Values II

As I've reflected more in the pursuit of certain situations, I have come more and more to believe values are the cement holding the journey together. The journey of pursuing a vision and/or implementing a strategy is held together by whether basic human values are in play during the journey. Violate basic human values and regardless of how compelling the vision is or how strong the strategy, there will be a huge disconnect. The result of a vast disconnect? Distrust.

When an organization shifts its strategy to seek greater growth while violating basic human values, the result will be demotivation, encouraged passive-aggressive behavior, and a deafening silence (wrongly interpreted as acceptance). Erosion over time begins to take the organization in directions never intended and soon, organizational mojo heads south. Take stock.

The obvious question asks, "What are these basic human values?" Why not ask those in your organization, your immediate contacts and see what answers arise. You might be surprised!

Values

Lots of discussion about values. What are values? Today I spoke on the phone with a pastor friend of mine as their church seeks to identify their particular values. A real quick note. There are two types of "values" in every organization. The first are our stated values. These values are the ones we print everywhere, we proclaim everywhere, we openly talk about and tell stories about. However, there is a second kind of value: operational values. These are actually the values at work in a specific culture or organization. These are the ones actually moving in and out through the doings of the organization. They are ones we endorse and there are ones not endorsed, even desired. I will speak more about this at another time.

Here is how I define values: these are the ways we go about doing while we pursue our vision and mission. IOW, how we pursue vision and mission defines our values. What guides the way we go about our daily operation? Let me give an example. If respect, dignity, and honor are three stated values, I now ask, "How as I go about implementing this new strategy, how will my respect for the others influence the way I go about the implementation process?" To use church language, "evangelism" is not a value. "Discipleship" is not a value. "Encouraging dissent" may be a value. "Honesty" may be a value. 

Values are these soft ways of being as we pursue vision, mission, and life together. If we say we value "people," what is it about "people" we value? And finally, again, how we treat people as we pursue vision reveals our operational values much more than what we state.  

"Family"

Leadership so often focuses on the traits or skills of leadership. Honestly, a leadership focusing on the external forces of leadership fails to take into consideration the power of leadership. Leadership begins with being, not doing. Who the person is says much more about the capacity for leadership than the skill level. 

There is more to family than being just a family. The question is not "family" but the health of a family. My goal as a father/husband is to become a healthy person while in the process of living out those roles (among others).

Leadership within a "family" environment requires increasing health. I recognize how far I have to go on my journey to health. "Family" can be defined as a biological or an organization, whether public, gov't, or private organizations. How much can I link the meltdown of Wall Street with this notion of leadership as being? IOW, a leadership substantiated on being may not have provided the kind of direction that set up an economic system that would eventually return to earth. 

Why do I say this? The ability of leadership to make the difficult and hard choices directly correlates to the state of being of those involved. Leadership often defined by those moments will require a health that goes beyond just being "family." Leadership use of words like "team" and "family" and "working together" only become valid if the leadership involved demonstrates a health born out of a state of being, a healthy person. What happens if we begin to discern leadership which demonstrates a healthiness more than (or at least equalled to) results? Friedman outlines 5 Characteristics of a Chronically Anxious Family. See where they line up with your organization, your "family." I do this with mine all the time now:

1. Reactivity
2. Herding
3. Blame Displacement
4. A Quick-Fix Mentality
5. Failure of Nerve in Leadership

I will write more about these in detail. Stay tuned!

 

Leadership

"In a conversation there is always more than one voice, and one of the voices must be our own or it is no conversation at all. We do not try to overpower others at work with our voice in order to have a conversation, nor do we substitute someone else's for our own, but we are there, we are present, we are heard. We play the tension like a violin string at concert pitch." (David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea, 56) 

I came across this quote this morning at my normal SB place of learning. It struck me because there swirls around at this moment the attempts by some to "overpower" the conversation, all the while claiming to be a team. The day for back room deals done without the participating conversation are done. In a wider cultural shift toward relational models of life, the continued attempts to insist up on the parent-child model of relationships no longer respect and honor the Imago Dei. 

BTW, this notion of "participating conversations" stems from a Triune model of relational leadership and power originating from this original, non-earthly model. The tension of a Trinitarian model challenges our notions of tension-relief, where, rather than living with a courage born from the nature of a gospel, we seek to relieve the tension by refusing the messy process. Process is always of equal value to outcome. The greatest demonstration of this universally is a God who will not force an outcome but invigorates the relational trust by demonstrating Himself more and more through the process than the outcome. We still live outside the Garden because this Trinitarian model decided long ago that process has equal value to outcome. Sure, holding this value of both (process and outcome) is messy and risky. We can easily come to despise (even hate) this God because He will not short-circuit the process to make haste to the outcome.

