Where to begin? These sorts of events tend to be information overload places and today was no exception. Our plenary speaker this morning was Dr. Jerry White, retired Major General in the US Air Force, Ph. D in Aeronautics, former 19 year president of The Navigators ministry and current chair of the board for the same organization. In short – Jerry White has loads of life experience in leadership in both the secular and Christian contexts.

 

The title of White’s speech was – What I Would Do Differently In Life & Leadership, which is an expression of humility in and of itself. There were many brilliant nuggets but the cream of the crop (IMHO) is the following list of priorities for leaders in order of importance:

 

1. Study (soak yourself) in Scripture

2. Have a REALISTIC view of everyone. Everyone disappoints. We are all broken vessels. 2 Cor. 2:4

3. Value/Develop contribution NOT position aka leaders need to be humble

4. Learn & Grow

5. Clarify a personal vision and calling

6. Have a HIGH view of other ministries & churches. NEVER speak poorly of another ministry. (My personal favorite)

7. Allow suffering and difficulties to develop your character (Jerry’s son Steven was violently murdered at the age of 30)

8. Ministry MUST be the overflow of your life and walk with God

9. Treat EVERY person with respect, dignity and honour

10. Never quit. Never retire. Always work somehow. The Navigators’ oldest current paid staff member is 96.

 

Jerry White was inspiring.

 

The next seminar I attended was The Toughest Issues of Leadership: Leading in Changing Times which also happened to be led by Jerry White. Some of that content included:

 

The Toughest Issues

 

A. The Biggest Probles: People & Money (no surprise there)

B. The Most Important Issues: Vision & Strategy

C. Most Neglected Issues: Training & Caring

D. Least Understood Isse: Biblical Motivation

 

That is a brief sketch of what was talked about. The seminar was incredibly informative.

 

After lunch I attended 360 Degree Leadership Reviews presented by Al Lopus founder of the Best Christian Workplace Institute (they do the annual lists in US and Canada). The seminar talked about the need for staff and leader evaluations to involve all of the stakeholders of an organization. For instance in a church a pastoral staff member’s evaluation would be based upon feedback from the boss (Sr. Pastor), co-workers, any direct reports and volunteers within their ministry.

 

I think the concept is quite good and almost like a personal version of Natural Church Development (if you know what I’m talking about). Obviously such a process requires a level of humility and courage on the part of te one being reviewed but the potential benefit is huge both personally and corporately.

 

Two quotes that I will call Quotesof the Day. Both come from Christian leadership guru Ken Blanchard:

 

 

 

This evening we will be listening to Merrie Eizenga’s talk entitled The Big Picture. Looking forward to it. More info to follow.

 

I must confess that I secretly loathe going to conferences like this. Before hand, deep in my heart I have a belief that it will end up being an incredible waste of my time and I will spend most of my days wishing for a coffee intravenus to keep me awake. As the day of the flight approaches this feeling grows until I seek reasons to get out of the commitment.

 

I am also that same person who, once at the conference, finds it to be an amazing and profound experience on many levels. Once again this has happened. The sessions are fantastic. The content is exactly overlapping with where I am and the organizations I represent are at. In short – I am pleased with this conference so far and do not expect the experience to change in the coming days. So now I have lots of ideas and my challenge is going to be to stay focused enough when I return to develop strategies to implement. We shall see how that works.

 

As for food I think I will go with the Fat Greek because clearly a fat Greek is eating good food. I recongize the potential of this being a politically incorrect restaurant name (full name is My Big Fat Greek Buffet which I am likely reading wrong for opportunistic reasons) an all I can say is I did not name it and my apologies to any fat Greeks who read this.

 

So far so good. Slept terribly last night but the coffee has kicked in and all is well for the time being (but it will likely be an early evening). The morning was kicked off with fantastic worship followed by a great spiritual challenge led by Scott Phinnemore, an Alliance pastor of Bramalea Alliance. The challenge was to rest and slow down. A hard message for a room full of leaders but a necessary one.

 

The plenary session was led by David McFarlane, Director of National Initiatives for the Billy Graham Association. To call him energetic would bean understatement. McFarlane is an engaging speaker and this morning he spoke of the need for the 21st century church to recognize the changing landscape of Canada and act upon it. I was given a number of good ideas for my upcoming sermon on October 11. We’ll see how it works out.

 

The workshops I intend to attend today include: Transforming Changes: Becoming a Change Competent Leader; Directors as Ambassadors; and Trends and Changes in the Canadian Church. Should be good…lots more coffee required to maintain a state of wakefulness. I will keep you posted.

 

One decision I need to make for this evening is dinner. I have decided on Greek food but there are two restaurants across the road from each other – The Happy Greek and The Fat Greek – which one should I go to – happy or fat? (I keep expecting to see The Sneezy Greek, the Sleepy Greek, the Grumpy Greek etc).

