LeadershipConneXtions

Staying in Your Story

Here is a great thought from Leonard Sweet (quoted on pp 67 of PostModern Youth Ministry).

The Visionary's Handbook by Wacker and Taylor describes nine paradoxes of leadership. The sixth paradox is one that the business world is learning but too many postmodern Christians have yet to comprehend: 

"To lead from the front, you have to stay inside the story." 

One of the worst things a Christian can do is to leave her story and start living somebody else's story. That's the fatal flaw of New Age spirituality -- it mixes everybody's story into one story, which (ironically) becomes nobody's story. 

We need to learn the song more than ever:  "This is our story, this is our song. Praising our savior all the day long."

**********************

Sweet (pictured by the way) wrote that warning abut eight years ago. I wonder how well we have managed to stay within our own story in the time since then? Or have we mixed up stories so much that what we have left is no longer anyone's story?

I read some really provocative books that make me re-examine my Christian story as to its integrity and faithfulness to Christ. That is a "well worth it" endeavor. For my story is compromised by many outside factors and forces of which I am not always aware.  But from time to time, of some of those same books and authors who challenge me, I wonder what Story they find themselves in and how aware they are of the outside forces shaping their own story.

How is your own story doing these days?

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

p.s.  And ironically, the blogsite off of which I pulled Sweet's picture accuses Sweet of being a New Age Theologian... !

Here is an article that Peter Hilliard sent in response to the post on The Declining State of Christianity in America.

I thought it was that good that I put it on the blogsite as soon as I read it.  

Thanks Peter.

The Decline of Evangelicalism in America

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Don't Stop Believing (and Don't Stop Living Like Jesus Either)

This is a very important book and it also happens to be a very good book, in that it is well written. A special thank you to Michael Wittmer who is a professor of systematic and historical theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary (i.e. he is really smart) for writing such a thoughtful and accessible book with doses of wry humor interspersed throughout it.

I had a good chuckle thinking about the Holy Spirit complaining He doesn't get noticed and saying, "Thank-God for the Pentecostals. Without them I'd get no attention" (pp. 51). It is little nuggets like that sprinkled throughout the book that are great.

Wittmer is gracious but clear as he describes certain tendencies among "some" emergent authors which amounts to a serious minimizing of Christian belief. He understands where these authors are coming from and why they are reacting to harmful excesses that have been found among "some" conservative Christians.

But the answer to wrongly held and rigidly defended belief is not to ignore belief nor to say that belief is unimportant,although he shows why it is a natural tendency for many postmoderns to "believe" that belief is no longer important.

Wittmer points out that the two main options have been conservative Christian belief and theologically liberal belief. Some emergent authors like to say they are charting a "third way" or a "middle way." Yet, when I read those authors, if on point after point the answers are much more like theological liberals and very little like conservative thinking, it is not really a third way. I appreciate Wittmer just saying, that this third way is not a third way.

In a very accessible yet substantial way, Wittmer looks at the issues of:

• What is the core of the Gospel necessary for salvation?

• Are people good or bad (the question of sin)?

• The question of homosexuality and homophobia.

• Is substitutionary atonement really divine/cosmic child abuse?

• What is the Kingdom of God and who is a part of it?

• What about hell?

• How do we know anything?

• Is the Bible God's true word?

• And more stuff like this. (The Nicene Creed is pictured above.)

By the way, for a really nice image of the Nicene Creed, click on the file:

Download Nicene Creed Image

There is some theology and biblical study in this book. There is some philosophical discussion in this book. There is reference to a lot of postmodern authors in this book. Yet, it is all accessible.

I love church history and Wittmer drops delightful examples, illustrations and insights from that history throughout the pages of the book.

It is a very worthwhile contribution to the ongoing conversation about postmodern faith. What is exciting is that postmodern faith is just in its very early stages and this kind of conversation is helpful in shaping what it may look like in years to come.

Get in on the discussion and the conversation. This book is a good stepping stone to do that.

