Mexico Staff Conference

Vida Estudiantil Day

July 6-12 we were in Cuernavaca for the Mexico Staff Conference. The first day just the Vida Estudiantil staff were together. We were challenged by the Bible teaching of Gerardo Zambrano. You may remember that Gerardo and Judith are some of our best friends. They were with us in Xalapa for 4 years and then took over the ministry when we changed roles. They have been in Dallas Theological Seminary for 3 years and won the “Keep the Vision” scholarship to return to their home country for six weeks. I had to lie a little on their letter of recommendation but apparently it worked!

They came and stayed with us two weeks before we returned to the states and then came to the staff conference. Gerardo, normally a pretty laid back guy is a great teacher and when he begins to teach he really heats up! In fact, he got up and lit himself on fire—it got so hot we had to turn on the air conditioning!

At the end of the morning, we recognized different people who are moving on or changing roles. The staff had Terry and me came up and presented us with a book of letters and notes from all the campus staff. They prayed for us. Then as our final act as National Campus Directors, Terry and I had David and Kelly Bedolla come up. Change is sometimes risky and a little scary, but we have no fears about David and Kelly taking over as the new National Campus Directors. We prayed for them and commissioned them to the new task. We are so confident that they will take the Campus Ministry in the right direction and bring it to new levels. Though we have seen incredible things the past six years, we totally believe that the best is still to come!

Mexico Staff Conference

The remaining staff arrived that evening to begin the all staff conference. We took them through much of our leadership framework: The Heart of a Leader. We talked about four images of a leader: Servant, Slave, Steward and Shepherd. We really wanted to emphasize this kind of a leader. There are many books on leadership, and I would say that the Bible is one of the best. Jesus talked about the heart of someone who leads in these images. It was a very lively and interactive time as people wrestled with redefining the character of a leader in terms of how Jesus describes rather than the images that come to mind when we think of a leader in the secular world.

Terry and I also led a time on the Strategic Planning Process for all the staff. Teams in each city ran through the process in about an hour on two different days. Many of the campus staff have used this process several years, but many of the teams have new staff on them so it was a great real life exercise / learning experience. They have plans in place for this coming year now!

Our new National Team was commissioned and we officially started our new roles to give leadership to the Mexico ministry. There will be about 13 of us who will make up the entire National Team. (We still have a few of the spots to fill.) I have a sense that God wants to some BIG things in the coming years. It is humbling to think about being a part of that.

Agustin and Lupita

Agustin and Lupita Garduño have been leading the Mexico ministry this past 14 years. On July 7th, they stepped aside. This is a very historic event. Usually when a person gets to the “top” in a country, he stays there until he dies or does something so stupid, he gets fired. This was not the case with Agustin and Lupita. They have a strong conviction that leadership and influence are not based on position or title. So they have stepped aside. Some would say that they stepped “down”, but that would only be describing it in worldly terms. I say stepped aside, because they are giving others the chance to lead now. I really admire them for their courage and for not placing their identity and security in a title or position.

We had a special, but simple ceremony to honor them for their years of service. Many staff as well as their children shared stories from being close to them during these years of how they have walked with God and maintained integrity.



During the 14 years, Agustin has had many attacks and legal battles that he inherited when he took over the job. I would describe his leadership as being a shield. He has protected us and many of us staff from these battles so we were able to focus on ministry. Terry and I really did not know of some of the problems he faced until several years after we had taken on our role as the National Campus Directors. He was a shield to us personally, so we were able to develop the Campus Ministry to what is today. No leader is perfect and no leader wakes up in the morning and says, “I will make a bad decision today.” We are thankful for Agustin and Lupita for their friendship these 11 years, for their protection of us, for their empowering us to run with the campus ministry and for their leadership.

Agustin and Lupita will be taking a sabbatical time to recharge and seek the Lord for their next step. At this point they will be in Cuernavaca developing the professional ministry and helping develop other ministries in the city. We are glad that they will continue their ministry with Campus Crusade Mexico.

Millionaire's Forum and Vida Estudiantil

Last week, we began a partnership with the Millionaire's Forum. Tom Waller, the director, met Terry and me last summer at CSU during staff training. His vision is to bring top entrepreneurs and business leaders to help reach campus leaders. It is a great match. Many wealthy and successful business leaders feel much gratitude for how God has blessed them and they desire to give back and be a blessing to others. And what student leader would not want to gain from 20 years of business successes and failures for free?

Eddy and Cris Dubon ran a lot of the logistics and networking. I went with him to several new campuses to meet with the university presidents to explain Vida Estudiantil, Millionaire's Forum and what this event was all about. About six top campuses in the city brought their top students to the dinner. Joel and Paul shared about their successes and failures in business and in their personal life, and how Jesus Christ and faith are first in their lives. The student body leadership from one campus said afterward, "We need to hear more about these things on our campus!"

Also in attendance were members of our LIFE Team and their wives. Our LIFE Team consists of Mexican executives who are investing their LIFE in helping us reach college students. LIFE is an acrostic for Labor, Influence, Finances and Expertise. The idea was to cast vision to them for how God can use them to reach student leaders in a city. Some are already giving talks on campuses around Puebla and helping us open new campus ministries.

Here are some personal "revelations" I have had during the time. We have been talking about how the different ministries can work more integrated. Up until now, that has been a little foggy for me. I really like the idea, but the "how" of it just was not that clear. One thing we did say was that the campus staff would not do everything. All staff would focus on their main area of ministry and not try to do everything. Well, this is what started to happen. We had the Forum Dinner scheduled to reach top student leaders. Then, the next morning we had scheduled an evangelistic breakfast for professionals. Also that evening, was a Summit Dinner to talk with Mexican Christian business professionals about the vision to reach top student leaders in the country. About a month out from the event, we were feeling stressed...as if we were trying to do too much. We were! We were trying to run two different ministries at the same time. So we cancelled the professional breakfast. The result would have been to funnel resources away from campus and poorly execute two mediocre events. With the way we did it, everyone won. Campus won with top student leaders hearing about Christ; we potentially started ministries on two new campuses; and we gained credibility in the city and with university officials! Professional ministry won also because more businessmen get involved in the Great Commission. I am seeing that when the flow of resources is toward campus ministry, everyone wins in the long run. Well, I am kind of going on a soapbox now so I think I will end. I will post some pictures of the event later.

CMC Learning Community

Besides leading the team for the Mexico Campus Ministry, Terry and I are part of another team. It is more of a learning community made up of several leaders from our region of the world: Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean or CMC. We just returned from San Salvador for three days of learning and interacting with Campus Crusade leaders from Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Mexico. Steve Sellers, the Crusade VP for the Americas and Andrea Buczynski from the Global Leadership Team joined us to help facilitate the time.

We interacted on and learned about Biblical Leadership. It was a very rich time. I will put some of the notes and questions here if you would like to dive into the study with others...

1. When you normally think about leadership in the world, what words or images come to your mind?

2. Jesus described leadership using several images:
a. servant/slave
b. steward
c. shepherd
Read the following passages about these images: Matthew 20:20-27; 23:1-12; Mark 9:33-36; 10:42-45; John 13:1-17; 1 Corinthians 4:2; Matthew 25:14-30; John 10:1-13; 1 Peter 5:1-7
What kind of character is described in these passages?

