Create Your Own General Conference: It Starts With Crazy

by Robert Rynders on April 29, 2013

in Innovate UMC, Leadership and Organizations

Last week, Wes Magruder’s post about eliminating legislation from General Conference, and substituting the time usually spent dealing with it, with an attempt at deep relationship building, drew some praise, as well as some intense backlash.

I posted the link to my Facebook page and indicated I agreed with Wes. Do I actually think this could be a possibility? Perhaps. It’s at least an idea worth entertaining and seeing where it might take us. However, people have a lot invested in General Conference. So it was no surprise the intense reactions I got from some of my friends. “An $8 million pot luck!?” “But how will I advocate for my [insert issue here]!?”

Those are real concerns and real issues to consider, however, we will not be considering them, for now.

I have no idea how to fix General Conference and I don’t think I care to. As I mentioned, in my last post, there’s a new thing going on and I think I’m done attempting CPR on something that’s already dead.

So, here’s where we’re missing an opportunity with Wes’ suggestion: Wes has offered us a General Conference paracosm and he’s inviting us to create our own, as well.

Paracosm? You’ve completely lost it, haven’t you?

Yes.

Yes I have.

In fact, good ideas often start with crazy.

A few months ago, Seth Godin explained to us what a paracosm is and how they help us in problem solving:

A paracosm is an ornate, richly detailed imaginary world. Whether you’re a three-year old with imaginary playmates, or a passionate inventor imagining how your insight will change just about everything, a paracosm gives you the opportunity to hypothesize, to try out big ideas and see where they take you.

This isn’t a new idea. It’s where great creators and innovators start.

You may have also heard of “blue sky” thinking or ideas, coming from The Walt Disney Corporation (if you’re looking for in-depth info on Disney’s creative process, this is supposed to be THE book to read). At the beginning of a project the creative team sits down with a blank slate and any thought or idea that is thrown out is added to the board. Sure, some of them sound impossible, crazy or stupid, but they keep the team from limiting their creativity and thinking. A lot of what you see and experience at Disneyland or Disney World began as a blue sky idea (it’s served Disney well, but let’s not get into the first decade or so of Disney’s California Adventure).

When I’m doing my own visioning or working with a team on creating a vision I always begin by creating a paracosm and/or engaging in blue sky thinking. City Square Church, Relevance LEAD and the work I did with reviving and revitalizing the United Methodist Campus Ministry Association was only possible because every crazy, wacky, insane and impossible sounding idea was given a chance to be considered when we were visioning what these things could be (I share an enormous amount of credit will all of the amazing people who have worked with me on those projects). For people of faith this process also includes prayer, discernment and listening, because we’re not just looking to get the job done, but to be filled with new dreams and visions (Joel 2:28) and to create things that are truly transformative, because, as Paul writes, we are to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).” In other words, we’re not aiming for the same mediocre and broken things, we are aiming for the bigger and bolder visions that God has set before us.

So, the next time someone throws out one of those ideas that “will never work,” stop and ask yourself how much you like the way things are currently working. Chances are, you either secretly (or not so secretly) like the way things already work, or you’re not willing to consider the possibilities.

However, if you would like to consider the possibilities, grab a pen and paper and create your own paracosm and start listing your blue sky ideas.

Let’s get creative.

Let’s get crazy.

This post originally appeared at Rethink Bishop

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The Hard Work of Discovering What Really Matters

by Robert Rynders on March 22, 2013

in Christianity, Theology

I deeply appreciate Holy Week. I don’t think it would sound quite right to say I “love” it or that it’s my favorite part of the Christian liturgical cycle, but I appreciate it. We spend the season of Lent preparing for Holy Week, stripping away those things that distract us and separate us from God and our neighbor. During Holy Week we are faced with dealing with the deep realities of our lives and our world. No longer are we focused on giving up coffee, or social media, or taking on a new spiritual practice, we are pushed to go deeper than that: we must deal with injustice, suffering and death.

The story of Palm Sunday, Jesus’ “grand” entrance into Jerusalem is the begging of the Holy Week narrative. For Jesus’ followers and for those who lined the streets for what actually wasn’t such a grand entrance, they believed this was indeed a new beginning. And it was a new beginning, however, it was a beginning to a story that had a different ending from the one they expected.

