Wow, very interesting stuff. Check the Christianity Today article here and watch the very good video here (it plays in IE but only audio worked in Firefox for some reason).

NorthWood has been traveling down this different thought pattern for some time, but it is a journey and we are still learning. It started when we pulled together a group of former atheists and others who had come to Christ and seen radical growth in their faith as exhibited by a change in character and a passion to serve outside the walls of NorthWood. We were wanting to write a curriculum. They told us, “It’s not a curriculum, there is an environment or atmosphere at NorthWood that allows such growth.” How do we do it? We call it T-life. It involves an interaction relationship with God, living in transparent connections with one another and making a Glocal impact, but it is not curriculum based but attitude and intentionality based. We don’t have a track or program process to drive it. It is very strange, but it works. I’ll do more postings on this soon. We don’t have it all down, we are travelers on the journey.

This definitely reinforces the bigness of God through technology. It doesn’t seem to be for show. I do catch a sense of awe when I watch of the video of Hillsongs’ opener for their conference.

Hillsong Conference 2007 Opening
Uploaded by ajchz

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2yzze_hillsong-conference-2007-opening_dating

[via www.travispaulding.com specifically here]

We get a ton of “what is GTD?” emails. So for all you too busy or too lazy to read the book (both problems which GTD would help with, btw), here is a great pictorial synopsis of the process. Here is a another more thorough look at it in graphic form. [thanks to Billy Chia. We have these on our walls but couldn't relocate the site where they were housed.]

Here is process 3 of our comprehensive YER. This process allows your top tier of leadership to give you feedback in one on one meetings to help you evaluate this year and construct your goals for next year. Grab the pdf and feel free to hack it to fit your context.

year-end-review-process-3.pdf

Here are the other posts in this series:

Year End Review Your Life and Ministry-Prep

Year End Review Tool: Process 1 Self-Evaluation

Year End Review Tool: Process 2 Team Response and Evaluation

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

I was recently talking to a friend as we headed back from a Dave Crowder concert. We were talking about lyrics and some of the emergent content of songs such as Can You Feel It.

Can you feel it? Can you feel it?
The love in this place can you feel it?
Can you feel it? Can you feel it?
The grace in this place can you feel it?
Life makes it so hard sometimes to know what’s real
When I can’t feel You there
When I can’t feel You there
When I can’t comprehend that
You are there You are there
You’re everywhere

Soon we drifted onto a discussion of the content of songs that ask God to do something in the present tense that He has already done in the past. My friend pointed out that he changed a song with the lyrics in His church from “rain down peace” as a request of God in the present tense to “You’ve rained down peace” since Christ has already done that. We had an interesting discussion. I have been reading through the Psalms a great deal lately. It is interesting that David is so open in his worship. Tannen calls it “ritual lament” but Phillip Yancey calls it “b#%ching” -even stronger language in its connotation. And therein lies my tension.

Surely David knows cognitively that God is present yet he says, “I don’t feel you, are you there? Are you taking a nap while I am wasting away?”(paraphrased of course). So that leaves me very open to songs that express what God has already done as needed as an experience in our daily lives. In the previous example, I know cognitively “You’ve rained down peace” but I don’t feel it so “rain down peace” in my life. We feel and it is part the fullness of our faith.

Yet emotions, while not wrong, are not the prime driver of our faith and growth. So to sing songs asking God to “rain down peace” don’t paint the full picture for those who seek peace. Part of their feeling peace is realizing that He has already done so in Christ, so in that sense “You’ve rained down peace.”

So therein lies my quandary. Sure you can express verbally as a WL before each occurrence that we are asking God to make known to us what He has already done in Christ, but that doesn’t work before every song that is worded that way. What to do? What to do?

How should this affect the way the Church communicates its message of hope?

[via Matt Lewis]

I decided to update the sound my aural orifices receive daily as I work at my desk and jam-out (oh yeah, and for crucial audio editing, too ha!) . I got a pair of M-Audio BX8a’s to replace my former “came with the computer” micro-speakers. Very nice B-stock on ebay for $370.

Then I took the plunge on a new audio device I saw reviewed in Wired. The Creative X-Fi Mod (ebay new). This piece of gear is amazing as it takes my AAC files on itunes (istore purchases at 128kbs, and imported CD’s at 224 or 256kbs). You plug it into your USB and it becomes a defacto sound card on steroids. There is a one feature that makes it all worth while. The crystalizer switch. The crystalizer switch really does appear to create the illusion of restoring audio information lost in the compression to mp3 or AAC files. It puts “life” back into them. The 3-d switch I like on some stuff (Muse, Radiohead, and big symphonic rock) but don’t like on “Ani Difranco on a solo acoustic” type music. The X-fi is very worth the $43.99 for the crystalizer process alone. Sure, it is no longer a flat studio monitor mix, but I can get back to that with a click of the button AND I wasn’t getting the original studio mix anyway because of data compression. I highly recommend the X-Fi. On the BX8a’s, I like the sound at that price point and am hoping a few scattered durability reports I have recently found are false (though the fact the one of the initial speakers wouldn’t power and had to make an exchange up leaves me suspect.)

Help your people pray for the world with this tool, a map that actively reports all the global incidents. [via rocket dave bryant who needs has his own blog]

Here is process 2 of our comprehensive YER. This process involves receiving feedback from every ministry participant and interpreting the information to get you closer to constructing your goals for 2008. Grab the pdf and feel free to hack it to fit your context.

year-end-review-process-2.pdf

Here are the other posts in this series:

Year End Review Your Life and Ministry-Prep

Year End Review Tool: Process 1 Self-Evaluation

Year End Review Tool: Process 3 Captain’s Interview

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

Take the test here. Weird, I see it 50%-50% depending when I look up at my screen. I think I have read a recent article about how the left/right brain has been debunked after researchers studied people with closed head brain injuries. I just cannot remember the exact findings. Still an interesting experiment.

A church marketing campaign gone bad? Hmmm [via www.churchmarketingsucks.com]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/10/06/tn.sexy.pamphlets.wate?iref=videosearch

Maybe the last guy’s comment about affecting the community is spot on. We found it to be true this weekend. Read it here and here.

We recently noted that we are going to post up our comprehensive Year End Review process for you guys to steal and hack. Over the years, we have built a thorough process that gives incredible focus to reviewing the year from a personal and ministerial perspective. This focus will allow you to go into 2008 with clear goals and a laser like approach as to what needs to be accomplished. Here are the instructions for Process 1 of the 6 processes. You’ll need to set aside a full day away from distractions toward the end of November at the latest to complete this exercise.

year-end-review-process-1.pdf

Here are the other posts in this series:

Year End Review Your Life and Ministry-Prep

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

“Receiving Christianity from the West is like drinking from a chalice laced with poison. It’s dying - why copy it?” said the African Pastor…read more from Bob Roberts, our lead pastor, here.