Catalyst, NYWC, Open Space and Future Conventions: Part 7

Change Agents

Change is popular word these days.
It's a good word when referencing oneself.
It's a bad word when referencing others.

Pastors who are driven to change people and become change agents in the culture are too often manipulative.

When this desire for change is teamed with the burden of the life and death nature of the gospel it breeds a powerful tonic for trouble.

Most conventions are designed with the following intention. We are going to gather people and encourage them that they are the change agents in the church. So we say things like: "You are going to change the church."

However, the way we gather actually communicates. "We are going to change the church through you." Why else would you get together the way we do? Chairs in rows, facing a stage or individual with a microphone. All promoted in high gloss brochures and sexy websites developed via focus groups of who people what to here.

Therefore, conventions are often a double whammy of attempted change. We change the attendee, they change the church.

That's a lot of distance between the change agent and the changee.

I won't go too much into the psychology behind a person wanting to change others and their inherent trouble within themselves. (which is normal and part of the beauty in which God uses the weaknesses, problems, and shortcomings of individuals within His body to transform others and build the kingdom.)

I'll only say, that our motivation and mindset as conveners impacts the church in ways we don't entirely understand.

If we as pastors are always trying to change others, we will grow increasingly frustrated by their unwillingness to conform to our ideas (er.. God's ideas for them)
OR more despicably they will change and conform and we'll see it as success. Yikes!

We intellectually agree that the only person we can change is ourselves, but functionally act as if we can change the world.

Yes, as Bono is fond of saying, the world is more malable than we think, however, it's us changing ourselves (individually and corporately) that really makes the difference.

High gloss brochures or sexy websites promoting culture shaping experiences lead by experts the focus groups tell us they want to hear isn't leading or changing anyone.
Real change doesn't come from focus groups. The focus of focus groups is all wrong.
No one's life was ever transformed by a focus group.

Grab your free lunch, sit in a conference room and give your input on what you'd like to see isn't transformative and it's not change. It only a repackaged path leading back into more of the same.

Disciples aren't developed because they gave their opinion on your church or conference. Entitled people attend focus groups. They might not have entered the room entitled, but they leave that way.

What if focus groups went something like this.
"Glad you could coming to lunch. Once everyone's bought their and gathered we'll get started."
"While the others are getting their food, lets move the furniture around to fit what we collectively hope will happen during our time. Let's take a minute or two to do that. While we do, make sure you meet the others in the room."

"Now that everyone's in the room. "You know we're meeting in November again this year. what are you planning on creating in our time together then? How can we support you in what you're going to create?"

Catalyst, NYWC, Open Space and Future Conventions: Part 6

The Church of Misplaced Responsibility

Great leadership isn't about laying vision out of others to live out then holding them accountable to it.

Great leadership is simply allowing others to discover the vision God is building in them and then loving them as they hold themselves accountable.

Does your experience show you that you can't hold someone accountable?

Accountability isn't about making decisions for people and holding them to it.
It's not your responsibility to hold others accountable.
you can only support others in holding themselves accountable.

In an age of entitlement, there is a big difference.

Our understanding of leadership in the church often misplaces responsibility.

How we lead conventions re-enforces it.

I know that conventions are marketplace ventures. They are both capitalistic ventures and ministry opportunities. Yes. people pay to come and you, the convener, feel the pressure to both attract people to your gathering and the pressure to make it an experience worthy of the dollars spent.

that's the exchange. with the exchange of dollars goes and exchange of responsibility.

but that's only partially appropriate.

The outcomes of events must be more dependent upon the people attending them, not simply the people hosting them if events.

Catalyst, NYWC, Open Space and Future Conventions: Part 5

Who I hope to be.

I must confess that the past 4 posts are less restorative than I'd like. That is to say they may come off as someone who is powerless and/or as a victim. It is certainly not my intent but I suppose they can come off as sniping. So I'll say it a bit more clearly.

I am not dependent upon Catalyst, Youth Specialties / Youth Works, Group, Simply Youth Ministry or anyone else to create an event that is meaningful for me. It is not their job to align with my vision for them.

