Archive by Author

The Mixtape for the New Millennium

August 6, 2011 in Culture, Music with 0 Comments

I’m really liking Spotify – a new music service that debuted in America this summer (it’s been a huge hit in Europe). It gives you access to millions of songs you can stream for free.

 

If you haven’t joined yet, click here for an invite (or message me on Twitter for one). Unfortunately it’s invitation only right now. So exclusive.

 

I’m currently just using the free service. I still plan on mostly buying albums.

But what Spotify allows me to do is try before I buy. I’ve bought several albums this year that I wasted my money on. I wish I’d listened to them a few times through. Spotify lets you do that.

I know this may not seem amazing to some of you young whippersnappers. But I remember spending many weekends in high school driving up to Blockbuster Music to sit up at the “music bar” where they would let you open CD’s and listen to them. Yes, I’m that old – before the internets.

So streaming albums for free still blows my mind!

 

But I really like the idea of sharing playlists with friends.

It’s the Mixtape for the new Millennium.

 

Here’s a few of my playlists:

The profiles of users is also a good place to find out what music people are checking out. I have a “Songs I want to listen to, to see if I like them” list as well as some albums I’m checking out to see if they’re worth buying (Manchester Orchestra, Lykke Li, TV on the Radio)

 

I’d love to hear your playlists or your favorite new songs/albums – even if you aren’t on Spotify!

Share them in the comments.

 

On a side note, here’s some good music to check out:

  • The artist, Lenka, with a great cover of one of Arcade Fire’s best songs- Deep Blue (click to go to Lenka’s site, or listen below).
  • I have to hand it to my wife. When she first heard Arcade Fire’s song Sprawl II she immediately said – that sounds just like Blondie. Well, someone thought the same thing. Here’s a great mashup of Blondie and Arcade Fire (click to download it, or listen below).


  • Amazon has their new edition of Artists on the Rise (a monthly list of free songs from up and coming artists) – including a great Wye Oak song.
  • And finally, a beautiful violin cover of Bon Iver’s song Perth.

Take Responsibility for your Leadership Development and Read More

August 5, 2011 in Leadership, Ministry with 0 Comments

I’ve posted thoughts on this before, but this is really good:

(via Matt Perman)

Quotes from it:

  • I read one or two leadership books a month out of sheer discipline
  • I don’t ask myself if I feel like reading another book
  • I NEED to read
  • I have to take responsibility
  • I have some people that I have been given charge to lead well
  • I have to read to get better as a leader
  • I’m asking you: Take responsibility for your leadership development and read more
  • I’m asking you to get around other leaders who are better than you
  • Every 30 days, ask “who can I get lunch or dinner with?”
  • “Who can I get around who’s been where I haven’t been. And how can I ask them the right questions to stretch myself and get better?”

A few takeaways:

  • I need to figure out how to do this better – I think maybe cutting out internet before bed. For some reason the Kindle app on the iPad has helped me do this more (read instead of surf).
  • I plan on having my team watch this – to continue to reinforce a culture of self-development. I talked to a Cru staff member this summer who read 20 books on building movements last fall (in one semester!)! He takes this seriously.
  • I try to seize opportunities to meet with leaders during the summer (especially at Staff Conference) but I wonder what this looks like during the busyness of the year?

What do you think? What are your takeaways?

How We Do Ministry

August 3, 2011 in Ministry, Movement Building, Sharing with 10 Comments

How do you succinctly explain your ministry to a new staff or student leader?

Every college ministry, on every campus is unique. We all say we want to reach college students for Christ – what is your unique “gameplan” for accomplishing that?

 

I mentioned in the post on Monday that during Staff Planning we orient our team to our ministry philosophy by going over a sheet called “How We Do Ministry – One Page” (we get VERY creative with titles around her). Several of you mentioned you’d love to see that.

I put this sheet together last year because a new staff couple was joining our team and they wanted to know how we specifically approached college ministry at the University of Arkansas. So it forced me to think through our ministry approach, that has been pieced together over the last 7 years, and clearly communicate it to a pair of fresh eyes.

