9 Goals for 09 - Pt 8

Be More Friendly

It's become crystal clear to me this year that I am not a friendly person. Maybe it's my social awkwardness, maybe it's the fact that I'm an introvert, maybe it's just lack of practice being around folks I don't know. I'm not one to strike up a conversation with someone I don't know or even smile and make small talk most days. I tend to be a look down and stare at the floor type person. The truth is I'm awful at this and there are a dozen reasons for me to be at least good if not great.

While I don't feel some burning need to fit a mold or be like anyone other than Jesus (he does seem like a friendly guy though) I see folks who have that ability to make friends easily, to strike up conversations with strangers, brighten the day of people they don't know, and build a relationship with nothing more to work with than being in the same place at the same time and think tot myself that's a skill, in fact that's a way of life I want to emulate. (Dang that was a long sentence.) This will be the hardest of these goals for me. I can't schedule it in. I can't just encourage some natural tendency in me. It's uncomfortable and awkward and if I'm being totally transparent kind of scary for me. I'm going to just have to dig down, man up, risk embarrassment, err on the side of overdoing it, and be friendly. On the Bus, at the office, in the store, with my neighbors, I stink. I want to do better.

9 Goals for 09 - Pt 7

Unplug from Tech and Media more.

Maybe this goes against the trend or maybe it will make me less "relevant" or something but I intend to have less technology (or less frequent use of it) and less media (or more intentional use of it) in my life on 09. So what does this look like?

Only 1 TV in our house instead of two, this will be easy since the other one died anyway. It's in the rec room so you sort of have to intentionally go watch iot rather than it just being on. I'll be intentional about what shows I follow but plan to watch less TV "just for something to do."

I'm going to follow less blogs and do so less frequently. I'm going to cut way back on the number of friends blogs I follow, after all most folks update weekly at best, and I'm going to streamline the "professional" blogs I follow. For example I'll likely dump Seth Godin's RSS. Great blog but he posts to frequently (yes it's possible) and says alot of the same stuff. I kind of feel like I've had the experiance. I'm dropping Batterson's Blog because it tends to be fairly personal with a few inspirational thoughts lumped in. Nothing I can't miss. But I may also pick up some new ones if I find they are solid.

I'm going to check those blogs, and facebook, and email less frequently. That's probably one of the greatest productivity killers for me one one of the things that distracts me from things that aren't urgent but are important.

I don't have a PDA or smart phone so that's a non-issue. And although I'm not ready to make this a goal I do hope to replace some of my media usage time with reading. Slow and steady wins the race for me in that department.

9 Goals for 09 - Pt 6

Journal More

Another simple one. I have use journaling in the past as a tool on mission strips or as part of a prayer exercise but I want to take it to the level of a discipline for at least a good chunk of this year. I have a lot of stuff running around my head these days and rather than keep it there or try to structure it and refine it to the level required to share it with others, for example on this blog, I'm going to write it out. Some of it will be what happened today, some of it will be prayers, some of it will be questions and just thinking out loud, but I think it will be a good experience for me to journal it out. I've never found a ton of value in going back and reading journal entries later but have heard that's what you are supposed to do so I have tried to keep them neat and tidy and structured but not this year. This journal is going to be a bucket that I open up my mind and puke into once a day. If 100 years from now archaeologists want to dig through it to try and find out what I ate that will be their problem.

9 Goals for 09 - Pt 5

Encourage other leaders more.

This is a pretty simple one I think. I'm going to look for ways to be more encouraging to other people in church leadership, other pastors. I know it makes a difference when people from outside my situation take the time to encourage me and give me a little bost and so I want to do that more for others. I have some ideas to go about it but it's ultimatly not rocket science so...

9 Goals for 09 - Pt 4

Continue searching for a mentor.

For several months now I have been sensing a need in my life to spend some time with an older, more mature, more experienced Christian man, for lack of a better term a mentor. I'm not looking for guy who can coach me through all the challenges of ministry but maybe a guy I can bounce stuff off from time to time. What I'm really hoping to find is a man I respect who is way further down the road of life experience and following Jesus than I am. A guy I can talk to, pray with, learn from, and a guy who can look me in the eye and tell me things I need to hear that I'm not smart enough to know and tell myself. I don't picture anything overly formal just consistent and rich. Maybe a weekly breakfast together that I pay for.

