Archive for the ‘communication’ Category
You can shine like stars in the universe.
"But I'll never get this project completed!"
"Those potholes are so huge – why doesn't someone fill them?"
"I'll never get these books read."
"I don't care for this music…. it's too loud/soft/fast/slow."
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The litany of complaints never ends. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that what you complain about with words but refuse to take action on will never be resolved.
Instead you stew, you vent, you get red-faced. And in the end you look like a clown: your face is discolored, your actions are animated (looks like you're juggling), and you might even shoot steam out of your ears.
Paul once wrote on the subject to the Christians in Philippi, "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing." -Philippians 2:14-16 NIV
I have learned that merely complaining never fixes anything. I used to be a big complainer – to waitstaff, to 800-number customer service reps, to my friends, to family, etc.
I learned that in all those wasted breaths I accomplished nothing – it was as Shakespeare wrote, "sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
Instead of complaining, I choose to make a difference. So where I see injustice – I seek justice. When I am confused I pray for clarity. When I am lost I seek guidance. When I see that something needs to get done – I do it.
Funny thing is – when you become a person of action – you feel healthier because you're doing something about the situation. Others however, get jealous very quickly and say, "What's so special about him?"
The answer is – nothing special. Except for being fed up with being the clown. You can do this – it's easy. Instead of problems focus on solutions.
May you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life!
Linchpin: Seth Godin’s look at art
Seth Godin's Linchpin takes a look at the artist inside of all of us. Nothing short of sparking a revolution in the way we think about our daily lives and work – Godin challenges the reader to become indispensable by engaging our work with passion instead of becoming the dull, monotonous "cogs" in a corporate nightmare.
I'll be completely transparent here: I love Seth Godin's writing/speaking/blog/etc. You may or may not be a fan, but in my view every person who's ever had a dream and not taken the next step (dream to shipping as Godin would say) then you need to run and get this book now. It's a quick read at just under 250 pages and it might just alter your success trajectory for life.
Painting our current grim corporate situation akin to Orwell's dystopian society in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Godin casts a vision for a world where people are paid to do what they are passionate about instead of what they've been trained to do or what they think will generate the most cash for them.
I felt that Godin's perspective was a compromise of Pollan and Levine's Die Broke from several years ago. Pollan and Levine proposed that your job was just a cash-generator, you need not associate yourself or self worth with what you do. Rather jump to the job that pays the most and has the best benefits. Once you've found something better jump, because who you are has little to do with what you do for a living.
Godin, I think, would rather encourage his tribe to jump to something they feel like they are passionate about. He does however make the point that we can find purpose and meaning in our current job – often it is more about our perspective. He strongly encourages the reader to not think of their skills as who they are, because skills can easily be replaced with someone with the same or better skills.
Rather, to become indispensable one must be willing to work within a broken system, not be content with the present, but remain optimistic about the future. Godin tells the reader "we" (meaning all of society) need artists, independent thinkers, and people that realize our primary ability to connect with others is the paramount virtue. Our society has taken the process or system and removed the humanity in an order to provide consistent, cheap, and automated solutions.
In Godin's mind this is the antithesis of progress. The artist creates, gives his gifts away, and goes back to the drawing board to create once again. Sometimes this may be profitable, other times it may be done at a loss, but the end result is art given freely.
Reminds me of another good book by my favorite author, "Freely you have received, freely give."
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Beyond Bulletins, Brochures, and Bake Sales.
Kem Meyer from Granger Community Church in Indiana has written a new book called Less Clutter. Less Noise.
In the book she discusses moving beyond “bulletins, brochures, and bake sales.” I found the following interview with her to be incredibly insightful and humorous at times as we think about how we miscommunicate the most important message in the world so many times.
Take a look at the video and be sure to pre-order the book which comes out later this month! I’ve got three coming my way.
Interview with Kem Meyer from Granger Community Church from Jason Petermann on Vimeo.
$99 will make you 99% more effective…
You’re probably aware of my fascination with Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana. Creative, risky, in love with Jesus – is there anything else?
If you’ve ever had lunch with me I know the phrase “wiredchurches.com” was probably uttered more than you’d have preferred. If we haven’t had lunch – let’s set it up – I love to steal new ideas – I might even give you a few.
I implore you to spend $99 and take a little trip to get inspired beyond belief about what can be done for the Kingdom in the field of clear communication. Complete details are here. In October of 2006 I attended Kem Meyer’s conference when Granger did some regional breakouts and it forever altered how I view communications in the local church.
Everything from our church website (which got a massive overhaul when I got home – okay okay I began at the KCI airport) to bulletins to how I think about long-term message planning was initially birthed at that one-day workshop.
At the time I was pastoring in Texas and caught a Southwest flight to Kansas City because I was so impressed with Granger’s books – the “Simply Strategic” line. So do the same thing – jump on a plane and go. I’d go with you but I’m already booked up in March – argh!
Since then I’ve read many great books that built on those concepts – including just about everything by Seth Godin, which Kem inspired me to read that day as well. You will walk away with strategies, transformation, and inspiration to make your ministry 99% more effective – and that’s probably a really low-ball estimate. So go register already.
To me Kem combines the exuberance of Kate Hudson, tenacity of Katie Couric, and motivation of Larry Winget into a presentation that will command your attention from the first, “Let’s get started” until the cleaning crews are pulling you away from the round table discussion at the close of the day.
I’m not kidding and I’m not a paid endorser. I’ve been to many of these church-growth events, missional conferences, outreach conferences, etc. I’ve heard almost every big name in the evangelical circuit. This is not fluff, this is the real-deal. This isn’t a theology seminar, it’s very pragmatic in approach which most of us theology types need.
What happened following the conference where I pastor:
- Implemented long-range planning for message series, including graphics and mailers
- Bulletin was completely overhauled to reflect less clutter, clearer information
- Response cards were thrown out – redesigned with easier to understand options – noticeable increase in responses each week
- Website was moved to a blogging platform, complete redesign, no more than 3 clicks to access all information, removed many links to useless info – went for minimalism look (I pastor a generational church of 500 members and our website had a little over 3,000 unique hits last year. We rank #1 in google when you search – ‘baptist church oklahoma’ – this didn’t happen before Kem’s ideas were implemented.)
- New church logo, brochures, newspaper ads, etc.
- Implemented a weekly church email newsletter with increasingly simplified subjects – to the point of only one main emphasis per week now with no more than 250 words – because no one reads the rest anyways!
Okay, if I haven’t convinced you by now, you’re not going. So just buy her book when it comes out in March ‘09 – I’ve got mine preordered. I’m guessing it’ll have much of the same information sans the transformational power of a live interaction. But it’s better than nothing! Less Clutter. Less Noise.
About
Clark Frailey is a husband, father, and Lead Pastor of Coffee Creek Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma.
clarkfrailey.com
