Tribes pages 140-147 – the final post – by Rich

“…to boldly Go where no one has gone before…”

(OK so I couldn’t resist the cheese – but it’s the last post, so…)

“The very nature of leadership is that you’re not doing what’s been done before.  If you were, you’d be following, not leading”

“Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership” – John Maxwell

Godin ends the book with his main point: we need you to lead us.

Leaders like Nathan Winograd – who had great passion because of injustice that he saw, developed a vision and was able to mobilize a tribe to see that vision realized.  So if he can do it – so can we.  But you’ll have to choose to lead.  That, according to the book, is the main qualification to lead – the choice to step up and do it – to boldly go where no one has gone before.

God has done it with Loren Cunningham, Sean Lambert and (insert Bible character name of your choice here).  So why are you or I any different?  God is no respecter of persons – so why not you?

GO BOLDLY…it’s your choice!

(So really in the end everything always comes back to Star Trek – just kidding!)

Tribes page 135-140 by Phil

“Credit isn’t the point, change is.” This book is dangerous. Why do I say that? Well because if those of us reading this believe it then there will be some changes in our lives, our jobs, and our futures. I have been talking to Richard a bit lately and realizing that in a lot of way’s this is how YWAM has been since the get go.

I continuously have people in my life telling me that I am unique, that I have a special (not special as in retarded) kins of leadership. If people keep saying this then what should my life look like and why does it, for the most part look like every other leader? I want to be the man that Jesus made me to be, for the good of others and to live out who I am. Ryan said earlier today “I think I was most attracted to mission adventures because the people who started it, both in Vancouver and around the world are insane.” I want us to be that.

I want to live my life without fear of man or money and live it out of intense, passionate, intimate fear of Jesus.

“You Can’t lead without imagination.” -albert einstein.

 

Tribes Page 131-135 by Ryan

“If your Organization requires success before commitment it will never have either”

I think I was most attracted to mission adventures because the people who started it, both in Vancouver and around the world are insane. They are the kind of of people who caught a Vision and were willing to go for it with an relentless commitment.

We’ve highlighted a lot of struggles in our ministries lately and I think one of the things that will bring a new depth is to go back to that spirit of “I am going to make this happen with or with out you help”. Godin talks about the Positive deviants.

MA planted in so many different locations because it was deviantly revolutionary. it was a brand new and genius way of doing short term missions. we need to call our leaders together, or staff and encourage their artistic imaginative deviant innovation to MA, not “Manage” it. that was a mouth full.

“And so, the obligation: don’t settle.
To have all these advantages, all this momentum, all these opportunities and then settle of mediocre and then defend the status quo and then worry about corporate politics-what a waste”

That was an extreme statement, but have we done that? have we rode the momentum of the MA wave, or are we intoxicated by the pioneering deviant spirit that started the program?

I’m hoping your here because of the later.

Christianity: We Need You to Lead Us. (25-31by Samuel Lee)

Godin, again, lends some solid points that make you want to sit and pray and decide something.  Also, makes me want to network.  Although Seth is repetitive he is communicating points to us.  We’ve been reading this book for awhile now. I can’t count how many times I’ve read, “Leaders challenge the status quo.”  But, I think he’s still onto something, I think he’s doing what most YWAM books are doing…he’s trying to indoctrinate us with some DNA.

This is understandable.

“You don’t have to be in charge or powerfully or pretty or connected to be a leader.  You do have to be committed.”

I think about whether or not I strive to be powerful.  I wonder whether or not I strive to accomplish…rather than just do what I know, rely on God, and then STAY committed to the seeing through of Mission Adventures Las Vegas.  It may be very vague, but I think I agree that there IS a difference between being a leader and being committed.  I think that’s what I’m getting from this section…

The difference is:

“Being a leader makes you charismatic.”

“I wasn’t born charismatic, not like those other guys, so I guess I’ll just settle for following.”

While reading this portion of the book, I think about how if we have a goal, we have a reason to be charistmatic.  If we have something to weep about, we have a reason to challenge the status quo.  This just kinda fits with the following statements in the book…

“What most people want in a leader is something that’s very difficult to find: we want someone who listens.  Listen, really listen.  Then decide and move on.”

“What was hard just got easy…and vice versa”

This is the world around Christians.

I read this like: “The lost world wants someone who listens.  Hears the cry of injustice…and desires mercy…makes a decision, then commits to accomplishing it.”

For some time we didn’t know where needs were.  The 10/40 window…metropolis’s…our backyard.  I didn’t know what to listen to.  As a teen I didn’t realize there was an audience calling.  I know now though.  Through leaders who heard that cry, I too was beckoned to response.  I just wonder, now that we’ve listened do we not realize the hard part is still ahead?  As if awareness will accomplish something?  Well, it will.  It will accomplish us Listening, really listening.  Now, we need to make a decision.

