The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church

"The Monkey and the Fish" is about liquid leadership for a third - culture church, as the subtitle suggests. The author, Dave Gibbons, relates real life stories of the people of God in all parts of the world, including America, incarnating Christ to those that are marginalized by society and the church. It's both refreshing and inspiring to see what happens when people begin to think and act like Jesus. When personal and church agendas are laid aside so that the love of God can be manifested, it is amazing what God can do. Though the author doesn't say it, it becomes apparent that evangelical Christianity has botched the mission of God. We say that our top priority is to get people saved, but Jesus said our top priority is to love people. This book illustrates how people come to faith in Christ when they encounter the genuine love and acceptance Jesus offers through his people. It's natural and unforced, no striving to get people to say "the prayer", but trusting the Holy Spirit to do his work with them. On page 165, Dave Brubaker, a church planter working with the arts community in London says it this way: "We have talked about the whole conversion experience the church has prescribed, and how that maybe needs to be deconstructed. In our respective places around the world, what we're learning is just the power of showing honest, authentic love and concern for people. As we have been doing that, the response has just been so positive. It's intoxicating for people, and they taste it and they like it. But we often go, "Okay, make sure you sign and fill out this form," or, "Make sure you say this prayer." What we're seeing in London is we can trust completely in God and in his Spirit to be able to work in that person's life in a much more powerful way than we ever could. Get the book!

I recently finished "The Monkey and the Fish" by Dave Gibbons. Gibbons is one of the most innovative and foremost thinkers of how to bridge the gap between the "churched" and the "unchurched." He writes: "What many people around the world see is a version of Christianity created in our own cultural image, a Christianity with diminishing power and influence and filled with a lot of pride, self-centeredness, and wrongheaded metrics." My oh my, the quote above convicted me to the core. I began to think about all these questions: What is going to my legacy? What are we going to known for? As individuals...As a community...As a church...As Christians... That's one of the questions Gibbons asks us to consider. The world is changing rapidly (Btw, for those who are interested in just how fast the world is shifting, check this out: [...]. The world is moving in such ways that if we don't change some of our "golden cows," our forms, our idols, we will lose lots of people for the Kingdom. We must become like water. We must be comfortable with flow, adaptation, and fluidity. We must listen. In "The Monkey and the Fish," Gibbons tells a fable about a monkey who grew concerned for a fish that was swimming upstream. So the monkey hopped on a tree and leaned on a branch to take the fish out of the water. Scurrying back to safety, he laid the fish on the dry ground. For a few moments, this fish seemed excited. Then it settled into a restful peace. What's the point of this fable? The point is: We need to listen again. We don't need to just place our own agendas at the front. We need to get back to loving God and loving our neighbors. We need to return to the basics. We need to ReJesus. What's our legacy? What are Christians going to be known for? Hypocritical? Anti-homosexual? Judgmental? Or something more. Something greater. How about LOVE? How about UNDYING SUPPORT? How about CARING FOR THE LEAST OF THESE? How about HEALING? How about PRAYER and MIRACLES? FLUID? ADAPTIVE? OPEN TO CHANGE? UNDERSTANDING? DISCIPLINED? SPIRITUAL? DIVERSE? MULTIETHNIC? MULTILCULTURAL? The question is: "Did we point to HIM enough to make a mark on things?" That's the question - the ultimate question. What is going to be your legacy? And that's the question Gibbons answers. Become third culture. Not simple. Not vintage. Not emerging. Live life on life. Love people endlessly. Seek people on the margins. Nothing good, he reminds us, could ever come from Nazareth! Or could it? I highly recommend this book to anyone who is willing to be challenged.