One of the admittedly few drawbacks of of leading where I do is that we don't have any of the true dear old saints. The folks who have that richness in their lives that only comes from years with the Lord. I've looked around the city and thought through everyone I know of here and so far haven't come up with a solid candidate so I'm going to keep looking, keep meeting folks in town here, keep my ears open for folks who might be moving this way, and keep praying for a mentor this year.

9 Goals for 09 - Pt 3

Do less extra circular church stuff and more community stuff.

Opportunities to get involved in church stuff outside the main focus of my actual responsibilities are endless. There are interdenominational pastor get togethers. There seem to be a favorite pastime of church leaders in Halifax. Sometimes one wonders if we are more concerned about getting the lost to Jesus or just getting together with each other. There are district events and comitties, christian non-profits doing events and innitatives, camps, conferances, and special events to speak at, and the list goes on.

There are also some opportunities to be involved in the general community here at Halifax. There is my Toastmasters Club (more on that in a future post) an animal shelter I have been thinking about volunteering at (basically just to play with kittens)and otheropportunities I beleive will present themsef in the comming months if I keep my eyes and ears open.

I tend to default to saying "yes" to church stuff because it's fun and comfortable and seems like "a good thing to do." I don't really have a defult for community stuff because frankly I haven't been p[aying attention that long. Because you can't do everything my default for the next year will be no to church stuff (although I'm sure I will do a few things)and yes to non-church community stuff and my prayer is that God will open up some cool opportunities for me to be involved in Halifax. Maybe it will be something recreational, maybe it will be sitting on a board or committie, I don't know but I'm gonna make decisions in such a way that I can do less extra circular church stuff and more community stuff.

9 Goals for 09 - Pt 2

Regular Prayer Times

I'm at the office a little early for one of our late Saturday night prayer times so I figured I hit up the next installation in the series. While I will readily admit that I don't spend as much time in daily prayer as I should (who does? how would you know if you did?) the thing I need the most is regular extended prayer times, sort of like mini retreats. I find when I take these times (I used to do it more regularly) that I can always fill up and hour or two and can almost never fill more than 3. The problem is I let way to much time elapse between these experiences. My goal is to take the bulk of one afternoon a week to pray, listen, think, process, and journal. I will need to pick a consistent afternoon and schedule it in but I'm not sure which one to go with yet. I'm leaning towards Monday because it's a day where I'm not generally up to any mental heavy lifting but am very much in a mood to just chill with God. It's also a great way to start the week and download all of my thoughts, worries, hopes, and fears before my day off on Tuesday. Having an office downtown should make this discipline easier. Not that I can take that sort of time effectively in the office but because it gives me easy access to some big old (one of them is 250 years old, one of the oldest in North America) churches that are open all day where I can go for some sanctuary and some coffee shops that are great for journaling.

9 Goals for 09 - Pt 1

I've been thinking a bunch lately about some things I want to focus on in the New Year and so over the next several days I will unveiling my 9 Goals for 09 starting with #1.

BLOG DIFFERENTLY
I feel like this blog needs a direction. Not sure what it is by I intend to reflect, experiment, and change. Sometimes I think I'd like to do a church and ministry oriented blog but I don't have enough to say, enough authority to say it with, and I'd like to keep blogging as a part of my recreation not my occupation. The Regime started as en entertainment blog. An opportunity for me to vent my creative and comedic steam and this is fun but it actually creates pressure. At times it has been an issues and discussions blog but frankly thats not something I have the mental energy or passion to try an sustain. I could always go full on "cat blog" and just make it regular updates on what I've been up to , random thoughts, and pointless stories. Frankly I'm tempted but then what's the real point?

Maybe I'll make some major changes, maybe I'll just bring a little more focus, maybe I'll start blogging more regularly, like several times a week. Or maybe I'll just shut the whole thing down and call it a good run and if inspiration strikes again sometime start a new one fresh. Whatever it looks like I will blog differently in 09.