3. What other things related to heart and character of a person can you note?

4. What are some contrasts? How did Jesus describe people who did not have the right perspective?

5. What things are similar about the three images? What are the differences between the images?

It was a very enlightening study and time of interaction, obviously leading into reflection on how we are doing personally and organizationally in leadership. How is my life reflecting these images? What kind of leaders are we producing for the future?

Next, Steve and Andrea led us through a time of interaction on the Leadership Framework. In the area of our walk with God, we looked at three essential characteristics:
Humility (1 Samuel 16:7; 2 Chron 16:9; Is. 66:2; Rom. 11:33-12:8)
Grace and Truth (1 John 1:14; Heb 4 )
Spirit-Filled Life (Eph. 5:18-20; Prov 3:5,6; 2 cor 5:7; Luke 22:31; Gal 2:20; 2 Cor 5:14,15; Is 57:11; 1 Jh 1:5-9 and 2 Cor 7:8-10)
We looked at Character (Gal. 5:22-23), our Relationship with others (1 Jn 2:1-11; Heb 10:24; Phil 2:1-11; 1 Cor 13; Matt 5:1-1-11; Col 3:12-17; Eph 4)

Lastly, we discussed the Roles and Responsibilities of a Leader: Direction Setter for the organization, Change Agent within the organization, Spokesperson and Coach/Developer.
On last day, we entered into a Strategic Planning Process for the region, discussing what we wanted God to do and the kind of things we wanted to see in five years; we interacted on where we are now, resources we have and need to move forward, and the next major steps to get there.
On more personal note, food was awesome, especially the dinner at Layo and Luchy's house eating pupusas. We had a more intimate time of sharing our needs and praying for one another the last night. It was also a time to celebrate Layo and Luchy's 25th Anniversary. Here is a picture of them with their three boys. Two of them arrived from the US to be with them for the weekend.

Voddie's Testimony

Voddie is the football player I was able to lead to Christ almost 20 years ago. I was standing next to him on stage at our Student Conference last month, as he shared his story. Click on the link to hear Voddie's testimony...

http://www.vidaestudiantil.com/congreso/Oradores/VoddieTestimonio.mp3

It is english but also with spanish translation. For more of the talks from the conference, click here: http://www.vidaestudiantil.com/congreso/Oradores/index.html


For photos of the time, click here: http://www.vidaestudiantil.com/congreso/Fotos2006/index.htm

Qualities of a Leader

We have been talking about our leadership and organizational culture. With the transition of leadership of our National Director stepping aside to allow others to lead and follow God’s call to develop spiritual movements of win build and send among professional, it is a natural time to evaluate these things.

Here is a list that our leadership team came up with. (This is not just for the new National Director or Team, but also for any aspiring leader in the ministry.)

Spiritual Qualities
- Strong walk with God and Spirit-filled life
- Character of 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 5:16
- Vital prayer life
- Can encourage the hearts of others

Leadership Qualities
- Ability to create a climate for leadership
- Models ministry
- Inspires others to a shared vision
- Attracts other leaders
- Others feel significant, needed and valued
- Gives opportunities to others
- Empowers others
- Gets out of the way
- Reliable, consistent and faithful
- Knows himself (builds on strengths and compensates for weaknesses)

Capacity
- Ability to develop organizational capacity
- Develop and raise funds for ministry
- Develop resources for ministry, especially develop other leaders
- Ability to establish partnerships, both internally and externally
- Challenges the process/ change agent not content with status quo
- Excited about work and challenges ahead


That is a big Twinkie! We all aspire to this, and are in the process of developing these qualities. We each bring different strengths and weaknesses to the table. It can be overwhelming actually. However, my son, Matthew encouraged me with a line from the movie, Miracle before we left. The coach of the 1980 US Olympics Hockey Team did not simply want all the superstars on the team. He just wanted the right ones; not the ones with egos who were not out to show their individual talent, but ones who knew how to accomplish something significant as a team.

WorldWide Day of Prayer

Today was Worldwide Day of Prayer. We gathered all our staff in the city for time of worshipping God, confessing sin, and praying for our families, the Vida Estudiantil ministry, needs in Mexico and around Latin America and the world. Here are a couple pictures of the time.


There were five stations around the yard and house and we rotated to pray for the different areas: Latin America, Campus Crusade, Mexico ministry, all our staffs personal needs and ministries as well as the world. I will end with a few quotes on prayer...

"The neglect of prayer proves to my mind, that there is a large amount of practical infidelity. If the people believed that there was a real, existing, personal God, they would ask Him for what they wanted, and they would get what they asked. But they do not ask, because they do not believe or expect to receive." – Brownlow North

Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom. If you may have everything by asking in His Name, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is." -C. H. Spurgeon

"Let methods be changed, therefore, if necessary, that prayer may be given its true place. Let there be days set apart for intercession; let the original purpose of the monthly concert of prayer for missions be given a larger place; let missionary prayer cycles be used by families and by individual Christians; let the best literature on prayer be circulated among the members of the Church; let special sermons on the Subject of intercession be preached. By these and by all other practical means a larger, deeper, wider spirit of prayer should be cultivated in the churches." – John R. Mott

Ric Calhoun visit

Yesterday, Ric Calhoun visited our team in Puebla. Terry and I have been friends with Ric and his wife Becky and their family for more than 15 years. We lived in Las Cruces and began our families together. Though they have moved several times because of his work in the oil business and we moved to Mexico, we have always been able to connect with them. This past Christmas, we had breakfast at the Satellite Cafe in Albuquerque on Central Avenue. The four of us began planning this trip.

Ric's offical job title is "Functional Excellence Specialist" for a large oil company. Practically what that means is that he works with leadership teams around the world, and helps them put shoe-leather to their visions. As we talked, I realized that is exactly what we needed in Vida Estudiantil ministry.

Earlier, this past Thursday we had done a team exercise and evaluation on the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team and confirmed that accountability and attention to results were two areas we needed to work on. Ric's visit yesterday couldn't have been better timed!

Working from our strategic plans and Integrated Priorities, he helped us set SMART goals. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound. Each Integrated Priority team had to present their SMART goals to get it evaluated and anaylzed by the rest of the team. After refining our SMART goals, we went back to our little teams to develop Action Plans. Action Plans are made up of High-Level Milestones (that define our progress) , Critical Deliverable and Activities (that enable progress), and Measures (that prove progress).



It was a grueling day but whole point is simply this: If our vision is to plant movements on campuses in every major city of Mexico so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus, then we need a plan to make that a reality. If we simply talk about the vision, but don't make a SMART plan to execute and accomplish it, then we have no integrity in our work. In one day, Ric was able to use his skills in one discipline in business to greatly impact our ministry's effectiveness in planting spiritual movements on campuses in Mexico and reaching lost students for Christ.

