Month: March 2011

  • Kawhi Leonard’s back story

    It’s one thing to know about this young man’s power on the basketball court. It’s another thing to examine Kawhi Leonard’s story behind the drive, talent, and desire to succeed.

    One amazing byproduct of this amazing season for SDSU is that stories like Kawhi’s get told. As the video above shows, he’s more than just a phenomenal NCAA basketball player. He’s a young man with a developing story of overcoming major life obstacles to now be just steps away from the pinnacle of college sports.

    Bring on March Madness!

    Bonus– Here’s a pre-game video of the student section:

  • How to be a great church leader

    Sometimes I think that being a great leader in the church looks like being a great leader in everyone’s eyes. After all, greatness is not achieved until you are publicly recognized as great, right?

    • I start to read books about being a business leader and think, I want to do that!
    • I like to listen to interviews with politicians who have done amazing things around the world, and I contemplate a life in public service.
    • I’m drawn to quotes of big time leadership speakers plastered all over Twitter. Wow, I want to say things that brilliant!
    • I feed off of and find energy from success stories of non-profit leaders making a big impact in our community. How can I do stuff with that much impact?

    I confess that when I gobble that stuff up I secretly start to aspire to be like those people. I envy their roles, positions, and greatness. I want to measure my success against the big things those people are doing. I would love it if people looked at me and said, “Wow, Adam is a great leader. Look at his list of accomplishments.”

    Yesterday, my pastors message was just the reality check I needed. I needed to be reminded that in Jesus’ upside down, bottom-up leadership economy… it’s the servant who is a great leader. (And not “servant” for the sake of saying you’re a servant leader in sermons, books, or as a public persona in the way the Christian media portrays it.)

    At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:1-5

    Want to be great in God’s upside down leadership economy? Serve the least of these. (Matthew 25:40)

    • The guy who vacuums the carpet in the sanctuary is greater than the guy playing the guitar in front of the congregation.
    • The nurse who wipes away the vomit from a disabled child’s nostrils at 2:15 AM is greater  than doctor who’s name is on the door.
    • The pastor who visits the sick, has homeless people move in with him, or runs a middle school small group is greater than the pastor who preaches in front of thousands, meets only with the powerful in the church, or assigns visitation to lesser employees.
    • The pastor at the tiny church in a small town people wince at when you mention it is greater than the megachurch pastor in Americas Finest City.

    The good news of becoming a great leader in the church

    • No pedigree required.
    • No seminary degree required
    • No ordination required
    • No recognition from a governing body required
    • No board approval required
    • No website required
    • No money needs to be raised

    All you have to do, to be great in Jesus’ upside down leadership economy, is to serve the least.

    Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? If any of you is embarrassed with me and the way I’m leading you, know that the Son of Man will be far more embarrassed with you when he arrives in all his splendor in company with the Father and the holy angels. This isn’t, you realize, pie in the sky by and by. Some who have taken their stand right here are going to see it happen, see with their own eyes the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:23-27, The Message

  • iPhone, Your New Cigarettes

    iPhone, Your New Cigarettes

    The parallels between the iPhone in 2011 and cigarettes in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s are stunning.

    • It’s iconic.
    • It’s celebrated as the cool thing.
    • It’s a status symbol.
    • It’s celebrated in the media.
    • It’s manufacturer is getting rich.
    • There are cheap imitations. (Sorry Android users)
    • It’s addicting, but not viewed as a serious addiction.
    • The first thing you do in the morning is light up your iPhone.
    • The last thing you do before you go to bed is put your iPhone out.
    • People step out of meetings to check their iPhone.
    • People huddle around their iPhone while they walk around.
    • They do it in public, to the sneering glare of non-iPhone users.
    • After sex… well, some people light up their iPhone.
    • The price could go up at any minute, but you’d still need an iPhone.

    I’m as much an addict as the other millions of regular users. Hopeless. Helpless. And happily satisfied in my addiction.

    Just like cigarettes– users are left with the question:

    Do you own your iPhone or does your iPhone own you?

  • Slides: Doing youth ministry on the move

    This is a presentation I made last month at the East County Youth Workers Network meeting. Maybe it’ll be helpful to you.

    Here’s some of the content that goes with it.

    Slide 1:

    With the rapid adoption of smart phones, iPad, and hundreds of thousands of cheap/flexible apps being developed, I am quickly seeing youth workers realize that they can do more on the go than ever before.

    My prediction is that we will begin to see more and more youth workers go officeless in the next five years.

    For years we have lamented that we didn’t go into youth ministry to be a desk jockey. Finally, the technology is there (and affordable) to the point where we can be in the field full-time, working with teenagers where they are.

