I’m going to try something new today. I’d like to join me today for the Fellowship 15! If you like music, you’ll like it. If you find this post by 4:15 pm today (3/31/09), check out the link here.

I’m a huge fan of Monopoly and have played many a game of this wonderful and long game with friends like Mike, Joel, Darren, Brandon, Jon, and others who have decided to take me on in this amazing game of “crush the competition.”  I even have a Monopoly T-shirt given to me by some friends in my church.  It would be safe to say I have spent over a hundred hours playing Monopoly.

And now they are coming out with a Monopoly Movie, led by the Gladiator director, Ridley Scott.
I’m trying to think if this would be a good idea or not.  Like the writer for Collide Magazine says, “Our guess is that the movie will be extremely long and will end with all the characters giving up all their money and real estate because they’re sick of playing.”

Will “Monopoly” be a Box office hit?

I like to think of myself as a funny guy (don’t deny it).

And occasionally when I preach I have two kinds of funny:  Rehearsed and Spontaneous.  The following is the latter:

Talking about the Parable of the Great Wedding Feast, I said, “And then the King says to his messengers, ‘Go out, and allow all to come to me.  Go out, and let people know that they may come in to the wedding feast of my son.’  And they did.  People came.  And they partied like it was…9″

If it isn’t as funny in print, you can see it here.

I hope you laugh at least once today!

Yesterday I wrote about Vision, and today, I’ll share with you the 2nd part of what I gave to our team – Execution.  This is the toughest part of seeing any project through.  Anyone can think of an idea, but only hard workers and smart thinkers can make it happen.  Personally, this is one of my toughest challenges in ministry.  So I’ve come up with this list to help me.

Execution is making the Big Picture happen.  In order to make the big picture happen, you have to…

     -Lay out the ways you get from here to there.

           Brainstorm  (think big!)
           Ask questions  (Why?  How?  Where?  When?  How much?)
           Delegate  (Who does what?)

           Write down everything (trust me, your memory is not enough)
           Over analyze (Have we missed anything?)
           Remind (Act like the people you’ve delegated to have forgotten)
           Demand excellence (the last two should be done with respect)

What is the bad word you might be asking?  Well, if each of these things aren’t done and done well, it is…

Incompetence

I shared these thoughts with some of our team this  afternoon.  People are usually good at one or the other.  But what does it take to capture the vision of what you’re trying to accomplish AND execute that vision?  Here’s part 1:

Vision

Vision is seeing the big picture.

Vision can take the form of:

     *A statement – FC’s vision statement is to “lead people into a 
       growing relationship with Jesus Christ.”

     *A goal – “We want to see people _____________ people in 
       attendance for our Easter service.”

     *A drive – “I will do whatever it takes to make this succeed.” 

Another definition – Vision is seeing something that you want to see happen even when it hasn’t happened yet.  (this resembles faith, doesn’t it?)

     -If you don’t have a vision or a passion for your 
     ministry/work/innovation, get one, get out, or be looking forward
     to having someone else lead the way.

Tomorrow, pt. 2

You have to hire this guy for your web site.  Please.

and thANK    You

Sunday Morning @ Fellowship this week was worth the look.

Check it out!

I’d like to share with you why joining a group on Facebook called “I want the old Facebook” is worthless and probably not really what you want.

When I joined Facebook about a year and a half ago, I loved learning the new social media world, and all the features that Facebook had.  It was great!  Then a few months into it, just as more people were connecting on Facebook and leaving My Space, they changed the entire format.  They moved this here and that there, and I was all confused, but over time I was able to learn the new format.  Many people who have joined Facebook in the last year don’t know the present “Old facebook” as the one time “New Facebook” about 9 months ago.

So this month Facebook unravels a new format, and let’s be honest, it’s very twitter like.  And now we have to do things like:

Get to know new formats.
Search around for the new way of doing things.
Learn new tricks to make communication easier for all of us.

But even though ultimately, the new facebook will make things easier (trust me, this is not up for debate), we fight it because we have to learn new ways to communicate and new ways of networking that we didn’t have to before.  And we’ll make groups called, “I freakin want the old Facebook back, because it was my best friend”, and a few people will join those groups, but ultimately those groups will fail and the new Facebook will remain, and probably be changed in about 9 months or sooner.