Alice's Rooftop Grill

Last night after a day of evaluating our teams' effectiveness using the book, Five Dysfunctions of a Team, our team celebrated with a visit to Alice's Rooftop Grill. Alice is our team member who adds lots of life and fun to our team environment. She has a little efficiency apartment on the roof of an apartment building that has a spectacular view of the city, and two volcanos Popo and Ixzta.


When we got up to the roof, the smell of grilled arrachera (steaks) and chicken wafted over to our nostrils. While they were still grilling, we enjoyed some Tostada chips with guacamole and margaritas (without alcohol, of course).













Some people opted for a salad which was still incredible!!!

But we all enjoyed the awesome sunset views of the city and volcanoes, the great Koin and of course, Alice's fish mobile!

Voddie

Voddie Baucham is my friend and was the Bible teacher for our Vida Estudiantil International Conference this week. We had not seen each other for almost 20 years, until today when he showed up in Puebla for the conference!



Voddie grew up in the projects of LA. His mother turned Buddist after being abandoned by his father at a young age. Having grown up in the gang and drug infested housing projects under this worldview would be reason enough for Voddie not to be where he is today. But God had a plan for Voddie. Through a long chain of events, he ended up playing football at New Mexico State. I was there during those years and I happened to be working as an AIA rep with many of the sports teams. I called Voddie out of the blue and he agreed to meet with me. After about 5 minutes, I figured out he did not know the Christ of the Bible, but he seemed very open. So we meet two days later in the locker room at the stadium. I asked him what kept him from putting his trust in Christ. This 6’3, 250 lb. tight end on the road to the NFL looked at my and responded with something I did not expect. He simply said, “Fear.” So we looked at a passage in Romans 8:31-38 that deals with fear. Tears began to fill his eyes as he told me about his teenage cousin who was killed earlier. Voddie said, “My cousin never had a chance to accept Christ, but I do.” Later, as he was waiting for our next appointment, Voddie placed his trust in Christ. Today, both his mother and his father are also followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God diverted Voddie’s plans from the NFL. After his year at NMSU, he transferred to Rice University and began sharing his faith with other guys on the team. He would occasionally call me to tell me what God was doing in his life. He later went to seminary and then on to Oxford in England for his doctorate. He has been married for 17 years and currently has three kids and speaks to thousands of people each year. He is known as the evangelist to the intellectuals and is author of the book, “The Ever Loving Truth”.

Opportunities Reception

Terry and her team organized an outstanding Opportunities Reception. If you have read the book, Good to Great, you know the importance of the Hedgehog Principle. Our Hedgehog Principle in Vida Estudiantil is "New Staff". The second night of the VE International Conference, we held this reception for all seniors and recent graduates.

Chucho was the MC and ran the program. He is one of our students from Xalapa, who is on staff now, recently married and currently in Monterrey working on support. Alice Owens put together an awesome video on what it is like to work with Vida Estudiantil. Steve (me), with a mix of humorous personal stories and a compassion for the lost students of Mexico, firmly challenged the 100 in attendance to consider full time Christian work with us. All are valuable and all are needed to be lifetime laborers, but one thing that challenged me early on was a passage in Luke 9: 57-62. Jesus said to let the spiritually dead do the work of the spiritually dead. In other words, in a classroom of 40 people who graduate as accountants, one or two are Spirit-filled believers who can do ministry. So, let the other 38 do the work of accounting, and the one or two do ministry! Not that God doesn't use accountants; He does, and we are recruiting an accountant to work in our office right now. The point is that every Christian has to at least consider the calling to full time vocational Christian work.

After the challenge, Chucho interviewed Vania, Manuel and Adriana who are joining our staff or are doing a one year STINT. Vania has been working in our office this year and using her major in event and conference planning (for example, organizing this years International Conference!!!); Manuel is joining our staff, and Adriana just graduated from Xalapa and is going on a one year mission to Chile.

Well, other blogworthy details were the wonderful desserts of cheescake and chocolate cake served up with coffee from Xalapa, brightly colored flags from 42 countries (that was Terry's vision) that decorated the room, and staff and students from Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

The Opportunites Reception at this conference is just one of the ways we emphasize our "Hedgehog Principle". There are many other things we do to recruit, and develop staff and leaders to join us so that we can help plant spiritual movements everywhere so that every person knows someone who truly follows Jesus.

Prayer for Awareness of God's Presence

Give us, O Lord, a vision of your presence; help us to know you are near at hand, you are not far off and you are ready to hear our prayer. May we become aware of your protection; May we know that you rescue us from darkness and guide us into the way of light and peace;For you are a loving and redeeming God, mighty in Power. Amen.

from David Adam "Forward to Freedom"

Progressive Dinner

One of the great aspects of ministry is team. We have a synergetic, high performance team who works hard together and has fun together. We have a rich leadership culture where people are growing in community. We have healthy conflict about ideas and together come to better decisions because as it says it the book, Organizing Genius: "None of us is as smart as all of us." People get their ideas out on the table and have freedom to disagree. We hold each other mutually accountable to commitments and results. We are working well together.

Saturday we enjoyed a progressive dinner. I posted the details and pictures on Steve and Terry's Journal. Click here to find out how bloated we all got and about the special surprise at the end...

E2: Expansion and Explosion

"E Squared" stands for Expansion and Explosion. It was our first city wide meeting with Christian college students. Dan and DeAnn Gerard, the Puebla Metro Team leaders, along with Eddy Dubon lead and organized the time About 130 college students gathered for praise and worship, prayer for the city and the vision and challenge to reach the universities for Christ.

We met with groups of pastors for breakfasts, visited the pastors and church alliance, and may other things to promote the event as well as the Congreso Internacional.


Katy, from the STINT team along with the worship group from Dan’s church, Maranatha lead the worship. There was lots of energy filling the place.





We had times of prayer…for Puebla, for the universities, for revival in our own lives, for the 10/40 Window and for Mexico to be a sending nation to the world.



The team invited Rene Zapata to speak. (Rene just celebrated 50 years of ministry and is one of the pastors at our church, Torre Fuerte.) He shared how in his younger year, God used him and six others to start at college group at the UDLA here in Puebla, which grew to 150 new converts involved. He spoke of the need for prayer. It was prayer that made the impact and breakthroughs for getting the movement going on this hard campus, including reaching the Men's Basketabll coach and mayn on the team. He made three simple points to impact the university: love for God and people, passion, and vision. That is what these six young men had and they impacted their campus.



Many of those went on to ministry and are serving as missionaries and pastors now. A couple of them, Octavio and his wife, serve as youth pastors at Amistad Church, one of the biggest churches in Puebla. Octavio’s wife shared about the need to reach youth in Puebla. Here we have the largest concentration of Universities in the country. In Mexico, there is approximately 37% of the population that is 19-29 years of age. Puebla, however, has the highest percentage of “youth” at 45%. We also have the highest rate of suicide for that age.

It was visionary for me to hear their stories and envision what God could do in Puebla as college students get a vision of being used by God to reach their campuses!

Michigan Tec visit to Puebla

This week we had the students from Michigan Tech here. We have had a partnership with them since our days in Xalapa when I met Dan Gerard as a student who came down to study spanish. He got involved in our Vida Estudiantil group and returned to Michigan to help start Campus Crusade at his school. The movement grew and they have brought spring break teams to Mexico for 5 years or so.