    Slide 2:

    This stuff isn’t going to go away. So rather than whine about the impact of media, I recommend going on the offensive and doing our best to educate parents and students on best practices of a digital life.

    For students:

    • Technologies that take off for students are really all about them and their life. From an adult perspective that sounds entirely selfish. (Because it is self-centered) But we need to remember that adolescents are developmentally limited to only think about life from their perspective. So when talking to students about technology, bear this in mind. Teach them things that will make them look good.
    • Trend-wise, I’m still seeing tons of activity amongst students on Facebook. At the same time, text messaging is infinitely more private and infinitely move mobile-friendly. So texting is still king. But I’m also starting to see pockets of students taking to Twitter. They aren’t using it in the way adults are though. They tend to have tight-knit clusters of friends who all have private accounts. For them, it’s a group texting service.
    • Lastly, it’s important to realize that students are students… they are still learning. Which means you need to teach them what to do and why. There’s been a lot of talk about sexting, I think a big reason it is getting so many people in trouble is simply ignorance about how digital files can go viral and how something so innocent and sweet can do a lot of damage to you for a long time. Yes, I said “sweet.” I think a lot of guys/girls are exchanging pictures to flirt. They just don’t have the same boundaries you or I do.

    For parents:

    • Technology is not bad. By it’s definition, it is neutral. It’s what you do with it that makes it good or bad.
    • This stuff isn’t going away. You don’t have to be an expert to be a good parent. But you can’t pretend it’s not there any more than your parents pretended they didn’t know what to do with your beeper.
    • I’m not a big fan of filtering the internet. I really feel like that creates a false sense of security for parents. And if you ask any kid over about 10 years old, they know how to disable the filters at school. I’d rather see parents focused on teaching good practices like only using computers/smart phones in public areas of the house.
    • There’s an assumption that if you don’t know more about the technology your children are using that you can’t teach them how to use it appropriately. That’s just not true.

    Slide 3:

    Let’s turn from technology use to how you can use technology to become more a productive youth worker.

    Slide 4:

    If you want to ditch your office, you’ll need to transition to cloud-based applications. All that means is that your data no longer lives on a single computer in your office or on your laptop, instead it is stored in a web-server and is accessible anywhere you have web access, on multiple devices. (Phone, laptop, even a guest computer with an internet browser.)

    Here are some cloud-based tools I’m using right now that make me more mobile:

    • Evernote – A note-taking app that syncs with all of my devices. I’ll never say “ugh, that Word doc is funky” ever again.
    • Springpad – This also has a note-taking feature. But I use Springpad for bookmarking web-content I want to come back to later. (Here’s my account) This is also amazingly helpful for event planning, meal planning, shopping lists, etc. It’s HTML5 based, which is just nerd-speak to say that it’s built to work with any web-enabled device and isn’t limited to iPhone or Android on the mobile side.
    • Dropbox – I store all of my important files on Dropbox. It allows me to not only access them from anywhere, it also makes it super easy to share. Dropbox is great if you have multiple people working on a worship service or something like that. Everyone can just save their work in the same folder and everyone can continually have access to the same stuff. I never use our work server anymore. Everything is on Dropbox.
    • Google docs – The original big player in the cloud-based app world. I use Google docs for any document I’m going to collaborate with others on. It has all of the same features as Microsoft office, except it lives in the cloud, is free, and you can add multiple authors in a jiffy.

    Slide 5:

    Larger ministries tend to move quickly into a project management mode. This just means that one person isn’t responsible for an entire project… they have to collaborate with multiple people. Most of my work at Youth Specialties and McLane Creative is tracked through project management software in an attempt to keep all of the knowledge out of our email system!

    Here’s three that I’ve used.

    • Basecamp – This is the gold-standard project management utility. It has lots of deep features, is mobile-friendly, and if you are working with outside contractors there is a good chance they are familiar with how to use it. Everyone uses it! The downside is that it isn’t free.
    • Google groups – Google groups has many of the same features as Basecamp. It has just never taken off in the project management world. I don’t really know why. You can use it in much the same way, and it’s free.
    • Collabtive – I use Collabtive at McLane Creative for project management. It’s very similar to Basecamp, is free (open source) and lives on my webserver. That said, it’s not a novice utility to administrate. So if you don’t have someone confident with PHP, mySQL, and available space on a webserver, it won’t work for you.

    Slide 6:

    Last but not least, here are some other service worth looking at to improve your communication with parents, students, and your team.

