LeadershipConneXtions

How Am I Using My Time? (Roger Oliver)

Roger Oliver (in the yellow shirt) is a friend, a leader and a trainer of leaders I met when John Hilliard and I first went to Puebla Biblical Seminary to teach on leadership. I won't go into all the background that would give you the context to know Roger a bit more, but he is a highly intentional follower of Jesus, he loves the church and mission, and he is passionate about raising up a new generation of leaders for Latin America. One of his many roles is the current president of Puebla Biblical Seminary.

Plus, Roger reads and thinks a lot. Here are some insights he has gained into his own Life, Priority and Time management. I think you'll appreciate both the model and how Roger illustrates it with his own situation.

And as a bonus, I added a video of Puebla Biblical Seminary at the end that will give you a flavor of the place where Roger works and the people he empowers. 

Thanks Roger for blogging for us some of your insights and experiences. And Feliz Navidad to you and the family and community at Puebla.  -bkr-

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 How Am I Using my Time

David Allan teaches a great exercise in Getting Things Done to help focus your efforts. Using the metaphor of altitude when flying, it helps us see what it is we are doing. The idea is to review what you are doing to see if it is coherent with what you say are your projects, responsibilities, long and short term goals as well as your lifetime calling.

• 50,000 ft, your calling or mission in life
• 40,000 ft, where you want to be in 3 to 5 years
• 30,000 ft, what you hope to accomplish in the next 1 to 3 years
• 20,000 ft, areas of focus and responsibility
• 10,000 ft, projects on the burner
• Landing, what you have in front of you to do day-to-day

 You start at the bottom because if you don’t get your day-to-day under control you will tend to be too distracted to think about the higher levels. I use the Getting Things Done (GTD) system to get a handle on all of my tasks and projects. The key idea is to get everything out of your head into a system that you trust. That way you can focus on one thing at a time, the key to relaxed productivity.

In the GTD system tasks are very discrete steps called next actions like call Fred and ask for an insurance quote. Anything that requires more than one step is a project. It is really hard to do a project in one step so it is really hard to get started on a project that you have mistakenly called a task or next action. They key to success with a project is to define the outcome and one next action you can take to move the project forward.

It is a whole-life system. Everything goes into the system from buying eggs and milk on the way home to reviewing the masters program at the seminary. The key to trusting the system is the weekly review. You have to review the system regularly to remind yourself what is on your plate and what you need to do to move things forward.

 Once you have the minutia of actions and projects under control you can confidently stop thinking about them long enough to consider the higher levels of your life.

The hardest level for me is 20,000 ft. I have identified the following areas of focus with a list of attendant responsibilities for each, not in order of priority necessarily.

• The seminary
• My personal (non-professional) life (family, me and God, friends, personal development)
• The mission (CAM International)
• The church (Familia de Paz, the new church plant)

For each of these areas of responsibility I have identified key responsibilities. I use an outlining program to write down what I think belongs at each level. For example, I defined my responsibilities in the seminary as follows:

• Spiritual life of the seminary family
• Peacemaking/reconciliation
• Promotion
• Fund raising
• Student Recruiting
• Board development
• Personnel Mgt/staff development
• Financial management
• Administration oversight
• Academic programs oversight
• Planning/organizational development
• Counseling
• Serve the churches
• Conferences and preaching
• Short Term Mission support
• Write for ObreroFiel and other publications

 I have a task in Outlook to review the 20,000 foot level every 3 months. I take a look at my landing level (next actions) and 10,000 feet (projects) and try to evaluate whether or not the next actions and projects are contributing to my 20,000 foot areas of focus and responsibilities. Often they are not. It is OK as long as it was a conscious decision based on what God has placed in front of me to do. I also check to see if my activities are in balance. Am I spending too much time at the seminary and not enough with my family?

I try to set aside a day or so every year to review all the levels, landing to 50,000 feet. Are my activities coherent with what I say are my areas of focus and responsibility? Are they moving me towards my 30,000 foot 1 to 3 year goals? Are the moving me towards where I think I should be in 3 to 5 years? Are my activities, areas of focus and responsibility, 30,000 foot goals and 40,000 foot dreams in alignment with what I believe God has called me to do with my life? If they are not, time to review and make changes.

 Recently I thought through my 20,000 foot level areas of focus and responsibilities and discovered some disconnects. There is too much there to do. They are each too discrete and separate. There is not enough of me to keep up with all of that. Something has to change. I am not God.

