Recently began going through Ephesians with my men’s accountatiblity group. Some people ask me how I study for a message and/or read God’s Word for my personal worship times. Several elements are the same. The foundational piece is a breakout of the chapter (especially in non-narrative passages). This allows me to see the main points and reinforcing points. You don’t need to know Greek or Hebrew (though it can help), just outline a more literal translation (ESV or NASB). Use the tab key to push over modifying statements where they start under the phrase they modify.

Using this method:

1. Forces you to slow down and reflect on each phrase of a passage and wrestle with where it sits in relation to other phrases.

2. Shows you the main points of a passage.

3. Allows you to mark purpose/end result statements (arrow). Often these are “so that…” or “in order that.”

The rest of the week I tend to alternate between reading this document and making notes on the page about what God is saying and the regular paragraph layout in my ESV Bible. It is amazing what new things I am able to to see using this method.

A strong analysis of the strength of Bezos’ apology for how Amazon wrongly deleted books off of people’s Kindles. Everyone in leadership will have to apologize from time to time. This gives great insight on how to do it well.

Another great principle was taught to me by a mentor Dave Guion.

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Rom 12:15

If someone is wounded or defensive, don’t make all your counter arguments for how you were right and be highly defensive. They will not be listening to you at that point anyway. A perfect example was modeled by Dave:

We were doing an huge student ministry event in the Alamodome featuring headline artist and communicators. Dave and I were charged with running a portion of the event before the show where youth bands got to play on two side stages before the main part of the event started. Friday night went off almost hitch free and we even image magnified the bands onto the jumbotrons. Saturday morning the second group of bands were supposed to play but the major network video switcher guys had been given the main event start and not the youth band start times. So though the bands played, they were not image magnified onto the giant screens. A student’s dad, perhaps not a Christ follower, approached the leadership of the event irrate who passed it onto us and asked us to meet with him. We had never legally promised to video or image magnify any of this and I knew it and Dave knew it.

When we met the dad in the corridor steam was coming out of his ears and his face reddened as he threatened suit. David lived out the mourn with those who mourn principal. He didn’t say, “Sir, those kids last night got lucky that the camera guys happened to be here and were willing to do pre-roll work. Your kid was fortunate enough to get selected so you should be grateful.” Instead, I watched David say, “_____, there is nothing more that I would have liked than for you to have the experience of watching your son on the large screen. I realize you were looking forward to that and we were looking forward to it, too. We tried our hardest to make it happen up to the very last minute, but unfortunately we couldn’t. I want you to know if somehow they were rolling tape, we will do our best to get you a copy of your son’s performance. I don’t know if they were, but I will do everything in my power to make it happen.” The situation was instantly diffused and the guy was saying, “Listen guys, I am sorry I came on so strong. It’s just that I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time and we had friends and relatives come……I appreciate all that you were doing.”

When we try to not be defensive and mourn with those who mourn, the walls come down. The principle works equally well if something was totally your fault.  A short-lesson that David Guion modelled for me so well that I have never forgotten. In fact, God has given the opportunity to practice it several times in the last few weeks….usually because of something that was my fault…ha!

Little tweak to my email is allowing me much less stress and keeping the inbox flow to zero.

Create three folders and archived topical folders.

1. __crucial action
2. __semi-crucial action
3. __peruse
4. my other series of topical folders (graphics-comm, personal, worship design, sermonater, staff ,event coordination, tech, web, sans “__”etc. ad naseum. I have tons of these).

You’ll need the “__”  on 1-3 to make them sit at the top.

Each email gets quickly assessed and flown into one of the folders based upon its crucial nature .

1. Things that need action in the next 48 hours. (ex. Sr Pastor stuff and Exec Pastor stuff) almost always go into __crucial. Stuff that is important but not vital within the next 48 goes into semi-crucia
2. __Peruse is for things to ponder in moments of stillness. The “check this out” other people send me at times (ex. articles, try this, etc.)
3. If something is “handled” or “FYI” it gets moved for reference into a topical folder. (example emails re: Vietnamese art exhibit that I might to recall at next years exhibit.

Sometimes I send myself a to-do email and throw it into __crucial, __semi-crucial, __peruse, etc.

As this has become my to-do list, it has the side benefit of keepin my inbox at zero. It also keeps the main things the main thing as I work in __crucial the most. I am in email more than any other program and with one click I can see what is most crucial that I be about. Vitalist is still our tool of choice for delegation, but this is easier for my personal to-do. Feel free to ask me questions.