    Text-based

    • Groupme – Groupme is a free, group-based, text messaging service. I’ve used it a little and really like it. Essentially, you just add people to a group, the group is assigned a phone number, and people can text the groups number and instantly notify everyone else in the group. The upside is that it’s free and full of potential. The downside is that it’s “reply to all.” If you wanted to try this out I’d recommend trying it with your adult volunteer group first. It could get crazy with a large group of students… fast!
    • Google voice – This is basically an alternative to giving your students your phone number to text. Google voice is 100% free, has a mobile and web interface, and works great. Another cool use for this for youth workers would be that it’s pretty easy to share responsibilities for responding to texts with your team.
    • Tatango / SimplyTXT – Both of these are fine if you are looking for more of a professional grade group texting service. Both are great and both cost money.

    Other online communication apps for youth workers

    • Facebook groups – Groups recently got an overhaul. There are some cool features there for you. It’s basically a profile for your ministry. The upside is that there’s a high likelihood all of your students are already on Facebook a lot and familiar with it.
    • Mailchimp – Email is not dead. Mailchimp is the industry leader in email marketing. What I love about Mailchimp is that it isn’t just an amazing application… it’s free for lists under 2,000! (Which would be nearly every youth group in America!)

    Got questions? I’ve got answers.

  • 5 Ways to Build Intrinsic Motivation in Students

    Fear is a short-term motivator
    Photo by marysia via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    “Fear is a short term motivator.” That was the first lesson in my first class on managing people. As a 21 year old manager of a staff at a health insurance company in Chicago, this was a valuable lesson for me. Most of my subordinates had either been with the company 25+ years or were right off the street, having never held a job more significant than McDonald’s or making license plates in the state pen.

    That lesson stuck with me as I entered into vocational youth ministry. One youth ministry professor drilled into me that big things happen in students lives when we shift the focus from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation. In other words, as faith develops from a childhood faith where rewards motivate students to learn and begin to grow into an adult-like faith, we need to shift motivational strategies so that they will continue to grow because of something inside of them spurring them to learn and grow.

    Question: If fear doesn’t work long-term and external rewards (pizza parties, badges, trips) are decreasingly effective as adolescence progresses, what are intrinsic motivators that work with students in youth group?

    Here’s 5.

    1. Ambition – Remember this Super Bowl commercial from Monster.com? Every student is full of ambition. One way to motivate students is to tie their personal ambitions, self-talk & delusions of grandeur, into Gospel-oriented purposes. When you connect the dots that a life with Jesus could be a fast-track to what they dream of doing with their life, that creates fusion.
    2. Disdain for past failures, family patterns – Disdain is different from fear in that disdain towards your current condition has a repelling reaction. I’ll never forget when I figured out that living a life focused on my relationship with Jesus would help me navigate away from the shame of my personal failures and the gravity family failure. Deep inside I knew I didn’t want that to happen to me. Together that made living as a sacrifice to God more attractive. No sacrifice was too great if it meant I could avoid repeating the things I was most ashamed of and potentially have a more steady family in the future.
    3. Self-improvement – This is similar to ambition but even more internal. I’ve had many students over the years who have a strong, innate desire, to better themselves. They want to learn. And they want to maximize their impact on others. Tapping into that desire to self-improve by laying out how x will make them better at y has acted as an easy way to motivate students. They already want to grow! You are just giving them an avenue for growth to occur.
    4. Serving the greater good of society – So this isn’t exclusively a Christian motivational technique. Yet clearly, there is something in adolescent culture today that seeks to live out lives of justice, mercy, and compassion. In recent years I’ve learned that service projects are easier for students to invite their friends to than fun outings. Why? Because for lots of people public service has been ingrained in them as valuable and they like how serving makes them feel. It becomes your job, as their leader, to clearly make the tie between acts of service and the Gospel being good news to the less fortunate among us.
    5. Joy of doing what is right – We are all born with a conscience. It is shaped by culture with an innate desire to do what is right and avoid what is wrong. Helping students navigate those waters, in a practical and guilt-free way, is a powerful motivation for sticking around. Just like our conscience happens on the sub-conscious level… when you can connect the dots between the right they desire to do and Biblical truth for why they should do that, mountains move in students lives.

    What are intrinsic motivators you are finding work with your students?

  • An expert

    Paul has a book called, “How to be the Best at Everything.”

    That book’s title is perfect for a life in church ministry. You feel like you need to be pretty good at everything just to survive.

    When people would ask me what my job at the church was I would kind of laugh. “We all kind of do a little bit of everything.”

