Christianism

Christians, we have the answers… but it is not likely just a matter of shouting the answers. Our world doesn’t need another ism. Have you noticed that the shouting is generally over isms? We identify a position and label it as an ism… racism, feminism, conservatism, progressivism, etc. … and then we shout for or against an ism.

Friends, the world does not need Christianism. People who are certain, angry, and loud… people who merely shout their answers and conclusions. Jesus did not come to bring Christianism; Jesus came to serve. Jesus is the wisdom that comes from heaven.

The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. (James 3:17,18)

Jesus did not come to bring Christianism; Jesus came to transform lives, and then transform others (even societies) through transformed lives.

When we see injustice, we are called to not merely identify it and shout at it; we are called to serve. We are called to follow the example of our Savior and serve, standing up for those who cannot stand for themselves. Giving, and helping, and caring. Not standing idle by clucking our tongues, certainly not standing by in judgment, but stepping in and serving whenever possible.
 
 
This is an excerpt of my message 12/7/2014, available in its entirety here.

Christmas Dissonance

Last Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, our choir at Pleasant Bay sang O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. I don’t have an exact count, but I would imagine it is the fourth or fifth version of this song our choir has sung in the dozen years of our existence. We sing it, in one form or another, every year at this time; it sets the tone for Advent.

Funny thing… the tones are minor. While O Come Emmanuel has been arranged innumerable ways in the 1,200 or so years of the hymn’s existence, it is almost exclusively set with a slow tempo in a minor key. It doesn’t sound like most Christmas songs; it doesn’t sound happy.

We don’t sing it because we want people to be sad at Christmas. The slow tempo and minor key don’t necessarily have to be sad; O Come Emanuel is not a sad song. But there is dissonance (especially to our western ears).

I think we do well at the beginning of Advent to acknowledge, even marinate in, the dissonance.

It is a popular notion that Christmas is essentially the birthday of Jesus (or at least the celebration of the birthday of Jesus; reasonable people disagree about the exact date). Christmas is generally thought of as a birthday party, and all that leads up to it is part of the celebration. Christmas is a celebration of the birthday of Jesus… and it is so much more.

More than mere prelims to a birthday celebration, Advent prepares us again for the coming of Immanuel. It starts with that powerful name: Immanuel (which means “God with us”). We need go no further to find dissonance. God with us. The holiness of God in the midst of the lowliness of us. The Creator in all His Majesty coming in the way a mere human would normally come… a poor human at that. Just the name Immanuel, when more fully apprehended, should create dissonance in our minds and hearts.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice ! Rejoice ! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

While the original Latin text was likely penned around the year 800, the words reminisce the generations prior to the first Advent of Jesus, yet after the clear promise of his coming by Isaiah… so the 600 years or so before the birth of Jesus. For us, Christmas is history; but for the faithful before the birth of Christ, it was only a promise, a promise longed for… and that longing is conveyed well by the slow tempo and minor tone of O Come Emmanuel.

Advent presents us the opportunity to embrace that same kind of longing. We need ransom. While our salvation is sure and our eternity secure, we are in lonely exile here; we are in the world, yet not of it (when at our best) and we are often of the world too. And there is dissonance.

We need the Son of God to appear. We need His presence. We make too little room when what Emmanuel demands and deserves is everything… every space and all our ways.

We rejoice. We know the Promise is true. We have more than just the Promise, we have history, and testimony, experience, and faith. We rejoice because we know that our longing will be satisfied, and Emmanuel shall come, has come, does come.

I’m very much in favor of happy songs at Christmas (even the festive songs that celebrate the season without acknowledging Christ). And I’m in favor of embracing the dissonance in a carol like O Come Emmanuel.

You can hear a version of the carol we did several years ago with our choir by clicking here. 

Scriptures of Thanks

Here's a short litany I pulled together for Cedar Park's Thanksgiving service. Join us Thanksgiving morning at 10:00.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:4,5)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation,
  by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
  present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
   since as members of one body you were called to peace.
 And be thankful.
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly
  as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom
    through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit,
  singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed,
    do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
  giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:15-17)

Rejoice always, pray continually, 
    give thanks in all circumstances;
 for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Through Jesus, therefore,
    let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—
  the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 
And do not forget to do good and to share with others,
  for with such sacrifices God is pleased.  (Hebrews 13:15,16)

Thanks be to God!
  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  (1 Corinthians 15:57)

All the angels were standing around the throne
   and around the elders and the four living creatures.
They fell down on their faces before the throne
    and worshiped God, saying:
 

“Amen!
  Praise and glory
     and wisdom and thanks and honor
   and power and strength
    be to our God for ever and ever.
       Amen!” (Revelation 7:11,12) 

Pay Attention, Show Up, and Vote

In President Obama's post-shellacking news conference Wednesday, he looked into the camera and told the voters that he heard what we were saying. If only he had stopped there. He followed up by saying to the majority of people who didn't vote, he hears them too. The remainder of the 80-minute news conference revealed that our president has no intention to change course. Presumably the resounding voices of the majority who didn't vote were urging him to stay the course.

