Skills Extra: Understanding Emerging / Emergent in American Churches

Are you confused about the talk about emerging churches or the Emergent movement?  Do you wonder if there exsist some way of understanding what these groups are doing or aren’t doing?  I found Scot McKnight’s Feb. 2007 Christianity Today article to be very helpful.  Scot outlines five streams that characterize or influence the emerging church.  He also clarifies some of the terminology that is used by these groups and others describing them.  It should be noted that the viewpoint Scot shares is largely from within, but his perspective is not without a critical eye.

Probably the best summarizing quote in the article: “I see the emerging movement much like the Jesus and charismatic movements of the 1960a, which undoubtedly have found a place in the quilt called evangelicalism.”

 

Skills: Leadership Development Resources

Today we are discussing various resources for developing our leadership potential and the leadership potential of those we influence.  We started by discussing various conference options.

Conferences: Willow Creek Leadership Summit (Aug 6-7, $245 non-member price), Catalyst (Oct 7-9)and Catalyst West (Apr 22-24), CCDA (Oct 21-25, $99).  Barbee brought up the Resurgence.

Books: We reviewed various books that discuss leadership both inside and outside the church.  The bibliography we reviewed had over 50 books on it, and several were recommended.  The must read on the list was A Work of Heart by Reggie McNeal.  Get it, read it, be changed.  Chris has been finishing  The Ascent of a Leader by Thrall, McNicol, McElrath.  Here is the basic recommendation:   Don’t go out and buy it unless you are working hard at improving your individual skills and abilities, and perhaps need to consider character development first.  There are many things said in this book about the best ways of leadership, but a few big ideas are fleshed out in addition to at least one excellent tool.  The first big idea discussed is the “Capacity Ladder”.  The capactiy ladder is common, but not ideal.  It’s limitations and pitfalls explain the reasons so many of us experience the negative side of leadership is various situations.  The capacity ladder has two siderails that hold the rails together.  The left rail on this ladder is named “environments of mistrust and ungrace.”  The right rail called “relationships of power and leverage.”  The authors paint the rungs on the ladder of capacity as: 1. Discover what I can do, 2. Develop my capacities, 3. Acquire title or position, 4. Attain individual potential.   This book delves into the problem of merely attaining indiviual potential.  What is squandered is the potential available to those who are willing to see the potential of a group commited to the Character ladder.   The Character ladder has rails called “environments of grace” and “relationships of grace” that hold rungs that follow.  1.  Trust God and others, 2. Choose vulnerabilty, 3. Align with truth, 4. Pay the price, 5. Discover my destiny.  The stages between these rungs are humility, submission, obedience, and suffering (also called maturity).  The authors then marry the “bad” ladder with the “good” ladder to make a ladder that has for it’s rungs: 1.  Trust God and others with me, 2. Discover what I can do with God and others, 3. Choose vulnerability, 4. develop my true capacities in team, 5. Align with truth, 6. Acquire positions that match who I am, 7. Pay the price, 8. Attain God-designed potential, 9. Descover my destiny.   There you go. I saved you $15 and a couple hours of reading.  This book is really good if you are in a roll leading a larger group and are feeling that it’s lonely at the top.  These authors will help show you why that need not be the case.

Podcasts:
Manager Tools – http://www.manager-tools.com/available-rss-feeds#mt_feeds
Andy StanleyLeadership – http://feeds.feedburner.com/AndyStanleyLeadershipPodcast
Harvard Business IdeaCast - http://hbsp2.libsyn.com/rss

Videos:
TEDTalks – Video PodCast = http://feeds.feedburner.com/TEDTalks_video

 

Skills: Leadership Tools: Resources for developing our leadership ability.

This week, we are discussing leadership tools to help us develop and refine our leadership skills.  We’ll take a look a several leadership books and take a particular look at one, The Ascent of a Leader.  We’ll look at some conference opportunities, some podcasts that are avialable, and we will share resources with each other.  All this at the Fellowship Forum.  Don’t miss it. Thursday, 1:30 pm, 1530 Marion Street.

 

Spiritual: Missing the Point in Scripture

Our friend Bryan Craig from Denver Mosaic has just posted a couple of blog entries after reading Scot McKnight’s book The Blue Parakeet (Amazon, B&N, CBD). They are about how we miss-read the Bible. The first post details a few ways that we incorrectly approach the text, and the second post shows a number of methods we can use to study scripture that actual hinders our abilities to understand it.  Read Brian’s posts and report back how you read it.

Other reviews of McKnight’s book include:

• From the Intervasity Emerging Scholar’s Blog
• From the Burnside Writers Collective

It should be noted that a significant portion of Scot’s book discusses passages in scripture relating to women and their role in the church.  Brian’s blog articles don’t mention that much. but the other two reviews discuss that in some detail.

 

News: Colorado’s the Drinkin-est place

A Denver Post article recently talked about the volume of alcohol consumed in Colorado in relation to other states in the union.   I thought this might interest some of you all. Some interesting details:  6% of the countries population would be considered heavy drinkers and 100,000 people die a year from excessive drinking.

