Here we go.

Integrity

Coach Pastner is a different mold of basketball coach. According to this article from the USA Today, he abstains from alcochol, soda, and doesn’t use profanity and rarely raises his voice. If he does raise his voice, it’s met with a quick apology.

“If you need to be screamed at, you probably shouldn’t come to Memphis,” Pastner says.

Creativity

Listen coaching can become a routine I imagine, just like ministry, if you let it. Pastner has done two pretty out of the box type things just this year.

First he hired one of the best trainers in the history of the world, not just currently. Here’s a piece about him, Hell’s Trainer. He wears a mask and has trained Blake Griffin. Yeah, the….Blake Griffin. But the creativity just begins there. His title? Life Changer. It’s in the media guide. That’s just fun.

Second, he hired an NBA player as an assistant during the lockout. He took a huge risk but it seems to be paying off as the Players and Owners can’t come to an agreement. Screams genius to me

Work Ethic

The guy is just relentless. He is a monster on the phone. In fact, I would email everyone of our sports programs at the University of Memphis after the year to encourage the coaches. It seems to be a tough gig. I’ve only received an email back once, from Larry Porter. Josh Pastner called my phone number listed in my signature and personally thanked me for the encouraging email. Seriously. Top 10 Basketball program and called to thank me for an email.

The guy is a beast. He was known as a phenom as a student at Arizona. He was on the team but really wanted to coach, so he would coach during practices. He also won an AAU championship as a high school student, coaching the likes of Emeka Okafor, T.J. Ford, and Daniel Gibson.

Here are some more facts about his work ethic

• Josh knew he wanted to be a coach since he was in the 5th grade.
• By the age of 13 he was publishing the Josh Pastner Scouting Report of local high school talent in the Houston area.
• At the age of 16, the Houston Hoops AAU squad was turned over to Pastner by his father, his first job as a head coach.
• After winning the NCAA title, as a walk on at the University of Arizona, Pastner was able to finish his degree in only two and a half years, taking as many as 33 units per semester.
• He earned his bachelor’s degree in Family Studies from Arizona in December 1998. He finished his master’s in Teaching and Teacher Education in December 1999 before beginning work on his doctorate and starting his coaching career in 2000 as a graduate-assistant under Lute Olson at Arizona.

Some people said the Memphis gig wasn’t worth it, because you would be following Coach John Calipari. It looks like we got someone worth keeping around.

Go Tigers Go!! 2012 Memphis Tigers Basketball is starting and we are gonna be good.

Note: If you don’t like Basketball I’ll keep these posts to a minimum, but man are we gonna be good

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Jared, high school pastor, gave a great example of something we experienced on staff retreat. We were at a fire pit and Chris, worship and production, was building a fire. He piled a bunch of leaves, pine needles, and grass on top of the wood that was gathered. When it was lit, immediately it was huge. It was crazy huge.  But it died pretty quickly.

Jared likened it to our large groups services. They are awesome. In fact they will produce a large fire in our students, but we don’t think that it will be one that lasts.

Then he talked about Chris was creating some kindling (ask Jared to say that word for you ) underneath the firewood. Eventually after working and blowing and stirring the wood caught fire and lasted for awhile. In fact, we even joked about taking guesses on how long it would last.

Chris posing near his creation

Jared went on to explain for our students, small groups provide the kindling needed for fire to last. A fire that burns longer than what our services can provide. Not only that, but our services will also be better because of the fire in small groups.

It was a great example and provided a reminder to our leaders that we aren’t building a student ministry, we are building students. We don’t wants fans of Jesus, we want disciples of Jesus. That takes a lot more work and time than creating an explosive service.

Great night and we’re excited about what’s coming at BSM!!

What do you think about the fire illustration and large group versus small group?

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pic from Panoramas

When it comes to ministry, this picture is a scary one. It’s a picture of a plateau. A beautiful piece of God’s creation, but not really what you want if you are the leader of any ministry or business entity. Because this image represents lack of growth.