This isn't your average leadership book written for the tired executive. This book is written for the searching Christian leader who desperately wants to know what God is up to and how to help the church be the church today. You might have noticed that culturally, we tend to be 30 to 50 years behind everybody else. We can't afford to do that. We need to do the unexpected - the God thing - and be third-culture. To be first culture is to embrace one culture. To be second culture is to embrace the other. To be third culture is to not embrace either/or, but to embrace both/and. In former years, our Christian kids had to embrace one culture at home, and then either accept or reject the culture at school - accepting the culture at school meant leading two lives. There is another way. The third culture way. Living a life that is Christlike and culturally significant at the same time. (There is another new book that is also part of this discussion, called The Fine Line by Kary Oberbrunner. These two books together would make an interesting discussion.) Living third culturally means living in the points of transition. William Bridges says that transitions have three parts - the second part is the nebula, the part that feels like a ship at sea, at night, in a fog, without instruments. It is in this nebula that we define who we are. It is in this nebula that God meets people. Nebulae are painful places to be. Only the called and the brave will go there willingly. [...] Kim Martinez kimmartinezstayingfocused.wordpress.com

Dave Gibbons begins the Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church with an eastern parable. A well-meaning monkey sees a fish struggling in the water after a typhoon. Having a kind heart, the monkey with considerable risk to himself reaches down precariously from a limb of a tree to save the fish snatching him up from the water. The monkey lies the fish on dry land. For a few minutes the fish showed excitement but soon it settled into a peaceful sleep. Translation: it died. Relevance to the 21st Century church: everything. Gibbons is the founding pastor of Newsong, a multi-site international third-culture church. Years ago, Gibbons was building his megachurch and was struck with the thought of building a big box that would not be used most of the week to entertain people who for the most part would not change the world. He was a well-meaning monkey thinking he was saving a fish. God took Dave Gibbons down a journey that has huge implications for us today. What he came to embrace is that the world is changing to a third-culture were we need to be willing to cross lines to reach people where they are. Love your neighbor If we take the parable of the Good Samaritan to heart, we see that our neighbor is someone not like us. It is someone of a different race. Someone who with different beliefs. We are called to love, to act, to serve. To be Christ rather than just talk about Him. Be Liquid When you pour water into a glass, it takes the shape of the glass. Pour it into a teapot and it takes the shape of the teapot. Water can flow. Be water. Be Liquid. Our message remains the same but our forms must change. And our conflicts should not be about forms. it's a waste of energy. Third-culture is about being water to a thirsty world. It's being adaptive. It's being willing to change. It's reading the culture. It's being a Jew to reach Jews. It's being poor to reach the poor. It's being liquid Three questions 1. Where is Nazareth? Who are the people on the margins of life? Who are the outsiders? Who are suffering the most? Instead of looking for the leaders who can offer the most to our churches/movements/organizations/own kingdoms, Gibbons teaches us to look for who are the most in need. It is the model of Christ. It is how God operates. God's power is most perfected in weakness. 2. What is my pain? Instead of always looking for our own spiritual gifts/talents/resources, Gibbons encourages us to identify with our greatest pain. It is through our pain that the world can relate to. It is our pain that shows the power of Christ. 3. What is in my hand? What has God given me? Use that. Stop focusing on what we do not have or comparing ourselves to some myth. Stop trying to become something we are not. I highly recommend this book! it spoke to my soul. It gave me hope and that we can adapt to help change the world.

the book is about church leadership in a global culture, on the surface. but, really, it's about living christianly, in any cultural context, and in any time. because, at its core, the monkey and the fish is about the values of jesus, and how we can embody them (specifically as churches, and more broadly as "the church"). it's a quick read, and very accessible. full of great stories from real-life attempts, successes and failures. it's an honest book, revealing some of the author's own failures and short-comings. parts of it are almost a spiritual memoir, as dave shares intimate struggles and personal context. but what i liked most about the book is that the very form of the flow was reflective of the book's points. in other words: it wasn't linear and full of how-to's. dave refers a few times to bruce lee's suggestion that we become like water; and this book itself is fluid. this will likely frustrate some readers. it actually started to frustrate me, until i realized what was going on -- then i sat back and enjoyed the ride! i had a couple minor gripes with the book: - i think it's a sexy but week title, and the opening illustrations it refers to doesn't play a significant role in the book - i wished dave would give us a clearer explanation of "third culture" from the start (and, while i think i "got it" as i read on, i wasn't sure about the earliest definition) - there were times when i wasn't sure if dave was writing to church leaders (as the subtitle would imply) or a general christian audience. but those were minor, as i said. and overall, i think this is a stellar book, by a brilliant outside-the-box pastor who is doing seriously innovative stuff around the world. i'm stoked about more interactions with him, and about whatever books he'll write in the future.