@ Big Stuf

Big Stuf Day 1 is pretty much complete. We just finished our small group time & the guys are running out to jump in the pool at 11something pm.

(You can read what I wrote about Big Stuf camps last year HERE or just check out their website HERE... but I really don't feel like writing about it all again. I'll just say that Big Stuf is unbelievably AWESOME!)

Big thanks to my buddy Ryan for letting us bum a ride from Charlotte down here to Daytona Beach on the buses with his student ministry. Fast trip & we're all checked in to our hotel... on the beach. YES! I'm looking at the ocean waves right now as I right this.

UNFORTUNATELY, the website pics of this hotel would have to classify as a horrible case of FALSE ADVERTISING. Yeah, this place is nothing like the pics on the website. Crystal has already said "we're switching rooms"at least twice. I've talked her out of it though both times. We'll see what happens.
BUT the kids from Ridge don't notice a thing. they're lovin' life right now!

1st session was tonight with Steve Fee & his band leading us in worship along with some guests like = Chrystina Fincher, James David Carter, & Danny Dukes...
awesome awesome new song that Steve taught the few thousand of us tonight! (I'm guessing it's gonna be on his new album this fall = Hope Rising.)
I really think I'm gonna like the song. It's so awesome & it's kind of like a shouting song, so I can actually sing it well. perfect for kids to. Goes like...
"Our God is risen and reigning and we're elevating the glory of our God and King now everybody rise and sing"
(& then there's some fun repeat parts & Whoa whoa whoa's... too)

Steven Furtick from my awesome hometown of Charlotte spoke tonight. He was real with the kids & said a lot of frank stuff that was great for them to hear. & he was entertaining as always (although he was wearing a goofy shirt with a big fish on it... weird.)

Honestly, as far as production goes, it seems like the Big Stuf team is even more on their game than in past years. Maybe it's because they've got Bigstuf media now? I don't know, but the whole production was pretty sweet.

I'll try to update as much as I can about the fun we're having at Big Stuf & what God is doing in our lives. It's gonna be an awesome week. (I'll try to post some pics too.)

quotes of the week #10

back again with quotes of the week here on renown! Hope you enjoy!
You can read the disclaimer & explanation HERE. [my personal thoughts are in brackets]

#1 Quote of the week:
“I don’t know where the legalism committee is or when they meet, but they have gotta come up with some better stuff to be legalistic about! Like 'eat bacon' and 'take naps' and 'make love to your wife'.” – Mark Driscoll, pastor @ Mars Hill, author, & quickly becoming the leader of a huge & influential movement with thousands of young pastors following [haha, i love it when he talks like this! the legalists have got the wrong peeps on the committee! Because they're SO putting the wrong stuff on the list of stuff to be legalistic about!]

“We have insulated ourselves from miracles. We no longer live with such reckless faith that we need them.” – Shane Claiborne, ordinary radical & author [hmmm... think about that one]

"The creatve process that propelled your organization to success is the very thing that will anchor you staleness. Disturb your process!" – Carlos Whittaker, "blogstar" & former SPD @ Buckhead Church [I am currently taking Carlos' advice on this. I needed it!]

**“There is nothing so secular that it cannot be made sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.” – Madeleine L’Engle, the late author [that's beautiful. I know what she is trying to say, but I would even say that there is NO SUCH THING as sacred & secular]

“What is the most revolutionary way to change society: Is it violent revolution or gradual reform? Neither. If you want to change society, then you must tell an alternative story.” – Alan Hirsch, author [nice... i like it. seems like we're not doing all that great at telling the story.]

“The moment you stop learning, you stop leading.” – Rick Warren, duh... no intro needed, Saddleback, Purpose Driven everything, Peace Plan, etc... [This guy is a great man I'm still learning from!]

"If you're not willing to look foolish... you're foolish & you'll never accomplish much for the kingdom. – Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church & author [this guy has so much good stuff to say!]

"If I want people to bring their friends, I have to preach like they are there." - Andy Stanley, pastor @ NPCC & author [& most pastors don't do this! no wonder...]

“I believe that it is no harder to build something Great than to build something good!” – Jim Collins, crazy popular author... Good to Great [what do you think about that statement?]

OK, as always I would LOVE to know which one was your fav quote and why? + which ones do you want to chat about?

i'm tired...

i'm tired & don't really feel like writing a blog. I'm just being honest.

I'm so wasted that I've got a bunch of stuff written already & just don't have the mental energy to post it on here.
I will post tomorrow though. Maybe "quotes of the week" for this week OR part 2 in the 7 practices series? ("Think Steps Not Programs")

I'll be all over the place the next few weeks. Similar to last summer. I've got some PIMP guys writing guest blogs for me. They'll be WAY better than what I normally write. I can't wait to post them while I'm on my travels and might not always have internet access.
I'll still be writing stuff too and posting it of course, just not every day. But with the guest blogs there will be something on renown almost every day for the next few weeks!
peace til tomorrow...

10 ways to support charity through social media

This morning I was reading Proverbs 14 (14th of the month of course) and knowing that I would be posting this blog today there were of course 2 sentences that jumped out at me.
"blessed are those who are kind to the needy." (v.21) & "whoever is kind to the needy honors God." (v.30)
Those verses also used much stronger language that you can go read yourself. I just wanted to focus on the positive today = helping & being "kind" to the "needy"/poor. Because today is a concentrated effort & part of the Blog Action Day campaign, I'm just doing my part.

