mayo-moyle

Author: mike

  • this week’s round-up (june 11)

    Check out the staycation ideas for churches from UM Communications. One of the things I’m excited about with the congregation I’ll be serving in July is the connection we have with Myers Lake Camp; they already to VBS at the camp, and many people stay at the campground during the week, but I’m already starting to think how else we might be able to utilize the space for mini-retreats that can foster fellowship, fun and spiritual development over the summers.

    Friend and colleague from just down the road, Aaron Kesson offers some nice thoughts on the spiritual practice of confession. Another DAC Metho-blogger has joined the ranks, welcome Sherry Parker!

    Jeff Nelson hits another one out of the park*. Donald Miller also addresses the subject of the Tigers game where Jim Joyce made the wrong call, costing Galarraga a perfect game. Like Jeff, Miller reminds the reader of the power of apology, in part, he writes:

    If you’re a leader and you’re wrong, admit it. People will respect you. Admit it and show remorse. And if you follow a leader who struggles admitting they are wrong, DO NOT FOLLOW THEM. We all make mistakes, and people who admit their mistakes are in touch with their humanity, and those who don’t are simply delusional. And if they are not willing to pay for their mistakes, you better believe they are going to make those around them pay.

    Rick Dake gives a few words on his experience of church as a youth versus the church of today. I’ve occasionally thought about how our “home” church experience can shape and influence our expectations of how we give leadership to the church today, sometimes to a negative degree, wanting to recapture a past imperfectly remembered. Rick’s post is a nice celebration of the positive changes that have taken place. Like Rick, my missional experiences were pretty limited – collecting for UNICEF was about it; the “big trip” we took was to go skiing in Minnesota, but in these last seven years of ministry I’ve led youth to serve others in Alabama, Washington DC, and Mexico; plus had the opportunity to be among the first to bring youth and adults to do flood recovery work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This isn’t the church of yesterday, and that is something to be thankful for.

    Kem Meyer asks, “Are you leading a movement or managing an institution?” It’s a good question to consider – especially within Methodism which was always intended to be a movement instead of an institution.

    Great meditation on transitions from The Art of Non-Conformity, that is especially meaningful given an work transition, now less than two weeks away:

    I say: hold on to the moment as long as you can. Fight for it if you have to. Get up early and stay up late. Be brave. Choose the raw emotion, even the awkwardness if necessary. If we must go on to something else, let’s at least think about what was and what could have been.

    The more intense the feeling, the better. If synchronicity and the feeling of being part of something meaningful comes with sadness, loneliness, and disappointment, so be it. I just know that I don’t want the alternative—mediocrity, routine, the safe and the comfortable.

    Len Sweet on the need to adapt to and adopt the new digital language… “the devil is already learning the language of Google, are you?”

    The Google Language from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

    Lifehacker offers an excellent guide to escaping from office clutter. Much needed advice in my case, hopefully I can just commit to actually following through with it.

    If you have the time (about 16 minutes), I’d also encourage you to check out this TED talk from David Byrne (you can also download it from itunes, for playback at another time). Byrne speaks to how the setting influences the form in the creation of music. Might the same be true for preaching? Is it possible that where we preach, subtly changes how we preach, and where we write influences what we write? I think it was Adam Hamilton who once suggested that if you write your sermon in the church office it will come out sounding like it was written for “church people,” but if you write it outside the church (coffee shop, restaurant, etc.) it will more likely speak better to people outside the church.

