Passionately Procrastinating

I always tell my wife that I'm very helpful, just in the least helpful way possible. I usually say that when I'm getting the look that tells me I didn't get done what was supposed to be done. I usually only imagine that I'm getting that look due to my deep seated (or is it seeded?) insecurities, but my imagination is quite compelling, so I usually feel guilty about whatever it is I haven't done - while simultaneously exulting in some other triumph.

For example, maybe, I mean just hypothetically speaking for moment... Maybe the grass needed mowed, the flower box removed, and the old dryer taken to the dump. But instead of tackling any of those half hour jobs, I decide (again, this is hypothetical) to remove all the crushed rock from a 60' x 3' section of our front yard, so that we can plant a couple bushes, put down some weed block, and replace all the rock. Which I would hypothetically guess would take about 4 days, 2 shovels and a bucket, 7 blisters, and 4 grouchy and underpaid child laborers.

See - helpful.

Just not necessary. Not well-timed. Not integral to the continued smooth functioning of our household. But helpful.

So today, when I have several other things to do that suddenly became less than urgent, I decided to take it upon myself to build a website. I've messed around online enough to know how to manipulate a little bit of content on this free (and pre-designed) site, but I have zero experience actually starting from scratch. So naturally, instead of finishing a couple easy jobs that need done in my office, I registered a domain name, paid for a year of hosting, and set up cPanel access. Then I proceeded to install the self-hosted incarnation of Wordpress (twice, since I didn't quite get it right the first time) on my host's server, purchase Standard theme (which I'm told will raise the speed of awesome on my site from 0 to 60 in the blink of a pixel) and... well, then I hit a road block.

See, in my imagination, there's supposed to be this easy, 'click here to download Standard theme' button that you click after you pay for it, then another 'install Standard theme' button to finish the job. There were buttons to click alright, but somewhere in the process, what I needed to be one easily managed .zip file became a folder full of files that would've made Hulk smash tanks and unicorns and stuff. I ended up figuring out how to sort of 're-zip' all those files into one, then how to upload that through the file manager on my cPanel, and finally how to then unzip that within the file manager on the host's server. Not bad for a guy who didn't even have a cPanel to open a couple days ago! (They're nothing like the old 70's panels that used to be in my basement, by the way.)

So, despite nearly forgetting to take my daughter to pre-school, then being a couple minutes late to pick her up, and not finishing a couple other projects that are about 27 hours from regaining urgent status... I am proud to say I've successfully set up the skeleton for what I hope will be a blog that makes a difference. (I'm not telling you where it is, yet - it's still a little shy.) I'll still use this space here to collect my thoughts about our journey through life to God (as I have for several years), but I wanted to start something more focused on one thing: unleashing potential in the young church.

I'm tired of seeing churches just get old and tired and wear themselves out running around the same old circles. There's a better way... I'm about to launch into a long, impassioned diatribe, here, so I'll stop - that's what my new digs are for. I hope to see you there soon (that is, once I reveal where 'there' is)...

Blogging Mojo Book Review

A while back, I came across this guy from Intercourse (PA) who posts pictures of Amish people, blogs a series of cartoon videos, drinks vinegar on camera, and mixes some of the most humorously random metaphors ever known to woodchucks. Bryan Allain is a funny guy with a funny blog. As I first read his blog, I shouted out, "Wow, this guy has some serious blogging mojo! I wish I could find my own blogging mojo like that." It was a big moment here in the office...

Ok, that last part is a total fabrication; I don't think I've ever actually said the word mojo because it confuses my mouth. Wait, was that a Spanish word, or are we just making stuff up now? Do you really think you're cool enough to pull off a word like that? Regardless, you should check out his blog. If you're a blogger, or if you just like funny stuff, you should also check out his new ebook - 31 Days to Finding Your Blogging Mojo. You can find it on the book's site as a pdf, or on Amazon in a Kindle edition.

Lost your mojo?

The books offers a 31 day walk-through before jumping into the big blogging game. Or maybe it's more of a quick series of timeouts in the middle of the game to remind you what the heck you started out to accomplish with this whole blogging thing. Either way, it's full of really good, practical blogging suggestions and ideas for making your blog better.

Allain begins by re-acquainting you with the core elements of your blog (the audience, the content, and... you'll have to get the book for the other one) - these are the foundation of what will make your blog something someone else will read and to which they'll actually return to read some more. He spends another 10 short chapters or so helping you tweak your content and focus in on what you really want to write, then fills the last third of the book with helpful tips on getting people to visit your blog and keep coming back for more.

Each chapter is only 2 pages and contains a short exercise that will help to put the idea of that chapter into practice on your blog. It's written to probably take about 10 minutes a day, plus another 10 to 20 on the exercises, but it's also pretty easy to read in longer chunks - you'll just have to be careful not to miss the benefits of the action points.

