Dave Gibbons is the founding pastor of Newsong Church, a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, multi-continental, multi-site church in Irvine, CA, named as one of the most innovative churches in America by Outreach Magazine. Gibbons also leads the Newsong Global Alliance, a catalytic church organization with expanding, worldwide reach into Asia, Central America, and Europe. The author of The Monkey and the Fish, Gibbons is a vision-oriented leader known for his insightful thinking on the future of the church. He brings expertise on “Third Culture” leadership and the top skills and experiences every leader will need to reach our global culture with the gospel.
- Sometimes things aren’t always what they appear to be.
- Two Greatest Commandments: love God, love your neighbors as yourself.
- There’s a problem with our interpretation.
- Who is our neighbor?
- We’ve defined it as being someone like us.
- Although we might say differently, our practice reveals it.
- McGavern said: “Likes attract.”
- We came up with demographics and targeted people that are like us… resulting in our churches growing and developing a consumeristic church.
- God has called us to develop a church that is contrarian.
- It’s not normal, it’s abnormal.
- It’s the path of a third culture leader
What Third Culture?
- Third Culture is adaptation
- It’s painful adaptation, it’s not easy.
- Third culture is the mindset and will to love, learn and serve in any culture, even in the midst of discomfort
- We tend to orphan ideas which leads to personal discovery.
- Jesus told stories that seemed simple but they were truly explict.
- It’s normal for us to love someone like us.
- Our call is to love people who are not like us.
The Third Culture Leader is Focused on the Fringe
- Focused more on misfits, not the masses.
- Most of us focus on those who are like us.
- In order to make a change in culture, you need to focus on the early adopters.
- The people on the fringe tend to be the ones who set trends.
- Example: dooce.com
- If there’s ever a time we can impact culture, it’s right now.
- Those on the fringe and the margin lead movements.
- Vision typically starts in the center and moves outward.
- In God’s economy, the misfits on the fringe push vision inward.
- Jesus was the greatest misfit… he didn’t go to the city center, he went to the fringe.
- Who’s the outsider in your community?
- What Hinders Us from Loving on the Fringe? Our metrics.
Third Culture Leaders Have Different Metrics
- Failure is success.
- Failure is our platform to humanity.
- It’s our resonance.
- It gives our voice quality to connect with our generation.
- Our weakness and failures are gifts from God so we can make a difference in the world.
- Most of the world doesn’t understand success, but they understand failure.
- We shouldn’t just look at financial resources, we need to look at human resources.
- How do you assess people’s talents?
- There’s more to people’s strengths… there’s their story.
- The most important thing is people’s story… do you have time to listen to them?
- When you walk through big crowds, walk slowly. See the people.
- We need to start seeing people with the eyes of the Father.
Weakness guides us more than our strengths.
- How do we quantify our vision?
- Haven’t we already been given the vision? Love God. Love your neighbor.
Relationships trump vision.
- You can’t have great vision unless you have a great relationship with God.
- Jesus only did what He saw His father doing (John 5)
- We need more relationaries, not visionaries.
- People who know what it’s like to see and feel the pain, not just know about it.
- We need different metrics in the church.
- We usually don’t see them until God allows pain into our lives.
How His Life Changed
- Priority Shifts… what’s your 70/30?
- He spends more time equipping leaders than on sermon prep.
- The best discipleship happens with life on life, not programmed through five classes.
- It’s a decision and resolve to live with people.
- He made a decision to live with people who are different than him.
- He reads people different than him.
- Goes to conferences where he doesn’t see the same people.
- Medici Effect: effect that happens when you get multiple domains together and the brilliance that emerges from them.
- Design/Space shifts – each location has it’s own style and is it’s own not-for-profit.
- Lets the indigienous leaders lead.
Third Culture Leaders Value Obedience More than Passion
- To often we equate passion to a feeling.
- Jesus didn’t “feel” like going to the cross.
- It’s more about obedience than what you feel.
Four Acts of Obedience
1 – Deeper collaboration
- When we talk about spiritual gifts, it’s not just contained to an individual church, what if the gifts were all of the churches in the individual cities? Each contributing its own strengths.
2 – Communal living
- We need to choose to live together.
- We need to have an “open door” policy.
3 – Prayer
- All great movements of God have a fundamental element of prayer.
- The church doesn’t believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Do you beleive the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you?
- If you did, you’d pray!
4 – Radical sacrifice for the outsider.
- Are you willing to die to your own values?
- Are you willing to move to another culture?
Our calling is lovely to us, but we need to see the beauty of it.
The world will take notice of our great God if we embrace the vision of adaptation.