    In preparation for the move I’m making in a little less than two weeks, I had to make the difficult decision to part with a part with a portion of my music collection that I still had on cassette tape. Admittedly, they weren’t great works of art, and can be easily replaced with better quality digital versions, but it’s still hard for me to part with those pieces of plastic and magnetized tape. Here’s one of the songs I had to part with:

  • this week’s round-up (june 4)

    Some friends are really bringing it this week on their blogs:

    Not a personal friend, but Jeremy Smith also has some good comments regarding Willimon. While I haven’t gone in-depth on the subject, I have mentioned the dilemma before – I think Willimon does have a point in that in the end you do need some kind of metric to help examine what is happening in the life of the congregation. He also has a point in that we take all this time and energy to collect the data, so we should be using it as well. But, as Steve and Jeremy point out the numbers (of baptism, membership, attendance) don’t always tell the whole story, and even that data can be abused and manipulated. Furthermore, when the numbers are taken to specifically measure clergy effectiveness, with the assumption that all areas are the same, problems will emerge. A congregation that is serving an area facing negative population growth simply can’t be expected to do as well as an area that is growing. Likewise, while the clergy leadership is an important element in congregational growth, it is not the only element and sometimes other factors (resistance within the congregation, “cleaning up” after another person’s mistakes, etc.) will limit growth, at least in the short-term.  Having said all that, though, I will concede that Willimon does have a point that sometimes in the face of the hard numbers before us, all we choose to offer is excuses, instead of actually doing something to bring about change and growth. What also needs to be understood is that the denominational authorities can’t just command this to happen: vision, training, support, and resources are needed for this change to take place – the entire church culture has to change, not just the performance of individual pastors.

    Scot McKnight shares some interesting data suggesting that people who hold to a concept of a benevolent and engaging God are significantly more committed than those who primarily understand God to be wrathful and judging.

    Both Eric Bryant in his post, Seinfeld as a Drama?, and Dan Kimball address the issue of context. The videos they each link to are great, and an important reminder that a story can be told and manipulated, by how it is presented and removed from its original context.

    Similar to Dan Kimball’s discussion, but with different take on the issue, Fred Clark has some interesting things to say about the emphasis Christians give to sexuality versus money relative to the amount they are discussed in Scripture. Clark is writing in a multipart series, check it out: Part 1 and Part 2.

    It didn’t make it in my posting last week, but I did enjoy the piece from David Byrne on The Architecture of Fear. (Warning to the easily offended: Byrne uses some objectionable language).

    Lifehacker posted the recommendations for essential Windows software. Quite a few things on the list I already use and can vouch for (Chrome, Skype, Thunderbird, VLC, Picasa, Microsoft Security Essentials) and a couple I’ve been meaning to check out (Mozy, Dropbox). If you use Windows, I’d encourage you to check it out and download the pack. (Of course I’m considering converting the Windows box in my new office to Ubuntu, just because I am a big nerd).

    Interesting article suggesting we can all expect an increase in traffic tickets as state and municipal revenues remain tight. It especially hits home because I just received my first ticket after 20 years of driving, just two months ago.

    If anyone wants to send me to Portland so I can hang out with Donald Miller for a couple of days, sign me up here.

    My friend Eric mentioned how he just discovered The Black Keys this week, so in Eric’s honor here’s they are:

  • this week’s round-up (may 27)

    Come to church, win some cash…

    Nice thoughts on the Lost finale here, here, here, and here. Overall, I thought the finale was good. While I agree that the idea of the “sideways world” is problematic from the perspective of Christian theology (to me it seemed to be something more than “purgatory” – I saw it as a place they chose to go, rather than “had” to go to work out their redemption – to me it was more of a “mini-heaven”), I did like the idea that in this place (which was beyond time) the connections remained. I was also glad to see that Hurley became the protector of the island, Ben was redeemed, and the conversation the two shared about how Hurley now had the power to change the rules and be a different kind of leader.

    Speaking of leadership, in Leading Ideas this week, Lewis Parks writes on A Better Script for Small Churches. There is also a great article from J. Clif Christopher on What Report is First on Your Church Council Agenda, which is something Lovett Weems talked about in the conversation I was a part of last week. How we tell the story influences how we live the story, and something as simple as moving the Finance Committee report to the end of the meeting can send a significant message about our priorities.