Looking at these levels helps me to soberly consider my life and to do so regularly not just when a crisis forces me to. It is a very enlightening exercise very similar to an instrument check. I pick up warning signs that I am headed for a crash in time to change course and make appropriate adjustments.

Of course I am very, very human and often do not pay attention to the warning lights. God has a wonderful way of letting me trip over my shoelaces when I do. When you land flat on your back there is nowhere to look but up.

GTD has been a great help in redeeming the time because the days are evil. I recommend it. I’ll end with a humbling quote from David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done.

“You can’t manage time. Time just is. Time management is really managing what we do during time. But it’s easier to say that time is what needs to be managed rather than ourselves. It’s easier to make time the enemy and parade our worthiness (I have so many big, important things to get done) rather than say, ‘I don’t keep my agreements.’”

Roger Oliver
Puebla Biblical Seminary 
www.seminariobiblicodepuebla.org

Some Thoughts on Mentoring in Latin America

John Hilliard is a partner with LCI, one of the elders at Living Word Community Church, a gifted leader who is currently providing leadership for the Men's Ministry of LWCC, and one of the guys in our spiritual friendship group. 
 

John has been going through some significant spiritual experiences in recent months and I really appreciate and respect the integrity with which he approaches all of life. I also deeply respect the time and energy John puts into mentoring others and in constantly learning more about mentoring.
 

Here are a few of his reflections about mentoring, after he returned from his recent trip to Paraguay.

Thanks John...  -bkr-

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 I have had the opportunity to teach the mentoring module for R.E.G. twice this year in Latin America.  I has been a blessing and a privilege to interact with ministry and church leaders in Argentina and Paraguay. They are engaged in the topic and bring new insights into the material which are both wise and transformational.  

An initial disadvantage in presenting the material is that there are no words in Spanish for either 'mentoring' or 'accountability'.  This gap in vocabulary points to some of the differences in culture voiced by Skye Stephenson in Understanding Spanish Speaking South Americans.  Our orientations are different in many ways neither better than the other, just different.  As a result I spend a significant amount of time describing the terms using other concepts.  For example mentoring comprises spiritual direction, teaching, coaching, disciplining, counseling, training, and sponsoring. When they understand that mentoring is an umbrella concept which incorporates all of the other tools it brings more clarity to the training.  

The trip to Paraguay brought out a couple of insights that were new to me about the mentoring process: 

1)   To be an effective mentor you need to have a clear view of why you are mentoring this specific person.  What is your purpose? What does your mentoree need that this engagement will bring?  Is there a purpose for the mentor like empowering a Timothy to be the pastor God called him to be? The clearer the purpose the more effective the mentoring will be.  If the mentor and mentoree and unclear about that purpose the engagement will tend to drift and deteriorate over time, 

2)   We were studying the book of Joshua as he received the mantle from Moses.  One of the students asked why didn't Joshua have any mentorees?  It was a good question and as we studied the book of Joshua one of the students found an amazing verse, Joshua 24:31. 

 Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.

 
Wow.  Joshua didn't have a mentoree who was specifically mentioned in scripture but all of the leaders under Joshua appeared to have finished well, they served the Lord through their entire lifetimes even after Joshua was gone.  It wasn't until they were all gone that Israel turned away from God.  What a great insight into the power of a level 5 leader as Jim Collins would put it. 

My desire is to continue to mentor others individually, as a group, and to listen to God and stay away from mentoring in my own strength but be open to what God is doing and join him in the process.  Thanks to my brothers and sisters in Argentina and Paraguay, they mentored me well as I mentored them.

 John Hilliard  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

The image came from Mad Mentors.com

Report on Asuncion Paraguay Trip and the Power of Mentoring

John is back from Asuncion, Paraguay. Asuncion is one of those places that it just takes awhile to get there. You can't fly directly into Asuncion from the USA, so you inevitably have a layover somewhere. John was in transit for about two days coming back to the States. He told me that one of the participants spent three days traveling from Bolivia, by bus, to get to the class. When we have participants like that, we want to give them the very best life transforming ideas and leadership shaping training we can. 

And that is what John did with the Mentoring Course. Here is one of John's reflections at the end of the course.  -bkr-
 

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“New Insights into the subject of Mentoring”

Being able to journey with another leader, especially cross-culturally is a marvelous experience.  I find myself pretty entrenched in our English Speaking North American context which is very individualistic and in many cases narcissistic and egocentric.  It is when I can visit another culture that these negative aspects of our culture become more obvious. 