To me this is simply a call to not cater as much towards programs and respond to a lost world.  With our Mission Adventures teams and programs, we have heard that our students are ill-equipped.  We’ve heard that they’re unaware of a lost and dying world.  And now, it’s time to give them tools to take it.  Show them how to promote their product (The Gospel/The Light).

Gustavo Dudamel.  Truly, we have no idea why this 26 year old is special…just because Godin says he is.  But, I think we can trust that, some Christians understand how to enable and motivate youth.  Some know how to change a city.  Some people have been running MA for a long time, they can give a speech and register a team.

Thing is, we’re in the business of disciple making.  We’re mobilizing a sleeping North American church.

We need to hire a Gustavo Dudamel…or decide that we’re committed to being a leader.  We need to commit to the task and admit that, it’s no longer a struggle to find need and see the lost world…now its a challenge to change it.  At least for me it is.  I know my heart and my striving is for this: That I awaken, train and mobilize a generation to change and reach the kingdom.  That Christ in them is the hope of the Kingdom.  That Christ IS in them…

Christianity:  We Need You to Lead Us.

Tribes 121-125 by Mike D

In these pages we start out looking at magic and the difference
between knowing how to do something and how to present it. Having seen
multiple people lead the MA program both here and in other locations I
have seen first hand the difference, most of those who have led this
amazing program have known how to do it, but something has been
missing and I think Godin nails it in this first paragraph, if there
isn’t a full commitment and a passion to deliver then it wont last,
maybe that is why we have seen a great turnover in MA leaders, whats
the solution to finding those that will fulfil the above, that’s the
question we are all searching for.

I was really taken with a quote from the third section in these pages.
“Hope without strategy doesn’t generate leadership” This personally
impacted me as I feel that I have sat in this area for the last couple
of years, personally I have had a lot of hope and optimism, but not a
lot of vision. This has very much affected our ministry here in
Vancouver and maybe we have lost some of our people because of this.
Well that along with all the other hard stuff that we have been going
through.

The other point that caught my attention in this section was writing
songs in the right language. Are we communicating in the right way.
Recently my wife and I went through a marriage course called laugh
your way to a better marriage. One section of it talked about the
different personalities that we have, the particular four that he has
defined are: Peace, Fun, Control and perfect. He went on to talk about
how people from these different areas communicate to each other and
the fact that they usually use the language of their particular
personality and not that of the one they are trying to communicate
too, consequently we have misunderstanding and confusion. As I look at
the way we have communicated to those we want to come and be a part of
the MA tribe I have t ask myself are we speaking the right language,
are we communicating clearly, both for potential staff and
participants in the program.

He finishes this section with care, do we care about the state of the
tribe, if not then we are toast. In our case I think we do and as we
process many of the challenging and thought provoking chapters of this
book and continue to dialogue I do believe we have a bright and
exciting (maybe bumpy) future.

pages 117-120 by Tia

Tia posted this yesterday, but I am a dork and didn’t get it up till today, sorry and thanks Tia.

I have to say for me this has been the most convicting chapter of Tribes thus far. Seth begins page 117 by talking  about “The Posture of a Leader”

• If you hear my idea but don’t believe it, that’s not your fault; it’s mine.
• If you see my new product but don’t buy it, that’s my failure, not yours.
• If you attend my presentation and you’re bored, that’s my fault too.
• If I fail to persuade you to implement a policy that supports my tribe, that’s due to my lack of passion or skill, not your shortsightedness.
• If you are a student in my class and you don’t learn what I’m teaching, I’ve let you down.

What this says to me is that we need to learn how to embrace communication.  We need to know how to communicate our passions and who we are as a tribe well, and make sure that we are constantly re-checking that.
For a long time now I have been rejecting the explosion of technology.  I have been sitting by waiting for someone to join my team that is all about technology that they can communicate that way to people and I can stay in my comfortable bubble over here were I don’t need to learn anything new.  That is not the case I must search out and be open to many options of communication.
I have also found that I often blame others for their lack of response rather then looking to myself.  I often hear people in Urban Missions state that others just don’t get it.  They don’t understand the importance of focusing on the Urban world!  What is wrong with everyone?  I have come to the understanding that it is not my role to get frustrated with the people, but to allow that frustration to help me to communicate the importance of Urban Missions in a new way.

I think Seth expresses himself perfectly when he says, “What’s helpful is to realize that you have a choice when you communicate.  You can design your products to be easy to use.  You can write so your audience hears you.  You can present in a place and in a way that guarantees that the people you want to listen will hear you.  Most of all, you get to choose who will understand (and who won’t).

