Cohen's First Three Months...

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Cohen M. Brown 3 Months

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Creativity in the hands of a new generation of Creators.

I think that young people today have a huge advantage when it comes to creativity. They were born with a tool that makes creativity more easier to express: the personal computer.

Now, a computer is not the first thing that you think of when you think of creativity (unless you use a mac ;), but the personal computers we use today allow people to record their own movies and songs, write and publish their own books, create their own publications, businesses, websites, and more... all before they graduate high school.

It does not mean it is easier to produce good art, or to duplicate the professional quality of a CD or Hollywood movie. That level of "perfection" and production are hard to achieve, however, youtube has proven to us that most people are totally happy to watch user generated "real" content.

I don't know how old the dude in this video is, but he is a great example of using a personal computer and to create a fun and decent video which over a million people have watched on youtube.

Whats up with the Economy?

Recently i ran across some very helpful videos presenting metaphors explaining what is "wrong" with the economy right now. I thought they were very good, and found first heard about the people doing them on Presentation Zen.

I think that the biggest issues creating the economic crisis are greed, foolishness, and fear. But the things that are described in these videos by Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch do a great job of quantifying at least the greed part. They are really simple to understand and put the crisis in terms that non economically gifted people can understand.

Gritty Hope

>In an election year, it is seems easier than normal to get discouraged; To feel like life is not getting better, but worse.Perhaps it has something to do with all the “uplifting” political commercials we have been watching for the last two years. While many tudents make it through middle school with out a care in the word, we are finding that and increasing amount of students feel stressed, worried, angry and alone.

As a Middle School Pastor, I run into discouraged students often. Some face the normal struggle of growing up, but not all. Increasingly many of their life stories are so overwhelming that they hit you like a punch in the gut when you hear them. Students in the suburbs who are starving themselves, cutting themselves, hating themselves, dreading the circumstances of their life, and, even wondering if anyone cares about their suffering. Quietly they ask in the dark, “does God see me... does he care... is he even there?”

Discouragement and disillusionment seem to be everywhere, yet for the Christian, we struggle to cling to hope. Not blind optimism that ignores the true struggle of life, nor pessimism which surrenders to the darkness of despair, but gritty hope that finds a way to believe that God will not abandon us in the dark.

The bible is full of this sort of hope. The Apostle Paul describes the reality of this hope in these terms:

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Cor. 4:8-9)“

Its hard to imagine a worse marketing tag line that that, but the Bible’s honesty rings true. Faith doesn’t promise life won’t be hard, but faith promises God is enough. God can get us through it.

The psalmist describes this faith when he states that

“even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; (Psalm 23:4).”

The valley will come, and it will be dark, but God is with us in the valley. This statement reminds of some of Jesus parting words words, when he tells us that he will be with us always (Matt 28:18). In the midst of our personal periods of darkness, Jesus is described as the light which shines into our depression, fear, abandonment, loneliness, and emptiness.

Hope of this sort can be found. Its authenticity rises above superficiality and platitudes. An authenticity born from the refusal to ignore the pain and struggle, while at the same time clinging to the belief that God hears our cries and he cares about our struggles.

This is the sort of hope so many students today need. Real hope that God’s light can reach the darkest corner of their soul, driving out their fears, and replacing them with love. A hope that God is making all things new, and that one day they will experience a city where there are no shadows of doubt no dark corners of despair. Where Jesus himself is our ever present and constant light.

The needs are great, but so are the opportunities. We have the chance to shine the light for those who need it most.

May we be the ones who carry the torch of grace and love into the darkness that so many face!

Steve Jobs Called me today...

Steve Jobs (Actually his office) called me today. A few days ago I emailed them about my ongoing struggle with MobileMe/.mac.

Over the last few years, I have had either .mac, or MobileMe delete all of my contacts, without asking, at least 5 times.

It is a chilling experience to go to email someone, only to have an empty address book staring you back in the face. Worse still, when you are on the go, with your super - iPhone, and need to make the timely important call... and every single contact you have is gone...

So... after taking it for a few years, I was done... I sent Steve the following email:

Steve,

I love your products, but am really frustrated. Today for the fifth time, my contacts were entirely erased. I went to send an email, and they were just gone. Gone on my iPhone, gone on my macbook pro, gone on Mobile me. Just gone.

I don't want to bother you, but could you please go down to the MobileMe department and look deep in their eyes and get them to make MobileMe "really great"?

I would really appreciate it.

Thinking different,
Brandon

So, my wife laughed at me when I sent my emails to steve@(mac; me; apple).com... but she just smiled when Steve Jobs himself (not really steve, but a very nice personal representative of Steve Jobs' office) in California gave me a call to let me know he (actually the representative) was concerned with my problem. Steve personally (actually his personal representative named nate) just wanted to make sure I was getting the type of care that my situation warranted.

Now... they have escalated my trouble to an engineering team..

