big life changes…coming right up

Posted on November 13, 2011 by dave

On September 15^th at 12:45am my friend and mentor Pastor Gordon Coulter went to be with the Lord. He said that God had been so good to him to give him 15 more years of life after his initial battle with cancer. I am glad that I fit in to one of those 15 years. Many of you did too.

Since the passing of Pastor Gordon our Local Board of Administration at the church has turned into a search committee. Their function has been to discern God’s will for our church and to interview, check references and most of all pray. On Monday the 7^th the LBA offered me the position. I am continually blown away by what God is doing.

On the 20^th of November our church will hold a vote. If the church confirms the recommendation of the LBA then I have agreed to start full-time on January 1, 2012. Thank you all for your continued support and prayer during this time. It has meant a lot to my family and I.

Neighborhood Christian Fellowship is so much more than just me. Over the years here I have seen people get called to ministry. I have seen people make first time decisions to submit their lives to Jesus and I have been fortunate enough to marry, baptize and even bury some wonderful friends. Neighborhood is a place that makes the gospel come alive in the way its members live their lives. It is a little community that continues to be a beacon of light to a larger world.

I am so excited to begin this journey and I hope you will walk this road with me. Thank you for your prayers and please, don’t stop.

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controlled power

Posted on October 25, 2011 by dave

I meet with a group of pastors and leaders who are really intentional about developing one another. We meet one time a month, read books, pray debate and discuss. It is so helpful to have some high caliber leaders speaking into my life. I am eternally grateful to these men who spend the time to do this with one another.

A few weeks ago I had a major insight into great leadership traits. We were talking about gentleness in leadership. At first gentleness sounds a little weak and conjures up images of some dude getting walked all over in the office, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Gentleness is really about self-control. It is about using the power that you have in a controlled way. Many leaders could tear someone to shreds with just a few words. But sometimes restraining your power can have an even greater affect.

I was thinking back to a time when my Pastor (who passed away in September) asked me to have lunch with him one day. This was a while ago so the details are a little fuzzy, but essentially I had screwed up. Instead of letting me knowing it and laying into me he restrained the power he had, guiding me through a series of questions that helped me realize I had screwed up.

I appreciated this for a few reasons. First, It kept our relationship strong and in tact. Instead of being disciplined and running away with my tail between my legs, we engaged in a thoughtful dialogue on whatever it was I messed up on. Second, it gave me a model on how to handle conflict and staff issues. But the main thing I noticed is that the entire encounter was gentle. There was a sense that power was controlled for the greater good.

I got to thinking about the encounters that Jesus had with his disciples and even the religious elite of the day. He modeled gentleness in his humility but also in his encounters with others. God with flesh on could have quite a bit of power, but even from the moment of temptation in the dessert he withheld his power. Which brings me to this point; the greatest power you can possess is the ability to not exercise it. Maybe power is found in restraint and self control rather than blatant exercises of power.

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avoiding an arab spring

Posted on October 6, 2011 by dave

There is a really good reason why the “Arab Spring” happened. It has less to do with politics and more to do with leadership. Actually, It has everything to do with us as well. The “Arab Spring” was a backlash against authoritarian leadership. For years Mubarak and Gaddafi have been leading their people from their positions of power rather than their persuasion abilities. One of the hardest and most rewarding leadership challenges is leading people when they have the freedom not to follow. This kind of leadership happens everywhere from governments to churches to organizations and local communities.

The problem with the leaders in the Arab world is that they have been ruling rather than leading, they have been using their positions to dictate that their will be done. In governments legitimacy is king. You cannot hold your position for long without the people perceiving you as the actual leader. Some leaders of nations have taken their positions by force, but their countrymen and women do not perceive them as the actual leader, thus the revolution spawns. If you have to hold onto your position by force, chances are, you are not the legitimate leader.

This is a huge leadership issue. Who is legitimate? Who leads with persuasion rather than position? This leadership principle transcends time and the leadership of just nations. The issue of legitimacy is relevant in communities, work places and even homes. Do you lead out of your title or do you lead out of your ability to inspire and walk with people? Do people follow you because if they don’t there might be consequences, or do they follow you because of a level of trust that has been built up over time? You can avoid an “Arab Spring” by leading out of your core values and integrity.

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ten years gone

Posted on September 9, 2011 by dave

Fully knowing that they were only between 4 and 8 at the time, I asked a group of high school students where they were on 9/11. The response was probably what you would expect. They sort of remember it, but it didn’t really seem like it was a part of who they were. They didn’t comprehend the sadness, the fear the anxiety of the day and of the weeks following. The anthrax scare that followed 9/11 didn’t even get on their radar. To people who fully remember the events of the day, it is hard not to watch a remembrance video without tearing up. It is difficult for your stomach to not sink a little when the vivid images of people jumping out of the towers roll across the screen. In the weeks following 9/11 it was hard to step on an airplane and not profile someone (as guilty as I feel about this)…Airport security was always, “that way.” Osama Bin Laden was a household name.

