Category: hmm… thoughts

  • The Teenager Audio Test

    Train Horns

    Created by Train Horns

    HT to Tim Gibbons

  • Fast Tuesday

    fast_tuesdayToday is Mardis Gras. Good old Fat Tuesday. It’s an annual tradition where people feast before Lent begins on Wednesday morning. Well, very few people I know feast before Lent begins. But most of us are aware of Mardis Gras in New Orleans or Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

    I’m one of those people who looks at traditions and likes to find the Jesus element and wonder how I can make that tradition relevant to my walk. (Running around drunk and throwing beads at women just seems irrelevant to my walk with the Lord, you know? Plus, I think the whole thing is just gross.) The past few year’s I’ve chosen one day, Tuesday, during Lent each week to observe a fast. I don’t say that to make myself seem more spiritually cool than anyone else, it’s just something I’ve been doing. A tiny sacrifice to remember and prepare myself for Holy Week and Easter.

    Since I’m into puns… I always referred to it as Fast Tuesday. (Get it? Mardis Gras is Fat Tuesday. Fast Tuesday? Yeah, I’m corny.)

    Last year I started wondering… How could I invite other people into this same observance without making it a big show of “Look what we’re doing!” In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 6, “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

    Long story short, this is my invitation. If you’re interested in fasting alongside me Tuesday’s during Lent…

    1. Chose your fast. I’ll be doing a water and juice fast. That means I won’t eat any food at all, but I will drink water and some juices. I’ll be posting some resources for those who want to do their own research. Trust me, you won’t die.

    2. Join the group. Rather than talk a lot about the fast here on my blog [which makes me feel like I’m violating that Matthew 6 teaching] I’ve created a Facebook group for those who are looking for resources, talking about fasting experiences, etc.

    3. Participate in the group. I recognize that most of my friends don’t come from a fasting tradition. Evangelicals, by and large, only scratch the surface at any spiritual discipline. So I would encourage those participating to not just join the group, but participate.

    4. Invite others to join. Feel free to include whomever you’d like in Fast Tuesday. If you don’t know how to do that, just forward this link to a friend and tell them you’re participating in this and would like them to consider it as well.

    5. Observe the fast. Fast Tuesday begins March 2nd.

    That’s it. No strings attached. No fundraiser. No hidden cult agenda. (Though I could use the money!) Nothing other than what’s posted here. I’m very excited about the fast beginning next Tuesday. Experiencing something physical during Lent has opened up a whole world of meaning for Lent that I had always missed. I’m hoping you’ll consider it and join in as well.

  • Loop Artist

    Not only is it cool how this artist creates his craft, I think his message matches the theme of this blog.

    It is possible…

  • One-Two Punch of Leaders

    leadership-trump-rogers

    I’ve been thinking about leadership a lot lately as I reflect on the type of leader that I tend to follow. More to the point, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the type of leader I aspire to be.

    Let’s start with what I hate.

    I hate the Donald Trump-type of leader.The ego driven type A-aholics that thrive on their own power. As Trump himself has proven time and again, it is a losing style of leadership. Trump’s leadership style is bankrupt across many layers.

    I hate the Mr. Rogers-type of leader. These leaders are so afraid of expressing their will on an organization that their team feels unlead. These leaders make you feel good but often lead failing organizations. This leadership style makes you feel good but fails to produce results.

    Rather than go any further into this metaphor, I’ll get to the point. The type of leader I love and aspire to be is actually a combination of both. When I look at the landscape of “what’s wrong with leadership” I often see one type of leader or the other leading an organization. But I think it’d be more healthy if organizations intentionally had a little of both. You need a strong leader to get things done and cast vision. But you also need people who are insanely compassionate. And since it is nearly impossible to be both Donald Trump and Mr. Rogers… I think the best style of leadership is to have both.

    It’s way better to have the tension of plural leadership than it is to fail.

    Observation #1: Women seem to be better at this than men. I’m not one of those Christian men who buys into the lie that men are better leaders than women. I’ve got too much experience with excellent female leaders to believe that for a second. I’m astonished that churches openly discriminate against women who are strong leaders… but that’s another post for another day. I am not saying that men can’t do this, I’m just observing that when it comes to sharing leadership for the strength of the team… my experience has shown me that women do it easier than men.

