Why movements?

Because Jesus working through a team of like-hearted followers to win, build and send new generations of Christ-centered multiplying disciples is THE way that The Way told us to get the job done. Loving God, loving people, and launching simple, organic movements that multiply over and over and over again leads to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. If that sounds too simplistic, maybe it’s just because we’ve overcomplicated things in the past few centuries of church life.

Here are three links to get your creative movement juices flowing:

Floyd McClung interview on simple church-planting movements (and his new book “Follow”) on Steve Addison’s blog.

Tim Keller’s recent straight up blog post on Movements in which he coins the term “spontaneous generativity.”

Crazy Man dancing and starting a movement. This one’s been around for awhile but is still lots of fun.

Go. Make disciples. Grab some friends and change our world.

Why did you get out of bed today?

Seriously.

For a paycheck? To keep your job? To avoid boredom?

Or perhaps because you were eager to pursue your calling.
Because you believe that what you do today might make a difference tomorrow.
Because deep down inside you believe you can change the world.

Here is a fantastic TED presentation by Simon Sinek on how leaders inspire others to action with the power of why. Genuine movements always begin with a WHY – a cause. What’s your Why?

This should be interesting. Wikimedia (the non-profit foundation that supports Wikipedia) has just announced that it is going to open it up its strategic planning process. In a world where most strategic plans are designed by a few behind closed doors it’s nice to breathe some fresh air. This HBR post explains how Wikipedia will throw open the windows:

Over the coming months we hope to provide readers of this blog with a window into this unprecedented endeavor from a range of perspectives (volunteers, staff, board members, strategy consultants, external advisors and more). We’re essentially going to blog the Wikimedia strategic planning process pretty much as it happens. We think our innovations (those that work and those that flop) will generate new ideas, lessons and approaches for organizations and movements as they look to tackle strategy development and consider the question of how one “organizes” a massive global movement. We also want to tap into your expertise, perspectives and creativity for the benefit of this strategy work.

That is really, really cool. Imagine tapping into the passions and perspectives of any interested constituent to help you build your movement. This is bold leadership for a new generation. I’m looking forward to following this process.

And all from a non-profit.

I confess I began Twittering one month ago as a skeptic. My felt need for more info about more people doing more stuff was pretty low. But, as I mentioned here, I decided to give it a try for 30 days. I’m glad I did. Here are five reasons why:

1. I learn a lot, very quickly, from good tweeters. Several @johnpiper tweets have provoked questions that resonated all day long. My brother-in-law @garunn posts very insightful links. There is more actual value per tweet than I find in most emails or in Facebook. Good tweeters engage others using @angelamaiers’ 70-20-10 rule.

2. It’s manageable. The ease of this surprised me. I can turn off the faucet of information whenever I want. Also, I use TweetDeck which makes it super easy to scan, filter, save and reply to tweets. I like that I can update my Facebook status without being at the computer. Oddly enough, life feels a bit more integrated. @stephnannen recently posted her fellow skeptic’s insights on her excellent blog. If you’re drowning in tweets, see 10 Tips For Managing Twitter As Your Usage Increases.

3. It’s customizable. You can choose to receive text updates from everyone, no one, or just two people (as I’ve chosen to do).

4. It inspires good writing. Seriously. To communicate something of value in only 140 characters is a mix of art and science. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking.

5. Friends help me solve problems. Case in point: After 12 years with the Palm OS (currently on a Treo) I’ve been trying to decide on moving to a new smartphone platform. But which one would best suit my needs? I researched the blogs, watched the ads, and Googled the reviews. It’s a big investment in my time, energy and money to make a move. I estimate I spent 10-15 hours on this decision over the past few weeks.

Enter Twitter.

Yesterday I sent the following tweet from my phone (which automatically posted to FB) at 10:10 a.m.:

pondering switching from Treo to Pre or iphone. Since i live in outlook, my device *must* sync tasks & notes. what device drives you & why?

