My Burden is Light

Last week, I attended EXPONENTIAL.  This is the largest gathering of church planters (over 4,000!!!) where there are over 100 national speakers and 100+ workshops to inspire and share "best practices" for connecting the church to the community.


In the days ahead, I'll post my notes and thoughts about my experience.  The first one is below...

The first experience I had was to listen to Francis Chan talk about the transitions in his life.  


* Francis Chan talked about the weight and pressure pastors have to "bring it" every day.  He summarized the pressure pastors have in this one sentence: 

"There is never not a time when you have an answer."

That's a lot of pressure to have all the answers all the time!  He freed me up by reminding me that the pressure doesn't come from other people: we put it on ourselves.  To put everything in the right perspective, Chan reminded me to "Be real" and continually pray: "Give me a love for these people."


PS. - I was challenged by the fact that 40% of the earth's population (India and China) laughs at our version of Christianity.


After hearing Chan's struggles and ponderings, I was off to hear Kem Meyer, author of Less Clutter, Less Noise to find out better ways to communicate...

Birmingham AL area recovery efforts

Many people were affected by the destruction from last week's storms. We can do our part and help make a difference in peoples' lives by helping meet basic needs.


Our church will collect the items below and send them to our sister church Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Gardendale, AL


Drop off these items at Trinity Lutheran Church, Columbia TN (google map)


* Hand Sanitizer
* Wet Naps
* Gallon-sized Zip Loc Bags
* Aluminum foil
* Batteries (AA, C, D)
* non-perishable food
* paper products (towels, toilet paper, paper plates)
* plastic silverware
* large cardboard boxes to ship these items.


If you have any questions call 931-388-0790.
Thanks for making a difference!

Church Unique Visual Summary

Will Mancini's team Auxano changes everything about church vision and strategy.  The book "Church Unique", their coaching network "Co:Lab" and the willmancini.com blog are great tools to live out a stunningly unique movement-oriented church.

Our church has a concise, clear and compelling vision statement as well as values, strategy and measures.  All of this was developed in a collaborative way (more than 30 different and unique people spoke into the process in some significant way!).  We discovered our unique God-given imprint for the Columbia, TN community and now we are working on living out our church-unique in a better way!

Mancini just released a Visual Summary of the Church Unique content and process. Check it out: (Part 4 is my fav section)

New Thru 40

What if you could take 40 days and experience God working in you?

Beginning next week on Ash Wednesday, our church is taking a journey to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (the 4 Gospels that talk about Jesus' life and ministry).

Below is a bookmark you can download to track your progress. If you're in the neighborhood, join us on Wednesday nights for a meal at 6pm and meditation at 7pm about different topics about the Bible like "How did we get the Bible?"  "How do I choose the right translation?" "Are there errors in the Bible?"

I pray that this journey will build your appreciation for the Bible!

Click here for the: New Thru 40 Reading Plan

What If You Could Map Out Tweets Around the World?

A World of Tweets creates a map of where people are tweeting.  The more tweets that one region sends, the redder that region becomes.  There's a 3D view, heat map visualization, clouds, satellite view and more.

 

I Can't Find My Phone

Have you ever lost your phone and had someone call it so you could find it?
But what if you didn't have anyone around to call your phone?
Here's a great solution for the times when you lost your phone but you have no one around to call your phone and help get it unburied from the seat cushions...


Check out www.icantfindmyphone.com.

If It Doesn't Fit on a Post-It Note, It Won't Fit In Your Day

What would it look like to streamline your run-on to-do list?

Is it possible to get more done with a shorter list?

Click on this link for a simple activity to make to-do lists easier and more effective:

Post-It List

Here's How a Moleskin and Memory Work Go Together

The link below is a handy resource for memorizing Scripture:

Moleskin and Memorize Philippians

(I was looking for a goal for the new year...looks like I found it!)

Capture and Arrange Thoughts Easily

Stumbled across this great resource!

