GREAT INNOVATIONS....
"TEDx"Rick Warren was on a You Tube session that came across my desktop called "TED-X " This aired May 23, 2011. Rick Warren was one of several individuals giving talks on "Innovation" that day.
He began his TEDx talk telling the audience that the quality of your life, in any area of your life will be determined by the kind of questions that you HAVE THE COURAGE to ask yourself in that area. He raised his voice at the "have the courage" part. He told his audience,
"if you don't ask the right questions, you won't get the right answers."
This is worth watching because here, you get
to see Rick Warren in action.
Catch the way he yells at the audience in the beginning,
raising his voice to command some kind
of control over his hearers.
They need these theatrics
in order to listen to the
8 things they "need" to know.
(And note too that he says that he does
not want to talk about himself
and what he is doing... but he talks
about and promotes himself a lot.
Rick says, as he is about to tell you the "8 things you need to know," that, "you better write them down."
You see, you smart people,
(Are you a smart person?)
...will want to know these 8 things that
Rick does and is not so happy to share
with those who desire to
be great leaders, (just like him.)
learn these things from Rick,
And if you are a smart person,
you won't want to
miss a word he says.
Rick says, questioning is an art, a skill that you need to develop.
It's funny, but questioning sort of comes
naturally. A four-year-old seem to
have no problem asking questions, but YOU,
have yet to learn this all important "skill. Lucky you,
Rick is going to help you "develop" that skill
by teaching you what "questions"
(out of the millions there really are,
or that you might actually dream up on your own,
to ask......
But, question, smeshtion.... (Note: THAT is a made-up word!)
These really are not even questions..... No. No. No. They are not questions at all, for Rick suddenly turns them into..."nations." Yes, Rick slickly, (or is it craftily?) applies the concept of these being the "Eight Nations" or, NO, Wait! They are changing again.... Rather....... they are the 8 "IMAGINATIONS." Yes, Yes.. that is it.. "imaginations!"
He tells the audience that these are the "Nations in your mind."
He also tells us that it is these "8" things he used to develop his campaigns, 40 day programs, various plans and to build Saddleback Church.
So, now, thanks to good ol[ Rick,
you .. yes, even YOU, can begin to ask the right,
(not wrong,)
questions.
Yes.... you...can begin to IMAGINE along with Rick
something better,
bigger, more alive and "innovative"
when it comes to your church, something better
than what has ever been before!
Interesting is this passage of scripture that says:
Because that, when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful;
but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened.
Romans 1:21
The Eight Imaginations by Rick Warren
- Termination- What do I need to stop doing?
- Collaboration – How do we do it faster, larger, cheaper, or with a team?
- Combination - What can we mix together to make something new?
- Elimination - What part could we take out in order to make something similar?
- Reincarnation – What has died that we can bring back to life in a new format?
- Rejuvenation - How can we change the purpose for why we are doing it?
- Illumination – How can we look at it in a new light?
- Fascination – How can we make it more interesting?
Pardon me. Did YOU see anything in there, anything, about the Lord?
That is what I thought. Me neither.
Let's consider Rick's TEDx talk a little more closely,
1. HE says, is
"Termination. "
According to Rick, you can have so many irons in the fire, that you put out the fire. The first question he therefore wants to teach people is to ask "yourself" is, "What do I first need to stop?" (Before doing anything "new.." He calls this termination thing, creative destruction but then, Rick tells us that as his "mentor" Peter Drucker called it, he also calls it, "systematic abandonment." To explain what termination is more clearly, Rick says, "When the horse is dead, dismount."
Note: he makes it a clear point to mention Peter Drucker as his mentor. twice.
You can read more about Drucker, here.
"Termination," he says, " is often a key to future innovation."
This , perhaps, somewhat explains why Rick makes
every attempt to convince pastors
of Christian churches
and their members, that their
congregations are dead, (or dying)
and preaches that Jesus,
He hopes they will
terminate their own church as they
embrace the wisdom of Rick and
implement in their congregations,
at their own expense, whatever
"innovative" thing he is doing.
P.E.A.C.E. Plan, Daniel Plan,
Celebrate Recovery...
40 days of Purpose, Community, Love....
and Purpose Driven (TM)
are simply the innovative products
Rick Warren wheels, deals and sells
Rick then took the opportunity to drop the name of Joseph Shumpteter....an economist and political scientist who was perhaps best known for his promotion of "creative destruction," or rather, systematically "terminating" things in order to be innovative.
(Click on his name to listen to an interesting economics
lesson taught at YALE which talks
about Shumpteter in light of Capitalism)
Rick's Purpose Driven Church,, is portrayed as being
so much more productive than all the rest.
We are, no doubt, expected to perceive this as
Rick projects upon us all the astronomical
numerical facts and figures relating
to his "accomplishments" in this world.