(This post is a collaboration between Mashable's Summer of Social Good charitable fundraiser and Max Gladwell's "10 Ways" series. The post is being simultaneously published across hundreds of blogs.)

Social media (blogs, twitter, facebook, etc...) is about connecting people and providing the tools necessary to have a conversation. That global conversation is an extremely powerful platform for spreading information and awareness about social causes and issues. That's one of the reasons charities can benefit so greatly from being active on social media channels. But you can also do a lot to help your favorite causes you are passionate about through social media.

Below is a list of 10 ways you can use social media to show your support for issues that are important to you. If you can think of any other ways to help awesome causes via social web tools, please add them in the comments. If you'd like to retweet this post or take the conversation to Twitter or FriendFeed, just use the hashtag #10Ways.

1. Write a Blog Post

Blogging is one of the easiest ways you can help a cause you feel passionate about. Almost everyone has an outlet for blogging these days -- whether that means a site running WordPress, an account no Blogger, or a blog on MySpace or Facebook. By writing about issues you're passionate about, you're helping to spread awareness among your social circle. Because your friends or readers already trust you, what you say is influential.

Recently, a group of green bloggers banded together to raise individual $1 donations from their readers. The beneficiaries included Sustainable Harvest, Kiva, Healthy Child, Healthy World, Environmental Working Group, and Water for People. The blog-driven campaign included voting to determine how the funds would be distributed between the charities. You can read about the results here.
*You should also consider taking part in Blog Action Day, a once a year event in which thousands of blogs pledge to write at least one post about a specific social cause (last year it was fighting poverty). Blog Action Day will be on October 15 this year.

2. Share Stories with Friends

Another way to spread awareness among your social graph is to share links to blog posts and news articles via Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, and even through email. Your network of friends is likely interested in what you have to say, so you have influence wherever you've gathered a social network.
Plus you'll be helping organizations you support when you share links to their campaigns, or to articles about causes you care about.

3. Follow Charities on Social Networks

In addition to sharing links to articles about issues you come across, you should also follow organizations and causes you support on the social networks where they are active. By increasing the size of their social graph, you're increasing the size of their reach. When your charities tweet or post information about a campaign or a cause, statistics or a link to a good article, consider retweeting that post on Twitter, linking & liking it on Facebook, or blogging about it. Pretty much all the causes I've got linked on the right side of this blog are also on Twitter & Facebook!
*I like to follow these guys on social media sites because it's a great way to keep in the loop and get updates, and it's a great way to help the charity increase its reach by spreading information to your friends and followers.

One example would be my favorite of the 4 Summer of Social Good Charities: Oxfam America follow them on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube by simply clicking the link!

4. Support Causes on Awareness Hubs

Another way you can show your support for the charities you care about is to rally around them on awareness hubs like Change.org, Care2, or the Facebook Causes application. These are social networks or applications specifically built with non-profits in mind. They offer special tools and opportunities for charities to spread awareness of issues, take action, and raise money.

It's important to follow and support organizations on these sites because they're another point of access for you to gather information about a charity or cause, and because by supporting your charity you'll be increasing their overall reach. The more people they have following them and receiving their updates, the greater the chance that information they put out will spread virally. (haha, we love that word in staff meeting @ Ridge!)

5. Find Volunteer Opportunities

Using social media online can help connect you with volunteer opportunities offline, and according to web analytics firm Compete, traffic to volunteering sites is actually up sharply in 2009. Two of the biggest sites for locating volunteer opportunities are VolunteerMatch, which has almost 60,000 opportunities listed, and Idealist.org, which also lists paying jobs in the non-profit sector, in addition to maintaining databases of both volunteer jobs and willing volunteers.
*For those who are interested in helping out when volunteers are urgently needed in crisis situations, check out HelpInDisaster.org, a site which helps register and educate those who want to help during disasters so that local resources are not tied up directing the calls of eager volunteers. I've heard that a cool site for teens is DoSomething.org, a site targeted at young adults seeking volunteer opportunities in their communities.

6. Embed a Widget on Your Site

Most organizations and causes offer embeddable widgets or badges that you can use on your social networking profiles or blogs to show your support. These widgets raise awareness of an issue and offer up a link or links to additional information on their site. And very often they are used to raise money.

***For example - on the right side of this blog I've got a few widgets. The 1st one you would see is for Compassion International! I believe in what these guys are doing so much & so does God! There is a different child in poverty pictured everyday and you can click that picture to partner with Compassion and support that child monthly to provide food, clean water, education, healthcare, and a chance to hear about Jesus! You can also click and it will take you to the website to choose from hundreds of kids to sponsor! *AND you can click the little link that says "get this widget" and add the same thing to your site!

& lower on the page I have a widget from the Joshua Project that shows us all a different unreached people group each day to pray for. They are doing some of the most awesome cutting edge work in helping us complete the Great Commission!

7. Organize a Tweetup

You can use online social media tools to organize offline events, which are a great way to gather together like-minded people to raise awareness, raise money, or just discuss an issue that's important to you. Getting people together offline to learn about an important issue can really kick start the conversation and make supporting the cause seem more real.
Be sure to check out Mashable's guide to organizing a tweetup to make sure yours goes off without a hitch, or check to see if there are any tweetups in your area to attend that are already organized.

