Today I was reading O Magazine, you know published by that superrich, superwoman albeit theologically confused, Oprah. She writes in this month’s issue how she read (and also gave out 4,500 copies to Stanford grads) the book by Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future. I was fascinated by what she documented in the article so much so that yeap folks, I have to go pick up this book and add on to my growing collection of books I want to read! You can find out more about the book and the author here.

What struck me the most about the conversation Oprah documents with Mr. Pink is that alot of the elements that he writes are Right Brain attributes are ones that our church believes in wholeheartedly but you guessed it, now there is a label for it. So in a way, I think we are a Right-Brained Church or at least taking steps in that direction. We have been promoting the arts in our church especially since we started the process to open up the Dream Center for the Performing Arts where we will have music instruction, dance, drama, partner with arts organizations, etc. Its a lot of work to start something from nothing but our team is so “out of the box” that its a good sounding board for me.

Mark Batterson was talking about right-brained ministry back in 2006 so I see I’m late to join this conversation but hey better late than never huh? He also recently wrote about right brain preaching here.  I first heard of the book The Rise of the Creative Class when I met Tim Keel at an Emergent event and we talked over a sandwich in a forum.  In that book Richard Florida says “that fewer than 10 percent of Americans were doing creative work at the turn of the 20th century. A hundred years later, 33 percent of the American workforce gets paid for right-brain creativity. That rising percentage is evidence of the value we place on creativity.”

As a growing church with a passion for the creative arts, a dream to work with the community and expose people to the arts, I think this is pretty significant material to understand. I love this test I can across as well, gives me the idea of mixing it in with a gifts profile. I wonder how many right brain thinkers we have at our church. Viewing this test also made me think that my son is a right brained kid and uh, me, well I’m a left-brained with traces of a right brain somewhere. LOL

All this to say, I wonder what our ministries would look like if we functioned and allowed our right brain thoughts to dominate. Do you have any thoughts on this?

As usual I am reading about three books at the same time, one book I am pretty close to finishing but have been savoring is Craig Groeschel’s 3^rd book “IT-How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It.” His first book was Chazown and his second was Confessions of a Pastor. Both books that I read and really enjoyed.  So with the title of his 3^rd I could not help myself, I had to order it. I am glad that I did.

What I love about this pastor guy is that the dude is so transparent as a person who is respected in many church circles due to what he has been able to accomplish as a church planter. He’s the lead pastor of LifeChurch.tv in Oklahoma.

Why I like this book:

1.    As usual its easy to read. No deep theology here but simple lessons about real life church.

2.    He shares his own stories as usual which is refreshing.

3.    He attempts to explain something that many of us in church leadership try to understand…that energy, buzz, God drawing attraction in a church that makes a person interested in attending AND staying to sign on. Craig calls that “IT”

4.    The book is a great leadership discussion book because it has questions after every chapter .

This is what I’ve read so far:

1.    IT comes from God. But there is good news: if you don’t have IT, you can it IT. But there is also bad news: if you do have IT, you can lose IT.

2.    Some have IT and some lack IT. Most things that we think help us get IT are nothing but trappings. His church was able to get IT at the initial stages of his planting journey without many of the things I know I myself have complained about not having. So those excuses just don’t fit into his IT theory.

3.    As a church pastor, leader when you know and have discerned the voice of God for your choice and had decided the course ahead, bring IT into focus. IT can’t be taught, but IT can be caught.

4.    Help your people see IT clearly. That means you never talk too much about your vision. When you think you have been sharing too much that is probably when people just started getting IT.

5.    Focus on IT since you can’t focus on everything. We need to learn how to make a “To-Don’t” list so we don’t do more than God is really asking us to do, sometimes it is someone else’s assignment (borrowed from Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil) and we need to learn how to be ok with that!

6.    This is the one I really enjoyed him mentioning since I am a relator! He said churches with IT, have an unmistakable camaraderie.  There is no faking. The team of leaders have refrigerator rights (you know when someone can go into your refrigerator and you don’t go ghetto on them), where the team is truly attempting and striving to be an Acts 2 community amongst each other. When leaders have that, IT is powerful and speaks volumes.

