Last week, I was stunned to see a steady stream of comments about something called the “Compton Cookout” in my Facebook feed. Students from a fraternity at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) organized an off-campus party mocking Black History Month. Some lowlights from the invite:
Archives for category: leadership
My friend Dave Ingland, who I met at the first Idea Camp back in February in Irvine, California, just wrote a great piece about The Idea Camp. Since the next Idea Camp is coming up soon — August 28-29, 2009 in Washington, DC — I’d like to share a few of my thoughts as well.
Here’s a quick summary of the ethos behind the Idea Camp (you can read more here):
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.
Part four of my ongoing series of reflections on The Idea Camp (catch up on part one, part two, part three):
I loved seeing a wide range of speakers and facilitators presenting from the main stage. It’s not just diversity for its own sake (which can so quickly devole into tokenism). As David Gibbons shared with us at the Camp, creativity and life come from the margins, from intersections you might not otherwise cross. When we hear the same people making the same rounds from the same book tour on the same circuit…. well, you get the idea. That’s why I appreciated William Paul Young, author of The Shack, urging the National Pastors Convention to highlight women’s voices from the main stage there (this past year, the main stage was not the most diverse bunch).
The diversity at The Idea Camp was more than just cosmetic: we heard from pastors, non-profit innovators, business leaders, men, women, young, old, people from a variety of racial & ethnic backgrounds, the tech-savvy, the well-known and the not-as-well-known. Kudos to Charles Lee for his vision of bringing together a remarkable group of people to lead & share.
For me, as an Asian American, every conference I attend is a cross-cultural experience. Occasionally my wife and I talk about how difficult it is to find our place in life & ministry – not quite here or there most of the time. It was encouraging to be reminded that diversity is an important part of creativity and listening for God’s voice.
Round Two of my post-Idea Camp rodeo (check out part one here)…
As its name implies, The Idea Camp was all about ideas. However, as Charles Lee says, ideas are a dime a dozen; it’s the execution of the idea that matters. (h/t: @daniwao). I deeply appreciated that the message throughout the Camp was not about innovation for innovation’s sake but, rather, to take a hard, realistic look at what it means to generate worthy ideas, the hard work of bringing them to life, and then evaluating & reflecting on those ideas.
The Idea Camp provided ordinary people like myself unique access to innovative people & ideas. It was great to hear some people I had heard of beforehand (including Scott Harrison of charity: water, Eugene Cho, Dave Gibbons, Jeff Shinabarger) as well as many who were previously unknown to me. The weekend was a great glimpse “behind the curtain” of the creative process. For me, it was less about cut & pasting someone else’s model of innovation and more about hearing stories and being encouraged to dream and act.
I loved the Idea Competition hosted at the Camp. To me, WikiChoice (the winner of the competition) embodied the ethos and heart of what The Idea Camp is about. WikiChoice is a great idea, born out of compassion; essentially, it’s a resource to help consumers make just choices in their purchases). It leverages technology to promote justice (consumers will be able to find info on products & companies via the web, mobile phones, etc.). The process of group voting (tech again) and, most importantly, sharing our gifts & talents to bring idea to life captured the spirit of collaborative action.
Even the choice to go green with schedules (the schedule was available via the web, with a few strategically placed paper hard copies at the event) was a great idea put into action.
headsparks* 