Category: hmm… thoughts

I live in a house that was built in 1871. Over the last 136 years gravity has had it’s way with parts of our house. In fact, there probably is more in our house that isn’t perfectly level than there is that is perfectly level.

Recently I was putting in a new kitchen counter. The floor wasn’t level. The cabinets aren’t level. But after shimming up one side and thumping the hammer here and there I was able to make 2 unlevel things support a level counter top. Sometimes when a new visitor is in our house they’ll say something like "wow, I felt a little dip there" or "the porch seems like it may be a little crooked." They are right. It’s an old house and that happens over 136 years of settling and bowing under the weight.

Outside it only gets worse. Our garage probably needs to be leveled rather than trying to take care of the major structural issues it has. A lot of years after an exceedingly poor design has led to the roof "swaying" a little in the middle. The south wall is buckled by about a foot at the top and the whole structure somehow stands. The patio leans just a little one way.

I’m even noticing a couple of things about stuff that I’ve done that isn’t quite level. The kids new tire swing isn’t quite level. The play structure we had placed there last spring… it’s a little cockeyed.

I can defintiely say this about almost our entire house. "It’s about a half a bubble off."

That about says it all, doesn’t it?

Just like that it’s gone. Thursday evening. In a few minutes I have my small group and in the morning we leave for a two-day marketing retreat for the church.

This was one of those weeks where I had to focus a lot on just pounding stuff out. We got a great piece of marketing done for MainStreet and about 25 other million things too. Back when I worked for BSBSIL I longed for fast weeks like this because I just got my work done and went home. It was all about getting paid and the faster the week went the sooner we got paid. But ministry is about people and weeks like this… well… thank God for my small group!

I’m also looking forward to this little retreat. Marketing and church really do go together. Really, they do.

When it comes to innovation, there seems to be two types of church leaders and two types of church attenders.

• Play-it-safe types. These church leaders hide their creativity and struggle for the status quo. They worry more about making people mad or even losing people than they think about anything else. Appealing to their creative side scares them and they tend to reproduce what they know. You hear them say things like "Yes, but" a lot.  They probably were creative and innovative early in their careers but maybe a couple of failures and a stern warning from the boss scared them into playing it safe. They tend to warp  the gospel message into what makes them comfortable (what they know) instead of taking much of Jesus’ words literally. You wouldn’t want to start a revolution, would you? They read the Book of Acts and say "that couldn’t happen here." Interestingly, there are loads of people that are perfectly happy with Play-it-safe leaders. They like predictability and innovation isn’t important to them. They want to know what to expect and even if something isn’t working… they are perfectly content with what they know. When this person measures their own performance they are telling themselves… "I never fail."
• Risk-taking types. Let me first say, I think this exists in every leader. And I think that most first generation Christians love the risk-taking church leader because they know that someone took a risk on them. Most people end up in leadership because at some point they stepped out and took a risk, smashed the status quo and got pegged as a leader. These leaders tend to measure things by "is it working?" rather than "is this what my people expect?" Risk takers aren’t stupid… they just aren’t afraid to fail. They understand that failure is part of the innovation process. They read Jesus’ story and the Book of Acts and shudder at the possibilities. Interestingly, there aren’t loads of people who like to be lead by risk takers. Sure…. tons of people love "what’s new" and taking wild chances… but innovators tend to accidentally run people over.

John 6
Both types are broken and messed up. And God needs/uses both types of leaders to lead His church today. Just like God needs people to comfort the Play-it-safe crowd, God needs people who laugh at risk and innovate methods for His sake.

For a long time I’ve been fascinated by the story documented in John 6 about the disciples who quit following Jesus. Relatively early in Jesus’ 3 year ministry he attracted a large following. He was taking big risks and people loved following him. But one day, while Jesus was teaching he looked at this group of… let’s say 100… wanna-be disciples and told them plainly. "Look, following me isn’t all about a bed of roses. There won’t always be miracles and free food. At some point you may have to die because you’re following me. Unless you’re willing to eat my flesh and drink my blood you can’t really follow me anymore." John writes, "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." It was more risk than they could bear so they went home.

Out of those left… Jesus chose the twelve. It was this group of 12 to whom Jesus said, "On you I will build my church." Risk takers… status quo busters… innovators and inventors of "church."

Risk takers will always rub people the wrong way. They will always be called failures by the Play-it-safe types, and maybe they will be correct. And yet out of risk taking and innovation comes the best ideas that reach the most people.

I’ve long said that I want to work with people who are stupid enough to think they can make a difference in their community. Right now, I have that. It comes at a cost… but I’m just not a play it safe kind of guy. I love being on a staff of people willing to take "wise risks" for the Kingdom.

And about 15 years ago a wild and crazy young youth pastor took a chance on me by wasting a bunch of time and energy on a lonely and wounded dorky kid. If he had played it safe… where would I be?

I’ve got 2-3 minutes to spare and I finally got a decent connection thanks to the highway robbery of my 2nd favorite coffee chain…

The week in Chicago is going great. With 24 hours to go everyone is still getting along and we’re having a grand old time. Of course, like any trip there are loads and loads of memorable moments, including the usual amount of inside jokes. Let’s just say that having our devotions be in Exodus 19-24 this week added plenty of fun fodder.

This is the last day and we’re going to be helping take a whole gaggle of kids on a boat cruise on Lake Michigan in a few minutes. I am certain this will be an interesting experience to say the least.

I just checked my email for the first time since Tuesday night. A total of 190 messages were awaiting me between all of my accounts. Being disconnected is a good reminder of how connected you really are, eh?

Did I mention there were only 24 hours left? Better get back to that.

