We begin this new series of processes we have learned which will allow you to do a stellar life and ministry year end review (YER). If you would like to take part in this thorough process, you need to calendar the following things now:

1. 1. Set aside a day outside the office late November/early December to do the personal assessment exercise sections of the process.
2. 2. Calendar a time to take 30 min or preferably an hour for every member of your ministry team to complete and return the participant evaluation exercise. (We prefer to do this in a group setting, as emailing them out gets you very few returns).
3. 3. Calendar a time to meet with your captains as individuals for their assessment of you and the ministry, and your assessment of them.
4. 4. Set aside an additional half-day for yourself after the individual assessments for mastery points exercise and personal goals tweaking.
5. 5. Calendar a group captain gathering to formalize 08 goals and agendas. I usually do a Friday night dinner at a nice restaurant to say thanks followed by a Saturday morning get together at my house.
6. 6. Find a time to vision cast reviews/goals 08 that are appropriate with all ministry participants.

You’ll need to start calendaring these dates now. In the coming weeks, we’ll provide the resources and tools for each of these segments. There are some cool things we have learned over the years to make this a highly effective process.

Here are the other posts in this series:

Year End Review: Process 1 Self-Evaluation

Year End Review: Process 2 Team Response and Evaluation

Year End Review: Process 3 Captain’s Interview

Year End Review Tool: Process 4 Writing Next Year’s Goals

All of our promotional “stuff” sends out a message that sets attenders’ expectations. They come to have an experience with us and then leave with a taste in their mouth they compare to the expectations they had before the experience. What is that aftertaste? [this concept is via Shawn Wood].

Dallas has one of the nation’s better news markets. There are 4 major local newscasts and a couple of minor players. Here is the run down and the aftertaste:

Channel 5 KXAS NBC: Shocking Openers and Hooks

NBC runs story promos during the night that make you think the world is ending or you will die if you don’t watch. Here are some of the types of leads you could expect during sweeps :

Manicures That Kill (actual story was how getting a pedicure at a spa could cause some infections with statistically might, on a really bad day, actually kill you; one woman who already had severe health issues died).

Quit Exercising and Lose More Weight (actual story was to take a 30 minute break in your set, and you will lose more weight as your heart rate stays elevated)

They create a huge expectation and then leave you with a horrendously bad aftertaste as the content of their story falls miles short of the expectation they set. As a result they have fallen from first place but are trying to regain it with even more shock and awe promos.

Channel 8 WFAA ABC: Dancing on the Fringes of Goofiness or Greatness

They recently moved to the #1 spot. They have some solid reporters and yet, they felt a need to trick out the production for awhile. They would do crazy across the studio pitches where Gloria Campos would read a news story and then pitch to John McCaa standing by a plasma doing another story (not a special feature mind you). It was almost like they were saying, “Hey, watch what we can do. We don’t really know why we are doing it, but we have the capability to do it, so we will.” It took away from the story content. Recently, it appears that they have cut down on this. The did install a big outdoor screen complex called Victory Park outside of the American Airlines Arena where their studios are located. This actually seems like a smart move to broadcast the public square what is happening in the studio and inside people’s living rooms.

Channel 4 Fox News: Everything Else Around Them Makes them Irrelevant

Fox Four’s lead in programs, which are vital for successful newscast ratings, are usually so bad that they suffer (American Idol excluded). Their on air personalities don’t have the degree of name recognition that the other stations have, though they have a strong team. They will never be great until the Fox station sheds it shaky brand of being a hack network that mainly steals other people’s ideas (Skating with the Stars, Joe Millionaire, etc.)

