The day has arrived. I’m in my last hour as a staff member at Christ The Rock. The journey here has been crazy. Megan and I have learned and grown so much over the past 3 years. People ask me how I’m feeling and the best answer I can come up with is surreal. It hasn’t fully sunk in yet that I’ll walk out of here on a Friday and on Monday I’ll be moving into my house in Peoria. It’s a crazy mix of emotions- one moment I don’t really want to leave and the next I can’t wait to get to Peoria.

The CTR community has been incredibly encouraging to us and it is so good to have their blessing as we go. We feel that in a way we’re being sent out from here. Words on the screen hardly do it justice.

But I’m incredibly excited about starting at Imago Dei and getting to work closely with good friends. I’m overwhelmed with the goodness that God is showing me…I don’t deserve to have a job that I love so much. 

Thanks to everyone in the Appleton area who has been a part of our lives for the past 3 years. Stay in touch.

Grace and peace.

My lack of blogging lately has been partially due to laziness but also partially due to not being able to write about some big things that were in the works. But this week our big news officially went public so I’m incredibly excited to announce that I will be going on staff at Imago Dei Church in Peoria! This means that Megan and I are moving back to the area in Illinois we’re originally from! While we’re really excited about this new journey ahead we are sad to be leaving Christ The Rock. We have grown a lot as people and we love the church. It has really become home for us. But we know that Peoria is where God is calling us now.

So here’s the story behind the announcement…

Megan and I were born, raised and married in the Peoria area. We moved to Appleton six days after we were married in August of 2005 because I had just gotten a job as the Graphic Arts Coordinator at Christ The Rock. But for the past year and a half or so when we would go back to our hometown our eyes were being opened to a lot of the hurt and the need for restoration in that area. We had a few conversations about what it might look like to start a new church in Peoria but we thought that if it ever happened it would be at least 5-10 years down the road. And in the back of our minds we thought it would be really cool if our friend, Charlie (former blogger), would be the lead pastor. It was an idea that would come up every once in a great while but in all honesty, I’m not sure that I really believed it would ever come to life.

Then at the end of last year I got an e-mail from Charlie announcing that the community of people which made up his small group had decided to take the leap and plant a church. I remember reading that e-mail and my jaw just kind of dropped. I instantly knew that this raised questions for Megan and I about where God would want us. I e-mailed Charlie right away and let him know that we would be praying about if this meant that God was calling us back to Peoria. A day or two later I got a phone call from him and we talked about their plans for this new church and Charlie told me that he had been telling people that I was the first person he wanted to hire. Now I about had to about pick my jaw up off the floor. God was clearly up to something.

So a few months went by and March came around. Megan and I drove back to Peoria to celebrate the public launch of Imago Dei on Easter Sunday with our friends. I think after experiencing that first Sunday with them we knew that we would end up back in Peoria sooner than later. But again, I figured it would take a few years for the church to get off the ground and be financially stable enough to hire me.

Then about a month ago Charlie and I had a conversation and he said it was looking like they might be ready to hire me this summer. So Megan and I prayed about it and I talked to a pastor at CTR who has been a mentor to me for the past few years and God kept confirming over and over that this was the move to make. A few weeks ago we went down to Peoria and spent some time with the Imago leadership team and really enjoyed that time (although it was way too short!). So now it’s official. As of September 1, I will be on staff at Imago Dei.

Of course the first question everyone asks is, “what will you be doing?” And my answer is usually, “Well, it’s a church plant- so a little of everything.” But my main roles will be leading music, creating graphics, developing/maintaining the website and church database and also being a part of the leadership team providing vision and direction for the community. I feel incredibly blessed and humbled that the Imago team is inviting me to be a part of leading their community. It’s going to be very challenging but I’m excited to see all the ways that God will provide for and grow this new community of believers. And I’m sure my job will flex and shift as the community grows.

So pray for Megan and I as we transition. Pray that the transition from Christ The Rock would be smooth and that they find someone to take my place quickly. Pray for Megan and I as we buy our first house. And also pray for Imago as this is a leap of faith form them as well as us.

I can’t wait to start this new journey. I’ve already spent quite a few nights laying awake thinking and dreaming about new ways to do worship through music, how Imago might engage the Peoria community and other creative ways to bring the kingdom of God to Peoria.

So that’s the short version of the story but this is only the prologue.