    There’s an article this week from the United Methodist News Service about United Methodist clergy job security. It’s a tough topic. As some suggest in the article, I find myself feeling a little nervous about how “ineffectiveness” might be defined, evaluated (and possibly abused) and my own sense of perfectionism keeps telling me in the back of my mind that I won’t measure up. At the same time, I know there are clergy out there who are hurting congregations; who consistently make poor choices and haven’t received or responded to the personal, professional, or emotional help when it’s been made available. Furthermore, when I read quotes like this one:

    “After being assigned for the last 30 years to clean up behind broken colleagues, suffer abuse at the hands of clergy-killing congregations with no intervention from the superintendent, questionable appointment practices, and never once complaining or requesting reconsideration, making multiple salary concessions and living in substandard housing that I would spend up to six years renovating, I am now … serving a system that has NO reciprocal obligation to care for or support me.”

    I find myself wondering about the bitterness and the level of effectiveness of the person making the comment. I understand occasionally following pastors who have made poor decisions, I understand that occasionally there are congregational systems with unhealthy dynamics, and I even understand the occasional frustration at the lack of denominational support, but if a person’s experience is that these things have been a constant for 30 years, surely at some point they need to start questions if they might be part of the problem, too. I can confess that I’ve had that same mindset of “Ok, I’ve paid my dues, now where’s my reward?” but I know that’s not a healthy attitude toward ministry, and I’ve been working hard at developing an attitude on focusing on today, and letting go of tomorrow.

    The reality is we need more accountability AND we need more grace, and both those things need to be extended in both directions. If the Cabinet and Boards of Ordained Ministry are going to get serious about clergy effectiveness, they also need to have programs and systems in place for healthy mentoring, training, and vocational re-direction. Likewise, clergy need to be better at trusting each other, stop expecting the system to automatically reward them, and develop systems that keep them accountable and fit for ministry. I believe some good things can come out of this study, and I’m excited by the possibilities it has to offer.

    Jeremy Smith posted an interesting article about “breaking up” the United Methodist Book of Discipline into much more manageable parts. Although I’m not sure about the idea of juggling three different books instead of just one, I think there is some merit to the idea. I especially like the idea of a small volume with core doctrine that people could use without having to get bogged down with all the administrative rules that govern church life.

    On a similar note, I’ve been interested in the idea of bi-vocational ministry and found this article to be a interesting look on the subject. I tend to feel uncomfortable with my salary being such a large part of the church budget. I like the idea that bi-vocational ministry provides some financial freedom for the congregation, as well as gets the pastor into the community in a significant way. At the same time, I’ve give a lot of thought to the downside as well – that is reduces time and energy that can be devoted to ministry. Bi-vocational ministry limits opportunities to schedule things like mid-week funerals or other emergency pastoral care situations if the person is committed to another job.

    Scot McKnight shared some interesting data on mega-churches which suggests that aren’t as bad as some of us might think.

    Donald Miller wrote on loving your enemies where he included this great video.

    No significance to this week’s music selection, the White Stripes just sounded good this evening, as I was putting the final touches on this post.

  • this week’s round-up (may 20)

    A few days late because of Annual Conference. Time to bask in some introvert time, and watch the end of LOST (hoping, hoping, hoping not to be disappointed – which means, I for one, DON’T want all the questions answered – leaving us with a little mystery is absolutely necessary to the beauty of the story, in my mind).

    Of interest this week:

    Cigarette vending machine repurposed to sell books.

    Creating community spaces.

    Wendell Berry – The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

    So, friends, every day do something
    that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
    Love the world. Work for nothing.
    Take all that you have and be poor.
    Love someone who does not deserve it.

    Guy Kawasaki on Mission Statements vs. Mantras:

    Watch it on Academic Earth

    Ed Stetzer has a great article on embracing the congregation’s unique identity. It’s a good warning against the temptation to create “copycat” churches where you just try to do whatever the flavor of the month is doing. Overall, I think I do pretty well, but I understand the temptation to try and be more like Mike Slaughter, instead of being the best Mike Mayo-Moyle I can be.

