Revisiting Ministry Partnerships – Addressing The Pink Elephant

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I know that it is difficult for some people to receive letters of appeal or direct appeals for money from me when they know that the ministry initiatives I am raising money for are going to be in Uganda. It is no secret that I grew up in Uganda and so I fully understand that it is difficult for some because it seems like I am asking for funding to go on holiday to visit my parents. NOBODY sends out letters of appeal asking their friends and family for money to go back to their homes or countries and visit their parents and friends. You do it using your own money! This is what I call the Pink Elephant of my fundraising efforts.

I feel like I need to address this Pink Elephant.

Let me tell you a little more about me that you may or may not know. I have lived in Canada for 10 years now and for my first 4 years I returned EVERY year. I got married 4 years after I moved to Canada to a wonderful Canadian woman and so our journeys to Uganda have reduced because it is much more expensive taking 2 people to Uganda than it is going alone. We go once every 2 or 3 years as we can afford it

Every single time I made the trip back, I spent a significant amount of it working with worship teams and leaders as an extension of what I was doing before I left. I usually go for 3 weeks and without fail, 2 of them are always spent working on some kind of leadership initiative. After a couple of years of doing this on my own I resolved that I was going to make my journeys back to Uganda more intentional not only be involved with a ministry initiative, but to also bring some people from Canada along with me that I currently work with.

For those of you who do not know my journey, I became a leader in Canada only 9 months after I left Uganda. So most of my leadership 10 years ago and to this date is largely influenced by my experiences in Uganda and the people that poured into my life while I was living, studying and working there. I had the great and unique privilege to not only sit under some incredible men and women who were INTENTIONAL about raising me up as a leader, but I was also handed the kind of leadership positions that people with a lot more experience than me should have held. My evolution as an individual and as a leader did not stop when I moved to Canada and I will freely admit that there is much about the way I lead now that is influenced by my experiences, education and internships. I am the leader I am today because of the influences I had both in Uganda and in Canada.

I revisit ministry partnerships in Uganda because I am grateful to people from all over the world that took time to impact me – most of them were Ugandans. I view my trips back to Uganda as a way to give back to the country that somehow created a leader out of an insecure, unpolished person. I also view my trips back to Uganda as a way to pay it the time and effort that was poured into me forward into emerging leaders. I say this with great humility and astonishment that God could use somebody like me: many stories in Uganda and Canada have changed simply because of my involvement and many more stories all over the world can change if I remain faithful to my desire to train leaders just as I was trained. I also return to share many of the valuable lessons I have learned as a Ugandan-trained leader navigating his way through leadership in Canada.

If you think that I am a valuable leader right here in Canada, then you’ve gotta believe that there is a Ugandan who could benefit from a conversation with me… a young person that has the potential to be involved in changing stories of individuals, churches and communities and that person is worth investing in. You’ve gotta believe that there are more than just several men and women more talented and articulate than I am, that can make a positive global impact that currently live in Uganda and I am determined to find them and pour into them.

So… yes, full disclosure…  I WILL see my parents when I go to Uganda and it will be so good for me to connect with them. My parents are some of the smartest and most empowering people I know. Being around them is like being in an oasis. I WILL see my sisters and brother and nephews and niece. I’ve missed them so much and seeing them will be good for me, my wife and my daughter. I will see my best friends in the world – Chris and Lynnet, Moses and Sara, Angela and Sam… the list goes on, and we will laugh about the past and catch up on what has been happening in their lives recently. But MORE IMPORTANTLY I will also be spending most of my time – 2 weeks in total actually –  working with people who were like me 3 or 5 or 10 or 15 years ago trying to make the same impression on them that was made on me so many years ago. I will be doing this by helping out at a leadership bootcamp and through working with Cherish Uganda.

Here’s the thing. With or without your financial and prayer support I am going to Uganda in August and I am going to work with leaders. I did it for many years without ever writing a letter of appeal or letting my congregation and friends know what I was going to do. I am THAT passionate about it. However, with YOUR support financially and through prayer, myself and the team of people that I have assembled for this trip can have a bigger impact than we would without it. I realized that by involving more people in the process and in the journey, my trips back to Uganda could have a bigger impact than if I went alone. I hope that all of you that value my leadership will consider helping me make an investment in a young impressionable man or woman who was just like me back then.