 

some have sought

to shuffle off this mortal coil

to shed this dry casing

but it seems

to me

that it slides away

all by itself

there is farther and farther

and the past is huge to me

vast plain gone and gone again

small people fading

mom dad sister brother son and daughter

silhouettes against the setting sun

while i –

i am less then I was

 

letting go seems like gravity now

the empty inevitable

secret whispers soft sad over me

singing

 

you cannot be filled

until you are empty

you cannot be mine

until you stop being yours

you cannot have my dream

while you live for your own

 

 

 

This is short because I have no time to make it longer but I felt an urgent need to get some thoughts into the ether before they vanished forever. One of the books I am currently reading through is John R. Franke’s – Barth for Armchair Theologians. It is clearly and concisely written and a wonderful alternative (for the time being) to Barth’s 8,000 page omnibus Ethics. Well it is hard to avoid somewhat deeper thoughts when reading about Karl Barth (despite best efforts to the contrary) and something reasonably cohesive occured to me during my reading.

 

Barth’s theologically formative years included a time when socialism was being embraced throughout Switzerland (where he was) and the rest of Europe in the early 20th century. Socialism was being viewed by many in the church as being a vehicle of God to usher in His kingdom. Barth struggled to synthesize his view of the gospel and the kingdom of God with what was happening realtime in his own culture and era. Socialism was dominated by Marxist atheist politicians and activists and it was hard to know if working in that environment meant the church was compromising Christ for the sake of a cultural movement.

 

Fast-forward to today. The church (the Holy catholic (that is universal) body of Christ) is confronted on every front with challenge in a way that it has never been before. There is little doubt that statistically speaking Christianity is not the fastest growing faith in the world today (particularly in the west). Between the growth of other faiths and the growth of agnostic and atheistic thinkers in the west as well as syncretism (the blending of various incompatible faith components into a melting pot) things look somewhat bleak from a purely worldly perspective.

 

How then does the church (us – you and I) respond to such a state? It is as though Christ has been betrayed and arrested all over again and is being led through trial to the cross once more for execution. How do faithful followers respond to such a scenario? First note Jesus response in Matthew 26:50 to being confronted by his betrayer Judas and the armed crowd sent to arrest him – "friend, do what you came for." There is no hint of sarcasm in Jesus words. He calls his betrayer friend and it is important for us to note this.

 

Further in Matthew 26:50-51 it says: "Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear."

 

The response of one of Jesus closest followers to his impending arrest was to resist and attack. This is understandable. But let us read further because it is of critical instruction to us. Matthew 26:52-54 says: "Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, "Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled." Then all the disciples deserted him and fled."

 

Christ did not resist those most opposed to Him. When His follower attempts to gain His freedom through violent means he gently chastizes him and reminds him that what is happening is necessary. In the end "all the disciples deserted him and fled." Christ is alone surrounded by adversaries and most certainly condemned to die.

 

In Letters and Papers from Prison German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "the church is only the church when it exists for others…" In other words Christ is only Christ when He exists for others. The church does not exist for itself…the only validation of the body of Christ is its outward concern and work for the world. It has no concern for its own life and existance because it lives in the awareness of those words in Matthew "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?". The church exists with the knowledge that it could conquer the world through the calling down of God’s power but this is not the will of God and so we do not call on such power.

 

If the world that we serve comes to us and seeks to arrest, beat and execute the body of Christ then to the cross Christ will go. But make no mistake Christ goes to the cross not with a martyr complex seeking to show others how willing He is to suffer but rather He goes with full knowledge of the resurrection to come and the healing it will bring to the very ones who nailed Him there in the first place. Christ dies completely in love with his executioners and for their very sake…and so should the church, His body follow His example if called to do so, and resist the urge to take up our sword in place of our cross.

 

As I said earlier these thoughts are barely formed and I will expand when I have time but they are meant to challenge us (myself particularly) to think deeply about our response to the world as it seeks our very destruction.

 

Stone soldier stands

a sun-washed sentinel

empty faceless features

gray as the lost ones

reflection of the departed dead

heartless breathless soul-less

sad song without words

like Taps without the trumpet

barren testimony to memory lost

 

Stone soldier stares

with lidless sleepless eyes

 

at

 

the walking past

the running past

the forgotten past

 

and he only cries in the rain

 

Today we dedicated the new addition to the Alliance Church and had a spectacular time. The service was pretty amazing. Founding members who are still with us were honored; presentations were given on the 65 year history of MAC as well as the construction of the new wing.

 

Dignitaries came and spoke including Mayor Doug Wilson, MLA Peter George Dyck and Cam Friesen representing MP Candice Hoeppner. We had a packed house with overflow into the gym. Pastors from through out the history of the church were here as were other former church members, board members, and employees.

