this might be one of the coolest, and most truth telling things i’ve seen on youtbue in a long time. its not long & you must watch the whole thing to get the impact. no, some lame scary person isn’t going to jump up at the end (i didn’t tell you to turn up your speakers did i?). tip comes from family friend meredith who sent to wifey erin (not sure what it takes to get on meredith’s email list but)
Personal
gavoweb poll : closing out a college season
as with everyone i know, i have an opinion on the rankings of college football. the things i get burned up about is the 80s/90s loyalty the experts have for undefeated teams, but then will swing around and say someone else is the best, but not put it into the polls. if you think someone is the best, show it by where you would put your money on betting for them. now, i'm not saying gamble, well maybe.. but put your commitment (and being honest, money is most peoples primary symbol of commitment) on the team you think is best and stick with them. so here is my rankings & i welcome your critique.
- Florida : i just can't bet against them. they beat my tide too
- Southern California : they are good, always have been they just get lost in who they are and slip up, but i'll bet on them anytime in a big game, except against florida
- Texas : they seem to be balanced & play tough, beat OU soundly and only hit a perfect storm of TT to stumble. i like Colt McCoy
- Utah : i wouldn't have bet on them till after sugar both, but i will now. their coaching can win them a big game.
- Alabama : bama it tough and has a power game & defense that i will still back up
- Oklahoma : they proved there isn't much defense in the Big 12, but they
are still a threat. if they can get a jump on you, you are done. which could put them past the tide, but i'm betting on the tide. - after that i am betting on a sec team.. maybe even vanderbilt after this year.
update: ap & coaches polls are now out. ap gives props to utah, coaches poll surprisingly, is almost identical to mine.
congress on evangelism : making friends
last night kicked off the 2009 congress on evangelism. it is here in nashville after being here about four years ago. i like the congress, not for the content, though some of it is very good, but the networking here is a lot of fun. i get out and meet a lot of people who are not in my regular circles.
last night i spent the evening in conversation with some of the boy from church of resurrection & the foundation talking techie geek stuff, but it was fun to finally, finally meet my long time blogger buddy wayne cook of tnrambler fame. i would visit his blog as i bet he will be doing some good recaps of the event. got to say hey to amy forbus who is all over the place cause she is so popular.
jay has some spurred thoughts on connectionalism from our evening together.
today i will be cleaning our house a bit then heading over to the conference again. come say hi to me
the purple church : reaching the early adopters
i was pondering my earlier post about how my church misses the mark in some of these marketing attempts things and getting their message (which i believe to be good) to the mass. i felt sorta bad because i made a critique without any real suggestion, something i am prone to do (and be done too). so what is a piece of advice or starting point in suggesting to my tribe church & its general agencies which are charged with supporting it?
i came back to thinking of seth godin & his purple cow. as he mentions the purple cow in this ted talk, stop trying to focus your energies on these broad based middle audiences. look for the early adopters to get your message to & inspire them to tell others. i liked the videos created, so i share it, and the viewership spreads from there.
not that i am the earliest adopter, but i do consider myself an early adopter. i am interested and listening to what my church has to say and putting out. i have google news feeds on my church (as i am sure others do as well) to tell me happenings in the world. i pay attention to technology & art and how it is being used in our church. i’ve used resources in my ministry work that has taken root in the mainstream of my church and conference. five years ago when jonathon and i started doing prayer station worship it was new, fresh, ‘remarkable’ for our context. today our youth & youth leaders are well versed it and have contributed to published books and articles.
one thing with the early adopters, it is a small demographic and those folks don’t take as much money to communicate with as a mass audience. as the open hearts open minds igniting ministry campaign put out with how many millions of dollars? yet our church has continued to decline. imagine instead of getting people who watch 24 hour news (the only time i saw the commercials was on cnn) you reached out to a core enthusiastic audience who cares about the church and what new can happen. as godin mention’s the steve jobs keynote, a general board can do an open meeting free to anyone who has a internet connection and microphone (and video camera too to see folks) via www.tokbox.com. content could be the newest ideas, what is happening in the local areas & around the world, who knows. it costs you nothing but your time to do it. millions can then be invested in to user generated ministries & missions that people can talk up with passion instead of a tired tv campaign.
those are some first thoughts. i hope this helps you be remarkable.
year that was 2008 : year that will be 2009
we are upon a new year. as is the customary we all look back at what 2008 was for us and what 2009 we hope to be. so, what happened in 2008? well…
- we introduced Eikon, our artistic communities, to our youth & church community. we expanded to have a writing and improv group this fall to add onto our photography groups. my hope is to take the failing game room and turn it into a studio room for visual arts.
