I believe that God created every single person very lovingly to be unique.

How we are shaped – who we are – defines how we connect. First, it defines how we connect with God to receive and reciprocate the perfect love that God is. Second, it defines how we connect with others, fitting in to God’s redemptive plan for His creation.

Joy is a natural response that we experience when those two connections are as God designed them to be.

Those connections are hindered by sin and as a result our response, our ability to experience joy, is muted.

But there are times when we experience true joy, pure joy the way that God intended. Moments where our heart sings in ways that we hardly can believe (yet always have longed for).

In those moments we are closest to be-ing as God intended us to be.

In those moments every aspect of our being resonates powerfully in response to every single detail of the situation.

A look. A laugh. The smells of a cool summer night. A thought. A smile. A glimpse. The warmth of the lights shining up on the stage. The stroke of the brush or the sound of your fingers hammering on the keyboard. The presence of a friend. A word. Even the silence and the stillness.

All of it gently shaking you and you vibrating wildly the way that you are meant to.

Pay attention in these moments for in them we find clues to what God made us to be.

I’m not necessarily talking about your calling or your purpose in life. I’m talking about the gift that God has given you by making you able to receive Him. By connecting in these moments we are connecting with Him. And in these moments we get a glimpse of how this world is supposed to be.

What are your moments?

Here is one of mine.

Our doctor’s office building is home to a number of different facilities for various medical services, for the most part, it is a one-stop-shop for basic medical needs. In our two years with them, we’ve really only spent time in four areas of the center (listed in order of amount of time spent, greatest to least): the doctor’s offices (including the waiting area), the pharmacy, the play area , and radiology (for various, pregnancy-related ultrasounds).

The Beauty Doctor

Situated between the doctor’s offices and the pharmacy is offices for one of the specialists. Since most of our visits involve both seeing a doctor and visiting the pharmacy, we walk through their waiting area all the time. Want to know what it is?

The Center for Aesthetics.

That’s what it’s called. And if you haven’t had your coffee yet and don’t get what it is, let me explain it better: it’s the plastic surgery offices.

I have mixed feelings about plastic surgery. I don’t think it’s inherently bad or solely exists to profit off people’s vanities. Plastic surgeons who do reconstructive work often are a tremendous blessing to their patients: restoring corporeal functionality, reducing the risk of long term health complications, saving people from enduring shame by correcting birth defects. I know of a specific ministry in China that shares the love of Christ through performing reconstructive surgery for children in remote villages with cleft-palates. Plastic surgery is neither inherently good or inherently evil. It is, as they say, what it is.

But the vanity side exists, and that’s what the Center of Aesthetics is about. Everything about their waiting room exudes vanity, from their selection of magazines, their attractive women working the desk, the various signs and brochures with sleek and bold fonts that yell loudly at your insecurities with words like: FACE, BREAST, BODY, SKIN. (Man, I can’t wait to see who finds this blog through search now.)

The Unintentional (or maybe it is intentional) Result

What occurred to me as I was dragging my two year old daughter through the waiting area so I could pick up one of our many prescriptions was that a series of simple business decisions by the health plan’s management has numerous repercussions that most people normally wouldn’t think about and unfortunately, even if they did, probably wouldn’t care about. The Center for Aesthetics is a business that needs a place to operate. The owners of the medical facility probably offer a number benefits for being there. They had space between the Family Practice and the pharmacy. It’s win-win.

But think about this, because of the age of our children, we as partents spend a lot of time explaining the context of the things that we do. When we go to the doctor, we tell our daughter why we’re going, what the doctor does, what will happen while we’re there, what will happen as a result of what the doctor does. This is how we teach our children about the world.

I realized the other day that, from this perspective we are teaching our daughter these things:
What does a doctor do? Makes people better.
Why do people need to get better? They are sick, something is not right with their body.
You go to the doctor because something is not right with you.

So what is my daughter learning about the world when we go to the health center and she sees that there is a doctor for your health AND s a doctor for your beauty? If one doctor, the one we go to, makes you healthy, doesn’t it stand to reason that the other doctor’s job is to make you beautiful?

The Lies the World Teaches My Children

Am I over thinking this? Probably.

I know that despite my best efforts, I can not stop the barrage of negative impressions that our culture will make upon my kids. But I’m still going to try. I’m their dad. It is glorious responsibility I’ve been given. I love them, so I’m going to do something about it.

So what to do? I believe there are four things we need to do, not just for our kids, but in general as a people called to love the world’s inhabitants without loving the world.

