Creativity's Unseen Work

Disclaimer- this post could be seen as tooting my own horn, so apologies ahead of time!

I'm scheduled to teach at Hillcrest on July 7 and am working at trying something new.  As we're going through the Story, the format allows for some creativity to kind of spice things up.  The section of The Story we're going through for this Sunday is some of Jesus' best stuff- feeding of masses, walking on water, sermon on the mount, healing people, casting out demons, bringing people back from dead, etc.  It was difficult to focus on only a couple of stories, so the message on July 7 will be "choose your own adventure" style, where Hillcresters will get to use this amazing little app to actually vote- live- on which stories they want to hear.  They'll vote, and then we'll do that story.  That story will lead them to two more choices, they'll vote again, and we'll do the story they select.

All in all, it requires preparing 14 different stories (or mini messages) with the foreknowledge that at most only 6 different stories (3 during first service and a different 3 during second service) will be presented.  And Tarina- bless her heart- has agreed to join the fun by preparing 4 different songs to close out the service, again the song she sings will be determined by the path the people choose, but also with the foreknowledge that at most only 2 songs will be heard.

In essence, over half of the work being done for July 7th will go unseen and unheard.

Such is the work of expending some creative effort, right?!

Weeds Grow Everywhere

I'm not much of a gardener or landscaping person, but I've noticed that weeds can literally grow anywhere.  In the garden.  In the lawn.  In your landscaping.  And even in your gutters.  Weeds don't seem to need very much of anything to grow.  Doesn't matter if you're in a drought or if you're getting tons of rain- weeds can grow.

For things you actually want to grow though- like flowers and grass- it's not that easy.  You need seed and you need sunlight.  You need moisture- not too much and not too little- and you need to keep threats like weeds and pests away from what it is that you want to grow.  Getting the things you actually want to grow is a lot of hard work.

In my life, I don't need to work too hard to get weeds to grow.  Negative habits, sin, unhealthy choices- those things are like weeds- they need very little to take root and sprout.

But the good things- positive habits, fruits of the spirit, good disciplines- those things take work, effort, time, and attention.

It's no wonder why we often see more weeds and less fruit- it's simply easier.

Remembering Names

I worked at a smaller bank part-time as a teller.  One day the bank president came in, greeted me by name, and asked how things were going.

I was seriously impressed.  The bank's president knew my name even though I had only worked there a few months and part-time at that (later, I found out that the bank president had asked our branch's manager what my name was before our conversation, taking most of my awe out of the situation!  Nonetheless, this guy knew the importance of calling someone by his or her name).

Some of us are good at remembering names and others of us are not.  This post isn't to say one group is better than the other.  What we are all good at though, is feeling good when someone else knows us by name.  And to the extent we can know others by name, we ought to extend them that same feeling.

The Business of Belief

Good little book here that reads almost more as a collection of blog posts or short snippets.  My favorite thoughts:

• Effective leaders know the essential first step to changing people’s behavior is to understand their perspectives and embrace their desires and beliefs.  Everything else flows naturally from there.
• It’s not enough to simply know that we’re on the right path in life.  We must also feel and be affected by it.
• You’ve probably seen someone talking about something they know about.  But have you ever seen someone being what they’re talking about?  There’s a profound difference, one that creates a magnetic attraction.  And that difference is passion- a rare combination of confidence and energy.
• Great leaders influence stealthily and downplay their roles.  They hide the how.  They understand that belief is driven by our senses and by our feeling minds, and that we’re moved by our imagined stories and experiences.  

Why Sports Are Good for Kids

As we wind down the boys' baseball seasons, I really liked what this blog had to say

Facing Criticism

If you've ever faced criticism, here's a good blog

Intended for Somebody Else

Maybe you've done this- you hear a great message at church or hear something great on the radio or the web, and think to yourself, my friend (or spouse, of child, or family member, or boss, etc) so needs to hear this!  You've thought about who else should hear the message before you've even taken a stab at applying it yourself.

I can be guilty of similar thinking in my devotional time.  I'll read some Scripture and think, 'this would make a good blog post' or 'this would make a good sermon'.  In the same way, I've thought about who else needs to hear this before I have even taken a stab at applying it myself.  

Do this too often and soon our friends and family members will be thinking we ought to hear these great sermons or read these great passages!  

