Read the Bible Through in 2010??

Add a Bible to your PDA, Smartphone, iPhone, etc. Choose between 20+ daily reading plans.  Could be a very cool investment in 2010.  Check it out here.

5 Trends Help to Create "Nonprofits of the Future"

I think this is some excellent food for thought as we rebuild the infrastructure at MPVCC.  (Just substitute "churches" for "charities.")

The nonprofit field isn’t going to simply bounce back a few years from now to the state it was in before the recession. That’s the message behind a new report by La Piana Consulting, which explores five trends that are hastening the emergence of a new nonprofit landscape.

Those trends are:

Shifting demographics. With new generations making up a growing share of the work force, charities must learn to share leadership with younger workers, the report says.

Technological advances. Social-media technologies provide charities the opportunity to gain greater exposure, but they also require groups to be comfortable giving more people within their organization a chance to speak out.

New ways to collaborate. With the advent of new technologies, organizations can just as easily work with an individual located across the world as they can through traditional coalitions and alliances, according to the report.

Greater interest in service. Last year’s presidential election spurred interest in volunteerism, but nonprofit groups need to keep in mind that people have many different reasons for volunteering and ought to tailor their opportunities to individuals’ interests.

Blurred lines between nonprofit and for-profit. Greater emphasis on corporate social responsibility and the emergence of businesses whose primary aim is to do good are challenging the nonprofit field’s traditional identity but are also creating opportunities for new partnerships and collaboration, says the report.

The report, which was paid for by the James Irvine Foundation and the Fieldstone Alliance, examines what nonprofit groups can do to thrive in this new reality.

“Nonprofits of the future” need skilled leaders who are ready to abandon overtly hierarchical styles of management and include more people in decision making, says the report, which was based on interviews with people involved with nonprofit work and an examination of existing literature.

Donors can assist charities by providing more flexible support that encourages groups to experiment and reduces their fear of failure.

By Caroline Preston. To explore the website click here.

Looking for Holy Solace

The following poetry and quotes are from the family Christmas newsletter of some friends.  For me, the overarching theme seems to be finding God, beauty, and ourselves in the darker seasons of the soul.  Enjoy...

Dedication
I have great faith in all things not yet spoken.
I want my deepest pious feelings freed.
What no one yet has dared to risk and warrant
will be for me a challenge I must meet.
If this presumptuous seems, God, may I be forgiven.
For what I want to say to you is this:
my efforts shall be like a driving force,
quite without anger, without timidness
as little children show their love for you.
With these outflowings, river-like, with deltas
that spread like arms to reach the open sea,
with the recurrent tides that never cease
will I acknowledge you, will I proclaim you
as no one ever has before.
And if this should be arrogance, so let me
arrogant be to justify my prayer
that stands so serious and so alone
before your forehead, circled by the clouds.
--Rainer Maria Rilke

To be able to be alone with oneself...is precisely a condition for the ability to live. 
--Erich Fromm

O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all of the suffering they have inflicted upon us: instead remember the fruits we bought, thanks to this suffering – our fellowship, our loyalty to one another, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown from this trouble. When our persecutors come to be judged by you, let all of these fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness. Amen.
--Amazing prayer of forgiveness found on a prisoner at Ravensbruck concentration camp

I took them to the edge and they were afraid.
I took them to the very edge and they were very afraid.
I took them to the edge, and I pushed them, and they flew.
--19th century poet

No two lives are the same. We often compare our lives with those of others, trying to decide whether we are better or worse off, but such comparisons do not help us much. We have to live our life, not someone else’s. We have to hold our own cup. We have to dare to say: ‘This is my life, the life that is given to me, and it is this life that I have to live, as well as I can. My life is unique. Nobody else will ever live it. I have my own history, my own family, my own body, my own character, my own friends, my own way of thinking, speaking, and acting—yes, I have my own life to live.
No one else has the same challenge. I am alone, because I am unique. Many people can help me live my live, but after all is said and done, I have to make my own choices about how to live.
--Henri Nouwen

Overflowing heavens of squandered stars flame brilliantly above your troubles.
Instead of onto your pillows, weep up toward them.
There, at the already weeping, at the ending visage,
slowly thinning out, ravishing worldspace begins.
Who will interrupt, once you force your way there, the current?
No one.
You may panic, and fight that overwhelming course of stars that streams toward you. Breathe.
Breathe the darkness of the earth and again look up!
Again.
Lightly and facelessly depths lean toward you from above.
The serene countenance dissolved in night makes room for yours.
--Rainer Maria Rilke, Paris, April 1913

One learns the pain of others by suffering one’s own pain, by turning inside oneself, by finding one’s own soul... However painful, sorrow is good for the soul....The soul is elastic, like a balloon. It can grow larger through suffering.
--Jerry Sittser

Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace.
–Elbert Hubbard

Mother Teresa on prayer and love

This last year we have been concentrating specifically on the themes of love and prayer. I found Mother Teresa's thoughts to be explosive with practicality - and authority. (I found these quotes on a website I enjoy: Evangelicals for Social Action.)

