The Cue

For the past few months, Westwinds has been retooling of all our naming conventions—a rebranding from top to bottom. Our titles, programs, facilities . . . everything was put on the table. Up for grabs. Nothing sacred.

Some of our old names and titles were difficult, wrapped in metaphors that were helpful when explaining methodology but not helpful in quick conversation. Case in point: “Coriolis” is the name of our leadership team. A wonderful metaphor taken from the Coriolis Effect, which creates movement (wind) with the uneven heating of the earth. Sounds awesome until I say, “Hi, I’m John Voelz, the Coriolis: Experience of Westwinds. Looks great on paper. Mysterious. Fun. But, a mouthful to say and in need of an explanation. So . . . we are changing it.

Some of our names were old, outdated, used, tired, boring. They were fresh once upon a time but after they were used by hundreds of youth groups and turned into names of soft drinks, they no longer felt special. Some of them screamed, "welcome to 1989." Such is the case with, “Fusion” –our weekend gathering.

The new name for our weekend gathering will be . . . The Cue.

In theatre, a CUE is a familiar term. Whether it’s a warning, a standby, or a go, the CUE tells us what happens next.

In music theory, a CUE is a guideline for instrumentation. It’s the “who plays what where” part of music. It can be a mark for improvisation of a specific instrument.

In the game of billiards, the CUE is what puts the game into motion. It’s the cue stick and cue ball that guide each ball into the pocket.

In motion picture film prints, the CUE marks a point on the reel when the film is ending and it is time to switch to a new reel to continue the projection.

In personal fitness, a CUE is a message given by a group fitness instructor to inform participants of upcoming sequences, such as a change in stretching direction, etc.

In technology, a CUE or show control is the linking together and operation of multiple systems in coordination with one another. An example of CUE or show control would be linking a video segment with a number of lighting cues, or having a sound track trigger animatronic movements -- or all of these combined.

In computing, a CUE (cue sheet, or cue file) is a metadata file which describes how the tracks of a CD or DVD are laid out. Cue sheets have a ".cue" filename extension. For an audio CD, a cue sheet specifies titles and performers for the disc and its tracks as well as the names of one or more audio files to be used (MP3, WAV, etc.).

At Westwinds, The Cue is not unlike all these things.

At The Cue (in The Cue?) we talk about new things, what’s next, where God is leading, and we fund dreams to shadow God in the redemption of the world. We listen to God and his word and we ask Him, “What next?” When we leave The Cue, we enter a world of possibilities. For the spiritually curious, the religious disenfranchised, the artist, the intellectual, and everyone in between—The Cue is a place to begin and a place to belong for your entire spiritual quest.

At The Cue, we are encouraged to find our part. Our special part. Sometimes, we play along as an orchestra, all parts scored. Sometimes, it’s our turn to break out in the solo—still in perfect harmony with the score but with our own feel, vibrato, style, and originality. As God made us—for His purpose.

The Cue is a place to go out from. In many ways, it sets things in motion. We gather. We disperse. We love on the world. We love on each other. We do something for the kingdom. It’s not just a place we go . . . to.

The Cue is about change. Originality. Authenticity. New life. Breath. Creation. Beauty. Seasons. We talk about where we’ve been and we talk about what the new season looks like. It’s a marker for us. Through series’, scripture, and seasons, one reel moves in to the next. We don’t just observe the movie. We are the movie.

The Cue is a place to check our spiritual health. To check our pulse. To stretch. To nurture. To learn new moves and routines. To learn how to create new healthy habits. To listen. To move. To tone. To feel the burn.

The Cue is about synchronization. The same page. Multi-sensory followership. Responding to God in worship with all that we are—heart, mind, soul, emotions, will, intellect, attitude, finances, body, habits.

And, The Cue is a place to be with everyone else who contributes a track to the playlist. We are the soundtrack. You are the soundtrack. The only difference is, these files are constantly being rewritten, remixed, reproduced, fine tuned, and rearranged. It’s a living soundtrack.

Welcome to The Cue.

I Believe These are Yours . . .

A couple of weeks ago, I sat with Pete Wilson and Anne Jackson in Nashville and enjoyed a wonderful lunch. There were so many things I enjoyed about our conversation—what attracts people to our churches, why our churches are growing, things we struggle with as leaders, creative communication . . . I was bummed our time ended when it did.

Towards the end of the conversation, Pete asked me what God was teaching me as a leader these days. David and I have been talking a bit about this same thing lately and seem to live in parallel universes when it comes to learning new things (go figure). So, the answer was easy for me.

God has given me my balls back.

