in a meeting for a new project at LifeWay yesterday, we discussed the idea of using twitter during the project experience. at first, the team thought I was joking. they laughed about how twitter is just for people to do constant life-updates, like "i'm going to the bathroom now." there's a distinct seperation between those who have not used twitter, those who use twitter, and those who embrace twitter.
twitter has become an asynchronous, world-wide chat room.
i remember when i was younger logging into AOL chat rooms and trying to find neat people to talk with. it was a desperate attempt at entertainment and hopes of new friendships... but it was all with random strangers and now lating ties.
with twitter I'm able to, instead, engage in conversation with people I know whether they are online at that time or not. and any of my friends get to see what i'm talking about and chime in too. and - here's the kicker...
I get to see the conversations and thoughts (and maybe even talk to) people that I have no business talking to. as work and life continue to become more social and networked, things like twitter allows us to peek into the lives of people/topics/politics/companies that we want to be associated with.
twitter turns our sphere of influence into an open hall for the world to hear and for us to hear others. one giant conversation piece.
i believe that work is becoming more and more intertwined with entertainment, with our social lives, our identities, and our dreams. how many times have you heard "i'd love to work at..." or seen pictures or cool offices or thought about how to improve your own work place?
I know that there are many people who would love to work for LifeWay, and I am blessed to be a part of the talent that's employed there. I know our competitors would love to know how we work. I know there are people who will do everything they can to find out what our VBS themes are going to be early so they can be the one to break the news. I know that people want all the details about the next Beth Moore or Priscilla Schrier study and will follow any blog (or twitter account) that might drop some hint about it.
And that's a good thing. It means that people are finding people, places, jobs and products to get passionate about. It means that we don't have to accept the spoon-fed media of network television and ClearChannel music. it means there are people out there talking about the alternatives... and that people are listening.
and this new/secret project I'm working on at LifeWay that will (tenatively) launch at the very end of this month?
we're going to use twitter.
UPDATE: my personal twitter account is here.
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This is one of the lessons I learned through observation, that actually had fair unfortunate after effects.
Back when I was in charge of usability for my company, I was called into what I thought was a discovery meeting for a new usability test. Back then we were still trying to convince people of the benefits of usability, and most of my meetings and conversations were about how it could be used and customers wanting to do it - but to do it cheaply.
It turned out I was walking into a mess of confusion and conflicting opinions. The meeting that I thought was a discovery meeting was actually a working meeting. Not a big deal, I just shifted gears and settled in to plan the session. It simply meant my job was easier; the requesting project team had already decided they wanted to do the sessions.
The other two people in the meeting was the project manager and the representative customer from the requesting component. Our department worked as a service department, so each project had a customer from the requesting component and was assigned a project manager; so far, very typical of our work.
The customer had suggested they wanted to bring in some specific people to run through the tests, including airfare and hotel. The project manager was adamantly against this. The project was in the very early stages of development and - next on the agenda - was the consideration of whether we were going to do paper prototyping or an actual mock-up of the program.
This is where the problem occurred: the project manager attacked the idea of bringing in people from across the country to view the project so early on. There was definite frustration in his voice, and I knew that something deeper must have been going on.
The customer responded well, and entertained the idea of using local testers. The conversation ended up consuming the entirety of the meeting.
Later, I was brought in to our director's office and the explanation was given: the director had made the suggestion to bring in the key customers. It was part of the larger plan for the project.
The problem was that the department direct and the project manager didn't have a miscommunication; they had no communication on the subject. As a result, the project manager unknowingly mocked and put down the director's idea/plan.
Note to everyone: openly putting down your boss's boss's plans... hardly ever a good idea.
The problem is that it raised all sorts of issues:
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- Which is better? To fly in testers or use locals? Either the director or the project manager had to be wrong.
- Why wasn't there communication between the director and the project manager?
- Was the lack of communication a bigger issue with the project?
- Why was the project manager so stern about how bad of an idea it was to fly people in?
- Who was in control of the project: the project manager or the director?
Last week I gobbled up some more responsibility here at LifeWay, and became the curator of our (forthcoming) downloads portal, LifeWay.com/downloads. As of today, this is what it looks like:
Magical, eh?