    Falwell: Measurements in Ministry Success are Messed Up interesting data: 50% of pastors would quit if they could, 70% are fighting depression, 90% can’t cope with the challenges of ministry. Those numbers seem high to be, but his larger point is good – success isn’t about building the next mega-church, our focus needs to be on just one person at a time.

    I’ve mentioned my friend Marcus, and his family, before – he’s an amazing guy (in general), but what I really appreciate is how he genuinely lives out his Christian faith. One of the ways he’s been doing it has been by opening his home to a group of students had when he taught in Mississippi. This past week the last of those students moved back. As Marcus notes in his blog this has been a tough week as he’s had to face the seeming insurmountable obstacles of poverty, culture and poor education. It’s hard reading, but it’s honest, and reminder that the change we hope for doesn’t always come.

    Another Annual Conference is finished. Good times “holy conferencing” especially outside the spaces of sessions. I had the chance to have lunch with Lovett Weems who is both funny and insightful. I need to add his books to my reading list. One of his presentations on change can be found below. (I’ll also plan to add video of a spoken word piece I collaborated on later this week).

    In a similar vein, I liked this reminder to Get Excited and Change Things.

    Music for this week – Jonsi Go Do. This one is a little on the strange side, Jonsi is from Iceland (also the lead singer of Sigur Ros), and his music isn’t in the realm of mainstream pop, but I enjoy it.

  • baptism

    This is a spoken-word piece a group of us wrote for Annual Conference. I’ll get video posted soon.

    Written By Revs. Jeff Nelson, Eric Kieb, Michael Mayo-Moyle, and Jeremy Peters

    Presented during worship on Friday, May 21.

    sprinkle me
    splash me
    dip me
    dunk me
    dowse me
    drown me
    pour me
    plunge me
    spew me
    spray me

    bring me to the water
    take to the river
    open up the fire hydrant
    fill the kiddie pool

    just baptize me now
    and I care don’t how

    baptize me
    in Sunday morning worship water
    a whole world waiting to happen
    a kingdom around the corner water
    newborn promises and weepy eyed mother water
    first cry of new creation
    aww…ain’t she cute in her little white suit water
    make me a brother
    to the usher
    and the preacher
    and the Sunday school teacher,
    to the sleepy-eyed dudes
    who snooze in the pews,
    to the faithful attenders
    and the salvation vendors

    Hit me with a fire hose.
    Make me a brother to all of those
    who remember Selma in ‘63
    and a dream they said could never be
    and a King locked up in a Birmingham jail,
    I want to march with them past the gates of hell,
    with a song on my lips
    and a fist in the air,
    make me care
    about freedom and justice and civil rights,
    make me a brother to the other,
    red and yellow, black and white –
    bury me beneath the rubble of Sixteenth Street
    with four little girls
    Addie, Carole, Cynthia, and Denise.

    Baptize me in the river Jordan.
    Make me a brother to the Canaanites
    who sleep behind a wall tonight
    a brother to the alien,
    legal and illegal alike,
    a brother to Joshua, Jesus
    and Jose,
    a brother to the desperate man
    trying to find a way
    across the border,
    crossing over
    looking for the Promised Land,
    help me to stand
    with the ones who have wandered desert sands
    from the Sinai to Arizona and everywhere in between
    All: hold me down in water so cold it makes me wanna scream!

    Baptize me in solidarity with the poor
    the downsized and marginalized
    the victimized and brutalized
    the left out
    the least
    the last
    the lost
    the loser
    and the loner

    stick my head in a toilet
    and pull the lever,
    make me a brother of every little guy
    who’s ever lost his lunch money
    and then his pride,
    let me be on the side
    of the tiny and the picked on
    curly-haired, swirly-scared kids of this world.

