Things at church have been going quite well. That’s pastor talk for "New people are coming and the ones who are here seem to be happy and growing." In the ebbs and flows of ministry there are times when new people come and other times when people leave. At both times… there is a lot of self-examination and examination of what is going well or isn’t going well.
Category: hmm… thoughts
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When Visitors Don’t Stay
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Conference Inspiration
If you read my notes from yesterday you may think… Adam, you are wasting your time going to this conference.If all I were getting was their content, I’d agree. But here’s the thing about conferences. (I have 2-3 more to go to this fall as well.) When I am listening to a great innovator or a great teacher or a great marketer talk about his thing… it actually spurs on my ideas.
An interesting thing happens to me when I sit and listen. I generally grab a legal pad and start coming up with some of the most clear, concise, and effective ideas I will ever get. It’s an amazing thing as a speaker is doing his/her thing and it triggers this thought that I furiously write down.
At NYWC during a message I came up with our identity formation thing I call "Light Force 101."
At the Summit 2006, MainStreet was born. As were several things that made Light Force tick last school year.
At NYWC 02, my "pop quiz" review was born.
The Acts message series of 2006-2007 was born at Founder’s Week 2005.
On and on. Right now I have so many projects swirling around for the ministry of Romeo that I need this time to get clarity. So there is the very practical "good stuff" of a conference in that I get encouragement and can network and recharge… but these conferences are also a major innovation time for me as well.
It’s time spent that pays massive dividends for me. -
Blogging the Summit
Tomorrow I’ll join a few thousand folks at the local satellite of Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit. Last year’s was quite good. I am really looking forward to getting challenged to think and act like a better leader. I am also looking forward to blogging my thoughts.
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The Battle is On!
Download TheBattleisOn.pdf (136.5K)
We just got back from our Light Force trip (more on that later) and I thought I would quickly post this. Sunday morning went exceedingly well. It was one of those things, like MainStreet last week, where God showed up and the Holy Spirit did something while I was just being me… as inadequate as always. At least, that’s my theory.
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a fast 5 years
This afternoon I was doing a little reflecting and I realized that Kristen and I have been in full-time ministry for just over 5 years. Meaning, for the past 5 years our only income has come from being employed by a local church. (I had paid roles prior to that, just not my sole income source.)This picture is from my first VBS in Romeo in 2003… right after we got here. I’m still that sexy.
I have a lot of thoughts about what that means. First, I recognize that I’m way above the average length of a pastoral career. There seem to be two types of ministry folks… those who wash out quickly (2 years or under) and those who last a lifetime (15 years and up) My hope has always been to be in that latter category. Second, God’s people take care of their staff the best they know how. Leaving the corporate world and entering full time ministry was the biggest leap of faith Kristen and I had ever encountered. And our first experience landed us flat on our face 2000+ miles from home. But even in the disaster of "Horrorville" we were blessed by people who helped us greatly. (People who watched Megan, gave us food, clothing, vacations, fixed our car, and helped us out in many tangible ways.) Likewise, the people of Romeo have been faithful and loving to Kristen and I for more than 4 years. The first 1-2 years of being in ministry I was just humbled by the honor that a church would pay us to do something I love. And I can’t lie… 5 years later I’m still surprised that God would want me to do this and pay me enough to care for my family, too.
Lastly, I am living proof that God qualfies whom He wants. I never want to be shy in telling people that
getting into ministry was hard work. (Most ministry people I know are extremely hard workers.) I did work hard to "get qualified" educationally. Kristen and I married at 21 and spent several years preparing to go into "paid ministry" and it wasn’t easy. My last couple years of Bible school were dreadful as I worked from 4 am til noon and then took afternoon and evening classes, plus had an internship, plus volunteered in other areas of the church. But I didn’t earn being in full time ministry any more than I am qualified to do it. (Well, I"m biblically qualified… that’s another qualification) There have been dozens of gut checks and temptations to get out of it. I’ve come to realize that I am in ministry not because I want to, or because I set out to, but because it’s God’ choice. That said, it’s been 5 years. I hope this is just the beginning. But I am also aware that since it was God’s choice to put me in ministry, it’s not really my choice as to how long I’m in ministry, is it? My job is just like anyone else’s. I’m called to do the best I can with where God has me right now. My future is in the same hands as my present.
Not my will, but Yours.
p.s. Yeah, that’s Mike D. as an 8th grader. He’s a senior this year and about 6-4. Yikes!
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The love of laughter
One of the things I appreciate about people is their ability to enjoy a good laugh. I’ve noticed that people who want to be friends with me like to laugh. And people who are very serious… they tend to tolerate me but never want to really be my friend.
With that in mind, check out why I like the people over at Gospel Communications so much. (Click here and scroll down to the bottom, check out my name/title/company) They get it, and it just makes it super funny. I can’t wait to see that on my name tag in September.
It’s another one of those moments when a 14 year old looks at me, giggles, and tells me to grow up.
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Speaking of Change
I caught this over at ChurchRelevance.com. If you don’t like change… don’t watch this video. It’s a fascinating look at the rate our culture is changing. The question isn’t "Do you like change?" It is "Since your way of living today will be extinct in 5-10 years, how will you begin adapting today?" Be honest and think about how much your life has changed over the last 10 years… then watch this video and realize it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
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Summer Lack-of-Routine-ness
Yesterday I felt off my game. I got asked several hundred (thousands?) questions about MainStreet by our leaders who put the event together and half they time they were asking me a question and I was wondering to myself, "Why are you asking me?" Then I had to remind myself… They are asking me because I am in charge of the event!
