We're talking about practice?!?

Riley's baseball season ended last night with a team meal at the Pizza Ranch. It was a great season- the kids got better and played well with each game, the coach had the right balance of patience (and knowing that this was a team of 8 year olds) but was also firm with them in teaching the fundamentals (run hard, don't watch the ball, and hit the cutoff), and while we didn't know many of the families at the start of the season, they were great families and it was fun to be with them throughout May and June.

What's interesting is that when the team started practicing in April, Riley was apprehensive about wanting to play baseball. He wasn't getting very many hits and the coach was conducting practice similar to game situations where you only get 6 pitches to make a hit and if you strike out, it counts as an out (side note- this was definitely the most intense season of any sport our kids have been apart of- there's a dad whose job was to keep the book so the kids knew who won and lost). Riley was pretty discouraged and didn't know if he wanted to continue with the whole baseball thing. I think kids and sports is a tricky thing. I am certainly not of the mindset that 'you can be anything you set your mind to' because I believe that God has hardwired us with certain talents, abilities, and passions and wants us to use those to serve him. Try as I might, I was never going to be a professional baseball player. And yet I think 8 is too young to think a certain sport isn't for you. So what did we do? We practiced. Well, first we bought some gear- a new bat, a bag, some balls, etc. There's nothing like some gear to make you feel more apart of the sport! But then we practiced. We practiced throwing, we practiced where to throw the ball, and we practiced hitting using the same real game scenarios of 6 pitches and strikeouts. And over the summer- Riley got better. He ended up only having one game where he didn't reach base and went 3 for 3 on his last game. I was so proud of him- not just for the results, but for seeing that practice makes a difference. As the coach was handing out the trophies last night, he said a little something about each kid and for Riley, he noticed that he had been practicing and was working to get better and that it made a difference.

I'm convinced that practice matters in many areas of life- not just sports. But one area we seem to fail to carry the idea of practice into is our spiritual lives. We get that we have to read to improve at our jobs, but fail to think that we need to read to become closer to Jesus. We get that an 8 year old needs to practice hitting a baseball to get better, but fail to think that we need to serve others to in fact get better at serving others (and also understand what types of serving things we're wired for). We get that kids should practice their instrument to do better at it, but fail to spend time in prayer with God while still wondering why God seems so far away.

New Staff

Hillcrest welcomed several new staff to our office this week:

• Jennifer Simons is our new adminsitrative assitant, and after going months without an administrative assistant, it's awesome having her on board! Jennifer is an excellent addition to the office at Hillcrest.


• Jesse VanderWeide is our worship ministries coordinator. He's been interning within worship ministries the last year and is ready to coordinate the ministry. He's a very talented musician with the heart of a teacher and is such a valuable addition to the team. Jesse blogs here.


• Meriah VanderWeide is our student ministries coordinator. She's grown up in Hillcrest and has been volunteering with student ministries the last couple years. Her fun personality and attention to students and what's going on in their lives will add much to our student ministry and church.

It's so exciting to have each of these folks on the team and dedicated to serving Jesus and the people of Hillcrest.

You've got spam

Last summer Tarina helped her brother move out to Spokane, Washington. They wanted to break up their drive out there so I booked them a hotel in Billings, Montana using Hotwire. I used Hotwire in exactly the way they aadvertised, putting their search engines to work to find me a deep discount on a room not being used in Billings, Montana. The room was great, the price was good, and everyone was happy. Except for me, as now every Wednesday, I receive an email from Hotwire informing me of more great hotel deals in Billings! Every Wednesday! Why Wednesday, I don't know, but each week Hotwire sends me a message to try and get me to renew my previous travel experience in Billings. And each week I get just a bit more upset with the tatic. As if someone in the marketing department actually had the great idea that Brian Stroh would be desperately looking for Billings hotel options on Wednesday evenings since he stayed there one time and that if we just send him a simple and free (it costs Hotwire no money to do this) message, maybe, just maybe he will come back for more! The rationale goes that even if it doesn't work, at least we got our brand out there and it didn't cost us anything. Except that it does.

And it's not just Hotwire. I get daily emails from Christian publishers that we've bought curriculum from, daily emails from a Christian blogger who's more interested in selling stuff than communicating ideas, and even a weekly email from someone in our denomination reminding us to check out their blog (sidenote- if you have to remind me to read you, shouldn't that tell you something?!?). I know you can opt out of these emails after you make purchases online, as I always do, and it doesn't work. I know you can set it up so that these emails go directly to your junk mail, but somehow some miss this filter as if the folks at Outlook and the folks at mass marketing departments are in cahoots with one another to allow me to think I can control my junk email but in fact it's just an illusion!

The truth of my rant is this- if I want something from you, I will find you. If I want your discount hotel service, discount book service, Christian curriculum, or to read your blog, I will find you. I have ways of doing this. I can follow you, I can check in with you regularly, and I can choose to purchase from you again the next time I'm passing through Billings. But you, online company, know that I'm unlikely to return to Billings anytime soon, so stop reminding me you're here, because the more you remind me you're here, the more I want to forget that you're there.

Onward

Just finished Howard Schultz's book Onward. Schultz is the founder of Starbucks, built the coffee company into the American fabric of life, stepped away for awhile, and then returned as the CEO when the company began to falter in 2007 and 2008. I know for some folks Starbucks is akin to WalMart- a too big company that pushes independent and smaller mom and pop coffee shops out of business and off of main street. And perhaps there is some truth to this, but after reading this book, the sketical reader will at the minimum come away with a different take on the company. For instance, they certainly aren't WalMart when it comes to what they offer for benefits, including extending health care plans to part time employees. Their efforts to treat coffee farmers fairly and pay them a living wage is commendable as well.

