Engaging youth through social media

There is no doubt that getting a teen's attention is hard enough, but trying to do it in a social media frenzied world is even tougher. There is also no doubt that social media can be utilized to enhance a student ministry's effectiveness.

Some of the tips from this report are:
• Clarity. Many student ministry sites are not clear what it is that they are trying to accomplish. Is there a clearly defined reason for having a presence on the www?
• Many Small Niches. This is huge. In our massive world, we have grown extremely small. The world is merely a mouse click away. We can chat with a missionary, real time, on the other side of the world. How can student ministry sites provide avenues to connect with many small niche elements?

These seem like opposites, but I wonder if they actually play off of each other to enhance the usefulness of the site. Read the rest of the tips here. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Engaging Youth Through Social & Mobile Media

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Rockin out

I've been home just long enough to update my wife on some of the wins from our U-Rock event tonight. Because our group is called United and we were featuring our new RockBand 2 game our leaders liked the name. To go on record... I had NO idea! We had just about half of the students participate in the RB2 contest and they were very into it.  Students arrived early for the night and started right in on the RB2 and didn't stop... ever! That would be great, but we had about 22 other game systems there. We had a PS3, some Wii systems, 360's, and then the old skool... super NES & N64. All in all it was a great night. 

I am so proud of our team doing so great tonight. Chris totally went above and beyond! He seriously hooked us up tonight.

Some of my favorite moments:

• getting a song dedicated to me.
• seeing some very creative costumes.
• rocking out to some talented students performing RB2 songs.
• Freshman guy with chocolate on his face after consuming LOTS of candy saying ... "dude, it's like a five o'clock shadow... with chocolate".
• seeing new students getting connected with new friends.
• connecting with parents and seeing them love what their kids are doing.
• scaring kids as we were cleaning up.
• the guy that said that there needed to be more groups like ours around.
• a guest of a volunteer that loved it and just may give church another chance.
• our leaders that did SO great.
• coming home exhausted after knowing I gave my all today.

I'm sure there are more... hopefully I can post a picture or two soon...

go BIG or go home

Go big or go home... I believe that at the core of this saying is a biblical principle.

Urban Dictionary defines "gbgh" as an expression the speaker says to the listener to encourage the listener to be extravagant, to go all the way, and do whatever you are doing to its fullest - and not flake out. A phrase describing a Champion's lifestyle. A way of life. An attitude.

To be extravagant... to go all the way... to do what you are doing to the fullest. A champion's way of life. Kind of sounds like an Urban Dictionary take on some bible stories.

It is my belief that God desires that we go all in on whatever we do. A lot of people have described this as the willingness to risk. Yes, risk is involved. Going big might mean stripping away the excellence to be authentic or being excellent in all you do. It might mean stepping out in faith and believing God's promise in your life.

Too many churches and Christians would rather go home than go big. When we go big we run the risk of missing the mark. But is the mark the goal? When God called people in the bible to go big the mark wasn't the goal, but the willingness to go all in and go big. When we take a step out the end result might not live up to our hopes, but in no way does it make the step a failure.

Tonight is an exciting night. We are baptizing students. Even if it was only one student that would be great, but as of right now we have about 50 students confirmed to get baptized. Who knows how many more will step up and go all in tonight. I love these moments!

It's time to go all in. I feel like there is more to say on this, but it's still stuck in my head. Hopefully it will get worked out soon.

Fab 5 team killers

This year's Catalyst has stirred up quite a bit of conversation. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it this year. Dave Ramsey's session has been the hands down favorite of the conference.

Here is some of what I have gathered... and some of what I've been chewing on...

