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.… Read the rest
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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.
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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.… Read the rest
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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.… Read the rest
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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.… Read the rest
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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.… Read the rest
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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.… Read the rest
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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).… Read the rest
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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.… Read the rest
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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.… Read the rest
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