In my recent trip to Asuncion, Paraguay I was privileged to work with ten top-level pastors and missionaries from South America.  The topic was mentoring which, in one sense is done quite frequently in the Latino culture but often more haphazard and without accountability.  Interestingly enough neither, ‘mentoring’ nor ‘accountability’, have equivalents in Spanish.  So we spend a good part of the class unpacking what those terms mean and how to apply them to the Latino culture.  Their engagement in the discussion was very enriching for all of us.  As they struggle with the day to day activities of ministry they were able to see how their lives parallel Moses example in Exodus 18:1-27. 

We focused on the purpose of mentoring and why it is so important as a multiplication factor for leaders and will help them to avoid burnout.  It is an activity that requires the four mindsets of a leader.  With all of the other demands of ministry the mentor must be strategic, intentional, self aware and surrendered.  Short of those disciplines the mentoring effort will just be another activity added to a long list of things to be done, like Jethro pointed out to Moses.

If it is done well the rewards are great encouragement in Joshua 24:31 “Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel”.  Moses mentored Joshua and Joshua mentored the elders leading to multiple generations of leaders who served Israel well.  I want to be part of that legacy and it appears that through mentoring it is possible. Thanks to all the participants in Asuncion for the blessing of sharing their lives with me.

John Hilliard  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

Update from John Hilliard in Asuncion, Paraguay

Here is an update from John Hilliard about his time teaching on mentoring in Asuncion.  -bkr-

The lessons are going well. Each of the students are engaged at high levels and the material is being well received. They can see the value in mentoring and how it could make a difference in their ministries. I was able to demonstrate a mentoring session with one of the students yesterday and will do the same today.

Thanks for the prayers, God is ever present

In His service

John Hilliard
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

John Hilliard Teaching in Asuncion, Paraguay

John Hilliard will be doing the mentoring course for Leadership ConneXtions and REG in Asuncion, Paraguay. This is the same course John has taught before in Argentina. Here are a few thoughts and prayer requests from John about his upcoming trip.

You are reading this on the first day that John begins teaching in Asuncion.  

Blessings my friend.  Brian

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I appreciate the opportunity to meet with the group of leaders from Paraguay this next week.  A couple of things that stand out most significantly: the Latinos are very comfortable with relationships, it is a strength of the culture that I am learning more about each time I minister there.  What I hope to share with them is to be more intentional in those relationships. There is no word in Spanish that accurately defines ‘mentoring’.  We will spend time understanding that mentoring is more than just being a teacher but also includes things like coach, discipler, counselor, encourager, and  trainer.  I have learned so much from the previous sessions I have facilitated and hope that I can connect with everyone at the session in Asunción. 

My prayer requests for this trip would involve health, safe travels, sensing God’s leading in each session, connecting with the participants in spite of the language barrier and that God would use me in the process at a transformational level.

Looking forward to reporting on where God was present…

John Hilliard  
Leadership ConneXtions International

update from Cordoba, Argentina (October 16)

Class is just about ready to get started for the last day. It has been a very good week working on two different topics with a great group of leaders.

It is a privilege to be a part of their training process.

We went to a great restaurant last night... ate waaay too much food.

Well, we are getting ready to start.

Thanks for your prayers for this last day with them.

Brian

Update from Cordoba, Argentina (October 15)

It is early Thursday morning. In about 45 minutes we will leave Carlos Paz where we did three days of training in facilitative learning and go to Cordoba for two days of looking at Emerging Paradigms of Leadership. 

We finished last night by watching the Argentine national soccer team qualify for the World Cup in their Zone. 

Soccer is REAL BIG here.

Here are a few photos.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Update from Cordoba, Argentina (October 13)

We had a great day today.

First, I am super impressed with the quality of leaders who are in this program. My good friend and colleague, Omar Gava, (in the red shirt) has been working for years to train leaders, and especially missional leaders... and it is so obvious that his labors are bearing much fruit.

We did a devotional this morning and one of the verses that we pondered was 1 Corinthians 15:10.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of  God that was with me.

This verse perfectly describes the heart, the humility and the hard work of Omar. He is one of the hardest workers I know and he is the first to declare it is all by the grace of God.  It is no wonder that top shelf leaders are attracted to Omar. They respect who he is and they value the resources Omar brings to their lives.

