This is what we are about.

What is your role in working for the Kingdom of God?  How much will you accomplish?

Bishop Ken Untener wrote the following prayer for Cardinal John Dearden in 1979:

It helps, now and then, to step back
and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that.  This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.  It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

When I am reminded of this prayer I know that I have been guilty of a pride that knows no bounds.  In working to accomplish something great for God here on earth, I have minimized the work of those who have come before me, those who will come after me, and most importantly, the work of the Lord himself.  If it is true, as Ronald Reagan suggested, that we are only as great as we are able to stand on the shoulders of the generations before us, then surely we owe everything to the great heroes of the faith from the day the foundations of the earth were laid up to the mentors who passed the torches to us.  I am not the master builder.

Indeed we have forgotten what it is all about, when we think that the next big initiative of our church's strategic plan will really get the church to where it needs to be, and change the community around it.  Surely we have lost the plot when we believe that we, as individuals, churches, organizations, or communities can change the world.  Truly, we are off the mark when we put our faith in a program or activity.

May we always remember our roles - as little hands and feet scurrying about trying to obey God.  Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command."  God alone is the master builder and messiah, who directs a mighty orchestra.  On this side the prophets, on that side the evangelists, now the servants, now the administrators.  Bring up the teachers, let the pastors lead the melody.  And now hear the shouts of the great cloud of witnesses, that awesome chorus of encouragers from ages past.  May we be encouraged today to stand firm in our oh-so-small, but vitally important, individual roles.

Merging Tables in Excel

If you're like me, you regularly come across complicated tasks in Excel that are not easily automated. I'm slowly learning more and more about the more powerful functions available in Excel, and usually with a little bit of researching and work, you can figure out most challenges.

My most recent one was merging two tables, where the column identifying the same person in each table wasn't identical. Each had people that weren't listed on the other. Searching online turned up no walkthroughs, only third-party plugins to Excel that cost in excess of $40. Not wanting to cost my employer money to perform this task, I kept working on it. Finally found a similar solution on this page (credit where credit is due) from an "Anne Troy":

http://forums.techguy.org/business-applications/139190-merging-tables-access.html

Here is the walkthrough, in my own words. Hopefully this is useful to somebody out there - I'm hoping Google picks it up in its search results to help others out there with this same challenge.

Make sure both tables are in the same Workbook in different Sheets.

Step One: Add rows from new sheet that don’t already exist in the Master

1. Sort the Master sheet in ascending order by the identifying column
2. Sort the new sheet in ascending order by the identifying column
3. Define a name for the identifying column in the Master sheet – call it “Master”
4. Add a column to the right of the new sheet
5. Enter this formula, and copy down:
   =VLOOKUP(A2,Master,1,FALSE)
   Where A is the column that contains the identifying value and the first column in the Master area is the column with the same identifying value
6. Sort by the new column so that all #N/A values come together
7. Copy all the #N/A rows with only the identifying value into the Master sheet
8. Delete the new column with the formula result

Step Two: Merge data into Master

1. Re-sort the Master sheet in ascending order by the identifying column
2. Re-sort the new sheet in ascending order by the identifying column
3. Create a new column in the Master for the new data
4. Define a name for the table to be merged into the Master – call it “MyData”
5. Enter this formula in the new column in the Master and copy down:
   =IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A2,MyData,2,FALSE)),"",VLOOKUP(A2,MyData,2,FALSE))
   Where A is the column that contains the identifying value in the Master and the second column in the new data sheet contains the data that needs to be merged in
6. Copy all cells, then paste over them using the Paste Special -> Values

Mission is the Essence of the Church

So many ecclesiologists (theologians who study the church) consider mission to be central to the identity of the church. Some go beyond centrality to say that it forms the very essence of the church, and that the church is nothing without mission. And yet, so many pastors read this, acknowledge it, and respond by making mission one of the programs of their church. They put somebody over the "Missions Department" and extol the virtues of the program that they've created. Missions IS the very identity of the church, not a program added to the identity of a church! In order to be missional in the way that ecclesiologists consider that it should be, a church must be completely transformed from the inside out and every pattern and form of the church re-evaluated in light of a missional calling.