So, of course, I have much different plans for the page than its currently set up. However, in making such a big change, it's only right for the page to have the rights of due diligence and make sure that the current users of the page will still have the same functions on the name page, if it is so warranted.
The current page is set up as links going to our free resources. Is it effective? Meh.
Because we use an awesome web stats service, Fireclick, and my job used to be gathering and reporting on the web analysis and metrics for the entire LifeWay network of sites, I'm able to get at the pertinent data pretty readily.
Turns out the number one links is to the Adult free resources (the Women's resources is a broken link, so I can't track that). More surprising, however, I discovered that the number two link was the clipart page, and that the clipart page was surprisingly popular on our site in general! Clipart? Seriously? So this, of course, leads to exploration about the clipart page.
One of the neat things about Fireclick is you can easily pull up all kinds of stats on a webpage. My curiosity was this: if the LifeWay.com/downloads page was responsible for only 1.6% of the clipart page... how were people getting there?
It turns out that 94% of the hits on the clipart page are actually the FIRST page people hit on the LifeWay.com website. In other words, they're coming to the page from OUTSIDE of other LifeWay.com pages. This is where data-mining and webstats gets to be fun; I was trying to find out what to do with one page and stumble upon a silly mystery of how on Earth are people getting to a page that we haven't updated in years.
Again, Fireclick comes to the rescue as I can put the webpage into a report that tells me what the referring domains (and/or actual URLs) are to bring people directly to the clipart page.
Here's where it gets crazy; 65% of the visits to the page are from people doing directly to the page... as in, typing it in or they have it book marked. The next biggest bracket are Google searches from Canada, and then Google searches from the UK.
So, of course, I get even more curious and mine a bit further...
We've got people hitting up our clipart page from EVERYWHERE. The US, Canada, the UK, the Philipines, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, Mexico, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates... everywhere. This is just bizzare to me.
The key to data mining, however, is making some sense of the data. If you've got nothing applicable from the exercise, then it's just a waste of time. So, some resolution points from my little stroll down the Fireclick stats lane:
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Magical, eh?
So, of course, I have much different plans for the page than its currently set up. However, in making such a big change, it's only right for the page to have the rights of due diligence and make sure that the current users of the page will still have the same functions on the name page, if it is so warranted.
The current page is set up as links going to our free resources. Is it effective? Meh.
Because we use an awesome web stats service, Fireclick, and my job used to be gathering and reporting on the web analysis and metrics for the entire LifeWay network of sites, I'm able to get at the pertinent data pretty readily.
Turns out the number one links is to the Adult free resources (the Women's resources is a broken link, so I can't track that). More surprising, however, I discovered that the number two link was the clipart page, and that the clipart page was surprisingly popular on our site in general! Clipart? Seriously? So this, of course, leads to exploration about the clipart page.
One of the neat things about Fireclick is you can easily pull up all kinds of stats on a webpage. My curiosity was this: if the LifeWay.com/downloads page was responsible for only 1.6% of the clipart page... how were people getting there?
It turns out that 94% of the hits on the clipart page are actually the FIRST page people hit on the LifeWay.com website. In other words, they're coming to the page from OUTSIDE of other LifeWay.com pages. This is where data-mining and webstats gets to be fun; I was trying to find out what to do with one page and stumble upon a silly mystery of how on Earth are people getting to a page that we haven't updated in years.
Again, Fireclick comes to the rescue as I can put the webpage into a report that tells me what the referring domains (and/or actual URLs) are to bring people directly to the clipart page.
Here's where it gets crazy; 65% of the visits to the page are from people doing directly to the page... as in, typing it in or they have it book marked. The next biggest bracket are Google searches from Canada, and then Google searches from the UK.
So, of course, I get even more curious and mine a bit further...
We've got people hitting up our clipart page from EVERYWHERE. The US, Canada, the UK, the Philipines, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, Mexico, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates... everywhere. This is just bizzare to me.
The key to data mining, however, is making some sense of the data. If you've got nothing applicable from the exercise, then it's just a waste of time. So, some resolution points from my little stroll down the Fireclick stats lane:
- The page can be modified however we see fit. There is too little traffic to the lifeway.com/downloads page to impact our business in a negative capacity. Any improvements should/could result in an improvement in page views, usage of free downloads, and traffic/awareness of our purchasable downloads.
