Psalm 33 – Change is Good

I grew up in a traditional Southern Baptist Church. I pretty much loved it (Probably 'cause I loved our pastor. He was a good one). While I didn’t really live it, I still loved it. We had a pianist that played by herself with brother so-and-so leading us through a handful of hymns (verses 1,2, and 4 only of course). As I think back on it now, it feels kind of nostalgic.

I remember a time when I began to shift the way I thought about worship. Something happened to me when I went to a church that had a drum set on stage and a leader who led with a guitar. I remember how difficult it was as a believer when I began to worship in new ways that seemed right to me. I found myself constantly having to defend the fact that the guitar and drums were really not from the devil (I’m intentionally over-exaggerating).

I remember the first three verses of Psalm 33 to be a chapter that gave me comfort when thinking about this new "contemporary" style of worship.

“Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.” – Psalm 33:1-3

Why is it that so many were threatened with this new form of worship? For sure there are those who cast stones at the hymnals and choir lofts. While change can be good, sometimes we do it bad. While I didn’t necessarily feel traditional methods in themselves, were any less worshipful, they had certainly lost their place as a personal preference for me.

Today I’m reminded of how I’m learning to just live what I’m called towards. I’m also reminded of our nature to act like we have the market cornered. And even when our intentions are pure, our actions and words can easily not seem that way. They can quickly provoke a defensive posture in others. Our perspective is everything. And while we’ll always have our own perspective, it’s the way of the Lord that matters. As Andy Stanley put it in his book, “Visioneering”: “WAY is God’s specialty.”

“But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.” – Psalm 33:11-12

One thing is for sure, what we must place as a priority in our affections, are the plans of the Lord before our own. No matter our style, method, tradition, philosophy of ministry, or posture in our community… hopefully we’re chasing what we know of God and His ways with everything we’ve got. And whatever we are doing, we do as an overflow of how God is moving in our hearts.

This may come at great cost. We may be called from everything we’ve always known. And that can hurt. I’m reminded in verses 13-17 that many times God uses change to keep our focus on Him and not a model, strategy, or tradition.

“From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth- he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.

No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save.” - Psalm 33:13-17

If we were to think on these last few verses, we could probably find many places of application in our lives that would benefit from a little reorientation. That might demand some change in our lives. That change might just be the catalyst that results in the personal revolution our soul’s been craving.

Strategy of Leading

Seth Godin's brain is larger than his head. That leads to a pressure that apparently must be released through him writing blogs. Good for us! Here are some of his thoughts (and some of my thoughts following them) on his post: "Leadership is now the strongest marketing strategy"

Yelling with gusto used to be the best way to advertise your wares. There was plenty of media and if you had plenty of money, you were set. Today, of course, yelling doesn't work so well. What works is leading. Leading a (relatively) small group of people. Taking them somewhere they'd like to go. Connecting them to one another.

It's enough if the tribe you lead knows about you and cares about you and wants to follow you. It's enough if your leadership changes things, galvanizes the audience and puts the status quo under stress. And it's enough if the leadership you provide makes a difference.

Go down the list of online success stories. The big winners are organizations that give tribes of people a platform to connect.

Go down the list of fashion businesses or business to business organizations. Same thing. Charities, too. Churches, certainly.

It's so tempting to believe that we are merely broadcasters, putting together a play list and hurtling it out to the rest of the world. Louder is better. But we're not. Now we're leaders.

People want to connect. They want you to do the connecting.

I guess what stands out to me is first of all is the statement that "it's enough" for the tribe you lead to (1) KNOW you (2) CARE about you and (3) WANT to follow you. Those are huge... to know and to care comes only from vulnerability. It's the key between "knowing of" or "about" someone and really "knowing" a leader. It's the catalyst for creating empathy and connection on a team regardless of circumstance. It's the key for building two-way trust and loyalty. And it's our responsibility as a leader to create that kind of culture.