So... His Steve-ness,
while I still want MobileMe to 'just work', thanks for the call. I suppose it makes me a rabid fanboy to be moved by your gesture, but your personal call (actually that of your rep nate) put my worries at ease. Thanks for personally (through your representative) putting apples resources to work on my little problem

The Future of Video Games... and possibly reality...

If you grew up with virtual graphics and interactions that looked just as real as the real world, would you be able to differentiate which world you were in?

This is a real question for kids growing up today. It is some ways is an old question. Decartes dealt with a derivative of this question in his paper world exploration. He was concerned about whether God was good, or an evil Genius manipulating us to our own detriment. He wondered if God could make an entire world out of paper that was so convincing that people would not know.

Perhaps if he was writing today, Decartes Evil Genius would us pixels instead of paper.

The question does provoke thought. In a world where video games are so "real" and even evoke feeling and emotion...

is it possible that the virtual world begins to feel more 'real' and 'significant' to people than the actual real world?

David Perry made an awesome presentation about this at TEDS... check it out

Where is Matt? Where he is he is dancing...

I found this video a little late... apparently it has been around since 2005 or so... but Matt... the squirrel salutes you... #1 for coming up with a great way to travel the world... and #2... for getting someone else to sponsor it...


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Cohen... the newest edition to the Squirrel Family

Cohen is fast approaching his third week of life...

Very cool presentation..

I was super impressed by how this presentation was put together...



What do you think of the Video style?

What do you think about the content?

Knowledge vs. Connection

A few months ago I was headed to Bozeman Montana for a weekend of white water rafting with some friends. On the way out, all the way to wyoming already we called ahead to check on the conditions, but what we heard was anything but good news. It was snowing and raining, and the river was nearly impassable (later we read in the news about a group who died trying to take on the rafting there that weekend!!!)

We had lots of knowledge about what and where we were going to do, but the conditions changed and all of that knowledge would not have done us any good....

Except that I also had my iPhone, and my laptop... So in Wyoming at some random gas station which happened to have free wifi I put my iPhone and Computer to great us... My hard drive had zero info about rafting in it, but once it was connected to the internet, it quickly was able to find great information about rafting 8 hours south of Bozeman, in Colorado's Brown Canyon. What it failed to "know" it was quickly able to learn once it was connected...

Here is my point... while often the church is very busy teaching people about God, and filling up sunday school classes to teach people about God... really all of that knowledge is not as helpful as a real connection to God.

We need to know truth about God, but that truth can become empty facts if we miss the key point. God wants us to know him, not just about him.

In life, this makes all the difference... a real connection to God allows us to always be able to find, through our constant connection with him, all that we need for life and God-like-ness. On the other hands, facts, without connection, can often lead us to an empty God-Box which fails to measure up to the complexity and richness of life...

I think I am really guilty of focusing to much on the facts and missing the connection God is really inviting me to... how about you?

Capacity.

According to the "all-knowing" wikipedia, "Capacity is the ability to hold, receive or absorb, or a measure thereof." It seems also fitting to apply to it a persons ability to deal with life (work, struggle, family, relationships, pain, etc.) I have many times contemplated my own capacity... How much life, can I handle... at what point would I feel like I was trying to live beyond my human frame.

A few random thoughts about capacity:

1. It is one of the tenants of humanity... we have a fixed ability which can only be multiplied, leveraged, and maximized to a fixed point. Different people having seemingly endless capacities, but this is really an illusion of comparison... they may have a higher capacity than some, but are not unlimited.

2. One of the chief differentiators about God's nature, is that he is without a limit in capacity. His limitless nature (power, wisdom, love, ability, holiness) is what makes him of a totally different kind than humans... In this way, we cannot truly understand even the concept of God... he is not a SUPER being who has a SUPER capacity in regard to strength or Power... he is an unlimited being who has limitless power and ability.

3. God understands human limits because he created them. We are dust he shaped with the ability to experience life, but only the life apportioned to us from Heaven. Even a concept like the Sabbath is a reflection of this... God made it for man, to ensure we did not exceed our capacity, and forget about him in the process. The title also helps us to reflect that we have limited resources which cannot sustain us. Giving back a portion of them allows us to remember that ultimately God's limitless resources are our true source of life.

4. I have a capacity which I cannot exceed no matter how hard I try. About economic capacity, Wikipedia makes a further point:

Capacity (economics), the point of production at which a firm or industry's average (or "per-unit") costs begin to rise, usually because some factor is fixed (often capital or land).

This is true with all who approach their max capacity. The close we get to our limit, it seems that out effectiveness begins to wane. Richard Swenson talks about this in his book Margins. His idea is that we need margins on our page, so that if life does not go exactly the way that we plan, that we have a little extra space to adjust. A no brainer, that I am sadly unable to apply in my life.

5. I have struggled with eyes that are bigger than my capacity all of my life. I am fascinated by too many things, and usually can figure out how to do almost anything to some degree. This has regularly led me to pursue more tasks and things, than I could maintain without starting to resent things like sleep and downtime. Through my life, I have generally been able to learn to leverage my skills and ambition in a way that leveraged my capacity enough to "up my game" when required. I have learned that my capacity is greater than I imagined, and rather than using my extra to create margin, have quite often filled it with more tasks, relationships, and other things which require maintenance.