 

Our District Superintendant and former MAC pastor Dr. Doug Gerrard spoke and our denominational President Dr. Franklin Pyles preached an amazing powerful message on being the church anchored in Acts 2.

 

After the service a ribbon cutting happened and then a great lunch for everyone. The even was truly a whole church body effort.

Now I am hiding out for a bit in my office typing this out and reflecting on the blessing on community and the faithfulness of God. As a callo worship this morning I read Joshua 4:1-7 and reflected on our need to remember. To remember God’s faithfulness no matter what our circumstances are right now.

 

Our September 11, 2001 journaey began on September 10…the day before. Six months previously the technology bubble burst and I was caught in the second round of layoffs at Gartner. I was in the US on an H1B visa and basically had to leave. We had sold our house in Florida (in DeBary just north of Orlando), packed a 28 foot U-Haul truck to the brim (including the passenger side of the cab), filled out van, loaded stuff on top of the van and strapped thjings to the back. We still had to leave behind a lot of things.

The late afternoon of Sept. 10 we gathered in the front yard of our home surrounded by dozens of friends from our church as we were being prayed for and wept openly. To this date our departure ranks as one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through. We spent some prep time at good friend’s next door and then hit the road. We were headed back to Canada, back to Ottawa where a very close friend of mine (Steve-o) was gracious enough to give me a job at his software company for a couple of years while we saved for seminary. Sometime around 5 am south of Washington D.C. on Sept. 11 we stopped at a rest area to sleep for a little bit. At about 7 am we awoke and were getting ready to leave when we noticed the van had a flat…weird…we arrived fine but in the space of two hours while sleeping the tire simply went flat. I put the little temp spare on and we managed to find a garage one exit down the I-95 and were waiting on getting the tire changed while watching the little colour tv hung in the upper corner of the wall in the office. We were just getting ready to head out at about 8:45 am when the tv news mentioned that a plane had hot one of the twin towers in New York. It was assumed to be a small commuter plane lost in a morning fog and reports were promised. So we left, turned the radios to NPR and began our drive north. The plan was to go through Washington DC (we would have been there already if not for the flat) and hang out there for a bit and look around. Within minutes of departing though NPR began reporting the true nature of what was happening. A large passenger jet struck on of the twin towers; 20 minutes later another plane had struck the second tower. 30 minutes after that the Pentagon was hit. That’s when the true nature of what was going on began to hit.

I was stunned. Soon the electronic signs along the highway began to change. ALL ACCESS TO WASHINGTON DC CLOSED; or MAJOR INCIDENT; I-395 CLOSED; We had to detour around Washington DC. If it weren’t for the tire we would have been stuck there for who knows how long. As we continued north and the NPR broadcasters echoed our own disbelief at the towers collapsing we came within range of New York City. The signs were the same. ALL ACCESS NEW YORK CITY CLOSED; MAJOR INCIDENT. We saw national guard vehicles in convoys heading north. It was incredibly surreal and magnified by the fact that we did not see a single image until late afternoon when we finally stopped for the evening at a motel. I couldn’t even pray. I distinctly remember trying but I didn’t know what to say.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and night glued to CNN watching the footage of what had happened over and over again in disbelief. All flights over the continental United States were grounded for the first time ever. Every border was closed for 24 hours. No one in. No one out.

We began driving north again on Sept 12 and by the time we got to the border again it had just opened. The United States border folks had set up a temporary checkpoint about half a kilometre from the Canadian border. No one was allowed to leave the US without being inspected. We arrived. A packed van and a packed U-haul. A crying poopy Caleb in the van while the guard attempted to figure out who we were and what we had in the truck.

We passed through the Canadian border without incident and that’s when we saw the effect of having the US closed for 24 hours. A massive line of trucks stretched from the border to the 401 and beyond…kilometres of trucks stuck…waiting for the US to open again. Some of the trucks were starting to discard rotting produce along the highway. Weird.

We got to Ottawa exhausted, in shock and knowing that we would never forget September 11, 2001 for as long as we lived.

 

my light left Sol

and fell to earth

in liquid drops of sunlight

 

leaving me bathed

cleansed of shadow

forgetting

there’s 8 minutes

between dark and I

 

I want an iron lung

I can’t breathe

I’ve tried that and it don’t work for me

are you gonna give me one or not?

I don’t care, I need to breathe

it’s an act…just practiced movement is all

 

listen – when I was young I went to a kiddie pool

I layed on my back to see the world from beneath

and it was like being behind the mirror

but

i couldn’t move

i couldn’t breathe

and maybe I died then…I don’t know

cuz I still can’t breathe – it’s like that

like I’m stuck at the bottom of that wading pool

invisible to the shades around me

shade to the invisible around me

 

thanks