Finishing Well

Some of the lines bandied about in talking about leadership include "working yourself out of a job" and "begin with the end in mind." After having my final day at my shelter job on Thursday, I thought those sayings can be somewhat simplistic. I didn't work myself out of my job; there was a replacement. I didn't know starting out where the end of this job would be, only that it would end someday. And I'm still on a sort of "on call" to help the new guy transition well.

I guess for me there is never closure in the simplest sense of the word--the work will never end, until Kingdom Come. Finishing well seems to be more about legacy, if Iron Man 2 has taught me anything. Have you left this job, ministry, work better than when you came in? Did you leave without any burned bridges of relationships, as far as you could control? What good thing have you left behind that will go on after your last day?

Maybe it's better to start with those questions than to throw out those tired leadership statements!

Pentecost Reflection

Journaling this morning reminded me again that today is Pentecost Sunday. And I came up with this question as I reflected on the Acts 2 story: "How are you, Holy Spirit, bringing newness?" It was difficult to come up with a list.

Even if I know there is potential stagnancy I sense in myself and some of those around me, I know this is also my untrained ability to see that newness. God may be making all things new through His Spirit, but I'm often hurtling along on the freeway of life without my mirrors attached.

This reflection from Every Bush Is Burning by Joan Puls captures what I want to believe, and with the Spirit's transforming work also SEE more of this newness in my life and in our cities:


"I believe that nothing human is foreign to the Spirit, that the Spirit embraces all. Our mundane experiences contain all the stuff of holiness and of human growth in grace. Our world is rife with messages and signatures of the Spirit. Our encounters with one another are potential sites of the awakening and energizing that characterize the Spirit. But so much goes unnoticed. We fail so often to recognize the light that shines through the tiny chinks and the dusty panes of our daily lives. We are too busy to name the event that is blessed in its ordinariness, holy in its uniqueness, and grace-filled in its underlying challenge."


Come, Holy Spirit.

Transition Plan

If you don't know by now, my family and I are taking a step of faith for me to quit my stable 30 hour job so I could focus more on going "full-time" with Kingdom Causes Alhambra - Monterey Park (stable in work, not necessarily in pay :P) . There's been a rush of feelings, lots of fitful sleep, and wondering prayers. It can be hard living in that "in-between" space, wondering how it's all going to play out.

But this week as I started my transition plan (down from 30 to 16 hours with the goal of training my successor), I found so much life-giving work, meetings, and conversations that helped confirm this sense of calling even more with the additional time in Kingdom Causes work.

Monday--Meeting with local pastors about opportunities to serve the community. Also connected with the SGV branch of Habitat for Humanity.

Wednesday--Met with my coach to talk about our strategic plan for KCAMP for the next few years. Our team is already moving forward with all our listed goals.

Thursday--Monterey Park Ministerial group. Continued to dream and plan on how we can work together as well as for the city.

Friday--Did some extra mentoring time and replanted a garden with summer veggies.

Praise God for all these opportunities and connections. Sometimes I feel like what I'm doing with KCAMP "out there" is making up for all the pretty much in-house work I did as a pastor of a church.

Two Crosses

Yesterday we had our first "Good Friday Prayerwalk for Peace" amongst the churches of Monterey Park. We had no idea who would come since it was at 1pm, but garnered at least 70 odd people across a wide variety of ages. I thought it was a great show of unity as a concrete example of what "Church of the City" looks like when we talk about it in Kingdom Causes.

Anyway, from a more personal reflection, I had the chance to carry two crosses during the prayerwalk: the gold processional cross to lead the walk, and the simple wooden cross at the end of the line. Carrying the processional cross out on the streets of Monterey Park carried mixed feelings--one of being a little proud to be so publicly witnessing on the streets, saying "We are Christian" to the gawkers and pedestrians on the sidewalk we almost barreled over at times. And then a strange feeling about how this gold cross represented the sort of Constantine/Crusader emblem of conquest and triumph in much of Church history.

Then I got a call from my intern who asked for me to slow down, since she was holding up the back with the wooden cross. She called TWICE to ask me to slow down. So I ended up transferring the cross (while still holding the heavy stand for it) over and having the group proceed while I waited to see what the hold up was.

