J.J. Buckfart* communications * environment * leadership * science *

Whenever a publisher claims that a book has unlocked some secret from the Scriptures, I tend to become skeptical.

The book description claims that “a map, hidden in the gospel of Matthew, is the key to awakening the sleeping giant in the church-men. Sounds like fiction, but it’s true. The apostle Matthew embedded a map into his gospel. History’s greatest men, including Christ himself, followed this map.”

The first half of The Map is a fictional narrative of murder, deception, and greed as an author, vicar and a monk fight to uncover the truth behind the map. It has a bit of a Da Vinci Code feel to it. The narrative kept me reading and dialogue was fairly believable.

The narrative introduces the idea that all men of greatness must embark the Three Jouneys of Jesus (as found in Matthew’s Gospel) in their lifetime:

1. the journey of submision (Matthew 1-7)
2. the journey of strength (Matthew 8-25), and
3. the journey of sacrifice (Matthew 26-28).

The second half of the book uses the narrative in a parabolic sort of way to unpack and apply the three journeys.

The metaphor of a traveller ascending a mountain using switchbacks is the central image in the book. The three journeys are one leg on a switchback, moving the traveller toward the mountain’s summit.

In many churches I have seen soft, and gentle men (Murrow argues these are feminine leaning traits). In other churches, I’ve seen almost militant, an aggressive men whose mission it was to take their city for Jesus – complete with the military metaphors (Murrow argues these are masculine leaning traits). I find both extremes repulsive. And that is the beauty of The Map. The Map gives men permission to journey into feminine and masculine realms.  It is actually quite healthy to journey between feminine traits (Murrow says submission and sacrifice are feminine) and masculine traits (Murrow says strength is masculine).

I think this book is a very important contribution to Christan Spirituality and Men’s Issues and has the potential to give men a renewed sense of mission in the North American Church. In some ways the book re-casts some of the concepts John Eldredge provides in “Wild at Heart.” But it’s different in that the book lays out a framework for how to live those concepts out.

Personal leadership and discipline are important in living a life that benefits humanity, and the overall created order. Men who have an under-girding of submission, who then lives of strength and sacrifice, will have the potential to changed the world.

NOTE: I received a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review from booksneeze.com.

Source: Stock Exchange http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1105487

You’ve been busted! Caught! Maybe you were caught in a lie. Maybe you stretched the truth on your resume and now find yourself in a job you cannot do. Maybe you’ve manipulated people and situations and now are being called on it.

We all have.

The test of a leader is what you do when you’ve been found out. Do you continue to try to smooth things over? Do you try to talk your way out of it? Or do you face the consequences and do the hard work of making things right?

What you’ve been trying to hid is now clearly in the open. “The Emperor has no clothes!” the young boy cries.

The toothpaste is out of the tube and cannot be put back in. Now the mess is obvious. Do you want to to clean it up? Or would you rather draw smiley faces with your dirty little fingers in the globby toothpaste puddle?

I just started reading Jacques Cousteau’s biographical book “The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus.” What an amazing story so far – shark attacks, poisoned air tanks, a narrow escape from an attack by indigenous people in S. America and an antarctic storm that almost made the Calypso inoperable. I am only a quarter through the book.

What is absolutely striking to me is how Cousteau risked his life on a number of occasions in order to follow his passion to explore the oceans. There is a whole section on how his team managed risk, and I think I will talk about that theme in another post. I think churches, businesses, etc. and learn a few things about risk from this explorer.

When equipment didn’t exist to allow Cousteau to explore, he and his teams would develop and test the needed equipment – sometimes nearly killing themselves. From the book, I learned that Cousteau and his team were the folks who first developed the regulator that makes modern-day SCUBA possible.

As I read, it struck me, “What if the church lived out our passion for God the same way Cousteau lived out his passion for underwater exploration? What if we became as passionate as Christ did, to make this world a better place seeing people’s lives changed for the better?”

We’ve become complacent. I don’t think we have fully allowed our passions to translate into any appreciable action. We don’t take risks often enough. Or perhaps even more discouraging (I hope I am wrong), we don’t have deep motivating passions for God; we don’t have deep motivating passions for seeking lives change for the better, we don’t have deep motivating passions for making the world a better place.

I think we the Church can learn a thing for two from this passionate captain of the Calypso.

It’s no secret that I am a proud alumnus of Lakehead University with a Diploma in Forestry, a BS in Natural Science and an MS in Forestry. I am very impressed with the direction Lakehead’s Orilla campus is going. They are planning to build the campus so it will meet LEED Platnum standards. In addition to being an environmentally sustainable construction this communicates to future students and faculty that Lakehead is a school with a positive global conscious.

You are probably wondering,  “What is LEED and why should I care?” LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It’s essentially a rating system to rate how “green” a new construction will be. Platinum is the highest level, with Gold, Silver and Certified following.

Apparently, this is the first campus in Canada with LEED Platinum. Thumbs up to  Lakehead’s president Dr. Gilbert and the architectural firm of Moriyama and Teshima who did the design.

Want more… Check out the Lakehead U. press release.

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