ts

LeslieB, one of our long time SPACE students-morphed-into-leaders, has just been accepted for a Spring DTS at YWAM-SF. In case you aren’t up on the latest missions abbreviation lingo, that is Discipleship Training School at Youth With a Mission, San Francisco. A DTS is typically three months of classroom intensive training followed by a two month cross cultural experience.

Leslie has been with SPACE since the beginning, first as a student and then as a leader, she has been on the front lines of helping us move the slow boat as we engage students for the world. A first hand witness to the fun and insanity, she has been a part of raking 300 bags of leaves on a Saturday and teaching English classes to immigrants as well as getting kicked out of nursing homes and locking keys in running church vans. She has also adapted with us, realizing that mission trips aren’t solely for the experience, but are only good if they turn students into people that must, regardless of locality, personal cost or structure, while keeping in mind context, long term impact and partnership. She has seen it first hand in New York City; Grove City, PA; New Orleans; Brasil; Cameroon and Europe. And just as important, she has been a part of it at home.

Congratulations Leslie!!! SPACE is proud of you!

Photo: Leslie, summer 2006, Kirbi, Cameroon.

Or…

Tomorrow’s missionaries don’t exist today. Yet…

Even though a lot of people say it, we have learned first hand that everything rises and falls on your leaders. In terms of mission teams, people typically staff for when things go well. Instead, you need to staff for what might go wrong. If you’ve got great leaders that can handle possible trauma, can empathize with someone who is hurt or can react quickly and decisively in the light of danger, injury or ambiguity, they will thrive if things go according to plan [which they won’t.]

Some real world scenarios:
- You are in country at your hosts home and a normally friendly dog goes berserk and bites one of your team members. Call a doctor, take her to the hospital [but go to the one on the other side of town because it’s run by Chinese…] or stitch the wound yourself?

- One of your team has a bit of a stomach bug. He decides to self-medicate with immodium, pepto-bismol and cipro. Meantime, the whole camp you are serving is planning an all day excursion today. Bring him along, with his bucket and lots of hand sanitizer?

- You and your team have just landed in Paris and have twelve hours to take in the sights in the city of lights. But you are sick as a dog and have to run to the bathroom like clockwork every 15 minutes. Make the best of the sights and subject your team to the possible “tour of public bathrooms?”

Luckily for us, all of these scenarios stayed minor. But all of these represent the possibility of a minor accident evolving into something more serious quickly. One other slight detail - what happens when any of those scenarios happen to your point leader?

When staffing mission teams, start with leaders by asking:

:: Can they think quickly and rationally?
:: Who would you trust your children with?
:: Does this person have a lot of life experience that has molded maturity and wisdom in them?
:: Who has lots of experience around accident-prone little children?
:: How does this leader team complement each other in terms of maturity, decision making ability and life experience?

Photo: Me, contemplating the “tour of public bathrooms”, in a bathroom on AirFrance. Summer 2006, from Cameroon to France.

If you read D’s post about today, you know about the interesting day I had at the hospital today. What you should correctly gather is that my family isn’t exactly a real time feed of relevant information.

Everyone including you and I, every second, is getting older. As we take care of our families, do what we can for the strangers and contribute our part towards saving the world, we must remember that we don’t live forever. We don’t have all the time in the world.

The Orbiters and I hung out in Silver Spring this evening with a small gathering of people that collected with M and the International Mentoring Network. Included were Alex McManus, Dale Swinburne [Catonsville], Jumaine Jones [The Bridge, Silver Spring] and Rich Merritt [VA Beach and Pennsylvania].

Here are some snippets of the conversation:
- movement before structure
- everyone could be a leader, but leadership is based on circumstance and opportunity
- instead of leadership development, we should think about character development
- when someone is a leader, they need to continue to be human and they need to respond to the way the world really looks
- the future movers of the kingdom will not be impacting a world similar to today
- the future looks latin, asian, turkish [declining birth rates, etc.]
- instead of using elements of youth culture to connect youth to churches, we should continue to catalyze them for the world’s sake
- tricia is awesome [wait, how did that get on my paper?]

Two questions Alex had for the interns:
- describe how often you are connected with your close friends and the medium?
- how has traveling around the world informed your decision making for the future?

Photo: TriciaB, Alex and EllyK.

My notes and background for the GCC 2007 India team training session. If any of it will help you, feel free to use it.

India 2007
AMoser
travel dates - late December, before Christmas, for two weeks
orphanage and possibly leper colony
8 team members [one didn’t come]
all college/young adult age

::: Focus
Team unity.
Why - 50% of long term teams come home after the first year, most of them due to team and personality conflict. Get you to think about operating, thinking and functioning as a single team.

::: Myers Briggs [of course]
6 extroverts - 1 introvert
your single I is going to need a break from all the others Es. don’t think he hates you.
7 feelers - 0 thinkers
your team might not be able to make any rational decisions because everyone will want everyone else to feel good about everything.
6 perceiving - 1 judging
your J is going to need to know where we are eating lunch on thursday and how are we going to get there. challenge for the J is to go with the flow, challenge for others is to give the J enough details.

type preferences are like writing with your natural or opposite hand
knowing their personality allows you to be more gracious

::: Team Disintegration
Saving Private Ryan
Modern day paradigm for the Gospel
“In the Last Great Invasion of the Last Great War, The Greatest Danger for Eight Men was Saving… One.”
clip from 1:23:13 to 1:43:00
what did you notice about how this team disintegrated?

::: Feedback
Q: What is one thing that concerns you about our team?
My answer: Besides teamwork, which is why we spent so much time on it, culture. India is culturally very distant from Western culture. Go with a learner posture.

Staff of the Baltimore branch of the International Rescue Committee, an agency that helps resettle roughly 350 refugees each year, said they expect an increased number of Burmese immigrants as the unrest continues in Burma, which borders India on the west and China and Thailand on the east.

Recent immigrants, such as Mang, represent the second large wave of Burmese immigrants to the area, following an initial movement in 2000, said Kakoli Ray, the regional director of the rescue committee.

