TIME VS ENERGY

Well, summer's pretty much done in my world now. Everyone- including me- is headed back to school soon. So I guess it's time to blow off the dust from the keyboard and spread some blog love. 

As a starter, I think I'll blog the stuff that I was reminded of while watching a simulcast of the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit last week.  Our church hosts it annually and I think it was at least the 10th time I've watched the summit in this way.   I set aside some time to process my learnings afterwards and as I did, I also tried to see where my current thoughts intersected with some past notes I had taken.

Bill Hybels, the founder of this summit and the lead pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in the suburbs of Chicago was, like normal, the first to speak.  He broke his talk basically into 3 mini-talks of sorts, each with it's own introduction and conclusions.  But the first reminder/learning that stood out to me as I reviewed was his last section were he made this statement:

"Time is not the leaders most valuable resource, it's energy."

As a read previous notes, I was reminded that in 2005, a guy named Jack Groppel spoke at the Summit on the subject of life management and he said something very similar.  He agreed that as leaders, we are pressured to consider the cost of our time and that we work hard at managing it.  But instead of tracking our time, he too said we should actually be tracking our energy investments and expenses.  Groppel said that, 

"Energy is finite.  Humans run out of energy.  Therefore great leadership is mobilizing, focusing, and renewing energy." 

For Hybels, he suggested that this could be done by narrowing and focusing the field of what we are trying to do in the first place.  He challenged leaders to look to the next 6 weeks of their life and come up with their top 6 initiatives that they needed to do that were "above and beyond" their normal job descriptions.  He argued that this would help leaders to propel what they lead and manage where their energy is spent at the same time.  He even said that the clarity this would bring, would generate energy, where a myriad of conflicting tasks otherwise might just drain.  

As I thought about this, I became both exited to be focused and also pretty overwhelmed with the thought of 6 more things.  Especially above and beyond things and especially if I compartmentalized my life and only did them at work, ignoring some of the implications that my home, family, and personal life have on the big picture as well.  

But as I read the notes I took on Groppel back in 2005, I noticed that he also said that the number one area church leaders sacrifice is "self care" and that you can't give what you don't have.  I let that check sink into my soul and made a list of 5 things I want/need to do personally in the coming weeks that affect the bigger picture of my life and ministry.  Here they are: 

1. BODY/SOUL:  Take care of me by getting back into a regular routines.  I need to revaluate my reading, writing, sleeping, exercise, and eating habits to insure I'm managing my energy flow (both in and out) wisely.  
2. KIDS:  Restart my one-on-ones with my kids now that school is starting again.  
3. WRITING: Finish my second book, "Criticism Bites: the fine art of listening to, responding, and even learning from your critics."
4. UT OH:  Solve the immediate problems caused by a dishwasher that leaked for months without us knowing it (which we discovered yesterday) and basically totaled the kitchen.  Develop a short and long term remodel/budget plan to repair it.  
5. GET HELP:  Find, empower, and utilize the help of both paid professionals and volunteers to join me in these things, personally expending energy only on what God has specifically asked or gifted me to do- and delegating the rest to others who can and yearn to help.  

There you go. That's my list.  Maybe you'd benefit from the same exercise, considering where you both spend and replenish your own energy.  If so, go ahead, grab some paper and give it a go.  

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MY NOT-SO-ONLINE SUMMER

Well, as happened last year, this year will be a repeat.  Blog is going silent through the summer.  I love to write and read together with youth pastors and the few non-youth ministry peeps who frequent this blog.

But for the curious or those who want to pray for me...  here's why:

• HIGH SCHOOL/COLLEGE CAMP: I ran a mulit-church camp that we host at Pt. Loma Nazarene last week.
• SUMMER FUN CAMP: I'm joining my generations team staff for a week with "summer fun camp"- think VBS on steroids at our church next week.
• SUMMER SUNDAYS: Every Sunday in July and August we have an after church high school bonding event for some sweet Summer Sundays experiences. 
• HOUSEBOAT TRIP: I'm taking my son and 3 of his high school friends and teaching for a week at a Shasta house boat trip in Nor Cal for a high school ministry. 
• FAMILY CAMPING: I'm taking my family for a 2 week camping trip with friends and family.  One week in Big Basin and one week at Trinity Lake. 
• CONCERT: I'm taking my mom to go see Neil Diamond in concert.  Stubhub says there's 194 tickets if you want to join us...ha ha. Gonna be awesome. 
• BOOK #2:  I'm trying to finish my second book on criticism before I start coaching 2 soccer teams and returning for my last year of seminary in the fall.   My first book, "As For Me and My Crazy House" got a sweet review today. Thanks Austin. 

So... I clearly have a very full summer and the blog will be one of the things that I have to let fall.  Twitter will be my only outlet, as beyond 140 characters is out of reach during this summer season.

See you in late August.

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DOWNLOAD SOME GREAT YOUTH MINISTRY RESOURCES

If you're in youth ministry and you want some tried and true, in the trenches materials then cruise on by Download Youth Ministry.com


It just got a HUGE face lift last week, all the graphics and downloadable art was totally updated and revamped. It has some great content and is inexpensive enough to try out stuff without breaking the budget. 


I have several resources on the site.  Some for behind the scenes and administrative stuff, some small group materials, and a few teaching series.  


