"...Just a Very Bad Wizard": Musings on Power

My kids and i have been discussing an issue lately that has consumed a lot of our thought and attention.  We have talked about Power, where it comes from, what it is, what happens when we seek it for its own sake, what it appears to do to people, who handles it well and who does not.  It has been a really great ongoing discussion, and in the process, i have had a recurrent image pop into my head about why we are so often disappointed in the people we place in positions of Power, whether they are in the realms of government, business, society or even the church.    

If you've seen The Wizard of OZ, you no doubt recall the moment when Dorothy and her intrepid band discover that "The Wizard" is really just a little man pulling levers behind a curtain.  "The Great and Powerful Oz" is a sham; a little man bent on trying to hold up the image of something that he is not.  In her fury, Dorothy exclaims, "Oh!  Oh, you're a very bad man!", but then the Wizard, hurt spreading across his features, remarks, "Oh!  Oh no, my dear!  I'm a very good man… i'm just a very bad Wizard."

At the heart of our hunger for a truly Great and Powerful Wizard, we long for someone to make the world right.  Someone who can give us our Brains and our Courage and our Heart and our Home.  We know that the world is not what it should be, and we want it to be, so we place people we trust or fear or believe can do the job into the seat of Power and ask them to lead us where we desire to go.  When they cannot or do not or will not and consistently fail us, either due to their own weakness or our demands set too high, we stamp our feet and are continually amazed that they cannot pull levers fast enough or speak loudly enough into the speaker and we throw them into the light and demand an accounting for why they have not been the Wizard we always wanted.  

We do this because we think that if we heap upon a physical man or woman all our hopes and expectations for someone to make things right, they will be able to do so through science and technology or political maneuvering or spiritual wisdom or social programs or conservative budgets or unlimited financial affluence or business acumen to give us what we lack, whether that is Courage or Brains or a Heart or a Home.  But we're always disappointed because in most instances, those we place in positions of Power are, in fact, just very good men (and women)… But they're just very bad Wizards because no human being can be those things.  The expectations aren't realistic.  No matter how badly i want it… 

… The President (or any member of government) cannot save us,

… The CEO of Apple (or any other company) cannot save us,

… Tom Cruise (or any other Rock or Movie star) cannot save us,

… Our parents cannot save us,

… Our friends cannot save us,

… Our pastors or imams or rabbis or priests cannot save us, 

… You cannot save us,

… I cannot save us.

It may sound audacious or trite or even stupid in our current complexity to say it, but there is only one person who can save us.  He is the one who will not merely pull levers or give us emerald colored glasses and try to convince us that everything we see is really that green (if you've read L Frank Baum's book and not seen the movie), and he will not disappoint us when we truly trust in him.  There is only one person who both invites us into an audacious hope to believe that a world of color and vivacity that would make Oz seem like a black and white landscape is truly possible and has also given us samples and glimpses of its quality.  We might even say that there is a path that leads to him too, but it is probably not paved with gold bricks and munchkins singing of Lullaby Leagues and Lollipop Guilds.  Rather, the road is narrow and is paved with blood and sacrifice and love and compassion and simplicity and a tenacity to walk into environments that will demand everything from us if we will follow behind him, but give our lives the kind of peace and meaning we crave if we do so.  There is only one real Wizard,  my friends.  His name is Jesus, not Oz, and there is no substitute for Him.  

The removal of the "Wizard" mentality described above is at the heart of "From Formal to Fractal Leadership" in Missional Moves.  In it, Rob and I have learned that in the Jesus Way, everyone leads, everyone follows, and all surrender to the only real Power in the world:  the Lordship of Jesus. 

Missional Moves eBook: The G3 Map

If you haven't heard the story, when Rob and I sat down to write Missional Moves , we thought that we were being asked to write a 250 page book... so we did just that.  Problem is, Rob and I typically write using Arial Narrow, 10 pt, single spaced, so our 250 pages ended as a combined 225,000 word document... but it fit into 250 of OUR pages as described.

So we had to re-work it to fit a 50,000 word target, and were able to do so for the finished product that is now on shelves as Missional Moves, but we sort of felt that the contents of those extra 175,000 still had value, and we wondered what to do with them.  As a result, we drafted four eBooks that contain some of that content.  They add to, supplement, augment and amplify the concepts in Missional Moves, but they are available for free download through missionalmoves.com in the Resources section.

Over the next three months, we'll be rolling out each of four eBooks, and while they could each sort of "stand alone" on their own, they are really intended to be better understood within the framework of Missional Moves.  The first eBook is available for download today (and it's called "The G3 Map:  Discover God's Map For Your Church" -- you can also download it here).  It's one of our favorites, and I'm so glad that it will be the first available.  It's basically about understanding the arc of both Scripture and our lives in terms of God's redemptive plan for all of mankind, and how to find our place in that story as we lead churches, organizations, families, others and ourselves.

Transformational Partnerships:  Church to Church (available for download on 10/22/12):
Partnerships are critical, whether in local communities or around the world, and we believe that at the hub of each truly transformative partnership, you are going to find On Mission local churches and faith communities at work.  But how do local churches in one context partner with local churches in another without creating Dependency and dysfunctional relationships that lead to damage and disharmony over the long haul?  This eBook explains how we have sought to navigate those waters both in India and in our local context here with Granger Community Church, and lists some principles we have found helpful when coaching others as they have chartered those waters.