8. Express Yourself Using Video

As mentioned, blog posts are great, but a picture really says a thousand words. The web has become a lot more visual in recent years and there are now a large number of social tools to help you express yourself using video. When you record a video plea or call to action about your issue or charity, you can make your message sound more authentic and real. You can use sites like 12seconds.tv, Vimeo, and YouTube to easily record and spread your video message.

Last week, the Summer of Social Good campaign encouraged people to use video to show support for charity. The #12forGood campaign challenged people to submit a 12 second video of themselves doing something for the Summer of Social Good. The idea was to use the power of video to spread awareness about the campaign and the charities it supports.
If you're more into watching videos than recording them, Givzy.com enables you to raise funds for charities like Unicef and St. Jude's Children's Hospital by sharing viral videos by e-mail.

9. Sign or Start a Petition

There aren't many more powerful ways to support a cause than to sign your name to a petition. Petitions spread awareness and, when successfully carried out, can demonstrate massive support for an issue. By making petitions viral, the social web has arguably made them even more powerful tools for social change. There are a large number of petition creation and hosting web sites out there. One of the biggest is The Petition Site, which is operated by the social awareness network Care2, or PetitionOnline.com, which has collected more than 79 million signatures over the years.
Petitions are extremely powerful, because they can strike a chord, spread virally, and serve as a visual demonstration of the support that an issue has gathered. Social media fans will want to check out a fairly new option for creating and spreading petitions: Twitition, an application that allows people to create, spread, and sign petitions via Twitter.

10. Organize an Online Event

Social media is a great way to organize offline, but you can also use online tools to organize effective online events. That can mean free form fund raising drives, like the Twitter-and-blog-powered campaign to raise money for a crisis center in Illinois last month that took in over $130,000 in just two weeks. Or it could mean an organized "tweet-a-thon" like the ones run by the 12for12k group, which aims to raise $12,000 each month for a different charity.

In March, 12for12k ran a 12-hour tweet-a-thon, in which any donation of at least $12 over a 12 hour period gained the person donating an entry into a drawing for prizes like an iPod Touch or a Nintendo Wii Fit. Last month, 12for12k took a different approach to an online event by holding a more ambitious 24-hour live video-a-thon, which included video interviews, music and sketch comedy performances, call-ins, and drawings for a large number of prizes given out to anyone who donated $12 or more.

Bonus: Think Outside the Box

Social media provides almost limitless opportunity for being creative. You can think outside the box to come up with all sorts of innovative ways to raise money or awareness for a charity or cause. When Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with cancer, for example, he created Blame Drew's Cancer, a campaign that encourages people to blow off steam by blaming his cancer for bad things in their lives using the Twitter hashtag #BlameDrewsCancer. Over 16,000 things have been blamed on Drew's cancer, and he intends to find sponsors to turn those tweets into donations to LIVESTRONG once he beats the disease.

Or check out Nathan Winters, who is biking across the United States and documenting the entire trip using social media tools, in order to raise money and awareness for his charity.

The number of innovative things you can do using social media to support a charity or spread information about an issue is nearly endless. Can you think of any others? Feel free to share them in the comments.

***If you're wondering what some good causes might be for you to support in these creative ways using social media... CLICK HERE! It's a post I wrote long ago that has SEVERAL links to orgs that will help you DO SOMETHING IN THE WORLD! They are all organizations who will help you be "kind to the needy" like God wants us to do. I recommend all those causes + of course the ones on the right side of this blog. check them out!
& yeah, do some good this summer!


(A special thanks to VPS.net, who are donating $100 to the Summer of Social Good for every signup they receive this week.
Sign up at VPS.net and use the coupon code "SOSG"to receive 3 Months of FREE hosting on top of your purchased term. VPS.net honors a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee so there's no risk.
About the "10 Ways" Series The "10 Ways" Series was originated by Max Gladwell. This is the second simultaneous blog post in the series. The first ran on more than 80 blogs, including Mashable. Among other things, it is a social media experiment and the exploration of a new content distribution model. You can follow Max Gladwell on Twitter.
This content was originally written by Mashable's Josh Catone.)

STICKY @ Ridge

I told you that you didn't want to miss Ridge Church yesterday! (& that you didn't want to be late!)

We started our brand new series - Sticky By Design & it was crazy fun! There are a few pics here from the stage set... & yes, those are ALL sticky notes. Rusty created that with individual sticky notes. It looked bangin'!

Chris' talk was awesome - some things stick & other things don't. Environments are a big part of making things stick. You can listen to it HERE.

We also played a fun game = "Songs that Stick" & throughout the day the band rocked SEVERAL sticky songs... songs that stick in your head all day long. So, yesterday at church included:
The Top Gun Anthem (along with clips from one of the greatest movies of all time)
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Mmmbop - Hanson (you read that right! worst song ever to stick in your head!)
Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Mindie was the contestant & did pretty well. She won 2 bottles of Sticky Fingers bbq sauce & some Ridge sticky notes... not a bad morning.