Four Things We Must Do As Parents

1. See the world through different eyes

We all interpret the world against the background of our own values, experiences, and beliefs. As you get older, the things of this world become more and more “natural” and we cease to “see” most of what is before our eyes.

But children see the world through different eyes. They don’t have context to understand most of what they experience yet, let alone the ability to anticipate how they are being affected by it. I’ve written before how kingdom strategists need to look at things from different angles in order to anticipate that which is might not be obvious.

As parents, we must see the world as our kids see it and use our own experiences and especially our knowledge of the kingdom of God to help them to appropriately identify how what they experience will draw them further away from God.

2. Filter

I know that I can not keep my kids from being exposed to all of the negative things of this world. As much as I desire to protect their innocence, I know that there is just too much hurt and pain and sin in this world to be able to do so. I also know that I will damage them more if they grow up sheltered because they will not be prepared to handle the reality of the world whenever they eventually encounter it.

So instead we must filter the negative aspects as much as we can. That mean knowing how your kids may be exposed to it, minimizing their exposure, and being prepared to address negativity with the Gospel.

Since we have insufficient resources to give everything our kids are exposed to the Gospel treatment, filtering is like spiritual triage: quickly prioritizing how critical something is in terms of it’s impact on our kid’s spiritual well-being in order to know how to appropriately treat it.

I’ll give you an example. My kids go to an in-home daycare run by a Christian woman. While there our kids sing Christian songs, pray, and talk about God (along with all the normal kid-things: yelling, playing, going potty, eating, napping, etc.). They also do things that I’m not 100 percent confident in, like watching TV or playing with Barbies.

Instead of pulling them out of daycare, I make a point to filter these things in order to limit the negative impact of their exposure. As a result, we don’t watch TV with the kids at nights or on the weekends. I make a point of talking to my daughter about Barbie telling her that Barbie is just a toy and that God did not create people to look like that. To me, these filters help to identify and address the subtle lies of this world that seek to distort how my kids see themselves.

3. Expose the lies

The third thing we need to do as parents is to expose the lies of Satan and the world. Left unaddressed, my daughter could grow up with believing the subtle lie that she is not beautiful but a doctor can make her so. That lies is a seed that have been planted in her heart. It could take root and grow into a weed that chokes out the life-giving truth that is Jesus Christ. I see that this could happen, she does not. She doesn’t know any better… she’s two.

I must make a point to open her eyes to these things. There is a reason why Satan hides his lies in inconspicuous places, he does not want us to see them. He wants them obscured in darkness, that way they are free to do their life-stealing work. It is my job as a dad to shine a light upon the lies.

4. Reveal the truth

That light is the Gospel. That light is the truth of who God is, who we are as His creation and because of sin we aren’t working the way we should be, and what He is doing to set it right through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

The truth of the Gospel is that no human doctor can make my daughter beautiful. She already is beautiful. Her beauty is the precious gift of the Creator of the entire universe who loves her so intimately and so perfectly that it makes my love for her seem completely meaningless. And I’m okay with that.

The truth of the Gospel is that whatever may be wrong with her is not the result of physical shortcomings that can be corrected by the things of this world. Her shortcomings are the result of sin and disease and they will have no power over her if she believes that Jesus Christ died for her.

The truth of the Gospel is that her body will run down and ultimately fail her. But she will be given a new body, one so healthy, so beautiful that nothing in this world could ever compare.

The truth of the Gospel is that this world, all the good and the bad in it (even her father who treasures her in ways that even he doesn’t comprehend), has no claim over her. She does not belong to this world… and for that I’m glad.

For in the truth of the Gospel we are set free, we are made beautiful, we are redeemed and restored to God. And Satan is fighting very very hard, overtly and covertly, to keep that from happening.

We need to open our eyes and see the things around us that are eroding our efforts to advance the kingdom of God. How about you? What subtle lies exist around you that aren’t immediately obvious?

The Story:

In April/May of 2007, my dad (Michael John Ring) was diagnosed with lung cancer. The news was particularly devastating because: a) he isn’t that old (59 at the time) b) my dad has never smoked in his life; c) he is the father of two young children (five and three years old at the time of his diagnosis); and d) numerous members of his family have also had various kinds of cancer (including his first wife Peggy who passed away in 1997 and his second son Kevin (a.k.a. me) who was diagnosed and treated for Seminoma in 1999).

Fast forward to fall 2009, my dad gets the news that his cancer is not responding to the latest round of chemotherapy. His options are to try a more aggressive dosage of chemo (doctors aren’t sure that this treatment will completely eradicate his cancer; rather, they expect it will prolong his life for an unspecified duration (think months, years maybe) while decreasing the quality of said life due to the poisonous side-effects of chemotherapy) or he can let the cancer do it’s thing.

