DownshoreDrift

Several years ago, I had the privilege of developing a relationship with Jay Lorenzen. He is the Associate National Director, Training and Development for Campus Crusade for Christ's Military Ministry.  He's also probably one of the sharpest missional minds in the Western Evangelical world. That is not hyperbole. He is a voracious reader with amazing ability to synthesize information into discernable applications and he is also an excellent teacher. I attended his Gettysburg Leadership Conference a few years ago where he takes a small group through the three days of the battle in real time, and with the Bible, applies leadership lessons for ministry. It's probably the best conference I've ever been to.

Jay also blogs at Onmovements.com, where he writes about what it takes to build a missional disciplemaking movement. Here is an excerpt (Update: This is actually a quote on Jay's blog that is taken from Eric Swanson, a friend of Jay's):

Lately I’ve been finding myself saying to others, “As difficult as it is to surf, it is far easier to catch a wave than to cause a wave.” My point is that we need to be aware of the big things God is doing in the world and get in on them.

God has a plan. Recently I was talking with Reggie McNeal (The Present Future). Reggie made this metaphoric observation.

“I doubt that God went to bed last night thinking about how many people you had in your church. Most likely he went to bed last night thinking about the two billion people that live on less than a dollar a day or the 30,000 people who died because they didn’t have clean water or about human traficking or the genocide in Africa.”

When God wants to act, if the church is not paying attention, he will raise up whom he will…who have his full attention to bring forth his agenda in the world. Sometimes it is a Cyrus or an Artexerses or Nebuchadnezzar. Sometimes it is a Bono, a Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet . . .

In the November 13, 2006 Newsweek, Michael Gerson writes “I’ve asked young evangelicals on campuses from Wheaton to Harvard, who they view as their model of Christian activism. Their answer is nearly unanimous: Bono.” (p. 40) A couple weeks ago I was with a bunch of Campus Crusade leaders who were working on establishing spiritual movements on every campus in the northeast region of the country (1/5 of all US college students).

Perhaps the wave that God is causing is what we should pay attention to. Instead of thinking how we can get Crusade staff to bring their students to a certain beach project we should be thinking how to mobilize all the student groups on one campus to go to Africa and sink 20 water wells. It’s not so much about wringing our hands, consuming ourselves about growing our campus groups from 60 to 80 (remember Reggie’s words) but how can catalyze the students on campus to change the world.

Last spring Crusade mobilized 15,000 students (believers and non-believers) to work on the gulf coast. These shoulder to shoulder relationships spawned a hundred thousand unlikely conversations about Jesus. This was our “proof of concept.” If Bono is universally admired by believers and unbelievers alike, why not show up on campus sporting (RED) gear, identifying like-minded people and planting (RED) groups or ONE groups or Bono groups or U2 groups on campus and mobilize students for a global agenda sponsored by local businesses?

Leaders can keep the spiritual agenda on the front burner and invite students to meet God through service to others (Matthew 25–”When you did it to the least you were doing it to me.”) It is then the job of believers to help their friends interpret what they are experiencing as they give themselves to people on the margin. There is a groundswell of students that want their lives to count for something. We can be a catalyst (like we did around Katrina) and give leadership to fulfill that desire for purpose. It is always better to be in the business of satisfying demand rather than trying to create demand. Students don’t want to be on the sidelines. They want a piece of the action.

Now, can you imagine movements everywhere on every campus where students are making a global, spiritual and material difference? Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?

Okay. Chew on that for a few minutes. Jay always challenges me to think differently about things, and after I listen to him for a few minutes expound on really complex concepts, what he is saying seems obvious to me and I wonder why I never thought of it myself. That is the mark of a great teacher. You should really begin reading him. Outstanding stuff.

Also, Alan Hirsch is fairly new to the blogosphere. Many have read his revolutionary book, The Shaping of Things to Come with Michael Frost. He now has a blog called, The Forgotten Ways. He has a book out by the same title. He is really insightful and asks some wonderful questions.

One recent post (A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With a Single Question) on comparisons between the growth of the early church and the underground church in China has really gotten me thinking.  He asks how both churches grew so rapidly in such miserable conditions. I personally think that persecution and God's sovereign work were the primary factors, obviously. Many groups have experience persecution and did not grow. Many groups have experienced a visitation of God that petered out over time. But, when you combine God's presence, with persecution, and a people who have nothing but Him, spiritual explosions tend to take place. I don't think we are going to see the awakening that we long for in America until we fall on our face, cry out to the Lord, and throw off all the other things we are so dependent upon. We are so prideful and arrogant, we shut off the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and ministries. Prayer is obviously a key, but we spend far more time focusing on other things.

Track with Alan as he helps us understand how God is working around the world and how He can work in our lives as well.

The last thinker/leader I encourage you to check out today is Bob Roberts, founder of Glocalnet (global and local transformation). I met Bob at the Intersection Conference last year in Seattle, WA, put on by Global Spectrum.  He is the founding pastor of a truly Glocal church that has helped plant churches all over the world and is now involved in the discipling of nations. He has been connected with Thom Wolf/Carol Davis for years, so his thoughts are very familiar to me. Bob is interested in helping believers interact with what God is doing around the world through globalization. He teaches that believers should be leading innovators in the connection of the world and that the gospel is the transformative force to bring the change that people really want. More than a thinker, Roberts is a doer. Keep up with his travels and thoughts, and you'll be the better for it.