Leaders live on the edge of their seats.

For all you non-soccer fans out there I’m about to educate you as to why the English Premier League (like all FIFA leagues , except the silly guys running the MLS) keeps you on the edge of your seat through until the final day of the season – every season.
Football (the real football …not what you guys in the US call football ….which truly should be called Throwball) does not operate to a play-offs system or a draft system. Every year in every league there is something to play for right through to game 39 of the season (though they play nearly 55 games with all the cup tournaments that run concurrent through the season).
One team wins the league but three teams are relegated out of that league (an immediate $40M financial loss). The top four clubs qualify for the next seasons Champions League in addition to the regular league (a minimum of $12M extra) and the fifth and sixth place team qualify for the Europa League (a minimum of $4M extra). Up to the last game of the season clubs are fighting to win, to finish in the top four, to finish in the top six, to avoid relegation. Every game is a meaningful game ……. so much to win; so much at stake if lose.

For the fans we sit on the edges of our seats until the last ball is kicked on the final day.

Just now we are six games away from the finish ….the tension is palpable (and I had to endure the previous ten games without the aid of chocolate due to Lent!).

Every game is meaningful and impactful – it edges you up the table, it slides you down….or it does to your competitor. Even the number of goals you score or concede is important as in a points tie goal difference counts!
It’s magical – exciting, captivating, essential viewing until May 13.
The NBA, NFL, MLB and the MLS could all learn how to keep every game and every fan watching until the final whistle.

Now let’s switch.

Both leadership and life are like the English Premier League. There is something to play for every minute, every move, every decision, every choice.

Let me speak into the leadership aspect of this.
There is no such thing as an empty, wasted or meaningless leadership shout. Leaders live on the edge of their seats – we seldom if ever slide back and sit comfy ……not until the final whistle is blown.
This brings intensity and I place intensity up at the top of the characteristics or quality every leader needs to have.
I’m not meaning that we act like that annoying ‘intense guy’ who can never smile, laugh or joke.
I’m meaning that we can never take our eye off the ball or judge a decision to be arbitrary or inconsequential.
If we lead without this intensity we will slide down the table and eventually be relegated.

One leader said it like this “when uncertainty is gone your leadership is no longer required.”

I think that’s a brilliant observation and speaks into this issue of constant intensity. The climate of leadership is always uncertainty – that why people need leaders. Fail to stay intense and the uncertainty will go – along with you.

If you want a study in a leader who knows how to make every minute, every moment count – check out Sir Alex Ferguson – the manager of Manchester United ….on their way to a record setting 20th English Premier League title.
How many games have Manchester United won in the last second of the game? It’s a higher percentage than any other professional football team. To the last dying second - that’s how intense Sir Alex’s is.
That’s how they keep winning the hardest league in the world.

Evolving in Monkey Town

So my friend Tim made his first ever book recommendation to me – Evolving in Monkey Town @ Rachel Held Evans.
I sat down last night and read it.
Interesting.
A fundamental southern Christian girl speaking out loud the questions fundamental southern girls shouldn’t ask and coming away with all the ‘wrong’ answers.
It’s gutsy.
It’s about the journey from the land of certainty and accepted Christianity to the new land of uncertainty, doubt and ‘that sounds better …. but are we allowed to believe that?’
Some of us have made that journey before.
It’s a journey that takes you away from a place you can never return to.

The journey most often begins through obtaining a different perspective – maybe listening to the story of a complete stranger, maybe through failure, maybe through doubt; maybe by entertaining a new question.

A question perhaps like this: Do we choose our worldviews or are they chosen for us?
Evans calls it the ‘cosmic lottery’.
If I had grown up in a modern Muslim household in, say, Afghanistan or Turkey, I would have faithfully honored the teachings of my parents and followed Islam like everybody else. The Christians worldview throws around terms like predestination and election, but it could look like just the luck of the draw.

And as you allow yourself to entertain new questions a journey begins.
A scary journey.
The fright comes in that you feel as though you have a faith malfunction, a glitch in the system. What you used to believe is spluttering and that spluttering involves even who God is, what God does.
That’s the fright.

You thought you were only questioning interpretations of who all are ‘saved’; is hell eternal or temporary; what’s the role of women; what or where is heaven; if we are pro-life we are pro all life so how does this impact war and the bad guys; which parts of the Bible are to be taken literally and which are not – and how do we tell?

But as you roam around in these topics you discover that these topics are interwoven into a bigger tapestry, a tapestry that is held together by who God is and what God does.