 

 

Second, the first three days are focused on training methodologies. They are working through a new (and much needed) paradigm to become Course Designers who can develop leadership training modules, write curriculum, prepare lessons and then use facilitative methodologies that lead to transformation. This is intense stuff.

This is hard work to move into a new paradigm when you have spent a life time working in an older one. And, they are having to get all of this through an interpreter! They are so patient with this learning process and so full of great questions.  There are going to be some great leadership development trainers that will come out of this group. Maybe every single one of them.
 
Third... dedication, commitment, devotion, discipline...  They are willing to pay the price to move up in their capacity and competency. I don't have to do much to motivate this group. They have it. It is a joy to work with them.

Finally, LCI partner John Hilliard was in Argentina sometime back and he did the graduate course on mentoring and then he taught on mentoring at the training center. One of the students that John had told me that what John taught him about mentoring, has fundamentally shaped how he is now working with leaders. Wow... great stuff.  

Thank you for your prayers. They are felt, they are appreciated, they are making a difference. One more day on the Training Methodologies and then we begin the course on Emerging Paradigms of Leadership.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Update from Cordoba, Argentina (October 12)

Today was the first day of the module on training processes that REG and Omar are offering to their facilitators network.

Leadership ConneXtions has been working with REG and Omar Gava  and the South American Theological Seminary in Londrina, Brazil, to provide a master's degree in leadership at sites throughout Latin America. We have been doing this for over three years. People have graduated from the program and others are getting closer to graduating.

At the heart of our (REG/LCI) vision for this is to develop leaders who develop other leaders. We want to train the trainers, mentor the mentors, equip the developmental minded leader who will turn around and do more of the same in a 2 Timothy 2:2 model. 

Our focus today was on the model that LCI uses (Content, Process, Relationships, Outcomes) and how they can use a similar model in their situations. We spent about half of oru day talking about the leadership development model that Jesus used:

Invited people to be WITH Him
So they could LEARN FROM Him
and BECOME LIKE Him
and then go out to DO THE WORK OF JESUS IN THE WAY OF JESUS.

But it all begins with designing processes that help people be with Christ in transformative learning.

We finished the day with them working on an assignment as to how they can apply these "concepts" in a practical way in their context. 

We will have supper together about 9:00 p.m. The culture in both Argentina and Chile is a late night culture and people eat late. The other night we went out to a restaurant about 9:00 for supper and we were the only ones there. About half an hour later, the place started filling up with people. 

The weather is simply beautiful. Low humidity. Warm during the day. Blue skies. At night it gets cool.

Thanks for your prayers.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Departing for Cordoba, Argentina

I will be teaching a graduate course on Postmodern Leadership for REG in Cordoba, Argentina. I was there last year teaching on Spiritual Leadership and it will be good to connect and see the students again. 

If you look directly above the word "Buenos" in Bueno Aires, you will see Cordoba. That is my destination.

After the course, I am doing a three day seminar on Training Methodologies for Leadership Development. This is a first time project and our goal is to equip graduates with models, skills and perspectives for them to begin doing leadership development in their organizations and in their regions. I am very excited about this course. 

Plus I will have time with my very good friends - Omar and Stella and their delightful family. 

I'll have a long layover in Santiago, Chile on the way back and I'll spend some time with a friend there as well.

Pray for good teaching times for both the graduate course and the training seminar.

I'll be pretty busy, but should have time for some daily blogsite updates from Cordoba.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Flying Home Today

I fly out of Santiago about 8:00 p.m. going to Atlanta. From Atlanta to Harrisburg, arriving before noon and then back home, in time for a busy weekend.

I finished teaching yesterday, but since the teaching is in the evening, I couldn't fly out until the next day. So I spent the day hanging out... 

It has been a good week. I am struck by the commitment to Christ that these emerging leaders have. Many of them are headed overseas (eventually). It was a pleasure to work with them. Many of them I now know, since this is the second time I have taught them. Plus, I met some of them when I had been down for my first visit, just checking out the team that is here and the situation and exploring possibilities.

That is some of the joy of connecting and returning... the deepening of relationships and mutual influence on our lives.

Thanks again for your prayers.
By God's grace and Delta's organization, I'll be home early afternoon.