I'm honored to call many of the YS folks my friends. I have worked beside them for years. I've known many well before they were paid staff. So in the case of YS it seems more communal to me than it does with Catalyst.

I don't want to be vindictive or what Peter Block calls retributive.

I'm committed to being someone who convenes people and cultivates an environment for transformation. In my consulting, in my home, in my networks, over lunches and in the gatherings I convene I want to people to own their stuff.

I'm committed to honoring the work of others and seeing the beauty in what they offer.

I'm committed to keeping responsibility where it belongs, rather than taking responsibility off of the shoulders, while simultaneously bearing the burdens others are carrying.

I'm committed to holding myself accountable for the well-being of my neighbor and not being dependent on someone else to do it.

Catalyst, NYWC, Open Space and Future Conventions Part 4

Every meeting, every time we gather either transforms us more into who we are made to be, or solidifies us more into our broken past.

But not only every meeting. Every conversation.

I'm still learning this and getting my head around this, so please bear with me.

This has huge implications for both the future of the church and the future of events, conventions and conferences hosted by convening organizations.

I've got big hopes for the future of the church and for events that will transform the church.

Everyday I spend time with Senior Pastors, Executive Pastors, Youth Pastors and of course the non-paid people of the church. I'm convinced that the single greatest barrier to the growth of God's church in America had little to do with stubborn congregations (though there are some) or the unwillingness of congregations to engage in their kids lives (though this certainly happens), but the greatest barrier to the growth of God's church in America is the posture and leadership style of the most mature within the church, most often pastors.

The future of ministry has less to do with the pastor vision for his/her people and much more about the ways in which the pastor brings people together.
Less to do with what the pastor says, than the environment the pastor cultivates.
Less to do with managing power, and more to do with navigating critical conversations.

This has big implications for events like NYWC and Catalyst

The collective wisdom, experience and potential in a gathering like NYWC is staggering. Staggering and humbling. It should bring us to our knees. God is unleashing his kingdom within the world through these folks. Young and old.

It's too bad that we settle (often unintentionally) too often for collecting experts to pass on answers, opinions, and experience to us. We settle because the experts like it this way. We settle because people will pay big money with big hopes for life change from the experts. Don't get me wrong. the experts have their place. Just like the rest of us. We all have something to contribute.
This is why Open Space at NYWC is a small step in the right direction.

But there is resistance to the status quo. More than one expert has challenged my thoughts asking me, "What about the collective ignorance of the people?" To which I ponder for a moment and wonder aloud, "Our ignorance or theirs?"

There were attendees who said things to me like, "I didn't pay $250 to hear from a 30 year old talk about his opinion on something." It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder about professionalism of ministry and the consumption and entitlement the whole system breeds in all of us.

All meetings and gatherings either thrust us into transformation or solidify our past and connection to the status quo.

Put more bluntly: Most solutions offered at conventions only lead back into the problem. They don't transform, they further root us into dependence on the problem. Furthermore, they don't lead us toward faithfulness, but rather entitlement.

Most gatherings in the church or events are information exchanges. Perhaps it's the reduction of the gospel to an idea others need to agree with, or the individualism of our past. It really makes no difference. Those can be deconstructed elsewhere. Information is useless without transformation. Useless is putting it nicely.

Transformation comes from engagement not simply from information.

Transformation is undermined by both the overwhelming need the attendee has to find solutions or wonderful experiences and the Convener to make it worth their while and remarkable or twitter worthy.

How is transformation in the hearts of people passed on in 140 characters anyway?

Both seem like great motivations, but both are transformation killers.

Transformation and entitlement are mutually exclusive.

Transformation and expertise are mutually exclusive as well.

There is a better option for us all.

I'm optimistic that it's coming because I believe both the convener and the attendee are becoming more willing to question the old ways of gathering. They are willing to look at themselves, their motivations, the ways in which they come together and their expectations of each other. Only this will break down the biggest barrier facing the church in the US.

I know I'm ready. Change me God.

more soon.