Funny thing, is,
we Christians should know and understand that
God's amazing Church
is bound to be productive and alive, if it abides in Him and His Word.
The Church is His doing, not our own.
God is the one who makes all things grow.
He gives life and sustenance to all things.
We see how Christianity has encompassed the globe,
(something clearly attested to by even Rick
as he expounds for us how
he ccould really make use of
the accessibility of the churches
found everywhere in the world,
even the remotest villages.
to implement his "P.E.A.C.E." Plan
It is these same Christian "churches" who are
and have been labeled as nothing but a "big mouth" by Rick.
Possibly because they are notoriously preaching
the good news of Jesus Christ.
But Rick berates those churches this way and
because they are small he labels them "unhealthy"
only to make the subsequent offer to help doubting pastors get healthy
through his teachings and
be just like Saddleback.
It helps to have Time Magazine and Christianity Today
inform readers of how great Rick is,
and portray Rick as an example of great leadership and
the Christian model of true success,
(not using his methods or business models
like he and his mentor, Peter Drucker)
not growing exponentially like a yeast,
incorporating unbelievers into church services and worship,
balancing everything just so,
they are "unhealthy."
And Rick philosophy is that like dead horses
that need to be dismounted,
"unhealthy" things should be terminated.
Perfect doubt, it seems, casts about a lot of anxiety and fear.
Rick gives us his own example of terminating old, obsolete and boring things. He tells about his old, mid-week bible study. Terminating this gave way for his many and various "campaigns." He says that he would have never had so many small groups doing his programs if he hadn't "terminated" that.
"One of the secrets of Saddleback's growth", Rick told TED-x, is that they "have figured out " (Yes... this is hard to do, something not everyone CAN do, only the really smart can do this "figuring out stuff you know.) They have, "figured out how to mobilize people." (Rick also indicated that another term for "collaboration" is Coordination.) He says you need to have "coordination."
Who is doing, leading planning and implementing this co-ordination?
We can only guess. Probably Rick.
.
He talked here about the program he has coordinated at Saddleback called Forty days of Community, and how they had been feeding all of the homeless people in Orange County, all of them! He said they served up "126,000 meals"...fed them for "for forty days."
Wow...that is a lot of loaves and fish!
As we hear this and many other
spectacular feats of awe and wonder
regarding Rick and Saddleback,
and about the greatness
of his PEACE Plan too,
we cannot help but be impressed with
Super Rick. There is hardly
a person or thing he doesn't know or know about,
has done, or can do.
And boy can he coordinate and feed the hungry too.
What did those hungry, homeless people do
for food after the forty days?
3. The third "rule," (He says "RULE." this instance, instead of "question" or "nation,")
that you have to ask yourself is..... "Combination"
"What could we mix together to create something new?"
Rick says, "What could we "blend," "merge," "make a synthesis of? " and tells us, "We need to ask how we can "take things that are the exact opposite and put them together," things -like, "icy hot," and "sweet and sour" or" peanut butter and chocolate." He then gives the example of his program "Celebrate Recovery" (being the combination of the 8 Beatitudes of Jesus with AA Alcoholics Anonymous' "12 Step" program,) and of course, we also hear about how great and widely implemented it is in prisons even.
This is a little more blatant self-promotion..... but note,
Ask yourself, if you are a Christian and know
the truth.... are you willing to exchange it now,
for something NEW, especially as Rick Warren
, infers they are somehow congruent, and juxtaposes it with something false
and creates something completely different from either
just for you and you church and family?
He takes the church, founded on JEsus Christ, and the world,who hate JEsus CHrist,
two opposing forces,
and he combines and craftily mixes them both
into something creatively "new,"
or is it, innovative?
Is there anything "new" under the sun?
4, "Elimination"- Is the question where you ask yourself, "What part could we take out in order to make it simpler."
Here he also uses the opportunity to announce to all these
TED people, and you and me, his close associates as
he drops a "big name" as a "good friend," like "Steve Case."
Rick tells us that elimination is also known as "taking down the borders." When he mentions boarders, he mentions also barriers... and he then goes on to explain that these "borders" are like, "emotional borders, it maybe, mental borders, financial borders, ethnic boarders or whatever..."
Can you think of any other borders he could list?
He uses the example of how at the beginning of Saddleback, in 1980 at 25 years old, he, (being the clever innovator and man of far reaching vision and insight that he thinks he is,) simply had the innovative idea to eliminate the borders of "church walls" and thereby eliminated his need for a "church building," and, by the way, he said he was going to be the one to prove that such a feat of a
church without a building was possible.
And here is the "magic of Rick Warren at work,
while he has you thinking that he didn't use a building,
he did use many "buildings"...
schools, banks, camps, stadiums,
tents, people's homes...