It’s scary to question God.
Is that even allowed?

But this is the journey; a journey that solidly believes God is open for questions and that’s what makes faith, faith.

I recommend Evolving in Monkey Town ….. I more recommend evolving in Reedley Town, Fresno Town, Nairobi Town, Clovis Town, Gourock Town,, Seattle Town.
Just keep evolving.
[Or maybe some of you prefer me to say just keep reforming. Whatever.]

.......check out some insightful interviews with an Orthodox Jew, a Mormon, a Mennonite, an Evolutionary Creationist, a Calvinist, a Gay Christian, a Quaker, an Orthodox Christian, a Muslim, and others at: www.rachelheldevans.com/topics?tags=ask+a&start=0

Countdown to Lent

Runner’s World is as magazine I read every month cover to cover.
Love it.

What’s weird is its only ever saying the same thing every month!!!
But there is something about rereading articles about doing Fartleks (Google it if you’re a non-runner), to how to gain stamina, or Peter Sagal’s running column (host of NPR’s excellent show Wait, Wait …Don’t Tell Me!), the regular what to eat to recover those sore muscles pages and the constant stories of other runners.

Every month, every word – and really nothing new under the sun.

I know of someone else who gets the same magazine and probably doesn’t read every word, might not read any words ….. and only one of us runs!

Runners need constant motivation.
Motivation to pound the streets, sweat the pavement and burn off the 500 calories of chocolate you rewarded yourself with for yesterdays run.
And what motivates seems to be rereading what you already know.

In a similar way leading is like running.
To always be the guy out front; to always be the go to leader; to always be the one people turn to.
Leaders need constant motivation.
Maybe this is why Bill Hybels and others suggest leaders need to read and reread and reread again.
It’s not that many new writers are saying new things – but they are re-saying what we need to hear to keep us staying out in front of people.

Funny when you think about it more – I’m motivated by stuff I already know!
Maybe even funnier – I buy loads of books written by authors who know they aren’t really saying anything people don’t already know – and then people like me buy them!

Is there anything new under the sun?

So here’s one of my Lental practice this year – don’t buy any new books; don’t read any new magazines or articles – for the 40 days of Lent be motivated by what I already know in one of the hundreds of books I’ve already read.

And already I’m thinking about cramming in as many new books between now and the beginning of Lent!

What disillusions me about church planters...... and myself

So I spent some time surfing the websites of church planters who are starting new, exciting, bold churches.
To enter into a new community and start something from scratch is no small thing. Planters are risk takers, pioneers, faith adventurers.
Most new church starts don’t make it past their first 18 months or remain so small they can barely survive much less thrive – so those that do – you have to be highly impressed with their determination, commitment and ingenuity, along with their talent and leadership.

But as I surfed the websites of the ones that survived and listened to their preaching, read what makes them the ‘church for people who don’t like church’ I became more and more disappointed in these bold adventurers. One by one they had either sold out to the values of church they seemingly were not about (that’s why they were starting a church that people who didn’t go to church would like), or they had lost their boldness.

Click on their websites and you were clicking on to lookalike websites of most large evangelical churches.
Popular pop culture was the flavor of the day.

Want to know about the staff – and their list of interests (including their favorite movie and what they have on their iPod ….seemingly this reveals things about us that would make us want to come to our church); latest reads and seminary qualifications was plain to see.
Hierarchy was the structure of the day.

As for the preaching – formulaic, propositional, ‘say-a-prayer-or-raise-a-hand-and-receive-Jesus’ was Sundays preach.

Where’s the newness, the boldness, the church for those who didn’t go to church?

There’s a big reason why people don’t go to church and very few studies indicate it is because of the old fashioned music or the dull preaching. That turned off my generation, but not the new generation. Today’s generation are turned off because of synthetic theology, shallow living, formulas and self-centered religion.

And in most of the new churches I surfed this was the smelled out flavor.

But then my surfing discovery turned nasty.

Getting myself disillusioned over bold risk taking church planters who were way too conservative, synthetic and predictable in what they had started I blinked hard and realized that I was as guilty as them!

Sure we’ve been involved in helping turnaround a traditional inward focused classic church.
Sure we have done some bold, risky things to shake complacency out and focus on being a church for people who don’t go to church.
Sure we have fought off legalism and traditionalism.
But despite all the progress and newness we have birthed – much of what I was seeing in these ‘bold’ planters is apparent in me.