Given the options of #1 further treatment with uncertain (and low)  probability of success or #2 suspend treatment and enjoy what remains of your life; my dad opts for #2.

As difficult as it is, I support that decision for a number of reasons.

1. He’s lived a full life, had the fortune of meeting, falling in love with, and marrying to great women; he has raised five children; he’s had a fruitful career (he’s been on-again, off-again… on-again retired for about 10 years now), and is not harboring any deep pain/regrets/unsatisfied dreams that leave him unfulfilled.

2. I, having been treated for cancer, know a sliver of what chemotherapy is like. I’ve had radiation treatment and it was by far the WORST physical experience I think I’ve ever endured. Multiply that by a BAZILLION for chemotherapy. No thank you. If there is a probability of success, then yes it is worth enduring. A friend of mine who is an oncology nurse said to me that he completely supports this thinking. He’s seen people at the end of their lives who are suffering through chemotherapy treatment. He said that it is a horrible, horrible thing that no person should ever experience. I agree. As difficult as it is to face the thought of my dad passing away – I still struggle today with the death of my mother – I cannot selfishly wish such suffering upon him.

3. My dad is a stand up guy, has endured many hardships in his life while maintaining his integrity and selfless service to the people he loves. As far as I’m concerned, he has (for lack of a better term) earned the right to do whatever he wants.

The Idea:

In this time period I get the idea to record a series of interviews with my dad, asking him questions about life, our family, and what it’s like to no longer be able to delude yourself that you are, in fact, invincible.

I nervously ask my dad’s permission to delve into his 61 years on this earth, fully expecting him to think it isn’t a good idea…

… and (surprisingly, at least to me) he’s all for it.

As you’ll see in the video, he’s sorry that he missed the opportunity to ask his parents questions about their lives and their families. He sees this as an opportunity to make sure that the future generations of the Ring family have a record of where they came from.

Fast forward a month or so (it’s taken me this long to get my act together), today my father and I recorded the first two of what will be a number of video conversations. The first (posted here) is a brief introduction to the project . The second (which I’ll post soon) starts by looking at my dad’s childhood.

I hope that through this we get to speak about a number of things that otherwise I wouldn’t have the opportunity (or the guts) to talk to my dad about. I guarantee at some point during this I will cry. My dad’s probably going to share some embarrassing stories about me. Basically, I’m putting myself out there… and that aspect scares me (hence why it’s taken me so long to get my act together).

But in the end, I hope you get to know the Mike Ring that I know, love, and respect. There really are a lot of stand-up men in this world but you seldom hear about them. It’s an honor to get to introduce this one to you. I hope you enjoy!

Click here to go up to the video.

Click here to check out all the interviews in the Conversations With My Dad series.

p.s. If you have any questions you want me to ask, please leave them in the comments. I’ll be happy to do so (assuming they are appropriate, serious, and g-rated).

p.p.s. An update on my dad’s health. Around mid-January 2010 my dad visited a research hospital to see if they had any recommendations regarding treatment options that otherwise aren’t available. They’ve recommended a new regimen of chemotherapy that he started last Monday, January 25th. So, for now, treatment continues.

My sister has fought depression and anxiety pretty much her entire adult life. It’s not my place to share the details but it’s been pretty intense at times and for many years I have played an active role in trying to help her.

Depression is an ugly thing that steals the light and the beauty from God’s creation.

I don’t want what I’m about to talk about to be misconstrued as a commentary on what causes depression. Nor am I endorsing or discounting different types of treatment; the merits of one treatment over another should be determined by the patient, their doctor, and their loved ones. Over the years, we tried some things work and others that were disastrous.

To me depression is a lot like diabetes in that some core problem(s) creates a series of additional problems that become intertwined and become increasingly difficult to treat. With depression, these problems aren’t just physical, they affect you mentally, spiritually, and socially.

I believe that a the root of all of the factors that contribute to depression is that fact that because of sin we are separated from God. We were not designed to be separated from God and as a result we are physically, mentally, and socially out of whack. Depression is just one of the many afflictions where this is affect is magnified to debilitating proportions.

The cure? No, that’s bad terminology. The resolution is God’s final redemption of creation achieved through Jesus Christ who bore our sin and all of its effects in order to free us from its bondage. When will that happen, no one knows. Until then, the hope for healing begins with faith in Jesus. Only the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has the power to create any real transformation in this life.