So, if you weren't there you missed all that fun!
The worship set was awesome too = We Stand (Lee McDerment), Salvation is Here (Hillsong), & Jesus Paid It All (Kristian Stanfill).

Next week is part 2 & is going to be just as much fun. ANOTHER sticky game... but of course I can't tell you what it is. You'll have to BE THERE.
Go ahead and plan to be there. You don't want to have to hear about it on Monday morning again!

I'll leave you with the title package Rusty made for the series...

quotes of the week #9

OK 3rd week in a row of this 6 weeks of trying out "quotes of the week". You can read the disclaimer & explanation HERE. [& as always my personal thoughts are in brackets]

#1 Quote of the week:
"The concept of downsizing so that others [the poor] can upgrade is beautiful, biblical, & nearly unheard of." - Francis Chan, author & Pastor of Cornerstone... [I LOVE that! And I wanna DO that. And I wanna make this concept become HEARD OF instead of "unheard of."]

"If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited." – Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher [I am being very strategic about doing just that!]

“That’s the reason they don’t go to church – because they’ve been to church.” – Chris Brown, my pastor @ Ridge, + my mentor & boss [he said this in a staff meeting conversation a while back. It's so pimp & so true which makes it so sad. BUT we're a church that's trying to change that. We're changing the paradigm.]

[I read this tweet a few hours after Michael Jackson died...] "crazy thought... the 'king of pop' stands before the 'King of Glory' today... Fame redefined." - via @feeband (Steve Fee) [I just had to ReTweet that! (new awesome album coming 10/6! stoked.)]

“The church gets in trouble whenever it thinks it is in the church business rather than the Kingdom business... Church people often put church work above the concerns of justice, mercy, and truth.” – Howard Snyder, theology prof. [ouch. Is he talking to me?]

“Don’t defend what you’re doing, just DO what you’re doing.” – Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring [I am starting to straight up love this guy!]

“The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.” – Mortimer J. Adler, author [from a great little book (ha, 600 pages) called How to Read a Book that I highly recommend if you read more than 1 book per year. Or, if you don't even read 1 per year then maybe YOU'RE the one who really needs it? Anyway, do you agree with that quote?]

“The Church is 1 place in the world where there should be equality.” – Rick McKinley, author & pastor @ Imago Dei. genuinely normal dude.

“The power of the Gospel lies not in the offer of a new spirituality or religious experience, not in the threat of hellfire…which can be removed if only the hearer checks this box, says this prayer, raises a hand, or whatever, but in the powerful announcement that God is God, that Jesus is Lord, that the powers of evil have been defeated, that God’s new world has begun.” – N.T. Wright, bishop & author [right on bishop Wright!]

“There are no U-Hauls behind hearses.” – John Piper, author, pastor, & one of my heroes. [right on Piper... my homeboy. WHY don't we live like we believe that?]

***And yes I put those last 2 peoples' quotes together on purpose... haha, not accidental. Hopefully you enjoy the irony.

Now - YOU'RE TURN. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SOME OF THESE?

Clarify the Win

(As I said yesterday, I am going to be writing about what we have set up as our "guardrails" at Ridge Church. This is part 1 of 7 Practices for Effective Ministry. These are 7 practices that we follow ruthlessly at Ridge.)

Practice #1 (& the one that potentially jacked me up the most when I was confronted with this whole philosophy) is simply to CLARIFY THE WIN. This is HUGE! It might not sound like it at first but I believe it will make or break a ministry (or any organization period)!

I can remember reading this chapter & listening to the concept of this practice being discussed by Andy, Reggie, & Lane and I was blown away, because the ministry I was working in was FAR from practicing this and I could see that it was killing us! (btw - you can also listen to that conversation around these 7 Practices! Download the podcast on iTunes for free - it's called "Practically Speaking". & everything in "quotes" is either straight from the book or the podcast.) I asked a lot of tough questions and it will eventually drive any leader crazy when the WIN is not clarified. So, I totally know how is to be on both sides of this!

As a leader in ANY organization you MUST -> Clarify the Win! You must "define what is important at every level of the organization." I believe it is suicide not to do this.
This is probably easier for most companies to do, but churches straight up suck at it! The only thing that most churches can think of to prove they're winning (or losing) are money & numbers!
But, we've GOTTA do a better job than that!

Forget money & attendance numbers... at Ridge Church we're trying to ask questions like - “do peeps feel comfortable inviting their unchurched friends? Are our people recognizing the need to give a percentage of their income? How many individuals are successfully getting plugged in to small groups? Do our people understand how to apply the scriptural truths we’re teaching in their daily lives?”

& You can't praise the wrong things! But you need to praise the things that are WINS for you, because what you celebrate is what will be repeated! So, "clarifying the win simply means communicating to your team what is really important and what really matters."

Some of the most cutting statements that guys like Andy Stanley and Reggie Joiner constantly say about this practice is “As long as the ‘win’ is unclear, you force your team to guess what a win looks like.” & “if you don’t define winning for your ministry leaders, they will define it for themselves.” And you KNOW that is so true! Every volunteer in your church just makes up their own WINS when one is not clarified for them.
Even staff at a church have to make up their own wins... and it's usually based on what is celebrated. So if #s are all that's celebrated, then that is the main WIN for that staff member! Leaders communicate SO MUCH more than they realize by what they celebrate!