(or)

Here is a short article by Wittmer summarizing many of the points of the book.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

The Line (Solzhenitsyn on Good and Evil and Avoiding a Modern-PostModern Dualism)

Riga, Latvia is one of my favorites for places where I have had the privilege of doing ministry. Old Riga (to the left) is a beautiful place.

Many years ago, on one of my trips, I was speaking to a group of post-communist era young adults in Riga, Latvia. I remember walking into the old college building where they met for services. It was a stately building, old, weathered stone that looked unmovable even though the centuries would go by. I wondered what memories this building had? I climbed up the massive stone stairway in the center of the building. Up past the second floor and climbing to the third floor. Then into a large meeting room where there would soon be about one hundred college students (and post-college as well) meeting in a new kind of church.

I don't remember exactly what my message was that morning. I do remember it was on the theme of the heart. What I especially remember is a quote that I used from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I remember it because a number of these very thoughtful, post-communist, now followers of Christ young people told me that Solzhenitsyn was one of their heroes and that quote one of their favorites.

Solzhenitsyn said:   The line between good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart.

For some reason, this quote came back to me as I was reading through a section in, Why We're Not Emergent, where  DeYoung is wondering about the difference between modernity and post-modernity and are they as cut and dry as some emergent authors lead us to believe?

I found myself wondering:

??? Isn't this just one more dualism that oversimplifies the issues?

??? Don't we run the risk, once again, of falling into an either/or and not trying to wrestle with a both/and approach (which ironically, should be a hallmark of postmodernity, yet on this issue some postmoderns sound more like the either/or of modernity)?

??? Is modernism really ALL that bad?  And is postmodernism really ALL that good?  This was a great question that DeYoung asked.

??? And, above all, isn't to think in these terms, to fall into the very error that Solzhenitsyn warned us against. For the line between good and evil does not run between modernity and postmodernity. No, that line runs right through the heart of each of those cultures/ages/spirits/philosophies/worldviews.

A little more epistemological humility and self-awareness about heart lines would be nice for all of us, whether we are modernists, post-modernists, or any other tag we use as a descriptor.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Byron Borger's Review of Books on Postmodernism + a Few That I Picked Up

A few weeks ago, Byron Borger, my friend and owner of Hearts and Minds posted a review of some books on postmodernism. I asked his permission to copy that review and provide it here in the form of a pdf.

For those of you who are interested in understanding postmodernity, these are some very good (but not necessarily accessible) resources. You'll have to do some work to read them.

It will be worth your while.

Here it is: 

Download BorgerPoMoBookReview.pdf

I read quite a few books by the emergent crowd. After awhile, it seems like there is a lot of retreading fo the same ideas.

I also like to read critiques of the emergent movement. In past years I have read some pretty substantial theological explorations of postmodernism (by those who have some concerns and who would not consider themselves - postmodern).

Here are two recent books that I have just picked up. I took them along with me on my trip to Chile and will read them on the flight down.  Since I am talking about postmodernity with some emerging leaders in Santiago, I wanted to listen again to some of the "observers and critics" of the emergent movement.

Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who should Be, Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck.

Truth and the New Kind of  Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church by R. Scott Smith.

I'll let you know what I think of these books later.

Plus I picked up GloboChrist: The Great Commission Takes a Postmodern Turn by Carl Raschke. It looks good. Byron talks about it in his review.

Brian Rice

The Trouble With Paris (A Book Review)

Here is the pdf of a lengthy review/essay on The Trouble With Paris by Sayers.

I think Sayers has offered a very important and accessible book that is good missiology on our postmodern culture. I think Sayers is saying some different things than some other emergent authors and I tend to think Sayers has done a better job of interpreting the culture.

You can read about it by cliking on the pdf.

Download TroubleWithParisReview.pdf

Brian Rice

Hi-jacking Jesus and a Less Offensive Faith

 In unChristian, Kinnaman is concerend about a "Hijacking Jesus" approach to reach a disillusioned, skeptical young adult with the gospel.

