Leadership that Matters

The church has leaders who are good at helping do its work, but if that work is not making any Kingdom difference, why are they doing it? Many churches maintain that there is a shortage of leaders for the ministry. Could it be that the ministry that requires leadership is not the ministry that draws leaders? Might there be legions of leaders on the outskirts of churches waiting desperately for a mission vision to which they can connect? Bill Hybels believes this to be true. He consistently talks about “high capacity leaders” who are sitting on the “bench” of the church waiting for a reason to get in the game. Are the leaders of the church’s ministry working outside the church? Could the apostolic leadership of today be observed in the rise of “social entrepreneurs?”

Social entrepreneurs go after big problems and work to make sweeping, long-term changes. Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin founded KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) to make significant changes in underachieving public schools that service underprivileged students. KIPP has managed to help children and schools make significant improvements on test scores and behavioral issues. 

“Social entrepreneurs identify resources where people only see problems. They view the villagers as the solution, not the passive beneficiary. They begin with the assumption of competence and unleash resources in the communities they’re serving.” Some believe that the rise of social entrepreneurs will radically change the way our culture deals with social problems. Levin says, “We don’t go to bed at night, wondering why we are on the planet.” How many high capacity leaders in the church are wondering why their church is even in existence? 

I believe there is a huge source of leaders in our community.  They want to engage in something beyond “corporate America.”  They want to make a difference in the community and the world.  When the church goes after “big things” they are drawn in.  When the church flounders around trying to figure out how to find small resources for small problems we lose them. 

Spring Hill leadership culture is slowly changing so that we focus on a large mission.  As we do more of that I believe we will find leaders coming through the woodwork. 

Worship Evangelism

Spring Hill has added four worship services in the last nine years.  The main reason for adding those services was capacity.  We had simply “filled up” our sanctuary and needed additional space. 

At Frays Mill we were not very intentional about planning these new services.  At Seminole and Spotswood we were more intentional about planning a worship service in a non-traditional venue (an elementary school and a movie theatre).  

I don’t want to be too quick to criticize our lack of planning.  Making a decision to provide additional space and new venues has resulted in many more people worshipping each Sunday.  For that, we are grateful.

But there is a sense that we are missing something.  Sally Morgenthaler wrote Worship Evangelism in 1995.  I read that book several years ago and did a lot of underlining.  I’ve been going back through the book in recent weeks.  Morgenthaler challenges that authentic worship will draw non-believers to God. 

 So, how do we do that at Spring Hill?  How do we become authentic worshippers?  How will we know we are?  Basically, when God is lifted up in worship that will draw others to worship.  Is your worship drawing others?  Help us pray and think about that in the months ahead. 

The Metaverse?

Before we get to more practical intersections of ministry and technology consider this quote from a recent article on C|net News.

“The Internet in 2016 will be an all-encompassing digital playground where people will be immersed in an always-on flood of digital information, whether wandering through physical spaces or diving into virtual worlds.”

That’s less then a decade. And what happens in the metaverse? Well the distinction between physical and virtual worlds blends. Communities like Second Life mentioned before in this blog represent a slice of this metaverse.  We move from blogging to lifelogging where much of what is seen, said and heard is recorded and immediately available for review and reflection.

I noticed the other day that a recent sermon by pastor Dan included the call of a rams horn played as a video segment within the sermon.  While not quite the metaverse the use of the video call and Dan as “virtual pastor” creates a world where the virtual and physical mix to create an active worship experience.  In the metaverse, this is taken to the next level!

Here is a recent sample from this growing universe.  A company call Electric Sheep Company (link not provided due to some content accessible through the site) specializes in designing 3D world experiences accomplished the following. “In Fall 2006, ESC worked with MLB.com to test a live baseball game within Second Life. We had the two essential elements: live video and the social interaction of fans in the virtual stadium, but we wanted to take it one step further. We built bobbleheads of the baseball players and programmed a set of web and SL applications that took a live XML statistics feed from MLB.com and automatically drove all the action on the field.”

In a religious context this could be very interesting. Instead of current video shots of the Holy Land a congregation could visit a historically accurate virtual recreation of the city of Jerusalem at Passover. I don’t know if I want to attend the actual last supper or a rendering of it but it is clear that these technologies will power the gospel message forward if the church embraces the opportunity to use them to share the truth of Christ.

Other more interesting variations may be the introduction of RSS (relatively simple syndication) feeds of supplemental information related to Bible study materials provided to small groups as they discuss the reality of scripture in every day life. Again, in the sermon mentioned before, the importance of the calendar in everyday life was mentioned.  A real-time feed of important calendar celebrations could provide additional context for worshipers and enhance the understanding of the material.

In a Bible study series this could include additional translations of the passage being examined and if the passage included a discussion of a given area, such as the sea of Galilee, technologies such as Google Earth could provide 3D views of the area today and in historical context.

If you will hang with me for one last example.  Several years ago I was able to walk the main street in Ephesus while in Turkey.  As I stood and looked at the surroundings I imagined Paul in that same place taking a new truth to the people who walked amongst the statutes of Roman gods on a daily basis.  In the coming metaverse we may not only be able to discuss Paul’s journey but transport ourselves into those very moments!  It is important to understand the power and peril of just such virtual world experiences.  Who will define these places and assure the integrity of information streaming in real-time to Christians and non-Christians alike?

In many ways the sites of Springhill are familiar with the power and promise of technology and the advancement of the Gospel.  So when you view that next sermon on-line or on-screen, read a blog (like this one) or search scripture on-line while flipping through Wikipedia to gain historical context realize that the moment is now for the church to take advantage of the digital age to reach people for Christ.

In fact, taking advantage of technology should be nothing new — just think about the printing press and the Bible!  So, in a world where 5+ million people will gladly gather in a virtual setting (and perhaps prefer it to getting in the car on Sunday morning and driving to a local church) what will we do to respond in love and take Christ’s message to “the ends of the metaverse”.

Twittering Easter

If you have not heard, and given the fact only about 80,000 users at last count use the service you may not have, Twitter and it’s users answer the simple question of “What are you doing?” through an endless stream of instant messages (often from phones).  Some people refer to it as micro-blogging.  I don’t really have an opinion on the revolutionary aspects of “twittering” yet — perhaps someone reading this entry can comment on the greatness of random messages.

I further confess that I am not a member of the Twitter community and only drop by the site to check in on the latest messages rarely.  But in this Easter season it would be nice to see the Twitter page dominated by messages such as “I’m in church worshiping Christ”.  Now that would be a challenge — a spark of hope in a sea of messages.   Hopefully this blog will discuss more practical concerns related to technology, church life and the challenge of communicating hope in an always on world but maybe I will join after all and “twitter” a little hope this weekend!

Second Church: Postscript

The USA Today recently covered religion in second life.  A very interesting video accompanies the piece (Faithful build a Second Life).  Perhaps the most interesting thing about the article is where you find it.  USA Today > Tech > Gaming.  It’s hard to qualify virtual communities but one thing is certain — the chance to share Christ in a community of 5 million members (and growing – and that’s just Second Life) is an interesting look at the future of the mission field and it’s no game for the modern church.