Deeper Communication

I occasionally stop to think about communication more deeply, and I'm always blessed when I do. My life would by a lot different if I considered my own communication more deeply before I acted, but alas, that's rare. I'm much more apt to speak or act about a nanosecond after my mind comes up with a thought. The human mind can process and analyze quickly, but not that quickly.

I was just thinking about how what we do and say often communicates more than we intend. For example, what does it communicate when an athlete proudly gives thanks to God after a big sports win? Most Christians get really excited when they see this, as if it's "another win for the good guys in the world!" I fear, however, that what is really being communicated is "God was clearly on our side, and He gave us this win." What would we do if one day we heard an athlete say, "This was all fun, thanks so much for watching. But it was just a game, and I hope that today God gets the glory for the skills and abilities He's given everyone on both teams!"

We could carry this much further. What does it communicate when a big church builds a Christian school? That the church is trying to protect its children from the world? What if the church trained its families and then encouraged the children to go into public schools? Or, what are we really communicating when we talk in public using words like "ministry," "the lost," "unchurched," or "target groups"?

I'm curious about whether we're missing the point. Maybe we could learn a lot from a seminar that I heard somebody teach back in college entitled, "How to share the Gospel without being weird."

Changing Views of Community Development

As people began to take more of an interest in reducing and eliminating poverty around the globe, community developers initially used a very predictable method of planning their work. They would enter a community, look for what seemed broken or missing, and work to fix the problem or meet the need. Development workers created a variety of programs designed to meet various needs. A needs-based approach to learning about a community immediately leads to a programs-based plan for development. Many of the best-known community development organizations originated under this strategy, and they are still around because their approaches are easily recognizable.

After a while of doing these programs for the poor people in their communities, community development workers began to realize that their efforts did not seem to be helping people as much as they expected them to. Poor people still stayed poor, and it seemed like the same people came through their programs over and over again with little change. Moreover, they began to realize that the poor viewed their own situation of poverty in different terms than they did. The poor themselves seemed to define their own situations in terms of psychological and social brokenness, often referring to their own sense of brokenness on a deeper level than simply lacking some necessary thing. Critics of community development and of their “liberal” values showed evidence that the poor were simply becoming dependent on the handouts they were receiving. Community development workers could not argue with this evidence. What was occurring was a collision of two very different perspectives: the materially-rich had a “god-complex” while the materially-poor felt shame, and when the two came together, the perspectives of both sides were exacerbated. A new perspective on community development would be necessary to avoid this problem.

As community development workers began to see that their attempts at helping were really hurting, they came to realize that their very approach to the communities was causing the shame. When viewed from the perspective of the poor, handouts and programs designed to help became demeaning and embarrassing. A prideful father could not bear to watch a well-meaning and nicely-dressed church worker deliver a meal that he could not provide himself, so he would withdraw, further weakening the family. The community development workers had emphasized the family’s needs, increasing their shame. If they could find a way to reduce this sense of shame, they could work more closely with the family.

As this realization became more apparent, people began to look for the assets in a community. They realized that all communities had something of value to offer, and that sometimes it only took a little encouragement to bring it out. As community developers began to hunt for the assets in a community, they realized that it took much more work to discover them and then required a great deal of personalized attention to bring them out. For example, a single mom might struggle to provide for her kids, but after some conversations, a community worker realizes that she secretly loves baking and decorating desserts of all kinds and frequently scrapes together change to bake for her kids. The worker offers to pay her to provide desserts for a community meeting, where other community members watch in amazement as a lady they have known surprises them with a hidden talent. It isn’t long before an unemployed businessman decides that he can become an entrepreneur, and with some startup capital that the community worker helps him secure, he hires the single mom and a community bakery opens. In this scenario, two jobs have been created along with a new business that will both benefit the community and keep money in the community (a cake bought from Walmart will send money to Arkansas). This work, however, could not have been done with a program – it required a great deal of individual attention from a development worker.