    Baptize me in water
    that celebrates the I in you
    and you in me,
    the us in Thee
    and the one in three
    because it takes
    more than a village
    it takes a head, hand,
    eyes and ears,
    Body of Jesus community
    that beats with the
    lub-dub
    lub-dub
    lub-dub
    of our Abba’s heart
    and runs with the everliving blood
    that flowed
    from the hands and feet & side
    of the Beloved
    as he died;

    Baptize me in black and poisoned British Petroleum water.
    Baptize me with the jellyfish
    and the smellyfish
    and all the upside down – belly-up fish
    make me go
    down below
    where the dolphin knows
    that a gallon of gas
    doesn’t cost
    just two bucks –
    make me a brother to the ducks
    and the turtle
    and the tern
    help me learn
    to love my neighbors
    with fins and flipper feet.

    Baptize me in confessing water.
    Baptize me in reconciling water.
    Make me a brother to both sides
    of Dawson Auditorium;
    in the name of Jesus Christ
    let us declare a moratorium
    on pretense and posing and puffer and pride,

    because I come as I am
    and so do you,
    broken
    battered
    beaten and
    bruised,
    ugly
    uncomfortable
    unusually
    used

    I come with a burning
    yearning to abide
    in waters that
    cleanse
    create
    consume
    waters that
    expose
    the man beneath the satin suit
    and academic robes

    baptize me in ark rocking,
    chaos riding,
    olive branch and rainbow promise water

    in Red sea splitting,
    manna eating, milk and honey treating
    leaving all things behind for 40 years of wondering water

    baptize me in exiled Babylonian river water
    in cloud splitting, heaven opening,
    phenomenological phenom of a sprit dove descending
    “This is my child do what he says,” water
    thirst-quenching, life-giving woman at the well
    spirit flowing from a pierced side
    water poured from gold trimmed pages
    broken open until every word is wet with wonder water

    sprinkle me
    splash me
    dip me
    dunk me
    dowse me
    drown me
    pour me
    plunge me
    spew me
    spray me

    bring me to the water
    take to the river
    open up the fire hydrant
    fill the kiddie pool

    just baptize us now
    We care don’t how!

  • this week’s round-up (may 13)

    Fairly slow week, in terms of stuff that caught my attention…

    Lifehacker offered up their Top 10 Motivation Boosters and Procrastination Killers as well as a nice peek into a tiny office arrangement – that’s pretty relevant to me because my new digs are probably close to 1/2 the size of my current office, so utilizing space will be a priority (and I have no need for that triple monitor arrangement).

    Adam Hamilton offered some brief thoughts on the 10 Largest Churches in the UMC. His note about worship attendance vs. membership is important, but I also appreciated how he explained that the membership-to-attendance ratio varies significantly between the churches. He doesn’t go into it, but I know the membership philosophies between Resurrection and Ginghamsburg are differ in some key ways, and I’d be interested to see Hamilton comment more on that.

    Scot McKnight posted a quick comment regarding Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s book The Wisdom of Stability. As someone serving in a denomination that embraces itineracy rather than long-term stability it’s a question I wrestle with.

    Wil Wheaton posted some thoughts today on the Space Shuttle launch. What hooked me was his mention that he was home sick the day of the Challenger disaster, and on that day I happened to be home sick, too. I also appreciated his comment at the end, where he says:

    We humans are a flawed species, to put it mildly, and I think we could do a much better job taking care of our planet and each other … but when I see what we’re capable of doing, it gives me hope that the future I pretended to live in twenty years ago will actually arrive some day.

    Thinking about the small office space thing in Lifehacker, made me think of this song:

  • this week’s round-up (may 6)

    Both Donald Miller and Kem Meyer delve into the topic of slactivism – being an “activist” with a minimum amount of effort (ie buying a t-shirt where part of the proceeds go to a charity and then feeling really good about your contribution to end world hunger). It is easy to wear a ribbon or wristband, put a magnet or sticker on your car, or change your facebook status for a cause you believe in, and those can all be worthy things to do, but if our commitment ends there, have we really done anything at all? The internet is powerful in being able to draw attention to important issues, but if the only thing that happens is attention (which is fleeting), and not action, then we’ve missed an important opportunity to make a difference – or in religious terms, to help reveal the kingdom – which, hopefully is what we are aiming for.

