"On the battlefield of ideas, winning requires moving toward the sound of the guns."
How people process and evaluate faiths determines how they choose.
6 Faith Paths
1. Relativistic faith path
Where most people are.
Something becomes true because they believe it. ..... So at the same time, God does exist for a Christian yet doesn't exist
because of an athiest?
However, truth is simply what is.
The key to life is to discover what is true and then to adjust your life accordingly.
2. The traditional path
I have always believed this - a hand me down faith
3. Authoritative path
You better believe this.
Authorities are only as good as their credentials
4. The intuitive faith path
I can just feel it....
5. The mystic faith path
"God told me" what is true
6. The evidentiary faith path
Is there evidence to this system of thought being correct?
Rethinking the importance of creation and evolution
Evolution is a theory, yet if you question it in academia, it is like questioning Stalin in 1925.
What are the social and economic implications for society of darwinism? Man = mud. You can do with him or to him what you
want.
The belief in creation says God created, so people have a spark of the divine within them - therefore, when you kill them you
are attacking God.
The first key to being an effective leader is being not dead!
Avoid burnout.
Who would applaud someone who only ran 3/4 of their race?
3 aspects:
Attention (tasks)
Connection (relationships)
Reflection (how was today?)
You can only make a genuine difference when you help transform a life.
America is culturally crippled by an addiction we deny having. Media exposure has become America's most widespread and
serious addiction today. Of the most dominant influencers in the USA today, 5 of the 7 are media.
Addictions
: they change our brain function
: they cause withdrawal symptoms
: we lose control of how much exposure we have
: we have a desire to reduce it but we are unable to
: it causes us to abandon or reduce our involvement in normal, heathy social activities
: the denial of an addiction
4 things
1. Recognise you cannot fix a problem that is not on the radar
2. Ask - What is our view about media?
3. Address the issue of parental responsibility
4. Can we raise up a new class of missionaries to the media world?
Historically, pinnacle nations become enamoured with sports, entertainment, celebrity, lose their moral compass and then fall in power.
Rethink our passivity
We have as much, or more, evidence for God than those who try to extract God from public life.
For a country to remain great
T.H.I.N.K. B.I.G.
Talent (intellectual)
Honesty
Insight
Nice
Knowledge
Books
Indepth learning - to understand
God
It really doesn't matter where you are, it's where you are going that counts. You get there by aligning yourself with God.
Google Carsons Scholar Fund
Humans are meaning machines - we add meaning to everything.
Sometimes we make the meaningless meaningful - superstition
Sometimes we make the meaningful meaningless.
Sometimes we can't make sense of the mess, and we must simply know that there is a master artist at work.
It requires 2 things: truth and experience
1. Truth
Spreading the gospel must always be grounded in the absolute truth of the christian message.
We have a defensible faith.
We have an unfair advantage in the marketplace of ideas - we have truth on our side.
Debate has a place but mostly dialogue is more effective than debate.
We do not begin dialogue by assuming the equality of all truth claims, but by the equality of all persons.
How do we facilitate this? Seeker small groups and using stories.
2. We must usher people into an experience with God.
Blaise Pascal - the night of fire.
There must be a connection between truth and experience.
Why they bought Myspace -
: to lead through it
: to help people express themselves
: to learn from it
In response to a question regarding the future of newspapers, Murdoch said they may not exist on paper but will exist as journalistic enterprise to deliver news: "If you have done your job right, people will come to you because they rely on you".
Encourage innovation
It's no longer about getting people's time or attention - it's about getting people's hearts.
Tomorrows leaders will be meaning makers.
People are tired of chasing cool.
Don't chase cool - infuse meaning.
This generation is willing to leave their job, parents, country to find meaning.
How do we infuse meaning? Reinvent FIRE
Ferocious
Imaginations that
Revolutionise
Everything
We must push responsibility to those on the outer edges.
Break habitual cycles - do something creative
The power of inconsistency!
If inconsistent- can't be predicted
If unpredictable- can't be duplicated
If can't be duplicated-it is valuable
Jesus was inconsistent.
It's all about influence and how we use media to impact culture.
Why branding?
1. Perception matters: if you don't control your perception in the community, you will be at the mercy of others who will
2. Choice : so many options
Branding is the compelling story surrounding you and your organisation. In a media rich world, we need an easy handle.
1. Visibility is as important as ability : visibility=voice
2. You can't brand a lie- we need to live more transparent lives than ever
3. Being different is everything
Questions to ask when working out branding
1. What's the point? Why do you do this?
2. Who are you?
3. Skills/ talents
4. What makes you different?
What can we do right now?
1. Understand the power of a name - your name matters
2. Put a lot of effort into logo and look - design matters
3. Be careful with humour
4. What is the overarching theme of your life and ministry?
Study
High hostility - 20% death rate over 20 years
Low hostility - 2% death rate
When evil men plot, good men must plan - Martin Luther King Jnr
To the extent that we love is the extent to which we will bear good fruit as a leader
3 aspects of love as a leader
1.You must love what you do - enough to inspire others
2. Love people outside of their work
3. Love people enough to push them
2. Vision is created by the stories ee tell and the heroes we create.
3. Defining God moments are only as significant as the lifestyle they produce. Get it into the rhythm of your life.
4. Teamwork is a strategy not a slogan.
Our job is not to get involved in artificial harmony but to debate and make decisions
5. Stop being surprised that leadership is difficult.
Max Dupree - leaders are only right 50% of the time - this allows resilience...
Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.
Rephrased
1. Surrendered
Learn to say yes to God in every area of your life
Why don't we? We are scared and we are selfish
2. Disturbed
We must be willing to die
3. Ruined
Be gloriously ruined for something that lasts
How will people know God is with them if we are not with them?
How we live is determined by the size you perceive God to be.
When we shrink God we offer
: prayer without faith
: worship without awe
: suffering without joy
: service without hope
Gideon looked at himself in a way that rationalised his passivity and say no to the big call.
What is unthinkable on my own is unstoppable with God.
God will be, this day, as big a presence in your life as you allow Him to be.
Integrity is not just the policeman against bad things happening- it is to be an integrated whole.
When a leader hits a wall, it is often because there is something not whole
Learn to listen to the cries of those around you.