Dozens of Burmese families have settled in Howard County since January, according to the committee, which helps refugees find housing, employment, education and health care.

Roughly 50 immigrants, including Mang, attended an orientation and winter clothing giveaway Sept. 28 at Patuxent Valley Middle School and Bollman Bridge Elementary School, in Jessup. The event was organized by the rescue committee, Howard public school officials and Grace Community Church, in Fulton.

Link
Don’t let anyone tell you different - you can impact the world from your home in suburbia. [I had no idea anyone from GCC was involved in this. Cool.]

::: Counterfeit drugs in Africa, impact on malaria and fighting fake drugs with mobile phones.
Fascinating stuff.
Link via My Heart’s in Accra

::: China’s 39M Christians

Most believe there were approximately 700,000 Christians in 1949, when China closed to traditional missionary activities. So 53-54 million Protestants and Catholics today still demonstrates remarkable growth.

Link via Nigel

::: Is Your Mom on Facebook?

“older people being on Facebook is kind of weird.”

Unless it’s your church’s student missions coordinator. Then it’s not weird, it’s way cool…
USA Today article via YPulse

In over 17 years of student ministry, I have never personally led someone to follow Jesus who has turned into someone doing the same.

In 4 years of SPACE, we have never seen someone come from an irreligious background to devote their lives to Jesus, specifically due to SPACE, to continue on to reach others.

We track the numbers of kids who come out of our experiences to live lives of service. But this metric - those who we have reached and in turn reach others - is a big 0.

Is the standard definition of ‘mobilizer’ just for people that already know?

Not just plain RocketFuel today, but some links you should definitely click.

::: If you are interested in space exploration, the human condition, cultural implications of extraterrestrial life or risking it all to live differently, — video.
From TED, Carolyn Porco talks about two of Saturn’s 46 moons, lands unreached by humans and the possibility of life somewhere else besides Earth.

::: If you are around young people at all — Marc Andressen on career planning - what to study in college.

In my opinion, it’s now critically important to get into the real world and really challenge yourself — expose yourself to risk — put yourself in situations where you will succeed or fail by your own decisions and actions, and where that success or failure will be highly visible.

::: If you speak to people and implore them to a life bigger than themselves, — Barbara Nicolosi on heroes and story.

a) What does a kid (and by extension, a society) look like who has heroes? Idealistic, hopeful, imitative, open, eager to please, reverent, grateful

“A boy doesn’t have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn’t like pie when he sees there isn’t enough to go around.”
Edgar Watson Howe

b) What does a kid look like who has no heroes? Cynical, haughty, suspicious, jaded, irreverent, entitled, self-absorbed.

“Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.” Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

c) As a child, a hero provides a teaching example of a life worth living. In fact, the “no greater life” of one who gives his life for his friends.

Em and I dropped in on some of our high school boys doing some light landscaping and painting at one of our local elementary schools this past Saturday. The connection to this school actually arose via our children - long story but the principal at this school used to be at our kids’ elementary school. They needed some help so we threw it out to one of the grade level classes at CpR. Think connectedness and D. Funny thing, two years ago, ESunde and EmGberg did some community scouting at this very school.

When SPACE started, part of the vision was to broker [I like that word] community service opportunities for our students. It was to provide for opportunities that were there but not capitalized upon, because we knew our students could make a tremendous impact.

Random acts of kindness is a trendy youth group thingy now, and SPACE did a bit of that when we first started. Those kinds of service events push kids to the edge of what they think they can and cannot do, helps them with the tension of risk, and increases their relational dependence on each other and God. But as much as those are good - local, indigenous partnerships are that much better, like in the case of this school. This particular class did some other landscaping over the summer and this weekend they were back, having kind of adopted this school as theirs. The principal knows and appreciates them.

By the way, these are sophomores in high school, and they invited freshmen to join them. The sophs were at Chain Reaction this summer. Next weekend, they are reconnecting with a church in Baltimore that they served with this past summer. Yes, that young. And yes, they have started their high school careers with service as part of their dna.

This morning, I met with some other mission team leaders [in SPACE and out of SPACE] in a meeting facilitated by the GCC Missions Task Force for the purpose of debriefing the summer teams leaders. Here are some random and scattered notes that may help you if you are a mission team leader, serve on a mission board or have involvement in sending, supporting or being on teams.

PH - adult short term coordinator
PW - elder, overseeing missions
SW - chair of MTF
J and J - team leaders, adult - Uganda, AOET
S and B - team leaders, adult - Mexico, WorldServants
TS - moi, SPACE in general, SPACE 2007 Hungary
DS - my better half, SPACE 2007 Hungary
TM - SPACE 2007 England
JB - SPACE 2007 NYC

Team prep time:
Mexico - 9 weeks from start to finish - not enough time
Uganda - 12 weeks

What kind of preparation:
logistical
language training
Might help to have single day workshop to cover fund raising, culture and logistics - like Mission Advance
Uganda did personality testing
can and should begin to resource a lot of other people within the Body - language training, cultural engagement, team building

Team application process:
how do we choose who goes - need some level of baseline for participants
interviews
this year for adult teams, short term coord did most of the interviewing and then placed people on specific teams
need spousal buy in and agreement

While the team is on the field:
support for spouses/families - who is left behind
including expectations for communication protocol

Debriefing:
need to meet with teams once they come home again - specific to process not for social
have people who are fully devoted to the experience but gain a heart for missions after they return home
long term view - how is God calling you to this in the future?
bring in a guest facilitator for debriefing teams

You probably noticed that most of these issues are common to mission team leaders. You could also infer that there was a lot more to talk about and these were just the talking points that rose to the top in our limited time. Consistently, the missions piece has gotten tons of empowerment, gratefulness and delegation of authority and leadership from the higher-ups at GCC.

Within SPACE, we have also been thinking about process improvement and I’ll be detailing some of our plans along those lines in a later post.

