I've been listening to a great show called the "Who are These Guys Podcast" for a couple of months now and have learned a lot of useful/applicable tips for early church leaders.I can't say that I've taken everything that they've said all the way, but enough of what they share is true wisdom. Here's the latest blog they've sent me.

3 “Gee-Whiz” Mistakes to Avoid Early

Posted: 28 Aug 2007 09:37 PM GMT-06:00

There is a dynamic in the first years of leading in ministry that I fell into pretty hard and that set me up for a lot of frustration and disappointment. I call it the “gee-whiz” element. It is the frame of mind that I believe many young pastors and leaders in ministry have fresh out of college, or early in their pursuit to follow the call of God into vocational ministry. And it is a frame of mind that I believe leads towards 3 crucial mistakes.

The Pedestal

This is the mistake so many young pastors and ministry leaders make when they place the church and the person they will be working for on a pedestal. This is such an obvious mistake to avoid, but almost all of us make it and after a year or two it often leads to frustration, disillusionment and conflict.

The reason this happens is because we allow ourselves to become so enamored with being accepted by a church that we stop thinking critically about the leadership and community. Is the church in the midst of a large transition? Has the youth ministry had a quick turn over in the position they are looking for you to fill? Are the ministers that will lead you proven mentors? Are the ministers that will lead you someone that you want to be like as a pastor? Is the church looking for a minister to come and set direction, and “fix” the ministry? How has the church grown over the past 3-5 years? Is there a strong team in place?

These are all questions that need to be asked and adequately answered. Young Leaders need a mentor, they need a place to learn, but the freedom to put those learnings into practice (now catch this) in an environment HEALTHY enough for their mistakes. You need a place to develop practical experience and a place that values the practice of mentorship for young pastors - period!

The Tom Sawyer

This is the mistake where you SO want to feel useful you sign up for every little task you can to help out and get that “that-a-boy” pat on the back. In the business world this is called falling for a “Tom Sawyer.” In the novel, Tom was whitewashing the fence, and his buddies made fun of him for having to work instead of play. Tom insisted he was having the time of his life so vehemently, that the other kids asked if they could take a turn painting the fence. Tom allowed them to paint the fence for him, but only if they gave him something in return. So, Tom ended up getting snacks and toys in exchange for allowing the other kids to paint the fence.

Don’t become someone’s “Tom Sawyer”, know who you are, and focus on your ministry. Think of it this way, your time is worth $500/hour. Now, most of us only wish we got paid that much, but as the leader of the ministry your time and where you spend it should only be in the places of the HIGHEST value. Don’t get suckered into menial tasks just because someone is affirming you, focus your time on the things you are best at and that hold the highest value. Now, don’t become the worst team player in history, your church is full of people who need to serve in their place in ministry. Enable them to serve, and stay focused on your priorities.

The Bottle Neck

In leadership and management books a consistent mantra is that you must delegate and enable volunteers so that you don’t become the “bottle neck” to your ministry, and thus limit it. There is one benefit for the insecure leader though, if you are the bottle neck you are also the center of attention! It also means when the ministry hasn’t grown, you are the center of attention for that failure. Learn early that being a pastor means lifting others up. Great pastors are constantly enabling ministry opportunities for people by getting out of the way and letting them serve. It is also the best way to help create “buy-in” within your ministry, and to provide an environment of excitement.

Hilarious

Comment: Apple should not have changed "You can't be too thin" tag-line for the iMac

Because you can be too politically correct

by Amy-Mae Elliott

---

24 August 2007 17:48 GMT - "What kind of message is Apple sending our youth with an ad campaign of this nature? The truth is one CAN be too thin."

Coming straight atcha from the "taking it far too literally" department is the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, up in arms earlier in the week that Apple should use the slogan, "You can't be too thin. Or too powerful" as a tag-line for the new iMacs.

Sheesh guys really, go and hand out leaflets to girls buying fashion mags filled with too-skinny air-brushed celeb and models pics, or spend time fixing your spell check before the next press release - repeatedly referring to Apple's angle on the new desktop offerings the "new IMAC Campaign" isn't going to win you any allies in the tech world. article slice!

New iMac vs Dell with same features.... need I say more?

Top Ten Money Drainers

My wife sent me this article from the yahoo finance pages.... can't imagine why she sent it to me, but I thought it was worth a look!

1. Coffee -- According to the National Coffee Association, the average price for brewed coffee is $1.38. There are roughly 260 weekdays per year, so buying one coffee every weekday morning costs almost $360 per year.

2. Cigarettes -- The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids reports that the average price for a pack of cigarettes in the United States is $4.54. Pack-a-day smokers fork out $1,660 a year. Weekend smoker? Buying a pack once a week adds up, too: $236.

3. Alcohol -- Drink prices vary based on the location. But assuming an average of $5 per beer including tip, buying two beers per day adds up to $3,650 per year. Figure twice that for two mixed drinks a day at the local bar. That's not chump change.