I grieved a little that they did not share in the suffering of the day. There is something about sharing in suffering that changes your perspective. There is something that unites, that gives people a view of what’s really important. Mostly I grieved because I realized that there is an entire generation that will never feel what I felt as I sat paralyzed in horror in front of my TV that day on September 11^th.

I’ve learned that remembering is more than knowing facts. Remembering involves feeling the pain of those whom we have a common connection with. I’ve never felt people’s pain more clearly than I did on 9/11. I’ve never felt more united with my fellow Americans than I did on that day.

The coming generation may never remember watching people in other countries burn American flags in the days following that horrific day. Although some of the videos that the news was showing were shot months prior to September 11^th, there was still some celebrating. I remember how sickening that was. I wasn’t angry but simply disgusted. It was obvious that the up and coming generation didn’t get this because a few months ago when Osama Bin Laden was killed, we saw people celebrating in the streets. Although there is a legitimate cause for relief in people’s mind that Bin Laden is no longer with us, it highlighted that we didn’t remember the suffering that plagued that day. When we celebrated the death of Bin Laden we just created a cycle of vengeance. To some Islamic extremist 9/11 was a taste of victory, for many who were hurt the death of Bin Laden was the same taste. If we keep going down this same road, it makes me anxious to ask, what will the extremist celebrate next? Then, what will we celebrate after that?

I learned that de-escalation of conflict is difficult when you have a people full of pain. I also learned that genuine love conquers that pain. I learned that loving my neighbor means protecting them. I also learned my neighbor serves Allah. I learned that cycles do exist and we can encourage them or discourage them. I’ve learned that the world is smaller than I thought. I learned that my kids who were born 8 and 10 years after 9/11 would somehow need to know the story. They will somehow need to feel my pain. They will somehow need to engage the world in a loving way as to not perpetuate the cycle of destruction in a world that is already devoid of love. The will need to remember the suffering of a people who were gone before they arrived.

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live animal

Posted on September 1, 2011 by dave

I’ve previously mentioned our self-induced engineered lack of community in this world, and I want to tell you about Chad. I don’t even know his last name, other than he is a one-man band called, “Live Animal.” Chad and I shared a flight from Indianapolis to Denver. He is the kind of vagabond that rejects the societal engineering that forces individualism. He is a communal guy who finds hope in creative community. He and I shared a two-hour conversation about politics, Dylan, Jesus, Nietzsche and community. We hardly landed on anything except for individualism is putting a stranglehold on our society.

Individualism isn’t all evil, it’s good to have an individual personality so one can stand on their own two feet. It is extreme individualism that is killing our culture and harming public morality. Extreme individualism is inherently selfish, community is inherently selfless. Individualism leads to excess while community leads to generosity.

These might sound like bold claims but just think about the very simple task of going to the grocery store versus growing your own food. At the grocery store you can buy one apple and meet your need, but if you lived in a village that grew their own food and you grew an apple tree, you can meet the need of many people in your community.

Here’s another example, and warning, this is going to sound liberal. Why do you pay taxes? Probably because you are compelled to by the IRS, but what is the thought behind taxes? We all contribute to a government that will be for the common good of its citizens. (I know this is idealistic and there is a larger question about whether or not the government is faithfully stewarding the peoples’ resources, but humor me a little, will ya?) So the question I have is would you pay $50 more a year in taxes for our schools to improve? For many of us that is an easy answer, we would say “absolutely no new taxes.” I understand this mentality; really I do because I struggle with this. So now that we have all voted “no” what happens to your local school? Teachers get pink slipped, class sizes increase, the quality of education begins to diminish, the people with the means pull their kids out and send them to private school, thus reducing school funding. Then what happens to the culture of the town where this school is going down hill? Maybe the dropout rate increases, maybe crime and drugs become more prevalent in your community, maybe you start seeing prostitution, maybe the value of your home drops. There are a lot of maybes in this scenario, but let me ask one more question. Would you pay $50.00 per year to maintain the value of your home over the long term?

I realize that our government is polarized and seemingly useless right now, but I think our answers to the questions above say something about what we value. Do we value community or do we value individuality? Do we act in the common good of society, or the common good of the individual.

I am thankful for my conversation with Chad, it went everywhere. We talked about schools and taxes and even though you might think my senario is far fetched, it is what is playing out in his hometown of Indianapolis. When we reframe our perspective from, “what is the best for me?” to “what is the best for my community?” then we take a jump from selfish to selfless from an individual perspective to a communal one.

It is interesting to note that Jesus has a solid plan for taking care of the poor. It is called community. It is called jubilee. It is called generosity. Some people call it love in action or incarnation living. It is called the church, or the community of redemption…But what happens if that institution too has become individualized?

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