Why am I writing about this? Because I see the desperate need for Gospel transformation in my sister’s life. Over the years, I have seen her put her faith in false god after false god, relying on the empty promises and temporary relief of everything from medication to relationships as her hope for relief. And every time, without fail, these things fail her. And each time her misplaced faith is shattered, it leaves her more and more despondent.

She’s going through it again. She (like many people) falsely believes that a child will provide her the joy that is missing in her life. I know what that feels like. I idolize my children; it’s a constant struggle for me to not let their importance in my life become an ultimate thing.

Why am I sharing this here? Because I can’t keep it inside. Right now I am being tossed around like a rag doll by life. And that’s okay. It’s frustrating and exhausting but it’s okay. I love my sister and I know deep down that she needs to hear the truth about God. The God who loves her so much that he became man, endured hurt, betrayal, fear, abandonment, torture, and death. And more over, that man willingly gave up his perfect union with God, the source of life and love, enduring a hell far greater than anything she or I or anyone will ever experience. All so that she can be restored to the fullness that God created in her and for her. That is the truth that she needs to hear.

It’s so much easier to write it here than to say it out loud. Let alone to actually say it to my sister.

Maybe part of my hesitation is that I know that whatever I say won’t make her depression go away. It won’t make her life any easier. The challenges of this life will still exist. I feel (and have always felt) pretty helpless to relieve her suffering.

But she will no longer be a slave to life’s suffering. It is freedom that I need to share with her. How can she find relief is she isn’t free.

So, friend(s), if you pray, would you mind praying for my sister? Pray for her heart, that life would be born again within it and that life would flow throughout the rest of her body and her life. Pray for her husband too. He’s a good guy.

And would you pray for me? Pray that I wouldn’t be such a chicken and a brute. Pray that I would claim the power that has been given to us and that the Holy Spirit would work powerfully through me however he will to bless my sister.

Thanks.

p.s. Having people in your family who suffer with depression is particularly worrisome when you yourself are going through rough times.

1. Write a really awesome retrospective post.
2. Write a post highlighting your top content from the past year.

Check and check.

To be honest, far too many things have gone on offline for me this year that I never expected: starting my own strategic consulting business, my second child being born, my sister getting married, becoming an elder at my church, my dad’s cancer worsening… all of which I’m still reeling from and trying to sort through. So I decided that my retrospective should take a different tone. So I wrote about squirrels.

As for my review of popular posts, I only wrote 39 posts this year so I’m conflicted as to what I should include. But nonetheless, here are the top 10 Kingdom Strategist posts from 2009 (based on popularity):

1. Facebook’s popularity and your church’s social media strategy

   // This is by far the most read thing that I wrote this year. I attribute it’s popularity to two things:

   • #1. Piggybacking off of Cynthia Ware and Drew Goodmanson’s popularity. I was fortunate enough to work with these two amazing people researching how social media is helping the church be the church.
   • #2. The surprisingly low competition over the keywords “church” and “social media”. I fully expect this to change in 2010 as more and more people move into this space. But I got the content, the traffic, and the inbound links because I posted this early.

2. State of the Church Online – Research Findings

   // My response to Drew and Cynthia’s seminar on church social media usage plus further analysis. I guess people like this stuff.

3. Tim Keller’s new blog and a triperspectival analysis of today’s church movements.

   // I wrote this post because I’m a fan of Tim Keller, John Frame’s triperspectivalism, and the global church. So when Tim Keller writes a post using triperspectivalism to assess different church movements you can bet I’m all over it.

4. Considerations for developing a Business as Mission strategy

   // This post developed out of a project I did for a missions organization developing the foundation for them to engage in Business as Mission.

5. 15 Reasons “Church Online” Should Be Debated

   // I consider this an important piece simply because I believe it’s true. Proponents and opponents for whether churches can exist online both seem to have developed strong positions on the issue but there doesn’t seem to be much debate. Paul Steinbrueck at OurChurch.com did a great series diving deeper into the issue, but other than that most of what people are say about online church is either why or how. There needs to be more “what if?”

6. Some Thoughts on Leadership

   // My pent-up frustration at the hypocrisy and self-indulgence of the Christian leadership circle.

7. Book Review | The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning

   // A book review I wrote as part of the Ooze’s Viral Bloggers program. I love the way Brennan Manning describes the power and beauty of God’s grace.

8. Have you ever seen a broken heart?

   // I wrote this after breaking up a fight between two boys at my church’s neighborhood youth outreach ministry. I hate the hurt that exists in the world.

