the green room:

the advent conspiracy

The junior high ministry at mars hill, the.element, is doing this during the month of December. our staff is fired up about it...each LifeGroup will have the chance to choose a specific person, family or cause to bring some hope to together. we will be inviting our students to talk openly with their parents about their christmas budgets and see if they instead of having a number of gifts given to them can set aside some of that christmas budget to bring hope to someone else. i remember Don Golden telling me once, "you show me your view on money and sexuality and i'm pretty sure i can tell you where your faith lies." it will be a fascinating experiment.

How to destroy a teacher...

I read this quote recently on a plane, "better to save a person with a healthy critique than destroy one with a false compliment." who do you have in your life who can evaluate you in a healthy manner?

Over the past five years, there have been a few people who have done this for me. What I love about them is that they can clearly articulate what they loved and struggled with in regards to a teaching. They fundamentally believe in me and want my gift to be a compelling force for good in the world.

Last weekend, one of these people were with me at a conference in Springfield, IL. After one of the teachings he came up and affirmed not only what I shared; but how I said it. I usually let these kinds of things just float by; but this is the same person who has many times before told me honestly when I had missed it. Because he can articulate a healthy critique with great clarity, when he shares a true compliment it really sinks in...

These kind of people are rare. They are essential if you want to maximize your gift. What they share is not always easy to hear; but if you can listen to it and strive to make the necessary adjustments your art will be much more powerful.

If you don't have these kind of people in your life please go and find them. I have approached a couple of people who I respect and given them the invitation to observe and critique my messages. When looking for people keep these things in mind:

1) they must know you - not know you exist; but actually know you. Know your mannerisms, struggles, insecurities and heart. This is crucial if you want to get healthy feedback. Two years ago, a mentor of mine pulled me aside and said, "why do you teach on your tip toes?" I had never realized I did that and he offered some insights about why he thought I might be doing that. He was spot on...

2) they must believe in your art - this is crucial. You need people who can see the potential in you and want to do what they can to see that potential realized.

3) they must be able to clearly articulate their critiques - many people are too nice for this. You need those people in your life too; but find people who you have seen in a difficult setting express well their frustrations and feelings.

4) the majority of them should have a basic understanding of what goes into preparing and delivering a message - I think this will only help you trust what they say more.

5) be diverse in who you choose - comedians, artists, worship pastors, teachers, creative directors, professors, moms, business people, mentors, key leaders, key staff members, interns and students to name a few.

The whole kingdom wins when we take ownership of our gift. Look around you and find those people who will not only save your gift but also help you develop it in a much deeper, weightier and holistic manner.

direct mailings...

Ball State University center for media design recently surprised marketing agencies looking to reach teens ages 15-17. They found that teens actually prefer to get marketing messages via direct mail. -

58% of teens surveyed have been influenced by direct mail to make a purchase.

-42% of teens surveyed have been influenced by email to make a purchase.

-13% of teens surveyed were influenced by text messaging to make a purchased.

I'm a little shocked that direct mail still has that kind of power to influence almost 3/5 of the teens surveyed. I wonder if this is the last generation to be greatly influenced by direct mail? Do your students connect or ever comment on your ministry or business' direct mailing? Why? What kibds of things do they say? Are your mailings more geared for the parents or students? In your opinion, what makes a great mailing? I'd love to hear...

Thank you.

This past Sunday, I stood before the mars hill community and shared a decision that Sarah and I have made to move back to southern california. I was given an amazing opportunity to join the teaching team at rock harbor and will get the privilege to work alongside Mike Erre in preparing weekend messages. Even though this is an exciting opportunity; this quite possibly was the most difficult decision we have ever had to make. So I shared this decision and expressed my deep and sincere gratitude to mars hill. In many ways I have grown up in their midst. Everytime I speak at mars now, someone will come up to me and say something like, "I remember when you were 21 and gave your first sermon here...man, you have gotten a lot better!" Because of this, Sarah and I don't feel like we are leaving mars; but that this community has prepared us and is now sending us out to (like rob said a few years back) "change the world one west Michigan at a time." transition is never easy especially leaving a group of people you love, respect and adore; but I know this is the next best right step for Sarah and I. I also know that in many ways... I am who I am today because of mars hill.

healthy people.

someone i respect shared yesterday real quickly about their definition of a healthy person...

1) healthy people believe they are profoundly significant.

2) healthy people are self aware and authentic.

3) healthy people have the capacity for empathy and love.

which one best represents you? which one is hardest to achieve?

for many, i would imagine that believing you are profoundly significant is very uncomfortable. but we are profoundly significant. we each resemble a unique piece of God that the world desperately needs to see and experience. one of the things i've been trying to live by lately is, "act as if it all counted on you; but know full well you can't do it all."  i met Immanuel in Rwanda a few years back, he worked with world relief as a volunteer coordinator. he shepherded a number of key volunteers who went out into the squatter camps to meet with, serve, help, pray and bury those who were affected with aids. i asked him how he would encourage his volunteers and he said, "everything they do matters. it matters. so i tell them to do what they can, with what they have and trust that God will take care of the rest."

i think we often put more on God than he would like. this seems to go against how he wired and formed us as his image bearers. i love that verse in 2nd Peter 3:11, "you ought to live holy lives and you look forward to the day of the Lord and speed it's coming." speed it up? for so long, i didn't know i had a say in this. i thought i was waiting. just waiting. healthy people want to speed this up; not slow it down. i often will ask myself if this choice (gossip, certain purchase, escaping the pain, or sarcasm to name a few) would be one that will speed things up or slow things down? doing this helps me act as if it all counted on me, to own what i can do with what God has uniquely entrusted to me...