4. Bottled water from convenience stores -- A 20-ounce bottle of Aquafina bottled water costs about $1. One bottle of water per day costs $365 per year. It costs the environment plenty, too.

5. Manicures -- The Day Spa Magazine Price Survey of 2004 found that the average cost of a manicure is $20.53. A weekly manicure sets you back about $1,068 per year.

6. Car washes -- The average cost for a basic auto detailing package is $58, according to Costhelper.com. The tab for getting your car detailed every two months: $348 per year.

7. Weekday lunches out -- $9 will generally cover a decent lunch most work days. If you buy rather than pack a lunch five days a week for one year, you shell out about $2,350 a year.

8. Vending machines snacks -- The average vending machine snack costs $1. Buy a pack of cookies every afternoon at work and pay $260 per year.

9. Interest charges on credit card bills -- According to a survey released at the end of May 2007, the median amount of credit card debt carried by Americans is $6,600. Rate tables on Bankrate.com indicate that fixed interest rates on a standard card average 13.44 percent. Making the minimum payment each month, it will take 250 months (almost 21 years) to pay off the debt and cost $4,868 in interest. Ouch!

10. Unused memberships -- Costhelper.com reports that the monthly service fee at gyms averages between $35 and $40. At $40 per month, an unused gym membership runs $480 per year.

Copyrighted, Bankrate.com. All rights reserved.

5 ways to Guarantee Success

1. Be passionate/emotionally connected to your career choice. Whether it is that you are extremely competitive by nature, you truly enjoy helping your clients, you are intensely driven to support your family or whatever else you must have a strong reason for coming into the office and performing each day. It is suggested that you constantly stay in touch with your motivations by deeply thinking about them on a regular basis. Doing this will allow you to keep direction in your life.
2. Study those that are enjoying your version of success in life. What is your definition of success? Each of us has our own unique definition. There are people that are living a very close definition of your success. How do they do it? You may have to read about it. You may be able to interview that person. Find a mentor. Learn from those who have done it and implement their strategies. There are just tons of books about success and also books about business strategy out there. Steal and duplicate the "stuff that works" and succeed on your terms.
3. Beware of how you talk to yourself and do believe in yourself. Beware of negative and limiting streams of thought. By negative I am referring to self thoughts that either make you a victim of circumstances deemed beyond your control or persuading yourself that you are just not good enough to see success in this field. You must believe in yourself. A matter of fact, you must believe that you can see success and win regardless of the circumstances. We each have amazing levels of potential that remain untapped. One of the great challenges of life is to work as hard and smart as we can to reach our potential.
4. Create more positives than negatives each day. Look for little wins like quality presentations. Look for little wins like maintaining confidence during the day. Look for little wins like pulling a good credit reports. Look for little wins like learning something new during the day. Look for little wins like having a positive conversation with a family member or friend who supports you. Look for little wins like positive interactions with a team mate. Time is precious so make certain you are getting little wins during the day because those little wins add up to big wins. More positives than negatives allow you to drive off the lot knowing that you have made progress. Progress equals career advancement folks.
5. Always be thinking about improvement. This is true regardless of the amount of success you have had in the past. Constant improvement or at least attempting to improve helps to fight against complacency. Remaining gratefully unsatisfied allows for a balance of acknowledging that we have accomplished great things in the past and yet we will accomplish even more in the new and future. Break your business down constantly. Ask others what you can do to improve. An active mind is a must for a successful business person. Tiny improvements each day makes a huge difference over time folks.

Used a new sermon illustration this past Wednesday.
I was trying to work with a new way to help youth understand what it meant to wait on God.
Like any normal person it's difficult to wrap your mind around the concept that waiting on God doesn't mean sitting around doing nothing but praying and hoping.

In an effort to point on what God is always doing we narrowed God's constant desire down to 3 things.

1. God is always proclaiming His glory

2. God is always looking out for His people's best interest.

3. God is always looking to connect with people through His son Jesus.

But what does this have to do with waiting on God? Well it's simple. When you and I claim we don't know what God wants us to do in a situation we really only to look at the three things He's always doing to gain some insight.

It's almost like God is sitting a big table in a restaurant. God makes it clear what He always wants. His Holy Spirit is working in the kitchen cooking up opportunities, but its up to us to pick up those opportunities and bring them to the father. See waiting on God doesn't mean sitting around it means it's time to be a waiter for Him.

And doesn't God deserve our best platter to bring it to Him? Think of the platter is the best of your ability, your best try, etc. You also never know what the trip from the kitchen to the God's table is going to be like though. The floor might be slippery and you'll have to change your path. You might have other customers demanding your attentions and efforts. And who knows, there might be want to sneak away some of that food for yourself. A guy's gotta eat right?

Something amazing though, is that when we do bring God's order to the table, He doesn't just keep it all for himself. Can you imagine seeing the best customer in the place offering some of his meal to the waiter? Heck no! But here's God offering it to us "Here, you can be satisfied to, here eat be nourished and energized, here be blessed by this meal too and don't worry about helping out with the check, my son's already paid the bill."

