Lessons I’m Learning at 37

July 26, 2011 Leave a comment

I haven’t been active on my blog for several months, and wanted to take this opportunity to start things up again. I hope you will check back often as I post new material.

Life is a journey, and it never stops. In the words of the great philosopher Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” As I pause today for my 37th birthday, here are some things I’m learning about life:

1. Make friends where you can find them. There have been times when I’ve been hesitant to invest in a friendship because I didn’t have much in common with the person. But many of those people have turned out to be great friends who have been a real encouragement.

2. Let go of unrealistic expectations. Sometimes the idealistic dreams of our youth can set us up for disappointments later on. You can find real freedom when you let go of an idea, dream, job, or relationship that will probably never happen.

3. Trust God. At some point in my journey of faith I began to set aside my need to have every question about God resolved. We can’t fully understand God and how He works, and that’s OK. It’s incredibly refreshing to let go and step out with childlike faith and see the amazing things that happen.

4. Treasure the small things in life. The best moment of yesterday was when my 7-year old son made chocolate milk and brought it to me outside. It was a real gesture of love. Don’t miss the great little moments in life. Read more of this post

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Desiring God 2010 Conference Promo

July 30, 2010 2 Comments

For a long time I have appreciated the ministry of John Piper. He has produced an amazing number of books and resources over the years through his organization, Desiring God. It’s quite amazing that they make so many great resources available for free on their website. I’d encourage you to check it out.

Each year Desiring God hosts conferences, and the promo for their 2010 National Conference looks very cool. Not only do I love the topic, but I love the way it’s creatively presented. Hats off to the folks who brainstormed and created the promo video.

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A Fascinating Talk on Book Publishing by Seth Godin

July 28, 2010 Leave a comment

One of my favorite writers is the marketing guru Seth Godin. I read his book Tribes last year and it was great. He also updates his blog daily and it is nearly always thought-provoking and interesting. Although he focuses on topics related to business and marketing, his ideas have wide-ranging impact for all kinds of leaders, thinkers, writers, teachers and just about everyone else.

He recently gave a talk to the Independent Book Publishers, and has made an mp3 of the talk available at his blog. You can find a link to the mp3 via this blog post. Anyone who reads books, uses technology (especially an e-reader or iPad), or is involved in leadership, education or ministry at any level will find something interesting here. At least I did. Check it out.

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Reflections on My 36th Birthday

July 26, 2010 3 Comments

Today I turn 36 years old. To some reading this, I am still a young pup. To others, I’m an old geezer. But to me, I’m just where I’m supposed to be. I’m sort of a reflective person, so I wanted to share a few thoughts that best express where I am in my journey through life. These are in no certain order.

I am more aware of mortality. Not just mine, but of my parents’, friends, relatives and many others. The fact that we will all die eventually isn’t just a concept; it’s a concrete reality. It is hard to see people you love getting older, and sometimes getting sick.

I miss my childhood more. Lately I have been thinking about my childhood home a lot more, and watching home movies. I am very thankful for where and how I grew up, and I’m sad that I will never be able to return there. Sometimes when I go to bed I close my eyes and mentally walk through our old house, our yard and the woods I enjoyed as a kid.

I am less impressed with titles and positions. One of my most influential profs in college was a man we all called by his first name, and I have adopted that practice (at least with students who are comfortable with it). I feel that your influence comes from loving and helping people, and being a good teacher, not from some title or position you hold. At the same time, being a “Professor” does come in handy sometimes. :)

I am more convinced that attitude and character are what matter most. Students are usually concerned with getting good grades, but what matters more in ministry and life is having integrity, a good attitude and a servant’s heart. I am thankful that at our school we have some built-in ways to emphasize these qualities as well as academics.

I have fewer convictions, but the ones I do have are more firm. I still have opinions about lots of things, but getting older (and hopefully a little wiser) has helped me sort the essential from the non-essential issues. Part of being a mature person is knowing what issues you will die for, and which you can let go.

I am more family-oriented. Back in my 20′s I was a real workaholic and wanted to please everyone. These days, my greatest joy is being at home with my family. (If we can all be together at Steak-n-Shake, so much the better!) Read more of this post

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Leadership Lessons from Apple’s iPhone 4 Gaffe, Part 2

July 18, 2010 2 Comments

I’d like to share a few more lessons from the recent story of Apple’s iPhone 4 saga. (You can also read Part 1 of this article.)

4. Respond from the facts, not from emotion. It would have been easy for Steve Jobs to get irate at all the bad press about Apple over the last few weeks. (He did seem a little annoyed at the press conference, I admit.) But instead of responding emotionally, he simply communicated the facts that painted a picture of a problem that affected a small number of people. He also went to great lengths to demonstrate that every smart phones has reception problems when held a certain way. Instead of getting upset and making matters worse, he delivered facts that helped put the problem into perspective.

