MIM Ezine, June 22, 2009

-- BOOK REVIEW: Building the Bridge as You Walk On It: A Guide for Leading Change , by Robert E. Quinn, reviewed by Tom Hanover.

NOTE TO OUR READERS: Published author and MIM ezine columnist, Teena Stewart is currently working on a book on Women’s Ministry. She would love to hear from our readers on the following regarding: special women’s events you have planned, how your women’s ministry works, insights into women’s ministry, felt needs of women, tips on women’s ministry, success stories and failures pertaining to women’s ministry, suggestions on ministering to women. No pay, but if selected, your name or the name of your ministry may appear in her book. Email Teena at smartwords@embarqmail.com.

I met Norm Wretlind who was visiting Trinity Fellowship Church in Hickory, North Carolina, where my husband Jeff and I attend on the weeks we are not hosting our house church.

It’s funny how God places people in your path when you need them most. On that particular Sunday, Jeff and I were very discouraged because of some setbacks that occurred while we were trying to launch our Christian Coffee Shop Ministry. We were sure God had called us to this new kind of ministry in order to reach non-believers with the Christian message. But it had been a long and weary road, living on faith and part-time jobs as we worked to put all the pieces in place in preparation for opening the coffee shop.

We understood how Noah felt when he was in the desert trying to build an ark with little help and not a rain-cloud in sight. At a loss for direction, I remembered Trinity had a prayer service before the general worship service so I suggested that Jeff and I go early and ask for prayer.

How we longed for words of encouragement that day, but even the prayer session didn’t go as we had hoped. The folks who sat in the circle on folding chairs were obviously old hands at the prayer ministry and knew the set routine. I expected them to ask for prayer needs before starting, but no one did. They just started praying. I sat there, heavy-hearted and discouraged. No one had thought to ask for our prayer needs. Jeff and I joined in with the rest, offering up prayers for the church’s ministry and leadership, which seemed to be the main areas the group intended to focus on. All the while I was thinking. “Lord, I feel so alone. I can’t even share my needs with these folks.”

When prayer time ended Jeff and I moved to the multipurpose room where the service would soon be starting. The same kind-faced gentleman who had directed us to the prayer room met us again and struck up a conversation. I had assumed he was a church elder, but as Jeff and I began to talk, I learned that Norm was from Colorado and was visiting his daughter.

“Have you been coming here long?” he probed. Jeff and I launched into our oft-repeated explanation of how the coffee shop ministry had drawn us to Hickory. As the three of us shared information and we vented some frustration Norm listened with interest. He offered words of encouragement and explained that he too had a missional ministry, NeighborHope (http://www.neighborhope.com), that had finally become a reality, after years of foundational work.

It seems that Norm and his wife had felt a similar urge like ours to take more active measures in trying to connect with non-Christians. They too saw how often attempts to get people to come to church failed. Instead, God used their gifts to throw parties in order to reach unchurched folks. That’s right, NeighborHope is all about throwing parties in order to connect with the lost.

It all started when Norm and his wife Becky felt a stirring to reach out to their neighbors. They had lived in their neighborhood for three years and still scarcely knew the folks around them. At about the same time they were invited to attend a “Lay Institute for Evangelism,” hosted by Campus Crusade. It was there God hit them with the idea of hosting a party. Becky, who loves to cook and entertain immediately began planning a Christmas party.

The Wretlinds invited many of their neighbors to the party in their home. Many who came felt at ease, enough to make friendship connections and open up about what Christmas meant to them. Norm closed out the party by telling what the true meaning of Christmas meant to him. Following the Christmas party Becky started a Bible study group, inviting several of the women who had attended her Christmas party. God worked through that party to impact several people. It was not long before Norm and Becky moved. This time, however, instead of waiting three years to throw a party, they did so after only three months.

With one missional party already under their belts, they held their second party. Out of that party and several others more than 60 people came to Christ. In order to nurture and fellowship with these new Christians, Richland Bible Fellowship (formerly known as Fellowship Bible Church) was formed. Today the Wretlind’s ministry, NeighborHope International Ministries, trains interested people in throwing bridge building parties that have an evangelistic purpose. The Wretlinds have even written a book on the topic called When God is the Life of the Party: Reaching Neighbors Through Creative Hospitality

Norm’s encouragement, bold faith, and heart for the unchurched lifted my spirits at Trinity that day. If he can reach people with the exciting message of Good News so can we. Reaching people for Christ doesn’t mean you have to be an extraordinary person. You just have to be a willing vessel and be intentional about what you do. God will take care of the rest.