9. Update on Stuff Christians Like Building a Kindergarten in Vietnam

   // This was the second of two posts I wrote on the day Jon Acuff and Stuff Christians Like raised $30,000 in one day to build a kindergarten in Vietnam. That was an amazing day and I was blessed to be able to take part.

10. Well done, good and faithful servant!

    // This was the first post I wrote the morning the Stuff Christian’s Like started fundraising to build a school with Samaritan’s Purse in Vietnam. I had seen Jon Acuff a few weeks before and he had mentioned he was working on this so it was amazing to see how it exploded over the course of the day.

So there it is, the top 10 Kingdom Strategist posts from 2009. What will 2010 hold? I don’t know, but here are a few things I’m working on for the blog.
A complete redesign of the site – I don’t have money to hire a designer and I love learning new things so I’ve taken it upon myself to design and build the next version of this site. Who knows when it will launch…

• A bunch of posts tracking with the Excellence in Online Ministry project that I am leading and presenting at the 2010 Christian Leadership Alliance Ministry and Internet Technology Summit. In addition to what I’ll be posting at the State of Ministry Online website, I’ll be including special content here.
• Findings from the State of the Church Online | Member Community and Social Network research project I completed this summer. I’ve been working on the final report for this for awhile now so I’m looking forward to being able to share some of the results here.
• Conversations with my dad – a series of video interviews with my father, asking him questions about his life. This is a way for us to chronicle his life and pr3eserve a lot of our family history. Plus it’s a chance for us to process and mourn the final stages of his battle with lung cancer. This is not something I’m happy to be doing but I know it’s important and I especially want my kids to be able to know their Grandpa Ring when they’re older.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to continuing to serve you in 2010. Feel free to leave me any suggestions for posts in the comment section below.

Have a happy and safe New Year! -Kevin

The one of the main things I like about Jon (other than his ability to pull off the “down-filled vest” look) is that he gets that the point of all of this is not just to have a blog, not just to be funny. The point is to use what God has given us to love and serve others all over the world and in doing so, proclaim Christ as King to the nations. We are to use our influence to glorify God and advance the Kingdom.

Jon gets that. (In case you’re thinking it’s not that big of a deal, go read his blog. The reasons Christians “like” all that “stuff” is because we don’t always get it.) So that’s why I like Jon. And the vest thing. And because he knows there’s more to books than just the content on the pages. But I digress.

While at Cultivate Jon mentioned that God has put something huge on his heart and that he was beginning to work on this new project and hoping to use the scale and reach of SCL to make it happen. Today Jon announced that the Stuff Christians Like blog community is building a school in Vietnam.

Cool, right?

Jon is asking his readers to join with him and Samaritan’s Purse to build a school in Vietnam. Kind of like this one:

Want to help bild a school like this one for the kids in Vietnam?

If you want to be part of something big, bless the people of Vietnam, and have a few laughs along the way, head over to Stuff Christians Like, read about the project and add your support by either donating or sharing this with your friends. Thanks.

Link to Jon’s post on Stuff Christian’s Like: http://stuffchristianslike.net/2009/11/this-cant-be-real/

I’ve been thinking a lot about this in the context of strategy, well honestly I’ve been thinking about it in the context of a lot of things: life, relationships, entrepreneurship, parenting, ministry… because DON’T BONK is great advice for anyone who strives to create impact in the world, be it in your community, the  marketplace, or your own home. It’s advice that is especially poignant and pertinent in my life right now as I run the race that has been laid out for me.I am a husband, a father of two children under the age of two,  an elder in my church, and starting my own business. See, I have decided to live a life of significance and I believe that I am called to make a difference in whatever roles God has called me to. And right now that means serving his Kingdom in my family, in my church and community, and in the companies and ministries that my company serves. As anyone in similar roles would tell you, each is a lot of work and takes a great deal of time, energy and effort to do well.

Believe me, the demands of doing all four at the same time are often overwhelming. My effectiveness is under constant attack from the demands and chaos that come with the territory as a father, as a husband, as a business owner, as a servant of the Church, in addition to the physical drain that comes from responding to those demands. On top of all of this, the enemy preys on my position and is constantly beleaguering me and my wife, tempting us and doing everything in his power to distract and separate us from the one true Source of life and power from which any impact I have in any of these areas comes.

I read recently that Alcoholics Anonymous advises its members to avoid becoming hungry, angry, or tired in order to avoid succumbing to the allure of alcohol and backsliding. I believe that this wisdom applies not only to resisting the temptation of alcohol but to all sins. I have noticed that my ability to meet the demands of my roles, to faithfully endure, centered in Christ and (very simply) be steadfast in my faith is seriously compromised whenever I am hungry, angry, or tired. I confess that I frequently succumb to my own sinfulness because I lack the energy to push through. I BONK.

