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12/31/2006 Post-Christmas happiness levelsNow that Christmas has come and gone, how's your happiness level?
I've been reading Status Anxiety, by Alain de Botton (pictured below). In his book he identifies 'status anxiety' as a universal condition - and the different solutions that people have attempted to alleviate their anxiety.
In one of the later chapters Alain points out that the possessions we tend to set our hearts on as being the things that will bring us happiness, may make us happy for a while - but they invariably fail us over time.
Alain sketches a series of graphs where happiness is plotted against time. The first graph illustrates what we think will happen when we buy that Xbox 360 we've been longing for - we'll finally reach the high plateau of happiness!
This second graph, however, illustrates what really happens in the next short while after we've made our dream purchase...
Alain writes that "the car will quickly be absorbed, like all the wonders we may already own, into the material backdrop of our lives, where it will hardly be noticed..." And in fact we generally find ourselves caught up in an ongoing cycle of consumerism, as we try to regain that initial peak after a purchase.
And of course, this deceptiveness of possessions is what the writer of Ecclesiastes himself discovered thousands of years ago. In Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 he indulges himself with all manner of pleasures and posessions. "I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees ... I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces..." (Ecc 2:4-8).
However having surpassing everyone in posessions the writer of Ecclesiastes concludes in this manner: "Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun" (Ecc 2:11).
Don't be taken in by the deceptiveness of possessions!
[ PS: Status Anxiety's a very interesting read - I recommend it! ] 12/27/2006 True HospitalityIn yesterday's post I mentioned that the 'hospitality' of the New Testament is not actually what we expect it to be nowadays. So what is true hosptiality?
Hospitality is normally thought of as the act of supplying tea and cakes at functions. This is a good idea, facilitating informal gospel ministry as people hang around and chat over tea and biscuits. But this is not really what the NT means by hospitality - this is a case of us reading the modern use of the word back into the Bible!
Some others define hospitality as something much narrower. They observe that in the New Testament people sometimes invite strangers and travellers to stay over in their house (eg. Acts 28:7). And so some have argued that this is what hospitality's really about - housing people under your own roof. This is a loving and important thing that Christians can do to help those in need. However 'hospitality' is probably a little wider than this...
2. Not just my friends
The NT was originally written in Greek, and the Greek word that our Bibles translate as 'hospitality' is philoxenos. This is itself a compound adjective made up of philos (meaning 'love') and xenon (meaning 'alien' or 'foreigner'). It's from the Greek word philos that we get 'philosophy' (lover of wisdom), 'bibliophile' (lover of books) and 'francophile' (lover of France). And it's from the Greek word xenon that we get 'xenophobia' (the fear of foreigners)!
And so someone who exhibits philoxenos is someone who shows love to strangers and foreigners - not really someone who offers cups of tea to their friends! This is particularly prominent in places such as Hebrews 13:2.
3. Not just for a few of us
Moreover, in some books and tools about spiritual gifts, 'hospitality' is listed as a gift. Some people are said to have the spiritual gift of hospitality, while others won't. And so hospitality is something that only a few Christians are expected to exercise.
However this is wrong: 'hospitality' is not listed as one of those spiritual gifts that some people have and others don't. Instead, it's actually something that the NT expects that all Christians should display (eg. Romans 12:13, 1 Peter 4:9, Hebrews 13:2). And hospitality is something that Christian leaders in particular should exhibit (eg. 1 Tim 3:2, Titus 1:8)!
In a global climate when people are suspicious and fearful of foreigners, it's easy for Christians to fall in with the crowd and adopt xenophobia. However, the NT calls all Christians (and especially Christian leaders) to put on philoxenos instead! Christians are to lead the way in loving foreigners - and this especially so when those foreigners are also our fellow Christians (eg. Rom 12:13, 1 Peter 4:9)!
