Tribes Page 6-12

Tribes pages 6-12 are up for your reading pleasure. I will paste the content here and to follow along with the comments go to Tribes.

Seth, Starts off on page six talking about “How it’s easier today, then it’s ever been to connect people or tribes. He used the internet for a example as one of the tools that has helped connect people. He goes on to say that the internet is just a tool used to connect people. But we need more then just tools, we need authentic leadership to egg us on, not people who can do the job, but people who desire to make something happen.

On page seven Seth, talked about a topic We have danced around ‘MOVEMENT’ He said, that expressions of generosity is the fuel for a movement, not a marketing stunt.

On the next page We reed about opportunity. He says that there is tribes waiting for leaders and that everyone is now a leader! And with out leaders, there are no followers. After reeding about leaders it jumps into faith and talks about how We belief in an idea and in a community to build our tribe. As We build this tribe We nail it together with respect, and admiration for everyone, so that, it stays together. Then, He puts a question before us asking us, if We believe in what We do? This is a great question for us, spend some time thinking about it please! He goes on to say, that the leaders making the tribe a profitable, reliable, easier, and fun are! The heretics and the troublemakers! He says, that they bring the keys to success. He ends this topic by telling us that he hopes to make us into heretics….

Thomas Gray

New Post

Wanting to start posting again, I am going to start with the Mission Adventures Tribes blog we are doing. Here is the just of it. We as a Mission Adventures leadership in N. America are going through Seth Godin’s Tribes book. We are taking pages and posting and commenting on it to bring and see strength come to the Mission Adventures network. Feel free to read along and hopefully get inspired by what we are doing to go and start your own tribe or lead the one you are currently in.

Well my friends and anyone following here we go with the Tribes posts. We are going to post Monday- Friday, a different person posting each day. I am excited to do this with you as I believe it will be good for the network and for us personally. So, without further adieu, I am going to get into pages 1-5.

In this section Seth is introducing us to Tribes, what they are and how they can function. Two quotes stood out to me in this section. The 1st was when he said “you cant’ have a tribe without a leader- you can’t have a leader without a tribe.” I believe that we have an amazing tribe with Mission Adventures, it is leadership that we are lacking. There seems to be this mass turnover in leadership, with people getting asked to lead the program after staffing it only once and just getting overwhelmed and just feeling left to it alone, it is not fair to them. We need to look for and give this program to leaders who can carry it. It is only fair to the leader and to the program.

Second quote is when Seth say’s that “all the ways of forming Tribes that are out there are all worthless if we don’t decide to lead.”This is so true with us. Basically going off of the previous paragraph, we have a great tribe and great opportunity, but we need leaders. Leaders who commit and are invested in it. I believe that through this next season we need to pour into the young leaders in this program. Serve them, invest in them, lead them and push them.

To read the comments go to NAMALT.

cunningham august news

Previous Post Poverty Drives People

We have just finished out Aug. family update. If you would like to read it feel free to grab yourself a drink, pull up a comfy chair and read on. Thanks for taking the time.

check it out here

poverty drives people

Previous Post Happy 11th

In 3 weeks I am speaking on a Justice DTS with YWAM in New Zealand. How did I land that gig you ask? Simple, I lied and told them I was Loren Cunningham’s son, haha. Regardless, I have been spending a significant amount of time these last few day’s on prepping for my time there.

These past two days I have been reading a lot on poverty. There are over 2000 mentions of the poor and poverty in the Bible. The ESV bible contains 181 verses with the word poor in it. This is something, obviously that God wants us to pay close attention to.

The Hebrew word for poor means someone who is wrongfully impoverished. Now there are many reasons for people being poor. Some are lazy, others have an incorrect worldview (the cast system in India), others are voluntarily poor and others, the kind of poor I and Jesus are talking about have had their rights, voice and life taken from them by others who are rich.

As the title of this post mentions, poverty drives people to do things that are inhumane and against all human nature. I was on Twitter today and saw this tweet from NEED Magazine that clearly shows this. Moms selling their children, most of the time not knowing what they are selling them into, so that they can have enough to eat, or to care for the rest of their families. I wanted to post it here for you.

Video here.

Happy 11th

Previous Post Jet lag is helping me get things done

Today Amy and I celebrate our 11 years of marriage. This morning I have been looking back 11 years at some of the similarities and differences in me and in us. 11 years ago I woke up in the small town of Birch Hills, SK. and went to the town car wash in Amy’s 1986 Chevy Chevette and washed it spic and span for the day ahead. I was 20 + pounds lighter back then and my head supported hair down to my neck and a nasty (I thought it was cool back then) goatee. The thing about the goatee is that in our wedding pictures the only thing that showed from it was the mustache. Today, 11 years later I woke up and did the same thing in the same town, only this time I am driving a mini van and sport a wannabe beard and a fohawk.

11 years ago today I was still a virgin, had no kids and was moving to LA to go and work with YWAM. Today I happily say that I am not a virgin, have 2 beautiful kids and am moving to San Diego with our family to continue .

our work with YWAM.

11 years ago I believed that to be a Christian meant to read your Bible, pray, go to church and tell others about Jesus. 11 years later I still believe those things, but my eyes have been opened to the truth that to be a Christian also means to do the things that Jesus modeled through His life. Things like doing justice. Taking care of the poor, the sick, the forgotten and the orphan. To give a voice to those who have had their voice taken away from them.

