Check this out. http://mixonline.com/post/features/audio_sky_falling/ Make sure you have a game plan.

In our A Dangerous Dryness post, we spoke of the need use testimonies to show people’s experiences with God. There might be nothing worse than a poorly executed testimony. (Okay, a paper cut, genocide, etc. maybe a few things). How do you help someone tell the story of God’s activity in their life well? A few tips that we’ve learned.

1. Make no promises. Just tell them you want to capture their story to have in the vault. Don’t say, “We want you to tell your story on Sept. 15,” or you’ve painted yourself into a corner by setting their expectations. If the whole thing isn’t the quality you want, there are several options you have which we’ll explain below.

2. Script. We have learned the hard way. Brent says, “No initial script, no testimony.” One, it shows the person believes in telling their story enough to take the effort to write it out. Two, it gives you a head start on the message of their testimony and allows you to construct questions. I have them write out their story and email it to me. This is a rough exercise for them more than us. It helps them formulate their story and allows us to work with them.

3. Pre-interview. Most people are not writers or story tellers. You need to help them compose their story. We do this by having them come have a very casual conversation with us about their story. We capture audio with an el cheapo portable mp3 recorder that we got at Radio Shack. I have them tell the story then I ask them questions like a journalist would to help fill in the details in our minds as we get ready to produce.

4. Assessment. Some people have a great story but are horribly dry live or on tape. By watching them tell their story, we listen to inflection, etc. to see if this can be a “straight story” or the degree we will need to creatively assist them either to help their testimony take shape or to help their lack of delivery skills.

5. Outlets. We always have a written outlet. Because our church has a blog that frequently posts T-stories, we can post up a testimony that either doesn’t fit the context of our current series, cannot get on the media docket, or just comes across better in written form. We can also youtube T-stories up on the blog.

6. Creative Brainstorming. Brent, Cristian and I sit down with everything we know and ask how we best tell the story. Here are some options (1) live on stage (2) as an interview on stage (3) as a straight into the camera video–this is one of the most difficult to attempt (4) as a just off the camera interview where the interviewer sits under the lens or (5) as a journalist/reporter video where someone else tells the story ala the reporter and the subject gives sound bytes. We then talk through the look and style. How much B roll will we need and what is the content of the B roll?

6. Shooting (video format). If it is a video, make sure you a ready to go at their arrival with all lighting, audio, etc. checked. If time permits, you should scout out on location spots to make sure traffic noise, site lines, and angles are good. Make sure you instruct the subject on what to wear/what looks good on video (we suggest solid shirts with no fine stripes). Book more time with them than you think you’ll need just in case, thus under promising and over delivering. It is nice to tell them, “Wow, we are done early. You did great.” Cristian stresses the importance of good audio. Use good quality wireless mics. Have a camera person who worries about good shots and clean audio. You also need a separate producer who is keeping track of story continuity and testimony content details.

7. Edit well (video format). Hire a great Chilean videographer (but not ours). Sift through mutliples takes of the same scene if you have them and pick the most compelling. Watch news stories and other TV stories to see new trends and techniques they use for telling the story.

8. Screen it (video format). Allow the person who is either leading up to, using, or picking up from the video in the worship service to see it early in the week so they know what they will say and how they will utilize the piece. Also, allow the subject to watch the video to (1) make sure it is accurate and truthful and (2) to get them emotionally ready to see it on the big screen particularly if it is a sensitive topic.

9. Live testimonies. This is all about getting them to relax and be natural. Make sure you instruct them in what to wear. (Ex., If on stools, ladies should wear pants. If you Imag, what looks good on camera and what doesn’t). Have them do a mock run or interview on stage with lights set how they will be and the PA on with them mic’d so they get accustomed to it. If you have multiple services and it is interview format, vary the questions slightly or throw a different question in subsequent services so you don’t spend time in service #2 or 3+ trying to “manufacture a moment” that happened in service #1.

And now for your viewing enjoyment…a couple of mini-clips of testimonies we’ve done.

Here are our top referrers. over the last couple of weeks.

Thanks guys.

We are increasing the final push for our full-time technical/creative director and also our graphics artist position. We have good candidates interviewed but I have a personal rule that I always want 4 or 5 good candidates with 3 being in the excellent range. We need a few more interviews so I don’t break my cardinal rule. If you know someone interested in either full-time position, have them email me a resume’ at jordanfowler [atsign] northwoodchurch {dot} org. (Of course do the necessary replacements.) We can email out a job description as well.

To talk about God objectively with no “subjective experiences” with Him is as dangerous as the reverse. We cannot quantify God without qualitative experiences with Him. I quote John Steinbeck from The Log from the Sea of Cortez.