When you don't clarify the WIN for your team, you can't stay on the same page! And Reggie says that being on the SAME page is even more important than starting with a BLANK page as a staff team! You've got to continue to hold up a clear picture of what the WIN is for your team if you want to lead effectively!
And it is so true that when staff and volunteers know what the WINS are, they will fight to WIN & when people are winning they will "1) work harder, 2) be less negative, 3)trust the leadership, 4) give more generously, 5) stay involved." & obviously we all want those things.

Reggie Joiner gives 4 steps to helping you clarify the WIN for your team & volunteers:
1 Sum up the Win in a Simple Phrase
- Key Question = “What do we want people to walk away and do?” The answer to that can clear up a lot of confusion about the goal of an environment and force you to clarify the win!
2 Keep the Win as Specific as Possible
- “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Don’t be too general. *I think these wins have to be things we can actually DO/ACCOMPLISH. Obviously some stuff has to be left to the Holy Spirit.
3 Restate the Win Frequently and Creatively – constantly keep the WINS in front of your peeps. I must creatively keep the wins in my everyday language!!! [so, I think it’s gotta be something cool & easy because I’m gonna say it a lot.]
4 Meet to Clarify the Win at Every Level

For example - our Upstreet environment (Children) @ Ridge Church we have 3 overall WINS = Excellent, Helpful, & Fun. Hopefully every volunteer knows these wins because they have heard us say it a million times! So as we go home on Sundays we can know if we won by simply asking the question "Was it excellent, helpful, & fun?" And for our Small Group Leaders in Upstreet we add 1 more Q = "Did our small group build better and deeper relationships today?"

And another example is our Student Ministry at Ridge. A win for us is NOT how many students showed up to something, but instead it's our goal to see 3 things = Students SERVING STRATEGICALLY, CONNECTING RELATIONALLY (with peers and small group leades), and INVITING THEIR FRIENDS! When we see students engaged in those 3 things we know we are WINNING in student ministry! Pretty simple!

The process of writing these WINS is time consuming and hard, but it's so worth it because "the payoff is HUGE!" as Andy says.

So, what are WINS for YOU? If you don't have any then just remember that your peeps are defining wins for themselves!

finished 3 books last week... + what's coming

Last week I finished reading 3 books. I'm a "readaholic" as I've mentioned before. I'm never reading just one book at a time. In fact, if you look to the right of this page you can see where I constantly update what books I am currently reading and then the ones I have recently finished reading.

So, last week I finished a book I have been reading for a long time. I read a whole book in 1 day. And I finished a book I started a couple weeks ago. So, a little bit of everything. One day I hope to post full reviews & takeaways from these books, but for now here is a line about each.

I have been working on Good to Great for a month or 2. Mainly in my car on my way to and from work. Jim Collins, the best-selling author, was kind enough to read it to me from my iPod. It is an AMAZING book. I took about 13 pages of notes on it! So relevant for us at Ridge Church! If you work in any kind of business or organization and have a leadership role, you have no doubt heard of it. Now I'm telling you to pick it up and read it!

At 1 of my side jobs I can listen to my iPod the whole time. I was thankful to download Francis Chan's book Crazy Love for FREE - HERE! I popped it on my iPod (actually on Crystal's iPod because mine has been full for a year or so) and listened to the WHOLE book in 1 day. (I also took 3 & a half pages of notes on it.) Pretty awesome. Francis is one of the rawest guys I follow. He has some awesome stuff to say in this book (& you can buy by clicking the pic of it to the right if you prefer the print version).

And last but not least I finished the latest from Rob Bell - Jesus Wants to Save Christians. I listened to the sermon series by the same title a while back, but then my friend Brian let me borrow it to read. So I couldn't write in it which is my normal practice, which meant I could only read it when my laptop was handy so I could type up my notes! Awesome awesome book. I hear this guy is going to start writing more and I'm all for that because I could read him every day. Stoked he's coming back to Catalyst again this year too!

And now for what's coming the next several posts here on renown...
I'm going to be posting my thoughts & commentary from a book that's in my top 5 of all time (as you can see to the right). I read it roughly 3 years ago. It's by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, & Lane Jones -> part of the original leadership team at North Point (our planting/sending/father/partner/whateveryouwannacallthem church). It completely jacked me up the 1st time I read it. It caused me to HAVE to leave my former job at another church. I had to be a part of a ministry that implemented the practices in this book. Once I knew this stuff I couldn't operate any other way!
I jokingly call this book our "Bible" at Ridge Church. These practices in the book truly are our guardrails for ministry. They are the practices we follow no matter what!

So, it's not JUST a book. There's a podcast conversation between the 3 authors you can download for free on iTunes & it's a constant conversation with us. So, my commentary will be just that - commentary, not just notes straight from a book.

The book is called 7 Practices of Effective Ministry. I'm taking some Ridge Church leaders through it right now & probably will always be taking leaders through it... over & over. It's an awesome book that YOU should read, but in case you don't have time, I'll be posting my thoughts & commentary & applications.