Related MTF debriefing sessions - 2005 and 2006

But this was not quite what I had in mind…. Creativity and artistry via TriciaB.

And this is exactly how Jesus does discipleship: he organizes it around mission. As soon as they are called he takes the disciples on an adventurous journey of mission, ministry and learning. Straightaway they are involved in proclaiming the kingdom of God, serving the poor, healing and casting out demons…. Even the newest convert is engaged in the mission from the start; even he or she can become a spiritual hero… if disciple making lies at the heart of our commission, then we must organize it around mission, because mission is the catalyzing principle of discipleship. - The Forgotten Ways

Even though I’ve done a fair share of what one would call missions trips, the quote reminds me that we must be about mission.

[Related: Alan Hirsch’s blog]

I’m doing a team coaching session for one of the GCC young adult teams later next week. It’s a team that is going to India with AMoser and they need a little bit of help. Not a lot, but a little. I was a little hesitant to get too involved, but I really want them to succeed. And if you can avoid a train wreck… not saying they would be a train wreck. Anyway, I digress.

I’ve got a series of posts dealing with team preparation [also in the sidebar on the right.] It’s a good set of resources. But if you are getting started with a team, you

…. must ….. get…… started….

You must initiate, drive, compel, begin, move, gather, invite. You must take the first step. You must start.

We deal with this every single summer. School schedules, after school sports, kids with jobs, leaders away at college, final exams. It’s difficult logistically. But departure dates are static entities - they don’t move, whether you are ready or not.

The principle is ’start with who you can.’ The rest will follow. Have your gathering when most are available. Make your gathering awesome. If it is truly valuable - mold them together as a team with good interaction, give them a vision for more than just the trip, grow a tangible skill they achieve at - the rest will be really sorry they missed it. And they won’t miss the next one.

::: Church in Starbucks with Lifechurch.tv’s internet campus

Right when he says this, the little “hand raised counter” gets to 7. Everything in me wanted to click “Raise Hand”, but I didn’t. Because I’m a good boy. Didn’t want to misbehave in church.
I wish I had my camera for what happened next. There is this older woman on her laptop across the Starbucks. I swear when internet pastor dude asked one last time to raise your hand…her hand went up. Then the little counter thing went from 7 to 8.

via Los
Story worth reading because it’s funny and it highlights a new expression of church

::: The world in 7 cheeky photos
Link via Kottke.org

::: 16% of non-Christians in their late teens and twenties said they have a “good impression” of Christianity.
*ouch*
Link via YPulse

In the summer of 2007, I helped lead a team of students to serve with Christian Associates International, helping to put on a kids program during their annual staff conference called Connect. Connect is a meeting point for their worldwide staff and is a homecoming of sorts where staff reconnect, introspect and get invested in. Connect serves to vitally recharge and re-energize church planting families that have served in their respective environments and contexts. Let’s visit the 3 essential questions in light of this experience.

1. Am I planning to have an impact that lasts for 500 years?
Aside from the given of impacting the missionary kids, our interaction with the missionary families had a huge impact as well. I know all of our team was affected by hanging around the crazies - the ones that are brave and daring enough to leave everything behind to live in a foreign culture so that Jesus would be proclaimed. Like most missionary families I meet, in some ways they are normal and just like us. In other ways, they aren’t normal at all. Living a life of intentionality is not commonplace. The members of this team saw Europe’s need, spent quality time with families interacting about God’s mission in the world and continue to envision a different future for themselves - and for mankind.

2. Can both host and teams trust each other because we are partners?
Our initial contact with CAI was through a GCC family that eventually ended up on the mission field serving with CAI. So based on that context, we already had somewhat of a partnership from an organizational [church:mission agency] level but not personal. Of course, that partnership deepened to the personal level as we prepared. The culmination of that partnership was a week of kids program that ran extremely well in both the logistics and overall ethos of the week. One other thing worth noting - SPACE and CAI share a lot of the same values - experimentation, personal leadership development and risky innovation.

3. How will I engage the culture?
The difference between American and European culture is not great. In addition to the similarities, staying in a hotel that was very American with a lot of other Americans made engaging with the culture more difficult. Out team made the most of non conference times, such as time before and after the conference in Vienna and Munich and a morning touring the city of Sopron [where our hotel was located], which provided some observations in culture. This experience required a bit more ingenuity when it came to making sure our team engaged context and culture.

Photos: Team reflection, Vienna, by RobynB; the fire tower, Sopron, Hungary, by ErinOB.

I picked up the book Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why on a whim a few weeks ago at my local Borders. Intrigued by the wilderness survival topic, it sounded like an interesting read. To put it mildly, this book is intense. Below are a few excerpts.

:: Speaking about mental maps - like when a person gets lost and having to reassess where they are. [Stretch to expand this idea to cultural engagement. The ones that thrive in other cultures are the ones that adapt the best and quickest, in essence reshaping their mental models.]

Al Siebert, a psychologist, writes in The Survivor Personality that the survivor “does not impose pre-existing patterns on new information, but rather allows new information to reshape [his mental models]. The person who has the best chance of handling a situation well is usually the one with the best … mental pictures or images of what is occurring outside of the body.”

:: He writes a lot about keeping your cool and how there is a fine balance between emotion and cognition - the ones who survive are the ones who have kept their emotions in check while making the right decisions and acting on them. A bit about the physiology in the brain:

Since the organism’s survival depends on a reasonable match between mental map and environment, as the two diverge, the hippocampus spins its wheels and the amygdala sends out alarm signals even as the motivations circuits urge you on and on. The result is vertigo, claustrophobia, panic and wasted motion. Since most people aren’t conscious of the process, there’s no way to reflect on what’s happening.

:: The idea that serving others transforms you into a survivor:

Kerns learned many lessons that night. His mastery and confidence turned the pilots around even more than the fire. It showed them the way, and it made Kerns more able to save himself. That lesson was driven home and home again: Helping someone else is the best way to ensure your own survival. It takes you out of yourself. It helps you rise above your fears. Now you’re a rescuer, not a victim. And seeing how your leadership and skill buoy others up gives you more focus and energy to persevere. The cycle reinforces itself: You buoy them up, and their response buoys you up. Many people who survive alone report that they were doing it for someone else back home.