The second thing that stood out was the statement that the list of success stories constantly show organizations (certainly churches, he said) that give tribes of people a platform to connect. This doesn't happen in a corporate gathering of one-way communication to multiple tribes at once... it happens in chewable bites. And it doesn't happen because of casual contact... it happens specifically through a unified vision or purpose to action... call it addressing a CRISIS... or together simply fixing something broken or improving something that needs improvement. In the Army we had what we called a "Rally Point". If something goes wrong... and we disconnect somehow... we all know, we can meet back at that place and regroup. It's a necessary, if not life saving, element of connectivity. No one wants to go at it alone. It's alone that we are at our weakest. And together that we are at our strongest.

Leadership 501

That’s right, I just jumped to 501. I don’t think I ever wrote on 201, 301, or 401… they’ve always scared me. But since I’m going to keep it to quoting one of the most highly thought of leaders of our day, and we’ll also see it played out in scripture (1 Samuel 9), I’ll claim this insight for a moment. What we’ll find is that just as history repeats itself, and just as “keep it simple stupid” (K.I.S.S.) seems to work, leadership has a path that actually comes full circle. At it’s highest level comes a simple key: Humility. An amazingly difficult thing for most leaders (including pastors) to have, much less maintain.

I outlined earlier some of what Jim Collins (Built to Last, Good to Great) shared in a recent speech on his thoughts on leadership success and failure. Behind these successes and declines are not only the strategy of a leader, but also the capacity of a leader. The focus of Jim’s thoughts, are essentially about leadership capability. He questions the thought we typically have that either leadership exists or it doesn’t. Instead he offers the idea that leadership has levels.

Here’s what Collins said:

“In general I have had a bias against a CEO-centric view of the world. Leadership answers often strike me as over simplistic and in danger of covering up too many variables. If a company does really well we say it was great leadership; if it doesn't do well we say the leadership wasn't as great as we thought.”

“That eventually led to the idea that leadership is an evolving series of capabilities and levels of maturity. So it's not a leadership or not question, it's a "what stage of leadership" question – and what level of maturity are you.”

So what is a level 5 leader? Glad you asked. First of all, a level 5 is to be thought of as the highest level of leadership possible (at least for today). It’s characterized by a humble “concern for the organization and for IT’S success rather than for one’s own riches and personal renown.”

It almost seems counter-intuitive that humility would be the key trait for such high capacity leadership, and that’s exactly what Jim thought during his team’s research. “The Level 5 Leadership finding, which came out in Good to Great, was not what I expected to find.

But it’s what he found.

Level 5 leadership challenges the assumption that transforming organizations from good to great requires larger-than-life-leaders. The findings appear to signal a shift of emphasis away from the hero to the anti-hero. According to Collins, humility is a key ingredient of Level 5 leadership. His simple formula is Humility + Will = Level 5. "Level 5 leaders are a study in duality", notes Collins, "modest and willful, shy and fearless."

Essentially he’s saying a level 5 leader finishes strong and with a legacy of humility.

So let’s go to the Bible and take a look at Saul for a moment. Scripture tells us he was built for the role of leader. In fact 1 Samuel 9:2 says Saul was “an impressive young man without equal.” Yet there was something special about Saul. He had everything going for him and every right to be prideful, yet when he was called out by Samuel, he struck a posture of humility. Look how he responded:

Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?” (1 Sam 9:21)

This posture wasn’t new to Saul. Earlier in the story when he was about to give up, he gave ear to the counsel of his servant who not only encouraged him (vs. 6-8), but also gave him direction (led upward). This highlights another key benefit from humility, a willingness to listen to those around you. Collins said recently that great leaders constantly ask what our “question to answer” ratio is, and is constantly seeking ways to ask more questions. The reason? So we can hear the answers we might not normally come up with.