What does this mean? We who claim to take the path of His Way must always be open to the "Other." Is it messy? Yes. Was the cross messy? Messiness doesn't give us the option of short-circuiting because it is "easier" or "less messy." When positional leadership purposefully ignores the necessary conversations and are unwilling to broaden participation for the purpose of "fiscal responsibility" or other reasons, there will be a messiness that is worse. The violation of dignity, respect, and honor creates a chaos normally unintended. 

Here is where the parent-child model of leadership turns destructive. This model in the workplace violates this very Imago Dei for it does not treat people in the workplace as equals but as children. "We know better" is the impression handed down from deals done in the bedroom. Those who voice dissent are regarded as trouble. I believe what people are looking for as a "distinctive" is not a doctrinal or lifestyle purity but an organization that truly operates differently, an organism that operates with the incredible combination of hand, head, and heart. 

There is always more than one voice in a conversation. Do we practice this or do we mouth the empty and vain words? Stay tuned!

Back

Yep, almost 8000 miles later, I am finally back in the saddle here in Napa. The highlight of my time was the two day conference on leadership held at the Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago. As many of you know, as one working on my doctoral work in leadership, I am always energized by this conference. The only downside was that I had been captured by a virus that dominated my health over those two days. Yet, it was still powerful.

One of my take-homes was a reminder: I cannot stay away from these kinds of gatherings if I am going to be the leader necessary for family and community. I don't have the internal resources to pursue the path of leading. Leading takes heart and these conferences always connect heart, mind, and leading. Sometimes what I really do not appreciate is the "do these 10 steps and you can lead as I have led." Well, if it were that easy, we wouldn't need to come back every year and the market wouldn't be exploding with books galore. Leading isn't easy. What I may often need more than anything is the courage to explore the context of life, loving, learning and leading in order to be more effective. Figuring out what leadership incarnates in a local context is always a challenge. In some ways, the community characteristics will influence what leading looks like. This is the incarnational model of leading.

Sure, there are a number of domains. Leading in a profit context may incarnate differently than the non-prof context. Leading at home may incarnate differently than at the local little league level. Leading in the educational domain may again incarnate differently than in a medical domain. The cultures of those domains influence in many ways the way a team leads.

Anyways, I am getting back in the blogging saddle again. On a final note, it is very cool to get re-connected to many friends from my formative years through the technology of Facebook. Personally (pardon, my age is showing), I enjoy Facebook more than MySpace because it is cleaner, less cluttered, and fewer ads. I can't believe all the people I am contacting that I have not contacted for a long time (in some cases, decades). I look forward to getting back on this saddle. I plan to stay atop this blogsite moreso than the past. If you are one of those people I am reconnecting with, thanks for coming here. So much to learn, so much to grow, so little time. Can't microwave graceformation!

Later,
jg

Religion & Politics

Yep, a dicey combination. Yet, cannot be ignored. Here is an entry from one of my favorite preachers. Good writer. Hits the balance. Let me know what you think. Just click on the title of today's entry.

American Idol--and Shout to the Lord?

I don't know how many of you caught American Idol last week, both on their "American Idol Gives Back" and their Thursday night who's eliminated program. In both, the 8 Finalists sang together, "Shout to the Lord," the wildly popular praise song. Could it be the producers of AI recognize the reality that many watching may in fact be Christians? Such a pop icon as AI including this song demonstrates the difficult separation that we so desire between Christ and Culture. What would be necessary for a community of people to seriously engage in a dialogue and action that seeks to find ways of integration rather than isolation? How often do we merely dismiss what we dislike out of an unthoughtful fear? Encountering what we believe to be "The Other" perhaps may be our greatest challenge as disciples. I am reminded of the story of the disciples and Jesus when they came across a group of "Other" who didn't allow them passage and their response was, "Shall we call down fire?" Perhaps we have created more sophisticated ways of "calling down fire" that make us appear correct, right, etc. God, give me your grace to discover "the Other."

Who Do Men Say I Am?

Attending the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas this week has been an out of this world experience. It has been so because it is an industry I have never seen up close and personal. I am here so I can begin to work with our media group here at our Napa Church. Being one of the first 25 in line for a book signing, I rec'd a free copy of, Branding Faith. The author basically invites nonprofits to ask the question, "When people think of us, what comes to their mind?" This echoes the question of Jesus to his disciples. His website gives background to what he is all about. What I love about his approach is his willingness to engage the media culture with a mindfulness that doesn't simply abandon it to hell. He is as equally critical about our own Christian media subculture as he is about nonChristian subculture. A conference with 115,00o people in attendance is a reminder about a whole other world most of us in local churches ignore. We may enjoy (or berate) the products they create. One final interesting note: The whole conference in its opening session opened with...a word of prayer. Who would've thunk?   