The Mexican Sierra has “XVII-15-IX” spines on his dorsal fin. These can be easily counted. But if the sierra strikes hard so that our hands are burned, if the fish sounds and nearly escapes and finally comes over the rail, his colors pulsing and his tail beating the air, a whole new relational reality comes into being–an entity which is more of the sum of fisherman and fish. The only way to count the spines of the sierra unaffected by this second relational reality is to to sit in a laboratory, open an evil smelling jar, remove a stiff colorless fish from the formalin solution, count the spines, and write the truth “D.XVII-15-IX.” There you have recorded a reality that cannot be assailed–probably the least important reality concerning either the fish or yourself.

It is good to know what you are doing. The man with the pickled fish has set down one truth and has recorded in his experience many lies. The fish is not that color, that texture, that dead, nor does he smell that way.

So how do you help people not hear about God but experience Him? We learned something in a trip to Jakarta, Indonesia to visit Abba Love Church, who are growing like mad in the largest Muslim nation in the world. Use testimonies. They allow people to tell their story of experiencing God. These are not set a microphone in the middle of the room testimonies, but rather stories that are well thought through, written, and delivered without being “dead read.” To see real life people illustrate the concepts they taught inspires people to think and act as if they can experience God in similar ways. They make more use of testimonies than any church I have seen. Of course, objective truth needs to be the other rail of the train track. But I never want to relive a college experience where I visited a local church where the pastor dryly delivered a sermon on “How shall they hear unless a preacher is sent” from Romans. After the message, he asked if there were any questions to which this very Greek literate congregation asked questions like “is that verb aorist or present tense?” I am betting Paul wrote those verses fighting back tears, yet in that particular church, they were being studied in the laboratory….no tears and no one compelled to reach the lost!

Coming next week. How to Help Someone Compose/Capture a Meaningful Testimony

This is one of the freshest leadership books I have read in a long time by the President of University of South California, consistently voted #1 research University in the United States. Here is a 4 page pdf summary to save you time (though we know you’ll want to buy the book once you read the summary).

The Contrarian Leader executive summary

Let us know what you think and the implications for the worship ministry you serve. What changes will you consider making?

We are on a roll on this. Here are two thoughts for the day….

“Once the facts are clear, the [right] decision jumps out at you.” Peter Drucker”

“What information or fact do you need before you make the wise decision?” Bobb Biehl always asks. I just started a new book:

I will post up chapter “cliff notes” in the coming days so you can see if it is worth your time to read. I am digging it thus far. The premise is that we tend to make decisions because of conventional wisdom that is often wrong rather than basing them on data evidences. If the book is anywhere near their The Knowing-Doing Gap, it will be an awesome read. It will affect me on decisions like when to do promo-mailers, when to slot which sermon series and more. Sometimes we make so many decisions on assumptions, without deeply thinking and even praying over the data. Praying over data? You bet. It couples the wisdom of “shrewd as serpents” with the dependency of “innocent as doves.” God doesn’t always have to speak by giving you a case of holy heartburn. Sometimes, He can quicken our minds to see new things in the numbers that before were previously out of focus. That aha moment that He gives us…

My mouth hit the floor when I saw this video shot in 1994 after the first Gulf War.

Whether you are for or against the Iraq War, you notice a radical shift in Cheney’s philosophy that affected his decision. What happened? Intel happened. The executive office got some intel in the form of data that in hind sight they have admitted wasn’t accurate. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in the moments when those conversations were happening which reshaped perspectives. The lesson? You and I need to make decisions based on good, accurate and full data. Yes, faith is definitely involved in our ministry decisions, but it is a faith based upon an accurate picture of what is happening, not the bliss of ignorance.

For worship, we have found a certain data spreadsheet is vital for us. It gives us true data points to see an accurate picture of what is happening.

Brent is a spreadsheet wizard and this form auto-completes the comparative percentages, per capita data etc. with equations he built into the sheet. Here is why each number is important for us:

1. 1. Total worship attendance-equals rears in seats that doesn’t count our kids ministry attendance. Someone else keeps that data. I keep the data that I can affect (obviously, God affects it all more than me but you get the pic).
2. 2. Service Breakouts-we are in a squeeze until we get into the new facility. I need to see if people are creeping back into the 10:15 so I can do a marketing push to attend the other services which are more open. I can see this in raw number and percentage forms.
3. 3. 06 vs. 07 Differences/Percentage-I can compare our attendance as a raw number and a percentage to the equivalent week year before. Are we growing or in decline?
4. 4. Series and Notes-Allows us to note the series we were in to see if correalates with growth, etc. Notes allows us to enter special attendance effects such as “ice storm,” “disciple now youth weekend,” easter” etc.
5. 5. Total offering and per capita-Shows the total general budget amount given (not OTG campaign or missions offering). It also shows it as a per capita per number of people in seats in worship center (no kids included).
6. 6. Visitors-reveals if our series that are more “seeker” geared are really drawing more visitors. Allows us to check the return on investment of mailers, ads, etc. Also, shows first time visitors as a percentage of attendance.
7. 7. YTD 2007 - I can see how many people have worshiped with us and what the weekly YTD average of people in the worship service is every week.
8. 8. Graphs- there are several graphical representations of the data such as the last three years master attendance plotted on top of one another for comparison and trends.

