clarity evangelist

Commanding Clarity

Last week during my friends change of command ceremony near Seattle, I marveled at the connection between the highly disciplined environment of the military and the practice of clarity.  Think about it for a moment-in the military clarity is everywhere:

• The mission is always crystal clear
• There is a ton of communication before and after any initiative (after action review) 
• Lines of authority are unmistakable  
• A person's accomplishments, time and experience are worn on their sleeve, literally   
• Lots of attention goes into training and technology for communication 
• Maintaining clarity requires a whole new world of vocabulary 
• Expectations and role descriptions for each individual are always reviewed 
• There is never a moment without total accountability to what is made clear 

At one point I almost began weeping.  As I immersed myself in a day of military culture, I couldn't believe the sheer discipline of clarity that we exercise on behalf of our great country, in contrast to how little we achieve as leaders within God's eternal kingdom. 

Here is the mission of the squadron I was with: To provide combatant commanders with a fully combat ready strike group, capable of prompt and sustained across the full spectrum of naval operations anywhere in the world. 

During the ceremony the three core values of the Navy were not only passionately conveyed by the four leading officers, they were demonstrated throughout the ceremony.  For example, one aspect of the core value of "honor" is articulated as "We also honor the sacrifices our families and loved ones make to support us in our call of duty. During the ceremony, Hunter's wife, mother and two daughters were lavishly honored with generous bouquets from the Navy. The moment reflected the value wonderfully. The other two values are courage and commitment.  

Top Gun Drive

While in Seattle, I celebrated a milestone of a friend’s life vision. From 4th grade through my first year at Penn State, Hunter Ware was a best bud. On Thursday became the commanding officer of an aircraft carrier attack squadron. As I watched them unveil his newly titled plane at the change of command ceremony, I reminisced on the birth of his successful career as a jet-jock. I was there when we walked out of the first showing of Top Gun. Can you imagine two week-kneed high school punks in awe of Tom Cruise’s “need for speed?” We quickly adopted the signature high-five move.

Hunter didn’t get into the Naval Academy on is first attempt.  But I watched him reorder his life in order to pursue this dreams with even greater intensity. Even our favorite arcade game that year was “Afterburner,” which was funded with my cafeteria points.  The next year he made it into the academy. Over the 4 years of training, many of his colleagues wanted to fly jets, but few found to the cockpit. Sure enough, after the academy, Hunter was selected for Pensacola for the next stage of his supersonic dream.

Twenty years later he is still flyin- and in charge of his squadron. The spark I saw ignite in that crazy, feel-good movie is still in his eye. 

What spark is in yours?

Here’s to Hunter Ware, a great buddy and now CO “Tupper.” 

Soul Excavation

I am enjoying the scenery of Whidbey Island, north of Seattle in quaint B&B for a few days. As I kick off a summer study break, it amazes me how, the faster I go, the more time I need to really engage with my heart.  The best way to describe this moment is what Henry Cloud calls, “excavating your soul.”  He writes, “There is no shortage of things in this life that will bury your heart and your soul."  At this moment, I am absorbed in the silence.  I don’t want to produce, I simply want to be; to reflect, to think deeply about my life and my Savior. What am I thinking about? One snaphot:

 If we were created to live with love as a normal state of being, how am I doing? How am I receiving and how am I giving?  I want to know the “normalcy of love.” Both love as a normal state and love in the normal things of life.

It seems to me that clarity in life is superficial at best without the practice of soul excavation. 

From Eternity to Here

My journey into Frank Viola's writing began a few months ago when I met Frank at a gathering of authors and thinkers. Today there is a "blog circuit" happening where dozens of thought leaders are posting on his important work, entitled From Eternity to Here

The best thing about Frank's work is way he both challenges and inspires.  Frank knows how to stretch your mind and poke your heart.  He brought fresh insight in From Eternity to Here that had my spirit buzzing in worship. 

He says that this book "embodies the central burden of my life and ministry," as it looks at the mission of God in four unique ways:

1. It defines the mission of God from God's eternal purpose
2. It emphasizes the corporate aspect of divine mission over the individualistic 
3. It presents a fresh look at the motive and source of Christian service 
4. It expands our vision of mission beyond the sense of "voluntary association for the saved"  

There is a lot I could say about this work, but for now, I will share some thoughts from other you may know as a way to celebrate this book today.  The first section on the church as the bride of Christ is worth 10 times more than the price of the book. 

"Of all the sticks of TNT that Frank Viola has launched into a sleepy, status quo church, this grenade has the most explosive potential to make the church unashamed of the gospel and to release God's dynamic power for salvation."
Leonard Sweet, Drew University, George Fox University

 "Frank continues to challenge the church-at-large with a powerful mind, an impassioned voice, and a love for the Bride of Christ. You need to get this book and wrestle with Frank through the biblical passages regarding our identity in Christ as His body and the mission our God has entrusted to us."
Ed Stetzer, author of Breaking the Missional Code



 "As Viola unfolds the glorious story of God's quest for a bride, readers will find their imaginations inspired and their lives transformed. The sheer beauty of God's magnificent plan compels our allegiance and revolutionizes our lives. This re-telling of the 'old, old story' is a much needed gift to the church today."
Greg Boyd, pastor, theologian, and author of Letters from a Skeptic, Myth of a Christian Nation, and God at War

Inspiration or Emulation? - How to Build Your Message

Anne Jackson's last three blog posts have been about how to build a platform.  She has wisely thrown out three counter-intuitive principles:

Don't Build your Platform, Build your Character

Don't Build your Platform, Build Relationships

Don't Build your Platform, Build your Message

My favorite imperative is the last one on building your message:

It sounds a little over-simplistic, I realize, but hear me out. If you’re anything like me, once something has implanted itself so deeply in your heart, you want to shout it from the rooftops.  I remember being 24 years old and intensely passionate about originality in the church. This was about the same time when a lot of contemporary churches were making sermon series parodies of popular TV shows and movies - incluidng my own church. Coming from a creative corporate background, and being a rule-follower, the copyright implications alone were enough to make me uncomfortable. But I also believed (and still believe) that there is a huge difference between inspiration and emulation, and so many churches were falling into the emulation category. 

