I was listening to my Pastor, Dave Gibson, preach a sermon based on Titus 2:2.  (²Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.)  He made the point that we who are the Body of Christ are constantly “read” by other people and we either demonstrate Christ-like attributes or we do not.  This started a flood of thoughts in my mind and prompted me to take it a little further.  Sorry Dave, but I probably missed what you said after that!

Not only are we “read” but in a sense we are tasted and experienced by the world. I began to think about how a wine connoisseur evaluates a bottle of wine.  Terms begin to swirl like bold, vibrant, earthy, acidic and the list goes on and on.  Now, I am certainly not a wine connoisseur!  If not for the spell checker feature of my software, I would not even be able to spell it!  But I have always been amazed at people who had so finely tuned their palette that they could give a thorough evaluation of a wine from only a taste or two.  They can easily spot an inferior wine with very little effort.

In a sense, society has been trained to be an expert in making quick assessments of other individuals with which they come in contact.  The evaluation metrics that they use are not always fair and are inconsistent to a degree, but they can generally give a pretty fair analysis of a person given enough exposure.  Of course without the exposure, there is no evaluation whatsoever resulting in zero impact.  (note to self: expand in a different post)  It seems that a wine review can be broken down into three basic parts: the first impression, general characteristics, and the finish.

With this in mind, I offer the following possible reviews of a Christian by a people connoisseur.  This is certainly not an exhaustive set, but hopefully enough to make a point.

Review # 1 – Highly acidic on the tongue resulting in a very unpleasant experience.   I could not bear to finish the glass.

I cringe when I think of all of the times when I have made my first impression to a person in an ugly and offensive way.  Perhaps it was when I was made to wait an intolerable amount of time at the bank, or when I was cut off by a careless driver.  Whatever preceded my poor first impression, it does not begin to excuse the way that I represented my maker.  Bottom line is that when the first impression is poor, there is no reason to look further for depth.  Impression formed, forever ingrained, an opportunity lost.  Testimony delivered.

Review #2 – A bright presentation with great mouth feel.  Wine disappoints as it has no real depth. 

How easy is this? I can remember to be gracious to the waitress at the restaurant after I leave church on Sunday, but have I made any impact?   How many times have I had a chance to share my faith, or meet a need, or just demonstrate compassion and I have just gone about my business?  I am humbled when I am in the presence of someone who reaches out when I do not.  It is also significant when those who are facing incredible adversity or loss manage to use the situation to demonstrate God’s goodness to the rest of the world.  These are people of great substance.  I want to be one of those.

Review # 3 – A very robust presentation giving way to earthy tones with good depth.  Unfortunately, the finish is somewhat weak.

I want to finish well.  I really do.  I love to see people like my father who has never let up and keeps pressing on, preaching the Gospel and defusing difficult situations.  I am talking about people who work for the kingdom as long as they have strength to do so.  I also admire people who find a new way of serving the kingdom when life situations and circumstances dictate a change.  I want to be one of the people who get older and manage to see it as just getting nearer to the time that they can actually be with God.

Review #4 – Good first impression giving way to great depth and complexity.  Prevalent notes of grace, mercy and compassion leading to an invigorating finish.  Truly, a life to savor.

So I have to ask myself, Am I living a life that makes people want to take a further look?  And when they look closer, am I living in such a way the depth of faith is observed?  And will I finish my life in such a way that Christ’s message never dims?  One thing is certain; we give our testimony many times in every day.  We either act as an ambassador for God's love, grace and mercy or we give a hollow or distorted representation of our master.

So... what am I going to taste like today?

Series: Organized Dysfunction - Part 2

In my first post, I made the comment that "Poor tactical planning resulting in flawed ministry processes marginalizes the effectiveness of far too many churches."  This of course begs the question of "What are ministry processes?"

Ministry processes are the steps taken to achieve the objectives of the ministry. This can also be described as the way we “do” church. There are processes for connecting visitors, caring for members, following up with absentees, planning events, communication and spiritual formation.  It is not a question of whether or not you want to use ministry processes, the fact is that you already use them.  They are intentional or unintentional as well as either effective or ineffective. 