Dave Ramsey:

The 5 things that bring about confusion or disunity:
1. Poor Communication
2. Gossip
3. Unresolved disagreements
4. Lack of shared purpose
5. Sanctioned incompetence

Thoughts on going #2... Gossip

Your negative comments should go to a supervisor and your positive comments should go to a co-worker or someone that works for you. Don't talk about your problems with people who can't fix them. That's gossip! I have seen and experienced the destructive force of gossip. Gossip is so easy to do and to be a part of; it is a battle to not jump in and destroy. It takes so little strength to gossip. There is no risk of authentic relationships involved in gossip. I certainly haven't perfected this one, but I am determined that I will not play a part in gossip. My personal character and integrity is worth more than a few fleeting moments of lame conversation.

I have been in a work environments where a lot of these things have been present: incompetence, gossip, disagreements, and lack of shared purpose. Yes, they are destructive and drive a serious wedge. As a leader these 5 things must be fought fervently and fought daily. I don't know how to say it any differently... stop everything and evaluate the fabulous 5 team killers. Don't take another step until you are sure that you fighting the 5. They can creep up.

Probably one of the best posts I have read. Not enough people shoot straight. Not only does Perry say it like it is, he is right on the money! This is a difficult subject to speak truthfully and speak conviction in love. Most people and denominations err on the side of legalism.

My favorite line that seems to sum up the post is...

"It’s SO SAD when pastors will talk about how bad it was that Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup…and then they will turn around and sell their ministry for an orgasm!"

My guess is that this post ticked a lot of people off and that's probably a good thing. This topic isn't spoken in love enough. Stuff like this needs to be openly discussed with pastors, church leaders, board members, men in the church... The question isn't if, it's a question of when and will you be ready for it?

I'd love to hear your thoughts... read the post and let me know what you think.

Seriously Ridiculous

I have been out in Sacramento the last couple of days at the YS conference. Their theme this year was "seriously ridiculous". I liked the theme. It was kinda frustrating because free wifi was hard to find, so there was a seriously ridiculous lack of blogging. I will be posting more on the conference soon, for now, let me introduce you to spiderman.

Simple Leadership

I love meeting with leaders. This past Sunday started a new chapter. We hosted our first leaders meeting at our home. As we sat down to start the meeting, it seemed like time slowed down and I processed through all of what was taking place and some things that needed to happen for the meeting to be a win. Here's some thoughts on making a leader's meeting a win:

• Do it... what's stopping you? Why you do what you do won't and can't be transfered in quick passing moments. Leades on the team need to be invested into... they must be invested into or they will find somewhere else to go. Leaders on the team need just that to know who they serve with. Planning that first meeting is tough, just do it.
• Location... be intentional about the location where you host your meeting. I always prefer to meet in my home. The home is a warm and inviting environment. Meetings in my home have always felt more open and relaxed.
  
• Define the terms... why are you meeting? What are you trying to accomplish? Is the meeting going to focus on group discussion? Are you only interested in transferring information? In the meeting I hosted my focus was on discussion so I had to frame it correctly to invite discussion to happen.
• Safe... this is especially important for a meeting focused on discussion. Help the team understand that the topics that will be discussed are open for discussion and that you value their input on the topic.
• Don't assume. Never assume that people understand what you are trying to do. It is always better to explain yourself than to just assume that people understand.

That's it for now... still working on this. I am sure there's more to this. Thankfully these simple leadership points helped our kick off meeting to go great.

Redeeming Relationships

An interesting conversation got me started on this... Relationships. Many times a relationship that needs work is easier to cast off and start over. Divorce. Church hop. Quitting a small group. Quitting. Firing. Relationships. They take work and it's easier to skip out than do the work it takes to make the relationship great.

Is it really easier or just more convenient? I don't believe that it's easier. Ending a relationship is just as, if not, more messy than redeeming it.

There is no doubt it takes more effort to redeem a relationship. We love hearing the juicy details of drama. We'd rather not have to make the effort to dig in and see the relationship through the mess of redemption. Maybe it's that the grace required to redeem a relationship doesn't come easy. Sadly, the church could do a much more stellar job of redeeming and restoring relationships.

