It’s Friday and I’m celebrating an awesome week of ministry and life. Hope you have a great weekend!

• Materious has created an umbrella with a samurai handle and appearance.
• Anton Repponen has released a prototype of running shoes made out of transparent silicon for Nike.
• Creative of the Week // Simon Schubert. Paper art, we meet again.
• Photo of the Week // Using the Oxford Comma. And yes, I still do.
• Video of the Week // A rice commercial with a powerful message: What about daddy?
• Thought of the Week // One glance at my Ministry Influencers list on Twitter reminds me how volatile faith and the Church can be. We need to play nicer.
  
• Quote of the Week // “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

Leadership is both a calling and a gift but the equality of the calling doesn’t guarantee an equality of gifting. In fact, it’s best when it doesn’t. For example… not all leaders are gifted towards public speaking roles. If we were all public speakers, then there would be no audience to learn from in response. It’s the quiet leaders who are the most influential at times, behind the scenes and in hushed conversations one-on-one as they inspire people to action through whispers and gentle encouragement.

Leaders need to understand how each position in their team fills a specific need and unmet portion of a greater vision. A massive corporation isn’t simply one CEO and 400 workmen. People exist such as Vice Presidents, Cabinet Members, associates, administrative assistants, and specifically directed support staff and liaisons to meet specific needs. They know their roles and what’s more, they know what would happen if their roles were to go unfulfilled or understaffed.

There’s a massive leap in influence and role responsibility from pawn on the front line to queen on the chess board. Leaders, find the unique niches of your vision that require exact fulfillment. There’s a good chance that specific needs are being unmet because the wrong person is trying to fulfill a role that they’re not gifted or inclined to fulfill.

Leaders, be creative with how you see the layers of leadership in your organization. These layers are far more complex than we realize so start studying. Take notes. Have good conversations. The effectiveness of your organization will change as you understand the uniqueness of its unmet needs and see how they layer into the organization as a whole.

One of the things that I love about the Gospel is that it invites people to “come and see.” When the women ran to tell the disciples that Jesus rose again, the message of the angels was for them to “come and see.” When Jesus called Peter and John, He didn’t perform a one-time miracle and then leave them. Jesus called them to come and follow Him.

It’s almost as if Jesus said, “This is only the beginning. Come and watch me change how you see things. Let me change how you think, react, process, and relate to the world around and the people in it.” It was a “come and see” moment.

In our postmodern culture today, the last thing we need is an “a-Ha, gotcha!” approach to the Gospel where we use carefully constructed arguments, hoping that it will mentally trip up the people who are asking great questions. It’s not our job as believers to convince people to follow Christ through clever arguments or by acting like we have all the answers. The Gospel is about us telling others around us to come and see how Jesus has already changed our lives.

We can’t save people. We can’t change people’s hearts and lives forever. We didn’t create the message ourselves; we’re only its carriers. Our job is to create the best echo that we can of the voice of God speaking redemption and hope and second chances into our hearts. In the words of an old missionary, we are beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.

Come and see what Jesus has done for me. Nothing will ever be the same again but it’s so much bigger than that. Come and see for yourself.

That type of introspective soul-searching is what started David Platt on his journey to navigate a life of following Christ in the middle of affluent America. His book, Radical, was created out of that journey as he wrestled through Jesus’ call on His followers to pursue dynamic discipleship. The entire work stands the idea of a “comfortable Christianity” on its head in light of Christ’s unapologetic call for His disciples to follow His steps in counter-cultural ways.

Platt does an excellent job of taking his readers through Radical in a way that leads towards a call of ultimate surrender. There are stories of seemingly ordinary people making incredible decisions to follow Christ in a fresh way that defies conventional wisdom in a heavenly-wisdom sort of way.

From a writing standpoint there are parts of Radical where Platt’s elaboration and setup for his premise could be trimmed to a more concise point. However, even in those parts the quality of the writing still remains intact. On the positive side, I like that Platt includes a practical section towards the end of this work that allows the reader to implement this whole idea of living a radical faith for an entire year and beyond.

I have already recommended Radical to a variety of people who are struggling with how parts of the Church in the United States can embrace affluence while seemingly ignoring the needs of their spiritual family in desolate places across our globe. Platt’s writing helps raise questions and challenges thinking as readers process their own perspectives and potential changes in thinking. This is a book that will continue to challenge the Church in America to consider the depth and fidelity of their commitment to following Christ.

Platt is the lead pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. Radical is published by Multnomah Books and is available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other leading bookstores.

I remember when I first caught a glimpse of Joe Paterno running out onto the field with Penn State. My grandpa is from Pennsylvania and he pointed JoePa out to me. It was the early 90′s and I thought JoePa was already old then as I watched him sport his Coke-bottle glasses and old blue sweater. What was it about this old guy that kept him pacing the sidelines for over four decades? That’s the question that was answered for me as I watched him through the years.

I’ve watched JoePa have some great years and some pretty crappy years at Penn State. His teams were usually well-coached players with a lot of red hair and last names that were hard to pronounce. Linebacker U. became the mantra of Penn State during Paterno’s era. Actually… everything about Penn State happened during JoePa’s time there. One of my favorite memories of JoePa was a small blip in a Big Ten commercial where he made a plea at the end for recruits to “Come to Penn State!” For whatever reason, I thought it was funny.

JoePa was a legend at Penn State, no doubt about it but the Sandusky scandal at Penn State threatens to put a huge stain on his legacy. The greatest lesson that I’ve learned from JoePa in this scandal was that the best of men are still men at best. We all make our mistakes but it shakes the world a little harder when our heroes are the ones making them.

Was Joe Paterno wrong with how he handled the Sandusky allegations? Yes. Does it erase forty years of quality leadership, honor, and integrity? Absolutely not. He was idolized around Happy Valley, an icon in the eyes of millions in Nittany Lion nation, but he was also imperfect.

JoePa was just a man with great leadership, a lunch-pail work ethic, and plenty of his own faults. Will one terrible mistake be the mark of his legacy or will it be about the high school graduates that he helped shape into men of honor? Only time will tell.

How will you remember Joe Paterno?