Catalyst 2011: Session 2 - Jim Collins

[This post is a part of a series of notes from Catalyst 2011]

Jim Collins started out his session sharing with us that he was nervous.  He wasn't nervous about the fact that he was speaking in front of 13,000 people.  He was nervous because the content of his talk was in large portion new material.  Jim Collins has a new book entitled Great by Choice, which is what his talk was based on.

The main premise of both his new book and this talk was the question, "Why do some leaders and organizations thrive in times of uncertainty and chaos?"  Jim Collins and his team tried to answer this question by looking at leaders and organizations that did well in difficult times, while others failed.  Through loads of research and data they were able to pull out several principles that seemed to carry throughout the leadership of those who were successful in times of chaos while they lacked in the leaders of failing organizations.

Characteristics of Those Who Are Great by Choice

Level 5 Humility. Being a successful leader is not about having a magnetic personality, but having an unbelievable humility.  This level of humility channeled into a mission or cause is key to all leaders and organizations that continue to thrive in an environment that others often fail.

Fanatic Discipline. The great leaders are fanatic about having disciplines in place.  Jim talked about the concept of a "20 mile march."  Great leaders will have the discipline to push when it's difficult and not do too much when things are going easy.

Empirical Creativity. The great leaders are not great because of innovation.  The best leaders seek creative solutions not by creative inspiration, but by looking at empirical evidence.

Productive Paranoia. Those who show characteristics of this are always asking the question, "What if?"  The paranoid leader works and prepares for situations that seem unlikely because he or she knows that "the only mistakes you learn from are the ones you survive."

There's a lot more than Jim shared throuhgout the session, I felt like I could write down almost every statement he made.  He shared some great action steps for leaders to do; if you want to spend more time listening to this I highly recommend checking out the Catalyst Experience Kit.

Catalyst 2011: Session 1 - Andy Stanley

[This post is a part of a series of notes from Catalyst 2011]

Andy Stanley opened up the Catalyst Conference in typical Andy Stanley fashion with a solid lesson on leadership.  The following are some of the notes that I made from his talk.

"The more successful you are, the less accessible you become."

This reality often will drive us in one of two directions.  Either we will refuse to face this reality and burn out or we will use this success as an excuse to allow ourselves to become more inaccessible then necessary.  The latter is driven by the reailty that "unawareness is bliss."  The truth is that as we invest in relational ministry, it is messy.  It becomes difficult as we really begin to know the needs, hurts, and pains of those we are ministering to.  It is significantly easier emotionally to avoid this reality and be unaware.

In the book of Galatians 6:10, Paul writes, "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."  There are two difficult realities in this verse.  Paul tells us that we do good to all people; everyone.  But he also tells us to do this "as we have opportunity."  Paul tells us to do it for everyone; and do it when we have time.

We concluded the session with 3 Tips for leading well:

1. Go deep rather than wide.

2. Go long-term rather than short-term.

3. Go time, not just money.

As Andy unpacked these tips, he shared an important reality that I have heard him say many times.  "Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone."  In other words, your ministry doesn't need to be fair.  You don't need to refuse certain ministry opportunities because you can't do them for everyone and on the same hand, you don't have to give ministry opportunities to everyone because you did it for someone else.  Do for one what you wish you could offer to everyone else.

Books Every Youth Worker Should Read

[This post is part of the Youth Ministry 101 series]

I love to read and I have learned that an important part of growing in youth ministry is continually looking to others to learn.  Because of that I regularly read through various youth ministry, leadership, and theology books that will challenge me to look at what I am doing and why I am doing it.  If you are looking for some great youth ministry books to read, I thought I would list out my favorites hear for you.

• Purpose Driven Youth Ministry by Doug Fields
• Ministry Mutiny: A Youth Leader Fable by Greg Stier
• Speaking to Teenagers by Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins
• Seven Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Lane Jones, and Reggie Joiner
• Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley and Lane Jones
• Think Orange by Reggie Joiner
• Four Views of Youth Ministry and the Church
• Sticky Faith, Youth Woker Edition by Kara Powell
• Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry by Doug Fields
• Middle School Ministry by Mark Oestreicher and Scott Rubin
• College Ministry 101 by Chuck Bomar

Photo Credit: Adam Franco

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

One of the great visionary leaders of our time died.  His life, his innovation, and his leadership is inspiring.

