Pirates: Band of Misfits

main idea: Integrity is holding steadfast to your core convictions, which builds trust with others.

In Pirates: Band of Misfits, Pirate Captain’s original goal was to win Pirate of the Year. While he seemed to be a long-shot, his crew was completely behind him. However, as part of that journey, Pirate Captain faced with a series of decisions. One key juncture was when Queen Victoria wanted his parrot which turned out to be the last dodo bird. With subversion from Charles Darwin, Pirate Captain sold out, trading his dodo bird who was seen really as one of the crew by the other crew members for a boatload of riches to win Pirate of the Year. But once he sold out of his core value, his pirate band turned away. It’s not until he returned to this core value that a “crew member” aka the dodo bird is greater than any riches, his crew returned to his side.

There are many verses in the Bible that speaks to the core and value of integrity (e.g. Proverbs 28:18). It is what people will evaluate whether we are who we claim we are. When we falter from that, there’s a dissonance that will need to be resolved either by recalibrating back to that core value or changing the core value.

On a side note, this movie also demonstrates how a leader must trust and sometimes heed to the warning of the “second chair leader”. If Pirate Captain had, it would have saved him from a lot of grief since his Second was able to see things Pirate Captain was blind to.

“Life’s Third Act” and its impact on Youth Ministry

Recently, I viewed Jane Fonda’s “Life Third Act” on Ted Talks. Without going into her entire presentation (there’s some great insights there whatever you think of Jane Fonda), her premise is since people are generally living approx. 30 more years than the great-grandparent generation, there’s a new stage of life, a 2nd adulthood (similar to what adolescence is to childhood) to define. The fact is, there is much more this generation approaching their third act can offer.

That’s where my thoughts turned to youth ministry. Many times, in my line of work supporting churches who help disciple teenagers with CBOQ Youth, I hear from those over the age of 55 (maybe even the age of 35) saying they don’t feel they can really be effective in youth ministry, given all the physical activities and such. If Fonda’s premise is correct, then there is actually much more for them to connect with adolescence than they think. There is a sense of “redefining” their identity (in the clip, Fonda refers to a person with Lou Gehrig’s disease who found himself once again). Perhaps as this particular generation enters their third act, they may have much more in common with adolescents as they enter that stage of life, through their (re)discovery of their identity and perhaps even life purpose.

For a while now, youth ministry seems to be shifting to this idea of “sharing life”, what Chap Clark refers to as the new “5 to 1″ ratio (where 5 adults significantly invest in 1 student’s life). There may be much more of a reciprocal relationship here between those ages 13-25 and those 60+ than could have ever been imagined.

Competing Definitions of Coaching: how do you define it?

Coaching is becoming much of a buzzword is recent months. “Life Coach”. “Spiritual Coach”. “Cultural Coach”. “Transitional Coach”. “Executive Coach”. The other day, I had a behavioural consultant “coach” me. There seem to be two primary definitions of coaching (besides the athletic version):

• A relationship based on the coach advising the client towards action steps based on the coach’s knowledge/experience that is done with encouragement/support. It seems to be that this kind of coach is seen as “the guru” in which clients pursue to gain insights from his/her background. The coach provides an environment, based on the experiences of the coach, to “push” the client towards those types of action steps.
• A relationships where the client takes sole responsibility of the dialogue in which the coach provides other perspectives/angles in which the client create their own action steps. In this context, the coach is pursued more for her/his ability to dig deep into the client’s context (even though s/he may not have any experience in that field) so the client will discover the answers they need in order to move forward.

Which of these two definitions resonate with you the most? (Which would you most likely pursue as a client?)

Attitude recalibration

The other day, God struck me with something that was nagging within me. As I prayed, I came to the realization that who I seemed to be inside wasn’t matching what I was either presenting or how others were perceiving me. There was a dissonance that shouldn’t there. Really, my attitude wasn’t in line with God’s and at times I seemed more about putting on a good front vs being integral ie being my whole self.

I needed an attitude recalibration. I needed to take time to have God bring to mind all those sins that were really entrenched within me that needed to be exposed before God. It was a time to repent and allow God to readjust me (like a chiropractor). When he did, it felt like a fresh start.

Every so often, we all need a recalibration. (hmmm, sounds familiar … I think some people call that Sabbath)

Marvel Avengers

main idea: When a team works together without personal agendas, their synergy is greater than the sum of their individual talents/contributions.

In this summer’s big blockbuster Marvel: The Avengers, the collection of all these previously individual superheroes was a comic-con’s dream come true. When I first heard of the movie’s first release, I was curious to see how all these A-list, headlining actors (e.g. Samuel L Jackson, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, etc.) would come together sharing the spotlight. Just like their on-screen counterparts, the synergy amongst these actors brought a theatrical performance I believe that was greater than their previous individual performances as those characters.

The writer of Ecclesiastes 4:12 alluded to this idea: 1 can be likely overpowered, 2 can stand up, 3 is really hard to break together. When people are willing to work together without trying to get ahead for their own personal gain, God somehow takes those contributions and multiplies that effort exponentially. Perhaps we need to remember, especially in our Christian community, that no one goes it alone. (Seems Jesus knew what he was doing when he established his church to support and encourage one another carrying out his vision.)

In whom we trust

It’s been said, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Especially in today’s content-saturated media, that’s more important than ever. With dozens of blogs and websites on every single topic, you can’t assume all the content published is actually true or even appropriate. That’s where trust in the source comes in.