I have a friend who has seen some amazing professional success in the business world who said that the trend in companies unable to make it to the next level is the CEO or key leadership team’s attitude toward everyone else in the company or their competitors. He said, “When you find yourself in a position where you feel constantly that you’re surrounded by idiots and you’re the only one who knows what to do, beware. You’re about to take the fall. You’ll find soon that you’re the idiot. And you think too highly of yourself.”

Bottom line, in the beginning, Saul had an amazing personal mixture of humility and confidence. From level 1 through level 5, Humility is the key in keeping confidence from becoming arrogance and pride. And confidence is key. It’s the fuel for the “Will” in the “Humility + Will = Level 5” equation.

Another friend of mine who is a West Point grad, ex-Special Operations officer, and now owns a management consulting company in Denver wrote the following about this confidence in leadership as seen through 1 Samuel: “Confidence is a tricky character trait for a leader. Too much can make them prone to rash and arrogant decisions. Too little can leave them timid and passive. In either case, too much or too little, the end result can be a leader who is too selfish to lead effectively. They are so focused on their own strengths or inadequacies that they miss the power of their team and God’s hand in their work. In recent chapters we saw the Israelites with too much confidence when they carried the ark into battle against the Philistines. And we also saw them with too little confidence in believing they needed a king to be like the nations around them. Both results were due to having poor relationships with God, and thus, a poor understanding of their power and security with Him. When we truly know God we know who WE are in Him. This appropriately sets our confidence. We understand that we can “do all things through Him who gives me strength”, but we counter that with knowing that He has to be a part of any venture for us to succeed, no matter how small. So, while we can do all things through God, we can’t do anything we want through God. Confirming that God is leading gives us all the confidence we need.”

So why use the example of Saul? While he started as an excellent candidate for a level 5 leader, he ended up being an excellent example of someone who failed to reach it.

The problem is that power corrupts. That’s in the bible. Look it up. So humility at this level of success and influence is not only rare, but possibly our greatest mountain to climb.

As church leaders, we must all be aware and beware. We know how the story of Saul ends. After leading as King for 42 years, Saul ends up going crazy and chasing David all over the place. This is a huge reminder to me at any level of leading that might lead to seasons of “success”: We must constantly check ourselves, our motives, and how they fit with God’s true vision. We must maintain the correct posture, create the right processes, and place the right people in right positions to help us keep focused on His calling. We have to protect ourselves from ourselves as we remember that this is not about us.

This is getting long. Officially, the BLOG ends here.

Unless you want to keep reading for part #2… in that case, here is a furthering thought on Saul’s humility and the tragedy that follows. It comes from an email I got from a friend this morning (at 5:15am) that sits on my board at Austin New Church. He’s an incredibly insightful leader whose current role is Executive VP of Global Services for a company headquartered here in Austin. The only thing bigger than his insight is his track record and professional accomplishments… check out what he said about Saul.

“Saul starts with the admirable trait of humility which leaves him as he becomes king. He has all the traits that Israel wants in a king, he is taller than most, good looking and strong and comes from a prominent family. Saul is like some of the men and women in this world that we see attain fame, fortune and glamour only to fall from grace with a character flaw. In some ways Saul is a tragic hero, the main character in a tragedy who makes an error in his actions that leads to his downfall. Some characteristics about a tragic hero include:

- The hero is led to his downfall due to hubris, or excessive pride.
- The hero discovers his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him.
- The hero sees and understands his doom, and that his fate was revealed by his own actions.
- The hero is physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death.
- The hero is often a king or leader of men, so that his people experience his fall with him.
- The hero learns something from his mistake.
- The hero is faced with a serious decision.
- The suffering of the hero is meaningful.

God why use Saul? Why use a tragic hero and not raise up another more deserving more righteous man? God raised up many to distinction who were less deserving than others were. We cannot figure out all of God’s reasons for raising one over another in this world. Many of these reasons are contained in the unsearchable wisdom of God. What we should never do is assume that just because God is using a man, that he deserves it. And more importantly we should not somehow see ourselves as less than one who God chooses to raise up by the scorecard of this world. Once we do this, we start imitating the characteristics that make these people tragic heroes. For all are human, and all have a flaw, the more the spotlight of the world pierces us, the more our flaw becomes known. The only hero who is not tragic (in the literary definition) is the Son.”