11 years ago I was doing everything I could to impress, love, take care of and put my bride first. Today, I am a selfish ass. Today I will work on being the man I was 11 years ago to my bride Amy. I love and care for you my Amy, I will do my best to make you feel like you felt 11 years ago, the most valuable and most important woman in the world.

Jesus help me.

Jet Lag is helping me get things done

Jet Lag- “a temporary disruption of the body’s normal biological rhythms after high-speed air travel through several time zones.” -from dictionary.com

Sunday night at 11pm our family flew in to Canada after 2 weeks in Chiang Rai, N. Thailand. Our first night home I went to sleep at 1 and woke up at 11, then I napped from 4-7. Last night I went to sleep at 1 and was woken at 4:30 by our beautiful daughter Abby. All Abby wanted to do was watch cartoons and eat yogurt, which made sense as it felt like 4:30 in the afternoon for her with the time change. So, i got up and twittered, blogged and wrote a 6 page, 1500 work paper for a class I am taking, thanks Jet lag.

Our trip to Thailand was great. More and more I believe in doing Mission as a family, not just as dad leaving his family to go and reach, teach and serve others. What I have found out though is that bringing your kids on a trip you are leading is very inconvenient and robs you of your personal schedule. It takes the trip, or a lot of it out of your hands and puts it into the hands of God. You just can’t do everything you plan on doing because sometimes, usually at the most inconvenient times, your child will need you. Then you have to decide weather you should kill your schedule for your kid, or leave your kid crying in a crazy foreign country to be the hero and leader of the team, when really Jesus should be the hero and leader of the team.

I really want to figure this whole missions as a family thing out. I don’t want to rob my family of a great time while out there, but I also don’t want to rob the participants who payed a lot of money to go on this trip of anything. I want them to learn about Jesus, culture, serving others, family, community, parenting, etc. I will continue to bring my family on trips, not all the time, but as least once a year, but I want it to be healthy, both for them and for the participants.

Have you any experiences in this? Have you done a mission trip with your family? How did it compare with doing one without? What are the pros and cons of doing mission as a family and without?

Flickering Pixels Group Blogging Project Chapter 12

Previous Post 10:02

Chapter 12 of our Flickering Pixels group blogging project is now up and running. You can check it out here. Great chapter this week on conflict and loving others. Check it.

10:02

Previous post Cleaning, packing, moving and the like

I just posted this on the Thailand blog that I have running for the trip we have over there next week. I thought I would post it here too for you as It is something that I believe in deeply and am blown away that I get to do this. The below entry can also be seen here.

Every day at 10:02 I say a prayer of thanks and ask Jesus to send more missionaries out. The reason that I do this at 10:02 is because of Luke 10:2 where Jesus says “The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. Pray then to the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers into the harvest field.” Translation is that there are a ton of people out there going to hell because they don’t know Jesus. Whose fault and responsibility is this? Well I believe it is ours, the Christians, those who follow Jesus.

James 4:17 say’s “He who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it sins.” What more good is there to do than to go and tell others the the Kingdom of God is here. I don’t mean just with words, but with actions. The good news that Jesus cares for the poor, the lonely, the voiceless, the hungry, the widow and the forgotten. The good news along with a hug, a sandwich, an activist, a voice.

In the next few days there are 45 of us heading over to N. Thailand to do just this. We are going to share the good news of Christ with those who do not know. Now there are many of them who do know, but there are also many who do not. We are going to do this through building projects, kids programs, playing with orphans, and just being there.

The other thing that I pray  at 10:02 is a prayer of thanks. I want to always give thanks to Jesus, He is worth of it. It is so much in my nature to complain or ask for things, but rarely do I take time to give thanks, unless something super crazy comes up. I want and do thank God that He is and will continue to send out more missionaries. As you prepare to get on the plane, thank Jesus that you can do this and ask Him to use you to bring others to him.

Cleaning, packing, moving and the like

These last few day’s have been chaotic to say the least, not that chaos is a bad thing. We have been moving out of our house as it has been rented out. Not only are we moving out, we are moving in to my in-laws house. In law sounds like such a negative thing, maybe I should refer to them as Amy’s parents, or my little girls grandparents. They are cool and it will be good to hang with them for a bit. In addition, we are packing for Thailand, we leave on Friday.

All this has brought some stress into my life. Today, Canada day I just want to relax and do nothing but read, post, eat and chill, but it seems as thought that is not happening either as there are Canada day things to do and repacking and organizing that needs to be done.

If I look on the bright side of things, which I usually do, I see it as a new step in our lives. We came here for a year and that year is done. When I look back on my year I have only good thoughts and memories of our time in small town Canada. We connected with Amy’s family, the girls know what a combine is and I have a new respect for -40 weather.

I am also excited about the Thailand trip. I get to work with good friends, travel to SE Asia, eat yummy Thai food and maybe kill another dog for food. I also get to do this with my family. Amy, Emma and Abby are all coming this year. I want to do missions as a family, it is more and more becoming one of my values. The one thing I don’t like about it is the fear of losing a kid or them getting mas sick from eating leafy food, happened to me once.

Lots of great things to look forward to. Now, I am gonna get back to eating and resting. Happy Canada day all.

Flickering Pixels Chapter 10 and 11

Previous Post Flickering Pixels Chapter 9

Just a bit late on getting er up, but here is the last two chapters and posts on the book Flickering Pixels. Chapter 10 is covered by Graham Brenna and Chapter 11 is covered by Adam Shields as part of our Group Blogging Project discussing the book Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps. If you need a quick overview to what Flickering Pixels is about, please go here.

Man that’s Allot of Links. Enjoy