I hope that all of you that value my leadership would consider praying for me and supporting this ministry exchange financially because I really do believe that if I am faithful, by God’s grace I am going to have the opportunity to speak into the life of somebody that will have a far greater impact than I ever could. It is the reason why I do not mind that there is a “pink elephant” in my fundraising efforts because being a part of changing the stories of individuals, communities and churches is such an exciting and empowering journey and, frankly THAT important.

Gear Talk – Panasonic Sports Earbuds

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Like most worship leaders I am a gear head and I love the latest and greatest equipment. One of the fast-growing worlds of latest and greatest technology is the world of in-ear monitoring because EVERYBODY uses them these days. Among the people I hang out with, the new thing is to get your own custom triple or quad driver in ear monitors.

I’ve used everything from the entry-level shure headphones to the high-end westone headsets and always found that even though the sound is the high-end stuff is absolutely amazing, and the fit in my ear is more snug, it seems like the more energetic I get on stage, the more the headphones tend to pop off my ears. More recent headsets come with a mouldable polymer thing that helps to clasp the cable behind the earlobe and these help too, but only to a point.

About 12 months ago my gym headphones popped out of my ear and I stepped on them while I was running on the treadmill. I replaced them with a pair of these http://www.staples.ca/en/Panasonic-Sports-Earbud-Headphones-Black/product_343018_2-CA_1_20001 and was impressed by how well they stayed on my ears and remained in place IN my ears while running, cycling, dancing or jumping. One week I forgot to carry my own stage in-ear headphones with me and so I pulled out my gym headphones and used them on stage and was surprised by how well they worked in that application.

To be fair, they do not sound as amazing as my custom in-ear headphones, but they do have decent sound, they dont distort when I turn up the volume, and they dont fall off my ears no matter how much I move on stage which I absolutely love. I’ve purchased a few of these headsets since I started using them on stage because they are quite hard to find in my area. Also because they are not supported in the same way that our higher-end headphones are, I need outright replacements for when I inevitably damage the ones that I am currently using.

If you’re looking for an in-ear solution, but do not have hundreds of dollars to spend, I think these would be an excellent option for you as a HUGE step up from your ipod headphones. Have an excellent monday and week leading up to your next worship service!

Intentional Leadership Training

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It is quite something to watch the development of a person with promise into an astute leader. Some deal with insecurities, while others trip up over their lack of experience and other still are brimming with such overwhelming confidence that they put everybody off.  And yet when all those shortcomings are worked through and the person matures, the rewards are amazing.

In talking about accidental leaders, I made mention of the fact that intentionally raising up leaders is tough work. Sometimes all the tough work results in absolutely nothing in the end… And yet an leader who emerges through intentional training and mentoring will always be better at maintaining continuity, preserving the legacy and keeping constituents, employees and volunteers invested in the continued success of whatever they take over.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who has noticed a trend in the church of today. I would go so far as to call it a disturbing trend. Most fellowships have ONE person doing all the communicating on behalf of God and on behalf of the congregation. Similarly have ONE person doing all the worship leading.

I’m pretty convinced that if you have only one voice for your messaging, your vision will not survive. In order to ensure the survival of your vision and your legacy, you have to raise up other surrogates that can speak as authoritatively about it as you can. This is incredibly threatening to the kind of ego that is required to run our churches and yet it is IMPORTANT because not only does it keep the leaders in check, it requires more than simply talking about the vision. It requires living it out and part of living it out is raising up people that will carry it forward when you are gone. Ultimately, raising up leaders forces you to face the truth about your vision – whether it is about God or whether it is about you – because you will only be able to attract strong leaders to your vision if it is bigger than your self aggrandizement.

Why do you think that many large ministries fade away and die when their leader dies or succumbs to scandal? Not only did they surround themselves with “yes-men”, but they did not take the time to invest in leaders that would ensure the continuity of their ministries.

Why do you think that transitions between pastoral leadership at the local church level is tumultuous? It is because pastors are not doing what they need to raise up leaders from within that can steady the ship during transition.