So, as I've started processing... here are some thoughts on redeeming relationships:

1. Initiate. Take the first step. Don't wait for anyone else or any circumstances to make the timing right. Honestly, the time will never feel right.

2. Be quick. Don't wait. Tomorrow never comes and the relationship won't be restored over time. Time seems to have the opposite effect.

3. Lead. Start from a position of grace. We don't often feel the necessity of grace until we've lived this out. We all need grace in different amounts and at different times. It is much easier when we start with offering grace as a road to redeeming a relationship.

4. Be open. Most likely I have gotten a few of the details wrong. Be prepared to be wrong... at least on a couple things.

I'm sure there are more... this is something I have been digging through for a while now. There will certainly be more on this topic.

Unscripted!

There seems to be a ministry trend where we put a lot of effort into programming out a service down to the last drop. Programming is great and good planning is important but it's not everything. The programming doesn't own the service. With all of the programming we can miss the unscripted moments. The unscripted moments seem to end up leaving people most changed. God often uses our unscripted moments... those moments where I often cringe and think "ouch... that's gonna leave a mark".

Have you had an unscripted moment lately that made you cringe and think ouch? Those are actually great moments. They are moments to be fully aware of because some of the best things can happen in the unscripted moments.

I have been thinking about this past week of ministry. My unscripted moment of the week was using slingbox at our student service to interact between our campuses during a Q & A. We had a six second delay. If you know programming, six seconds is an eternity. At every delay, yes there were more than one, I would cringe because the transitions were so off. In reality the students loved the unscripted feel and totally engaged in the questions. I am blown away with the awesome questions from our students.

It's super easy, as a leader to get wrapped up in the moments that are unscripted and make us cringe and loose sight of the big win. Overall the night was a big win. The questions spurred on great discussion and led the students to grow relationally and spiritually.

My prayer is that I can be aware of the unscripted moments and celebrate those rather than cringe.

Hey! Look over here...

Made ya look.  

For some reason this is a fun game for my kids.  "Hey dad, look an elephant!  Ha!  Made ya look."  This game could go on for hours.  As I drove to work today I turned off a few distractions.  I feel like there have been quite a few things distracting my attention lately.  Disclaimer: sure, there are times that some distractions are good.  If you've been focused in on a project; it's good to take a break and distract your attention for a bit.  Ok... that's over.  For the most part distractions are not beneficial to the end game.  I remember my first accident; being distracted at 16 by my radio led to me crunching the front end of my Z.  Those events are fixable, but being distracted from something eternal...  

The events this morning got me processing what are the distractions that I don't see right now.  Some leadership circles might term it "sideways energy".  I wouldn't even give it that much credit.  What distractions do I know of that I can change?  I think that one of the worst distractions as a follower of Christ is to get distracted off of purpose.  We don't have to be led into some big, huge, destructive, divisive sin, just distracted from our purpose and meaning far enough to cause a crash with eternal ripples.

Truth

One of my new favorite shirts is from the Jedidiah Hope Series. I picked it up a couple of months ago. I am a huge Jedidiah fan. I still remember my first Jedidiah Risk shirt almost 6 years ago. My new shirt features a phrase about truth that sealed the deal that this shirt would be coming home with me that day. It reads...

Truth Fears Nothing

The phrase has stuck with me. Does truth really fear nothing? Do people believe that? Do we live that? What about the church and truth? Sadly, it's just the opposite, people fear truth?

Why is truth feared? truth hurts... truth is messy... truth is hard to do in love.

Even still I am afraid that we fear the truth all too much. What's worse this fear seems to be prevalent especially in the church. We talk a good game; we are all about truth, but in the words of Jack... "you can't handle the truth". We'd rather fake a good game then have to deal with the harsh reality that we don't have it together. No wonder that authentic relationships are hard to find and so desired. Young leaders crave someone that is authentic and willing to, in truth, fear nothing.

