Pope Resigns – Soft or Great Leader ?

It has been interesting reading through the flurry of news reports about the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. One of the things that I find amazing is that sooooo many people are in disbelief about his resignation, some are calling into questions his commitment to the position and so forth because he is the first Pope to resign and not die in the position in 600 years (not counting those that got chucked out). Is he soft and just can’t hack it, or is he actually a great leader?

I am going to cast my bets (can do that because he is roman Catholic not Baptist) on the fact that he is actually quite insightful as a leader. One thing that always amazes me within leadership, whether in the church or secular world is that often when people get the top spot, they just don’t know when to quit and to hand over the reigns for the greater good of the company or organization. It has been very evident in recent years with some CEO’s not letting go and not allowing new people coming through the ranks to take up the highest position and the role of leadership, and this has lead to their downfall.

I think there is something in us where we always want that top spot and don’t want to let go of it, but end up losing it because we strangle it to death, when we could have left and our leadership team could have continued to grow and go forward.

In the end is the Pope soft or a Great Leader? I will go with great leader, he recognizes that his time is done in the role and that he can’t do all that he needs to so that it will move forward, so he is happy to step aside and let someone more capable or energetic to  take the Roman Catholic Church forward. Good job Benedict, you are a great leader.

Drop in with Zack Giffin

Amazing footage and such a great skier

The importance of answering questions people are asking

One of the things that I have noticed with much of what we do within churches is that not only do we struggle to communicate with people but also the fact that often people don’t care about the questions that we are answering. I often struggle with this, because it is often much easier answering questions the just exist within “churchie” circles, but if we want to reach people outside the church we need to not only be communicating in a way that people can relate too and understand, but we also need to start with the questions, doubts and struggles that they have with life, God, faith, Christianity and the church.

In the lead-up to Easter we are trying to something a but different. On Thursday nights we are hosting a series called “Debunking Christianity” and going where many preachers and pastors fear to tread. Especially as we talk on the topic “Aren’t Christian’s just a bunch of narrow-minded, hypocritical homophobes?”

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Beauty in motion

Even though I am currently not allowed to run for another week, over the past 6 months I really appreciated the transition to ultra-marathons and just free running, no time limits, no watches, no limits apart from your own body. It is soo freeing, and whilst i can’t get out as much as i would like and i don’t have any great tracks like this around Brisbane. I live and hope that one day I will have the time and live in an area where i can go for lazy afternoons like this.

New Start – Sometimes you need to wipe the slate clean

Yesterday i took the difficult yet interesting decision to wipe the slate clean and delete all my blog posts and start again. I am in no way ashamed of what i have done in the past, but there are probably some things on the net that I may have posted without proper reflection.

Some people would think this is a bit of a crazy move after well over 6 yrs worth of blogging and well over 3000 posts, but i am actually really lookig forward to the new begining that this opportunity offers me. This situation gives me the opportunity to learn from the past and hopefully write something that is more helpful both for me and for others.

This is the closest i have come to feeling the same way i did to when i finally understood God’s grace, a weight is lifted and freedom is here now.

So here we go starting anew with no idea where this is going to end up, with little idea of what I am going to do with it, but lots of excitement about future possibilities and the realization that there are now no expectations from on this corner of the blogosphere because there is nothing and everything is going to be NEW.

So where will we go? I don’t know, but I am looking forward to discovering it.

looking forward to discovering the future