Monitoring Or Maintaining Your Life?
Posted by John in Experimental Thinking on July 16, 2010
It’s not often that I get stumped when it comes to technology. I consider myself to be an expert problem solver and because of that, I can usually problem-solve my way out of most technology problems.
That’s not the case this week. Twice this week I’ve been stumped by technology questions and have had to ask for assistance from outside sources. In both cases, the answers to the problems came relatively quickly and easily.
Which leads me to this question. Am I monitoring or maintaining my way through life? It’s an interesting question for sure, because one side infers active involvement while the other has more of a wait and see approach to life.
If I were monitoring my way through life, then I would be carefully planning each step along the way. I’d make certain that every T was crossed and ever i was dotted. I’d watch for things that might hurt me and avoid them at all cost. I’d prepare and insulate myself from everything and everyone so that I wouldn’t be at risk. I’d monitor my daily activities and be content with being an onlooker to life.
But, if I choose to maintain my life, then things get interesting. I intentionally put my life in the way of others and I’m going to get broken. Life will cause me hurt and pain. Life will bring me great joy and great happiness. Life will circle around me and I’ll be an active part constantly fixing what is broken and maintaining what is being used.
For me – I’m going to choose to maintain my life. I want to be broken by the smallest of things. I want to be affected by those around me. I want my life to be used and worn out for the Kingdom.
What do you want to do?
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What are you passionate about?
Posted by John in Random Thoughts on July 15, 2010
What is your passion? What drives you to do the things that you do? What do you wish you could be doing? What could you do that would change your life forever?
What are you passionate about?
Why are you passionate about that? Why is that the one thing that makes you alive? That gives you breath. That moves you to heights you never thought possible. Why does that drive you to accomplish things you never thought you could?
What are you passionate about?
30-Second and 3-Minute Conversations: Part 1
Posted by John in Leadership, Youth Ministry on July 14, 2010
I have the great privilege to work with the youth and adult volunteers at Celebrate Community Church. I look forward to Wednesday nights each week because of the great opportunity that we have to impact the next generation.
As I work with the adult volunteers, I continually am trying to teach and model a relationship-building concept that I call the “30 second and 3 minute conversations.” Over the course of the next couple of Wednesdays, I’m going to completely explain this very important concept and how it has been implemented in our youth ministry.
Allow me to explain the thinking behind the 30-second and 3-minute conversation concept. Celebrate Youth has anywhere between 200 and 250 youth that attend each week. We have about 25-50 adult volunteers each week. You can see the problem already.
In order for each youth to be personally greeted and engaged, it’s absolutely imperative that our adult volunteers are extremely intentional about our conversations with the youth.
The adults are simply unable to engage in long conversations with each youth on Wednesday Nights, so we’ve put into practice the 30 second and 3 minute conversation concept.
In a nutshell, here is the concept:
When each youth walks into the church, they are greeted and engaged with at least one 30-second conversation. This 30-second conversation is designed to be an open-ended conversation with the youth. The adults ask questions like, “How is your week going?” or “How has your summer been?” or “What have you been doing for fun lately?” The questions are designed to let the youth talk about themselves and give the adults the opportunity to learn about the youth.
The 3-minute conversation is essentially taking the time to learn one story from the youth. The conversation may be longer or shorter than 3-minutes and that’s okay. The intent is to learn one story so that our adults can begin developing a relationship with our youth.
The final piece of this concept is this. If during the course of the 30-second and the 3-minute conversations the adult discovers that a longer conversation needs to take place, the next step is to invite and engage the youth in a Coke or Coffee date sometime later in the week. This allows the adult to continue to engage the other youth that are attending and allows the youth to be valued outside of the Wednesday Night worship experience.
This is the first stage of the 30-second and 3-minute conversation concept. If your adult volunteers can grasp this concept, then I believe meaningful relationships between the adults and youth can be developed. I’ll write more about this concept next Wednesday!
What do you think about the 30-second and 3-minute conversation concept? Would this work in your youth ministry?
How’s your character?
Posted by John in Kingdom Building, Leadership, Ministry on July 13, 2010
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a post about Character Changers. In that post I advocated that your character could change as you grow and develop in your relationship with God.
I would like to add to that concept by saying that if you are lacking in character, you will struggle with leadership. In fact, there’s a law of leadership that says that the foundation of leadership is character and I completely agree with it.
If you are lacking in character, I believe that through God’s help, your character can be changed. But I would contend that if you are lacking in character, you will never be the leader that you could be.
Why would I say that? Because if you’re lacking in character, regardless of the position of leadership that you might find yourself in, your actions and decisions will always reflect your character. You could be a janitor at a bank, but if you have high character – when the vault is left open – you’ll make the right decision because of your character. Conversely, if you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and you have the opportunity to skim a little of the top, if you have poor character – you’ll make the wrong decision.
I believe that our character is something that we need to pay close attention to. It defines our thoughts, our actions, our perceptions, our beliefs. It’s the one thing that determines who we really are both in public and in private.
If you want to know how to develop your character, Romans 5:3-5 gives us a glimpse at God’s road map. I warn you though, it’s not an easy road.
So . . . how’s your character?
What is a follower?
Posted by John in Kingdom Building, Leadership, Ministry on July 12, 2010
One of the proverbial laws of leadership is that the test of leadership is followers. As I look at this law, Instantly I agree with this. But after posting about what influence is, I find myself conflicted.
If Influence is the ability to speak into peoples lives in such a way that they are drawn to a greater vision or purpose then what they could ever imagine, then what is a follower?
At first glance it seems that a follower is basically someone that trails after someone or something else. It seems that a follower might simply be someone that is a couple of steps behind the real thing. I’m not sure that’s a good definition of a follower.
What would happen if we changed our understanding of the word follower from one who comes after, to one who becomes like someone else?
What if when we choose to follow Christ we move from being resigned to a never ending game of catch-up to a lifestyle that says I will not only be an imitator of Christ, but I will become Christ to all around me.
By moving our mindset from being behind Christ to becoming Christ, what does that do to our hearts? To our minds? To our relationships? To our actions?
If we think about being a follower of Christ in light of 2 Corinthians 4:17 – then we are a new creation and the fallacy of always trying to catch up to God is dispelled because of the truth that God has made us a new creation through the life and subsequent death of His son – Jesus.
So if we define a Christian follower as one who though God’s providence becomes a new creation like Christ for the purpose of sharing God’s love with others – how does this change the way we interact with our culture, our churches, and our relationships?
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