Tag: community

Why Not Wednesday: Touching History…Creating Irony

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There are few times when you realize that you’re not just seeing or reading about history, but you’re touching and hearing it in a way that is profound. I’ve had a few of those moments, but this one was unique. Not long ago I went to the Restoration Center for the Museum of Flight in Everett, Washington. I went to see a plane, but walked away with something unexpected. This event led me to believe we need more irony in ministry.

The Story

Being a plane buff, and not losing my awe and wonder aspect from my childhood, I just had to visit the center (I was afraid to fly as a child, ironic). The main reason for my visit was in having hopes fulfilled of boarding a de Havilland Comet. The Comet was the first jetliner, designed during late WW II in Britain. To actually board one was a dream come true. I remember seeing pictures of it in books or web sites about aviation. It was a beautiful plane. Amazing how the one I was on flew in 1959, ten years after the first one flew. (It was also a bit ironic to be onboard a British made plane that was used by a Mexican airliner only yards away from the Boeing factory.) So, mission accomplished, I set my mind to look at the other stuff, and then head for home.

Irony is the state of affairs that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects to find. As I interacted with some of the volunteers who restore aircraft, I was amazed by the quality of their work and the amount of time they took, normally about 10-15 years per aircraft. These guys in their retirement years seem more productive then many my age. A whole blog post could be written on their work ethic. Some of the guys took us to a photo album and shared stories about war stories, lost friends or projects they had done. This moved beyond the seeing history to hearing and touching it in a profound way. One gentlemen really stood out, though.  Ironically again, he doesn’t like planes, he just loves electronics.

This gentleman grew up in Eastern Europe and started to head West during WWII. He learned multiple skills, languages and talents to gain the “freedom” (as he put it) of the West. This eventually led to him being able to come to the New World. Feeling a lack of education, he had a passion to be a life-long learner and still pursues that, though his time is invested more in reflection now. Visiting with me at the time was a friend who works regularly with electronics. My friend stated, “This man has already forgotten more than I’ll ever know.” The gentlemen worked on technologies still employed successfully today, and is still hard at work using his skills. His story was the interaction of history, passion, family, love, pride and work. His last words to me were: “Pastor, I don’t know why God put me through all this and allowed me to go through what I did. But, I pray the Lord’s Prayer every night, in the five languages I’ve learned. This gives me great peace.”

The conversations with these seasoned men was a profound experience. It led to a greater appreciation for life, freedom, hard work, and friendship. Reflecting on this experience, I wonder how many people would actually hear and understand the implications of what these men shared. Then, I realized some would. It may be one, it may be more, and the epiphany may come years down the road. It happens at ironic moments.

Here is the Why Not:

We need to cultivate irony. Preaching and teaching cultivates and readies the ground for the ironic moments of life to take route. Learning may happen during teaching and preaching, but change, understanding and epiphany often occur in the most weird or unexpected venues. It occurs in the hallway, the older person sharing a story or comment, bed time conversations, but rarely in the classroom. Training your ministry team to cultivate and prepare for irony, or the unexpected, is just as important as training to teach well. And this thought came from a person who was scared of flying as a boy, is a plane buff… well, you heard the story. But, here is the thing: The one group of people who have the ability to fully produce irony in our ministries is seasoned saints.

Book Review: Think Orange by Reggie Joiner

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“As leaders our primary purpose is not to keep our children in church, but to lead them to be the church.” (p. 217)

Think Orange will be the defining work on Children’s Ministry & Family Ministry for quite some time. A significant discussion within the church is the relationships between the church, the family, and the various generations within both. From a methodology standpoint, Think Orange gives a road map to answer these questions. The book’s strengths are in explaining the why and what questions of a Family Ministry. There are other resources by the ReThink group that address the how.

