The Blind Beggar

Some company managers believe that employees who are more religious or spiritual than others also tend to be harder-working, more reliable and ethical than their non-religious peers. But a recent study suggests the opposite may be true.

Daniel Martin, a professor at California State University — East Bay, “recently conducted a study involving 158 students at his school of varying ages and from a variety of backgrounds and religions (including those with no religious beliefs).

“The students were given a series of widely used psychometric tests along with questionnaires to determine their ethics, morals and professional and social habits as well as the degree of their involvement with religion.

“The research revealed little correlation between spirituality and integrity and responsibility, Martin says.

“More notably, the researchers found positive correlations between religiosity and negative behavior towards the organization, such as stealing supplies, filing false expense claims and the like, he says.

“The study also revealed positive correlations between religiosity and negative behaviors toward other people, such as lying, making disparaging remarks, etc.

“Martin says he was surprised by the findings and is not sure why religious people may be more prone to the negative behaviors shown in the study.”

Most disturbing if true of Jesus followers.

What is your reaction to these findings?

A missional church must be an innovative organization that looks at itself and its community in brand new ways, see things it has never noticed before and pays attention to how others do things differently. Alas, most of our faith communities are not innovative organizations.

Jim Carroll is a nationally recognized futurists and innovation expert. He has some interesting insights, that are very applicable to the missional church, on how innovative organizations differ from those that are innovation dysfunctional.

Signs that you’ve got an innovation dysfunction:

• People laugh at new ideas
• Someone who identifies a problem is shunned
• Innovation is the privileged practice of a special group
• The phrase, “you can’t do that because we’ve always done it this way” is used for every new idea
• No one can remember the last time anyone did anything really cool
• The organization is focused more on process than success
• There are lots of baby boomers about, and few people younger than 25
• After any type of pleasant surprise — product, market, industry or organizational change — everyone sits back and asks, “wow, where did that come from?”

According to Carroll, innovative groups act differently. In these organizations:

• Ideas flow freely throughout the organization
• Subversion is a virtue
• Success and failure are championed
• There are many, many leaders who encourage innovative thinking, rather than managers who run a bureaucracy
• There are creative champions throughout the organization — people who thrive on thinking about how to do things differently
• Ideas get approval and endorsement
• Rather than stating “it can’t be done,” people ask, “how could we do this?”

So, if you are a leader in your faith community, takes some time to reflect on these points and ask yourself, “do I encourage innovative thinking or I’m I just a manager who runs a bureaucracy?”

There has been a noticeable downward trend in the number of posts in the blogosphere related to the missional paradigm. Used to be that I’d have a dozen posts daily in my RSS feeds, but for the last few months it’s been just a couple a day.

I’m a contributor to this trend since I’ve not had a meaningful post on the subject for some time. For me, I’ve been focused on “doing the stuff” instead of thinking and writing about it.

Have any of you noticed this trend? What’s your reaction?

“Strolling through a pine forest, viewing rock formations, and cascading waterfalls, pausing to ponder the quiet surface of the lake and shoreline—little by little we are encouraged to lay aside the chaos of a troubled world and gently nurture the capacity within to hear a more harmonious, universal rhythm. We exchange burden, boredom and despair for renewal, inspiration and hope.”—Hoichi Kurisu

This is a great parody on an all to familiar, and sad, Sunday morning at so many of our church gatherings.

Good commentary on this clip by Bill Kinnon here.

HT: Dan Kimball

Ed Stetzer on how you and your church can help with disaster relief efforts in Nashville, TN, USA.

Was invited to participate in a panel last night at a local good size suburban “bible” church that is exploring the missional concept. It was a very enjoyable time and I was excited to see the leadership of a church (and this influential church in particular) on the path of discovery and discernment.

The task of us on the panel was to explore and discuss two issues: 1) the difference between the attractional and missional approach to church and, 2) the complexity and difficulties of being missional in a suburban setting.

We got through issue one and into an issue two question of what particular obstacles do suburban churches experience as they attempt to move toward a missional ecclesiology. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have time to deal with the practical question of how might a church move increasingly towards this kind of missional/incarnational approach.

I would have really liked to get into this last practical question. So not to waste my notes and thoughts on the subject, here are the bullet points from my talking notes:

• Leaders have to take seriously the Ephesians 4:11-12 mandate to be equippers and spiritual body builders.
• Discipleship doesn’t equal information, but transformation.
• The apprenticeship model in discipleship should be explored.
• Openly and freely celebrate those who are living out the life you want to see replicated.
• Become a story teller. Story is a powerful tool at illustrating and making the theme clear.

I’d love to hear any additional points you would have made.

As a result of the U.S. healthcare debate and vote, there has been a lot of Jesus follower jumping in on one side or the other of the issue. Although I disagree with Greg Boyd on a number of topics, I believe he captures the heart of what our view towards politics and political positions should be.

The political system will always try to lure us into believing that our particular way of doing politics is the ‘Christian’ way and tempt us into placing our trust in (what we think is) the wisdom and righteousness of our political positions rather than in the power of self-sacrificial love.

When Christians begin to think this way, it inevitably divides the church, since the ambiguity of politics is such that on most issues, good and decent people can and do disagree. If I naively pronounce that my views are the ‘Christian’ views, then your views must be judged to be ‘un-Christian’ if they disagree with me. This is arrogant and naive. It’s also unbiblical. Jesus called both Matthew, a tax collector, and Simon, a Zealot, to be his disciples. Tax collectors and zealots were at opposite sides of the political spectrum in the first century. Yet we don’t read a word in the Gospels about whose views Jesus thought were most correct, for the Kingdom he came to establish is “not of this world” (Jn. 18:36).

Even more importantly, when followers of Jesus get co-opted by the political system it distracts us from the Kingdom work we’re called to do. To the extent that we place our trust in exercising power over others, we stop trusting our mandate to exercise power under others through sacrificial service. Paul warns us not to get too involved in the affairs of the world, including its politics, but to always focus on pleasing our commander (2 Tim. 2:4)…. We who follow Jesus must always remember we belong to a radically different country with a radically different King who offers radically different solutions to the problems of life. We are missionaries in whatever earthly kingdom we happen to find ourselves in. We are citizens of heaven before we’re citizens of any earthly kingdom (Phil. 3:20).

My prayer is that as followers of Jesus our discussion around the healthcare issue or any political dialogue will be tempered by what Mr. Boyd shares.

Stephen Colbert does a great satirical piece on Glenn Beck’s attack on social justice and helping the poor.

HT: Jonathan Brink

And there are no strings attached.

According to our local community weekly newspaper, last year after the area’s economy was hit hard, the people of Riversgate Church gathered and discussed ways they could help. “Their solution was to offer a free, homecooked, buffet-style dinner once a week and to invite anyone and everyone who wanted to partake.”

“This wasn’t to be a typical church event: no sermon, no pressure to join the congregation, no preaching, no judgment. It would simply be a chance for anyone looking to sit down for a free, hot meal to do so. In other words, no strings attached: just a good, honest, homecooked meal.”

Here is what one person had to say about the effort: “This has been a real help,” says Lauren McGrath, a Unitarian who doesn’t attend Riversgate. “Last year was extremely rough on us…. Cash was short and we had been eating potato chips for five or six months – that was dinner, or whatever we could find at the Dollar Tree.” She went on to say, “Our situation is a little better now that the economy has improved, but we still come, even though it’s not absolutely necessary for our survival. We like hanging out with everyone.”

This is part of what missional looks like in their context. Nice job Riversgate!

“Seeking to be conduits of God’s common grace so that we can be conduits of God’s saving grace.”