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From time to time DreamBuilders Ministry in Motion runs guest columnists in MIM Ezine. In January, McNair Wilson, who we’ve featured in the past, moved to Colorado Springs to accept a new position with Compassion International. He blogs about the charitable organization on his blog “Tea with McNair” (http://teawithmcnair.typepad.com/)

About a month ago, I received an email from my long-time friend, Curtis Fletcher. Attached was the job description for a position in an organization that he had been working for only a few months—Compassion International. That job, especially the desired skills and experience they were seeking, read like my resume.

As many of you are aware, I have been job-hunting for about a year. I have applied at Pixar Animation Studios, Apple, Google, IDEO, Yahoo, and several other organizations in the Bay area.

After two trips to Compassion and ten interviews I was offered the position of Compassion Experience Manager—or as my new boss, Scott Barnes, calls it CXm. I like that.

There are a lot of great non-profits and faith-based ministries around. Compassion is one that I have known about since the 1980’s. The independent evaluator, Charity Navigator, has ranked Compassion in the top one percent of thousands of organizations they have surveyed for seven years running.

Compassion has centers in twenty-five countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central, and South America. There, children are registered for sponsorship. In March of this year, Compassion registered their one-millionth child. For $32 a-month, Compassion provides health, educational, life skills and other opportunities for a child through high school. Another program sponsors college students.

Other Compassion programs are in prenatal care, malaria intervention ("Bite Back"), AIDS, and other health initiatives. You can find a thorough telling of Compassion’s work around the globe on their very rich website —click "About Us.”

As CXm (Compassion Experience Manager), I will be responsible for a team of folks who lead daily tours (10, 12, and 2 pm) of the Global Ministry Center (GMC) in Colorado Springs. We will be looking to enhance the current tour and develop C.I. Tour 2.0 to include facility enhancements that create immersive experiences. At Disney Imagineering, I called it “environmental storytelling.” The real life stories of Compassion, I believe, are those of a young doctor, school teacher, or attorney, who were lifted out of poverty through the sponsorship of a Compassion Partner.

There is value to showing visitors the working environment at the GMC—most people have no idea what is required “behind-the-scenes” to carry on an effort of this scope that began in 1952. I hope to expand and emphasize the story of changed lives, “lifted out of poverty in Jesus name.”

"Compassion International exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty, and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults."

Many of the individuals, families, and organizations that are Compassion sponsors, partners, and advocates are Protestant Christians, but there are also hundreds of folks from Jewish, Roman Catholic, and other faith traditions (as well as folks with no religious affiliation) who are assisting Compassion's global effort.

This is an organization that does good work and they do it well.
I am proud to be joining the staff of 720 in Colorado Springs. My years of coaching speakers, directing plays, writing scripts, and designing theme parks is a good fit for plans to design new “Compassion Experiences.” In the near term, this will include designing a traveling environment for festivals, conventions, etc.

“The opposite of poverty is not wealth.” So says Compassion President, Wes Stafford, in a introductory video. “The opposite of poverty is enough.”

What is enough? In the third world, “enough” is very little by our lifestyle standards. In the coming months I will share the creative work we’ll be doing to invent new experiences that tell the Compassion story. I will also continue blog posts on living a more “actively creative” life.

You can stay in touch with me through this site, my personal email (see link under my photo, above left), or by signing up for my free email list at McNairWilson.com.

Many of you have already told me of your own long connection with Compassion as sponsors. I hope many more will choose to participate as I share the work.

This blog musing is reprinted by permission of McNair Wilson. McNair’s site, http://www.teawithmcnair.typepad.com/, like his work, is dedicated to assisting professionals and creative teams in recapturing their creative spirit.

I want to make it clear that I do not believe in aliens. Having said that, I think it would still be wise to have a plan in place in case of an alien invasion.

How would this work? The aliens would come down and start doing their War-of-the-Worlds thing, and we would say, “Hey, you got us. It’s obvious we’re out-smarted and out-gunned. Tell you what, we’re going to take off for a last hurrah before you take over the planet and whatnot. By the way, we’re leaving the kids with you. We’ll be back late Sunday afternoon. Bye-bye!”

Why would this will work? First of all, the grandparents always fall for it, so the aliens certainly won’t know what hit ‘em until the kids are tearing up their spaceships.