For me, the conundrum is knowing what I can do about it (and having the energy to do it). And though there are a number of things that I can and will give attention to that create a conducive environment for faith to be sustained, I think the one thing that is most important and upon which any other bit of advice would be based is knowing that Christ endured far more in our place.

I am constantly learning the extent of the truth in Christ’s words in 2 Corinthians 12 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” .  So remember these things as you try and fail or as you struggle to keep up with the whirlwind of demands facing you or when you are hungry, angry, tired:

Christ has claimed victory over everything

Sin, death, evil, failure, frustration, exhaustion. Christ’s perfect life, death on the cross, resurrection from the grave, and ascension into Heaven have broke all power of this world over you. Rest in His grace.

You are not able to or supposed to be perfect in this time.

Sin still exists and you are still sinful creatures. Christ alone is perfect and it is His perfection alone through which we are made righteous. Do not view this as license to be imperfect. We are called to be perfect. Just remember whose power enables any and all good that you can do.

Focus on avoiding becoming hungry, angry, or tired.

Said differently, do not give the devil a foothold in your life. Spend time with God, through prayer, through worship, through study of the Word. Prioritize these things so that there is not room for doubt or lies to take hold in your heart. Faith, the power to endure, is a gift from God. Do not shut off the ways He has given us to come to Him and receive it.

Christ has called us into community so that we do not have to suffer through hardships alone.

We have a Great Counselor who is with us. We need to have a community of fellow believers who can lift us up, bear our burdens, preach love to us. Do not foolishly think that you are alone.

Boast in your weakness because it is in these times that Christ’s power is most visible and most beautiful to the rest of this world.

Do not hide from failure. Do not pretend to be something that you are not. For our weakest moments can be the greatest opportunity to be a witness to Christ’s love. Imagine what it would be like to suffer and not be assured by Christ’s love. Your weakness can be an opportunity to bring you close to others who also suffer, but suffer without hope. Letting others see Christ’s love shine in you in your times of weakness will help them to see that the light is missing from their own lives.

Shine on. Don’t bonk.

Now is a time in the church when we need to ask ourselves if we are willing to sacrifice our empire to help strengthen the kingdom, what we call the global church – the body of Jesus.

It’s important to note that he is not devaluing the process of empire-building. I think Mr. Steward would agree that collaborative effort toward a common vision, group goals, authority structures, rules and procedures are not bad. Instead, he is making a key distinction which is has to do with our orientation.

In an empire, our internal, personal goals define how we fit within the empire’s structure. Our goals are either aligned with those of the empire and we end up thriving. Or our goals are subjugated and are oppressed by the system. Either way, as individuals we are oriented inwardly towards our self and let our own desires drive how we interact with the world.

In the Kingdom, we are called to abandon completely our internal orientation and solely focus externally: first on God, then on others (Matthew 22:37-40). Jesus says in Matthew 10:39 “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Only by focusing externally can our efforts have any significance or can we build something that lasts. Empires will fall.

The point that Mr. Steward makes is that in God’s Kingdom, we all have been given a specific role to fulfill, focused on accomplishing God’s goals by loving and serving others – the very essence of Kingdom strategy!

Who am I? How have I been shaped? What is God’s will for my life? What have I been called to do? What opportunities am I facing? Which people can I love and serve, both right now and in the future? Given all of this, what is the best way for me to serve? This is your Kingdom strategy.

It all starts with a change in orientation from internal to external. Dying to yourself so that you can live for Christ and others! This is how the Kingdom is being built right now. Without this shift, though, all we are doing is building empires that can not and will not last.

“We often speak about wanting to be light in the darkness. America… has plenty of darkness, although it masquerades as light. Are we really providing illumination? Could we do a better job of being love in the midst of ambivalence, hostility, and fear, or of delivering wisdom in the middle of a confusing and distracted culture?” –George Barna

The Seven Faith Tribes by George Barna

I am not sure what George Barna set out to achieve by writing “The Seven Faith Tribes” given that the book is a combination multiple themes: a segmentation analysis of the American population based on spiritual beliefs and behaviors, social commentary on the decline of American culture, a call for Christians to live differently by embracing love and service to others, and laying a foundation for a vision of how society can be restored. My challenge with this book was that Barna addresses each of these themes with a different tone (stark and alarmist when decrying the decline of America’s culture, analytical and moderated when discussing statistical differences between the faith tribes) and their juxtaposition made the book feel inconsistent.

