Interesting Research on The Wisdom of Crowds

I saw this interesting Wired article via Zite. I read James Suriwecki's book, The Wisdom of Crowds, several years ago and was fascinated with its premise (that crowds that meet certain criteria are often smarter than individuals in making decisions.)

The end of the article, stating a conclusion from researchers led by mathematician Jan Lorenz and sociologist Heiko Rahut of Switzerland’s ETH Zurich, intrigued me:

“Opinion polls and the mass media largely promote information feedback and therefore trigger convergence of how we judge the facts,” they wrote. The wisdom of crowds is valuable, but used improperly it “creates overconfidence in possibly false beliefs.”


What do you think? How does this impact how we communicate and operate as the church, the community of Jesus?

Introducing the Shallow Small Group...

Pretty funny caricature of small groups. How does reflect (or not) your own perceptions or experiences of small group community?

Church: Purveyor of religious goods and services or Community of Jesus?

When the church is merely a provider of religious goods and services, we run the risk of making Jesus a consumable "product" to meet our own needs, rather than the life-giving Savior who transforms and reorients our lives.  


In what ways does the 21st century church seem to be merely a provider of religious goods and services?  In what ways does the 21st century church seem to be the community of Jesus?

A Goal and an Idea...

Earlier today, we had the Sticky Group Summit, where we invited leaders and participants from our Sticky Groups (sermon-based small groups), other small groups, and adult classes to join us for a conversation. In the course of the conversation, I shared with them a personal goal to have 60% of our average worship attendance participating in a group where they are being connected to the Scriptures, to God, and to one another.

My purpose for stating such a goal is not about getting more people to do more stuff. This is about letting Jesus run rampant in our community through transformed lives. I believe that as the church we are about transformation.

I firmly believe that one of the ways we experience transformation is when we gather in community with others to explore the Bible and seek God. This is an important part of intentional spiritual growth.

Now back to the goal for a minute. Right now, 60% of our average worship attendance is about 720 people. Imagine if 720 people from the same community are experiencing transformation. Think about all the people those 720 people touch in their daily lives: their family, friends, and co-workers. Imagine the impact those 720 will have in the world. Its exponential!

Remember, this is not about getting more people to do more stuff. This is about letting Jesus run rampant in our community through transformed lives that begins in Christian community and runs out into the world.This about making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

If you live in Stafford, and you are not already a part of an experience where you are connecting with others, the Bible, and God, click here to learn about some upcoming opportunities for transformation!

The whole pie or a piece of the pie?

If our lives were a pie and the different parts were pieces (work, school, family, etc.), is God interested having the biggest piece or the whole thing?

Last week I was up at Wesley Seminary for a reunion of the Lewis Fellows. (A group that invests in young clergy to give them resources for leadership and the opportunity to develop connections with other young clergy leaders.) During one of the discussions, one of the speakers made an observation that's been bouncing around my mind ever since: In our congregations are we about transformation or merely enlarging our portion of the pie?

This is a really important question, because it shapes life together as Christian community.

If you were to ask most church leaders, 99.9% of them would say that we are about transformation, and rightly so. However, when it comes to how churches operate, it seems the "increasing the faith portion of the pie" is dominant. Worship and faith are just another part of the pie.

If worship and faith are just another piece of the pie, then the goal is to get people in the door. People just showing up at an event is success. This mindset sees all other activity (i.e. school events, community events, work, etc.) as competition. If the church and faith isn't taking up a bigger portion of the pie then it we are losing. This doesn't make better disciples, just busier disciples.

However, the church exist to make disciples of Jesus for the transformation of the world. Thus, organizing around transformation looks at everything the church does, from worship to childcare, and everything in between, and asks the question: were lives transformed because of this event? The purpose behind everything is transformation in Christ Jesus.

Participation in a faith community should not be all consuming (of life, time, and resources), but transforming (of how we use our life, time, and resources). Moreover, the church is not the end, but means to God's purposes in the world. In other words we gather to be transformed or to be reminded of our transformation, so that we can go back out into the world as God's transformed people in the places where we work, play, and live: coaching our kid's soccer team, the way we run our businesses, love our co-workers, serving on the PTO, exercising at the gym, etc. Our lives shine the light of Jesus into the world's dark places.

I don't believe God is interested in just a bigger piece of the pie of our lives. No, God is interested in the transformation of the whole thing.

Seth Godin, Lizard Brains, and the Church...

This morning I listened to an interesting interview between Seth Godin and Merlin Mann.  (Seth is a marketing guru, and Merlin is a productivity/software guru.)  In the interview Seth explains a concept about multiple minds (see his brief blog post on the same idea here,  or a video of a talk about it here.)