Development and the Missional Church Convergence

Community development and missional church are both buzzwords today, although they are usually found in separate spheres of work. Even Christian community development workers rarely talk about missional church concepts or new models of church ministry, and even missional church workers rarely engage modern understandings of community development. In the early 20th century, Christians divorced spiritual ministry and so-called “social” ministry. The two spheres developed independently, but today they are beginning to listen and speak to each other, and there is a great opportunity for collaboration. After the split happened, community development began to grow and change as a field of work, continually incorporating new concepts and theories. The field of community development began to undergo some radical changes in basic perspective as secular development workers practiced and learned. Today, there is some interest in reconnecting the church with the field of community development, but in many situations, the church is attempting to reconcile with the old model of community development. My thesis is that as the understanding of community development changes from a needs- and program-based approach to an asset- and relationship-based approach, the church must also adapt its approach, for the missional church movement and the new views of community development fit together well.

As churches cultivate a developmental and Kingdom view of communities, they will realize their missional goals. There are three applications that come out of this type of view that should influence the missional church. First, God is already working in the community. He has been there since the beginning, and will be there long after we are gone. Therefore, the missional church must be humble about its presence in a community. Second, God is in the process of transforming all communities, including our own. We are just as much in need of community development as the people with whom we are trying to work, it’s just different types of development. Therefore, the missional church must be humble about asking God to transform it as well. Finally, it’s the Kingdom of God that brings transformation, not us. The Kingdom of God is defeating all of God’s enemies, and it is already present in part. Therefore, the missional church must be humble about its role in the work. In short, the missional church is called to do precisely as Micah 6:8 instructs: find the balance between justice and mercy while walking humbly with God.

Relationship-Based Development and the Missional Church

The new view of community development emphasizes that the proper response to poverty is not programs, but that it is relationships. Relationships provide the development worker with the proper posture from which to do his or her work, and for the missional church, relationships serve the same function. They provide the church worker or member with the basis for evangelism or holistic ministry. Missional churches recognize that holistic disciple-making is a relational process. It is only through relationships that truly holistic ministry can happen, because without relationships with individuals, many of the root issues cannot be addressed. For community development workers, while the old view of development would suggest that providing material goods is the solution to material poverty, the new view shows that it is often deeper issues that cause the material poverty. On the surface, an individual who can’t pay an electricity bill may be seen as someone with a problem of lacking money. Without a relationship, the solution would likely be seen as paying the bill. However, a relationship might reveal that the individual has never kept a job for more than a month because he compulsively steals from his employer at every opportunity. The answer to this is challenging and multi-faceted and does not involve paying the bill. Helping him walk through these issues can only be described as discipleship – the ultimate goal of missional churches.

Holistic disciple-making involves dealing with development on all fronts: across all domains of community development, up all levels of social justice, and in all areas of identity. A professional counselor once told me that her work had to involve all areas of my self: the spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical, and social natures of my being were all interrelated. All of these fronts cannot be touched by large programs and large-group gatherings. As missional churches avoid programs and go for smaller-group and individually-tailored ministry opportunities, they have the ability to join the new views on community development and realize a holistic ministry that stretches across all fronts of poverty alleviation and spiritual nourishment at once.

Asset-Based Development and the Missional Church

The old view of community development begins with seeing a need and ends with creating a program that meets that need. This model builds something that people must come to in order to have their need met. This is strikingly similar to the attractional church model that the missional church movement seeks to move away from. On the contrary, the new view of community development encourages seeing the assets in a community and building relationships to encourage them and holistically meet them. This is very similar to the missional church model of going to meet people where they are. In most churches, people are asked to become members and then serve the church in various roles. The missional church model encourages people to remain where they are and use their skills and passions to serve outside the church. Therefore, the new view of community development and the new missional church model go hand in hand in terms of focusing on assets. The missional church can quickly adapt their model of ministry to a model of community development.