Brian Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Santiago, Chile Update (Tuesday)

I am really enjoying working with the (mostly) young, emerging leaders here in Santiago. When I am able to fuse together leadership development and spiritual formation of leaders - that is one of my favorite areas in which to teach and train.

We spent a good part of yesterday looking at models of transformation, paying attention to the Presence and Work of God in one's life and how to practice the Daily Examen.

Today I spent time working with pastors, elders and other church leaders in a morning session where we looked at the things that lead to burnout, ministry disillusionment, moral failure and what are some practices we can pursue to avoid this. They were a very thoughtful and interested group. A pleasure to work with them.

For the Institute course on Spiritual Formation for Leaders we looked a a model of personal development today, the "With Jesus" incarnational model of transformation and spiritual friendship.

And then more good time with my delightful hosts Doug and Shelly and family.

I am a very blessed individual.
Thank-you for your prayers.

Brian Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Santiago, Chile Update (Sunday)

It is almost 11:00 p.m.

It's been a good day.

I spoke at my host's church this morning on the theme of wisdom and that was fun working with him as the translator.

We had a nice afternoon at home with the family.

Then taught from 5 - 9 on the theme of the spiritual disciplines, looking especially at lectio divina and how they can practice that discipline.

Afterwards, I watched a group of people practicing the national dance (I'll have to get the name of it for you later) and that was really fascinating. It is a little complicated. They tried to get me to try it, but I declined. When you have two North American left feet, you don't try a Latin American complicated dance. The Chilean independence day is fast approaching and they do this dance all weekend long.

Thanks for your prayers.

I slept 10 hours last night. I don't think I've slept like that in years . . .

Brian Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Blessings to all of you.

Santiago, Chile Update (Saturday)

It is about 6:00 p.m. on Saturday evening.

I left Harrisburg Intl Airport about two hours late to go to Atlanta. Then at Atlanta, we sat on the runway for about 40 minutes until we could get a berth. Then I ran to get my flight to Santiago. It turned out I had ten minutes before they closed the doors!

The pleasant thing is that I had two seats for myself so I could spread out a bit.

I slept for about 5 hours which is great for me.

Arrived at the airport.

My host picked me up. 

We went to the class about 9:00 and spent the day teaching. The focus today was on Dallas Willard's V.I.M. model:  Vision, Intentionality and Means of spiritual formation.

I know a lot of the students, having taught them before. They are a good group and a lot of them are eventually outside of Chile.

D and S and their delightful family are my wonderful hosts.

Thanks for your prayers.

I'll probably crash a little early tonight.

Hasta manana.

Brian Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Leaving for Santiago, Chile

I am flying down to Santiago, Chile for a week of teaching at a training institute. I've been there before and they are really sharp, good students who are preparing for a variety of ministry options.

I love Chile and my friends there.
I love the great mobilizing work that is going on.
I love the culture and the friendliness.
It is always a treat to return.

Plus I'll have a chance to see the construction work that the LWCC youth team did when they were in Santiago a few short months ago.

The course I am teaching is Spiritual Formation for leaders. The core material is very similar to what I taught when I was in Hungary for the UWM conference but expanded somewhat.

I have a real nice Delta connection for this trip. I am flying out of Harrisburg at 5:00 p.m., going through Atlanta and arriving in Santiago about 7:30 a.m.  I start teaching at 9:00 a.m.

Pray for a good flight, some decent sleep on the flight down and a great launch to the course on Saturday.

I hope to be able to post while I am down there.

Brian Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Update From John Hilliard in Argentina

John Hilliard has finished teaching at the missions training center in Rosario and has begun teaching the graduate course in Cordoba.

John sent a picture of the participants who were with him at the Rosario training. John is in the center of the back row and Omar Gava is on the left side in the front row.

Omar  Gava is the founder of Global Strategic Resources, an organization that seeks to resource the emerging and growing Latin American Misisons Movement. Leaderhsip ConneXtions works alongside Omar to provide leadership training in a variety of contexts. The missionary training centers are one of those areas.

Pray for John as he is working with the graduate students. By the way, they are all in full time ministry. The graduate program is set up in modules. Students come for four intensive courses a year.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Update from Tim Adour in Paraguay

Tim has been having a phenomenal time helping the leaders explore what it means to have intimacy with God in a way that both sustains them for the long haul of ministry and which overflows into the very way they lead, which then means it overflows into the lives of those they lead.

Tim was telling me how hungry these leaders were for this kind of focused teaching.

Here are two pictures of Tim.

