100. Risk and Failure

I love this quote from Theodore Roosevelt because it captures the boundary crossing, entrepreneurial spirit of apostolic ministry. If you are not able to embrace risk and the possibility of failure, you will never be able to function apostolically.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

99. Interview with Neil Cole by Charles Wear

This is a link to Charles Wear's site who interviewed Neil Cole in the foyer of the Verge Conference about his new book Church 3.0.Did not get to go to his session, and have not read his book yet, but from the interview, I wish I had done both already!

98. The Apostle and the rest of APEST

Teachers teach, Shpeherds shepherd, Evangelists evangelize, prophets prophesy, and Apostles.....apostle-ize? Not really. Out of the five gifts in the APEST typology, the apostle is a bit unique in this fashion. They are sent out by some one else. Some people wonder wether or not this is the local church or God. I would have to say both and. Apostolic ministry is not for the faint of heart. It is one of those deal that if you get into it, you had better be called by God to do it or probably wont stay n it very long. A church can send any one into a mission field, but it does not mean they are called by God. We do not determine who is called and who is not. People determine that for themselves, and sometimes in the context of an intimate community. Apostles are sent ones, and this implies that some one else is a part of the equation, doing the sending.

97. Failure and Imagination

Got this video from Crinid this morning. Quite inspirational. J.K. Rowling is  speaking at the Harvard Commencement and does a fabulous job of speaking to what is quite possibly a very aristocratic audience about the realities of failure and the need for imagination.


J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

After listening to this I was moved by her ideas about being able to inhabit the realities of other people through our imagination. I think this is at the heart of what compassion is. She has a great line about people who live within their own narrow interests develop a sense of acrophobia, a sense of spinning around that is often evoked when looking down from high places.