I read this from Mark and thought it was great. So, he is writing my blog today.
All the speakers at Awaken have ten minutes to speak. I knew it was going to fly by, but what a rush of adrenaline. Serious time warp! I had to start wrapping up the minute I started ramping up! Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
I decided to speak on one of the greatest dangers we face as leaders. Neurological studies have shown that over the course of time, there is a cognitive shift from right-brain to left-brain. And if we don't find a way to stop the shift, memory overtakes imagination. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop innovating and start imitating. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory.
A few years ago I read something R.T Kendall wrote that impacted me: "The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday."
I don't want that to be me!
One of the byproducts of the neurological shift away from right-brain imagination toward left-brain logic is that we become too logical. And it seems fitting on April Fool's Day to say that great leaders are illogical. The people God uses the most are people that aren't afraid of looking foolish. In fact, if you aren't willing to look foolish you're foolish!
I shared a little bit of our coffeehouse experience in my ten minutes. I still remember feeling so foolish when I called the previous owners of 201 F Street, NE. It was owned by two Jewish lawyers. NCC was only about 100-150 people at that point. And we didn't have one red cent in the bank. It felt foolish asking if they would sell the property when we didn't even have the capability of buying it. But that's one dimension of faith--the willingness to look foolish.
I Corinthians 1:27 says that God uses foolish things to shame the wise. Nothing has changed. He still uses fools. So maybe the church should adopt April Fool's Day and make it a holy day!
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