For all my friends connected to Texas Tech:
Ministry
Facing an uncertain future
“I’ve worked at Cape Canaveral for 23 years. We have 3 more shuttle launches then my future is really uncertain.”
Gary was seated next to me flying to Atlanta. The end of the space shuttle program is hitting central Florida pretty hard. As I’ve written before, Delta Airline’s seat assignment system is God’s appointment system. So out of the 200 people on this flight, Gary was my appointment today.
I continued in the Explorer phase, finding out about his work, family, hobbies, interests. Gary recently flew in a World War 2 vintage airplane for 30 minutes of pure delight (which I’d love to do). He’s worked in the space industry for 23 years (which was an early dream for this engineer-in-budding ever since watching Shepard, Grissom, and Glenn on little portable TVs in my 4th and 5th grade classroom).
I asked how he was working though his future, handling the uncertainty. I asked if there was a spiritual aspect to his life.
Moving into the Guide role, I moved the conversation towards spiritual topics.
It turns out that Gary is involved in a good church fellowship. He is helping the 30 people on his launch team to work through meaning and purpose during uncertainties. We talked further during the hour flight.
So, my divine appointment wasn’t to help someone find God, but to help someone who is helping others during difficult times. You just never know what God has in mind until you accept the appointment and start Exploring.
(PS This blog post is being written using WordPress for Android on my next flight to Dallas. I have an empty seat next to me and the guy the next seat over has earbuds and a book, kind of looks like he’s hung out a do-not-disturb sign. Do I only have one appointment today? I have another hour or so to explore what God has for this leg of the journey.)
(PPS I was able to break through the earbuds and book. We had a very interesting conversation. He is a 30 year veteran pilot of major airlines, former Air Force fighter pilot, and recently separated from his wife. He was willing to talk about “theology”, but he continually deflected my efforts to get personal about his spiritual life. But it was an appointment which I kept. I recall an early definition that success in witnessing is simply taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results to God.)
What is a Blogference?
I will be taking part in the 2010 Campus Crusade for Christ Blogference. What is a blogference? It’s a conference without the con. You don’t travel anywhere. You can attend in your pajamas.
The blogference is 13-15 April. The focus is RE-Think. I’ll be writing on the topic Self-Directed Leadership Development. Come on by and comment.
Brian explains more…
You can join the Facebook fan page here. You can follow on Twitter at @cccblogference.
Academic Labor or Educational Capital
We presented the mLearning project at a recent meeting of the heads of our schools of leadership around the world. Our development partner in the academic world made a very strong point, in a presentation of his, about the transition from academic labor to educational capital. His point is that under the older academic labor system, the cost of preparing a course was very low, but the cost of training thousands with that course was very high, based on a professor’s salary to teach students 25-50 at a time.
The newer model of educational capital reverses the this. The cost of preparing a course is high, but the cost of using the course to train thousands is very low.
At this conference, Dr. Richard Pratt shared that Third Millennium is finding this to be true. The cost of producing their courses is expensive on a per-minute basis for final course material. That means a 30 minute module will be very expensive to produce, but it is very cheap to distribute on the Internet or even by DVD.
Our mLearning Project in East Africa is a pilot project to address several questions. One major question is how good is good enough for a distance learning course? The goal is transforming lives, not only transferring knowledge or producing quality courseware.
We will be creating educational capital with a desire to transform lives at the lowest cost possible so that we can create large amounts of educational capital.
Intentionally Missional
I read a great article by Jay Lorenzen Kindle the Missional Imagination. Jay explores how to be intentionally missional as a way of life. Words that come to my mind are connect with others where they are as part of your normal daily activities. Engage with others God brings across your path. Look for persons of peace who are seeking and inquisitive. Volunteer with non-profits. Walk your neighborhood, for the missional value connecting with others not just the aerobic value.
I think I’m going to take a walk now, with missional eyes.