Two other ideas surfaced for me while reading this book. First, although our SPACE teams aren’t necessarily in wilderness survival environments, there could be incidents where our leaders are in crisis mode and trying to balance emotion versus cognition in order to make the right decision. Realistic scenarios include being in a foreign city and losing a student, a team member getting into a major car accident, or being the target of a violent crime. Perhaps this book has allowed my mind to wander, thinking that any of those are remotely possible [they are, aren’t they?] The ability to hold emotion in check while cognitively making the right decisions is a leadership behavior that is important. Perhaps we need to visit this topic as a part of our team preparation. [Along the same lines but the topic of another post - staffing your leadership for worst case.]

The second thought that came to mind was the difference between surviving as a victim versus surviving as a rescuer. The bigger paradigm relates to all of us that follow Christ - instead of merely just surviving, are we rescuing? Because it sounds like that makes a big difference.

My personal notes from this morning’s message.

I Kings 16-18
prophets are not comfortable people to be around.
Ahab - 7th king - married to Jezebel
Jezebel from Sidon - incredibly pagan
drought, no dew or rain
Baal - male god - god of agriculture and natural elements and fertility
Asher - female counterpart
Elijah - God tells him to give the message and then turn and go hide.
Go to Sidon - where J is from - huh?
Find specific village where a widow lives.
A widow - a person in the bottom of the social strata who is going to ‘provide’ for him during a drought and famine in the land.
[not only faith of Elijah but faith of the widow]
widows son grew ill - Elijah healed him
drought lasted 3 years
cultivation of Elijah’s faith happened in private
gathered 850 of Baals and Asher’s prophets on Mt. Carmel
“prophetic trash talk” - Ortberg
pour water on the alter - 4 jars, 3 times - all in the middle of getting over a drought
contrast the way the pagan prophets dance, cut, sacrifice as prayers to Elijah’s calm, confident prayer
Elijah is one of the original fire kings

One of my feedback evaluation forms from the GCC LDP session I led last week.

Exhibit A in the red. No, I didn’t plant an admirer in the crowd.

Exhibit B in the blue. Yup, someone understood the ramifications of their mission against the backdrop of humanity. That is exactly why.

Everyone and their mother seems to be writing about churches and Facebook. So here is a perspective from a globally-connected, out-to-change-the-world component of a youth ministry.

SPACE has seen the following uses of Facebook:
- Connecting
Of course, the first and foremost use of FB is connecting with friends. Writing on walls, messaging [although I would rather use normal email] , checking on their status, reading their profiles and seeing who has new friends all are various ways to connect. Most recently, we’ve seen a lot of our students connect and stay in touch with the new friends they have made while serving around the world.

- Community
FB is also an environment for community. The amount of FB groups are evidence of that. The groups represent affinity and can be closed or allow anyone to join. We’ve started a general SPACE group as well as specific groups for SPACE summer teams, book clubs and groups just for fun [like the “SHENGS have more fun” group.] My latest favorite is the “IDK my BFF Jill” group [from LB’s FB profile.]

- Photos, Video and Tagging
Part of the fun of FB is being able to upload media [photos/video] and then tag your friends in them as well as leave comments. Through this, you can see all the pictures/videos/etc FB-wide of your friends. All of our summer teams uploaded huge quantities of pictures from their experiences this summer, then tagged their teammates and commented on those pictures as well. On the left, one of my favorites, detailing an experiment I was conducting with cellophane - note the funny comments.

Other Resources:
- Churches on Facebook, from digital.leadnet.org
- The Lifechurch.tv swerve blog’s informal social network survey results

One thing to note about security and privacy - only add the people you know and you should be fine. Feel free to add me as a friend by clicking my profile badge at the upper right of this post.

::: Is “See You At The Pole” Unbiblical?
Link via Mark Riddle

::: What Myers-Briggs type is Jason Bourne?
Link

::: The most amazing temples in the world
Link

::: I Don’t Look Like This Demographic

For Americans ages 35 to 54 - 18,249 deaths from overdoses of illicit drugs in 2004, up 550 percent per capita since 1975… 30 years ago, the riskiest age group for violent death was 15 to 24… Today, the age group most at risk for violent death is 40 to 49, including illegal-drug death rates five times higher than for teenagers.

Link from Marc Andreessen

Among other memories… some of my favorite from the past year..

As part of GCC’s leadership development program, notes from a session I did yesterday.

====

::: Intro
tony sheng
Leading in the Global Matrix
culture and context - the faster and deeper a leader engages, the greater the impact
look at paul - 3 on the ground, tangible behaviors he uses to engage context
expand your perspective about our current context - where Grace is on the way to marking human history

tony’s context - about me - SPACE - catalyzing students

Ex: TS in Brasil - moose on his shirt signified homosexuality - they laughed and he had no idea what about

your context – you are to lead - lets get it clear - you are here for a reason and if you have doubts about your leadership - put them on the shelf - the most exciting strategic time to be a jesus follower in human history - you have a vital role to play - the world is depending on you

::: Acts 17 in another language

::: Pauls behaviors
- 1.sees his context clearly
how the world really looks
most amazing time in history ever

: world and history - Six of the ten billion who have ever lived are alive today, and half of them are under the age of 25 – if you need compelling proof for youth ministry…
More has happened in fulfillment of the Great Commission in the last 100 years than in the previous 1,000 years.
China—fastest Christian expansion ever with 10,000 new converts every day
15 million converted Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims have opted to remain within those religions in order to witness for Christ as active believers in Jesus as Lord.
In 1900 81% of all Christians were White - By 2005 this will drop to 43%
Unreached peoples: 13,000 cultures