    Jonny 5 writes on the decision of his band, The Flobots, to not cancel their planned concert in Arizona on the Sojourner’s blog. In part of the discussion he makes this point:

    A friend of ours who grew up in Arizona remembers being a child in Arizona during the boycott over their refusal to honor MLK day. Despite the boycott, Stevie Wonder and Rosa Parks played a show at her high school. She describes it as a “joyful, uplifting experience that defied the hatred and negativity of those on the other side.”


    I personally don’t have a problem with boycotts, but something Jonny 5 hints at, and something pointed out to me by Joe Stroud (whom I had the pleasure of knowing when I was in Ann Arbor) is that boycotts frequently are a difficult device of protest, because they can hurt the people on the bottom instead of the top. You always have to modify the strategy to the situation, but I think we do have to be very careful about choosing a strategy of disengagement (like a boycott) because it can prevent discussion or a positive message from even getting out. (In addition, as I think more about it, boycotts also seem to have that slactivist problem – people can feel good about doing nothing).

    Over at Wise Bread they offer 30 practical tips towards maintaining a greener office.

    Ready for some growdivation? (This is absolutely brilliant):

    “Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.
    (Via bedeviant)

    Jeremy Smith posted this video on his blog from Darren Rowse on the church’s role in social media. Rowse makes some great points saying that as church “we are in the business of community” and the social networks that have been built over the internet speak to the need for community and offer a place for community to be formed. I also appreciate his thought that the church needs to have an incarnational mindset to ministry on the web, not “build it and they will come,” but go and listen – engage the culture of the web, and focus on dialog instead of monologue. Check it out:

    Surprise Guest Message for TransFORM from TransFORM on Vimeo.

    I’ve been leading an adult Sunday School class and right now we are in the middle of Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love – which is a challenging, yet inspiring read. (I’d have to agree with one of the members of the class who made the comment, “I’ll read a chapter, and get really angry and think, ‘Who does this guy think he is?’ Then I’ll read it again and realize he’s making a really good point.”) So it was interesting to see that Chan has decided to resign from Cornerstone, the church he founded. Due to polity differences the transition is much different than what I’m used to, but I really respect the process he proposes – giving people an opportunity to speak to him personally and ask questions during prayer meetings. I’m also interested in his plan for the rest of the year, which includes a couple months for discernment and three months of service in a “third world” country.

    I knew, when I picked it out, that Chan’s book would be a hard read for some of the members of my class, but one that others would be completely on board with. That kind of diversity can be difficult, but it is important. We have to be ready to listen to “the other side” if we want to grow. This week Scot McKnight posted some of President Obama’s comments on a similar “plea for civility” from his recent speech at the University of Michigan.

    Just because I’ve had this song stuck in my head because of the news coverage of the anniversary this week:

  • this week’s roundup (april 30)

    A “top pick” this week would have to be Shane Claiborne’s article in Esquire. I really appreciate Shane’s witness and writing in general, and in this one he offers up some nice little gems like:

    The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination.


    and

    The Bible that I read says that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it… it was because “God so loved the world.” That is the God I know, and I long for others to know. I did not choose to devote my life to Jesus because I was scared to death of hell or because I wanted crowns in heaven… but because he is good. For those of you who are on a sincere spiritual journey, I hope that you do not reject Christ because of Christians. We have always been a messed-up bunch, and somehow God has survived the embarrassing things we do in His name.

    Gil Rendle has an interesting article on the story our congregations tell. Storytelling is important – it has the power to heal, but it also has the power to hurt and to hinder if we are telling the wrong sorts of stories. One of the many things Amy has done really well was to have her congregation tell the story they had been operating under, identifying some of the the misconceptions and false assumptions behind it, and them helping them live into a better story. The outcome was freeing – the congregation really began to regain vitality once they understood their story.