One strategy we are using for the spring breaks is pizza parties at our houses. Our house is close to several universities. During the week, the teams are on campuses meeting students, getting to share Christ with many. They are inviting students to the party. All college students like free pizza!

After a little partying and hanging out, the program consists of one of the spring break students sharing his or her testimony of how they came to Christ (translated to spanish , of course). Then we show "La Busqueda" ( La Busqueda, which literally means "the search" is a 7 minute modern day version of the Prodigal Son. In this case it is a daughter who leaves home and after countless attempts of the father to communicate with her, she finally rides the bus home. Upon arriving, her father is there waiting anxiously to receive her, but feeling the guilt and pain of her past life, the daughter is unable to get off the bus. The doors close and the bus leaves with the father standing there. The girl arrives to her seat only to find evidence that the father is still trying to communicate how much he loves her in spite of her mistakes. It is powerful!).

Pray for growth ofAlex, a young Christian from a new campus, and for three guys I talked to who are really interested in knowing more about Christ.

The Season of Lent

I found a good site for some reflections on Lent and will write more later, but you can click on the link and find daily devotions and relections on Lent. Here is one from Ash Wednesday.

Come Closer
Lent serves as our annual invitation to come closer to God. It provides a time to look at our lives and ourselves, not so we may criticize ourselves more harshly but so we can identify the obstructions that keep us from God. What keeps us from feeling the presence of the divine in our every day? How do we hide from God, and why? Lent gives us a chance to look at such obstructions and to move them gently away so that we can come closer to the Love that gives us life, the Love whose triumph we will celebrate on Easter morning. (from Sarah Parsons in her book "A Clearing Season".

The Power of Sarcasm

I just copied this off of Jay Lorenzen's blog OnMovements. It is worth repeating. Also, he has a lot of blogworthy stuff on movements there. Check it out.

The Power of Sarcasm: What to do while you wait for God to build movements

"I’ve adapted Steve Addison’s list of suggestions (plus some of the comments) for what we can do while nothing is happening in our efforts to build movements everywhere.
While we’re waiting, we can:

1. Call ourselves apostles or some other lofty title. Have some business cards printed. Hand them around.
2. Throw lots of money at subsidizing unhealthy, declining efforts.
   Throw money at “experimental missional initiatives” and never evaluate their effectiveness.
3. Set goals for multiplying new movements but don’t make it clear who is responsible.
4. Make someone responsible but don’t give them any real authority, discretionary time or sufficient funding. Change the appointment every two years. After ten years, save money by retiring the position and making everyone responsible.
5. Appoint a committee to undertake a study and write a report for the leadership group. Wait three years, then do it again.
6. Hire a consultant to undertake a study and write a report. Wait three years then do it again.
7. Appoint the wrong people to plant movements. When they fall over say, “Building movements doesn’t work.”
8. Require pioneering leaders and volunteers to go thru formal training before they can plant a movement.
   Reverse Corollary: Never require pioneering leaders and volunteers to continually learn and grow and develop.
9. Throw our best leaders at our biggest problems, not at our greatest opportunities.
10. Watch pioneering leaders exit our movement and comment on their lack of commitment to CCC (or your organization) and God.
11. Reward pioneering leaders with promotion. Get them away from the front line. Harness their drive to keep the institutional and headquarters’ wheels turning.
12. Agree to plant new movements when: (a) We’re large enough (b) We’re healthy enough (c) We have the leaders to give away (d) We have the money to spare (e) God has clearly shown us it’s time (f) When the cow jumps over the moon (g) Any or all of the above.
13. Run workshops on building movements. Hold conferences on movements. Offer a course at your annual training or at your theological college on movement building. Do nothing to follow up the people who show an interest. Make sure only experts like me get to teach. Keep the practitioners away from the volunteers. Keep the volunteers in the classroom.
14. Grow your movement’s facilities, staff and budget as BIG as you can. Let our vision stop once we hang our shingle at the front door. Let church history end with us. Let the Kingdom dream die.
15. Set ridiculous but catchy sounding goals like 500 in 5 years, or 2,000 by 2,000. Three years after the target date expires set new goals. Don’t forget to change the dates!
16. Modernize our theology then PostModernize our theology. Remove evangelism and discipleship and church planting from the centre of God’s mission in the world. When decline hits make sure the paid professionals like us are the last to feel the pinch.
    Lastly, set up a blog like this on movement building. Link to other bloggers on movements. They link to you. Add smoke and mirrors. "

Some of these are funny. Some are too true. Worth evaluating how we are doing.

Green, Yellow, Red Evaluation

Over Christmas, Terry and I met with some great friends, Ric and Becky Calhoun. Ric is a project consultant for a major oil company and works with leadership teams to help them accomplish their projects. He uses a "Deliverables Checklist" for evaluating projects and advancement toward goals. We translated this tool for ministry purposes; and recently spent a couple days evaluating our direction, team and strategic plan for the ministry. The tactics (action plan) of each critical path step were given a green, yellow or red score based on progress toward the goal. Then the sub teams for each Integrated Priority on the plan, developed S.M.A.R.T. goals for turning each yellow or red score to a green by the end of the year. It is proving to be a very helpful tool. We are developing a version of this evaluation/audit for local campus ministries to use also.

Helping Teams Resolve Conflict

At times in planting and building movements, our teams have conflicts. David Bedolla and I recently traveled to visit one of our teams who needed a little help in reconciling some issues.

David is a good thinker and very resourceful and had brought along the book, Peacemakers, by Ken Sande. During the time we basically followed the four main points of the book.

Glorify God. We shared the perspective that conflict is an opportunity to glorify God and cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the pruning and character development process.

Resolving conflict is important because there is much at stake. In John 13:34,35, Jesus says that by our love for one another, all men will know that we are His disciples. If we want to plant movements everywhere, then it is key that our teams love one another and learn to resolve conflicts in healthy ways.
Get the log out of your own eye. Matthew 7:3-5 exhorts us, "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

Before we could help the two parties on the team reconcile, I had to first confess my part as leader of Vida Estudiantil in the problem. We had not been clear about policy and had not responded to the issues in a timely and adequate manner.

Then in the reconciliation process, we helped them define the main issues and overlook minor offenses. In the repentance and confession, each had to address everyone offended specifically and acknowledge the hurt, accept the consequences, explain how they will alter their future attitude and actions and then ask forgiveness.
Gently restore. Our role in helping this team go thru the process of reconciliation was to gently restore the two parties. We helped by buffering, controlling and clarifying, mirroring what was being said and keeping the process moving in the right direction.
Go and be reconciled. At the end of the time, we made four promises that Ken Sande mentions in his book:

“I will not dwell on this incident.”
“I will not bring it up again and use it against you.”
“I will not talk to others about this incident.”
“I will not allow the incident to stand between us or hinder our relationship.”

It was a very fruitful time that we had bathed in much prayer and the team was reconciled and is moving forward. We had lots of time to laugh and eat tacos called, Piratas. They were huge and filled with steak, cheese and guacamole. It is good to do almost anything when you can eat tacos!

