Nines has released their videos online!
Here is Skye Jethani who I thought did an excellent job talking about the fact that we equate “large with legitimate”. Skye is the author of the Divine Commodity
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There’s a pool party at sunset – everyone mark your chair with a towel, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.
Metamorphosis
I totally love Butterflies. I know bring on the I’m such a girl comments. I really can’t believe that I just wrote in on a web page that will exist for awhile that I actually love Butterflies. I always have. The incredible color, patterns, behavior. The fact that they eat sugar water (Who hasn’t dreamed of that?!)
But I learned something pretty cool this weekend that I just have to share with you.
Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (NIV)
That word transform actually means metamorphosis-a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism, as from the caterpillar to the pupa and from the pupa to the adult butterfly.
A complete state change… incredible. Maybe we don’t understand how drastic the change is that occurs by the renewing of your mind. Maybe we just think transforming is like a subtle change. But by renewing your mind you totally undergo a complete stage metamorphosis.
Pretty awesome. Anyway this ends my butterfly geekage. Back into obscurity 
I wonder if KiDs see Baptism like this…
There’s a pool party at sunset – everyone mark your chair with a towel, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.
Today we were talking about how we might change our Baptism from an explanation of an event to an explanation of a lifestyle that lasts a lifetime.
I know that #kidmin folks deal with this stuff all the time. Thoughts race through their minds from classes, forms, cards, counseling sessions, uncertainty, and confusion. But right now there are two things that I think we have got to figure out how to combat in baptism.
1)The Party Factor- it can be called alot of things but honestly we have made baptisms into this huge party. Yes, we should celebrate the fact that people are making a decision to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior and agree to be accountable to them and support them in their walk with Christ.
However, this celebration results in just a bit of glazed eyes type stuff with kids. Ok so if I do this then people will throw me a party and cheer after I’m thrown back into the water, and there is a person there to make sure I don’t hurt myself!!! Sign me up! Rather than a heart felt desire to follow God we have a heart felt desire to party. I think it’s tough for kids to draw this line and I think it’s a tough place to figure out.
2)Confusion/Church Test- This is the part that is weighing pretty heavily in my mind. Do you hold a class? Do you have kid by kid counseling sessions?
The class the fear is that you give them all the answers if you give The Gospel and generally talks about the act of regeneration and the theology of justification and sanctification but doesn’t really talk about the depth of the decision.
The counseling sessions (to me) are like setting up kids for the church exam. If they don’t end up getting baptized they failed the church test and if they do then they passed.
So how can we teach them those things. I think one thing that works very well for us is our Leading Your Child to Christ class because it does an incredible job of explaining the long term implications of the decision. It lets parents understand the role they play in their child’s spiritual life.
I also think that our Baby Dedications play a huge part in this long term thinking as well and help combat against the event type mentality.
But those are for the parents, what is the best way to do baptism for the kids? Should it be more of an informational type setting where you explain the gospel and give them the answers? Or more of an interview/counsel session? Or is it an entirely different process?
I don’t know, hopefully you can help. Let me know your thoughts.
Perception
It’s funny because this is how I used to think… I used to think if you are excercising Biblical Truth and are living by God’s Word then it doesn’t matter what people think about you or your decisions that you make.
But when I went to college for a degree in marketing I totally did a 180 on this concept. Let me give you a for instance then you can weigh in.
I’m a pastor in the middle of a bad economy, I have saved up for what I consider a dream car for ages and now finally have the financial means to acquire it. This car is a ’57 Chevy with a Candy Blue paint scheme which is totally custom and not from that era ( you can decide whether my dream car is made up or not) and it costs a pretty penny. But in no way does it affect me because of my due diligence in saving for it. But knowing people would almost certainly view my decision in a negative light I choose not to.
So my question is this, how do you weigh perceptions in your mind when you are making a decision both personally as a leader of an organization and corporately making decisions where people’s perceptions are prevalent?
-young leader searching for advice on the matter above.
Are your doors open?
It’s very easy sometimes to think that you have an open door policy and that people should feel welcome to come in and build a relationship with you… But the reality is that most likely people won’t respond in that manner.
Alot of times in my life I’ve felt as if people know that I have an open door and that they can come and hang out and build a relationship anytime that they feel is necessary. However, just because I think that doesn’t mean that other people see it that way. I wanna challenge you this week. Take a step outside your doors and go visit some people and you be the one to build a relationship.
Matthew 7:12
12″Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.
(The Message)
Open your doors and seek to build relationships with others.
Brought to you by the number 9
9/9/09 interesting to say the least. Heard all kinds of things about today. Some said supposed to be the luckiest day of the year, some said it’s supposed to be the most unlucky day of the year because if you turn the nines upside down…well you get the picture.
One of the coolest things about today is something that I’m sure most of you have heard about. A conference of sorts called “The Nines”. It has been the number one trending topic on twitter and is most certainly something to be aware of if you are involved in Church.