"89" different facilities, he said,
which are most all "buildings,"
but he would have us believe that he is so clever and efficient that ...
he simply got rid of that unnecessary "border."
He says, this elimination part is "the big one." Probably meaning the one that is most important in the list.
5. "Reincarnation" Rick says, "The reincarnation question is, "What has died?... but we can bring it back to life in a new form?"
Seriously.
"Reincarnation."
Not only that, when was the last time something really "died"
and anyone brought it back to life in a new form?
Rick says, "You take an old idea that has gone dead and you just reformat it. "
But then we learn... he is only talking ideas....
and then he takes credit for the implementation of the Internet.
Using the example of how for two thousand years the Christian church has used a systematic sequential training of beliefs, called "catechism" in the church, Rick asserts that this is something that has died. He (via Saddleback) did a reincarnation of it though... when they (a.k.a. he) "Put "TECH" back in Catechism....)
Clever huh?
It died, ( old idea that it was, and "we" (meaning he and Saddleback) have taken that old idea, (catechism,)tweaked it, and you know, "reincarnated" it.
How interesting too, that this term, "reincarnation" is
used as the concept of something which is
supposed to be a "rule"to follow, one of the Eight Nations of the mind
for Christians to adhere to in order to be an "innovator," like Rick.
6. "Rejuvenation"- Rick says that this is "Related to reincarnation" The question related to rejuvenation is, "How can we change the purpose or motivation for doing it?" (or what we're doing.) He says, it's the "How and Why." It's the "change the motivation" and "change the delivery system aspect. With the example of his own now famous, Daniel Plan he says that his church is loosing 4,000 lbs a day since January, this because they have just done a little rejuvenation on the purpose of it."
The purpose of.... what? "Church?"
7." Illumination" "How can we look at something in a new light." "You have to look at it with new eyes." He says human beings have an amazing adaptability... and it takes new eyes sometimes. After giving us his own life example with a light fixture in his home, he simply adapted to a lack of light over a period of time, he then comments on how we can never solve global problems unless we think of them in new ways.
For example, men and women of faith,
people of all religious orientations can be part of the
PEACE Plan he offers. They can be Purpose Driven
and part of congregations willing to help slay those five evil giants,
serving the world with purpose" as their foundation,
After all, as he mentioned also, there were those two imams.
Rick told us, "This is thinking in a new light...."
(Insert PEACE PLAN promo by Rick here.)
For someone who began by stating that he didn;t want to talk about what he was doing, but what you were doing....Rick sure talked about himself a lot. Maybe this is because the idea is that you will be doing hat he does. We heard once again about Rick's great innovation and about how he is the heroic instigator of saving the world through what he calls the P.E.A.C.E. Plan His plan to get houses of worship everywhere into global health care distribution.
Finally, there is number 8, "Fascination" Here we ask how to make that innovative thing more "interesting" "appealing" "attractive" ...."mesmerizing."
Rick concludes saying,
" It's obvious, our nation is in trouble right now." Then he says,
"The only answer is "innovation,".... "in education, technology, business, arts... in every sector of society."
"Our nation is is trouble, right now!"and the "only answer is-----
.
---"INNOVATION?"
Really?
Not prayer or Jesus....
No "Biblical Principles," or even the mention
of reliance or or of faith and hope in God,
just: "Innovation."
Or...is it coming up with your own answers....
or is it the "Eight Imaginations,"
(You know, the "nations" of your mind?)
Ending his talk, Rick says,
"Never stop learning,"because, "leaders are learners."" The moment you stop learning you stop leading."
Some will be "ever-learning",...
(See: 2 Timothy 3: verse 4)
but will they every come to the knowledge of the truth?
Will they ever hear the gospel of God preached
about the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus?
Will they, who need no physician because they are so healthy,
ever call on the Great Physician to forgive their sin or heal their land?
Will they be so busy planning, serving, coordinating
and learning, about themselves, their own spiritual gifts,
their own heart and passions,
looking to use their own natural abilities
doing what suits their own personalities,
and having experiences,
...discovering their S.H.A.P.E.for monistry and this whle they not only strive to ask the right questions to get the right answers and perfectly balance, not one,
but "five purposes" that they learn about from Rick,
in order to be "healthy,"
in their own imaginative "nations" in their mind, mesmerized
with sustaining themselves and their churches and
meeting the physical needs of all the world all the time,
that they never stop long enough to look at Jesus
learn of Him and enter into the rest of God?
It sure is possible as Rick Warren
gets the attention of both the church and the world and
makes the things he is teaching look as if they are the things of God.
But to the church, those with ears to hear what the spirit says, Paul, who actually did know Jesus and men who walked with JEsus as well, who preached Christ and him crucified.... Paul the apostle wrote:
"Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses,
so these men also oppose the truth,
men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.
But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all,
as was that of those two men. "