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new." - Steve Jobs from Stanford Commencement Speech in 2005

Catalyst 2011 Notes

Catalyst is one of the best leadership conferences around and has some incredible speakers from the both the business and Christian spheres.  I am planning on sharing some of the notes that I take throughout the two days we are in Atlanta.  This post will be a table of contents for the notes that I post on the blog.  Feel free to subscribe to this blog or periodically check back to this page if you want to follow my notes for the conference.

Conference Notes

Session 1: Andy Stanley

Session 2: Jim Collins

Session 5: Francis Chan

Session 6: Judah Smith

Session 7: Mark Driscoll 

Session 10: Andy Stanley 

Dealing with Conflict in Ministry

[This post is a part of the Youth Ministry 101 series]

Without a doubt, there will be times in your ministry that you have to deal with some sort of conflict.  The conflict may be within your volunteer staff, personally with another paid staff member, or even with your senior pastor.  The way we respond to conflict in our ministry can be something that is damaging to the health of our student ministry or a great opportunity to model Christ to the other people involved in the conflict.

Thankfully when it comes to conflict, we don't have to rely on our own principles or strategies, but Jesus himself gives us a standard for how we should handle conflict.

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." - Matthew 18:15-17

Deal With the Issue Head On

If there is some type of conflict in your ministry it must be dealt with head on.  If it is somebody who volunteers for you, approach them so you can talk about the issue; the worst thing for the volunteer would be to let the problem build up and eventually come out in the context of conversations with other leaders or students.  If there is conflict between you and another staff person in your ministry, deal with it right away and do so biblically.

Disagree Privately, Support Publicly

In the instances that you have a conflict with your boss how you respond to the disagreement is critical.  It is both critical to your influence in the ministry and to the health of your local congregation.  This could be a disagreement with the senior pastor or another staff person or, if you are a volunteer in the student ministry, with the lead youth worker.  For the health of the ministry the best response is to make your disagreement known to the leader privately.  Discuss the problem and work through it without gossiping about it to anyone who will listen.  And not only bring up your problem, but as you move forward publicly continue to support the leader as we you talk with those you lead.

Photo Credit: sebastien.barre

Teaching Notes: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

This Sunday we continued our middle school ministry's sermon series entitled, "Now Showing."  Now Showing is all about taking films that are not meant to be about Christ and using them to point out and discuss what a life with Christ looks like.  This week our movie for discussion was based on the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs; the main idea being that God doesn't look at what the world looks at.  The following is an overview of the main ideas that we taught for the sermon.

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The Caramel Onion

If I hold up a caramel apple in front of you and show it off, it's likely to look very tasty.  If I also hold up a caramel onion in front of you and show it off, describing it as the same caramel apple, you are probably not going to notice any difference.  A caramel onion on the surface looks exactly like an ordinary caramel apple, but as soon as you bite into you would realize that it is not anything like a caramel apple.  On the surface it may have looked like one thing, but below the surface it was something different entirely.  What we see when we look at the surface is completely different than what is on the inside.  The same thing can be said of people.  Often the way wee see a person on the outside is completely different than the way they are on the inside, which is what God looks at.

Sam Sparks, David, and the Woman at the Well

In Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, one of the main characters is a young woman named Sam Sparks.  Sam throughout the movie puts on an act as she tries to mask herself to seem like an attractive, dumb-blonde weather reporter while in reality Sam is a nerdy, brilliant meteorologist in love with the science of weather.  On the surface Sam Sparks is a dumb-blonde but below the surface she is someone entirely different.

When speaking of David to Samuel, God spoke, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."  When the world looked at David, they saw a young boy not a powerful King.  They saw a shepherd-boy not a pivotal piece in the line of the Messiah.  Based on David's apperances, nobody would have picked David, but God saw something different.  And even when David sinned, being a murdering, adulterer, God saw David with grace as a man after God's own heart.  What the world sees is not the same as what God sees.

