Coat Rack in the back

One of the dangers of being back-stabbed by a close friend or co-worker is that you stop trusting people - in fact you can grow to dislike (even despise) people. This will often result result in isolation as you hide out from the world around you. This is unhealthy to say the least. I remember the first time I got back into the social scene after being shivved I felt the evening was a great success until I got home and realized I left my jacket at the party. I had a choice to make - I could isolate even deeper or I could find a way to use the knife in my back to be a help rather than a hindrance. Now I enter the soiree take off my jacket to reveal the tremendously metrosexual ensemble I have arrayed myself in and hang my jacket on the handle of the knife. Voila! No more digging through piles of jackets to find mine has been covered by someone trying to smuggle a pocketful limburger cheese out of the party.

Grocery Bagged

Let's face it your life is filled with enough frustration already there is no reason to allow grocery shopping to cap off an already gut-wrenching, soul-eating day. And yet it is increasingly becoming one more spirit robbing activity in your schedule. The local supermarket is constantly renaming or relocating the sections of the store you actually use. They have started charging you to use their carts and bags and it is only a matter of time that they follow the example of the airport and start hitting you with a beautification tax every time you walk out the door. The knife in the back that was lodged their by yet another Dutch Uncle talk with the boss that claims to have your back (of course he has your back how else is he going to lodge a shank hilt deep between your shoulder blades?!?) can be a source of more anxiety or it can be a source of relief - its your choice. With the extra arm of cold pressed stainless steel you can walk past the racks of three-wheeled, left lurching shopping carts and just load the bags up after you fill your hands up. That's right you save some money AND you don't have the bags so overloaded that the plastic stretches so thin it becomes garrote wire that threatens to amputate your fingers at the first knuckle before you can get to the car! See it all in reframing the situation and seeing the positives as well as the negatives!

Migwec,

Ehkosit!!!

Vespa

One of the draw backs to being knifed in the back is it is uncomfortable to drive a car because the handle digs into the seat. That is why I would suggest investing in a motorcycle or even Vespa. If you are anything like me you have all of the electronic gadgets (IPhone...check, PDA...check, Daytimer...Check) but you still rely on scraps of paper to jot down errands and quick lists. The benefit of a knife in the back is that you can get a package of small magnets and use the exposed blade as a mobile magnet board. It can be very tiring and inconvenient to lug your fridge around with you but a shank is just perfect for keeping your 'Honey-Do' list, 'food to pick up on the way home' list, church prayer chain and pictures of your Compassion child(ren) close at hand.

Migwec,

Ehkosit!!

Sombrero

Sometimes you just need to get away from a turmoil-filled workplace. Unfortunately, even though we are a thousand miles away from the source of the stress we carry the knife in our back with us. It can be the thing that ruins our vacation - constantly reminding us about what we left behind and what is waiting for us when we return. Or, if we learn to not only live with it but embrace it, the knife in the back can be the key to our best sunbathing ever! By purchasing a cheap souvenir/oversized sombrero you have the quickest and easiest parasol on the beach. Not to mention that the metal blade lets you know when you've had enough sun (if its hot to the touch you need to put the sombrero back up).

Migwec,

Ehkosit.

Knife as Swing

Just because you have spent the last 24 hours trying to pick up the emotional pieces after being blind-sided at a meeting doesn't excuse you from pulling your weight in raising the kids. With the infants swing from the backyard swingset (or local playground) and a simple Tugboat Hitch at the ends of the rope and you are set. If you are planning to sit and enjoy a warm beverage while checking your emails or possibly updating your resume, make sure you choose a stool or a low backed chair for the safety and comfort of yourself and Junior.

Migwec,

Ehkosit.

Leadership is learning to live with a knife in the back

Unless you are an ascetic monk living out a solo existence in some secluded location (or you bought Ted Kazinski's cabin on EBay) you have to interact with people. This means you have probably seen the darker side of humanity. If you are a leader in any capacity, at any level you will have been stabbed in the back. I used to have a boss that constantly assured me he would "go to Hell and back for me." I never doubted he would, but I always wanted to ask him if I whether I was getting a round trip ticket or was he just going to dispose of my body.

The first few times I was a victim of this I wanted to take steps to guarantee it wouldn't happen again. The longer I have been in leadership positions the more I realize that it is not something to be avoided. It is something to be expected and even more so to be embraced. It becomes an aikido approach to anger-management. Here are some of the ideas I had about living with a knife in your back, but first here is an old picture I did a while back (I'm sure I posted it before, but I can't remember when):

I'm a Reader not a Leader

This has become my reality. I sometimes feel like I am spending so much time researching leadership that I have no time to actually do it. In some ways it has sped up the leadership development - I don't have the same amount of time anymore and so a number of tasks have to be handed off. I am fortunate to have a great team around me and the move to bring Juli on staff is the only way that this is possible.

I guess we will continue to negotiate our way through the challenges of balancing ministry, family and academics.

Migwec,

Ehkosit.

Sunday in Philly

I spent the middle of January in Philadelphia. I go down three times a year as part of my PhD program. Its hard to explain how rejuvenating this is for me. I guess there is a part of me that never left the ivory tower of academia when I stopped teaching at the university.

