eighth track
Every person is a CD with recurring “tracks”—comments, opinions or rants they can always be counted on to share when a given topic comes up.
For instance, my mom’s blood starts boiling when the conversation turns to Bible college students (often preaching majors) who think studying literature or anything non-hermeneutical is a waste of time. And it’s a righteous anger, too, because who are these 21 year old kids who have so much life experience and wisdom that they don’t—at the least—need artistic works as sources for sermon illustrations? (Read this for more on that.)
Or there’s my wonderful dad who, two minutes into watching any rerun, even the Cosby Show episodes my brother and I have memorized, will say, “You know, I don’t think I’ve seen this one.” (Hey, there are worse things than regular happy surprises from new-to-you TV.)
And today yet another phone call with yet another leader pushed the button for my own recurring track: Politics and Personalities will always negatively fill the void created by a lack of Processes and Procedure.
Call it “P4,” and think about the organizational dysfunctions you’re involved in—have the leaders made thoughtful, intentional choices about where things are going and how everyone’s going to get there? Have they communicated them? Have they made consistent decisions based on them?
The IT department that never solves your problem but creates plenty of new ones—is a leader developing a help desk system and holding team members accountable?
The blistering friction between sales and marketing—has anyone defined “customer service” and delegated the authority for developing new strategies?
The hours lost forever to phone calls, emails and meetings just to put out fires or resolve misunderstandings among frustrated people—is someone creating a work flow and communication structure to keep the same scenario from playing out again?
It’s not always this simple, of course; there are many other factors (and people) contributing to conflicts. A few systems won’t fix everything, and a focus on policies over mission can backfire.
But we also veer off mission if our people have to navigate chaos or infighting to make progress. And I’ve seen it enough that “P4″ has earned a place on Jen Taylor’s greatest hits.
jen-in-the-box
In his book Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, Jeremy Butterfield lists ten of the most irritating phrases in English, including “it’s not rocket science,” “with all due respect,” “fairly certain,” “I personally,” and “shouldn’t of.” (It’s shouldn’t have, folks, as in “I shouldn’t have slept through so many English classes.”)
I’d add another to his list: “out of the box.” The phrase isn’t just a cliche; I think it’s also become counterproductive.
All creative endeavors require boundaries—rules, even. In addition to correct grammar (shouldn’t have), effective writing requires various elements: paragraphs have topic sentences, sentences have nouns and verbs, and an English sonnet is always fourteen lines of ten syllables each. Music, whether it’s Beethoven or Beyonce, involves time signatures, rhythms, musical keys with specific sharps and flats, and much more. (So much more that I had to get a tutor to pass music theory in college.) Painting, photography, filmmaking—every creative enterprise is grounded in certain parameters.
Research backs me up; if you’ve read Made to Stick, you may recall the Israeli research team that asked three groups of novices to brainstorm ad campaigns. One group received no training, one participated in a two-hour free-association class, and one was trained for two hours on templates the research team had already identified as central to 90% of award-winning ads. Then each of the groups submitted their ideas to an independent creative director who had no knowledge of each group’s training.
Who created the best ads—the team without any boundaries, the team with two hours of encouragement to think outside those boundaries, or the team with instruction in six boundaries? You guessed it—the CD rated the third group’s ads 50% more creative. A few carefully-chosen boxes produced the most out-of-the-box results.
This means if you are leading a worship arts team planning Christmas services, the least helpful thing you can do is convene a brainstorming meeting and ask your team to think “out of the box” with “no bad ideas” and a “blue-sky” approach to a “blank page.”
For one thing, even as you urge this you already have an idea, however vague, of what you want Christmas at your church to look and feel like. You might even be one of the lucky few whose senior minister decides what he’s going to preach on before December 21. So if the two of you are thinking about a retro “Peanuts” Christmas feel with a straightforward gospel message, why waste 45 minutes of everyone’s time sharing ideas about how other cultures depict the incarnation? 30 minutes of discussion about favorite Christmas movies is fun, but only helpful if it’s on theme. And if you know the service will have an acoustic vibe, why burn brain cells figuring out where to rent a harp?
In other words, establish the box to channel creativity productively, not to stifle it. Of course, if you don’t know what key idea you’re going for, you’ve got bigger issues—figure that out alone or with a smaller group, then bring it to your team for brainstorming. With all due respect, I personally am fairly certain that’s the way to go, because it’s not……well, you know.