There are a couple areas that this "truth-avoidance" sticks out the most.
• Church leadership... when the truth gets too personal it's rejected.
• Sacred cows... when the truth affects my ministry then I don't want it.
• Perceived truths... perception is everything. In many churches perception and appearance seem to be more important than heart condition.

Craig posted about the power of truth. It got me thinking about truth... how warmly do we welcome truth in our lives and in our ministries? It's been my experience that it's not too warm, maybe more like a cold shoulder. I value people that can speak the truth in love and receive it in love also. Just one of the many reasons I love the authenticity of the place we are in right now!

I like the truth. The bible actually says that it will set you free. Do we really believe it?

Questions for Guys

Proverbs 27:17... I love concept of iron sharpening iron; but like Tony says, "it's usually just two dull rocks passively talking about sports." Or maybe it's someone that thinks they've got enough people around them and they are doing good enough. How are we doing at being authentic with each other? How authentic am I being in my relationships?

Tony posted some great questions for guys. Check them out. Here's a few...

Are you honoring your wife in your marriage’s sex life?
Are you giving your kids the right attention?
What did God teach you in your quiet time this morning?
What have you done right this week in your faith? marriage? family? job?
What is something worthy of celebration in your life that you’ve just kept to yourself? Let’s go party about it!

Role of Pastors

“I think the role of pastors at this time in history is to be a curator of human talent. They need to learn how to cultivate, how to identify, how to nurture, how to develop and unleash the God-given potential in every person.”

- Erwin McManus

Wow... I don't know of many pastors that are doing this. More are know for what they are against than what they are for. Why is it that we aren't developing and unleashing the God-given potential more?

ht to Tony... read the article in Outreach Magazine

Are you really leading?

A question has been floating around a few blogs. I first read it at a great blog, here. Gary Haugen, president of the International Justice Mission, recently made this statement at the Willow Leadership Summit.

“Just because I’m leading and people are following doesn’t mean that I’m leading them in things that matter to God.”

The question if you are really leading is one that seems like a quick and easy answer, "sure". But then Gary's statement complicates the question a bit. People will always follow, but are they being led in the things that matter to God? This is definitely a question worth asking yourself. The difficulty with the question is that no one can answer it for you or for me. All outsider input is subjective; based one's view of the leader and how that leader has or is "performing".

I am a leader. It's always been there in me. Leading isn't the most warmly welcomed event with people. It's not the most popular thing to be a leader. Being a leader is not something that people want to hear you say you are. In the land of "out wit, out play, out last", Survivor, you get voted out for being a strong leader. This has always been the goofiest part of Survivor to me, "hey let's vote off the leader so we can sit around and wonder what to do." Life too often becomes a popularity contest rather than doing the right thing or the most God honoring thing. Sadly, the church too often mirrors culture in this.

I know that I can lead. In the above statement, I think that the most important part of it is asking if we are leading in the things that matter to God. It is up to the leader to choose to lead people in the things that matter to God. I am glad that this IS the case for my life and leadership. What a heavy weight to bear when a leader knows they are not leading in the things of God. I can't imagine!

How will you choose to lead today? Will it be a personal agenda? Will your leadership honor God? What will you choose? The bible clearly shows that it is never to late for a leader to choose to make the Godly decision and lead in the things that matter to God.

Are you really leading?

Crazy day

Today started at 2:15am. I didn't intend it that way... I was supposed to get up early... just not that early (that's crazy). I got all ready and made it downstairs thinking my coffee would be brewing, but it wasn't. Something wasn't right... oh yeah... it was 2:45am!

After a LONG day finally ended, I sat down to chill for a bit before a rockin' spaghetti dinner that my wife made. As I was chillin (checking blogs) I ran across a loswhit post about a free scoop from Ben & Jerry's. Sure enough it was Ben & Jerry's 30th birthday and they were celebrating by giving out a free single scoop cone. It was a nice treat to take the kids and get ice cream.