I’m a fan of checking communication, getting feedback, safety in a multitude of counsel, and understanding perceptions count. I don’t desire to be a dictator, intemperate, callous, or insular. But, I also firmly believe there is a time to call BS—to stand up and say, “no, you’re wrong.” To stand up and say, “you will no longer be allowed to say those things.” To say, “you will not treat our people that way.” To say, “if you don’t like the way this is done, no love lost . . . there is a church down the road for you.”

The first year at Westwinds was about loving people, performing triage, and wiping bottoms. The second year we were trying to understand who we were and what we were becoming. The third year we began trying new things and feeling good about the responsibility we were entrusted with. Year four we finally came into our own, all the old ghosts were gone, we became confident and had our own personality. We feel like we are in such a great spot now—expectant, enthusiastic, and encouraged. God is speaking to the community of Jackson in and through Westwinds in tangible ways.

I’m not one to blame everything on a demon in the corner but I cannot dismiss the spiritual warfare that takes place when God’s people are unified and His church is flourishing. Many times this kind of warfare comes in the shape of those who wish to discourage, mock, slander, or air their discontent. These people come from the inside and also from outside the walls of the church—expressing their opinions and giving unwarranted and uninvited critique.

These people are often times leeches who when faced with the reality of no longer getting their way resort to name calling and finger pointing. These people are sometimes those who carry an air of entitlement. Sometimes, these people have sucked at the teat of a system that has never challenged them for so long they have forgotten what it is like to actually work in harmony but instead throw their weight around and make demands.

Not on our watch.

This week, without giving enough detail to pigeonhole the circumstances, I watched one of these folks prey on a staff member. I was angered and sickened.

At this time, I claim the words of Herb Kelleher—former CEO of Southwest—as my own. “Customers are not always right, and I think that is one of the biggest betrayals of your people you can possibly commit. The customer is frequently wrong. We don’t carry those sorts of customers. We write them and say, ‘Fly somebody else. Don’t abuse our people.’”

Hirsch on Church

Thursday, our staff had an opportunity to hear Alan Hirsch speak in the Detroit area. I have been a fan of Alan’s books for a while.

Alan spoke for an hour on leadership, ecclesiology, church planting, mission and incarnating culture. I knew before we got there that Alan was going to have a big dose of “doing the same thing we have been doing won’t work anymore” and I was right. But, Alan had some great food for thought and it is always wonderful to hear someone frame ideas in a way that is tangible and inspiring and moves you to action. Too, we can become deaf very easily to a sentiment we hear often and I am thankful for men like Alan Hirsch who breathe new life and perspective.

Here are some of my takeaways:::

• We’ve inoculated the world to the church. Christology should form Misisology, which should form Ecclesiology. Yet, we have got it jumbled up and we have placed our Ecclesiology on the front end.

• Are we planting more religious stuff or are we getting back to Jesus? We have lost our sense of what incarnation means. Jesus dwelled in the neighborhood 30 years. Jesus gave us a model of our own humanity. Our churches have little resonance with the person and work of Jesus. Jesus made booze for the rednecks of Galilee as his first miracle.

• Jesus always comes up in conversation as one of the top three greatest people who ever lived (Mother Theresa, Gandhi). That is leverage for us. The church is the mechanism to deliver the message.

• The church is not an afterthought in God’s mind—it is preordained. It is the Mystery of God in the mind of God for eternity. The church as a cultural historical entity must always express itself cross culturally. If the church was a business, we would say you have a great product but your delivery system stinks.

• Listen to the music of a culture in order to interpret how to reach it.

• We need to think like foreign missionaries. If we do, we will begin to kick it up a notch and behave like a missionary.

• Our knowledge of God is most profoundly mediated through the second person of the trinity. He plays the most significant role in our imagination when it comes to missiology.

• Don’t plant churches—plant movements or . . . plant gospel. A movement is an ongoing dynamic. We can learn a lot from China—the phenomena of growth mirrors the early church—the experts are swinging in the wind and the people of God are rising up. The church in China is not afraid to cry “BS! BS! BS!” to the norms of church leadership and conventionality. When planting a movement, we are not thinking about planting “our” church. Every believer is a church planter—every church is a church planting church. Every Christian carries within them the power of ecclesia.

• As soon as Luther discovered the priesthood of all believers, he hid it because it was threatening to the church, church leadership, and the reformation. It simply became a doctrine rather than a practice.

• All the things you think you need you don’t need. Stop thinking like a church—be a movement.

• Americans are still mad enough to plant movements—Europe has given up.

• Decline is as exponential as growth and the American church is about to become the next Europe—churches falling like dominoes.

• It’s not so much that the church has a mission but the mission has a church.

If you are a church leader, go buy all of Alan's books. You can buy them right from his website.