I was recently talking with one of my colleagues in Arkansas at the mobilization office about different projects we are working on. (The mobilization office runs the programs that get others involved in missions: Perspectives and Every Ethne.) One such project they were working on was a new website for Every Ethne. I haven not mentioned Every Ethne much (or at all) however it really deserves to be mentioned.

What is Every Ethne? Well in their own words:

Every Ethne exists to engage, equip, and connect college students to their most strategic role in completing the Great Commission.

Our goal is not to start new collegiate ministries, but instead to come alongside the ministry staff of existing church and para church collegiate ministries. With their blessing and collaboration, our desire is to provide students in their ministries with strategic mission resources, community and coaching.

Our vision is to see God ignite a movement of college students that are consumed with a vision and passion to see every ethnic people group reached with the good news of Jesus Christ in this generation.

When I joined staff in 2008 they were 4 people strong. Now that number has grown to around 20 (not sure of the official count). It is by far the fastest growing ministry of the FMF/USCWM. They are very involved on their respective campuses and the impact they have is significant. Our college campuses represent some of the most fertile ground for recruiting workers for God’s work. This ministry taps into that with great success and in my opinion is one of our most important programs we have here.

Given the growth of Every Ethne and their web savvy audience it is a priority to get a new website that better servers their needs. A place they can go to get the resources the need, find out more about how they can be part of God’s work around the world, or even consider joining staff.

The staff in Arkansas was running into a few issues getting this project done, and asked if I could help. I took the Photoshop comps I had received from their designer, made a few tweaks and changes, and am now well on my way to getting this site done. One thing is sure. I’ve learned a lot in the last 2 years. What used to take days now takes me hours. I find myself using some clever tricks I’ve picked up from places like Smashing Magazine or CSS Tricks. Basically, I’m having fun making this one.

It is not done, still work to be done, but have a look here. If you want to know more about Every Ethne, check out their existing site.

A couple from Khazikstan has been visiting the U.S. and our campus for the last few months. He is a “MBB” who is very open about his faith and his culture. We recently had a chance to hear his testimony and video tape it for others to hear. Sadly, that is not finalized yet and Kevin, our video guy, left on vacation until Aug. 10. At that time you’ll get to see this video. So until then all you get are some background, a few thoughts and observations and some off the cuff amateur theology on my part. Consider this part 1 of ???

Let me just begin by saying this. I have a degree in Biology, I made soap like products for almost 10 years, and now develop websites, video and other media. You won’t find any seminary training in there, or deep study of missiology. The following are my observations on what others are doing. I’m still processing it, but thought I’d at least share what is happening.

What is a Muslim Background Believer (MBB)? Insider, C5, MBB..these are just some of the names and terms given to people like this. Like what? People who identify themselves as coming from a Muslim culture, have discovered who Jesus (Isa as they call Him) is, follow Him, yet continue to retain their Muslim identity and culture. If you were to ask one if they are a Muslim or a Christian they would answer, “Muslim”. Well, many would actually say something like “follower of Isa”. The fact is a “christian” is not something they want to be. To them it means the stereotype of a person in the movies they see, the music stars we hear, and others; who has little regard for God’s teachings yet identifies themselves with God in some small way. Besides, to them being a Muslim is far more than a religion or faith. It is a culture, who they are. They want to stay “Muslim” yet follow Jesus.

I’ll also tell you what this isn’t. It is not a Uniterian like belief that the Muslim faith is the same as Christianity. No one is saying both are valid paths to an eternity with God. Rather they are agreeing that Jesus, not ‘religion’ is the way. It doesn’t matter what you do, quote, where you were born, what your culture is. It is all about Jesus.

Confused? Having a hard time figuring out what this all means? Ready to cry ‘blasphemy!’? Don’t worry, you are not alone. The fact is this.The MBB phenonenon is very real. Across Muslim areas around the world God is doing something. Muslims are coming to Jesus in large numbers. The exact numbers are very hard to know for many reasons. However even the smallest estimates are enough to raise an eyebrow.