It might only be for a season, but this is something that in no way is something that I look forward to experiencing. In fact it scares me. But it’s also something that you must learn to embrace for a season.

There are certain things that you can see from a plateau:

1. Where you’ve been
2. Where you’d like to go
3. How stuck in the middle you are

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Ever struggle with your ideas not becoming a reality? Have you ever wanted to complete more tasks? Have you ever had the desire to look back on things accomplished with satisfaction and not regret? Then this book is for you. Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky
, is by far an incredible resource for you to make progress towards making your ideas happen.

I was told to read this book by a friend. I’ve been sort of at a weird point in my leadership lately. When I was a teenager there was one thing that set me apart from the others. I could get stuff done. I wasn’t the smartest, most athletic, or best public speaker, but when it came down to it, when something needed to get done, I was the guy.

Lately I’ve felt as if I’ve fallen off that road. More descriptively in some mire of delegation, follow-up, miscommunication, feeling overwhelmed by stuff I’m not good at, and just plain not getting stuff done and maybe more importantly getting the right stuff done. Now this isn’t to say that I haven’t gotten anything done or even a lot of things done. But I hadn’t been clicking on all cylinders and the cylinders that I was clicking on weren’t necessarily the ones that I wanted to be clicking on.

So I reached out to a friend, who gets stuff done and he recommended this book to me. It’s been a huge help to me in so many ways. In order to convince you to read it, here are a few from me:

1. This isn’t your normal “How to come up with ideas book” This book is about making your ideas come to fruition.
2. Helps you understand and for me re-learn focus.
3. Pushes you to set priorities.
4. Action becomes a word that is second nature to you.
5. The way that you do meetings, brainstorm, execute are all measured in action steps.
6. There is a task list system available for free online that was developed in lieu of the book.
7. Simple enough, yet organized to help you Get Stuff Done.
8. Ideas don’t matter unless they are realized of completed.
9. The most creative people you know from business aren’t the ones with the best ideas, just the ones with the best ideas that are completed.
10. Action, Action, Action. Action is measurable.

If you need a little step up in your Get Stuff Done tool belt. I highly recommend this book, but only if you put some principles from it into action.

This review was not done for a book review program or any kind of compensation. It was good and beneficial for me so I wanted to review it.

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Wow I haven’t blogged in awhile. So much has been going on with ministry and life and everything that the blog has kind of fallen behind, but I’m going to let you into my brain for the next few posts.

Have you ever thought about where you are going? Seriously. I remember being 18 and a freshman in college and having the next 10 years of my life completely planned out. Really. My plan was to graduate from the University of Memphis with a BBA in Marketing and then find a job in the field. Then I wanted to go back to school for what I really wanted to do with my life and that was work in a church. I wanted to be a pastor. Not a senior pastor, but pastor nonetheless. Somewhere between those two things I wanted to get married and be heavily involved in a thriving youth ministry.

I figured after getting my M. Div that I would become employed at a church and maybe one day really begin my “career” in ministry. (Sidenote: ministry career is a funny phrase). Then after beginning church work, then I would want to become the best dad this world has ever seen. Not your run of the mill good dad, but I figured that maybe God didn’t really gift me to make a difference in the life of young people, maybe he created me to be a dad to the most spectacular children this world has ever seen.

But man was I wrong. From the move to SC, not finding a job to save my life. To continuing to date my then girlfriend and getting married to her, to God placing me at Brookwood Church. Everything was moving at such a fast pace. No way was a 22 year old getting to do what I was getting to do. Married to the girl of my dreams and God using me in the local church.

Then God threw some more curveballs at me with some transitions at church. I was asked to be the leader of a brand new ministry and not only that but my wife and I were seriously considering buying a house… then we did. I mean if strolling through a meadow of life or cruising down a life path is actually possible we were in the middle of it.

24 homeowner, leader of a thriving ministry, goals, dreams, vision, and passion for leading change for students. Then it happened.

