gavoweb

spiritual | cultural | technological life

Books

Poke the Church! #umclead

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Last week I spent a good part of a day listening and communicating with a number of folks during my UMC’s global Leadership Summit webcast. It was a good time to be a twitter native. Our community of folks were not intentionally courted for the webcast, but we sure did have our own little conference. Jeremy has a great run down of all that fun.

The main focus of the summit was content that is held within this “Call to Action” a document created for the church that tells us stuff we’ve all pretty much known. The United Methodist Church is dying (at least in the USA) & there are some basic tenants of vibrant growing church communities to refract off of.

My problem engaging the Call to Action as I did with the ReThink Church campaign is simple. We are still doing a bunch of talking..

Recently read “Poke the Box” by Seth Godin. Like most Godin books he beats his themes like a roadkill on the interstate. Poke the Box is this.. Get out there, stop talking and do something..

Our church hierarchy needs to stop being a talking head and get out and do something if they expect to bring change to the denomination that has offered a living. Are our bishops actually helping to lead change hands on? Probably not, because that task might seem gigantic. But if you can do that for one or two and find some successes then the credibility and branding of that change agent carries greater than saying the right things.

Agency heads and employees need to stop seeing their work as some given a career but a passionate mission that takes immersion into where they need to be. It is my observation that agency work is about meetings after meetings to know what is the right thing.. Who needs right all the time when constantly worried about being right leads to an eventual death?

I don’t care about people who want to talk change. I want to see and know people who are doing change. That is exciting to me and worth a global conversation.

in my opinion..

@samdavidson on One Thing I don’t need

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Sam Davidson & his wife Lynnette have been good friends of mine for almost a decade. In what started out as a coffee house conversation on church & ministry has led to family traditions, ministry sharing, taking on the world, & now building a business. So when Sam offered to share what I didn’t need in my life, as part of his book on 50 Things Your Life Doesn’t Need, I was in.

For those not familiar with Sam, he’s a is a writer, entrepreneur, and dreamer who believes that the world needs more passionate people. To help people find and live their passion. He is the co-founder of Cool People Care and now Proof Branding, and lives in Nashville with Lynnette and daughter Lindley (who is just the cutest thing ever).

So what don’t I need?

One Thing Gavin Richardson Doesn’t Need: Pointless Technology

If you’ve read Gavin’s blog – or spent any time with him in the last half-decade – you’ll know that he stays up on current trends and toys in the technological realm. But what’s really refreshing about him is that he’s always searching for a focus, for the “so what” behind all of our newfangled advancements.

This was confirmed for me as he and I recently led a workshop together for church leaders. We discussed social media and online marketing for congregations. Gavin didn’t simply wade through what’s available when it comes to platforms and tools; he made sure to stress the need to use these features to build community, do justice, and accomplish something worthwhile.

I think the same is true when it comes to finding and living our passion. We’ve got to have a “so what” moment.

I firmly believe the world needs more passionate people. This is why I wrote 50 Things Your Life Doesn’t Need. It’s a guide – a field manual of sorts – to getting rid of what doesn’t matter so you can focus on what does.

But when you find your passion, make sure to ask yourself why it is you’re passionate. You like music? Love art or sports? Crazy about a certain author or food? Big deal. Keep digging deeper to find out what it means.

Passions are good, but using them to accomplish something meaningful is great.

Other things (actually in the book) that Gavin Richardson doesn’t need:
#13 – Unpassionate activism
#22 – Analog versions of digital stuff
#28 – Gadgets that only do one thing
#34 – Shiny tennis shoes

The shoes is a really funny one!.. I do like my thank you cards. Still figuring out #13..

Freaks Geeks Cool Kids & American Consumption

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This post originally written on YouthWorker Movement

I will never forget this one day at youth, I pulled out my reasonably new cell phone that was all cool with a horizontal flip technology and enhanced screen, and one of the teens spouted out “Oh My Gosh! How old is that?” Now truth be told it wasn’t more than 6 months old, but it seemed that the day after I bought it the new improved version (way slicker than mine) went onto the market with a ton of advertising. So before I put in my wife’s phone number it seems my phone was outdated.

Up to that point & certainly since I’ve been fascinated with what I call the “ill” of our nation. Consumption.. and specifically how it affects our youth & young adults. Was totally into thinking like Branded & Story of Stuff, so it was not a real stretch to draw towards a title of “Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids: American Teenagers, Schools, and the Culture of Consumption.”

This is not a ministry book in intent, but the lessons drawn from its research are totally applicable into today’s youth ministries. Teenagers behaviors exhibited in how they treat others and place themselves into levels is totally ingrained in them & plays out in our youth communities (not to mention likely in our ‘big’ church environments).

As a sociology research piece it has a lot of dry reading, footnotes & research references are not my favorites to continually read through. The nature of the reading is not captivating as one might find some fictional writings. But, in between these pieces there is a ton of great insight into teens motivations to their behaviors. If you are wanting a break & challenge from the normal ministry book, this is a good choice to make.

If you do think of purchasing, go for a used version, or do like I did, get the Kindle or other electronic format. The price is always the big pain in purchasing research based writings.