    There were many days when I’d lead a Bible study for high school students before school, drop them off at school, then shovel the entryway to the church before going inside. Then I’d help with our building project by painting or something like that to start the day, I’d be interrupted by phone calls where I was negotiating our health insurance plan or with another vendor, then dash to a creative planning meeting for Sunday’s service, then lunch with a deacon, oh and another interruption by a parent who was crying and desperate for some counsel about the porn she found on her son’s computer. After the meeting I’d pick up students from school who were helping with our kids ministry and get them started on set design, then I’d work some Photoshop magic and design the week’s bulletin while I waited for the paint to dry for another coat downstairs. After that I’d get started on the lighting set-up for Sunday while brainstorming an idea for a video intro to the message before moving chairs in the sanctuary to set up for a marriage event on Friday evening. Then at 5:00 PM I’d go home for a quick bite of dinner and spend an hour with the kids before our adult small group came over from 6:30-8:30.

    No seriously– that was 2 days per week. And that’s not even a Wednesday when I had youth group.

    I was a generalist who wore the youth ministry hat just a little bit more than the senior pastor, who wore the preaching hat, or the worship leader who wore that hat. That’s just life in a small church. Everyone wears a lot of hats and does a lot of different things.

    I’ll never forget one of my first phone calls with someone about coming to work at Youth Specialties. We were talking and the person said, “Hey, I hear a bit of an echo. Where are you?” I laughed, “Well I’m in our sanctuary. Actually, I’m about 40 feet in the air in some scaffolding. I’m changing the bulb on the projector.”

    That’s why I laugh, sometimes audibly, when people refer to me as an expert at something.

    Sure, I’m pretty good at some things. But in my heart I’ll always be a generalist trying to figure out how to be the best at everything.

  • 5 Ways to be a Peacemaker in Your Community

    5 Ways to be a Peacemaker in Your Community

     

    Separation is to the protestant church what kryptonite is to Superman. In my opinion, separation is the bitter herb of the Protestantism Reformation.

    Separations marks are seen in every corner & practice of the church. Nearly every denomination began when one group of people decided they didn’t agree to the point that they needed to start another group of churches. When a leader grows to a certain point in protestantism– a symbol of that power is to create their own ministry. The way we do communion has resulted in separation. The way we do baptism has resulted in separation. The way our churches are governed has resulted in separation. The songs we sing, the way we preach, the Bible we read, on and on… we are a people marked by separation. (Yes, wars have even been fought over some of these things.)

    How many flavors of Presbyterian are there? How many flavors of Methodist? How many flavors of Baptist? Do you even know why they separated in the first place? Would you blush if you examined the issues there? Probably, at least a little.

    It’s in our DNA to separate. When something happens that we are uncomfortable with our gut reaction is to push away and separate. The cost of unity is seen as too great a sacrifice in the face of personal views on doctrine and practice or even personality.

    And yet, Jesus’ words ring out…

    Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God. – Matthew 5:9

    Leaning into making peace

    If pushing away is natural to us. We need Jesus’ power to help us to lean in to peacemaking.

    While our instincts are to separate, our minds know we are stronger together. We are better together. We are more effective together. We utilize resources better together. We are encouraged when we work together. The world listens to those who work together.

    When we do stuff together we stick out. It feel right because it is good!

    When we chose unity over separation our distinctives merely add flavor to our lives instead of souring the pot.

    Conversely, when the trivial, non-essential, and personal preference cause us to separate we need to call it out for what it is– sin. Jesus called the peacemaker blessed, literally happy. So what does that make those of us who separate?

    5 Ways to be a Peacemaker in Your Community

    1. Take the first step towards reconciliation. Examine the history of your church. For example: Is there a First Church and a Second Church in your town? Separated because of race in a bygone era? Reach out to the other congregation. Ask for their forgiveness. I’m not saying you need to merge congregations… but you will never know the power of reconciliation until you take the first step and humbly ask to have coffee with the other churches leaders.
    2. Develop a sister church friendship with another congregation in your zip code. This doesn’t have to be formal or difficult. But begin the process of your staff getting to know and blessing the staff of the other congregation. Even if it’s just a quarterly prayer breakfast… that’s a step towards making peace. As your congregations develop a sister relationship you will begin to see the fruit of that blessing.
    3. Support good ideas in town. When another congregation has a great idea jump on the bandwagon. Cancel stuff in your church and lend your staff and resources to the idea. Carry an attitude of what’s good for the Kingdom is good for our church.
    4. Support community organizations in town. I was shocked at how easy this was. When I’ve reached out to community organizations doing good things and said, “We’d like to help. Not to make our name great or to even tell people about the church, just to make this a great place to live.” That simple, easy, free step has lead to infinite blessings for the church.
    5. Mediate the divide. What would happen if your church became neutral ground for discourse and disagreement? What if your staff became known as people who went to community board meetings and helped develop 3rd option compromises?

    Dream with me

    Next steps: What if the people of your church started to see themselves literally as peacemakers in their job places?

    What are your ideas for the church becoming known as a place where peace is made, at all cost?