No Excuses

Well, it has been a while. No excuses. Just read an interesting note on Brett Favre, now retired (?) quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. The writer, a prof from GW, compares the more somber elements of Catholicism and the more exuberant elements of Evangelicalism. I have found both present in each. It does remind me of an Op-Ed piece in the NYT several years back outlining how it is that Catholicism focuses more on the death of Christ and Evangelicalism focuses more on the Resurrection.

The biblical record, if stock was taken of it, demonstrates much more a delving into the darkness of our world and less on the light. Yes, the light is strong and present but perhaps its presence is even more noticed because of the pervasiveness of the darkness. Scripture doesn't cut corners when it presents the darkness as part of our world. It doesn't leave us in darkness, either. Such a profound inclusion!

I say this because my observation is that Evangelicalism doesn't seem as comfortable in talking about darkness. Fundamentalism (yes, i make a distinction) seems preoccupied not only with darkness, but in naming the darkness. We move quickly to resurrection and rarely discuss the presence of darkness. Thus, when someone like Mother Theresa writes about the darkness of her soul, we all may seem surprised. Can we hold the pain of darkness long enough to experience the incredible power of light?

One last thing, I know, it may sound like we do, but I end with a question: Do we need hell in order to know heaven?

Skiing today--yeah!

Legalized Grace

Something I’ve observed over time is in our attempts to describe/define grace: we have a tendency to rush off to the law. the law is an extension of a relationship, yet, is not the defining point of the relationship. biblical attempts to reveal the incredible intensity and desire of God to be close to His creation naturally center on a law. yet, I wonder, does the centrality of a law have something to do with the context of an emerging immigrant community leaving behind the dust of Egyptian oppression? does the centrality of law in the New Testament have something to do with both a highly formed Jewish economy centered on the law while at the same time a wider, political context where the rule of law (a Roman legacy) served as ample metaphors to give a window into this Divine desire?

my point may be that our attempts to explain grace through the prism of the law may, while being biblical, be somewhat narrow. does scripture provide other metaphors, other windows, into the centrality of grace? i believe it does. before there was the rule of law, there was a Creator-Created relationship. IOW, relationship becomes a central fulcrum for the establishing of grace as the core component of our intimacy with God. using legal means as the sole proprietor of grace seems to narrow the vast depth of grace. if the poison is mysterious (sin), then can in some way the antidote (grace) be mysterious?

a legalized grace, I find, weakens the depth and power of grace. what strengthens grace, I find both in life and love, is the centrality of the I-Thou, the core component of desire for the Other. grace centralizes through an equivalent desire for the Other. the image of Jesus standing at the door knocking, waiting to be asked out on a date, is one that goes beyond legaleeze. it transcends stone and documentation and moves on to flesh and blood. one can twist legal language to redefine “is.” however, I cannot twist language to rebuild the relationship. the heart knows things the mind can never touch.

so, what power can we find in other metaphors, metaphors much more central and core in a contemporary culture today often defined more by litigiousness than by grace? how has our “rule of law” changed so drastically that perhaps we must find other analogies and metaphors that can capture not just the imagination of people but the heart and soul of a guilt-ridden person? search on, I say, search on!

Welcome to My Library

one of the cool places i was introduced to by a friend was shelfari. it is a community for book lovers who post the books they've read, want, or are currently reading. to the right now, you will be able to see what books i currently read.

yes, there are a number of them. how do i read so much? well, i watch little to none in the way of television (especially now that my Bears are out and the Cubs haven't started--though Lost is set to return). second, i do try to read two hours every day, keeping an active journal. i believe an active mind is a young mind and one way i stay active is to read. one day i was looking at Hitchens book, God is Not Great, and my son asked, "why would you want to read that?" Perhaps one of my greatest spiritual disciplines is to learn from those with whom i disagree.

so, i do little else but read when i'm not doing stuff with my family (yes, okay, you're right, i've got no life!). i usually arise by 5:30am and get in at least a solid hour. however, i still have a ways to go on my doctoral work so that encourages me to read as well.

anways, just wanted to update you on my booklist. i went with the books i am currently reading.

peace,
jg

Race & Creeds

i just wanted to alert you to a couple things i found rather inspirational over the past two days. utilizing my small nanopod, i've been able to listen to a couple interviews of note. the first was with professor Shelby Steele from Stanford U. his discussion about Obama and the issue of race in our country was incredibly helpful to me. growing up in Chicago, being as a white, a minority, was a great experience. yet, his insight into what he calls "bargainers" and "challengers" was very, very keen.

when i walk around the school where my kids go, the students ask me what i'm listening to! they can't believe it is only a podcast. i listen to anything by NPR, a sermon here and there, a number of book review podcasts. 2 gb is not nearly enough. i'm hoping for my birthday this year i can get a 80gb video ipod!

