Archive - Ethos RSS Feed

Remarkable

June 3, 2007 in Ethos, Leadership, Ministry, Remarkable with Comments Off

Seth Godin has made a living on encouraging businesses, churches, teams, and individuals to give people something truly Remarkable. You don’t attract new business by being as good as the other guy. You don’t make an impact on someone’s life by doing the ordinary. You can’t create a culture of winning by going through the motions. You can’t stand out by just getting by.

I believe in being Remarkable. I don’t like doing the same old same old and I tend to steer clear of organizations who do. My time and my efforts are precious commodities. If you want them you have to show me that you are at least willing to become Remarkable.

Example of the Remarkable:
There was a white box waiting for me in my office this morning. I noticed that the Catalyst logo was on one side and so I immediately tore the box wide open.

I have attended the Catalyst Conference for 4 out of the last 5 years. It has been one of the highlights of the year for me because each year it gets better and better. The conference delivers big time in content and character. I hear amazing speakers and see amazing things which in turn feeds my creativity so I can be a better leader. Since Catalyst always aims to surprise I wondered what would be in the box.

The Tube

What I found inside was a brightly colored metal canister. This year’s theme is Reverb. The art work featured noise lines and loud colors and the words “effect big.” One side of the drum had instructions on how to register and another side listed the featured speakers. I was already excited about this pacakage and I hadn’t even fully opened it yet!

A Whole Mess o' Catalyst

Inside I found a whole mess of Catalyst swag.

Window Stick-Ons and Reverb Magnets

There were window clings and those rattle magnets.

The World's Longest Event Poster

Inside I found atomic fire balls and 8 of the World’s Longest Event Brochures.

Catalyst Calendar

There was also a calendar poster so I can count down the days until Catalyst begins.

On top of all this there were also a couple of other little items and an event DVD.

They could of just sent a brochure and a registration card. Instead they sent a story.

Instead of sending me what was expected they sent me something Remarkable.

I Am Insert Your Ministry Here

April 12, 2007 in Discipleship, Ethos, Leadership, Ministry, Popular Culture, Youth Ministry with Comments Off


Ultimately, Starbucks can’t flourish and win customers’ hearts without the passionate devotion of our employees. In business, that passion comes from ownership, trust, and loyalty. If you undermine any of those, employees will veiw their work as just another job. Their passion and devotion is our number-one competitive advantage. Lose it, and we’ve lost the game.

Today we continue thinking about the latest Starbucks corporate initiative focusing on the unique talents that each partner brings to the coffee-table and what that could do for your ministry.

The I Am Starbucks campaign is truly inspired. Giving your employees stock options can make them feel like they share in the ownership of the company but highlight who they are as individuals and celebrate their strengths and you’ve got wildfire of loyalty, passion, and excitement that has the potential to sweep the entire organization.

When I read the words I Am Starbucks I immediately began thinking about my ministry. One of my non-negotiables is that I want and desire that every student that comes in contact with our ministry to feel that they are an important part of what’s going on. The ministry rises or falls on who they are as individuals and what they bring to the collective.

To clarify, I’m not talking about an individual’s worth being tied to what they contribute.

No, I simply mean that who they are is the contribution- their presence, involvement, ideas, passions, gifts. Who they are at their core means a great deal to our ministry.

For many teens this idea could be revolutionary. Teens have been conditioned feel as though adults only care about what they can do. They have a hard time believing that they could loved because of who they are.

I hear things like:

“My coach only cares if we win state.”
“My parents expect me to be perfect.”
“Every teacher thinks that their class is the most important and deserves the most of my time.”

I understand that this feeling is somewhat oversimplified but perception is the truest reality. Students need to be told that they are loved because of who the are and that our love isn’t a condition of what they can or cannot do.

So, starting an I Am insert your ministry here campaign begins with loving your people as individuals. If you jump into highlighting talents in an open forum your effort will reek of trying to profit off of their efforts. Students can see right through that and if we’re honest with ourselves so can most adults.

Long before Starbucks began this new campaign they built trust and loyalty with their partners by creating health plans, 401k, and Bean Stock in essence telling their people that they care about them personally above and beyond the corporate bottom line. The result is that this ad campaign has an air of authenticity behind it. That’s something many ministries struggle with.

You want to reach people outside your church walls? Start loving the people that are there now.

You want to highlight people’s gifts and talents in front of the entire body? Start highlighting people’s gifts and talents quietly on your own.

You want people to feel like they are responsible for the direction and success of your ministry? Make people more important than the specific ministry.

Start doing these things and pretty soon your people will begin proudly saying,

I AM Insert Ministry Here & YOU CAN BE TOO.