6. As a high capacity person, people are always looking for you... they recognize your capacity, and want you to apply it to their tasks... It goes without saying that this adds to the capacity conundrum.

7. I have recently related my struggles with capacity to compound interest on a credit card. If you are not careful with your plastic, you may 'Discover' that you have spent so much money that your payments do not even cover the interest on what you owe... That even as you make payments on your credit, interest is accumulating against you that is being added to the principle of what you owe... You are on the wrong side of the exponential curve. Capacity too, when exceeded, can create an to-do list that doesn't reduce your load at all, but mere pays some interest as the load continues to increase.


I think I have been dwelling on this a lot recently because of three things in my life. I just bought a new house; Emily and I are having a baby crazy soon; my summer working at Elmbrook has been both Crazy awesome and Crazy busy.

By all trustworthy reckonings a Baby will change everything... so I am left wondering where I will find the capacity... I know I don't have any more as a human, which means the Baby will require me to transfer capacity from somewhere else. Perhaps I will be able to find great efficiency somewhere, but more likely I just need to make better decisions, and become more focused on few things.

Limiting decisions are always the hardest, but usually the most important that we make.

Presentation Series: Things we can learn from great comedians...

Saw this on Presentation Zen, as cool website on making good presentations... It makes some really true points. I think I am going to have to check out the documentary.

My experience is that it never does get easier to make a great presentation. My opinion is that the better you get, the harder it is to wing it...

Quotes & Lessons from "Comedian"

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Brooklife: The Murder and Betrayal of Uriah the Hittite.. otherwise known as the Affair of David and Bathsheba

Ok... so my message at Brooklife Church this weekend went pretty well.

If you are interested you can hear it in streaming audio here:

or download it from iTunes here:


This message is drawn from 2nd Sam 11-12, and takes a look at some lessons we learn from David's sin with Bathsheba.

Many people have preached good messages about it, but I really focused on one aspect of the text... David's handling of his own sinful behavior verse the way he responds to the sinful behavior of the "rich man" in the prophet Nathan's story...

The main point that I was trying to make is that when we sin we usually try to cover it up, compare it away (compared to so in so... its not so bad), minimize it (say it in a way that makes it sound not bad at all), claim grace (God loves me and will forgive me anyway), and make it all about me (No one else was hurt by this... it was just my little sin...). However, when we find someone else in a sin, our actions are totally different.

We tend to uncover it (publicize all the details, and look for more), compare (I would never.... like the did), Exaggerate it (Make it sound as bad as possible, even worse than it really it), Claim Judgement (Skip the grace... we want them to be punished and get what they deserve..), and finally make it all about me...(their sin is so huge it effects the entire world... and especially me...).

The Murder and betrayal of Uriah the Hittite...

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Brooklife: Preaching this weekend.

Jason Webb talked me into preaching at Brooklife Church this weekend.

My topic: 2 Samuel 11 - 12. David and Bathsheba...

I have some good thoughts on it, but still am struggling to find a way to make it all work that doesn't get loaded down with details or just repeat a story that most everyone already knows...

Here are some questions I am trying to work through... if you have a few minutes, read the passage yourself and tell me what you think...

1. Do you think people are more lenient with their own sinful patterns than those of others?
2. Are Christians overly prone to write off others in Judgement?
3. Do you see people as less valuable because of their sinfulness?
4. Why is it easier to be offended at the sins of others, or to really deal with my own sin and temptation?
5. In what areas of my life and I:
“on the roof”;
“attempting a coverup”;
“killing another”;
“pretending it never happened”
6. Why do we tend to judge the actions of others, but justify our own actions? How do we stop doing both?

7. How do we learn to flee temptation without living in constant fear of our sin nature.

Brandon's Crazy Summer...

Ok... so what is keeping me from blogging regularly right now is my life....

I was working non-stop on projects, camps and trips until July 12th when I returned from mexico...

During that period of time, I bought a new house and sold my current one...

This buying and selling process has been greatly complicated because someone managed to open a Qwest account in Minnesota in my name. My mysterious doppelgänger has run up almost a $900 bill... which of course happened to turn up on my otherwise perfect credit score in the only 3 month period in the last, or next 10 years that it actually matters...

I have been on hold with multiple companies, collection agencies, and credit reporting companies enough that I now have all of their Musak, menu option, and infomercials memorized... it is the stuff of nightmares...

But... it seems like the house buying and selling is going to happen... We move into our new palace in Waukesha next saturday...

I have lots to write about from things I learned and have thought about this summer... hopefully I will be up and running again soon...

TECATE, MEXICO 2008

I am in Tecate Mexico right now. I am leading a team of around 75 people included middle school students and adult leaders who are here to build each of 5 impoverished families a house. I love this trip and have been having a great time taking pictures and video of students and helping out wherever I can.

My favorite part of trips like this is getting to know the people who live here. It is so cool to learn about their lives and realize that all people everywhere bear God's image whether they are poor or rich, mexican, american, or anything else.


