Gifted to Lead

Gifted to Lead: the Art of Leading as a Woman in the Church
Nancy Beach

I am a concrete person; I prefer things that have a practical application, rather than a philosophical reasoning. I've read some great books that defend women in ministry, books that are written as an apologetic with great scriptural exigesis--but this book was not one of those. In fact, this book focused on defining the practice of ministry, rather than defending the concept.

Using her own experiences, Nancy Beach encourages women to find their authentic "voice" in ministry, by determining their true beliefs (you can't convince someone of something you don't believe yourself) and by defining their own style. Most women have been heavily influenced by male leaders who were spiritual authorities, so it's easy to follow their example. However, women by nature are different than men, so the male style of leadership often comes off as forced. A true style of leadership, unique to each person is more effective than a mere mimic.

Her stated purpose was to write a book about leadership in the church, regardless of gender. However, as she wrote, she found herself applying it to women, because she was approached constantly at conferences by young women who needed guidance as they find a place in church ministry. Regardless of the equality we might strive for, the fact remains that ministry for women is always going to be different. There are chapters on balancing marriage and family and learning to work in a male environment, as well as determining your own leadership style.

Recommending this book would be easy for me; in fact, I'd gladly pass out chapter seven to every pastor I know. It's written to men about women in church leadership, and the author makes very powerful points. One example is her view of our daughters and future generations: "When people far from God look at politics,the corporate arena, academic institutions, and the entertainment business, they see women of strength and skill . . . The entire subculture of the church appears outdated and out of touch with what many of these folks believe to be true about the potential, skills, and necessary opportunities for women." Her valid concern that future generations will abandon the church because it is too conservative and offers them no voice at all.

The Gospel According to Starbucks

The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living Life with a Grande Passion by Leonard Sweet

Leonard Sweet was one of the featured speakers at the Minister’s Retreat that I attended a few weeks ago, but I chose a different “track” at the retreat so I was unable to hear his presentation. I heard various pastors describe his presentation as both “brilliant” and “challenging.” On the flip side, I heard that his hour or so of speaking was “the same information he wrote in his books.” When the retreat was over, I figured I’d read the books and catch up on whatever challenging brilliance I’d missed in the live version. I ordered a handful that sounded good from the dealer that supplies my addiction: amazon.com.

I devour books like Leonard Sweet does coffee, but I took my time reading this one. I wanted to savor not just the truth but the application of this book. Written to challenge the Church to live an incarnational Gospel, the very point Sweet makes is to apply our head-knowledge of Jesus to our lifestyle. He describes this as EPIC Christianity: Experiential, Participatory, Image-rich, and Connective. The message of the Gospel is simple and absolute, but the way we live it is what changes the world.

As the title suggests, this book extols the virtues of Starbucks as both a business model at the height of the coffee revolution, and as the pleasant experience born of leather armchairs and mellow music. The world is willing to spend 300% markup on a cup of coffee (more than once a day for many customers) and spend countless hours in lines and at tables for the Starbucks experience: collectible mugs, exclusive music CDs, plush surroundings that invite you to remain long after the coffee itself is cold. “The product is no longer king, it’s the experience that surrounds the product that brings people in the door.”

The modern church can learn from Starbucks, Sweet posits. “If faith is not both an engagement and an experience, then it’s little more than a good idea. If faith is not beautiful in its practice, then it can easily devolve into an argument . . . . and who is looking for another argument?” Participation is just as important as experience; the pop culture of the 21st century gives us American Idol, where people vote for their favorite performer, the Ipod where anyone can be a DJ creating their mix playlist, fantasy sports teams, Wii video games and more. Sweet adds imagery as one of the essential facets of Christianity to impact a world that lives in High Def and wants to see Christ visually. He makes a great point about art in the Renaissance being so infused with Christianity that the world’s greatest artists expressed Christ in images resonating through stained glass, sculpted marble, and frescoed ceilings. When is the last time that our modern churches used art in any form to express worship or define our relationship to the Lord? Connectivity is the last great trait of Starbucks that the Church should emulate. It’s the theme of community that is found all over the New Testament, and it’s still in fashion today. People want to be connected; they like their name on the coffee cup and the barista who remembers their daily order. They want to be in relationship with other people, so much so that the Internet is the new medium for “social networking,” message boards, forums, and “blog communities.” If the Church can apply these principles of experience, participation, imagery, and connectivity to the way we live our faith before unbelievers, we will see them start lining up outside churches the way they do at Starbucks.

Based on this work, I’m looking forward to reading my next Leonard Sweet book. Although his constant praise of Starbucks reads like an annoying infomercial at times, I agreed with the truth that he presented. The book challenged me in very specific ways, and I believe he got his message across very effectively. Well, he must have, because I’m writing this at a Starbucks right now.

The Shack: It's a Work of Fiction

I now know why this book has been considered "controversial." There are many things that would offend readers: swear words, strange portrayals of God, and weak writing.

I know also what attracts readers and prompted the celebrity endorsements on the book's jacket: the brutal authenticity of the main character's pain, the truths about man's relationship to God, and . . . well, the controversial reputation of the book.

The basic plot is given on the back of the book: Mack Phillips, a father of five, is devastated by the abduction and murder of his six year old daughter, Missy. In the months that followed her death, he has withdrawn from his relationship with God and is living in a depression he calls The Great Sadness. The book opens with a letter in the mailbox--from God--requesting that Mack meet him in the shack where his daughter was murdered.

