Several months ago I had the opportunity to listen to and question Dr. Kevin Cosby, a man who speaks with the authority of one who has earned his bona fides in black America. As a child he stumbled over the feet of Martin Luther King when King was a guest in his family’s home. For 32 years Cosby has pastored what has grown into a church that runs some 10,000—mostly blacks—in its services and serves as the President of Simmons College.

Here are a few highlights from what he said:

• The black community in America has a leadership core offering solutions to problems that no longer exist. They persist as race antagonists and prey on blacks to keep themselves in power. He called them “poverty pimps.”
• The civil rights movement wasn’t about equality, it was about equal opportunity. You become equal by taking advantage of the opportunities that are afforded you and maximizing them. His message was basically one of: get an education, be a good citizen, work hard, and develop yourself.
• The last piece of civil rights legislation was the open housing law passed in 1968. This law made it illegal to discriminate against blacks in housing; no more white-only subdivisions. Prior to passage of this legislation, the black community was economically integrated. Affluent blacks and poorer blacks lived side-by-side in neighborhoods and communities. The communities remained socially and economically vital. However, with the passage of the 1968 open housing legislation, more affluent blacks began moving out of the inner cities into the suburbs. As a result, no one left in the inner city but the poor, who became socially isolated. As Cosby put it, “Segregation led to desegregation which led to integration which led to disintegration” of the urban core of urban America.
• Racism will slow you down, but the lack of education, character and a marketable skill will wipe you out.
• The cure to what ails black America is salvation and education.
• The church has many critics but no rivals when it comes to transformation.
• You can’t fix what you won’t face and can’t heal what you won’t reveal.
• Cosby said that blacks in America have been allowed equal opportunity, and when they got it, the didn’t take it. When I asked him why he said that the modern welfare state has created a culture of dependence which disabled black self-determinism.
• I asked him what percentage of the black culture espoused the philosophy he shared and he replied many did. He said that the black culture was generally very conservative and that the reason many of us thought otherwise was because only the loud-mouthed “poverty pimps” got press. Essentially he said the view many white folks like me had of black America was a media creation that didn’t accurately reflect black culture.

I like Cosby. He’s extremely articulate and well-reasoned. It’s a shame we can’t have guys this sharp running the country. But, it’s a blessing that we’ve got guys like this rebuilding the inner cities and running the educational institutions that will create the next generation of Christ-followers.

It was a glorious October day as I puttered about the farm on Saturday. Puttering is about all I’m up to these days. I’m shocked at how slow recovery has been since being released from the hospital. I kinda thought once I was good to go, that meant I was good to go. NOT! So….I sleep, and rest, and putter.

I do my greatest thinking while puttering, and on Saturday I was thinking about all the fuss in the news about Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. I won’t weigh in on the core theological issues—-though I will tell you I’m pretty sure the Mormon nurse that shoved a tube the size of a garden hose up my nose and down into my stomach last weekend and sucked out 2 liters of nasty is probably a candidate for sainthood—-but I will share a thought that hit me as I contemplated “What could evangelicals learn from Mormons?”

Certainly, there’s a lot we could learn on the issues of health, industry, and family. But what really intrigues me about Mormonism is how well they have done with virtually no paid clergymen. As I understand it, Mormon churches (called “wards”) and districts/synods/associations/dioceses (called “stakes”) are all led by volunteers. Volunteers, undoubtedly skilled, trained and equipped, but volunteers nonetheless are leading the churches and the ministries of Mormonism as it grows in popularity and influence across America. My Baptist-type friends could learn something from that.

Probably the two most influential protestant groups in American history have been Methodists and Baptists. It might interest you to know that in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries both of those groups grew rapidly with mostly non-professional, un-paid, volunteer clergy. Meanwhile professional-dependant denominations—-like the Episcopal Church, for one—-we’re largely marginalized, just like mainline denominations have been, and low-church groups like my own Baptist sect are being reduced to irrelevance today.

It seems to me that volunteer-led religious movements have a flavor of “by the people” to them. They are almost the “Tea Party” of religion in America. They have a vitality that well-educated, highly-trained, well-paid professionals are largely incapable of producing. There is something about simple people sharing honest faith lessons and praying honest prayers that is very powerful. Yet credential those same people, put them in a robe, a suit, or in an official position seen as “above” the people and the same lessons and same praying loses its punch.

Anytime I bring up the notion of laity-led ministries and churches, my pastor friends (read “I get a paycheck from the church”) are quick to “poo-poo” me as an ignorant simpleton. They trot out Paul’s phrase from Corinthians that “those who preach the gospel should get their living from the gospel” as a proof text in defense of their position. Unfortunately, they simply don’t get it. I’m not against a person being paid for doing ministry. I’m against ministry being reserved for those who get paid to do it. The Body of Christ suffers when pastors fail in their Biblical mandate to equip those under their teaching to do the work of ministry. The influence of the Kingdom of God wanes when we reserve it for certain people to wield influence. Far better, I believe, to teach them HOW to do ministry work and then unleash the gifts, talents, and experiences of people who are in our churches. That’s the Mormon model, and we could learn something from it. Moreover, it’s the Biblical model and we should be profoundly cautious when we deviate from it.

A church should measure its success and effectiveness on how many people it has equipped and released for ministry, not how many gather in its pews on Sunday. In fact, wouldn’t it be kinda cool if on Sunday the church building was mostly empty because all the members were out ministering somewhere.

