Archive for April, 2008
Orange 2008: Necessary Conflict
Posted on 28. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
Okay, there is way, way, WAY too much information to put here on the blog. This was an amazing breakout!!! Nancy Ortberg led this breakout. She, along with her husband John (author of many amazing books) led and served at Willow Creek for many years. Nancy now works as a consultant with teamworx2, a consulting group. Here’s the best I can do with putting all this great information on this post.
She began by encouraging everyone to read anything and everything that Patrick Lencioni wrote.
She defined conflict as “passionate and unfiltered debate.”
Leaders need to be the most self-aware person in the room (not in an arrogant way). Leaders need to be comfortable in your own skin.
Here is what happens when you don’t have conflict:
- The best decisions will not be made
- Team becomes a petri dish of mediocrity
- Politics are created
- You take risks without buy-in
- Decisions will be sabotaged (malicious compliance)
- People sin
The further up you go in an organization, the less truth you’ll hear. So…
- Demand debate
- Know your brokenness
So, how do you get it… necessary conflict?
- Create a culture that encourages debate.
- Give people on your team “real time” permission for conflict… and applaud it when it happens (allow people to do it poorly so it doesn’t not happen). When there is conflict, it is a team issue. One on one accountability is not nearly as strong as peer accountability.
How do you do this leading up?
- Ask questions and make observations
- Have the conversations (don’t avoid the conversations that need to be had)
Nancy shared some amazing points regarding some charts and diagrams that I can’t really duplicate here… all I can say is that it was really, really good.
She did recommend a few books.
- The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
- Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
- Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most
Important note: Nancy pointed out that you’re going to have conflict… it’s either going to happen inside the meeting or outside the meeting. What better way to experience conflict in a closed and secure way where people can grow and be encouraged. The alternative is to fight conflict on the outside when it possibly involves people who don’t need to be involved and gets out of control.
Last of all: Conflict is one of the most powerful spiritual formation practices. If you haven’t genuinely said “I’m sorry” in the past month, you’re not building authentic community. Nancy poked fun at “spiritual formation” practices that have been popular over the past 2000 years. She said most books and practices have been written/developed by introverted men (her husband as one of them). Necessary conflict is a powerful force for spiritual formation and growth. WOW!
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Orange 2008: Creatively Wired Meetings
Posted on 28. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
This pre-conference breakout was led by Jennifer Tamborello who served on the original kid stuf team at North Point and at one time directed Kid Stuff. Here are some of the notes I took from this excellent breakout.
If we are not creative, we are not effective. It is imperative that we infuse our meetings with creativity.
Leaders need to be creative:
- to design relevant environments.
- to find effective solutions.
- to communicate a bottom line (what do we want people to know when they walk away).
Six stages of the creative process:
- Define: Establish a written brief (clearly define what you want to create).
- Acquire: Random brainstorm ideas (no rules and no bad ideas).
- Framework: Creativity happens in a sequential order… form helps clarify. Structure enhances creativity.
- Compress: Reduce to the best ideas (this is the time where we throw out ideas).
- Pause: Sleep on it. Allow ideas to incubate… allow time to process.
- Solidify: Add detail and action steps (creativity needs an administrative step).
Good ideas never happen without leadership. Somebody has to have the final say.
Jennifer shared that in a creative meeting, there needs to be 6-10 participants. Everyone needs to know where you are in the process (what problem, event or series are we being creative about). Invite the people who know the audience best (Jennifer talked about how as they created for family production, they realized that their target were 4th grade boys, so she invited 2 mothers of 4th grade boys to be in the creative meeting).
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Orange 2008: Family Ministry Around the Table
Posted on 28. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
This was the first pre-conference breakout I attended. It was led by Dave Fox, the Family Ministries director at “The Bridge Church” in Decatur, IN and Darren Kizer, the Family Ministry Director at Parker Hill Community Church in Scranton, PA.
The heading for this breakout were guided by these statements:
“We will be focusing on an integrated strategy for family ministry. In this strategy, leaders and parents are leading with the same end in mind.”
Darren started things off by bringing out a bottle of Diet Coke and a Mento. Yeah, we know what that does. He explained that the the Mento represents the influence of the church in 10 years. the Diet Coke represents the influence of the family in 1 year. This is very Orange-ish! What happens when you strategically and intentionally combine the influences of the church and family? Yeah, great point!
They spoke about several key ingredients for integrating strategy:
- Know you vision
- Direction: who is part of your team?
- Developing a “Espirit de Corps.” All for one and one for all… a pride of belonging to something.
- Defining “wins” for each area and ensuring that each area knows and understands the wins of each area.
- Plan collectively so we can impact specifically.
They also spoke about questions that invite teamwork and intentionality (great questions for a family ministry staff meeting)
- Are we connecting with parents?
- Are hand-offs crisp and tight? (The relay race is won or lost in the hand-off)
- Are small groups a big deal?
- Are we making volunteerism attractive?
- Are students serving strategically?
