Rules of Thumb for Change Agents

Steve has listed these rules of thumb for change agents:

• Stay alive – care for yourself and keep a life
• Start where the system is – empathy for the group and the people
• Look for green zones – places of promise
• Innovation is as simple as a good idea, initiative and a few friends – work with the willing
• Celebrate well – build in lots of success milestones
• Light many fires – utilise the complexity of any group by seeking movement in as many places as possible
• Keep optimistic – with a focus on the better future

from “Rules of thumb for change agents”, a chapter by Shepard in Organization Development Classics, 1997.)

I reckon they are helpful.

Prayer Window

How do you go at remembering to pray for things that you want to pray for?

Lots of people have systems in place to help prompt them to pray for things.

I loved this idea about a prayer window that I read about here.

Impact of Interdenominational Organisations ...

I work for an interdenominational evangelical organisation.

I love that and there are so many great things that organisations like mine bring to the Christian spectrum.

However, there are some impacts of interdenominationalism.

Rory ponders whether in seeking to downplay the things that we don't agree on we lose some things and things that are important in the discipleship journey.  There are impacts, for example, of downplaying the sacraments.  This may not be significant in the interdenominational context that we are involved in together; however, often these situations shape our theology and practice strongly and we carry these influences over into the whole of our church and life contexts.  This certainly does impact the importance some place on the sacraments amongst other things - and may well have broad implications.

What do you reckon?

What is your land?

What is yours to toil? To work? To plow?

Have you found it?

Are you working it?

Are you plowing it?

What would it look like to look for it, to find it, to work it, to plow it?

It takes courage to find your land ... to work it ... to plow it ... to trust for things to grow.

(inspired by this blog post)

Discipling People Older Than You

It's been great over a number of years to play a significant role in the lives of some people who are older than I am.

For some people this is quite strange and sometimes people feel a bit uncertain about how they might go about being in an intentional discipling or mentoring role with someone who is older than they are.

This is a great 3 minute video that speaks just to that topic and says some quite helpful things.

Ideas

Ideas - so often we think they come from nothing.  We treat them as if they come out of thin air.  Sometimes it seems like that.  Those moments are precious.  Far more often, however, we have to work for our ideas, or at least work for the space that allows them to come.

Cheryl Lawrie's words on this struck me the other week:

"I remember how to have ideas now. It’s 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. You have to do the hard work of being interested in the world; of being in different places, of delving into really complex areas of life, of being interested in other people’s wisdom and experience and way of interacting with their world, of not being an expert. And then the ideas just come."

Standing for Something

"The best way to be missed when you're gone is to stand for something when you're here". Seth Godin

As I read this in a blog post a little while ago it had me thinking.

How often is it hard for us to stand for something?  Often I back away from standing for the things that are most important to me.  How about you?  But I know it is true that standing for things matters.

I'm aiming to stand for the things that matter to me.

What is it that you need to stand for this week?

A Prayer for You

Love these words - and I pray them for all who read this:

May you continue to fall more deeply in love with Jesus.

May you take time to simply be in his presence.

May you trust his work in you.

May you be blessed as you follow where he leads.

(words from this blog post)

Communion Liturgy

Here is a Communion Liturgy with great words.  It from a community on the other side of Australia but on the blog of someone on the other side of the world: how global are we!

It begins:

The table of bread and wine is now to be made ready.
It is the table of company with Jesus.
And of all those who love him
and choose the way of discipleship.

It is the table Jesus shared with all the wrong people
And its open boundaries challenge our selective friendships
It is the table of communion with creation
In which Christ became incarnate
And it anticipates the day when all creation
Will celebrate the fullness of life

So, come to the table,
You who have much faith
And you who would like to have more;
You who have been to this sacrament often,
And you who have not been for a long time;
You who have tried to follow Jesus,
And you who have failed.

Come.

It is Christ who invites us to meet him here.

----------

Read the post for more ...

Spiritual Practices

Embodying rhythms or practices into my life has been a constant journey for me over the last decade or so.  It feels like I'm finally getting somewhere in that pursuit.
This is a great post that speaks about practices - and links spiritual practices with any other practices in life.

America - Washington DC

I went to the US in May and I've been meaning to write some of the things from that trip up for some time.  I thought I would write up things from each city.

I was really in DC for the Children, Youth and a New Kind of Christianity Conference.  I will write up a post about the conference some other time.

I loved DC - and would love to go back.  So much history, so much of interest, so much to do and see. It was great staying really close to everything at a really basic but sufficient hotel - the Hotel Harrington.