Why do you think that many countries are wracked with civil war? Not only is there poor leadership, but they perpetually substitute one accidental leader with another.

Do you think you are the only preacher that attends your church? Do you think you are the best preacher that attends your church? Think about it.

Do you think that you are the only worship leader that attends your church? Do you think that you are the best worship leader that attends your church? Think about it. I have…

You see, when it gets down to it, Jesus WHO WAS GOD’S SON raised up leaders. He knew that they would have differences of opinion about what he really meant when he was gone. He knew that they would not always get along and that they could even potentially distort what he started, but he left the church in their hands anyway. He was intentional about the time he spent with them, and when it was time, he handed it off to them. The church EXPLODED under the stewardship of Jesus disciples and not under Jesus himself and I think it is important to remember this. It is because of this that I am convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that leadership training IN THE CHURCH has to be intentional and not accidental.

Here is the basic truth. Your church, your worship team, your ministry will never hit full stride until you are intentionally raising up leaders. In truth, what many leaders today call  ”raising up leaders” is really raising up minions. Leaders have the ability to dream as you do; to influence as you do; to inspire as you do; to motivate as you do; to fail as you do; to succeed as you do…

My hope is that enough people will read this and come to the same realization that I have come to. Intentional leadership training is not another fancy phrase from the pages of some leadership manual. It is from God’s word and we are where we are because Jesus modelled it so well for us.

Accidental Leadership Training

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If you think about it, most of the people that you know as leaders around you at your job, your school or your volunteer opportunities are mostly what I call accidental leaders. This means that they rose to the position of leadership simply because there was a vacuum, because they did not know how to say no, or because they randomly picked up the skills necessary to do the job. In all of these situations, it would be fair to say that there was nobody really looking out to find these people and coax some kind of leadership potential out of them.

These are accidental leaders. Through some stroke of luck some of them were able to have all the necessary life experience to equip them for the daunting task of leadership in our day and age. Others are merely charismatic, super talented, attention seekers or pushovers. For some, there may have been people that saw leadership potential in them, but for most there was little-to-no intentional mentoring in their lives to speak of. This is why we spend so much time after the fact trying to build into our leaders the things we should have been teaching them before they arrived in their positions of leadership through leadership conferences and such.

Think about the things that we require of good, strong leaders these days. Vision, management communication, interpersonal savvy, time management, financial expertise, etc… Many of these skills are not simply acquired through osmosis. In some cases they require quite a bit of repetition and a fair bit of leeway to make mistakes and yet, in truth, if we look at the world around us, the opportunities for people to pick up these skills over the course of time through life experience are reducing.

How many potential leaders are given a chance to speak in public and to get comfortable with it? It is only after you are a success or an entrenched leader that you are handed a microphone and a public podium and by then, for some, it is too late!

We are constantly on the lookout for talent that has already been developed but there are precious few people that are willing to cultivate the seeds of leadership that exist in the talent that is out there but needs a little guidance. I think that this disconnect is the reason why there is an increase in the bankruptcy of integrity within leaders – both in the business community and not-for-profit community. In the absence of true leaders (accidental or not), we turn to the most charismatic or talented people and hand them leadership in the hopes that their charisma and talent will make up for the deficiencies in their leadership abilities.

Something I’ve witnessed as I’ve left one area of leadership for another is this: while great people rise up to fill the place that I have left, more often than not, they are people that I did not take enough time to intentionally raise up. They have what it takes to do the job, but it has little to do with anything that I did to intentionally prepare them for the position they now occupy in my departure. As I take stock of the time that I’ve spent in leadership, I’ve come to realize that I need to have done a better job of equipping people around me to do the job that I do just as well as I do it and preferably even better.

Intentional leadership training is time consuming, frustrating and even disappointing. This is probably why there are more accidental leaders than intentionally mentored leaders. The world will actually continue to move forward and innovate in spite of this and yet we must all agree that there is great benefit to focusing energy in making sure that those who carry our message into the future know what we were thinking. Those who take our companies into the future understand what made us innovate in the first place. And those who come after us do not repeat the cycle of mistakes we made because they know better, because in truth the mistakes made in leadership positions are ugly and embarrassing.