The why question is critical
While there are many who do not appreciate or think philosophically, what you believe truly effects what you do. Reggie Joiner does an excellent job of explaining the essential role of both the family, the church and how they are combined and interact through leveraging community. A continual frustration of mine in Children’s Ministry is how programs or materials merely view parents as important, not essential. Think Orange views parents as essential! The combination or synergy of the family with church produced produces a powerful result. Reggie states: “2 combined influences make a greater impact than just 2 influences.” (p. 15) This principle, along with others, gives practical guidance to living out the truths of Scripture, in particular the parents’ role in discipling their children and the church’s role in equipping the saints for ministry.

The what question is helpful
What is needed is a collaborative model for family ministry, and not a hap hazard, random, or departmentalized one. Essential #1: Integrate Strategy, starting on page 110, is the most critical section answering what we need. A professor of mine often used the term “braiding,” getting various things to work together.  Having an integrated strategy helps all areas of family ministry to be on the same team and working towards the same goal. Said another way, it teaches children about the church by being a church. As a child grow up in the church, he or she is taken to another level at each life stage, including transitions between life stages. With society causing more and more fragmentation, the church needs to be a place that brings people together. Think Orange understands the equilibrium between families together, age appropriateness, and being one church. This equilibrium is a result from Reggie high view of community. Children are not the church of tomorrow but the church of today.

Final Thoughts
The book’s design and layout is helpful for those who are sequential & analytical thinkers, or the more abstract & random thinkers. It offers many ideas, discussion questions and insights. The book can be read sequentially, treated as a manual or encyclopedia on family ministry methodology. The charts and quotes that stand out were extremely well done and help to navigate the book.

Reggie shares frequently how the ideas translated into what was done at North Point. One should be careful to distinguish between example and what is/ what works at North Point. This is normally distinguishable, but there are times when it may be confusing. This is not a criticism, just something to be aware of. Another point that stands out and one should be aware of is Reggie’s humility. He gives permission to disagree with him, and even states that he may disagree with himself. This tone and attitude is refreshing and should be more prevalent within the church.

The Bottom Line
Think Orange is a critical work to navigate through if you are serious about impacting yours and other children to be the church, not merely attend church! Its strength is in family ministry methodology, with a close secondary strength in ministry philosophy.

Why Not Wednesday?

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This is my redux into blogging. Writing helps sharpen and clarify ideas, generate discussion, and help expand one’s thinking. I find blogging to be a great forum because ideas can be fairly processed, and still “raw” or in their infancy.  What I enjoy about blogging is you enjoy the real-time struggle of ideas, or a person’s reflection on them. After being away for a while, I thought it was time to jump back in.

Why Blog?
I love books, classes and workshops (oh my). However, the ideas are often much more polished and removed. This is a good thing. Polished presentations are not an enemy. What I find is great works later generate into workshops which then generate books and then generate into classrooms. They are far removed from the start of their “success” or venture, often by years. Who wouldn’t like to be a fly on the wall during early discussions of great works? Blogging allows some insight into this.

The Idea
I read a quote that many great ideas were lost because they were not written down. Or, perhaps failed and did not have the resources or discussion needed to make them great. The other side of great works is they just pursued something and it happened. Success is based on two things: God and community (1 Cor. 12, Eph. 4). The advantage now of social media is the expansion of leveraging community.  I am not saying I have great ideas, or even good ones for that matter. Many have heard the cliche the journey is more important then the destination. That’s the intent of this blog. It’s my journey for better or worse.

Why Not?
“Why Not Wednesdays’ deals with creativity and off the wall ideas. It’s the drawing board, or better said the napkin. The ideas may not work, barely work, or are just out there. They can be as little as a game idea, or as big as a new methodology. Living out what we believe should encourage us to take risks, fail often, and be pleasantly surprised when God crabs a hold of something and lets it work. That is another aspect of ‘Why Not Wednesday;’ If it aint broke, break it!

The bottom line:
I’m blogging to sharpen my ideas and writing ability. I will be discussing things I’m passionate about: learning, dreams, and living out what I believe. I thought it would be appropriate to start posting on Wednesday, as that is the day I’ll deal with the dreaming and creativity aspect of life and ministry.