For my participation in the Dave Gibbons’ blog tour last week, I was given a copy of Dave’s new book The Monkey And The Fish: Liquid Leadership For A Third-Culture Church. Third-culture and the whole premise behind how Pastor Gibbons explains it has really spoken to me. I feel as if even though I feel more American than Japanese (in a cultural context), some aspects of engaging in various cultures connects with something in my inner being. At the heart of my soul I feel a kind of oneness with everyone. It’s as if I’m cross-cultural and multi-generational.
So, I eagerly sat down to read the book last night and felt a little disappointed. I wasn’t particularly fond of the writing style and felt as if Dave shared too many different voices in this book. Funny thing happens when I approach things like this with my own set of expectations. God always seems to hit me upside-the-head and show me the error of my ways. The more I read, the more it exposed questions I had. The more I wondered if the church is ready for this kind of culture shift. Finally, I realized what I believe the blessing of The Monkey And The Fish is going to be. I will be using it as a catalyst to facilitate conversation and deep thought within our core group of Revolution Church Sacramento as we prepare to gather for the first time tomorrow night. A lot of things I had thought of, but probably couldn’t quite express verbally or as concisely are presented in every chapter of Dave’s book. This is going to be a great tool that can be used to help us find our mission and do our part to embrace the third-culture concepts in a way that not only speaks to each of us in the church, but also causes us to be relevant to our community. As my friend Charles T Lee commented in an online chat last night, “The Idea Camp will never end.” How true (possibly prophetic) that statement really was!
My analytical, orderly mind saw randomness and too much input from other people in this book, but my creative aspect caused me to wonder “what if?” and to just listen and hear others speak to this and let Dave’s thoughts speak to them…to let Dave’s thoughts speak to me. Tomorrow is going to be a good night…a memorable night…a historic step forward for our community. I can’t wait!