 

I hesitate to share something like this because it is so unfinished and rough. But I do so because:

1) I’m a huge believer in sharing resources freely with other ministries

2) I’d love your feedback on gaps in our thinking – what we should take off or add to the document

 

So here it is (you can download the Word document here which you are free to adapt for your ministry):

How We Do Ministry – One Page

Our Audience- Over 75% of Arkansas students consider themselves Christians.

So the typical student has been inoculated to the gospel and are now resistant to the “real thing”

 

Everything we teach should be Christ-centered- (everything communicated thru Discipleship, Bible studies, Cru talks, M29 etc)

  • Because most Arkansas students are moralistic religious people who confuse religion with the gospel
  • Religion is “I do good things so God will approve of me”
  • The Gospel is that “I am far worse off than I ever imagined, but far more loved than I ever dreamed”

 

Our vision is “That everyone would know someone who passionately follows Jesus”-

That vision pretty much summarizes everything we do.

Everyone= Scope – every student on campus (meaning we think of the campus as a waffle)

Would Know= The gospel travels along the road of relationships (when we say “evangelism” we want students to think “share Christ with my friend” not “share with random dude in the union”).

Someone= Our Means of reaching scope= College students. Students reaching students within their spheres of influence. Students empowering other students to do the same.

Who passionately follow Jesus= What must be true of students involved in our ministry– gospel infused/motivated. The gospel is what drives staff and students to do ministry.

But it’s not enough that Joe Freshman knows a follower of Christ. His likely response, “that’s cool for him, it’s just not for me.”

The missing ingredient= Equipping. We have to have a way to effectively (and efficiently) equip our students⇒ M29 – Weekly Leadership Training and Equipping (2 hours every Tuesday night)

Our Vision hinges on our students not only passionately pursuing Jesus but also being able to boldly articulate their faith to their non-Christian friends (and to be able to mobilize their Christian friends to start doing the same).

To reach that vision, we are big believers in the movement building principles of reaching successively larger classes of freshmen. We will not reach the campus this year but we are building to a point (over years) to have a movement of the size, health and maturity so that “everyone would know someone who passionately follows Jesus”.

 

Staff’s #1 job is to empower students to have a ministry-

  • We believe that students sharing with other students will be the key to reaching our campus.
  • So staff are successful not if they have a thriving personal ministry but if they are pouring into students who are in turn pouring into others (Discipleship/Multiplication)
  • So we focus pretty much every week with staff on “who are you meeting with and what are you doing with them?”:
  • Are you doing the: Right things (Time in the Word, Building a Relationship, Doing ministry together) with the Right people? (Who are pouring into others)
  • So we value:
    • Student-Led Community Groups
    • Student ownership (they run our weekly meeting, all socials, fall retreat, prayer, etc)
    • Students living in the dorms to have a ministry

 

We reach Freshmen using 3 Area teams- Pomfret, Brough, & North Side (we’ve broken the campus into 3 areas with 2 student leaders overseeing the Community Groups/outreach/follow up in each area)

 

Community Groups are the backbone of our ministry-

  • It’s how we measure success – “how many got plugged into CG’s thru Cru?”, “How many got in a CG thru our first 4 weeks outreaches?”, “How many freshmen are involved in CG’s?”
  • It’s where life change happens (and students come to Christ)

 

We have the World in view – we are a sending pipeline to the world-

  • Everything we do should be sustainable in producing life-long laborers (100% Sent)

 

 

So what would you add or subtract? What are the gaps? What is unclear or needs to be reworded?

What are some unique things you do in your ministry that would be on your “One Page” description? 

 

photo courtesy of greatdegree

Every Christian on Twitter Should Read This

August 2, 2011 in Culture, Leadership, Ministry with 2 Comments

These two posts should be required reading for any Christian on Twitter:

  • John Mayer cautions us to be careful in seeking out “joy in little, tiny statements – little, tiny applause hits.”
  • And John Piper responds to John Mayer with some wise words on using Twitter for the glory of God.