If our legacy is to last our upcoming leaders cannot arrive in their positions by accident. We must be intentional about raising them up.

This topic is dear to me because I am convinced that as a church, we need to pay more attention to it and not just TALK about raising up leaders, but actually WALK the road. If our message, doctrine, mission, tradition (don’t get tripped up by this word) is to endure, it will not happen by accident. It will happen on purpose.

Gear talk – Taylor 114 CE

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I really SHOULD start this post by saying that I am not a guitar guru. I’m just a guy who loves guitars and owns a couple.

7 years ago I bought a 314CE Taylor. I never thought that I would need or want another guitar after that and indeed, I have not purchased or desired to purchase any other acoustic guitar after that.

3 years ago I randomly entered a contest put on by a local music store to win a 114CE Taylor guitar. I never win anything so I figured nothing would come out of it until they called me to come in and pick it up. SHOCK!

All taylor guitars from the 300 series and up are made from solid wood and for many years Taylor had taken great pride in making their full-size bodies out of wood. The 100 and 200 series guitars introduced in 2010 have a combination of laminates and solid wood and are considered “entry level” guitars. In addition, the expression system (which is Taylor’s fancy name for the amplification electronics) are not as detailed as they are in the higher series guitars. As a result, guitar aficionados tend to turn their noses up at the 100 series and 200 series guitars and have made their thoughts quite apparent on the internet AND in person to me every time they find out that I own a 100 series Taylor.

And so even though I was happy to have won a free guitar, I must admit that I was not sure about the fact that it contained laminates and that the electronics in the amplification system were a lesser version than in my much more expensive 300 series guitar.

However when I first played it, I was a lot more impressed than I thought I would be with the natural acoustic sound that it delivered. I had gone in determined to make sure that my excitement at winning something, ANYTHING, would not cloud my assessment of the instrument. After playing it at the store I got it set up, bought a new set of strings and ebony bridge pins and took it to rehearsal with me later that week. Instead of using my 314 like I’d done before, I used the 114 for rehearsal and the sunday service keeping the 314 as the backup. I was even more impressed by the sound of it plugged in and made a decision to use it exclusively for a month to break it in and make sure that my impression of the sound was not being influenced by the fact that I was excited about winning it.

Fast forward to 3 years later and it is still my primary guitar. I’ve been continually floored by my “entry level” guitar. I use quotation marks because $800 is not entry level money, no sir! For the kind of driving pseudo christian contemporary sound that I use it in, it sounds just right. I actually prefer using it on stage to my much more expensive 314… believe it or not! A friend of mine who owns a 500 series Taylor used it at a rehearsal and was like, “Why doesn’t my much more expensive guitar sound anywhere as good as this?” Honestly, I dont know. I ‘m not enough of a guitar expert to offer an expert opinion. What I know is that I have an amazing 100-series guitar and entry level or not, it sounds AWESOME.

So awesome that I used it as I led worship at one of the biggest events I’ve had the privilege of leading in Canada – the national PAOC conference last year: Me and my 114CE

I will admit to one thing… one SMALL thing. The 314 has a “fuller” acoustic sound when I play it unplugged. The 114 does not carry as much bottom end when it is unplugged, but it does not make it a less desirable sound. Just a different sound.

If you’re in the market for a Taylor guitar, you can spend thousands of dollars on their more upscale instruments and you would absolutely be happy and content with your purchase. OR you can spend under $1000 and get their 100 series instruments and be equally as content and happy with your purchase. You choose. I love my 114 CE and if something were to happen to it, I will replace it without hesitation. 

Revisiting Ministry Partnerships – Uganda 2013

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In 2010 I took a bunch of people to Uganda with me to initiate what we called a ministry partnership. I felt led to take this group of people with me and initiate ministry partnerships with churches and faith-based organizations because I’m convinced that there is much that we can benefit from each other with intentional partnership.

