I Will Support the Winner of a Democratic Election

Enough is enough.  The political fighting has gone too far already.  I'm all for a two-party system, or maybe even a three-party system, and political campaigns make sense to me - they seem too long and way too expensive (thanks Dickie-V), but the general concept is important.  I don't mind things getting a little personal....you are running for public office, and who you are determines how you lead.  But ceaseless arguing that begins to border on hatred is not only painful to watch and listen to, it is absolutely destructive for our country.

Abraham Lincoln was wise to quote the Bible when he said that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.  Commonly, we just say "United we stand, divided we fall."  It appears that we have reached the point  where our nation is paralyzed by political division.  I know each side doesn't agree with each other...nothing new there.  I don't make a secret of my political views.  But it looks like we are on track to have the least productive Congress in history, and that's sad.  When good decisions and ideas are opposed simply because  the source is someone from the other side, it's over.  When dialogue doesn't even happen on important issues, it's over.  Our country cannot stand.

Therefore, I'm pledging from this point forward that I will support the winner of a democratic election.  Of course I will still vote for the candidate whose views I agree with the most, and I will really be disappointed if that candidate loses, but at the end of the day I will support our elected leaders.  Not only does the Bible command it - it just makes sense.  They are our leaders, and they represent us, no matter how miserable or ignorant they seem sometimes.  Without constructive dialogue, we're sunk.  It's time to learn how to support someone with whom we disagree.

How Do You Measure A Life Change?

Originally posted at Stories of LINC North Texas

One of the foremost challenges facing many nonprofits is the challenge of reporting success.  Is the program working?  Is it accomplishing its goal?  Is it worth investing in?  LINC North Texas believes that our programs are worth investing in, because we believe that they change lives.  But don't take our word for it.  Really!  You should be able to see concrete proof that they change lives.  Grant-making foundations have been leading the way in pushing charities to scientifically prove their results.  They are famous for saying, "Measure your outcomes, not your outputs."  Here at LINC NT, we take that seriously, and we are launching a major campaign to do just that.

The most popular measure of a program's success, whether it's at a nonprofit or a church, is attendance.  That's an output.  For example, last year we served 1246 students and many of their parents through our Student Advancement & Leadership Initiative.  That's great, but at the end of the day, does it matter?  They could have all slept through class, or gone home and immediately forgotten everything.  One of LINC NT's outcomes for SALI is for students to learn essential character and leadership skills that will enable them to succeed in school and beyond.  Measuring attendance doesn't indicate success.  To do that, we have to find out whether these students are better people after SALI than they were before.  That is a much more challenging task, but the journey is rewarding.  Not only are we able to show our significance to foundations and people like you, but we are able to find out for ourselves what improvements we need to make.

A recent survey of 702 students shows the impact of SALI is significant.  After SALI, 294 students said they resolved a conflict with what they learned.  More than fifty percent of students said they argue less with their parents due to learned conflict resolution skills.  In addition, 83% of students said they would take some form of action when witnessing a student being bullied.  This fall, we are taking it to the next level.  With a precise system of pre- and post-tests over two-year segments of SALI, and with the help of two awesome volunteers (Michael, who helps design surveys; and Sara, who is a data mining expert), we intend to show scientifically that SALI is achieving its outcomes.  We look forward to reporting that success here!

At the end of the day, I believe that this shift from measuring outputs to outcomes is a valuable change beyond LINC NT.  Are there places in our everyday lives where we need to change the scorecard?  Many people today report being busier and busier each year, but at the same time we tend to feel drained, unfulfilled, and unimportant.  At the end of the day, do we measure a successful day by how hard we worked, or how well we achieved our goals?  What if our goals went beyond working hard to things like making a positive impact on people around us, and to things like glorifying God in every aspect of our day?  How could our lives be more fulfilling by changing the scorecard every day?

is not, has not been, and should not be

I feel a bit obliged to make a comment on the subject of America as a Christian nation. Somewhere between the usual July 4th church madness and the upcoming election, the subject has been on my mind for a while. It's not uncommon for people to claim that America is a Christian nation, or at least that it should be. It's also not uncommon for people to claim that America was founded on Christian values. I believe that both of these statements are dangerous and don't entirely align with the truth.