Intentional or Unintentional:  Intentional ministry processes are the ones we design and execute according to overriding objectives.  In the absence of intentional processes, we inevitably develop ad hoc processes that fill the gaps.  They may "put out the fire" but they don't really solve the problem much less accomplish something great.  In order to be intentional, a leader must understand the objective and consciously move in that direction. 


Effective or Ineffective:  Obviously, if we are being intentional in our efforts, we want our processes to be effective.  Unfortunately, this is not a simple thing to achieve.  There are two levels of ministry process effectiveness.  The first is being effective within your specific ministry context.  The second is being effective in the context of overall church objectives.  I want to deal with the first with effectiveness within the context of a specific ministry.  Many churches are serious about following their ministry processes. Names are gathered, attendance is taken, reports are generated, letters are sent, contacts are made and meetings are held. Unfortunately, the end result does not always achieve the intended objectives. Even worse, many times success was simply impossible due to poor planning in the beginning stages. 

Having helped hundreds of churches implement various technology solutions, I have come to appreciate the difference between potential and real improvement in church processes.  Simply put, purchase decisions are made on the potential of becoming more effective, while the reality is that most will never achieve success.  The reason for this phenomenon is different in every church but I have seen several factors that are common.

1. Technology implementation is viewed as an issue of minor importance.  This is a misguided perception, but all too common.  If proper use and application of tools were not important, I would be able to build a house with the tools in my garage!  After all, they are the right tools.  The truth is that I could build something using my tools, but it would not be a house you would want to live in!  The correlation is that the implementation process will be the determining factor between success and failure.  Since technology is just a tool for a church to use, it is incumbent on the leaders to make sure that the tools are used properly and for the right purpose.
2. Technology implementation is viewed as a lower priority than all other ministry activities.  On the surface, this seems like a reasonable statement.  After all, it is the ministry that matters, right?  Well, yes, but if the implementation is never temporarily elevated to a high place of priority it will never be used effectively. Leaders must properly position the project as a temporary high priority so that there can be an actual improvement in ministry performance. Afterward, technology can go back to it's appropriate supporting role.
   
3. Technology implementation is not put in proper perspective.  Let's face it, change = pain!  People don't like change and they resist the hard work unless they see the value in the outcome.  The staff needs to know that the change is being made for the improvement of ministry efforts and not just to have the latest technology.  The senior leadership of the staff will either sanction the project by properly framing the intent of the changes or they will allow it to languish in obscurity.  Typically, all I want from a senior pastor on a technology project is for him to share his perspective of why the changes are needed with the staff.  The project requires his unwavering support of the implementation process and the intent to see it to the finish.  I like to think of it as similar to early settlers burning the ships on the shore so that everyone knew that going back was not an option. 
   
4. Technology implementation is led by someone with too little authority.  A good implementation plan will include tasks that need to be performed and accountability for those who have been given those tasks.  Many times, an administrative person of the staff has been given the unenviable task of managing the project.  How can they possibly hold a pastor accountable for their tasks?  The most successful implementations of technology always have a senior staff leader who owns the project to completion.

It all comes down to this.  If the benefit of the technology is never achieved, then all of the planning and effort was a complete and utter waste of time and money.  The worst part is that the staff had to go through the pain of change even though the benefit was not attained.  Most times, we just blame the technology and look for a new solution rather than admit that the implementation was a failure.  It is always humorous to hear people get excited about a cool feature in a new software program that existed in their old system!

There are many reasons to implement new technology.  I encourage churches to use as much care in the implementation as they did in the tool selection.  Technology can provide great benefits if it is used the right way, at the right time, by the right people, with the right training, for the right purpose.

I recently spoke to a group of parents about some practical ways to keep their families safe online.  The information below is from my handout.  I have also created a parent reference page on my site with links to some good information.