I heard one pundit cynically snort that he wondered how he could hear the silent voices of those who did not vote. I snorted along with him in the moment, but then realized that President Obama was likely certain that he could hear those voices. He has the results of extensive and reasonably-precise research, he has advocates lobbying on behalf of the masses, and he has experts interpreting it all and feeding it to him daily (even moment by moment). These are the tools of marketing.

The thing is… we don’t ask our leaders to lead via the tools of marketing; we demand that our leaders govern. And we don’t govern via market research, polls, the voices of advocates, or the interpretations of experts. We vote. And voting matters.

We don’t govern by taking random samples of those passively being governed (polls), asking them what they want and who they want in power. We govern according to those who show up and vote.

I fear that our President truly believes that his interpretations of the desires of the non-voters really matter… matter even more than the voice of the voters. I know liberal pundits think so; they have broadcast such things the past few days. They say that low turnout was to blame… that if only people had voted, things would have turned out differently. It is as if they want us to pretend that everyone voted, and also pretend that we know how they would have voted.

(Warning… right-wing rant coming.)

Liberals do this all the time. If they get the vote they want they call it a mandate; if they don’t, they call it some sort of mistake and determine that they know better. Two years ago, I recall conservative pundits observing low turnout in the election that resulted in our President’s reelection. But I don’t recall anyone turning that into a rationale that we should govern pretending we knew what the non-voters wanted. Conservatives put the responsibility of low turnout on themselves and those who stayed home; we didn’t factor the imagined desires of the non-voters into the governance equation.

Voting matters. Paying attention and showing up matters. The system does not, and should not, govern according to the imagined voices of the unengaged, uninterested non-voters. Our government is certainly responsible for their well-being and safety, but their imagined voice is irrelevant and should certainly not be “heard” like the real voice of the voters. 

(Thus endeth the rant.)

These are lessons that extend beyond opportunities like this week’s election.

I am, and have been, part of a number of membership organizations. Most adults are. For me it has included student organizations, academic societies, churches, ecclesiastical bodies, and even my homeowners association. I’ve observed that active participation in such membership organizations is becoming less and less important to folks. We don’t bother paying attention or even showing up, thinking that voting on such things doesn’t matter.

And voting often doesn’t matter… until it really does.

I’m thinking of a few organizations that I’ve been a part of, and a few others that I’ve intently observed, in which the membership displayed (by their inattentiveness) that they didn’t want to bother with governing. So in order to keep the organization moving forward, the governance moved from the membership to the administration. What once required the vote of the body moved to a decision made by a committee. What once required action by a committee moved to a decision by the administration. What once required agreement among officers moved to a decision by the CEO.

All that resulted in greater efficiency, and even prosperity and happiness… until there was a problem. Then, when faced with a problem that only the membership could/should handle, the membership’s governance muscles had atrophied and the organization’s governance model was ineffective. Those who should have been paying attention, showing up, and active all along attempt to reinsert themselves, and there is friction. In some cases the friction only results in a season of discomfort for the organization, in other cases the organization doesn’t survive.

Paying attention, showing up, and voting matters. We can’t expect that our voices will matter if we have not been paying attention and showing up. Voting matters all the time, not just when there is a problem or challenge… maybe especially when there is not a problem or challenge.

Where Coaching Happens

I did a few more coaching classes last week. I learned a lot. But the most important thing I learned (or relearned I suppose) is the fundamental thing. I solidified a better definition of coaching for myself. Here’s what I have now:

Coaching is a purposeful, customized, adult, learning experience.

Each word is important… and one is most important for me.

• Purposeful: Coaching is goal oriented. I have coaching friends who often describe it as helping people get from where they are to where they want to be. 
• Customized: Since it is driven by the agenda, pace and knowledge of the person being coached, each coaching experience is customized.
• Adult: Coaching builds on the knowledge, experience and desires of the person being coached, thus it is mostly suited for adult learners. 
• Experience: Coaching is practical. Not merely an academic exercise… coaching should result in action.
  
  And the word that is most important for me to remember…
    
• Learning: The most prized result of coaching is when the person being coached learns. The aim of coaching is learning… more than merely solving problems or gathering data, coaching is meant to facilitate learning. 

For me… I get it best when I think in terms of this question: Where does coaching happen?

Coaching happens in the brain of the person being coached. That may seem obvious, but there are other possibilities.

