Tuesday, September 17th, 2013; John Cicilioni

Tonight we interviewed John Cicilioni, who is the Assistant Pastor at Peckville Assemblies of God.

Assistant Pastor, entrepreneur, and a large interest in missions are just a few of the things John juggles. One thing that stuck out to me about John, who at first glance I might've assumed was just your 'average joe,' is that he is determined. When he decided he wanted to work only a few hours a week at his business in order to remain employed and working as an Assistant Pastor, he got to work and did just that. After considering his body the temple of God and really meditating on that, he decided he wanted to lose weight - since attending Valley Forge only a number of years ago, he has lost 70 pounds!

This is something I'd like to consider quick as the main body of this reflection: body issues in ministry. Until I started volunteering and working as an intern at Journey Church, I never much considered someone's care of their body as it pertains to their ministry philosophy. However, if we do consider our bodies to be the Temple of God, and we know what it takes to stay healthy, then we do what it takes to get healthy. John mentioned right off the bat that one of the ways in which he lost weight was 'eating things he didn't like.' It's important, in light of the busy schedules of pastors, that we really consider how we view our bodies. It's not easy. Losing weight, exercising, and the like takes time and effort. In fact, there's a good possibility that, in order to fit these things in our lives, we will need to give up other things that we might enjoy (TV, golf, etc.).

God, continue to instill in me the value of bodily care and maintenance.

After all, as John said, you literally can't minister to people if you can't handle the sometimes physically rigorous schedule associated with traveling and speaking.

Book Review: ‘Collaboration’ by Morten T. Hansen

Book Review: ‘Collaboration’ by Morten T. Hansen

This work is quite the all-inclusive book when it comes to collaboration. The author, Morten T. Hansen, has plenty of credibility in the subject - it was the thesis of his PhD program at Stanford University during which he studied HP [Hewlett-Packard] across 140 projects and 40 business units, he worked for a few years with the Boston Consulting Group studying multinational corporations and the senior executives in charge of those corporations, and has continued to compile research in this area. All of this to say that if anyone knows a thing or two about collaboration, Hansen is that guy, and he touches, very methodically, all the areas contained in such a topic.

In terms of main points, he communicates succinctly, and then continues on to prove his theories with real-life stories ranging from the governments involvement in determining and tracking down the groups behind the 9/11 attacks, President Kennedy's plan to land a man on the moon, and the launch of the iPod to smash Sony's counter item. His main points go on to include the following: knowing when to collaborate is just as important as good collaboration, bad collaboration is worse than no collaboration, there are four main boundaries to collaboration, and there are three ways in which managers can circumvent these boundaries in order to improve results.

The four main barriers to collaboration were as follows: the ‘not-invented-here’ barrier, the hoarding barrier, the search barrier, and the transfer barrier. It would be wise to briefly describe these. The ‘not-invented-here’ barrier refers to the tendency of some people to not seek help/input from those outside of their department (or, in other words, pride). The hoarding barrier is just the opposite – people are sometimes unwilling to supply information to others when asked. Sometimes this is due to the feeling that with information comes power, and they feel that if they shared that information, they might become dispensable to the corporation (when just the opposite should be true). When one person in an organization simply cannot determine/find who they need to contact for certain information, they run up against what Hansen calls the search barrier. The finally, when information is so complex it becomes difficult to communicate, people hit the transfer barrier. The first two of these are motivational problems – people are unwilling to collaborate. The last two are inability problems – people simply cannot communicate to collaborate.

In an attempt to solve the first two problems, the motivational problems, Hansen proposes that managers unify people through common vision, common enemies, and common goals to foster an environment of trust and job security. At the same time, people who are unwilling to collaborate are faced with potential job loss, and promotions are given to those who not only ‘play well with others’ but also get their individual work done [no “chatty-Kathy’s” allowed]. In light of the last two problems, the author suggests that networking be improved – sometimes simple upgrades in software systems can help. Other times, people need to be appointed to positions where their job becomes ‘networker’ or ‘connector.’ These types of people often have an unspoken talent to know where and how to get information, and how to transfer and convey that to others without allowing people to slip through the cracks. These people should be promoted in terms of pay, but not position – they will do well in this position, but not necessarily in manager positions.