To hijack Jesus is to promote a less offensive faith, especially about those issues of contention and tension for young adults.

So, if the culture believes homosexuality is a legitimate lifestyle that shoud not only be tolerated but sanctioned, then Christians must stop being homophobic and believe the same. 

If the culture thinks we are judgmental because we talk about moral and truth issues with some sense of right and wrong and truth and falsehood, then we need to stop doing that.

If the culture believes we are intolerant because we believe that Jesus is unique and the pathway to God in a way that other religions and philosophies are not (and those other "ways" are not only inadequate but they are wrong), then we need to let go of that belief.

If the culture believes Christians have no business being in politics and through that avenue to promote a political agenda, then we should withdraw from the political and social spheres of life.

To respond in this way (and it seems there are some emergents who are doing that or at least verging on doing so), Kinnaman says is to hijack Jesus.

(By the way, I do think that on each of the issues above, we have made serious errors that have hurt our credibilty as witnesses and we need to think wisely and act in much more loving ways on each of them.)

When Don Kimball says that the emerging un-Christian culture likes Jesus, but they don't like his followers, I think he is only half right. I think the Jesus they like is a reconfigured Jesus who is pretty far removed from the Jesus of the gospels who said that people would be divided because of him. Paul called that same Jesus and his story/gospel a stone of stumbling for many.

Read John, chapter six. After teaching some hard things, people grumbled about Jesus and his teaching and he asked them directly - "Does this offend you?"  It did offend them and from that time on, they no longer followed him.

One of the many reasons I like Don Miller (Blue Like Jazz, etc.) so much is that he is a new kind of Christian, an ancient-future kind of witness through the telling of authentic stories WHILE staying faithful to the ancient story as it has been received, accepted and passed on.

I think this is our challenge and narrow road to walk in this cultural season (which will be with us for a long time).

Brian Rice

Ten Questions for Brian McLaren (Interview)

If anyone is interested in getting an introduction (handle) on Brian McLaren, who is probably the most influential postmodern voice for Christians, go to Ten Questions for Brian McLaren Interview which is posted on  Terry Heaton's PoMoBlog.

Hear Brian McLaren speak for himself on some of the important issues.

By the way, I still really like The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Persepctives, edited by Len Sweet as an introduction for this issue. Five articles, five persepctives and four critical responses to each perspective from the other contributors.

It is in the "tradition" of the multi-perspectives books that were done by Zondervan and Baker and I think IVP on theological issues where they invited representatives from different traditions to submit an essay and also to submit critiques of the other essays.

For a short review of the book go to THIS REVIEW.

Good stuff.

Brian Rice

Tim Keller, The Reason for God, and a Few Thoughts on Being Missional

I have a much longer review/essay of Tim Keller's book - The Reason for God on the pdf file listed below.

In that review, I interact with some emergent authors and a few big ideas of the emergent crowd.  I am a bit critical on some things about their thoughts. I do this to set the stage and the contrast for Keller.

I am very positive about Keller's book as a different way to be missional in a post-modern culture.

It is just one more voice (mine) that is added to the conversation that is taking place on blogs everywhere.

Let me know if you have some thoughts.

Download TheReasonForGod.pdf

Tomorrow - thoughts on Narcissistic Leaders.

Brian Rice

Emerging "Intuitive" Leadership (and a MUST READ BOOK)

One of the topics I have been interested in for some years now is the issue of post-modernity (the philosophical worldview), post-modern culture (the popular way we see that worldview manifested all around us) and what kind of leadership is needed in that culture.

Emerging leadership arises in a specific cultural context and must make its way through that context in a way that is both culturally relevant and biblically faithful.

There are about a dozen core books that I have read and reflected upon and which shaped the foundation for the course I taught in Paraguay. On the flight down, I read a brand new boook recommended to me by Byron Borger.

Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor and Chaos by Tim Keel!