There are 7 practices, so I'll try to talk about 1 practice in each post. Just to let you in on what's coming, here are the 7 practices:
1) Clarify the Win, 2) Think Steps, Not Programs, 3) Narrow the Focus, 4) Teach Less for More, 5) Listen to Outsiders, 6) Replace Yourself, 7) Work On It

Ahh... I'm all worked up now just typing them! here are a couple other thoughts from Andy to get you thinking...
"These practices have FORCED US to let go of some comfortable yet ineffective approaches to ministry."
And before somebody starts jumping up and down about how the church shouldn't follow a system or model or something about the Holy Spirit... he also writes in the introduction - "these strategies are not nearly as important to your success as being in sync with what God desires to do in your church."

I would love to get some feedback and have some conversations around these next 7 posts about our 7 practices!

HILARIOUS (yet REAL) motions!

I figured we would all need a good laugh on this Saturday, July 4th. You may not think these are funny but I think the WHOLE IDEA of this is HILARIOUS! I laughed out loud!

I stole these from my friend Ryan's blog. I hope he doesn't mind. He posted these about a week ago HERE.
These are REAL motions from the Southern Baptist Convention Conference that I guess was held recently. I promise these aren't made up! Reading this makes me SO THANKFUL that I have nothing to do with the denomination. Satan's probably crazy happy that these motions stole air time away from the denomination being focused on spreading God's fame to the nations!

OK, here we go... [my thoughts are in these brackets]
A couple motions regarding Mark Driscoll [& btw, no links to Driscoll's blog or Mars Hill yet because their server crashed this week & all the websites are down! That's gotta be a nightmare for them! I saw it in Driscoll's Twitter]

-- that "all SBC entities should monitor" funds spent in "activities related to or cooperative efforts with Mark Driscoll and/or the Acts 29 organization" and entity heads should submit a report of expenditures to appear in the 2010 Book of Reports

[*That's VERY interesting because watching the SBC from a distance, all the pastors & seminary students who are part of the SBC and under 30 are firmly in Driscoll's Acts 29 camp 1st & foremost over the SBC! If the SBC makes them choose, I think it's OBVIOUS what their choice will be & this would probably kill the SBC's last hope to become relevant by chasing off their next generation leaders!]

-- that SBC entities avoid "inviting event speakers" who "are known for publicly exhibiting unregenerate behavior ... such as cursing and sexual vulgarity, immorality, or who publicly state their support for the consumption or production of alcohol

[I can't remember where in the Bible I saw the list of "unregenerate behavior" that included "support for cosumpion/production of alcohol" & "cursing". & the cursing & sexual vulgarity they are referring to in regards to Driscoll is LAUGHABLE if you knew exactly what they were referring to.]

-- that author Mark Driscoll's books be removed from LifeWay Christian Bookstores because of his "reputation for abusive and ungodly language and ... promotions of sex toys on his church web site

[WOW. This would be CRAZY for them as he is writing like 6-10 books per year now and I'm sure they are probably selling like HOTCAKES among 20 & 30something southern baptists! They would lose a TON of money simply because they don't like the way the guy talks. & the sex toys on his blog were like promoting a Christian sex toy company! HAHA, pretty G rated!]

A Classic Boycott Motion - remember the Disney Boycott?:

-- that Southern Baptists call "on the Pepsi-Cola Company to remain neutral in the cultural war by refraining from promoting the gay/lesbian lifestyle and agenda" through its advertising and that a boycott be undertaken if the company fails to "halt its current direction

[OK, please don't stop drinking Pepsi, because I've got stock in Pepsi! haha. If you want to boycott something I am SURE there are tons of WORSE organizations you can choose to boycott.]

Here's one about the Christian Flag:

-- that the SBC adopt the "United States Christian Flag ... as our banner flag of encouragement
[freaks me out a little bit. seems like it leads to Dominion Theology.]

One on secular music:

-- that SBC entities avoid "the use of secular music in their promotional materials
[is there any such thing as "secular music"? I don't think so...]

*The ones on Driscoll were defnitely my FAV! I can't WAIT to hear what he has to say... it will be so sarcastic and funny.
**OH, & BTW, when I was at my overprotective & controlling college (even more so than the SBC) and they told me about an author or a certain book I should stay away from... I IMMEDIATELY WENT AND GOT IT FROM THE LIBRARY! I'm guessing that the SBC is going to have this effect on lots of young southern baptists. I'm just sayin'...

Do you have any thoughts or commentary you want to add?

quotes of the week #8

Just like I said... I'm gonna try to post "Quotes of the Week" once a week for at least 6 weeks. We'll see how this goes. Tell me if you like it. You can read the disclaimer & explanation of "Quotes of the Week" HERE. [& my thoughts are in brackets]
There are some stellar quotes, and as always we lead off with the #1 quote of the week...

“There exists in every church something that sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. So we must strive very hard, by the grace of God, to keep the church focused on the mission that Christ originally gave to it.” – C.S. Lewis, c'mon... he needs no intro right? [we talk about this so much at Ridge Church. Just look around at all the jacked churches you see or have been in. They used to be more focused on the Mission! something internally took their focus off mission.]

“Which is more messed up? The fact that we have so much more than everyone else or the fact that we don’t think we’re rich?” – Francis Chan, author & Pastor of Cornerstone... [I think they're equally messed up. We need to even things out a little more. This guy is a pimp when it comes to talking about living like Jesus wants us to in regard to $]

"Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss, masterful author [awesome. I love it from the Doc!]

