In The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church, Dave Gibbons gives eloquent voice to many things that have felt just out of my grasp. Dave defines third culture as “the mindset and the will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort.”
Normally I would wait until finishing a book before posting a review, but I wanted to post some of my impressions right away because of the way this book is already speaking to me.
… as face to face interaction.
That’s not to say I’m jumping on any anti-Twitter bandwagons. No, I’m not a big fan of using Twitter (or any other social networking media, for that matter) to randomly shout every bit of personal minutiae into the darkness (although, I must say, sometimes it is nice to catch up on the mundane parts of far-away friends’ lives). I think platforms like Twitter can be very useful for collaboration, and even building friendships. Eugene Cho hosted a thoughtful dialogue about Twitter, faith and church life a little while back.
As much as I believe Twitter can be a good thing (although it’s killing my ability to write longer thoughts!), I don’t think it can ever replace face to face interaction.
Last Saturday, our family went to the San Diego Childrens Book Festival (which was lots of fun, by the way!). Our daughter was really excited to meet the illustrator from the Fancy Nancy series, Robin Preiss Glasser, who was signing autographs at the Book Festival. Our daughter is a little shy, so she practiced what she would say to Robin while waiting in line. However, even after practicing, she was still too shy to say much to Robin when she was finally able to meet her in person.
This is where face to face interaction is irreplaceable: Robin was signing our daughter’s book and seemed to perceive that there was more she wanted to say. So Robin had our daughter come around to the other side of the author’s table, asked a lot of great questions and took time to listen to her. At the end, Robin gave her a big hug and took a great photograph with her. My wife and I were so grateful for Robin’s perceptive, thoughtful interaction with our daughter.
This kind of empathy and perception is really difficult to emulate in a purely online conversation. How many of us have misread the intent behind comments in the blogosphere because we couldn’t read non-verbal cues on our screen?
Win a free copy of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith by Robert Gelinas.
I highly recommend this book (you can read my review of Finding the Groove here). Even if you are not a fan of jazz, Groove’s stories, quotes, and insights about life and the Kingdom of God are engaging and helpful. Groove encourages all of us to compose a more creative, jazz-shaped faith.
As Scot McKnight said in his recent review:
There are very few books like this one — in fact, there is none. I really liked this book, and I will return to it over and over as the image shapes my own thinking.
Let’s have this contest run through this Friday, May 8th at 3:00 PST. [Our winners of the free copies of Finding the Groove are Daniel Li and Dave Ingland. Congrats!] Leave a comment here or send me a message on Twitter (twitter.com/headsparks) describing why music is meaningful to you — could be a favorite song and why you love it, a formative experience, etc. — and how it connects you to the life and Kingdom of God. I’d love to hear your stories and the soundtrack of your life — I’ll choose a winner from one of the responses!
In The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time, Tom Sine paints a picture of the Kingdom of God that is simultaneously very big and very small, in order to help us reimagine our life, faith, church and mission. Sine ties together big ideas such as economics, globalization, politics, wealth, poverty, eschatology, and missiology with real stories of mustard seed conspirators around the world.
Conspirators moves through five conversations as Sine describes “God’s quiet conspiracy and how we can be much more a part of it.” These conversations introduce us to:
Robert Gelinas, lead pastor and resident jazz theologian of Colorado Community Church, uses wonderful & evocative imagery from the world of jazz (think John Coltrane and Miles Davis, not Kenny G) in Finding the Groove to help us dream of the Kingdom of God in fresh ways. Even for non-jazz fans, Groove’s stories & quotes (e.g., Coltrane’s search for the sound of God) are engaging and helpful in composing a vibrant, jazz-shaped faith.
In Groove, Robert builds on the jazz keynotes of syncopation, improvisation, and call & response to inform and give life to our theology, ecclesiology, hermeneutics, mission, and praxis — no small task! In many ways, Groove is a book for the church — Robert’s thoughts about ensemble community in chapter five are prophetic and powerful — but it is more than a “how-to” workbook. Groove‘s helped me reconsider the role of tension and suffering in life and community; instead of trying to minimize those things, learning to see them, instead, as means to creativity and engaging life as it really is.
One particular passage stands out for its resonance in pastoral leadership (p.155):
In a jazz ensemble, the drummer is the timekeeper. He sits obscurely in the back, ever keeping the beat, driving the tempo, and signaling time changes. His job is to keep time in a way that sets the others free. He listens and responds to the moments and in the process keeps time for all. He has the worst seat in the house. Think about it; as he sits in the back all he sees are the backsides of his fellow musicians. It’s not a great place to see, but it’s a great place to serve…
The essence of jazz is listening.
Even if you’ve never listened to Kind of Blue or have no idea who Billie Holiday is, I definitely recommend Finding the Groove. Sometimes, it is precisely the act of crossing into unfamiliar territory that stirs creativity and imagination.
headsparks* 