We got a two day pass on one of the tourist buses - and that worked really well for me.  I loved seeing lots of things and being able to decide what I wanted to go back to.

Given the amount of time I had not at the conference, I ended up seeing a good amount of DC: the White House (from outside), the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum, into the Art Gallery to see the Impressionist section, the Air and Space Museum (including the biggest McDonalds!), Washington Monument, Martin Luther King Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean and Vietnam War Memorials, Capitol Hill, Georgetown and the National Cathedral.  Wow!

I loved so much - and would love to do it with more time, and to see some key things which I didn't get to see.  There was so much good stuff that I couldn't pick a favourite.  I was certainly struck by the Martin Luther King Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War Memorial.  Amazing places of acknowledgement.  I had significant moments at all of these places.

Sacred Idleness

One of my favourite quotes is a George Macdonald one: "there is such a thing as sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected."

This post discusses a recent NY Times article about The Busy Trap - and discusses the benefits of the type of idleness George MacDonald is talking about.

The Girl with the Dove Tattoo

I don't think I've ever finished a book within one week of the publication date before - even an ebook!

Brian McLaren's latest short fictional ebook, The Girl with the Dove Tattoo, is somewhat paving the way for his new non-fiction book that will come out in September.

Once again, I enjoyed the way in which Brian uses fiction to help us think and reflect on the real issues at play.  However, it was a particular interaction in the book that most inspired and impacted me - where the character Jesus is urging the character Crystal to follow him.  

Once again, I felt myself urged to put everything else aside and follow Jesus in practical ways that make a difference in our world and bring about peace, love and justice.

Live in the Difference

Live in the Difference

John Westerhoff

Don't try to make a difference--be willing to live in the difference God has made and continues to make.

(via inward/outward)

The Radical Trust of Rest

Rest ... it is so important.

What hinders you from rest?

I think if we are honest it is often because we don't trust God.

I mentioned to someone the other day that I reckon one of our key issues is that we don't accept our finiteness.

How differently would be live if we trusted God and accepted our finiteness?  As I've grown in these qualities, rest comes so much more easily.

With this in mind, I was encouraged by Christine Sine's post that spoke of a book she had been reading that spoke of "the radical trust of rest".

Texting or phone calls?

What are your preferred methods of communication?  There are so many options these days.  I've had many conversations about this topic.  Sometimes, these have been sensitive as a friend and I work out how we use various communication tools differently and share with one another what it might mean to love each other well and as we work to understand each other.  Often these have been profitable and beneficial to the relationship.  Do you think about how you communicate, what you are trying to communicate and the best tool for that and what the person/people you are communicating with would prefer?  Do you text, phone (on mobile or home number?), Facebook message, email, snail mail or speak face-to-face?  Do you communicate with those around you your preferences?

I reckon much fruit comes from us thinking these issues through and this is an interesting post around the topic.

Grief - boring for the uninitiated

Clare Bowditch has written the words that speak my feelings and thoughts strongly - yet again.

She sings: The thing about grief is that it gets kinda boring for the people who don't yet know.

Indeed!

The question is the answer

"The question is the answer" is a phrase those who know me well are probably used to me saying.  Another favourite saying of mine is "live into the questions".  One wouldn't be surprised then to find that I loved the poem below as I read it on this blog:

Never kill a question;
it is a fragile thing.
A good question deserves to live.
One doesn’t so much answer it as converse with it,
Or, better yet, one lives with it.
Great questions are the permanent
and blessed guests of the mind.
But the greatest questions of all are those which build bridges to the heart,
addressing the whole person.
No answer should be designed to kill the question.
When one is too dogmatic or too sure,
one shows disrespect for truth and the question that points toward it.
Beyond my answer there is always more,
more light waiting to break in,
and waves of inexhaustible meaning
ready to break against wisdom’s widening shore.
Wherever there is a question, LET IT LIVE!

Gerhard Frost, from “Bless My Growing”

Publishers represented at Children, Youth and a New Kind of Christianity Conference

One of the reasons that I went to America recently was to attend the Children, Youth and a New Kind of Christianity Conference in Washington, DC.  I will write more on this soon.  However, in response to a readers' question, Brian McLaren has done a list of the publishers who were at this conference and who he hopes might be people who write useful resources for those interested in this topic over the coming years.  You might like to stay tuned to what these publishers produce!

Kindle Highlights to Evernote

Some of the readers of this blog are users of Evernote.  Some are also Kindle users.  I'm loving my fairly new iPad and being able to read ebooks.  It has made such a difference to my reading.

Here is a post regarding getting your Kindle highlights into Evernote.  I'm still yet to try it - but thought that some readers might be interested in it.