The Main Thing

Returning back from Australia and having coached pastors seeking church transformation it has sharpened my focus on ensuring the main thing is truly the main thing.
It is so easy to be deflected from the main thing.
No deflection more common than Christians under your charge not getting it.
I accept, as Dallas Willard writes, that "non-discipleship is the elephant in the room." But so often the correcting of that elephant leads to the main thing no longer being the main thing.

The main thing is not discipleship.

Neither is the main thing evangelism.

The main thing is the Gospel, or as Jesus defined it, the coming of the Kingdom of God.

This is bigger than discipleship, this is broader than evangelism.

Discipleship can so often be both insular and individual; evangelism can so often be formulaic and point in time oriented.

The Gospel, the coming of the Kingdom of God, is corporate and tangible, process and story.

The elephant in the room often leads to us shrinking everything, and this is the call of the Main Thing: KEEP IT GOD SIZED.

So we return from Australia and launch three emphasis:

1. Our biggest and boldest Alpha Course yet .....and on Sunday past Redeemer's Church people threw magnetic lights onto a huge wall each with names of people they are going to boldly, courageously, matter of factly invite to take a second look at faith and Jesus Christ. 942 names - 942 precious people.




2. Help guide When I Grow Up (a charity to empower children in extreme poverty - http://www.whenigrowup-global.com/) to take a huge step in seeing a High school built in the Huruma slum, Nairobi, Kenya, as well as expand our partners amazing work in Guatemala and Haiti.




3. Join with some incredible volunteers from redeemer's Church to see new initiatives begin in communities around Reedley - REACH out to extend the Kingdom of God.

It's the main thing ......and we are working hard in the next few months to keep the main thing the main thing.

Its big.

My farewell to Australia

I’m eating my last brekkie in Australia as I prepare for my flight home.
Poached Pear and Granola washed down by an Italian Red Orange Tiro –tasty.
Not that its classic Aussie food – it’s an Italian Café in the airport.
That’s classic Australia, certainly metro Australia. It is a very global country – masses of people of immigrated to Australia in the last few decades and you sense it. Unlike the US where the masses tend to assimilate into the strong US culture – Australia has a very eclectic feel and look to it.

Initially Australia felt very English and American – I was disappointed hoping for something different. But after being in 4 of their main cities while the English/America flavor is still strong – I’m beginning to discern the other myriad of flavors in this vast country.

Interesting – first airport that I’ve been in which has announcements and adverts in English and Chinese.

Would I come back to Australia – probably.
Would I want to live here – probably not.
Unsure if that has to do with the isolation Australia has – Perth is the most isolated city in the world …but truth be told its other cities on the other side of the mass of land that Australia is are to a degree still isolated (long flights to most other places).
It could still be my British heritage – Australia does have a candidness that slides towards crudeness and/or classlessness that does not appeal.
Or it could be that the Cadbury’s is still not quite as smooth and creamy as the British Cadbury’s!!! (Yesterday I did discover Cherry Ripe Bar – cherries wrapped in coconut wrapped in dark chocolate – why did I not discover them 16 days ago!)

From a Christian perspective I thought Australia would have been more like Britain – postChristian moving towards antichristian. But I did not feel that nor was I told that. Take the Salvation Army I was working with – they are highly respected here with a known and accepted strong Christian thumbprint.
There are many large churches here and people while not attending church were not antiChristianity.

So I get ready to board my plane back to California (say that here to people and they are so impressed you live in California …..although my 72 year old woman cab driver this morning did ask me if I was taking any money back with me because CA was broke!!).

Back to sun and heat.
Back to crazy LAX – worst airport in the world.
Back to no Cadbury’s – but to good Mexican food.
Back to news shows that are all about the US with maybe a I minute world report!
Back to Christianity shrinking …..but the Christians don’t realize it.
Back to polarizing politics.
Back to a country where everyone flies a flag (only in the US – no other country in the world).
Back to a weakening dollar.
Back to a country that feels and acts tired …..more than every before in its history.

But ….back to a Church that is growing.
Back to a congregation filled with generous people (when I share how much our church of 800 raises every year people literally gasp!)
Back to a church/country where people are positive and see the glass half full (mainly a good characteristic).
Back to a church where vision is central …..and it’s a vision of Christ.
Back to a church where politics are few if any.
Back to a church where people invite others to come and explore faith.
Back to a church where leaders can lead.
Back to a church that exists for lost people.