“If you’re going to make it your goal to please church people you will lose every time. They’re the ones that killed Jesus.” – Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring (@ orange 09) [I've been following him more lately because he has a LOT of good stuff to say.]

“God does not prosper a man’s business so he can move from a Ford to a BMW. God prospers a business so that thousands of unreached peoples can be reached with the gospel. He prospers a business so that 20% of the world’s population can move a step back from the precipice of starvation.” – John Piper, author & pastor [we're blessed to be a blessing! it's hard to get too much of this guy. Gold just rolls off his lips.]

“My goal is to speak the truth in love. There are a lot of people speaking the truth with no love, and there are a lot of people talking about love without much truth.” – Shane Claiborne, ordinary radical & author [he's so right. & he seems to strike a balance on many things people are off on similar to this.]

“The church was birthed out of the mission of God, and not the other way around.” – Mike Erre, author & teaching Pastor @ Rock Harbor [man, this is SO right on. I think that many in the church have got it TOTALLY backwards!]

“Give your mental time to solve problems that you can actually solve. Then draw a line & give the rest of the stuff to God.” – Chris Brown, my pastor, mentor & boss @ Ridge Church [easier said than done for most of us! This is basically a spiritual discipline & I have to work at it! (he drops stuff like this all the time... no telling when he said it.)]

“If you have the power, it can be hard to understand the voice of those who have no power.” – Rob Bell, author & Pastor @ Mars Hill [speaking to us Americans & our probably skewed thinking of the poor in the 2/3 world.]

"Preach like there's one 18 year old kid in the crowd who is giving this one last shot. That will fuel your passion." Andy Stanley, author & pastor @ North Point (@ orange 09) [oh yeah, gold drops from this guy's lips too... just like Piper above.]

"Theological fitness is useless without the affections." – Scott Grace, friend and fellow bro on the journey of pursuing Jesus [from a private email to me, so I hope it’s ok that it makes quotes of the week. I had to because it is SO RIGHT ON & needs to be realized in many avenues of the Church! Scott is an awesome thinker & you should totally read his blog. He's way more articulate & eloquent than me!]

“Your life and my life are, each of them, one-of-a-kind. No one has lived your life or my life before, and no one will ever live them again. Our lives are unique stones in the mosaic of human existence—priceless and irreplaceable.” – Henri J.M. Nouwen, late author & priest [awesome thought from Life of the Beloved]

Hope you were diggin' these.
Which quote is your favorite? What do you think about some of these?

#1 Caddy Memory... so far

You can catch up on this whole "blog party" thing commemorating the moment my Caddy passed from 199k to 200k miles & turning 20 this year HERE. You can read the 1st 9 of the top 10 memories in the Caddy HERE and HERE.

Actually an old guy stopped me yesterday morning at Starbucks and talked to me for 20 minutes about my Caddy. He was lovin' it. Everybody loves the Caddy! (well, senior citizens at Starbucks anyway)

OK, drumroll... I now give you my #1 Memory so far in the 1st 200k miles of the Caddy...

#1 - 12 guys in the Caddy. I feel like you have to know something going into this memory. The college I went to was not normal. It was crazy. not an understatement... I promise. They would kick you out for ANYTHING! I mean ANYTHING. If you were a person like me... a little on the fun side & like to do some spontaneous, crazy stuff just for fun... there's no way you can go through 4 years & not get kicked out at least once. (I only officially got kicked out once, so I did pretty good.) They just didn't like people who had too much fun. This was the most "dignified" and "straight-laced" place I have ever been in my life! So if you got caught by someone in leadership doing something fun that is kind of different... the upholder of dignification would see to it you never did that again. (They might even add what you were doing to the rule book & it could get named after you!)
Now that you know that, I can go on with my story. We were in these things that were sort of like fraternities. They were mainly for intramural sports & stuff. They did some new thing my senior year in the ice rink = they held a broom hockey tournament with all the "fraternity" teams (like 20). It was just an all day thing. Sounded kind of fun on a Saturday, so me and like 11 guys signed up to represent Beta Psi Delta. (haha, crazy memories just writing that.)

[side note alert: speaking of crazy memories & the ice rink - I've gotta at least mention the sweetest game ever played & I am proud to say that I actually invented it! Soccer on Ice baby!!! Our sophomore year we rented the ice rink out and our fraternity played Soccer on Ice ALL NIGHT LONG!!! It was crazy. Just like it sounds -> You throw a soccer ball out on the ice, run out there in your tennis shoes & play soccer. Craziest thing you've ever seen. Nothing like it. it became a tradition the next 2 years too. (they outlawed it after we graduated!) The very 1st year I invented it, 10 minutes into the game I went straight down on my face & bit it HARD on the ice. Fell straight on my 2 front teeth. blood all over. I couldn't feel my mouth or teeth for 3 days. I was back out there in the game after a 5 minute clean up session though! played the rest of the night. AWESOME memories! (Couldn't eat for a long time & my 2 front teeth started turning black and I almost lost them... got a root canal instead & they bleached them back white for me.)]