- The free download pages need to be reworked as well. They aren't heavily trafficked either and need some attention. There's good content out there, but no one knows we give so much away free!
Clipart could be a micromarket for us. The question is: do we position clipart as a free loss-leader for traffic/something we can just give away to help church add some flair to their bulletins, or do we find a way to commission new, high-quality clip art and sell sets of it to recoup the expenditure? Unfortunately, I'm not really in a position to make any kind of decision (or really a suggestion) on such a topic, but I find it an interesting dilemma none-the-less.- Clipart. Still popular. I never, ever would have guessed. This is a very humbling reminder about how expansive our customer base is, with some people desiring HD downloads and others checking our clipart page, anxiously awaiting a new line drawing to drop into their bulletin.
One of the best examples of things that are distinctly "new media" is interactive metaficition. Traditionally, metafiction would be a story that is aware of itself being a story; self-referential, if you would. Interactive metafiction takes that a few steps further where the reader/viewer/engager can interact with the characters and influence the actual story.
[kyte.tv appKey=MarbachViewerEmbedded&uri=channels/30223/132712&embedId=20374448]
It's hard to apply this concept to ministry, because we seem to often take a very serious tone to our evangelism and seek truth more so than crafting a story. Perhaps there are opportunities for the church to develop new parables and ways to engage a more creative mind instead of always focusing on the establishing our spiritual truths as entirely literal.
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So for vacation this year, Ashley and I went out to try on Seattle. We liked.
The trip was, simply put, stellar and jam-packed goodness. The only bad part was that we had no internet access the whole time to be able to blog from. So, in vainity, here goes my recap!
Microsoft, John Porcaro, and the Gamerscore Blog Team
Since we were heading out to Seattle, we managed to match up schedules and meet with John Porcaro and the GamerScoreBlog team. I've been reading John's blog for years (since before the 360 launch, I think), so it was nice to finally meet him for real.
John has been with Microsoft for nearly twenty years and one of the first people to be a part of their mentoring program. It shows as John was able to sift through my issues and answered a nagging internal question with perhaps the simplest of answers: "so what?" It was well time and hit the issue right on it's head.
During the trip we took a pit stop and got to play with the new Microsoft Surface table computer.
After visiting the new research building we parted ways, but not before I was able to convince him to give the class thumbs-up pose:
A Weekend to Remember
The bulk of the weekend was spent attending the Weekend to Remember event put on by FamilyLife. Here we can see Ashley unlocking the secrets of marriage.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC4RlyFqaFM&hl=en&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&border=1]
All-in-all the conference was decent, but was skewed more towards sorting out troubles and issues than growing in a healthy relationship. One of the best parts of the weekend is that it presents you with ideas that you're then prompted to discuss with your spouse. This allows you to have conversations you might not otherwise have, or be comfortable bringing up. Ashley and I had some great conversation over the weekend, and the conference was worth it just for that.
The Space Needle
Ashely was all kinds of excited to visit the Space Needle. Lacking proper transportation, however, we got there really early and ended up just walking around the Seattle Center. It was there that we stumbled onto the World Rhythm Festival and got to hear Raquy and the Cavemen.
We ended up eating at Sky City in the Space Needle. The rotating restaurant is powered by 1.5HP, or the equivalent of a sewing machine. It moves you this fast.
And, just to be sure we put things into perspective, the Space Needle is tall.
The First Starbucks
During the trip to downtown Seattle with Kris and Laura, we got to visit the first ever Starbucks.
The Experience Music Project
We also got to visit the Experience Music Project; basically, and interactive Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Seattle artists (it also had the Sci-Fi Hall of Fame, which was cool... and random).
At first, I thought I had found my calling on the drums but, alas, the drums were a lie. But then, like a muse calling from the darkness, we found the studio. And we recorded. Oh, did we record.
