Small Focus, Big Impact

I think that many times people have a hard time deciding to limit their focus for the sake of greatness because they believe they will also limit their greatness. This may be true, depending on how you define greatness.

If greatness = me becoming greater and my name gaining renown, then yes, a limited focus may limit my greatness. But, if greatness = God becoming greater and His name gaining renown, then a small focus will often lead to a big impact. Here is the way it works.

When I take the time to really seek God and find that thing that He created me to do that I am the best at in the whole world then several things happen. First, I begin to succeed at what I am doing. Second I find that my life is more fulfilling than I had previously experienced. Third I allow God to create a prototype in me that He can then pass along to others.

You see, God creates us to do things not just so that we can do them but so that we can teach others how to do them. This is a big misunderstanding in the church today. We look at Spiritual Gifts as some sort of system to see what people should be doing. God quite clearly said that Spiritual Gifts were there not just for doing but also for teaching. In Ephesians 4 we see that gifts were given in order to prepare God's people for the work He has prepared.

Let me give you a practical example that is close to my heart these days. I believe God's church is called to change its community, and a large part of every community is its school system. Changing the public school system is not a small focus. Changing one class of one school is a small focus. Say a church feels called to that focus. In so doing they tap into the purpose that God positioned them for in their community. Over a few months or a year they work and pray and they see God transform that class. And, it does not happen on accident, it seems to follow a plan, almost a system of sorts. Imagine if they take that same plan and apply it to another class, or if resources permit even an entire grade at the same school. They see the same results. Then God reveals how the same plan could be used in all of the grades in that school, but their resources just cannot handle it. But, they know a church down the road that could, and would use the system. One school changes. The word gets out among churches that there is a way to create change... and it works; they have seen it work. More churches get involved, more cities get involved, schools across the county, state, even country begin to change. Pretty soon nobody even knows the name of the first church because bigger, more prevalent churches have taken up the forefront and are carrying out the system in huge ways, maybe even better ways. But, the church with the Small Focus was able to have Big Impact.

When I refine my focus I am not limiting my impact. In fact the reverse is often true when my focus is too broad. My hands touch everything and accomplish nothing.

Focus: it is a good thing

Today I am going to take a step in focusing this blog. I am in the process of creating another blog that will hold the entirety of my book. I will likely do the same for all book/semi-book ideas that come forward and take up more than one or two posts. A quick tease... coming January 2009 I will be revealing a project I am super excited about; and it is not even mine! But, I will have the privilege to help co-author a book that I believe will be very influential in church (and perhaps business) life.

Focus is something God has been talking to me about for almost a year now. A few months back I read a book titled, "Good to Great". If you have not read it, you need to. It is one of my "must reads" for anyone who comes to me with an idea and seems serious about carrying it to completion. I have to be honest, though, and say that there was a part in that book that really bothered me. It was the part that said greatness can only be achieved when I find the thing that I am best at in the whole world and then focus my resources on doing that thing. As I read it I remember thinking, "Well that sucks for me, because I am not the best at anything in the world." Did that mean that Greatness was forever out of my reach? Will I have to be satisfied excepting my mediocre place in this world while the Great people get to be the best?

This last week God answered those questions with the simple answer... Focus. He had me ask the question again, "What can I do better than anyone in the world?" At first I struggled finding an answer. I am not the best speaker, the best leader, the best organizer, the best visionary... and He told me to narrow my focus. Eventually He had me think about my children, and He asked, "Can you be the best father they have?" He had me think about my wife and asked, "Can you be the best husband she had?" You might think this sort of competition is unfair because I am the only father and husband they have. And yet, when I asked those questions I realized that Yes, I can be the best in the world at those two things. I truly believe that no one else in all of this world can be a better father or husband to my family than I can.

I began applying this same principle to the church and realized that sometimes Greatness involves narrowing our Focus. We are often tempted to be Good at many things while never begin Great at any one thing. We get trapped into thinking that a Narrow focus means a Small impact. I believe that just the opposite is often true, and will talk about that tomorrow. For today, what are you the best at... in the whole world? I think that question is often the first step to realizing what purpose God has for us in this life.