Wow. How ‘bout that with your morning coffee?

Good to Great

Last week my staff and I spent a few days in Atlanta at Catalyst, a Cultural Leaders conference focusing on the next generation of church leaders. I can't help but post some thoughts from Jim Collins (Author of "Good to Great" and "Built to Last") on Building a Great Church. Here are just a few thoughts from his talk for those of you who couldn't make it.

· Within every organization or company that is great…you will find a culture of discipline.

· Most overnight successes are really about twenty years in the making.

· It took 7 years for Sam Walton to open his 2nd store. It took Starbucks 13 years before they had 5 stores.

· How do the great typically fall? It’s not through complacency. It is typically over-reaching that derails great organizations. Going too far, too fast.

· A great organization is more likely to die of indigestion of too many opportunities rather than starvation of not enough opportunities.

· #1 sign of over-reaching and the start of decline: When you grow beyond your ability to have the right people in the right seats on the bus.

· It is the undisciplined pursuit of more that will kill an organization.

· We need to spend more time on who and less on what. If you have the right who, they will figure out the right what.

· The people who do well in difficult, unpredictable situations are never any better at predicting the future than anyone else.

· We are in turbulent times. The years 1945-2000 were an anomaly. The convergence of stability and prosperity. It is unlikely we’ll see this again in our lifetimes.

· The greatest CEO’s from the greatest companies in history had one distinctive characteristic that separate them from other leaders. The trait is HUMILITY. Humility is the key to level 5 leadership.

· If it is about you…you will not build something great. And only you know if you are all about you.

· If you make your church dependent on your powerful personality…you are being irresponsible.

· It may take 30 years to build a reputation. It only takes 30 seconds to destroy it.

· Every generation needs to determine their own practices to passionately adhere to the values that cross through all generations.

· Everyone on your team should be able to articulate their responsibility and not just their title.

Moral Authority

“Simply put…” said Andy Stanley, “…moral authority is maintained when your creed matches your deed”. Individually this is both simple and profound but also true. Culturally and corporately it is as well.

I love Andy Stanley. Not because of his success (while that doesn’t hurt his credibility) but because of his posture. I’ve never sensed arrogance from him. His words always seem to come from a pure place. He always seems to share something profound that simply resonates with my spirit… better yet, I’ve never heard him stick his foot in his mouth (which is rare among such highly scrutinized church leaders of today).

And he’s convinced that moral authority has everything to do with how people view whether or not we do what we say is important to us. Because if we don’t, we lose respect (credibility), and when we lose respect, we lose our ability to influence (lead).

As a church leader, this is an important thing to understand. Andy exposed the fact that we do not have an official authority over anyone. We may think we do, and many times we operate as if we do, but we really don’t. If we lose the respect of our members, they just leave. If we lose the respect of our staff, they can do the same. They may last for a while, but eventually we lose our influence and ability to lead them.

Most unchurched or de-churched people aren’t reading our church purpose statements, values, and doctrinal statements to see how we’re different one from another (Other Christians who treat the church like a buffet line at Luby’s do, but not the unchurched). They somehow just know that Christians are supposed to love others and not judge others. To them, that’s our true “creed”, it’s ironic that our reputation in the secular world is the exact opposite. Ed Stetzer wrote recently in “Lost and Found” that a massive majority of unchurched and de-churched claim hypocrisy and judgment as their number #1 and #2 reason they stay away from the church. That’s a problem. We’ve lost our moral authority in the eyes of many. To them, we’ve lost their respect. The result, we’ve lost our influence with many. Our cultural reality is that this is how the “church” sits with the majority of the unchurched in America.