Leonard Sweet
We also got to meet up with one of my occasional-mentors-who-don't-fully-realize-the-impact-they've-had-on-my-life, Leonard Sweet. I first me Len back in 2001 or so, but this was the first time Ashley got to hang with him. The two definately hit it off, and were ganging up on me on more than one subject
Portland and Multnomah Falls
Finally, Kris and Laura drove us to Portland/Vancouver to view their hometown, a big Best Buy, a two-story Target, an Ikea, and Multnomah Falls.
And, I got to steer a building.
There's More
But it's late, I'm tired, and Leonard Sweet told me blogging was vain anyways. So for more media from our trip:
Flickr Photos
YouTube Videos
and the musical wonder that is, The Spicey Boot.
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A Weekend to Remember
The bulk of the weekend was spent attending the Weekend to Remember event put on by FamilyLife. Here we can see Ashley unlocking the secrets of marriage.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC4RlyFqaFM&hl=en&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&border=1]
All-in-all the conference was decent, but was skewed more towards sorting out troubles and issues than growing in a healthy relationship. One of the best parts of the weekend is that it presents you with ideas that you're then prompted to discuss with your spouse. This allows you to have conversations you might not otherwise have, or be comfortable bringing up. Ashley and I had some great conversation over the weekend, and the conference was worth it just for that.
The Space Needle
Ashely was all kinds of excited to visit the Space Needle. Lacking proper transportation, however, we got there really early and ended up just walking around the Seattle Center. It was there that we stumbled onto the World Rhythm Festival and got to hear Raquy and the Cavemen.
We ended up eating at Sky City in the Space Needle. The rotating restaurant is powered by 1.5HP, or the equivalent of a sewing machine. It moves you this fast.
And, just to be sure we put things into perspective, the Space Needle is tall.
The First Starbucks
During the trip to downtown Seattle with Kris and Laura, we got to visit the first ever Starbucks.
The Experience Music Project
We also got to visit the Experience Music Project; basically, and interactive Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Seattle artists (it also had the Sci-Fi Hall of Fame, which was cool... and random).
At first, I thought I had found my calling on the drums but, alas, the drums were a lie. But then, like a muse calling from the darkness, we found the studio. And we recorded. Oh, did we record.
Leonard Sweet
We also got to meet up with one of my occasional-mentors-who-don't-fully-realize-the-impact-they've-had-on-my-life, Leonard Sweet. I first me Len back in 2001 or so, but this was the first time Ashley got to hang with him. The two definately hit it off, and were ganging up on me on more than one subject
Portland and Multnomah Falls
Finally, Kris and Laura drove us to Portland/Vancouver to view their hometown, a big Best Buy, a two-story Target, an Ikea, and Multnomah Falls.
And, I got to steer a building.
There's More
But it's late, I'm tired, and Leonard Sweet told me blogging was vain anyways. So for more media from our trip:
Flickr Photos
YouTube Videos
and the musical wonder that is, The Spicey Boot.I recently had the opportunity to play with the Microsoft Surface. The unit was just running all the basic tech demos that have been show here and there, but even still just touching the unit maade me see what all the hype is about and let me know that I was touching what will someday be as common as the television set...
continued
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The article I wrote for Deacon Magazine on Social Networks has found its way to the LifeWay website before the magazine's publication. The article was written with the church leader in mind, so the voice and style is a bit different than my usual work.
Click through to check it out!
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This video is as simple as I could break it down: new media is about the intent to interact. I do some basic defining and examples in this video. Nothing too out there, just an opening conversation.
Basically, I filmed thise because I ran into several people who were asking the same thing: what is new media? Does it have a place in ministry?
This is my first attempt to answer that, on the most basic level. If I get the chance (after vacation), I'll probably do several more of these, brainstorming on how ARGs, creative commons, and other less obvious new media stuffs.
[kyte.tv appKey=MarbachViewerEmbedded&uri=channels/30223/127403&embedId=10131020]
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I love dramatic, emotionally moving music. It gives me a taste of another artists dreams/struggles/desires and helps to rekindle thoughts of my own. 95% of the time, however, the really good stuff is about breaking up or things of that nature.
So upon listening to Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot)'s "Your Love is Strong" three times in a row today because it hits that emotional chord just right for how I feel spiritually, full of hope and yearning for God to simply be God... I figured I'd throw it out here, just in case you (yes, you!) hadn't heard it yet.