I am so intrigued at the opportunity to hear people talk about #thenines all over the world. An incredible gift for someone just getting started in ministry to see leaders from different parts of the world coming together to speak into the lives of leaders. I am humbled, excited, and interested to see if more things like this can happen in the future.
Here’s why?
1. Free-I shouldn’t really have to explain this but conferences like Catalyst, Orange, c3, etc. all have admission fees. #thenines doesn’t. Removes barriers increases accessibility and reach. Excellent idea.
2. Time-It happens all day but the nine minute format is really cool because it makes everything seem more digestable to those that just aren’t in love with sitting at their computers all day.
3. Replay value- From what I’ve heard the leaders’ talks will be available for free download tomorrow morning and that is super sweet to see.
It’s an unbelievable thing to see the church coming together as a whole.
Thanks to everyone who is a part of this and especially to Catalyst and leadnet.org!
Way to Go!
What about the Sermon?
munny speakers, originally uploaded by fungus amungus.
I’ve had this on my mind for awhile now and just wanted to compose my thoughts a little bit before I threw it out there.
So here we go…
Obviously our world is changing. Our culture is changing. Technology is making alot of things easier and yet it’s making others difficult. Kids and students are not as interested in being sponges any more. They watch television on average 7 hours less than their parents during the week. Now when you combine other media they consume like video games, online connection, and music then those totals are crazy unbalanced in the favor of kids but overwhlemingly kids and teens see television as white noise. They don’t feel changed or grow because of what they see on the tube.
Also because of technology, the way kids and students learn is changing. Lecture based learning is still in place today even though those educational models were created in the 1950s! They read on a screen rather than a page and read short blips rather than long novels. Some studies suggest that this has dramatically affected their attention span. But here is my question really based on a few thoughts.
First you can see some things are changing. Tony Morgan posted a survey wanting to know if people read or listen to books. Not only that but John Piper put his umm… err… not so favorable thoughts on using “video and drama stuff” in your sermons.
But if kids and students minds and brains are changing to learn in new ways… where will the 25-35 minute message go? Where will the sermon/message/preaching time go?
Not really a knock on anyone but are we prepared for this next generation to hear the message of God? What’s next?
What are your thoughts? Will the sermon die?
8 Traits of Digital Kids: 2) Speed
Speed. Easy to comprehend, tough to understand how we can apply this in a classroom or small group setting.
Speed is as simple as it appears. Digital KiDs don’t deal with slow. Heck they don’t even remember dial-up internet. I do, it was so awesome at the time and now “hi-speed internet” has become regular internet.
Digital KiDs won’t settle on long waits. If they email a company with a concern they expect quick feedback. They don’t desire it or really wish it would happen they EXPECT it to happen. Every instant message should draw an instant response. They multitask at an incredible level.
“They can consume 8.5 hrs or e-media in 6 hours time!”
So What can we do about it?
Again tough to implement. Let’s start with an easy one. Instant feedback. If they have a question let them hear your feedback instantly. Let them see that you care about their questions. Guess what that might mean that you go off on a tangent to answer their questions in large group… eek!
Allow them to multitask. This one will be much harder for you than it is for them. Let them play a game while you are reviewing the lesson, or bring their toys to class while they participate in a Q & A session. It’s a culture thing. Give them the groundrules that it’s cool to multitask as long as you hold up your responsibility of participating in class. That DS that you would normally outlaw from the classroom could be the tool that allows them to let their guard down in the classroom and become more involved because of a new sense of trust.
What ways do you think you can implement this trait of Speed that Digital KiDs desire?
Fear…
Not a solitary thing do I fear…, originally uploaded by Confused-Hair.
I wonder how many times in life do we operate out of a sense of fear:
- We don’t have the skills
- We don’t have the experience
- We don’t have the money
- What will happen
- Whose feelings will I hurt
- Will I lose my job
How many of these fears cripple our life? Fear is defined as an emotional response to threats and dangers. It is influenced by external things. Anxiety is not influenced by external stuff.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. -2 Timothy 1:7
What if we replaced our reaction to external influences with power, love and self-discipline.
O God help us to realize our inner influence is more powerful than any external situation in our lives.
Little bit of Failure Today
I posted a video that was meant to be fun today. Watched til what I thought was the end and thought it was funny and posted it.
Was Not the End.
The video ends with a totally inappropriate phrase that should hav e never been on this blog. Totally unlike me to let something like that slide but it happened. Thank God for Grace and for letting me continue to get some humble pie on this one. Big thanks to Todd McKeever from Take 2.0 Ministries for letting me know about the questionable phrasing at the end of the vid. Thanks for keeping integrity a high value and doing it in a awesomely humble way. I am thankful….
Sorry to all who saw the vid til the end and experienced the whole thing. Stinks that this happened but it did and I apologize.
“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it”
-Ben Franklin.