Though I don’t personally care for John Mayer’s music (yes, I understand he’s a gifted musician – just not my style), I have tremendous respect for his thoughtful approach to social media. It takes tremendous conviction to delete a Twitter account with 4 million followers.

John Mayer shares, “I realized about a year ago that I couldn’t have a complete thought anymore. I was a tweetaholic. I had four million twitter followers, and I was always writing on it.”

So, to avoid the temptation of publishing himself and to increase his mental capacity for creativity, Mayer deleted his twitter and stopped blogging.

His discipline and insight are remarkable. There’s a lot we can learn from him as we pursue a greater cause than music.

So should we all stop Tweeting? I’d say no.

 

John Piper has a very wise response:

Mayer said, “I couldn’t have a complete thought anymore.” To me this is almost the opposite of what happens. But that may depend on what we aim to do with Twitter.

Tweets do not diminish my ability to have a complete thought, they demand it. That’s what a Tweet is—a thought that is complete enough to press some God-focused truth into someone’s consciousness.

This kind of tweeting does not distract from thinking. It demands thinking. A peculiar kind of thinking—thinking that is capacious, concise, and compelling. [yes he defines capacious in his post!]

If I did not know a great God and a great Savior and a great Life and a great Plan, I would not bother writing Tweets—or books. But if God can be spoken of meaningfully in a 300 page book, he can also be spoken of in a 30-minute sermon, and a three line Tweet. All efforts to speak of the Infinite make our little differences between long and short irrelevant.

 

John Piper’s original post on why he started Tweeting in the first place is well-worth reading:

He responds to those who negatively/accurately say:

“These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it. So boycott them and write books (not blogs) about the problem.”

With,

“Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can.”

 

Piper’s final thoughts on Twitter are profound:

“All things were created through Christ and for Christ” (Colossians 1:16). The world does not know it, but that is why Twitter exists and that’s why I Tweet.”

 

How have you fought against seeking “joy in tiny applause from tiny statements”?
What is your goal for using Twitter or other social media?

 

images courtesy of P Keigan and Micah_68

How to Start Well with your Staff

August 1, 2011 in Leadership, Ministry with 18 Comments

“What you do with your staff during the days preceding the school year will largely determine the quality of your staff relations and the preparation of your staff team for the task ahead.”

 

As we look to the fall, what are the primary things your staff need to start the year off?

Today is my first day to be back 100% focused on our campus (after being on assignment at CSU all summer).

First matter of business: planning our Staff Planning week. We meet as a team and plan for 5 days from 9-noon (everyone works on ministry to-do’s in the afternoon).

 

My tendency in staff planning is to jump right into business and assume that everyone is as motivated, comfortable (in team relationships, with the campus/students), and aligned as I am. That’s why every year I re-read this article: Orienting Your Team (all quotes are from that article).

What do staff need?

“You can pretty much assume that most staff return willing and able but not very motivated and with little or no vision. A summer on location can drain the life out of a person as much as a difficult overseas project.

 Their felt needs have to do with a sense of belonging to a family. Am I really an important and an integral part of the team? Is my contribution and input valued? Does anyone really care about me?

Do I really like these people? Do I really know them? Staff need to know that they are working with loyal friends and no matter how difficult the task, you can do anything with your friends.”

 

According to the article, a new staff/intern needs three things:

  1. Orientation to a new town/campus (campus tour, set up utilities/bank/etc, unpack, get settled)
    • Try to accomplish this before staff planning week!
  2. Orientation to how your team and ministry operates
    • A typical staff weekly schedule
    • Philosophy of ministry (we have a one page sheet called “How we do Ministry – One Page” which, as you would expect, tells our entire philosophy of ministry on one page!)
    • Team norms (how we operate as a team)
  3. Orientation to their specific job
    • What specific things they will be doing this year - What is expected of them (staff jobs, position focus, setting personal ministry goals)
    • What they can expect from you

Team Leaders- what do you do with your team before the school year begins?

Staff – what are your primary needs going into the year?

 

 photo courtesy of amirjina

Everything you Need to Know about the Cru Name Change

July 22, 2011 in Culture, Ministry with 44 Comments

You’ve probably heard by now that Campus Crusade for Christ has changed it’s name to Cru. I am strongly in favor of the name change as I think it will help us be more effective for Christ.