I have taken almost 2000 pictures of the trip... check them out here if you want:

Mistaken Identity

One day a few years ago there was a knock at my door. When I opened it, a police officer with a gun and mace, and a big night stick was standing their asking to talk to me... He was looking for Brandon, possibly to arrest him for assault. Emily looked at me quite confused... why was her pastor husband being investigated for assaulting another man. As it turned out, I was not the Brandon that he was looking for. Another member of my soccer team had punched someone from another team during a game and knocked out one of his teeth. The officer was looking for the other brandon, but mistakenly came to my house instead... Mistaken identity is a big problem and can really get you in trouble... In the same way, many people who are looking for God, mistakenly thing that all people who are called Christian’s are acting on his behalf. The bear his name “CHRISTian”... so they must be acting in the way that he wants them too... like the pop-star who thanks Jesus for giving his album, full of songs about sex, murder, drugs and gangs, a grammy, many Christians need to think about whether it really is God who they are serving with their lives... The way they live is really given people of case of mistaken identity about God....

Crazy Times!!!

Right now I am heading into the busiest part of the summer...

This week and next week I am making the final preparations and shooting a feature length movie cast by middle school students.

Then I am officiating the wedding of a friend

Then I have summer camp...

Then 10 days later I leave for Mexico to build houses...


CRAZY!!!


SO... please don't expect too much this week... (not that the last month has been overly rich with posts :)

But next week I hope to blog from the movie shoot, then from Invasion, our summer camp, and then finally from Mexico again like I did last year...

Thanks for reading the blog!

White Water Rafting update: BROWN CANYON COLORADO

SO... about white water rafting in Montana... yeah... not so much... we arrived early in the morning at Mt. Rushmore to have breakfast, but it was entirely covered in fog... and the weather only got worse... so we were forced to abandon our trip to Montana... The guide for our raft trip called and told us it would be unsafe at the current water levels (by the way... there was a story today of a raft full of people who died rafting in montana over the weekend!) and that they had 8 inches of fresh snow on the ground to boot...

After some soul searching... and some free wifi access at a gas station, Tom (our fearless trip leader) and I had found and secured a new rafting location...

the good news...

it was 9 hours south of where we were currently parked thus warmer...

the bad news: it was nine hours south from our current location... which meant another 9 hours in a van we had already occupied for 20 hours at this point. Since it was this or turn back... drive some more we did...

We finally arrived at our new destination where we found a hotel and rafted the arkansas river. We did one cold day of rafting through Brown canyon... and then a gorgeous day in the Royal Gorge. The highlight was in the royal gorge: We were dominating some class 4-5 rapids at the bottom of a 1300 ft canyon, right under the world's largest suspension bridge, when a passenger train stopped to take a look and then a helicopter flew through right over our heads... all that was missing was a hot air balloon and life would have pretty much been complete....

One final adventure was the way home... at 4:30 or so in the AM, while I was driving the graveyard shift through Iowa a bunch of deer were hanging out in the middle of the road... luckily I avoided hitting them... but apparently they were quite offended that I didnt say hi, so one of the deer decided to jump into the side of Mike's van while we were going 75 MPH... no real damage though...

White Water Rafting....

Hey I am taking a little road trip to Bozeman Montana to go white water rafting... I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am to be away from the office for a few days...

Plus, last I heard, the snow melt is making for some awesome rapids... !!!

Are you Rich or Poor? The answer may surprise you...

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This presentation is based on Data from 2005... it needs to be updated and the sources need to be cited. I will hopefully put up an updated version soon.

Tegan and Sara @ the Pabst

Last night I rocked out at the Pabst along with Tegan and Sara and my friends Bethany, Jo, LT, TT, Molly, and of course Emily. It was really great fun.

I have been a fan of Tegan and Sara ever since Bethany introduced me to the song "I wouldn't like me" about 9 months ago. Since then, I have loved their latest album, as well as catching up on their older stuff.

I got to see them in Chicago in november, and it was fantastic. Their records, although they are awesome too, do not truly tell the story of what an incredible rock band they are...

@ the Pabst, they were also amazing... The best moment of the concert was when Tegan forgot the lines to one of her songs and Sara tried to help her out with it. For like five minutes they kept trying to get it right, and it got more and more funny as they did.

If you haven't checked out T & S yet, you can get their stuff on itunes, or watch a fantastic acoustic set and interview here


(Hey Tegan and Sara's Mom... they were awesome in chicago and milwaukee!)

The Blues have it...

Too Busy...

I think that I know that I am too busy

...when I realize that I am eating entire meals in 2 minutes...

...when I start to be annoyed by routine tasks like brushing my teeth...

...when I find myself driving like I could win a NASCAR race every time I am in my car...

...when I am late to every meeting in my day because I squeezed 10 hours worth of meetings into 6

...when I go to bed late and wake up early to work every day....

...when I forget to even think about weekend plans...

...when my blogs feels like a burden and not an outlet...

... when I lose interest in being creative because it would be too much work...