By 11:10 a.m. I had received more than a dozen substantial, informative responses (both in Facebook and in Tweetdeck). The best info came from @travistodd who is 10,000 miles away in Asia.

By dinner time I had enough relevant info based on personal user experiences of trusted friends to make an informed decision with confidence. (I’m going with the iPhone.)

These days it takes a Tribe.

Who can forget the grainy image of one courageous student staring down a column of tanks? Twenty years ago today the Chinese government chose lethal force to deal with a swelling student-led movement in Tiananmen Square. That fateful decision appears to have triggered one of the greatest spiritual awakenings in church history. The exponential growth of China’s church in the past two decades, particularly among the educated elite, is nothing short of miraculous.

The idea that students can change the world is not a new one. King Nebuchadnezzar understood this when he selected Daniel and his three Israelite friends to receive the best education Babylon had to offer 2,600 years ago. The king sought attractive, skilled, wise and competent youths to be educated for three years. At the end of that time they were to stand before the king. (Daniel 1:1-7) In the same way, today’s governments, corporations and advertisers invest millions of dollars each year attempting to influence students and the choices they will make for the rest of their lives.

Like it or not, today’s students will shape tomorrow’s culture.

Last week I enjoyed the privilege of an IHOP breakfast with Alan, Matt and Mike Tilley during the Exponential09:Art of Movements Conference. We affirmed God’s amazing, expansive work in the world through normal people. I appreciate these humble and courageous brothers in Christ.

Alan’s talk on communitas (not community) during the conference confirmed much of my own movement-planting experiences in the US and East Asia. As Alan says:

The most vigorous forms of community are those that come together in the context of a shared ordeal or, communities who define themselves as a group with a mission that lies beyond themselves—thus initiating a risky journey. Over-concern with safety and security, combined with comfort and convenience, have lulled us out of our true calling and purpose. Everyone loves an adventure. Or do we?

If you’re wrestling with a burden for the unchurched post-everything generation, Matt’s recent book The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community may help. I finished it this morning on my new Kindle.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…. Ephesians 4:11-13 (ESV)

“In recent years our complexity, size and scope have masked our essence. I sense God is calling us back to our roots – the simple calling that was clearly present when we were growing rapidly. When we have been winning, building and sending, God has blessed us.” – Steve Douglass, Future Direction

Repeat after me:

Movements Everywhere does not mean CCC staff everywhere.
Movements Everywhere does not mean planting CCC flags everywhere.
Movements Everywhere does not mean it’s CCC’s job to reach everyone…
[ ] on this campus
[ ] in this country
[ ] in the world. (Check all that apply.)

Now take a deep breath. Do you feel like you just committed heresy?

Relax. You’re going to be ok. Enjoy a weekly Sabbath. Take a nap.

One of the most common mistakes that I’ve frequently observed and personally committed during my 23 years on staff with this fantastic organization is that we tend to bite off more than our God-given share of the Great Commission. How many times have I sat with a team in front of a fresh white board during a strategic planning session to dream about reaching our scope of 30,000 students on a campus, or 30 million or 300 million in a country, or 6+ billion people in the world? There’s nothing wrong with dreaming about it, envisioning what it will be like when God brings it about, or praying toward these ends. In fact, I believe willingness to engage emotionally with that level of scope is embedded in the spiritual DNA of every true follower of Jesus. I have a huge world map in my study at home before which I regularly sit or kneel with Bible open, in the wee morning hours, praying country by country for God to raise up disciples among every tribe, tongue, people and nation. This nourishes my soul and brings my daily struggles into a much more realistic perspective.

So, what’s the problem? The problem, viewed through an organizational leadership lens, is that when it comes to planning, we have allowed most teams to believe that it’s their job to “reach an entire campus (or city or country)” rather than holding them accountable to fulfill CCC’s unique calling and execute our mission well within their local setting.

