Sometimes we get stuck in the rut of thinking the church should have one look, one feel, one experience, one message that hasn’t changed in two thousand years. The reality is that even Jesus put his message in context for the people he was communicating to. When he talked to fisherman he used fishing metaphors. When he talked to farmers, he spoke of the grains in the field.
Dogma is the hard and fast rule. The way things were, and to the dogmatics, the way things should be. Context is the variable that is constantly changing. The mold isn’t fixed. People are different. People who live a mile apart can have tremendously diverse contexts. Things that were once solid, welded, defined, are now taking new shapes and providing flexibility in our experiences.
The Gina Project at BMW represents an aggressive shift in thinking about how we can experience our environments. The user defined experience is going to change the way we do things. Even in the church. Whether it’s through providing content at the touch of button or having our people be a part of developing content and the community around it.
Are you flexible? Are you ready to reach people in their context? Put your innovative foot forward and think about how people experience Christ in your community, or how they could? Be there.
If the church really is the body and Jesus the head, then we should have in mind the human way of doing things. Responding and anticipating the felt needs of our communities.
Last night we agreed with friends, Betsy, Corey and their kids Lily and Jonathon to “live in community.” About two months ago, they spent a week in our house testing the waters. It was a trial run of sharing meals, letting the kids entertain each other, and working more from our strengths.
We took time individually sharing our highs and lows based on our experience from that week. We set a few ground rules and parameters for what we all hope will be a great experience.
Rule #1 - Transparency.
Just like in our conversation last night, we all said what we meant and meant what we said. That’s not always comfortable for me. I generally try to avoid conflict, but I put my feelings out on the table.
Rule #2 - Maintain Rule #1 and we can handle anything that comes at us.
I strongly believe that communication that hides, is also communication that hurts. I tend to let my introverted nature take hold. I share what I think are necessities and the other 95% stays in. Not a great way to build trust and community. It builds apprehension and separation as others feel like they don’t really know you. I’ve always sucked at this, especially in my family, but I’m trying to forge new relationships.
Transparency builds:
Trust
Community
Forgiveness
and most importantly, Life Together
So, it really feels like it’s time to stop talking about living in community, and dive in head first. Hopefully we’ll rise to the top of Life Together.
He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial. –Bonhoeffer
BTW - if you haven’t read Life Together, I think you should. It’s in my top 5 of all time. Bonhoeffer is deeply challenging to the modern Christian.
I don’t know about you, but viewing blogs in a newsreader is ok, but I at least try to be a designer so I need a little more.
I use the built-in newsreader in Safari. I primarily use it to so if there is anything interesting to read…if so, I actually click in. Reading all content through the lens of the same basic RSS page isn’t enough. Design lends itself to the character, personality and style of the individual. So when I read your blog through the backdrop of an RSS page or the backdrop of your flower page or your clutter free page or your web 2.0 page…it makes a difference in how the content affects me.
Don’t be satisfied by bloglines, google reader, rss bandit or the rest. Taste your content with a little extra flavor. It makes a difference.
All that to say, in May, before I leave for France at the end of the month, I will be moving to a new domain, new design, and hopefully leave you with a new way to frame the content you see here.
I’ll let you know when the big launch will be…big to me at least. or fun I should say…
Yesterday was a really hard day…Haven’t had a day this hard in years…
Somethings I learned through being real:
1. I have a long history of assuming I’m right.
Whether it’s the small decisions, the big decisions or not my decisions at all. I trust my own judgement and I have been let down enough times to be wary of trusting others. ( see self-assurance in my top 5 strengths…Unharnessed strengths can be weaknesses)
2. On the Flip-side: Not trusting others is not an option.
I may not understand or I may not agree, but either way, some decisions are not mine to make. I need to learn that the decisions of others have validity, even if they aren’t decisions I make. Trust is not negotiable, however. It’s a necessity for team building.
3. I’m still not sure how to not be in charge.
Every job I’ve ever been in, I’ve worked my way up to running the show. It feels natural to me. Whether it’s running the art department and print shop or running my own business, or planting new businesses, I like taking the lead. It’s a huge struggle for me when the buck doesn’t stop with me.
4. Bottom Line: I care far too much about my own control, I care far too little about your ideas.
I need to learn how to “play well with others.”
Sometimes you need to be broken. Though, I tend to feel I’m invincible, I know that growth happens more in my brokenness than in my impenetrability.
