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Brainwashed: Seven ways to reinvent yourself.

What an awesome mini-manifesto from Seth Godin over at ChangeThis.com

It’s like this: we were brainwashed. Brainwashed into believing a set of rules that aren’t true (any more). And because the brainwashing has been so complete, the shifts in our world and new opportunities they open up are easy to see as ways to shore up yesterday’s faltering system. Please, don’t fall for that. Don’t use the tools of today to support your effort to do yesterday’s job better.

This is an opportunity to completely reinvent your role in the system.

Here are seven levers available for anyone (like you) in search of reinvention:

1. Connect
2. Be generous
3. Make art
4. Acknowledge the lizard
5. Ship
6. Fail

Seth’s thinks this is the time. If you’re going to make a big move in life, if you’re going to live an extraordinary life, if you’re going to “do something with yourself,” now is the time.

Guess you’ll have to read it to figure out exactly what he means by “Acknowledge the lizard.”

It’s on you now…Go get the short, 15 page, BIG TYPE, easy read pdf.

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Innovate09 Kem Meyer

Kem always brings us back to the basics of communication.

Communication is not about sending the right message, it’s all about getting the right response.

How to clarify your message for the right response.

1. Check your ego
2. Get an image consultant
3. Keep it simple

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Give.

People and organizations are making a difference. I want to support people who are passionate about making the world a better place. Don’t you?

So start giving. There’s a million ways to do it…

The web has made it so easy to give to people moving organizations. Find a local, regional, and global initiative to make a difference with today.

Here’s some places that get our support:

• Locally (My friend Aaron is running a 5K for an important cause. He’s 3/8 of the way to his goal. Help him out.)
• Regionally (My Father in Law and Brother in Law are directors at TreeHouse. This is an organization that truely makes a life changing impact in the lives of at risk youth. We support them monthly. I support them, even though they are still using the website i made for them 9 years ago.)
• Globally (My wife and I have been wanting do something big. We’ll talk about it in the next post, but Charity: Water is the org we’re supporting)

We support these places and initiatives because they are having an impact on people’s lives. It doesn’t take much. $20 through Charity Water gives water to 1 person for 20 years. I can do that.

What organizations do you passionately support?

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Reflections on DC09

Spent the last few days at the Dynamic Church Conference in Dallas. It’s a conference for users of Fellowship One, a Church Management software from Fellowship Technologies. 

Here’s what I like about this software, these people, their passion:

1. Passion drives their purpose. 
   There is a genuine heart and belief that technology can be harnessed to help people become more fully devoted followers of Jesus. 
2. They know that their technology is not the end but the means. 
   Fellowship One is about all about helping the church clear the administrative barriers to make way for real relationships. 
3. They have an impressive road map.
   Ftech has clearly been putting in the work to architect or rearchitect the product to be more agile and responsive to the growing technological needs of the evolving Global Mobile Church (GoMo as @terrystorch labeled it).
4. The don’t have the answers.
   They made it very clear that the users of F1 are vital to drive future developments of the product. They call us church partners…and they mean it. 

In my roll @theSanctuary, I see a long relationship with F1 in our future. If we’re diligent about it’s implementation, realistic about putting a SuperTeam around it, and intentional about pursuing the relationships on the other side of the data, this should be a beneficial partnership now and into the future.

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Full-Court Press

Malcolm Gladwell’s recent article in the New Yorker highlights the Full-Court Press. How a rag-tag team of middle school daughters of Silicon Valley programmers, went to a national basketball championship game, because of an outsiders strategy: Effort trumps force, and responding in real time.

Gladwell follows the story with coach Ranadive, a father to one of the girls on the team. Ranadive didn’t take the usual approach to winning basketball games. He wasn’t a basketball player himself. Most of his team were made up of first year players. There were no plays that were executed. No star towering center to dominate the lane. And no long-range shooting guard to sink shots from the outside. Rather, the approach was all about not wasting space and time.

The girls executed a full court press, every defensive minute of every game. The didn’t play the usual game of shoot and retreat. The never let up. They were, at their core, relentless.

Gladwell remarks of the strategy “Playing insurgent basketball didn’t guarantee victory. It was simply the best chance an underdog had of beating Goliath.”

It’s all about effort. When your opponent moves slow, you counter with speed. When your opponent relaxes, you counter with drive. Relentless pursuit can trump brute force.

So, how can the church implement the Full-Court Press?

• Relentless pursuit of relationships (our culture wants us to get something out of relationships. I think it’s wise to think about giving something to relationships).
• Relentless pursuit of relevance (if we don’t speak the language, we will fumble our connection possibilities).
• Relentless pursuit of breaking conventional rules (When convention keeps the game the same, defy it and change the rules).
• Relentless pursuit of the one we love most (When we pursue God, people will follow).

When we engage people, in their language, with a relentless pursuit that redefines the conventional rules, because of the love God has for us, we advance the kingdom of God.

David was a shepherd. He didn’t know he was supposed to bring a sword to fight off a Philistine in a duel. He brought a staff and slingshot. He changed the rules of the game. When Goliath slowly advanced, David sprinted. He didn’t cut off his head, and yet, Goliath lay dead.

God promises a great reverse. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. The peacemakers and the meek will sit atop the kingdom. It’s not the relentless pursuit of perfection, but the relentless pursuit that wins out. A game changing attitude that responds in real-time to the real needs of people.

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Communicating in Multi-Ethnic Communities.

I work at the Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, MN. As far as churches are concerned, we are a rarity. We’re a church of more than a 1,000 people, in the city, with a multi-ethnic community of participants that is vastly unlike most churches in America.