I am honestly shocked by the very harsh criticism of the name change (by a vocal minority) from inside and outside of the Church.

I welcome honest, fair critiques but most of the critiques have been slanderous and mean spirited – helpful comments like, “you might as well be Campus Crusade for Satan now” (seriously) and “they took Christ out to appease the Muslims”.

 

Cru has responded with this, New Name – Same Commitment to Christ.

 

I wanted to provide a thorough list of posts and articles on the name change to provide accurate information (from those outside the Cru organization and those within).

A couple quick thoughts and then a bunch of links.

  • It is bizzare that the name change is getting such attention from the mainstream media. I remember thinking it strange, when Bill Bright (one of the 3 or 4 most influential Christians of the 20th century) died, that none of the media even reported it. But the name change has been covered by all large newspapers and news channels and was even trending on Twitter (meaning it’s one of the 10 most talked about things in the world).
  • A friend on Twitter pointed this out: why do Christians take their cues on the church from Glen Beck and Fox News instead of respected, proven leaders in the church: John Piper, Tim Keller, Louie Giglio, Mark Driscoll, Intervarsity, The Navigators, Ed Stetzer, the Gospel Coalition, Francis Chan, David Platt. . . (the list could go on and on of Godly men and organizations that support both Cru and the name change)?
  • Rest assured:

God is moving in and through Cru and I’m really excited about what the next years hold for an organization that is on the leading edge of reaching young professionals, families, faculty, and college students of every ethnicity, and people in every tribe, tongue and nation with the gospel

You will be hard pressed to find a more committed organization to sharing Christ in every corner of earth

Here’s some thoughtful posts on the name change . . .

From outside of Cru:

Campus Crusade now Cru; Angry bloggers still angry bloggers

I saw it as a softening of the principles that defined the ministry for 50+ years. And I was wrong.

 

From within the organization:

“I find it highly ironic that our organization, which for 60 years has carried the reputation for often being too pushy and upfront about Jesus, has now, overnight, become too wimpy.”

“Alas, I digress. I think what I want to say, what I want to plead for, is to ask my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to not fan the flames of dissention. Ultimately, the name and reputation of Campus Crusade for Christ/Cru is not important. But the name of Jesus Christ is. Please help us lift His name high by giving our ministry the benefit of the doubt.”

“I know this might sound a little backwards, but it’s Jesus renown that led our leaders to make this choice.

Our name has been a significant hindrance to the Gospel. As CCC looked into the possibility of changing our name over the past three years, there was one fact that stood out that made us know that we had to change it – of people who said they were willing to have a conversation about Jesus 20% said they would no longer be interested when they heard the name “Campus Crusade for Christ.” That means that 1-in-5 people who might be open to the Gospel became closed to the Gospel when they heard our name. That is an incredible loss in effectiveness.”

  • Shawn McGrath has a helpful post looking at popular brands/names (Christian and secular). The article was written before the name change, before he knew what the new name would be. Especially helpful on why a non-descriptive name is good (very few corporate names describe the majority of “what they do” with their name).
  • Scott Crocker with some good wisdom:

“For those that identify themselves as Christians and are critical of this decision, I ask you to do a heart examination. If you have never personally stepped out in faith to share the gospel with another person, if you’ve never had the privilege to see another place their faith in Christ, if you’ve never personally invested your life into the spiritual life of another or have never left your family and home for the sake of the gospel, then may I suggest that you seek the Lord on how you can personally be involved in His mission rather than criticizing those that are already doing it.”

  • You can join the (maddening) “conversation” on the official Cru site

What are your thoughts on the name change and the backlash?

Best Albums of 2011 (so far)

July 11, 2011 in Culture, Music with 0 Comments

Since we just passed the halfway mark of the year, I thought I’d share my favorite albums from 2011 so far.

Down below I’ve linked to several other sites’ “Best Albums of 2011 so far” lists.

I’d love to hear your favorites of 2011 in the comments.