Vida Estudiantil International Conference

This year our Student Conference is taking a big step. We are expecting 1000 students from all over Mexico, and now Central America and the Caribe will be joining us. Check out the site that Lori Huffman created at www.vidaestudiantil.com/congreso

The dates are April 9-14 in Puebla, Mexico. Speakers include my friend, Voddie Baucham who was a disciple of mine at New Mexico State.

Ave Maria College

David and Kelly Bedolla lead another team to the town of San Marcos where Ave Maria College of the Americas is. About 60% of the students are from Nicaragua; the other 40% come from the rest of Central America. The books and classes are all in english.

The first day was also spent prayer walking and decoding the town and campus. The second day we returned and while walking around, Kelly met Adriana near the entrance to this closed campus. In another part of the town, Melina (Mexico) was talking to a lady and learned she was a believer who was praying for the campus and looking for ways to start a ministry there. She invited a couple from the team to return that evening to do evangelism training in their church. Melina and Ernesto (Puerto Rico) conducted the training. There were several students from Ave Maria who are believers and were at the training. As it turns out, Adriana (the girl Kelly met earlier) was one of these believers. So, from this very closed, private college, the team found a way to plant the ministry there. After training these student believers and encouraging the saint in this samll town, the team left a couple students in charge of carrying on the ministry there. God works in different ways at each place, but what I noticed was the importance of prayer, decoding, finding people of peace, along with determination, intellectual flexibilty, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and a team of people who owned the vision of planting movements everywhere, no matter what it takes. By the way, this also happened with an investment of about 16 hours. It is amazing what God can do when we step out to trust Him to do the impossible.

University of Central Nicaragua

During the "Extreme Leadership" project in Nicaragua, we took a few hours every afternoon during the two weeks to visit campuses. The Univeristy of Central Nicaragua was one of the campuses we went to. Chema and Rossie are the Extreme Leaders who lead this team.

The first day was spent praying for God to lead them to open doors, and decoding the campus. Here is the team praying at the entrance of the University. What happened after was someting only God could do... they met Maria Jose who is the sub-director and in charge of Student Life activities for the Univeristy. She received us with open arms. She was open to hosting a intercultural event on campus. After the event, Rossie and Jeanette (El Salvador) had the chance to share the 4 spiritual laws with her and she trusted Christ. Here is Jeantte, Maria Jose and Rossie. Pray for her growth and her job influencing students at UCN.

The next week, the team was able to go back and share Christ with a group of about 35 students. 25 of them trusted Christ and the next day, 18 of the these new believers showed up for a Follow-Up Bible study. At the end of the project, the team commissioned two people and left these leaders in charge of the group. This all happened with less than 16 hours on campus!

Mexico Delegation to Nicaragua

We met as a team yesterday for the first time since everyone else returned from Nicaragua. . Some of our team from Mexico served as the mentors/coaches for the group. Here is the group of our delegation from Mexico. It was such a blessing to have our team there to help with the teaching in the mornings and leading the campuses teams in the afternoons to plant movements on campuses near Diriamba. We are so proud of the qulaity of leaders that god is raising up in Mexico and it is such a privilege to work with such great staff!

Nicaragua Leadership Project, Day 4

Rossie and Rebecca taught today on Relationships with others section of the Heart of the Leader. Our walk with God and our character effects our relationships with our family, our teams and the students we are trying to reach.


Jimmy Hassan is the National Director for Campus Crusade in Nicaragua. He and his wife, Coco are really fun to be with and are beginning to reconstruct the ministry there. Jimmy spoke to us on the importance of evangelism, specifically on how it causes growth in our own lives. We can go to Nicaragua and share with others without really having to walk with God and allow Him to change our lives. But when we want to share with our immediate and extended families, friends etc, this requires that God is transforming our own lives.

Nicaragua Project, Day 3: Growth Model

"Character is the key for world evangelization. Every worker has a high calling, but the weak link is always character.”

David Bedolla led our project to think about the challenges of character development as leaders while we are in the pursuit of planting movements everywhere. We are emphasizing the Growth Model based on Henry Cloud’s book, Changes that Heal. In our Campus Ministry, Vida Estudiantil, we have done a good job in integrating the Leadership Model, which we call “The Heart of the Leader”. It emphasizes the importance of walk with God and character development over competence. Now, we want to bring the Growth Model down to the same level…part of daily conversations, the way we think, and the way we do ministry. Today, David placed a magnifying glass on the heart as we looked at four developmental tasks that Cloud mentions as necessary in our growth.

Bonding. This is the ability to establish and maintain emotional connection with others. It is experiencing community, being open and honest and vulnerable with others. It is the ability to go deeper in our relationships: with God and with others.

Boundaries. Boundaries are the realization of our own person apart from others; it says what we are and what we are not, our own personal identity; it is a property line that defines where you end and someone else begins.

Sorting out Good and Bad. This task has to do with identifying and sorting out the good and bad in ourselves, in others and the world. When we are not based in reality, we can split and feel “all bad” and not tolerate the weaknesses in others and ourselves. We begin to focus only on the negatives in our lives and only see the faults of others; On the other hand, we can feel “all good” and deny any problems we have or put others on a pedestal. The reality is that we must live with the good and bad in others and ourselves.

Being an Adult. The last task is to embrace our lives as adults. We must take responsibility for our own lives, actions, feelings, attitudes, behaviors, sins etc and not live with a victim mindset in life.

These issues of character don’t just effect the heart, but the whole way we interact in our relationships and how we carry out our roles, responsibilities and skills as a leader.

Nicaragua Leadership Project, Day 2

Today we began to unfold a Framework for Leadership Development that we have used in Mexico. We call it “The Heart of the Leader” because it focuses more on heart issues. It focuses on our walk with God and personal character growth and relationships more than on our skills and abilities.

Would you drink out of this glass? Steve started out with this illustration. You wouldn’t think of pouring pure water into a dirty glass. In the same way, we don’t want to begin building the base for spiritual leadership without first making sure we our clean. So, we began the day with a time of confession before God.

Terry then continued by constructing the Heart of the Leader framework. The programs and events of our ministry are like dots. The fact that a person goes from being in a Bible study, then goes on Summer Project, then comes on staff and becomes a Campus director does not necessarily mean that he or she is growing. Not these activities are bad, but much of the growth occurs between the dots. Terry explained that growth in our leadership begins from the inside out. It begins with our heart: our walk with God and personal character, which then affects our relationships. And finally influences our roles, responsibilities and results as leaders.

Lastly, Dan Gerard finished up by unpacking the “Walk with God” section. Here is Dan teaching the group about the importance of being filled with the Word of God. It has been great having Dan and DeAnn here along with several of our staff to help with the teaching!

CMC Leadership Project in Managua, Nicaragua

We arrived last night with our delegation from Mexico for the first Leadership Project for our region of Central America / Mexico/ Caribbean. There are 27 of us from 7 different countries: Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. The staff here represent the future of Campus Crusade in our countries. Our mission, according to Layo our director, is to revive the soul of Campus Crusade in our region: to move from organization… to movements everywhere, beginning on the universities.