In the next few weeks i'm sending 3 more teaching series to the site and an awesome resource of learnings for when the big church stuff comes your way and you're asked to plan the all church baptisms and such.  You know, like those times when your job description expands from youth ministry to everything else.  Stuff like what to do if you have been asked to do a wedding or are called on to do a funeral or even a resource for when you have to engage in some dreaded church discipline for someone who is simply way out of line.   


But regardless of whether it's stuff I wrote or Doug or Josh or Matt wrote, there's tons of great stuff there and more to come each week.  So go ahead and bookmark it and let your life get easier at a price that might be against minimum wage labor laws in 13 countries. 

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CRAZY HOUSE GIVEAWAY

If you, or someone you know would benefit from a book about trying to live some semblance of a healthy life in the midst of crazy demands of family, ministry, marriage, career, and about a zillion other pressures we all wrestle with, then game on!

I'm with you in that struggle and I wrote a bunch of thoughts you might enjoy on the subject in a book called "As for Me and My Crazy House: guarding your heart, marriage, and family from the demands of youth ministry [read busy life]".

And TODAY, my friend Adam McLane is giving away a copy today on his blog and you can enter your name in the comments and win it for free.   Good luck!

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CALLING OUT THE LIES WE BELIEVE

Have you ever made a list of pros and cons for a decision?  I have.  And my observation/experience is that most of the time, the pro side is filled with little white lies of promises no one can back up.  As I thought about it today, I thought that maybe what we should do is instead of labeling the list "pros" and "cons", what if we made a list called "truths" and "lies".

My experience says there a lots of lies that have subtly walked into the room and someone needs to have enough guts to call them out.

You know that voice in your head that says you're a loser.  Yeah, that's a lie.

The one that says if you married so-and-so your life would be better.  Yup, that's a lie.

The one that says there is a marriage that is not work to keep going cuz they are just so ridiculously in love it comes naturally and birds sing and they live in the land of Disney.  Seriously people?  That's a lie.

The one that says some other family has perfect kids.  Liar.

The job where you make a million bucks a year and never work before 9am or after 3pm.  Lie. Lie. Lie.

The one that says if you made a million bucks a year you'd be happy.  Ok, I'd be lying to you if I didn't tell you that I really want to try this lie out to see if I'm right. Like a million dollars a year sounds like it would solve all my problems.  But I'm pretty sure.  It's a lie.  I know a guy who got a divorce and he makes a million bucks a year and has to pay a crap load of it in alimony.  He's not happy about it.  Guess it must be a lie.

The one that says changing churches will fix your problems.  Bummer.  It's a lie.

The gym equipment that will motivate you to work out.  Ut oh. You smell the lie right?

That hero of yours that you're pretty sure your life would be awesome if you walked in their shoes.  Bad news. You'd hate it.  It's a lie.

The new thing that will make everything easier for you once you get it.  Don't buy it. It's a lie.

The super food that will make you super. Super foolish.  Super lie.

The mythical perfect man, perfect woman, perfect date, perfect family, perfect body, perfect friend, perfect job, perfect pretty much anything... all of it. Lies lies lies.

But just cuz they are all lies, doesn't mean we don't secretly think somewhere, somehow, in some crazy world or just down the street or in someone you know's house, well in there, that thing you know is a lie is somehow true for them.  But nonetheless, it's still a BIG FREAKING UGLY LIE!!!

I watched The Help again last week because I taught on it during our God at the Movies series in Encounter. My task in teaching was to ask God if there was anything redemptive in the movie that aligns with Scripture. Yes there are some obvious ones- like about race and equality.  But as I watched this film, I realized so many people in it had been lied to.  Blacks had been lied to.  Rich white people had been lied to.  Lies are everywhere and on a real deep level in this film.  One thread that runs through the film that is not about race is actually about beauty and value.  It's the lie that is told to every girl - in her head she's got a voice that says she's ugly.... Every girl! In this film, it's the plight of even the white girls.  So I pulled on the thread of the lies we believe and called them out.

I think we all need to call out lies.

This scene from the movie with Constantine pretty much sums it up.  From 1:40 on is worth watching 1000 times... now that'll preach.

Constantine says the same thing that Aibilene tells the little girl she's a nanny for.  "You is kind.  You is smart.  You is important."  You're gonna do something BIG!  Everyone of those statements is contrary to some lie little girls get told.  Every freaking one of them.  This scene I embedded has the quote in it, but it must be an out take or something, cuz it's not in the film.  But I still Love love love love this quote from the movie regardless.

Go ahead.  Call some fictitious voice in your head a LIAR today.  You'll sleep better if you do.  I promise that's not a lie.  

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NOAH IS SEXY AND HE KNOWS IT

At the risk of sounding like I'm addicted to this song and parodies of it since this is my second video post on the same song... I'm going to go out there and say this is amazing and so much fun for starting conversations with students.  We ran it in the pre-roll last week in our final week of our "Bow Chicka Wow Wow" dating series and it was a total hit!


I found this video when I saw Noah on the Today Show in the days after this video went viral and there is so much going on in it.

#1. A remix of music and lyrics.
#2. Proof that changing things changes almost everything
#3. Stereotypes are being shattered.
#4. Evidence that I can't sing but Noah can.
#5. Validation that confidence in sexier that being sexier.
#6... so much more.

All by a high school student named Noah.  Amazing.  Seriously Amazing.

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