My pace is so accelerated right now that, even when I could slow down, I am not sure how... Uh... so maybe I am too busy... or maybe I could do just one more thing....

What is your sign of living to fast?

Presentation Series: The New Powerpoint Presentation

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This presentation is from Garr Reynolds of presentation zen, and it is full of good technique. I am posting it here both to remind me of some of his techniques, and to remind to to figure out how he posted this online so I can put some of mine up too...

What do you like in his presentation?

Satisfied...

I spend plenty of time being expressing my struggles with worship services so I though I should share a beautiful moment that I experienced on Sunday. The worship team unearthed an old hymn whose lyrics were written in 1875 by Clara T Williams. Generally our worship teams are amazing musicians, and gifted singers, but something about the arrangement and the words blending with the voices of the team was really beautiful to me. The song has been in my head all week... (thanks in part to a scratch recording my Matt!)

All my life long, I had thirsted
For a drink from some cool spring,
That I hoped would quench the burning
Of the thirst I felt within.
*
Feeding on the filth around me,
Till my strength was almost gone,
Longed my soul for something better,
Only still to hunger on.
*
Poor I was, and sought for riches,
Something that would satisfy,
But the dust I gathered round me
Only mocked my soul's sad cry.
*
Well of water, ever springing,
Bread of life so rich and free,
Untold wealth that never faileth,
My Redeemer is to me.
*
Hallelujah! He has found me
The One my soul so long has craved!
Jesus satisfies all my longings
Through His blood I now am saved.
*

My Leadership Guru: Patrick Lencioni.

I love Patrick Lencioni's Leadership Fables.

First and for-most I love his writing style. He writes fictional stories where you learn the principals of his leadership style through the events and decisions of the people in the narrative. So you sorta watch as they figure out the problem and then struggle to solve it.

Then Patrick has a brief conclusion where he explains his principles in case you missed them in the story.

I have greatly enjoyed all of his books and can recall close to 85% of the content even thought I read some of them almost 5 years ago. The story makes the points easy to understand and remember.

I like them all but would rate them in this order:

1. The Five Disfunction's of a Team (A must read!)
2. 3 Signs of a Miserable Job
3. 4 Obsessions of Extraordinary Executives
4. Death By Meeting
5. Silos
6. 5 Temptations of a CEO (good book, but it has the same principles as Five Disfunctions, and I like that one better)

Presentation Series: "My King" by S. M. Lockridge

I first heard this portion of a S. M. Lockridge sermon when I was a student at Moody Bible...

Since then I tracked it down and have used it on many occasions with students...

This is my favorite Video presentation of it. I even like it better than two different ones I have made on my own. Right now, I am thinking a lot about how to make videos like this and also like the one by Piper that I featured a few weeks ago.

In my opinion, short "sermon" videos like this sometimes have the potential to make a more long term impact than hearing the full 30 - 45 minute sermon. In a long sermon, most of it is forgotten by the next week... but this sort of presentation is viral... it stays with you for a long time.

Especially in a culture which has a 30 sec attention span.

Presentation Series: Rob Bell on presentation

Rob is a great presenter/ teacher.

One of the things that is unique about his ministry is that he is able to focus almost entirely on being a great Bible teacher/preacher. He has an awesome lead pastor at his church who handles the management and day to day needs, so Rob can really focus on teaching.

What I really like about his teaching is that it is content based, creative and full of surprises.

Content: Rob spends a lot of time studying the text from every imaginable angle and really tries to get past what you expect in your head when you hear the passage that is going to be preached.

Creative: Rob is willing to do whatever makes sense to bring the text alive... he is not bound by tradition or by expectations...

Surprises: Rob is the master of leading you one way, then suddenly shifting in such a way that you are caught a little off guard with your defenses down in a good way. This helps keep the message interesting and makes it stick.

A few years ago I had a chance to meet Rob while attending a "study session" that he hosted at Mars Hill. about 80 of us showed up and we spent a few days really looking at the ten commandments and thinking about how we would teach them. It was great fun, and I would say the group effort and collaboration really helped us all...

(I found this on Charlie's Blog

Thoughts on Preaching or Presenting.

I am a big believer that a sermon is not just a one way conversation. The message relies on the audiences participation… even if it is a big audience… It is not just a great presentation, but a conversation... I think it is in some ways a lot like improve comedy. The audience is what makes improv work... and in the same way, I think good presentation work when there is a prepared and gifted communicator and a ready to participate congregation...


I spend my time crafting three things:

1. the content (through lots of study of the bible)

2. the flow of the message (via an outline and presentation),

3. the hooks (stories and surprises found by studying the culture and my congregation).

To be honest, I think that in seminary I was never taught hooks were important other than for an intro. I find that my message needs to be laced with things that are going to keep people engaged and keep the message in their head. Because of this when I study, I try to think through how this intersects where people live and understand what the passage means in some of the main "world's we live in: Church, Family, Friends, Culture

I do not write my messages out word for word or even close. I would have to spend at least 20 hrs just on the writing… I usually write down some meaningful sentences which do make their way into the message in some form.