Moreover in a Chinese culture where we tend only to love and have concern for those in our family (for Aussies, it's their mates), this challenges us to widen our sphere of concern to those who lie uncomfortably on the outside. To love those who are not part of our family, who are not one of our mates. It's counter-cultural for all of us - but it's what the New Testament expects of all Christians!
[ PS: how much concern or interest about the plight of refugees do you see at your church? ] 12/26/2006 House proudHaving people over to your home is a great way to do ministry. This is often thought of as the New Testament's 'hospitality' - but in actual fact the New Testament gift of hospitality is actually talking about something else entirely - more on that later!
Opening up your home gives people an insight into how we live as Christians in the day-to-day of life. It reveals things about how we make our buying decisions, how we relax, how we treat other people and do housework... It's part of sharing our lives with people (like Paul did in Thessalonica), because it shows how we live as Christians in the normalcy of life.
Younger people who don't have control of their own home are somewhat limited in how they can make use of this ministry opportunity. But it is something that you can look forward to doing when you have your own place in the future.
However, it's a shame that not a lot of people who do have their own house actually use it in this way. In fact, people can sometimes be very reluctant to have people over to their place at all! Behind that might be the fear that their house isn't neat and presentable enough - there's stuff on the lounge room floor, dirty things aren't packed away - and it would be an embarrassment to have people over!
Now, there is a level of messynes that will in fact distract people from seeing how you live as Christians in the normalcy of life. People will find it hard to talk about how they're going if they can't bear the stench of piles of garbage! However this is by and large not what most of our homes are like, even at their very worst.
And in fact when people decide not to open their house up because it is messy is in fact to turn the focus of the whole exercise away from a) being a service to other people; to now become b) an opportunity for us to show off our house and how neat and wonderful everything is. And of course, that shouldn't ever be your purpose of having people over! This also has the side effect of raising the bar for everyone else: those guests now think that if they are to invite people to their place, it better be just as good!
And so when you are in a position of having your own home, make a point of having people over - even when the place is messy. Even when you don't have very nice food to serve up to them. Let people see the normal messyness of your home - and that it's still OK to have people over!
By doing this, we counteract the implied belief that your home has to be perfect before having people over. And we turn the focus away from the beautiful home to admire - to the redeemed relationships that we can enjoy.
[ PS: our house was certainly not in tip-top shape on Christmas day! ] 12/21/2006 Mandarin ministryBut if your church isn't yet serious about adjusting for Mandarin ministry, you'd better get on top of it - because it's becoming a high priority!
I recently went to the Department of Immigration website, and they have some stats there on the arrivals during the '04-'05 financial year. And today I've pulled a number of those figures together and put them in nice pretty graphs.
This first graph is of immigration into Australia from a number of Asian countries. The different colours represent different categories of immigration - some are permanent settlers (red), some are permanent residents (green), some are long term visitors (blue).
As you can see, China stands out head and shoulders among those Asian countries I've selected! However, many of our current ministries are more geared to reach out to migrants from those other Asian countries. This means that the way we do ministry in the future will need to change, if we are to have a meaningful witness to those people currently migrating from mainland China.
The next graph is of settlers only (the red portion in the graph above). But this time the graph includes all countries. And this shows the situation of Chinese migration much more starkly...
Yes, there's a lot of migration from the United Kingdom and New Zealand (18,220 and 17,345 respectively). By and large though, your standard local church can do an OK job at reaching out to them.
But very close behind those two countries is China at 11,095 settlers (the next closest countries are India and Sudan)! And it's the existing Chinese churches in Australia that are a few steps ahead in reaching the current flood of Mandarin speaking migrants with the gospel.
Of course, there are still going to be significant cultural barriers between Hong Kong Chinese and Mainland Chinese - not to mention ABCs! But as missionaries like Hudson Taylor and Robert Morrisson were compelled to push through those barriers for the sake of the gospel, so too must we.
[ PS: at ND, we're currently thinking through how we can best go about doing Mandarin ministry! ] 12/19/2006 Fishing at workAnd the interesting thing about evangelism in the workplace is that it's a lot like fishing...