My earlier boldness – had turned rather predictable.
My earlier freshness in theology – had become somewhat stale.
My earlier contrariness – had seen me sit too much inside a box (albeit a new box).

The one that hit home the most - I’ve shrunk the Gospel down to a message of personal salvation – when it is so much more.

In fact in all of the church planters that I surfed – their theology was rather flat and dull; a cosmetic airbrush rewording of conservative evangelicalism from the 1980’s.

If there is one thing the unchurched masses of America need the church to declare it is a compelling, stirring theology. A theology that isn't used to support the things the church has stood against; or a formula that promises you how to have the best life, the best marriage, the best children or the best job……its only a “decision” for Jesus away!
Rather it is desperate for theology that unpacks the bigness of the Gospel.

Scot McKnight suggests that this “personal salvation” Gospel is deconstructing the church.

So my idle hour surfing the website of some bold risk taking church planters has convicted me. January 2012 will see me join the movement that is boldly declaring that our problem is not so much that our God is too small, but our Gospel is too small.

Starting January 1, 2012 ……..until the end of May we will be making sure that the Gospel this church is preaching is the same Gospel as Jesus preached.

Why Catholics Are Right ..... but too small

So I’m reading a book called Why Catholics Are Right.
Just wondering. Always good to check.

The author Michael Coren (somewhat controversial Canadian TV talk show host) spends most of his introduction defending his strong title. “Sounds a little proud”, some of his critics said; “it might offend people” others suggested – but he decided to stand strong on his audacious title.

And it is audacious.

It is politically incorrect.
It is insulting to all other branches of Christianity let alone other Faiths.
It is offensive to any sense of tolerance.
It is downright arrogant (even if written humbly) as it loudly tells everyone else – they are wrong.

If Coren had used other words such as “better” or “good” or even “more right” which perhaps isn’t the best English but is kinder, people’s charge against him might only have been he is wrong rather than he is insulting/proud/offensive/arrogant.

But all of the above isn’t how I feel about his title.
It’s not offensive, or arrogant sounding, or proud, or insulting to me.

It’s about time someone used the word right.

Surely believing something necessitates that you are convicted, persuaded, convinced that what you believe is right.

Is this not the very nature of truth?

Truth can’t be partially right, partly right, or maybe right.
Truth has to be right – or it’s not truth.

So, thank you Cohen for defining the nature of truth.
Right is right even when it’s politically incorrect, arrogant, offensive, or proud sounding.

As Cohen himself writes “to believe something is, self-evidently, not to believe something that is its contrary.”
Therefore to be a Catholic necessitates believing that Catholicism is right.

The remainder of Cohen’s book is him detailing the views of the Catholic Church – and he is right about these views.
BUT is truth about views, about propositional statements, about a set of beliefs?
You can be right about views – but right about views does not equal right about truth.

Enter another book I am reading as I prepare to preach through Mark’s Gospel in 2012.

The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited @ Scot McKnight.

Its early days in my reading (only page 48) but already McKnight is challenging static rightness. He redefines the Gospel to the fullness of what it is and that fullness is not defined by a list of views or the rightness of beliefs.

Jesus is not a right to be believed, he is a way to be lived. You do the Gospel rather than believe the Gospel.

Here emerges the problem with Cohen’s rightness – and everyone else’s rightness (mine included). Rightness implies we can arrive at it. We can complete it. We can hold it all in a book, a list, a box.
Rightness shrinks.

So, if Catholics are right ….. or Protestants, or Baptists, or Evangelicals, or Pentecostals, or Emergents ….. its too small being right.

There’s something bigger than right. There’s Jesus.

100 Pages A Day Diet

I only really have two hobbies.
One is watching English Premier League football (soccer for you yanks!).
With shock I read that Direct TV were about to lose all their Fox channels including my beloved Fox Soccer. Please note this is the only FOX channel I approve of! If fact my prayers were torn as I feel the world would be a better place without FOX News …..but as usual my selfishness dominated. So I prayed for it to remain - and God intervened to ensure I (whom the world revolves around) still got my weekend fix of five Premier League football games. Ah - bliss (especially when the family leave for the afternoon and I get the couch, the chocolate and the TV controls to myself).

My second hobby is buying and reading books.
But, for the past few months while my buying has not subsided, my reading had. The pile of books on my desk was growing beyond what I was reading. So I’m officially on a "100 pages a day minimum diet" – the only diet where more is better.