On any given Sunday, our people gather, roughly 50% European-Americans, 40-45% African-Americans, and roughly 5% or so of other ethnicities. This presents challenges on so many levels. People are here for many different reasons. We’re young, we’re hip, we bring in da funk’ (notice how white I am?).

Design and Communication for inter-cultural communities present the very challenges that you’d expect:

1. Language is not common. Different words have different meanings to different cultural groups.
2. Imagery doesn’t represent the combined audience. Unless you’re using real pictures from you’re real community, stock imagery will likely feign multi-ethnicity with unrealistic representations.
3. The motivation is not the same. Some white folks are here for specific reasons, some black folks are here for other reasons. It’s a major challenge to find the heart and mind motivators that are common amongst us.

I am by no means an expert, but I would suggest 4 helps for communicating to a multi-cultural audience:

1. Engage your audience, invest in relationships. Beyond anything you do, investing time into cross-cultural relationships will bring perspective on your design and communication strategies that no book, blog or axiom can help you with. Relationships matter. Listening and learning people’s stories, passions and pursuits will shape your content.
2. Keep it simple. If you can’t communicate it in 3 or 4 bullet points, it’s unlikely information is going to be retained anyway. Keeping it simple means keeping it accurate and to the point. Let your images do the motivating and let your text do the informing.
3. Be yourself. Don’t try to be something you’re not. If you are a clean cut designer and it’s hip hop day at church, stay clean cut, but add a twist of hip hop. People will know if you’re trying to over-reach beyond your style.
4. Track results and modify your approach. Find out who is showing up and why. Who didn’t show up? Pay attention to the details and ask questions to learn why one approach may have had a huge reach, while others had a shorter reach.

Homogeneity will kill the church. A multi-cultural generation is growing up with multi-ethnicity as a baseline. If the church isn’t aggressive in connecting across culture during these global cultural shifts, we’re going to continue to see church attendance and participation in steady decline.

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Jump off a cliff.

The next generation doesn’t believe that the way things are, is the way things have to be. They see the end of the road as an opportunity to change course, not a forced retreat. When they get to the edge of the cliff, they’re willing to jump, if they think that opportunity for change lies on the other side.

Millennials as they are known, believe the world to be their canvas. To right the wrongs of the previous generations. To make a difference in systems of injustice. To shape their future in a grand experiment of social collaboration and horizontal leadership.

Deloitte Consulting put out a Millennial Fact Sheet a while back that sheds some light on the characteristics of the next generation. Here’s an excerpt on how Millennials integrate into the workplace:

Millennials at work…
• Work well with friends and on teams
• Collaborative, resourceful, innovative thinkers
• Love a challenge
• Seek to make a difference
• Want to produce something worthwhile
• Desire to be a hero
• Impatient
• Comfortable with speed and change
• Thrive on flexibility and space to explore
• Partner well with mentors
• Value guidance
• Expect respect

What are you doing to capture and capitalize on the enthusiasm of the next generation? I know I need to do more because this generation is determined not to have their lives determined by what came before them.

We need to harness their energy, engage their collaborative spirit, and draw out the leadership qualities of those we lead. I’m being challenged to think about my role in fostering Generation Next, because they seem to want change more than my own generation.

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Less Clutter. Less Noise.

I’ve had the opportunity to read the hotly anticipated book from Kem Meyer that every church communications leader wants to get their hands on. Less Clutter. Less Noise. is the quintessential read for church leaders who want to move beyond bulletins, brochures and bake sales and get to the heart of engaging our churches in thoughtful communication that gets the message through to the people that matter most.

Accessible Theory and Practicality
The book balances healthy measures of theory (why) with even more practical examples and tools (how), that every church communications staff should have in their toolbox. Less Clutter, Less Noise. is written in the same simple style as Kem’s blog. Easily digestible nuggets of wisdom, real-world examples and transparent humor make it accessible for anyone.

Church Communications Team Members:
This is the book you want all your non-communications staff members to read so they can understand your world. You’ll want to read it to strengthen the work you’re already doing.

Pastors and other Church Staff:
This is the book you want to read so you can better understand how a centralized communications department can strengthen your ministry, freeing you up to do what you do best and not take on the burden of getting the message out all on your own.

You can pre-order now from Amazon.

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3 Word Goal for 2009…

After seeing the now famous post on 3 word goals, Sarah and I have come up with ours.

Hers:
ADOPT - Work towards baby #3…
LESS – Spend less, consume less, want less, 
DISCIPLINE – pray and invest daily in God. Consistency in Parenting and loving my husband

Mine:
CONNECT- Engage more in people this year. Real relationships.
LESS – Spend Less, Consume Less
MORE – Save More, Give More, Live More. Spend more time with my family.

2009. The year of the Scheller.

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Mentors, Part 3

I’ve rarely sat down with a mentor and asked them how I should do something. I just don’t think that’s the point of a mentoring relationship. That’s what a manual is for and I don’t think there really is a manual for how to do ministry. There are models, but not manuals.

If a person is qualified to be your mentor, they have a story that is worth learning from. So here’s some thoughts about getting the most out of your mentoring relationships.

1. Be prepared. Have a handful of questions ready, or better yet, email them out a few days ahead. Don’t waste your mentor’s time.
2. Learn their story. Go on their journey. You know they’re in their role for a reason. Invest yourself in learning the story of how they got there.
3. Ask hard questions. If you want life-altering answers, you should ask mind-boggling, heart-moving questions.
4. Be vulnerable. If this isn’t a two way street, someone is going to get bored and get off the bus.
5. Be thankful. Time is a commodity that leaders have little of. Always let your mentor know that you don’t take their time for granted.