Where Should I Eat?

Everyone knows I love fast food. It's not because it's good, necessarily, but because eating is a necessary evil for me–so I love to get it done and move on to something more interesting.

So, perhaps this chart was made specifically for me!

(Thanks for Eating The Road for this creativity)

Dancing Babies Have Come a Long Way

Remember the original dancing baby on Ally McBeal?

Well, the most recent ones have just entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the most watched online advertisement in history. Check it out here.

Artists Live One Wrong Decision Away from Disaster

I read an interesting article in a recent edition of Collide Magazine. It was written by Gary Molander (co-owner of not one but two companies). He writes from his own personal journey as an artist, and says:

"We artists spend a lot of effort critiquing those in authority over us.
It’s really the easiest thing to do. But every now and again, it seems
like we need to wave the magic wand of criticism over ourselves."

Then he writes about traits he finds to be tendencies in artists, including himself, and how those traits sometimes undermine important relationships. Some interesting quotes from Gary's article…

Most artists live one wrong decision away from disaster. Most people
live 9-10 bad choices away from moral and personal ruin. Most people
see the line, then move away. Artists see the line and stick their big
toe over it, just to see what might happen. There is risk. There is
rush. And artists love both.

Artists gossip. Not all, but some. Much of the time, we’re gossiping about the senior pastor who refuses to trust us.

Have you ever worked with a person who doesn’t admit any personal
responsibility? They never take the blame for anything. You’ll never
hear this person say, “I’m sorry” or “My fault” or “I blew it.” It’s
always “her fault” because “he” didn’t get “that thing” to “that
leader.” May we never become that person. May we NEVER EVER become that
person. And if we’re already that person, may we journal it, pray it,
Facebook it, then quit it.

I really enjoyed the article and found much to think about (yes, I have a little bit of artist in me). Also found many of the traits seem universal, not just specific to artists. Read the entire article, then come back and leave a comment below.

I'm curious about what you think: Where did Gary get it right? Where is he wrong?

(HT to Kem for this great find)

Coming to Granger this December

Each weekend in December we will be leveraging the topics in Dickens' classic The Christmas Carol. We'll consider recovery from our past, making a difference in the present, and deciding on a purposeful future. It all builds to our own Granger version of The Christmas Carol production in six different services on Christmas Eve.

Un-riff’n-believable!

Trust me — take 3 minutes to watch this video and you won't be disappointed.

Here are a few things you should know about RIFF…

• It was developed by Marty Friend, a good friend (remind me to tell you about our trip to China together) and long-time member at Granger.
• It is available on iTunes for $3.99.
• I'm not making a penny for telling you about it. However, you'll be happy that a good portion of the proceeds will go directly into kingdom work.
• We are planning to use it on stage in an upcoming band number. If you do it first, send me a video and I'll highlight it here on LeadingSmart.com.

Now it's your turn — what do you think about RIFF and its' potential uses?

My Parents are the Real Deal

What does it mean when a couple makes it 50 years in marriage? And I
don't mean they survived. No, this couple continues to thrive.

They are my parents, Ross and Karen Stevens, and this month they are celebrating 50 years of marriage. Can anyone say 'Wow!"?

In this day and age, I so respect long marriages. And I have seen this one up close and personal. It's the real deal. My parents are still in love. They honor each other, serve each other, and work through tough stuff together (how tough? Try having me as a kid!).

There are so many thoughts that my parents' anniversary brings to mind–here are just a few:

• When they tied the knot, Mom was 17 years old and dad was not yet 19 years old. Who says teens can't make good decisions?
• I don't know of one divorce in my ancestry. My grandparents on both sides stayed married until death. My great-grandparents on both sides stayed married until they died. What a heritage!
• My mom is really, really smart–and could have worked her whole life in a very good job. But she chose to stay home when we were young to help instill values and character into me and my brother and sister.
• I never remember them fighting. They worked through stuff behind closed doors and provided a house of love for all of us.
• They sacrificed much for us to get us the best education available. It went unnoticed to me at the time, but now days I think about it quite often.
• I realize now how patient my parents were with us. Between the piano, french horn, clarinet, and rock-and-roll–we had a loud house!
• I can't imagine a kid being more supported. It didn't matter what I tried, they were cheering me on: soccer (I was terrible), basketball (never made a basket…ever), band (I was okay), preaching (uh, no)…they were there for all of it helping me find my sweet spot.
• My parents taught me to love the church. I learned the joy in having a solid, value-based family centered around a thriving local church…where authentic relational community could happen.

I could say more, but for now let me just leave this message to them: Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad…I love you very much and am so grateful for the heritage you have given me, and the privilege I have of walking in your footsteps.

(Even if you don't know my parents, feel free to leave your greetings in the comments below…I'll be sure they read them!)

Outsourced Worship

I had a fascinating time last week with Jeff Powell, one of the leaders at First Hattiesburg Church in Mississippi. He told me a story that was very interesting…

A little over a year ago their church had an open position for a worship leader and couldn't find the right person to fill the role. So they began to hire worship leaders to come in, a weekend at a time, to lead their band and congregation in worship. It worked so well that they decided to continue doing this–not as a stop-gap measure–but as their intentional strategy. At this time, they have no plans of ever hiring a worship leader. They will continue to outsource.

In the first year they brought in 15 or 20 different leaders, but they have since settled to about 4 or 5 that they continue to bring in to lead their people.