A FANTASTIC BOOK!

Tony Jones describes it this way: Tim Keel . . . brings together the multiple streams of emerging church, postmodernity, media theory, biblical interpretation, churchplanting, cultural studies and holistic, missional life. THIS BOOK IS DESTINED TO BE A CHURCH LEADERSHIP CLASSIC.

When I read that, I thought to myself, "talk about over-promising and under-delivering!"

Guess what? Tim Keel delivers it and it will become a classic. I read a few too many emergent books that are kind of fluffy and anecdotal. This one is substantial in every way and a lot of fun to read. If you want to read ONE BOOK that suggests a new way forward for emerging leadership - this is it.

Keel is very passionate about this point. The way of leadership that was advocated by people like Maxwell, Hybels and others like them is no longer culturally relevant leadership, and he may even softly raise the question - was it biblically faithful leadership or a culturally shaped substitute?!

For a good reveiw, go to EMERSION.

If you do read this book - be ready to be rocked and also, please tell me what you think about it.

Brian Rice

Cultural Creatives and the New Realists

Michael Frost (in Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture) describes a growing group of people known as the cultural creatives or the new realists.

These people cross political lines, and they are viewing the world differently from the mainstream. They may be as many as 26% of the U.S. population. Here are five things that characterize this group:

1. Ecologically sustainable products and services and concern for the whole planet.
2. An insistence on authenticity, personally, at work, in business and politics.
3. Bringing women's issues into public life.
4. Reporting the news differently, to see the big picture, and first-person stories, and good news too.
5. Bringing spirituality into American life.

Leaders who want to influence this group will have to address these issues in meaningful ways.

Click here for more on Michael Frost and his organization.

Brian Rice

They Like Jesus but Not the Church!

THEY LIKE JESUS, but they don't like the church.

Hmmm.

I have a bunch of observations.

The first and most superficial:  So do I! And I am also very sympathetic with the fact that when Christians who have gathered together in communities called churches act in wierd, legalistic, judgmental, intolerant, "un-Christlike ways" it makes it difficult to dialogue with the culture about Jesus. Unfortunately, I've met Christians like that in the institutional church, house church, radical church, and "para-church." Please don't think that the only turn-offs to Christianity are found in the institutional church.

Second and a little deeper: The church I don't like is the church as it actually is and not the church as it is meant to be. The church as it is meant to be would be a beautiful, radiant, holy, glorious bride. It would be hard not to like that church. Unless you are an uncouth, self-centered groom!  The church I don't like is a church composed of people as they actually are and not people as they are meant to become.

Third: Do they really like Jesus? Or do they just like their "preferred, probably pretty uninformed image of Jesus? Would they really like the Jesus who tells them to sell everything and follow Him? Who says, "take up your cross and follow me?" Who models the way of suffering service? Who tells them to love their enemies? Who says be perfect?

Fourth: There were a lot of people who met Jesus and didn't like Him. Some didn't like Him because of the things mentioned in #3. Some didn't like Him because the way of Jesus was a pretty different way than their way and Jesus seemed to be rather intolerant when He said He was THE way. I think the same is just as true today. Many (even most) people wouldn't really like the real Jesus...  even if we think we are being creative and culturally cool in presenting Jesus so they will like Him.

Fifth:  Is the point really to like Jesus? I thought the point was to love, worship, follow, obey, surrender to, repent before, trust and live/die for Jesus? That seems a far different reality than "liking Jesus." And in fact, this is part of the reason they won't like Jesus, because adventure in liking Jesus is not really the point. I don't think Jesus says "liking me is what life is all about."

Sixth: I suspect that somewhere along the line, Jesus wants me to to learn to love the church, even as it is with all its failures, flaws and brokenness, instead of what it will one day be when Christ completes and perfects His people/bride.  (Remember the old line - I love the world, it is just people I can't stand? I think Jesus wants us to grow out of this and be incaranational and love the church as it actually is and not just as it is meant to be.)