Why is it so hard to find routine in the summer? Is it that no one else has a routine? (Students are fully lost at this point, most of them have no way to keep track of time or days it seems) Is it that you do so many things (trips, events, planning, swimming, beach, BBQ, visiting) that are different from the rest of the year that you fall out of your habits?It is good to get "out of routine" too. When you are out of your normal routines you get variety and you often get a new perspective on the things in your routine.
It’s the intersection of "not in routine" and "in routine" that is pretty rough. Everything is going to be fine. MainStreet is going to be just as cool as ever… hopefully cooler. But getting back in the routine of doing it is a little rough.
My strategy for getting back in routines
- Suck it up cream puff and get back in your routine.
- Uh, suck it up?
- How about just sucking it up and getting your stuff done?
So far, this strategy seems to be working just fine.
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Pfttlwbwbwbwbwb… and things that change the game
It’s been one of those weeks. And I still have mountains of stuff to do for this weekend.
Yesterday I talked about goals and benchmarks. It was funny because I worked hard on a benchmark thing that will make the new RomeoChurch.com mucho better than the existing church website. Unfortunately, that benchmark took more than 8 hours when I had hoped it would take less than 1 hour.
Web 2.0
As I’ve mentioned before here… Web 2.0 is changing the way the internet works. From an end user perspective you see what you want to see which often leads to that weird feeling of seeing a Coke in a Pepsi machine at the mall. Those two things don’t go together do they? Web 2.0 has really started to change "who owns what" and "what does it mean to ‘own’ something that exists digitally?" Getting to see the the internet the way that you want to see it simply changes the game. And any time the game changes… users tend to benefit. For example… DSL and Cable internet changed the ISP game. While there are still loads of people on dial-up, many more now pay very little for unlimited, wireless, high speed internet. That changed the game and created a whole new market. Web 2.0 is doing the same thing. Now that content doesn’t "live" on a site forever because it can go anywhere… this has changed the game.What that means for web developers (Which I don’t really claim to be but get a bird’s eye view of a lot) is that people collaborate now when they wouldn’t have before. Just yesterday I was working on this "benchmark" for RomeoChurch.com and I ran into a wall. I couldn’t get the thing to work! I scratched my head. I tried it a bunch of different ways. I even had to talk a walk around the building to clear my head and pray for an idea. Just then, literally in that moment, a person from YMX contacted me about a website problem he had with his youth group site. I said, "Sure send me a link." When my AIM screen flashed my jaw dropped as I could see he was working with the same exact code he was working on! And he was having the same problem and had been banging his head against the wall for 2 days.
So, we did what anyone living in a Web 2.0 world would do. We contacted the guy who published the code to ask for help. Within an hour both of us were smiling as our websites were now doing something we had long hoped for.
In a Web 1.0 world, that collaboration wouldn’t have happened. Certainly not for free. But Web 2.0 changed the game. Now you see loads of novice developers having access to experts as we all share ideas.
Which leads to the question the church has to deal with… "How will the church adapt to a Web 2.0 environment?" How will the church be the authority when we can’t even control content anymore? Is there biblical justification for collaboration? And what about churches who refuse to collaborate?
Anyone have answers? Let’s here ’em.
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When Goals Wake You Up
A lot of people make goals and set benchmarks. I am the same way. No matter what area of my life, I hear a little birdie telling me "You need to get ____ done by _____ to know that you are accomplishing ____ goal." I’m not sure where it originated but I that little birdie doesn’t come naturally… I’ve learned to listen to the little birdie. I am where I am at today because I listened to the birdie and got stuff done. A good goal will wake you up in the morning. It’ll make you stay up late at night. And it’ll be within your reach.
A bad goal leads to fatalism as you realize that not only can you achieve your goal, but you were stupid to even try. It won’t keep you up late are wake you up in the morning because deep inside you feel like your goal is unattainable.
I’ve made both kinds of goals in my life… I’ve given up on good goals to strive for bad ones and I’d like to think that as I become a better, smarter leader… I am refining my ability to distinguish. But I think choosing a good goal over a bad one will be something that I struggle with for the rest of my life!
I have goals for all the major parts of my life. My marriage, my job, my business, my home, my own development. Along the same lines, I have benchmarks… little celebration moments… that go along the way as well.My observation is that most people say the have goals… and they probably do. But they either have goals that are actually dreams or they have goals set with no benchmarks for achieving their goals so they give up. And this lack of benchmarking leads to failure.
My focus in accomplishing goals is never to work to finish the goal. I think in focusing on the big goal too much, you act like a dreamer, instead I just focus on reaching the next benchmark.
When you are focusing on getting from benchmark to benchmark instead of focusing on the big goal… you accomplish that goal faster plus you are still looking to work hard on future goals when you cross the finish line.
Too vague? Think of it like this, a goal can be a dream… "I want to be more effective in reaching students in my community." A benchmark is a measurable success… "I will start 4-5 house small groups in September 2007." The goal isn’t to start house small groups but I’m going to celebrate that as a benchmark towards accomplishing my goal. Celebrate the benchmarks and you’ll accomplish your goals.And I mean celebrate… there is nothing worse than seeing someone not celebrate a benchmark in their life. They brush it off as no big deal… why? Because they are too focused on their goal to enjoy the benchmarks! You see it in sports and you see it in high school students when a success just isn’t good enough. Take a few moments to enjoy the benchmarks and it’ll energize you to keep going. Skipping that step will just contribute to another year sliding by stuck in the same place you were a year ago. Don’t do that.
Got goals for 2007-2008? If so, what are some of your benchmarks?
p.s. The photos come from Despair.com.