    Observation #2: The best leaders have an equal and opposite sidekick. I jokingly refer to this as “Good cop, bad cop.” I’ve played both roles in leadership… but it’s way more fun to be good cop. When this works well it gets an insane amount of stuff done. It’s an efficiency machine!

    Observation #3: Everyone is happier with a one-two punch of leaders. Ultimately, there is the boss. But having a one-two punch of leaders allows people of various personality types to have someone to gel with.

    Application: I’m still working through this. Let me know your thoughts.

  • Two Kinds of Medium Sized Church People

    Here are some more thoughts on the medium-sized church crisis. My post the other day attracted a fair amount of comments and attention… and I was pretty frustrated that people jump to the issue of money.

    I only think that the money problems of current are bringing the Medium-sized church crisis to the forefront. At the end of the day I’m meeting two types of churchoers. Once you cut past the nice fluff they say about their churches and preacher they are really either small church people or megachurch people.

    What does this mean for medium-sized church? My experience in medium-sized churches is that there is a tension between these two types of people. One is resistant of anything “small church” so stuff that is appealing to the small church is annoying to them and visa versa. Eventually, misguided and unaccepted tension results in hurt feelings, bitterness, disappointment, and a range of other typical medium-church angst.

    And that angst is why I’m saying the medium church is in crisis… Eventually, church leaders must chose to lead their church one direction or the other: Lead towards smaller environments or toward becoming a megachurch. The cultural division is causing this squeeze. The financial crisis merely accelerates the trend.

    A Personal Example

    In Romeo, we mislabeled these cultural issues as a “personal preference issue” instead of a cultural issue. Big mistake! Our small church folks didn’t mind if the worship team wasn’t professional sounding or if the church basement was a bit too homey for potlucks. Small church people find those things endearing… maybe even spiritual.

    Meanwhile, the megachurch people wanted everything to be like the megachurch they used to go to and they wanted the church to become. Everything was compared to the megachurch down the road or the stuff they saw on TV or enjoyed at a conference or read about online. To the megachurch people, the failure of the small church people to realize all that Romeo could become was an abomination… a spiritual failure at worse and a lack of vision at best.

    See… this isn’t about money at all. Maybe I’ll be called a heretic for this? But, I will tell you what 10 years of church ministry has taught me about giving. Giving has 0% to do with what people are taught from the Bible and 100% to do with whether or not they feel that their money will further a cause they believe in. People are just sophisticated like that. They see right through the pleas for cash to your motivation. When motivations converge they give. When they disagree they give somewhere else. Christians are extremely generous… but they won’t give to a church simply because they go there.

    Next, let’s talk about money. I’ve only hinted at it, lets hit it straight away next time.

    Then, I want to talk about the superiority of small church and megachurch missions in our culture. This is the core reason for the crisis.

  • A Very Relevant Worship Song

    Last night at NPC the worship leader lead us in this old hymn, I was lost in it’s relevance for today and all that is going on around the world. I think of the events of last night with a plane crash in New York State, the slumping economy with unemployment in Detroit soaring past 21%, to the intense daily struggles many of my friends are facing around the country… it’s powerful to be reminded that this land is built on shifting sand, but our hope is built on solid ground.

    The Solid Rock

    My hope is built on nothing less
    Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
    I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
    But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

    Chorus:
    On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
    All other ground is sinking sand,
    All other ground is sinking sand.

    When darkness veils His lovely face,
    I rest on His unchanging grace;
    In every high and stormy gale,
    My anchor holds within the veil.

    His oath, His covenant, His blood
    Support me in the whelming flood;
    When all around my soul gives way,
    He then is all my hope and stay.

    When He shall come with trumpet sound,
    Oh, may I then in Him be found;
    Dressed in His righteousness alone,
    Faultless to stand before the throne.

  • Stellar Day

    Yesterday was a banner day for me. I came home late last night completely exhausted but also invigorated as well.

    What happened?

    #1 Andrew Marin comes to Harbor. All throughout the fall as I got to know Andy it became more and more clear that he needed to talk to our church staff. I was talking to Stephen about the Marin Foundation and I was talking to Andy about the bridging going on between cultures here and everyone was interested in getting together. So I was able to connect the two yesterday morning. It was awesome to have our local leaders so interested and desperate to learn how to move forward in a Christ honoring way. Andy was able to share his story as well as some strategies with the teams here. I can’t wait to see how this continues to blossom!