As the missional church goes to people where they are, bringing the Gospel, it can also go to people in poverty, meeting them where they are. Church members can seek to build relationships with people, knowing and understanding them better. As they begin to understand the assets that they have, they can do two things: first, they can encourage those assets and practice community development. Second, they can utilize those assets as a basis for the person’s new ministry in their own context.

Additionally, an assets-based view of development encourages going to the people rather than expecting them to come to us. Rather than seeking to invite people to church, an assets-based view would encourage the people to start a church right in their own apartment complex. It would recognize that they have assets that would be diluted or even discouraged if they joined the large church. A needs-based approach supports a basic modernist church viewpoint that the church has a cherished role in society as a provider of many services and functions, because it views the church as the fulfiller of many needs. That view would expect people to come to the church. However, recent experience has shown that they do not come – the church no longer is viewed in that role. If the church has the view that the community has assets to be utilized, however, the church would instead go to them. This is the heart of the missional shift.

Social Media

I was told at a seminar the other week that social media is NOT Facebook and Twitter. Okay, now that my head is on straight, let me offer a thought of one area that seems to be ripe for the development of a social media application.

Vehicle maintenance is something that few people really get right. How often do you need to change your coolant again? And what about transmission fluid? Have I really not changed my air filter in three oil changes, or is this maintenance man trying to sell me something I don't need? Tonight I found an online application, www.yourgarageonline.com, that seems to be a nice utility. I can enter every time I have my vehicle serviced, write what I did, and then I can search instantly to see what I've done. Practical, useful - seems good to me.

But what if the social media revolution really hit vehicle maintenance? Every vehicle has a unique identifier - its VIN number. And every maintenance shop has internet access. Why isn't there a database in the "cloud" somewhere that keeps track of your maintenance history? It could be accessible by repair shops, owners, and people interested in buying your used car. It would keep maintenance men from telling me that I need my 120,000 mile maintenance package...they don't know that I already changed the spark plugs! I could pull up my vehicle's maintenance history from the app on my Android and it would give me a notification when it is time to check the brake fluid.

Google seems interested in developing their new application to compete with Facebook. But I wonder if there's not a great potential development in vehicle maintenance history. Just an idea!

What Do We Believe?

Reading the book Reverse Mentoring by Earl Creps for school is fascinating to me. I feel like I'm reading a book that was written for somebody else about me. This book, taglined "How Young Leaders Can Transform the Church and Why We Should Let Them" to clearly show its intended audience, encourages older leaders to look to younger leaders to learn about culture and relevance.

It's fascinating reading as I see the authors write about these surprising insights that they gained from interviewing young people:

• "Rather than relying solely on research, they trust that the information marketplace will deliver items of value to them automatically, often through relationship." - p. 24
• "Things done just for the money are not to be trusted." - p. 25
• "Authenticity...commands much greater respect...than production values, no matter how impressive." - p. 26

These values seem obvious to me, but then again I grew up in this younger culture about which the author is writing. I see them in my own life very clearly. They are me. But what is the implication for the church? After discussing these values, the person that the author is interviewing says that "the average Sunday morning worship service sounds just like radio: homogenized, overproduced, shallow, and obsolete" (p. 26). The young generation that the author describes values realness and honesty, not perfection. Yet we are looking for churches that have all the highest quality music and preaching and the best facilities and smiling faces...no wonder today's young adults are not interested!

This is a remarkable observation even for me. After reading this, I feel like I am guilty of separating my life. In one life, I embody the culture that the author is talking about. In another, I have been raised in a conservative "Boomer" church and have remained there most of my life. I wonder if I have applied a different set of values to my daily life and to my church life. The interviewee's words reverberated so clearly in my head, resonating with what I strongly believe. But when I am at church, I put my culture aside and enter a culture twenty years older than I am. Perhaps I should stop abandoning my core values and be who I am all the time.