The Monopoly Mindset - Part 3

Let me give a quick example of a modern day Monopoly Mindset. It comes from a conversation I had with a college ministry director. He was telling of a meeting that had been called to discuss a new danger in America. The danger came from wealthy middle-eastern interests who were financing large projects at universities across America. These interests would offer to build large buildings and equip them, and all they asked was to be able to send some of their own professors to fill some of the new teaching positions that would open up. Beyond their duties as professors these men would also bring over the teachings of Islam and attempt to spread it. That was the danger, the spread of Islam to young, impressionable minds at college campuses. The meeting was to identify this new danger and come up with ways to combat it.

The notion that we need to somehow figure out how to "stop the Muslim invasion" is just strange to me. We have evidence that when seen side-by-side Christianity already beats Islam, even in a culture where Islam holds most of the market. Africa and the Middle East provides dozens of examples of this very thing. So, when faced with this new threat is seems we have two choices. The first is to focus our energy on stopping the invasion by trying to talk to universities and perhaps even use the terrorist card. We can focus on the evils of Islam and try to warn students to stay away from certain professors. We can denounce the movement on the whole and just will people to follow the American way of Christianity. Or, we could focus our energy on showing the truest possible form of Christianity on these college campuses and see the same result in America that we see in the rest of the world. When Christianity competes against other religions it wins... every time. The only time that Christianity begins to lose is when it becomes polluted or convoluted. The message begins to change and the focus begins to blur as we take on the Monopoly Mindset.

You Have to Fail

This is something that God has been working in my for a couple of decades now. "That long?", you ask? Well, you need to understand my distinct fear of failure. I call myself a perfectionist, and often times people chuckle because I do not keep an extra-clean office, and my paperwork is often a mess. What I mean to say is that in areas where I judge myself I am a perfectionist. That is why I never played a round of golf outside of a couple of best-ball "for fun" outings. I spent months on the driving range working on different clubs. I have no intention of "playing" the game until I can win the game. Otherwise I don't see the point of playing :). That is what I mean when I say I am a perfectionist.

God first used my uncle to try and grow me in this area. I still remember the day we were out water skiing. My uncle has just taken a big spill; I mean a spill where the people watching all catch their breath with a collective "Oohhh" and hope he is ok. He was ok. What he said to me was, "If you never fall you are not trying hard enough." I thought he was crazy. In my world if you never fall then you never smack into the water at 32 miles per hour. I have fallen enough times to know that Me + Water + 32mph = pain.

But, even now God is continuing to speak this message to me. And it is getting even stronger. I believe God is calling me to step out in some new areas, and I actually think He is going to let me fall. In fact, part of me believes it is His plan that I fall. Can you imagine that? It is almost like He is saying to me, "Jeff, I am asking you to do something. You are going to fail. But, its ok. I will be here to pick you up and show you where to walk next." Part of me does not want to believe God works in this way... until He reminds me of Peter and this exact conversation that they had.

So, why do I have to fail? Because if I never fail then most likely I have lived a life completely within my own control. I run the risk of actually believing that I am perfect, not that I merely need to appear perfect. If I never stretch so high chasing God's plan that I fall. If I never make an ask He is calling me to make and get rejected. If I never attempt something that He is calling me to attempt and see it fail. Well, then I have likely only existed, and never really lived.

In the end I won't be "failing" at all, because God will be building something precious into my character. That is His goal after all. What I do, the things I accomplish, the monuments I build... none of that really matters to Him as long as I become who He created me to become.

So, am I willing to Fail so that God's work in me can Succeed?

The Monopoly Mindset - Part 2b

Wow, this is a horrible way to read a book... but I will try to pull it together as well as I can :). I was last talking about signs that suggest that American churches are pursuing a Monopoly status. The first was a push for Control instead of Competition. The second is In-fighting and confusing Cannibalism for growth.

In-Fighting and Cannibalism. There was a series of commercials in which Coca-Cola was attempting to sue Coke Zero for patent infringement. The basic tenet was that the two tasted so alike that Coke Zero must have stolen the secret formula. The humor comes both from the ridiculous lawsuit as well as the fact that the lawyers have no idea it is a joke. Though I found those commercials funny, I also thought they provided a sad commentary on the modern Christian market. When we see ourselves as the only viable religious option, then we begin to compete with ourselves. Our marketing is driven to attract those already within the market, making it meaningless (at best) to those outside. At worst it actually drives away those outside of the market; just as the Coke vs. Coke Zero commercials would if they were not satire.

