trends
3 days with Stephen Mansfield this week. Day 1 we discussed 10 current trends that are transforming culture. Found it to be pretty insightful. 
Here are the trends:
1. There is an ongoing liberation in terms of what religion is.
-7 in 10 Americans believe that more than 1 religion provides a path to God.
-Jesus is just a part of their religion along with a buffet of other philosophies.
2. The most vibrant Christianity is non-white.
-revival is happening in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in major ways.
-the center of Christianity is shifting to be somewhere between Africa and Asia
3. Entire nations will change because of immigration movements of Islamic people. Here is an interesting video talking about this.
4. People are emotionally Christian, but not intellectually Christian.
-people flock to the church, but fail to understand basic biblical truths.
-churches have reverted to making Christians rather than making disciples.
5. Mainstreaming of faith as a theme
-rappers who talk about drinking beer and selling dope, then thank “God” for making him successful.
-television and movies that portray “faith” as something cool, compromising truth.
6. Something about denominations. My tiny brain blew a fuse.
7. Rise of neo-paganism
-a rise of people who do not believe in God.
8. resurgence of the religious left
-the religious right include conservative Christians.
-the religious left are people who consider themselves as religious, but hold liberal positions on various issues in society.
9. In 15 years church attendance in America will be 1/2 of what it is now.
10. Formal religious institutions are not the primary place that people find spirituality.
-people are looking for spirituality online and in small groups at local coffee shops.
-people are looking to get away from the “traditional” church, or what they understand the “traditional church” to be.
I am a missionary to the United States. Anyone else want to be a missionary to my nation?
a few good blogs
Came across a few good blogs this week. Here are the links:
-Phil Cooke with a good word for communicators.
-Super blogger Seth Godin strikes again with a great post on focus.
discipleship vs leadership
Being the incredible intellect that I am I was able to cram a 4 year college degree into 7 years. 
I don’t really remember much from school, but I did realize that the terms that we use are important. Each field whether medicine, law, speech, art, or whatever you study has a set of terms that needs to be learned if we wish to participate in that field.
In church we also have a bunch of terms that we use. Discipleship and leadership are two terms that a lot of people use. I think there is a difference between the two.
Here is what I am thinking:
Discipleship: Every believer is called to make disciples. Discipleship is about living life with others and teaching them how to seek Jesus for answers in their lives. Discipleship is the foundation for good leadership.
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up Eph 4:11-12
Leadership: Discipleship precedes good leadership. Disciple makers with the ability and gift to manage, encourage, motivate, and mobilize groups of individuals are leaders.
Not all disciple makers will become great leaders, but all good leaders are good disciple makers.
9 things a leader must do
Read a good book. I liked this book because it was short but full of insightful stuff.
The book outlines 9 things a leader must do.
In light of this I came up with 9 questions I need to ask myself constantly.
Here is my list:
1. Am I living my life driven towards a vision that absolutely gets me excited?
2. What negative things do I have in my life?
3. Is the stuff I am doing today setting me up for where I want to be 20 years from now?
4. What can I do to make a negative situation better?
5. What is a tangible step that I can do now to help me get to where I want to be 20 years from now?
6. What are the negative things that I hate and will not tolerate?
7. When others fail, what can I do to help them succeed?
8. Do I have a heart of humility?
9. Am I making a decision based on what is right or based on what is popular?
processing ideas
There are millions of ideas that people get when we talk about doing church.
Sometimes we tend to pull the trigger a little to fast and push out an idea prematurely. The result is that what we produce is not as excellent as God would have wanted it to be.
Here is a process that I came up with: (i might change this but this is what I got now)
1. discuss
-leadership is about getting buy in from your team
-If the team doesn’t passionately believe in an idea they wont help me execute
2. strategize
-the team needs to be comfortable with the execution plan if they are going to execute
-allowing the team to strategize will allow the team to get excited about the idea.
3. launch
-we need to go for it.
-”form follows function” as much as i believe in planning there is a fine line between relying on our own strengths and trusting in Jesus
4. evaluate
-we need to be willing to make changes
-if our ideas don’t fly it aint no big deal b/c it aint about me.
5. follow up
-our goal should always be to make disciples.
-great ideas and programs are only methods.
-we must remember that our commitment is to people and not to programs.
right timing
I have realized that in leadership timing is key.
Timing in unveiling a new idea. Timing in approaching my pastor with questions about leadership. Timing in speaking out.
As a younger leader I was a little bit prideful and over zealous. If an idea came to my head there was no stopping that idea from coming out of my mouth, and I was not lacking ideas. At first when my ideas were not taken seriously I would get frustrated. Then when my ideas would get me into trouble I got even more frustrated.
Over time I realized that maybe my timing was a little bit off. I may have been right in my content, but my timing was not in line with what God had in mind. With wisdom and maturity I began to realize that sometimes God is testing my heart to see if I will open my mouth again or allow Him to unfold His plan.
I am not saying that all younger leaders should keep quiet. There is no doubt in my mind that many of the great ideas of tomorrow will come from a 20 something year old and not a 40 something year old. I am saying that younger leaders tend to be over zealous, and must learn how to work through their ideas in the right timing with wisdom and maturity.
Here is Joseph learning this lesson the hard way:
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Genesis 37:5-11