When people complain to us (or about us) it’s easy to get upset and respond in anger. But if we look at the facts of an issue and communicate them in a calm, caring way, that can often neutralize the situation and come to a resolution. This implies that we need to first do our research and have our facts straight!

5. Be generous. In response to the issues with the iPhone’s antenna, Apple is offering free bumper cases to iPhone users. I don’t think anyone is under the impression that Apple has altruistic motives here – this is a move to maintain customer loyalty. The bottom line is a financial concern. Nevertheless, the company could have been much less generous in its response, perhaps only offering a discount on cases, or free cases to only certain customers. However, I like Apple’s loyalty to customers, which is also expressed through its “Genius Bar” area in the Apple stores.

Leaders should personify a generous spirit in both big and small ways.  The generosity of a group, organization or church is a direct reflection of its leadership. This is one of the reasons why I love my church, Harvester Christian Church (St. Charles, MO). Our former Senior Minister, Ben Merold, and the current leadership and staff are among the most generous and giving people I know. I believe this is one of the reasons why God has blessed our church with growth over the years. God blessed people who model a spirit of generosity. (In this case, Apple’s generosity comes from a financial motive, while Christian generosity comes from a spiritual motive.) Read more of this post

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Leadership Lessons from Apple’s iPhone 4 Gaffe, Part 1

July 17, 2010 4 Comments

For the last couple of weeks I have been following the much-publicized story of the iPhone 4′s antenna issue. (If you haven’t been following this, here is a story from July 15, and another from July 16.) What began as a minor story about some problems with the new iPhone’s antenna reception quickly grew into a public-relations nightmare. This was bad news for a company that prides itself on innovative products, customer service and a “cool factor” of 10. The saga has been an interesting study in leadership and crisis management. I have also enjoyed following it because I am looking forward to replacing my Blackberry with an iPhone when my Sprint contract is up later this year, and wanted to see how Apple would address this potentially troublesome issue.

Yesterday, Apple confronted the issue head-on by holding a press conference. You can find a direct link to the video here on Apple’s website. The video is a little over 30 min., but if you have the time, it’s pretty interesting.

Here are a few leadership lessons we can take away from Apple’s handling of this crisis:

1. Don’t be condescending. When the antenna issue first came to light less than a month ago, Steve Jobs’ response was basically, “You’re holding the phone the wrong way.” This seemed to be an arrogant and condescending reply to people who were experiencing real reception problems with a rather expensive phone. (It doesn’t help that many iPhone customers already have problems with their AT&T service.) Apple also pointed to a faulty formula they had been using to calculate signal strength. Neither of these explanations curtailed the public perception that Apple seemed annoyed by people pointing out a problem with their hallmark device.

When people point out legitimate problems that lie within our areas of responsibility, it only makes matters worse when we get annoyed and treat them as if they’re stupid. Especially if they’re paying good money for something we’re providing. Read more of this post

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What If You Don’t Like the Music at Church?

May 17, 2010 Leave a comment

Here is how I look at music in church: churches are like restaurants, and worship music is like the food they serve. No matter what kind of food your restaurant serves, there will always be someone who doesn’t like it. The problem is that you have to choose something–you can’t satisfy every taste (unless you offer multiple services with different styles).

What happens if you’re a mature Christian who loves your church and wants to support your pastor, but you dislike the music?  I have a good friend who hates Chinese food, and I know that if we went to a Chinese place for lunch, he would not enjoy it. What do you do when you’re the person who doesn’t like Chinese food? Here are a few questions for those who want to support their church and would like to deal with this issue in a positive, godly way. (These would apply in a range of situations, whether your church uses a traditional hymn-based style or more modern music.) Read more of this post

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4,000 Hours

May 8, 2010 Leave a comment

Today St. Louis Christian College will hold its graduation ceremony. I’m especially excited because this year we have five Worship & Music students who are graduating. I have seen these guys (and gal) go from being freshmen who didn’t know much about worship leading (and sometimes aren’t aware of it) to men and women ready for the challenges life has in store for them. I’m so happy for them, but I’m also surprised at how melancholy I feel about it since I have been especially close to this group of students.

There’s really no way to measure or quantify the influence you have on someone’s life, but just for kicks, I wanted to estimate the number of hours I’ve spent with these guys since their freshmen year. This is not only face-to-face time in class, but also time spent doing homework for my classes, in several semesters of guitar lessons (which most of them have taken), worship teams, serving in Chapel in one form or another, advising appointments, conversations, and whatever else may have come up where they have either spent time with me, or have done something I’ve asked them to do. The best estimate I can come up with is somewhere around 4,000 hours, including all five students.

4,000 hours. That’s an awful lot of time. That represents 167 straight days, or around 2 years of 8-hour workdays. It’s incredibly humbling to think these students have opened their lives to my teaching and influence for that amount of time.