He suggests that we each have two minds - the rational mind and the "lizard brain".  The rational mind is what you would think. We consider concepts ideas and reason.  The "lizard brain" is that part of our mind that is concerned about survival.  When we go through threatening or challenging times, the "lizard brain" takes over and over-rules the rational brain at times to try and maintain survival.

By now you may be asking - so what? Right?

Well here's the deal.  Have you ever been in the midst of a life-changing decision and all the sudden your brain just shut down?  Or been on the precipice of launching some really cool idea and all the sudden fear jumped in and you ended up playing it safe?  That was the "lizard brain" jumping in to ensure survival.  Its not concerned about success or new ideas.  It wants to maintain the status quo.  Maintaining existence is its goal.

Yet we were created for more than mere maintenance of existence.  So much more.  Yet when we begin to take steps move beyond our comfort zone that darned "lizard brain" tempts us back to comfort...safety...existence...status quo.

So as I listened to Mann and Godin discussing this idea, Godin stated two ways to defeat the "lizard brain":  1. Ignore it OR 2. Soothe it.

Ignoring it means identifying when that portion of the brain rears up its ugly, lizard-head and doing the opposite.  Going with that hare-brained scheme that might work.  Launching an entreprenurial endeavor you have always wanted to try.  Reaching out to a complete stranger in compassion regardless of the fear of appearing weird.  Risking telling an acquaintance who is going through a dark time that you are praying for them.

Soothing the "lizard brain" means trying to retrain it to realize that some of those things that it things are threats aren't really threats.  Susan Boyle seems to me to be a perfect example of someone who soothed that lizard voice to try something really challenging (singing before a live crowd and a national TV audience).

So what does this have to do with the church?  Maybe one of the reasons the church in North America is declining is because we have listened to the "lizard brain".  We (the church) has become more concerned about existence and survival than the mission to which God is inviting us.  And so we maintain a dying institution.  We don't want to rock the boat to try something new, different, or ground-breaking because that requires stepping into the unknown and letting go of control.   For those of us who a part of a worshipping congregation - how much of the budget is for mission/outreach and how much for maintaining structures? It seems we've become more interested in maintenance than  mission.

God is all about new life.  When God created the church I don't think the goal was to create an institution.  Rather I believe God was creating a living entity with a life-giving purpose.   I believe we experience new life the most when we are willing to leave behind  that safe environment to which the "lizard brain" seeks to keep us, for the uncertain, life-changing, and at times ambiguous, mission to which God calls us in Jesus.

Shifting into Next Gear?

Scot McKnight over at Jesus Creed asks an intriguing question:  

How much of our vision for what God is doing in this world is shaped by a belief that God saves us in order to have an intimate relationship with him (personal piety) that flows over into fellowship with others, rather than Jesus' bigger kingdom vision of what God is doing in this world and that personal piety is designed by God to prompt us to work for that vision?

This is something I have been thinking a lot about as I've been reading Alan Roxburgh's book Introducing the Missional Church: What it is, Why it Matters, How to Become One, and as we have been preaching a series at church called Shift...


It seems to me that the church needs to shift in several ways.  

• First we must recognize that we are not an ends in and of ourselves. Rather we are to be the means or methods to God's ends or purposes in the world.  
• Second we must shift our model from information to transformation. Right now it seems the goal of Bible study is to gain as much knowledge as possible about the content of the Bible. (not that that's a bad thing) I would suggest that Bible study should be more about letting the text shape and mold us as we read about God's story and see how our story fits into it. 
• Lastly, I think we need to shift from maintenance to mission. Where do we direct the majority of our resources in churches? Towards buildings and staff or towards mission? Where do we focus our energy and effort? Towards maintaining an ineffective structure focused on survival or structuring to launch people into the world as everyday missionaries? Are we more focused on adding names to the roles or making disciples for the transformation of the world?

God created the church. I don't think its going to disappear anytime soon. However I do think that ineffective and self-centered models of church will die away. Maybe its time to crucify those models, for out of crucifixion comes resurrection.

Clarity for the future...

"What do you see yourself doing in five years?" Uggh. I've never been sure how to respond to questions about the future. Especially since God shattered my previous plan for my life with my call to ordained ministry.

Recently though, I've been getting a better sense of what I want to do in the future.

Generally, I want to be an "agent of change" in the culture of the church:

I want to lessen the bureaucracy...

I want to shake complacency...

I want to see healthy systems in our structures, that lead to:

1. the church as a means to God's ends (and not vice versa!)