One More Thing

After having applied some of the things that I purported to have learned a little over a year ago, I can now say that there is one more thing to add to that list of things I have learned:

• She was worth the wait and the hard work to get here
  

Prayers, Week Ten

Father, I thank you for your love for me. It's humbling to realize that you think of me so highly. It's amazing. I am beginning to realize that your love for me is shown partly in how you make me a priority and focus on me. I always assumed that you loved me, but really wanted to use me to reach the world. You wanted to use me as your hands and feet. And you do, but before you do that you want to love me and make me the first priority. Thank you, God! I am blown away. God, I want to step back and realize that fact and live in the comfort of knowing that you are primarily concerned about working in me before working through me.

Prayers, Week Nine

Father, I have to thank you for the self-discovery that you've worked in my life since my transition began in 2008. I am so grateful to You for helping me to see myself more clearly and to know myself more clearly. Thank you for stripping away false selves and helping me to see who I really am, and more importantly, to accept myself as I really am! Lord, as I recognize my true self more clearly, it is beginning to show me what my long-term calling is. I am grateful to You for beginning to show me bits and pieces of that. I hope to continue growing in that understanding and awareness, and I ask you to continue to help me along in this process. I need Your grace as I learn about myself and Your peace as I accept myself as I am and stop trying to be somebody else. Please show me more and more clearly each day what my vocation is.

Prayers, Week Eight

Lord, I felt very convicted when I read of how our pet peeves often point to the false self that we project of ourselves. The most convicting one to me was despising laziness in others because I too-highly value productivity and discipline. This is true of me, I believe. I highly value personal responsibility and productivity, and get annoyed with others when they do not do what I perceive that they should be doing. God, I want to live out of my being rather than my doing. Thank you for your gift to me of a high level of productivity and personal work-ethic. Help me to maintain that while living out of being rather than doing. Help me to bear with others in their weaknesses and encourage them constructively. Help me to value the beingness of others and see the values that they have. God, help me to recognize my own false selves so that I can cast them at your feet! Grant me the peace to be other than my own self-image!

Prayers, Week Seven

Father, I know that illusions are a hard thing for any leader. We always think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. God I know that in the past I have carried around many illusions of myself, from trying to project a personality that I don't actually have to thinking that I'm an expert in things that I have no experience in. I repent of that haughtiness and pride and I ask you to help me overcome it. Over the past couple of years you have allowed me to be humbled, and although it has been hard I thank you for the powerful lesson. Please continue to show me my true identity as it is found in You. I want to be around people who will be honest with me and will be a mirror to show me myself, because I know that others can often see things about me that I can't see myself. Thank you that you have crafted me just exactly the way that You meant to, and that I am wonderfully made. Thank you that you are continually breaking down self-illusions and showing me my true identity.

Prayers, Week Six

God, it is so humbling to know how deeply you love me. Every time I discover more depth to your love, I'm amazed. I keep getting new insights to it. Thank you!! It's amazing to know that you're so committed to our relationship that you'll do whatever it takes for its sake. It's awesome to know that you love me so much that it doesn't matter what I do or who I am, you're going to love me just the same amount. Father, you know all of my imperfections. You know every sin that I have. You know all the ugly things about me, even the things that I try to hide from myself. The things that I am completely ashamed of, you know fully well. And you still continue to love me! What's more, you long to penetrate deeper and deeper into my being, knowing that it means uglier things will come to light. God, while it's painful, I want to expose these things to you. I want you to know about them so that you can change them. I do want to grow, from the inside out, and I'm relying on You to do that. Thank you for knowing me deeply and loving me deeply, and for meeting me where I am and getting deeper into my identity!

Prayers, Week Five

Father, thank you for how you reveal yourself to us. I am so excited by the concepts in this book about daydreaming on You and experiencing You through Scripture. I've never thought about that before. God, I do confess that often my knowledge of You is more intellectual than experiential. I know a lot about You, God. I have had experiences with You, but I want more. I want to experience You on a daily basis, feeling You with me throughout the day, sensing Your movement with every decision or dilemma that I might come across. God I need Your presence in my life, and I need Your guidance. You say that Your sheep will know Your voice, well I want to know Your voice. I want to know You in a deeper and more intimate way that goes beyond words and knowledge to a true and deep understanding of You. Draw me in, God!!