- Are we synchronizing the calendar
By asking these questions we:
- Fuel productive tension
- Reveal unstated expectations
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North Point: Buckhead visit
Posted on 27. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
This morning I got up early to drive into Atlanta and visit Buckhead Church. Since being involved in multi-site churches, I’ve never experienced a video campus larger than 1000 people. So, I wanted to experience Buckhead Church, a multi-site video mega-church. I was hoping to see a video teaching experience in this large church setting as well as experience KidStuf, the family worship experience that North Point is known for.
Buckhead is amazing. If your ever in Atlanta, you’ll want to spend some time in Buckhead. It’s an amazing community/city. It’s a little north of downtown Atlanta, but it’s where all the good shopping and restaurants are. I’ve been told that it’s becoming a business/financial powerhouse. As you drive around the neighborhoods you’ll see that this is a very, VERY high dollar community. Well, the church is right in the middle of it all. All around the church are high rises, shopping centers and busy city life. The church uses several private parking lots and the police and host teams are out in force directing traffic. I was a little unsure how I would find where to go, but they made is very easy.
The church almost feels more like a really nice, big-city hotel. It’s beautiful. You come in and begin going up a couple of escalators to get to the main floor. The lobby is big and inviting and the auditorium is HUGE (I’m guessing that it seats 2500-3000). All the elements from pre-service video, introduction, worship and baptisms were incredibly smooth… they were working it. Then came the disappointment that wasn’t that much of a disappointment. I came to Buckhead to experience this video campus, but Andy Stanley was teaching live. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad to get to hear him live… but I wanted to see him on video (most campus pastors at video campuses would cry with joy to hear their attendees say that). I thoroughly enjoyed. Andy preached the absolute best sermon I’ve ever heard on faith. Hands down amazing. I’m sure you can get it off iTunes as some point. It’s the second message in the “Faith, Hope and Luck” message series.
After the service I attended Kid Stuf. I just had to see this family ministry stuff. I loved it. I laughed so hard, they did such a great job. The room was incredible. I can see how some would come in, see it and be discouraged, thinking there was no way they could pull that off. What comforts me is that Reggie talks about doing Kid Stuf in a school cafeteria when they were first getting started. Now that reThink publishes family ministry curriculum, you really just have to recruit and equip your teams.
So, Buckhead was great. So glad I got to see it. Now I’m really pumped for Orange to begin. I’ll be updating the blog throughout the conference. Oh, and if you’re at Orange, look me up… I’d love to meet you!
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Stuff…
Posted on 26. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
Just arrived to Atlanta. Staying with some family tonight.
Planning to visit Buckhead Chruch in the morning. It’s a venue of North Point. It’s a very large venue, so I’m anxious to see a large, multi-site venue as my only experience is with seeing small venues.
I hope to get in and see KidStuf. Only heard great things about this family production. Hopefully they’ll let me in without bringing a family. I really should have called ahead this week.
A teenager I’m good friends with from Texas is in Atlanta for a national school competition. I’m going to try to take him to lunch tomorrow if possible.
I check in for Orange tomorrow night and check in to my hotel room. A co-worker from a church I once worked with is splitting a hotel room with me… that helps a ton and I’m looking forward to hanging out.
Anyone else going to be at Orange? Shoot me an email and we’ll try to arrange a meet-up!
kenny@childrensministryonline[dot]com
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Internet radio receiver
Posted on 24. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
Yesterday I posted about HisKids.net, a great Christian Internet radio station for kids. The Internet has significantly changed radio. I used to listen to Air1 all the time when I lived in Indiana, but since moving I’ve really missed it. However, they broadcast through the Internet and over iTunes radio. So, if I’m sitting at my computer, I’ll often get my Air1 fix.
The HisKids.net radio website advertised a device I didn’t know existed yet. It’s a wi-fi Internet radio receiver. Now I’ve had XM Radio before, but this is different. As long as you can connect to a wi-fi signal, you can tune into any of the tens of thousands of Internet radio stations. This one sold through HisKids.net comes with HisKids.net stations as presets. The cool part is that you can tune into other stations (like Air1) as well as access music files from your computer. I know that music is such an important part of a child’s development and this could be a great way for my son to listen to positive music while he’s playing, eating or doing all the things he’s up to (even though he’s still a little young right now). Shoot, even my wife will probably enjoy jamming out to Air1 as well!
Has anyone else used a wi-fi radio receiver. I’m not sure how “locked-down” this one really is with the preset programming. I’d like to have the flexibility to add many other stations as well as stream audio files from my computer. The nice thing about this particular receiver is that it is only $175. The disadvantage is that it only has one mono speaker.
I’m also looking at the SonoWave. It’s under $100, can be batter powered and seems to do all the same stuff. Anyone else have any experience with this stuff. I’m very intrigued…
Technorati Tags: Internet Radio Kids,Wi-Fi Radio
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Internet radio for kids
Posted on 23. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
I came across this site a few months ago, but I didn’t get it. Maybe I just have a very short attention span and didn’t stick around long enough to figure it out. I think Jim Wideman recommended it as they play a lot of Yancy there. I came back again recently and tuned in and listened for a few hours while I did some work.