I've been thinking about shuttering this blog and restarting a more focused blog, so I was glad to sign up to receive a free review copy. I was really glad when I found out I was lucky enough to be getting one. Bryan Allain will be even more glad when lots of you spend a measly $4.99 for your own copy. That's like a couple boxes of really cheap cereal. Or one box of expensive cereal. The book's definitely worth it.

In fact, if it was cereal, the box would say: Great Stuff! Start your blog off right. Dig in and find your blogging mojo.*


*CAUTION: Contents will not stay crispy in milk.

Top 3 Posts of May

May wasn't a very heavy posting month for me, but the top 3 posts here were all sort of 'tying up loose ends' kind of posts. If you missed them, (which you probably didn't since they were the most visited posts) here's a second chance:

1. The Envelope Fundraiser. We ended up raising just over $2100 dollars for our upcoming trip to CIY Move. This is a great start and our group is excited to go in just a few more weeks. Please be praying for the spiritual impact of Move to reverberate well past the week of conference. Also, Christ In Youth is based in Joplin, and while their offices are located outside the path of recent destruction, some of the staff have had heavy losses - be praying for their recovery as well as their efforts to help the rest of their community heal.

2. Sticks & Chisels 4.Bonus. For the last post in the series I did for class, I was thinking about the idea of motivation. My guess was that a lot of my classmates would not be blogging too much now that the external motivator was gone (the assignment done, the class finished). What is sufficient motivation for being a part of the church? For my job and ministry? For your job and ministry? What motivates you? Is it enough?

3. 10ST - 6 More Stupid Things In Youth Ministry. This was also a final post - the last post of a series I did reflecting on each chapter of Geoff Surratt's 10 Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing. I'd talked about how each of those chapters pertained specifically to youth ministry, but felt like I should add a few more.

Sticks & Chisels 4.1

This is a recent shot at a map of stats from this blog. Notice anything unusual? Oui, that! Over a thousand pageviews from France in the past month! (Which is about a thousand pageviews more than in the rest of this blog's history.) "Hi, France." I don't know why there's been a sudden surge in French interest (the only French people I know live in Omaha & Lincoln), and to be honest, I suspect it's only some kind of exaggerated glitch in the stats reporting... but it reminds me, and you, that the reach of your message doesn't have to be limited to your local boundaries.

When I first started blogging, I didn't set out to build a worldwide following (not that I would say that's happened anyway). I just felt like I had a message to share, and blogging opened up the potential for me to do that with a whole new group of people. I have had interactions, both online and face to face, with new friends from far off and exciting places like L.A., Canada, China (where apparently my blog was banned at one time), and Intercourse, PA... because of windows opened in the blogging world.

I'm not out to be an international blogging sensation. Fame doesn't really interest me as a whole. Maybe I'm lying there, but even if you're a famous blogger, you're still viewed as some crackpot blogger. Even other bloggers downplay the significance of bloggers. But blogging has helped me share thoughts and encouragement with other people that I'd never have connected with otherwise. It's extended my reach.

Do you have something to say? Maybe a blog would help you say it (but if you spell like the blind chimpanzee in my last post, maybe not). Maybe you already have a blog, but it mostly sits idle. If that's the case, ask yourself why you started blogging in the first place. Go back and read a few of your very first posts and be reminded. Maybe you need to re-boot your blog. Maybe you need to scrap it and start over. Maybe you just need to write again. (Check out BlogRocket for some great new resourcing/encouragement for your blogging adventure.)

Gone Mobile

I just enabled a mobile option for the blog here.

Mobilized friends, let me know what you think - and how the blog appears on your device. Thanks.

Can I pick your brain, please?

I've been a bit lethargic here on the blog lately, as I evaluate it's use, potential, etc. Looking at making some changes in style & content.

What would you like to see here?

How can my blog be most useful to you?

Which posts have you found most meaningful?

First Post of the Year...

For the first post of 2010, I looked back at what have been my first posts for the past few years.

2009... Part 4 of a series I called "Imagine"  I dealt with some obstacles to doing ministry out of imagination instead of memory (an important thought from Mark Batterson). This particular post had to do with using "past success as a vehicle that will launch us into tomorrow instead of a bed upon which to rest or a wall to prop us up." I really liked this post... wish I was doing a better job of living it out! But to be honest, I just wrote an article the other day about resting on past successes. Maybe this year, I'll listen to myself more intently. Maybe other people will listen too. Let's stop repeating the past and create the future!

2008... Who Belongs Here? In this post, I reflected on some thoughts I'd had as a visitor to a church and wondered what a guest experience at our church looks like. As I think about it, the system is still the same here as it was then. The positives are still in place and the deficiencies are still there, too. We can do better.