You can listen to it here.
Lyrics are here.
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Do You Think I'm Beautiful by Angela Thomas is now available for download from LifeWay.com. This is an Individual Use version and DRM-free.
From the LifeWay.com Online Catalog: Based on the popular trade book with the same title. Seeks to bridge the gap between the life a woman longs for, and the life she actually has. The video-based study combines practical Bible teaching and real-world advice. Through her warm and intimate style of teaching, Thomas touches readers with personal stories that will resonate in their own lives and draw them closer to their loving Father.
This coming week Ashley and I are taking a nice little vacation to Seattle. We've not been a true vacation for any length of time that didn't involve a wedding of some sort for quite a while, so we're definately looing forward to it. We've grown weary of our old digital camera we have, and had been considering getting a digital SLR like I've wanted for years.
However, the practicality of carrying a big DSLR around Seattle didn't seem quite right... and I've had so much fun doing video snippets as of late... that instead we decided to get a handheld/pocketable HD camcorder. Though their open-box buy deals, Amazon had a great price on the one I wanted, almost 50% off of the retail, so I bit and ordered it last Weds night.
But this came in the mail instead:
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Somehow, someone put the Sanyo Xacti HD700 sticker on a Sony DCR-DVD308 box.
So I emailed Amazon and, as usual, their customer service is far and above the norm for any company. They offered a full refund (if I shipped it back), as one would expect. The problem came that it was an open box buy, so they couldn't simply send me a replacement order. Instead, I would have to place a new order at full cost.
The full cost of the product from Amazon was still nearly 30% cheaper than Best Buy or Circuit City, so I was going to place the order again... but I emailed them back because one thing bothered me. I had already paid shipping for the order and - because they sent the wrong thing - I'd have to pay shipping again. I emailed them back to see if they could pay for the shipping on the new order.
Their response was that they would give mea refund for the difference between the new product and the open box price! The difference was, obviously, much more than the shipping cost. Amazon Customer Service agents like to go above and beyond whenever they can.
My only dilemma now is that I did have to pay for overnight shipping so that the camera would get here before we left for Seattle. On the principle of the matter, I feel I shouldn't have to pay for the shipping, because it was their fault for shipping the wrong thing. But on the practical level, the discount for giving me the open-box price is more than the cost of the shipping. However, I have now paid shipping twice for one order.
It's an interesting dillema. On a principle level I'm disappointed about paying for the shipping. But, for all intents and purposes, the customer service agent went above and beyond and took care of me at a rate better than simply paying for my shipping.
So, while it would have been best for Amazon to get the order right the first time, I have to say that their response time and the quality of their responses have been above and beyond any interaction I've ever had with a company. Thanks, Amazon, for proving that digital communication can work, and empowering your agents makes for happy(ish) customers!
(And, hopefully, we'll have some great little videos of our trip to Seattle!)
First, read this. Penelope Trunk has a way of getting right at the heart of matters and always provides excellent research on anything that might seem unorthodox or controversial. And, in my own career, I've found her advice to almost always be spot on.
Did you read it?
One of my friends would get upset, almost to the point of quitting, because the job he was in had a dress code. Many of us in our 20s are concerned with things like identity and wearing jeans to work and getting visible tattoos. I, personally, would love to grow a big, long massive beard. But more important is the knowledge that appearance can make or break perceptions and attitudes. Those perceptions and attitudes that are formulated will continue to stick with you.
I have worked for the same company for six years now. When I first started I was fresh out of college and was not, how might you say... "kempt." Sure, I wore dress pants (kind of), but they also had holes in them. I didn't own an ironing board. I didn't own a real razor (just an electric one).
When I got a promotion here in 2005, I started wearing suits once a week, to help change some perceptions abot how serious I was about my career. Earlier this week, I ran into one of the guys I worked with back in my first role here. I didn't have a suit on, just regular casual dress clothes. As I got off the elevator, he mentioned that I looked very dressed up.
His image of me, the one imprinted from working with me every day for two years, is still an unkempt, out-of-college guy. What is now a dress-down day for me stood out in his mind as me being dressed up. I'll likely never be able to change his perception of my attire, and all the stigma that comes from that.