I get a bit uncomfortable when people start talking about America as a "Christian nation" because it sounds an awful lot like when somebody talks about Saudi Arabia as an "Islamic nation." I realize that few people are actually arguing that Christianity should be the national religion of the US, but I'm not sure that I see the line. I'm not sure that having a national religion is a good idea, ever, anywhere. Those uncomfortable with my comparison might say that Christianity is more tolerant or peace-loving than Islam, but I'm not sure that's true either (considering history). Instead, I would say that perhaps every religion becomes less tolerant when it becomes nationalized.

To avoid that issue, many people just say that America was founded on Christian values. Again, I'm not sure that this aligns with the truth. There are definite questions about the faith of the founding fathers - were they really the conservative Christians that we sometimes make them out to be? Of course we all know about how Jefferson cut and pasted to create his own version of the Bible, but I'm curious about the rest. I know that there are many questions about Washington's faith. And anyone who says the actions of the explorers, colonists, and so forth were widely guided by Christian values needs a refresher on actual history, not just storybook history.

As for the church's point of view, I'm further unconvinced that anything is gained by the idea of a Christian nation or a nation founded on highly Christian values. I believe that history teaches us that Christianity is a religion of the margins. When it comes to the center, especially as a nationalized religion, it seems to lose its efficacy and perhaps even its grasp on truth. I also remember how Jesus had to chastise his disciples for wanting to set up a kingdom here on earth, because his Kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom is already here in part, but not in full.

That's why, in my view, America is not, has not been, and should not be a Christian nation. Sorry if that offends anyone.

How Big is the Mission Field?

Originally posted at "Stories of LINC North Texas"


In the church we talk a lot about reaching the city and transforming the community.  But just how large is that mission field, and can we really reach it with our traditional methods?  There's about 120,000 people here in Carrollton, where our offices are.  Add in Farmers Branch, and there are more than 53,000 households in the school district.  Through SALI, we are able to reach about 900 of them.  And we thought that we had an enormous impact on the community!

A quick check of the statistics shows that the average Christian church has184 members (although half of all churches have 75 members or less).  The largest LCMS church has around 2500 in attendance every Sunday.  At this rate, it would take 652 average American Christian churches to record every person in Carrollton alone as a member.  It would take 48 of the largest LCMS church in America.  Fellowship Church in Grapevine is listed as the third-largest church by attendance in the entire USA, and they have approximately 24,000 attendees every Sunday.  That means it would take 5 Fellowships in Carrollton alone to reach the entire city!

Based on these numbers, is it even possible to reach the entire city with our current strategies?  After seeing these numbers, it's no surprise that you never find a traffic jam on a Sunday morning!  Most churches seek to grow through addition of new members, but these numbers are depressing....a church would have to grow extremely large just to meet a significant number of people in a single small city.  Jesus transformed the entire world, but he didn't seem interested in addition.  In fact, he focused on just twelve men, growing extra-close to just 3 of them.  He believed in the strategy of multiplication.

It's said that Billy Graham, were he to be holding his crusades daily today, would not even be able to keep up with the global rate of population growth.  We need to embrace a strategy of multiplication if we want to have any hope of transforming our communities, cities, and the world!

Perspective

Everything depends on your vantage point.  I've been thinking about this subject of perspective lately.  As an embarrasingly simplified example, it's the difference between giving a kid a piece of candy and taking half of another kid's Halloween bounty.  One kid is happy, the other angry.  It's silly, but unavoidably true, and furthermore applicable to more of our lives than we'd like to admit.

Two years ago, I would have told you that the salary I make today would be luxurious to live on.  Today, I feel comfortable, but I'd be willing to bet that five years from now I would be feeling hopelessly endangered to make what I make today.  Are my needs changing that much?  Some things do, but not to the extent that we feel.  I see people who make six figures and they feel financially constrained because they have grown accustomed to such a lifestyle.