The same goes for the woman at the well.  When Jesus encounters the samaritan woman, he doesn't look at her the same way that the rest of the world looks at her.  She has had many husbands.  She is a samaritan.  And she's a woman.  She goes to the well in the middle of the afternoon and encounters Jesus and Jesus looks at her differently.  He's not affected by her race, by her gender, or by her terrible sin.  Despite what others think, Jesus sees her as a child of God.  Despite her sin, Jesus looks at her with grace.

How Does Jesus Look at You?

No matter what your classmates, co-workers, or neighbors think of you, Jesus sees beyond the surface.  No matter what names and thoughts that you have put on yourself, God doesn't look at the things that people look at.  No matter how bad of sin you have in your life, because of the power of Jesus' death and ressurection, God doesn't look at you as the sinner that you are, but sees you with the righteousness of Christ.

You know how Christ looks at you, how do you look at others?

Photo Credit: OctoberDreaming

Don't Be That Guy

[This post is a part of the Youth Ministry 101 series] The longer you are in youth ministry, the more you will begin to see stereotypes of the hip-young-cool-trendy pastor guy.  This video does an awesome job at poking fun at some of those stereotypes.  The simple lesson...don't be that guy.

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Youth Ministry for the Long Haul: Marathon or Sprints?

[This post is part of the Youth Ministry 101 series]

I've never really understood why people like running; some athletes get punished by running and runners choose to do it for fun.  In running there are two basic types of running, either long distance or sprints.  Both of these types of running are very accurate metaphors for youth ministry.  In order to be healthy leaders, we need to learn how to lead with both of these concepts in mind.

Youth Ministry as Marathon

Marathon runners put themselves through torture as they run races that are often over 25 miles long.  There are a few things that marathon runners do to make themselves successful.  They train and they pace themselves. Marathon runners put many hours into building up their running muscle so that when it comes to the actual marathon they want to have the endurance to last the entire race.  They also realize that a marathon is significantly different than a sprint; in order to maintain their energy for the duration of they race, they pace themselves.  As we minister to students, it is critical that we spend time preparing ourselves for the marathon of youth ministry and that we pace ourselves to last.

"Quick departures have a lot to do with inaqdequate preparation and unrealistic expectations.  But like running, setting the proper pace assures long-term results and your ability to finish strong...Youth ministry is a race that requires both training and endurance." - Doug Fields

Youth Ministry as Sprints

Sprinting on the other hand is not about lasting a long time.  A sprinter will, for a short period of time, push themselves to their potential and then shortly later stop, rest, and recover.  While running a marathon is about pacing yourself so that you can continue running for long periods of time, sprinting is about working as hard as possible for a short time and then stepping back to recover.  Sprinting is as much about the running as it is about the recovery.

Youth Ministry is filled with seasons.  After a short time in youth ministry, you will quickly notice that certain times of the year are consistently busier, while others are a great opportunity to recover.  A sprinter cannot be successful if they move from sprint to sprint without resting.  A youth worker also cannot move from season to season continually running without stepping back back.  Both athletes and youth workers are in the business of energy management.

"Sprinters typically look powerful, busting with energy and eager to push themselves to their limits.  The explanation is simple.  No matter the demand they face, the finish line is clearly visible 100 or 200 meters down the track.  We, too, must learn to live our own lives as a series of sprints - fully engaging for periods of time, and then fully disengaging and seeking renewal before jumping back into the fray to face whatever challenges confront us." - The Power of Full Engagement

Photo Credit: mtsofan

5 Features for the iPhone 5

The new iPhone is coming and instead of speculating on all the rumors floating around the web about what will make this iPhone better than previous models, I thought it would be fun to list some unlikely features that I wish the iPhone 5 would have.  And of course, when Tuesday arrives and the announcements are made, I have no doubt that I will be convinced that the new device will be a necessary addition to my iOS collection.