Background Information

• Immigrants & Natives
  • In his book, Carpe Mañana, Leonard Sweet compares the challenge of adults born before 1962 sharing Christ with people born after that year to immigrants trying to communicate with natives. He calls people born after 1962, "A.C." (after computers) and natives to today's culture. Those born before 1962 are "B.C." (before computers) and immigrants.
    
  • This culture uses a different language than ours. We will either use our kids as interpreters, or we will learn the language ourselves.  I think that this is a deliberate decision that we have to make as parents.
    
• A Targeted Generation
  
  • Teenagers subjected to hundreds of discrete forms of advertisement each day. Why? Because they have the most discretionary money.  Not only that, they are relatively easy to influence.
    
  • View “Merchants of Cool” which is a documentary from a few years ago. It really opened my eyes.
    
• No Absolute Truth
  
  • In a recent study, the Barna Research Group revealed a stunning statistic that continues to reverberate throughout the evangelical world. Only 9 percent of professing Christians have a biblical worldview.  
  • Why is this important?  This is important because most people don't really believe that God is the author and arbiter of truth.  Once we put ourselves into the equation of determining right from wrong, then we have opened the door wide open to relative truth.  If this happens, the collective society gets to redefine truth as they see fit.
  • Take a look at information from the Truth Project on this topic.
    

Basic Checklist

• Set your search engine settings to filter content
  
• Update your firewall/anti-virus/malware/spyware software
  
• Run the updates to your operating system
  
• Set a limited-rights user account for each child and configure their internet home page
  
• Utilize Internet Controls (I recommend Safe Eyes)
  
  • Filtering and Monitoring and Accountability
    
  • Software or Hardware
    
  • Content & Time
    
• Consider your computer environment
  
  • Keep computers in a common room
    
  • Position the screen to be visible to all
    
• Establish house rules (Covenant)
  
  • Acceptable and non-acceptable websites
    
  • Rules for IM, texting, gaming, social networking, information sharing etc…
    
  • E-mail - Don't invite trouble with poor practices.

Social Media - (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, gaming, texting, chat rooms etc...)

• Work to understand social networking
  
  • Understand that social network tools are a valid and lasting form of communication
    
  • Understand "Virtual Presence" and modern peer pressure
    
  • Learn to understand the language of the “natives”
    
  • Age appropriateness
    
• Monitor activity and enforce rules of engagement
  
• Make sure your kids understand
  
  • Internet information is forever.
    
  • There is NO anonymity on the internet!
    
  • Social networking companies DO NOT have your best interests at heart.

Reference Page - http://www.techtoolsforministry.com/parent_resources

I have been intrigued by the advertising campaign of Microsoft's new search engine called "Bing!".  It is billed as a cure for the confusing task of searching the internet and it's amazingly varied pieces of information.  They claim to be the "world's first decision engine".  I agree that the internet can be dizzying at times and it has a way of putting together different content items that have no business together.  It is a stream of consciousness to be sure and it makes perfect sense that we need a way to help us make decisions.  Check out a recent add.



Now, here is my point.  I think that real life is more complicated than the internet and there is no doubt that we need a decision engine to help us along the way.  But I really doubt that Microsoft has the best engine for me to use to make decisions.  What is needed is a Biblical worldview where God is the arbiter of absolute truth.  In 2003 the Barna Research Group released a study that indicated that less than 10% of people in America process decisions with a Biblical world view.  This is a staggering statistic!  This did not happen overnight, but gradually over the past few decades society has shifted toward a relative truth decision engine where everyone is supposed to make decisions that are right for them.

As a parent, I am impressed that I need to teach my kids that God needs to be the filter by which all decisions should be made.  It is a matter of helping them to see that the world routinely lies to them when it says that there is no absolute truth.  I don't know how parents can possibly make consistent decisions when the standard of truth is a shifting line. I have to admit that it is very easy to fall into a pattern of making decisions based on worldly standards.  It is always a relief to remember that I don't have to determine what is right in a certain situation.  All I have to do is apply God's truth to the situation and remain consistent in my response. 

So perhaps Microsoft is onto something after all.  We definitely need a decision engine.  We just need to use the right one.  I kind of doubt that this angle will appear in any of their ads!