From that point, the book can be divided into two halves. The first half reveals the background of Mack Phillips, from his childhood to his marriage and family, leading up to the story of his daughter's abduction from their family camping trip. The second half is Mack's confrontation with God the Father, Jesus, and "Sarayu" (the Spirit). Over a weekend spent in the shack with God, Mack reveals the extent of his anger against God, while God reveals the extent of His love for His Creation.

The second half is the better half, in my opinion. I only made it that far, because I felt obligated to finish the book, having mentioned it on the blog already. Otherwise, I would have given up about three chapters in. Once Mack starts venting his spleen about God allowing evil to happen to his daughter, the book gets better. In fact, the tragedy of Missy's death was so realistic, so painfully true to life, I cried when God described how His Spirit was with her the whole time.

There are some great truths in the conversations that God has with Mack; for example, Jesus tells Mack that humans were made to live in the present, but because of our memories and our imagination, most of us get trapped living in the past or the future. We worry so much about what might happen (what if?) that we stop living in the presence of God in the moment. The writer asserts that sin, in its basest form, is being independent of God, and once we've become independent of Him, we no longer have the ability to evaluate anything,whether good or bad, right or wrong. We have no wisdom or Truth on our own. These may not be new thoughts to the reader; after all, thousands of books on God's character and Man's sinful nature contain these facts. Those books just aren't as entertaining as a novel.

In spite of some intriguing theological paragraphs and some emotional pages, I didn't like the book. The editing was its biggest fault; over-detailed, didactic, and sometimes trite, I wanted to mark it up with a red pen and send it back to the author. Everyone--even brilliant writers--writes garbage at times, and a good editor will prune it and polish it until genius is all that's left.

I personally didn't care for the personification of God in the book. Without giving away the whole plot, I can only say that I understand why the author chose to give God certain human forms and personalities, but it didn't endear me to those characters. At times it was just weird.

If I could sum up my thoughts in one sentence: this book is a work of fiction, not a theological treatise, not The Pilgrim's Progress of our generation(sorry, Eugene Petersen), and it's certainly not the Gospel. It's just a novel, and you have to take it for what it's worth.

StrengthsFinder 2.0

Last week on the premiere of House, MD (one of my favorite shows) two characters interacted in a conversation about their careers. The deathly ill patient, who is the assistant to a world-renown feminist, is content being a "flunkie," accepting that her fate is always to be the assistant to someone more brilliant. The young female doctor is outraged by that type of complacency; she shouts, "What kind of feminist [are you?] We can have anything we want!"

The patient calmly replies, "No, we can't. We can aspire to anything, but we don't get it just because we want it."

The conversation stuck out in my mind, because it is the clarification of the American Dream that people actually need to hear. People are told from childhood that they can do anything, be anything, or achieve anything. The problem is that we are already hard-wired with certain amounts of intelligence, talent, ability, and ambition. Rather than thinking of this as a limitation, it should be considered an asset. By focusing on our strengths, we can find a place in society that brings us greater fulfillment and satisfaction, based on our natural abilities. If we spend the majority of our time and energy in fixing our shortcomings, it is the path of "most resistance."

I am not talking about sin or changing bad habits; obviously we have a responsibility to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. I am speaking of personality traits and abilities.

Some of my happiest moments were working in a job that I was good at -no, I was fantastic! And it showed in my enthusiasm and my performance. I have also worked in jobs where I was awful; I didn't have the natural ability to do what was required, so I burned out quickly, using all my energy to make up the difference of my natural lack. I was unhappy and again, it showed in my performance.

Strengthsfinder 2.0 is not just a book, it's a personality analysis. When you purchase the book, you get an access code (inserted on a card in the book) that enables you to take your personality test online here. You cannot use a library copy or borrow the book from a friend; the test is free, but the book with the access code will cost you about $12.

There are 34 personality traits in their research, and you receive a list of your top five, based on your test. These traits are unique to their program, and very different from any test I'd ever taken. It does not identify "extrovert" or "melancholy" but it identifies traits like "communication" or "vision." The online test is lengthy, but since it's timed, it doesn't take more than 20 minutes from start to finish. The questions are always two choices and you rate them on a scale of "most like me" to "least like me." (An example: "I want people to like me" vs. "I want people to respect me"--you pick the one that is most like yourself.) Once you have the top five traits, you can refer to them in the book to see not only what that trait entails, but examples of how they look in the business world, as well as practical applications for future situations. With the website, you can access their resources to design future action plans for your work or other benefits.

Here's my personal opinion: I loved the strengthsfinder program overall. I found that my top five traits were absolutely correct, and I appreciated the examples of how I could make those strengths work for me in my job. This is extremely practical and I felt empowered by the information I received. If nothing else, it's a confidence boost to know that if you can maximize your traits in your career, you can perform even better. There are also other books in the series, such as Teaching With Your Strengths, that apply to specific careers.

My only real complaint is that the website contains all the information that the book has. Once you get the access code, you really don't need the book. You can't share the book with anyone, so it just sits on the shelf as reference. It contains information for 34 traits, of which you will have five. While you may have bits and pieces of other traits, what are the chances that you'll want to sit around and read about them all? The few I looked at always made me realizewhat my personality is NOT. So, I have a $12 book for only about 10 pages that matter to me personally.