Tim flys out this afternoon to wing his way back to the States. 

Pray for him as he wraps up a week of teaching.

The first picture is Tim working with Walter Pelegrina, who is one of the partner's with Omar Gava, responsible for coordinating the Master's Program in Asuncion. Walter is a great guy has a wonderful family. Walter is also involved in mobilizing the church of Paraguay for world missions.

I forget the brother's name who is with Tim in this picture, but I do remember that the two times I was there teaching, he had great insights and a deep love for Christ and the work of God.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

LCI Leadership Training with Paul and Hildi

Paul and Hildi are friends from Paraguay. I met Paul on my first trip to Paraguay teaching a grad course on leadership at the extension site in Asuncion. Paul came in to do some translating. While I didn't get to spend much time with him, we chatted. I also realized that Paul was one of the VERY BEST translators I had ever worked with (and I have had many very good translators in many countries over the years!).

The next time I was back in Paraguay teaching, Paul was there once again to do translation and this time Hildi also came in to work as a translator. We also spent more time talking about the content of course and I found out that they were both involved in working to develop leaders in Paraguay. We connected even more and Paul and Hildi invited me down to do a workshop on mentoring leaders for a group of about 12 senior leaders who were all involved in the work of mentoring and coaching. And to top everything off, they were wonderful hosts.

We have continued to develop our relationship at a distance with SKYPEing. Paul and Hildi were moving into a transition season of ministry and were looking for some retooling for their next season of life. They had a furlough scheduled and so we planned for them to come to the York-Lancaster area for three weeks.

Hildi is pursuing training in spiritual direction. Marcus Smucker is a long-time seminary teacher in this field as well as a practicing spiritual director who lives in Lancaster. He is resourcing HIldi in this. And Deb Turnow, Spiritual Director and trainer, is resourcing Hildi in this as well.

Paul is focusing on the area of leadership mentoring/coaching and I and a few of the LCI partners are walking him through the Focused Life model as a foundation for developing leaders.

It will be a great three weeks with them. I believe Paul and Hildi are a strategic couple for leadership development in Paraguay and it is privilege to be partnering with them and involved in developing them for their new season of training leaders. 

Thanks for your prayers for our time together.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Crisis in Mexico: Economic Recession, Social Instability and a Discouraged Church

Roger Oliver is a friend of mine who is president of Puebla Bible Seminary in Puebla, Mexico. I recently received a letter from Roger talking about the crisis in Mexico. I am reproducing parts of his letter here for you to read. 

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What do you hear in the news about Mexico these days? Probably you are hearing about recession and social instability.

The worldwide economic downturn continues to slam Mexico. The poor are getting poorer. Orders for cars from GM, Ford and Chrysler factories in Mexico are down 85% The peso has devalued by 50% in the last three months. A friend who is a professional took a new job that promised to pay well. He has not been paid in four months. He is distraught and anxious.

The drug wars and rising crime are straining Mexico's social stability. In 2008, there were over 4,000 casualties in the drug war, more than the USA has lost during the entire war in Iraq. A political party in Mexico is campaigning for the death penalty for kidnappers and murders.

According to the US Defense Department, Mexico is one of the two countries close to social collapse. Pakistan is the other.

Recently a friend lamented the state of the evangelical church in Mexico. "The church is discouraged and divided," he said.

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Roger went on in his letter and talked about the 50th anniversary missions conference that is going to be hosted at Puebla Bible Seminary.  It is Roger's vision and heart to encourage and unite church leaders throughout Mexico through this event. When I was there in March, he had already been traveling throughout Mexico, to network and invite people to the event.

With the economy in such a precarious condition, the seminary is needing to subsidize a considerable amount of money to make it possible for church leaders to attend. 

I rarely do anything like this, but I have come to know and deeply appreciate many of the fine leaders trying to make a difference in Mexico (a very hard field for the evangelical movement) . . . so I am just making this need known and if anyone is interested in helping them subsidize this event, here is how you can do this.

First click on this link to go to the donor site for Cam International.

Fill in the amount and the frequency.

Then click on Specific Project and type in Puebla Bible Seminary 50th anniversary conference.

Then finish with the payment option.

Just a note that LCI is not involved in any way with this event and does not profit in any way from this event.

In any case, pray sometime this week for the church in Mexico during this time. As my friend Roger said, quoting Dickens:

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. 