Some might think that coaching happens in the coach’s brain. Of course the coach’s brain is important in coaching; we want the coach to bring their brain to every coaching session. But the real, most important work in coaching is not happening in the coach’s brain; that would be something more like analysis or therapy. If at the end of a coaching session we find that much of the thinking and learning happened in the coach’s brain, then it is isn’t coaching.

Others might think that coaching happens in the space between the two brains. Prior to last week, that is how I thought of coaching because I thought of coaching primarily as problem solving. Coaching certainly can be problem solving, but it should not merely be problem solving. Problem solving is often tactical… a one off experience that may only have temporary impact. But coaching should be more than problem solving; it should be a learning experience that is more strategic, resulting in learning that should have a lasting impact.

Coaching not only ends in the client’s brain, but it starts there and stays there too. Coaching is meant to help us learn from what we already know (whether we know that we know, or even don’t know that we know). It starts in the client’s brain both in that the agenda is set by the client and the raw materials are drawn from the client’s knowledge and experience. It stays in the brain of the person being coached too; coaching is meant to build new learning. 

What do you think? Does your experience match this definition? I’d be glad to have your feedback!

And... let me know if you're interested in coaching; I have more info posted at www.greatifiers.com/services/coaching  
  

Disciples Ask

I was reading Matthew 13 today when something jumped out at me from verse 36. The chapter mostly contains a record of Jesus teaching in parables; in verse 36 it says “his disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain…’”.

In our consumer-driven culture, we tend to place most responsibility on the encoder rather than the decoder. If something is not understood we blame the teacher, preacher, or leader rather than the pupil, constituent, or follower. We think of the hearer as a customer, placing fewer and fewer demands on the recipient and more and more responsibility on the speaker. The motives here are good ones; we want to speak clearly and connect… we want people to understand and act, thus we want to do all we can to be understood.

I wonder if by placing most of the responsibility on the speaker we end up settling for shallow understanding in the hearers. Borrowing from the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13… do we miss an opportunity for seed to take root and flourish by not demanding more of the hearers?

In my experience as a learner/follower/disciple, my understanding goes deepest when I am forced to engage, when I have to go back and ask for an explanation. Whether learning a lesson from a teacher, boss, or even God, the deepest understanding results from seeking explanations. I know that I am truly a disciple when I am asking, “Explain.”

I’ve had the same experience on the other end as a teacher/leader/preacher/mentor. Students, congregants, and employees seem to only really get it when they are challenged. I know that I truly have a disciple when I hear them asking, “Explain.”  

Crowds want simple, bite-sized, easy-to-digest morsels. Disciples crave heaping plates of challenge, and demand explanations to deepen our understanding.

Confessions of a Coaching Skeptic

I started to hear about professional coaching a few years ago; it sounded to me like something silly people do. Passing judgment in blissful ignorance (don’t judge, we all do it from time to time), I just wrote it off.

Then my wife Laurie was invited to take a few coaching classes a few years ago. Some trusted friends encouraged her to take advantage of the opportunity, knowing that she would be good at it. While taking the classes and reflecting on the materials in the days that followed, Laurie said to me, “This coaching stuff is a lot like what you seem to do naturally.” Laurie and I generally have our noses in each other’s business; she likened coaching to the way I preferred to lead people on various teams that I worked with. 

I concluded that if coaching was an effort to teach people how to operate the way I like to do things, teaching people to be like me, then there must be something to it.  

My friend Craig has become a proficient and certified coach over the past few years. An extended conversation over coffee several weeks ago turned into me asking him a lot of questions about coaching… resulting in me becoming even more intrigued. 

And then my friend Beth kept sending me emails urging me to take a few classes. She was sending them to a big list, hundreds if not thousands of people… but they were hitting me with the impact of a personal invitation. I had a certain sense that I ought to give it a try. So I did, completing 32 hours of classroom instruction and practice last week.

My hope was to gain some tools for my toolbox. I had no intention to actually be a coach, run anything like a structured coaching session, or have anyone call me a coach. I just figured I’d gain some handy skills.

I did gain some handy skills… but I also came to understand that, at least for me, while coaching skills may be handy in a variety of contexts, the best way to apply professional coaching skills is in a purposeful, structured coaching context. So…

I think I’m going to be a coach.

That will require more training, a mentor coach, and some practice. I’m already on my way, and intend to qualify for at least an entry-level of certification.

I’m no longer a coaching skeptic. I’m a coach (well… at least a rookie coach).

If you’d like to be among my beta testers (in person, on the phone, or on Skype), allowing me to get some practice, let me know. It is a professional service, but at this stage of this rookie coach’s path I’m sure I can make you a very sweet deal.

I’ve hung out a shingle. Check it out at http://www.greatifiers.com/services/coaching and let me know if I can be of any help; I’d love to work with you.