How I am applying:

1.    I already am a big advocate for relationship building. So I introduced this book into our pastoral leadership meetings and I am so thankful to God that for a new team, we are pretty close and working on this and actually do really like and love each other. It can only get deeper from here. God put together an amazing team. I am so thankful and as others come on to the team, as we keep learning about “gelling” together, about the importance of relationships within our team, with our leaders and with the church, we are just totally heading in the right direction.

2.    Team chemistry is important and we don’t have to feel bad about that truth. In his book he interviews a few pastors and in this regard he spoke to Perry Noble of NewSpring Church in South Carolina and he states “I would never hire someone we don’t like. Life is too short to spend forty to fifty hours around people who do nothing but stress you out and make you desire to go and stick your head in a blender. I really do love the guys I serve with. They are my best friends. I love their families. We cannot be effective if we don’t like each other.”

3.    I am so not able to fake it. So I am glad that most of the people around me are pretty genuine and we pretty much all are in agreement that we should not do life alone. As Rev. Ray Rivera teaches, “authentic community is removing the mask of composure, making each other’s condition our own.”

Why you should get the book:

1.    Because we never know everything.

2.    Because it is good to be reminded about what we do know or have had an idea on

3.    Because it is good to hear the crazy stories of people who have been successful and see that on their way to success there were failures and limited resources too.

4.    Because I like this guy. He keeps it real and comes across as a peer not as a know-it-all, pompous derriere. I got a thing about those kind of folk. J

5. Maybe if you read it, your church or ministry team will learn HOW TO GET IT.

Last December, I was asked by Ryan Bolger to write an article on how the Emergent church was being “handled” in my Assemblies of God church. I asked a friend, Pastor Luis Alvarez, who still is an AG pastor to collaborate with me on the article. It was hard to write that article because 1) it needed to be longer and 2) I really wanted to try and stay positive.  Neither one worked out. I had to keep it short and uh, the final article was as positive as I could be about my experience with emergent in the AG denomination. The article is finally out. I am also no longer AG.  Alot has happened in the course of 10 months!

The other contributors were:

Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger wrote The Morphing of the Church;
Walt Kallestad, Lutheran pastor, Community Church of Joy, wrote Redefining Success, Moving from Entertainment to Worship; Ryan Bell, pastor, Hollywood Seventh Day Adventist, wrote From the Margins: Engaging Missional LIfe in the Seventh-Day-Adventist Church;
Nadia Bolz-Weber, mission developer of a Lutheran church plant in Denver, “House for all Sinners and Saints”, wrote Confessions of a Sarcastic Lutheran; Troy Bronsink, PCUSA pastor and community organizer in inner-city Atlanta, wrote Of Dying Breeds and Swelling Hopes: A Mainline Emergent in the Reformed Tradition; Eugene Cho, pastor of Quest, Seattle, wrote Quest and Its Relationship with the Evangelical Covenant Church; Phil Jackson, pastor of The House in Chicago, wrote A Reciprocal Connection: The Surprising Convergence of Hip-Hop and the ECC;
David Fitch, pastor of “Life on the Vine”, in outlying Chicago, wrote On Being an Emerging Christian in the Christian and Missionary Alliance;

me, Liz Rios, with Luis Alvarez, pastor in the AG, wrote Will a New Church Emerge? Las Raices in the Assemblies of God.

You can read all the articles online here. My article is here. 

I recently posted on the fact that women are quitting church, apparently the news came from this book “Quitting Church” by Julia Duin. She stated in her book, “Women in particular leave evangelical churches, because they are asked to do too little by their churches.”  She has a seminary degree and wrote: “I have been one of those unwanted women for years.” In fact, Ms. Duin’s interest in her subject is partly autobiographical: She left a church in 2001 and didn’t find a new one until 2007. She has lived through the process of church-quitting, and she has interviewed a lot of people with the same experience.

According to Julia, a religion reporter for the Washington Times, more and more evangelicals are in fact fleeing their churches. Not just women. She says that “… at least among evangelicals, is nothing less than an epidemic.” For those of us in church ministry in one way or another as leaders, we should seriously consider what she is stating, since we have heard about this in varying degrees from many different people. She states, “the problem, is not in the souls of the church quitters but in the character of the churches they choose to leave. “Something,” she observes, “is not right with . . . evangelical church life.”

