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Are your doors open?

September 18, 2009 in Leadership 0



Blue doors , originally uploaded by tina_manthorpe.

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

September 9, 2009 in Communication, Leadership, Tech 0

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?

August 26, 2009 in Leadership, Resources, Tech 5

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

August 14, 2009 in Communication, Family Ministry, Leadership, Tech 2



8 Traits of Digital Kids, originally uploaded by jcisonline.

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…

August 3, 2009 in Leadership, Life 1

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

July 29, 2009 in Leadership, Life 3



The Fail Boat, originally uploaded by Certified.

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.

Getting Parents “In”

July 27, 2009 in Communication, Family Ministry, Leadership 5



Bad Parenting 092307, originally uploaded by masterthon2004.

It’s a super tough thing for people in Children’s Ministry. Trying to get parents to jump the hurdle and just invest in their kids spiritual walk. Transitioning from a drop off mindset to one that is creatively leading their child’s spiritual journey is way more than a baby step walk. But how do we get them to step out where they may feel uncomfortable.

I think this blog from Seth Godin gives some great insight. He talks about the marketing of a unicycle. Basically you go from failure to success in what seems like an instantaneous change. It’s an incredibly great read and like most everything Seth does takes 2 minutes.

But from our side. How in the world do we “Create non-unicycle moments” for Parents? How can we get them to celebrate what may seem like a meaningless failure? How can we get them to push forward even though the only thing that continues to be in their face is failure?

What opportunities can you take to Get Parents to recognize the influence they have on their kids, while they stare in the face of failure?

Sold Out !!

July 24, 2009 in Communication, Family Ministry, Leadership 1



Michael Jackson – Sold Out !!, originally uploaded by Lu-Gu.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Some other guy posting about Michael Jackson. Well not exactly what this post is about. In fact, it’s not what the post is about at all.

But really this post is about being Sold Out. And not the cliche “Sold Out for Jesus” even though you should be.

But what about events? Do you ever sell out events in ministry? I mean it’s one thing to desire to sell out but do you sell out.

Like do you let people in at the door without tickets or something? Let me tell you a story.

We had an event at a local water park that we capped out at a number of people for comfort and experience. We sold tickets and our advance publication let people know that tickets will be sold out and they will not be able to get in without a ticket. We sold out this Sunday before the event on Thursday. We had a ton of people call day of and wanted tickets even though we had already sold out. We let them know we were sorry but that we didn’t have any tickets left.

Now up to this point I’m sure everyone in ministry has been here. You’ve sold out an event and we’re ready to go.

But what about those people that show up unannounced “clueless” that they needed a ticket. Where do you draw the line between communication and ministry?

This time it came down to the fact that we felt if we sold tickets at the door we would be saying one thing (no tickets available to those that called) and doing another (selling tickets at the door) over holding a hard line and possibly hurting some families in the process that didn’t receive, understand, or were even unaware of the message about needing tickets.

But where do you draw that line? Where do you cross the line for giving to people and yet making sure that people understand the communication is there for a reason and that they need to make preparations for it?

Tough one to do but where do you draw that line?

Little Big Planet over 1,000,000 levels!

July 22, 2009 in Family Ministry, Leadership, Tech 1

I saw this article in USA Today talking about how Little Big Planet a game for PS3 with the tagline “Play, Create, and Share” has received over 1,000,000 levels to play online.

Just goes to show you that media creation is at an all time high. With only 2.4 million (insert overstatement joke here) people playing this game. That is a great ratio of level created to player.

This is where our KiDs and Students are headed. How can we develop this and put some structure behind it without totally killing their desire to do so?

Altars

July 21, 2009 in Family Ministry, Leadership 0

Stone altar, Dzibilchaltun, originally uploaded by cpence.

Here’s a list for you:

Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Balaam, Saul, Elijah, David, Solomon, and Ezra

What do these guys have in common besides being in the Bible and the fact that I am probably about to use them to teach you something?

Well these were all people who built altars to honor God after a particular experience with God. And let’s not forget Abraham who built more altars than anyone else in the Bible.

Altars in the Bible symbolized communion with God and memorialized significant encounters with Him.

For modern day altars we have Baptism and well… that’s about it. In Children’s Ministry we have a Child Dedication class as well to memorialize a significant spiritual development point in both parents and KiDs.

But what else? I think we would all agree that encounters in the Bible are plentiful, but what percentage of those encounters are baptisms?

Now please don’t take this as a criticism of baptism because it’s just not. Baptism is the first step in showing obedience to the new Lord in our life. It is a symbol of the death, burial & resurrection of our Lord and describes our relationship with Him. We’ve died to the old self and been born new of the Spirit of God.

But instead what spiritual development points are put into place for kids’ lives past baptism? What rites of passage per se does your Children’s Ministry or Student Ministry have in place to symbolize spiritual development.

What are your thoughts? What can we do to help our kids understand when they have a significant experience with God?

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