My bag is stuffed full with Cadbury’s and I’m ready for a season of more growth and more new things happening to see as many people as possible reached with the Gospel and as many people as possible becoming poverty change agents – defending and helping some of the most vulnerable orphans and children in the world.

17 hours to go.

Two icons

My last day in Australia.

Taught for 6 hours and then as my colleague Paul Borden spoke to a Chinese and Australian group I grabbed a cab and headed downtown.

Time to see the 2 iconic Sydney landmarks – Sydney Opera House and Sydney Bridge.

I was too late to climb up the outside of the Bridge (next time – looks fun), but I took a ferry and sailed out into the bay, past the Opera House, under the Bridge and up to Darling Harbor. Found a neat Malaysian Restaurant, ate well, drank a smooth China beer called Lucky and walked across the river to look at Sydney from another angle.

Sydney is a city with an impressive skyline, a beautiful location, appears very clean and modern, hugely multicultural and a very appealing city.

So I gave it a good 4 hours of visiting - mixture of tiredness and a long flight tomorrow saw my energy levels sag …..and no even Lucky or Cadbury’s could resuscitate my energy.

But maybe I’ll be back.

The Salvo’s seemed appreciative (even although the Divisional Commander in thanking me for coming called me Roger!!!! ….do I look like a ‘Roger’? Keeps you humble.).
For them the work of transformation in the Eastern Territory is at beginning stages.
Would be interesting to visit in two years to see if traction is happening.

In leadership, and especially change leadership, momentum is crucial.
Our time here has been trying to generate such momentum. Get Officers into the dialogue of growth, transformation, outward focus, missional action.
Reintroduce them to what is the main thing.
Over 2 days or 3 days of teaching and discussing bring to the fore of their thinking what it would look like to lead missional corps.

Momentum.

Mine’s is diminishing.
16 days on the road is fun but weary – especially for an introvert like me.
Space and silence has been rare.
So unlike really godly pastors I’ll not be leading the person sitting next to me on my flight home in the sinners prayer after drawing the cross diagram on a napkin during my 17 hours flight home …..instead I’ll be sitting with my headphones on, ignoring them (I will introduce myself as I slip my headphones on) and taking much needed space …in a huge Airbus 380 double decker plane with 550 people on board

Another day another city.

So today I arrived in Sydney - a short flight from Melbourne.
It's the last leg of my tour of DownUnder and its time to dig deep to maintain passion and energy.

One of the sessions I'm teaching is a called "It's All About Sunday, Stupid."
I had to ask for special permission to use the word "stupid" among the Salvo's who come out of the holiness tradition.

It's an adaptation from the successful run by Bill Clinton for the White House. He had to overcome a 90% job approval by the elder Bush - riding high due to victory in Kuwait - and his chief strategist James Carville, came up with the slogan "It's all about the economy stupid" to turn the election onto the topic most Americans put as #1 - how much money they have to spend.
Brilliant strategy and Clinton won!

My session spins the title to suggest that it's actually all about preaching (It's all about the preaching stupid!").

Within my teaching I mention that one of the biggest speakers bureau in the US have as their number 1 requirement for someone to be placed on their books - they must have passion!!

So - as I get near my 37th teach I am fighting the tendency for passion to slip away.

Cadbury's is helping me.
But of more help is another group of Salvo officers eager to learn and eager to see their Corps become healthy and growing.

The central Sydney/New South Wales division is lead by a Divisional Commander who spend time in both Papa New Guinea and Russian. They have a strong mindset that the Army exists to reach people with Jesus first .....and so they lead this Division to push outwards. They are missional.

This makes all the difference.
If a Corp or a Church can grasp that the church/corp is not existing as keepers of an aquarium but fishers of people; if they can grasp they are not custodians of the saints but missionaries to lost people - the church's passion is ignited and life enters.

So, Sydney looks like being a good place - there's more Cadbury's, cool weather and an outward focused Salvation Army Division.

Firsts

So Adelaide has been a number of firsts for me.