I write my sermons using Google docs.  I never have to worry about losing my work since it saves everything offline.  But I find it difficult to rearrange and move chunks of thought around.

With WorkFlowy, I can add, delete, expand or collapse my thoughts and outline and rearrange my presentation with ease.

And it automatically saves the work offline.

Check it out...

WorkFlowy

Christmas Mad-Lib

I love Mad Libs! They help pass the time on a long trip and create lots of laughs.

I found this one...try it out!

CHRISTMAS MADLIB

Buzzword Bingo

Without thinking much about it, we say words that sound impressive to people who hear them when we ourselves don't really know the actual meaning to the word.  These words are called "buzzwords".

Common examples of buzzwords are:

* paradigm
* synergy
* non-reciprocity of the two natures of Christ (say that at your next Christmas party).

In the church-world, we say A LOT of buzzwords in order to impress people.

To add humor and laughs to your next meeting, here is a game to play:

BUZZWORD BINGO



If you could create your own bingo card, what buzzwords would you put on it?

What If Your Facebook Was a BOOK?

Check out this video to create your facebook BOOK:

How Do You Get Things Done When There's Too Much To Do?

I often find myself caught in the struggle between completing tasks (ex. answering emails, phones calls, team meetings, etc.) and carving out quality time to think through big creative projects (ex. sermon writing, future planning, problem solving, etc.)

Here is a great article to help wade through the overwhelming amount of work:

Click here

A World of Tweets

Curious about how many tweets are posted and where those tweets are posted? How about in real time?

How about viewing that in a 3D view?

Wow!

Click here to check out 'A World of Tweets'

Why Halloween Is Now the #2 Holiday

Great insights from Seth Godin's post about Halloween.

Halloween is arguably the #2 holiday behind Christmas.

Seth suggests that it is becoming more popular in recent years because Halloween is filling a void; a need that people have.  And companies looking to create happiness and make a profit are rushing in to fulfill that need.

What do you think that void is?

Read more here

My thoughts:

* Halloween is a great excuse to dress up and pretend to be someone else.

* You get to meet a diverse group of people than you would typically see in your normal day.

* You get to meet your neighbors - some that you haven't talked to for a year.

* Who doesn't like getting free candy?  It's not about eating all of it: it's the thrill dumping out the bag at the end of the night and finding the really good candy.  Bits-O-Honey, Mary Jane and an Oatmeal-Creme-Pie (yes you read that right...someone was handing them out!) were at the top of my list!

* Halloween is a great way to see how creative people can get.

Be not Do

I know I fall into the trap thinking that the more activity I do, the more personal growth I will experience.

It doesn't make sense: more activity should equal more personal satisfaction and growth.

But it doesn't work that way.

It's the difference between running on a treadmill and running in a race.

The treadmill takes energy, but leads nowhere.

The race takes focused energy and the ending is rewarding.

The more treadmills we have, the more tireder we get.

Especially in the church world.

Read Will Mancini's excellent post for churches here:

Tyranny of More

Expectations of a Pastor

This is an interesting post about how Christians who view their needs above the Pastor's needs are literally sucking the life out of their Pastor.

Christian Consumers

I think it comes down to what a congregation expects of a Pastor. A congregation needs to be honest and upfront about their expectations of their Pastor. And the Pastor needs to be upfront about his expectations of the church. This is a continual dialogue with hopefully a happy medium and tremendous clarity.

What is on Your To-Do List?

Here is an interesting post about getting things done:

If It Won't Fit On A Post-It, It Won't Fit In Your Day

Tools that Help Tell a Story

One of the most successful stories being told in our culture is the Harry Potter series.

Here is a helpful tool that the author used to help to tell the story:

Storytelling

A more powerful story is Jesus' work in us. When you think about telling THAT story, what would it look like if you drew it out?

Listen to Luther for Free

In honor of Reformation Day coming up on October 31, here is a free audio resource of Martin Luther's writings.

In His Own Words