Success is life is alot like success in driving. You’ve gotta keep your eyes focused on the road ahead instead of gazing off to the side.

Whatever we think about is what we are “looking at” in our subconscious. It has our attention and focus. And, focus produces results!

What happens when you are driving down the road, and instead of looking ahead, you gaze off the road and—more than a mere glance—you look intently at something beside the road? You steer toward it. You drive your vehicle toward what you are looking at. It’s the same way with what we think. Much—if not all—of what we produce in our life is a result of how we focus our thoughts. They become things.

What have you been thinking intently about? What are you focused on? I bet it’ll come to pass!

You really can change your future by changing your thinking. It’s always been that way, and always will.

One of the foundational principles I teach is: Thoughts become Things. Everything that exists, was first a thought. You are here because of a thought that one or both of your parents had toward one another. Look at whatever sits around you right now and ponder how it was invented or developed. The process began when a thought was conceived.

Thinking is the most important resource we have. That’s why it is so important that we think well; what I call “Right Thinking.”

The major foundational character in Judaism, Islam and Christianity is a person named Abraham. He had a son name Isaac who had a wife named Rebekah and sons name Esau and Jacob. The story is told (in Genesis 27) of how Rebekah and Jacob conspired to get a physically and visually diminished Isaac to “bless” Jacob (the second son) in the place of Esau (the firstborn). They hatched a plan and carried it out. For proof that it worked, consider this: today you hear about “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” You never hear about Esau. The vast majority of the world traces its religious lineage back through Jacob. Esau is all but forgotten. (By his own doing, but that’s a story we’ll hold for another day.)

As this story unfolds, when Esau discovers that Isaac has been fooled into conferring his blessing on Jacob, instead of him, Esau is furious. The scripture says he wept. He begged. And he held a grudge against his brother. Then he hatched a plan that when his father died, he’d kill his brother Jacob to reclaim his place as rightful heir to the father’s blessing and to the family’s power (sounds kinda like an Italian Mafia plot, doesn’t it?).

It’s in the hatching of this plan to murder his brother that the power of thought is revealed. When Rebekah learned of Esau’s plan to kill Jacob she called to Jacob and said “Your brother is consoling himself with the thought of killing you.” And she urged Jacob to leave town and go stay with his Uncle until Esau had time to cool-down and think different thoughts.

“Consoling himself with the thought” is a powerful phrase. Your thoughts either comfort you, or create pain for you. What have you been feeling lately? Comfort or discomfort? What is the root thought that you have been thinking recently? I’ll bet you a dollar to a doughnut that there is a connection between that root thought and the feelings you’ve been having.

Whatever we think about is never far from the front of our mind. I personally believe the power of our thoughts is greater in our subconscious than in our consciousness. Like marinating meat absorbs flavor from whatever we soak it in, our life absorbs the flavors of whatever we think about, even when we aren’t focused on that thought at that moment; it’s still close to the front of our mind. That’s why it is so important that we arrest our thoughts and focus them, instead of just allowing them to wander wherever they want to go. Healthy thinking is trained and focused on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, whatever is excellent, whatever is praiseworthy—think on these things.” (Philippians 4:7) Success. Health. Blessing. Prosperity. Abundance. Achievement. Those are all positive things to think about. And if you use your success, prosperity, and abundance to serve, bless and advance others, well, I’d say that qualifies as “noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and worthy of praise!”

Remember the pain or comfort, and the success or failure of your future is born on the wings of your thoughts.

You can’t afford not to think rightly!

If you are a front line leader, there’s something you’ve got to realize. Virtually no one is looking out for you. Oh, they may be looking for you, but not looking out for you. You’ve got to be sure you are taking care of yourself.

I don’t mean this in a selfish way, and I realize that it could sound a bit cynical. But its my observation that there are two kinds of people in the world, the suckling (the sucker), and the suckled (the suckee). Front line leaders are typically being sucked—in some cases—to death.

Several people need you, and many people want part of you. They want your advice, your input, your help, your direction, your thoughts, your comfort……..and leaders tend to love giving advice, input, direction, thoughts and comfort. They want you to serve on boards, give input to committees, and sit on conference calls. But here’s the thing: most of it doesn’t matter. For the most part they are going to do what they are going to do without really valuing your input. And, the input they need is actually available from many sources besides you. Since one of the signs of maturity is the ability to feed oneself, perhaps it would be wise of you to consider whether you really need to dish up all the meals you are serving, or whether you need to kindly allow them to feed themselves—elsewhere. (Michael Hyatt has written an excellent piece on saying “no” that you should read.)

Here’s the deal: The masses who need you aren’t going to be concerned with whether you’ve gotten enough exercise, or whether you are prayed up, or whether you’ve gotten enough think time, or whether your family is well-loved. They are just going to keep asking for more of you, until one day you discover that there’s nothing left of you to to give. Therefore, its your responsibility to take care of feeding and nurturing yourself so that you can be what other people truly need you to be.

There’s an old saying on the farm: “Good fences make good neighbors.” Be sure and build strong fences around yourself, not to keep people out, but to control the times and methods of access so that you can do the most important work of keeping yourself physically healthy, mentally energized, and emotionally and spiritually well-supplied.

Be sure and take care of you.