How much should we incorporate stylization and how much should we  not?

Puritan preaching, though profound in its content, was popular in its style. Thomas Goodwin complained in other preacher of ‘the eminentist farrago of all sorts of flowers of wit that are found in any of the Fathers, poets, histories, similitudes, or whatever has the elegancy of wit in it’. But the Puritans eschewed ‘witty’ and clever preaching, which exalts the preacher rather than the Saviour. Weighty matters demand plain words. In Ryle’s autobiographical words, they ‘crucified their style’, and preached with dignified simplicity.  Source is here.

God has wired us how yet also gives us the ability to crucify some elements (humor, seriousness, etc). Love to hear your thoughts on how much of our personality should make it into our messages and/or worship leading. Thoughts?

For the record, Microsoft is using one of the goofiest ideas ever to try to build buzz about their Windows 7  launch. You host a launch party in your house and become a Windows 7 evangelist. As I watched this, it had the strange undertones of some church evangelism strategies I have seen….creepy. Consider the parallels.

Chris said to invite him and he’ll bring his mac over…ha. [video via --Bobby Vaughn's facebook]

Great article which with I agree. You cannot do church entirely via internet and it meet the incarnational criteria of the New Testament. Great thought. Here.

Had to preach this week and it was a crazy week with me serving as head soccer coach for our sportscamp at NW every night. Also, found out a day later then normal that I was preaching. There was a point of confusion on the preaching plan, messing with my weekly rhythm on weeks I preach not to mention, in my mind (feeble yes), I wasn’t originally slotted for this series so hadn’t really been meditating on it early like normal.

So Tuesday afternoon, I crack open Nehemiah 2 and ask, “God, what can I draw out of here that hits both moms and mayors?” As part of our Bless This City series we had tons of area city officials come in and we prayed for them in our service. With only a minor illustration and no personal stories of illustration, I got up and did the simplest exposition of a text possible. Yet it landed well. God reminded me, “It ain’t (yes God says ain’t) about your cool illustrations or literary twists, but about my Spirit empowering the hearing of the Word.” Nice reminder and, boy, does that reduce the pressure to get caught up in any kind of performance mentality in preaching. Thank You for the reminder. K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple stupid).

A leader is one who can persuade others to embrace and pursue the leader’s God given purpose and take it as their own (ex. rebuilding the city). As Harry Truman expressed, “It is the the leader’s business to get other people to do what they do not want to initially do and get  them to like doing it.” One is only a leader if one is actually followed, just as if one is a teacher only if someone learns something from him; so to be a leader one has to motivate others. But one must balance that with the danger of becoming a dictator. The way to avoid dictatorship, J.I. Packer says, is to have a deep pastoral commitment to the people you lead. Nehemiah consciously shouldered the people’s well-being, even stopping work on building the walls to help the poor among the workers.

We are not to be driven by trends or else we will be all over the page. We are to be led by God. We are also to contextualize the Gospel, changing methodology to a degree (though never changing its core message).  Hey, John Piper is twittering, that says something. Trendwatching bulletin helps you see trends in the culture and ways that the Gospel can break into it.

Lincoln’s was “He preserved the Union and freed the slaves.”

A great article that has me thinking about narrowing my focus until I can do this. via  @jrvassar on twitter

Click here to see if you have bought into the customer base lie instead of community. “More people isn’t necesarrily good or bad unless you are serving bad koolaid, its just more” vs. “everything healthy grows” debate is one that constantly happens in my head if I am completely honest. And you?

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.

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!

Where does your area rank and how can your church reach out during these difficult times with creative ministry (job fairs, message series etc)?

Click here to see the map.

We are called to serve the Kingdom of God with passion. Yet we are called to serve in community. Almost all of us have leaders whom we oversee. Some leaders might be paid, others are not, yet we need them to lead at high levels of effectiveness for the Kingdom. Here is a challenge I gave to my staff to COF.

CAPACITY- produce with excellence at a high rate.

1. Know your yearly goals, have them posted and make sure that is where most of your work is heading. I want to know your goals and how you 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. Know I will come check on you at times, asking what are you working on.  It keeps us all honest. However, if I have to babysit you, you won’t be here long. Also, we all do a time audit (free tool) at least three times per year.

OWN- your ministry responsibilities handling them like would if your whole area were a small business/ministry.

1. Be an initiator. If an event poster is out of date or we need to recruit vocalists, don’t make me be the one coming and saying, “When are we getting the new poster up? What is our recruitment strategy?” Come to me and say, “We have an event poster ending, what is the most important next event?” or “Here is my recruitment strategy; does this work for you?”

2. Be an innovator. If you are over the web area, come to me saying, “Here are the newest trends; we want to attempt this?” Don’t get trapped in maintenance mode, it will kill us. If I am the one coming to you for innovations constantly, we are in trouble.

FINISH-make sure you are hitting deadlines and  have the right polish.

1. Hit deadlines. Never surprise me with a “woops.” If we are going to miss a deadline, I want to know why and by how much so I can  provide you ideas to get us there on time.

2. No sloppiness. Don’t make me ask, “Why was it okay with you that such a poor quality of product happened?” Spend the last 10% of energy to make sure it has the polish that it needs to communicate. We can always disagree over the concept of something initially. Once me make a decision to go in a direction, make sure we are clearing the bar before something gets sung, hung, displayed, or executed. It is usually a lack of effort or fatigue in final stages that makes the concept sloppy or well executed.

If people are missing the marks of COF-ing, you must ask them, “What is your passion?” If it is not in the area they are in, they need to move laterally or move on so someone who will COF with passion as a reflection of the Kingdom of God can step into their role.

A great post on clapping in worship. Good humorous insight!