Though I’ve missed somedays just because of the insane busyness of this season for Sarah and I, I’m still committed to seeing things through…. visit 3 friends on a 12 minute journey at www.12minutes.wordpress.com
Innovation comes through many channels. Clearly, in someone’s mind watching the wheels of a pump spin, they reached back to the days of their youth and remembered these wheels spinning.
In the book, “A Whole New Mind,” Daniel Pink talks about PLAY as one of the six senses or aptitudes of the future right-brain ruled economy.
Joy comes from play. Jesus wants us to make our joy complete (see John 15:11) in him. Joy and play go hand in hand.
When was the last time we set out to party as a church. To play together. To share God’s joy with one another. When was the last time we played together to get inspired, to imagine, to innovate.
Elliot and I went to pack food for children and families affected by hunger and starvation. It was fun to see my boy pouring the rice and getting the chance to help him understand God’s justice even at an early age…
It makes me wish I hadn’t been on vacation and had been around to update the website over the last few weeks.
I’m especially excited about this for The Sanctuary CDC. Apparently, we’re on the list for our urban/community focus. Undoubtedly, the CDC is a huge part of uncovering the beauty in North Minneapolis.
We have a class called City Matters that is second to none when it comes to educating and exploring the issues that face the city.
I’ve also seen my neighbors go through the Momentum program and come out with a new perspective on their life and self-worth.
I’ve only been wearing glasses for a little over a year. My first glasses, I went all out. They were over $500 and we’re broken in a month when my boy ran over them with my office chair. I’ve been keeping them together with various methods of super glue and oversized screws.
Too cheap to even think about buying another $500 I have been trying to find a place online that I could trust and that I could get a great deal…
Then I saw this post from 43 Folders.Needless, to say, the thought of $40 prescription glasses intrigued me.So I tied it. After a trip to my eye doctor, I took my prescription specs home and ordered away…I waited about 2 weeks for them to ship, than a another week an half to arrive from Hong Kong in a great little package with green packing paper wrapped up tight.
What do you think?I love em.
They cost me a total of $38. 29 for the frames and lenses, $9 to ship.The prescription is right on. The look is sweet…Dont’ you agree?
At this point, I highly recommend at least trying the online glass joint.it.
I opted out because we had too many people signed up, but the Love Minneapolis was incredible.
Plymouth Christian Youth Center was overrun by 50+ volunteers to help 1,000 North Minneapolis kids buy presents for their families. The kids paid a dollar to buy 5 gifts. Love Minneapolis volunteers were tour guides on their shopping experience.
When asked what Love Minneapolis is, one volunteer simply said,
The single greatest improvement to an operating system ever.
I don’t even open half the programs I used to.
If I need some info from inside a file, I just highlight it and click the spacebar. I can see full files from Word, Excel, Images, Pages, Keynote, Powerpoint, whatever….All without ever opening up the applications.
Innovation is essential to life. Whether it’s using logs to move 2000 pound rocks to build pyramids or harnessing the power of the wind to turn on the lights…Innovation makes life better.
It transforms our surroundings. It qualifies efficiency. It affirms our reflection of God. After all, the first thing he did was create something out of nothing. That’s innovation.
Innovation is hard, though.
It stretches us to think in ways that no one else has. It’s the charge to look in the negative space and discover what’s missing. To solve problems most people don’t even recognize as problems.
One thing I learned early on from reading the Art of Innovation is that renovation is often much harder than innovation.
It’s one thing to have a problem that nobody has solved yet. Your solution is the best solution by definition of being the only solution. In the case of the grocery store shopping cart that IDEO was charged with renovating, the challenge was clear: Make the best shopping cart ever. The problem however was deeper: Rethink the grocery shopping experience so that the design and functionality of the shopping cart matches the reality of your shopping experience or makes it a more desirable experience.
So they had to dive in and rethink things from the moment you walk in the store. Whether you’re the urban hipster, the soccer mom, or the daily shopper. The results were drammatic. The traditional shopping cart took on the form of this multi-compartment hodgepodge of speciaiized functionality.I don’t think it was that great.In fact, it looked bulky and awkward. Spaceage and untouchable….(yet fascinating).
The reality is the traditional shopping cart meets most of the needs we ask of it. And even if IDEO’s cart is a good design, the awkwardness of it compared with something I’m used to, makes it harder to adopt in it’s renovated state.
