Month: April 2011

  • 5 Simple Ways to be Good News This Week

     

     

     

    Photo by Steve Snodgrass via Flickr (Creative Commons) 

    Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Practically speaking, that means that going to church on Sunday and rocking a Christian bumper sticker isn’t enough.

    Here are 5 simple ways that your actions can be Good News this week:

    1. Personalize your convenience. Ask the store clerk where you go regularly for their name, begin to see them as a person with a story and not an object who collects your money or makes your double shot skim vanilla latte.
    2. Tip well and say thank you. No strings attached, just be a good tipper and look your server in the eye to express gratitude. (Learn more, Christians are Bad Tippers) [Conversely, if you see a Christian leave a tract as a tip, be Good News to servers worldwide and punch them in the face.]
    3. Sweat the small stuff. Did a coworker get a haircut or just come back from vacation? Make a few minutes to compliment them or look at their pictures. Or did your kids school get recognized for an achievement? Send the school’s principal a note expressing your appreciation. Noticing something small is huge.
    4. Mow a solid. Next time you mow your front lawn, go ahead and mow the front lawn you turn your nose up at. You know, the person who hasn’t figured out that Spring has sprung. Maybe, just maybe, that person has a really good reason they haven’t mowed their grass yet. Doing them a solid might open the door to hearing their story.
    5. Bless from excess. Next time you are out to eat and have leftovers, don’t just throw it away. Instead package it up as a meal for a homeless person. Add napkins, a fork, and a bottled water. Not all homeless people are hungry. But some definitely are. You don’t even have to wait until you eat out. Why not make an extra lunch and take it with you… just in case? (Read Under the Overpass for more on this.)

    Being God’s handiwork made new in Christ to do good works doesn’t mean you have to save the world. You don’t have to build a house to do good works. You don’t have to go on a mission trip or teach Sunday school to children.

    Small, simple things do make a big impact.

    Be Good News this week.

  • Video Tip: Consider the Background

    Check out what happens at :37. My guess is that something happened or maybe the person filming the piece wanted to change up the subjects angle or the lighting was just a smidge better… but they caught a recycle bin in the background.

    Drats. I hate it when that happens.

    You can usually get away with shooting something on the odd side of an office building or even back by the loading docks. Just make sure you look at the whole shot.

  • Shut up and drive

    Church Van
    Photo by Simon Abrams via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    People are showing up and I have a million things running through my mind.

    • Do I have all of my personal stuff?
    • Do I have all of the stuff we need that the church needs to bring?
    • Are all of my leaders here?
    • Did I double check fuel levels? What about oil changes, we good there?
    • Which students still need to turn in permission slips?
    • And those two students I was trying to convince to go at the last minute, are they going to show?
    • Did I print off directions? The other drivers hate it when I forget to do that.
    • Don’t forget the orientation before we leave.
    • Did I print the flyer for parents? If I don’t write down all of the details they will call me the whole time.
    • How will I start a meaningful conversation with someone new on this drive?

    These are the myriad of things rattling through my brain as students show up for an event. I have a tendency to think 2-3 steps ahead of what is presently going on. Early arrivers check-in and I barely even acknowledge them as I’m still lost in the mental checklists of a deeply analytical moment.

    And I’ve learned over the years that since I’m lost in those details it’s better to identify a couple of volunteers who can be fully present when students arrive with their parents. It’s better to allow them to greet trip participants, answer questions, and get their bag put in the right place.

    But there comes a moment in each youth group trip where I have to intentionally shift gears and turns off all of that forward thinking.

    Sometimes you just have to shut up and drive the van.

    That’s how I’m feeling about life right now. There are a myriad of things going on. Too many things to list and some far too personal or private to share. But each day I have to find a moment where I tell myself, “Just shut up and drive.”

    All of that future planning and strategy is great. But if I don’t shut up and drive forward, those plans and strategies will become regrets. And ultimately, intentions, plans, and strategies don’t mean squat. All that matters is results.

    Shut up and drive.

  • Reward yourself

    The reality is that no one is going to give you the rewards you deserve. You do so much for others that goes unnoticed. You sacrifice so many things that only Jesus knows about. And in doing so you grow weary. And if you don’t take care of yourself there is a 100% chance you’ll give up, morally fail, or just plain quit.

    So sometimes you need to reward yourself.

    Celebrate your own victories.

    Give yourself a day off.

    Buy yourself the book you are wanting to read.

    Take a class to learn something new.

    Give yourself a month from paying down your debt to go on vacation.

    And leave the guilt at home.

    You aren’t being selfish by rewarding yourself. In a way, it’s selfish to not reward yourself.

    Jesus was the suffering servant. (Isaiah 53) You aren’t. If your life’s pace has you constantly feeling like you give, give, give and you never take some time to take care of yourself… you might just be addicted to serving.

    Even Jesus took time to rest, reflect, and relax along the way.

