I’ll get back to talking about brain dumping again soon. I promise.
In the meantime, I want to share with you a little Christmas cheer. The other day I had my good friend Jennifer over. She was telling me about how she is planning on heading to meet with family for Christmas. Apparently, her parents rank at the top of the stack for dreamers at Christmas time. They want it all - -and they send her an itemized list prior to the holidays, so she can prepare… and save up her money.

Well, this year, she decided to buy them a llama. “A LLAMA?!?” You heard me right: a llama. I could hardly contain myself. Her logic went something like this, “Well, Katrina… It generously helps a family in the south, and it cost about the same amount of money I would have spent on them, and if they complain about it, they’ll have to live with themselves… it’s great.”

Needless to say, I could barely stop laughing out loud. At first, I thought she had physically bought them a pet. Then she mentioned Heifer International. She proceeded to describe a little toy llama she had bought for her family as well. “I’ll put in a box with a card, so they’ll have something tactile.” Brilliant. And the heifer website gives you a printout of the gift you’ve purchased, too. It’s great.

I knew about Heifer before this, but I never connected it with Christmas time. It’s great if you’re doing some last minute shopping. You don’t have to walk into any stores— you just print the card and hand it over. And it’s a great conversation piece. Merry Christmas!

Katrina here. Blog #2. I was painting a young lady this afternoon downtown, and I noticed she was staring off into the buildings. I asked her what she was thinking about and she said, “I’m trying not to.” What a profound statement! We conjured up a business proposition: contemplative prayer meets fine art. Hmmmm… (It’s more like performance art, I suppose…) The question on many brains that needs attention is “HOW does one dump their brain clutter?” So, let’s talk about how to clear your brain. Well the parts are not difficult to understand, and naturally, this will look different for different people. I don’t have a recipe, but I have been trying some things. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Learn to trust more

2. Take your time, be graceful with yourself

3. Only say what you intend to do / only say what you mean

4. Do what you say / mean what you say

5. Be diligent (ask, seek and knock)

6. The door will open

Transparent Practicality — Here is what this has looked like for me. I haven’t perfected this at all, and this may only work for a season, but here is where I am at the moment. As I mentioned in my last post, I have just read David Allen’s Getting Things Done and Armchair Mystic by Mark Thibodeaux. And as Mark mentioned in the comments, these books seem quite opposed at first glance — one is about efficiency and the other is about the art of being. Doing vs. being. Are they really at odds?

I would venture to say that the art of being and contemplative prayer are a means to efficiency. I get much more accomplished when I am fully aware of my surroundings and my time than when I am quickly rushing from one thing to the next. I am also a nerd/geek. I love technology. I was taking apart computer hardware with my mom as a young girl while other girls were playing with Barbie dolls. So here is a tool I’ve been using to dump my brain. It’s a tool I’ve had to come to learn to use, and I like it. (And ultimately, true security is only found with God, and if it falls apart for some reason, I trust that He will provide and take care of me.) The tool is Toodledo, a free online software that manages tasks and assigns them priority. I use it in conjunction with Google Calendar. (You can see the little green checkbox next to the weather icons.) Here is a screen shot:

I like the fact that I can sit down to the checklist, take five minutes and dump everything that needs to get done (with a priority level and due date, if needed).

I used to do the same thing with checklists on pencil and paper, but I always dropped it because I would lose the checklist, and I was tired of transferring all of the tasks that I didn’t do onto a new sheet — I felt like a failure. Ultimately, I didn’t really trust the process either. I didn’t trust that I would do what I had said I would do.

Now, I use Toodledo as a referral point and a sacred space. By placing these things in this “silo”, my mind is like water. If I don’t intend to workout that day, I won’t write it on there! The only way this works is if I make the tool an authentic representation of what I truly desire and need to do. Otherwise a great deal of time and resources has been wasted. Once I’ve dumped those action items, I don’t think about them again (until it’s time for me to think about them). The process has been freeing and helpful.
This tool is one helpful lifestyle change that has really brought me peace of mind. Everyone’s approach will look slightly different. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions or examples of what this looks like for you.

What about brain noise resulting from non-task based items? Like philosophical concerns or relationships? See you for the next post.

Watch the first 5 minutes of this video, then read the section of Scripture below. What do you notice about church planting? What do you find frustrating, or liberating?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

–Paul, a missionary and planter of the Good News; 1 Cor 3: 5-15

So what might leadership in an organic, Christ-centered network look like? When the “preacher”, “elder” and “deacon” as we have traditionally come to understand those terms have been uprooted, what might emerge from the soil? That is the question that we have been wrestling with lately, and there have been some interesting responses surrounding this that I thought I’d toss around.

Over the last few years, we have truly seen a wave of Christians leaving church-as-we-know-it and moving into a smaller, more intimate community of friends. They meet as the Church in their living rooms, parks, coffeehouses, and anywhere life happens. We’re also seeing the un-churched or the new believers skip right over institutional churches in favor of simply living life with God and friends.

But it usually stops there - from my limited research, at this point, no one has anything very developed on missional, organic leadership (save this guy) that extends beyond the local house church.

My instinct says that if this is to be anything more than a flash in the pan; if there is to be any type of meaningful spiritual nurturing happening, eventually, Christians in these churches realize that they must connect to believers outside of their own little group in order to thrive. That is where leadership comes in.

Followers of Christ realize that Christ is the ONLY head of the Church, and no one can be a mediator (priest) between Christ’s disciples and himself. If that is the case, if preachers and bishops and pastors and all that aren’t here to predigest God’s Word for us, or to function as judge for God, then what good are they?

