Since my last post I have…

• Slept in 3 different hotels in 3 countries
• Been scanned by security in 4 different airports (Interpol now has my picture and fingerprints)
• Flown on 5 airplanes

Right about now it is all beginning to blur.  I found myself really wanting to stop… to  see where I am, to enjoy another cup of coffee with my new friends, to sit and reflect on what I’m experiencing.  Tomorrow is another 6am wake up call, another train, to another plane to another country.  Though it’s easy to pass it off as to be expected when you tour 5 countries in 10 days, I’m realizing how often life blurs.  Hours melt into days which melt into weeks and months and years.  I wonder how different life would be if we (I) slowed down just enough to bring the blur back into focus, to really see, to really hear, to really know.

Yeah, I’m trying to get your attention with an unexpected title, but it’s true – leaders are loser.

• Leaders are willing to lose what they have to get something they don’t.
• Leaders are willing to lose friends to make followers.
• Leaders are willing to lose money to get motion.
• Leaders are willing to lose safety and security to get started in a new direction.
• Leaders are willing to lose everything to for the sake of Jesus kingdom.

If you don’t believe me, read Genesis 15 or better yet Mark 15.  Leaders own no sacred cows, because they’ve already sacrificed the very things they hold most dear.  If you find that difficult, I understand.  These are the words of a man weighing some big losses.  A still small voice is telling me, leaders are losers.

I attended my first professional Football (soccer) game today.  Quite the introduction to a sport I know very little about – Manchester City vs. Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in London.  I’m not sure I’ve ever done anything that made me feel like a person must when attending church for the very first time.

• I had no idea where to go so I found myself looking for ever sign as I worked my way through the sea of people hoping not to step on someone’s toe.
• I had even less idea what to do.  Stand up, sit down, clap…  I quickly figured out to just stand or sit when the person in front of me did. Clapping seems obvious except they had these claps like I remember from when I was a kid at camp – I didn’t want to be the one person to clap after everyone else stopped, so I just didn’t.
• They sings worship songs at football matches.  You may thing that’s an exaggeration – trust me, it’s not in the least.  Problem is, I didn’t know the words (though I recognized a few choice ones) or tune to any of the songs, so of course I couldn’t sing along.
• Having never played the game, I didn’t understand much of what I was watching, but everyone around me obviously did.
• Only one person spoke to me, a high school student from Reading sitting right behind me.  I was amazed how much just a little conversation and his enthusiasm to share the game, put me at ease.
• I switched seats at halftime to sit in an empty seat next to Dave, who had most generously provided my ticket.  It made a huge difference to be next to someone I knew – even if I had just met him an hour before.

I have a new appreciation for the person who finds their way to church for the every first time and a renewed commitment to do everything I can to make them feel welcome.

After dinner last night with the Benham’s, John Burke and I went back to Kerith to observe what they were doing for students.  Let me say first of all, wow!  Probably the best visual demonstration of Ephesians 4 I have seen in a long time – and the proof of that Godly wisdom is in the fruit: students leading a ministry that is leading students to faith.
One of the activities was a room for Silent Disco.  I had to ask 3 times – what kind of disco?  I thought I was missing something in the English accent.  I heard right.  People dancing in a room, all together, yet each is listening to their own music on their own headset and thus dancing to their own beat with their own style.  If you can imagine that – even more wrap your mind around it – you can begin to dream about the shapes and forms of community the next generation of believers will create.

I am sitting in my hotel looking out over the lights of Bracknell.  Rolling around in my head are the things I learned today:
•    Flying through Chicago in February is a game of chance.  I landed in a blanket of snow and made it to my departing gate for London in 15 minutes.  John landed and spent an hour on the tarmac waiting for a gate to get off his plane and missed his flight.
•    London is very diverse.  If you counted ethnicity on your hands at Heathrow you’d run out of digits in just as many seconds.
•    Driving on the left side of the road is not so bad – until you come to an intersection.  Making a right turn in the left lane in traffic will really mess with your head.
•    English pubs were built for short people.  I’m 5’ 10” on a good day and I had to duck through every doorway at dinner.
•    The people of Kerith church are amazing hosts.  I am sitting next to a plate of fresh strawberries and white chocolate as I write.  Thank you Simon and gang!
Mostly I learned that you can fly half way around the world and the need of Jesus’ church is the same – capable leaders who are willing to ask what will it take to see lives change and the church flourish, and then willing to go do it.

Tomorrow I make my first trip across the Atlantic.  I am really looking forward to seeing 5 great cities: London, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and Amsterdam.  Even more, I am looking forward to meeting church leaders who are working faithfully to reach people and invite them into God’s kingdom.  I hope to post my thought here, pictures on Facebook, and a few quick insights on Twitter.

I was at Verge last week.  Francis Chan showed this video.  It’s a children cartoon – with an important and not so childish message.

A friend and colleague posted on humility yesterday.  (ouch!)

This morning I was in Hearing God, an excellent but often overlooked or unknown contribution by Dallas Willard, as part of my devotional reading.  Again the subject of humility:

“God will gladly give it to us if, trusting and waiting on him to act, we refrain from pretending we are what we know we are not, from presuming a favorable position for ourselves in any respect and from pushing or trying to override the will of others in our context.”

No pretending.

No Presuming.

No Pushing.

(Ouch again!)

If you’re not up to speed on the debate – that’s ok.  I find the argument quickly spirals into theology territorialism or pragmatic pride.  Neither of which is very helpful.  I do think there is a distinct difference in an individuals posture toward the people around them.  Which of these would be true of you…

• Are your friends coming to church?
• Are your friends becoming a church?

I was having a conversation today about change.  The subject of values came up and the conversation slowed way down.  Leaders love to talk about vision and strategy – where we are going and how we are going to get there.  Values don’t get the same billing. If you lead a team, that’s where the hard work and the real payoff is.

The first challenge is figuring out what values are really motivating your team.  It’s probably not the 7 things alliterated into the name of your church and posted on your website.  It’s also not that hard to find out, you just have to be brave enough to start taking things away, or at least threatening to.

People aren’t afraid of losing things they don’t value.  They’ll give them up or give them away easily.   Want a Windows PDA? Its yours if I can even find it in the box of abandoned electrontic gadgets.  Take away something people value for comfort and they’ll probably complain.  Shut off my electricity and I’ll probably whine about the cold shower.  Go after something people hold dear and you can just watch the fear rise.  My kids, well… you get the picture.

Get a room full of people, even better a church full of people, to have that reaction to a shared value – now you’re going somewhere.