The State of the Church
May 11, 2009 by chuckquinley
Filed under LeadOthers, Walk
What is the state of the church? I can accurately tell you that it is vibrant and budding with new life—and that it is stuck in tradition and dying moment by moment with no hope of resuscitation. It is generous and sacrificial to the point of actual martyrdom and it is corrupt and full of nepotism and hidden dealings in money. The church is holy and careful about bringing the name of the Lord into any disrepute among the unbelievers and it is also a place of great sexual immorality among its single adults and even its married members.
You see, the church is as healthy as its leaders are. I have been in churches where the leaders committed themselves to a daily ministry of prayer on behalf of their sheep and where pastors and their wives sacrificed gladly to see God’s children cared for. I have also seen churches where the leadership was incredibly self-indulgent, controlling finances with relatives and trusted confidants, seeming to care very little for the church. Whatever the state of the leadership, it filters down to the flock. As the Leader, so the people. Leaders who stand up for Christ in spite of beatings, imprisonment and even death raise up a church of champions where even the children are faithful unto death.
But leadership is not only vested in the clergy. We all have influence. We are all the church and have the ability to speak up against unbiblical patterns of action. Our obedient and sacrificial actions can send waves of change throughout our circle of believers. We can’t control the state of the church in other fellowships and nations, but we can do all we can to become part of a functioning community of disciples that lives according to the teachings and lifestyle of Jesus Christ. I want to make a personal contribution to the health of the church. I know that you do too.
Emerge Offers New Campus: Media Light!
April 20, 2009 by chuckquinley
Filed under Media Light
Emerge Offers New Campus: Media Light! Classes open January 2010. Second batch May 2010. Enroll now: info@emergenetwork.org
Why Focus on Visual Media?
This generation is demonstrating a profound shift from written word to video screen as the primary means of communicating big ideas. Filmmakers in every nation have become the new prophets, directing the focus and values of their cultures. Emerge provides significant training to assist emerging Christian leaders in becoming powerful communicators using visual media.
“If we don’t mobilize believers to use visual media, then we are “dead in the water” with the next generation.”
–Jim Green, President of The Jesus Film Project.
Consider these statistics:
85% of USA college graduates will never read another entire book in their lifetime. Ministry lesson: we can’t use print media very effectively with this generation.
The average teen spends 6.5 hours a day consuming media, but gets 8.5 hours of content because they often use two media sources at a time (watching TV while surfing the net). Their primary media choices are visual in nature.
At Emerge, we are particularly interested in developing outreach leaders and media missionaries for the harvest of Asia. We want to see them having the confidence and ability to get a fiery vision, make a strategic communication plan and then execute it effectively through an indigenous team whose talents they have helped develop.
Download the application…. click here!
Where Does it Hurt?
April 6, 2009 by chuckquinley
Filed under LeadYou
This is a picture of my collarbone which got popped out of socket riding motorcycles a few months ago. (Yes, it hurt.) Pain usually gets us into action mode. When the pain gets loud enough we will do something about a condition that may have existed for quite some time. Pain has a deep and meaningful place in our lives whether it is physical, emotional, relational or psychological. Here’s the thing about it that you need to celebrate: Wherever your pain is…that’s also where your growing edge will be. Some of my biggest revelations and breakthrough concepts and ideas came out of the motivation of pain. Maybe I felt that my kids didn’t really respect me any more or that I was in a losing slump overall or that I had become marginalized in groups I really wanted to be a part of. That rejection and pain either makes you pout and descend into self-pity OR it drives you to fix the problem so you can win again! Don’t run from your pain. Don’t just try to anesthetize it through fun, travel or time wasting pastimes. Embrace that pain. Look it in the eye and find a way to overcome that thing that is hurting you. Dig out that thorn so it won’t ever hurt you again! So, think about your life’s circumstance now…where does it hurt?
Introducing Craig Gray
April 6, 2009 by chuckquinley
Filed under Media Light
We are delighted to welcome to our blog team, Craig Gray, leadership guru (MA in Organizational Leadership) and director of Information Services and Technology at Lee University, one of America’s most dynamic colleges. Craig has an interesting intersection of knowledge and experience in both technology and leadership. We are anticipating some insightful insights and mentoring from his contribution to the blog. He has also offered to help us develop some online courses in leadership so stay tuned for more developments on that. Craig, welcome to the Emerge Network!
Rebuild Your Trampoline When You Move
April 3, 2009 by chuckquinley
Filed under LeadYou
I want to talk a bit about a concept I got from Dr. Donald Joy while working on my doctorate at Asbury. He says that we are all a trampoline and we need lots of relationships as springs to hold us up. When we move to a new place we lose all our springs and if we take our family with us, the family unit feels a real strain because the relationship work of support done formerly by dozens of people is now borne only by the family members who went with you.
In general the first order of business when you move to a new place is to rebuild the trampoline of relationships. You will need four kinds of relationships: (1) Casual relationships (nothing too deep, just people you know and say hi to on a daily basis) (2) Nuclear Family: the closest bonds in your life (3) Extended family (even if they are not blood kin you need old people like grandmas and mothers and also aunts and uncle types). You need a brother or a sister, a really satisfying same-sex friendship (4) Work relationships: people you gear up with to accomplish important things. We have moved four times as a family to an entirely new country/place.
This one insight has helped us get established in each location so we had a healthy relational web to support us in our ministry there. HOpe this is helpful to you.