2. making genuine disciples of Jesus (not merely members of an organization)

3. the transformation of the world (as opposed to the perpetuation of an institution)

It is refreshing to be able to articulate these ideas. Also its been great to begin connecting with others who are feeling similar desires for the future. The next step is begin dreaming with others and discerning what God is doing with this.

Now, I am no longer uncertain how to respond when someone asks what I see myself doing in five years. Next time someone asks, I'll say: "Changing the world."

Want to join me?

Would you close down churches?

Adam Hamilton from Church of the Resurrection shares an interesting observation of questions the UMC could ask from observing what's going on at GM. (Read the full post here.)

He suggests that if the UMC were to close "dead" or "dying" churches two things may occur:

1) The UMC could use the pastors and resources from those churches create new congregations

My two cents is that, although this would be heart-wrenching and difficult, done with grace, its the right thing to do.

2) Seminaries would be forced to shift the focus of their training

Currently, in my opinion, seminaries train students for models of ministry that are at least one generation behind the current generation - no wonder 18-35 year olds are the largest missing segment of the church.) This issue with the curriculum isn't necessarily theological. Rather as Hamilton points out, practical. Seminaries need to give students tools for leadership, dealing with conflict, managing budgets, running a meeting, in addition to worship and pastoral care skills.

Lastly, a commenter on the Hamilton's post raises another good point about the difference between shifting structure and shifting culture. So often we do the former without considering the latter. My hope is that we could do both in order to make the emphasis of the church to make disciples of Jesus for the transformation of the world, not church members for the sustainability of the denomination who are really well organized.

So, what do you think? How does our structure need to shift? How does our culture need to shift? How do we make this happen - so that our denomination is about something bigger than itself - the mission of God in the world.

Suffering and the Church...

I've been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship. Today's money quote:

"But the church knows that the world is still seeking someone to bear its sufferings, and so, as it follows Christ, suffering becomes the church's lot too and bearing it, it is borne up by Christ. As it follows him beneath the cross, the church stands before God as the representative of the world."

Earlier this week a 17-year-old in our community chose to take his own life. While he or his family was not connected with our church, our congregation has really been impacted by such a tragic event. More than once this week, the question has come up, "how do we as the church in our community engage suffering?" We...must...be...present...to...it.

Jesus conquered suffering by going through it, so the church as the Body of Christ in the world, must seek to conquer suffering (ours and others' suffering) by engaging it and being present to it.

We must hold the family who has lost a son. We must surround those whose life is crumbling before them. We must be present on the streets with the homeless. We must sit in the hospital room of the dying. If for no other reason than to point to (and maybe even sometimes be) the presence of God in the midst of suffering.

We can't remove others' suffering, but we can bear it with them, just as Christ on the cross bore our sin.

Starfish, Taxes, and Tea...

This opinion piece about the Tax Day Tea Parties WSJ is a great illustration of decentralized movements. Regardless of one's politics, it is a great example a starfish movement.

What can the church learn from this kind of movement? What are historical examples of this in the church?

Christian Community...

I finished Scot McKnight's The Jesus Creed and have now picked up Dietrich BonHoeffer's Life Together. Wow! I am only 26 pages into it and I am blown away by what he has to say about Christian community. While I cannot replicate the wisdom he shares about Christian community, here are three quotes and reflections from the first 26 pages:

...the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life, but in the thick of foes. There is commission in his work. (p.17)

Exactly. We are commissioned to go out into the world (Matthew 28:19-20). I don't know that I would use the word foes to describe the relationships with others, but the sentiment is one I resonate with - We leave the comfort and safety of our Christian bubbles to engage the world around us.

Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this...We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ. (p. 21)

While we are called to go out into the world, we are also called to be in fellowship together, whether for a few minutes, an hour, whatever. In that time we find encouragement. For the goal of Christian community (according to Bonhoeffer) is to meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation. It is Jesus that we see or seek in others and that others see and seek in us when we gather.

...the Christian is the man who no longer seeks his salvation, his deliverance, his justification in himself, but in Jesus Christ alone. (p. 21-22)

I find in Bonhoeffer a great relenquishement of self. In that the focus is no longer on self, but in the "Word of God in Jesus Christ." For instance, conviction or righteousness comes from Jesus - through the word of God. It meets us where we are. And when others see us, it is Jesus they see and seek.

In a sense this is a loss of self, however maybe a better way to say it is that it is a way of seeing ourselves as "right-sized." We see self in a divine perspective - we are vessels or jars of clay through which to carry the message of salvation (the one we are reminded of by our brothers and sisters in Christ) and empty it out into a world that is thirsting for such a message.

Homecoming...

Today was homecoming at RUMC. It was my first...ever. Apparently, homecoming is a small, rural church phenomenon. The purpose of homecoming is to invite all the people who used to live in the community back to their home church for a time of celebration and reconnection. It is standard to have a former pastor preach the service.

