Mike Cope, one of three senior editors emeritus at New Wineskins Magazine presents anecdotal evidence for the deep faith of Hillary Clinton. And while he’s at it, Mike gives sage advice for those who would get rowdy, loud, and excited during politico season. As Mike says,

“when vigorous political discourse turns into bashing of public figures, it perpetuates a great lie: that they are merely the ideologies and symbols attached to them. When a candidate’s ideology is mistaken for his or her personhood, it masks a crucial truth: that each person, no matter their political views, bears God’s image and matters deeply to him.”

Thanks for the be-good reminder Mike! You can read the complete post [here]

By chance or providence I happened to be on vacation when my wife and I visited the Pine Valley Church of Christ in Wilmington, NC. It just so happened that on that same day Mike Cope preached his inaugural sermon at his new church home. Mike couldn’t have been older than 25 years. He had a beautiful young family to support him in this newly accepted position at the Pine Valley Church. I’m sure there were the good times as well as the bad. Mike if you happen to stumble on this correct me where I’m wrong.

Files under Hillary Clinton, How to Live, Mike Cope, Political Correctness, Presidential Canidates, blogging, conventional church, creative, democrate, influence, politics, republican | |

In his new book, Who’s Your City? Richard Florida examines how “mega-regions” are driving the global economy and how each one is informed by its own distinct personality. Where we choose to live, argues Florida, is crucial not only to how we live and who we share our lives with, but also to what kind of career we end up having.

 The maps above (called geographical clustering) are dictated by five basic personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. What I find interesting is his conclusions. Florida asks an intriguing question.

“What if skill is more than education and more than work? The type of skill economists are interested in, he writes, “implies something that can be acquired with proper training, talent, motivation, and resources.” But, he adds, “It’s more consistent with personality theory to argue that personality traits predispose people to acquire certain skills.

 Agreeableness is associated with jobs in management and health care. And, while it is positively associated with innovation, high-tech industry, wages, and income in our more advanced models, the effects are quite small. This could mean that the ability to work well with others contributes, albeit slightly, to innovation.

Neuroticism is negatively associated with top talent in the form of human capital or the super-creative class. In more advanced models, it also turns out to be negatively associated with the creative class, high-tech industry, and wages. In other words, regions with high concentrations of highly educated and ultra-creative individuals tend to be more emotionally stable, less volatile, and more resilient. This suggests, among other things, that these are places where people may be more likely to take risks because they’re less concerned about failure.

Extroversion is significantly correlated with management and sales jobs, but it too has no effect on human capital overall, high-tech jobs, or regional income.

Richard Florida and the Creative Class Exchange

Files under Culture, Richard Florida, creative, creative class, creativite, global | |

Innovators are gifted with an irresistible impulse that burns deep within. They are the fountainheads of originality. Challenging the status quo with a creative idea has the potential of carrying them across the endorphin threshold. It’s about the danger of crashing. It is immeasurable, magical, and unpredictable.

Uncertain of the outcome and fearful of a congregation’s reception, immeasurable (creative) ideas are rarely implemented.  Most often they are capped in favor of measureable results. There is little room for the imaginative in a layered institution. If the creative doesn’t know, he or she soon learns not to force the issue.

They operate independent of the crowd. They set aside any herd longing of sameness relying instead on their God-given faith and creative talents.  They side-step the disparaging remarks, ridicule, and disapproval—knowing they “must” if they are going to gain the briefest hearing.

I thank God for these persevering pioneers. We need the creativity of the maven.

Having trouble with the idea of your own genius? My guess is that there was a time—perhaps when you were very young—when you had at least a fleeting notion of your own genius and were just waiting for some authority figure to come along and validate it for you.

But none came.

Of course not. It’s not the business of authoritative figures to validate thinkers; creatives threaten conventional wisdom.

But there is hope. Choose to become your own authority figure. If you do you’ll soon find yourself in position to redeem the creative genius in you that was put to sleep when the Fool was being tamed.

Reviving the creative genius in you is the beginning of Orbit.