But, Barna does tie the points together and reflecting on the book I do feel that the message of this book is good and important, even if that wasn’t always clear during the process of reading it.

The point

The point is (in retrospect) very straightforward:

• American culture is declining; the composition of America’s society contributes to the decline AND influences how the problem might be addressed;
• addressing the problem needs to begin with aligning the values and worldviews of the different segments of society;
• from there, leaders must be selected based on the values that they must embody;
• changing the culture and role of the media in society will be necessary;
• the role of American families is crucial and many family-specific challenges need to be addressed;
• success depends on all of society working together, building on the success of the past while preserving the opportunity and potential of the future.

What to expect from the book

The book is 195 pages long. Barna has a fairly straight-forward writing style, though he does attempt to reach the reader at an emotional level and introduces a variety of tones (alarmist, voice of doom, down to earth, conciliatory, harmonious, etc.). My fear is that because the different sections are not consistent in theme and tone, it is difficult for most readers to maintain the attention span necessary to explore Barna’s argument from start to finish. Only focusing on one or two sections of this book isn’t dangerous; however, on their own, the sections do not achieve what they do when put together.

For example, the first chapter “America Is on the Path to Self-Destruction” is intentionally alarmist (as you can tell by the title) in order to (I assume) draw the reader in and evoke some reaction that compels them keep reading and to assign a level of importance to what Barna has to say. All fine and good. However, isolated from the rest of the book, the chapter sounds very similar to the morally superior and self-righteous rants of “Christian” pundits that have shaped most of the opinions that non-Christians have of Christianity. Absent of the plea for love, humility and service that is represented in later chapters, this chapter paints a very cold picture.

Which wouldn’t be a problem (who cares if George Barna is a crotchety naysayer? — he isn’t) except that Barna very clearly positions himself as a Christian in this book. Thus, the attitudes in the first chapter become representative of Christian attitudes. Fortunately, Barna presents a more accurate representation of how a Christian is called to address the problem of a declining society in chapter 13 “Faith Tribes Must Pull Their Weight”. Again, you have to read the whole book to appreciate to see the picture Barna paints. I’m not optimistic that most people will read the whole book.

Implications for a Kingdom Strategist

First, this book incorporates an excellent framework for developing a kingdom strategy. It addresses key issues such as:

• what is the environment in which we’re operating and which considerations have the greatest influence on our ability to achieve our Kingdom goals;
• what type of leadership is most effective for creating the kind of revolutionary transformation in peoples’ lives, in society, and in culture that results from seeking God’s Kingdom;
• how do understand others’ worldview and values so that we can share the Gospel in a way the contextual relevant; (to give an example of this, a missionary friend in Thailand describes the importance of Karma in the people’s faith system there. So when sharing the Gospel, they tell how Jesus came to wipe everyone’s Karma clean forever. Sharing the Gospel in this context helps the people they are trying to serve both hear the message and comprehend the power within it.)
• how to incorporate aspects of history and culture without becoming slaves to them.

Second, this book presents research on American society segmented by spiritual beliefs and behaviors.  This research helps us to better understand the people we are called to love and serve. Such research should always be the first step in developing a Kingdom strategy. Research creates a foundation of knowledge from which we can determine the best ways to achieve the Kingdom goals we are striving for.

More importantly, we are called to love our neighbor as we do ourselves (Matthew 22:39) and to love each other as Christ loved us (John 15:12). How did Christ love us? By engaging us, knowing the condition of our hearts and lives, speaking truth in love, and giving infinitely of himself for us. In life, in ministry, in business, in whatever, research is how we are able to engage others, to gather information and insight about their lives and situations, and to understand their worldview, values and beliefs so that we can speak truth in love. Making the effort through research demonstrates that we value the other person, who they are, what their story is. It gives us opportunity to know them and thus love them and treat them with the same dignity as God, our Father, who knows each one of us perfectly because he created us.

Perhaps the most significant value of Barna’s book is that the core research presented in it equips us with knowledge and insight needed to fulfill our calling.

Cynthia Ware and Drew Goodmanson hosted a Webinar today reviewing findings from an exploratory survey we did on Church and Christian Social Networks. The slides from the presentation can be found here. Some key findings:

1. Facebook was the most used Church Web Media strategy.
2. Of the Christian Social Networking sites reviewed 82% of respondents had no awareness that they existed.