Leadership Priorities in Ministry

Ephesians 4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

I have been thinking a lot about my Job lately. I work in a great environment, but one where you sorta have to hold yourself accountable to growing and improving. As a middle school pastor I am a massive list of responsibilities.
The main ones are as follows:
1. Listen and Discern God's voice and movement.
2. Run Programs & Special Events,
3. Manage Staffing,
4. Train and equip Volunteers
5. Provide Direction for ministry
6. Budgeting and Planning
7. Counseling (students, parents, etc.)
8. Provide Content and teaching,
9. Research and understand Adolescence and culture.

...In addition to my own area that I manage I also have some larger organization responsibilities that include weddings, Being on call 1 day a month and a few weekends a year, and weekly meetings.

What I think is unique about the pastoral position is the way that it requires such a diverse skill set. The job requires you that you both manage well, and that you create great content (sermons, curriculum, devotional material, training tools, etc.). I find that it is not easy to do both well, so I tried to prioritize my responsibilities in order to see how I was really doing.

Ministry Priorities as I see them.
1. Manage Staff
2. Equip and Shepherd Leaders
3. Identify and Disciple Student Leaders
4. Everything Else.... (all of the other responsibilities these three priorities do not cover.)

Confession Time:
As I have been evaluating my ministry I found that I tend to focus 90% of my time and energy on the "everything else" category, mostly getting ready to teach on tuesdays and providing the curriculum for sundays.

My problem is that we I get too busy I tend to use my staff, leaders, and student leaders as tools to accomplish everything else... when really as the point leader they should be the main focus of my creative energy and leadership skills.

The World of Open Source Sharing...

I have talked quite a bit about open source here. Larry Lessig talks a lot about read only culture, such as old CD's and read write culture... where people are a participant in the culture... they read... but they also have a function where they can add to the culture... and the conversation...

This video talks a lot about this.



(I found this on Michael's Blog...)

New Music from Brandon Grissom

If you are into original worship music, check out Brandon Grissom's new EP! It should be dropping into a record store near you (if you happen to live in Chicago)... or itunes... today.


Learn more about it here:

Book Review: Who Stole My Church

My Boss Scott recommended this book to me. It is written by Gordon MacDonald, and is written narrative style. Narrative style is where the truth of the book is conveyed through the story of real or fictional people. Their experiences teach the lesson.

My leadership GURU, Patrick Lencioni, also writes in this style.... and to be honest, it is my favorite style to read.

so what is "Who Stole my Church" all about?

Has your Church been Hijacked?
Millions of people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies feel their churches have been hijacked by church-growth movements characterized by loud praise bands, constant PowerPoint presentations, and cavernous megachurches devoid of any personal touch. They are bewildered by the changes, and are dropping out after thirty, forty, or fifty years in a congregation. It’s a crisis!

In this fictional story, pastor and author Gordon MacDonald uses topical examples and all-too-familiar characters to reassure readers that it is possible to embrace change, and to demonstrate how that change can actually be a positive influence in their church. The church, he says, has always been in a state of change; it has been changing for the last two thousand years. It is time to embrace that change and use it further the Kingdom of God

Having lived through a few tough church situations, all I could think about while I read this book was how timely it it. I "knew" every character in the book because I had run into them, usually on the other side of a disagreement about how church should be done.

The book tries to paint a picture of how a dialogue could be opened between the generations to create a road to the future that we could all travel together...

Having seen this process fail, I struggled to not be cynical with the books attempt to realistically paint this story. That said, I think that Gordon is right that this is exactly the only way we can move forward together....

The book is great, read it if you get the chance...

Book Review: The Shack

I just finished reading The Shack, by William Paul Young. It is a very unique book that is causing many to revisit their framework for theology, relationship and grief.

Here is the jacket description:

Mackenzie Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

This book is so good that I don't want to share anything that will spoil the story.

There are two things I will say about it though.

1. I am a huge fan of this style of theological dialogue. The book has a gripping story that is used to explore theology in a way that causes many cliches and platitudes to fall away. In creating a narrative context within which to explore these themes, we are saved from the normal theological babel that only a few understand. It also forces the theology to answer the real questions people are asking and not just state some empty philosophy about God.

2. I loved how the author wove so many awesome insights about God together into one narrative. Each insight on its own would be cool, but together they start to reframe our previous conceptions of things and allow us to look at God and life very differently. Since our whole life and all our experience have created the current system through which each person views God, often new thoughts cannot be fully explored because they do not fit into our existing system. This book temporarily allows us to leave our system, as created by so much personal pain and guilt, and to step into an alternate system, briefly, which allows fresh thought.

I would highly recommend that you read this book. If you do, let me know what you think.

One other thought:
I have a feeling that some will call this book dangerous.

Keep in mind that many people call anything that produces new thoughts dangerous. However, if God really is a mystery that is beyond us, then it only makes sense that there is always so much to learn. In this light, even the most biblically astute theologian on his best day, doesn't know far more about God than he does know...

