We are super excited for the beginning of our third Fall series at Crash, entitled The Death of “They”.
This series wraps up our fall theme – Mind the Gap. We are discussing the gap that exists between “us and them” (that would be between followers of Christ and the rest of the world).

In our limited experience, we continue to discover many Christians who consider non-Christians to be “they”. Our conversation is continually outsider vs. insider. Recently, we heard the story of a woman who stopped going to the woman who cut her hair because the woman was not a Christian. The woman customer’s feelings? “I don’t know what we would have to talk about if she’s not a Christian.”

This kind of thinking is far more pervasive that one might think and we feel that we are called to be gap-menders, seeking to make a shift from “they” to “you”. From talking about other people (“they”) to actually building relationships (“you”). It is a lot more difficult to speak disparagingly and harshly about people you know than you do not. There are fewer consequences and your conscience is less accountable because rebuke from a stranger means less than rebuke from a friend.

Sunday, November 1st will include a great jam from the band before the service, a powerful dramatic sketch by a guest artist, a visionary talk from Maxie Burch, and interaction with an incredible community of people. We would love to see you at Crash in the month of November.

I know its early – like 64 days or so early – for a year in review blog, but being sick and on energy-depleted status for the last few days has opened up my schedule, and amidst being caught up with all events in the world of sports (thank you SportsCenter, PTI, and Around the Horn), and watching several movies I had been meaning to get around to (Across the Universe – AMAZING, Adventureland – not bad, funny in parts), I have some personal reflections to share.

I have moved from being content to be a gap-minder to being burdened and called to be a gap-mender. In 2009, I believe this shift has happened in my life. It actually began in late 2008 as I was reading Numbers and Deuteronomy. This reading led to the series, The Joshua Generation, at Crash in January and February and my Fear or Hope sermon at North Phoenix’s main service in August. I have become unsatisfied and discontent with the idea of just finding, exploring and making a lot of noise about gaps that I discover – calling others to “mind” them with me. I have become burdened to become a gap-mender. Asking God the question, “Now that I know this, what is it that you want me to do?”
This year has been a time of growth for me. I believe I have become more teachable, more humble, more accessible. I have surprised myself with the people I have extended grace and openness too. Now, I could also give you the list of the areas where I haven’t made enough progress – both personally and professionally (boundaries, empowering other leaders, being vulnerable and transparent, clarity of vision and direction for the future).
But I look back at this year – a year of TRANSITION (graduating, getting ordained, celebrating my first anniversary with Dani) – and I am just grateful.
I want my life to be a compelling story for those watching. I pray that I am a likeable character who sacrifices for others. I pray that I am engaging the conflict that God has called me into and that I am not turning away from its challenges. Even if the resolution(s) don’t come as quickly as I would like, I pray that God transforms me in the process and that I have legendary tales to share and great adventures ahead of me.

There are more reflections to come, but this is one that I needed to own – publicly – so thanks for reading.

-Scott

It’s been a long time since I have missed 3 days of work being sick. Missed Crash, but I made Maxie’s Keynote and got some help from some who were there with this week’s “-isms”.

Maxie wrapped up our series, The Elephants Among Us, with a talk entitled, The Risk/Trust Factor, based on the story of Gideon from the book of Judges.

Some key thoughts from the talk include…
-BIG IDEA: Being a “gap mender” always begins with a commitment to risk and trust.
-What gaps need you to risk and trust, but you are not prepared?
-knowing what you know, what are you prepared to do?
-It isn’t just about identifying the gap but ultimately healing those gaps
- You need to be willing to risk. You don’t get trust without risking first.
- Trust is built to the risk.
-God appoints (and uses) inadequate gap menders.
- Gaps don’t stay the same – they get worse over time.
-Unresolved gaps have long-term consequences for all of us.
-God is in the mending agent, but He is not going to do it alone.
-Eventually, the only way open to mending the gap or addressing the elephant is risk and trust. We must risk/trust that God will produce in and through us the change we want to see.

For this Thursday’s edition of the video blog, I reviewed Donald Miller’s new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. This is my first video taken on my iCamera in my MacBook. So, if let me know your thoughts on quality. I may have to go back to my FlipCamera. Throw down some comments and I encourage you to read the book.
-Scott

So I could not make this up if I tried. But I saw something like this on another blog and thought I would share it here. These are screen shots from my computer this morning.