Tapping the Talent

April 11, 2007 in Coffee, Ethos, Leadership, Ministry, Popular Culture, Questions, Youth Ministry with 1 Comment

skinny.tiffSometimes I like it when things don’t go according to plan.

I had wanted to get into the office a little earlier than usual this morning but as I was trying to leave the house I couldn’t find my keys. I looked in the places where I usually leave my keys but after a few minutes I knew exactly where they were.

In my wife’s purse. At her job. 40 minutes away.

After calling her to confirm that they were indeed inside her purse I knew that my plans for the morning would have to change. While I do have a spare car key I do not have a spare to the building or to my office. I could leave my house but I had no where to go. Thankfully, I do have a spare Starbucks card for this very occasion.

When I got to Starbucks I ordered a tall mocha and I also purchased a copy of Off the Clock: Vol 1.

Off the Clock is collection of new music from “up and coming Starbucks artists.” Translation: The music is from actual Starbucks partners. You could have been served a drink made by someone featured on this album! How cool is that?

According to the liner notes:

For years Starbucks Entertainment has been asked by just about everyone who works here how to get their music heard. So we decided in 2006 to see what the partners had to offer by launching our first-ever Partner Music Contest. (Partners) were invited to submit solo or band recordings of original songs.

We ended up receiving more than 800 submissions.

Yes, these artists work at Starbucks, and they are also amazing musicians with great songs that deserve to be heard. We back their music wholeheartedly. While we strive to support our partners, ultimately it is our goal here to introduce you to astonishing music from exceptional artists.

Starbucks has always been known for standing behind their employees. The company consistantly ranks at or near the top of the world’s most respected companies and that is due largerly to the way that it treats its employees.

I think that highlighting the talents of the baristas around the country is a win-win for everyone. In a country that is focused on some guy named Sanjya with zero talent this album showcases 15 very talented singer/song writers or bands that sling joe in the morning and rock out at night.

The stores are also putting the spotlight on some baristas who are artists allowing them to create artwork for ceramic mugs, journals, and prints that are sold in store as well.

All of this falls under a new campaign titled, “I Am Starbucks.”

So, I’ve got a few questions that I want to discuss the rest of the week.

1) What could this kind of campaign do in our churches? How can we highlight what our people do “off the clock” (Monday-Saturday)?

2) What would this look like?

Goodbye Goodbuy

April 5, 2007 in Ethos, Life Draining Schlock, Music, Popular Culture with 1 Comment

Hello simplicity and integrity.

In September I wrote a post lamenting that Chase Banks had co-opted one of my favorite songs for their credit card commercials. The song was “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles and I was frustrated that the commercial was selling the idea that love equals stuff. Call me naive. Call me idealistic. I don’t care. The commercial made my stomach turn.

Well it has happened again. This time by a company that I frequent quite often.

No doubt that you have seen that Target has featured the Beatles’ hit, “Hello Goodbye,” in their latest round of advertisements. Except they have changed the lyrics to Hello Goodbuy again preaching the idea that love equals stuff. They have even spelled out the Good Buy in Jell-O and in other products so that the viewer doesn’t miss the pun.

When I first saw the ad a few months ago, I merely rolled my eyes and quickly forgot about it. (I figured that Michael Jackson simply needed money again.) I only saw the ad once and thought that the campain was over. Then while on spring break, I popped a Beatles mix into the van’s CD player on our ski trip with the youth group. From the back of the van I heard, “Hey, this is the song from the Target commercial!”

This student had no idea who the Beatles were. They had never heard the song before seeing it in the commercial. How tragic.

Way to go coporate shills. You have once again managed to take something beautiful and turn it into a mindless, soulless peice of garbage that you can use for your own benefit.

I am not buying. In fact, I’m not going to buy from Target for a very long time. I have managed without Wal-Mart for over a year (only 4 unavoidable visits) and I will manage without Target.

My Experience

March 23, 2007 in Book Review, Ethos, Leadership, Popular Culture, Questions with Comments Off

As repeated polls have revealed, when asked what they spend most time talking about with their child, her As, Cs, or Fs, more than 70 percent of parents say the Fs.
-Marcus Buckingham

Was that your experience because it was mine? Everytime I brought home a report card or a progress report hardly two words were spoken to me about my good grades. The conversations always revolved around how bad one grade was and what I must do to turn it around.

Usually that wayward grade would be in some math class. My English grades were always high and I did very well in Science and in History because it is in those subjects that my strengths lie. I knew deep within my heart that I would never excel at math. I could only get a little better.

However, that isn’t what the world believes. Maybe it isn’t what you believe.

