There has to be some sort of metaphor here. Technology, spiritual, whatever. What do you think?
This was taken over labor day weekend on the Oregon coast. The fog moved in in about 20 minutes after a beautiful day!
Think before you hit enter
I blew it.
I forgot to think before hitting enter. I needed to take a breath and think and pray.
Recently I wrote a status update on Facebook after I had just hung up the phone from a hard conversation. I shouldn’t have. I was the most frustrated I’ve been in a long time. I should have talked to the Lord about it instead of seeking affirmation from the world…seeking affirmation that I was right.
I’m sorry.
Please hear me, I’m incredibly thankful for this person and their investment in Jody and I and the ministry. I’ve been so blessed by their generosity and the handful of times I’ve spent face to face with them. They have incredibly hearts to serve the Lord and their community. I also believe they are making what they think is the best decision, so for that I applaud them for sticking to their convictions. I wish them all the best as they continue to follow Christ wherever it might take them.
All that to say, the conversation was hard and I felt like I was on the defensive. But I have no rights. I have no rights to be heard or to seek affirmation. I’m a slave to Jesus Christ. I follow him wherever he might lead me. I don’t deserve anything. He stood in my place and took the pain I deserve. For that, I’m grateful.
I tell people this all the time….think before you hit enter. Lessoned re-learned.
Expectancy or circumstances? (What are you looking at?)
We’ve been talking a lot about expectancy on our team this year.
Showing up to campus, the computer or staff meeting expecting the God of the universe to work. Taking Him at his word that he is active and working in our lives and the students lives of this city.
I Samuel 14 caught my eye this morning in Dale Ralph Davis’ commentary. It was the story of Jonathan boldly charging into the Philistine camp full of faith inspite of circumstances. His eyes fixed on Yahweh. The following is an excerpt from Davis…
Faith arises in such a situation because it looks not to circumstances but to God. Jonathan has clear conviction about God (“for nothing can keep Yahweh from saving”) producing great expectation of God (“perhaps Yahweh will act for us”) and recognizes God’s “normal” manner of working (“by many or by few,” i.e., through his servants).
Jonathan is not trusting his own daring scheme. He does not say, “Perhaps Yahweh will act for us, for we are rather clever.” If anything, his daring is an expression of his trust in Yahweh.
The beauty of Jonathan’s faith is its imagination (Come, let us go…perhaps Yahweh will act for us”); and the beauty of that imagination is its balance (“perhaps”). If is if Jonathan says, “God can do mighty works with very small resources, and God may be glad to do it in this case; and how can we know, dear armor-bearer, unless we place ourselves at his disposal?
How refreshing.
Perhaps God will show up for us!
Do you need a Fed Ex day?
Do you need innovation? Do you need to make some space for your team to dream? Try a Fed-Ex day!
The only rule of Fed-Ex day is that you have to deliver over night on a new ministry tool, idea, solved problem or anything else remotely tied to our organization. We just wrapped up the presentations of the Portland Metro staff team Fed Ex day. Here are the idea that were presented!
- A new evangelistic tool that starts with the common Portland belief about man being inherently good.
- A realistic look at the possibility of a Portlandia Summer Project.
- A better way of managing our volunteers.
- New ways to integrate International students into our day to day ministry
- Tweaking our Regional Stint/Intern kickoff weekend to launch them into support raising better.
- Launching a Portland spring break trip in conjuction with GAiN. (This will probably happen as a result of this time!)
The brain power and creativity on display amongst our staff team was awesome. It was fun to dream and allow for those dreams to be worked on. Plus the presentations were fun (think crazy fire transitions between Keynote slides) and developmental for our staff.
Do you do anything like this on your team?
Did you know? Screen sharing on Skype
Did you know that during a video call you can share your screen?
Hmmm, maybe I was the only one who didn’t know this fact of awesomeness. No more trying to explain with words…now I can show you. If you’re on a Mac all you gotta do is hit this little button and the person you’re talking to can see your screen.
What is your best new ministry idea?
I need to know.
The interweb needs to know.
What is the best new idea you’ve implemented for this season of ministry? What shiny new idea do you feel like God has laid on your heart. Is it a new technology or a new direction or emphasis? Is it simple, is it complex? What is it? In what new area are you trusting the Lord for something new? Light up that comment section!
Photo courtesy of Northcountry Boy
How we do ministry – 1 page
Want to know how we do ministry in Portland…here’ you go.
A while back Tim Casteel inspired me to do a one page document (albeit a long one page) on how we do ministry with his version in Arkansas. I stayed up late one night and got busy on ours. Many thanks to Tim for allowing me to plagiarize some parts. 
Portland Metro – How We Do Ministry Fall 2011 – One Page
Our Audience
- 100 thousand students of Portland Metro area.