Pray that the church will make the most of these serious times.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Puebla Mexico: Day Four

Well, we had a very good day today. I love what I do. It is such a privilege to be together with really committed leaders who want to grow and do all they can to serve the work of God in and through their churches and organizations.

We began the day looking at the theme of leader as Architect of New Communities. The focus was on how we create spiritually transformative communities who learn how to be with Jesus, learn from and be imprinted by Jesus, become like Christ (Christ-likeness) and then go out, sent by Christ to do his work. Every time I do that seminar I am more motivated to be creating those kinds of communities.

The second session was a look at the difference between leading institutions and leading movements. This was a new theme for me and one that I had been spending some time thinking about for the last several months.I have a lot of "reworking" to do on this one, but it was a theme that really connected with the course participants. Especially for the context of Mexico which has been pretty resistant to the gospel and the work of the Protestant church.

But for me, the highlight was the afternoon when there were two case studies presented by participants on how their organizations have been going through "massive" change and how the way they lead is changing.

One case study was on change in the seminary institution that is the host site for the graduate program.

The second case study was on change in a missions organization that has been working in Mexico for about 80 years.

These case studies were not only contextualized, but were very well done.

It was a great way to end a course on Emerging Paradigms.

Now I have two days for some strategizing with my friend and host Roger Oliver and plus just some good hanging out time.

My friend Tim B., who flew in for the course, leaves tomorrow and it will be good to spend some final hours with him.

THANK-YOU for all your prayers. They were answered.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Puebla Mexico: Day Three

Wow is time very quickly going by!

The teaching day begins at 9:00 and we go to 6:00.

I am doing three sessions a day.

Yesterday our focus was on the major leadership transitions taking place in our changing world and in the emerging culture. And what do these changes mean for the church and its mission . . . and how do we implement these changes in our ministry?

This morning and early afternoon our focus was on the biblical metaphor of stewardship and how that guides our work of creating learning communities of faith that are transformative and missional. Needless to say, this is a tall order.

I describe this particular course as a week of sowing seeds. The hearts and minds of the participants are very fertile soil.

Thanks for your ongoing prayers. Some of these ideas are a challenge to contexutalize.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Puebla Mexico: Day One

It was great to be back at the seminary and to see the participants again. The last time I was here was in June 2008 with John Hilliard when we taught on spiritual leadership. Most of the students from that time were back. A few had other commitments and couldn't make this course. And there are two who are new to the program.

We spent the day looking at the changing world/culture in which we live. We talked about the shift from modernity to post-modernity and from Christendom to post-Christendom. We look at the significance of living "inbetween these times" and what paradigm change means for the church and its leaders.

While these are some unfamiliar concepts for many of them, they "get it." Tomorrow we begin to look more specifically at the leadership changes taking place or, better, which need to take place.

Warm, sunny, pleasant.

And back in York it is snowing.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Departing for Puebla, Mexico

I'll be making my second visit to Puebla, Mexico to teach a graduate course on leadership. The course I am teaching is Emerging Paradigms of Leadership. I am teaching this course at three different locations this year (Mexico, Argentina and then Chile).

There is a wonderful group of graudate students enrolled at the Puebla location. I am looking forward to seeing them again. Pastors, missionaries, several "layleaders" of churches, educators as well as a few businessmen are part of the course.

The participants come from all over Mexico and from a few other countries as well.

Plus I'll be staying with my friends Roger and Marcy Oliver. Roger is the president of Puebla Seminary, a great guy and just a lot of fun to be with. Marcy has an incredible gift of hospitality.

So pray for my flights from BWI to Houston to Puebla.

Pray for the teaching and that I'll be able to speak in a clear and contextualized way for the course participants (a great group by the way).

I'll seek to give some daily updates while I am there.

Here is a picture of the skyline of Puebla (a city of over one million people).

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Post Trip Reflections (Chile, November 2008)

I jotted down many of these thoughts in my journal while I was sitting in the Delta Terminal #3 of the JFK airport. I had about a four-hour layover there.

This was my third trip to Chile and the second time working with my friend there.

ONE:  Emerging Paradigms of Leadership. I have taught this course three times now. The first time was in Paraguay and it was in pretty rough form there. The second time was at Lancaster Bible College for a grad course. And now in Chile. It was modified again. I have more work to do for this course to be contextualized for the Latin world. I will be teaching it at three locations in Latin America in 2009.