According to Marcus Buckingham, formerly of the Gallup Organization, 61% of people believe that you will grow the most in your areas of weakness. Really? I will grow the most in my areas where I’m weakest?

It has been my experience that simply cannot be true. My weaknesses shouldn’t be ignored (I would have failed if I had completely ignored those math grades) but they cannot be my focus. According to Buckingham, a far better use of my time would have been spent working on my strengths. That what I kept yelling whispering to my parents all those years ago.

Maybe that is why Buckingham’s work has really connected with me. Last October, I heard him ask the grades question. Twelve years of arguments and frustrations all came flooding back to me in that instant. It all made sense to me. Instead of being encouraged to focus on my strengths I have been told my entire life that I need to focus on the areas where I’m lacking. While the motivation behind this belief is all well and good it is merely a wild goose chase.

According to Buckingham, to learn about success you must study success not failure. Studying failure will teach you more about, well, failure.

I’m more interested in success anyway.

Check out Marcus Buckingham’s Go Put Your Strengths to Work. Click on the link to watch a preview video.

Also check out Trombone Player Wanted. A great video resource to supplement this great material.

I will be attending another seminar with Buckingham on Wednesday. I am absolutely stoked about this event. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Until then- focus on your strengths not your weaknesses!

Don’t be an Eliphaz

March 2, 2007 in Ethos, Ministry, Resources with Comments Off

Last night I was going through some of my files on teenagers and grief. I came across this article from Youth Specialties written by Renee Altson. The main thrust behind the article is walking students through the process of grief and disappointment and frustration with life sans the pat answers.

As ministers we like to have answers-the right answers.

People expect us to have answers-the right answers quickly.

As Alston says in the article, we are a culture of quick fixes. While I’ve only been doing ministry for a handful of years, I know that nothing in this life or in adolescence or in the journey of faith comes quick and easy. Pains aren’t quickly forgotten. Wounds don’t heal over night. Blurbs about faith and purpose and God’s will ring hollow in the ears of teenagers dealing with loss.

The youth pastor patted me on top of the head—not with tenderness, but with a dismissive, condescending motion. Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. “Just remember,” he said, “God causes all things to work together for good. God won’t give you anything that you can’t handle.”

I wiped away the tears that had started to form and forced a smile. Walking away, I thought, “Dude, you have no idea what I’m going through. I don’t even know if there is a God anymore.”

We live in a world of instant gratification. We can have almost anything we want on demand. Fast food, fast Bible lessons, fast relationships—everything comes with a money-back, feel-good, 30-minutes-or-less guarantee.

Today’s Christianity has bought into that kind of mentality,as well. Got a broken heart? Jesus can fix it. Feel overwhelmed by sadness? Cast all your cares on him. Feeling stuck between two decisions? Just trust and obey.

What are we offering our students when we give them pat answers and tired clichés? Are we teaching them that we buy into the notion of instant pleasure and quick fixes? Are we setting them up for a life of disappointment and doubt?

The pat answers given to me throughout my lifetime, particularly during my adolescent years, almost did me in. They brought guilt and shame—a sense of never being good enough, of never being godly enough. I struggled constantly with these quick fixes that just didn’t work for me. I’d confess, repent, and accept Jesus into my heart—I really would. And nothing would feel any different. So I’d do it again, repeatedly confessing and repenting in an attempt to feel the answers that were supposed to be there. I’d pray for hours, asking Jesus into my heart again and again. Why didn’t he fix me? Why didn’t God give me strength? What was I doing wrong?

In the end, swamped with frustration and sadness, I didn’t blame God or suddenly decide it was Jesus’ fault. I blamed myself.

One of the problems with pat answers is that they’re usually taken straight from Scripture and therefore contain some element of truth—enough truth to distort; enough truth that, when offered, seems real.

We don’t offer lies to our students, we offer half-truths. We offer the resurrection without the agony of the cross. We offer the ascension without the garden of Gethsemane. And we end up with students with half-truth lives—students who won’t know how to survive the difficulties they face; students with weak faith that is easily uprooted by winds of disappointment and doubt.

What can you do to help ground your students? How do you get beyond pat answers? Do you even want to?

Face Pain

You must befriend the reality of hurting people; you must acknowledge some wounds that are so big they may make you ask, “Why, God?” and even “God, are you there?”

One of the problems with Christians is that we feel we must constantly defend our faith so zealously, we don’t know how to let God handle the huge issues. We try to minimize our situations and lives so we don’t need a big God. Big pain requires a big God.

Embrace Unknowing

A million years of theology doesn’t speak to the heart like a genuine “I don’t know.” And let’s be truthful—there are some things we don’t know.