So what does this have to do with meetings? Everything.
Every day before I leave work, I check my schedule for tomorrow's meetings. I scan the attendees and am looking for two things:
1) Anyone I don't know
2) Anyone in a higher position than me, who I don't normally interact with/have a working relationship with
If either of those are true, I plan on wearing a suit coat the next day. It's that simple. It doesn't matter if the person I don't know is an entry-level, new employee or a peer by all accounts; if it's the first time I'm meeting them I do what I can to make the best impression. If it's someone of a higher position, you always want to make a great impression - you never know who you'll be working for/with someday.
What if dressing up isn't your style? Get over it.
What if you can't afford nice clothes? Go to Goodwill. Half of my suit coats are from there. The majority of the other half are from Target. I don't make a ton of money, but that doesn't mean I should look like I don't know what business casual means.
So dress it up a little and - if you have to - find your own way of adding a little more identity to the "costume" of dressing up. One of my favorite belts to wear with a suit is a little studded belt I have. I save ties for only the super-important meetings (once or twice a year). My formal brown shows are actually RocketDog shoes.
There are plenty of ways to make it work for you, but just be sure to make it work.
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I was recently asked by a respected peer a very open ended question: "What is New Media?"
It's a hard question to nail down, because there are so many possible answers. The definition of "New Media" is a hard one to come by because of the continual change of its use, new technologies, and marketing speak. So here I was, on the spot, known as an expert in the field to the people at the table; how do you define new media to someone who purposefully does not have a home computer? After some thought, I defined it something like this:
"New Media is broadly-accessible content that is intended to receive a response from the person who engages it."
cont'd
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Gigi's Cupcakes recently opened in downtown Nashville. And yes, I ate one today. And yes, it gave me quite the sugar rush.This past Sunday evening, I preached a sermon on disappointment, and how grace and forgiveness is so much more beautiful than vengeance.
My creation process for a sermon is a fairly complex one. There are countless thoughts that flow through my mind from the beginning to the delivery. I preach portions of the sermon in my head in between all the free moments in my mind. I spend more time in the Bible than usual, being sure that the passages the sermon is culled from - and the supporting verses to help go deeper - are the right ones for the message.
Then there is the transference of my mind's thoughts to paper which has always been a fairly hard thing for me. My mental thoughts are fairly abstract. I often think in fluid concepts or emotions moreso than I think in actual language and organized thought. So, while I'm good with language, settling the mind down to actually put it on paper is often a chore.
I often have multiple threads of thoughts going on at a time that all tie in together. The ebb and flow of such thought always seems much more exciting than linear thought from point a to point b. I'd rather explore.
So, when composing this sermon I found my mind going through the concept in three ways:
1) The Theology of Sin/Forgiveness/Beauty of Grace
2) The Biblical/Historical Support for Grace from Human to Human
3) My own life
Unfortunately, it's nigh impossible to communicate three things at once, since we have not mastered ESP. Instead, I needed to communicate each thread in a linear fashion, then be sure to tie everything up in a bow at the end.
What helped me get there was creating my powerpoint presentation. By limiting myself to what could be contained visually on the slides, I was able to control the message and flow. I ended up creating a side-bar to keep fresh the thoughts that came before.
I ended up with 34 slides. The final portion - practical examples/stories from my life - never made it to the side bar.
I ended up spending probably 3-4 hours on developing the power point from my notes.
So hours of preparation compress into a 35+ minute sermon, and my thoughts and theology were lifted into the air and communicated to a gathering of supportive friends and loved ones. And, as they say in the story books:
The End.
That's the pain of a pastor, I believe. Your work and soul floats from vocal chords to the present ears, and then you have no control of it. You're done. You know for sure that no one will dote upon the message for nearly the same amount of time you spent preparing it. And so, Monday comes... and you don't know if your child of a message is alive in peoples minds or dead and forgotten.
With messages of the spirit, there's no way of knowing why any response is what it is. It could be a moving of the Holy Spirit, or a hardening of a heart. It could be lack of preparation, or a humanistic talent of charisma and engaging public speaking.