God desires all ‘peoples’ (cultures) to follow him. He does not want a homogenous group of people with the same culture who sing the same worship songs. God is a God of diversity. Just look at creation. God wants creativity and variety in how we worship Him. What better way than for each of the ~17,000 people groups of the world to be represented in heaven and adding their unique flavor to the worship? But what does that mean when culture and religion meet?

How should the Church respond? What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? How does this impact Missions and how we should send/prepare missionaries? These are just some of the questions that the U.S. Center for World Mission and other organizations are wresting with. The USCWM does not claim to have the answer. The best we can do right now is stimulate discussion and honest critique of this topic. Greg Livingstone, founder of Frontiers and Muslim missions expert, uses the analogy of a trampoline. Some people stay in the middle with great care. Others bounce all around, flip and push the limits. At times they go too far and need a spotter to push them back on track. That is what we are trying to do. Be those spotters to keep them effective, yet on track. Whenever possible we also take new insights and develop them in ways that can help other missionaries see an increase in the advance of the Kingdom of God in their area of ministry.

Consider this an intro to the topic with the video to follow. I will say this about the video. The man is very young in his faith, English is his third language, and his culture is not one that lends itself to succinct answers. In the end its hard to know what he means by what he says at times. You won’t get direct sound bite answers and profound theological assessments. What you will get is an interesting look into the life of a “Muslim” who loves Jesus more than any religion.

If you’d like to learn a bit more about missionary work with Muslims you may be interested in the following video. It is a one hour presentation from Greg Livingstone, founder of Frontiers (they work in all but one Muslim nation and among Muslim people in many other nations). I’ve also ripped an mp3 that you can download (PC: right click > save as;  Mac: control click > Download linked file as…otherwise it will probably just play in your browser) and listen in iTunes, iPod, or any MP3 player since the video is not important to his message.

Feel free to leave comments below. I’d like to hear what others think about this topic.

It all started with a rack. Kevin, the guy who knows every nook can cranny of the campus, knew of a rack not being used. These are those big steel cabinets you bolt electronic equipment into. The old switch closet had a very nice heavy duty rack that had one network switch in it. The other rack had plenty of room. So he and the IT guy moved the lone switch over, and then hauled the rack into the studio. It sat there for a few weeks, until the other day when I finally grew tired of how cramped and untidy the studio was. 

When I finished mounting the equipment in there I wasn’t sure where to put it. Thats when I began moving furniture around. Kevin then told me of a nice computer workstation that was in his old IT office. No one had claimed it so we decided to move it over to the studio to replace my cramped cheap walmart desk I had been using. Note…it is best to secure disassembled desk parts with rope when moving them across campus on a flat bed golf cart. Particularly if your travels will take you up a somewhat steep section of road. Just saying….

After a few shuffles of things we finally settled on a new arrangement and organizational strategy for the studio. The net result is it is MUCH more organized, looks so much more professional, gives us more space and ultimately will make it much easier to use and keep clean. I must admit, I wish I could work in there. Not only does the studio have the best AC in the building, but it has the best workstation I’ve used. I must say, it really is a nice setup. See the photos for more details.

Nest up…my office. Enough of the white walled pack rat storage facility. Time to clean up and create an office I can actually host people as we discuss their web/video needs!

This weeks top priority is getting the WCIU Properties site updated to better serve the conference services folks (note: still in development, no real content there yet). The campus here has a number of rooms that can be used to host conferences, meetings, events, etc. There are also overnight guest rooms and a cafeteria. Everything people would need to host a conference or all day meeting here.

Most of the time these rooms are empty. That means no income. No income means the university can’t do as much for its students. You see, WCIU is a non-profit university. The primary goal is to allow people from around the world to get a degree (Master or Ph.D) in International Development. Teach community leaders not just how to apply band-aid fixes to problems, but rather to get to the root of these problems and address the root causes. Right now the students pay a very low rate for these programs. The more income the university has, the more they can do to lower costs, spread the program to new communities around the world and more to help with problems that seem to have no end.

