Having gone through all of the church planting seminars and having read all of the recommended church planting books, I can say that I'm rather familiar with the whole strategic planning process. I can also say that I don't like it at all. I never have. There's just always been something about it that just didn't settle well with me, and I recently figured out what it is.

I've been reading Church Unique, a book that offers a different way to think about mission, vision, values, and all that other stuff that goes into strategic planning for existing congregations. However, rather than just trying to paint a picture of where the church should be, it begins much more with where the church is, what's unique about the historic congregation, and tries to figure out how to maximize what's there, when casting a vision of future mission endeavors.

I was talking about this with Anita over dinner the other night and it hit me, this really links to the "wind" section of the elemental life, but for churches. Traditional strategic planning always asks the question, "Where does God want me?" It's focused not on where you are, but where you think you're supposed to be. Of course, getting there requires all kinds of energy and work with no certainty that, upon reaching the destination, you're actually in the right place.

However, Church Unique seems to operate from more of a, "Where am I?" position. This means figuring out who you are, where God has you, what makes you who you are, and then seeking to figure out how to live faithfully. The big difference is that, when you operate from "where you are," as opposed to "where you want to be," God gets to be the one who guides you to wherever you're going to end up ... you're just trying to be faithful on the journey.

So, for example, if you have a small church near a university, a strategic planning approach would seek to change that small church so it looks more like other successful campus ministries ("Where does God want me?"). However, the Church Unique approach might notice that the existing congregation has some amazing loving relationships that are going on, that they are very encouraging and supportive of one another ("Where does God have me?") and ask, "How can we extend those relationships to the students on campus?"

Thoughts?

A year ago I was jazzed about the iPhone, but decided to wait for two things before buying one ... GPS and 3G. Well, as of this past Monday, those desires were answered so, on July 11, you'll be able to find me in line at the Cherry Creek mall waiting to get myself a new phone.

Sure there are some things that the iPhone is still lacking, the primary one being the ability to cut and paste text, but, the beauty of the iPhone is that most of it's functionality is driven by software, not hardware, and the two main hardware upgrades I was wanting are now part of the phone (although an upgraded camera and iSight would have been nice) ... all the other stuff, well, that's just downloading an update.

This whole hardware and software thing got me thinking about the key question I bring up in the "wind" section of the elemental life. The idea behind "wind" is, in light of "earth", "water", and "fire", how do we now live out our faith. My proposal is that, rather than asking, "Where does God want me?" that we ask, "Where does God have me?" Part of the "have me" question, especially as we think about things like gender and family could be phrased as, "What's my hardware?"

You see, hardware is that stuff you have whether you like it or not (and let's be honest, at different times and in different ways, there are plenty of things about the hardware that we don't like). Moreover, I'd say our hardware should be more like an iPhone than a desktop tower in that it's not designed to be "upgradeable" (change the gender, ditch the family, etc).

The challenge then comes in with what we do with the hardware that we have. It's our thoughts, feelings, and other pieces that drive our actions. These things, which are changeable and upgradable (or down-gradable ... is going back to XP from Vista an upgrade or a downgrade?) are the software.

So, legit analogy, or am I completely off my rocker?

Last month when I was talking with my life coach the idea of a balanced life came up. While I blogged on this a while back, I'm thinking now that I've been working with a poor metaphor and talking about balancing things isn't the way to go.

You see, when you live a balanced life, it automatically means that you live a compartmentalized life. For most people, this means that you have work on one side of the scale and family on the other, and you're trying to make sure things equal out. But are things like work, family, community service and the such really supposed to be broken apart? I'd say the answer is no, rather, I'd say that they all blend together.

So, what's the alternative metaphor? I'm thinking, rather than seeing life as a scale to balance, we need to view it as a tapestry to weave. In this tapestry, different things that you're involved in form the different colors. Now, as you move through life, some colors will come and go while other colors will be dominant for a season and then fade during another.

Of course, whenever you're weaving something like a tapestry, you need those main threads that run through the entire piece and hold the whole thing together. It seems to me, that this is where your faith comes into play. While it's not always obvious on the surface, it's the steady foundation that holds all of life together and prevents the tapestry from becoming a frayed mess.

It's sort of funny, people who know me often refer to me as being somewhat geeky ... or at least those who aren't geeks do. But, after today, I'm 100% positive that I'm a geek, I'm just a tech aware hack.

For the past two hours I've been occasionally chiming in on little things that need to be done as mfer of Innovating Tomorrow and bobby c of Mustardseed Media take care of all the theming and architecture issues that need to be addressed so the Writings from the Wilderness site is ready to go when Lent begins on February 6. About 90% of what they say is in computer code and makes no sense to me.

Yep, I'm, at best, a hack. But, praise God that there are others who aren't. Moreover, praise God that both mfer and bobby c realize the gifts that they bring to the table, and can also celebrate the gifts that others bring.

Anybody else out there want to analyze some Greek sentence structure?

Wednesday has quickly become one of my favorite days. You see, Anita works on Wednesday so I have Robbie for the day. As a result, I go into the day realizing I wouldn't get anything done if I tried, so it's very much the only thing I have resembling a day off these days (although I do take other days or portions of days as needed for family time). But even more than just having a day off, I love Wednesday because it's a day Robbie and I get to play. Today our play happened to take us to REI (they have a flagship store just a couple miles from our house so it makes for a great walk).

One of the things Anita and I want to try and do this summer is go on some short backpacking trips. Of course, with Robbie, this makes things a bit more challenging. So I figured REI might just have some solutions. Robbie fell asleep on the way there so I had time to talk about how to backpack with a toddler, check out some of the packs that can carry both him and gear, and just dream of what life would be like if I could get everything I wanted in what I lovingly refer to as my "candy store". Of course, it wasn't too long before Robbie woke up and discovered that REI, while being my "candy store", is his "play ground". First it was hanging out in the tents:

Then it was climbing three flights of stairs:

Then looking down at the stroller below:

And on the way home, it was chasing birds:

What a wonderful Wednesday! The whole daddy vocation rules!