Prayers, Week Four

Father, I want to know you more. And after reading this, I want to know myself more, although I am afraid of what I may find. Yet as I consider it, I know that I already have a sense of the deeper things about myself. I hear them in the side comments of friends and coworkers, and the way that people treat me, and the things that come to mind when I am in solitude. Lord, I desperately need your help to grow. I want to draw closer to You and be more intimate with You, even if it means revealing things about myself that I won’t like. Only promise to walk with me through those challenging times, and promise to help me grow through them and become more like Jesus. Lead my introspection – without your leading, I may tend to ignore things, or I may tend to be too brooding or wallowing in pity. Lead my introspection in a way that will be beneficial to me and to my leadership.

Prayers, Week Three

Father, help me to see people as You see them. You have given to each special gifts, to be used for Your glory and Your kingdom. You gave Deborah special leadership ability and wisdom, and you gave Jael cunning and the strength to defeat Sisera. God help me to see the gifts that you have given to people, even if they be hidden or if others fail to see them. Help me to see the plans that You have for people and lead me in developing that potential in people.

Prayers, Week Two

God, I am seeking your destiny for my life. I feel like I am steadily discovering pieces of it here and there, from what path my career may take, to what my gift mix is, to who I want to spend the rest of my life with, but I am still seeking your plan for my days. It seems that I am still drawn in many directions at once. There are many questions - how will I make money, what ministry will I commit to for the long haul, how much traveling overseas will I do, will my career be in full-time ministry or will I be in management of a ministry....I don''t know the answers to any questions. But Father, I know that You do, and I want your plans to be fulfilled in my life. I don''t need to have control over my life. I don't need to have a say in its direction. All I want is for Your will to be done. I want you to do whatever you want in me and through me. I only ask you to walk with me each step of the way, guiding me and sustaining me. I know that you will reveal my destiny to me bit by bit, and I am excited to see what it is.

Prayers, Week One

Prayers from the last 10 weeks, this post and the following 10.....

Week One: God, I need more and more of you in my life. I need to be reminded of the truly important things in life - being a good man, a good friend, a man after Your heart. Lord, I need to spend more time with You. I need more solitude, more silence, and more communion time with You alone. I need to hear from You more, and I need to speak to You more as I pour out my heart. God, help me to see what activities need to be cleared out of my schedule so that I can create more margins in my life. In the margins, You are more able to operate. Speak to me and work in me. Father, I feel myself drawing closer to you as I redirect my life toward You. I feel You leading me and working powerful things in my life, and I''m thankful. Renew in me a fresh love for You that pulls me inescapably toward You.

Kiss The Past Goodbye

It's New Years Eve and I'm full of empty promises, I half pretend to keep this time, just like last year.

That lyric is from a song that I always listen to this time of year, as I think about the changing of the years. Somehow, we seem to think that with the changing of the years, somehow one day is more different than the last. We take the opportunity to make "New Year's Resolutions," most of which are broken by the end of January. This song, "New Year's Eve" by Five Iron Frenzy, captures this moment.

And then with thunderous praise and lofty adoration, a second passes by, yet nothing changes.

How often do we sit and expect for things to change around us? How often do we think that the changing of the circumstances around us will make things magically better? Somehow, a new calendar embodies this hope for us - that somehow, someway, things are going to get better. We also go to the other extreme and work really hard to change things, making resolutions, ultimatums, and making plans for discipline. Somehow, our efforts always seem to fall short.

This New Years Eve, something must change me inside, I'm crooked and misguided, and tired of being tired.

Somehow, this song seems to capture something within me, and my soul resonates: "Yes! That's me!" It's a reminder that we can't do it on our own, we are lost. On our own, we're hopeless, because as Immanuel Kant wrote, "Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be built." We need something outside ourselves to change us and make us new. Circumstances won't change us, and neither will our hard work. Only Jesus can change us.

A year goes by and I'm staring at my watch again, and I dig deep this time, for something greater than I've ever been, life to ancient wineskins. And I was blind but now I see.