Evangelicals are….

I am learning that when it comes to monday-wednesdsay, if I don’t blog before 8am – it doesn’t happen!

I spoke at Crash on Sunday night, as a part of our series, “The Elephants Among Us”. I was WIPED OUT when I got home. Felt like an athlete who left it all on the field. But really felt the Holy Spirit and got pretty fired up, which apparently some people enjoy seeing.

Some nuggets from the talk based on Nehemiah 1-6…
-Sometimes the place where we find ourselves relationally leaves us hopeless and we decide to settle and live below.
-There was one elephant in Exodus 18; here in Nehemiah, that elephant has become fertile and is reproducing like a cat…there are baby elephants everywhere.
-We are going to talk about hope tonight, and not hope in a presidential candidate or a science-fiction super hero.
-Tonight you get the chance to become the hero.
-Big Idea: Hopeful people call hopeless people into an impossible task.
-When you are hopeless, you can’t imagine any task, much less an impossible one – but that very task may be the exit out of hopelessness that you need.
-An impossible task is something, when completed, that can only be explained by the movement of God.
-God often moves when someone get a burden for their people.
-Who are “your people”?
-I have nothing to say – and I say it regularly.
-We should learn from the Balloon Boy madness – get all the information first. SHUT UP and listen.
-I hate group projects…I romanticize my reasoning with academic excellence, scholarships, minimum GPAs, that kind of mumbo jumbo…
-But the real issue is that I am arrogant, prideful, and think I am better than everyone else. I refuse to surrender control and trust anyone. That’s too risky. So I just depend on myself.
-You can’t become whole on your own and you can’t become hopeful alone either.
-Hope is opposed. There are some people that don’t want you to hope again. Your hopeful living indicts them and they are convicted by it. You will be opposed.
-The church is not buildings, a campus, services, or bible studies. The church is people who strap on swords, who stand in the gap for you, who defend you when you are defenseless. That’s what the church is and that’s why you should be a part of it.
-Is there anything going on here – in our lives, in my life, in your life – where God’s involvement is the only explanation? Is this because we have no impossible task?
Questions:
-Who is your Nehemiah? OR Who needs you to be a Nehemiah in their life?
-What is your wall? (that common impossible task you can come together around)

If you were there on Sunday night, throw down your thoughts in the comments – I would love to dialogue with you.

Two important things to know.
1 – I am reading what I want now that I am done with seminary.
2 – I keep winning books online and getting the chance to share them with my sphere of influence. So you are reaping the harvest.

I encountered Steve Saccone’s book, Relational Intelligence, this way (via an online giveaway). I have heard Steve via the Mosaic Podcast and at the Awaken Conference. He serves in LA as a part of Mosaic, where he develops young leaders and some of my friends have worked under his leadership.

This is Steve’s first book and it speaks into an often unexplored area of leadership. Steve begins with the reality that many leaders accomplish their goals at the cost of their relationships with those they lead. A leader can show productivity, passion, imagination, and resourcefulness, but he or she can be relationally dumb in interacting with others. I have so many experiences with leaders in the church that knew the Bible well and had seminary degrees but lacked basic people skills that made their work difficult.

Some of my favorite nuggets from the book:
-In the past, authority and credibility were built on status, power or position, but in today’s world it’s built on power and trust. To be relationally intelligent, we must shift from a positional authority mind-set to the crucial mind-set of relational authority.
-Leaders treat people as a commodity. (OUCH!)
-When we love people well, we become the proof of God.
-Many leaders deflect responsibility and accountability instead of
absorbing it.
-We all have a little bit of Michael Scott in us.
-To be a person is to have a story to tell. (Isak Dinesen)
-If we want to be relational geniuses, we must learn to capitalize on moment’s when we see people’s values being lived out.

I could list so many great ideas here, but I think Steve makes his goal possible here by the content and context of this book. I think you and I can become more sensitive to our intuition and more aware of the people around us. I think we can develop new habits that are reflective of core values that remind us to value the people we are serving with, not just the task we are bound together in. In this process, “leaders realize that the more people they bring with them, the more powerful the effect they can have on changing the future and making the world a better place.”

As the African proverb states, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, bring others with you.”

Great book, Steve!