- City savvy, socially liberal and independent activists
- Post-Christian free thinkers
- Majority are local to Portland
Everything we teach should be gospel infused and Christ-centered – (discipleship, Cru Talks, Life Groups)
- Religion has baggage in Portland, thus a need display Christ and the grace that is found in him in all that we communicate.
- The Gospel is that “I am far worse off than I ever imagined, but far more loved than I ever dreamed.”
- Our desire is not to create moralistic doers, but lifetime lovers of Him.
Our vision is “That everyone would know someone who passionately follows Christ”
- Everyone – This is our Scope – Every student (and faculty) on the campuses of Portland
- Would Know – The gospel travels along the road of relationships (when we say “evangelism” we want students to think “share Christ with my friend, neighbor, etc.” not “share with random dude on the Park Blocks”. We talk about Jesus every chance we get while building trust through relationships.
- Someone – This is our means of reaching scope. Spiritual multiplication. Mobilizing college students to reach college students within their spheres of influence. Students empowering other students to the same.
- Who passionately follows Jesus – This is what we desire of students involved in our ministry. Staff and students infused and motivated to do ministry because of the work of the Christ in their lives. People who are compelled to share the love of Christ because the Spirit is at work in them.
Our mission – To help students know Christ, grow in their understanding of how to walk with him, go into their sphere of influence now and for a lifetime proclaiming the message of Christ.
Staff’s Job
- Walk with Jesus – Spirit filled life is key
- Talk about Jesus wherever you go (this includes a campus target area for staff)
- Teach the right people how to do the first two. (develop spiritual multipliers)
We reach Freshmen
- Reaching freshmen is a critical ingredient to seeing movements built over time
- We target specific areas of freshmen strategically (personal evangelism, outreaches)
Life groups are the backbone of spiritual movements
- Significant life change happens in small groups as students live life with the roof off and the walls down.
- Life groups will be the backbone of developing spiritual multipliers
Holding ministry focus and scope in tension
- We value the health of our team – we are careful about commitments
- We long to bring Jesus to the edges of our scope – we are full of faith and open to the Spirits leading
- Staff focus downtown while mobilizing leaders/partnerships on various catalytic campuses one day a week.
We partner with others
- The fulfillment of the great commission in Portland will not be the result of one organization
- We value relationships with kingdom builders before opportunity
- We desire to partner with volunteers, churches, other organizations to see the campus reached and to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the city.
We have the world in view – we are a sending pipeline to the world
- We cultivate a heart for the world in our staff and students.
- We passionately send staff and students to minister around the globe
- Everything we do should be sustainable in producing life-long laborers
The internet empowers contact generation
This is how I make the internet work for me to gather contacts during the summer for our context. If you haven’t figured it out yet, Christian students are searching for groups of other believers to get connected with before school even starts. Be the first ministry that they find on google and the first to contact them!
- I have a “homebase” that is our ministry internet real estate and have created a “Connect with Cru” form that interested people can easily fill out. The “call to action” is in a prominent position on the homepage too. Their answers then get forwarded to my email, where I can collate their information and enter it into Missionhub.com. At that point they get assigned to a staff person to follow-up.
- I also have a fairly established facebook page that is active, although small. It has a landing page with a link to the “Connect with Cru” form when you first visit the site.
*I use a wordpress plugin powered by cforms for the “Connect with Cru” form
**Homebase terminology originated with Chris Brogan. I did a seminar on it last year.
***Here’s an old screencast on why we use a wordpress site for our ministry.
If technology had a PR campaign
…this would be it. A terminally-ill mother watches married daughter’s first dance via Skype.
I couldn’t agree with this statement any more! Thanks Matt Turkington for this comment on google+.
There are some times technology amazes me more than others. Chatting with people around the world via Skype has become completely normal and I don’t think it impresses me anymore. But when something like this happens and technology enables a once-in-a-lifetime interaction that would have never been possible otherwise, it blows me away. The next picture in the stream shows them with headphones on chatting for a few minutes. The mother died a few weeks after the wedding.
If IT had a PR campaign, I think it would use pictures and stories like this, along the lines of the “Plastics Make it Possible” campaign. This moment sponsored by IT.
Sheesh, I’m getting teary eyed just writing this post. Makes me want to rethink how we recruit to operations. What do you think?
Do you need a Facebook landing page?
I created a landing page for our PDX Cru Facebook page the other day. (Thanks for the inspiration U. of Central Florida).
It’s got a giant welcome picture along with links to our “Connect with Cru” page and info on all of our meetings. I’m hoping its a better way to translate Facebook advertising into people actually getting involved. Especially as we blitz the city with some advertising at the beginning of the school year.
It was a little bit of a confusing process and involved inputting some HTML. Start here if you’re interested and then you’re on your own.
Is this a good idea? Do you use Facebook advertising at the start of the year?