the second podcast i listened to was one with Krista Tippet and Jaroslav Pelikan. he is one of my favorite historians. he spoke about the need for creeds. it was a very interesting discussion and made me think about my own faith tradition, one that claims to be creedless, and yet, in many ways, behaves creededly. he discovered around 2000 creeds around the world from a variety of religions.

so, how does a discussion about racism and a discussion about creeds tie together? not sure, other than to say if we take serious the central tenet of Jesus, the call to love one another "as i have loved you," i must risk pain, rejection, exposure, and change. Pelikan described how his shift from being a Lutheran to an Orthodox Christian was not a change but a recovery, in some ways, of what he found he had always been. which may be why the shift occurred when he was in his late 70's. i find the mystery of human beings as equal as the mystery of galaxies, except that it is much more personal.

shalom,
jg

"A Desperate Ambition"

one of my favorite writers, former Czech president, Vaclav Havel, gave one of the most insightful speeches i've seen on hatred. i've loaded it at my public doc holding site. you can download it by clicking on the title of this entry.

"Just as a lover longs for the loved one and cannot get along without him, the hater longs for the object of his hatred. And like love, hatred is ultimately an expression of longing for the absolute, albeit an expression that has become tragically inverted."

these words describe how our longing for absolutes leads us to hatred, something very worthy of reflection for fundamentalism in any form. the relationship between the demand for absolutes and the presence of hatred struck me as very, very sobering. the journey of seeking to engage life as it is while not seeking to control life as i meet it is a rather challenging journey. for me, it is itself part of my sacred pilgrimage.

i'll close with one personal point. i try to limit my entries at this blog to be shorter, less comprehensive. however, i only describe the tip of a discussional iceberg. i appreciate those who visit and those who comment. i hope to begin later in the year to create another blog that will be far more extensive and include a library of other stuff i've written, more lengthy in nature. i am so glad i've discovered a place where i can post stuff i've come across. i have literally close to 2,000 other documents on my hard drive covering a broad gamut of stuff. i will post here in a bit my book list as a way of keeping in touch with all those who come to share here.

pax,
jg

A Delightful Balance?

while preparing for the upcoming weekend, i couldn't help but reflect on the tension between doing and being. specifically, there is this tension between information about God and experiencing God. i call this an "informed" experience of God.

over the past decade there has been this evangelical thrust to "experience God," something i am all for and glad to see. how much of it is our own response to what may have been a dry modernism remains to be seen.

the question is, can we experience God in such a way that we find out more about the way he incarnates himself, not only in our experience, but in the experience of others? does God incarnate himself throughout the world today? does God incarnate himself in and through culture? this balance of an informed experience with God guides at this window of my life the way i pursue God--all the while he pursues me.

so, let's see what this week holds, what this day holds...
holding my breath!

Pearls Before Breakfast

A way is found, i hope! please check out the link and see if you can download it and let me know. if this works, i may have found a way to begin passing along in very concrete form articles as i come across that may be appealing to you.

all you have to do is click on the title of this entry and viola! you should see a window pop up asking you if you want to download or save the pdf document.

here we go! bon voyage!

Jeans, Baseball Cap, and Incarnation

Well, i've had a great time just relaxing a bit during the holidays, taking an aside from this place and just chilling. Now, the new year has begun and i'm hoping to step up my knowledge regarding blogs so that i can provide more information to those of you who kindly visit. i know there are some contact because you've told me!

this past weekend's message regarding the incredible story of Joshua Bell's playing in a D.C. Metro station a year ago was quite an awakening for me. i knew going in i couldn't do justice to the story--and to the incredible parallels of an incarnation. we who live lives hurried enough to miss this kind of gift, probably would miss the Gift at the time it walked the earth.

here is the question they posed as central to their quest, a question which goes beyond the immediate to anyone with an ear: "In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?" This taps into maybe three of the greatest virtures in Western history: truth, beauty, goodness.

here is what their experiment was to be: "An experiment in context, perception, and priorities.” here is a challenge to we who are hurried Christians, what the author observed and asked, "Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape. Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he’s really bad? What if he’s really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn’t you? What’s the moral mathematics of the moment.”

the title of the article is, "Pearls Before Breakfast." it is my hope that by the end of the week i will have posted the article here so that you can access it directly here. it is just a matter of me being able to find out how to do it and do it.

this year will bring many changes to this post, i hope. i want to offer people resources and glimpses into a journey of faith, a seeking of the deeper meanings of life. right now i am reading Abernathy and Bole's work, The Life of Meaning.

So hang on, check back, as i seek to post something new at least three times a week.

carpe diem!