A Bit of History
In the 70’s revolutions, many of these countries went through revolutions and wars. In many case there were bands of students who were caught up in this spirit of revolution. They were armies of students who fought a different war. God used students to bring about transformation but we over the years, we became “domesticated” and the campus ministry in many of these countries is almost dead. We began to rely on our strategies, events, methods and ourselves. And we lost focus.

Bureaucrats of Organizations vs. Revolutionaries of Movements
Now in 2006 is the time for a new revolution. There is war in these countries of a different nature: drugs, addictions, aids, sexually transmitted diseases, apathy, conforming to status quo, abuse, moral corruption and breakdown of families.

We can’t continue as if we were in a time of peace. We don’t need bureaucrats of organizations; we need revolutionaries of movements. All that was created in time of peace (our strategies, organization tactics) may not work now. We need revival. We need a new army of revolutionaries, passionate to bring life where there has been death, and light where there has been darkness.

This mission is impossible without God. In the movie Narnia, the white witch turned people to stone statues. Later Aslan revived these lifeless statues. He would breath on them and they became alive. That is what we need. Where we have become lifeless and domesticated, we need revival. Where our movement has become like a museum of statues, we need God to breath life into it. Please pray for this group of leaders as we pray and seek God to do exactly this…in our lives and in our countries.
This picture is of David Bedolla from our team in Mexico and one of the coaches having time with a couple guys he is coaching... Cesar from Costa Rica and Ernesto from Puerto Rico.

We also visited some campuses today to begin to launch movements. Please pray that we could plant movements on several of the campuses here.

Dia de Los Reyes Magos

LOS REYES MAGOS from the site: http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/christmas.html

The Christmas season continues unabated in Mexico through Epiphany, which is called Día de los Reyes (Three Kings Day). Echoing the arrival in Bethlehem of Wise Men bearing gifts for the baby Jesus, children throughout Mexico anxiously await waking up January 6 to find toys and gifts left by the Reyes Magos (Magi). In some regions it is customary to leave out shoes where treasures may be deposited by the visiting Wise Men.

A special treat served one this day is the Rosca de Reyes--a crown-shaped sweet bread decorated with jewel-like candied fruits. Tiny figures of babies are hidden in the dough before baking. There is much excitement as each partaker cuts his or her own slice, for whoever gets a piece containing a baby is obliged to host another party on or before Candlemas, February 2, when Mexico's holiday season finally comes to an end.

Here is our team celebrating the Dia de Los Reyes. A friend had given us $50 so we bought Starbucks to go along with the rosca. The second picture is of all the people who got the plastic baby in their slice so we can remember who will throw the party in February. Mexico is a great place to live if you like parties!

Errol

I recently had the privilege to have my annual meeting with a good friend and mentor, Errol Stepp. We always grab time to catch up on life and ministry at Shane and Laura’s New Year’s Day party. Errol has a heart to plant churches. He is a tall man with cowboy boots and a humble easy going personality. That is not too uncommon for someone in New Mexico. What is not too common about Errol is his passion, his learning posture and humility. I met Errol several years when he was pastor at the Valley View Christian Church in Edgewood, NM. He “retired” from that when he handed over the church to a younger pastor. He is in his 70’s now and most might be looking for a rocking chair. But not Errol. He may not be pastoring the same church, but before leaving that one, he helped plant another on Albuquerque’s west side. When I talked to him on New Year’s Day, he talked passionately about his goal to help plant 100’s of new churches in the next 6 years all over the southwest and even in Peru!

I asked him about a recent church plant he was personally involved with in Madrid, New Mexico. Madrid is a small community north of Edgewood. It is somewhat of a New Age and spiritist hangout. It was highlighted on a national news program as a city that had no church (to which members of this community applauded). But Errol has started a church there. It meets in the local bar of all places…during regular business hours! Here is how it started. Errol began by praying. He drove through the community and prayer walked for several months. Then, as he was about to give up he felt the Lord saying give it one more shot. So as he was driving out of town, he spotted a small café. He decided to stop for dessert and coffee. He struck up a conversation with the owner who eventually shared that he was a Christian whom God has called to start a church in Madrid. Errol responded, “Well, I am also a Christian and I help people start churches!” This shop owner has been like the person of peace there. The church is small, but they meet every week to open the Scriptures and share the Lord’s Supper…in the bar! What impresses me about Errol is his passion to plant churches, his compassion for people, his humility and his continuing to learn. He continues to grow in his knowledge, his walk with God and in his marriage. I think that keeps him in the race and keeps his youthful outlook on life and his energy level of someone much younger.

Discipline # 4: Surrender

Decision #4 Trust the Lord Completely (Surrender)

Continuing some thoughts from last Christmas on Chuck Swindoll’s book, “Intimacy with the Almighty”… This final decision to trust the Lord completely requires the discipline of Surrender.

If my determined purpose is to become more deeply and intimately acquainted with God, I can’t retain the rights to my own position or continuously be preoccupied with working out the details of my own life.

Think of the Jesus’ example of complete surrender before going to the cross when he said to the Father, “Not my will, but Yours.”

I need to constantly surrender my vision, my plans, my position, my title to God and trust that He knows better than me.

These fours decisions and disciplines are a journey. Intimacy with the Almighty doesn’t happen overnight, but is a result of a passionate pursuit of God and a consistent practice of these disciplines.

Discipline # 3: Solitude

Decision #3 Cultivate Serenity (Solitude)

Continuing some thoughts from last Christmas on Chuck Swindoll’s book, “Intimacy with the Almighty”… This third decision to cultivate serenity takes the discipline of Solitude.

Solitude
Chuck refers to solitude as the furnace of transformation. In solitude, struggles occur that no one else knows about; inner battles are fought here. Henri Nouwen says that solitude “gets rid of our scaffolding.”

“The task is to persevere in my solitude until all my seductive visitors get tired of pounding on my door and leave me alone."

Self-Analysis
1 Corinthians 11:28-31 in referring to the Lord’s Supper exhorts each person to examine himself. It goes on to say that many are weak and sick because they did not judge themselves rightly. It think it was Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. In solitude we have the opportunity to do a rigorous inventory of our inner life and surface those things that obstruct our intimacy with God.

AW Tozer: “May not the inadequacy of much of our spiritual experience be traced back to our habit of skipping through the corridors of the Kingdom like children in the marketplace, chattering about everything, but pausing to learn the true value of nothing.”

Discipline # 2: Silence

Decision #2 Being Still (Silence)

Continuing some thoughts from last Christmas on Chuck Swindoll’s book, “Intimacy with the Almighty”… This second decision to be still takes the discipline of Silence. Here are some different versions of Psalm 46:10...

"Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God.

"Cease striving and know that I am God;

Be still, and know that I am God

We are commanded to stop. Rest. Relax. Let go and make time for Him. We can’t move toward deeper intimate relationship without determined, intentional times of stillness, silence and quietness. Nobody can de something about my busyness but me! It is easy to get sucked into the black hole of activities. The result is what Swindoll calls “fast talk”, resulting in shallow relationships, no time for family or for one another, and no time for intimacy communication and listening. He suggests deliberately saying no more often. If I wait for circumstances to change and things to slow down, life will continue to deteriorate.