My wife found out she was prego!! Are you kidding me? Could my life get any better??? Little did I know my life was about to take a huge turn in a direction I never would have asked for and still aren’t very fond of happening.

8 weeks into the pregnancy we arrive at our first ever ultrasound with dreams, wishes, goals, and nothing but excitement. My throat had felt weird all day and my hair seemed a bit more spiky than normal, and that was just on my arms. Then the nurse had an inquisitive look on her face.

Well…. I’m having a hard time finding a heart beat…hmm….let me get a measurement.

The fast track that I was on had suddenly been hit by a semi truck towing other semis loaded with explosives.

I mean all of our friends are either pregnant or have just had a child. We waited until after marriage. We love Jesus. He loves us.

Let’s wait another week, because we could be off on the timing. Let’s come back next week and see if there is any change, maybe we’ll see the heartbeat.

All of this a few days before the Orange Conference. yeah. Kristen and I decided it would be better to have some alone time to just pray and ask God separately for healing and hope and God just give us this baby…. please.

So I’m at the Orange conference and I hear lots of wonderful stories and some encouraging ones. I had one person even ask me about children. Then this person asked me, “How is that going, have you had any complications?” “No” I replied. Torture but yet so incredible. I had such a time with God. Emotional connection and purer worship than I’ve ever had in my life. SPIRIT. And truth.

Then I get back home and immediately it’s time for our doctor’s appointment. We have been praying, knowing that God can do absolutely anything that He wants to do and we believe that God can create a heart and make it beat and we prayed harder, more intense, more consistent than any other time in either of our lives.

…..still…um….still no heart beat…..

All I can remember is tears and my wife’s face. The disappointment. The fear. The sadness. This gift was suddenly snatched from us without as much as a blink. How could this happen? How can I teach kids about God’s faithfulness, when I’m so disappointed?

We scheduled our appointment to have things “cleaned up”. It was awful.

How? Why? Good? God?

So many thoughts, so many emotions.

Still praying and wading and waiting to see God.

I’ve never had a “tough” life. I mean I’m not a silver spoon kid, but I had food and school and clothes and toys. How do you deal with this and WHERE IS GOD?

Then after the procedure my wife is in recovery and we are still just emotionally ridiculous. Then God gave us a hug in the form of a nurse. She let us know that it’s common and that she had a miscarriage herself. Then she pulled out a verse she had kept in her pocket for the day. It was about crying out to God. I don’t remember the scripture and I don’t remember the nurse’s name but I knew that God had placed her there just to say:

Kristen, J.C. I Love You. I’m with you.

So over the past few months, there has been so much going on with ministry. Success, attendance, spiritual growth for our students. An incredible Adventure Week and our first ever camp with Switch. We changed everything about student ministry at Brookwood and parents are on board, volunteers are on board, and students are on board.

Yet my dreams seemed gray. It’s much tougher to dream, when your dreams show themselves and then disappear.

But. God is with us. His whispers, his hugs. There are easy days and hard days. Sweet people and people that just don’t know any better and yet through it all, my understanding of God and His love for us has deepened and my passion for Him has grown.

But the dreams…. still are tough to come by. The vibrancy isn’t back yet and the zest isn’t as bright. But God is with us.

I don’t write all of this to tell you some awesome, we are so much better and God completely took away our pain, cause that didn’t happen. But. God is with us.

I do write this because for me and Kristen’s it’s time to say goodbye to the child that God gave and then instantly moved back into heaven. I’m not smart enough to know whether we will see our unborn child when we move in with Jesus. But we do know that God is with us and will be with us for the rest of our life.

We are continuing to heal and this post is a part of that process. I’m not writing a book or starting a ministry. This post is for us.

I ask that you pray for Kristen and myself. Grief is relatively new for both of us. It’s tough. We really don’t want advice, it hurts more than it helps. But we do want your prayers. Please pray for us and our dreams. It’s been nice over the past few weeks to dream again. I’m praying that God would just continue to redeem this pain.

