Pretty excited about an upcoming event planned for July that I’m involved in. A Skate Camp at Shepherd Community on Indy’s Eastside is turning out to be a pretty sweet thing. Quite a few people are coming together from all over to host a SkateCamp for the kids of Shepherd Community in Indy. Good times.

Sunday evening we helped lead a collision of the worlds. A collision of the rich and the poor; of different races; but most importantly a collision of love. One that I pray no one will recover from. An overabundance of love was poured out.  I think Paul describes it best in the letter of Philippians, “Poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.”

This collision occured at the John J. Barton Annex. The John J. Barton Annex is a  government housing facility managed by the Indianapolis Housing Authority. A very diverse crowd ethnically and nearly all of the residents fall beneath the “poverty line.” A group of Jesus followers from IMC and Heartland “poured an offering” of love and service into the lives of many friends and “strangers.” I’m pretty sure no one left the same.

One of the most consistent topics throughout all of Scripture is God’s heart for the poor. There is no way to escape that God desires for people whom proclaim to be active followers of Jesus Christ to be lovers of the poor and marginalized in our world. Whether it was through the breaking of bread together, handshakes, hugs, singing some music, sharing a message of hope available to everyone, Jesus uses it all to bring light into the darkness. 

Proverbs 31:8-9, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.”

As disciples of Jesus Christ, our purpose or calling is to help people take steps closer to Him. For the addict to be freed; For the hungry to be fed; and the hopeless to hear about the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

I am tempted to be known for how many Bible verses I know, what my job is, or even what my possessions add up too but the reality is that, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” as Paul writes in Galatians.

Perhaps one of the most exciting things for me in the midst of this is having children participate in their own way.  Having children playing and introducing childlike joy is beautiful. As a parent attempting to raise children that spit in the face of a culture that rejects people based on their position in society… its a joy of mine to engage our children in these collisions of the worlds.

Loving God. Loving people. Following Jesus.

Sitting in the middle of our Regional Gathering of Missional Leaders being facilitated by Gary Rohrmayer.

One of the things that he has said that struck me was this convicting statement was to, “Act like a leader!” While morally, ethically, and emotionally are all part of this… the context he layed it out is for the leader to act in a way in culture that other people already see them as.

As a follower of Jesus and a leader part of the mantle of leadership requires accepting some of the public expectations and issues that come with it. So often I miss the opportunity to influence people positively because I neglect owning the opportunities to lead to the fullest of my potential and the depth of the need.

I think about times when I haven’t allowed my baggage, job, excuses, etc. to be barriers to engaging a situation with the completeness of my ability. When that happens, God always does things that I never thought weren’t possible. And yet I think of times when I have blown opportunities to be used by God and, “act like a leader.” Uggg.

I can’t help but reflect on what it would look like for me to wake up for even a month straight and act like a leader for Jesus Christ?

My friend Jeremy of StoryLine is dreaming out loud a bit this Sunday.  His ponderings that, “dreams come with a cost. However, is the cost a dream higher than the cost of not pursuing the dream? Regret and unhealthy wonder are a high price.”

A personal mentor reminded me recently of the need to dream what God could do without the boundary and fixating on how the dream could be initiated, launched, or reached. All this has restoked in me a refreshing sense that comes from simply dreaming and immersing in the beauty of a vision for something uncreated and exploring the mysterious ways of dreams. Not getting lost in changes needed, issues, fears, insecurities, tyranny of the urgent, contingency planning, past failures and lost opportunities or even the past opinions of others that remain in mind.

Seems like I cannot escape the powerful evidence of dreaming. And for me, PTL the global movements of social entrepreneurs like SocialEdge who provide the continuing invitation to, “Think big! Think grand! Be audacious!”

Though I kick myself on missed opportunities to meet past dreams, perhaps the largest failures aren’t dreams unpursued but a mind and heart afraid to dream at all. I know also that unlived dreams come with a personal cost and considered to be lost opportunities to embrace whom God made us to be.

Though I believe with full conviction the Lord gave us minds to work out what He placed in our hearts, I so quickly lose touch with the art of dreaming purely outlandish, childish, and innocent dreams of what could be even if He never uses me to initiate! Ah yes, the beauty of dreaming…

A quick vid on some of the things we are involved in around Indy. Lots more to come.