Mistake...

how does the culture you work in handle an employees mistakes? often you hear people talk about learning from their failures or how a mistake propelled them to make the necessary change so they didn't miss the target again. this all feels pretty individualistic and many years removed from real time.

what if each time you made a mistake, everyone on your team was privy to know and learn?  what if at your weekly team meetings you could spend five minutes and talk openly about your mistakes or failures?  what could this do for those leaders underneath you?  one of the things that frustrates me most is when i watch a leader make a mistake and choose to be selfish by holding that in only to watch a young emerging leader follow suit a couple weeks later.  when this happens an unhealthy culture is born.

if you have a chance, why not try this week to spend 15 minutes minutes asking your team to highlight the biggest success and biggest mistake made so far in the fall semester.  i'd love to hear how it goes.  

Dave Livermore

This past Sunday something happened. One of our elders, Dave Livermore who just happened to have flown in from china the night before took the stage Sunday morning and gave one of those special messages. The kind that truly felt like a gift to our community. If you get a chance, please check it out at www.marshill.org and let me know what you think.

Rhythms not balance

a lot of people talk about trying to find balance in life. for a season, my wife and I pursued this as well to only find this to be nearly impossible. i still remember us sitting at our dinner table struggling to figure out how to live a balanced life all the while neglecting the natural rhythms of student ministry, weather in michigan, and the culture of mars hill.

it finally dawned on us that we love the summers here in west Michigan; but struggle with the winters. mars hill students is pretty low key in the summers while in gears up for a huge kick off in the fall. september through the middle of october seem packed and then it feels calm until the beginning of december. this calm season allows me the opportunity to teach outside of the mars community, spend a weekend away with Sarah, or spend 6 straight evenings raking leaves in my yard.

december through march feels a little crazy because of winter retreats. my wife and i try to schedule our vacations during this time so that we can get out of the snow. weekends can feel a little hectic with junior high allnighters and outside retreats but we enjoy the pace when we also have the appropriate time set aside for our family.

march through june feels hectic at mars with the school year and fiscal year coming to an end. this is also the time we have our student staff retreat and get everything finalized for our summers.

all this to say, it is nearly impossible to find balance in student ministry during the busy seasons. so be smart and look ahead with your spouse at what are the true rhythms of the ministry you serve in or lead. look for the pockets that seem to overwhelming, the spaces that are crying out for either a night away by yourself or with your bride. in doing this, you will save yourself a lot of headaches and heartaches because your family will know what to expect.

kids + students + college

ok, so let me first off say i'm sorry.  i have grand hopes to be one of those people who blog everyday; but lately my life has been running from one meeting to the next.  all of this is due in part to my role shifting in June, when the leadership of mars hill asked me to join there executive team, oversee both kids + students, begin working to create a college ministry and continue teaching at the.element (our junior ministry at mars hill).  

On paper this feels like a lot; but deep down i feel good about all of this because when this transition happened, i quickly promoted Annie Oosting to be our kids pastor and Josh Bishop to be our student pastor.  these two are both young emerging leaders with so much to offer the church.  it has been a blast getting to delegate the weight of these ministries to them...

funds for the college ministry was just approved two weeks ago and my in-box is just flooded with people who have thoughts, dreams, and concerns about this.  i have so many thoughts on this, many i'll share here in the coming months; but right now the students team and i are just thrilled.

the junior high kicked off a few weeks ago and was just a blast.  these students are incredible!  last year we spent the whole year walking through the book of exodus and focussing on the places of egypt and sinai.  this year we will continue on in the new exodus motif by walking through life in Jerusalem starting with the israelites begging God for a king and then spend the season of advent in babylon.  

i'm pleased with how the fall has kicked off.  i continue to be overwhelmed with gratitufe for the team of staff and volunteers God has surrounded me with.  what a gift...

i'm getting a handle on all of the meetings and will make it a priority to begin posting at least three new blogs a week.  thanks for your patience.

The 50/50 rule

Yesterday I learned another important leadership nugget from Mike Volkema. When presenting in a setting that will invite questions (parent meeting, elder board meeting, lead team meeting or countless others) always respect the fifty fifty rule.

This is acknowledging the time it will take you to present and then adding that same amount on the backend for further dialogue. So if your presentation takes 15 minutes to give then you need to add 15 more minutes at the end to answer questions. This was a totally new concept for me.

I often come with a list of things and do my best to charge through it with not wasting my teams time. But as I think about it, when I pack everything in so tight I do not allow my audience the privilege to interact with the material.

It will slow things down; but it is worth it to have total buy in...