Fishing requires patience
You can't expect immediate results the moment you plonk your line into the water! Sometimes you're waiting for a long time. And if you're impatiently pulling your line out of the water and fiddling with it, you're not going to catch anything.
So too with evangelism in the workplace. You may well be with your work colleagues (and perhaps even your customers) for quite a while - and so as months go by, they'll get a really good look at what a real Christian looks like. It's unlikely that they'll become Christians in the first day of meeting you at work. But as you witness to them through your life, and as you pick up threads of gospel conversations when opportunities arise, they will see and hear what Christianity is about.
And people do become Christians - in the three years I was at IBM, two colleagues became Christians.
Fishing takes persisence
When you fish, you can't just dip your line in the water once in a while, then pull it out and carry on mucking around with your friends on the shore. Fishing takes persistence!
So too with evangelism in the workplace. You can't just all of a sudden become Mr Evangelism when your church is holding an evangelistic event. People will know it's not a part of you! Instead, you have to always be on the look out for opportunities. Always be praying for opportunities. Always be concerned for their eternal salvation. Not just twice a year!
You fish with bait and hook
You don't generally see fisherman smashing at the water with a baseball bat, hoping to stun the fish to the surface. Instead, they use bait and hooks to entice the fish, and snare them!
And so too with evangelism in the workplace. The blunt and direct approach, where you ask: "so tell me, are you right with God?" is unlikely to work. And in fact it may end up with you being unnecessarily marginalised in your workplace as one of those crazy born again Christians. Instead you use the bait and hook method - you engage their interest and curiosity.
"You know how sometimes you think you know something really well, but then you discover you don't?" "Yeah, I know what you mean. Why?" "Well I had one of those moments on the weekend." "What happened?" "Well you know how I'm a Christian right? Well, I've been a Christian for like 10 years now. But then I heard this guy explain it in a way I've never heard before." "Yeah, like what?" "Well he said that with Jesus, we get what we don't deserve."
You see, you engage the other person's interest...
You need to have a vareity of lures
Fishermen can generally be seen with a whole toolkit full of hooks, sinkers, lures, swivels, squishes ... and those funny hats they wear are usually covered with 'em too! That's because one rig isn't going to be good enough - they'll need lots of different things, for different situations!
And this is also the case with evangelism in the workplace. You can't just rely on one technique over, and over, and over again... that'll just get tired, predictable and fake. Like leaving your Bible on your desk. That might get a conversation started once or twice, but that's it. You also need other things - you need to work out how to get from newspaper events to the gospel (eg. Steve Irwin's death, or the Cronulla riots). And be on the look out for any event that you can invite your work colleagues to (eg. lunchtime meetings, dialogue dinners, carols nights, parenting workshops...). Because one thing isn't going to do it for every situation!
[ PS: small wonder Jesus called his disciples to be "fishers of men"! ] 12/18/2006 Joy in ministryIn Luke 10 Jesus has appointed 72 people, and sends them out two-by-two throughout the countryside. But before he does that, he gives them a kind of a briefing. And so iin Luke 10:2-16 we hear what Jesus says to preparing those 72 messengers for the job ahead of them.
They have a serious job to do, and so (v.4) they aren't even meant to greet people on the road. No, they've got a job to do - they are to be single minded. And he's very realistic about what it's going to be like, he knows that it's not necessarily going to be easy. In v.3 he says, "go, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves". And he tells them what to do when they are welcomed with open arms - but also what to do when they are not welcomed.
And so they are sent out, like lambs among wolves.
But notice the verses that come after this passage. In Luke 10:17-20, Luke tells us what happens when those 72 return to Jesus...
I really like this passage. What we get here is a very different mental image of the Lord Jesus Christ to one that we're used to. Usually you think of Jesus as the great and wise teacher: his teaching so wise it overpowers people and trips them up in their own words! Or Jesus as the man of destiny: his steely gaze set on the fate he alone knows lies before him in Jerusalem!