In the world of business books, Jim Collins seems to have the Midas touch. His first two books, Good to Great and Built to Last, were bestsellers millions times over and became ubiquitous sources of quotation and insight for leaders of all kinds.

After a five year break, Collins is back with a new (abliet much shorter) book, How the Mighty Fall. I am familiar with his first two books, but have not read either entirely. The genesis of this book came out of a question that Collins was confronted at a forum he was invited to speak at. He became intrigued with the question of, “Are America’s greatest days in front of or behind her?” As a student of businesses and their lives historically, Collins and his research consortium began studying companies that they had discovered through the Good to Great and Built to Last study.

Collins’ conclusion – why is it that companies wake up one day and find their greatest days behind them? or more simply – why do great companies fall? And is it possible for them to recover their greatness? Collins made a stunning discovery – the greatest destruction to companies that fall is largely self-inflicted. Their fall is not primarily a result of market shifts or “perfect storm” moments. These companies and their leaders sabotage themselves. “Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than what the world does to you”

Collins marks out this process in a five stage process.
1 – Hubris Born of Success
2 – Undisciplined Pursuit of More
3 – Denial of Risk and Peril
4 – Grasping for Salvation
5 – Capitulation to Irrelevance and Death

Collins also describes “well-founded hope” – the fact that some companies do recover and are able to restore what was almost lost. Collins give direction about how companies in these stages can respond in ways that have enabled others to avoid death and irrelevance.

The book has large amounts of documented research and footnotes (that I didn’t read because I was hungry and ready to eat lunch at the end of the book). If you are involved in leading or influencing any collective body – whether for profit or for other purposes – I think this book is worth your time.

I am a pretty big fan of Andy Stanley. In my experience with podcasts and leadership conferences, he is consistently the source of the most memorable principles. His book, Communicating for Change, has been the most helpful book for me in honing my skills as a communicator.

Recently, I won a copy of his new book, The Principle of the Path, via an online giveaway at Michael Hyatt’s blog (Hyatt is the CEO of Stanely’s publishing company). I devoured the book. Albeit simple, Stanley drills down important concepts.

The big idea of his book is “Direction, not intention, determines destination.” In the pages that follow, he outlines how we often brush off this statement in our lives as we believe that our desires and intentions are really what matter. Stanley reminds us – it only matters what we do, not what we hope or want or aspire to do.

Stanley describes how we ignore the fact that there are paths we move down to destinations we don’t anticipate or prepare for – many of which were very relevant to people I work with (divorce, bankruptcy, foreclosure, unemployment, etc.). Every decision is not simply a decision, but in fact, a step in a direction.

One of the biggest personal challenges was Stanely’s discussion of how we think our issue is not having the right information, when, in fact, the issue is not information, but submission. We refuse to believe that the information applies to us; we all believe that we will be the exception to the rule.

Very challenging read; a good reminder that simple concepts can be just as arresting and convicting as complex ones. I strongly recommend this book to everyone – regardless of whether you are a follower of Jesus or not. This principle applies to you. Your direction, not your intention, determines your destination.

This book lays out an incredible plan. Pastors Rick McKinley, Chris Seay, and Greg Holder describe how an incredible idea emerged from their frustration about pastoring people amidst the holiday season. They cast a vision before their communities – what if we became counter-cultural at Christmas time? What if we worshiped fully, spent less, gave more, and loved all?

The book is a quick read – by 110 pages, you are in the study guide. I got the book, along with a DVD based study, via a free giveaway on Rick McKinley’s Twitter. I was challenge to explore the possibilities of these four ideas. I know the challenge of Christmas, serving on the staff of a church with many staff that move at a breakneck pace during what should be a time of spiritual preparation.

A question and a quote embody the power of this book and the movement it represents:
“How can Christmas and the way we celebrate it still change the world?”
“The real value of Advent Conspiracy for my family was that we were able to articulate desires already deep within our souls.”

Dani and I are considering how we can engage Advent Conspiracy this Christmas and I am hoping to invite the college students and leaders I work with in Thrive College Ministry at North Phoenix to join me in this journey. I heartily recommend this book for anyone has paused in their celebration of Christmas and asked – “Is this all there is?”

For more info on Advent Conspiracy, check out www.adventconspiracy.org.
The book is available on Amazon.