in aspiring screenwriters--believing that what is not is more significant than what is. My attitude in high school and college oozed this belief as well. It's only in the last 2 years that I have begun to integrate the 'what is' into my paradigm.

The connection McKee makes between valuing what is not and pretentious behavior accurately describes today's culture as well. The lens we often use in Campus Crusade is capacity--many people have no real experience in the trenches of ministry, yet seem think they know what is best and would do it differently if they were in charge--surprisingly 99% of these people have never really been in charge of anything, and wouldn't you know it 'pretentiousness poisons their work.'

As a change agent myself, this is hard to write as I enjoy challenging the status quo and pursuing what is not, but seeking proactive change in light of REALITY is powerful. When change is initiated and led in light of reality and through the status-quo channels, it's rewarding and inspiring.

Here's the book cover if you're interested in looking for it...

Lessons from the vine

My family recently returned from a 6 week journey. Days before I left, a friend of mine sent a picture message of the grapes on my grape-vine with the caption, "Maximus Come Home." I don't identify with Maximus from Gladiator in terms of his military prowess--I do identify with his longing for home--wife, children, and land to take care of.

I spent most of this morning tending my grape vine by removing the weeds and pruning the superfluous leaves and shoots. In a job with intangible results, it's so refreshing and fulfilling to take care of something tangible.

2 Transferable Lessons learned from my grape vine:

1. Competition and stress strengthen the vine--The shoot that I nearly destroyed with a metal wire turned out to be twice as thick as the shoot with no trauma. Stress causes the vine to employ greater resources to ensure survival--Why do I seem to think that the 'right' path contains a lack of stress? Why do I believe that stressing people out in a healthy way by stretching their capacity and developing their skills should be avoided?
2. Small and frequent outperforms big and infrequent care of the vine--Being gone for almost 6 weeks, my vine was surrounded by weeds, wild grass with deep roots, and insects who began munching on the leaves. My personality is home-run orientated. But by preferring to do one big thing instead of many little things to accomplish a task, I often tire and run out of energy. One of my goals this year is to work small and frequently. I'm hoping that it will increase my effectiveness with large, intangible tasks such as building a network of community and business people who will invest resources in my campus ministry.

My grape vine early Spring...