5 Features Apple Should Release with the iPhone 5

1. Teleportation.  Who wouldn't find this handy?

2. Time Travel.  But Apple would have to restrict the ability for us to go back in time and buy apple stock.

3. Transplants.  Just in case another important CEO were in need of tracking down a liver.

4. Patent Fighter.  If someone steals your brilliant ideas, you can sue them.  Or if some troll tries to put you out of business, you can fight.

5. Phone...oh, wait.

Catalyst 2011

The Catalyst Conference is only days away and our team will soon be heading down to Atlanta, Georgia to be soaking in the great sessions.  Last year was my first year getting to experience this conference and I was blown away by the quality of every session I went to.  This year I am expecting more of the same as we listen to Andy Stanley, Jim Collins, Mark Driscoll, Francis Chan, and many other leaders that have greatly influenced me.

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Youth Group vs. Youth Ministry

[This post is part of the Youth Ministry 101 series]

If you are involved in youth ministry for any period of time, you are likely to hear the gathering of teenagers referred to as the youth group.  In literal terms, I suppose the term is accurate; there is a group of youth that have gathered together and grow together.  While the terminology may be accurate in definition, some of the implications that come along with it are opposed to the goal of not only youth minsitry, but the Christian faith.

Youth Groups Exist for the Sake of Themselves

When you hear the term "youth group," what is it saying about those who have gathered?  A youth group is a group of teenagers gathered for the sake of the group.  A youth group is a great place to hang out and stay out of trouble; it's a great alternative to hanging out with other groups of teenagers on a friday night.  A youth group exists for the sake of those inside of the group.  It's a group of friends and leaders that exist for each other's sake.  It may even be a valuable faith growth experience as they study the Bible, but the primary function of the group is not about looking outside of themselves.

Youth Ministry Exists for the Sake of Others

On the other hand when you hear the term "youth ministry," a different word sticks out.  A youth ministry exists for the sake of ministering to teenagers.  This can be ministering to a group of teenagers that have gathered as a part of a weekly program, but it is also in existence for the sake of those who have not yet stepped foot into the church.  A youth ministry shepherds those on the inside, while challenging and empowering them to continually live on mission to those on the outside.  A youth ministry should proudly shepherd the flock that it's been given, but it must also continually seek to look outside of themselves as they minister to all people.

What do you see as some of the dangers of being a "youth group" over a "youth ministry"?

Photo Credit: erinaudreychiu

4 Ways to Use Google Voice In Youth Ministry

Google Voice is an incredible, free tool that Google has created.  One of my favorite features that is built into Google Voice is text messaging; once you have a google voice number set up you can use it for text messaging.  We have utilized this in our youth ministry as a great tool for sending out mass text messages.  Google Voice does not have mass texting as a built in feature, but there are some work arounds that can let you capitalize on this possibility.  As we've been using Google Voice, I've had a few ideas of ways that we can make use of this technology for our student ministry.

4 Ways To Utilize Google Voice:

1. Alerts/Announcements

Do you have announcements or reminders that you want to send out to a large group of students?  Text messaging can be a great way to do that.  Of course, students should have to sign up so you aren't just spamming their phone's inbox, but texting could be a great way to get the word out about an upcoming event or program.

2. Prayer Requests

If you set up Google Voice to work with your e-mail, any text message that is sent to your Google Voice number will also be e-mailed to you.  Share this number with the youth group and let them know that if anyone has prayer requests to text them in and you will be praying for them.  It's an easy way for students to be asking for prayer and for you to potentially share those requests with other people.

3. Bible Reading Campaign

We are currently in the middle of utilizing Google Voice for this.  We had students sign up if they wanted to be reminded daily of a Bible reading that as a ministry we are going to be doing.  Each day around 3:00pm a mass text is sent out to anyone who has signed up and gives them a section of scripture to read and something to think about.

4. A place to save prank calls

Inevitably part of youth ministry is prank calls.  If your kids don't know your actual phone number, you could easily give them this one instead and have their messages saved in the Google Voice database.  Plus if Google Voice is saving it, you're not waking up in the middle of the night to hear it.