    Also in Leading Ideas there is a nice, little article about what congregations can do to help a healthy transition to a new pastor. I know the handful of people who stumble upon this little blog are on the “other side” of that situation, but it is good, basic information to be aware of, and hopefully something we can pass along to our SPRC’s when appointment time comes.

    At Lifehacker this week there was a reminder that we should spend more time examining what went right instead of obsessing over what went wrong (important advice, especially if your personality is anything like mine).

    Peter Rollins posted a video this week from his recent Insurrection Tour. There was a stop in Grand Rapids that I’m sorry I missed. If you have time check out the video, there’s some interesting stuff – plus I just dig listening to his Irish accent.

    Peter Rollins at Baylor University from Peter Rollins on Vimeo.

    Over at Church Marketing Sucks a blog post was put up about Twittering in church. I think it makes a lot of sense based on how they present it. I’d much rather have people processing and interacting with my sermons via Twitter than being completely disengaged or distracted in some other way (and I say this as someone who was regularly writing and passing notes about the sermons I heard in high school). From the perspective of the “other side” I am usually so oblivious about what’s happening in the pews while I’m preaching that to see someone typing on their keyboard, wouldn’t really phase me, even if I were to notice.

    On the same site, there is also a solid piece about who we compete against as a church. As I mentioned last week in regard to having a “kingdom mindset” – if we see (as we so often do) the church down the street as the “competition” – we’re done for. Instead of being in ministry to “the least, the last, and the lost” we’ve turned our focus on just shifting members from one church to another and bring everybody down in the process. There are better battles to be fought than trying to convince someone that this church is better than that church. Accept our differences, celebrate the fact that we are one body with many parts, and let’s start focusing on loving and serving people like Jesus did, and not worry so much about which building they worship in on Sunday morning.

    Donald Miller has another great post, this time on the question of if God has a specific plan for your life. His answer: probably not, which is where I basically lean as well. I believe God offers possibilities and opens doors, but the “plan” is never so rigid that all is lost if we don’t travel down that certain path.

    With this weekly roundup music selection I’m starting to lose track of what I have or haven’t posted, so you’ll have to forgive me if you seen this one before. The Hold Steady are a great band – they have a new album coming out next week (though I am a little nervous about the more “mainstream rock” sound they seem to be moving toward, based on what little I’ve heard). This one is from their last album and a good personal reminder – we’ve got to stay positive

  • this week’s roundup (april 23)

    Donald Miller continues to offer great insight – on his blog this week he asks a key question about how personality might influence theology. I’m not one to say he’s absolutely right (which, of course, is a reflection on my own personality and theology), but I think he is on to something. I remember reading something similar a few months ago about Pat Robertson’s understanding of a vengeful God, and after a little digging, it turns out Donald Miller wrote that one, too.

    Miller’s other post that really got me thinking this week was on the topic of asking people to leave church – it’s a tough subject, especially in an environment when “success” in ministry is so driven by numbers; but there is something to be said for it. Sometimes having the wrong mix of people inhibits God’s work from being accomplished. In many ways we would be better served by adopting a “kingdom mindset” where instead of obsessing about numbers at any one particular church (or denomination), we celebrated the unique identities of many churches and helped people find the one that would be the best fit, but it’s a lot easier to say “yes we should do that” than it is to have that actual conversation with the person who might be better served by finding a new church home.

    Thinking more about the “numbers dilemna” Jay Voorhees weighs in on the subject I continue to wrestle with (see last week’s post). I’m with Jay that there is more to growth than numbers, but like him I have to ask, when we make that case are we just deluding ourselves?

    Some great, simple thoughts on leadership: It’s Hard to Lead When… by Perry Noble. For a longer lesson on leadership check out this look inside Pixar’s Leadership.

