Kicking it back into gear

I'm re-launching this blog, not with fanfare, but as a discipline. We'll see what happens. Anything written prior to October 31, 2018, may or may not represent my current thinking.

Elephants, Elephant Riders, and the Path

Hi friends,

 

I trust your summer is going well!  I know most of the groups or ministries you facilitate, lead, and host are moving into a summer schedule of sorts.  You deserve a break and some time to refresh in order to minister and serve others again as God leads.  Part of my role in serving you is to help you think, plan, promote your groups and grow in your ability to lead them.  I love this role because it gives me a chance to be with people--all of you!--who help me to think, plan, and promote better.  Thanks for your service to and through our church. 

 

As you are winding down, I encourage you to reflect on your groups and ministries and what future God desires to bring about.  I have found one model particularly helpful in discerning and executing some of these ideas. 

 

Chip and Dan Heath talk about how to make hard change.  They give three things that are necessary: 1. Elephants. 2. Riders. 3. A Path.  It's not so strange as it first sounds!  The Heaths say that our minds are like elephants with riders.  The elephant is the emotional side; the rider is the intellectual side.  Change elephants but not riders and there is no direction; change riders but not elephants and you run out of steam; change riders and elephants, but have no path and you'll get discouraged.  So, as you plan and pray about your groups, and as you discern what changes might need to be made, ask, "How can I change the emotional culture?"  Ask, "How can I change the thinking process?"  Ask, "What are the first steps down the path that leads to the change God has for us?"

 

I am here to think, pray, and plan with you. 

 

Grace and peace,

 

Aaron

Who's on your Team?

Hi friends,

 

I have a question for you: Who's on your team / in your small group / a part of your ministry? 

 

As servant-leaders, I encourage you to answer that question in two ways. 

 

First, know really well who's in your group / on your team / a part of your ministry.  Each of the people you grow with, serve with, and serve has a name and a story.  You can't know everyone's story or everyone's name, but know those on your team. 

 

Second, realize that you don't know who is on your team, in your group, or in your sphere of ministry.  Invest in people's lives before it makes sense to.  There are people around you that God will bring into your group, onto your team, and into your sphere of ministry years from now.  And it may only happen as your invest, pour into, and serve them in the now.  It's an extremely limited, but beautiful picture of what is called "prevenient grace"--the presence of God's Spirit in our lives before we ever think about God.  Think about how long God pursued and invested in you before you became part of his family!

 

I am so glad to be on your team.  It is a pleasure serving with you!

 

Aaron

(D x V x F) > R

Hi friends,

 

Thanks for your continued service at Centennial Road in groups, group ministry, and other discipleship areas.

 

Did you know that when (D x V x F) > R that change happens?  Spelled out, "Dissatisfaction" with the way things are, a "Vision" for a better reality, and "First" steps must combine to produce something greater than our "Resistance" to change.   

 

(D x V x F) > R

 

I have found this principle to be helpful in a number of areas of my life.  Perhaps it can help you, too. 

 

Please remember about the Discipleship Celebration BBQ on Sunday, May 29!  Please RSVP by May 24.  Friends, if there is someone in your group who should be invited because of their commitment to your group, please let me know so that I can double-check and make sure they are invited.  This is a wide open celebration for those helping with discipleship at Centennial Road!

 

It's an honour to serve with all of you!

 

Grace and peace,

 

Aaron

Prayer Request

Hi friends,

 

Would you please pray with me and as your groups that God would raise up leadership for our college aged students.  We are in the beginning conversations of developing a mentoring ministry, as well, and I deeply covet your prayers.

 

Thanks,

 

Aaron

Leadership in Discipleship

Hi friends,

 

We are getting ready for Passion Play and I so very much appreciate the prayers you are offering and the prayers you are leading your groups through.  We are all working hard and working smart, and then painfully aware of how absolutely, completely dependent we are on God's Holy Spirit to do all the work we cannot do that makes all the difference.

 

I was recently reading from Seth Godin, the world's most read blogger and a speaker coming to Leadercast (just over 50 tickets left!; don't forget that if you bring a non-Christian friend, we cover your friend's ticket!), about underdog leaders.  Godin writes, "Leadership almost always involves thinking and acting like the underdog.  That's because leaders work to change things and the people who are winning rarely do." 

 

When I put on my theologian's cap for a moment, I like what Godin is saying.  Christians are called to a victorious mission--indeed, one whose destiny is already assured because of the Ascension of Christ--but we are also called to build for a Kingdom that always requires help beyond ourselves.  The Holy Spirit is always drawing us into deeper relationship, greater love, more faithful friendship, more effective leadership.  As a result, we are always working to change things; we are never in the position where we are in perpetual state of winning.  We are always working for change and always relying on God's Spirit to do that work. 

 

Thanks, friends, for being in that precarious spot of working for change and relying on the Spirit to do the work of change.  It's a wonderfully impossible place to be and when you get a glimpse of God's Spirit doing something that resembles but so far surpasses what you were trying to do, it's a reminder of why we were created.

 

It is a pleasure to serve with you.

 

Grace and peace,

 

Aaron

Small Group Design

Hi Friends,

 

Thanks for your continued leadership and ministry in group ministry at the church.  It is wonderful having praises and good news to share from your groups on a weekly basis.  I love hearing the stories of your groups, so please keep them coming.

 

A thought for you today: Your small group is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting.  It is perfectly designed to be the size it is, to have the conversations it has, to meet where it does, to cover the subjects it covers.  I have talked with some of you who want your group to change--to become bigger, to become more biblically based, to become friendlier to new people, to attract new people...  Your group changes by design.  Here are two suggestions in making changes that come from Frans Johansson.

 

1. Design the group for someone else.  Imagine that someone completely new was attending.  How would your group change?  Johansson says we would design a beach house differently for ourselves than we would for Picasso.  What does Picasso's small group look like?  :)

 

2. Create Constraints.  Create a barrier for your group.  Maybe it's that you have to find a new location; maybe the main speaker can't share for a few weeks; maybe you need to meet at a new time.  Once in constraints, find out what changes just happened to give your group new ideas, leadership, and energy.  Constraints always force us to develop new abilities.

 

Frans is a speaker at this year's Leadercast.  I would love to see some of you here.  Remember: if you are inviting a pre-Christian to attend with you, I will cover the cost of their ticket.  You can just give it to them.  We believe in relational evangelism and want to give you opportunities to broach new conversations with your pre-Christian friends.

 

I continue praying for your groups and your leadership.  Please let me know how I can pray for and serve you.

 

Grace and peace,

 

Aaron