Check out some great stories…baptism-transformation-stories-may-2009

We have an online form by which people can submit a baptism story of transformation.
We then edit and read the story right before they get baptized in one of our quarterly Sunday morning Baptism services. We do it IN a service to model for our members (1) the effect of sharing does lead to people accepting Christ and (2) as a testimony to unbelievers and or believers who have not yet obeyed the command to be baptized.

I just returned from a Quest with Fellowship of the Sword. I have had many spiritual moments in my life but other than salvation, marriage day and birth of my children, nothing has come close to the experience I had there in the mountains of North Carolina. This isn’t some mamby-pampy retreat but an intense 5 day process with 18 other men. WOW. I highly encourage you to go. I am committed to their process and thus cannot tell you what I did because it would ruin it for you. I can tell that I learned to ABIDE!

I recently watched a debate between Driscoll and Chopra on the existence of Satan. My dislike of debates grew by watching this. Debates tend to run on a scorecard system. It is more about tit for tat, stinging zingers, and getting your own fans to say, “Here, here!” than changing someone’s opinion. My guess is that no Driscoll fans who believe in the personal existence of Satan switched to Chopra’s view nor the Chopra’s to Driscolls (which is orthodox and what I hold to by the way).

Dialogue seeks to understand before being understood. It takes more time and energy.

Day one. Put those same two guys in a room and tell them the first day they cannot make any points but only ask questions (and not barbed ones). The questions can be asked so the questioner can gain understanding and hear if the other person is consistent in their belief systems, methodology, etc.

Day two. Each asks more questions as they can begin to ask each other, “Here is where I see you might have a consistency problem or truth problem. How do you deal with that? Am I misconceiving your beliefs or is that an accurate statement of what you think and feel?”  Some of issues will go away when the other party says, “No, that is not what I mean.”

Day three is persuasion day where you show how your viewpoint provides solid answers for some of the questions raised in day one and two. And the listening party can ask you questions back.

Record it if you want, but not with glaring spotlights and an audience as we tend to instantly start posturing and trying to “scoreboard.” Perhaps in this type of dialogue, Chopra wouldn’t have walked out believing in a personal Satan but at least he would 1) have walked out with a fuller understanding of the position, 2)some areas where he needs to work on his worldview and belief systems to draw them to consistency and 3) more respect for Driscoll and vice avers.

An aside…I kept yelling at the computer monitor to Driscoll, “Talk about the FLESH and sin nature. Quit letting Chopra ascribe every act of sin to Satan!” Alas, I didn’t yell loud enough as Mark didn’t hear me.

On facebook one of my young WL’s I have mentored pinged me to say, “Hi.” Quick conversation that followed.

• -YWL: Grab lunch?
• -ME: Nope I have an appointment. But I can with a little more notice. Ha!
• -YWL: Dang you’re always booked for lunch. That’s cool though.
• -ME: How is the new Church going (YWL just started his first Church staff experience)
• -YWL: It’s coming along working with some franklin covey methods and that has really kept me from stressing out as much. Yeah for time management.
  I remebered going through all of that time management stuff with you and now I realize especially in church work why it’s needed.
• -ME: Yep, you must stay only one click or two below red line. Most people hang out no where close to their production capacity and then force themselves into the red zone b/c of a lack of consistent work and think,   “Ohhhh, I don’t like this here. I am shifting back down to third gear.” If they would have been disciplined and worked all along in 4th gear, they would have not had to red line.
• -YWL: Yep and its funny how when you do it right you have all this extra time to be on facebook!
• -ME: You will notice me use those techniques i showed you in about 2 minutes as I gracefully bow out w/o you feeling disenfranchised by me.ha…..

So how do you stay in 4th Gear?

1. Know your yearly goals, have them posted and make sure that is where most of your work is heading. We do a weekly report where we have our goals listed and then show how we are progressing towards them that week with specific actions.

2. Don’t get sucked into La-La Land. If you work on a computer, a funny youtube video is only one click away, and then another, and another.

3. Have accountability for your time. At NorthWood my staff walks in all the time as I do into their office, usually with a brief knock.  It keeps us all honest. Also, we all do a time audit (free tool) at least three times per year

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Announcement Video from Chris Johns on Vimeo

I was in The Village on Sunday following services. Many more people respond to our sign-up areas when we show video announcements. Even more show up when we use B-roll. Chris, our videographer/editor/etc., who also studies film writes:

This is a sample of our announcement videos. It’s amazing how effective simple B-Roll footage is in getting people to respond. It is interesting to see that even though this is not near hollywood quality, the rule of escapism still applies. People see the B-Roll and image themselves in the footage, which in-turn engages their minds, and creates a desire in them to respond.

I preach about half of the time at NorthWood.