Seventh: Fortunately, Jesus really, really, really likes the church.  Alright, I'll says it - loves the church, even when it looks a lot more like an adultress than a bride.

Eight: In this post, I really haven't interacted with the substance of this book, just its cool, creative, culturally catchy title and thesis.

Brian Rice

Rethinking Our Approach to Culture

I am in the process of reading an advance copy of Gary Thomas' new book - A Beautiful Fight, due to be published sometime in November.

If the early chapters are any indication - his newest book may become my favorite Thomas book --- and that will be saying a great deal!  Here are some thoughts by Thomas on our approach to culture.

"In my view, the contemporary church is severely tempted to compensate for its lack of spiritual weight with reliance on cleverness and cultural awareness - as if these two qualities can overcome a lack of God's empowering presence . . .

We cannot compensate for being strangers to God by becoming friends with the culture. On the contrary, we become our culture's truest friend by becoming more aware of the God who not only engages our culture, but also inspires, critiques and transforms it." (Gary Thomas)

Does this ever hit a nerve!

I have been a part of two "movements" that were both fascinated with the current culture and really sought to reach that culture.  Both the seeker movement of the 1990's and the postmodern "quasi-movement" of our current decade were very clever and culturally aware movements with lots of great ideas to engage the culture.

Unfortunately, we were not (and are not) as spiritually weighty. I have met a lot of very smart, creative, interesting, relevant, "with it" church leaders in both these groups. While they differed and argued about what is the best cleverness and cultural awareness - I was often struck by this thought:

How rarely have I met a woman or man whose life overwhelmed me with its spiritual beauty and depth. How infrequent have been those encounters with a person of whom I simply must use the words - godly, holy, transformed, luminous, Christlike.  I fear we have settled for clever, relevant, intellectual, trendy, critical, engaging (add in lots of other words) but neglected the greater things.  (I know it was a whole lot easier for me to be clever and culturally creative than Christlike.)

Gary Thomas' newest book is pointing us back to the Transforming Presence and the Glorious Pursuit! And that will be the way to reach our culture.

I'll have a follow-up thought on this later.

Note:  It has to do with this question:  Do they really like Jesus?

Brian Rice

Emerging Paradigms Course in Paraguay

Today is the first day of teaching a new course called Emerging Paradigms in Leadership. I am in the city of Asuncion, Paraguay. This is my second visit to this city. The first time I was with both Omar Gava and Brian Newman, when we launched the Master's Program for Londrina.

I have been working on this course for some time, although the last month has been a time of intensive work (since I had fallen a bit behind in preparation).

There are several very good textbooks that I use for this course. One of them I have just finished re-reading and I enjoyed it as much as the first time I read it.  That book is:  Unnatural Leadership: Going Against Intuition and Experience to Develop Ten New Leadership Instincts. It is by David Dotlich and Peter Cairo.

I usually refer this as the book on "counter-intuitive leadership." Their thesis is simple. There is a conventional wisdom about leadership that is wrong on ten points. A new wisdom is needed for the cultural time in which we live and work. If leaders do not learn to go against their intuition and gut feel, they are going to be in trouble.

They look at issues of personal leadership, team leadership and organizational leadership. Pick up a copy of the book and work your way through it.

Of course, my challenge this week is to find ways to contextualize the insights of Dotlich and Cairo (and many others) into the Latin context of Paraguay. As you remember - pray for me.

Brian Rice

From Nicaea to Nietzsche

There are a number of our friends in Europe who are passionate about reaching post-modern culture with the gospel.

A friend sent me this link about a conference that addresses these issues.  He thought the title of the conference itself was very cool and I agree.

Click Here for the link about the conference to see who is speaking and what their topics are.

Brian Rice

Postmodernism and Useless Beauty

The attached file is a brief review of three books I have read in the past month. The books are on postmodernism and postmodernity. Two of them use film as a central feature of the book.

Download Postmodernism.pdf

-BR