Thanks for your support of this blog and my ministry. I’m thankful that there are people around the world that care. Thanks for what you do for Christ and thanks for pouring real love into the students and kids and preteens and parents and pastors and singles and people of this world. God is in control and He is with you, just as He is with us.

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What I learned:

A small group leader asked their teenagers when do they read the bible. Most of them said when they felt bad. They look to God’s word for encouragement and strength in times that they are feeling guilty, hurt, or alone. All of these are compelling reasons and I was excited to hear about youth that were going to God’s word when they felt a need. But it made me wonder, how do you compel students to go to God’s word before hurt, pain, or sin? How do you encourage them to draw close to Jesus, before they go through struggles.

Is it true that we all go to the bible when we hurt? I know in my life, my most intense worship and connection with Jesus, has happened in the midst of struggle. These students know that Christ is with them in their time of pain and struggle.

But….

Are we teaching God’s word in a way that students understand it’s impact on a daily, weekly, monthly basis? Are we modeling for our students a consistent connection with Christ? Are we consistently in God’s word?

About a week ago, J-Pat, my boss and our Student Pastor, showed me a DVD of David Platt, author of Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream(affiliate link), going completely through Psalm 119. It was quite a feat and a statement. But what was amazing to me wasn’t so much DP and his massive memorization skills, it was instead the passion with which the writer spoke about the word of God. Here’s a sample from that text:

Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes;
and I will keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
and observe it with my whole heart.
Lead me in the path of your commandments,
for I delight in it.
Incline my heart to your testimonies,
and not to selfish gain!
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and give me life in your ways.
Confirm to your servant your promise,
that you may be feared.
Turn away the reproach that I dread,
for your rules are good.
Behold, I long for your precepts;
in your righteousness give me life!
(Psalm 119:33-40 ESV)

I was instantly convicted by the words, not from the mouth of an incredible bible teacher, but instead the words of the author expressing the need of the precepts of God the Father in his life.

Challenge:

Teach God’s word with conviction. Preach a Savior who willingly gave Himself as a sacrifice for an unworthy world, because of His great love for His Father and His brothers and sisters. I pray that in my life I would teach and know God’s word in a way that challenges others to know Christ more through His teaching.

In what ways can we teach our students about God’s word in a way that they fall in love with it and thirst for it?

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So part of the reason you can basically know everything Orange via bloggage and tweetage is because of the blogging suites David Lyons of MinisterSearch has provided… the blogging suites. ! If you’re here at Orange, MinisterSearch wants to get to know you. Stop by the blogging suite and meet David as well as all the bloggers.

MinisterSearch is a search firm for those who serve in the church. Whether you’re a church looking to hire someone or you’re seeking a position in a church, MinisterSearch is a great resource for you. So make sure that you can come by and chat with David and all of us bloggers upstairs in the Orange Leaders lounge, directly past the free Coffee

Be sure to check them out at MinisterSearch.com

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So I have the privilege of being able to giveaway the book titled Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back(affiliate link). I wanted to think of something incredibly creative in order to give this book away, but honestly I couldn’t come up with anything. So here is what you need to do in order to win:

• Post a comment naming at least one starter on the Memphis Grizzlies NBA Basketball team
• Receive notification that you were the first one from me
• Then come find me tomorrow in the Arena. Have to be at Orange tomorrow to win.

It’s as simple as that. Happy hunting

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I have been loving the Orange Conference, like I have every year. Today I definitely found a few takeaways. So again I will give you my summary of the 2 main sessions of the day and also the cliff notes of the 2 breakouts that I attended.

Main Session 2 – Jeff Manion

I heard Jeff Manion at the Willow Creek Leadership summit last year. He did a similar talk there involving the idea of his book: The Land Between: Finding God in Difficult Transitions(affiliate link) and it was definitely a talk that I remember.