For many churches this is a really big deal. So there seems to be this kind of pressure to make sure everything goes really well. Since I am new to the church this year, they asked me to preach the service which was a real honor. (However, last night I was afraid I wasn't going to have anything say, see here, things ended up working out very nicely.)

Thanks be to God, worship went very smoothly. Its hard to describe, but a certain excitement or energy filled the entire sanctuary. It was pretty amazing. One person described it saying, "You could feel the love in the room."

Since we had folks from all over coming back to Rectortown, I met a lot of really nice folks who's history with the church goes back longer than I have been alive! All of them very kind and very encouraging!

In the end, I am happy to report I survived my first homecoming.

What is the church?

A thought struck me the other day: if the church is the incarnation of Jesus in the world, then we ought to spend more time out in the world than in the church building. Thus we would refrain expending lots of energy or resources on "programming" and facilities (to the extent that they don't facilitate the three items below) in order to really focus on three things:

1. a weekly worship gathering,
2. opportunities to help others intentionally grow in their relationship with God
3. intentional ways for the church to share the love of God out in the community
   

If Christians are spending all our time at church with other Christians then how will people hear about the radical love of God? What do we imply about the church and Christians if we don't spend time developing authentic relationships with outside our community of faith? What are we saying about the good news of Jesus if we are afraid to share it with others?

I pose these questions to myself and my own church context as well as to the broader church. What do you think?

The Best Laid Plans...

Over the past several weeks our congregation has been exploring healing - physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental. Today we had a healing service...but not the way I had in mind. Going into worship I was excited about some of the new things we were going to try.

Yet, We had few "hiccups" with the order of worship and the worship leader. This irritated me a bit, but I was keeping my cool, looking forward to our acts of healing after communion.

Then in the middle of the service during a hymn, one of our elderly members who sings in the choir passed out. (This is the third time he has done this at church - the second time since I have been there!) Thankfully he passed out sitting down. The hymn we were singing was - "Have Thine Own Way Lord." (Ironic, because worship certainly wasn't going the way I intended!)

So some of the men in the choir fireman-carried him into the fellowship hall where luckily we had an EMT in the congregation who was able to provide assistance until the rescue squad arrived. We continued the service with a prayer for healing for our "fallen" comrade and then attempted to continue with the rest of the order of worship.

In the end, I think that this poor gentleman's fainting spell really set the tone for the rest of the service. This may sound weird, but somehow the kinks in the (read: my) plans created space for God to move in the midst of the service. People shared authentically about what was going on in their own lives. They approached the healing centers (anointing with oil, shared prayer, remembering their baptism, and kneeling at the altar rail) with a different kind of mindset.

If anyone was touched by the service or experienced any kind of healing, there is no question that it was the power of God moving and not the design and implementation of the service! What a day!

Words from down under...

Found this cool clip over at EmergingUMC. I find the messages in the video below inspiring and encouraging. What do you think?

Humbling Church Moment #683

At RUMC we recognize birthdays and anniversaries before the service. The congregation sings a modified "Happy Birthday/Anniversary to You" and people can walk up and put money in a "birthday box" which goes to help the needy in our community.

This past Sunday I was doing the announcements and calling notice to this tradition because we have several new folks worshiping with us. I wanted newer folks to understand what people are doing when they walk up and put cash in th "birthday box" and have the opportunity to participate.

However, I forgot two things. First I forgot that my birthday was this week, which means that I should as an example, put money into the box. No problemo - a perfect teachable moment... except to my horror I as I reached into my pocket I realize I had forgotten a second thing - cash. I had no cash.

So, what may have been a really good spur-of-the-moment idea (announcing the church custom of the birthday box) became a humbling church moment in practice (no money to put in the box for my own birthday). I'll be bringing cash to church this week.

Humbling Church Moment #657

Serving in a church with lots of small children keeps one always looking for good childcare workers. I recently came across a potential worker and arranged for her to come and work on Wednesday nights, during our Bible study. Last night was the first Wednesday she was working with us. This particular evening I happened to be carpooling with some folks from the congregation, and as we pulled into the church parking lot, a lone black SUV with the license plates "DVL SPWN" sat there waiting for us.

The folks I was riding with had concerned looks on their faces and asked, "Who's car is that?" To which I had to meekly reply, "I think that is our new childcare worker."

I may have lost some points there...

The worker said that it was a license plate she got in high school to irritate her mother several years ago. I don't know if it worked then, but I fear it's going to irritate some folks at church.

The moral of the story: in addition to background checks on childcare workers, run license plate checks too.