Second, the primary difference between a grandparent and an alien from outer space is that a grandparent knows when to duck. An alien would be fooled by a child’s deceptively diminutive size and not be on his guard. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the fool beaten out of me by the kids while we were just hanging out, watching TV. Leave the kids with the aliens for the weekend and I guarantee you that the kids will snap their scrawny alien necks and be playing kickball with their over-sized, bulbous heads by Sunday afternoon.

2] Give the aliens all our PCs, especially if they’re running a Vista operating system. We humans are used to computer manufacturers taking a perfectly good product, ruining it, and charging us for the service, but this process would blow an intelligent species’ mind.

Giving an alien from an advanced society a PC would be a lot like giving a Mac user a PC. They simply would not be able to comprehend how anyone could possibly live with such a moronic piece of equipment and would go insane trying to figure it out almost as quickly as a Mac user would.

By the way, this column was written on a PC and I would have finished it a lot sooner if I hadn’t had to keep telling my moronic PC that I don’t want updates and that, yes, I know my security software is about to expire. Additionally, I had to do a search for a file, which means I had to wait about three days for my computer to find said file. In the meantime, this irritating little dog icon popped up on my desktop and pantomimed scratching the dirt and paging through a book, ostensibly searching for my file. And the one thought that kept going through my mind as I watched this unimaginably annoying display is, “I wonder how much quicker the computer could find my file if it didn’t have to use up valuable memory maintaining a picture of this dumb little dog on my desktop?” This thought, of course, drives me insane, but then again I used to be a Mac owner before switching to a PC.

Yep, it’s a stressful world alright, what with all the babysitting, PC problems, and alien invasions, so what’s a body to do with all the stress? I’ll tell you what helps me. I know I’m supposed to offer some amazing technique or revelation here, but what works for me is actually quite simple, and therefore all the more valuable I believe.

I read my Bible. That’s it. Like I said, it’s pretty simple really, but here’s the thing — it works. There is just something about God’s word that puts everything happening in my life into perspective and helps me to clarify my focus.

It helps me to see just a glimpse of God and that one little peek changes me somehow. It puts my mind at rest and reassures me that there is a loving God who is in control of my little world, even when it is being invaded by the kids while I’m trying to work on my PC.

So let the aliens come, I say. But, um, let’s make sure they’re hostile aliens before we sic the kids on them.

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Quinn is Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Michigan. He has authored several books, but his first biggie was Deep Change, which is profoundly applicable to ministry leadership. Building the Bridge is his third book, and he is collaborating with his son on a new book, Lift: Becoming a Positive Source in Any Situation.

Some voices have criticized the indiscriminate acceptance of many business leadership books by ministry leaders claiming that ministry is not the same as business. They definitely differ in terms of priorities and purposes.

On the other hand, many business leadership gurus have demonstrated greater depth of spirit than many ministry leadership resources. Quinn is one of those examples. His insights and concepts are easily adaptable to many ministry opportunities.

In an emerging and constantly morphing world, it is challenging and often irrelevant to launch a three to five year plan. Quinn uses the analogy of building a bridge while one is walking on it to describe an approach to leading change. Effective leaders may not know exactly where emerging changes will take a ministry. And waiting for the implications of change to become clear usually means that the opportunities for shaping change have passed. Consequently, today’s leaders need to know how to lead and manage change while experiencing it.

Quinn’s purpose for writing Building the Bridge is to share his insights and many stories from his own experiences to accomplish his three objectives: 1) help people who lead change; 2) provide language for transformation efforts; and 3) help leaders lead transformation in themselves and others.

Quinn’s book also synthesizes a number of emerging disciplines within leadership thought. Appreciative Inquiry is a field that is slowly gaining recognition for its contribution to the field of leadership. Quinn also discusses Detached Interdependence, which is a concept first forwarded by psychotherapists in family systems theory.

One of the principles of Deep Change is that if leaders want an organization to change, they need to begin by changing themselves from within first. Quinn takes that conversation to a deeper level in discussing self-change and transformation.

Quinn draws from the insights of Viktor Frankl, Thomas Merton, and Phil Jackson. This fascinating spread of resources creates an integration of life with leadership.

Building the Bridge As You Walk On It is well worth the cost. I plan to use it in a number of settings. . Beg, borrow, or steal a copy, if you are a serious student of leadership. If you are a serious student of leadership, I encourage you to beg, borrow, or “steal” a copy.

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DBMIM June 22, 2009

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