Channel 11 KTVT CBS : Back to the Basics

To have full disclosure, this is my newscast of choice. They usually sit in 3rd place in the ratings. They do the basics behind a desk well with little flash and dash. Karen Borta, Tracy Rowlett and team deliver solid content news, not hype or “lite news.” In a recent independent study, their chief meteorologist, Kristine Kahanek, was the most accurate. Their lead sportscaster, Babe Laufenberg, was a former Cowboy, understands the athlete, and has a great, “I am not all that and a bag of chips” presence that is welcoming. I am betting, over time, this solid, no-frills platform will begin their climb to the pinnacle of the Dallas local news ratings if CBS can support them with solid programming. They under promise and over deliver consistently.

Which one of these is your church? And how?

A friend, Rocket Dave, just sent me this promotional piece from a church about 1 hour away from us…

The Gospel According to U2

There’s cathedrals and alleyways in our music. I think the alleyway is usually on the way to the cathedral, where you can hear your own footsteps and you’re slightly nervous and looking over your shoulder and wondering if there’s somebody following you. And then you get there and you realize there was somebody following you: it’s God. — Bono

Though the four members of U2 comprise a mainstream, secular rock group, they are arguably to most influential Christian musicians in the world. On Saturday, September 29, from 5-7 pm, we will explore the music and theology of one of the world’s biggest band. Themes of social justice, spiritual longing, redemption and grace are a big part of that theology and will be a focus of this program. We will also celebrate the U2charist–Holy Communion using the songs of U2. Bring a friend to this evening of great music, theology, and fellowship!

They are using the U2charist order of service off of wikipedia. Man, I wish I could go to this because the potential “cheese factor” is enormous. Also interesting is the fact that they are promo-ing this as somewhat of a seeker event when both the Bible and the Early Church had very astringent boundaries as to if the lost could partake. Both would say without hesitation, “No way.” Service creator Sarah Dylan Breuer does have a sense of humor. Here is her top ten list of other communion services she rejected. Quite funny.

We intially thought we were going to hire a full time technical director as we get ready to go into our new 2,000 seat room. Now our thoughts are changing. With the money we have available, we are now thinking of getting stronger at individual positions. We were finding that our TD candidates were either very strong in one area and weak in the other two (lights, video and sound) or decent in all three but not great in any one. We have a college student already working for us who is stellar with lighting and a solid second video editor under Cristian. We can then take the remaining money and pay fairly well for a pure audio guy to mix our weekend services, with just a touch of planning and audio patching hours sometime during the course of the week.

Has anyone else gone this route? What have you experienced? Our lead producer of service flow will be done by one of our lead paid staff (Brent, Cristian, or I). Our lighting director will serve as assistant producer. Overall system maintenance and upkeep will be done by Cristian, our Director of Media, and Chris, his college associate. At the end of this year, we’ll know exactly what are needing. None of this is set in stone. Any wisdom is appreciated.

Great post from Shawn, a communicative juggernaut from Seacoast, on keeping it simple. Oh, to be in the burger business.

I have on my plate worship (weekly design and leading 60% of the time), preaching (40-50% of weekends) and communications (graphics, writing, web-oversite and more). We are making some hires this year to shore up some of those areas as we head into our unique worship environment (technical realms and graphic designer) . Mike Reed, our exec pastor, really works to get people working in their 20% sweet spot, 80% of the time. Today, he asked me a profound question (not the first time I’ve heard it from him, btw), “What can you do on this staff that no one else can do?” It is a question we should all ask ourselves. We talked about it, and he told me what he thought I brought to the table. He then asked, “What if one of those areas wise left your plate in actual day to day execution? Which would it be and why? Would that bother you?” He used another analogy, “Maybe it is time you move from quarterback to head coach in a certain area.” Another great thought.

There comes a time in everyone’s ministry where they must narrow their focus or face the harrowing consequences of every area becoming sub-par because of a lack of focus. Also, as I just learned from Kem Meyer at the ministrycom.org conference (yes, I broke my new “no conference rule” but it wasn’t a worship conference, it was a communications conference), that even if you can get the “hard” ministry work done, you cannot at that breadth get the “soft” ministry of relating and communicating well with the people you work alongside. As a 99% beaver, that already doesn’t come naturally to me. Kem really made the point that many communications departments/people are actually poor at communicating individually with others. So for now, Mike and I are talking about how we would cover every facet of ministry in worship and communications we need covered. Maybe my name will change from Aikman (I have illusions of granduer, no?) to Landry or the Tuna (just never Campo, Gailley, or especially Switzer–curse OU, go ‘Horns).