Transformational Partnerships:  Church to Organization (available for download on 11/19/12):
Partnerships are critical, whether in local communities or around the world, and we believe that at the hub of each truly transformative partnership, you are going to find On Mission local churches and faith communities at work.  But surely local churches aren't meant to supplant the hard fought work, experience and field expertise of world-class NGO's and organizations who have served for years or decades in contexts around the world, right?  Right.  In most instances, all sorts of agencies, organizations, parachurch ministries and NGO's have had to carry the freight when the Church has contented itself with a "Saved Souls" Gospel message (see Missional Move #1 in Missional Moves if you would like an explanation) rather than the transformation and redemption of every area of life, so we never posit that the Church should operate independently of such organizations.  However, this eBook outlines the fact that we do believe that there are some solid principles for how local churches should approach and be understood by such organizations to minimize misunderstanding and maximize effect wherever they join together.


Spectrum of Involvement:  Moving Your People Out On Mission (available for download on 12/17/12):  
"Yeah, but how?" is a question we hear often from local church leaders when we start talking about giving our people practical hand-holds for jumping into the flow of Mission as a local church.  As a result, this eBook seeks to elaborate what we outline specifically in Missional Move #10:  From Professionals to Full Participation.  It gives greater insight into how Granger Community Church is experimenting with its own Spectrum of Involvement, and what is really going on in helping to create a monolithic and centralized local church process for helping people take their next steps toward Christ... together, On Mission.

Missional Moves!

This is a bit odd for both myself and Rob Wegner, actually.  For the past ten years of ministry at Granger Community Church, we haven't been "trying" to write a book.  Actually, we've just been "trying" to figure out what God is doing in the world, how to best join Him, and how to mobilize as many people within the framework of our local faith community to do likewise as possible.  Over that time, we've learned a thing or two, smacked our heads against a few brick walls, seen some amazing things, bled a lot, sweat a lot, gotten really dirty and had the privilege to walk alongside the men and women who are either "regular joes" like us, just trying to live out our faith, or some of the most unbelievable Commando Christ-followers you'll ever meet who are planting churches and transforming communities all over the world and in some of the most ridiculously remote and hostile places on the planet.

We've had the privilege to work in our own community amidst the amazing people of the Monroe Circle Community in downtown South Bend, Indiana, as well as across the world in Tamilnadu, India, alongside Indian church planters who are part of a growing network of indigenous leaders who are bringing Light and Life at the very bleeding edge of the Great Commission through the network at Life Mission International.  In the process, a couple of years ago, we sat down and realized that some of the things we were seeing weren't specific to just us and our experience.  Rather, they were currents beneath the surface that were starting to pop up everywhere.  They were like waves that weren't ready to crest, but as you sit on the surface, you can tell that when they do, they won't just be surfing waves, but tsunamis of Love and Hope and Joy and Freedom the likes of which the world has probably not seen since Jesus walked the planet.

So we decided to write some things down, partly from our own experience, partly from things we've seen and learned from others, and totally and completely from our hearts.  The result is a book that releases this month called Missional Moves, and over the next several months, both Rob and I will be talking, blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking about it at lot.  If you are into some of those social media, you'll be able to note that Rob and I both will be Tweeting using #missionalmoves if you'd like to track that, and we're always happy to see you on our blogs or Facebook pages.  In addition, we've also generated a tandem site that provides supplemental material to and for the book called Missionalmoves.com .   There, you can download free additional eBooks that go along with the text, watch media that we have uploaded to support various chapters as well as documents we reference in the text, and be directed to EnterMission Coaching Hubs all across the country for deeper community and processing.  We're hoping that Missional Moves will be more than just a book, honestly... we want it to be a resource for church leaders, volunteers and people simply seeking to get out of their seat and into God's Story all over the world.  We hope that if you pick up a copy of Missional Moves, you'll find it fun and exciting, but also a useful tool in surfing the tsunami that is coming as God's Kingdom advances in our world!  Surf's up!

Farewell, Smart Zombie...

Friends!  If you have followed my blog over the past few years, you have probably gotten here by going to one of the two following:  www.jackmagruder.org or http://smartzombie.blogspot.com .   Because Rob Wegner and i both will be linking our blogs to various other social media in promotion and coordination with our new book Missional Moves (which comes out this month), however, i decided that a) i didn't want to continue to pay GoDaddy to renew jackmagruder.org since it continues to go up in price and... well... i think it's a scam anyway, and b) despite how much i love the concept of being a Smart Zombie, the idea is a little gross for anyone not more indoctrinated in the genre.  So... as a result, i have renamed this blog simply http://jackmagruder.blogspot.com .  If you're following either of the above two other addresses via RSS or other reader, you'll want to note the change.

In addition, Rob and I will both be seeking to update, cross-link and feed numerous posts that conjoin Missional Moves and other things related to it, so hope to see you here if coming to this site is helpful for you in connecting.