President Barack Obama and his national security team watch updates on the mission to capture Osama bin Laden on Sunday.

If someone didn’t know who Obama was, he or she probably couldn’t tell that he was the president in the room, some scholars say.

“He’s not in the tallest chair,” says Brown, the sociology professor at Meredith College. “He’s not the center of attention. He’s not even in the middle of the room.”

Yet Obama’s willingness to be photographed without the typical Oval Office swagger gives birth to a new type of swagger, says Contee of Jack & Jill Politics.

She says that photo shows Obama’s self-assurance and leadership style. He seeks out the opinions of his advisers. He believes in collaboration — all while he’s taking down the baddest terrorist on the planet.

He doesn’t need to wear a “Top Gun” flight jacket to project strength, she says.

“You would almost expect the president to be standing in that position,” she says. “That shows his leadership style. He doesn’t need to thrust his leadership style forward.”

What ‘Situation Room Photo’ reveals about us by John Blake, CNN
May 5, 2011 6:24 p.m. EDT

True leaders need no swagger.
Jesus had no swagger.
Neither do pastors and church leaders need it.

P.S. Now this is for laughs. Notice what’s different in this photoshopped picture:

“Life has never been about just ‘getting in.’ It’s about thriving in God’s good world.”

“I have sat with many Christian leaders over the years who are burned out, washed up, fried, whose marriages are barely hanging on, whose kids are home while the parents are out at church meetings, who haven’t taken a vacation in forever–all because, like the older brother, they have seen themselves as ‘slaving all these years.‘ They believe that they believe the right things and so they’re ‘saved,’ but it hasn’t delivered the full life that it was supposed to, and so they’re bitter. Deep down, they believe God has let them down. Which is often something they can’t share with those around them, because they are the leaders who are supposed to have it all together. And so they quietly suffer, thinking this is the good news.”

“…… some churches are not life-giving places, draining people until there’s very little life left. That God is angry, demanding, a slave driver, and so that God’s religion becomes a system of sin management, constantly working and angling to avoid what surely must be the coming wrath that lurks behind every corner, thought, and sin.”

“It is the gospel of the goats,
and it is lethal.

God is not a slave driver.
The good news is better than that.”

Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived (New York, NY: HarperOne, 2011), 179-181, 183.

Amen.

Chinese churches, hear that?

Related posts:

1. ESC – A Manifesto for the Chinese Church

I just came back from our Maundy Thursday service at church and read this on facebook.
Now I finally know what “maundy” means……

“Amid the bustle of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter, Maundy Thursday is easy to overlook. Few calendars label it, and some churches don’t observe it at all, though it may be the oldest of the Holy Week observances. It’s worth asking why, and how, generations of Christians have revered this day.

‘Maundy’ comes, possibly by way of one or more European languages, from the Latin ‘mandatum,’ meaning ‘command.’ The reference is John 13:34: ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’ Jesus spoke those words at the Last Supper, which took place the Thursday before Easter.”

The Other Holy Day
In the rush toward Good Friday and Easter, don’t forget Maundy Thursday
by Elesha Coffman

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2002/mar22.html

Love Without Agenda: My Journey Out of Consumer Christianity
by Jimmy Spencer Jr.

Download here: http://ebook.lovewithoutagenda.com/read/

Book Synopsis:

Modern Christianity is an subtle yet tragic amalgam of our cultural consumer expectation and the words of Jesus. Consumer Christianity is what we experience today as “Christianity”–and it’s a far cry from the whole human experience Jesus pointed all people toward. Perhaps that’s why millions of people are struggling with what it means to ‘be a Christian’. Perhaps there’s good reason for all the angst, anger and fear surrounding our current way of following Jesus?

Love Without Agenda: My Journey Out of Consumer Christianity is my uncensored, unmuffled voice on the stark contrast between the whole, love-oriented Pattern of Jesus, and the Heaven-bound, agenda-driven, counterfeit love I used to practice. It follows my continued journey from consumer towards wholeness, and in the process rediscovering and redefining what it means for me to be a Christian. That loving others and doing good is not only the key to maturing as a human, but it also triggers the energy of God in each intersection or life.

Related posts:

1. Free training courses for your church

Things are moving very fast and there will be an upcoming inaugural conference in March 21-22, 2011, called Discerning Contemporary Culture: Challenges & Christian Ministry in a Permissive Age, co-sponsored by

• Regent College Anglican Studies Program
• Carey Theology College & Carey Institute
• Hudson Taylor Centre for Chinese Ministries at Tyndale University College & Seminary
• Vancouver Chinese Evangelical Ministerial Fellowship (溫哥華華人教牧同工團契)

There are some top-notch speakers and scholars invited, including J. I. Packer (Regent), James Houston (Regent), David Pao (Trinity Evangelical), Brian Stiller (Tyndale), Warren Lai (Tyndale) and more.

I always believe there is no way to do ministry and arrive at the right praxis without first doing serious theological reflection. This is the chance to pick the best minds to understand how to do Chinese ministry in a Canadian context.

For those in Vancouver or even in the east coast who are interested in this, please help spread the word.

Related posts:

1. 120 Years of Good Shepherd

Panoramic of the Lausanne Congress. (Source: Lausanne Facebook Page)

Over 4000 Christians from almost 200 countries around the world is gathering in Cape Town this week for the 3rd Lausanne Congress, to worship, fellowship, and discuss how “the whole church can take the whole gospel to the whole world.”

They are very close to getting a taste of Rev. 7.

P.S. Please also remember in your prayers the Chinese Christians leaders who were banned by the government from attending this event. Individuals have been followed, harassed, pressured by government officials not to go to Lausanne. Some even had their passports confiscated at the airport. Link: Chinese Christians Barred From Conference (New York Times, Oct 15, 2010)

(In comparison, I like Andy Stanley‘s other book on preaching a lot more: Communicating for a Change: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication. Highly recommended.)

7 Practices of Effective Ministry
by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, and Lane Jones
Multnomah Books, 2004

1. Clarify the Win
   Define what is important at every level of the organization
   
2. Think Steps, Not Programs
   Before you start anything, make sure it takes you where you need to go
   
3. Narrow the Focus
   Do fewer things in order to make a greater impact
   
4. Teach Less for More
   Say only what you need to say to the people who need to hear it
   
5. Listen to Outsiders
   Focus on who you’re trying to reach, not who you’re trying to keep
   
6. Replace Yourself
   Learn to hand off what you do
   
7. Work On It
   Take time to evaluate your work–and to celebrate your wins

For further interests, check out some of the best quotes from the book and this thorough book review online.

Related posts:

1. Book Review: Communicating for a Change

…… skipped a few cartoons here ……

View the rest of the cartoons here.

When our church culture becomes increasingly consumeristic, it is inevitable that everything that involves money (e.g. hiring a new staff, charging for a summer camp, fundraising for the third world…) feels like asking people to buy an iPhone app. The reason why people exhibit extreme stinginess and frugality is because of the low perceived value they attach to these things or judge what they can get out of it (i.e. always asking the question “Am I getting the worth of what I’m paying for?”)

Such consumerism will only lead to a cancerous death.

Rather, we should strive to cultivate in our churches extreme generosity — not only towards internal needs, but also and especially external needs in missions and aid. As Archbishop of Caterbury William Temple said: “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.”

We can be and ought to be generous, because our Father in heaven is abundantly generous in the first place (Matt. 7:11).