My favorite quote of the night... from a Ben & Jerry's employee, she turned to a co-worker and exclaimed "It's so hectic in here... what's the deal?"

Hectic ice cream store and all, the kid's and I had a great time. As we drove home the free ice cream made me think about who all uses the "free incentives". Churches seem to us it a lot. The Ben & Jerry's "free cone day" made me a believer in incentives, especially when they are done right. Churches are guilty of overusing the incentive as an attractor. It was kinda the first time that I was on the receiving end of a "free incentive". This experience validated the free incentive event. It's amazing the benefit of a single scoop of ice cream. It was a good reminder that simple, little, seemingly ordinary things can add large amounts of value, especially when done with strategic intentions.

Risk

A while back I had a shirt that had RISK boldly printed across the front of the shirt. I like taking risks. Steven and Seth post some thoughts about risk and how it has an effect in our lives. They compare: boldly take risks when we have nothing to loose vs. how we aren't as bold with our risk taking when we have more to loose. When we have more to loose...

"There is now a strong temptation to mistake risk aversion for maturity.
Sometimes, under the guise of getting wiser, growing deeper, or waiting on God, we let our audacity atrophy and set the stuff that made us special on the shelf.

That must really insult God. After we’ve already seen Him part seas, kill giants, and multiply fish and loaves, we should be more inclined to push our chips to the center of the table, not less!

Otherwise, we’ll eventually find ourselves building altars in honor of where God was."

Elements of Success

Seth posts some tips for being successful as a small business. These are also great tips for life and for churches. I would guess that churches would highly benefit in accomplishing the mission by implementing these tips...

1) the ability to abandon a plan when it doesn't work,
2) the confidence to do the right thing even when it costs you money in the short run, and
3) enough belief in other people that you don't try to do everything yourself.

Staggering

This is a portion of the post that Perry put up today... one of their pastors, Clayton, who has a post about "shooting the wounded" that tells about an encounter with a pastor...

“I figured out who the power players were in the church, and a deacon told me to make sure I did not make any of them mad because they had the 2 things that mattered most; family and money. So I made every decision based on them. This brought short-term success, but I was burning out. I had no passion left.”

“I did not realize how much I had neglected my kids until one became a drug addict and the other one slipped into deep physical sin. I did not even know my own children, and it was my fault. Then one day I came home from a deacon’s meeting, and my wife had taken all of her stuff and left a note on the table that said she was tired of it. She hated me for ignoring my family and she blamed me for everything, for putting the church before them.”

You can imagine the lump in my throat as I stood there and listened to this grown man choke back tears over the family he lost. He was broken; a ghost of the leader, pastor, and shepherd I had met 10 years earlier. Then the saddest words to ever leave his lips landed on my ears.

“So what did my church do when all of this happened? The people I had served and pastored called a business meeting and they fired me. They said they could not have a divorced pastor with rebellious kids leading their congregation. They gave me 2 months salary and wished me luck.”

No grace. No counseling. No support. Maybe they felt he was unable to lead them any further. Fine. But not even a reception with cupcakes and coffee to say thanks for 13 years? This is way too common. I see it more than most anyone else because my calling carries me so many places, and when I hear these stories, I cry out to God to protect pastors, and the churches they serve, from shooting our own wounded. Of course not every church is like this and not every pastor suffers such a fate, but this man did. God help him, his wife, and his kids. And God help the Body of Christ to offer mercy and compassion to our own wounded who lay on the side of the road, in a ditch, waiting on anyone, even a Samaritan, to come to our aid.

There is a lot of conversations going on about "burn-out". I am trying to process the difference between being "burned" and "burn-out"... thoughts?

Toughest Part Of Leadership

Herbert has a great post on some of the tough parts of leadership... these are a few of his thoughts.

3. Dealing with criticism.
4. Being misunderstood but not having the opportunity to explain your heart and motives.
5. Being hurt by people you thought you could trust.

Afraid...

I ran across a great quote at Anne's blog...

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Plato