They listen to Jesus, and do what he says.

It’s that simple, and its a project that will last for the rest of time.

Some leaders (like missionaries/apostles) will work as catalysts; spreading the vision for God’s New Life anywhere and everywhere they hear Jesus calling them. Paul lived and worked like this. He never pretended to be a church’s Father, (only God could fill that role). He made it clear that God broke through the barriers that separated man and God, and nothing could separate them again. Apostles will start new communities by looking for a “person of peace” (Lk.10, Mt.9) and plant inside them the seeds and the DNA of the Kingdom. Before long, they are moving on.

Apostles usually gather around them other leaders: prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. They work together as a team of missionaries to resource an emerging network that is spawned out of others who are listening to Jesus and doing what he says. Working around missional prayer, incarnational friendship, and pastoral discipling, a missionary resource team can participate in seeing a relational network of churches grow. Without preservatives, without burning out, without false structures…this is God’s family at work. (Eph 4:11-16)

As long as these leaders serve the people they are in connection with by providing resources and opportunities for deeper involvement in God’s family, they will be “organic leaders”. They are the nitrogen in the soil, whereas the seeds are the new communities that are birthed deep down within God’s good earth.

Spiritual moms and dads will naturally emerge from each of these churches, working with those God has entrusted to them. Usually, they will be the people who have been Christians the longest, though this might not always be the case. Working with a single faith community, these guides into Christ’s life will grow close with those in their spiritual family and transformation will happen!

–People still like Google because it offers services (like Gmail and collaborative online documents) for free. Even more importantly, they don’t take up your screen with pesky ads like some of the other websites that offer free content or services. They clearly are keeping their patrons first in mind, not their advertisers. In this way, Google is like the missionary leaders of the future. As long as missionary resource teams can function for the network, and not the other way around, you will see healthy growth.

–Leaders in traditional churches are like an exoskeleton, which allows for structure in an organism (good), but restricts how an organism can grow (bad). Endoskeletons function like leaders in organic church networks, serving “behind the scenes” and allowing the organism to grow and take its own shape.

The only way for Jesus to truly be the head of his Church, and yet to have leaders who guide networks to become the Bride of Christ that they were called to be is to allow leaders to simple be the PEOPLE they were called to be…deep listeners of Jesus Christ.

———

SO! This is written as a draft - what do you think about it? Can leadership function in this way? Is it possible to have grassroots networks that don’t do the whole corporate heirarchy mess? Do people need human leaders at all? Fill me in and help me think this through!

So much is happening.  It looks like today’s post might be one of those eclectic, A.D.D. posts.

———

Last weekend Katrina and I drove all the way up to middle Tennessee for a family reunion retreat in the middle of Natchez Trace State Park.  It was an amazing journey up (including submitting a paper for a class by email while sitting in a Super 8 Motel parking lot!), and Katrina and I had a lot of time to talk a bunch of big things through.  The weekend itself was very nostalgic/avant-garde.  My family is a mixture of ultra-conservative non-institutional Church of Christ folks, and a branch of extreme-prophetic non-denominational neo-charismatics.  And then there’s Katrina and I who “don’t go to church anywhere”.  So its always interesting when we bust out the song books and break out in worship.  Good ole’ unity in Christ.  I guess Paul said we were “one” in Christ, not one in church.  Surprisingly, we had a lot of people get really excited about our mission work, and committed to praying for us.  Awesome!

———

This Saturday is Wikicclesia, a chance for people who are living on the edges of God’s Kingdom and/or leading communities of God to come together and share what they’ve learned so far.  That’s why we’re calling it “Wikicclesia” - “cclesia” since that is the Greek word for gathering or church, and “wiki” because its set up not as a lecture-conference, but with lots of round tables, markers, and huge sheets of paper for brainstorming.  Everyone is encouraged to share what they’ve learned, which informs how the day goes - think of the day as an article on Wikipedia - the whole thing takes shape under the leadership of many, and truthfully, under the leadership of the Spirit.  Cool!  If you’re in the area and would like to attend, follow the link above and contact those at that email address.  Or just leave me a comment.

———

We’re reading some great books, thanks to a little book on speed reading.  Here’s a few on our list right now:  Deep Economy: the wealth of economies and the durable future,  Global Chicago, Wikinomics: how mass collaboration changes everything, and The Jesus Way: a conversation on the ways that Jesus is the Way.   Speed reading has been such a “freeing” tool for me and her lately; we have so much we want to learn (and remember) and speed reading helps us through the stack of library books before they’re all due.  And the TV can just stay off for all I’m concerned.

———

Yesterday I went out with Kent and Miller to the 411 Project.  Miller and others have been working hard!  Much of the land has been cleared, simple shelters and structures have been erected, goats have a real pen, chickens have their roost…and the well is being dug.  Miller plans to use the dirt dug out for the well to make compressed earth blocks for his family’s house.  It was great fun learning and working with him on the making a few of these powerful bricks.  I’ve not written on this before, but Katrina and I are keenly interested in this type of building as a sustainable and durable alternative (not to mention affordable!) to traditional stick-and-insulation homes for our own living situation.  While the project is just getting started, I can say already that the 411 project has brought beauty out of a forgotten land, and is restoring it to a state that brings glory to God.

———

I suppose that’s what I’ve got time to toss up here for now.  I keep waiting for the summer to slow down so I can get in a more blogarific mood, but I’m still waiting I guess.  Time to catch up on reading your blog!