In a blog post I wrote during the height of the Kony 2012 social media firestorm, one of the things I proposed as an alternative solution to complex issues on the African continent was a move away from financial aid. Strategic, intentional partnerships that take into account the input of the people you intend to help are far more effective than writing a cheque. I do not discount the need for financial aid, but it has to be strategic and it has to be done in partnership with people already on the ground working to provide solutions with or without external financial assistance. In a partnership, there is a recognition that both parties have value and can make significant contributions to whatever initiatives you embark on together.

One of the things that everybody – and I do mean EVERYBODY – who has been on a short-term cross-cultural ministry trip will tell you is that they gained more than they gave. They were impacted in ways far more than they could ever reciprocate. In our case in particular, the worship ministry at woodvale will never be the same because of the 2 weeks that we spent in Uganda in 2010. I think that this goes to show that there is value in the people we seek to impact. More to that, if we approach cross cultural ministry trips with a “partnership” attitude rather than a “donor” attitude I believe that we could actually fundamentally change short term and long term ministry and missions trips. I also believe that we could actually fundamentally change the world… I really do!

Many members of the team that I took with me to Uganda have expressed an eagerness to return to the churches and organizations that we interfaced with the first time we went. Our focus back then, based on the need we were informed of was a worship conference and a building project at Watoto. We had over 300 people at the worship conference that was jointly facilitated by our team and leaders from Uganda and in our second week, we spent long days working alongside Ugandan builders to erect a much-needed food store at Watoto’s then newest village.

There are 2 ways in which I think we can surmise that we had some kind of impact during our visit. The first is that many friendships between my team mates and people in Uganda that started in 2010 have persisted and many of the people we interfaced with sent messages to let us know how much our visit was appreciated. The second is that we have an open and honest invitation to return.

This year I am returning to Uganda with roughly the same number of people. More than half the team returning with me went the first time round and it is important for us to return because strategic partnerships cannot be temporary. They have to stand the test of time. These people are invested in helping change the stories of the people they met and the situations they saw and I am so proud of each one of them for being so committed to cross cultural humanitarian work and ministry.

This year our humanitarian focus will be a small organization that captured our hearts and imagination while we were in Uganda in 2010 – Cherish Uganda. We shall also be returning to do more growing in leadership and worship with our friends at Worship Harvest Church. I’m excited to return to these ministries and to revisit our partnerships in Uganda. I am trying to be about action and not simply talk. Keep watching this space for more information about our trip and everything we’re going to be doing in Uganda.

Having All The Answers – Part 3

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Never before have we seen so many people claim with such authority to possess many or all the answers to the questions that plague humanity 

Our leaders and gurus present their differing and sometimes conflicting answers to the questions of life with such conviction and authority that we buy into everything they peddle. In truth it creates a world on one hand even more opinionated and on the other hand even more confused.

Having the answers to tough questions and solving dilemmas in peoples lives has become big business. Books dispensing advice about everything from the really simple to the really nuanced and complex line the shelves of our bookstores.

Advice columns about EVERYTHING populate an increasing number of newspapers and magazines. Our social networking and blogging sites have become an echo chamber for off-the-cuff, regurgitated life advice that has no real life transformative power.

Life advice is dispensed in 140 characters or less

Even though there are real people doing their best to get their hands and feet dirty with the work of changing the world, there are disproportionately more that are big on rhetoric, while at the same time abounding in apathy and wilfully disconnected from the real world.

So while we appear to have all the answers, in truth, nobody is giving any real answers…

… especially to the tough questions. Questions about the world, the condition of humanity, justice, mercy, equality, otherness, purpose, depravity, the future, the past, the seen, the unseen, worldview, disparity…

So many questions. So many claiming to have the answers. So many dispensing answers. So few REAL answers.

In truth, life is complex. Full of millions of variables. Our simplistic answers insult our intelligence and for the most part provide no real solutions or real answers. Filled with empty platitudes, they promise more than they deliver.

Time for a change perhaps?
A change to a world in which we dispense fewer answers perhaps?
A change to a world in which people stop talking and start working on real solutions to the plagues of humanity?
A change to a world in which the phrase “I dont know” is liberating and not terrifying?

Having all the answers is easy. Having any REAL answers hard.

I have never used the word “answer” so many times in a blog post… I’m done.