The faults she points to …running counter to the stereotype of evangelicals bonding happily in their churches are:

1.    A lack of a feeling of community among church members, inducing loneliness and boredom;

2.    Church teaching that fails to go beyond the basics of the faith or to reach members grappling with suffering or unanswered prayer;

3.    Pastors who are either out of touch with their parishioners or themselves unhappy, or who fail to shepherd their flocks, or who are caught up in scandal, or who try to control the lives of church members in a high-handed way.

4.    She claims that many churches have “inefficient leadership models” and that many, preoccupied with the care of families, neglect single people.

So come on people tell me your thoughts! I’m interested really!

I just read this blog discussing how women are leaving churches because they are not being utilized. This is very interesting to me. Here’s why:

1.    I was raised in a Hispanic church and from what I’ve seen, most women do the work, the hard work like most of the ministries in the church. I’ve seen them utilized, just not recognized as the backbone. That has changed significantly in the last decade and more pastors are allowing women not only to be the main contributor of a ministry but also lead it as the anointed and “appointed” leader.

2.    I know women who want to leave “church” but it isn’t always because they are not being utilized in their giftedness, it’s because they are just tired of the same old “issues” of the church and not seeing real authentic community.

3.    Having said the above, there are many women, myself included who just can’t be pew warmers. It’s in us to be part of the solution not just point out the problems. So when we know we can bring something to the table and that is not invited or encouraged, it does make you want to use your gifts elsewhere as I’ve heard preachers say, “where you are celebrated, not tolerated.”

4.    Finally, I have read many reports that have stated that if you don’t utilize people in your church as soon as you can, it is much easier for the back door to remain open for them to leave. It’s true that when you are invested in a place, it is harder to leave. How many people do we know that have stayed at a dysfunctional church that has abused them only because they had a “position”.  That’s not the greatest reason to stay but there is something to the fact that everyone wants to contribute and a place that doesn’t find a way for you to do that is in trouble…one way or another.

Although this report was in 2001, I think it is something still worth noting. The National Community on Latino Leadership did a study, the first of its kind where over 3,000 Latino respondents reflect, but also diverge, from non-Latino mainstream views on leadership. Latinos have a unique view of leadership that emphasizes community service and compassion. The report is especially important in today’s economic and political climate where national leaders are aggressively courting Latino constituencies and markets.

Report findings include:
» Latinos are twice as likely to find their heroes in their family than the general population.

» The leadership qualities Latinos deemed most important were: honesty, trustworthiness, and integrity (50%), followed by intelligence, experience, and education (8%), being respectful of persons and community (4.6%), community servanthood (4.1%), and being loving and compassionate (4.1%).

» The Latino community’s perspective on leadership bridges racial, class, political and cultural lines. Contrary to expectations, Latino ethnic groups do not differ significantly among each other with respect to what they seek in a leader.

» Among Latino respondents, there was a striking underlying consensus on their views and values toward leaders –no significant differences exist between Latino young adults and seniors, citizens or non-citizens, or between Latinos and Latinas.

Unlike other cultures that emphasize individualism, Latinos emphasize collectivity, belonging, and group benefit.

Based on NCLL survey results, the twenty most desired leadership qualities are clustered into four general leadership traits. “We have taken these traits and categorized them as the “Four C’s of Latino Leadership” said Ramirez. “Latinos want leaders to demonstrate character in their public dealings and private lives, be competent, express compassion in their exercise of leadership, and work as a community servant.” For more information on this report or to learn more about this organization visit their site here. 

Yes folks its true. A movie about religion with Bill Maher as the roving reporter is coming to a theatre near you. Take your leaders and have a discussion afterwards. They got a little of every religion in it including us who believe in the rapture.