Swindoll adds, “God does not speak to the hurried, worried mind. It takes time alone with Him and His Word before we can expect our spiritual strength to recover.”

Discipline # 1: Simplicity

Decision #1 Re-order my Private World (Simplicity)

Continuing some thoughts from last Christmas on Chuck Swindoll’s book, “Intimacy with the Almighty”… This first decision to order my private world takes the discipline of Simplicity. There is a great difference between restless leaders and restful leaders. If we don’t simplify, we will be unable to rest within. We will be unable to enter the deep, silent recesses of the heart where God connects with us. Chuck writes, “If we live very long in that condition, our hearts grow cold toward Christ and we become objects of seduction in a wayward world.”
2 Corinthians 11:3 says, “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." Busyness is an enemy of simplicity. There are a lot of good things to do this year. It is so easy to be deceived into thinking that other things, even good things, are of more value. I want to make it a priority this year to have a pure and simple devotion to Christ.

Intimacy with the Almighty

Last Christmas, Terry gave me a great gift. She gave me the book Intimacy with the Almighty by Chuck Swindoll. It started me on a journey to deepen my walk with God, which I am still on. I was reviewing some the thoughts I had journaled after Christmas a year ago. Here are some thoughts of what God was doing and continues to do.

Am I among the deep people? God reserves the deep things for those whose hearts are completely His…for those who take time to wait before Him.

“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” Richard Foster

[for my determined purpose is] that I may know Him-that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding [the wonders of His Person] more strongly and more clearly…and be continually be transformed. (Philippians 3:10 Amplified Bible)

Paul counted all his accomplishments as rubbish compared to knowing Christ. Do I value the accomplishments of our ministry in Mexico more than intimacy with Christ?

Chuck Swindoll mentions 4 decisions and 4 disciplines for greater intimacy with the Almighty. During the next days I will highlight each one.

Expanding our Faith

One of the values in our organization is faith. This doesn’t mean just being faithful, but it means being full of faith. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God.

Agustin Garduño is the National Director of Campus Crusade in Mexico and is my boss. We invited him to share a devotional with our Vida Estudiantil staff. These are some thoughts from that time.

We all have a comfort zone or circle of confidence. It is necessary for us as leaders to constantly be expanding our circle of confidence. One area we must do this is with our National Student Conference April 9-14, 2006. We have had 200-300 students in the past attend. This year we are stepping out of our comfort zone and trusting God for 1000. If we first have faith to set the goal at 1000, then we will begin to think about doing things differently. We will think about new paradigms. We will have to step out of our comfort zone as individuals and as an organization to expand our circle of confidence.

Another area to exercise our faith is in evangelism. If we are to influence the universities for Christ, then we need to reach the current leaders. In our evangelism, we must step out of our comfort zones and “reach up” and not just go for the loner who has nothing else to do. He challenged us to get the names of the top 100 student leaders in the city and make a plan to reach them.

Questions to reflect upon:
When was the last time I stepped outside of my comfort zone?
What barriers can I identify that keep me from expanding my circle of confidence?
In what areas of my life do I need to expand my circle of confidence?
What practical steps will I take to expand my circle of confidence?

Personal Spiritual Renewal

All the Vida Estudiantil staff in the country are here in Puebla for a time of Development and aligning to the vision and direction for this next year. Yesterday we talked about movements everywhere and personal spiritual renewal. As I have been reading about movements, I have not come across “the secret” or “the key” to rapid expansion; but what I have noticed is that where movements are happening there are passionate leaders who are passionately pursuing God. I have come to realize that the first step for us as leaders who want to lead and plant movements everywhere is not a keen strategy, method or plan, but Personal Spiritual Renewal.

E.M. Bounds in his classic work on prayer says, ”WE are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.”

When Steve Douglas became president of Campus Crusade, he asked the question, “What have been the factors of success of CCC? It was thought that maybe the 4 Spiritual Laws that has helped our staff communicate the gospel to millions of people; or maybe the Jesus film that has been shown in hundreds of languages to billions of people around the globe. The conclusion was neither of these, nor any other strategy or event. The success what attributed to Bill and Vonette Bright who experienced personal spiritual renewal and totally surrendered their lives to Christ. It was to Bill and Vonette and others like them who were committed to a passionate devotion for Christ that God entrusted with breakthrough strategies to spread the gospel and plant movements around the world.

There is a growing sense in our hearts of what Joshua said to the Israelites in Joshua 3:5, "Sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow GOD will work miracle-wonders among you." (The Message). We need a personal spiritual renewal because God is calling us to lead something like never before. The rest of Joshua is focused on taking the new ground of the Promise Land. I wonder if somewhere along the way they became so distracted with the strategy of taking new ground that they were distracted from a pure and simple devotion to God. Judges 2:7-10 says that when Joshua and those of his generation died, there arose the next generation who did not know God or the works He had done. Oops! Spiritual movements everywhere must begin with spiritual leaders who are committed to personal spiritual renewal and are passionately pursuing God. I will write more of what I am learning on the second principle to planting movements everywhere later.

Converting a Dream to Reality

Terry and I asked Steve Sellers what our job was. He said, “First, don’t try to do it all yourselves. Second, build capacity (Leaders, Laborers and Loot)”. To turn our dream of planting movements everywhere, this is exactly what we need to do and what we are attempting with our team’s Integrated Priorities.

1. Leaders and people Nehemiah 2:17,18; 3:1 Part of our job in Vida Estudiantil is to recruit other leaders to work with us. We need more focused systems to raise up staff. This is our Hedgehog Principle.

We have systems in our ministry to challenge and raise up more staff like our Opportunities Luncheon at our National Student Conference, but it is also necessary that each staff see it as a personal labor-a part of their job description.

2. Obtain necessary resources ($, materials, operations) Neh 2:18

3. Build partnerships and strategic alliances with others Neh 2:7,9


4. Measure progress Neh 6:15; 4:6 There needs to be measurable clear goals and the team must be help accountable for those goals

5. Develop strategies for getting the job done. Nehemiah led the people to complete the wall.

Chucho and Nelly's wedding

This past weekend Terry and I were in Monterrey for Chucho's wedding. Here is some of Chucho's story. His dad abandoned Chucho and his sister when they were very young. Chucho was raised by his mom and grandma in Xalapa. When Keefe Daly (a student in Colorado who came down for a summer missions project) and I met Chucho during his freshmen year at the University of Veracruz, he had already tried many of the typcial things to fill the emptiness in his heart. So when Keefe and I shared the Four Spiritual Laws with him, he responded by trusting Christ. Keefe returned to Colorado after the summer and I carried the ball by beginning a follow-up Bible study with Chucho. When Keefe graduated and came at our staff, he picked up the ball by discipling Chucho. After graduating, Chucho joined our staff and has been winning students to Christ and discipling them in Monterrey. Last year he met Nelly. She is a beautiful girl with a wonderful heritage. Her dad is a pastor in Rio Bravo. Nelly is in her last semester of study and has joined our staff. They will be raising some additional support while Nelly finishes school and they will join us in Puebla this fall.