I always tell people to find a local church when they go on holidays – not because its a legalistic thing, but because there is a tremendous blessing in connecting with other Christians from other places. With this in mind I asked my classmates from the Philadelphia and New Jersey area if they knew of a church near my hotel at the airport. Better than that one arranged for me to join her at her church. This is my take on that Sunday from my journal:

What a day its been. Got up this morning just after 4am (according to my time – but 6am locally) because a friend of a classmate is going to pick me up. I always tell people not to take a vacation from church when they go away – it is a chance to have a unique experience and a way to see the wideness of the family of God. The fellow who picked me up was Rev. Bob – a former pastor who is still very involved in the ministry at the church. As we drive to the church he tells me that we will be a distinct minority amongst the worshipers this morning – being that we are white and it is a decidedly black church within a largely black neighbourhood. Anita, my classmate had already told me this and made sure I was comfortable with that. More than comfortable I was excited to experience something different.

We arrive and Rev Bob introduces me to one of the associate pastors and then we make our way to the back of the church to be part of the pre-service prayer with Pastor Lusk. To say Rev Dr Herbert Lusk II is a captivating personality is an understatement. He is a former professional football player (with the Philadelphia Eagles where he was known as the Praying Tailback) and he runs the pre-service prayer with the focus and energy of a pre-game huddle! Prepared and charged up to enter the service we all make our way to the door when Rev Bob mentions that I’m a Baptist Pastor from Canada. With that Pastor Lusk says “Baptist from Canada?! We’re everywhere…he’ll join us on the platform!” and off we go to the deacons room.

As we wait I get a little of the history of the church – it was a Presbyterian church that was built over 100 years ago. In the 60s the Catholic diocese bought it, largely so that African American parishioners would have a place to worship without showing up at white churches (a statement on the times more than on any denomination). 30 years ago the Baptists bought it and tried to make a difference in a quickly declining neighbourhood.

The neighbourhood needed a gospel presence. In the 70s & 80s (during the Carter administration) it was the home of the WORST housing project in the US – worse than anything in LA, NYC or Chicago. The only thing that allowed it to give up the title was that they finally gave up and tore it down. When the current pastor accepted the position the church had major renovations needed (the first Sunday he preached it was raining as hard inside as it was outside) and they owed 32,000 to the power company. Considering they only had $300 in the bank it was going to be a bit of a challenge!

Currently they own every building on the block (including a bank that told them they wouldn’t lend them 50 cents) except one as well as a park across the street and a gym that is being turned into a youth centre. They run a pregnancy crisis centre (it does no good to be prolife if you aren’t helping before and after the baby comes) a charter school and employment skills.

I’m jazzed up and I haven’t even seen the sanctuary yet! We walk out and through a set of doors and up onto the platform. As soon as the other pastors arrive in their positions they drop to their knees and start praying (nobody mentioned this to me). The choir takes it feet and they start swaying, clapping and singing. The congregation gets prodded to “show some joy!” And out come the tambourines and the clapping patterns and the play-by-play (”sing that note son”, “that’s right, that’s right, sing praises”, etc.).

There are clap offerings, dance offerings, praise offerings, and benevolent offerings – later in the service there is the general offering and Pastor Herb literally starts calling out people that even look like they are going to leave before they can give their offerings “I gave you that sermon, and your going to leave? I saw you nodding your head, I heard you saying amen, you’re are surely not leaving before you give an awesome god his tithes and offerings?!?”

Anyways back to the message – Pastor Lusk starts with “Much love to the people” to which the congregation replies “Much love to the Pastor.” And then he begins to speak. His sermon is on John 2 where Jesus drives out the money changers. He starts out fairly low key – introducing the topic, setting the context, bringing in some history. But slowly he ramps up as he gets into his first point “Worship without wonder.” At one point all the other people on the platform jump up and start patting Bob on the back as he makes a point. From the choir one of the members starts saying “oh yeah he’s preaching now…preach that preaching preacher” Others from the congregation start calling out “Go preacher” and other phrases. At one point Pastor Herb tells us that worship should be dangerous; it should never be safe. And then to underscore his point he reaches over and grabs Rev Bob by the suit coat and says that worship should grab us – like the people used to grab on the cloaks of Jesus and the apostles. Two thoughts go through my head: (1) Bob’s my ride home so I hope he doesn’t get injured and (2) I may be next and I am not warmed up for a contact sport especially since Pastor Bob looks like he could still play pro football!! His other points are that we denigrate the temple when we bring “sacrifice that has no significance” and when we “participate in the privilege without prayer”

Pastor Bob’s points were excellent and, although I missed my coffee that morning, I walked out wired and ready to serve. At the end of the service I was called on to say a few words and so I extended grace and peace and I brought greetings from brothers and sisters at SGBC. I know where I will be attending in May! It was a visceral, energizing, full body experience of worship. To think I would have missed all that if I slept in or went shopping!

You can check out my Philadelphia church (they’ve already invited me and my whole family back whenever I’m in Philly) at www.gebch.com.