Everything starts from prayer. Without asking God for love, we cannot possess love and still less are we able to give it to others. Just as people today are speaking so much about the poor but they do not know the poor, we too cannot talk so much about prayer and yet not know how to pray.

You may be exhausted with work, you may even kill yourself, but unless your work is interwoven with love, it is useless. To work without love is slavery.

People throughout the world may look different or have a different religion, education, or position, but they are all the same. They are the people to be loved. They are all hungry for love.

… It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your own home for this is where our love for each other must start.

Timetable for MPVCC

I thought this might be a good reminder of where we've been, where we are, and where we're headed in 2010...

Timeline – Recent Past:
1. Springer Diagnostic Fall 2007
2. Caruso Coaching Contract 01/08
3. Internal Crisis 12/08
4. Intentional Interim Begins 01/09
5. Leader’s SWOT 04/09
6. Springer/Miles/Pittluck Onsite 06/09
7. Diagnostic shared with ET 08/09
8. Diagnostic shared with Leadership Community 09/09
9. Diagnostic shared at town-hall meeting 10/09

Specific Individual Next Steps:
1. Honestly consider the 3 questions…

• Will you face the real issues?
• Will you own up to your part of the problems?
• Will you do what is necessary to change?

2. Take Recommendation 1 very seriously. Read and re-read EHC. Ask a trusted, same sex friend to tell you what they think your core issue/s are. Make a big-picture list of what you can own and share it with trusted friend/s.

3. Make a personal commitment to live out Romans 12:18: “…As far as it depends on you, live [or be] at peace with everyone” and study and practice the 30 “one another’s.” (Click here to see a list at Bible Gateway.)

4. Download and start to develop your own personal vision statement. (Click here to download.)

5. Begin to seek the Lord about the future of MPVCC – first on your own; then with your spouse and age appropriate children if you are married and/or have children, or with a trusted friend; or friends.

6. Order and read The Shepherd Leader by Jim Van Yperen (from the MPVCC web bookstore ☺). This book will help us to identify the kind of leadership polity we are seeking to affirm as a church.

7. Order and read Making Peace: A Guide to Overcoming Church Conflict by Jim Van Yperen.

8. Integrate the term missional into your vocabulary and practice by reading the blog series @ godshack.blogspot.com (search word missional). Check out the books under the missional heading on the MPVCC online bookstore.

9. Seek to attend the to-be-determined corporate intercession times (approx 1 hour of corporate worship and intercession).

Proposed Timeline – Corporate Next Steps (per the Diagnostic Report and Recommendations):

1. Prioritize recommendations
2. The ET to begin functioning immediately as a Board to initiate the process of updating church by-laws through a review of policies & procedures, biblical leadership qualifications, grievance procedures, staff performance reviews, etc.
3. Begin monthly in-service training/equipping with Transition Team (which includes Board and Staff).
4. Continue to develop strong church-wide communication systems.
5. Initiate a season of church-wide prayer and fasting in early 2010.
6. Work with a core team and aim to launch a ministry to men by March or April.
   
7. Update By-Laws by April.
8. Convene a Sacred Assembly by (or before) May.
9. Develop pastoral application packet and establish and train a Search Team no latter than May.
10. Aim to set in a new lead pastor by (or before) the Fall.
11. Get to know each other, welcome new people, and have some fun along the way ☺

Advent Devo - Prep for the Kingdom

On MPVCC's blogsite we will provide the occasional devotional as we prepare our hearts to deeply celebrate the incarnation. (The following has been was adapted from Advent Devotions by Goshen College.)

Luke 3:1-6 (NRSV)
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

'The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." '

DEVO:
Prepare the way of the Lord. Do you remember the opening scene from the play Godspell? The show begins with the Voice of God declaring his supremacy: "My name is Known God and King. I am most in majesty, in whom no beginning may be and no end." The company enters and takes the role of various philosophers throughout the ages: Socrates, Thomas Aquinas, Leonardo da Vinci, Edward Gibbon, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Luther, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Buckminster Fuller (In the revival, Gibbon, Luther, Nietzsche and Fuller were replaced by Galileo Galilei, Jonathan Edwards, Marianne Williamson, and L. Ron Hubbard). They sing fragments of their respective philosophies — first as solos and then in cacophonous counterpoint — in "Tower of Babble (Prologue)." In response to this, John the Baptist blows three notes on the shofar, to call the community to order. He then beckons them to "Prepare Ye (The Way of the Lord)," and baptizes the company. Jesus comes, also to be baptized. John responds by, instead, asking to be baptized by Jesus. Jesus explains that it is not his place to baptize; that he has come to "Save the People".