But this little passage shows us a little glimpse of Jesus being ... delighted! Here is Jesus sharing the joy and excitement of the 72 messengers as they come back and report what had happened. As pair after pair of those messengers come back with the unbelievable news they have to share! With thrilling news that even demons submit to them in the name of Jesus. And the joy is infectious - Jesus shares how he himself once saw Satan fall from heaven. It must've been amazing to be in that room with Jesus and those 72!
2. "Rejoice instead..."
But notice what else happens. In Luke 10:20, Jesus reminds them of what they really rejoice in. Right now things are going really well for them and they can rejoice in their ministry. It's right for them to be thrilled when things go well. But what they must take comfort in, what it is that they are to rejoice in when you strip everything away, is that their names are written in heaven.
Jesus wants for these 72 to know that their being comes before their performance. These 72 are to value their standing before God more than their usefulness for God.
And so too must we. I always say that ministry is hard, but it's also true that in ministry you get the highest highs that are possible. When you see someone in your group come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, you know that your work will last on into eterity. When people are keen to get into the Bible, that's a thrilling thing. That is worth rejoicing about. But we must not fall into the trap of letting those things tell you how useful we are... how valuable we are. Because it is the gospel that does that for us.
3. "I praise you..."
There is more as well. In Luke:21-22, Luke says that
In front of Jesus is the tremendous response to the ministry of the 72 - that is what's going on at the time. And what Jesus does with that is to immediately turn and praise his Father in heaven for that work. Jesus is full of joy, and says (v.21) "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth." You are the one who has revealed yourself to all these people!
Another danger that I think we fall into when we are successful in our ministry is that we think it's all down to us. "It's my expert handling of the Bible that has done this. It my Bible leading skills that has done this. It is our ministry team that is so tremendous."
Yes, God uses humans to do his work, and we are meant to be diligent workers. But the praise ultimately belongs, not to us, but to the Lord of heaven and earth. We can do all the Bible studies we want, we can disciple people till the cows come home, but he is the one who switches on the lights.
It's said that when things go bad we complain to God, and when things go well we pat ourselves on the back. Here Jesus teaches us that is not the right way. When things go well, when people are thankful of your ministry and are delighting in studying God's word, make sure you honour the one who has made it happen.
[ PS: now's a good time of year to reasses how your ministry's gone this year - and give thanks for what God has been doing! ] 12/15/2006 How to run up a hillI heard an interview on the radio a while ago. They were interviewing someone who regularly does long distance running. And of course, long distance running is not done on uniformly level terrain - you have to run winding paths, and of course run up and down hills.
So how do you run up a hill? The person being intereviewed said that there's actually a trick to doing that...
A runner approaching a hill will have been running at a consistent pace, and covering a lot of ground with a long stride - since he's running on flat ground. But when an inexperienced runner begins running up a hill, they try to cover the same amount of ground with each stride, but do it by slowing their pace. This is the wrong thing to do - breaking pace leads to the runner getting tired quicker!
In contrast, experienced runners will actually shorten their stride - they will cover less ground with each step - but most importantly, they will maintain the same pace going up the hill. Continuing this rhythm is the trick to long distance running - and particularly so when climbing a hill.
The same thing applies on the way down a hill. Inexperienced runners will again slow their pace as they take giant leaps down a hill - but experienced runners will adjust their stride so they can maintain the same pace.
Now this is interesting if you're doing the City to Surf. But I think that this also gives us clues on how to last long term in ministry...
There are some months in the ministry year that will hit us harder than other months. These tend to be towards the end of the ministry year, when people become tired and ministry is no longer fresh and exciting. The normal tendency is to cut back on our disciplines - stop turning up to ministry meetings, stop going to our Bible study group, cut down on prayer and Bible reading - so as to keep on doing ministry.