Number 1 is interesting given that Twitter has surpassed Facebook as the top social networking tool for business marketers. Especially because Twitter posted 76 percent growth (in unique visitors) last month compared to Facebook’s 23 percent. (Source: Compete)

Check out Twitter’s growth velocity compared to Facebook’s:

Just as valuable as the findings discussed in the Webinar was Cynthia’s introduction where she highlighted many of the characteristics of social media that have a significant impact on how the church can serve in this world. One thing that stands out to me when I look at those key findings is the overwhelming awareness in the church market of Facebook yet very little brand awareness of comparable tools designed specifically for churches. You might chalk this disconnect up to ineffective marketing strategies but I believe it points to a more crucial issue which is: churches aren’t approaching social media strategically.

I speak to this in my previous post: Facebook’s popularity and your church’s social media strategy, and Cynthia addressed part of this in her introduction. Social media (as an industry) has a clockspeed that exceeds most church leader’s ability to keep up. Basically, things happen in social media (new tools are introduced, trends emerge, etc.) faster than most other industries. And the church, when faced with the onslaught of new information about social media, has a difficult time identifying the relevant insights on which a successful church strategy should be based.

So instead of churches taking a strategic approach to social networking by:

1. understanding theological and Biblical interpretations of technology as a culture and as a ministry tool,
2. applying that understanding to the church’s existing Kingdom strategy to determine key goals for a social media strategy,
3. identifying the relevant factors, needs, and motivations of the people the church is trying to serve (both within its congregation and without) that can be met through a social media strategy,
4. and developing a social media strategy that fits within the strengths and limitations of the church’s staff and volunteers.

Churches dive headlong into social media (primarily on Facebook and more and more on Twitter), investing their time and their churches reputation without a solid sense of how exactly their efforts are going to redeem lives and bring glory to God.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not discourage churches from engaging this aspect of culture. I agree with what Cynthia said in her introduction:

If lifestreaming becomes commonplace, let’s add our voices to the landscape.

I just want us to be good stewards. The Parable of the Minas (Luke 19:12-27) teaches that good servants are good stewards. The need for churches to better understand this topic was driven home by a side discussion during the presentation:

According to our survey respondents, the top 5 requested Features/Functionality sought in a Church/Christian social network solution are:

1. Ability to find, register, and/or get details for events.
2. Ability to post prayer requests or needs.
3. Ability to find serving opportunities at the church based on interest or gifts.
4. Ability to join and interact with home/bible study groups.
5. Integration with existing church website.

Look at number 2. During the Webinar two different church tech leaders commented that their members hardly used the Prayer Request function on their site. Yet, the majority of church leaders surveyed indicated that this was a key feature.

Is there a disconnect? I don’t know. There are a number of factors about the two church examples that could have contributed to their experiences. Or maybe church technology leaders believe their members want/need something that congregations aren’t really invested in. Or maybe congregations think the ability to post Prayer Requests is a good idea but in practice they’re not comfortable exposing their needs online where everyone in the church (and possible the world) can see.

The point is we don’t know enough about how Christians approach social networking to say conclusively whether or not posting Prayer Requests is a good thing. We can’t say definitively if the value of social networking is in building Christian community or in Christians engaging culture… or both.

This is why there is a Phase II to our research. I believe we need to understand what churches are doing with regard to social networks, what individuals are doing with regards to social networks, and most importantly what the authoritative view of Scripture says we should be doing with regards to social network. We will be working with the providers of these solutions to develop empirical research that addresses these issues. Ultimately we desire to support the efforts of the church by defining a value proposition for social networking other than “you can reach 200 million active users if you sign up for Facebook.”

Are you interested in participating ?

If you are a church leader and social networking is something that your church is dealing with (or even has dealt with), we would love to have you help in our efforts in the following ways:

1. Take the survey. We would love to get your perspective on this space and how your church is approaching online community.

2. Distribute the survey within your church. We are looking for feedback from as many people as possible within churches and, if you are willing, we would ask that you pass it along to staff, members, and attendees. We will follow up with you after the launch of the survey to discuss the best way to do this and any concerns that you may have. To express our gratitude, we are offering a free copy of our findings report to churches that participate in this way.

3. Tell your friends about this project. That fact that you are aware of this work means that you are fairly tech-savvy. To make our research valuable to the church, we need to include feedback, perceptions, and experiences from churches that aren’t as comfortable with these trends. To that end, it would be especially valuable if you would be willing to reach out to other church leaders in your area or network to tell them about our work.

If you want to participate, please send me an email with your contact information to research@unconventionalmethod.com.

Thank you for your interest in this. I hope the findings from the exploratory survey are of value to you and hope you’ll continue with us on this journey.