This has led to a situation in which the church thinks it is healthy when in reality it is dying. We have basically been cannibalizing ourselves for the last 15-20 years. Some churches will grow while others die. Overall the numbers look the same, or even "up" in given years. During that time there has been no real increase. For Southern Baptists in particular, the reality over the last 20 years is that for every 1 person we have baptized, 1.1 people have stopped attending our churches. This is true even though there are hundreds of examples of growing churches in the SBC. What that tells us is that the growing churches are not growing as fast as the dying churches are dying; or that the growing churches are growing because they are moving people from the dying churches. In business terms, we are losing market share. And, I believe the name of the game is market share when it comes to God's design for His church; more important than Net Worth, Political Power, or Social Influence. That is because market share is measured in people, the very people that He died for.

Nothing to Fear?

I was talking to Leslie this weekend (my wife, her pic is just to your right there) and we got into a discussion about courageous decisions versus cowardly decisions. Actually, as the discussion went the Courageous thing to do was to make a decision and stick to it, while the more cowardly thing was to not make a decision and still hope for the best. So, you must be asking yourself, "What decision are you talking about?!?!" In general, we were discussing the decision to find out just how talented you are.

There is a story in the Gospels where Jesus talks about three servants, each given some talents and told to use them wisely. One servant got 5 talents, another received 2, and the last was handed 1 talent. The moral to the story was that God expects us to take what we have been given and invest it; gaining Him a good return.

The underlying story here is that there are One talent people out there and there are Five talent people out there. While God may see no real difference between the two... that is not so much the case for us humans. And, that is where cowardice can rear its ugly head. It happens in two distinct ways.

I don't think I can be a Five Talent person! This person refuses to seek God's specific direction for their lives when making their life goals and says things like, "I will accomplish whatever God has planned for me to accomplish." So, when talking about how big their ministry will be, how many lives they will touch, what their community will look like in 5 years... well it is all in God's hands, and I will be as successful as He wants me to be. While that may be true in parts, it is also cowardly. What if God wanted to look at you like Noah and say, "Here is where I want to take you and your family in the coming years... get ready for a crazy ride!" The coward avoids that conversation because he is afraid of what God may ask, afraid of failing God in such a big calling, or even afraid of others seeing him as too proud or boastful because of his calling.

I know I am not a One Talent person! This person refuses to recognize God's design for their life. They often get caught up day-dreaming about the Five Talent people they know and wondering when their shot is going to come. They don't bother fully investing themselves in their current One Talent life, because surely God is just waiting to fully reveal His plan. Surely He could not intend for them to live in this place, this job, this circle of friends. Surely this is just temporary, a holding place, or a training place until they reach their true calling.

I think that our lives are played out like a huge construction site. On that site you have the HUGE earth movers and cranes. You also have some smaller bobcats and personal-power machines. Then you have guys with shovels. If you talk to the person in charge of the operation he would tell you that all of those parts are necessary. There are just some jobs that the Crane cannot do. Even the smaller front-end loader cannot get everywhere you need to work. Sometimes the whole operation can get stopped... waiting on one guy with a shovel to do what only he can do.

I asked the question that night, "Am I afraid to answer God's call if I am a Five Talent person? Or, am I afraid to hear Him say He wants me to be the best One Talent person I can be?" The answer reveals much about who I really am and who I believe God is.

The Monopoly Mindset - Part 2a

Thank you to Maureen for providing a nice transition into Part 2, where we discuss two of the signs that reveal the church is pursuing a monopoly status in America.

Control vs. Competition: In this view competing religions are viewed as the "enemy" meant to be crushed, by force if necessary, in order to preserve the "true way" of Christianity. Christians use their financial, social, and political power to control access to competing philosophies. They then work to destroy those philosophies. For example:

1. Economic Sanctions and Boycotts. Though more popular in the late 80's and 90's, you will still occasionally see call for people to use financial pressure to influence moral conditions. These are mostly targeted at large retailers who sponsor groups that the Christian world deems immoral or evil. The tricky thing is that as a Christian I have a personal responsibility to use the funds God has given me in a wise way. I may choose to support some things and not support others purely for moral or ethical reasons. But, when I take my personal responsibility and make it a Religious Economic Effort then I take the risk of re-shaping the purpose of my religion. People begin to see me as a Financial force rather than a spiritual force. This can back fire if your purpose is truly spiritual in nature.
2. Legislating moral worldviews. The most popular example of this in my lifetime is the legalization of abortion in America and the fight to overturn that Supreme Court decision.
3. Social anathema. The fight against homosexuality has taken this tactic. There has been an active push over the last few decades to make homosexuality socially unacceptable. The attempt is not just to have it viewed as wrong, but to make it seem "icky".