Duh, I get it now. It’s Christian Internet radio for kids. It’s actually really good. Very well produced and with plenty of good content. I think it’s a program from Cornerstone University Radio. I think it’s about time this was made available. I remember tuning into the local Christian talk radio to hear “Adventures in Oddessy” every morning as I drove to work a few years ago. Far too often good Christian programming for kids was hard to find or spread out throughout the day on different stations. Now with HisKids.net, you have access to this niche programming all day long. How cool!
Although some older elementary aged kids will enjoy the programs and songs, it seems geared more toward preschool and lower elementary (as are a lot of Christian Children’s programs). I’ll be excited when someone develops an Internet radio station for Older Elementary and Pre-Teens, that will be fun!
Technorati Tags: Internet Radio,kids
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iPhone 2.0: It may be too hard to resist!
Posted on 22. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
I wrote just a few weeks ago why I didn’t want an iPhone… yet. Well, those guys are Apple are building the ultimate device. It’s apparent that the iPhone has changed everything, it’s innovation is forcing the competition to step up. However, what Apple has in the works could very well be a deadly blow to the competition.
Last month Apple announced the release of their SDK to outside developers. In the process, they gave a sneak peak at some of the things in the works. If you haven’t seen it, you’ll hardly believe it. They’re tapping into the accelerometer within the device to build incredible, motion sensitive games and applications (using the same strategy that made the Wii so popular).
In addition they’ve fully integrated the iPhone with Exchange, which is probably the main reason why I wouldn’t have gotten an iPhone. I’ve always needed a smart phone that connected seamlessly with the Exchange server, so my emails, contacts, calendar and global address list is always synced with Outlook on my computer. Now that the iPhone will do this, it’s becoming a much more desired device.
In addition, the rumor is that the iPhone will be even thinner, sport a OLED display (helps with power consumption) and be a 3G phone. Oh, and the word on the street is that perhaps the price may in fact stay the same. $399 for a 8GB (if they don’t drop this size all together), $499 for the 16GB and maybe $599 for a 32GB.
Ladies and gentlemen, if this is all true… Apple may have in fact just sold me an iPhone.
Technorati Tags: iPhone,SDK,3G
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The Ladds: They’re still around!
Posted on 21. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
About six years ago, this group from New Zealand made a big splash with their song “Creator.” It was a pretty cool song, I think it made it one one of the WOW (Christian Music Videos) DVDs. I visited Fellowship Church for C3 and they were doing this song for kids worship… it was very fun! But the Ladds were more of a “one-hit wonder.” However, these guys are still going strong. Now they’re based out of Nashville, touring the US and still releasing CD’s. They even have a fun comic book and some kind of a TV show (or cartoon… I think) coming out soon.
Check out their site. They’ve got 5 free mp3s you can download to get a feel. So, if you’re looking for some really fun music to play between services or during games, the Ladds have a lot of great tunes. They’re certainly worth checking out… and their web page is a great flash site!
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Does it bother you that the same kid gets saved every week?
Posted on 20. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
Ha! If you’ve ministered to kids for any time, you probably got a kick out of this title!
Last week I was listening to an audio blog post on Steven Furtick’s blog. The blog was about how to give effective invitations. It was a great message, regardless of your position. He shared his advice and experience in the wake of Easter where his church saw over 500 people come to Christ. Absolutely amazing! There were so many great points worth hearing.
One thing did stick out to me in particular. Pastor Steven talked about how it had been his tendency to make it difficult for a person to come to Christ in order to ensure that they authentically made the decision. Then one day he read the parable of the wheat and the tares (or weeds) in Matthew 13 and was convicted. He came to realize that it wasn’t his responsibility to determine the authenticity of their faith and remove the weeds, it was his responsibility to sow the seed. In the end, the wheat would be separated from the weed. He went on to say that he (Steven) will refuse to cast wheat tot he side because he thought it was a weed. “I’m not God… it’s not my job.”
I thought about this in the context of the children’s ministry. We’ve all had that one kid that got saved every single time there was an opportunity. There were some kids that I met with personally and baptized that would occasionally raise their hands. Sometimes I’d pull them aside and question them, explaining that you only had to do this once. Ha, I even had one 7 year old girl (it would be an understatement for me to call her a firecracker) who had gotten saved 400 times in one year. I had been working with her parents already on some behavior issues, manipulation and lying. Once I explained to her that she didn’t need to keep doing this. She looked at me with her “sad” eyes and said, “I didn’t mean it those other times.”
A few Easters ago we had a great response to an invitation in our kid’s church. The next week I shared this news in staff meeting. One person on staff responded, “Yeah, but how many of them really meant it. Some of those were probably repeats from Venture Quest (VBS).” Yeah, that didn’t go over so well for me. I didn’t make a big deal out of it, but that did bother me.
Yes, it does bother me that the same kid gets saved every week. Not that I care that they’re doing it again, but because I really want them to get it. I asked Jesus to be my Lord when I was 4. I think I did it 10 times that week. Why? I just wanted to be sure. I understand for some kids (if not most) it is a process. It’s not “too big” of a decision for them to understand; however, as they mature, they’ll also grow in their understanding.
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