2007... DIA Din On the way to class at Hope (was that really 3 whole years ago?!), waiting in a very busy airport, I issued this call to truly live - to do more than "suck and blow air... do more than create some noise as we scurry about." I'm stilling playing this drum. Life is not a series of mundane breaths and busy activities - it is an adventure in bringing praise to our Creator!

2006... Insight from a 3 year old Dakota We were sitting in a Christmas Eve service and Dakota leaned over in the stillness, with wonder and concern in his eyes. I could tell he was a little worried about what he was going to do. The problem? In his own whispered words, "Dad, I'm running out of quiet." May we be so filled with the presence of God that we cannot possibly keep quiet!

2005... Hope for a new venture My first blog post of 2005 didn't come until April 7th. That's because that was the day I decided to start blogging. The theme was hope (not the Obama kind). What if we lived our lives with such hope that all fear was driven out of our lives? I still ask myself this question. There are times when discouragement threatens to wreck everything I've been learning in my 10 years of ministry. I need hope to keep going.
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It's interesting to look back at these snapshots of where God's been leading me (and maybe where I've redirected off course from time to time). It's a strange thing to think of collecting thoughts and throwing them out there for people to digest. I hope someone's been able to gain as much from reading my blog as I've gained from writing it. We have so far to go in our quest to know God. May we glean from each other as much as possible as we travel together...

More Locals...

A couple more friends have recently jumped into the blogwaters. Here are their links.

Matt is blogging at Snyder's Space as he's working as a youth ministry intern in Cheyenne.

Michele has started One of the Remnant with some great thoughts regarding one of my recent favorite verses.

I remember my first post. It was about hope - and was very short. It seemed weird to be putting my thoughts out where everyone could see them. Seemed strange to say "I blog" or should it be "I have a blog"? "I'm a blogger..."? Will it matter? Who will see it? Do I really want people to see it?

Like Michele says in her post, I found I had something to say. Sometimes, I've said it well. Other times, not so much. But blogging has been an interesting exercise (though if I'm going to call it that, I should probably do it much more regularly) that has stretched my thinking and connected me with people I'd never contact otherwise.

I hope my blogging friends will find their own online ventures as fruitful.

Some Local Linkage...

A few new blogs of local friends... (that means they live nearby, not that they're low in calories - just for clarification)

alex's blog Alex is a student at Summit Christian College.

Karissa in Japan! Karissa is also a student at SCC and is doing an internship this summer in Japan.

isaiah's blog Isaiah is the director of admissions at SCC

And an old blog renewed???

Joe's Jabbers Joe is the children's minister here at WestWay (and also a perpetual student at SCC!)

Top 5 Reasons to Not Blog

I wrote a newsletter article a while ago that encouraged people to blog.  Just as a general principle, I think blogging is a good idea.  I'm sure there are lots of reasons to not blog, however, so here I'll share a handful.  

If any of these apply to you, you probably should not blog:

5. You can't manage to keep an online life integrated with the offline one you've been living.

4. You can't string words together into anything resembling a sentence.

3. You're in the witness protection program.

2. Hooked on phonics didn't work for you.

1. God is not working in your life.

Unequivocally Me?

"If you can't speak your mind on your own blog, you might as well give up and stay on the porch." - Guy Kawasaki, quoted in The Blogging Church

I read this last night and it made me think of the way I've censored myself here on my blog.  I don't always speak my mind as clearly as I probably should.  I find myself backing out of things I think I should post because I might tick 'the wrong people' off.

Sorry I've done so much equivocating.

I'll quit.

Alltop Inclusion

My blog will now be included in alltop - a news site that lists "all the top news" for a lot of different categories. I'm listed in the Christianity topic. Basically, whenever I post, alltop shares it with everyone who uses alltop.

Not sure exactly how the various sites are listed or ranked. I think right now, my blog is like the second to last one at the bottom of the page, hanging out below Eric Bryant (one of the leaders at Mosaic). Not sure if the positioning is static or how exactly that's decided.

"Eyes of a Child" sermon via wordle

Just for fun, I put the text of my sermon notes in @ wordle.net and this is how it turned out. (You may have to click on it to get a decent size view.)

Impending...

I'm messing with the idea of altering the format of this blog. I may have some frequent changes over the next week or so as I test-drive a few different things. Let me know what you think... or if there are features you'd like to see here. Sorry in advance if this experiment causes something to be lost that you just can't live without.

Being Known

I've not posted much of anything lately. And the little bit that I have written here recently has been way on the 'lighter' side of content ~ I mean, "greener" bombs??? Come on...

It's not that I haven't had anything to say. I've actually had quite a few things that I wanted to write about lately (working with a summer intern, fixing my race car, visiting the art gallery, reading Dostoyevsky, new music, moments with students...). But whenever I begin to actually put the words together, I find myself insanely filtering what I want to say. Then I decide this distilled, nuetralized (or is neutered?) version of what's on my mind isn't really worth saying anyway. So I delete it and move on to something else.