: cities - global urban migration
yaounde
vienna

: howard county - GCC - strategic right in the middle of DC and Baltimore
1/6 in Howard County are foreign born
:poll - how many life next to someone of a different ethnicity

community:church:leaders – sets and subsets
not a lesson on corporate diversity
but a lesson on clarity – we must care about what our community looks like
why this is called Leading In the Global Matrix - wake up and see

2006 best places to live - Money Magazine
1000 families $3M budget - $300K to local and global projects
over 200 middle and high school students in the past four years, $150K
Building Bridges – a week long community impact project
This church is not like any other church you will find

clearly GCC is situated for something grand
unique pivotal spot in human history
Paul saw this clearly

Learner vs. teacher
Trader vs. seller

:: Discuss – “In the different contexts or environments I am in [work, school, hobbies, church, etc.] do I see this global melting pot? Is there a place I should and do not see it? Why so”

- 2. focused on long term impact
**’the latest ideas’**
Paul was in this specific mix for a reason and this group of people were probably not like his own
he was there for a specific reason - he was trying to reach the group that were focused on the ‘latest ideas’
diffusion of innovation scale - draw this on the board [not my idea] - flip chart - The Tipping Point
how fast people gravitate towards change

front edge of the curve - the innovaters, risk takers, entreprenrial, catalytic
they are the leaders
people of influence
these people would go on to affect change in others
wave of difference and action

Paul knew that he had to draw from leaders - whether they were Christ followers or not
not a flash in the pan
mentor - if you are focusing on less than 500 years, it’s too short [not my idea]
who are the leaders - not followers - you are trying to reach?

Bobby Clinton, Fuller, studied 1200 leaders from history and the Scriptures - ‘leadership selection and identification is a major function of leadership.”

Neil Cole author of Organic Church says, “The best leaders are the ones who are creating leaders, not just followers”
Everyone has the potential to influence at least one other person. The best leaders aren’t necessarily the ones up front of a lot of people – they are the ones catalyzing those others to affect the multitudes

How do you identify those in your ministry who are leaders? There are surely signs…
TJ - in student ministry, see which adults kids gravitate towards
two SPACE interns – these kids read everything that I give them

- person of peace idea from Lk 10 - someone who has good reputation in the community, well connected, lots of influence, people follow them

F in Brasil – great relationship with the other parents of school kids, great reputation in the neighborhood, serves in community board. Not a believer, yet. When she comes to Jesus, there will be an very fast expansion – in the form of multiplication not addition.

- think about multiplication versus addition

UMCP is one of the best places to reach Chinese – reach more there than going to China – because they will return to China

More than just a great kids ministry or a dynamic moving small group
A movement of Christ followers
SPACE started as mission trips and community service - now it has become so much more than that - creating a movement among students to catalyze and empower them to change the world

not creating a ministry for the ministry sake
it’s about affecting humanity
making a difference for all of mankind

::: Discuss “what is the impact of my ministry in 5, 50 and 500 years.”

- 3. language
looks into the culture to frame a passion for God
Don Richardson, Peace Child
redemptive analogy - finding a story or legend in the culture that is analogous to the Gospel
music, movie, legends, etc.
movies:
ET - alien comes to life, dies and born again to give life to Elliot
Children of Men - no one has any more babies except one
the Bridge movie in cheq
can come from literature, music, etc.
keep in mind that pop “culture” now has very deep, philosophical meanings
The Matrix, etc

Discuss: examples of redemptive analogy

::: Close
responsibility, impact and influence

=====
Link to the handout, which includes an outline, other resources and questions for coach-leader interaction.
Photo: SSunde reading for our session.

::: Sending Your Kids Out

It’s so tough sending our children out, and you’d think that Karen and I would be better at it. But it still strikes us to the core. We do it out of obedience. We do it because God did it for us and the world needs to know.

Link from Seth Barnes

::: 20 countries, 12 weeks, overland - London to Sydney
The OzBusvia MetaFilter

::: Voice is still the killer app in many developing countries.

As part of a UN programme to tackle poverty in rural Africa, 79 villages across 10 African countries will be hooked up to cellular networks.

Link. Note that Jeffrey Sachs is the director of the Earth Institute.

::: Statetris
Instead of positioning the typical Tetris blocks, you position states/countries at their proper location. This will kill your productivity - you have been warned. Link via Kotkke.

The theme for the past two Sundays at Grace have been called “Taste of Grace,” the annual series designed to engage people to be involved in serving in different capacities. Part of this Sunday’s message was about what kind of community we are - how many of our community are already serving. PastorMark outlined two elements of serving - the summer mission adult and student teams. Here are the metrics from both:

Students — 81 people || $61,000 || $753
Adults — 38 people || $76,000 || $2000

[I wrote about specific student historical financial metrics previously in this post.] From a purely monetary perspective, we are getting a better deal on the student side. Of course, the finances are not the only thing we measure.

It’s important to keep in mind finances from the perspective of students. Students don’t have the financial viability that adults have - most of their friends don’t have full time salaried careers, the majority of support come from their parents’ friends and “taxable donation” is a nonsensical term to a sixteen year old. So when we look at trip destinations and partnerships, we have to keep overall costing in mind. If it is very ambitious financially, that is somewhat of a flag. Adult teams may not have the same kind of considerations for if a trip goes or not.

Of course, I’m super proud to see that our students are, in some ways, leading the greater body in this way. When SPACE first started, adult mission trips were here or there and this summer, there have been seven. It’s what teenagers are good at - innovate, risk and pave the way a little bit.

Public School Lunch
3 hard beef tacos
2 mini bowls of salad
1 big spoon of corn
water or juice too
$2.60

oh and ice cream for $.60

Goodwin’s expectation principle: “A potential leader tends to rise to the level of genuine expectancy of a leader he or she respects.” via Bobby Clinton.

Whether interns respect me or not, I have the highest expectations for them. Knowing what they know and having experienced what they have experienced, their responsibility, impact and influence on the nations is limitless.