• What’s In A Name?
• What We’re FOR
• Everything
• Imago Dei Church, Week 1
• and lots of other good stuff in the Imago Dei cagetory…

I’m in Kansas City this week attending the Intuitive Leadership conference with Tim Keel and the Everything Must Change Tour with Brian McLaren.

Tim’s conference ended this morning. It was a small conference but a really great discussion about what leadership looks like in a post-modern world. My notes were very sporadic so I’m just posting a few highlights that jumped out at me. They may or may not make sense without the context they were in.

• We have a fundamental assumption that when we are engaged with God things are stable.
  God allows the Israelites to be defeated because he’s more concerned with them being engaged in reality than in their assumptions. (1 Samuel 4:1-11)
• Sometimes our assumptions about God keep us from engaging from God in reality.
  God has a profound commitment to reality- not sentimentalism.
• Being lost is not a location- it’s a transformation. It can happen in the woods, but it can happen in our churches.
• “When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure.” (a quote from someone)
• We are facing a profound crisis of imagination in the church
• “contemporary service” doesn’t mean what’s happening right now- it’s what was happening in the late 80’s (ha!)
• Emerging church is the next thing in a long list of tricks in order to try and re-orient
• We live in a culture that is all about duplication. When something is successful it is duplicated and immediately deprived of it’s wildness.
• In the western church the greatest sin is heresy. In the eastern church it’s schism- the breaking of fellowship
• The most acceptable form of idolatry in the church is ministry.
  We celebrate ministry more than the organic community that Jesus describes.
• Fruit is the byproduct of an organism deeply connected with it’s environment.
  Trees don’t make fruit happen and they can’t stop it from happening.
• Context and culture are lenses through which we look at Gospel and theology.
• The Gospel is an alternate narrative about what the reality of life is.
• The Gospel in Modernity:
  The acceptance of right content that secures your status positionally after you die.
• The Gospel in emerging:
  scope: Creation (how do we work with God in His process of renewal and the salvation of all things?)
  The Location: community of God’s people
  Position: instead of “in and out” we’re more concerned with “near and far”
  we look for signs of life and where God is at work in everyone
• The post-modern means of engaging the Gospel is hospitality.

I always had intentions to, but never wrote much about my trip to Africa this past November. I wanted to post this story even though I’ve told it to most of my friends and family and was even invited to share it at the weekend services at church a few weeks ago. This story captures what God did in my heart while I was in the desert so I just wanted to get in on here for my sake more than anything else. The rest of this post is taken from a trip report I sent to some friends and family.

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One of the most significant moments of the trip for me happened while spending an afternoon at the English school Christ The Rock sponsors. My friend, Jess, has been going to the camps for 3-4 months at a time for the past few years to teach english at the school. She had been there since October and assigned some of the more advanced students to prepare presentations in english about Saharawi culture for us. Three or four students in their 20’s and 30’s gave presentations about Saharawi marriage, traditional clothing and other topics. A girl named Ghalia gave her presentation and then as she ended she looked right at Jess and with tears in her eyes said “I just want to thank Jessica for coming here to teach us english. She comes and lives with us, she wears the mulfa and she suffers with us.”

She suffers with us. That phrase has stuck with me ever since I got home. I think it embodies who we are called to be as followers of Christ. It makes me think of the beginning of the story of Job. This man who has lost everything is in the middle of great suffering and his friends hear about this. And what do they do? In Job 2:13 it says “Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him because they saw how great his suffering was.” They suffered with him.

My tendency is to want to fix things or figure out the quickest way out of the situation. But the Saharawi find themselves in a situation where there aren’t easy answers. So what do we do? We go and we suffer with them. I think the world longs not for more people with all the answers- but for people who are willing to suffer through hard things along with those who are most oppressed. Jesus came not just to tell the world how to live but to suffer with the world even to the point of death. This is what Calvary-style, Kingdom of God love looks like.

So what do I expect the experience to be like?

It might sound a bit odd to say it this way but I expect it to be kind of anti-climactic. I expect to get there and it is really hot, dirty and smells different than home. I expect to spend much of the time sitting around waiting for things to happen because life moves slower in their culture. I don’t expect everything to be a perfectly orchestrated event where things go smoothly and I always have energy. I expect it to be a very messy experience. But I expect it to be a holy experience.

Often when we talk about holiness, or what it means to be holy, we paint a picture of a nice, neat, clean life where things are smooth sailing because we’re “doing God’s will.” But I would argue that some of the holiest moments are also some of dirtiest, messiest moments.

