Faith Venture

I’ve interviewed many CEOs, some of which led multi-billion dollar corporations. I’ve met and interviewed and worked with many people with degrees piled upon degrees. I’ve also worked with electricians on the factory floor and workers on the assembly line. They’ve almost all been good people, smart in their own way.

Jason Fried, CEO and entrepreneur, wrote this in an email newsletter recently. Something which I wholeheartedly agree.

Titles, tenure, and paths don’t matter. The work does. Always look at the work.

How is your work?

A Tale of Two Surveys. Taken together, I wonder where the American church has missed the point. Perhaps using the term “church” speaks too broadly. There seem to be myriad churches with myriad theologies.

But, let us consider two recent surveys.

Young women are leaving church in unprecedented numbers, according to the Survey Center on American Life’s research. The center learned that young women are particularly concerned about churches that don’t welcome all people; that discourage women’s leadership; and don’t attend to community, justice, compassion, and loving one’s neighbor. 

Young white men are coming back to the church because it’s one of the few places that accept them (undefined, but a logical assumption would be those “evangelical” churches that condemn homosexuality and women leadership).

The Apostle Paul, loved by some conservatives and scorned by some liberals and misunderstood by most, famously wrote to the churches of Galatia, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

I ask, why are we still so intent on divisions? Why do we champion one group and put down another? Why don’t we organize our churches with this vision—you are all one in Christ Jesus?

Conscious ignorance, if you can practice it, expands our world.

Imagine approaching study, say of the Bible for instance, consciously ignorant. We would be open to learning something new. We would be open to the infusion of the Spirit.

We might even become renewed.

I see that C-SPAN is trying a talk news show that is designed as discussion rather than confrontation. Imagine in this era a Democrat and Republican sitting on a TV set having an intelligent discussion? Can they get anyone to participate? Will anyone watch?

Even many of the sport shows I’ve seen on ESPN are more argument than discussion. The belief is that the more outrageous and confrontational the better for ratings (and therefore the better for ad revenue).

Let’s try this on our personal life. Say at a table having coffee after church. Do you discuss or argue. How is your language? Confrontational and provocative? Probing, respectful?

An argument isn’t a discussion.

I once accepted a position in a company to develop a marketing plan for a new product. The product looked not only cool, but also to fill a customer need. I knew the market and the technology.

I developed and executed a plan based on a model that I thought was current and best.

The market had changed a little within two years. It no longer conformed with my model.

We blame the world for not fitting into our model.

I could have blamed the world for changing. But I knew that I had not adapted. There were other problems, such as updating the product to ever changing technologies. The end result was we closed the company within 18 months.

This is not a metaphor for changing your mind—which is something we always must consider.

This metaphor is about blame.

Perhaps we have a model in our head about the ideal church or the ideal organization or the ideal theology. Then we discover that the world does not work that way. 

Whom do we blame?

Do we blame the world for not bending to our will and then go off to pout?

Do we accept blame and work on ourselves to adapt to reality?

For three hundred years, the movement that Jesus started spread throughout the Mediterranean world mostly because of the way his followers lived. People noticed the joy that imbued their lives and their gatherings. They simply lived differently from others around them.

I picked up these observations on living with joy from one of my favorite news sources—Axios Finish Line. You don’t have to follow NBA basketball to understand this.

Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors is this year’s NBA Teammate of the Year.

The money quote: “At the heart of Curry’s leadership style is one word, repeated again and again by teammates, coaches and staffers,” The Athletic reports. “Joy.”

Three lessons for all of us to emulate:

• Celebrate everyone else. Curry gets joy from hyping up the people around him. Current and former teammates said no one celebrates their wins more than Curry — even when they’re breaking his records. Eric Housen, an operations staffer on the Warriors told The Athletic of Curry’s first MVP speech: “This was his moment, this is what he earned, and he thinks to thank the equipment guy. That was just… I don’t even know how to describe the impact that had on my life and the feeling that came over me.”
• Find the fun. Curry has a great time on the court — and it’s infectious. Curry even has a regular “joy” segment during his workouts. He’ll make up a silly game to play while drilling 3-pointers.
• Love the little things. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told The Athletic: “He loves the game, he loves the work, he loves being part of the team, he loves the bus rides, he loves the banter.”

The bottom line: When asked by reporters for his reaction to winning Teammate of the Year, Curry said, “It’s a reflection of how much fun I’ve had being a part of this organization for so long.”

Maybe we could use the incentive to find a little joy in what we do—work, church, home, volunteering.