However, what's important is actually to keep the regularity of those things, especially when you're climbing the hill. To keep on going to ministry meetings, to keep on turning up to your Bible study group, to do your QT's - in short, you maintain your 'pace'. Instead, you adjust your expectations of how much ministry you can cover during this difficult period - your shorten your 'stride'. The regularity of your disciplines will keep you sane - and so too will cutting back your expectations of yourself.
The other danger is when you're going down a hill. In ministry terms, this is when ministry is very fruitful, and you are tempted to do lots of it. In such cases, you need to be careful of doing so much that you have to cut back on your disciplines! Again, you adjust your 'stride' to take advantage of the new situation - but you maintain the regularity of your disciplines.
That's how you run up a hill - and that's how you last long term in ministry.
[ PS: I'm one of those people who listens to ABC News Radio (630 AM)... ] 12/12/2006 Missionary BlogsIn a sense, this is not something new. Missionaries have always been writing back to their supporting churches to fill them in on their ministry, so they can give and pray more intelligently. Even the apostle Paul, who was sent out by the Antioch church (Acts 13), returned to Antioch to report on progress (Acts 14)!
However missionary blogs are a little bit different from your standard newsletter or prayer update. Because they're not 'send-all' type communications, they tend to be more intimate... They're filled with more of the personal joys and struggles of missionaries - the kinds of things they wouldn't necessarily send out in a newsletter.
This should be of particular interst for those who are considering missions work for themselves. You see, it can be hard to know what the reality of missions work is like until you get out onto the field. Missionaries only write certain things in their newsletters and prayer updates - but a missionary's blog can give you a better glimpse about what their day-to-day work is like, and the small everyday hurdles they have to face.
One website where you'll find a small collection of blogs written by missionaries is
Missionary-blogs.com. That website is run by Jim Cottrill, and lists blogs broken down into host country.
Of course not all missionaries will be able to blog - some are in restrictied-access countries, and have to be very careful how they go about their work. Others won't have access to the internet all the time... And blogs are kind of an Internet-generation sort of thing.
But missionary blogs are a great way to see what reality is like!
[ PS: short term missionaries sometimes write blogs, and they're good ... but they're not quite the same thing. This is because the short term experience is quite different from long term work! ] 12/9/2006 KYLCThe conference is not purely a 'sit-and-listen-to-a-talk' type conference ... there are in fact two talks each day! But the heart of the conference is the strand groups. Strand groups are about a dozen in size, and run by two strand leaders. Because of this, the conference is limited in size, and the entire conference is repeated over two weeks. So if you can't make it to the first week (15-19 Jan), there's a second, identical conference the week after (22-26 Jan).
The KYLC leadership training material is designed to be absorbed over three years. A delegate would be in strand 1 in the first year, strand 2 the next, and so on. Each of the strands focus on a different Bible-handling skill:
Some people may have done strands at the AFES National Training Event (NTE) held in Canberra each December. The KYLC strands correspond more or less to the AFES ones, although the KYLC material for strand 2 is superior. This coming January, the theme of the conference is "Strong and Courageous". Speakers will present talks on the OT book of Joshua and the NT book of Titus. Those in strand 1 will be coached in writing a Bible study from Titus, and strand 2 on Joshua. More information about KYLC can be found at http://kylc.kcc.org.au/2007/. If you've got holidays this summer, make no mistake: KYLC is probably the best thing you can do in your holidays. Register online at https://secure.kcc.org.au/. Or, if you're an ND'er, talk to Miriam Chin about registering with the ND group! [ PS: been to KYLC before, but not completed all strands? Come back and complete the set! ] 12/7/2006 Loneliness in ministryAnd so we get together with other leaders every Wednesday night, we meet together over a table in our ministry teams. And the buzz of other people is a real encouragement for us. We can look around at all these other people who are with us in gospel ministry!
But there are some things that we have to do by ourselves in ministry. Things that no one else can help us in. And so sometimes there is a real loneliness as well about ministry. Like when you are working late at night on your Bible study. Or when you have to go to someone in your group with some bad news, maybe telling them off for something they. And sometimes, you may be the only leader in your Bible study group!