One Question

Read this shorter book mostly while riding out the rain this weekend on our church camping trip.  I don't have any takeaways from it, but really liked the premise of the book- the author interviews some of America's leading experts on topics as diverse as parenting, fitness, religion, and business and asks the expert one question.  If you're pressed for reading time, this is a good book as it condenses many current authors and puts some of their best thoughts in one book.

Merchandising

For anyone old enough to remember the 'classic' movie "Space Balls", you get the 'merchandising' reference.

As I placed an order for plastic ice cream scoops with our Hillcrest logo on them, I was reminded of that scene.

There's entire industries devoted to helping you put your logo on everything- pens, mugs, key chains, and yes, even ice cream scoops- under the guise of 'brand management'.

But that's not why we put our logo on an ice cream scoop.  We're doing it as sort of a thank you gift to those who support Hillcrest.  At the end of each quarter, we send out a quarterly contribution statement.  It shows what you've given each quarter and how your current giving benchmarks against your giving through the same period of time the previous year.  And every so often, we like to throw in a 'freebie' with those statements- sort of a fun way to thank our donors.  Last summer we gave those who received the statements free ice cream at B&G Milkyway.  Some statements have included coupons good for free admission to a corn maze or half off the price of the meal served at our business meeting (coincidentally, we had a pretty good turnout for that business meeting!).

So next month, along with the statements, we'll send out the scoops.  Not as a promotional thing, but as a thank you thing.  And hopefully we'll get some weather worthy of using an ice cream scoop!

My Front Yard and Habits

My front yard is a bit of a disaster.  Last summer's drought coupled with my boys' insatiable desire to play football has left the lawn in a rather desperate situation.  When you look at my yard, you can tell the boys' favorites routes are 'post' and 'up and out'!  While mowing what little of my front yard is left, I noticed ant hills had taken over the areas where grass used to be.

Where there once used to be something positive- grass- had been taken over by something negative- ants.

There's lots of truth there when it comes to habits.  For any of us looking to quit/stop doing something, we need to remember the value of having something positive take its place.  Otherwise, we're likely to switch out one poor habit for another.

It's Not About the Nail

Might have to use this video for future pre-martial counseling sessions!

Get Off Your Donkey

Finished reading Reggie McNeal's latest book.  Reggie is one my favorite writers and speakers, and his books were one of the main catalysts for helping Hillcrest strive to be a church that the community would miss if we were no longer a church.  There's some similarities between this recent book and his others, but overall a good read.  Some takeaways:

• What all this means is that a bunch of people on the planet are engaged in kingdom activity- even if they are unaware of it.  It also means that those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus reflect his heart only if we are joining in these religious efforts.
• The willingness of the church to tolerate poverty, hunger, and illiteracy has contributed to the persistence of these conditions.  We don’t have to wait for anybody to fix our country.  We- you and I- should fix it.
• (when serving others) people expect you and me to have some sort of belief system.  They just don’t want us to cram it down their throats.

(Over)Parenting in the Grocery Aisle

Two of my kids and I are at HyVee grabbing groceries for the week.  Easily $100 worth of stuff- it's an important detail- you'll see why soon.

Our cart is full, we're about to check out, and the kids spot a sample station.  Frozen Pizza.  1/4 inch by 1/4 inch sections of pizza.  Each sample- including the hourly wage needed to pay the worker- costs approximately $.05!

My kids beeline for it and grab 3- one for me, one for each of them.  It's literally seconds after they do this and the woman working the stand scoffs at them and says "how many are you going to take?".  Tone is hard to communicate with the written word, but you get my drift.  

Papa bear alert.

I turn my head and say 'excuse me?  There's three of us.  I don't need one, though' so I ask one of my children to put mine back.  

She doesn't say anything, but her body language says it all.  Moments like these are like forks in the road.  I can either 'go there' and have the discussion or decide to leave it alone and walk away.  9 times out of 10 I go with the latter option; this time, however, was the 10th time.

I ask the woman, somewhat sharply, "is there a problem?".  Her answer will soon decide if we do indeed have a problem.

She answers wisely, "no" and so I too non-verbally agree to move on.

From the customer service angle, this is a loss for HyVee.  With $100 in my cart, the several stops our family makes there each week, not to mention the thousands of dollar in business our church does with them (through selling their gift cards), to risk all of that for this woman's opinion on my kids and their taking of $.15 worth of pizza is misguided to say the least.