When living in such educated ignorance, massive grace is needed.

Caleb and Alair: Helping the orphans in Uganda

My good friend Caleb and Alair are headed to Uganda very soon.

They are going to be working with the many orphans created by aids, and the war in northern Uganda (which has been called the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today.) For the past 21 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government have been waging a war that has left nearly two million innocent civilians caught in the middle. The Ugandan government has failed to protect its citizens from this rebel militia that has murdered mothers and buried the young, leaving an entire generation of youth that has never known peace.


If you have a few minutes, click over to their sight and take a look at what they are going to be doing over there...

Movie Review: Trade

Last night I watched the movie Trade Here is the basic plot idea...

When 13-year-old Adriana is kidnapped by sex traffickers in Mexico City, her 17-year-old brother, Jorge, sets off on a desperate mission to save her.
Trapped by an underground network of international thugs who earn millions exploiting their human cargo, Adriana's only friend throughout her ordeal is Veronica, a young Polish woman captured by the same criminal gang. As Jorge dodges overwhelming obstacles to track the girl's abductors, he meets Ray, a Texas cop whose own family loss leads him to become an ally.

I bought it a while ago and put off watching it because I thought it would be emotionally draining. It was very hard, but more hopeful than I had anticipated.

The movie does a great job of using a gripping story to draw the viewer into a very real world wide epidemic. As you follow the plight of a few kidnapped women as they are moved to "market," the story also diverts long enough to look at how this can happen in today's world. These diversions are quick and powerful...

A woman looks out her window and sees a little girl kidnapped, but does nothing...

A police officer in mexico allows them to cross the border in exchange for "use" of one of the girls..

One of the kidnappers kneels and prays to mary for forgiveness as he leads 4 young girls across the border to be sold...

The american police capture the man and 4 young women crossing the border, but will not believe the girls stories, but instead just dump them back across the border and leave them in captivity to the man...

The impression is given that the woman running the whole ring was herself "bought" at some point...

When a young mexican boy tries to get help from the authorities, but they do not believe his story and think he is simply another illegal immigrant...

The movie weaves all of this into a system that ends up allowing people to traffic children and women...

The ugly truth in it though is that it is based on reality to some degree... according to the website,

The State Department estimates that as many as 800,000 people are trafficked over international frontiers each year, largely for sexual exploitation. Eighty percent are female and over fifty percent are minors...

The truth is that the United States has become a large-scale importer of sex slaves... estimates that at least 10,000 people a year are smuggled or duped into this country by sex traffickers.

Makes you wonder...

Wall-E movie trailer...

.... I am super excited to see this movie!!!

How many messages do I really have?

I was recently reading another youth pastors blog, and he quoted Mark Howerton:

"the majority of pastors really only have 6 messages. they just find different verses, metaphors or props to explain the 6 in new ways."

I wonder if I really even have that many... I sorta think I have one message that I just keep saying in new ways...

That is probably something I should think about more...

Is God really a Male?

My friend Marko has recently posted about his views on the dangers of using only masculine pronouns when speaking of God.

I am not sure why this topic has made me think so much, but it certainly has.

Here are a few highlights

i did some reading, and talked to a bunch of women about how — for some of them — male pronoun use for god, no matter how much we might try to admit that god doesn’t have a human gender like we do, is a struggle for them. i understand that, no matter now much we try, it’s impossible for us to fully separate our understanding of god from our experience in life, and that metaphors and history both speak loudly into our psyches, worship, theology and practice.

i have searched for images that work for me, but haven’t really found one yet. part of this is that i’ve lived a life with a humanized father image. and while the images of god in scripture — male and female — include lots of non-human images (rocks, hens, eagles, wind, water, light, bread, lamb), the only scriptural metaphors i have to work with that are decidedly feminine are non-human. there are also a ton of human metaphors for god in scripture (best friend, guide, potter, servant, judge) — which don’t have to be male, i’ve spent a lifetime thinking of them as male. even the feminine “sophia” — the scriptural word for wisdom, often associated with the holy spirit — has all kinds of hurdles for me at an experience level.

i love the father metaphor, and think it is totally scriptural - obviously so. i have no intention of moving away from or discarding that wonderful metaphor. and i will still talk about the trinity in terms of father, son and holy spirit. that said, i think we have a tendancy - i know i have - to worship the metaphor, rather than worshipping through the metaphor. this is a major portion of my shift — i want to know god better and deeper, and don’t want to be limited by charicatures of my own making or my culture’s making.

I think that I agree with many of Mark's points, but I am still thinking about all of it...

I certainly think many of men have looked up to heaven and seen God smiling back to them in a magnified version of their own image. Then they turned away from the mirror and looked back at the world and told everyone that God was just like them...

this has certainly caused many people who weren't like these men to miss out on the true image of God...

Many conservatives will view this issue as a liberal agenda to feminize God... But I think Mark has a very valid point... certainly God is not male or female in a human sense.

I am really interested to gather some of your perspectives on this...

A Stroke of Genius

I found this totally fascinating presentation on ted.com...

watch it and tell me what you think?