For example, someone suggested a youth ministry website recently. At first inspection, I was skeptical of the site. Frankly, I don’t have time to give a thorough reading of any website. However, once I knew who ran the site, all of a sudden, I trusted the site’s content more.

Conversely, I need to be discerning about what I “endorse”. Whether I like it or not, some people trust my “endorsement” with certain expectations. If I violate that trust by endorsing something which isn’t really that good, then that impacts my “trustability”. Let’s face it, we all know someone who really will endorse anything and as such, do we really take those opinions that seriously?

Who do you trust?

Faith and Culture

Faith and culture has intrigued me for a number of years. From my own church upbringing, it’s been a tension to understand which parts of faith and theology are universally biblical and which parts of that understanding are really cultural interpretations. Growing up in high school in a Chinese church, this was an evident tension as the three congregations wrestled with both generational and ethnic values which many times influenced theology. Today, I learned from our First Nations neighbours understanding just a glimpse into their heritage and its interactions with Canadian society. Through visits to the Woodlands Cultural Centre, Mohawk Chapel and the Chiefswood Museum (and other locations), we saw native culture through the eyes of a Traditional Native and a Christian Native. We heard their stories, understood what tore at their souls and what they are passionate about. Through it all, a question lingered in me: what parts of the Christian faith expression (at least through the Mohawk Christians) is biblical and what parts are extrapolated from their cultural understanding. I’ve asked the same thing of my Chinese heritage or my Canadian/North American upbringing.

There are some core doctrines which are agreed upon (e.g. that Jesus is actually the Son of God). Christianity has intertwined itself with a variety of cultures and pagan expressions (e.g. Christmas being a redefined expression from Winter Solstice), providing a redefinition in a sense. Yet there are plenty of other expressions that the Christian faith directly opposes (e.g. the witchcraft).

The question in my mind is to what extent do we allow “importing” or redefinition of “other” cultural values (also understanding that we need to separate biblical doctrine from our own cultural interpretations as well). Still not sure what that answer is yet.

Some will fall away; the gate is narrow

Recently, there’s a lot of talk within youth ministry (and churches in general) about a mass exodus of young adults (i.e. those ages 18-30 years), how does the church respond and how do we meet from losing them. There are a ton of books, blogs, articles and countless opinions about what to do.

Grant it, some of the issues do relate to what are mistakes churches (generally speaking) have made. To be corporately self-aware and ensure we rectify those issues is healthy and needed; we have been obstacles for some people who turned away from God. However, let’s not assume that by rectifying whatever the issues are, the church will retain all young adults who grew up within their walls.

Whether we like to admit it or not, Jesus’ audience retention wasn’t great. True, many people followed him around, were interested, maybe even seen as obsessive about what he could do. However, from those huge crowds, only some actually internalized what is really meant to be a disciple. Jesus even told people point-blank that not everyone would be willing to follow whole-heartedly (Matthew 7:13-14).

Whether we like it or not, there will be people who will choose never to step foot in the door of a church. There are those who will outrightly reject listening to anything Jesus has to say to them. Even for those who began the journey with Christ, don’t assume that they will automatically continue for the rest of their life. The fact is, people may choose a different path while going towards the narrow gate. We cannot determine who those individuals are. We also shouldn’t assume that just people there will be people who decide against Jesus that it alleviates our responsibility to bring the message of Christ by in word and in deed with compassion, love, grace and high accountability. But let’s not assume that if we come up with a “magic formula” that people will stay committed to Jesus.

Even Jesus knew that not everyone would be seriously committed to following him at all costs. Why should we be surprised if that happens?

Mirror Mirror

main idea: When you face your fears, you can unlock the truth.

In this retelling of Snow White entitled Mirror Mirror, people are afraid of the Queen (played by Julia Roberts). Using dark magic, she intimidates everyone who stands in her way, starting with the king, the people of the kingdom, even Snow White herself. Throughout the story, people refer to the Beast which haunts the woods in the kingdom. Because of fear, people are not willing to stand up to his evil. Eventually, Snow White (played by Lily Collins) not only builds up her confidence in standing up to the Queen, but eventually unlocks the truth of her father’s disappearance and the Queen’s dark secret.

It’s interesting how it seems that sin lives in one of two ways: pride and fear. Pride feeds on the selfish sense of entitlement through demeaning others. Fear immobilizes us in finding out the truth, even if it can be scary. I’ve witnessed both forms in my life. There are times when I’ve been very self-centred and that has led me to sin. There are also times when I’m afraid to really get to the bottom of the darkness within my self and until I do so, sin/fear paralyzes me and doesn’t allow God to really work the sin in my life out of me.

What are you afraid of? (What is it keeping you from discovering?)

Jesus gone viral

Today is Palm Sunday (our church studied John 12:12-19). As we were exploring the passage, something dawned on me: Jesus went viral. Previously he raised Lazarus from the dead, just a few miles away from Jerusalem in a town called Bethany. When Jesus returned to Jerusalem, he became the big thing. News spread of Jesus’ latest miracle. The Pharisees acknowledged that the crowd was going after him and they were getting nowhere. Jesus had momentum.

The fact is, it feels like a familiar feel to other more recent viral phenomena like Kony. People were all over it, ready to go with the crowd. On Palm Sunday, people were declaring the kingship of Jesus (though very few were around 5 days later when Jesus was crucified).

With anything viral, what leads to its sustainability? In Jesus, his resurrection answered the viral crowd once and for all. His message of the kingdom of God coming to earth continues today.