This past weekend Jordan, Cristian, and I went to see Muse. We like their music, but were convinced to go because we heard the production and technical aspects (lighting/video) of their show was phenomenal. We heard correct. Here are some examples of the production genius. I apologize for the low quality… they were taken on my blackberry.

They had around 70-75 moving lights, 3 LED screens, 5 LED stands, and video screens for the skirting of the drum riser. All of these worked together with exacting precision.

While it is not our job to copy this kind of production and put it in the Church, it is our job to ask how we can use technology to lead people in worship. It is also our jobs to make sure that we are looking behind us to see how different generations will encounter God. Your generation might have been awestruck by par cans and gels, but there is already a generation that sees the kind of production shown above as common place.

This isn’t video we took but is from the tour we saw:

This is the pdf sample report of the killer assessment tool from www.ministryinsights.com that I make every worship/communication staff take and every potential hire take. Here I am with all my strengths and faults for the world to see. Jordan F Ministry Insights Results

We found it here: http://www.takethejourney.org/ltg/questions.htm
We converted it to a word doc so you can download it to hack it and/or print it out as well. accountability-questions-by-takethejourneyorg.doc

Hilarious…someone had way too much dubbing time on their hands.

We are looking at our personnel/people map for how to fulfill the functions of our new worship center (complete with 1.5 million of AV equipment…yikes). We are also looking for a killer graphics artists (and I mean killer). Here are some great questions we are using in our interview in addition to more traditional questions:

What is the best boss you have worked for? Why?

What is the worst boss/company? Why?

How would you like working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in regards to pace? (attempting to see pace they like, if they say, “would hate it” and the job requires tons of multi-tasking, watch out).

If I handed you 10 million dollars today and said, “Go do something significant with your life, what would you do?” (See if they would still align themselves somehow with the general field you are hiring them for. This shows if it is their prime passion).

How does a person manage people well? (Not only to see how they like to be managed, but how they would manage others).

Tell me about yourself when you were 9? Were you a people person, reserved? Did you play offense or defense on the playground? (Biehl says you are at the core who you were at age 9. In stress you will revert back to that. Are they an offensive goal setter or defensive problem solver? Does doing “people stuff” come naturally? We have found this is a fantastic question).

In addition, we have learned to utilize the Leading From Your Strengths test available for purchase at www.ministryinsights.com. We make all second round candidates take it. It reveals what combination of Lion (take charge), Otter (people person), Golden Retriever (team player), or Beaver (systems and numbers) they are. You want a receptionist to have high otter skills. I want my admin to be high Golden Retriever and Beaver with very low Lion. I want my tech leaders to have high Beaver as it means they’ll pay attention to detail. The head of that area needs to have some higher Otter to manage people well. This test is remarkable. I have asked every candidate that is married to show the results to their spouse to see how accurate they think it is. We always get a, “Wow, that is amazing!” result. It helps you know who you are getting personality wise very effectively. I’ll post up my results tomorrow so you can see what a profile report looks like (that is the profile of an extremely anal beaver..hahaha)

The tune emerges and now I need some lyrics. Which way to go on this one, the simplicity of Israel Houghton or the complexity of Stuart Townsend? If the lyric is too complex can it be sung? Yet I hate dumbed down worship. What to do? I know, do the anti-hit thing and write the verses very simple and the leave the chorus as complex as the mind dump that it emerged from…the unfinished result.