Honestly, I wouldn't have any problem waiting on a guy who always shares his meals with me.
And yet sometimes we bring God a happy meal instead of the full three course meal He ordered.
What do you think would happen to the waiter who never brings the full course to the best customer? He wouldn't get a good tip for one thing, but he would also never have the chance to be satisfied by that awesome food. The waiter would really be robbing himself too.

So here's the holy Spirit preparing the food, all we have to do is carry it to the table on our best platter, bring the best quality food to the Father as our spiritual act of worship, and realize that the bill has already been paid by the Son.

- tom

Just want to watch the story of a video game without having to deal with the $60 price tag?
Ever think your parents don't want you living in the basement anymore?

Well here's an answer to the first problem.
www.nextgenwalkthroughs.com

Watch all the cut scenes in order to put together the story line from a ton of next gen games.

One of the new business terms being thrown around today is "corporate identity.'"
This regarding to logo's, public perception, etc..

Recently I signed up to try and win a contest for a free makeover our identity as a church.

But just a quick thought, should a church's identity some from its name or God's name?

I guess I'll just file this one under the naive idealist section of my brain.

Why Doesn't Every Church Grow?

Because God isn't invited into every service, into every meeting, into every plan, into every story, into every dream, into every goal, into every song, into every building, into every project, into every confrontation, into every sermon, into every step.

If all church's committed to being the breathing body of Christ then there is indeed no hope for such place. When a people become an organization rather than a supernatural organism.

Apple has done it again with their new line up of iMacs.

I've looking forward to this release for months now, frantacly checking the web for sneak peeks at the new machine, and reading the feeds of every keynote Steve Jobs has given for a hint of the new hardware.

Honestly, I had begun to resent the iphone because it was slowing the down the release of my dream machine.

But finally the waiting to has finally paid off with the release of the new imac.


[Steve demonstrating on the new machine.]

But what has really blown me away, is the newest version of iLife, iLife 08.

iPhoto
- A new organization feature called "events" which seems to work similar to how one can capture video, by organizing the photos you import automatically, saving one from the stress of tagging photos later. Once it "in" its organized leaving you to enjoy your memories instead of having to remember where you put them.

- easy web uploading...much better than the current "mac friendly only" photocasting.

iWeb

- finally allows for personal domains and hosting without having to use .mac. (You could do this before, but with some hassle and a lack of carry over or some of the features... such as photocasting)
- live customizable web widgets... finally I can encorporate stuff from my various blogs without having to just build links... people can view them all from one page. Beautiful!


iMovie
- Super happy library management, that is faster than real time and works just as good as any of their still image organizers.
- publishes in HD
- direct to YouTube (thank you very much)
- publish right to ipod
- allows higher quality than DVD can even play
- quick rendering designed by a guy who wanted more features instead of a team who was run by a focus group... about time

.mac
- better service
- 10 gigs of storage available.... awesome!

garage band
- notation printing finally available
- garage band magic can change any basic recording into a different genre all together automatically for great experimentation!



All I need now is the $2k to do it, so my ministry can be ministering to students instead of slaving over a computer for hours on end.
Who knew Apple would be a minister's best friend?

Though it May Seem Grim

I've been listening to podcasts for years now and I've really enjoyed getting to hear the thoughts of so many different people, especially from so many who are in the same field I'm in. Lately though, I've grown weary of people claiming the many do's and don't of ministry, often claiming that if you miss any item on their list you'll fail and never be able to recover.

For example, I just listened to a podcast where they talk about how to avoid problems in your first 6 months of ministry. Within the podcast they strongly advise young Youth Pastor's not to change anything about the ministry in the first 6 months. I absolutely agree. Even hold a year if you can. But then another step is taken, telling me that when you're thinking and building a new idea, program, or something you're going to launch, don't tell anybody until you're ready to launch. They sighted some great examples of people who do this in the business world, like Steve Jobs who said something to the effect of "Ships never sink from the top."

Perhaps I'm over simplifying or speaking with an overly naive sensibility, but how exactly am supposed to avoid the following;

1. An over-whelming sense of loneliness towards the goals I have? To put my ministry into context, I have a small group of volunteer staff who have amazing hearts, but also an incredibly packed schedule.

2. How do kids obtain a sense of ownership? Perhaps programing and events aren't something kids are necessarily plugged into in bigger churches, but in smaller ones, without kid involvement they all flop.

I guess in general I'm just sick of feeling like the ministries failure and success is 100% on my shoulders. I always feel like this anyways and too often I feel pressure to quit because I don't have a high enough profit margin cough*** I mean "spiritual growth."

God has called me an others to do an amazing work I'm sure if I'm going to be seeking advise much longer if every body just keeps adding to the list of "1 million ways to ruin ministry... p.s. you've probably already done a thousand of these."

tom