foolishnotions.net

since this story seems to be spreading like wildfire…. i am feeling the need to post it first here, in self defense.

ok, i called pastor matthew yesterday but got his voice mail.  it went something like this…

matthew’s voice mail: hi, this is matthew.  leave me a message.

[to leave a voice mail message please press 1, or stay on the line; to leave a callback number please press 3...   beep]

me:  (something to the effect of)  hey, i’m trying to find out what year the vans are so i can call fast signs to get the van wrap templates.   i’m thinking you might know that information.  didn’t know what time you were coming in so i thought i’d give you a buzz.  so, just call me when you get a chance. ok? ok, talk to you later.  i lov…  er, oops - i mean.  i’m SORRY.  er {sigh} i’m sorry. bye.

yes, my brain was quite obviously processing some other information, thinking of something else… talking to someone else.  i’m just glad i had the presence of mind to stop my flapping lips before the eminent last two words … you baby came tumbling out.

so, you see… this puts me just one step closer to the *twitter heard round the world.

ernesto, my husband, i love you madly - - you are the only man for me.  matthew, depending on how many more people you play that recording for and what i read on your blog later, i may still keep you as my chicken brother.  cluck, cluck, cluck….

*explanation of the twitter heard round the world:  i suffer from CTTCS, or chronic textual twitter confusion syndrome.  it is a disease which causes one to errantly send text messages to twitter and vice versa.   i am of the belief that it is merely an inevitability that one day a text to my sweetie will mistakenly be sent it to my tweeties.  this i refer to as, “the twitter heard round the world”.  and now you all know how much i love my honey.  you see, i think about him constantly - even when i’m talking to all of you.  no need to take it personally, i have a.d.d.  -  i can do stuff like that.

shameless plug: to ensure you don’t miss the “t-t-h-r-t-w”… follow my twitter.
and while you’re at it you should subscribe to foolishnotions.net.
and why not… find me on facebook too.

ok, if you haven’t registered to go with us to unleash 2008, march 12-13, now is the time. early bird rate of $75 ends february 11th.

posted below is the conference schedule and list of breakout sessions. there is something for EVERYONE here… small group leaders, children’s workers, worship team, tech team, guest services - this conference is for everyone. we already have 17 people coming…. are you in? if so, call or email lori (602-5300 ext. 106; lori@rockwilmington.com). she has blocked off some rooms at a phenomenal rate and can help you get registered and get you hooked up with a roommate.

if you have a blog please feel free to copy this post verbatim on your site.

Unleash 2008 Schedule
8:00 - 9:00 am Check-In
9:00 - 10:30 am *Main Session #1 – “One Decision Away from Breakthrough”
10:30 -11:00 am Break
11:00 - 12:15 pm Break-out Session #1 (Bold offered only once)
12:15 - 1:45 pm Lunch
1:45 - 3:00 pm Break-out Session #2 (Bold offered only once)
3:00 - 3:30 pm Break
3:30 - 5:00 pm *Main Session #2 – “Facing the Leadership Challenge”

a few days ago carlos whittaker asked on his blog, “what is the most creative thing you have done in your church in the last 12 months”. rather than commandeer his comment section i thought i would go ahead and post it here.

so… last year - by far - our most creative effort was our easter series titled, legacy.

a member of our church, ruffin jarman, built an cross out of railroad ties. honestly, it was SO amazingly beautiful - and HEAVY. in addition, we laid 4 individual railroad ties across the front of the stage for the whole series. no one knew what they were for until week three.

week 1: the seed
the message was about god’s dream for his people to be a seed to the nations and his plan to bring it to pass. abbye sang alpha and omega accapella. it was so powerful.

week 2: the price
pastor ron talked about the price that would have to be paid for god’s dreams for us to be fulfilled through christ. we played video 1 (below). i can’t remember now where we got this video but i really love it. and it fit the service perfectly.

week3: the cross (easter)

we put out hammers and buckets of nails next to the railroad ties at the front of the stage. we gave everyone a piece of black paper and had them write on it a life struggle that they deal with in their life that christ died for. we had everyone come up and nail them to the cross. it was so awesome to hear the sounds of all those hammers. it was one of the most passionate moments i have ever witnessed in a church service.

week 4: the promise

glory academy of fine arts danced shane & shane’s, psalm 145

video 2: one of our church family, jimmy bonds, wrote and performed a slam poetry piece to the this video with images from the previous week. unfortunately, i don’t have a recording of the poetry (sigh). but the music and the images are in video 2 below.

video 3: at the end of the service we showed a video where we had gone and taken all the pieces of paper off the railroad ties, locked and them up in a chest. pastor bryan went down to the ocean and threw them in. it was set to audio adrenaline’s, ocean floor. we included images from our water baptism from a few months before which had taken place at the same location as well as images from the the previous week’s service of people nailing their struggles to the cross. not a dry eye in the place.

inspiration
the inspiration for the ocean floor video came from national community church during their buzz conference in ‘06. and pastor bryan had seen the nailing of the black paper to a cross several years ago at another church (sorry - i can’t remember which one). we were able to take these ideas, build on them and apply them to this awesome series. i am so thankful for churches who make their creative resources available for other churches to build on. it makes it possible for smaller congregations with smaller staffs to make a huge impact. if you are reading this and you are one of these churches, thank you. i look forward to the day when we can do the same.