Last year when I started renovating my kitchen, I would have begged for a blank slate to work with. Not bad wiring, banged up walls and 5 layers of flooring. It would have been much easier to start with nothing but studs, but instead, it was a renovation job. It required rethinking how to make something old into something new. Something broken into something that works. Something stylishly outdated into something fresh, modern and visually appealing.
As I’ve continued to read The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley, I’ve been thinking more and more about whether I’m an innovator or renovator. Tom hasn’t really talked much about the art of renovation, but I think it deserves a conversation just as much as innovation.
On the one hand, the church should be the innovator of ideas for the purpose of advancing God’s work on earth. Leading the way, shaping culture, defining the norm, and not in the tailgate of the truck (along for the ride, not driving, and fearful of falling off the bandwagon at any bump in the road.)
On the other hand, the church needs to be an expert at the fine art of renovation. We have a 2,000 year old message that needs a fresh face: a new look, a new appeal, a new way to interpret it’s meaning. The church needs to be in constant renovation to remain relevant while holding on to the main structure, a firm foundation, some way to look at the outside and see the house that was built long ago.
So am I an innovator or a renovator?
Sometimes both, but more so a renovator. I have a vision of what the church could be. And it looks a little like your church, a little like my old church, a little like a church I’ve only seen on the web. I’m going to steal all their ideas and make changes based on our audience.
My goal in 2008: Innovate.Observe the behavior of our people, and birth a new idea. a new solution. a new way to get meaning in our lives.
I’m currently reading “The Art of Innovation“ by Tom Kelley.Tom and his Brother David are head honchos at IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm. Through the years, they’ve developed a simple strategy for unleashing innovation at IDEO. It boils down to this:
UNDERSTAND - not only the market, the client and the technology, but also the perceived constraints on the problem.
OBSERVE - Real people in real life. Not focus groups. Real people trying to tackle the problems you want to help them with.
VISUALIZE - The brainstorming session. If I was faced with the problem, what challenges would I be weighed down with and what are creative ways to solve that problem.
EVALUATE&REFINE - What works, what doesn’t, what confuses people, what they seem to like. Test, Modify, Retest.
IMPLEMENT - If the idea is great and you can’t implement it, than the idea is of little value.
It’s not rocket science. It’s just about having a managed approach to Creativity and having a roadmap to take the next big thing from beginning to end. Any thoughts?
I’m just not satisfied unless I’m asking this question.
It’s never enough. It’s never enough in a good way. One idea leads to another. What’s the next venture. I’m horribly tired right now…but as I was talking to a friend the other day as we we’re trying to plot the next year of his life, I left asking myself the same questions.
Am I more interested in starting the next idea than actually carrying it out…? I’m skilled. I can generally accomplish whatever I put my head to. I’m not saying that to be cocky, I just have a track record of determination…But what I’m realizing, is that it often ends when I know I can accomplish my goals. Even if it’s early on.
I want to start things, but I don’t want to be the one doing the nitty gritty work to finish them.
I have a few more ideas, I just want to launch them onto a team and watch them be carried out by people who love the execution…
The place to get up to date information on my wife Sarah’s Back Surgery Fundraising is now live. Check it out at: http://www.sarahsnewback.wordpress.com
Communications Revolution - Terry Storch
If you’re not there yet, it’s time to go to Web 2.0
Web 2.0 simply stated is The Participatory Web (Enabling and Encouraging Participation, the relinquishment of communications control to viral methods and utilizing God’s people to deliver the message.)
Four C’s of Multicultural Marketing - Tracy Lewis
Cultural Awareness - eliminating fear, perception, criticism, preconceptions, doesn’t imply endorsement
Commitment - Long Term
Creativity - throw out the box
Christ-Centered - don’t sacrifice the message…but don’t limit the reach of it…
To accomplish this, you will need to have Multi-Cultural Awareness(Find Commonalities, Embrace Differences, Overcome the fear of honesty), Appropriate Application(Be Authentic, Know your Audience), and have a Strategy(Build conviction through scripture, Affirm diversity through identity and vision, Build a multi-cultural leadership and staff, Enjoy Progress and anticipate problems).
Writinng as an Act of Service - Jon Walker
Service Journalism answers two questions:
1. So What? (Why does this make any difference to me?)
2. What Now? (What should I do with this information?)
The goal is to leave the reader with a call to action.
Practical Outputs of Service Journalism:
- Timelines
- Headers and Subheaders
- Charts and Graphs
- Breakouts
- Q&A’s
- FAQ’s
- Captions
Branding 101 - Dawn Nichole Baldwin Brand
the practice of delivering a promise that reflects the mission, uniqueness and personality of your organization…..