I couldn't help thinking about movements when I was there in Monterrey. There were parades in the streets marching for the Virgen of Guadalupe; there were thousands of fans with flags and colors of thier favorite team heading to the semifinal soccer game between Monterrey Rayados and Monterrey Tigres. Both visible expressions of movements. But in a quieter way, there were visible expressions of a movement at Chucho's wedding. There is the spiritual multiplication of Chucho's life in the lives of other students; Chucho is beginning to leave behind a new legacy in his family and ministry. There was Daniela with her dad who travelled from Mexico City. Daniela was almost killed in a car accident that took the life of her brother two years ago. Nelly and Daniela met and became good friends on one of our summer projects that Ryan and Tawny Williams started. There were dozens of students from Xalapa who have come to Christ during our years there, many of whom are on staff or in process. There were many others whom we have influenced directly or indirectly over our 10 years here. Putting them all together in this celebration at Chucho and Nelly's wedding was a snapshot of a movement. Lives transformed by the gospel. Spiritual multiplication. A new legacy in a family. Friends having fun together and comitted to a cause of getting the gospel within arms reach of every student in Mexico.

4 Stages of Movement Planting

My friends Kenny Miller and Andy McCullough in the Great Plains, on a recent trip to Mexico, talked about 4 stages of planting a movement.

1. Pioneering Stage: Praying, Probing (decoding and look for persons of peace), Proclaiming and Partnering

2. Person of Peace

3. Purpose-Driven Team (Spirit-filled, mission-defined, values-driven, strategy minded local learning team)

4. Planted Movement (transformation happening: lost students transformed by the gospel, believers transformed by relationships pf grace and truth, and campus communities transformed)

Spiritual Formation links

As I am reading blogs, the Word and talking with others about planting movements everywhere, I am coming to a realization that the first step in movements is Personal Spiritual Renewal.

Dallas Willard has a lot of good articles on this. Check out this link: http://www.dwillard.org/articles/chrislist.asp
Bobby Clinton has some great articles also at http://www.bobbyclinton.com/articles.htm
Henry Cloud and John Townsend also have good articles on their site at http://www.cloudtownsend.com/7articles.htm
Click around their sites and find some great stuff.

Can we be content with incremental growth?

The Campus Ministry has grown in Mexico over the last 10 years, from presence on 1 campus to presence on 27 campuses; from one city to 13 cities; and from 8 staff to 75 staff. It is a growth that is encouraging and we could be content when we compare where we are NOW with where we have come from. BUT, if we compare where we are now with the vision of planting movements everywhere, then we see there is a long way to go. Furthermore, if we continue to grow at the same rate of incremental growth, then it will take 400 years before we get to every campus and every student with the gospel! That is simply not acceptable. We need exponential growth. Can we believe God to see exponential, explosive, organic growth of the Campus Ministry?

I was recently looking at my journal of some thoughts from a devotional by Steve Sellers during last summer in Colorado. He spoke from Genesis 18:1-15 and compared Sarah’s and Abraham’s response to God’s announcement that they would have a son at an old age.

Sarah focused on: The present reality, past experience and personal ability
Abraham focused on: The presence of the Lord, The promise of God, The power of God

How God chooses to work is His business! But what do I focus on in Mexico? Will we laugh like Sarah, or will we believe God wants to plant movements everywhere and get the gospel to every student in Mexico and the world? I need to focus on the God’s presence, His promises and His power and not my own abilities and what has happened in the past. I don’t have many answers right now; I only have a dissatisfaction with incremental growth.

Reinventing Self

Leaders realize that doing the same thing the same way for a long time often doesn’t work. What worked in the past doesn’t always work today. Historian Arnold Toynbee studied the rise and fall of 14 ancient civilizations. One sign of failure of those civilizations was refusal to change. They failed to reinvent themselves and as a result were unable to survive.

Three areas where we need to Reinvent Continuously are Self, Systems and Structures.
Reinventing Self Stephen Vincent Benet wrote “Litany for Dictatorships” in 1935 and said, “We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.” As leaders, we have a natural obstacle to the principle to “Reinvent Continuously”. The most important and probably most difficult to change is Self. I am not talking about changing values or belief systems, but about change that is needed to solve problems. But change is difficult. There are at least two obstacles to change. Sometimes, the leader does not see a need for change. John Adams said, “Power always assumes it is virtuous.” We may wrongly assume that since we are the leader, we don’t need to change. Ron Clyde owns the Texas Training Institute. Their motto is Building People. Building Teams. He says, “As we grow in positions of leadership, our power grows; as our power grows it becomes harder for us to see ourselves as we should. Those around us seek to please us. They do not ask us the hard questions. A vicious cycle then develops that causes us to believe in ourselves and talents more that we should.” Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” If we are going to reinvent ourselves, then we need to take honest evaluation and inventory of ourselves and ask, “What needs to change in my life?”

Reinventing Self: The Power of Paradigms

A second obstacle to Reinventing Continuously is that we become burdened with our own paradigms. Paradigms are the way we think about things. They are assumptions we bring into situations. Paradigms are very powerful. John F. Kennedy, Jr. intended to fly his private airplane from NY City to nearby Martha’s Vineyard. He crashed just a few short miles from his destination into the ocean, killing himself, his wife and his sister in law. Though it was foggy and he was inexperienced as a pilot, that in itself did not cause the accident. Nor was it due to engine or any mechanical failure. He was killed by assumptions and paradigms. Instead of trusting his instruments, he trusted his assumption that he was flying at a constant altitude. But he was not. He was slowly descending. As he hit the waves, he never even saw it coming. In the same way, we can be burdened with our paradigms and assumptions. We can think we are doing well and our systems will get us to our destination, but we fail to look outside our paradigm to see a potential crash in our lives or our organization. Great leaders are lifelong learners; They don’t their organization outgrow them. Again, Ron Clyde mentions several ideas:

• Find your own approach to learning.
• Read.
• Listen.
• Spend time walking around and thinking.
• Develop a Personal Development Plan (PDP).

Reinventing Systems

Systems are how work is done, and sometimes systems must change. It has been said, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” Others have said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing but expecting different results! Ron suggest seven suggestions to improve creative thinking:

• Work together. Be a team. "None of us is as smart as all of us." (Organizing Genius)
• Teach others to think and be creative
• Read. Read. Read.
• Give yourself time to think creatively.
• Reward those who think creatively.
• Bring new people in occasionally who are different from you. Allow them to teach you new ways and new systems.

Reinventing Structures

Structure is how people are organized to the get the work done. Sometime we wrongly assume that organizational structure is permanent. We ignore solutions because they do not fit into our current structure. Good leaders change structures as needed to be more effective. Structures are meant to serve an organization; they are meant to enable not inhibit getting to the mission. Ron Clyde mentions a few clues that structure may need to change.

Work is harder than it should be
Work continues to get done and things fall through the cracks
Work is not done well and there are repeated problems
The organization has grown significantly.


Change can be your friend or your enemy; either way, change is in your future. So, make it your friend and ask, “What needs to change in myself, our systems and our structures?”