Today I'm reading in 1 Samuel 8. In it we clearly see that the sons of Samuel had lost the respect of the people as well as their moral authority. Inevitability their moral influence was compromised. Their deed did not match their creed. Verse 3 says, “…his (Samuel’s) sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.”

They had lost their Influence… their credibility… and their power. And so the people called out for a different kind of leader. They called out for a King.

But in our nature to make everything about us, let’s not lose our perspective. God reminds us that this condition is not fully conditional. This loss of influence was directly impacted by the degrees of separation of the nation of Israel from their God. Not just the lack of influence of Samuel’s sons. They were already one click away from falling… and the loss of the Judge’s moral authority was the tipping point. This is evidenced through verses 7-8, “And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.”

Israel was big, and as they say, “the bigger they are the harder they fall”. Even a small ripple can have a massive impact. As Leonard Sweet put it, “Big trees fall over in a storm; the little and mid-sized trees are best equipped to stand and sway in the storm”

I don’t think they knew why they felt they were in a vulnerable position, they just knew that the leader and process they had, they no longer had confidence in.

We are in a similar position in the American church today and most certainly in our post-modern culture. Our personal gods are numerous. Money, position, pride, success, the list goes on and on. And moral authority is often questioned. I would venture to say most feel we are one “click” away as well. And in these moments of felt crisis and uncertainty, the world needs to see the church rise in their influence. We don’t rise by our words and creeds alone, we rise through God’s truth and our actions… it’s HIS creed and our deed.

When we think about making an impact on the unchurched world, we should shape our efforts from this posture. That's our hope at Austin New Church. That it would shape our starting point. When we don’t, we’ll see that our target is really other believers or existing church, not the lost. When we look at those who are skeptics of faith, we should acknowledge their true starting point and meet them there. That’s what Jesus did. He went to Samaria. He went to the Sheep Gate Pool. He went to the temple to address the Pharisee’s. He went to the wedding party. He went to the Tax Collectors house. And His creed matched His deed.

One final thought. Isn’t it interesting that the Israelites said, “Give us a King to judge us”. Yet when that’s what they ultimately got (Jesus) they rejected him? We have a heart problem. We know what we need. We know what we ought to do or have. But without a heart transformed, we just don’t have the “want”. If we could somehow remember that, we’d stop pointing the finger, we’d claim a humble posture, and I think we’d discover more of God than ever.

Okay. That was probably three blogs in one.

Heart Transformed

The trajectory of my life has been changed because of Jesus. It’s hard to tell exactly how changed since I came to faith at the age of six. (I really can’t remember how year five was for me) But I know the trajectory was adjusted. However for years, even in my adulthood the journey had seemed slow, laborious, and at times painful. Although I took part in bible study after bible study, there were seasons that were filled with as much confusion as clarity. I’ve learned that that is a part of the journey (among other variables). But one thing that has always held me hostage was the foreign concept of a truly and fully “transformed heart”. There were seasons when I felt like I never quite had one. That’s a tough confession.

In my reading of 1 Samuel 10 this morning, it tells the story of the anointing and proclamation of Saul as King by Samuel. God gave some amazing evidences of his hand and favor to Saul in this chapter, but the verse that stood out to me was verse 6 that says, “The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power… and you will be changed into a different person.” And I realized I had a fresh understanding of life change.

I’m a different person than I was a few years ago. I don't think I was a bad person. And I’m not saying that now I feel that I’ve "arrived" or feel at all worthy or close to anything near perfect (Geeze no!). But what I do feel is transformed, for the first time and completely. My heart has changed. My pursuits and passions have changed. And I want to live externally of myself. I want to live for others. I’m still learning how to do that, and how to lead others to do the same, but I’m committed to being a part of the answer… even if I gain nothing in return. I don’t know how it really happened other than the Spirit’s prompting. But what I do know is that it started with a homeless guy… and the idea of a free cheeseburger.

Maybe the reason Jesus told us to feed the hungry was because He knew that we would be the one’s who would become full. His ways are certainly higher than ours.