My task is to make this part of the website a place they can use to advertise and market the conference services offered. Visitors can see what rooms we have, how much they cost, and all the additional services that come with it. In addition to the website work I’ll also be taking high quality photos of each room. Another fun project in the works is a video. A writer is developing a script for the video that Kevin and I will be producing in the coming weeks.

If you ever need to host an event in the LA area, WCIU’s campus is available!

One of the big changes that came in June was the addition of Kevin to my ‘web’ team. I prefer to call it ‘New Media’ or ‘Digital Media’, but around here we go by ‘Web Team’. Anywho…back to Kevin.

Kevin has been around campus since…well, I’m not sure. Asking and finding out would almost spoil the mystique. I do know he has been around long eough to know just about everyone who has ever worked here and every little factoid about the campus and the organization. He has been part of the old Frontier Media team, then IT, and now is back working behind the camera. We spent June getting him up to speed on the new technology and reorganizing the studio space. Cameras have gone from S-VHS to 1080P HD (tapeless mind you) and the software has seen many version updates and significant changes. He is a great learner and eager to get back up to speed on the latest tools and techniques.

No sooner did Kevin come on board did the need for our expertise become more in demand than ever. The organization wants to video tape meetings so our members around the world can watch (we have more members outside Pasadena than here on campus). The founder of Frontiers (and former USCWM staffer), Greg Livingstone, gave a hour long presentation on working in Muslim nations (Frontiers is in every Muslim nation but one). Sorry, that one likely won’t be made public. A film-maker for OMF was on campus working on a co-production with Perspectives. I was camping with Emily (more on that later) so I missed out on that one. Kevin helped him with everything from location scouting to operating the B roll camera.

This week we are recording an interview with another guest on campus. Maksat is what is often called a “Muslim Background Believer” or MBB for short. MBBs are muslims who follow Jesus. Much like Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah, MBBs retain their cultural identity, but do so with Jesus as their Lord. I’m sure you probably have many of the same questions I do. I’ll be sure to post a follow up and hopefully some video of that when it is ready.

There are many more ideas we have for using video to help mobilize and train people for missions. I had been wanting to do so many things with video in the last 2 years. Now that Kevin is around we can finally begin to see these happen. Video is one of the most compelling forms of media there is. People can’t get enough of it. Facebook, YouTube, and other technologies have made spreading the word super easy and essentially free. We are exited to be able to produce these and get them out there to further the Kingdom of God. Be sure to follow us on Facebook to find out as soon as these go live.

My birthday was June 29th. Emily wanted to surprise me with something. She had the week off so we decided to make a week of it. The fun began June 26th.

After packing the back of her Santa Fe with all the camping gear we could need (and some we didn’t) we began the drive north to King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Park. These two parks are just a bit south of Yosemite, neither of us had been there. Weekends at Yosemite are notoriously crowded and we decided to avoid the crowds and explore some place new.

We arrived around early afternoon and began looking for a camp site. After driving through the 4 available in Cedar Grove we finally found a nice quite spot in the back. This proved to make our stay even more interesting.

Apparently there are bears in the area. Not just any bears. Talented bears. Bears that know how to open locked dumpsters. You see, if you push them over, the heavy lid will fling open and that has enough force to snap the chain keeping it closed. Not to show off these bears do this around 2 or 4 am. How do I know? I heard them. The first night I wasn’t sure what it was. My suspicions were confirmed in the morning when I saw the overturned dumpster and bear droppings (or ‘skat’ as I believe they call it). Apparently a mother bear and her two cubs make the campsite dumpsters part of the routine each night. The second night was more fun. I woke up and heard something walking past the tent. Then something else on the other side of the tent. Then something else. Yup, our campsite was one they passed through on the way to dinner. Check out the photos in the gallery to see some from the morning after.