Anne is right on here.  I have discovered that one of the greatest barriers in helping others find clarity, is distraction by the large platforms of others. Ultimately we copy rather than clarify.

Here are fantastic questions by Anne about building your message.  It's a process that involves more than "just passionately vocalizing it." You must continually ask yourself:

• “Why do I believe this?” 
• “What are the implications of the message?” 
• “What’s required of me to dedicate this season to this message?”
• “Is there a need for this message?”
• “How can I learn more about this and sharpen my own knowledge and passion?”

Tweeting at Church TIME Article

I have found myself spending more and more time telling and selling pastors on the benefits of Twitter. Personally, within the last 6 months, it has become embedded into how I think and communicate throughout the day. One aspect of this, is tweeting while in church.  While this TIME article talks about the interactive value to the worship service itself, I have found personal value in tweeting in church:

• I am able to really think about the main point of the message when I process in 140 characters or less
• I don't take paper notes anymore; tweeting with hashtags keep my notes organized on the internet 
• I enjoy seeing other people interact with the same message- I call it an "emotional resonance spectrum" because you get to see what is impacting the congregation
• My personal notes are retrievable by the pastor  
• It's downright fun to let other people know and share what I am hearing and learning 

Of course the one downside is I hate the thought that my twitter activity would be a distraction to someone else during the service. Depending on the context I may not tweet.

Resources, Motivation or Imagination?

A few months ago I was in a circle of thought leaders that included Skye Jethani, one of the editors at Christianity Today and author of a recent book called The Divine Commodity.

Here was the most important observation of the entire day of dialogue with 16 other leaders:

Church leaders don't need more resources or motivation - they need to re-ignite their imagination!!!  

• How many events do we go to get "pumped up" and what kind of change has that brought to our collective leadership lives?

• How many resources has the collective church utilized that has led to only pre-packaged thinking and photocopied vision?

• Where and when will you as a leader engage your imagination and dream about what God may uniquely do through your life and ministry?   

Here are two links you may enjoy if you resonate with this observation and related questions?

First is a great blog entry from Ed Stetzer interviewing Skye  

Second is NOT another conference (motivation) or resource but a collaborative experience designed to stretch your imagination like it has never been stretched. It is a "continuous laboratory" of 6 coaching sessions within a 6 month window.  We call it Vision co::Lab. In these six sessions, 8 church leadership teams will get pushed to articulate a stunningly unique vision for their churches. We are hosting these in 16 cities in 2009.  Check it out. 

Power of the Positive No: My Focus Journey Pt. 2

The phrase “power of the positive no” is the title of a book by William Ury.  I used some excellent observations from his book in Church Unique, when helping leaders to attune people to a clear, specific vision.  Here are some of my favorite quotes:

•  I slowly came to appreciate that the main stumbling block is often not the inability to get to Yes, but a prior inability to get to No.
• All good No's are in service to a higher yes.
• The right No is not the opposite of love but comes from love and grows toward love.
• Saying No has always been important, but perhaps never as essential a skill as it is today.
•  There are three “A’s” that trap us from getting to the positive No: Accommodating, which is saying Yes when we want to say No;  Attacking, which is saying No poorly; and Avoiding, which is saying nothing at all.
• Anytime you have to say No make sure you root it in a deeper Yes.
•  It’s easier to say No with a deeper Yes burning inside.

Applying the Positive No - My Focus Journey Pt.1

Learn to say 'no' to opportunities, by stating (sometimes mentally and sometimes verbally) what you are saying ‘yes’ too, as you articulate ‘no.’ This makes your 'no' a 'positive no.' For example, “Because of my family commitments (saying yes to Jacob, a person who will be at my funeral), I cannot start a consulting process with you for six months (saying no to a pastor, a person I may never cross paths with again after a year). If this sounds ridiculously basic to you then great- I am glad that you don’t need it.  I do.  My extreme, progress-oriented temperament, rooted in a clear calling to the church, makes it is very, very hard for me to say no to a potential client. Therefore it helps me to “rehearse the yes” with one of my children in mind.

While the family vs. work illustration is relatively easy to grasp, the principle works the same on a macro or micro level, personally or organizationally.

Faithbridge for example, recently said ‘no’ to a multiple venue strategy the church had tried for 18 months.  While the strategy yielded some return, the deeper yes was adding a third service to their core worship style (called Faithbridge Live).  In the process of re-strategizing, many people had to be told “no,” including dozens of people who mobilized a Traditions service. Explaining the “yes” was a massive part of change management.

 On a personal, micro level, have you ever felt like you had too much to do in one day? Think through your most important ‘yes’ of the day, and use the verbal expression of it as you e-mail, call, or walk down the hall to communicate a 'no.'  

Can Do vs Called To

Andrew Patton of Covenant Presbyterian Church shared an exercise he is currently conducting with his staff.  As they define the Vision Frame, they are revisiting staff structure based on their strategy (missional map). In order to "leverage existing strengths" on the team, Andrew is asking the staff to reflect every three hours.  At the point of pause, each person makes a list of the things they have done in the last three hours and puts them into one of two columns- "can do" or "called to do." The the lists will inform staff team meeting over the next several weeks as the discern and refine how to best work together and move toward the sweet spot of their personal and corporate calling.