“If a politician doesn’t wanna get beat up, he shouldn’t run for office. If a football player doesn’t want to get tackled or want the risk of an a occasional clip he shouldn’t put the pads on.”

Clinton then alluded to the resignations and calls for resignations that have been traded back and forth between the campaigns.

“I don’t think any of these people oughta be asked to resign,” he said. “All these guys that say bad things about any other campaign, they say, ‘Should they resign?’ My answer is no; they’re repeating party line. They oughta stay right where they are. Let’s just saddle up and have an argument. What’s the matter with that? That’s what America’s about, right?”


-Bill Clinton, quoted in a New York Times blog


A leader is never afraid of taking a hit, or entering a controversial issue. Instead a leader leads with her or his chin... leaders are never afraid to express what they feel or think just because of how someone might respond. to have this issue will spill over into how and what one preachers, and how one handles conflict, and invites dialogue from non believers. A true leader isnt held captive to his or her gift of mercy, no matter how big their heart might be. Every study I know of (and dont ask me to site one) has shown that the higher a persons mercy gift the less likely they are to be able to effectively lead and grow a church.

-Bill Easum, in a Leadership Forum email

Wise counsel from two divergent Bills. We are so afraid to tangle a bit. But it's in the tangling that the truth, reality can get sifted out. I think it's important to throw into the mix a little bit of Steven Covey's fifth habit of highly effective people, "seek first to understand, then be understood." He writes in 7 Habits:

Our perceptions may be vastly different. And yet we both have lived with our paradigms for years, thinking they are "facts," and questioning the character or the mental competence of anyone who can't "see the facts."

Now, with all our differences, we're trying to work together--in a marriage, in a job, in a community service project--to manage resources and accomplish results. So how do we do it? How do we transcend the limits of our individual perceptions so that we can deeply communicate, so that we can cooperatively deal with the issues and come up with Win/Win solutions? (254)

He answers that by saying to seek first to understand, then be understood, to use ethos (personal credibility), pathos (empathy, understanding the emotion of the other person), THEN logos (the actual logic, or reasoning you are trying to convey).

When you can present your own ideas clearly, specifically, visually, and most important, contextually--in the context of a deep understanding of their paradigms and concerns--you significantly increase the credibility of your ideas. (257)

Think of the possibilities if one were able to genuinely facilitate the exchange of ideas to such an extent that participants could transcend their own perception. Man, that's leadership.

And I still agree with the Bills. You have got to lead with the chin.

After reading a bunch or articles about it, I finally buckled down and read the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. It is good stuff, sobering stuff.

In very broad strokes, the most rapidly declining religious segment in the United States is mainline Christianity. The most rapidly increasing segment seems to be "unaffiliated," those that don't claim any religious affiliation. The interesting thing about it is that many of the unaffiliated, about a third of them, 5.8 percent of all adults are "religious unaffiliated," meaning that religion is somewhat or very important to them.

So what are we doing? People are leaving the mainline church. People are leaving the Christian church in general, but the mainline church in particular. And here's the thing--it doesn't seem to be because of a lack of spiritual interest!

Here is a quote from an article run by The Palm Beach Post, regarding the study:

Layla Jean Samiljan of Lake Park, who also is spiritual and grew up Presbyterian, said people are leaving churches because God no longer dwells in the house of the lord.
"They've taken the spirit out of it and you're left with the empty form of the ritual and the rules, and people have lost their real connection to spirit, to God, and then they wonder why they're not feeling anything, why they're not getting better and why they're not getting answers."
That is the perception that is out there. Granted, sometimes (often times, unfortunately) it is accurate and sometimes it isn't. But regardless, that is the perception. An answer, I believe, is to make our church a place where people can come to explore their spirituality, to find a spiritual path.

This Sunday was everything church could be. The sermon seemed to connect with several folks in a practical way. And then in the afternoon, we had a member who gave a seminar on investing. The whole day was really practical. The whole day hit people where they live.

"Churchy churches tend to be focused on phileos and agape (translated as fellowship and philanthropy), but do not connect with the "eros" (passion, desire, yearning) that lies at the gut of contemporary spiritual seeking."

- Tom Bandy

Every once in a while you run across someone that says something that expresses what you think and feel more precisely and more simply than you ever could. Bandy did that for me with this snippet.

A friend responded that true agape is probably more than just philanthropy. I have to agree. Nevertheless, we leave the eros out in the modern day church.