    # 2 Oceanside Youth Workers Network. A new friend, Kevin, from the National Network of Youth Ministry invited me to come to a local network up in Oceanside. I am so glad I drove all the way up there for lunch. (about 45 minutes each way) Just to be with my people was greatly encouraging. I love praying with youth workers and hearing what they are up to. Of course, I was able to tell them about Planet Wisdom, YS One Day, and DCLA… but that was so secondary to hearing their successes, challenges, and prayer requests. It was one of those “with my people” lunches. Fortunately, I get to do the same thing up in Escondido next Wednesday.

    #3 Working the booth at National Pastors Conference. About 3 in the afternoon I headed down to NPC to relieve Dave from the YS booth. I got to talk to a lot of senior leaders about their youth ministries and how YS can help keep them trained and encouraged. It was also a fun time to meet some people face-to-face, like Mark RIddle. One difference I noticed between NPC and NYWC is that NPC seems to be much more of a networking event than NYWC. Than again, it could just be that I’m noticing all of that a lot more now?

    #4 Fun day for me with online publishing. I had a super tight schedule yesterday, before I left my house at 6:15 AM I saw that Todd Rhoades had mentioned one of my blog posts on Monday Morning Insight. I was like a school girl when I saw that, very exciting. Also, Patti published my latest article over at YMX called, “Is Justice Up to You?”

    #5 Newsletter changes. Each week at work, I help produce and send out three newsletters for YS. Over the past few months we’ve been revamping two of them. Yesterday, we sent out the first major change as the YS Parent Newsletter became the Real World Parent Newsletter. I love that we’re now tying that into our brand spanking new parent seminars. I’m a big fan of “do stuff that makes sense” and this is one of those deals. I know a lot of parents of teenagers read my blog… so make sure you subscribe using this link.

    On top of all of this there were a couple of other really exciting things for me. A friend handed me his book… I’ve been praying with him through the process and it was awesome to see it in print! And I’m working with an organization to tell the youth ministry world about something super cool. More on both of those things soon.

  • Statement of the Obvious Headlines

    I spend some time every day reading the latest stuff on adolescent research, teen marketing, etc. And sometimes stories pop-up and you think… did someone really think this was a revealing something that a everyone didn’t already know?

    Here are two recent examples:

    #1. Teen Brains Damaged by Heavy Marijuana Use — Didn’t this researcher ever watch a Cheech and Chong movie in high school?

    #2 Obesity Can Complicate Teen Pregnancy — Notice it doesn’t say “obesity WILL complicate teen pregnancy.” This is a statement of the obvious on a lot of levels. When was the last time a teen pregancy wasn’t complicated?

    The irony is that “real journalists” mock bloggers all the time on their network TV shows. Perhaps bloggers just expose the obvious… what is newsworthy is often just a catchy headline? And I love that “real journalists” are followed up on their networks by shows like TMZ, Extra, and Cheaters.

    News at 11.

  • Dropping out of big church?

    This morning on the YS blog I wrote about an impending crisis in rural churches in the United States. It was based on an excellent story in last week’s Time Magazine. Here’s the link.

    So here’s what I see, call me crazy. I am curious if anyone else thinks the same thing.

    1. Big churches getting bigger. This attracts the vast majority of talent out there. Most people I know in smaller churches would love to “move up” to a big church. Moreover, people seem to like the megachurch model. I don’t get it… but I can see how my friends really like it.

    2. Big church pastors are one of three types of people. Either they are the alpha dogs who thrive on the hype and long for more production value, bigger numbers, and bigger Jesus. Or they are uber talented and feel like their big church misses the boat, misuses their talents, mismanages funds, etc. Or they grew up around that big church and now work there, they just love it because its all they know and they don’t have the education to get a job elsewhere. This is a gross generalization… but it’s merely for dramatic effect, ok?

    So, here is what I’m wondering. I’m wondering if all of these middle people eventually get sick of the relative safety of their paycheck, reject the hype and production of big church, and decide that they will be bi-vocational rural church planters or pastors of all these churches who are lacking pastors.

    Simply put, will these middle folks in jobs they need but don’t really like start dropping out of big church life to intentionally take on the smaller churches so desperate for a loving and qualified pastor?

  • Old Video of Newspapers Online

    Check this out, in 1981 the idea of people getting the news via the internet was already well underway. It took a while, but online is a primary way people get news these days. I love that monitor!

    HT to Mark