I first heard this phrase "Jesus is a bad product" from author/speaker Donald Miller at the National Youth Workers Convention. I thought he offered an interesting perspective in light of the multi-billion dollar Jesus industry and the fact that his books would constitute a "Jesus product." But I digress.

This recently appeared in a news story and makes it official, Jesus is a bad product.
Coca-Cola, the worlds most recognized name and reigning king of pop (soda for those outside of the midwest) thinks associating with Jesus is a bad idea.

Coca-Cola Co. is suing producers of an Italian film titled " 7 Km da Gerusalemme"
(Seven Kilometers From Jerusalem), that shows Jesus swigging Coke from
a can in the desert. Coke said the scene would probably give the soda a
bad image. A spokeswoman said, "We are not interested in this kind of
product placement."

First off, shame on Coke. I mean, who really cares? And by making a stink about it only means infinitely more bad publicity for them instead of allowing the small budget film to do it. But more importantly, it strikes me as odd that Coke would be perfectly fine with their product appearing in all sorts of films, with all sorts of product placement, and yet sue a filmmaker over this? I just don’t understand this issue.

This is just stupid on so many levels and proves the lengths that seperationist will go to remove religion from daily life. It makes you wonder, if corporate America is this interested in not associating with Jesus, what do they want to associate with?

HT to Sallyb

Last nights MainStreet went great. We had a great turnout, which always gets the performers all jazzed up, which lead to the best performance they’ve had to date.

As the un-official kick-off to a big Easter weekend, this was as good as we could have expected. All sorts of kids ministry goodness last night. From the virtue being taught clearly, to Bob’s message coming off super, the skits… let’s just say Professor Caesar (Richard C.) is a great sport for letting us cover him in a gallon of nacho cheese, to POPS doing a great job, to the worship team coming right along, and of course the game and snack time was a massive hit… I’m rambling to just say… Wow.

Deep thoughts for a Thursday morning.

It seems like my life is full of people who think they are experts but lack the education, experience, or resources to actually be an expert.

As a result they waste my time and energy as they pretend to be more resourceful than they really are. It’s frustrating beyond belief because I can see through them right away… but it’s really hard to tell an impostor "It’s OK, you don’t know." Instead endless streams of "blah" come out of their mouths. And it drives me insane.

Take the internet for instance. I’m no expert, even though I own and develop a lot of sites I would still call myself a novice in most areas of web development. So when someone asks me a question I use one of three options:

1. I know the answer and offer it.
2. I don’t know the answer and punt.
3. I want to know the answer and I tell the person "I don’t know, but I’m going to try to find out."

That’s a pretty honest answer. I expect the same thing from the people I interact with about things I’m seeking advice on. I’m teachable, inquisitive, and I have loads of problems I need solutions for.

Here are the options for an impostor responding to a question approached with:

1. I know the answer and offer it.
2. If I don’t know, but I’ll talk your ear off out of embarrassment of not knowing.
3. Even though I don’t know the answer, I will talk out of all the orifices of my body to convince you that I know.

I just wish I could come up with a polite way of telling impostors, "You are wasting my time right now. I’m going to talk to someone who is an expert now."

The cool thing about truly intelligent people in my life is that they are unafraid to punt. In fact, one sure fire way I can tell if someone is an expert on something or not is by mentally noting if they ever punt. If they don’t… I know they are an impostor.

Of course, the real problem with impostors is that they are persistent and ever-present.

No, I didn’t misspell "week." It’s intentional. As Holy Week begins I am feeling especially weak and helpless in the face of all that is going on.

There is an unsurmountable list of thing to accomplish. As always… it’s not a matter of doing things I like vs. dislike so much as I am having to wade through God’s blessings as He abundantly provides.

This is a MainStreet week. Which means that we are charged with transforming the auditorium into a kids world. A two hour program once per week takes 3 weeks of planning and several days of labor. At this point in the ballgame, everything has to come together. I also have to help all of our volunteers, actors, singers, and everyone else not get complacent and rest on the idea that "it’s been great in the past, this one will be great too." Each MainStreet has gotten bigger and bigger… more and more complicated… and more and more fun! This one is no exception and I’m feeling swamped by it.

This week is Easter. Duh. In the midst of preparing my spirit for the week I also have to prepare an incredible experience called "The Journey" for Friday night. Which means after MainStreet ends we have to do a quick change to the auditorium. And then after that service Friday night we have to transform the room one more time for the Easter services. Again, not complaining… just a big weight to carry around this week.

I have a heavy heart. Last night an uncle past away after a long series of illnesses associated with a stroke several years ago. As he was a believer I am comforted to know that he’s found peace and the pain is now gone. But that is little concession for those of us lost. On top of all that I am trying to determine if it’s possible for me to travel to the funeral and get back here for all of my many projects this week. I have a narrow window of opportunity… let’s see how it works out.

Next week is our mission trip. Every year this thing sneaks up on me. While there isn’t tons left for me to I still need to finalize some details to make certain that 100% of the trip that I can control will run smooth. I love the city, I love the ministry, I love the time with students… and it’s crazy to think that leading a mission trip will actually be a break!

Weakness. The good news about feeling weak is that it always leads to dependence. If this week goes well it is the direct result of my ability to hand it all over the Father. These are your tasks God, take them, bless them, and use me despite myself.

This was on Seth Godin’s blog today and I thought it was poignant.

Two Reasons People Say No to Your Ideas

"It’s been done before"
"It’s never been done before"

Even though neither one is truthful, accurate or useful, you need to be prepared for both.

It’s amazing to me that the more I say "yes" to ideas, even crazy ones… that God blesses me. What does that say about people who are careful?