    A brilliant, simple tutorial on the Missional Church – change the arrows, stop expecting people to come, instead equip them to go.

    I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but I suspect Seth Godin’s talk from his April Linchpin Session is worth checking out.

    I know this will hurt my nerd-cred to admit but I never figured out the Rubik’s Cube; I still have one at my parent’s house that I have yet to solve. Fortunately Lifehacker posted a link that will help solve this 25(?) year dilemna.

    In personal news, it was announced this week that I’ll be appointed to the Byron United Methodist Church effective July 1. For any Byron-folk who happened to Google my name – Greetings! I’m looking forward to working with you soon.

  • this week’s roundup (april 16)

    Been a crazy week and a half, so I’m playing a little catch up.

    During Lent and Easter I really tried to make the point this year that you can’t just jump from the celebration of Palm Sunday to the glory of Easter (actually I try to make that point every year but I hit it even harder this year). It was comforting to know that I’m not alone in that struggle and I appreciated the words of Steve Stockman, via Mike Todd on how we have failed to communicate the life changing message. As he says:

    How could we have left the majority of our population missing the subversive revolutionary who entered Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday with a mission in his soul to uproot the way things were to make them the way they should, could and will be, who freed the world from its chains but did so in the most humble of ways before smashing the tombstone and crashing into a post Resurrection world where now by the power of the Spirit weeks away from being unleashed could begin to bring God’s Kingdom on earth the way it is in heaven!….
    Forgive us Lord! Forgive us public! Let us start repenting and putting it right!

    Seth Godin looked at some of the lessons from the iPad launch that could be applied industries/movement/etc. There is a lot that could be relevant to the church as well:

    • Don’t try to please everyone
    • Make a product worth talking about
    • Create a culture of wonder
    • Be willing to fail
    • Give the tribe a badge
    • Don’t give up so easily
    • Don’t worry so much about conventional wisdom

    Steve Frost at The Work of the People offers some thoughts on the “big-little church” (a church that overbuilt, yielding a small congregation in a large space). In his concluding thought he writes:

    This big little church seems interested in people and one thing is for sure, God is interested in people. To be interested in people is to be open to the wideness of being God-shaped, whatever that surprising wonderful mysterious shape may be. To be God-shaped is to step into a future of infinite possibility. Enjoy the view big little church.

    In a similar vein, one of the many gems to cross Mike Slaughter’s twitter feed this week was this:

    One key choice church leaders make: will u focus on building disciples for Christ or tallying decisions for Christ?

    Of course playing the numbers game is always controversial, and many times we can justify small numbers by saying our focus is to go “deep” instead of “wide” when the reality is nothing is happening in either direction.

    Tim Schraeder at Church Marketing Sucks reminds us how everything the church does is, in one way or another marketing — from how the phone is answered, to how the ushers welcome people, to e-mails being sent out they all leave impressions. Unless the image the church tries to project accounts for all those subtle ways the message is actually communicated, it will be curtailed. Seth Godin resonates with that same idea in a blog post from today. Sometimes first impression are all you’ve got, so you’ve got to try to make every interaction the best it can possibly be. (Of course the danger, for me at least, is that sometimes you can be so concerned about how something might be received that it no longer reflects authentically who you are. Even with this blog, I sometimes find myself second-guessing (and third- and fourth-…) how someone might interpret something I’ve posted. I often have to go back to Godin’s thoughts on the iPad – be willing to fail, and don’t try to please everyone.

    And without seeing the connection until right now, that resonates with a blog post by Donald Miller this week on how he learned to like exercising. Once he figured out that 20 minutes was good enough and everything after that was above and beyond, he began to like exercise and found himself exercising for longer periods. There is freedom in naming what you are able to accomplish and finding satisfaction in that, instead of holding ourselves to often unrealistic standards of excellence.

    The taste of a few days of beautiful spring weather has put me in the mood for the pure alterna-pop bliss of the Lightning Seeds.