Sometimes I’ll use the phrase, “I’m polishing a sermon.” Somebody recently asked me how I do that.
No turtle wax and a cloth here. Actually I have an intense system I put it through after the exegesis of the text and systematic theology construction .

1) I keep praying like mad.

2) Use DeBono’s hats and also syntax of information acquisition to see if a piece needs to be shifted. People don’t treat all information equally. Listener’s take the first piece of information I provide as a cornerstone and then begin attaching the new blocks of information in relation to the original block. Thus, the syntax that the information is provided them is crucial. I really wrestle over this in my messages. Should this part be moved up? How would that change the hearer’s acquisition of information. I use De Bono’s hats as well.

• -Neutrality (white) - considering purely what information is available, what are the facts? (attempt to undo any culture only or tradition only thinking that isn’t inherently Biblical)
• -Feeling (Red) - instinctive gut reaction or statements of emotional feeling (but not any justification) (how long do I need to stay on this point to help them overcome an adverse gut reaction?)
• -Negative Judgment (Black) - logic applied to identifying flaws or barriers, seeking mismatch (what objections will they have to this point?)
• -Positive Judgment (Yellow) - logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking harmony (reveal how the point fits systematically into the Bible as a whole?)
• -Creative thinking (Green) - statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a thought goes (but being careful not to become overly speculative or make mere logical inferences)
• Process control (Blue) - thinking about thinking

3) My five faces system. I have five-seven faces of divergent people in NorthWood and ask is this going to foster an immediate obedience response in them (single mom, corporate dude, new believer etc. I have real peoples names and faces in my head). I ask, do they have a clear response they can make in this message.

4) I mental mind map so I don’t have to be so note bound.

5) Finally I turn my manuscript into stage notes and use what Brent deems my crazy color coding system. See a sample page: sample-color-sermon-page

To hear a sample sermon visit,

Sometimes I write songs that flop. Sometimes they land. Here is what I am discovering.

A landing song:

1. The music comes first and comes in a wave that only leaves a little bit to be written.
2. Then 80-90% of lyric comes to me in 10 minutes or less. The last 10% is struggle.
3. The timing is usually spontaneous and at an inopportune time as I plunk on the keys or stand in the shower right before work or as my wife is saying, “We need to leave.”
4. The crummier medium it is crafted on, handwritten, the less static it is and the more I will massage it for improvement. Typing it out too early is its deathblow…haha

Here is a song I wrote this morning that still needs some massage work.

I never claim “God gave me a song,” as to me that sounds quite arrogant. He gave me the gifting and talent behind the song, but I have never written a song as heavenly as I imagine one directly given to me would be.

Stacking can transform a Sunday only series into a transformative process and increase the stickiness of people entering your doors. Carol Davis taught us the concept years ago. Here is an example. We are doing a series called The Marriage Portrait which we decide isn’t a how to series but a deeper why did God create marriage series. Here is our stacking for that series.

1. Create a viral micro-site www.themarriageportrait.com

2. Design “killah” sermons.

3. On the site, offer a free Couple Checkup test put out by Marriage Enrich folks to bless the community even if they never enter our doors. People on the streets are telling one another about this.  (We budgeted money for this, you can take it free btw, my treat).

4. Do newspaper and mailer featuring series, free test, and events.

5. Have a Checkup Gathering Night for people who a-won’t come to a service  or b-go to another Church (who have concerns about results–we will NOT recruit them in any way) to help them interpret test and reveal upcoming helps (see below).

6. Host a free Fireproof movie night to encourage them to invite friends to. (I know it won’t win an Oscar but it does have a strong message, we already have over 800 people take free tickets).

7. Drive to The Marriage Portrait Conference which features not only cognitive lessons but gives couples time for prayer and action plans. Our communicator for it is awesome.

8. Launch Teams (small groups) for people who are not in a Team with their initial session built around a curriculum such as the Sacred Marriage book.  This is the CRUCIAL piece. We have found that if people are open to coming to some of the events many will trust us and make the leap into community. The Christ-centered relationships formed in Teams is where the stickiness resides. We champion these at every service and gathering.

We don’t stack this heavily on every series. We usually do in January, September and Easter. This keeps our series from becoming merely “seeker series” of simple how-to’s. We can move people into a discipleship enviroment quickly. It requires much planning ahead.

How can you stack in your next series?

You have heard of Jesus CEO and Jesus for President books. Well here is one from the other side of the aisle featuring a humorous list from the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Is you ministry a CPU allowing only one person at a time to use their God given talents? Or, is it a GPU, mobilizing the maximum number of people through “parallel processing” at any moment for the Kingdom’s sake?

If you are a CPU, overhaul to become GPU. Things will get much more dangerous AND fun.

[video idea via Rocket Dave]