 

My top 3 albums of 2011 so far:

3) The Antlers – Burst Apart – Not an upbeat album (uh oh – all of my top 3 are downers) – but still a great, moving album. $5.99 on Amazon

You can listen to the whole album for free here.

Get the two most popular songs off the album for free on Amazon:

I Don’t Want Love

Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out

Here’s my two favorite songs on the CD:



2) Wye Oak – Civilian – Reminds me of a female version of The Nationals – dark, moody and great. But as one reviewer put it: “This is definitely an album that doesn’t give away anything on a first listen and really requires the listener to sort of explore it and feel their way around it.“ Give it a few listens and you’ll be hooked. $5 on Amazon

Listen to the whole album online for free here.

Get the best song on the album for free on Amazon.

 

1) Bon Iver – Bon Iver – By far the best album of the year. A beautiful album. (and this isn’t coming from a Bon Iver fanboy. This is my first Bon Iver album. Heck, I still pronounce it like it looks instead of the pretentious correct pronunciation of Bone Ee-vair’). $7.99 on Amazon
Get the best song on the album for free from Pitchfork.
Click below to listen to the entire album for free (so you can be convinced you need to buy it):

 

Honorable Mention (Albums that are probably worth buying but aren’t consistently amazing from open to close):

Cults – Cults – Some phenomenal songs (Go Outside (get it for free here), Abducted, and You Know What I Mean) but I haven’t grown to love the whole album. Yet. Stream it free here (on MySpace! Go MySpace!). $5.99 on Amazon

Bright Eyes – The People’s Key – if you can get past the spoken word weirdness of the album, it’s actually a pretty decent album. $6.99 on Amazon.

Get the best song on the album for free from Spinner

Cut Copy – Zonoscope – Fun summer-y music. These guys win the 2011 Nostradamus award for releasing their record on the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resigned with back to back tracks called “Pharaohs & Pyramids” and “Blink And You’ll Miss A Revolution”. $5 on Amazon

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues – Definitely easy on the ears with incredible harmonies. My take on the album: one amazing song (Helplessness Blues – get it free on Amazon) and a bunch of songs that sound alike and not unlike Crosby, Stills and Nash. $5 on Amazon

Get the second most popular song for free too.

The Dodos – Percussion driven, fun music. $6.50 on Amazon. Get the two best songs on the album for free on Amazon:

Black Night

Going Under

The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow – A little too folky for my taste but it may grow on me. $5 on Amazon

 

Here’s a rundown of good “Best Albums of 2011 so far” lists from around the interwebs:

  • Spinner has a decent list.
  • Stereogum at least gets #1 right
  • Paste Magazine has good Top 20’s from 3 different writers:

Paste – Bonnie Stiernberg

Paste – Sean Doyle

And their best list is from Josh Jackson

 

What are your favorite albums of 2011 so far?

Image via Paste Magazine

Seek Time with Great Leaders

July 8, 2011 in Leadership, Ministry, Movement Building with 3 Comments

Whenever you have access to great leaders, take advantage of it by getting time with them and taking copious notes.

Is it OK that I quoted myself from a previous blog post? : )

 

Yesterday I interviewed a long-time Cru Campus Director and furiously took 9 pages of notes (which I’ll be sharing on a future post).

I cannot think of a better way to have spent an hour. His insight will change how I lead our team (and staff meetings!) and our ministry. I learned more in that hour than I could have from reading every Andy Stanley leadership book. He may not be a better leader than Andy Stanley but I guarantee he is a better College Campus Director than Andy Stanley.

 

My boss, Tim Norman, was aware that our movement would like to grow in the area of evangelism. He emailed me yesterday to let me know that one of the preeminent evangelism experts in the world is living right around the corner in our apartment complex (up here at CSU). John Nyquist, who is a living legend in Crusade, was recruited to staff by Bill Bright, helped launch Campus Crusade in Western Europe and now serves as the head of the Evangelism Department at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (replacing Robert Coleman).

So next week, a few members of our team are going to buy John Nyquist some coffee and try to absorb his wisdom on building movements of evangelism (something he’s been doing and thinking about since the 1950’s!).