“Music” notes
As I type, I’m leading a workshop on blogging at the National Church Music Conference at Plainfield Christian Church. I asked these great folks to help me with a post.
Here are some reasons they’re considering blogging:
–To network
–To allow people to share experiences and ideas about sermons
–To share daily devotional insights
–To drive more traffic to the church website
–To connect to the younger demographic
Here are some questions we’re going to cover in our last fifteen minutes:
–Facebook and Twitter–WHY??
–RSS
–Creating headers and using graphics
What would you tell these budding bloggers–how would you answer these questions?
happy blogiversery
Today marks three years for this blog! (And tomorrow involves a birthday with more threes…….heaven help us.) Here’s a look back…..
Ten of the posts I like best, for one reason or another:
Do we really want a country of McChurches?
The story is bigger than our short-term happiness.
Can Christians drink?
A Holiday Tip.
“Leadership” means dealing with reality—including conflict.
eHarmony: I’m not a fan.
If you must read “The Shack“……
On preaching politics from the pulpit….
Why I’d rather work for men.
An open letter to Tim Keller.
Ten of the posts that received the most feedback, on or off-line:
Apparently you can’t love trees and love God—or so say some readers.
How would Jesus vote?
Parents, please keep your crying kids out of worship services.
“Shout to the Lord” on American Idol…….oh, the drama.
The church’s response to homosexuality.
How I messed up the 2008 NACC.
So we saved ‘em. How do we disciple ‘em?
One attempt to start a small group.
All a-Twitter.
Is this it? I’m ready for more.
Ten people, places or things I still think you should check out:
Books by Henry Cloud
Design Intervention (both versions!)
What kind of church is this?
Ring the Bells: A Christmas Offering
Deadly Viper Character Assassins
Second Guessing God by Brian Jones
name brand
If you haven’t already, you’ll want to read the extra article about church branding in this week’s megachurch-themed Christian Standard, then vote in CS’s branding competition featuring 16 megachurch logos. (If the link to the contest doesn’t work, try, try again—they’re working on it.)
As I voted I found myself being drawn to certain logos but unable to articulate why. Most likely it’s because they followed the simple-but-not-easy strategy outlined in Fillinger’s article and suggested by countless other marketing professionals–figure out who you are and what you’re about, then allow those priorities to determine your message and its visual expression.
In other words, the public should receive not just a visual impression of your logo on their eyeballs, but an emotional impression full of connotations about your ministry and its values.
For instance, this logo from Aspen Grove Christian Church here in Nashville uses what my realtor would call “designer colors” to create a contemporary feel. The crown of thorns and prayer images display serious topics, but the line drawings give a sense of informality. The tree connects to the church’s name, and a combination of fonts ties it all together. This logo makes me want to find out more.
So does this one, for very different reasons. Verve, Vince Antonucci’s just-starting church in Las Vegas, lives up to its memorable name with this eye-catching logo. In addition to the full image shown here and on the church home page, I’m betting Verve will also use just the red V to brand itself in Vegas—clever.
Amor Ministries and Restore Community Church also use logos to begin telling their stories. You don’t have to know the meaning of “amor” or be familiar with the organization’s purpose to understand this is a ministry focused on love and providing shelter. Similarly, the progression of patchy to solid color in Restore’s name visually illustrates the church’s mission of, well, restoring people from brokenness to wholeness—and the arrow is a great touch.
Has your organization unified its message and medium effectively, or do you have some work to do? What are some logos (church or otherwise) that connect with you?
easter dress
I have learned a few things during my two years in Nashville: Vegetables are not considered “done” until they are cooked to the consistency of baby food. The correct pronunciation of that major street downtown is Dee-MON-bree-un. Some people actually enjoy NASCAR. And Easter Sunday calls for new clothes and a big hat.
I’ve also learned about Tennessee’s rather unusual attempt to cut down on DUIs—these “I am a drunk driver” vests. Three years ago we became one of the few states to vote a “shame law” on the books requiring first offenders to clean up litter from busy roadways while announcing their crime. I saw several while driving around this past week.
There aren’t many things I despise more than drunk driving—it’s stupid, unnecessary, and potentially deadly. But when I noticed these people along the road, the punishment bothered me. For one thing, I’m not sure embarrassing offenders out of the behavior will be that effective. Instead, I agree with recent task forces which recommend simultaneously stricter and more solution-oriented penalties like revoking licenses or lowering the blood alcohol count which triggers a jail stay.