Comparatively, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem was a joke compared to how a Roman official would enter a city. Their entrance would have been in true opulent fashion, with armed soldiers in a show of prominence and imperial power. So, Jesus’ entrance is meant to be ironic. He comes in on a young horse (donkey in other gospels) with his ragtag bunch of followers, mocking the roman processional. He’s the humble king, riding into town, not as a military ruler, but as the Messiah, the anointed one, who fights the battles of the world with love, humility, healing, compassion and restorative justice.
We spend so much time in our lives trying to attain that prominence and power, looking to find the next best thing, upgrading, getting a promotion or that big break. The more status we attain, the more stuff we get, the happier we will be; that’s what the world tells us, anyway. However, Jesus’ processional reminds us that it’s not about how flashy our stuff is, but it’s about the values we carry with us.

I’ve been intrigued lately by stories of people and businesses who are moving away from a “profits first, ask questions later” model and are working to build companies and products and company cultures that benefit our lives and our world. There’s this story of an entrepreneur and millionaire who, after selling two luxury residences, now lives in a 420 square foot studio apartment, because he found it was love, not stuff, that made him happy. Or this story about companies who intentionally pass up higher profits because people and the environment are just as important as making money. These stories are only possible because people were willing to ask the hard the questions and make meaningful changes. Sometimes, you have to walk through the darkness to find the light.

The Holy Week narrative will continue, recounting what happens when love goes up against violence and injustice. Initially love will not win and there will be intense suffering and darkness. There will be questions of God’s justice and goodness. There will be grieving and hope will be a far off fantasy. Yet, the Christian story would not be a compelling one if it ended there, because all too often we hear that story, we live that story, where darkness crushes the light, where hate wins out over love.

So, we we remember that the story never ends there because when we strip away all of those things that we think we need, we uncover something new, things we didn’t think were possible: love, compassion and humility, true meaning and value. It is then that we glimpse the image of God that sits at the core of our being. It’s an image that is buried under so many misconceptions of who we are and what makes us happy, buried under so much pain, suffering and hopelessness. But it’s an image filled with so many possibilities of hope that we find on Easter morning when we discover the tomb is empty. Until we get there, though, we must continue to journey inward, to strip away, to empty ourselves so we can discover those things that really matter.

This post originally appeared on the City Square Church Blog

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The Church Isn’t Dying, It’s Already Dead

by Robert Rynders on March 22, 2013

in Innovate UMC, Leadership and Organizations, United Methodist Church

The United Methodist Church isn’t dying. Its already dead. I’m not sure when it died, maybe in the 1970′s maybe a little earlier, maybe a little later. It might still take us a while to notice, but it happened.

There’s good news, though: resurrection has happened! In fact, it’s still happening, all around us, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

I used to wonder what we could do to bring change to The UMC through General Conference. I had my first real brush with our obsession with legislation when I was asked to go to the California-Nevada Annual Conference as a youth delegate, as a freshman in high school. I didn’t really know what I was getting into, but after the first few sessions I was already fast asleep at my table in the convention hall. Was this the only way to bring change in the church? Yes, I was told, yes it was. And so, fast forward many years later in May 2012 where I found myself lobbying for campus ministry legislation at General Conference, in Tampa, FL.

Well, we all know what a disaster GC2012 was. Career delegates, the same people who have been our delegates for what seems like decades were all making plays to make a name for themselves, to enshrine themselves in the UMC history books as reformers, as the ones who “saved” the church.

It was appalling and disgusting to watch. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t one group or faction, this was just about everyone, including me, who was lobbying for changes in The Discipline that would strengthen campus ministry. It wasn’t so much about change as it was about winning.

I’ve spent the months since General Conference thinking “if we don’t figure things out by 2016, we’re going to die.” “What piece or pieces of legislation could we pass to put us on the right path?”

Well, this past February, along with a crack team of volunteers and visionaries, I put on the second Relevance LEAD event in Las Vegas, NV. LEAD was born out of the desire to move away from conferences, events and trainings that focused on “professional experts,” or people who get paid large sums of money to talk about their latest big idea, program, concept or strategy that’s “just what our organization needs.” Instead we asked our UM brothers and sisters to submit topics for talks on new ways to be in ministry with young adults in the UMC. We selected presenters who submitted topics based not no their practicality but their ability to inspire new ideas and creativity in our own contexts. We had a successful first event in 2012, so we did it again in 2013.