 

Cru staff – you will be in Colorado for 10 days with some of the best leaders in the world at what you do. Take advantage of it!

How have you benefited from seeking time with Great Leaders?

 

photo courtesy of Steve Rhodes

 

Blogging, Ministry Growth & Ambition

July 7, 2011 in Leadership, Ministry, Movement Building with 7 Comments

Part 1 of a series on Godly Ambition

“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

I Peter 5:5

 

I came across that verse in my quiet time last week and somehow for the first time I deeply considered that God might actually be actively opposed to the things I’m doing for Him.

Because the things I’m doing for His name devolve quickly toward what I’m doing for my name.

 

Specifically I’ve really wrestled with making a name for myself in 2 areas:

Blogging and Directing a college ministry.

I haven’t seen too many Christian bloggers write about pride, but I guarantee every blogger struggles with it. Because one thing blogging (and Twitter/Facebook) will do to you is make you incredibly narcissistic and concerned about “Brand You”. How many people are following me? How many are reading my blog? How do I extend my “reach”?

The pure motive of why I care about my blog and extending its reach is seeking to share resources/ideas and get invaluable feedback on ministry/leadership. It’s poor stewardship of my time (taking the time to write) if only 3 people read every post. And the more voices that can weigh in on any topic, the better off all of us are.

But is it inherently prideful to care about extending your influence?

 

In leading a college ministry, our goal is to build a big enough movement so that every student on campus hears about Christ from a friend. That’s no small ambition. We’re striving to have 1000 college students involved and aligned to reach the campus for Christ.

How do you seek to build something of that size without slipping into building a Cru-kingdom or Tim-kingdom?

 

So what does it look like for you?

How do you strive for excellence, success, and growth in ministry while remaining humble and God-honoring?

 

photo courtesy of www.dafyd.me.uk 

Summer Free Songs 2

July 5, 2011 in Culture, Music with 0 Comments

Part Two of my Summer Free Songs

Great legally-free music for your summer playlist

If you missed Part One, you can check it out here (it’s even better than part 2).

 

Spinner has 30 free songs from bands playing at Lollapalooza (Lykke Li, Wye Oak, Bright Eyes, Manchester Orchestra among others) and 35 songs from bands playing at Coachella (The National, The Swell Season, etc).

 

Stereogum has put together a Summer Mix (25 songs).

 

July means a new set of free songs from Amazon’s Artists on the Rise.

Good songs from Memory Tapes, Friendly Fires, and Washed Out

Amazon has a bazillion Indie songs for free (Samplers from 24 different Indie Music Labels).

If you want to save yourself some work, just download this list of the 20 best songs culled from all of the Indie Samplers by Amazon’s Editors (best in their opinion, not mine).

Here’s a list of all 24 Free Indie Music Samplers.

 

Here’s the albums I think are worth downloading:

(in order of awesomeness – #1 = 5-7 good songs on the Sampler. #9 = maybe 1 or 2 good songs on the Sampler)

1) 23 This Year: The Sub Pop Amazon Sampler

Low, Handsome Furs, Fleet Foxes (amazing song!)

2) French Kiss

Two great songs each from the The Dodos and The Antlers

3) Secretly Canadian Summer Sampler (worth it if only for the GREAT Yeasayer song)

Yeasayer, Suuns

4) Barsuk Sampler

Ra Ra Riot, Phantogram

5) Merge Sampler

Telekinesis, Destroyer, Wye Oak (maybe best song of the year??), The Mountain Goats,

5) A Touch and Go Records Sampler

TV on the Radio, Pinback, Calexico

6) Partisan Sampler

Dolorean, Middle Brother, Warm Ghost

7) Kill Rock Stars Sampler

Decemberists, Deerhoof, Elliott Smith

8 ) Vagrant Sampler

Pete Yorn, Eels, City and Colour

9) Carpark Sampler

Toro Y Moi, Beach House, Dan Deacon

 

photo courtesy of josemanuelerre

Page 5 of 17« First...«34567»10...Last »