Positioning
Determining how you want to be defined by your audience.
A Matter of Message - Brad Abare Matthew 5:13-16 - If you lose your saltiness what will you taste like>? - Be Salty - Pursue God - Be transparent - Pursue Your Own Story - Think Local - Pursue Others
- Keep it Simple - Un-clutter the Message
1. I’m not perfect. Though I pretend to be. Though I desire to be. Though Christ made me to be. It’s hard to accept, but sometimes I miss a step. 2. I can’t do it all. I need help. I need an assistant. I need someone to manage details, so I can paint the big picture. 2. Numbering shouldn’t be that hard, but last week’s survey says it is. 3. I need the vacation that isn’t coming anytime soon (oh gee, what it would be like to be off to Cancun). 4. I waste a lot of time learning from others, rather than being able to focus more on my own end products. It’s part of my strengths as a “learner.” Though every unharnessed strength can be a weakness. My desire to constantly learn, minimizes the maximizer in me.
5. Despite my overt introvertedness, I still long for close relationships with others. Making friends isn’t easy. Maintaining friendships is harder. I am self-serving.
So 1:30am on a Saturday night. Where else would I be but driving out to my favorite reliable 24 hour kinkos for some bulletin issues…
Stop at the grocery store. Return my 3 Redbox Rentals (300 ****, Freedom Writers ****, Borat **) and get a monster cookie and a skim milk for the road home…
The lady in front of me is chatting with the checkout lady about working at the grocery store in my neighborhood. I live in North Minneapolis….
She starts to ring me up and then says, “Bet you’re glad you don’t live over there. Can’t go outside your house without getting shot. Don’t ever go over there.”
I mention I’m going there right now.
“Well, you better bring your bullet-proof vest. There’s nothing good about that place.”
I then very calmly mentioned that I live in North Minneapolis. That it’s my neighborhood she’s talking about.
I gave a line about “being entitled to our opinions.” and got the hell out of there. pretty much pissed and fuming.
Listen. I’m not immune to the violence. On the contrary. It scares me. I worry about my family some days. I’ve heard gunshots right outside my backdoor and I’ve walked through a line of crack dealers to get to my front door. I’ve seen one of my neighbors running down the street chasing somebody with a gun and my other neighbor holding his 45 cocked and using the corner of my house as a hiding place.
I abhor the violence. I hate it with everything in me. But I recognize it as a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself.
God left us the opportunity to be his justice in the world.
“Just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.”
Most of the time, it feels pretty safe here. We know our neighbors. We’ve built relationships. We share a cup of sugar and two eggs just like they do on Leave it to Beaver. But we also share something deeper. We share a bond built on the love of our neighborhood and the peace that comes from looking out for each other.
Some might thnk that Norh Minneapolis is a warzone. Hey- I’ve said it from time to time when I get so angry about the bullets flying in the streets. But it’s also God’s promised land. The new kingdom here on earth is wherever God’s people are. Wherever there are disciples of all nations. Wherever there are people who are transformed by the renewing of their minds.
I pray that we stop painting the picture that the only thing worth mentioning about this place is that our young black men keep killing each other.
There are passionate teachers.
Passionate preachers.
Connected neighbors and families.
Everyday people trying to make ends meet.
And there are the least of these.
Those with no home.
No more support system.
Paying the rest of their lives for their bad decisions or their parents poor choices.
And there is a remnant.
A remnant of people passionately pursuing God’s justice for this city.
I need to do a better job of painting the picture…and remembering what it looks like.
Do you mourn for the state of the city. I do. Nehemiah did. I’m pretty sure God does.
1 In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before; 2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”
I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
Nehemiah’s job was to take a bullet for King Artaxerxes everyday and hope it was a blank.
More and more, I mourn for my city. I know I’m a part of the change. Though I don’t always do something about it. I know I can. I know I should. I know God calls me to it.
There are idea-makers, there are leaders, there are managers, there are workers, there are the people who are intended to receive. I’m learning so much about myself right now and my capacity to affect change, to be a catalyst, to lead the fight against the continuing injustice in our cities…and more than ever, I’m finding myself willing to use my voice to be the change I want to see in the world.
What’s next for us North Minneapolis?
I want to be a part of your justice.
How much am I really willing to die for? Do we have a vision worth dying for? What risk am I willing to take today?
…lately, i’ve been feeling pretty risky.
Life Together