Facebook doesn’t make these changes because they hate you.  They make these changes because they believe that in the long run, the changes will make it easier for everyone to connect.  And that’s the point of Facebook.  If they didn’t change, they would become My Space someday, and everyone would be leaving by the masses to the new social media thing, all because they didn’t change for the better.

If you don’t believe me, please go to your nearest “almost dead” church.  I don’t mean to be offensive, but somewhere near you is an “almost dead” church that at one point was alive and thriving.  The people there will tell you abou the good old days when people were coming and lives were being changed.  Then something happened.  Times were changing, and decisions were being made.  Should we change or not?

And the people that don’t like change will say something like this:

I don’t know anyone anymore.  (Why don’t you meet someone now?)
I don’t understand this new way.  What was wrong with the way we used to do things?  (Ummm, nothing…30 years ago)
I’m gonna do things the way I’ve always done them. (then you’ll continue to get what you’ve most recently gotten, ha!)

And if the church is alive and well or “almost dead”, tells me whether the “old side” or the “new side” won out.

Please understand, I’m not just talking about music and coolness here.  I’m simply talking about relevance.  If someone  stands on stage and drones on and on about whatever, without connecting with the people he’s talking to, and the people are just there because it’s church, and the “right thing to do is be in church”, it’s over.

And if a church has a service on Sunday because “that’s the way we’ve always done it and the way it should be done” without having a valid point for that service, it’s over.

Sometimes new is really hard to do, but who said hard to do was wrong?  If you like Facebook, it gives you a chance to learn it better.  If you like the church, and they do something new, you’ll get a chance to meet new people and pour into their lives.

Go New Facebook!  I’m cheering for you to win!

Carie vs.

the Jerk

In order to understand this post, you really have to understand a bit about my wife.

Carie is exactly who she says she is.  She is the same person with me as she is with people as she is by herself.  There is no difference.  She is not pushy, but to people she has relationship with she will push them to be better people.  She hates the limelight, but when placed in the center of it, appears like she was born to be in it.  She does not talk bad about people, unless they are in the room and need to be “encouraged”.  She’s not even a big talker, but people who talk to her enjoy it way more than talking to me.  She didn’t go to Bible college wanting to marry a pastor, and the fact that I was one actually gave her cause to consider all the more whether or not she should say yes to me.

All that being said, when she came home yesterday, she was a bit discouraged.  There’s this guy that she’s worked with now for 3 years at her school.  He’s admittedly kind of a jerk (he has said this comparing himself to Carie) and cares very little for issues of faith, though Carie and Jerk teacher have shared conversations about faith before.  He actually majored in theology in college.

So last week jerk teacher was having a bit of a rough week, and Carie came home and asked me if she should invite him to church.  I asked, “How do you think he will react?”  She said, “I have no clue.”  I said, “As long as you do it on your own time, it’s probably fine.  Go for it!”

So on Friday, she sent jerk teacher an email inviting him to our service that weekend, and asking him to respond.  Now keep in mind this is not two people who have just met.  They have worked together for 3 years, and though it’s been rocky at times because of the whole “jerk” thing, Carie has been one of the few people to treat him well.  There is a good bit of gossip that goes on between the teachers in the particular department carie works in, and she has not participated in the fray.

Jerk teacher never responded, which was not a big deal, until Monday.  On Monday 3 times carie walks into the department room and 3 times she catches Jerk teacher talking about her invitation to other people, and 3 times as she enters, the conversation stops immediately.  I asked her if she thought because of the first time, she might have been paranoid about 1 or 2 of them (for those of you who are not married or have just been married for a short time, this is not a great question to ask at this point), and she said “no”.  One time she came in and the last thing she heard was, “All they want to do is divide and conquer”.

Clearly Carie was upset by the happenings here.  All she did was invite someone who she had relationship with to church, and evidently he scorned her for it.

I believe she handled it quite well, eventually telling me that Jerk teacher was probably just acting out in pain, and that talking about people was his way of dealing with it.  But the point of this post is not her feelings, but mine.  (hopefully this will save me from a backlash after she reads this)  You see, in an effort to try to be authentic, I’m going to share my feelings on this subject now.

Carie handled her situation wisely and is planning on talking to Jerk teacher, and as a follower of Christ, I know that’s the right thing for her to do.  And she’ll be successful how she handles it, because that’s who she is.  If it were me, I probably would have handled it the same way.  As Carie’s husband though…

I just want to punch Jerk teacher in the face.

This is my 500th post.

What should I write about next?