What I Could Never Do

Running, I was always running
Running (from the) (finish)

Reaching, you were always reaching (or chasing, You were reaching ……..)
Reaching…..(finish)

Chorus:
For as I/(while I) sinned, Your love did reach
into my heart, into this breach
that broke the very heart of God
to give His Son and spare the rod
that I deserved upon my back
O for my sin and for my lack
of righteouness in my own strength
Your Love has done what I could never do

Falling, now I’m always falling
falling deep into the arms that stretched upon a/(the) Tree

Singing, now I’m always singing
Singing of the the love of God that saved a wretch like me

Anyone want co-writer credit and piece of the CCLI royalties? Hahaha. Bring it. I’ll even email you a scratch acoustic and melody track. I wonder if the Church of the future will look at some of the songs we sing today and go, “Wow, what made them sing that?” while we fail to engage the weight of songs like How Deep the Father’s Love for Us. Worship does have a didactic element and our theologians/philosophers today for the average Joe tend to be shiny silver disks (for good or bad). And lest you yourself be challenged to dumb down the lyrics of your compositions in an attempt to make every song an easy sing, let us not forget R.E.M. who made hits by making “anti-hits.”

I am currently have David Allen’s, the Getting Things Done guru, Ready for Anything book. Some great thoughts:

Trying to do it all, have it all, and be it all will exhaust the human mechanism. “More and better” will always stretch out in front of you, as you attain it. To surf on top of the game instead of drowning, infinite “everything you could ever want” must be corralled into doable, physical chunks. Expansive expressiveness requires intelligence and conscious limitations to be sustainable. [Ready for Anything, p.16f]

If not controlled work will flow to the most competent person until they submerge. [adapted from Charles Boyle]

There is always some new idea, ministry, or way of doing things that could be adopted and instituted. It doesn’t mean you should do it. We get one million ideas a week at NorthWood either brought to us or brainstormed among ourselves. Here is how we put the brakes on.

1. The Great Exchange. If we start doing this and were forced to give something up in its place, what would we give up? What would be the cost of us giving that up? You cannot infinitely add as you have a finite time to accomplish. Cristian pointed out the other day that the whole of the worship & communications staff works under the umbrella of my frequent quote, “If we start doing this, then we are going to have to stop doing that….is that something you really want to stop doing or delay?” Many times other’s will realize the cost of starting the new initiative and say, “No way.” In other instances, it is time to stop doing something to start a new initiative. Years ago we started a Saturday night service and in doing so, we stopped a Wednesday Bible Study/Worship time. We should have been accomplishing that through our Teams (small group) ministry anyway, so it was the right thing to do.

2. The Life Frame. To help me say, “No,” which doesn’t come naturally for me, I have a large frame mat that goes around a picture with no picture in it. It is pinned on the wall just above my door. On each leg of the “frame” I have a short phrase written. Mine are (1) family (2) spiritual, mental and physical health (3) bridge northwood (into God’s presence through worship and teaching) (4) global engagement. Inside the frame I have the 3-5 big picture accomplishments in need to make in the current year a success. I also leave the last year’s up, as encouragement that this year’s can be done. This years are: (a) recruit and train enough paid and lay staff to run the new worship center (b) make mynorthwood the primary means of communication for northwood (c) create balanced sermon plan and mailer strategy for 08 (d) engage the arts/music community in Vietnam through cross-pollinating experiences. This year, by far letter “(a)” is the most important.

Here is a shot of last year’s frame:

Recently, I got a phone call to be a guest professor for a semester in a really cool Master’s level worship course. I wanted to do it. When I got the phone call, I simply spun around and looked at the frame and asked, “Will this harm my four boundaries? Will this help me get the big 4 done?” The answer was, “Yes, it would put me in an unhealthy family situation as the night it was on was our sacred date night and there was no way to move it.” It would also make getting “(A)” done a lot harder time wise. So I graciously told them “Thanks, I would love to another semester.” Maybe they will ask and maybe they won’t but it wasn’t worth the exchange and it didn’t fit in this years life frame.

Assignment: Make your own life frame and put your big 3-5 in the middle and post it where you see it often, particularly, near the phone where you get calls to do things.