In the book I read by John Maxwell Leadership Gold there was a chapter called “Don’t Send Your Ducks to Eagle School” and I want to share what I got out of that here because I think in the church world, many of us are guilty of sending “ducks to eagle school”. In the beginning of this chapter, Maxwell shares an illustration:“I picked up a magazine not long ago in New York that had a full-age ad in it for a hotel chain. The first line of the ad read, “We do not teach our people to be nice.” Now that got my attention. The second line said, “We hire nice people.” I thought, “what a clever shortcut!”Well this got him to thinking about how many leaders in churches/organizations around the world, try to send ducks to eagle school but like this illustration clearly demonstrates, its better to hire nice people than try to turn people who aren’t naturally nice, into nice people! In other words, turn ducks to eagles.In my 20 year journey as a leader in various capacities, I have to say that I’ve seen this more times than I care to count. I even have to admit that I myself tired to turn ducks into eagles. Here is why it doesn’t work. According to Maxwell there are three reasons not to send your ducks to eagle school.1.    If you send ducks to eagle school, you will frustrate the ducks. Ducks were not created to be eagles so why are we expecting them to be something they are not. Ducks have their own strengths and should be appreciated for what they bring to the table not expected to be what they are not. “Leadership is all about placing people in the right place so they can be successful.” We as leaders have to help people find their place and be successful where they add the most value to the organization. One thing that really jumped out at me here is this “As a leader, you should always challenge people to move out of their “comfort zone” but never out of their “strength zone.” Why? Because if they move out of their “strength” zone, they soon won’t be in any kind of zone-comfort, strength, or effectiveness!

2.    If you send ducks to eagle school, you will frustrate the eagles! We have all heard the saying, “birds of a feather flock together.” That’s really true in most cases. Eagles don’t want to hang out with ducks. They don’t want swim in the pond like a duck they want to soar in the sky like the eagles that they are! Maxwell wrote “people who are used to moving fast and flying high are easily frustrated by people who want to hold them back.”

3.    If you send ducks to eagle school, you will frustrate YOURSELF!  Come on this is very, very true. How many times did we do everything we could to motivate, train, give opportunities, resources, spend time with them only to see time and time again that the person just didn’t “have it”. They could not rise to the expectations of the job at hand! Maxwell used the following illustration: 

“Pussy cat, Pussy Cat, where have you been?I’ve been to London to visit the queen.Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, what did you do there?I frightened a little mouse under the chair.”  Wondering what this poem has to do with anything? Well, here is a great opportunity for the cat to visit with the Queen of London and all he does when he gets there is scare a mouse!

Why? Because he is a cat and cats do what cats do. Maxwell’s point? Ducks will do what ducks do, eagles as eagles do.  If we take a duck and ask it to do an eagle’s job we are the messed up fools, and Maxwell says “shame on you!” As leaders, he states, our job is to make ducks better ducks and eagles better eagles and put the ducks and eagles in the right places in our organizations and help them reach their potential. This is perhaps the golden nugget of this chapter.

Maxwell goes on to say that his point is simply this…in areas where we have choices we can grow with unlimited potential. For example: in our attitude, we have a choice. With character issues we have a choice. Responsibility is a choice. So if I have a terrible attitude like a 1 on a scale of 10, I can improve to a 9 if I choose to. HOWEVER, with natural ability that is not a choice, that is a gift. You either have it or you don’t. The only real choice we have here is to develop the gift or not. Maxwell believes if your natural ability is a 3 let’s see you can approve a little but you will never really be top in that area like a 10. Why? Because you cannot put in something that God has left out.

I want to take a moment to revisit the Time Magazine article I wrote about a few posts back on Mandela’s Secrets of Leadership, lesson #8 was perhaps the most impactful and one that we don’t hear or read of too often. What was that lesson? That quitting is leading too.

He said, “knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make.” As President, Mandela willingly stepped down from the position, being the first to ever do so although everyone thought he should have pressed to be President for life after all he had been through.

Why do I think this was an important point? I think as Christians we believe we should NEVER quit anything but I think we need to fine tune this modus operandi. You see, I think we are not supposed to quit the “journey of discipleship” as a believer no matter what comes our way. However, there are things in the journey i.e. trying to make a relationship work, trying to get an organization off the ground or keep it running, giving up on a program idea that is just not taking off that sometimes requires one to make the hard decision to quit.

I don’t know I just think this was a good piece of information for a world so success oriented that one can never fail or “quit” something.

This is a list of the top leadership gurus in the country. Out of a list of 30 there are 2 women. Again, my opinion? …a lady has to rise up to the level of John Maxwell in this arena. Hopefully CEFL will be the ground from which one rises up for the next generation!