The only way to tackle this diet – buy some really good books to get me started.
So here’s my list of what I’m using to start my reading diet:

Peter Rollins has just written his third book Insurrection: To Believe is Human, To Doubt, Divine. Yet again he stretches you theologically with a strong philosophical bent. Aargh. Took all of Saturday afternoon (after 4 football/soccer games watched) to finish this off. A wonderful blend of orthodoxy and nearly heresy!

Jim Collins’ new leadership book Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All. It’s even better than his bestseller Good to Great. Fascinating case studies of some of our best known companies and why they are still around.

1Q84 @ Haruki Murakami. Eh ……a racier novel than I thought (it should be R rated). Some have termed it the grandest work of world literature since Roberto Bolano’s 2666. Most critics loudly applaud it – the Guardian called it ‘a global event in itselff’. Its loud praise caused me to buy it ….662 pages in and counting. Intriguing. And no I am not recommending it (like when we show a clip from a TV show during our preach - doesn't mean we are recommending it! Don't blame me if all your kids are watching GLEE!). But by saying that I realize you will all now go and buy it. You sad bunch of people who respond the wrong way to the word ‘racy’.

Simply Jesus @ NT Wright. Yet again NT at his scholarly best. No wonder some call him the world’s leading New Testament scholar. Great reading as I get ready to preach Mark’s Gospel for 4 months in 2012.
Yes it is rather weird jumping from 1Q84 to Simply Jesus!!!!!

100 pages a day diet.

Easier when you are reading good stuff.

So my diet plan for the next few weeks:

Why Catholics are Right @ Michael Coren.
Steve Jobs @ Walter Isaacson
God is Red @ Liao Yiwu
Churchill @ Martin Gilbert
The Tenth Parallel @ Eliza Griswold
GK Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense @ Dale Ahlquist

Any other recommendations??

The two-second advantage.

I anticipate the future.
I’m not saying that arrogantly as if I have some God given special ability.
I’ve got what Vivek Ranadivé calls a “talented brain”.
Ouch – that could sound arrogant as well.

To make it sound not so arrogant but perhaps more mysterious if not just plain odd - I have “memory of the future” (as Swedish researcher David Ingvar dubbed it).
I have the ability to know what is going to happen based upon what my memory has previously stored.

It’s amazing.
I can actually anticipate the future.

Here’s what’s even more amazing – I’m not the only person with this ability.

In their fascinating book The Two-Second Advantage, Ranadivé and Kevin Maney present some neat research on the predictive ability of the human brain.
This is what made Wayne Gretzky the greatest hockey player of all time.
And it is what distinguishes a top level successful leader and others.

Enter what they term “Ones” and “Twos”. Top level leaders are one of these two types.

Think through which one you are.

Ones tend to be founders.
They are bullheaded and courageous. They tell people what they think, not what they think people want to hear. They see openings and get flashes of creativity. They can take in everything that is happening and see it from a higher level, the details blurring into instinct.
Ones have ‘feelings’ about something and if the feeling is right – they go with it.

Twos pay attention to detail; they get things done, but what they do is based upon the right data, enough data, more data.
For Twos, ‘we think this is right’ never trumps ‘we know this is right.’ They move when they know it is the right thing based upon accessing and sorting the right information.

It is this constantly returning to the mountains of data that most distinguishes Ones from Twos.
Ones frequently make decision on incomplete information. Ranadivé and Maney suggest they generally have less than 10% of the information Twos require to make decisions).
Yet with not enough time, or all the data, what the Ones have that makes them different than the Twos is this two-second advantage – otherwise called predictive capabilities. Ones have an efficient agile mental ability that can quickly predict what’s going to happen despite not having all the data available – and they can be right most of the time.
They anticipate the future.
They have memory of the future.

At the neurological level, Ones have neuron activity going on in their brains that fire together (everyone’s brain does this), but then their brains simultaneously wire that pattern together to enable them to predict what is going to happen ….and when the prediction is correct their brains get strengthened (their firing neurons connected by axons gets a neurological workout that strengthens the bond) and they grow strong in this predictive capability.

Is this a ‘hardware’ genetic ability, or a ‘software’ learned ability?
Interestingly, research is pointing to a learned ability!!

So, I’m off now to get my neurons firing on topics that are central to effective leadership – strategic analysis; contextual awareness; new research; old facts; comparative reasoning – it’s that fuel that will hopefully enable me to anticipate the future and make the right impactful decisions.

I’m off now to read Jim Collins’ new book Great by Choice……