Waving or Drowning?

Time For a Prophet

Speaking of the economic meltdown, or should I say Speaking Into the Meltdown, Gordon MacDonald weighs in with some thoughts on leadership in days like these.

Some teasers for you:

As I listen to leaders, I have yet to hear in the midst of all the organizational pain what I believe is a greater question than just institutional survival: Is God saying something in all of this international mess that a bunch of us might not be able to hear in any other way?

If we are a part of a biblical movement that believes God is continuously present and always speaking, then what is he saying now?

Is it time for a prophet?

And how about this?

Prophets usually came not from the center of society but from the edge. They were beholden to no one. They cared little about personal safety, reputation, or speaker-fees. They spoke with a gift of heavenly discernment, people who had insight into the meaning of contemporary events.

And this...

While there is always an appropriate moment to identify those who have walked outside the law, the first search ought always to begin with oneself. Prophets believed this. That means that I start with questions such as: how have I been complicit in the economic disorder which rages. Have I lived beyond my personal means? Have I incurred irresponsible debt? Have I lived indulgently, a lifestyle directed more by culture than by the influence of Christ? Has my life's purpose been more about acquiring stuff than living a life of generosity and compassion? What bothersome questions these are!

Finally, I'll leave you with this:

Some modern prophet might want to ask us if today's meltdown is really the result of a few greedy Wall Street financiers. Or do we all share a general responsibility for having bought into an economic system that has allowed some to become obscenely rich while allowing many others to grow obscenely poor.

For too many years there has been silence among Christians in my tradition regarding the flaws and excesses of the capitalistic system. To even hint in many of my circles that there might be aspects of our economic way of life that are unbiblical would be for most pastors an invitation to job-loss overnight. We have snuffed out intelligent and searching discourse by saying with a dash of humor that capitalism has flaws but it's way ahead of any other system. That does it. It usually stops conversation.

Read the rest here.

Roubini's Read on the Recession

An interview this morning with the one guy I believe has a clear view of what's going on economically in the world right now. For the economic geeks among us.

I Said No!

Albuquerque Follow-Up

Albuquerque.

See, I can still spell it without cutting and pasting.

Albuquerque. Yup. Still got it.

Anyway, the CAC is starting to compile resources and information from the conference here. Watch the space for more.

Show & Tell With Jesus! (Updated)

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of sharing once again with my friends at Cove Community Church. I recorded my talk because the some of the content was from my manuscript, and I wanted the chance to watch it, to see how it flowed, yada yada yada.

With the disclaimer that this will be 38 minutes of your life you'll never get back, please feel free to watch (it's in 2 parts) and fire me any feedback you might have. Thanks.

UPDATE: Part 2 is now unlocked. Sorry about that, and thanks for the emails!

Show & Tell With Jesus! (Part 1) from Mike Todd on Vimeo.
Show & Tell With Jesus! (Part 2) from Mike Todd on Vimeo.

Grow Up

"If your prayer is not enticing you outside your comfort zones, if your Christ is not an occasional 'threat', you probably need to do some growing up and learning to love."
(Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs)

No R? No I?!

Craig Damrauer is an artist who renders abstract concepts in the orderly form of equations. This one in particular caught my eye for some reason:

(h/t to Dan Pink.)

The Long, Long Line of B to E

I just finished reading The Art of Possibility, thanks to Robert's encouragement. It is fantastic. Naturally, I needed to check out Ben Zander at TED. This is from last year, and I can only hope that his presentation from this year will be up soon.

Where The Wild Things Are

I'm looking forward to this one:

Dead Aid II

As a follow-up to this post, I'm now awaiting the arrival of my copy of Dambisa Moyo's new book, Dead Aid.

Aid to Africa is a huge issue, and I want to expose myself to as many different points of view on the subject as I can. I do think Charlie Rose seemed to hit the nail on the head during the interview. He kept trying to bring up Moyo's clear Either/Or approach to the issue. But, she wasn't biting.

As far as I can tell (from the interview) Moyo makes a very clear distinction between NGO aid and government aid. I appreciate the distinction, and whole-heartedly agree that the NGO kind is better. But, I'm not willing, at least at this point, to rule out the necessity of government aid as well. Readers will know that I don't believe economics will save Africa. Capitalism won't either. The people of Africa will save Africa (and then they will turn around and save the west, but that's a discussion for another day.) I'm looking forward to reading the book.

In the mean time, the good folks at One.org have prepared a paper in response to Moyo's assertions. I'm going to read the book first, but I wanted to pass the link along to those of you who are interested in the subject.