• The Land Between is in reference to the time that the Israelites were in the desert after being freed from slavery, but not yet crossing the finish line into the Promised Land.
• The Land Between is both the soil for transforming faith and it’s also where faith goes to die.
• The Land Between is when you have received God’s promise but you haven’t necessarily experienced the relief of the situation.
• God is attempting to transform the Israelites from people of slavery to the people of God.
• The soil we most detest is the same soil that produces the fruit we most deeply desire

Volunteer Assimilation by Nina Schmidgall

• Know your vision so that you can always cast it. (please stop immediately if you can’t state your vision and take today and figure that out)
• Date a new volunteer: love the analogy. Know when to pop the question, shower them with gifts, etc.
• Use a shadowing system
• Use the One Time Ask: Hey can you sit in on “x” and give me your thoughts on how we could improve? (stealing this one)
• Know your entry and exit points for volunteering. (NCC uses semesters, plans recruiting and celebrations around semesters)
• Never say “ONLY” as in you are “only” committing to this or well you “only” have to do this. You are already undermining the volunteer.

Not JUST a Volunteer by Jeanne Stevens

• Coming to Serving, Serving to Owning, Serving to Leading. Note the progression.
• Had a cool idea she called Next, they took 15 minutes after the service to give everyone in their congregation that was interested info on what to do next.
• Imagine your volunteers living this out “If you don’t give me responsibility, I won’t be responsible.”
• Letting the wrong people hang around will negatively affect the right people.

Main Session 3 – Jud Wilhite

• This one thing struck me and I couldn’t shake it: “God moves on our behalf not just so we can be forgiven and free but so we can be sent out on mission to share his love and grace.”

Tomorrow is the last day of the Orange Conference, make sure you swing by the blogger’s lounge upstairs and say hello

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So #Orange11 has been incredible so far. Had a great chat with Chad Swanzy, Gina McClain, and Cathy Harwick talking about the preteen age group and the many talks that need to happen between parents and students. Great preteen ministry conversation we had. But that conversation needed so much more discussion and a lot more action. Which begs the question: How do you move from notes and chatter to action?

Jim Wideman mentioned today in his How to get more done in a day, that you need the right tools. So with the inspiration from Brother Jim and also this post from Ryan Millard here are some thoughts and tools to move from notes you take at Orange or another conference and transform them into action.

You must capture well

For me I use a variety of tools:

• Evernote
• Pen and Paper (I prefer Pilot G2(affiliate link) and Moleskine(affiliate link))
• Pictures taken on my iPhone 4 and then modified with a scanner app called CamScanner Free and then moved into Evernote

Any of these are great to use to capture thoughts, ideas, and quotes from incredible speakers, friends and even strangers. You must do your best to capture your thoughts as completely as you can.

Prioritize Action Items

What are the ideas that you need to act on? How to you label those items to set them apart from your regular non-thought provoking thoughts?

• The @ sign is something that I always use when I’m in Evernote. Why? Because you can search for the @ symbol. When you do a search for that symbol all of your action items will immediate become available to you.
• Colors if you are using pen and paper. Colors can help you organize information so well. From calendars to contacts to conversations, colors draw attention and immediately identify differentiation.

Plan and Breakdown

After you’ve prioritized action throughout your notes, you need to immediately plan to complete the tasks. One of the best things that you can do is immediately bring down the big task that you want to complete into small steps that are easily completable. Sounds simple, but this separates dreams come true versus forgotten ideas. Begin working to complete the big, one small step at a time.

Biggest Hacker Tip

Are you ready for this? I can’t believe that I’m even telling you this tip. If you take notes with pen and paper and you have a smartphone with a camera. You need to get an Evernote compliant app. I use CamScanner Free to transform pictures of notes, whiteboards, and books into brighter pictures where the white is made much more vibrant and makes the text searchable (if you use Evernote).

Here is an example from today’s notes:

Cropped and edited with CamScanner Free

I cannot tell you how much this has changed the game for me in my note taking abilities.

To Summarize:

• Capture your thoughts
• Prioritize what needs action
• Breakdown the big into smaller more attainable steps
• Do it!!

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