We hear this passage from Luke, and the Old Testament Scripture to which it alludes (Isaiah 40:3-5), almost exclusively during the weeks leading up to Christmas, when we celebrate Jesus' birth. Yet this chapter of Luke jumps us ahead about 30 years, to shortly before Jesus' baptism. John the Baptist is not proclaiming Jesus' birth but rather Jesus' imminent ministry. And once Jesus comes on the scene a few verses later, he too prepares for what is to come with baptism, prayer, fasting and self-imposed exile into the desert.

Preparation for the Kingdom of God seems to be a continual and repetitive process, something we do even as we attempt to live out that Kingdom.

It reminds me of the old saying that if we wait to have children until we're truly ready, we'll never actually have them. Preparing the way of the Lord doesn't end when Advent ends, but begins anew and continues - until all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

This passage also reminds us that God is concerned with all of humanity, not just the chosen few.

Luke's list of important people in verses 1-3 not only placed John and Jesus in the proper historical context, but also highlighted the fact that Old Testament prophecy would not be fulfilled through the existing power structures, neither Roman nor Jewish. Instead, it would be heralded by a relative unknown who had been wandering around in the wilderness. Moreover, Jesus' life and ministry would challenge existing traditions, beliefs and notions of religious propriety. Were the people of that time ready for the kind of salvation that didn't conform to what was culturally and socially acceptable?

What about you/us today?

Thoughts on Faith and the Existence of God

I started physical therapy for my new hip the other day and began a dialogue with the PT about spirituality.  One portion of out talk reminded me of one of my long-time favorite authors and articles...The late Christian author and philosopher Francis Schaeffer wrote a book entitled, He Is There and He Is Not Silent. There is an appendix in the book that addresses the issue of faith and whether or not we have the capacity to interact with God.  I thought I'd pass it on...

Schaeffer would say that the Christian faith is not a blind faith at all – but an invitation to interact with a loving and compassionate God - who is alive and more available than we could ever imagine.

He says, “One must analyze the word faith and see that it can mean two completely opposite things.
Suppose we are climbing in the Alps and are very high on the bare rock, and suddenly the fog shuts down. The guide turns to us and says that the ice is forming and that there is no hope; before morning we will all freeze to death here on the shoulder of the mountain. Simply to keep warm the guide keeps us moving in the dense fog further out on the shoulder until none of us have any idea where we are. After an hour or so, someone says to the guide, ‘Suppose I dropped and hit a ledge ten feet down in the fog. What would happen then?’ The guide would say that you might make it until morning and thus live. So, with absolutely no knowledge or any reason to support his action, one of the group hangs and drops into the fog. This would be one kind of faith, a leap of faith [or what has been called “blind faith”].

Suppose however, after we have worked out on the shoulder in the midst of the fog and the growing ice on the rock, we had stopped and heard a voice which said, ‘You cannot see me, but I know exactly where you are from your voices. I am on another ridge. I have lived in these mountains, man and boy, for over sixty years and I know every foot of them. I assure you that ten feet below you there is a ledge. If you hang and drop, you can make it through the night and I will get you in the morning.’

I would not hang and drop at once, but I would ask questions to try and ascertain if the man knew what he was talking about and if he was not my enemy. In the Alps, for example, I would ask him his name. If the name he gave me was the name of a family from that part of the mountains, it would count a great deal to me. In the Swiss Alps there are certain family names that indicate mountain families of that area. In my desperate situation, even though time was running out, I would ask him what to me would be adequate and sufficient questions, and when I became convinced by his answers, then I would hang and drop.

This is faith, but obviously it has no relationship to the other use of the word. As a matter of fact, if one of these is called faith, the other should not be designated by the same word. The historic Christian faith is not a leap of faith [or blind faith] …because He is not silent, and I am invited to ask the adequate and sufficient questions, not only in regard to details, but also in regard to the existence of the universe and its complexity and in regard to the existence of man. I am invited to ask adequate questions and sufficient questions and then believe Him and bow before Him metaphysically in knowing that I exist because He made man, and bow before Him morally as needing His provision for me in the substitutionary, propitiatory death of Christ.

So, how do we hear from God?  If you've been around MPVCC this year, no doubt you've heard me (and others) teach on this a lot!  I've also blogged fairly regularly on the subject.  Here is a link to one of those blogs - you can also type "listen" into the blog's search engine...

HappyAdvent Season!