Monday Musings (on Tuesday) - reflections from a great weekend

This past weekend, we held our Downtown Toronto retreat - what an awesome time away.

The focus of the weekend was "Greater Things" as we processed John 14:12:

"Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

Together we unpacked various elements of what it means to be part of God's great restoration project and the ways in which we can enter in and receive the culture and values of God's original design and vision for us.  Oh, and we had a groovy 70s dance party...

As I come back from the retreat, I'm so inspired and amazed at this incredible community that we're part of.  One of the activities we did during the retreat was to get people into groups who all focus on the same area - hospitality, education, business, science, arts - to talk about what those principles look like in a practical way.

It was incredible to hear the ideas that the groups came up with and to be reminded again about the ways in which God is at work in every sphere of life that we are involved in and seeking to bring restoration, wholeness and purpose to our every day lives.

My prayer for each of us is simply this... "God, help us be more aware of your presence in our lives, so that we can be more involved in your amazing restoration project."

How aware am I of God's presence in and around me right now?
Where is God at work in my life today?
How is God inviting me to partner with him in that?

Monday Musings - innovation vs preservation

Last week, I read this article that's been floating around for the last little while - I'm sure many of you have read it, too.  It's a fascinating account of a Google ex-employee - I'd assumed it was going to be someone firing up about something controversial, but in actual fact, it's a pretty balanced account of one person's perception of the shifting culture at Google.

While it's always important to be careful to remember that we all have our own perspectives which sway how we look at the world, from a philosophical angle, the article triggered a couple interesting thoughts for me...

Google has always been one of the companies people would say was in their top 5 desired workplaces.  The facilities (cool place to work), the 20% rule (being given 1 day per week to work on a side project of your choosing), huge innovative environment (new ideas and new products all the time)... who wouldn't want to work there?

All of us have a desire to be in a place where we're appreciated, where we have the opportunity to dream, to come up with new ways of doing and where we don't just have to accept the Status Quo.  Certainly in the world I spend most of my time, I'm very aware of that - the young (and even some of our older people) who are part of our churches are looking for a place that has a clear core (core values, core principles), but plenty of room to organically explore what that looks like.  When it does... look out.

What does seem to have shifted at Google is the sense of "we now have to not only protect what we have, but we have to be like them so we can keep being at the centre".  To me, that's the most dangerous attitude for anyone to have.  As soon as we start focusing more on preservation than innovation, we're done.  I remember Charlie Walsh, who worked with cyclists at the Australian Institute of Sport, saying that if we stand still and try to hold on to where we are (even if that's number 1), if we just keep doing what we've been doing, others around us are innovating and thinking of new ways to catch us and will overtake us.

Equally dangerous is to look at what someone else is doing and say "they're starting to take some of the number 1 from us - let's do what they're doing, only better (because we're number 1) and we can keep our number 1 place."  Obviously, in this context I'm not talking about organizations that are already focused on similar areas.

In the church, sadly, I've seen this play out time and again - we focus too much either on trying to hold on to what we have (preservation) or we focus on what others are doing and say "if we were just like that, then we'd be back in the centre" (could play out in terms of looking at copying things that are successful in culture or in copying what other churches are doing).

For me, I desperately want to be part of a community that knows who they are and what they're on about - knowing what's at the heart and core of who we are.  With that locked in, I then want to create opportunities for us to innovate, experiment and try new things, knowing all the time that we're holding on to what makes us "us".  Sure, I want to learn from other people, other churches, other organizations and the culture around me, but in the end, I want to be able to allow the DNA that we have to produce organic fruit that is reflective of exactly where we are.  What about you?

What areas of my life do I feel like I have to protect?  Why?
When am I guilty of looking at what others are doing and thinking "I need to do that so that I can be as successful as them?"
How am I helping create organic, innovative community?  

Monday Musings - God the gardener

The weather here in Toronto has certainly been very strange - super cold and snowing one day, even colder but clear another,and then it's supposed to be 20 on Thursday!  Wow.  Spring is certainly on the way and I absolutely love T.O. in the spring - the way everything comes back to life, colour abounds, the birds start their chorus... beautiful.

With that comes the responsibility of getting the garden back in order.  Our front yard in particular is a mess, because in the late fall, the city replaced all of the lead water pipes and pretty much destroyed our garden in the process (we'll see how survived and comes up in a few weeks).

I often refer to gardening as a really helpful analogy when we think about leadership in a church context.  There's an element where we have responsibility - preparing the ground, ensuring there's enough nutrients, making sure the garden is laid out in the correct way so everything gets the right amount of sun, pruning and weeding...  However there's only so much we can do - the rest requires us to sit back, be patient and allow the growth to happen naturally.

In our leadership roles, there's definitely work to be done - preparing the ground (setting good foundations), ensuring there's enough nutrients (teaching, discipling relationships, resourcing), making sure things are laid out correctly (the right people in the right roles, good structure), pruning and weeding (working through issues, helping people address sin in their lives, dealing with conflict).  In the end, though,  it's up to God to do the work in people's lives - the organic growth that only God can do.

One of my favourite verses is the Message translation of James 1:21:

In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

What is the current state of my garden?
During this season, what work do I need to do to prepare for more growth?
In my sphere of influence, how much am I responsible for?  What do I need to leave with God?

Monday Musings - perspective

Most weeks, I have the privilege of taking a 45 minute drive out to Oakville for some meetings with our other staff.  I say privilege, because I really enjoy the time in the car - no chance of doing anything, just tunes or road noise and (many times) the sun streaming in.

I particularly love the part of the drive home where I'm on the Gardiner, swing around just past Jameson and into view comes the city skyline, all the condos and the gloriousness of the CN Tower.  For those who aren't from here, the CN tower it's this massive pointy tower that is probably the most well known part of the Toronto skyline (shown here from below)...

What I find interesting is that as I drive from our place heading West, the tower certainly stands out, but doesn't look that much taller than the other buildings.  Coming back though (driving East), it towers (no pun intended) above the rest of the skyline... significantly.  Of course, it's all perspective, but it amazes me the perspective can make that much difference.

It got me thinking - how much do we over or underestimate the size of things in our lives because of false perspective?  Sometimes we may look at something and be deceived that it's not as big a deal as it actually is - or we look at some issues from a different perspective and they seem more intimidating than they really are?

I'm sure that people who understand perspective better than me would have better perspective (this time, that was intended...!) to explain it all, but it's worth thinking...

Are there areas of my life that are playing a more or less significant role than they should be?
If I looked at certain areas of my life with a different mindset or from a different angle, would that change how I felt about them?
Is there someone else in my life that maybe already has a different perspective to me, who could help me view things in a new way?