SLCC is a small school; there are other school with graduation ceremonies this month that would dwarf ours. But when you look at the numbers, even at a small school like ours, one single teacher, over time, has enormous potential to influence someone’s life. This fact drives me to my knees, seeking God’s wisdom in how I can become a better teacher and lead our program more effectively.

But guess what? You don’t have to be a teacher or have a title to influence someone. The fact is, you’re probably already doing it and don’t even know it. We all influence others, every day. The issue is what we do with that influence. And for those of us who lead, teach or spend intensive amounts of time with people helping them become better Christian leaders, 4,000 hours is a big deal. Perhaps this is why James 3.1 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”

So, congrats guys (and gal), you made it through! I’ve done my best to point you in the right direction. Now go change the world!

Questions: Who has God put in your path to influence, teach or lead? (This could be formal or informal; the best teaching doesn’t usually happen in a classroom.) What is one concrete step you can take right now to improve yourself so that you can better influence others?

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Going to Church Online

December 13, 2009 Leave a comment

One of my responsibilities as a Professor of Worship is to keep tabs on new developments in my field. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to try out “online” church. Over the past few months I’ve had the opportunity to visit a few different churches and share a little of what I experienced. Since I didn’t have any teaching or music responsibilities at my church this morning, I thought I’d attend church “online” and see what it was like.

Central Christian Church in Las Vegas is the only Christian Church I know that has an online service, so this was my default choice. They have two options: the online campus and the Facebook campus. I brought up both pages and the Facebook video stream seemed a little better, so I logged into FB and experienced the service this way.

The service opened with a worship set, and as you’d expect, the music was very good. The worship team opened with a really creative blending of “Joy to the World” and Chris Tomlin’s “Sing, Sing, Sing” that began with the string riff from Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida.” It was a brilliant arrangement. The rest of the set was fairly standard guitar-driven modern worship, but done well. I was intrigued by their cover of Mercy Me’s “Little Drummer Boy,” and thought it was interesting to use as a congregational song. (On a less spiritual note, I also thought one of the guitar players looked a lot like Jon Favreau, the actor and director of Iron Man, but that’s beside the point.)

So how does it work to participate in group singing in the comfort of your home? I guess it depends on your perspective. I turned the sound up a little louder for this section of the service to try and duplicate the feeling of being at church. This worked to some degree, but the bottom line is that you can’t really duplicate congregational singing sitting in front of a computer alone. I did, however, really enjoy and appreciate the music and sang along part of the time.

After the music the worship leader encouraged people to greet one another, and said hello to people attending online.  (I said hello to the others attending the Facebook service – I recall there were about 13 of us.)  Then there was a video just for those online, and host mentioned that around 4,000 people had given their lives to Christ via the online campus, and over 2,300 had followed through with baptism. The host also encouraged us to donate online and thanked those who give online on a regular basis. He also mentioned that about 3,000 people a week attend an online service at Central. Read more of this post

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Engagement Trumps Information Overload

November 19, 2009 Leave a comment

This semester (which is just about to wrap up) I’m teaching a course called “Theology and History of Worship.” Yesterday’s learning topic dealt with sacred space in worship–how the people, furniture and symbols of worship are arranged to best allow people to engage with God and one another. I had planned on doing a lecture, but then decided to approach it a different way. Since the lecture would be based mainly on the reading they had done (I would be reviewing the main ideas and adding more info), wasn’t this a little redundant?

I came up with this instead: I wanted them to put into practice the things they had learned through the reading, and what I would briefly review in class. I had them get into 3 groups, with this assignment: design a worship space for a particular area and tell us why you designed it that way. What are the theological and practical reasons for your choices? Group 1 designed a sanctuary for an urban church meeting in a leased office space, Group 2 designed a space for a suburban church plant, and Group 3 designed space for a rural church youth ministry that emphasized the arts.

The results were interesting, and the students took it more seriously and engaged in the process more than I expected. A couple of the groups were very detailed in their designs. I was pretty impressed.

I’ve only been teaching for a few years, and have a lot to learn (trust me on that one, or just ask my students!). But one of the things I do know is that active learning (participation and engagement) allows students to interact with and process what they learned from reading and lectures. The lecture format can be done effectively by some teachers and for some topics, but I am learning some new, different, and often more effective approaches to help students learn.

By the way, here is good quote I used in class: “Space, it has been argued, needs to be redemptive space.  It needs to reflect the work of salvation, which we celebrate.  Therefore, adequate space for gathering, for the hearing of the Word, for the celebration of the Eucharist, and for music and the arts that accompany these acts is a priority.  The major shift that has taken place in worship space is the shift from longitudinal space to a more centralized space, a space in which the worshipers become participants. ” (Robert Webber, Worship Old & New, 146)

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