Matt McComas

I like reading. I try to be intentional with my reading over the summer when I have a bit more margins in life. I like to read a spectrum of things, but definitely think it’s a time for personal development. I always try add a fiction book too….it helps recharge this introvert. Here’s my list for this summer…

• The Advantage – Patrick Lencioni, organizational leadership guru, summarized his books for us. I’ve read them all, but this looks like a great refresher.
• Launching Missional Communities – I’ve loved the stuff I’ve read that Mike Breen has put out. This book looks super practical for our stage of ministry here in Portland.
• Church History in Plain Language – This is an area I feel weak in knowledge and the Kindle version was only $5 the other day. #boom
• Gospel Powered Parenting – Another area I feel weak in. Started this tonight and it looks good. Nice summaries at the end of each chapter.
• I also put two kindle books on hold at the library that Matt Mikalatos recommended. Whenever I’m looking for a good fiction read I always ask him. I can’t remember what they were, but I’m sure they’re good. By the way, did you know you can check out books at the library on a kindle? The future is now.

I’ve been fortunate to work with a small group of Cru staff from around the nation that are putting together a beta test of a virtual summer project experience for college students.  I’m really excited about the possibility of increasing students exposure to key spiritual formation content that could influence theme for a lifetime. There are a lot of questions still. Would you take a minute and comment on the following proposal. Do you see any major problems? Thoughts?

Loved this video on social innovation for the non-profit sector. Worth the time.

I recently was part of a working group trying to create a new product for college students to experience during the summer. It was a huge learning experience for me. We loosely followed the Human Centered Design process. The most helpful part for me was the Three Lenses of Human Centered Design. These are the three filters we ran everything we designed through as we tried to solve a specific problem.

I loved that it started with what the user wants in desirability, whereas often we start with what we as the organization wants. Here’s what the guide had to say…

The reason this process is called “human-centered” is because it starts with the people we are designing for. The starting point of the HCD process is to examine the needs, dreams, and behaviors of the people we want to affect with our solutions. We seek to listen to and understand what they want. We call this the Desirability lens. It is the lens through which we view the world through the entire design process.

 Once we have identified the universe of what is Desirable, we begin to view our solutions through the lenses of Feasibility and Viability. We carefully bring these lenses in at the later phases of the process.

Recently we hosted about 700 Cru staff and Northwest college students in Portland for our annual Cru Conference. They spent two afternoons sharing their faith and serving the city. This effort was called The Gospel in Real Life. It was a blast. Here’s a glimpse of some of the conversations that students had across the city.

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I just dove into the book Multiplying Missional Leaders by Mike Breen. This topic is near and dear to my heart and relevant to campus ministries in an urban context. I’ve been hearing lots of good things about 3DM. They are rethinking church for a Post-Christian environment. BTW I’ve been hearing the term Post-Christian a lot more frequently and I think it does a better job describing the environment of Portland rather than Post-Modern.

A couple highlights concerning the problem of a lack of missional leaders across the Christian faith…

This is why we so desperately need missional leaders — people who can lead us outside the safe confines of the church building and into the world that Jesus so loved so that his Kingdom may expand.

That’s because in most churches, we don’t have leaders; we have managers. We have people who are executing and managing the vision of the few (or the one), not people who are implementing the visions the Lord has given them. Usually we have one genius with a thousand helpers. And to plug-and-play those helpers, we have manager development programs.

If your church were suddenly given 250 missional leaders, would you have any idea what to do with them?

This problem is very relevant to our vision of seeing campus movements built up in the city. Are we fostering a culture of missional leadership or management amongst our staff, student leaders and volunteers?

These are the three densest blocks of population in all of Oregon….according to a recent article in The Oregonian. There are more than 2000 people living in these three high rise dorms at Portland State University. God loves the students who walk those hallways and sleep in those beds and yet many are hurting, living in isolation and have no idea that Jesus loves them immensely. I can’t wait for a day when every student who moves into those dorms can’t help but bump into a follower of Christ who can passionately explain how they can know Christ.

How are you going to where the people are at?