Going Slow with Dr. Low

One thing Evangelical Christians have been accused of over the years is jumping too quickly into Easter Sunday.  In fact all over Facebook on Good Friday and Easter Saturday there are posts by well-meaning Christians encouraging us to remember that "Sunday's coming!"  This is true - Sunday is coming - Jesus did rise - but it's easy and tempting to jump there too quickly rather than sitting with the coldness and darkness of the tomb.

Don't rush through today.  Don't fast-forward to Easter Sunday even though we all know how it ends (or begins anew depending on how you look at it).  It's okay to sit in the uncomfortableness of a Leader of a revolution lying dead in a tomb, followers scattered, discouraged and frightened for their own lives.  It's important because there is a part of all of us that is dead, scared and hidden away.  It's important to wrestle with these parts of ourselves and bring them into the tomb to be transformed.  Easter Saturday is one of the best opportunities the Christian calendar allows for that.

Don't rush through today; sit with the mystery of 2000 years ago as well as the mystery within yourself today.

Reflections from Rome

I've spent the past 3 days in Rome, blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime: I traveled to Rome with the Governor General as part of the Canadian delegation that attended the Inauguration Mass for Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday.

The trip has been nothing short of amazing and I will be forever transformed by it. 

Here are my blogs from the past weeks:

• Day 1:  The Invitation of a Lifetime
• Day 2:  Rome Sweet Rome 
• Day 3:  My First Time at St. Peter’s Square and the Best Receiving Line Ever
• Day 4:  Reflections on Pope Francis’ Mass of Inauguration: Inside and Atop St. Peter’s Square   
• Day 4:  Photos from the Mass of Inauguration for Pope Francis  

Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years, helping parishes develop their own youth and young adult ministries.  When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo  

Going Slow with Dr. Low

Turn It Off

Part of slowing down is not just slowing down outwardly but inwardly as well.  One of the goals of slowing down both inwardly and outwardly is being present to the moment.  A disturbing and growing trend, as illustrated in this startling photo, is more and more people not being present to the moment but instead being present to their mobile device so they can capture the moment forever.  First of all, who ever looks at all these photos and videos we take 5 or 10 years later, seriously?  There may be the rare special video or photo we look at years later like a wedding but people rarely spend time 5-10 years later looking at the video they took of the New Year's Eve fire works 2008 or the peacock walking around the zoo in 2011 or whatever.  It truly boggles my mind the stuff people take pictures and videos of.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not completely against photos and videos; they are a gift to help us remember life's special occasions and especially help us remember loved ones when they pass on, but people these days take photos of every little thing and literally have thousands of photos and videos on discs or in the "cloud" or wherever - way too many memories for people to realistically ever peruse again.

My point is not to be anti-video or anti-photo, my point is I believe people are not as intensely present to the moment when they are videoing it, whether it's a wedding or a graduation or family vacation.  I see parents all the time videoing their children's first steps, soccer games, birthday parties, Christmas morning and so on and they're just not as present to the beauty and emotion of the moment as if they were fully engaged and not worrying about the lighting or the focus or the battery or whatever.

I have been guilty of this myself; my little boys wanting me to watch their baseball game and celebrate with them but I'm more focused on capturing the moment forever than joining in with their souls.  I have precious memories of my parents and grandparents SO intensely focused on me as a child.  My grandma especially had this way of gazing at me making me feel like I was the most important person in the world - at that moment I was to her.  I admit my gaze is not as intense and intimate as my grandma's I am so easily distracted by my phone, the TV and all the other stimulation our busy world surrounds me with.  I am working on this.

Again, I'm not saying never take a photo or a video - this modern technology is a handy gift to have - but next time you reach for it just slow down and ask yourself if this is something you are really going to look at in the future or is it just more megabytes for your collection.  And, more importantly, ask yourself if the person or event you're videoing demands or deserves your full attention or that of reporter - there is a time for both.

Be still and know that God is God; be still and enjoy the moment and the people around you.  Be still, be present, be whole...