EllyK was the perfect person to spend one-on-one time with Nast, a three year old adopted girl who only spoke Russian. Any time there was the threat of having to be around only English speakers, she freaked and went into meltdown mode. EllyK - empathy - spent hours rebuilding and reshaping, creating safety and connection - ideation - distractions via swings, bubbles and walks in the woods.

In it’s most desperate hour, the world needs you.

Photos: 2007-2008 Orbiters TriciaB and EllyK.

In the tradition of trying something new and different, SPACE is launching a book club. First gathering - Sept 27th at 8pm at the Food Court in Columbia Mall with gatherings about once a month. The book we are going to read is Soul Cravings. Feel free to bring friends - even ones that aren’t interested in church. RSVP via email or comment.

I wrote a little bit about the Leadership Vision dudes at the CAI conference. More on them later. What was very intriguing to me was that CAI had these guys engage all their field teams as “Missional Consultants”, both at the conference and throughout the year. Most of their time spent with teams was spent interpreting StrengthsFinder and Myers Briggs in the context of the working teams.

I think we did a great job putting our leader teams together this past summer due to focusing on first finding strong point leaders and then surrounding them with other very capable people - ultimately resulting in the strongest most capable leader teams we have ever had.

An area of improvement for next summer will continue to center around leaders, including something like:
- a team leader guide.
- all team leaders take StrengthsFinder.
- someone interprets the results as a team, not just as individuals.

Photo: SF results of some of our team. Note the circles.

::: Short Term Missions and the Future
Seth writes:

Over and over again I watch the very missionaries I’ve mobilized through a short-term experience tell me, “It’s too much work. I don’t want to host any more teams.” Hosting a short-term-mission (STM) team is a lot of work for missionaries.

And…

It’s true that many of our short-termers don’t belong on the field. Far too many churches don’t adequately screen or prepare their teams. And their presence on the mission field is a net negative. They spend $1000 a participant to do VBS and a bit of construction with a bunch of spoiled Americans with attitudes.

The answer to that problem is better screening and preparation, not a moratorium on STMs. I want to ask all missionaries reading this, what are you doing to replace yourself? How are you raising up future missionaries?

Link from Seth Barnes

::: http://digital.leadnet.org

We are aiming to unpack the technical jargon and gobblygook so that non-techies and church leaders can better understand how various digital technologies can be used in the church to connect its members and attenders as well as reach its surrounding communities and even the world.

Friends DJ Chuang and Stephen Shields are part of the team.

::: How Cultures Think
via RG Lewis

Just a reminder, fun is a core SPACE value. In four years, 200 students and leaders and over fifteen teams, fun and laughter have been key components of our experiences.

In a neurological sense, laughing represents the shortest distance between two people because it instantly interlocks limbic systems. This immediate, involuntary reaction, as one researcher puts it, involves “the most direct communication possible between people - brain to brain - with our intellect just going along for the ride, in what might be called a “limbic lock.” No surprise, then, that people who relish each other’s company laugh easily and often; those who distrust or dislike each other, or who are otherwise at odds, laugh little together, if at all.
In any work setting, therefore, the sound of laughter signals the group’s emotional temperature, offering one sure sign that people’s hearts as well as their minds are engaged. In a study of 1,200 episodes of laughter during social interactions, the laugh almost always came as a friendly response to some ordinary remark like “nice meeting you,” not to a punchline. A good laugh sends a reassuring message: We’re on the same wavelength, we get along. It signals trust, comfort and a shared sense of the world; as a rhythm in a conversation, laughing signals that all is well for the moment.- Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee

Photo: D and I. Otherwise, I have no idea.

One of the forums recently started on M opened with the question, “Think 18th century through today…who are your heroes?” One of mine was Amelia Earhart, who had some amazing accomplishments in the field of aviation, especially being a woman in that age. Talk about daring, risk and adventure. Kind of along the same lines as Steve Fossett, who has been missing for a few days now.

I spent just a few minutes contributing to the Amazon Mechanical Turk “HIT” for finding Steve Fossett. The basic idea is that images from the overall search area are loaded in to the Turk and the power of the Web is harnessed for people who have the time to scan those images using Google Earth, identify whether they see something suspect or not, and the results cataloged. Hopefully the more people involved, the more images can get scanned and maybe some hits on possibilities for where Steve is. D just told me that they have found 5 or 6 plane crashes that no one could find before.

Here is a fascinating article about Jim Gray, a Silicon Valley technologist who disappeared sailing earlier this year, and the high tech search used to try and find him as well. To date, no one has found him or evidence of his boat.

There is risk for it’s own sake and there is risk for a greater cause.

Here is the official link for the job opening at GCC:

If you are a vision caster, who loves leading leaders and teaching high school students we would like to hear from you.

Grace Community Church is a dynamic, growing, seeker sensitive church with an average weekly attendance of over 1900 adults that is strategically located in Howard County MD in the Baltimore Washington corridor. Our church mission is to build followers of Jesus Christ among those distanced from him.

Our current high school pastor of 10 years is stepping down and we are looking for his replacement to lead a high school ministry of over 200 students and 70 volunteers. Our high school ministry exists to:
• To provide a safe place for High School students to think about life, love, and faith,
• To explore their relationship with God, and
• To express their hearts to each other and God.

You must also really appreciate a Chinese-middle-aged-young-at-heart student mission coordinator and let him continue to run his crazy experiments that intersect students, culture and humanity.[No no, it’s not in the official write up… but it should be don’t you think? Kidding…]
Link to the official job posting.

::: 168 hours
Nigel spent a year as George Verwer’s [President of Operation Mobilization] gopher, meaning:

6 continents; 18 countries; 100 flights; 100 blog entries; met 5,000+ people; 250 meetings with George

Here is a snippet of what he learned:

Six of the ten billion who have ever lived are alive today, and half of them are under the age of 25. The spiritual war rages stronger than ever – with more response and more opposition to the Gospel than ever before. More has happened in fulfillment of the Great Commission in the last 100 years than in the previous 1,000 years. This is where you and I find ourselves. God is at work, and His plan will happen. The question is, “Am I part of it?”

