From Sampler to Sower

I’ve been watching the developing situation in Libya with considerable interest. That’s why this tweet from  @cnnbrk caught my attention:

#Libya coalition command role undecided, U.S. officials say. http://on.cnn.com/g4OwMc

The link takes you to CNN’s Libya Live Blog, and refers to this particular report:

Coalition members were still working out Monday how the ongoing of maintaining the no-fly zone over Libya would be commanded, U.S. officials said.

Now, I’m no great military mind, but something tells me this could be a bit of a problem.  Bad things happen when no one’s in charge.  Even when united by a single mission (like making sure the crackpot in charge of Tripoli doesn’t use his air force to kill his civilian population for having the audacity to yearn for freedom) competing notions of how to accomplish that mission can create stress, distractions and even disaster.

That potential for failure is can easily be compounded by complicating factors such as:

• the absence of a clear leader to arbitrate between conflicting visions
• the presence of overlaps in responsibility, such that multiple leaders have a legitimate say in influencing the vision
• confusion about just what responsibilities lie with which leader

And that has me thinking about the church…

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The Title Slide from Sunday's Message

This Sunday our church tried something different.  That in and of itself would be enough for me to love our church — we have no problem at all trying something new.  However, in the famous words of Ed Valenti, “But wait. There’s more!”

Pastor Phil Rogers spent all week telling people they did not want to be late for church this Sunday because something was in the works that has never happened at our church.  And we could tell something was different from the first moment we entered the sanctuary.  The customary greeters met us at the doors and handed us a packet of sermon notes that had been sealed, along with a stern warning not to open the folder until we were instructed to do so.

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OK, so maybe he’s not talking specifically about youth ministry, but I think there might be some applications we can draw.

Yesterday, Tim Sanders, author, speaker and former Chief Solutions Officer for Yahoo!, published a post on his blog entitled The Recovery is On!  In it he summarizes a speech he delivered recently to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s CEO Forum.  During that speech he gave advice to business leaders about how to lead their companies out of the recession, based on research on what made the difference between successful and average companies coming out of previous recessions.

Granted, it’s not your typical youth ministry blog fare, but I strongly suggest you head on over and check it out.

I couldn’t help but wonder what applications his advice has for churches in general and youth ministry in particular.

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