Archive for the ‘education’ Category
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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Asking the tough questions
An increasing trend among my fellow pastors on facebook is the collaboration during message preparation. Often I’m the one asking for help with a text or thoughts on an illustration.
This week a friend posted a need for info on the topic of the “uniqueness of Jesus” in the context of faith. I offered my humble and probably insufficient words but as others add to it one has several thoughtful beginning points.
I wonder how many messages could be improved by use of other ideas, research, and viewpoints if we all took time each week to ask the tough questions?
I’ll be honest many times my in-depth study is frustrating as the more I study the more questions I have. Sometimes Sunday creeps up and I’m still mid-struggle and up to my ears in research without a clear victor.
That’s why you’ll hear me offer options and sometimes say, “I don’t know” – because the simple fact is as I approach the interpretive task many times the questions are haunting.
However I don’t see the message as a mountain-top experience – it’s just another step on the journey, another opportunity for us to talk about what it looks like to try to describe the undescribable.
Sometimes in my life I’ve been afraid to ask the tough questions – it seemed easier to just bury my head in the sand and pretend they didn’t exist. I’m sure I could have done much more good by authentically trying to answer those questions – even when the answers might never come.
Clive Staples Lewis once wrote, “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”
Are you ready to ask the tough questions? What if doing so meant “loosing” some things that you’d “bound”?
Friday is for Friends: disciplenowstuff.com
I am a big proponent of Open Source and free resources especially for church resources. When you begin to see the quality of materials being offered today for free or really inexpensive, you can see the potential a movement of resource sharing could have for the Kingdom.
A friend of mine (Michael Bailey) from OBU that is now a youth minister near Ft. Worth, has developed a website called disciplenowstuff.com where he is offering original DNOW materials for youth groups or other groups – some for free and others at an incredible value.
I’ve been out of youth ministry as a primary leader for several years now, but I would highly recommend taking a look at this material if you’re planning a DNOW or other retreat for youth. I know resources like this were always hard to come by and definitely not always user friendly. The guides I looked at help explain how to use the guides and are all well organized.
You can also see the disciplenowstuff.com facebook page here. Michael has put together the beginnings of some great resources and this will definitely be a page and ministry to track as he shares more of his DNOW materials online.
Sunday Morning Pre-Worship: March 29th
This song provides the backdrop for our new series @ FBC in April! Join us this Sunday @ 8:30 am or 10:45 am as we explore what it means to “Live Like You Were Dying”
-pastor clark
$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