Popular Wisdom

It's been a pretty sharp learning curve since starting Deep Water. It seems like every week there is another new concept or challenge to wrap my brain around. I think I've been learning some pretty cool stuff but I have been slow to share it because a) I haven't had enough reflection time to let a lot of it crystalize into something I can readily describe and b) I don't want to be the guy who does something that seems to work once and instantly declare it a universal principle and himself a genius for framing it. That said here is something I have am learning in the process.

In the church world there are all sorts of little axioms and truisms that I usually refer to collectively as "the popular wisdom." Some folks live by these ideas as if they were part of some lost book of the Bible. They wouldn't dream passing 80% seating capacity or hiring and anything other than a secretary (or Executive Assistant) second. Others are brave and creative and ignore these little "gems" in favor of a homegrown and context specific approaches they came up with all their own. Both are idiots.

The truth is this. The popular wisdom is popular for a reason, it's often right, but it isn't universal truth either. Don't always follow it but your a fool to completely ignore it. My suggestion would be to use it as a baseline and a way to frame your discussion.

You are filling up your worship service; when is it time to move or add a second service? The popular wisdom is 80% but what if your seating is really comfy and spacious and the people you are trying to reach are used to being ushed into packed seating? Maybe you should wait until 90%. What if 10% of your seating stinks because of location or comfort or sight lines and no one want to sit there? Maybe you should jump closer to 70%. Or what if you have average seating in an average room with relatively average people? I'm guessing 80% is your number.

You should hire a secretary second. What if you are good at letting technology deal with a lot of that stuff? Children's ministry should be a top priority. What if you are in community of retirees with loads of seniors housing. You should keep your sermons under 22 minutes because that's how long sit-coms are. What if your people are wired more like Lord of the Rings or The Dark Night fans (but thats a post for another day, one I should probably do)?

Long story short. Pay attention to the popular wisdom but don't blindly follow it. Let it help you make decisions but don't let it make them for you.

Underrated

This world is full of stuff that doesn't live up to it's hype and it drives me nuts but I love finding things who's wonderfulness far exceeds the credit they get. The following are things you should check out but probably haven't because they re underrated.

Sussex Golden Ginger Ale - This sweet nectar is a great beverage when you don't want to guzzle something down you just want to nurse it while you watch TV or read. It's potent and refreshing.

Dragon's Den - This is arguable the only decent this CBC has ever produced that isn't comedy, sports, or kids. It is fascinating, educational, and entertaining and has some of the most compelling and believable human interplay or any reality tv show ever. It's also a very original concept with a great cast. It's on Monday nights and I almost never miss it. And right after that comes...

Big Bang Theory - Best new sitcom in years (I'm looking at you The Office). It's a belated coming of age nerd fest. The characters are original in that they are not 20 something pretty people (I'm looking at you Friends) but familiar enough to be understandable and predictable in the good sense of the word (I'm looking at you Star Trek conventions). I think what I like most about it is that it is character driven as opposed to story or gag driven. Among the many great characters Sheldon shines, even hen he is just standing in the background of a scene he is hilarious. He's one of those show making personalities like George, Joey, and Carl.

ProPresenter - I won't bore you with the nerdy details but if you use presentation software for church media you should switch to Propresenter. It's a lot like media shout except it actually does all the stuff it claims but better and faster and prettier and easier. It's for Mac though. I think Mac is underrated to but I doubt any one would believe me.

Church Planting - I think people have given to much emphasis to the challenges and potential problems and not enough to the potential and fun. I'm not saying everyone should do it. You definitely need certain skills and opportunities but I think at the end of the day the thing that stops most folks who should consider church planting it not a lack of gifts or support but just a plain old lack of guts. On a related note:

Not Owning Building - Every time I hear a church needing to raise money to fix the parking lot or put a new roof or replace the carpet I think how glad I am to be in rented facilities. Our church has more than doubled in size since we started a year ago. We don;t have to go to two services, we don't have to build a new building, we just have to move a couple theaters down. Guess what it's going to cost us to triple our seating capacity? $50 a week. Awesome.

Sandwiches - One of the most wonderful and diverse food types ever. Sandwiches, subs, hamburgers, burritos, donairs, and more are all incarnations of this delicious invention. I love sandwiches. They can be a snack or breakfast or a light lunch or a full meal. Absolute culinary brilliance.

This Facebook Page - HERE

What do you love that you think is way underrated? Let the rest of us in on the goodness!