What has God has called CCC to do? He’s called us and historically used us to help fulfill the Great Commission by winning, building and sending in the power of the Holy Spirit and helping the body of Christ do evangelism and discipleship. We fulfill that calling when we live out our values and execute our mission over and over and over again. And what is our mission? About a year ago, the Global Leadership Team clarified that our unique mission is launching spiritual movements by winning, building and sending Christ-centered multiplying disciples. Eleven very powerful words that bring clarity and focus to what we should be doing.

If you want to see how this all fits together, you may want to review Steve Douglass’ Future Direction booklet or view it in a simple one-page Planning Pyramid that places all these concepts in perspective. The higher, broader levels of the pyramid represent overarching calling, values, mission and vision that should guide us as we seek the Lord and make decisions. These don’t change very often. The lower, narrower levels represent the specific, culturally relevant strategic action that needs to take place in any setting. These plans and actions change frequently as the situation requires and the Spirit freely leads. The desired result: movements somewhere, ultimately leading to movements everywhere.

Note that nowhere will you find a requirement, expectation, assumption or call for any CCC team to “reach the entire whatever.” Think about it: when was the last time you heard of a team leader or national director losing their job because they didn’t reach their entire scope? Or, for that matter, how many times in the past 60 years has anyone heard of a team that consistently DID reach their entire scope? Hmmm…

This brings us to the next two major shifts in CCC culture that we need to make – together – in order to move forward.

2. Increasing Local Ownership

“Movements Everywhere” implies that the greatest growth must happen at the grass roots level. The whole organization must adjust to ensure that the local level is growing and expanding. This means that…

a. We have local teams who are focused on building movements, whether through direct ministry or catalytic ministry. They are fully empowered to innovate and be creative within our mission, vision, and values.

b. Everyone is aligned to essentials and committed to multiplying.

c. Local movements become self-sustaining, i.e., they are generating local leaders and resources.

d. Organizational decisions are made in light of their impact on the field. Investment in local effectiveness is normal.

3. Developing a Broader Kingdom Perspective

Penetrating the world with true followers of Jesus will require efforts far beyond those of Campus Crusade for Christ. We must keep a Kingdom perspective. We must join forces and resources with the rest of the body of Christ to reach our goal. This means that

a. We promote God’s heart among the nations, embracing both the Great commandment and the Great Commission.

b. We focus on our role, while celebrating the roles of others with different callings. We realize that all of us are necessary and none of us is sufficient to accomplish movements everywhere.

c. We actively and unselfishly work together with other organizations and leaders with an attitude of humility, so that the synergy of the Body of Christ is unleashed.

d. While making disciples and launching movements locally, we continually entrust the ministry to others in the arenas where God has called us to work.

e. We must have the Kingdom in our sights, rather than only looking out for our own interests.

How might these two cultural shifts change your team’s next strategic planning session?

What might you need to stop doing? Start doing? Change?

Recently I completed the first two years in my new role of giving leadership to the Global Campus Strategy. I have personally visited 10 of our 14 Areas of Affairs, spoken to more than 15,000 students, and had hundreds of informal conversations with CCC campus staff members. What a learning experience this has been! I constantly find myself humbled by the radical faith of my brothers and sisters as well as the daunting scope of our common mission. I’ve also observed some macro-trends affecting our movement.

Reality Check 1: Globally, the number of college students has roughly doubled from 60 million to 130 million in the past 15 years. Governments of developing countries have realized that their future depends upon a well‐educated population who can compete in today’s borderless glocal economy. Traditional physical campuses can no longer absorb the growing student body and have limited new admissions. The fastest growing campuses are those such as the University of Phoenix, which boasts 345,000 students in 204 locations and has 75% of students taking courses online. Metro areas such as Moscow with 1.2 million students, Mexico City with 400,000 students, or Rome with 250,000 students can no longer be broken down into campuses, but must take into account Student Population Centers where students commute to class, live at home, and hang out with friends somewhere in the city.

Nikolin, our National Campus Director in Albania, observes that for us who are constantly looking for future leaders it has made our job more difficult. It’s harder to identify, select and invest in truly influential student leaders who can and will change their world. In his words: “We have to work a lot and find little gold.”