We can guess. We can come up with alliterative phrases that describe the atonement, the purpose of sin, the meaning of redemption; but when it comes to this student in this moment in this situation, we all too often just don’t know. Pretending that we do leads to pat answers and dishonesty.

Allow for Process

There’s a lot of pressure in the church to be okay. It’s subliminal, from upraised hands during the worship chorus to kneeled moments during the altar call, but it exists.

Many people will expect you to fix the hurting kids in your ministry. After all, you’re the youth pastor. But it’s important not to rush the process. We don’t serve a God who expects us to be put together; we serve a God who suffers with us in our sufferings, who weeps with us in our sorrow.

Listen

Sometimes the best words are no words at all. A lot is unsaid in those quiet, intimate moments. Much is conveyed in quiet breathing and simple sharing of space. And in that silence, you won’t damage someone’s heart. You won’t minimize his pain or tell him what you think he needs to hear or what you want to say.

Just be with her. Be with her without feeling a need to fix her. Listen to the cries of her heart. Offer them up to God.

Pat answers are dangerous. They minimize our God and they minimize us. They turn our religion into something that God never intended. And they diminish our light.

I’ve been reading through the book of Job this week.

What has struck me is how quickly Job’s “friends” resort to offering up the pat answers. One minute they are they sitting quietly and comforting Job (11-13) and the next minute they are offering up “explanations” and “remedies” for the cause of Job’s calamities.

I know why Job’s friends felt the need to speak up. I’m sure that the silence was deafening. The weight of the situation often compels us to speak. We have a need to rationalize and explain away things that we can’t/won’t understand.

Grief is hard enough without us adding the pain and shortsightedness that pat answers bring. Teenagers feel everything so deeply. Walk them through it slowly.

I can’t explain the reason behind what happened to those students yesterday in Alabama or what happened to those basketball players in Atlanta this morning.

What I can do is offer a shoulder for crying, an ear for listening, and a whisper for a prayer.

When people are dealing with grief and junk that the world has dumped on them I am reminded of the words of St Francis of Assisi:

Go into all the world and preach the gospel and use words if necessary.

Time over quickness. Walking over running. Presence over pat answers.

link

Life is Meant to Be Lived in Connection

February 23, 2007 in Discipleship, Ethos, Ministry, Theology with Comments Off

There are two over arching themes that keep popping up in and around everything I am watching, reading, listening to, and talking about. You could chalk it all up to coincidence but I believe that it is God whispering something important to me.

He’s saying, “Don’t miss this! If you didn’t see it there, watch this! If you couldn’t hear me there, how about this! Check this out. Did you see it?” God wants me to know something and he doesn’t want me to miss it.

The first whisper that I’m hearing is that Life is Meant to Be Lived in Connection.

In What I’ve Been Watching
The entire third season of Grey’s Anatomy has revolved around connections.

George’s father died and his need for connection sent him and Callie running to Las Vegas for a weekend wedding. Izzie is still reeling from losing Denny and struggled with losing the only connection she had left with him: an 8.7 million dollar check. Burke and Christina spent the first half of the season in an intense secret that kept their relationship intact but their pride has kept them from reconnecting since their secret was revealed. Merideth and Derek’s relationship has grown over the last few weeks but death threatened to take that precious connection away. And in the latest episode Merideth and her mother were finially able to connect if only for the last time. And these are just the main story archs.

Heroes has proven that the world hinges on our ability to connect with one another.

Even the producers of Lost have come to this realization and have tried to reconnect with their audience. When Lost returned this February, the producers were featured in a “here’s-where-we’ve-been-please-don’t-quit-watching-we-can-catch-you-up” special. It seems to have done the trick.

We are all connected. We are called to connect.

In What I’ve Been Reading
Andy Stanley has done it again with his book Creating Community. The book has me rethinking what I’ve traditionally called community.

We are all connected. We are called to connect.

In What I’m Listening To
I’ve been listening to Pink Floyd’s Is There Anybody Out There?. This live album is the audio chronicle of one of the wildest musical concepts in rock ‘n roll. During the concert, a wall was constructed that seperated the band form the audience. Talk about losing connection.

We are all connected. We are called to connect.

Not in the Earthquake

February 22, 2007 in Discipleship, Ethos, Faith in Action, Stories, The Word with Comments Off

1Kings 19:1-13 TNIV

The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?””

Who would have blamed Elijah for looking for God in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire? Certainly not me.

One chapter ago, Elijah was riding high on seeing the LORD nuke the holy snot out of his sacrifice on Mount Carmel. The prophets of Baal found themselves completely humiliated in their false service to a false god and it was all down hill for them from there.