    Your work is important. It’s so important that you need to pace yourself for life’s marathon.

    So, if it’s been a long time and you haven’t been rewarded for your faithful service. Take 5 minutes and think about a way to reward yourself.

    “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:23

  • Lizards gone wild

  • Blame the Internet

    There are a lot of jerks out there empowered by the internet.

    Why is that?

    Affinity grouping vs. Geographical grouping

    Whereas, in the past, your social network was largely defined by geography, in the internet age your social network is self-selected. This is a double edged sword.

    Let’s say there is a guy on my block who likes to listen to Southern Rock, drink Southern Comfort, and dance on his front porch to Dolly Parton classics while yelling at passing cars, “Jap Crap!” And on the other end of the block is a woman who puts a leash on her 2 cats and 1 iguana and takes them for a walk around the block around dinner time. Every community has people like this. The iguana lady, the red neck, and a whole bunch of people in the polite middle who kind of roll their eyes at them.

    It used to be that the people on the fringes really had a quiet voice in the crowd. They’d espouse their views and everyone would politely nod. When family came to visit from out-of-town we’d point out the lady walking her iguana and cats to stare. And that social pressure kept the extremes just a little bit more palatable and innocent.

    Today, each of those oddities on my block can find other odd ducks on the internet. And chances are that finding other people like them will embolden them. So, instead of that person knowing they are on the fringe and kind of keeping it socially acceptable, now that they know 1-2 other people out there who like to rock out to Dolly Parton and yell at Toyota’s… they feel like they can be a little more loud and proud about it. The same goes for the cat and iguana lady. She found another woman in Florida who has 2 iguanas and 6 cats that she walks, so she figures she can, too!

    In their minds, all of a sudden, lots of people walk iguanas so that makes it OK. And those Dolly for President shirts are selling like hotcakes somewhere, just not here.

    That’s why there are more jerks out there. They found each other and started a Facebook group.

    I blame the internet. Who do you blame?

  • Discovering the secrets to church growth… in the Bible!

    My favorite verse in the Bible is Genesis 50:20. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.“

    But my favorite book of the Bible is Acts. Acts is what happens when Jesus finally unleashes the hounds. Peppered through the Gospel narrative is a desire by some disciples to overthrow the government and usher in the new millennium. Acts documents that while the people wanted a full-frontal-assault to destroy the enemies of God, God’s Son unleashed a counter-insurgency of grace, the forgiveness of sins, and the binding of people together in love.

    In Acts, Jesus takes Genesis 50:20 and widens the application from me and you as individuals, to entire cities, people groups, and nations!

    In a way Jesus re-writes Genesis 50:20 with his very life, “Satan intended to destroy us by pitting us against one another, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

    I’ve read Acts upwards of 100 times. I’ve read commentary after commentary on the Luke-Acts narrative. I love how Luke puts things in order. It unleashes my strategic, creative mind. For me, it is full of AHA moments. Even this morning, as I read a big chunk of the narrative again, I’m in awe of how effective they were.

    Sitting back and looking at the Luke-Acts books as a whole it makes me hypothesize. Perhaps the reason the Holy Spirit wanted Luke to put the Gospel narrative in sequential order might be so that future generations could pick up on the patterns/agendas/strategies that the Apostles implemented to completely obliterate the strongest empire the world has ever seen without using a single army?

    If so, that’s a pretty cool strategy.

    Man conquers the body; Jesus conquers the heart

    The modern church movement in America largely depends on a single strategy morphed into a thousand different variations. It’s a Field of Dreams strategy: “If you build it, they will come.” A program, a good preacher, a building, on and on.

    The weakness with that strategy is that it’s resource dependent. If you don’t have a great program manager you are sunk. You you can’t afford a great building you are sunk. If you don’t have a great preacher you are sunk.

    And it all somehow flows back to money. As much as we hate that it’s about money, money lubricates the gears of the modern church machine.

    The last 5 years, with the economy crashing down and churches re-thinking everything, has begged the question: Without money, what would church look like?

    That’s actually the strategy we see employed in Acts.

    Read it for yourself. In one sitting, right now, read Acts 17-20. Come back when you’ve read it. I’ll wait.

    (more…)

  • The other 90%

    I think some people are writing me off as a deconstructionist. As if I’m a leftover from a bygone fad when it was hip to rip on the church.

    Part of me says, “Call me what you want, who am I to tell people what to think?”

    But I think that’s an incorrect label.

    My aim is the opposite. I want to be a reconstructionist. I have this crazy, insane belief that the best days for the American church can be in front of us and not behind.

    If you need to label me something, label me this: “Passionate about the other 90%.”

    I will take that to the bank all day, every day.

    The simple fact is that I won’t be satisfied with reaching 5-10% of the population with the Good News of Jesus Christ. If that were a grade in school it wouldn’t even be an F… it would be an I.

    Incomplete work. I know we can do better. I know I can do better!