For example, the Cross. The most holy, loving moment which is central to our faith. That moment was anything but neat and clean. Jesus is beaten, bloody, mocked and spit on and this is the moment that saves humanity.

So maybe when Jesus says “Take up your cross and follow me” it’s not about living a cleaner, smoother life. Maybe it’s about moving towards experiences that the rest of the world runs from.

Maybe it requires that things get very dirty and very messy.

I mentioned before that I hesitate to use the term “missions trip.” I guess it helps people differentiate it from being a vacation.

But the term “missions trip” conjures up images in my mind of hit and run evangelism that is really more about American Christians feeling good about themselves than it is about the people they’re supposed to be serving. A lot of damage has been done throughout the world in the name of “mission trips.”

CTR is really intentional about people understanding that we go in to other cultures as students and servants. We go to learn and better understand their culture, not to westernize it. We go to serve their needs, not arrive and decide what their needs are. We go not to share the Gospel but to be the Gospel.

One key difference in the way CTR approaches missions is the emphasis on relationships. CTR has established relationships with a few people groups and organizations in other countries and we work to become better friends and build bridges into their culture and their lives. If you talk to people that have been to the camps a few times you’ll notice that they talk about it like they talk about spending time with friends and family. It’s a beautiful thing.

Another thing that has blown me away has been raising support to go on this trip. I needed close to $2,000. Thanks to the generosity of friends and family I am probably going to end up with a few hundred more than that! It’s been a huge blessing and I couldn’t do it without them.

Along with that is the fact that I felt comfortable and even excited about asking for support. I had to raise a few hundred dollars for a trip in high school once and I hated it. But with this opportunity I was excited to get the letters in the mail and tell more people the story. The finances are an important part but I really wanted people to hear about and be inspired by the Saharawi. So I tried to focus my support letters on that rather than just money. It’s been an incredible experience to see God’s blessing in such a practical way.

I’m currently sitting in the Atlanta airport enjoying a 4 hour layover (at least I’m not spending the night again). I thought I’d take the downtime to note some of the things I’ve been processing since MinistryCOM.

I am again reminded of my need to lay down my “I’m right” attitude. I need to learn to re-channel my passion into asking questions instead of making statements.

I love that the heart of every speaker was really about authenticity. Some talked about the bells and whistles but it was always about Jesus first. I’m glad I work at a church that’s known for authenticity.

It’s always refreshing to meet people that do what I do. We all like to be reminded that we’re not crazy.

I know there are some ministries whose meetings I should go to just to learn what they do. Kem really challenged me with that thought.

How do I balance leveraging culture and using technology with living with less? Sometimes in the pursuit of excellence we run the risk of losing simplicity.

I’m sitting in the international concourse in Atlanta (the wifi is free here unlike the other concourses). There are people from all over the world (literally) walking around. Sometimes I wish I was more of an extrovert so I could muster up the courage to talk with them.

The most popular content on my blog isn’t original. My wife is getting quite popular for her original content. You should read it.

I think CTR is in a really great place right now. We’re going through a lot of change and transition which I like (on most days). I believe some big things are on the horizon and I’m really glad our leaders are taking the time to hear from God rather than just moving forward to get out of the awkward space. I love being a part of it.

Everybody Doesn’t Hate You…it just feels like it

There are people on your staff that don’t get (and really don’t like) the “communications dept.” You can and SHOULD do something about it.

The chief marketing director was named the most dangerous position by Fast Company.

All the graphics and tools you want to bring will be useless if people on your staff think you’re an idiot, or controlling or a bully.

Everything you say is muted if your team feels that way about you.

We’re all under pressure to demonstrate results quickly. Sometimes we skip the crucial soft skills of our job.

We under-estimate the difficulty of driving people out of their comfort zone.

3 Principles
Get an image consultant
- Do you have any idea how you come across to others?
- They’ll see you blind spots
- You need to care a little bit what people think about you. These people are on your team.
- These people will offer accountability and advocacy. They’ll help you anticipate problems.
- They’ll save you from you.

Check your ego
- What really is your motive? Are you taking yourself too seriously?
- Sometimes if I peel back the layers it’s about me being right
- Is it about your control over things or are you looking for ways to bring relief to your staff?
- Is your frame of reference about helping people do what they want to do or getting people to do what you want them to do?
- Pursuing people comes first. How you make them feel comes before the rest.
- Are you asking questions or making statements?
- Try to ask questions 90% of the time and give orders 10%.

