UNchristian, Purple Cow & Leadership Advance

Dec 03rd 2009

This last year I have been enjoying Seth Godin’s blog and his book Triibes.  He often brings a new slant to stuff that helps me think outside the box.  A few years ago, he wrote a book called Purple Cow.   In the book he unpacks this idea: If you have seen one brown cow, you’ve seen them all, but a purple cow, now that would catch your attention. One statement in the book gives a good ponder moment: “If you aren’t remarkable you’re invisible.”

Press pause for a moment…sometimes it’s okay to be invisible.  In fact my dark side leads me to a great desire to be known.  I must constantly remind myself that living the dream comes when I live for an audience of one — not myself, Jesus.  Which means that I want to be invisible so that He (Jesus) can be remarkable.

Now make no mistake, people will make remarks about us no matter what.  We just finished the UNchristian series and we talked about the remarks that people make about the church; too political, too hypocritical, hate homosexuals, too judgmental, etc.  So I guess the church is already re-markable.  But I don’t want those re-marks to be indicative of our mark.

On the other hand, when it comes to living the dream God has for us…you are a whole-nother kind of remarkable.  You are a unique creation shaped by the master-artist.  A church is nothing less than a group of remarkably unique God-shaped masterpieces, which reflect the glory of the artist.  When people live as this kind of church, it should become remarkable in the community.

In other words, we want to be a Purple Cow church.  A church that causes people to take notice and remark in a positive way — about Jesus.  One of the purple cow marks of church should be that people say that it is good that we are here.  In other words, we should live in such a way that the Good News is good news for everyone.

How does this happen?  It happens when we discover the dreams and uncover the calling that God has for us.   That’s why I get so excited about the annual experience we call leadership advance.

LEADERSHIP ADVANCE is an opportunity for a group of people — primarily, but by no means limited to those in their late teens through early 30’s — to come together and dig deeper into the discovery of God’s dream for their lives.  It’s taking another step to live the dream, follow our calling.

If you are interested in this experience, go tofor more information.  Or shoot me an e-mail.  But let me encourage you to make a decision to come…and bring a friend.
LA-10 main WEB graphic1