I don't feel the need to judge such a situation, because I imagine that someday it'll be me.  I'd like to think I will avoid this particular perspective trap, and always remember what it was like to be making $1000 per month in 2008, but as humans we like being comfortable.  I wonder how many other of life's situations this problem of perspective applies to?  At work I've moved from an open cubicle to a desk in the corner of a room to a larger desk still in the corner.  From this perspective, I'm not even sure what it'd be like to have an office with a door. Someday, however, that may be the norm for me!  How do we keep from letting our perspectives change so much?

Academic Honesty

There are various times when you look back on school and realize that your teachers were preaching something not just because it was in their curriculum, but because it had true value.  I'm coming to find one of those times now.  A great deal of energy was spent talking about the dangers of plagiarism, and the necessity of citing your sources.  It had value when I was in school because it earned the grade, but I'm finding a new value for it now.

Grad school has taught me how to research.  Believe it or not, I actually didn't do much of it at UT, probably because I was in the business school.  But research is even more real life now at LINC NT.  I'm finding that the best practice in ministry is not to go out there and start something because you feel like it needs to be done, the best practice is to supplement your work with constant research to find out what other people are doing and what studies have shown about your type of work.  For one of our main programs, SALI, I have spent a considerable amount of time this year researching what has been written on in the fields of character education, parent involvement in schools, and Latino issues in education and society.  Not only will it help enhance our grant applications, it will inform our direction of the program.

However, I'm now finding the value of those citations.  Bibliographies are my best friend, when I am doing research.  Moreover, I have come across those prevalent stats that everyone refers to, but few people cite.  Digging those original sources is frustrating, but rewarding when I finally find the original source, only to realize that it is sadly outdated and no longer relevant.  I'm finding that I have little patience anymore for websites or articles that fail to cite their sources, because I can see how they can spread false information and outdated facts.  In the digital age, citations are as critical as ever, because it is so easy today to spread half-truths and outright lies.  We need a commitment to the truth that comes through leaving a trail for our readers to follow.

A Prayer for an Election Year

O God, grant the next President the ability to make just decisions!
     Grant the Vice President the ability to make fair decisions!
That he will govern Your people fairly,
     and Your oppressed ones equitably.
May the mountains bring news of peace to the people,
     and the prairies announce justice.
May he defend the oppressed among the people;
     and deliver the children of the poor and crush the oppressor.
Then people will fear You as long as the sun and moon remain in the sky,
     for generation after generation.
O, that his words will descend like rain on the mown grass,
     like showers that drench the earth.
May the Godly flourish during his days;
     and may peace prevail as long as the moon remains in the sky.
May he be respected from sea to shining sea,
     and from the Rio Grande to the Great Lakes!
Before him may the violent lands calm down,
     and may his enemies be ashamed of their actions.
May the rulers of Iran and the Middle East offer gifts;
     the leaders of China and North Korea bring their respects.
Grant him respect from all other world leaders;
     may the entire world align in interests and goals.
For he will be rescuing the needy when they cry out for help,
     and the oppressed who have no defender.
He will be taking pity on the poor and needy;
     the lives of the needy he will save through his policies.
From harm and violence he will be defending them;
     he will value their lives as he values his own.
May he flourish!  May they offer him gifts from Europe!
     May they continually pray for him!
     May they pronounce blessings on him all day long!
May there be no famine in all the earth, nor drought;
     may prosperity come to all the peoples of the earth!
May America's people flourish to bless the whole earth!
     May its crops be as abundant as the grass of the earth!
May he meet with the approval of all citizens;
     and may his legacy last as long as the sun remains in the sky!
People will use his name when they think of blessings,
     and all the world will consider him to be favored by God!

The Lord God, the God of the Bible, deserves praise!
     He alone accomplishes all great things!
His glorious name deserves praise forevermore!
     May his majestic splendor fill the whole earth!
We agree....we agree!

....adapted from Psalm 72