Coming up a small handful of Indy next gen leaders are gathering to be inspired, encouraged, and refueled to continue to make disciples and reach the next generation both here and around the world.

And nothing is more inspiring than spending time with other young leaders that are doing whatever it takes to be the Gospel in the communities God has placed them in. While the Message stays the same, its a beautiful thing to dream and pray with others about what it will take to incarnate the Gospel in our city, state, nation, and world.

Pretty stoked about this…

So you say you want a revolution? Who says that you say? Many I say. Quite a fascination with being the revolution as I did a quick search of the web:

There is revolution music in Fort Lauderdale. The revolution soccer team of New England. Revolution health on the web. I found something about revolution for cats.  Revolution rockclimbing. Revolution snowboarding. Revolution churches.  Revolution skateboarding. Of course their is Steve Cases’ launch of Revolution a couple years ago.

Everyone is seeking to be a part of or trying to create a revolution! Many attempt to position as being 2.0 but end up Wonderbread.

And yet, I have discouraged many over the years to not get sucked into religion or even a spiritual journey but join a revolution and be set on fire. Still after the web search and chewing on this I will stick with the revolution I’m a part of. A revolution of the heart that leads to restoration and renewal.  

Have you ever had one of those moments when you are in the middle of a horrible decision that you made, completely oblivious to it because your focused on yourself, and there are people or a person desperately attempting to get your attention cause they know the road your headed down, trying real you in, slow you down, get you to stop and turn around, yet you are like that dude (friend, mentor, boss, spouse, stranger, etc) is a total idiot? Maybe even to a person that has “been there” before? I mean, instead of heeding the wisdom or stopping to at least consider it you just keep on heading down that path.

Today, I’m listening to some leadership stuff by Andy Stanley and driving to a meeting. Then I turned left onto Central St. I was looking at the houses being rehabbed and looked to my right to find a guy in the back of a big ole truck waving his arms obnoxiously yelling at me. A bit freaked out, I thought to myself that dude is bizarre. About a block down the road I noticed 3 lanes full of oncoming traffic. Then it became very obvious to me, I was headed the wrong way, down a one way. I was so zoned in on what a better leader I am now that I’ve heard this amazing Andy Stanley CD that I ignored a guy jumping up and down, and 3 one way signs! I knew Central was a one way road already!

The connections here are obvious right? I mean we all have these types of moments in life. Times when we are so focused on something else, the next “big thing,” or fixated on doing what we want that we end up zoning all the obvious signs out that we are headed the wrong way. And there are often people or person(s) the whole time standing, jumping, screaming, leaping in front of us telling us where this decision is going to head, what this choice will lead to, and instead we choose to ignore, reject, or just turn our heads away. I have so been there many times over the last couple years. The fact is when I zone out the wisdom of people that truly want to guide me or when I reject them altogether and stay fixated on what is best for me wreckage occurs. Carnage of relationships and broken heartedness occur, all while often violating principals and the heart of God to maintain my way and priorities.

I’ve been wrestling with this lately as I watch a next gen friend take huge steps in the wrong direction, rejecting the people God has placed in her life, and cutting people out totally. It saddens my heart because I know where this will lead. I have been there and felt the wrath isolation brings to the journey of life. And this is one of those deals where like a parent sorta, your only option left is to step back and just watch it all take place. I mean, you’ve done your part, maybe even tried a bit too hard to impose or smother the person with change or love. And the only option left is to observe with prayerful anticipation of a return cause sometimes there is just nothing else you can do but pray for a turnaround…

Loic Le Meur is an accomplished entrepreneur . I found this on TechCrunch and thought to share. This is solid stuff. There is something that applies to every leader and entrepreneur…

1.     Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible.

2.     Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.

3.     Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.

4.     Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback.

5.     Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.

6.     Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.

7.     Don’t spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.

8.     Don’t obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.

9.     Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.

10.   Don’t focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.

This is so good, I don’t know where to start. I am all jacked up on Mt. Dew about a number of these. Don’t focus on getting rich (success), but instead focus on the people who benefit from your service (users). The whole emphasis on ditching spreadsheet business plans, focusing on team building, and listening to your community are all good.

Personally the most impacting rests on numero uno. Don’t know how many times I have delayed, pondered, over prayed and under acted, and stalled waiting for this big revolutionary BHAG or out of fear and insecurity delayed on what seemed to be the no brainer action.