After 3 days touring King’s Canyon and Sequia we headed up to Yosemite. Even though it was a Wednesday it was still super croweded. We drove through the valley, saw the sites, then headed north to Tuolume Meadow. Wow, what a place. Words can’t describe it. But I’ll try. Huge open meadows, creeks everywhere you look, and huge snow capped peaks all around. Truly an amazing place.

OK, so then what? What about the birthday surprise? Well that was next. Emily and our parents had conspired to go white water rafting on the American River. We started on the Middle fork, a class 3 and 4 river. The first major rapid was the biggest, Tunney Shoot. I’ve put photos in the photo gallery, worth looking at. It was a huge rush and so much fun. Our guide, Chris, was from Australia and made the trip so much more fun. He was a taleneted rafter (thats a word I made up for people who guide rafts), a funny guy, and a good cook. Did I mention they cooked breakfast and dinner at the campground? Definitely the best birthday present I’ve had. Thank you everyone!

Well thats about it for our trip. Go look at the photos. But first, I’ll leave you with this short video sample form the first few days of our trip. (If it does not play smoothly, click the button that says “HD is on”.)

I’ve wanted to get my photos on line here for a while. I could take the easy way out and use some flash based stuff. However I want to add a few more tools to my belt. That means using some JQuery (that someone else wrote), Expression Engine, and my own CSS.

Pardon the completely non-functional photo gallery section with boring placeholder stuff. I figure doing this live will make me want to get it done faster.

Time will tel….

This morning in our meeting, Dave (the General Director aka big boss) played a video from You Tube that explains recent (and old) research that explains what motivates people.

It is 11 minutes long, but well worth the time. The content is great, the presentation is even better. Seriously, this guy’s talent is impressive.

Anywho. The point of the video is to say that we are not motivated by money in our ‘work’. They even say that for more complex tasks a financial reward (ie bonus) makes one’s performance go down. What does get the most out of people?

Autonomy. People like to direct themselves. A software company in Australia has found that employees produce the best work, most innovative ideas and have the most fun during their periodic 24 hour “do what you want” days. The only rule: show what you did with the time. Though not in this video, Google has as similar program that accounts for some of Google’s best non search products (Gmail for one). Here at the USCWM I’ve been able to function in a way that allows me to see what needs exist and build tools to help meet those needs. I do this with direction and a general framework of what priorities are from leadership, however my day to day work is largely left up to me to manage. Even when at Unilever I found this to be my most productive way to work. Tell me what the goal is, set me up with some guidelines and let me go.

Mastery. As they say in the video it is why we pick up new hobbies and interests. People like to get better at things they enjoy. A few years ago I found I really enjoyed web design and development. I also enjoy video and media production. This goes along with my general interest in all things technology. It should then come as no surprise that I really do enjoy learning more about the work I do, how to do it better, and how to improve the quality of the products I develop here. While I’m far from mastering any of these, i’ve made great progress and continue to look forward to learning new things.

Purpose. While I always enjoyed the things I do here, I’ve never had as great a purpose for doing them. This can be evidenced in how this site, dougeli.com tends to lag behind my learning curve. I could do things to make it better, but I’d rather put that time and effort into other sites that have a greater purpose. That is why I can’t wait to get to the office and get working on the updates and enhancements to any of the 10+ sites I’ve developed for programs and projects here. Those sites actually help further God’s work and advance his Kingdom. Having a purpose to get to the office and use these skills really does make a difference.

As I tell people all the time. I really do enjoy coming to the office on a Monday. I even hesitate to call it ‘work’. This video really resonated with me. I’ve never thrived as much in all the other roles and jobs I’ve had. I don’t look at my work as a 8-5 job. Rather I look at is as a part of my life that I focus on from 8-5ish (or later if Emily is not waiting for me) and gets a good deal of my attention during other times as well.

Those three key aspects that motivate people are all in play for me and it really does make a difference. I have never been so happy to work so hard and it sure isn’t for the salary!