Leading Kingdom Movements - Review

Mike Breen strikes gold again.
First, he nails the cultural analysis.  We are in the midst of a cultural earthquake. All of our buildings are shaken and wobbly.  People are wary of institutions because they feel dangerous; the whole thing just might collapse and crush them.  And yet increasingly we know we are broken, and we want healing.
Then, Breen directs our attention to long-term change.

• "Many people doing many small things in many places can change the face of the world."
• "At the center of each movement were leaders who had been completely and utterly broken in such a way that they came to rely completely on the Lord."
• Miracles are the heavy artillery of the Kingdom.  Many of us shy away from the gift because of the packaging.  But what if it wasn't weird?
• "Find the grace.  Organize around where you see the grace operating."  See what God is doing and join him there.
• "Care more about the long-term sustainability and development of your team than the short-term success of your organization."
• The more difficult your assignment, the more you need time playing together.  Times to laugh, enjoy each other, and just be a team apart from any higher purpose you have.
• "If you make disciples, you really do get the rest.  If you make disciples and release them, you will get new people entering the Kingdom.  If you make disciples, you get the missional thing.  If you make disciples, the places where society is torn in two and frayed at the edges start to be mended."
• "Movements are what change the world. ... Most leaders, even young leaders, are trained in how to lead organizations, even institutions - but not movements."
• "The extended family unit (25-70 people who meet together regularly) is the single most significant vehicle of mission that God has ever released into the world.  Ever."
• "If you can do the work of the Kingdom without the Holy Spirit's active involvement (through the miraculous), you aren't really doing the work of the Kingdom."
• "Movemental change will come only if we have something that is sustainable and scalable.  If our methodology requires leaders and events with endless amounts of energy resources and money, we're done.  We just are."
• In discipleship, we are essentially orbiting around a person of larger spiritual mass (as we all orbit around Jesus).  We are putting ourselves within that person's sphere of influence so that some of her Spirit can rub off on us, so that we can gain some of her spiritual mass.
• In discipling relationships, we need predictable rhythms of orbital patterns (spending time close together with certain people in regular intervals - being within the orbit of their influence).  
• Large groups (75+) should function as "red hot centers" - firing us up with the Spirit for when we orbit outward away for our missional time away from the center.

This is my third book by Breen, and I'm convinced that he is a man of deep wisdom.  He has caught on to something in our world and has a profound Spiritual and anthropological insight into how to help the Church become the transforming force of goodness and healing that God always intended.  I want to keep learning.

100 Things I Love About Korea # 41: Constant Progress

Progress is in Korea’s DNA.  In the course of one or two generations, they have emerged from deep poverty, rapacious oppression, crippling civil war, and repeated dictatorships to be a global economic power.  That doesn’t happen without change - and a lot of it.

I’ve seen this on the local scale in Cheonan, mostly in the form of improved logistical infrastructure - better bridges, roads, sidewalks, and whatnot.  But Cheonan has also made a host of improvements for quality of life.  Parks, hiking trails, landscaping, and outdoor art come to mind.

On the hyper-local scale, our little street keeps improving season by season.  They replaced the sidewalk tiles and curbs last year.  This year, they moved all the trees from one side of the street to the other side because there wasn’t enough room to walk between the trees and the wall with an umbrella (which is important in a culture where so many people do so much walking).  In addition, it seems that almost all of the apartments and storefronts in our neighborhood are continually making little improvements like remodeling, adding space here or there, or improving this or that service.

I guess it’s the progressive leader in me, but it just warms my heart to walk around see how things are getting better and better.

100 Things I Love About Korea - #18: Green Growth

Korea was one of the first nations to make environmentally friendly economic development one of its key governmental philosophies.  This is a bit surprising in that (a) Korea has just recently emerged from developing nation status, (b) Korea has a history of being an environmental abuser, and (c) the initiative for the green growth project came from the right-wing conservative president Lee Min-Bak.
At a time, when other countries were cutting back on their environmental regulations to make room for easier economic growth, South Korea bucked the trends and doubled down on environmental sustainability.   80% of Korea's economic development package went toward companies promoting what they have dubbed "green growth."  They are investing heavily in research and infrastructure that will make the whole nation more efficient.
One of the benefits of being a mid-sized nation with a history of autocracy is that nationalized policies are easier to implement.  South Korea's style of environmental regulations and benefits would be nearly impossible to duplicate in the fractured federalism of the USA.  However, every nation should take their cues from Korea's basic philosophy of investing in environmentally friendly business and in the up-and-coming industry of environmentalism (alternative energy, recycling, etc).  It's not only good for the globe.  It's also good business!