- my goddaughter Madalyn Rose Richardson was born in march. we are all super pleased & it was fun to be there to take photos and play. luckily she looks a lot like her mother.
- our conference terminated the children's and youth ministries positions at the conference staff level. this was a sudden surprise and being the conference youth coordinator i was a portal for much frustration. this was a stressful time for erin & myself. lots of energy and prayer went into conversations and plans. in the end we actually improved our standings by establishing a fulltime youth & young adult person. but it didn't resolve the hurt from poor decisions and poor communication.
- nt wright came to nashville as part of his 'surprised by hope' book tour. it was amazing to see the array of people who came out. it was a fun time for erin and i to be geek theologians for the night together. we also had a good time with thunder & emily afterwards tasting some new brews.
- general conference happened this year in my united methodist church tribe. cool experience for that was going totally add and watching in second life with a bunch of other church nerds. it was actually quite helpful to keep up and have others explain 'what the hell just happened?' kind of stuff.
- i finished up our conference's youth ministry institute 2. it was a great experience. i graduated from youth ministry institute one some years back so getting around a bunch of youth leaders again and talking some serious shop was good fun.
- jason & i went to willow creek for shift conference. i was on invite from the willow folks and was happy to take up their hospitality. maybe they will ask me back to take photos for them as they are still using them for their promo stuff.
- the summer came and went with missions experiences and other trips, not to mention vbs. i was really tired at the end of this summer. i think i am still tired from the summer.
- took a great vacation with my family to fort morgan alabama. it was a great week. perfect place, perfectly on the beach. did the labor day weekend house boat trip with erin's fam. milestone of this trip, her dad and i went to play golf and i broke into the 70's. first time since early college days, 10 plus years, i have done that (i basically gave up golf after tanking & not making alabama's golf team).
- i got a pedicure.. the first for me & for someone who wears flip flops year round, probably something i should do again.
- my alama mater, the university of alabama, made its resurgence back onto the college football landscape. hate to say it but i really do have an emotional tie in with my bama football and it was a great fall.
- we finished out 3rd phase of our reminagining the youth lounge project. this was the intensive and highest impacting phase. the youth and the church are well pleased with how it turned out and seeing that we didn't stray from the original plan the youth devised some 2 years prior i'd say our discernment process that went into it had a bunch of God written onto it.
- the phillies won the world series.. i'm still thinking that was a dream.
- erin & i took an excursion out to albuquerque for the christian educators fellowship conference. i was teaching a series of technology & social media workshops.
- my adoptive little brother (i am the adopted oldest son of the piper family), andy piper and his sister becky, opened up pied piper eatery. we are really excited for them & the restaraunt is doing really well.
- last big thing, i got asked to be on the board for the united methodist reporter communications. i'm pretty stoked about this one.. actually really stoked. they were also so kind to have me as a special commentator.
- the only other thing, which will lead into 2009, erin & i started actively trying to have kids. so far, nothing to report which is okay, we are still just a few months into giving this a go.
so we get into 2009
- want to have a little richardson of our own.
- i hope to get into better shape. would like to loose like 50lbs. i lost like 20 over '08, but i think i gained most of it back as i never started a work our regiment.
- i want to finish more books this year. last year i started more books that i didn't, or am still trying to, finish.
- buy less stuff. this goes for me personally and professionally. one our church is in a budget crunch, so its necessary, but for ecology reasons.
- put together some long standing high impact projects. i've got some stuff in the works already that i hope will be some real impacts on church, community, and family.
- deepen 5 relationships a month. this might be a dinner/lunch conversation or doing something energetic.
- get outdoors. part of loosing weight is so i can fit back into my rock climbing harness (safely), so i don't have to "buy" a new one, and give us an old/new thing to do with our free time. also want to try out 2 new caves. this i'll have to do with my brother, erin doesn't like the caves.
- write more.. this might be an ebook, paper book, bunch of articles, or all the above. i want to take all these thoughts and put them into some framework to share with the world.
- take an extended retreat to a monastery. its been 2 years since i did my last extended retreat. i feel due.
- downsize the stuff of our life.. literal stuff and calendar stuff. i did better in 2008 than in prior years. the thing i didn't do well is that i stacked stuff, so i had spurts of many things.
- find a rhythm to my spiritual life. being a youth minister is tough, so many odd hours and demands of time & energy. i seek to find rhythm to life
- did i mention grow the family? yeah, that will be a big one and will probably reframe just about everything else on this list.
i wish & pray the best for you my friends in 2009.
shalom
-gavi