The first place I’ve been to whose time zone is 30 minutes different from their neighbors.
The first time I’ve stayed in a swamp area ……my hotel is surrounded by water that the locals call wetlands – but that’s simply a posh term for a swamp.
The first time I’ve eaten at a restaurant called Ned Kelly’s – the closest thing Australia has to a local hero …who was a thief, murdered and criminal – Robin Hood without the good! Speaks into Australia’s criminal beginnings.
The first time I attended an Aussie Rules Football game – wow!!! 18 players on each team, a field the size of two football/soccer fields and the score was Adelaide Port 21: Collingwood 159 – yep that reads 159. A 138 differential. And it rained, and we got soaked, and we ate a meat pie, and I was cold, and you could only see a fifth of the action, and ………

Adelaide.

It was also a first being at a Salvation Army Corp that is low on the standard army rituals and bigger on being outward focused. Golden Grove Corp is a suburb of Adelaide and where Majors Paul and Bev Beeson serve. Few in uniform, no band or songsters and a corp trying hard to reach new people.

But here’s the stark reality. After 8 years of being there few guests comes through their front door of Sunday worship. It is a corp of around about 100 people.

The scale of the problem the Salvos are facing, and the scale of the problem many churches in Australia are facing is that most people do not see the need for the church. Add to that a church that seems removed from reality and you have a recipe for a weak church and a post-Christian nation.

Australia is to a degree a few years behind the UK – already a post-Christian nation where only 4% attend church.
Australia is to a degree a few years ahead of the US!!

One of the things my trip down under is doing for me is reminding me that the reality of Australia is about to become the reality of the US (already declined to 12% church attendance from 45% twenty years ago) and church leaders there (myself included) need to keep leading in ways that makes Christianity relevant and the church vibrant and living in the real world.

Goodbye Adelaide …..a 1 hr flight and I’m finishing this blog in Melbourne overlooking the airport as I sleep before catching an early flight to Sydney for the last leg of my 4 stop tour.

What firsts will I experience in Sydney?

PS …opted out of a Spanish email reply. Decided to let anonymous remain anonymous and focus my energies on the change and expansion I need to lead, rather than the people who don’t really want to be led. Been teaching Salvo leaders the principle of wasted energy which is lost energy.
Thanks for the wise blog replies sent to me.

What's 70 and what's 30.

I’m sitting at Melbourne airport waiting my flight to Adelaide. Another good day with some great Salvation Army Officers eager to see church/corp transformation.

We talked many things included Sample’s 70/30 rule.
This rule states that you will spend 70% of your time doing trivial, routine tasks and only 30% of your time on the big, major, significant leadership issues.
This goes against the grain.
Most of us think we will spend 70% of our time on the big, important issues and 30% on routine, menial tasks.
Steve Sample says it’s the other way around.
To quote him “many people want to be leader but few want to do leader.”
This rule is always a reality check to leaders wanting to see growth and development. They imagine that when their church puts to bed silly arguments and specializing in trivial things they will spend all their time on the real stuff.
Not so.

Not long after teaching that rule today I received a 70% kind of email. The kind of email you want to ignore.
The kind of email you think a healthy church leaves behind.
The email was a guest who had visited our church several times telling me the things she/they did and didn’t like ……with obviously more that they didn’t like than like.

Two things bothered me.
Firstly – there’s no name. They have some weird email address and they omitted to place their name at the bottom of their essay! They didn’t care to tell me who they are.
Always sad.

Normally we immediately bin anonymous mail – but this one warrants a reply …..because of the second thing that bothered me.
They strongly disagreed with us putting our Scripture verses on the screens in both English and Spanish.
And I quote “by this time the Spanish community should be able to understand what it looks like to read the names of the books of the Bible, the reference verses and page numbers.”
We live in a community that is 70% Latino with many in our church fluent in both but eager to invite friends or family who only speak Spanish to explore faith and Jesus Christ.

I have to tell you I initially thought I had misread what they were saying and they must have been thanking us for having English and Spanish. But slowly I reread and yes – there are supposed Christians who are racist and bigoted. Simply put they are arrogant, proud and elitist. Or, to say it another way – they are not living the way of Jesus.

So I will count to 10, or maybe 10,000 or maybe I need to count to ten million and then compose an email reply that stops me from sinning in my reply.

I would count this as part of the 70% but perhaps this is more of a 30% work. This is one of the big, major issues – the Gospel is at stake, the truth of Christ is at stake, the testimony of His Name is at stake.

So ……… I sit in Melbourne Airport contemplating my words.

Tomorrow another day of teaching and another group of Salvation Army Officers.
Tomorrow I will be writing an email reply fully in Spanish!!!!!!!! LOL.