Files under Church, conventional church, creative, fear, influence, leadership, orbit, orbiting the church | |

Have you ever wondered what those little squiggly lines are that float across your line of sight? I call them eye floaters. Some view them as tiny flecks or “wormy” substances floating about their field of vision. If you try to stare at them for a better look, they float off to the side. Look the other way and they reappear.

Creativity is like that. It will not be looked at. As soon as you become conscious of it—it vanishes. Forget about it…stop focusing on it…and it returns. Simply put—you cannot measure the creative process.

In the eye of most church leaders, anything that cannot be measured is of doubtful value. For some, the immeasurable likens doubtful existence.

No surprise that conventional church leaders are loath to commit resources or moral support to the amorphous concept of creativity. It’s all about the bottom line. Yet I find it both curious and peculiar that church leaders lust for the fruits of creativity, but mistrust the act of creativity.

Renegades who orbit the conventional church, removed from the compulsive preoccupation with results and bottom lines, are the ones free to reap the unpredictable amplitude of the creative process.

Files under Church, conventional church, creative, creativite, orbiting the church | 2 Comments | 2 Comments »

A friend at Starbucks on Saturday. Four or five couples at Bob Evans on Sunday. This is as close as it gets to “church.” The idea is most representative of what the early Christians did two millennium ago. They spent time together, ate together and shared together, Hence they knew each other well.

This is what our little group of Jesus followers prefers; meaningful relationships outside the rigid structures of America’s skewed understanding of church. Before I go on, I need to tell you that we all still attend the Sunday assemble. We just no longer do “church work” as defined by the institution. We’re not willing to fall into the trappings of traditional church. And how do we keep from being sucked back in? As Gordon MacKenzie, says, “You go into orbit.”

Have you got a minute? Good. Because I want introduce you to the concept of orbiting. Orbiting is responsible creativity that energetically explores and operates beyond the gravity of church models, patterns, accepted norms, and contemporary standards while remaining connected to the spirit of what western culture has come to define as church.

To enter orbit around the “contemporary-traditional-church” is to find a place of balance where you benefit from the resources of the organization without becoming entombed in the institution. How do you enter orbit? By seizing the best course of action for turning one’s vision into a reality while avoiding the pallid path of “church appropriateness.” You’re ready for all this, right? Good. I’ll go then.

To be of optimum value to the “appropriate church” endeavor, you have to invest enough individuality to counteract the drag of the “appropriate church,” but not so much that you escape the pull altogether. I want to hover just beyond the gravitational pull of the “appropriate church’s” programs, ministries and premeditated Sunday morning worship. Through the measured assertion of my own uniqueness I’m reestablishing a dynamic relationship with the appropriate church. I find its gravitational drag an asset that keeps me from floating out into the overwhelming nothingness of what is embryonic, emerging and still evolving. Yet I must be carefully not to allow that same gravity to suck me into the church trichobezoar, or I’ll find myself in a different kind of nothingness. The nothingness of normalcy made stagnant by the contemporary consumer’s “appropriate church.” Orbiting the appropriate and normal is the only place where you can tap your one-of-a-kind magic, your limitless creativity.

Files under Church, appropriate church, conventional church, conversation, creative, institutions, orbit, orbiting the church | 10 Comments | 10 Comments »

Eugene Cho’s post, “…why i blog” has stimulated much reflection and thought. Why do I blog? Good question. I’m not always sure. On thing is certain—my answer is not composed in the static. It’s a dynamic that is constantly changing. Maybe that’s why I have stopped and started blogging three different times in the last seven years.

Here’s my answer for “why I blog“— today.

I’m a writer. And writers are unique among creative types because writers alone believe that the world really needs to hear what they have to say. Painters, sculptors, poets and other artists don’t suffer this illusion.

Another reason I blog is my desire to participate in creating a world in which nobody owns, everybody can use, and anybody can improve. That’s the long-term goal of everything I write. I want to make the world a better place.

Now, ask me again in a year and I can almost assure you that my reasons will change. Possibly the change will be so demanding that my conscious won’t allow me to post on a blog.

Files under blogging, creative, writer, writing | |