Since moving to Cumbria I’ve got into listening to podcasts a lot more. Life is generally more spread out here, and so work commitments often involve popping in the car to burrow up into the Lakes or getting on the train to trek along the Morecambe Bay coast. Consequently podcasts are a brilliant way to make the most of the time. (And anyway, I need to listen to something, ‘cos if I don’t then I start monologuing like some lonely version of Peter Kay’s Car Share.)

One of the podcasts I’ve been particularly enjoying is Barnabas Piper and Todd Adkins’ 5 Leadership Questions. They’ll interview various guests in positions of leadership and ask them five questions, but it’s always got a fairly light-hearted conversational tone. Episode 21 looked at ‘Leadership Differences by Generation’, and Brad Limerick joined Piper & Adkins to consider how leadership models and expectations differ from generation to generation. It was a fascinating conversation.

My ears particularly pricked up when they talked about what millennials (i.e. Generation Y, or those born early in 1980’s to early 2000’s) could learn from previous generations, be it Generation X (born early 1960’s to early 1980’s) or Babyboomers (born post-WWII to early 1960’s).

As someone who falls into the millennial bucket (as would Piper), I figured it was worth jotting these cultural ‘correctives’ and giving them a mull over for myself. Where am I slipping into the ‘millennial default’?

So here they are:

1. Learn to stick with it. Don’t just flit to the next thing. Be persistent and patient and hard-working.
2. Don’t overlook things you really ought to be doing. Discharge your responsibilities rather than ignoring them for the sake of your ‘passions’. How you handle your now will determine your next.
3. Respect the leaders that have been put in place over you. Actually have some integrity, even if you disagree. Don’t let frustration bubble into disrespect.
4. Maybe just shut up and listen. Stop talking and instead take notes. Learn.

What do you make of those? Guilty as charged, or have they missed the point? It was interesting to see that Miriam Swaffield has recently challenged a perceived emphasis on the 18-30’s generation, and instead reminded us all that 18-30’s need the wider church.

I realise there’s only 4 things listed above, but, hey, 5 sounds like a better blogpost.

So, what would you add to the list for a fifth?

Perhaps you’re a Gen-X’er and you think my generation need to learn some lessons? Or maybe you’re a millennial but you can’t stand the culture we’re forming for ourselves? Pop your thoughts down below. Or just recommend me a new podcast.

Part of the reason I blog is to reflect. Life happens, and sometimes it happens pretty fast. If we’re to learn and to grow and to see the hand of God at work, not least in shaping us, then sitting down, taking a breather and reflecting upon life is pretty crucial.

As anyone familiar with the adult learning cycle will know, it’s a key element of how we develop. That might just be analysing a simple cause and effect we have observed, or it might be more ‘ponderous’: re-running a crucial conversation over in your mind, looking back with a friend on a sermon you gave, or just ‘debriefing’ the day, as my wife likes to call it.

The challenge I find is building the time in. Time is needed to consider questions like ‘How is that going?’, ‘What could we have done differently?’, and ‘What’s God teaching us through this?’. At college we have a particular module called ‘Theological Reflection’, and the aim is to give us that time. Time to talk with peers about what we’re experiencing at the churches we’re based in. I remember initially, it’s fair to say a few of us were a bit sceptical. What? Time just talking and thinking? But actually it’s proved to be one of the highlights of each week.

Now obviously reflection needs a mark stick. We need to have some sense of what we’re meant to be aiming for, some sense of what is excellent and what is healthy and what is beautiful. There’s a lot of good wisdom out there, but as Christians that ultimately comes down to the Scriptures.

But if we have the mark stick but no time to reflect, then chances are we plough on without really ever checking whether or not what we’re doing is just being done because that’s-the-way-it’s-always-been-done kinda thing. Or whether or not we’ve actually set a course for some pretty unhealthy waters. Or maybe we just miss the opportunity to give thanks to God for what he’s doing in our lives. Yep, reflection gives us a chance to take stock. And like with the original sense of that phrase, our stock could be running on empty, it could have gone past its sell by date, or it could be full of good things to share. The way to find out before it’s past us by is to take time to reflect.

As this little piece below from 99U says,

“We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience.”

Read more at: Reflection Is the Most Important Part of the Learning Process – 99U. By the way, 99U’s weekly email is one of my favourites. You can subscribe at the top of their main page. When it comes to stimulating pieces on management, creativity and leadership, it’s often a rich treasure trove of common grace.

What do you think? When and how do you reflect, and in what area?

I’m a real latecomer to the Band of Brothers party (admittedly, 13 years is pretty late!), but in this case I think better late than never. I’m finding HBO’s World War II mini-series is proving to be a great way for a father to bond with his three month old daughter when Mummy is out (bear in mind that at this stage good bonding is in part defined by its ability to send the little one to sleep).

I’ve just watched Episode 7, The Breaking Point. Easy Company (whom the whole series follows) are in the midst of defending their position in face of some pretty hefty German shelling and amidst some awful weather conditions. As they prepare to advance and regain the town of Foy in Belgium, the episode basically plays out as a powerful study on leadership, examining and questioning the actions of the Company’s commander, 1st Lt. Norman Dike.

At one point, 2nd Lt. Lipton makes this damning but perceptive assessment of Dike:

“He wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.”

Dike is portrayed as being often absent from the presence of his men, getting the nickname ‘Foxhole Normal’ for hiding out in his bunker during most attacks. At a critical point in the attempt to take Foy, Dike freezes on the battlefield, unable to give orders, and his men are essentially left leaderless and completely exposed.

What happens is all the more powerful when you remember that the show is based upon on real events that near enough happened as they’re portrayed. Real people and real lives.

It’s an effective reminder to me that not making decisions is probably worse than making poor decisions. At least with the latter, you’re soon presented with the opportunity to learn from your mistakes. However, when one fails to decide, when one fails to act – whether that be in formal leadership capacities, or whether it be in our families and relationships – then we know the consequences can be critical. It’ll often leaves us directionless, drifting without growth or progress, and more so, it’s not difficult to see how it will probably effect others in the same regard: perhaps those whom we serve, perhaps our spouses and our children.

In this episode, Dike’s indecision is then sharply contrasted with the valiant Captain Ronald Spiers, the soldier who is sent into the Foy attack to replace Dike. Spiers is courageous: he is with his men and his men know what to do because he makes decisions and leads by example. The result at Foy is the stuff of military legend.

And it seems the Christian life is to be full of such decisive intentionality. We’re encouraged to be proactive in offering our bodies in living worship (Romans 12:1-3); we’re to set our minds and hearts on things above (Colossians 3:1-2); we’re to think upon that which is beautiful and true (Philippians 4:8).

I wonder if perhaps a good expression of intentionality is asking questions of ourselves: How am I doing spiritually? How is our marriage? How are we doing in seeking to share the gospel with those we love? Where are we going as a church?

By asking such questions I am confronted with the need to make decisions. And when I am confronted with the need to make decisions I am less likely to be like Dike and make no decisions.