We had these broom hockey tourney games all day and when we kept winning we would have about an hour off until the next game. Definitely too long to just sit there and watch a bunch of other fools play hockey with these crazy weird sticks. So we would go back to our dorm. Our dorm was the furthest dorm from the ice rink. I'm really bad at judging distances, but maybe 3/4 of a mile? We were feeling too lazy to walk that far after every game in the Florida heat so we all piled into my Caddy after our 1st game. Everyone knew about the Caddy, of course. they were privileged to get to ride in it back to our dorm.
12 guys on the team though. 1 Caddy. It seats 5 people like a regular car.
Not on this day. We put 12 college guys in the Caddy! I'm not making this up. 4 in the front seat. 4 in the back seat. 4 sitting in the trunk with the trunk lid open! (I wanna say my boys Ethan & Scott were definitely 2 of the ones sitting up front with me. I think. & I don't think Jim was because he had been kicked out a week or 2 before. haha, sorry Jim. had to throw that in.) It was crazy driving across campus like this. I know we were idiots but we felt like pimps. It was a lot of fun for real. Just picture it... 12 dudes in an old blue Caddy. haha.

Anyway, we're driving across campus with 12 guys crammed in my car & 4 of them are sitting in the trunk with their legs hanging out the back resting on the bumper and the trunk lid straight up in the air. All the windows are rolled down with guys shouting stuff to pedestrians on the campus streets.
(I also failed to mention that I had been "almost" kicked out 2-3 weeks before this incident... got pulled out of class to the dean's office which is a very bad sign, pulled out of my room after midnight & moved to another dorm and into the "on deck" room to be kicked out. Anyway, I got out of it, but was on THIN ICE. like the ice that's not even really ice... more like a slushy from 7/11.)

So, again, we're cruising across campus with guys hanging out of the back of my car and we start to meet a new white sedan on the street. It looks eerily familiar. As the car gets closer to meeting us it rolls down it's window and a hand reaches out the window and starts flagging us down to stop the car. As we roll up next to this car, all 12 of us passengers realize that this car belongs to the freaking President of our college. Dr. Horton! oh crap. this guy is like 104 years old and never talks. No one has ever talked to him & you only ever saw him on graduation day. & based on the college he was president of, you assume that he doesn't put up with any crap.
[side note alert #2: Actually I had talked to him once. My 1st day ever as a freshman! 4 years before. how ironic that I would talk to him on my 1st & last days, I thought. As a freshman I walked into the Academic building for my 1st class ever at like 9am or something. I went to the 1st elevator I saw because my class was on the 6th floor. President Horton was standing there in the elevator! What are the chances? I said "hi" and got on & pushed the button for 6th floor. He looked at me, knew I was a freshman, smiled and said "son, I think you're on the wrong elevator." I was thinking to myself "Even the president here is trying to play me & haze me because I'm a Freshman by tricking me into getting off this elevator!" I just laughed and hit the "close door" button. He put his hand in the elevator to stop it and said "No seriously, this is the staff elevator. The student elevators are down there. You need to use one of those." Haha, what a story for my 1st day. Before my 1st ever class even.]

He motioned for me to roll my window down & all sorts of stuff was going through my head... like gunning it with my 4.9 liter Caddy engine... or switching seats with the freshman sitting beside me...
I'll never forget what he said = "Do you know you've got people in your trunk?" After he said that I caught a glimpse of his wife (Beka) in the passenger seat (who is very famous with homeschoolers, btw) and she was laughing like she was at a comedy show. When I saw that I had to assume that everything was gonna be cool. The sarcastic jerk in me took over and it took all the self-control I could muster (which wasn't much) to keep from saying = "People in my trunk? Are you serious? Where did they come from?" But I didn't say that. I can't remember what I said actually. He turned to the guys in my trunk and said something like "Why don't you guys just get out and walk where you're going. That would probably be a lot better idea, don't you think?" I heard a lot of "Yes sir"s... He started laughing too by the end of it & I know I cracked a few jokes, but can't remember what.

The ride back to the dorm with the remaining 8 guys in the car was priceless as we all described how our life flashed before our eyes, etc... and everyone was talking at the same time.
I dropped them all off and was parking my car in my spot... Which just happened to be NEXT to President Horton's parking spot. (I think I mentioned HERE how I got the unbelievable hookups on parking spots each year.) He was actually living on campus because his home got wiped out in Hurricane Ivan. The campus house he was living in was connected to the parking lot where I parked and we parked 10 feet from each other. He was getting groceries out of his trunk when he saw me getting out of my caddy. I swear to you I thought this fragile 104 year old man was gonna drop over dead when he tried to close his trunk! He went to grab the trunk and missed. He started swaying. I was fearing for his life. He walked over to me and said "Starting a little taxi service, huh?" I said "Something like that." He went on to explain how much he didn't want to ruin our fun but just didn't want anyone getting hurt. He was totally genuine about it. We actually had a pretty cool conversation in which he told me if he ever needed a ride anywhere, he knew who to call.


So, that's my #1 all time fav memory. I just wrote these on the fly & there's really probably many more that are better than some of these that I'll remember next week. But the point was just to show how much fun can be had in a junky paid for car!

Again, I'm praying that God would let my Caddy go past 300K and I'll have another party for her. A big one that time & you're all invited. And I hope God allows me to give & give & give so much money over the next 100k miles to further His kingdom & fame & to help those in poverty and suffering... instead of wasting that same $ on a dumb car payment.