Habemus Papem! We Have a Pope!

Today the Catholic Church named its 266th pope: Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio).  As the clouds of white smoke poured from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel at 7:07pm (followed by the ringing of the bells at 7:18am) on March 13, 2013, thousands of people in St. Peter's square and millions watching around the world celebrated the new pope who had been elected on the conclave's fifth ballot.

In a powerful moment, Pope Francis asked the crowd assembled at St. Peter's square to pray to God to bless him before he in turn blessed the people.

Read a great reflection on Pope Francis here (from Catholic Online).

Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years, helping parishes develop their own youth and young adult ministries.  When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo  

Leading Up - Leaders are Listeners

"They were talking the loudest and not sitting around."

This was the (slightly paraphrased) response to the question I had posed to the large group of high school students. Our missions team had just completed an experiential learning exercise involving "islands" set up in our worship centre, 2x6 wooden planks, and loads of frustration. We were headed to two locations, yet wanted to emphasize that we are one team, two locations. The islands exercise had revealed a lot about the team dynamics but this particular statement struck me.

The question I had asked: who were the leaders, and how could you tell?

The response I heard perfectly fits the definition of a "leader" in the North American church--they're sharing what they think and they're on the move. They have the vision, the ideas, and the gumption to make some of those visionary ideas happen. And this is how Jesus led, right? After all, he would teach people often, authoritatively sharing his gospel of the kingdom and moving people to repentant action. He could draw the crowds without a Twitter account or a state-of-the-art building.

To be honest, this is how I often view my own leadership. I'm called to lead and shepherd those God has place in my life, meaning I'm supposed to...well...talk. The leaders are the loudest. While this is partially true, I wonder if it misses a central part of servant leadership that we see evident in Scripture.

Leaders are listeners. Yes, leaders communicate vision, share ideas, and are proactive and engaged in their world. Yet the strongest leaders I've encountered are leaders who humbly listen to others, who seek silence and solitude, who think before they act, who are curious as to what God is doing in any given moment. Leaders are learners, and learners must be able to listen well.

One aspect of our experiential learning exercise was placing limitations on certain individuals; some couldn't talk, others were blind-folded, still others were essentially mute and paralyzed. The supposed leaders in the group were the ones jumping onto islands, moving planks around, yelling orders to other team members. Yet without choosing to stop and listen first, they were inadvertently leaving others behind. The mute couldn't speak up. The blind couldn't see. They needed someone to take a moment and be present with them before moving ahead with the plan. 

When a leader leaves others behind, they are essentially leaving themselves behind. They'll find themselves alone, wondering why no one is following.

In this TED talk from American four-star general Stanley McChrystal, he talks about the need for leaders to be able to listen and learn, building shared purpose in a diversity of generations and demographics. In a rapidly changing world filled with new technology, new language, and new experiences, leaders have to be able to slow down and listen well. There are a ton of implications here for leaders in the church, and I'd encourage you to take 15 minutes to hear this military leader's wisdom.

"I came to believe that a leader isn't good because they're right. They're good because they're willing to learn and to trust."

It doesn't matter if your ideas are right if you haven't built the trust and relational equity to lead others. That requires listening, not for the sake of manipulation or waiting to get your own ideas heard, but because you humbly recognize that others are valuable, that they have a story to share. Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest and gifted communicator, once wrote the following:

The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. That is the way Jesus came to reveal God’s love.

If you're leading in the church, whether as paid staff, an elder on a board, a key volunteer, or simply as a parent or mentor, may you begin to listen both to those you are leading and to the Spirit who is leading you.

(A version of this post originally appeared here)

Joel Mayward is a pastor, writer, husband, and father living in Langley, British Columbia. He is the author of Leading Up: Finding Influence in the Church Beyond Role and Experience. Joel loves youth ministry, movies, the church, and theology, and he writes about all of it at his blog.