::: Ethnographic research, cultural context and emerging technology

- Texting in Pinyan [Chinese] isn’t an easy thing to do - it requires two to seven button presses for each character.
- Why do Koreans pay to go to cybercafes when they’ve got great connectivity at home? Because it’s customary in Korea not to host guests in ones house, so playing games in a PC-Bang is the only way to socialize with friends.
- The ilkone phone signals a call to prayer, then silences itself for 20 minutes to allow you not to disturb anyone in mosque.

Link with much, much more about Genevieve Bell, a legendary anthropologist who works with Intel, from My Heart’s in Accra

::: Apple addresses early adopters
Link via Seth Godin

We are almost done closing out the financial part of the summer. When we close out summers, I invariably cannot believe the amount of people that support our students and teams. It really is amazing, all the ones that give and pray and give, because they know these students and love to see them risking, moving and serving. Here are some rough summer budget metrics.

If anyone else has any costing per student for their summer mission budgets, I would love to see them. The other interesting dialog might be about whether we are getting our money’s worth. Of course, I’ve got an opinion…

Photo: Belvedere Palace in Vienna [via ErinOB]

The Nens were in town a few weekends ago. It was so good to see them and after spending 10 days in Hungary with the same kind of families, it was familar, refreshing and really fun.

Hard to believe it has been one year.

[Related - Cameroon 2006]

::: Europe’s Coolest Cities
Including Copenhagen, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Dublin and Vienna
Link via The Creative Class

::: Dean Kamen and a new prosthetic arm
Watch a video from TED.com with Dean Kamen and the extraordinary prosthetic arm he’s developing at the request of the US Department of Defense. Link

::: The Essence of Movements
1. Structure
2. Recruitment
3. Commitment
4. Ideology
5. Opposition
Link via Sam Metcalf

Administrative announcement:
The “Potpourri” series [random tidbits from the web that I think you would enjoy] is now being renamed to “RocketFuel.” Mostly, because RocketFuel is a lot easier for me to spell.

Goals, goals, goals. Remember, it’s good to have goals that are measurable, realistic and timely. Here is a recap of SPACE goals from last year [and scores] and the goals I submitted for this coming school year.

2006-2007 goals
2006-2007: goal: help to shape a student ethos of impact and mission - use momentum from SPACE summer teams and TNT to collide into CpR Fridays
5 [out of 10]

2006-2007 goal: intentionally use SPACE as a medium to develop leaders that are creating leaders not just followers
KC, JB, summer team leaders
8

2006-2007 goal: give LC a presence from a SPACE resource
KC connecting with Spotlight teams
5

2006-2007 goal: continue to invest in SPACE kids - kids that have shown interest in global cultures, the future and cross cultural ministry
8

2006-2007 goal: continue to build missional/mission team leaders
8

2006-2007 goal: continue to send summer teams to GCC missionaries when we can and cultivate those relationships for long term perspective
10

2006-2007 goal: rearchitect the LC summer missions experience
10

2006-2007 goal: replace the MERGE missions experience with something more aligned with service and evangelism - targetting incoming 10th graders
10

2006-2007 goal: help facilitate an environment for KC to engage urban realities
2

2007-2008 goals

:: Intentionally use SPACE as a medium to develop leaders that are creating leaders not just followers
- JB, TB, EK

:: Continue to invest in SPACE kids - kids that have shown interest in global cultures and cross cultural ministry
- once a month ESL class
- Fall SPACE event
- SPACE Winter expedition
- Spring SPACE event

:: Continue to send overseas summer teams to GCC missionaries when we can and cultivate those relationships for long term perspective

:: Add more energy and momentum to LC summer missions experience

:: Use the progression of summer experiences similar to summer 2007 - Baltimore, NYC, overseas

:: Continue to build missional/mission team leaders
- Continue to shape round1 of SPACE leaders via innovative behind the scenes projects [LB, ES, EG, NL]
- Catalyze round2 of SPACE leaders via students turning into leaders via summer team leadership [TH, SS, MK, RB]
- Presummer Leader Gathering and Training - including providing Mission Team Leader Packet
- Engage each summer leader in StrengthsFinder
- Mission Advance

:: Explore the expansion of SPACE
- [2 cannot-disclose-right-now goals]
- Continue to use the blog [http://tonytsheng.blogspot.com] as a means of leadership strategy and publicity for SPACE

:: Compel GCC ministry leaders into understanding culture and context
- Lead workshop entitled “Leading Thru the Global Matrix” for GCC Leadership Development Program

:: Assist in hiring a senior high pastor that is unconventional
[not really a goal since I’m not involved in the process… but I threw that in there for grins…]

[Related: 2006-2007 goals and 2005-2006 goals ]

This is K playing with two random brothers she met on the beach the other day in CT. After a few minutes of playing, I heard her say, “Let’s play a game - it’s called Digging for Your Treasure!”

I know our family is going to remember our Pirate Sven experience for a long time.

Last weekend was our annual youth leader retreat. It’s a time when all the youth leaders go away for some refreshment and planning. Even though it’s intended for small group and program leaders, I go too and bring some of my people. This year, I brought JoyceB, TriciaB and EllyK. Along with planning some stuff about the fall for SPACE, we also watched a talk by Erwin McManus from Origins 2006 [how churches attract or repel catalytic, entrepreneurial leaders based on the diffusion of innovation scale], and spent some time praying for leaders of leaders.

This year, at the last formal session, our high school pastor SM announced that he was stepping down at the end of this school year. What I’ve appreciated most about SM is that he isn’t status quo at all. He isn’t the least bit interested in being a holding tank with pizza.

That would be a huge change in any youth ministry. It also means that the future of SPACE is a little uncertain. SPACE could continue to exist in it’s current form and function. Or potentially, there could be a high school pastor brought on who has definite views and plans for the integration of missions in his philosophy of ministry. In either case, it will be fun to see how it all plays out.