All this to say, teaching/preaching is hard. Let your pastor know when you agree (or disagree) with their message; doing so at least lets them know you processed it a little bit. Hug them when they have a bad day, and blog about it when a message really resonates with you. Pastors put their time, thoughts and theology into messages week after week; they need all the motivation they can get to let their children of words and phrases float on each week, dying on deaf ears or living in our memories.
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I ended up with 34 slides. The final portion - practical examples/stories from my life - never made it to the side bar.
I ended up spending probably 3-4 hours on developing the power point from my notes.
So hours of preparation compress into a 35+ minute sermon, and my thoughts and theology were lifted into the air and communicated to a gathering of supportive friends and loved ones. And, as they say in the story books:
The End.
That's the pain of a pastor, I believe. Your work and soul floats from vocal chords to the present ears, and then you have no control of it. You're done. You know for sure that no one will dote upon the message for nearly the same amount of time you spent preparing it. And so, Monday comes... and you don't know if your child of a message is alive in peoples minds or dead and forgotten.
With messages of the spirit, there's no way of knowing why any response is what it is. It could be a moving of the Holy Spirit, or a hardening of a heart. It could be lack of preparation, or a humanistic talent of charisma and engaging public speaking.
All this to say, teaching/preaching is hard. Let your pastor know when you agree (or disagree) with their message; doing so at least lets them know you processed it a little bit. Hug them when they have a bad day, and blog about it when a message really resonates with you. Pastors put their time, thoughts and theology into messages week after week; they need all the motivation they can get to let their children of words and phrases float on each week, dying on deaf ears or living in our memories.Today I wrote an email passing up what would have been a quasi-dream opportunity.
The problem was, while the freelance work involved would have been fun - to the point that I would have probably done it for free under different circumstances - it simply would have taken up too much of my time that is so very limited right now.
And this, I discover, is why we get "paid." Jobs are, essentially, a very simple economic model of supply and demand. I have only so many hours, so I can do only so many things. Given that I'm one of those weird people who absolutely love their job, I don't need to find career fulfillment outside of my work. I am (for now,) fulfilled with what I do and the pay that comes with it.
As such, my employer gets 110% of my work time. What I mean by this is that they get me until my work is complete, as is expected from a salaried employee, and i put in extra time to better my skills and knowledge for my fields of expertise (new media production/marketing, strategic foresight, customer relations, and online spiritual matters).
I also have some ancillary hobbies and dreams, of course. But pursuing a livable fulfillment in such hobbies is nigh impossible... not because I couldn't commit to working towards those dreams, but because I wouldn't want to sacrifice my current job supporting the church through digital media to do so. I imagine I will grow out of this job given a year or two, but I need to be - and I love being - committed to it first hand.
So, when I recently saw a freelance opportunity to possibly some digital media for a comic book publisher and an opening in my schedule, I jumped at the opportunity. But my time is limited, and the window passed as I began my final MBA course and got more digital media freelance my way that I knew would pay more than the comic book publisher... and I wasn't a proven commodity to the publisher yet, so I'd have to come in quite cheap and do a decent amount of work just to be fully considered...
So I had to email back today and decline going forward.
The toughest part of it is the concern that you've burned bridges by showing interest in an opportunity then, ultimately, having to decline it. Getting a foot in the door at any major publisher like Marvel or DC is a highly competitive market... and something that many people never get.
Sigh.
There are only so many hours in a day, Aaron. You can't meet up with every dream you come across.
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Recently made available on the LifeWay Catalog is a series of free downloadable PDFs for the "Share Jesus Without Fear" material. This is the first release of products under our multi-ethnic initiative led by Phil Adams, and it has been awesome to get to touch on it, just a little bit.
It's not often that we're able to give things of this nature away for free, let alone things that are entirely new products. These pieces were translated specifically for this purpose: to make them available for free. I've gotten to talk with Phil several times about the initiative, and there really isn't an ulterior motive here; Phil believes that there is a need for these languages that often don't get much attention to have materials available to them in their native tongue.
The fact of the matter is, LifeWay is incurring a cost to make these available. We pay the cost of hosting the files and of delivering them (just because we're a non-profit doesn't mean that we get free internet bandwidth). LifeWay pays the cost for meetings when we discuss plans for the products. LifeWay pays for the time to create the PDF, to organize the process, etc etc.