Those who are leaders or in positions of influence, however, probably have the most to gain from reading this book. You get an inside look at how Schultz and his team brought Starbucks back from the brink (at one time, the stock price hovered around $7 and the team feared a takeover; as of this post it is $35) in terms of vision, personnel moves, strategic partnerships as well as partnerships they passed on, new products they brought to market, some they didn't and some products that they took off of the market.

The part of the book that resonated the most with me was the part where Schultz explains his very controversial decision to not disclose what the company's current 'comps' were compared to previous quarters. For Starbucks and other retailers, your comps are what tell you how well (or how bad) you are doing compared to the same point last year (or any other period in time). Starbucks. As Strabucks underwent its transformation, the comps too a beating. As Schultz writes:

But there was an even more important reason that I chose to eliminate comps from our quarterly reporting. They were a dangerous enemy in the battle to transform the company. We’d had almost 200 straight months of positive comps, unheard of momentum in retail. And as we grew at a faster and faster clip during 2006 and 2007, maintaining that positive comp growth history drove poor business decisions that veered us away from our core (90).

When you're in a turnaround situation- or a situation where you're resetting your mission or fighting for your survival- looking at your comps is tempting, but may alter your decision making processes and lure you into making decisions that you think will raise the comps but not be the right decisions.

Links

Some links to pass on:

• Pastor Doug had a recent article in the Argus Leader here.


• I blogged last summer about some of the different places I got to eat, and my hometown ran a piece on one of my favorites here.


• If you're interested in what's been happening at Hillcrest lately, our Facebook page is a great place to check out.

Shoulda. Woulda. Coulda.

A few weeks ago I took our student minstry on a day trip to Valley Fair Amusement Park in Shakopee, MN. School had just gotten out, we hadn't done a trip in awhile, and the students (and me!) were excited to head out and get their adrenaline pumping with the Power Tower, Wild Thing, and other crazy rides. All in all, 33 people came with us spead across 3 vehicles. Super fun, except for that one unpredictable variable- the weather. Our trip was on a Friday, and by a few days before I knew the weather was going to be a factor. Each day closer to the trip the chance for rain jumped up by 10%. The day of the trip, the chance for rain was 70%. And it was raining (wouldn't that make it 100%?!?). I had already had a backup plan of heading to the Mall of America and a Waterpark and had communicated the plan, but the hope obvioulsy was to do Valley Fair. We drove through rain most of the way to Valley Fair and when we got to Valley Fair, it was raining pretty good. Valley Fair was still open, so it was decision time. Go to Valley Fair or go with Plan B. We went with Plan B and headed to the Mall of America. The students were able to do the rides there as well as play at the Waterpark of America- two fun things! As I go through a rather simple thing like this trip, I'm reminded of a few lessons:

• Have a backup plan- the trip would have been a disaster without a backup plan. The students wouldn't have had their swim gear, we would have lost time with processing what to do, and we would have upset (and righly so) students! Most situations in life require a backup plan, even if you never use it.


• Solicit input- I asked the other leaders with me to get feedback from the students. Most didn't care and some (again, rightly so!) really wanted to go to Valley Fair- even in the rain. While I didn't take a vote, getting input was important.


• Don't count on others to help you out- what I mean is I really hoped that Valley Fair would close because that would have made my decision so much easier! But they didn't, and I had to make a decision.


• Prepare to be second guessed- I am not perfect, and I am certainly not a meterologist, but after making the call to head to the Mall of America, some were disappointed (again, rightly so!). They had wanted to go to Valley Fair. And when the sun peaked out for an hour so in the early afternooon, it looked like I made the wrong call and I was second guessing myself . . . until it started pouring an hour later!


• Move ahead with the decsion- once we made the move to the Mall, it doesn't do any good wonder about what Valley Fair would have been like. Or how much we missed not going to Valley Fair, but rather to be positive with the new plan- in this case, to enjoy the new things that we were going to do (And to their credit, the students and staff did and made it a wonderful day and a memorable trip). That doesn't mean that we don't revisit decisions to learn what we can learn, but sometimes we spend so much time on the shouldas and wouldas and couldas.

Book Report: Evil Plans

Been off the blog for awhile now. Work's been busy and we squeezed out some vacation to Omaha and to the lake. Looking forward to some more frequent posting.

I read Evil Plans awhile ago- a book that came recommended from following Seth Godin's blog. A couple takeaways:

• It seems almost unbelievable now, but our parents and grandparents spent huge amounts of their free, “nonwork” time watching television. Passive, non-interactive media consumption will soon be mostly a thing of the past . . . a historical accident of the old factory-worker age meeting the modern mass-media age. Of course it wouldn’t last forever. We humans as a species were designed to compete, not to sit around on our asses. We’re designed to create, not consume (28).

I have tendencies to just veg in front of the TV as much as anyone else, especially with a sporting event. And now with Newflix, I'm watching more movies. For some reason I always resonate with people who pick on TV as a time sucker and it's amazing how much more I can do if I am not worried about missing what's on TV.

• Human beings need to tell stories. Historically, it’s the quickest way we have for transmitting useful information to other members of our species. Stories are essential survival tools. How does telling your story become a survival tool for other people? (46).

For those looking for a job, how does your story differ from the other applicants?

For a business or nonprofit, how is your story different than someone else's? Your story ought to convince me to spend my money, my charitable donations, my free time with your organization.

For a church, how is our story different then another church (or perhaps more importantly, different then the other options people have to spend their free time). I'm not suggesting that Hillcrest has a different story of the gospel then another church- but rather, what's different about our church that people can resonate with?