But from the parenting angle, what I really wanted to say was this: "I've got this.  I am ok with my kids taking a sample.  My children while children are still human beings and fully capable of interacting with you, an adult, at a grocery store.  Their dad- me- is spending lots of money here.  I realize for you the sample is bait, but honestly, the sample is a cost of doing business.  It's no different then the free cookie in the bakery or the Chinese sample my kids got earlier, both stops where they were treated as human beings, and not as leeches or sponges.  Had my kids treated your sample as an all you could eat buffet, rest assured, I would have said something.  But since they didn't, I think you owe them an apology, not the other way around".

Healthy Church Shopping

We needed some fishing line at church and I had just been out to Menards/Wal Mart so didn't want to run out there again.  So I went to Lewis since it is close.  Alas, they did not have fishing line.  So I next went to Ace Hardware.  Truthfully, I rarely go to Ace except for times like this when their diverse product lines and closer location make it easier for me to stop there and rather than heading back out to the aforementioned 'big box' stores.  They had fishing line, I bought some, all was well.

I am sure Ace would love for me to frequent their store more often than I do, but at the same time, when I need something from Ace, there they are, happy to help.  They also don't question me as to why I don't shop there more often.

How come we don't share that opinion in church work?

It's VBS week at Hillcrest and we have over 100 children in attendance- many from our church, but some from other churches.  There can be the temptation in church work to minimize folks who only attend a certain program or event (like VBS or youth ministry) at one church while attending a different church on Sunday.  And I am not advocating for more church shopping, but instead, see some of this activity as similar to my shopping at Ace.  If churches do not have a VBS or if children want to attend our VBS because of their friends or the program the children's staff puts on, that's great!  If we only see them as often as Ace sees me, we're still able to provide a service and quality ministry to them.

If churches can't be all things to all people, then we'll need to see people coming to different churches for different programs as opportunities to partner with one another, not as competition in an already diluted market.

If it's too good to be true . . .

I got this letter in the mail the other day.  It's a good scam:

• my name and address are handwritten
• there's a real stamp on the envelope
• it indicates they've tried to contact me several times (and with people ditching landlines all the time, who wouldn't pause for a moment)
• it's signed by the company's vice-president!

This is a phishing scam meant to get your personal information and raid your accounts, and again proves some cliches are still very true.  

It's Summertime!

With summer vacation in full swing for our kids, we'll be heading to the lake some and also doing some camping- reminds me of this earlier post.

Thanking Invisible People

Each week, Hillcrest publishes the "Soul Provider"- our Sunday bulletin along with a daily devotional guide that goes with the Sunday sermon.  A team of 20 or so volunteers take turns writing the entries for the week.  They do a fantastic job.  The content is meaningful and we hear from folks all the time how much they appreciate the Soul Provider.

And outside of our staff and themselves, no one know who they are.  No one knows who writes the Soul Provider and consequently, who to thank or appreciate for the ministry.

There's invisible people in every organization.  The work of a leader is to make sure to not only know who their invisible people are, but to make them more visible- to recognize and reward them so they know they are not forgotten or taken for granted.

Last week I sent an email to our Soul Provider authors, thanking them for their ministry, passing on some of the encouragement I had heard about their writings, and encouraging them to keep doing what they are doing.

Who are the invisible people in your organization and what can you do make them more visible?

Jon Acuff's Start

Finished reading this book and really enjoyed it.  Some of my favorite takeaways:

• When a parent, a boss, a teacher, a spouse, or a friend tells you what you can’t be, they’re predicting a future they don’t control.  They don’t know what 25 or 35 or 55 looks like for you.
• Luck is a word people who are lazy use to describe people who are hustling.  If you ever taste it in your mouth, spit it out as fast as you can.
• Nobody gets up early on the road to average.  Nobody stays up late on the road to average.  You can sleep in to your heart’s content or watch late-night TV until the infomercials begin to make perfect sense.  Either way, you’re safe on the road to average.
• No one ever survives a plane crash and then says, “really made me want to watch more television.  When your life flashes before your eyes, you start to realize how you’ve been taking shows about cake for granted.”
• The temptation is to spend more time on promoting what you’re doing instead of practicing what you’re doing.  Mastering your skills, putting in the hours to become great, working hard while no one is watching. 
• People don’t like working with jerks.  They don’t listen to jerks.  People don’t do favors for jerks.  Because people don’t want jerks to win.
• Helping other people better their lives is way more fun than obsessing about bettering your own.