 

Spiritual: Lent Traditions and History Part 2

Spiritual Disciplines – Lent

Lent is the season starting with Ash Wednesday that end on Easter Sunday.  These 47 days are marked by observers with commitments of fasting, ascetic piety, or/and increased spiritual activity. Eastern Christians (Othrodox, Pelagian, and others) observe 40 days of Lent prior to their Easter (or Pascha) celebration.  The Western tradition is also 40 days of observance along with 6 Sundays offering small breaks and Easter Sunday proper.  Since the commitments of observance are typically designed to match the sober tone leading up to Easter celebrations, each Sunday are typically days “off” or as celebrations anticipating Easter.  (By the way, the word Lent derives from the Danish lente or German lenz, words meaning Spring.)

For most Christians, the  significance of 40 through out the Bible is sufficient justification for the duration of the Lent season, but of course the historical development took some time.  My personal favorite place to start the story is with Cyril of Jerusalem.  Easter (or Pascha – the Greek transliteration) began to be celebrated by Christians prior to the middle of the second century BCE. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, delivered his Catechetical lectures prior to Easter baptism ceremonies for the new converts.  As the practice of baptizing new converts on Easter developed in the church, so did the practice of asking those seeking baptism to fast for the week during or more that their training classes were being delivered.  These are the foreshadows of Lent from what I understand.

As the tradition progressed, the duration of the fast stretched to 40 days and the church was asked to join the new converts in abstaining from certain foods and beverages as Easter was anticipated. Many different observances during Lent have developed, and many liturgical modifications have been made during by various Christian streams to commemorate Lent.  Today many Christians observe Lent by giving up something in order to identify with Christ in his suffering and to prepare for the celebration of Easter.  Many groups of protestant Christians have little formal observance of Lent, some in the United States see a growing interest among individuals from these Christian backgrounds.

Here are some random Lent Resources online:

Bread for the World’s Lent Guide

A Sermon (text) by a Presbyterian about Lent

Some Christianity Today Articles about Lent: What groups can do, A bunch of articles on Lent and Easter

Also for more detailed musing of amateur historians, pick up the wikipedia articles I linked to in my last post.

 

Spiritual: Lent Traditions and History

I realize several of you were hoping to see our notes about Lent up here already (and probably before Easter at least).  I have started the article and hope to have something up soon.  Until then, I got some of my stuff from wikipedia anyway, so check out the articles there:  Lent and Great Lent.  If anyone knows what Coptics or others do for Lent (or don’t do), be sure and comment.

 

Skills: Leadership Styles and Their Application

See the borrowed presentation from the UN here.

This last forum we discussed different leadership styles and what situations they best address.  The top four styles described in our presentation is the autocratic (or authoritarian), the democratic, the laize-fair style, and the bureaucratic style.  We discussed which styles we individually gravitate to and which styles our ministries at time demand.  Our discussion was very fruitful for each of us and we were challenged to re-think how we are leading in our ministry contexts.  Thanks to all who attended.

 

Welcome to the Forum…

Welcome to the Forum, and open discussion and training time for the urban ministry staff members in Denver, Colorado.  For more information about our gathering check out the about page.  For upcoming topics be sure to review our calendar page.  For information about Open Door Fellowship (the Forum’s host), Open Door Ministries, or the Providence Network, check out the summary page or their respective websites.

 

Spiritual Disciplines: Discipleship, Mentoring, and Coaching – What are they good for?

Absolutely many things.

First let’s posit some descriptions of each of these three relationships and their relative affect on those invovled.
What is discipleship? -
- Discipleship is an older or/and more experienced person meeting with a younger
- More academic, bible study, involving curriculum or material,
- Training, helping people develop and grow in spiritual areas.
- Disciple infers follower.  Who are we following?  Being discipled for a specific purpose.

What is mentoring?
- Self discovery, less structured, etc.
- Based on relationship and trust built.
- Often story sharing and situationally-based.

What is coaching?
-  One could have a job coach or a physical trainer to grow in one area.
-  The goal in mind with a coach is to win or achieve a goal, discipleship doesn’t have as clear of an end point.
-  Life coach:  broad subject maters but built around meeting your goals and needs.
- 5 R’s of coaching: Relate, Reflect, Refocus, Resource, Review.

Second, let’s look at the relative motivations of those that coach, mentor, and disciple.  What type of relationship is developed?

Who is discipling?
- More of a teacher.
- An equiper, allowing them to discover.
- Wise person on a hill.  Someone to be followed, watched, learned from.
- Passing on a worldview, wisdom, experience.

- A very selective person who picks wisely.

Who is mentoring?
- Someone who has some experience that benefits the mentee.
- A friendly relationship to process situations and gain outside insight.

Who is coaching?
- A authority or heavy to help achieve some goal (with consequences)
-

Finally, what are the intended objectives, assignments, and evaluations for each of these?

Why choose discipleship?
- Based on Spiritual maturity and their ability to pass that on.
- Willingness to experiment and try things.
- A discipler desires to develop Christian maturity into people’s lives that they will reproduce into other’s lives.
Why choose mentoring?
- People who need encouragement in a position or situation
- Giving permission for doing challenging things.
- A mentor desires to increase their impact leveraging their experience and relationships.
Why choose coaching?
- Transition points and changes in life.
- Desire to improve in a specific area of life or ministries.
- Coach would desire improve the overall performance of a group or an individual.