With all this in mind, Hansen presents a relatively simple case for collaboration, presenting its successes, its pitfalls, and its methodology. Audiences interested in learning about better teamwork, and ultimately, better results in an organization would learn from this book. However, for those with little time in their schedules for reading 200+ page books, this review would suffice, along with some question and answer time with someone who adequately understood the book. At times it felt slightly repetitive (probably due to the fact that he used the word ‘collaboration’ about 500 times, avoiding all synonyms or other ways of expressing the idea), but all in all, it seemed to mostly present new information with each section, causing the reader to feel their time was well spent. It’s a good read if you’ve got the time, but contains a great conceptual synopsis if you can find someone who’s already read it and can communicate well (or if this review was enough to get the main ideas).

[Amazon review link located here --> http://www.amazon.com/review/RNL5WQZC7D2W9]

Tuesday, September 10th, 2013; Tim Satryan

Tonight, we interviewed Pastor Tim Satryan, who pastors Wilmington First Assembly in Delaware. We began our discussion around the topic of his involvement in helping to interview those people who are interested in becoming Assemblies of God pastors. This is the topic I'd like to reflect upon in this blog post.

What's great about this blog post is that I'm writing to say how impressed I am with the process of interviewing potential AG credentialed pastors. The process is not considered to be 'screening' as it was once called, but rather, helping to 'affirm the call of God on people's lives.' That feels very healthy to me, and after we talked some more, I felt really at peace about the process.

One of his main points was that, during the interview, he asks candidates a question concerning their call from God. What he's looking to hear is that the person knows that they know that they know that God called them. This is for one simple reason: when ministry gets tough, and you get kicked around and hit in the mouth a few times, there will come a time when the only thing that you can fall back on is God's call. Asking this question to candidates is not about keeping people out: it's about saving people from entering a position that they will become burnt out in and ultimately is about caring for people.

It feels very healthy - I'm so happy to say that the system that I'm interested in becoming credentialed is a healthy system that is interested in people's lives, their well-being, and their being strong pastors who are ready to kick the doors of Hell in.

I really admire Tim's heart behind his questions and his willingness to review test answers with an applicant immediately after they finish taking the written exam [incredibly helpful].

I'm sure that his job/position on the presbytery gets tiring, and I pray that God blesses him for his diligence in empowering/coaching young people looking to be pastors.

I really enjoyed this interview with Pastor Satryan.

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013; Shawn Bentley

Being someone who's naturally prone to over-working, this interview was especially important for me.

After graduating Zion Bible College in '90, and getting married in the same year, Pastor Shawn Bentley jumped around a number of places in ministry (from working alongside a DYD to being a youth pastor in Rhode Island). He landed in New York, against his better judgment, to accept a position that was able to pay for all his needs. He was working as a substitute teacher in his community as well as being a pastor, and renovating the parsonage that they gave to him; he ended up putting in about 65-70 hours before even getting to renovating the house. He and his wife began to drift apart.

'I'm going to live with my parents."

These words shook him, and Pastor Shawn took a look at his priorities, resigned, and moved two weeks later to Lancaster, PA.

All this to say that the lesson that he was taught is one we can all take to heart - when we get into a place of ministry where God has not led us, and we go anyways, we can get lost in the busywork.

Regardless of how we end up being so busy that we ignore our other priories, we are in a dangerous place.

[Often God's solution is to, as C.S. Lewis puts it, 'shout in our pain']

God then helped Shawn to 'detox' from ministry. How gracious our God is? In spite of not following God's directions, He still provides a time of rest and healing. Despite not having a degree, he got a job as a carpenter, and even found one within walking distance of his house.

God, I pray that you guide me in hearing your voice, but that you always have a back-up plan for me.

All in all, I loved his kind heart, and desire to pastor people in an area with no church - I pray God blesses him in all he does and that his church kicks butt and takes names for Jesus.