The uniform

So I saw Melbourne today - through the window of a car as I was driven to my next hotel room. Although I am still about 19km from the city itself. Tomorrow at 7.15am I cross the city on a 2 hour drive to teach again a group of Salvation Army Offficers. "Melbourne through a car window" - the possible title for a very boring travel guide.

Last night I met a senior Salvation Army Major. The only one at the conference with a uniform on (until we held our final session today when several officers appeared dressed to retrun to the real world!).

I've struggled with the whole uniform thing. It seems so exclusive, so 'we are different', it seems a possible significant barrier between them and the people they/we want to reach with the love of Jesus.

Yet last night I learned something very interesting.
The Major walks most days to work (at least parking lot to office). Seemingly most days as he walks to work with his uniform on someone, a stranger, a fellow commuter, a member of the general public will stop him and say "thank you for what you do."Amazing.

Its a badge
A badge in Australia that carries credibility.
A worthy badge.

Of course I'm not advocating we all get a dark blue, rather old fashioned looking, average cut, shapeless uniform.

We have a uniform that we just need to begin to wear - the uniform of love.
Imagine if Christians took on that uniform.
Imagine if we served, washed feet, forgave, showed grace, unconditionally loved the way jesus asks us to.
Imagine if we began to wear the 'Follower of Jesus' uniform.

That one is not a barrier, nor shapeless, nor old fashioned looking.
That one has real style and fits perfectly.

Still not seen a kangaroo

Day 7 in Australia and no kangaroo sightings yet.
Truth be told, the last 2 days I haven't seen much at all.
I've walked from my bedroom to the conference room, to the dining room, to the laundry room and back to my bedroom.

I have heard a Kookaburra bird.
But still to see a kangaroo ...or Melbourne (where I'm staying!).

But what I have seen is so much better than seeing a Kangaroo.

I've seen pastors decide there are necessary endings they need to make when they return to their corps.
I've seen pastors face honestly their biggest fears - including the fear that perhaps they haven't got the gift of preaching and they need to rethink their role -so many brave, courageous pastors who do not want to be an obstacle in God's way.
I've seen pastors dream of what could be an no longer ask 'why?', but say 'why not!'
I've seen pastors grapple with the big stuff, ask the central questions, wrestle with important tensions.
I've seen tears of hope for what God could do in and through their leadership.

So - no Skippy yet, but I never came for that.

It's like going to Kenya.
I sit in the Nairobi airport and I see tourist after tourist buy tee-shirts with giraffes on them.
But they miss it.
Kenya is not about giraffes or elephant sightings - Kenya is about the people.

My trip down under is not about seeing the Gold Coast, a kangaroo or Mick Dundee - this trip is all about seeing church leaders grasping what God can do in and through them as they turn their churches or corps outward to be all about what God is about -reaching people who are lost.

I want more of these sightings.

Mooroolbark

It wins the prize for the strangest sounding place I’ve been to in Australia – and believe me they have some strange sounding names ….. Burrumbuttock, Gooloogong and Wagga Wagga to name a few.

Mooroolbark is my destination for a 3 day conference with Salvation Army Officers.

We’ve talked before about how leaders define reality, but today we also shared that leaders move people to a preferred future. This is leadership. Moving people.

So my day began at 4am and a text from a friend - Sean Bautista – a United pilot who regularly flies into Sydney and Melbourne.
‘U in Melbourne’ his text read
‘Yes’ I managed to rouse myself to reply …..as I looked at the time and groaned….adding on that ‘I am in Mooroolbark an hour from the airport.’
‘I’m there for 2 hours enroute back to Sydney no time to meet’ was Sean’s reply.
‘You mean you woke me at 4am to tell me we can’t meet up!’ I texted back and tried to return back to sleep.

His text moved me – firstly to happiness thinking of sharing a pint with him.
But then it moved me again …..and again……and again…..and again as I struggled to sleep more.

Moving people.

Historically God’s people were nomads – moving was not hard for them.
Sadly, the Church is anything but nomadic.
Movement is painfully slow for many Christians.
We have lost our ability to move.
And in losing our ability to move we don’t stay static we die.

Scripture says – where there is no vision the people perish.

Movement leads to life, non-movement leads to death.

This is why leadership is so vital.
Leaders move people.

Pray that a bunch of Salvo’s downunder become people movers.