27 October 2008

Skateboarding in Scotland: An Enoch Magazine Webisode

This is just a little video some friends of mine made when they came over to Scotland to document a skateboarding ministry here. This was made almost a year-and-a-half ago, but they just sent me the link... I think this is one of several videos made of the trip, and the first one that I'm in.

19 October 2008

Some 'splaining

A little over a week ago I posted an entry entitled "failure."  I've been contacted privately by several readers asking me to explain (or elaborate on) the demise of nieuCommunities in Glasgow.
First off, I must say that I'm not going to write and open-letter addressing this subject.  I am willing to speak personally/one-on-one about it, but I'm not going to publicly address it.  I feel I should also point out that the purpose of the post was not to emphasize that nieuCommunities failed.  I was simply using a conversation that I'd had earlier in the week as a launching pad into the processing I'd begun on the issue of failure in general.
I simply found it intriguing that I had already begun the internal process of evaluating personal and group failures during my time in Glasgow, when the conversation with my friend spontaneously occurred one evening while we were out.

As I mentioned in the post, I can only speak for Jasheen and myself regarding these matters, but to understand what 'failure' meant in this context, one would have to understand and consider the vision, values and purpose of nieuCommunities as a whole.  nieuCommunities endeavored to be a missional community, thus, failure was a collaborative effort.  The operative words there are 'missional' and 'community.'  While 'missional' is not a recognized word in English dictionaries, its generally understood to mean, "relating to or connected to a religious mission."
'Community,' on the other hand is easy to define, and it's key characteristics are commonality, social group, shared location, etc.

The 'failure' I alluded to in the original post had to do with our failure as a community, and the subsequent withdrawal of nieuCommunities from Glasgow.  Despite the end result, Jasheen and I have experienced and enjoyed a flourishing five years of ministry here.  Our place and calling in Glasgow has never been in question, and as the smoke has settled, we remain right where we belong.  We may never fully understand God's hand in what happened during our time with nieuCommunities,  but for now, we can humbly accept that He used it as a vehicle to get us here, and perhaps it will serve further as the vehicle that leads us into further works in Europe and/or beyond.

I'm not sure that this serves as a satisfactory 'elaboration,' but I feel it's the best I can do as a public address.

16 October 2008

New York State of Mind


Here's a little trip that sort of snuck up on me, but Jasheen will be leaving me and the girls this Friday and flying to New York City.  This is all part of the process we're going through to finalize her permanent residence in the U.S. since she married an American.  Although we live in Scotland, this is necessary for future trips to the U.S., and of course, in the event that we relocate there.
   
This trip almost seems like a game show prize.  Airline miles were given to her for the flight; a hotel is being covered by a friend that I went to Westmont with who is a flight attendant, who is also meeting her there and spending a girly weekend in The Big Apple with her... and taking her for a spa day!
The whole purpose of the trip is so that Jasheen can get a stamp in her passport that proves she was in the continental U.S. before 1 November... everything else is just bonus.

This trip to New York caps a month that has brought with it several 'firsts.'  We just made our first move as a family unit into a new flat; we watched our 3-year-old go to her first day of nursery school on 1 October; I built our first outdoor play apparatus - a wooden playhouse - and Jasheen is going on her first trip away from our girls for the first time since either of them was born (Bali doesn't count b/c we did that together).  Incidentally, Jasheen's trip brings with it my first stay-at-home experience with the girls, too.

If  you are of the praying persuasion, toss one up for all of us this weekend.  Jasheen leaves on Friday and returns Tuesday.  I'll have the girls for five days without the help and security of mommy.  Something tells me that Jasheen is in for a more relaxing weekend than I am.

11 October 2008

"failure"

When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long
and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones
that open for us. - Alexander Graham Bell



"NieuCommunities was a complete and utter failure," insists the bloke sitting across from me in The Chip, a local pub on Ashton Lane in Glasgow's west end. More than a year and a half removed from nieuCommunities and I still find myself haunted by conversations like this.
The 'bloke' I'm with is a good friend whom I join down the pub once a week with a few others for some good chat (usually), and to be fair, he's earned the right to have an opinion. I've known him since the first month I moved here, and though he's "not particularly religious," he became quite familiar with nieuCommunities from very early on.
"I could have told you it was going to fail within six months of your arrival," he adds. Oh, I think to myself, it took me a little longer.
"It's not that it wasn't a good plan," he continues, "it's just that the wrong people came."

Hindsight is 20/20.

Thank goodness he regulalrly inserts the phrase, "except for you and Jasheen," otherwise I'd probably be feeling pretty worthless about now. He continued to share with me his thoughts on how and why the organization I originally came to Glasgow with has since pulled up stakes and closed shop - or in his words, "failed." His thoughts are not personal; they're not emotionally charged. In fact, he has little to no personal agenda at all. He's just astute, and afterall, we did come to his town.

The west end is a relatively small place for being home to a couple of hundred thousand people. I would have expected by now that these conversations would have run their course, and Jasheen and I would just be... Jasheen and I, working with Mosaic, teaching piano, etc. But no. In many ways we are still called upon to account for and explain the whos, whats and whys of nieuCommunities.

In any case, the idea of examining 'failure' began while I was in Geneva a few weeks ago at a Coaching Leaders workshop provided by CAI and led by longtime friend, Keith Webb (Creative Results Management). I began thinking of 'failure' beyond the arena of life-coaching. This wasn't an exercise in self-deprecation, but of self-examination; of reflection.

Last week I dropped Gabrielle off at her nursery and adjourned to a little coffee shop down the street to wait. As I sat in Chapter One, I began reflecting on my own personal failures over the past five years in Glasgow - my failures as a husband, as a father, as a leader, and as a follower. My thoughts then turned to the failures of my team... probably because of the previous night's conversation with my friend.

At the coaches training workshop, Keith Webb stated, "Failure is an emotionally-charged word. Discouragement is its constant companion. 'Failure' also has a note of finality or completeness. Black or white. Bad or good. Fail or succeed."

As I continued to reflect on these things, I considered the end result of nieuCommunities in Glasgow. To put it in a black and white context, we appear to have failed, at least to local onlookers. However, while the overall result may not have been what was hoped for, many of the individual actions may have actually moved us closer to our ultimate calling and goal. I can't speak for the leaders or other members of the original team, but I can speak for Jasheen and me. On the way to 'failure,' there were individual successes over the course of our time with nieuCommunities. I mean, we must have done something right, right?
We still have great, ongoing relationships with a large number of the apprentices that passed through Glasgow. In fact, we still see many of them when we're in their neck of the woods or they return to Glasgow. And one mark of success may be the support we recieve from them. Of the three groups of apprentices that we've led, nine of them have supported or are currently supporting us, in addition to some of their parents. We have also continued coaching several of them after their departure. And many of the relationships that were developed while we were a part of nieuCommunities are still thriving.

So yeah, 'failure' happened, but I think it's important to look at every individual step taken, and the success that came as a result of those steps before writing off the entire endeavor as a complete failure.
Although I anticipate more provocative conversations about nieuCommunities, the leadership, and the impact (or lack thereof) it had on the west end of Glasgow, I think I'll be better equipped to shoulder and process my role and responsibility in the whole ordeal by recognizing that not all measures of success or failure can be ascertained by the ultimate outcome of a project.