Many years ago at another church I was in charge of a high school Bible study at our Friday night youth group ... and I was the only leader. And so for the whole year it was me and that small group of high schoolers. Sometimes it was a lot of fun as we went through the doctrine of the atonement, and through some Psalms. But sometimes the group wasn't so fun... I remember the very last Bible study group of that year, it was just me and one year 10 guy. And so when there were disappointments (like that night), I had to bear it by myself. I had to process setbacks all by myself. There was no one else to share in the hard work.
There are times in ministry when you are by yourself, cut off from the support of others!
In the letter of 2 Timothy, Paul is reaching the end of his life. He is in a prison in Rome, he is chained. And very soon Emperor Nero will sentence him to death. In 2 Timothy 4 Paul writes these words:
You see, the aposle Paul knows what it's like to be alone. Even though on his missionary journeys he takes other people along with him, like Barnabas and Mark and even Luke himself, you can see from this passage that Paul also knew what loneliness in ministry was like. Verse 16, 'at my first defence, no one can to my support'. But not only that, verse 16, 'everyone deserted me.' And in fact it's not just that he had to write a Bible study by himself - he was actually being attacked by a man called Alexander! Paul says that this man 'strongly opposed our message' (v.15), but not only that, it was personal - verse 14, he 'did me a great deal of harm!'
And you can imagine that when something like that happens, it's alright if others are standing with you. But when you're all by yourself. When there is no one to encourage you, to remind you what it's all about...
The first thing you want to notice is that when you are feeling lonely in ministry, you are actually in good company! The apostle Paul knows about loneliness in ministry. He felt abandoned, even betrayed by his co workers in ministry.
And of course it's not just Paul. In the pages of the New Testament we also discover that the Lord Jesus Christ himself was abandoned. All twelve people in his ministry team suddenly disappearing when ministry becomes hard. People on his ministry team hiding from him, denying him ... even betraying him! The first thing you want to notice is that you are actually in good company.
But the second thing you want to notice is that God's servants are never alone.
In verse 17 Paul says that "the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it." Paul was all alone ... but then again he wasn't all alone. The Lord was with him! "The Lord stood at my side", says Paul. And the Lord is not just standing there merely to observe what Paul does - he actually does something: he "gave me strength", says Paul.
All throughout the book of Acts, it is God himself who is the major figure. Yes, there are famous people there like Paul and Peter and Philip. But it is God who is actually the major player. And all throughout Acts it is God who works through his apostles, and witnessing to himself. Yes Paul and Peter and Philip are there, but they are merely channels, they are just vessels that God uses to bring his gospel to the nations.
That's what we see here, in 2 Timothy 4, and that's what we see today as well. God's servants are never alone.
[ PS: as we come towards the end of the ministry year, don't forget to encourage and thank those who have served you as Bible study leaders during this year ... espeically if they've done it by themselves! ] 12/6/2006 More transitionsThe transitions listed in the previous post aren't the only ones that people go through! There are more as well...
Here are some of the other key transitions that people will go through in life, although these transitions aren't necessarily going to happen in the Dec-Feb period.
What's also interesting is that the kinds of temptations are often the same ones that we face in earlier periods. However, those same temptations come back to haunt us, but now in new different ways.
For instance greed is something that a worker will struggle with - but it appears in a different form in married life. And a different form again when you are no longer working... And so you may have learnt to become generous with your money early on in your Christian life, but you may have to re-learn that when you make your nexr transition.
You can also see this in the area of sexual temptations. The sexual temptations that an adolescent will deal with will be different from those that a married person might deal with. And different again for Christians who are much older...
[ PS: Christians may not necessarily fall away - but become 'ineffective and unproductive' (2 Pet 1)... ] 12/3/2006 TransitionsHowever as 2006 turns into 2007 there will likely be quite a number of people in your churches who are going through significant transitions. People who were in year 6 will now be going in to high school. People who were in year 12 will now be going to university. People in final year uni will be starting full time work for the first time. And for those who are workers, it's around this time of year that bonuses and raises tend to come.
