Corey Paxton

Here’s a promo of a book that just came out by a couple CRM staff in Denver on creating incarnational -missional community. Matt and Hugh lead Missio within CRM which mentors church planters while they have the option of earning a masters at Fuller seminary. Their community, Adullam, is doing some great stuff in Denver.

I had the privilege of spending a couple hours with Hugh on Thursday. I am hoping we can get to be better friends and partner together in tangible ways in the future. He has an inspiring calling and gift from God in his ability to serve and build relationships with people who are homeless.  I have a lot to learn from him.

You can find more about his ministry here.

In our conversation, I was most encouraged by hearing the joy he experiences in his calling.

Thanks for what you are doing and your reminders to the church that mission happens best through relationships, and is as much about our hearts as it is the people we are connecting with.

My car passed the test. I made it to Williamsburg and back last week free of charge! I was pretty amazed that I didn’t have one problem with the car.

I will say it is a little messy to pour the grease in the tank that we installed in the trunk, but it was well worth it as I passed the signs….

I did probably leave a bit of Chinese wanton smell behind me, but that’s fine by me.

In the Arts and Living section of the News and Observer, they ran a great article about the changes happening in downtown Raleigh right now. They mentioned a blog from John Morris that highlights the life of the city. It’s got some great pictures of the new building projects, night life, and arts in our home.

Overall, I’m really excited about the growth of Raleigh, and hope that it becomes an even more dynamic place. Most surveys I’ve read recently include Raleigh as one of the top places in the country to move because of the low cost of living and amount of job opportunities. Over the next 15 years, I think Raleigh is going to experience tremendous growth. I’m excited by the possibilities.

My hope is that Dorothy Dix becomes a central park area (mostly because I live 2 minutes from it), and that the city becomes more aware of how to improve South and Southeast Raleigh for the people that live there. In my short time here, I’ve already heard that North Raleigh gets a dispraportianate amount of the cities’ funding. For instance, I heard of a multi-million dollar swimming facility going into North Raleigh, whereas a major hub of Southeast Raleigh’s community life (including a public pool and memorial to MLK, Jr) has yet to be improved despite years of promises. With the continued influx of post-modern younger people into the city, I hope that we do not gentrify the poor out of their communities in our quest for improvement.

Does anyone know where we can find out more information about the cities funding in relationship to different areas of the city?

I’d like to find out more specific statistics rather than just piecing news articles and conversations I have together.

This winter, I bought an 82 diesel mercedes with the intention of converting it to run on veggie-oil once it got warmer. Today, thanks to 12 hours spent with the saint known as Gary Wisler, my dream has become a reality.

I am no longer dominated by foreign oil. I have converted. It’s official.

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Leadership theorist, Peter Senge writes on why top-down efforts are limited for bringing about significant organizational change:

Why do we cling to the view that only the top can initiate significant change? Is it just our unwillingness to give up a familiar mental model? Is it the fear of stepping out of line without the imprimatur of the hierarchy? Perhaps, also there is an element of self-protection—the comfort of being able to hold someone else, namely, top management, responsible for the lack of effective leadership. There is no doubt that a CEO opposed to fundamental change can make life difficult for internal innovators, but this hardly proves that only the CEO can bring about significant change. At the very least, shouldn’t we be suspicious of the knee-jerk tendency of people in organizations to “look upward” and expect top management to fix things?”

Consider a different view: little significant change can occur if it driven form the top.

Hierarchical authority, as it has been used traditionally in Western management, tends to evoke compliance, not foster commitment. The more strongly hierarchical power is wielded, the more compliance results.”

the more we appreciate the inherent limitations of executive leadership in bringing about deep change, the more frustrated we are likely to feel, given the immense need for change [if we keep trying to change it from the top].

Have you ever thought about the God’s strategy to bring about change? God chooses to overthrow empires with fisherman?

The Ultimate Authority of the Universe chooses bottom up change.

So, if God is the King of the grass-roots movement, why does the church still want emperors? and why do we build empires?

If you have a couple minutes, watch this video to promo a book by Rick McKinley. This video communicates the mystery of Jesus’ kingdom invitation really well.

I’m always cautious, and even anxious when I hear language of “bringing the kingdom” because it sounds like we are in control of God’s kingdom. This does a great job of communicating that God’s kingdom is present all around us, and God is inviting us to participate in what He is doing in the world.

(I think this is what people mean by saying “bringing the kingdom,” but it’s hard to put language on it and this is often an easy way to say it); other times, I think we actually think we are in control of God

I am continually amazed at how technology is changing the world. Although I am not in Los Angeles, I feel like I was able to attend the Awaken conference of my former church, Mosaic, by reading Eric Bryant’s blog and others who commented on the conference that I haven’t met before.

Here are a few of leadership insights I found significant from “invisible mentors:”

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This is a follow up to my mom’s comment on my previous post that I gave no explanation of why I thought it was worth passing on.

I thought the pastor’s comments were very insightful. The mega-church is not necessarily the problem (I completely agree with Sam’s most recent post). Let me be to the point– I don’t think there is a right way “to do” church. Too often, we get too self-righteous in whatever approach to ministry we choose. God didn’t give us a model, He gave us a mission to make disciples that obey the way of Jesus in every culture to the ends of the earth.

The issue for me is not necessarily the structure, but are we aligning our structures with where God is moving to fulfill His mission in the world? The moment we think we’ve got the right model, then we lose because God’s Spirit works through people who hear and respond to Him. Our structures need to submit to His Spirit working in people, or else we end up trying to manipulate or control people.

The reason that I found the post worth passing on is that no one had even thought about the idea that Sam mentioned about planting multiple communities rather than building a bigger building.

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I found this post by our CRM President to be worth passing on.