At the end of the 2013 event a District Superintendent (from outside my conference) grabbed me to say how much he enjoyed LEAD but then he said, “I’ve always thought change in The UMC was going to come from the margins, somewhere down the road, however, what this event showed me is that the folks who presented here and attended the event are not the margins, this IS the church. This is what is happening at the center.”

Since that moment my thinking has completely changed. What was going on in Tampa in May 2012 wasn’t The UMC of today, it was the UMC of the past. It was The UMC that has already died.

Over the past few years something revolutionary has happened. While we have all been screaming “the end is near,” a group made up of young leaders, innovative leaders and strategic thinkers have been creating The UMC of today and have been laying the foundation for The UMC of the future.

This is not a group that is trying to create change by going at the institution head-on, they are a group that has put one foot outside of the institution while keeping one foot within it. They’re taking the core of our heritage and the best of our heritage and combining it with an entrepreneurial and innovative spirit. They’re taking The UMC mission statement to “Make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” seriously, using all other metrics as secondary. They’ve found allies in powerful places who are holding the door open, serving as mentors, running interference with the the institution and opening up the flow of resources from the dead UMC to the new UMC. This is not a unified or an organized group, but innovators and insurgents who have been popping up one by one all over our denomination. Although, they may be beginning to organize, which can help to strengthen and expand this movement, though there is a danger in simply creating a new institution and falling back into old habits.

And all of this has been happening right in front of us, not within denominational committees and boards, through some piece of legislation or in some back room at General Conference. The new UMC is happening in reclaimed church buildings, homes, bars, coffee shops, non-profits, concert venues, homeless shelters, college campuses, intentional living communities, and the list goes on and on. It’s not what the church of the past few decades looked like and it probably won’t ever look like the past, so lets stop trying to go back in time to an institution that’s not coming back.

The UMC is dead, long live The UMC.

This post originally appeared at Rethink Bishop

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Rediscovering Our Purpose

by Robert Rynders on March 22, 2013

in Innovate UMC, Leadership and Organizations, United Methodist Church

In a recent Harvard Business Review blog post, Vijay Govindarajan and Srikanth Srinivas argue that sometimes our incentives fail; sometimes they please some customers and stock holders but if they betray your company’s purpose, then they are no longer useful incentives. They use the example of bus drivers who get bonuses for getting riders to their destinations on time, which causes them to skip picking up riders at other stops, if they find themselves running behind schedule.

One of the big debates in economics is whether over our ability to produce and manufacture things as quickly and cheaply as possible, since that will create the most jobs and economic impact. However, others argue that there is great value and ultimate profitability in producing high quality products as ethically and safely as possible.Do we live in a time where we can indeed demand high quality, high value products that do not harm the environment, create jobs with livable wages and safe and healthy working conditions? I believe we do and we can and should make those demands both directly and indirectly, because I think there are many people who believe profitability is about more than just dollar signs. These products are worth the time, effort and higher cost, if, as a society, we believe this type of manufacturing is the right thing to do.There’s a popular phrase related to innovation: “It’s okay to fail, but fail quickly and cheaply.” Well, on the surface, that’s not bad advice. Yet, sometimes innovative ventures can fail if we quit too early or miscalculate the funding we needed to get going in the first place. Of course there’s a sweet spot somewhere in there, but the most important thing is not to come at this from a scarcity mindset, but from an abundance one. It’s not about withholding the resources we have in case of failure, but investing in the future by learning what works and what doesn’t. We need to learn so we don’t waste time and money on the same mistakes over and over again. We need to learn so we can adapt, ultimately rewarding our investments of time and money or giving us the information we need to pull the plug sooner rather than later.Most importantly we need to learn while staying true to our purpose.

If the purpose is to get to profitability as quickly as possible then our time of trial and error should be focused on doing whatever it takes to get to profitability in the quickest way possible. There is an incentive then for quality and ethics to take a back seat. If, however, the purpose of our innovations are to change the game, create significant new value and meaning and long-term sustainability, then the focus should be on quality and creating the new playing field. We’ll still make a profit, but it might not be the most or all of the profit in your market, right away. Sometimes it takes more time and investment up front, but it also takes more attentiveness and openness to learning, adapting and staying true to our purpose.In the United Methodist Church our mission is to “Make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” however, because of the myth that we have to turn around our decline as quickly as possible, our incentives encourage something else entirely. If we were honest with ourselves we would change our mission to: ”Create positive worship attendance and church membership growth in our local congregations on an annual basis.” This is what we study, what we measure, what we offer incentives for and what we hold our leaders accountable to.Perhaps, for the UMC, it’s time to slow down, to spend more time listening, learning, adapting, and rediscovering our purpose. Only then we can focus on realigning our incentives in order to better fit with that purpose. It’s not the quick and cheap thing to do, but it’s the right thing to do.

