It's been a crazy back half...

Eat This Book has been set aside for a couple of days.  After a trip to my friend's hometown for her father's memorial service, a mad rush of gathering students for camp this summer, preparing a message for Sunday and working more at the Sign Shop than I would like to this week, I'm not going to be able to read enough of the book to post for today, so I thought I'd just let you into my brain a little today.

This Sunday I will be talking about "Starting Spiritual Conversations with Your Kids."  It's part two of our series of family-based messages called Starter Homes.  One thing I've realized over the past 10 days or so is that having spiritual conversations means something very different for different parents.  I really want to encourage parents to talk to their kids about spiritual things and not rely on someone else, but a lot of parents don't even have conversations with their kids, so the thought of having spiritual conversations scares them to death.  

I had a great conversation last night with a couple at our Table last night.  There were only the four of us, and the conversation was good.  They are in their twenties (barely!) and have a 2 year old son.  We talked about spiritual conversations with our parents.  I knew that Sarah had grown up in a family that talked about God and their faith regularly, so I wanted to pick her brain a little.  As we talked it became clear that having spiritual conversations isn't something that you can just plan.  What I mean is that, just as with any conversation, good conversation with your kids comes from cultivating an environment for conversation, honesty and self-disclosure.  

We discussed the value of parents being authentic and sharing mistakes and struggles with their kids.  Sarah said, "Perfection isn't approachable," and I totally agree with that.  The fact is that none of us are perfect.  As the church at large, we have entered into what might be called a "grace era."  Most contemporary churches today understand the value of accepting people right where they are.  They also understand the value of being real - pastors that share their struggles and their doubts and their fears.  However, I'm not so sure that this has translated into our homes.  Are we, as parents, willing to let our kids into our doubts, our fears and our failures?  Should we?  Can we?

If you get this today, would you be willing to share with me some of the ways that you talked about following-Christ with your parents?  Or if you didn't, what do you wish you could have talked to your parents about?  What could they have done to make it easier for you to talk to them about spiritual issues?  Also, what are you implementing in your family to help with the conversations with your kids?  Anyone?  Anyone?

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

well, we've had two full days at the Leadership Summit, and are
heading out for the final two sessions this morning. this year has
been a very different year than from past years. in all of my past
summit experiences, i have been able to criticize other parts of the
leadership structure of the church i was serving. this year, i am
that leadership team. cameron and i realize that we are the
leaders. we are the ones called to inspire, to challenge, to
innovate, to march forward into areas that seem blurry before they
ever seem clear...and it excites us to no end.

yesterday was a great day...we heard from michael porter, a harvard
business school professor. We sat in on an interview with colin
powell as he discussed leadership lessons. john ortberg reminded us
that with every leader that has a great mission, there is also a
shadow mission that must be kept in check. then we ended the day
with an interview with richard curtis, the british playwright and the
founder of comic relief in the mid-80s.

As good as all of that was for me, personally, I was most energized
by the ten minutes that bill hybels had to launch the day. briefly,
this senior pastor of perhaps the most influential church in the
world told nearly 100,000 church leaders that they have done a poor
job at growing people spiritually the way they thought they should.
for us, it was one more nod-of-the-head that indicating that we are
on the right track. For the first time, we now have some hard data
to help us see why The Springs will be a church that engages people
who are outside looking in, embraces those who have just accepted the
Christ-life, and empowers them to grow at their own pace and in their
own place.

we are not the average church, and we do not have average dreams.
that may not make us that unique, but we have a clear mission from
God and a clear vision for tomorrow. it's going to be a great ride,
filled with bumps and dips and smooth roads and steep roads. We will
share great victories and also probably share some not-victories, but
as we move our prayer is that God smiles as he watches his people
lead other people to be all that he has created them to be in the
places where he has chosen to place us, so we can extend the hope of
the Christ-life that he died to deliver.