    I’m unashamedly passionate about that. And I readily admit that I keep company with people who think the same way.

    When I run into “satisfied Christians” I kind of wonder what is wrong with them? How can we be so comfortable and happy when we believe what we believe and 90% of the population doesn’t even care?

    • Nearly all Christians believe that a life on earth knowing Jesus will be better than a life lived on earth without Christ.
    • Nearly all Christians believe that when you die you will be judged. Those who know Jesus spend eternity with Christ, those who don’t know Jesus spend eternity separated from Christ.

    That drives me to think: What is “wrong” with the “system of church” we practice that leads to reaching only 5-10% of any given community? And what could we change, while holding on to what is dear and true, that would help us (the church, the body, the people of Jesus) reach… 11%. 20%. 25%. 45%. In my lifetime.

    It is up to me and you.

    When I go down this road, people always say the same thing: “Adam, we don’t have the power to do anything about that.”

    I reject that idea. Flat out.

    You may not be able to change entire systems of power or government or even the momentum of your church.

    But you can change you.

    And if you can change you and God has called you to lead others. They will change, too.

    When I look at reaching 10% of the population I don’t first think, “We need to change everything.” I first think, “What do I need to change about myself?”

  • The Innovation Gap

    “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” ~ William Arthur Ward

    “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” ~ Sir Winston Churchill

    “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” ~ Steve Jobs

    I don’t pretend to know what today’s problems are for you.

    But this much I do know–

    • The best ideas comes from those on the front lines. That’s the great joy of innovation. Today’s heroes count their riches while tomorrows heroes work all night.
    • Avoiding failure is a failure in itself. The trick to creating new stuff is to fail fast. Risk isn’t the enemy, comfort is.
    • Celebrate every milestone. A step towards your ultimate goal is still a step forward. Plus, moving forward will gain you momentum.
    • Every person has a creative mind. Don’t sell anyone short. Rarely are the best things innovated alone. Your best idea might come from listening to another person talk about the same problem.
    • Look at your problem from every angle. The best putters in golf walk all the way around their shot.

  • From information to action

    click to see full size
    click to see full size

    Our society is in desperate need of Good News

    Therefore, the question for church leaders is simple: Will you be the source of Good News in your community or will someone/something else?

    The Sunday Disconnect

    Like clockwork, we have trained our people that the place to be on Sunday mornings is the church. That is a great thing: People show up!

    There is expectancy in that. Something innately in us instructs us, “Sunday morning is the time we gather for corporate worship of our God.” Whether its your first Sunday, you’ve been in the church your whole life, or you work at the church, we all come together on Sunday mornings: We are going to the church to worship God!

    That togetherness ends in the parking lot. As we arrive at church I find that we each family & individual has a slightly different agenda as they come on Sunday morning.

    The difference in agenda is fascinating, mind-numbing, and ultimately a sign that we need corrective leadership.

    My Sunday morning agenda – aka “Things I am hoping for“

    1. Get there, all of us. On time is preferable.
    2. Get the kids to children’s church.
    3. Corporate time of worship, prayer, and the reading of God’s Word.
    4. Drop off my offering.
    5. See some friends during the soft time after service, meet some new people.
    6. Avoid invitations to help out with things that don’t interest me. Check in with things I am interested in.
    7. Hear reports/testimonies of what God is doing in my neighborhood through His people.
    8. Hear about corporate opportunities to do something. I only have 2-3 hours available per week, but if something can be done, I want to do it.
    9. Hear what’s going on in my neighborhood.
    10. Share ideas, process what’s going on, and form action plans for the week to come.

    The Sunday morning agenda of the staff – aka “Things I perceive they need to see the morning as a success.“

    1. Make sure the building is ready for visitors.
    2. Make sure all of your people are in the right places and they know what they are supposed to be doing.
    3. Invite people into a deeper relationship with God.
    4. Communicate God’s Word. (Song, sermon, prayer, etc.)
    5. Announce stuff.
    6. Check off the mental check list of people to reach out to (Some, to see how they are doing or follow-up. Others, to recruit or check-in about stuff you are announcing.)
    7. Make sure the service happens. (You want it to be worshipful for yourself, but largely it’s not because details overwhelm you.)
    8. Oversee staff, volunteers, and check-in with all of them after to see how it went.
    9. Count stuff. I don’t know why but church staff have to count everything.
    10. Troubleshoot. Something always manages to go wrong.

    See what’s happening?

    Largely, the people coming want to be called to action. Sure, they want to gather. But they also want to do something with their faith outside of the walls of the church in their own community.

    Largely, the church staff want to call people to help make church happen. They want to do stuff outside of the church, too. (Don’t read that the wrong way… the church staff largely is on staff because they want to impact the community!) But they can’t even think about that unless their bases are covered.

    Questions: What are some first steps to alleviating this disconnect on Sunday morning? What are ways you can transform Sunday morning from information sharing to a call to action?