After all the prayerwalkers had passed me, I saw way off at the street corner of Garfield and Garvey my intern with the wooden cross and one elderly, deaf woman walking very slowly towards me. We walked together for a short while, but the stand for the gold cross needed to go to the front of the line. I told my intern to go on ahead with the stand, and I would walk with this woman with the wooden cross. And so we did, a veritable two person prayerwalk, with me holding this wooden cross that now felt foolish and strange, and also a marked contrast to moments before: no longer leading the crowd, but now with the one almost forgotten, the one easily marginalized.

I was glad to be able to be first and last during the prayerwalk. If I had spent too much time leading the way, the way of the cross would not have included those most easily forgotten and marginalized. Maybe next year, we'll have the leader and sweeper switch places at each transition, so as not to forget this central aspect of bearing the cross of Christ.

It was a Good Friday.

Lenten Reflection #3

We had a fellowship group from my old church come to repaint the former office today to begin its transformation into the City Prayer Room (CPR, get it?) for Kingdom Causes Alhambra-Monterey Park. The vision of this room is for it to not only be a place of personal retreat, but to tap into that outward stream of praying for our cities.

Since the office is located in the central section of Alhambra, I had them first go out and prayerwalk for the police, school, church and court buildings right around the corner. They wrote some prayers I will post on a future wall board of city prayer people can post when they are praying.

Here's the quote I put for the prayerwalk from Eugene Peterson, appropriate as we near the end of the Lent season, but a great reminder for me that I need to get over myself a lot when I pray!

“The only way to escape from self-annihilating and society-destroying egotism and into self-enhancing community is through prayer. Only in prayer can we escape the distortions and constrictions of the self and enter the truth and expansiveness of God. We find there, to our surprise, both self and society whole and blessed. It is the old business of losing your life to save it; and the life that is saved is not only your own, but everyone else’s as well.”

Lenten Reflection #2

I shared this reflection at our first local training in Alhambra-Monterey Park today. Can't wait to let people post their reflections in later posts. But this reflection talks about the "both and" of prayer and action in Kingdom activity.

Prayer challenges us to be fully aware of the world in which we live and to present it with all its needs and pains to God. It is this compassionate prayer that calls for compassionate action. The disciple is called to follow the Lord not only into the desert and onto the mountains to pray but also into the valley of tears, where help is needed, and onto the cross, where humanity is in agony.

Prayer and action, therefore, can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows into powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation. If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service. And if concrete acts of service do indeed lead us into a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying , and the oppressed, they will always give rise to prayer. In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ.

--From Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life

Lenten Reflection #1

Like the rains that seem to come every week, the last month I've been mostly sick fighting off a respiratory infection that seemed to affect everyone I knew, including my family.

The experience was dreadful at times; I had a terrible sore throat the first week, and the second week I was so congested I would wake up a few times at night because I couldn't breathe. There were times I could only squeeze out a "please God"--I couldn't remember the last time I was in such sickly misery.

I think people of faith can fall under two extremes when it comes to sickness: is it a God-given opportunity to exercise greater faith, or is it spiritual warfare, a concrete expression of the falleness of our world and therefore to be resisted at all times? Most extremes tend to destroy truly life-giving faith; perhaps discernment in the particulars of a life when we deal with sickness leads to a more truthful reality than a broad theological brushstroke.

Since this all happened during Lent's beginning, it was difficult not connecting it to the themes of sacrifice, suffering, and limitations. Compassion, according to Henri Nouwen, "removes all pretensions, just as it removes false modesty." In my case, my miserable state helped me understand in small part what it may be like for those around me who deal with chronic conditions or are frequently sick. As one who is usually healthy, it's easy to start tuning these people out as either hypochondriacs or just no fun to be around--what a drag being around sickos! But it also made me respect the great strength and willpower of those who despite it all don't complain, go to work, raise families, and create beauty around them.

If this bout of sickness has helped create a little bit more compassion for others who suffer, then I guess it was worth it--as a God-opportunity to deepen faith.