Going Slow with Dr. Low

Your True Self


I had a big scare this morning.  As I'm sure you can relate to, my computer updates itself and restarts itself every week or two, usually in the middle of the night.  It always messes me up a bit because I have to remember all the working documents I had open and webpages and so on but it's usually not a big deal.  But this morning when I went to reopen my documents and webpages there was nothing there!  I then checked my photos and ITunes and...nothing.  I opened Microsoft Outlook and it began walking me through the steps to set up my account - all my emails and addresses were gone - yikes!

I panicked because I rely heavily on the information on my computer, especially email addresses.  So I phoned my computer volunteer right away hoping he could help me but he did not answer.  As I stared at my blank desktop I thought about what might have happened and what, if anything, I could do about it.  Suddenly it dawned on me; "What if I'm not signed into my account/screen?!"  Sure enough the computer had restarted itself and opened the admin account/screen instead of mine.  I signed out of the admin screen and signed into my screen and there was all my stuff - phew!  If you're a computer whiz reading this you probably can't believe something this small and obvious would throw me off, but it has restarted itself dozens of times but never opened to the admin screen; I was really scared I had lost everything.

As I went on with my day I thought about how many people I meet with who have experienced this not with their computer but with their life.  Many people I meet with have lost themselves.  They're not sure exactly when or how it happened but somewhere along the way they've lost their grounding, lost their faith, lost everything they once knew about themselves.  My computer mishap this morning reminds me that they haven't truly lost themselves, they just think they have or they've forgotten who they truly are.  The True Self is the self that God-created - the part of us that is created in His image full of goodness and purpose.  This part of us never truly leaves us because God is always with us but we sometimes wander away from God, stop listening to His voice and following His presence within us - we go our own way and follow a path that's not really ours.  Like my computer, everything within us that is God-ordained since He breathed life into us is still there.  Love, truth, wisdom, grace, light and life is still there and still accessible, we just have to click over to our screen/account rather than defaulting to someone else's.  Obviously this isn't as easy with humans as clicking a computer button but it can be done.

As we draw closer to God and begin listening to Him and following His presence within us we not only find Him but we find ourselves in the process.  We get closer to Him and closer to ourselves at the same time because we are in God and God is in us.  We are created in His image for His good purpose and all of that is breathed into us but we need to be "signed in" to the right view to see it.

To remember literally means to re-member, the opposite of dismember.  When we become dismembered, so to speak - scattered, dismantled, torn apart or led astray - God gives us the opportunity to re-member, to bring together that which was has become lost.  And the amazing thing about His love is He not only gives us that opportunity but He does it with us and for us through His grace and power.

Remembering who we truly are in Christ and who God created us to be takes time.  Making sure we're "signed in on the correct profile" takes time.  All of this involves  slowing down rather than rushing through our days taking on other peoples' expectations and identities and forgetting our own.

God bless you this week.

Untouchable in Youth Ministry

There are many topics that we cover over the years of our youth ministry careers. Topics that bring hope, challenge, truth, salvation, theology, belief, social justice, and so many more.

I have come to realize that those of us in youth ministry also have topics that we will not touch. Oh we might brush over them or mention them but we not get deep down and research them enough to make them a topic or series for our kids. Topics like:

• homosexuality
• abortion
• bullying
• disability
• prejudice
• finances
• gluttony
• cutting
• etc…

We must embrace all topics from a biblical standpoint, yet we must tell the truth in love. If we tell the truth without love, the truth becomes irrelevant.

We must be willing to tackle these and other topics that our youth are talking about, hearing about, experiencing, and wrestling with so that you can teach them to see love in action from a biblical perspective.

Tackling any one of these issues will take great courage. You will need to be well researched, submit it to prayer and God's leading, as well as having others praying for you. You are heading in to uncharted waters.

The one thing I beg of you is this; if you cannot talk truthfully about any of these topics without love, please don't. We have had too many others that have spoken about these topics without love and they have made us all embarrassed that they are claiming to represent the rest of us by calling themselves Christians.

What untouchable topics have you opened up in your youth ministry?

What topics or research are you currently doing on and untouchable?

What questions do you have about these untouchable topics?