But the law also makes me uneasy for another reason: if we’re passing out orange vests for wrong-doing, I deserve a closet-full. Drunk driving is dumb and destructive, but so are many of my own choices. Laziness, jealousy, bitterness, anger—I could have vests for all of those. My Easter outfit could have been covered with signs reading “I am a grudge-holder” or “I am impatient” or “I have little faith.”
However, yesterday we celebrated God’s great victory over the original shame law. To paraphrase Galatians 3, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, drunkard nor sluggard, adulterer nor gossip. There isn’t even Yankee or Southerner. Because of Jesus, all who repent and believe are clothed with Christ, on Easter Sunday and on every other day—hats optional.
twilight zone
In a February USA Weekend interview, author Stephen King compared “Harry Potter” novelist J.K. Rowling and recent phenomenon Stephenie Meyer. “The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn,” he summed up. “She’s not very good.”
In case you are a man without a wife, sister, mother or teenage daughter, Meyer is the author of Twilight and its three follow-up young adult novels about a teenage girl named Bella and her vampire boyfriend Edward. Meyer’s books have been translated into 20 languages, sold 22 million copies just in 2008, and took spots 1-4 on last year’s best-seller list. That’s right, the Twilight series monopolized all four top spots last year.
The only good thing about this is it pushed The Shack to #6. Because King is right—the books aren’t very good. They include run-on sentences even the most junior editor should have caught, repetitive descriptions (we know Edward is hot because his eyes blaze, scorch, or smolder most of the time), and a whole lot of melodrama.
But just as people don’t visit Hard Rock Cafe for high-quality food, people aren’t reading Twilight for high-quality prose–they’re reading for the love story. Meyer has created every woman’s ideal man: mind-bogglingly handsome, funny, intelligent, articulate. He dotes on Bella’s every word and every mood swing. He’s got piles of money, a shiny Volvo, and nothing but time. (He is immortal.) Most of all, he’s Bella’s protector in a way no real man could be, able to run at lightning speed, read thoughts, and stop out of control cars with one hand.
When Charlotte asserted “Women just really want to be rescued” on an episode of Sex and the City, the other women at the table looked at her like she spit in their coffee. This desire to be cared for and protected is one of the few off-limits topics among modern women, because it’s something we’re not supposed to want. We can open that door, schlep that luggage, and fund that retirement account ourselves, thank you. But one or more of these books has been on the NYT bestseller list for years. We may not admit this desire, but we’re spending an awful lot of money to read about its fulfillment for someone else.
Perhaps it’s because God created us this way, and no amount of equal pay (which I firmly support) or power pantsuits (which I don’t) can negate it. The healthy expression of this inner wiring doesn’t include vampires and shouldn’t include victimization; it’s less “rescue” and more regard for our differences as women. For our part, it also includes recognition of men’s equally-unique role as provider and protector.
And, I think, the end of apologies for wanting that. We stopped waiting for the knight on a white horse a long time ago, but the so-pale-he’s-white Edward still entrances us. The books may not be good, but they point us, however melodramatically, to something that is.
always be yourself
And maybe limit your kids’ TV watching.
an inconvenient truth
When two of my friends got married, the pastor reminded the groom that while it’s right to be willing to lay down his life for his new bride, he must also be willing to be inconvenienced for her.
That’s often more difficult. There is something noble and soul-stirring about the grand gesture, but neither of those adjectives apply to waiting without sighs and eye rolling while she does her hair and makes you late. There is something heroic about the gallant knight expertly commanding his white horse to duel for the lady’s honor—it’s much less exciting to adjust the tire pressure on the white Camry so she can drive safely.
The same principle applies to other relationships. While I am quite willing to fly across country and be there for a friend at a time of great need, how often am I willing to take a phone call during my hectic day and listen to the details of hers? I would donate a kidney to a family member, but will I stifle a snarky comment the next time I’m annoyed with one of them?
And it’s true with God. As Twila Paris sang in her old song Undivided Heart, “There have been days when I would die for You, and days when I would not die to me.” I’ll hopefully never have to find out, but I think I really could face a firing squad rather than deny my faith. So why is it so hard to tithe?
God asks few of us for the grand gestures, but he asks all of us as his bride, the church, to “inconvenience” ourselves for His sake. Most of us won’t have to lay down our lives, but we all have to take up our crosses.
Jennifer Taylor
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