Now Is the Time! Recession Is No Excuse for Recess!

Contrary to the human tendency toward flight in times of danger, these are days for entrepreneurs to venture forth into the unknown and strut their creative stuff. The time is right for new ideas, for niche thinking, and for bold initiatives by men and women who will not be ruled by fear or passing circumstance.

The very limitations, restrictions, and scarcity of our times that cause some to retreat will prompt others to think more creatively and move aggressively into the arena of invention and innovation.

In the midst of recession when the tides of prosperity appear to be receding, there sounds no recess bell. Class is still in session. The need for vision and visionaries is profound. Life goes on. There is a sea change of thinking, a correction in our collective greed for consumption, and a reevaluation of our definitions of success. But people still require basic services and great ideas still have landing places among receptive minds.

We cannot retreat from entrepreneurship, Rather, we must embrace it at a new level. Our communities need out-of-the-box thinkers and risk takers. Our nation and world need people who are willing to move forward to build great business, social, and spiritual initiatives on a shoestring.

Recession is no excuse for recess.

Urban-Suburban Church Partnerships

 

 

Photo Credit: Fast Company

It was good to be in a meeting tonight where we were discussing the challenges faced by urban churches among our association of denominational congregations and other fellowships ministering in under-resourced settings with inner city challenges.

The issue of partnerships between urban and suburban congregations could easily slide into a paternalistic quagmire where the smaller churches of the inner city were crying "Come help us survive" and the larger churches on the outskirts of town were responding with, "We'll come aid our little brothers and sisters, poor things."

Now, no one would say that, but that is the way it seems when one group has hat in hand and the other is put-upon to "help."

Partnership is a better model. The assumption then is that God has given each congregation certain gifts and assignments and those churches, in and of themselves are gifts to the communities where they are assigned, to the church at large, and to the cause of the Kingdom of God in transforming communities from the inside out.

What then is the gift of the urban church to the larger church and, specifically, the highly resourced and larger suburban congregations from which it seeks "aid." It is the provision of a laboratory for urban mission experience, instruction, coaching, and mentoring. Pastors, staff, and members in the urban churches must be willing to make an investment into the lives of those people who come to "volunteer" or "intern" among them just as a seminary professor would invest in his or her students.

Both the urban and suburban ministers are on the same team working toward the same ends. Along the way, each has something to give and receive in authentic partnership.

It is time for partnership.

MIG MAG

It has been a while and I am back.

Thanks to all who missed me and told me.

Thanks to those who did and didn't.

Life gets "up in a heaval" (upheaval) and we lose our tracking and must find new centers for our daily disciplines.

I wish to honor the old categories of this blog, but I will also introduce a new format category - the MIG MAG (as in Magazine) It will stand for MAKING IDEAS GROW and MAKING ADVANCES GRADUALLY.

It occurred to me just this morning that gradual is not "synonymous" with "slow." It comes from the concept of gradations, " proceeding by steps or degrees."

Quickly or slowly, the analogical world with its digital precision is comprised of component parts and grades. Fast steps and slow steps have this in common: they are steps.

Our ideas must geminate and develop. Our advances may seem like marathon events over a lifetime, but they are, in facts, multiple series of sprints, pulsating, intensifying, resting, reenergizing, and moving with purpose toward unspoken goals or default destinations depending upon the levels of our intention and attention.

For me, there are some key categories of ideas that I am inclined and equipped to address with competence or curiosity. One is entrepreneurship (and I am so happy I can spell it). Another is biblical principles for business, especially from Proverbs. Networking, personal and spiritual development, health, nutrition, web marketing, web trends, and ministry are all areas of seeking in my life.

All shall be included.