Kem showed a video and this quote jumped out:
“What turned me off to the church was my preconceived idea about ‘we have the answers and you don’t’.”

- The parking team let someone “break the rules” or not “follow the policy” to win someone’s heart.

Find Common Ground
- if you’re passionate about your job then it’s safe to assume your co-workers are too.
- We are called to keep our own emotions in check so we can help care for the people we work with.
- The heart of change is how you make people feel.
- A lot of days I like computers more than I like people.
- When is the last time you showed up at youth group just to show support? Or the women’s ministry just to get a feel for what’s going on?
- You might find out that you’re using words that only mean something to you
- Can you show up at an event for a ministry leader that you’re not on the same page with and expect nothing in return?
- If we’re leaning on our own experience then we’re not leaning on God. If we’re forced out of our comfort zone, that’s a really good place to be.

You’ll always be a barriar to someone and it takes a while to soften that barrier.

Even when you start to have progress there will be periods when you lose ground. Some days you feel strong and some days you feel defeated.

The more tense we get, the harder things get for us.

If your job has anything to do with communications, how much time do you leave in your schedule for communication?

In the end it all boils down to our perspective.

Brand Schizophrenia

How are you going to help me with my stuff?
stuff=  anything that tells a story through print, digital, web

Communications is a huge bucket that stuff falls into. With stuff comes issues.

Our issues fall into two buckets.
1. How can I get people to let me do “more stuff”?
2. How can I get people to stop asking me to do so much stuff?

Stuff keeps happening and all of our leadership teams keep telling us that things will slow down soon.

Sometimes we think that brand = stuff.

“Policies are a mission that you can’t lead”

We’ve got every ministries “stuff” and we end up with brand schizophrenia.

If it’s just about “stuff” why don’t we just go work in the corporate world? We could make more money and tithe it back to the church.

But it’s not about the stuff, it’s about Jesus.

The problem is brand not stuff, it’s not a logo, it’s not an identity package.

Brand is not what YOU say, it’s what THEY say.
That’s hard to manage.

2 Faces of brand
1. the expectation of an experience
2. the emotional aftertaste left after an experience

Shawn tells a story about going to a restaurant and getting Mr. Pibb instead of Diet Coke. What if the restaurant came over after seeing him spew it everywhere and said “we’re sorry that happened. We’ll talk to Coke and ask them to change the Diet Coke logo.” But we don’t need them to change the logo, we need Diet Coke to come out of the fountain.

Sometimes we set up expectations with our brand and then leave a bad aftertaste because we never get to the root problem.

The root problem is the details.
Someone hooked up the mr. pibb hose to the Diet Coke cannister and ruined the experience.

Matthew 16:13-16
Jesus does the first marketing survey.

Jesus asked 2 important questions:
1. What are they saying?
- we need to know what they are saying
2. What is the core saying I am? What are those that have experienced me saying that I am?
- What do I expect to receive when I come to the church?

Jesus does not try to manage his “brand.” He doesn’t tell the disciples to go talk to the people that say he’s John the Baptist to correct them. He doesn’t try to re-brand.
He knows that when people experience him they’ll know who He is. He creates experiences.

What are people going to experience when they actually come and sit in front of Jesus?

If you ask people who you are and it doesn’t match up with who you say you are then you have a problem.

Managing brand = control
Creating experiences = less control
- letting people that have experienced our church be our brand
- if we try to “manage brand” we’ll go crazy. But if we create experiences that give people what they expect they will become our brand

3 W’s- Weekend, web , word of mouth
Is everything we’re doing in these three areas helping people become fully devoted followers of Christ? If it doesn’t then we’re creating experiences that don’t match who we want to be.

Is the experience distinctive?
Relevance- sometimes we’re answering questions that no one is asking
- what would happen if we were bold enough to not do some of the stuff?
Are the experiences we’re creating memorable in a way that brings them back?
Excellence is over-rated, look and feel is over rated, technology is over-rated…the only measure is “is it effective?”

An Artist’s Mandate
Our primary job is to create for and unto God.
Get good at what you do. Do it as unto God.

Sometimes we are involved in details that only God will see.

Herom took time to look at the details even though no one would ever see them. (Shawn didn’t give the reference for this scripture…I’m interested in finding the story though.)