Each of these transition periods are very exciting. There are new people to meet, new opportunities to grasp, new things to learn. But each of these transitions can also be very dangerous for the spiritual life of Christians...
You see, it's easy to coast along as a Christian when nothing new has changed for several years. You've worked out how to be a Christian at uni (say) and so the next year of uni isn't a problem. But it's much harder to be a Christian when you are suddenly in an entirely new setting, with new rules, a new culture, and new people all around you! Here are some of the challenges that people going through transitions might face over the next few months.
There are other kinds of transitions that people go through as well, but they don't necessarily come in the Dec-Feb period. But in the transitions listed above, perhaps the thing that makes transitions the hardest is the loss of our normal support networks. The Christians that we knew at uni and who encouraged us over the years are suddenly no longer there! The Christians at one company who worked alongside us in evangelism over lunch aren't going to be there at your next company!
Christians either become even stronger through the challenge ... or they can lose their way! The crisis (b) can lead to people becoming even stronger in their faith (c). As Christians go through such crisis points, they learn how to stand against temptation. They learn boldness in evangelism. They learn to put the demands of the gospel first. And so transitions can be very significant points of growth for a Christian!
But those crisis points can also lead to people who become wishy-washy (d)... Like the seed on the shallow ground, or the seed among the thorns, their initial enthusiasm is burned away when exposed to persecution - or is choked by the cares of the world.
This means that fellow Christians need to take special care of those going through transition periods!
[ PS: what other transition periods can you think of? ] 12/1/2006 Conflicts at church: conflicts in teamsLencioni tells the story of Kathryn, a newly appointed CEO of an IT company, as she attempts to make sense of the dysfunctional dynamics of her executive team, and as she fashions them into a well functioning team.
While not explicitly a Christian book, the closing paragraph reveals the assumptions on which his theories are built - and they do in fact have some correlation with Christian anthropology.
While non-Christians may have a fuzzy and indistinct picture of 'the imperfections of their humanity', Christians are those who know the horror of their own sinfulness in sharp detail. Or at least, they ought to! After all, they have God's own word, and from that they can see the true reality of their sinfulness from God's point of view. Christians are well aware of the ongoing struggle that they face against the flesh!
Given these imperfections, what Lencioni provides in his book is some wisdom about how to order the relationships within a team so that we can get the best out of our teams. But interestingly, the second (of the five) dysfunctions he highlights is a "fear of conflict." Issues are not discussed openly, honestly and thoroughly. Instead, dysfunctional teams exhibit an "artificial harmony"!
Here is Lencioni on this dysfunctional fear of conflict:
Notice that he distinguishes two kinds of conflict: firstly 'ideological conflict' (which is good), and secondly 'fighting and interpersonal politics' (which is bad). While the two may look the same, it's important to know that the first kind of conflict is actually necessary to have in a healthy team. This is the kind of lively interchange that will lead to good solutions that the whole team can own. Such an interaction depends on a certain level of trust (which Lencioni deals with in the first of the five dysfunctions). But it's important for team members (and especially the team leader) to make sure this open, honest and genuine interaction happens.
Sometimes Christian teams avoid conflict because of the high premium placed on community and unity. This is interpreted as meaning that we should avoid conflict at any cost. As a result, conflict can remain unresolved, simmering below the surface in resentful streams.
It's likely that some of you guys are in ministry teams of some sort, if not leading a team yourself. Realise that not all conflict is bad - passionate and lively disagreements and interchange of ideas are in fact necessary to the functioning of your team! If your team always seems courteous and harmonious - well, your apparently-harmonious team is likely a dysfunctional team!
[ PS: one of the techniques Lencioni suggests is having someone in meetings assume the role of 'conflict miner' - someone who intentionally brings up issues that others may be avodiing... ] |
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