The course had two main focuses. First we take a look at the In-Between Times of massive cultural change. We are moving from a modern world to a post-modern one. And even in religious Latin America, there is a shift from a Christendom model to a post-Christendom one (in some ways). So we spent a lot of time looking at these changes. The second focus was to inquire about the kind of leadership needed in this changing context.

TWO: Interesting Times, Serious Times.One of the core ideas is that we live in interesting times. Is this a blessing or a curse? We live in serious times (Adams to Jefferson, see a recent post I did on this). And we live in the best of times and the worst of times (Dickens), but they are our times. Living in these interesting, serious, best of/worst of times is living in the In-Between Times of transition and change. We talked about being "dangerous dreamers," "subversive prophets," "discerning missiologists."  "Here be dragons," "urban tribes," the emergent critique of the existing church, a definition of insanity (and how not to be insane) and more were themes of interest.

THREE:  The group of 30-40 (attendance varied depending on the day and busyness) was mostly younger leaders, but with some older, established leaders there also. They were mainly from the Santiago area, but a few were in from other areas in Chile and a few from Peru.  A number of them are possibly headed into cross-cultural situations at some point. They were thoughtful, committed, fun and energetic. It was a privilege to work with them.

FOUR:  There were a number of main texts in this course, but three in particular formed the framework for all our discussions.  Isaiah 43:18-19 (the new thing God is doing), Jeremiah 6:16 (standing at the crossroads seasons of life), and 1 Chronicles 12:32, 38 (discerning the times) gave us lens to think about our changing times and our invitation to lead in those times.

FIVE:  The core leadership team in place there is a wonderful group.They have their "bus" figured out and they have very good people in the right seats on the bus. I was struck by how much these leaders live out of the biblical metaphors of servant, steward, shepherd on behalf of the Chileans. They have a great love for the people, a compelling vision and the strategy of empowering hundreds of emerging leaders. I love it.

SIX:  The schedule for teaching in Chile is "different." One of the things I love about cross cultural travel is how things are different in different places. For the schedule, in the evenings I started teaching at 8:00 p.m. and went until 10:30 p.m. The urban Chileans are, let me say - night owls. Light nights. Eating late and going to bed late. It is actually kind of fun. Unfortunately, I am a morning person and I tend to wake up early, no matter how late I go to bed. Although I think I slept in until 7:00 a.m. every day.  I never can do that in America. I had also had a meeting on Friday from 10:00 - 1:00, taught all day Saturday, preached Sunday morning, and then taught for a few hours on Sunday before going to the airport.

SEVEN:  The gift of hospitality and friendship. My friend and his entire family have these gifts. Their home is a place of love, fun, laughter, creativity . . . and generous hospitality. In the Latin culture, at some places you will have a "mi casa es tu casa" culture. This is certainly true for my friend and host. I almost feel it is a home away from home. And I had a chance to watch Cola Cola win their quarterfinal game . . . headed toward the championship. This family are true fans (rabid fans).

EIGHT:  A few misc. thoughts.

I had a great "Asado" one night at my friend's house. Thanks to the Asado Master.

I read several very good books on this trip. Tribes by Godin, The Exceptional Presenter by Koegel, Wendell Berry and the Cultivation of Life by Bonzo and Stevens and a good way through Sabbath by Muller.

I read in Sabbath that unhappy people watch 30% more TV than happy people!!! I jotted down this thought because I am sitting in a terminal, watching the TV from time to time.

The temperature in Chile was wonderful. Mid to upper 80's during the day, low humidity and at night I think it dropped down to the 50's. It snowed in York while I was there!  I left warm Chile and returned to chilly York.  (I just had to say that.)

So that is a summary of this trip. Thanks again for your prayers.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Santiago Chile (Sunday Update)

Well, it is very late Saturday nite and I'll be turning in in a few minutes. Today was a long day. I taught from 8:30 - 5:00. It was a good group of people. My translator is a young women, daughter of one of the workers here and she has done a great job.

I had some time to watch my Chile team (because it is my friend's team) Cola Cola win the quarterfinals for national soccer. It was fun.

Homemade pizza for supper.  Good conversation and getting ready for manana. Preaching in the morning, a few hours back home and then a final teaching session from 5-7:30 and then off to the airport.

Warm sunny days . . . in the 80's. Although I was inside all day. The nights cool down to the 50's. 

That's all for now. 

Shalom in Christ,

Brian