From my reading this morning:
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly
I will show the salvation of God!”
(Psalm 50:14, 23 ESV)
Being grateful. Thanking God in all things.
Today, I am grateful for daughter Jennifer and MK daughter Keli who are spending this U.S. Thanksgiving holiday with us.
Living a life of gratitude.
| This blog post first appeared as a guest post on the Campus Crusade for Christ Blogference. If you’ve not been there yet, you are missing some good materials. Get on over there! |
Innovation takes many forms. It may look like a new use for an old tool; a new tool for an old need, or more commonly, a new tool for a new need.
Christian Maureira, the national director for Campus Crusade for Christ in Chile, innovated. He saw a creative opportunity to engage 33 miners with the reality of Jesus Christ. He took a common tool (the Jesus film in audio) and innovated a strategy to reach them 2660 feet below ground. And we all applauded his creativity, his courage, and his innovation.
Global Media Outreach innovated. In the era of sophisticated websites, they saw an opportunity. Their “simple sites” are basically the Four Spiritual Laws and are designed for those the Spirit has brought almost to the point of decision. The saw an opportunity for those around -1 on the Engel scale, who simply needed to know how to ask Jesus into their lives.
Agape Europe innovated. In their spiritual environment, they understood that there are many steps from those who are far from God. To move seekers from -10 on the Engel scale to the point of a decision for Christ, takes multiple steps. So they devised the stepping stone strategy. They develop web experiences as a series of steps moving people closer to God. They connect people with mentor coaches to help them along the way. They looked at the process of discovering God, and met people at critical points along the way with insightful experiences and trustworthy people.
Brian Barela innovated. This blogference is a creative way to engage hundreds of people around critical topics focused on reaching and discipling people today. Creatively. Innovatively. Faithfully.
What a time to be alive! What a time to be engaged as Christ’s ambassadors. We can connect with people in ways that Paul, Barnabas, Peter and others could only imagine. We are only bound by our imagination of what God could do through our availability.
God needs each of us to engage with all the creativity He gives. Our organization needs each of us to engage full of faith, growing our collective ability to fulfill God’s calling, employing every approach we can imagine to be fruitful. Our organization needs us to share what we’re learning, both what is working and what is not working. We also need people who have mastered the basics. People who can make a clear presentation of the gospel at the drop of a hat. People who understand the basic elements of how people grow as disciples of Jesus Christ.
At the recent Catalyst conference, Seth Godin said, “Change is made by people who eagerly accept responsibility without expecting authority.” Personally, I have rarely felt held back from innovating in my staff career. Innovation has been a hallmark of my time with Campus Crusade for Christ. While I am responsible for what I have done, I have always had freedom to try.
What about you? Are you eager for responsibility? What are you going to do before the end of this year that you have never done before?
It’s not how many worms the bird feeds its young, but how well the fledgling flies. (United Way of America, 2002)
We are engaging in a significant initiative in what we call leading with information. LwI is an intentional plan to add objective, outcome-based measures to our use of anecdotal, life stories in measuring effectiveness in accomplishing our mission.
It is helpful to understand four types of measures:
It is easiest to measure inputs: how many staff are on the field, funds raised. Activities are things the staff do each day: gospel presentations, bible studies led. Outputs are things like: exposures to the gospel, indicated decisions. Outcomes are the most difficult to quantify: changed lives, behavioral changes.
Since outcomes are the most difficult to measure but are the most important measures of mission success, it is important to identify and quantify the key drivers of each outcome. But to identify the key drivers, it is important to understand the end-to-end process flow and the critical points in the process.
Changed lives are the result of God’s direct intervention. Most of the time, God chooses to work through his people. God does not share his glory with anyone, but he does invite us into his processes in the lives of others. We do have a part.
We are working through these issues. We are seeking God’s wisdom to measure our part with excellence so that we can improve.
[NOTE: Click here to read my notes from several articles and papers I’ve read.]
Ray Ozzie has been a long-time pioneer in the computer world. He invented Lotus Notes, a collaboration environment from the 1990s. He invented Groove, then joined Microsoft as their chief architect.
He recently wrote a lengthy yet interesting memo as part of his stepping down as chief architect at MS. His article is here.
His key vision of the future: a post-PC world based on a combination of Continuous Services and Connected Devices.
Some excerpts:
Continuous services are websites and cloud-based agents that we can rely on for more and more of what we do. They’re always-available… They’re constantly assimilating & analyzing data from both our real and online worlds. They’re constantly being refined & improved based on what works, and what doesn’t.
Connected devices beyond the PC will increasingly come in a breathtaking number of shapes and sizes, tuned for a broad variety of communications, creation & consumption tasks. Each individual will interact with a fairly good number of these connected devices on a daily basis – their phone / internet companion; their car; a shared public display in the conference room, living room, or hallway wall.
It’s an exciting time to be alive, to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and to have the privilege of helping lead in the technology-enhanced mission to help everyone know someone who truly follows Jesus.
I recommend to you Os Guiness’ presentation on globalization at the Lausanne Congress. It’s 15 minutes long. You can skip to the 2 minute point to get past the introductions.
Additional panel speakers are listed on the bottom right of the page in “Join related conversations”.
Some notes from my listening:
His understanding: Globalization is the process through which our human interconnectedness has now reached truly global proportions.
The deepest driver in globalization is information technology. Particularly the 3 “S” forces:
Speed: Communicate at instantaneous speed
Scope: Communicate with the entire world
Simultaneity: Communicate everywhere at the same time
What is happening in the global revolution, centered in information technology, has been described as significant as the rise of the wheel, the invention of the alphabet or human writing. Something that is transforming human experience at all sorts of levels from identity, to families, to work, to communities, to nations, to notions such as evil to religions and even for the sense of the [future] prospect of the human race.
Globalization is the single strongest face of the world in our time. We will wrestle with it throughout our lifetimes as the context for our living and witnessing.