This data is vital as we plan message series, evaluate when to start additional services, etc. Almost every worship decision we make has this data as at least a backdrop to the process. Brent designed this sheet after I told him what I wanted it to do. He said he’ll be glad to build one for your church for $500 though that rate is negotiable…hahaha! We will build some 1,2 and 3 service generic models soon and put them up for the taking (non-customized). So go and make decisions full of faith. Just have a realistic picture of where things really are.

(Disclaimer: We do not intend this post as either advocating or disapproving of the Iraqi situation. We are using it for illustrative purposes. All you democrats and republicans save the energy. We won’t be approving war comments on this post).

Every now and then you run across a song that truly touches your heart. I truly think I have found my new favorite song. It is a magnificent example of how to use metaphor in songwriting. As you reflect on this song you may want a copy of the lyrics to take it all in

Ever need to have a difficult conversation with someone but dread it? Need to get something out on the table but not knowing how to say it and remain Christlike in the dialogue? Use Bobb Biehl’s leadership star.

“I care enough about you to be fair and honest with you. Here is where you are strong (list them). Here are some things that might be stressing you and are difficult for me (list them). I want to free you up to serve in your strengths by. . .”

The conversation can be this brief or more of a dialogue depending on the circumstance. We use it when someone’s perfomance or character is continually sub-par and we need to address it. Let’s look at it piece by piece:

1. Care. If you haven’t cared for them in the past, you are already sunk because you weren’t Christlike. You’ll have to skip that part of the star, but it makes it more difficult.

2. Fair and honest. If you are a political spin artist or have danced around the truth in the past, they’ll be shocked you are being so straightforward now. Always have complete honesty in previous conversations as a bedrock foundation. For example, if one of our powerpoint guys butchers a service, I don’t tell him/her, “Good job today.” Instead I say, “Make sure we . . . next time.” I don’t want them to hear in the weakness/difficulties section below, “You miss every third cue,” for the first time in the star conversation. They need to be hearing honest critique along the way.

3. Strengths. Sometimes I ask them what they think they are doing well in their role? I tell them the strengths of character and execution that I see them exhibit.

4. Weakness, Stressors and Difficulties. I then say, “Here are some things I sense might be causing you stress and are causing me difficulties.” I could include their lack of promptness, poor execution, character issue, etc. I always point out they are causing me or another team member stress so the person cannot say, “No, that isn’t stressing me out at all.”

5. Free you up to serve in your strengths. Sometimes we can talk about how I could move them laterally. Is there a position that maximizes their strengths and makes their weakness irrelevant? Other times I have to let them go, as painful as that is, because there is no lateral move. Sometimes, it is as simple as saying we will watch a stressor/difficulty together for a while to see if they can resolve it (kind of like a yellowcard in soccer). I give them very clear expectations about what “resolve” means.

The leadership star is a great tool to keep a difficult conversation on task and for you not to soften up what really needs to be said in its fullness. The conversation can be honest and Christlike. We’ll post up some video of examples of using this star in various mocked-up settings soon. If you have questions, ask away in the comments section and we’ll do our best to answer how we do it.

Check out this great blog post by Ben Witherington on Paul on Spirit-Filled Worship. Very good stuff.

Donnie says no in a recent blog. I say yes. Here is my comment reposted here.

I agree that YHWH is God’s proper name (in fact I am preaching a sermon on Exodus 3 this very weekend.) I would agree the name is sacred. I would totally disagree that the name should not be used. The Hebrew command means do not use the name in an empty or vain way (literally the word means /schwa/ like the psuedo pronunciation of our vowels phonetically…the schwa …is it a vowel or isn’t it…would make a good Seinfeld no?). It is not prohibitive of use, it is geared to its means of use (such as its empty usage in an oath when no real weight is given to His name.) If God didn’t want His name used why did He instruct Moses to use it with the Israelite children and its derivative /hayah/ , equalling “I AM.”? Therefore, YHWH may be used in its proper means and I feel it even should be used in the way. How would you like it if I always called you dude and never Donnie? It honors GOD to have His name used properly, given due respect in worship.

As to the G.D. phrase, there is a substitutionary intent of the heart. Most people when they say “God” in that phrase are mentally meaning the Supreme God YHWH (not a god from the Greek Pantheon.) Thus I don’t feel that they can slip by on a verbal technicality. God knows the intent of the heart. They are in effect praying God damn someone or something to hell, a prayer which, in my feeble mind, should never be uttered once one contemplates the horrors of Hell

Last Wednesday night I commissioned Brent to talk about visual leadership and energy in worship to a gathering of all our vocalists. I have seen a radical change in the leadership and worship response amongst our youth that he leads on Wednesday nights and wanted to see it transferred to our adults as well. He did a bang up job. Here is the brief talk he gave and corresponding handout. Some good stuff to think about and pass along to your team.

leading_worship_visually_brent_minter_lq.mp3

leading-worship-visually.doc