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

Family

Emily and I were in Hayward Wisconsin at the end of February with my family.

Both of my brothers were there with their familes as well...

It is so amazing to see their kids...

They are such little amazing people who are this awesome and weird combination of their parents.


So from a family of 3 boys so far has come 4 girls...

We shall see what september brings...

Orbiting the Giant Hairball #4: The Chickens...

Gordon tells a awesome story about two boys who pretend to be sick to get out of attending Church. They soon get board, and come up with a little game. First they draw a line with chalk in front of their house. Then, they go and grab a chicken from the chicken coop and push its beak down to the line... after about a minute the chicken is released... but it will not remove its beak from the line... it is paralyzed.

Well... they repeat this process for the rest of the 70 chickens in the coop... and the boys are so delighted with their efforts that they fail to notice their parents returning, with the preacher following.... obviously they get into great trouble....

But here is the real point:

The same thing that happened to those chickens can happen to you. When you join an organization, you are, without fail, taken by the back of the neck and pushed down and down until your beak is on the line --not a chalk line, but a company line. And the company line says things like:

"This is our history.
This is our philosophy.
These are our policies.
These are our procedures.
This is simply the way we are."

If you are not careful you will be hypnotized by the line. And what a pity if this happens. (MacKenzie pg. 51-53)

This is maybe the point where this book went from cute, to a little profound in my eyes. I have experienced the equivalent of the "Chicken moment" in nearly every social, vocational, educational, and religious organization I have ever been a part of.

Usually I get in trouble because I find the moment a great time to share why the line is misplaced, and then waste a lot of time trying to negotiate about moving the line, or changing the lines.

I just have never been good at staying in the lines...

MacKenzie goes on to say:

"There has never been anyone quite like you, and there never will be. Consequently, you can contribute something to the endeavor that nobody else can. There is a power in your uniqueness-- an inexplicable, unmeasurable power... a MAGIC"

That sounds almost like this

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
~Ephesians 2:10

This chapters most excellent point is simple... don't allow yourself to be hypnotized by the company LINE. It will rob both them and you of your best creative and innovative ideas.... ideas that come from your unique background, perspective, and personality.

(The Chickens which I borrowed from google images were not harmed in the writing of this post.)

Orbiting the Giant Hairball #3 THE GIANT HAIRBALL

HOW do you Orbit Hairballs?

Gordon assumes that all organizations have certain forces, that pull people into the bureaucracy, or hairball, of the company. Once you are in this tangled mess, it is quite difficult to continue to be innovative, creative, and even sane. His recommendation is to orbit it, instead of either entering the tangle, or spinning off into space.

"to find orbit around a corporate Hairball is to find a place of balance where you can benefit from the physical, intellectual, and philosophical resources of the organization without becoming entombed in the bureaucracy of the institution." pg. 33

This feels true for artists and creatives. Most of their ability to continue to be creative and think differently, would be lost if they were "entombed in the bureaucracy of the institution."

This made me wonder a few things:
1. How does this play out in different types of organizations?

2. What are some good warning lights to tell if the orbit is too close or too far?

3. If everybody tried to orbit, rather than enter in, would it still work? Or... is this something that really only a handful of people are able to do in an organization? (or do not creatives even need orbit... maybe they like the tangle)

4. What if you get motion sickness?

Art: a pursuit of beauty... or uniqueness?

Yesterday I was talking at lunch with a friend about art, creativity and innovation.

One thing that came up was how art has gotten all weird. Charlie talks about this on his blog, where he shares this recent quote:

“Actually, beauty hasn’t been a prominent factor in art for the past 30 years.”

(see quote in Newsweek artice “A Room with a Hue” )

Personally, I think that art has suffered because of how good our technology for preserving it is. Since the renaissance, and even before, we have continually advanced in preservation of art so that less and less is lost. Since Art students are told to have bold unique visions, one generations ART, would be a stomach turning cliche is recreated a single generation later...

so the pursuit of Beauty is not CLICHE and what matters in being UNIQUE... only I don't like stuff that is Uniquely ugly...

Rather than each generation having to attempt to capture beauty… we still have the last 10 generations attempts…

so in order to be new… we push into new frontiers…. like smearing blood and fecal mater on canvas….

It certainly is not beautiful, even if it is art so to speak…

Our insane desire to be different is killing our pursuit of beauty…

one wonders what a person who is pursuing beauty is, if they are not an artist?

John Piper on the Prosperity Gospel

My friend Nick posted this on his blog. And I wanted to share because it really made me pause and think...

What do you think about it?

Question: Pink or Blue?

Just a quick update on the life of Brandon & Emily.

Emily is pregnant.


So yeah... way cool.

The due date is Sept 14th, so we are already well along. We would appreciate your prayers for the baby's development and for us as we seek to adjust our life commitments to match our new phase of life.

We are really excited about raising children in the Elmbrook Church Community!

I think it is going to be really cool to watch this all happen in the midst of hundreds of crazy middle school students and awesome adult leaders.