This post originally appeared at Rethink Bishop

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Know When to Quit: Why You Don’t Need Experts, Coaches or Consultants

by Robert Rynders on February 22, 2013

in Leadership and Organizations

I’m sometimes known for being negative towards professional organizational experts, coaches and consultants.

It’s not that I think they’re bad or useless. I have a coach and I’ve just been hired to be coach. The problem, however, is that for many individuals and organizations that are really struggling, no expert, coach or consultant will be able to help them. In these situations people are desperate and are looking for that magic minimum or no effort program or model that will reverse their downward spiral.

It’s actually quite ridiculous how much money people and organizations will pay for these “experts” to come in and make it all better. If you or your organization don’t have a history or culture of being able to change, adapt or take the advice of experts then what makes you think it will work this time? If you’re to a point where things are so bad and you’re looking for an opportunity to shell out thousands of dollars for someone to come in and change a culture that’s unchangeable, then it’s time to hit the pause button and be honest with yourself.

Your organization isn’t coming back.

Stop swinging for the fences and recognize that this is a time to wind things down, to remember the past and celebrate all that you have accomplished. It’s time to look forward to, maximize and enjoy the time you have left.

If, however, your organization is a startup, thinking of innovating, or in a place of growth or temporary decline and you just can’t seem to get over the hump, experts, coaches and consultants can be of immense benefit.

But, this isn’t an advertisement or sales pitch. This is a plea for you to stop. Stop spending what little resources you have so that someone else can make a living off of taking money from dead and dying organizations, knowing that there’s nothing they can do to help. Don’t be like a gambler who doesn’t know when to stop because you can just “feel” that the next hand is your hand and you’re going to hit the jackpot, because you’re not.

However, every once in a while someone does get lucky, and that will stick in the back of your mind, haunting you, but that’s just what the casino is counting on.

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Finding a Place for Children in the Church

by Robert Rynders on February 11, 2013

in Christianity, Ministry

I recently met with a young couple who left a church in the area because they were asked to keep one of their children quiet during the sermon. This isn’t the first story like this that I’ve heard and it won’t be the last. In fact, a few months ago a family member was attending her home church and was told her daughter was being too disruptive during the service and she would need to quiet down or leave. This is especially shocking because this church doesn’t offer a nursery. My sister-in-law and her daughter now drive an hour one-way to a church on Sunday mornings where they are welcomed with open arms.

Regardless of who anyone is and who their kids are, as a parent and a pastor these stories disappoint me.

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve preached through, in my very young career, children crying or babbling, people coughing, cell phones ringing and who knows what else. It comes with the territory and if it bothers you as a preacher then it’s time to find a new job.

But let’s go back to that young couple. A big reason one of their children was in worship with them is because they weren’t feeling the Sunday School program was a formative place for their kids to be.

This is a discussion we’ve been having as City Square Church continues to grow and more families with children become involved. We currently have a family group that meets each week where the adults do a small group study and the kids (ages 1-6) are chaperoned by a couple of child care workers. My tendency has been to want to form some sort of educational “program” for the kids and we’ve been on the lookout for something that might be good as a “one room” curriculum.

However, when I mentioned this to the young couple, they asked “why?” Why do you need to institutionalize it? Why not just let the kids play, create and imagine together? They suggested perhaps offering more than just toys for kids, perhaps different types of art supplies or a snack they make together each week, but not much more.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t teach our kids about or model faith at home, in fact it might be more effective than any felt board or craft related Sunday School lesson.

Then again, maybe Richard Dawkins has a point about not indoctrinating our children, in the first place. Scandalous, I know.

What do you think? How should we teach children about faith? Should religious education be institutional or organic? Imaginative or doctrinal?

Regardless about how we feel about this post can we please all agree that children are always welcome in worship and we’ll only expect them to behave like children? It’s messy but it’s a beautiful thing and I think it’s what the kingdom of God is supposed to look and sound like.

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