I don’t think SPACE was meant to last forever. However, there is still a fine line between the balance of letting everyone do what they want with student missions, while having enough oversight to make sure they are doing the right things, with the most prepared teams.

via Dean

That was the theme of my talk in LC last weekend [amidst our youth ministry leader retreat and Mission Sunday in big church…] - as in repeat after me, “I am a missiologist.”

The overall idea was that it’s important for all of us to understand God’s sense of mission throughout all the Bible [Gen 12, Mt 28, Rev 7] and to be in touch with how God is moving through all the world. The morning included 3 minute interviews from a lot of our summer teams including Baltimore, New York, England, Hungary and two other young adult teams, Uganda and Jamaica. All the Light Company kids that did something mission-trip-wise were also on the stage to share real quick. [Related topic - how young is too young for kids to go on overseas mission trips?]

I touched on some concepts such as global urban migration and a redemptive analogy. Granted, some big ideas and big words. But I don’t think they were too out of the realm of what middle school kids can understand.

And once they understand, we have to move them to act.

Photo: K and OR, after swimming in the Danube, outside of Vienna, Austria, summer 2007. via Megan

From a recent article in Good Magazine, profiling the Mormon Missionary Training Camp (MTC):

It’s like a proselytizing version of the Peace Corps—except the Mormons have seven times as many volunteers in the field as the Peace Corps, and they’re in 145 countries—as opposed to the Peace Corps’ 75. In many parts of the world, a Mormon missionary is the only American the locals will ever meet; the clean-cut, idealistic young face of our nation.

And…

Lane Steinagel, a middle-aged linguistics scholar, is in charge of language instruction. In the late 1970s, Steinagel served as a missionary in the Cook Islands and discovered his gift for languages. He remains an expert on Cook Island Maori, a language most people haven’t even heard of, let alone studied. Steinagel has also taken classes in Spanish, French, German, Russian, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Korean, Mandarin, Japanese, and Tongan. Under his guidance, the MTC teaches tongues you can study virtually nowhere else. “For some languages we have produced our own printed materials,” Steinagel explained. “It’s hard to find a good text for learning Icelandic or Albanian.”

And…

Through their willingness to learn languages no one else studies, the Mormons make themselves available to as many of the world’s peoples as they can. And their willingness to study obscure tongues helps them corner the market on conversions in certain parts of the world.

Photo: Our 2007 NYC team teaching a free ESL class in Brooklyn.

Welcome back readers and thanks for being patient while I took a little break. It actually wasn’t too much of a rest, but that’s probably a good thing. Much more to tell you in a bit.

In the meantime, September is my favorite month. Autumn around DC is awesome and with school starting, I always get a renewed sense of energy because things are new.

Before I tell you more, I would love to have both old and new readers jot a quick comment. Who are you, where are you from, how can I and this blog serve you in your context. Love to hear from you guys and gals.

I’m taking a little blog break until sometime in September. Even though the blog will be quiet, here is a list of things below that are still cooking around the international office:

:: Youth Leader Retreat - This is an annual thing and it continues to impress me that we have a ministry that invests in leaders of students. I’m only going up for the day on Saturday with some of our SPACE peeps - my goal is to plan a bit of the fall as well as do some development with them [aka Erwin McManus videos]
- I’m speaking at Light Company [our middle school gathering] on Sunday, doing the post Missions thing. Big church is also doing it. If I can snag the video and audio, I will upload it later. [Video and audio from last summer’s post mission Sunday.]
- Cameroon team reunion with the Nens on Sunday afternoon. They are in the States for furlough and are living in MD for a few weeks.
- School starts on Monday for the girlies.
- I’m running a workshop for GCC’s leadership development program - one evening in September and one evening in February. The LDP is Grace’s attempt at growing and training leaders. My session is entitled, “Leading In The Global Matrix.” Catchy, eh?
- And of course, the most important project is jotting down quotes you could use on mission trips from the film Ice Age 2.

See you in a few weeks.

Placeholder post for images.

Like the past summer SPACE teams I have led, this experience was majorly impactful as well. I feel like I’m continuing to learn about myself, leadership and the world that God has called us to help serve. This summer was no different - I’m a different person because I went. And like every summer, what a privilege.

Here are some personal highlights:
:: The Fam
Having my family on the team was definitely a different dynamic. Most apparent was just needing to give some attention and time to D and the girls - not a bad thing at all. We did a stellar job in the selection and identification phase for this leader team and they were awesome, especially when I needed to bail a little bit - like the evening in Munich. And each one of the team members really just loved my family so much during the week, which was awesome for me to see. My fam was truly a part of the team, not just along for the ride.

There were certainly times I did feel the pressure between leading the team and being a husband and father, but that pressure was worth it. We all fell in love with Europe [what’s not to love?], K continued to exercise her heart for others, and Em’s first missional experience was in the context of serving those who serve. And of course, D was a glue that held both our family and the team together in so many ways. I believe, like we hoped when we planned this, that this experience was a milestone in our girls’ lives.

:: Europe and CAI
I continue to be astounded at Europe’s need and continue to have the highest admiration for families that leave everything behind to see humanity rescued. Like previous years, connecting with these kinds of families has been a great experience. CAI seems like a great community and many of their values resonate with me, most specifically - empowerment, experimentation and the development of leadership. If Europe is on your mind, you should check CAI out. And all the families made a huge impact on us. We know we were there to serve them, but their hospitality, openness, honesty and willingness to share their experiences with us was a profound blessing.

:: Sending
I think this team of students may do it. It’s always hard to compare teams and trips, but I see a glimmer in the eyes of these students that I have not seen in others. A glimmer and shine that reflects both the world in need and the light inside. Only time and their resolve will tell, but when they depart - in order to restore, renew and rescue humanity - I will be sad in the moment and ecstatic in the future.

And that is why we - you and I - do this.

Related: - D’s post about the team and my photos

I think I mentioned before we left that our whole piece of