It's a pleasure being able to see us take on a financial burden to ourselves in order to better equip fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and doing so in a way that is comfortable to them, in their own language. While we would never be able to do this for all of our products (we do need revenue in order to pay for product, authors fees, employee salaries, electricity and the like), it's great to see us be able to utilize digital delivery to do something like this.
Physical books in the various languages are also available at the discounted rate of $4.90.
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One of the people I've been blessed to have in my life is Ariah Fine. He is continually thinking, challenging, and loving. Ariah loves to deconstruct (as I do) and - one of the reasons I love him and reading his thoughts so much - is that he very often comes to difference conclusions than I do. He's a brilliant mind and an activist in ways that I could never be.
However, we as humanity are not omniscient and hardly ever know all of the factors in play for any situation we're involved in. Whether it be an inappropriate joke because we don't understand the connotations, a curse word being repeated by a child, or judgement on inaction when we don't know the histories of the people involved, we often - by very design of humanity, perhaps - bring our own expectations, biases and needs into any given situation.
Ariah recently posted a blog post about whose role is is to take care of the poor and homeless. I encourage you to read it, as Ariah has great ideas that may entice (or detract) you from the cause of helping the homeless and poor.
But this post is about how we as humanity simply don't know everything. In Ariah's post he mentions that Mosaic, while he was here, had one homeless man as a part of our community while he was here. Unfortunately, that's not entirely true. During the time Ariah was attending our community, I can distinctly remember at least four individuals struggling financially who entered into our church life. One lived with one of mine and Ashley's friends for a while. Another would regularly meet up with me and the guys on Thursday night when we would eat out, and we'd buy his food.
The point of this is that Ariah was, without question, the most involved in helping and empowering the homeless and poor in the Nashville area from our church. But while he was involved with the life of our 100-or-less person church, he apparently only ventured into the life of one of the four poor/homeless/financially challenged people who flowed in (and out) of the life of our church while he was here (we've had a few others since Ariah's left). This isn't to say Ariah messed up or missed out... it's that even in the area he is passionate (and rightly so) about, there was more going on than one man could keep up with.
All that to say... how Ariah and I "empowered" or "took care" or "loved" the poor/homeless is simply different. He might say his way - working to politically change things, preparing lunches - is better. I might say my way - getting to know them inside the context of the church, eating a meal with them - is better. But we'd both be wrong.
The fact of the matter is that both need to happen. And more.
That's the beauty of the church; we don't need to know. The things we don't know are what makes us so strong and precious.
Ariah was a part of our community... and so the things he did were things that the church did. When you're as small as Mosaic is/was, then everything that its members do are symbolic of the things that the church is about. The things that flow out naturally from the body become the passions of the church. If it was forced from the pastor, it wouldn't work.
I love the fact that I don't know everyone's pains and everyone's joys. It makes for deeper relationships when I discover them. It means that I can give grace - or be given grace - when someone messes up, or doesn't see eye-to-eye.
I love Ariah, and people like him. The church needs people like him just as much - if not more - than it needs technologists like me. But we need to learn to support one another's passions and gifts and perspectives so that we are a more flavored church, rather than simply isolating things to that which the Holy Spirit has sent our way.
It is clear the the Spirit has given Ariah a gift to seek the homeless and poor. But the church also needs people whom the Spirit has given a passion for international immigrants, public safety concerns, understand laws to keep the church out of legal issues, web designers to help embrace church home seekers who are surfing the web, and men who are willing to play with children so our kids can see examples of stable, Godly men. Just to name a few.
And we'll never always know what is happening in all those ministries in our home churches... because they aren't our passion. But, hopefully, the body can support each other and understand that God has gifted us in different areas with different passions because we are meant to be a body, not simply an arm... no matter how important that arm might be.
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Angela Thomas's new study, When Wallflowers Dance, is now available for download on LifeWay.com. The study is about moving away from the walls and insecurity and towards a more fulfilling, unashamed life with God. These files are for individual use and are DRM-free.
To learn more you can visit Angela's site here, or check our her LifeWay studies here.
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