so, i just read gary lamb’s rant about church planters who want to reach people who are disconnected from god. typically, anything with the term “rant” in the title gets an immediate “mark post as read” click. to me the term “rant” generally indicates that the writer is about to rake some poor unwitting soul over the coals at the mercy of the writer’s superior, no way i can be wrong intellect. but somehow this one alluded my mouse.

the past few weeks and months have been an amazing time at the rock. we have been setting the course, identifying the vision, dreaming the dream. we are on a course to reach out to the unchurched… and it’s all good. but are we really prepared for what god is calling us to do? honestly, i’m not sure i am. i’m not sure if i suddenly had someone dropped into my life bound tightly by the stench of sin; burdened by an horrific past; blinded by an intolerable present; and, hopeless for lack of a future; that i wouldn’t completely freak out, wimp out and run away.

gary is right about me. i grew up in church. i had a not perfect, but all-in-all a great childhood. i have some semblance of an education. i’ve never been beaten, drugged up, addicted or directly exposed to anything so ugly. so, my thought is - where does this leave me? i can’t change these facts about my life experiences. don’t want to. but god has given me compassion for imperfect people. so, again, where does this leave me? should i be discouraged by gary’s post and give up? does my lack of understanding or experience disqualify me from reaching these people? should i just give up and go get a secular job? if i have no hope of being effective should i pursue some other viable dream?

1 corinthians 12:12-26 says that we (christian’s) need each other. at the rock i am in charge of multi-media. i help our leadership with “relevance” (i really, really don’t like this word anymore - it’s so worn … anyway). i know stuff that our small group leaders don’t. 0ur small group leaders have experiences and gifts that our hand up outreach ministry doesn’t. our hand up outreach workers make contributions that our worship team can not. and so on, and so on. we need each other.

my point? the vision is good. it’s from god. and church leaders need all hands on deck to carry it out. no one man can be enough or do enough to bring about the vision god has given him for any church. am i ready for the ugliness? honestly… i don’t know. but i’m not doing this alone here. and, it’s not my vision. it’s god’s. and i / us / them - well, we’re all his too. so, i think today - i’m not disqualified. and, tomorrow - i will go to work.

great post gary… i will be pondering and praying about this for a while. and i think i received it in the manner which you intended.  but might i very humbly suggest a different title?

this week pastor norma came to me needing some promotional materials for an upcoming ladies’ retreat. it was sneaking up on us fast. i asked her to email me the particulars and i would get right on it. about an hour later she walked into my office with these two sketches.

i was so impressed. by taking the time to do this one step she set me up for success, huge.  this is how…

1. she had obviously considered my time.  i could tell she knew and respected the fact that i was very busy.
2. i think if you were to ask pastor norma if she is well versed in design or sketching out concepts she would probably tell you no.  still, she took the time to think about what she wanted and put her best effort into laying it out simply and thoroughly for me.  (this is my favorite quality about pastor norma.  she consistently surprises me by trying things that i know she has little experience with.  she always gives it her best, and she typically excels at these tasks right out of the box.)
3. i didn’t ask her, but i would expect she had some pieces in her office from other ministries that she used as spring board for here idea.  she prepared herself a long time ago for this moment by looking for and saving ideas for use in her area of ministry.
4. by sketching out her thoughts instead of showing me someone else’s finished work she freed me from getting creatively stuck.  it was just specific enough, but not so specific that i had to worry about copying someone else’s work or worse, getting creatively locked in all together.

my intern, lindsey, was coming in that afternoon.  i have her for so little time during the week - it is hard for me to get a project to her that she can actually finish.  by the time she starts, leaves and comes back two days later i’ve had to finish it up for her.  i would imagine this is frustrating for her… it would be to me, for sure.  this project was different, though…

1. i saved the template and all logos into a folder on the network.
2. i wrote down where she could find all the imagery we did not have.
3. i gave her specific instructions about color, fonts and layouts.
4. after she had all the information she could possibly need, she got to work.
5. an hour later she called me to come take a look.  we talked a little about fonts and alignment.  together we tweeked it.  i showed her some photoshop techniques.  but, aside from those minor tweeks, she nailed it…. first time.  we sent her first postcard to print on wednesday.

ok, so i know this was long and detailed but i learned something from this project.  it made me consider all the times i had set my team up for failure by expecting them to just take the ball and run.  i have, so many times, in my desperation for help  just blurted out instructions expecting them to just figure it out as they go and get it done.  what a recipe for mediocrity and frustration - for everyone!  [[yikes]]

what i learned…

• consider my team’s time.  prepare for every project like i have no help at all doing everything short of final execution.  pass it, set it up and let my team score the points.  i have a feeling if i do this often enough they will in time have enough confidence and knowledge to do the same for our future team members… 
• the result?  they are set up for success not only in execution, but for leadership as well.  
• the result of the result?  instead of a team faithful workers, i now have a team of well equipped leaders ready to set up their own teams for success.  

i’m so grateful for the way god tangibly teaches me with life experiences.  i’m grateful for wise and courageous leadership like pastor norma who continually lead and teach even when they aren’t trying.  i’m thankful for my team, who sticks around in spite of my shortcomings, serving along side each other with joy and excellence.  i’m thankful that i’m learning and so excited about where god is taking me.

so, what about you?  what are some ways got has shown you to set your team up for success?