This is the challenge that Seth places before us, and I know for me I must be intentional about developing better communication with in the tribe and to those that I would like to reach.

Tribes by Kim

My favourite quote of the 7 pages I read was definitely “Many big organizations are getting bigger as a way of fighting off the power of the tribes. Hoping that formal nature of their bigness will somehow successfully fight off flexible, fast, and sometimes free power of the tribe.”  I spent a lot of time thinking what it would like to be flexible and fast as the MA Network (tribe).  I would like to think I am flexible  and I think to a certain extent I am but I am definitely not fast.  I think if we could be a tribe that was flexible and fast I truly think we would attract more teams, staff and members.  Not for the sake of being bigger but simply because we were doing something that people not only wanted but needed to be apart of.

I spent a long time talking to a friend the other day about the fact that a lot of missionaries support is drying up and a lot of missions programs are having to be scaled back because of economic times.  I agree that this is an issue and that we need to understand that the world is changing and so we will have to do things different (and some of that we have no control over).  But one thing we do have control of is how we interact with our supporters, youth pastors, staff and participants.  If we expect that simply sending a newsletter or an MA flyer will bring in the teams like it did in the past I think we are missing something.  We have to have youth pastors, supporters, participants and staff that believe what we do and will be our advocates and champion our programs etc.

Page 105-110 by Thomas

It’s my turn again and just like the time before I enjoyed what I read.

We read about the building down the street. This building is any organization or YWAM base that is just going through the motions doing what they have always done! One more way to recognize if you are the building down the street, is by having the same results over and over. Seth says that leadership is the antidote for this building.

I decided to do some practical application on these two points. I realized that my program has increased in size ever since we started MA. We are seeing more and more of the students come back for a DTS. I have see lots of fruit from the labor of the staff and students. If you haven’t taken the time to evaluate what happens this year, take the time and do it.  You owe it to yourself and everyone that works with you.

How to be wrong”

This part stuck out to me the most for todays reading! The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success. There is no easy way to do this but if you follow the secret of leadership its simple. Do what you believe in, Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.

If you believe in something and are totally sold out to it. I believe you have what it will take to more forward when your wrong along the way to success.

Page 101-105 by Philter

Before you continue to read this post, take a moment and go back to page 103-105 and read the elements and principles of creating a micro movement. Here is a brief overview and some of my thoughts on the 5 actions of creating a micro movement.

1. Publish a manifesto- I believe strongly that we need to have our stuff out there for anyone who wants or needs it. Let people download PDF’s of our journal (we can charge for it, it doesn’t have to be free), and let them take and run with our ideas.

2. Make it easy for followers to follow us- I believe that we are doing this with the Tribes posts, and the Facebook page, and now the podcast, what else can we do to help people follow us and want to be a part of the tribe? YouTube, etc?

3. Make it easier for your followers to connect with each other- I believe we are getting stronger in this. If you are reading a long and are not a part of the NAMALT (North American Leadership Team) or even not in North America please comment and let us know if we, as a whole for MA world wide are making it easier for followers to connect with each other.

4. Money is not the point- money does exist to enable it and make it happen. Are we willing to live within our means for this program and not try to live outside of our means? This is contrasted with living out of faith in what the word of Jesus is for our specific programs. We need to make money, but is it driving us more than our call and passion, or is it compromising out call and passion?

5. Track our progress- this can be done well by connecting with youth workers whom we have relationship with and should be regularly. I loved this chapter, I am excited about the program and challenged to go back to what God wants to do in and through me in it and not be run by a base or the way that it has always been done.

Please, if you are reading a long we need to hear your comments, even if you are not in N. America. Where are you at with MA and what are your dreams and thoughts, as well as frustrations and fears?

Tribes pages 96-101 by Rich

Sheepwalking or passionate – which one are you?

Godin here talks some good stuff.

Firstly he addresses those who are just followers and keep and maintain the status quo. They are just sheepwalking (or “sheeple” as my daughter calls them).  Is that what you are doing – afraid of change?  You just work hard to do things the way that they have always been done?  And worse are we just training the next generation to be non-thinking followers also?

Or are you passionate?  That you are “lucky enough to have a job where (you) get to make change happen”!  You are a world-changer and you love your job – YES!  We in YWAM are exactly this – and in MA too!

Guys what a great blessing we have – what a great opportunity!  We get to live like this – everyday.  Godin is saying that people that get to live like this are so rare – and yet again – it is us!  Yes there’s a cost to that – but it is still a great privilege.

But still let’s heed the warning – that we don’t fall into just being a follower and keeping our programs to be always the same – just because it’s always been like that.  Let’s let the passion of Jesus within us be our motivation – and then we will keep on burning passionately for Him.