Let’s Lead the Way
CCC has a rich legacy and great core values. Yet like any 60-year old organization, we become prisoners of prior success. When God worked powerfully we wrote training manuals and materials to teach others how to do the same thing well. Systems and structures arose to support those processes. But each generation has new felt needs which require different approaches. What helped us in the past can prevent us from being effective in the present and cripple us in the future. We must keep changing in order to remain effective.

The first of five key shifts we must make is returning to a mission-defined, value-driven culture. Organizational culture refers to the underlying values, beliefs and principles that serve as a foundation for an organization’s management system, as well as the practices and behaviors that both exemplify and reinforce those basic principles. We lead from these values rather than being driven by materials, events, donors, or numbers.

Realizing that our work is ultimately spiritual, we must lead from our values of faith, growth and fruitfulness, so that…

a. Everyone is living out a passionate walk with God, utterly dependent on Him in and for all things. That dependence is expressed personally and corporately through pervasive prayer, holy lives, and love for one another. It results in leading from the foundation of our walk with God, unity, speaking the truth in love, and taking faith risks.

b. Everyone is growing and developing in Christ-like character, ministry skills, personal capacity, and exercising initiative in leading rather than relying on permission.

c. Everyone is bearing lasting fruit in their lives and ministries, continually examining the results of their efforts. We do whatever it takes to help people connect with Jesus, and become true followers of Him. Like the lessons of pruning the vine, this may require more focus on life-on-life discipleship and movements, rather than having a few people leading many strategies.

No one needs permission to radically live out our values. No matter where you are, no matter what position you hold, you can lead with humble boldness from this rich spiritual base.

When it comes to value-driven servant leadership, change starts with me.

Thoughts?

The church has made great progress in missions in the past century. Consider the last 25 years. I vividly remember being challenged as a college student to pray for, give toward or go to the USSR, Albania, Romania and China. At the time these four countries represented some of the most difficult, thorny, rock-hard fields for the message of God’s love in Christ. Yet today all four of these nations have been fundamentally changed. The USSR no longer exists. Albania has been saturated with the gospel and hosts a thriving church. Romania has student-led movements all over the country and has been sending out missionaries for years, even to China. On a typical Chinese campus one in every five students who hears the good news will begin following Jesus.

What happened? God worked. He worked through the prayers of the saints, the obedience of his church, and the life-on-life impact of faithful believers. Wow. Be amazed!

But…we’re a long way from done. My friend Paul frequently updates me on how well the church is doing on “getting to where we’re not.” Here are a few stats to bring some hard – and uncomfortable – data into the equation. One day people from EVERY tribe, tongue, people and ethnic group will worship God together, but…

Did you know…

• 2,251 languages have no Scripture and no one working on them.
• 1,953 languages have someone that has begun work but, as yet, they do not have one book of the Bible available.
• Impact: 300 million people living in 4,204 groups have no access to Scripture in their own language.
• There are many ways of figuring the number of unreached groups in the world. Since 2000, about 6,000 of 12,000 have been “reached,” meaning there are at least 2% evangelical believers. Of the remaining 6,000 groups, 3,400 have no known witness for the Lord. There are about 600 million people (twice the population of the USA) in these Unengaged Unreached People Groups (UUPGs in missions lingo).
• We need revolutionary approaches to rekindle intentional outreach to the 1.3 billion Muslims, 1 billion Hindus and 700 million Buddhists alive today.
• The easy and difficult places have been reached. The most challenging, difficult places remain before us.

In spite of this…

• 94% of active missionaries are working among the 14% of the most evangelized ethnic groups.
• Of every $1,000 given toward Christian missions, only 10 cents goes toward Muslim evangelism.

I invite you to download this 3 page summary from the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelism and join me in praying through the top 11 priorities of the global church. Let’s do what we can to change the world.

Here’s an updated link to the Google Docs slides for m2M Antioch Movement presentations.