(I'm fighting with myself right now even ~ finish the post or filter it then scrap it? I'll keep going and see what happens...)

I think this may just be a part of my tendency to question everything - especially myself. In that case, I'll just keep digging for answers, writing and deleting my way along. But it also may be some fear of something outside of me, looking into the part of me I put on display, and deciding they don't like what they see. When I started this blog, I was feeling pretty secure. I knew if anyone had a problem with what they found here, we could deal with it together. I had a confidence in what I had to say, even when difficult issues led me to say things I knew people didn't want to hear. I was known. I knew myself and felt like I was on firm enough footing to defend if I needed to.

I feel like all of that is missing now. I'm not known. I don't want to say what people who don't know me don't want to hear. (We're not very nice to people we don't know when they say things we don't want to hear, are we?) I feel like Jeremiah maybe, with a message to deliver that I don't really want to. But he couldn't keep it in, and I'm sure I can't either...

Not that I'm trying to stifle the message of God for the sake of my own security. Or maybe that's exactly what it is. Maybe I know deep inside that the masses of consumer christians don't want to hear the call to create and produce something in keeping with the faith they claim. Maybe I know within my soul that the herds will always value conformity above true beauty. Maybe I've just been listenning to too much Coldplay...

E1 - OCEAN (the attempt that dried up)

I had just written up an explanation of the first environment in our water cycle of discipleship, then *poof* it was gone.

Thanks Autosave...

Don't have time now to rewrite it, so I'll have to do so later. Sorry...

Hmm...

I blame my absence from this blog on writing seminary papers, but really that's just an excuse. Probably the real reason is that I'm feeling insecure enough that I don't feel like I can safely be as transparent as my writing usually ends up being. (See maybe that's too transparent!) And if I'm not going to write honestly, maybe I should just keep my fingers off the keyboard... (I did add a books section to the sidebar though that I think is pretty cool - haven't added all my shelves yet, but some of the highlights.)

Right now I'm working (or should be working) on a paper that's supposed to answer the question "How can we be increasingly available to the Spirit of God?" I think being available to the Holy Spirit means living a life that is directed by God. Not directed in the sense that He's out there barking orders at stage hands, but more that He's moving and I'm following His lead.

Willie always asks the question here, "Is this of me or is this of God?" Am I accomplishing something or is God? I like that question, as maddening as it can be, because it forces me to think about whether Mike is at work or God is at work in whatever the situation is. The key is to work less in my own strength, surrender to the mission He's working on, and work by His strength alive within me. Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing very well at that...

Lately...

Haven't posted much lately due to about a half hour limit on daily internet usage before our server's been 'molassassed' into non-functionalness. It's fixed now (since we undid a change we made last week). Probably won't be posting a whole lot next week either, since I have four sermons to be finishing up for a men's retreat I'll be speaking at next weekend. Also, I'll be preaching here this Sunday night at WestWay if you want to come...

Updating...

Blogger is adding some new features and stuff, so my blog will be using a beta version of what they're doing for a while...

Sorry if this gets things all jacked up for a bit (like the blog links are gone and the side bar is at the bottom of the page and who knows what else).

As soon as I figure out how to get it fixed, I will.

One feature that I do like will be adding labels to posts that will categorize things a lot better than just what month they were written in. (But it will be a while before I can get through all the posts and get them labeled.)

Where are we going, Daddy?

Ok, so I've been dialoging with a bunch of people from everywhere over the past couple days about some stuff that is bouncing off the inner walls of my cranium like a bunch of subatomic particles in a bathtub. (I have no idea what that would really look like but at this point...who cares!)

We've been talking about the emergence of technology and how the fusion of personality/humanity/technology has created a new kind of person. This person lives in cyberspace as much as he lives 'here'. How do we use technology like blogs and msn and whatever else is coming down the pipeline to be Jesus in that world?

The question that I asked a couple days ago on this blog is rolling around in all of this too... What defines the church? I've wondered what a church without walls would/should look like for a long time - I'm now seeing one possibility. The self imposed boundaries (masks) that exist in face to face interaction (even in the church) are often (though not always) set aside upon entrance into the 'blogosphere'.

I know, I know, there are definite dangers present in the anonymity of cyberspace, but can you imagine how deeply we could connect with each other when we lay aside all pretense? And in drawing near to each other with intent to draw nearer to God, how we could strengthen the community of the Kingdom?

This stuff may make absolutely no sense to you, but I hope you'll consider this: the world is plugged in as never before. If we are going to be "Jesus with skin on" in this world, we'll have to be "Jesus in binary...or html...or java...or pdf...or...you get the picture.