Then along comes Queen Jezebel’s threats and Elijah runs away hiding himself in despair.

Elijah wanted to die he was so depressed (19:4-5). Although angels attended to his physical needs something in Elijah was still lacking. Anyone who has ever suffered through a season of depression knows that it is your spiritual needs that must be met in order for you to move forward.

In this need, the LORD showed up.

After the display on Mount Carmel Elijah would of course be tempted to look for God in the loud roar of the wind or in the rocking of the earth or even in the heat and sulfur of a great fire but if he had only looked in those things he would have missed that gentle whisper. He would have missed the LORD.

Over the last few months, I have been trying to remind my heart that while God can be found in the big and amazing things going on around me He can also be found in the gentle whisper of the rhythms and patters of life.

While I have stood in awe of some amazingly huge God moves recently, I have been more humbled by the whispers of God in my life. In being humbled I have grown closer to my Father and my heart has become, day by day, more sensitive to His ways and more sensitive to the world around me.

So what have I been hearing? Where and how do I hear the faint cries of the Almighty? What is the LORD trying to say to me through this season of life and ministry?

If I told you now I wouldn’t have something to post for later.

For right now, just take some time and do a heart check.

Are you only looking for God in the big things- the wind, the earthquake, the fire- or are you open to the whisper?

Challenge With My Coffee

February 16, 2007 in Books, Ethos, Faith in Action, Politics, Stories with Comments Off

An estimated 300,000 child soldiers now fight in the more than 50 violent conflicts raging around the globe. Far removed from the world of pundits and journalists, policymakers and diplomats, a 13-year-old boy names Ishmael Beah became one of these young warriors in Sierra leone, Africa. Now in his mid-twenties, he courageously tells of the horrific road that led him to wield an AK-47 and, fueled by trauma and drugs, commit terrible acts. In poignantly clear and dauntless storytelling, Ishmael describes how he fled brutal rebal soldiers, traveled miles from home on foot and gradually regressed to a life of raw survival instncts. Yet, unlike so many of his peers, Ishmael lived to reclaim his true self, emerging from Sierra Leone as the gentle, hopeful young man he was at heart. (Reading Guide)

Childhood is a precious and sacred thing yet it can be taken away in one fell swoop by evil men intent on taking power by any means necessary.

Ishmael Beah and I were both born in 1980. While I grew up in the comfort and security of this country Ishmael and his family were living thousands of miles away in the African nation of Sierra Leone. While I was going through the supposed trials and tribulations of junior high, Ishmael was living through a very real hell fleeing from rebels in a land torn apart by war and unspeakable savagery. In 1993, Beah was kidnapped and forced into an army made up of his peers- mere children. The whole idea of children forced into fighting a war is despicable yet this evil happens everyday. The only way to stop this treachery is to become aware of it and to become vocal about its abolition.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishamel Beah is his account, in his own words, of his capture, torture, and malipulation by the hands of his captors into becoming a child soldier. Beah was able to escape but the same cannot be said for the thousands of other young boys snatched from their homes and huts everyday. Beah story is harrowing and needs to be told.

A Long Way Gone is on sale now at your local Starbucks. Pick up a copy and get educated. There is also a reading guide bookmark available at the POS.

Over the next couple of days, I will be blogging through the book. I will be posting additional information on how you too can get involved. If you would like to read it with me drop me a line and let me know that you are interested. Also, on March 6, I am planning on attending the book signing and conversation with Beah at the Starbucks on Greenville Ave in Dallas. Let me know if you are in the area and you want to attend with me.

There are fires burning that need to be put out. It’s time to let your actions speak loudly.

Everything Matters

January 18, 2007 in D'oh!, Discipleship, Ethos, Ministry with Comments Off

While preparing for my (tentatively titled) “Gospel According to Starbucks” series, I’ve been reading Joeseph Michelli’s wonderful book, The Starbucks Experience. In the second chapter Michelli writes that part of Starbucks success lies in “the amazing ability of partners (employees) to zero in on the minute details that matter greatly to customers.” That has been the case in almost every Starbucks I’ve visited. The floors have been clean, the shelves have been stocked and kept in order, and the stores seem to be running on all cylinders.

Regardless of what others say small details matter just as much as everything else. That’s why my jaw dropped when I saw this picture on Seth Godin’s blog yesterday.

I don’t know who should feel worse, THe PeoPLE who designed ThE Ad or the people who approved it. Plus, although lawyering is a real word it comes across as a little too Napoleon Dynamite when coupled with the capitalization problem and bragging about being 16th in the nation with said skills.

Get the small things right and the rest will fall in place. To whom much has been given much will be expected.
Page 10 of11« First...«7891011»