Jeff says this strategy offers several advantages:

• Many worship leaders don't enjoy building teams, managing budgets or organizing departments. They just love to lead worship. This strategy let's them stay in their sweet spot.
• This decision saves money for the church. He is able to pay them really well for a weekend and still save enough money in the church budget to use toward another staff position.
• They love the variety that this brings to their church. Keeping things unpredictable is a plus, says Jeff, to keeping people's attention.
• They have learned so much from these worship leaders that they wouldn't have learned from one person.

It's a very interesting twist on staffing. I think churches are going to have to think creatively about staffing in the future–and this is a very creative method.

What do you think–good strategy or bad idea?

A 16-Year Old View on the Love of God

I'm not sure when it happens, but there is a point in time when you realize you are learning just as much from your kids as they are learning from you. Today was another one of those days when I read these words from my daughters blog:

Everyone's gotten mad at their parents at one time or another…it's
inevitable… especially in your teen years (or maybe that's just
me..?).

Something I've never spent much time thinking about is
that my parents don't love me because I'm a good runner, because I'm a
camp counselor in the summer, or because I drive my sister to school in
the morning. And they don't NOT love me because I pick on my little
brother, I talk back to them, or I am not home by curfew. They love me
for me, because I'm theirs. Mom and Dad: I'm sorry if sometimes it doesn't seem like you're appreciated…I love you (:

Jesus
died on the cross because He loves us. Why on earth would He love US?
Not because we pack boxes at Feed the Children, give the homeless man
on the corner of main and douglas a sandwich, or bring the granger
stranger a box of cookies. He doesn't NOT love us because we
accidentally cuss, forget to read our bible, or tell a lie. He loves
for who we are, because we are His. He created us, and for that, He
loves us SO MUCH! Without us even doing anything!

It does not matter what you do or don't do, there will always be people who will love you. respect you. care for/about you. I'm
not really sure what I'm getting at..this is just something that I had
never thought about before, it seems like the concept of love, coming
from God or from your parents, has just kind of been one of those
things like eating and breathing. It just kind of happens..and no one
really thinks about it. But do me a favor, and think about it..just for
a second. It's kind of amazing, huh?

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." -1 John 4:7

Change…Scary? Or Exciting?

Twenty years ago I got my first modem. I was an early adopter (none of my friends had one), it was a cutting-edge dial-up blazing fast at 300 bits per second. Today I'm using a modem that is 8 megabits per second–literally 26,000 times faster than my original modem.

In 1984, my first PC had two floppy drives and no hard-drive. I used one floppy for my software and the other for data.

Five years ago I had one computer hooked up to my internet connection. Today, there are 15 "machines" in my house connected to the outside world (4 computers, 2 iPhones, 4 VOIP phones, 1 iPod Touch, 1 TV, 1 Xbox, 1 Bluray, 1 DVR)…and that increases when I have guests in the house.

The world is changing, and it is changing at a rapid pace.

For example, the image below is what pops up when I turn my DVD player on. A machine which was originally created to play movies from a disc can now (when connected to the internet ) stream movies from Netflix and Blockbuster, as well as play videos from YouTube and music from Pandora. It's old school to actually go to the video store for a movie.

My TV is able to display my Twitter feed, Ebay activity and play movies from Amazon Video on Demand. I'm not bragging…I'm just saying it is a changing world. If your TV or DVD player doesn't do these things yet–it will soon.

I don't know all of the impact these changes will have for the church…but I think some things are possible:

• Online church won't be restricted to watching from your PC or laptop. It will enter the living room in stunning color and high resolution.
• Churches will stream Bible classes and other teaching right to the living rooms of their attendees. "Our membership class will take place this Wednesday evening at 7pm in every home of our church."
• The local church will no longer be geographically limited. You will have true participants and volunteers all over the world.
• As online church gains popularity, the community aspect will increase. Not only can they "attend" a service with hundreds of people online, but they can attend physically with 10 or 15 people in their own house.
• The distinction between "house church" and "online church" will begin to blur.

I am jazzed about the possibilities. What about you…does this seem scary? Or exciting?

A Crowd is Not a Church

Here is how the conversation typically goes:

Life-long Church Attendee: "Your church is pretty shallow. Felt like it was a show. I need something deeper."

Me: "Really? That surprises me, cuz' I've been here for twenty years and that's not my experience. How long have you been attending?"

Life-long Church Attendee: "I've been to three weekend services."

Me: "Then you haven't experienced our church yet. You've just scratched the surface."

For some reason, people who have attended church for many years will come to a weekend service and believe they have visited our church. I tell people all the time: The weekend is not the church. It is a crowd. We are doing everything we can to draw the biggest crowd we can–and then turn it into a church.

Many times people will ask me how big our church is. I typically say, "Do you mean how many are attending each weekend?" Those are two different questions. We may have 5,000 attending on a given weekend–but that's not our church. That's just a crowd. Determining the size of a church is a bit more difficult. Is it membership? The number of people serving? Those giving? Those attending "deeper" Bible studies? Perhaps a bigger question is–does it even matter?

Here is what I believe: We are at our best when we focus our weekend services squarely on those who are at the beginning of their spiritual journey, and focus our discipleship on those who are further along in their faith. Yes, there is some cross-over, but when we get mixed up in our focus–that's when we begin to flounder. That's when the purpose gets lost, the vision gets unclear and our effectiveness is reduced.