The first thing we see is that none of these strategies work for the long-term. There are still immoral companies that make lots of money. People still get abortions (and would even if the law changed). And, homosexuality is more accepted today than ever. When we attempt to promote Christianity by controlling people's access to competing ideas then we are demonstrating a Monopoly Mindset. And, such a strategy is destined to fail.

Tomorrow we will look at the second symptom: "In-fighting and Cannibalism".

The Monopoly Mindset - Part 1

Over the last few decades I have noticed a certain trend in America. It is a trend that rings true in secular and religious arenas. It is a trend towards control and away from competition. In the secular world it plays out like so. A person gets a job at a profitable company. The more profit they see the company making the more control they want over what they consider their "fair share". You find such a person making statements like, "I deserve to be paid more because you are making more money." Or, "It is not fair that you control so much money, I deserve a part of that too." This is contrary to the attitude that helped build this nation... one of competition. The world of competition would take the same person working for the same company and they would say, "I think I could do this cheaper, better, or with better customer service... and compete with this company." At first it might seem like the end would be the same, The Company loses profit while either the Employee or the Competition takes it. But, what almost always happens is that the Competition actually increases the market. Their new service or product will reach people that The Company never did. Of course, the fact is that The Company does not want competition. It is often scared of competition and works to control the market in such a way as to prevent or destroy competition.

This same thing happens in the religious world where you have churches focused not on finding ways to tap unreached markets, but instead wanting more control over the market of the "already reached". They see churches with more members and think, "You have more people, and I deserve some of the people you have." And, The Church (including all Christian sects) often works just as hard as The Company to squash competition from competing brands.

My basic premise is that Christianity is most healthy when it operates in a competitive environment as one of many religious options. Christianity declines and dies when it assumes Monopoly status within a culture. In Economics, monopoly exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it.

Though I do not believe Christianity has ever achieved Monopoly status, I believe it has actively pursued such a status here in America. And, I believe that pursuit has led to its decline over the last three decades.

A New Experiement

I am going to be trying a new experiment here on the blog over the coming weeks. The actual length of time will greatly depend on how it is received by you, the reading public.

Over the last few years I have endeavored to finish a couple of writing projects. Those two projects have coalesced into one book that is still unpublished. Many of the ideas that you read here actually come from that book... in bite size form. Thus far I have picked certain ones that pertain to situations or conversations I have during the week. Starting tomorrow I am going to put them out as they were intended to be read, though still in nice bite-sized pieces.

The working title of the book is The Monopoly Mindset: Competition vs. Control in the Christian Marketplace. So, for those of you not wanting to follow the book (shame on you!), I will conveniently title those posts "The Monopoly Mindset Part 1" and so on. Who knows, if this thing ever finds itself on paper I would love to list you all as collaborators :).

Once a week

Answer to the question of: How often is Jeff currently updating his blog? It is a good thing I don't depend on this as a source of... well anything currently. They say that consistency is the number one thing you need to maintain to keep any type of loyal readers. Well, I have put that to the test, and I believe my four faithful readers are made of more sturdy stuff!

I picked up an early release of some new Bible study journals we are making available this weekend. It is really nice; leather-bound and all that. It also has a new feature that makes complete sense but that I have never used before when journaling... the Table Of Contents. Since the point of journaling is to remember what God has said to me, it would make sense to label the information so that I can go back and find something that He said in the past.

So far I am one day into the new journal, and I will likely be posting thoughts from that journal here, especially when I have empty days.

If you are a local reader that attends NPCC, then I really encourage you to stop by the new Spiritual Food table that will be up this week and grab one of the new journals. They are a great resource to help keep track of what God is speaking into your life.