::Leading With A Limp::

Internet Church Campus

Right now I'm checking out a live service at the LifeChurch.tv internet campus.  The technology behind this is awesome.  As Pastor Craig was praying, he asked for hands to be raised if you want to be prayed for, and a little icon popped up that would allow me to virtually raise my hand.

For those that grew up in brick and mortar churches, this may seem strange and very un-churchlike.  For the internet generation, this is probably very comfortable.  All I know is that right now, when I want to hear God's word, it's available to me with the click of a mouse.  The internet can be leveraged for bad things like pornography and fraud, but it can also be used for amazing things like sharing the gospel.

Good Friday Video

Put together by the men and women of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  RSS readers, you may need to go to the original post to see this.  It's dark and very reflective of the Good Friday mood.  HT: Dustin DeKoekkoek

Easter Operations Manual

Easter is upon us, and this year Bel Air Pres is hosting Easter at The Hollywood Bowl.  With up to 17,000 people coming together for one fantastic hour of worship and community, there is a lot of work that goes into things ahead of time.

I continuously thank God for the staff that is here at the church.  Everybody I work with is so good at their jobs, it makes a huge project like this a joy to put together.

This year I am building and Ops Manual for The Bowl.  What is it?  A 3 ring binder with timelines, checklists, contracts, contact information and everything else a person would need to get this thing off the ground.  When it is finished, I could hand this book to a stranger on the street and they could put the entire thing together next year.

I think things like this are important for operations.  Redundancy and knowledge that can be passed along is invaluable.  I learned this years ago from a book called The eMyth, and it changed out I run operations.

So logistics aside....Easter is upon us!  I can't wait to celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!  I put a little sign up in my office to remind me of something important:  God would have us do "The Bowl" all for one person.

Easter At The Bowl Ad

We are putting out a lot external advertising this year for Easter.  I'm hoping to get my hands on our television spots in a format that I can post, but until I do, here is our :30 radio spot.

Music is by JT Taylor.

Recording, mixing and Production by Jerrold Launer.

Voice Over work by this guy.

Go check out the spot, download it and pass it around.  See you at The Bowl!

What Is The Purpose of Noise?

This post is about noise…environmental noise that slows you down, prevents you from focusing on your job, your family and God. Before I write, let me tell you about where I am. I am sitting in the middle of nowhere, in central Oregon at a camp called Wildhorse Canyon. We are about 20 miles from the nearest "town" that is essentially a gas station. This place is significant to me, it was here that God spoke to me two years ago and released me from my physical hell. You can refer to yesterday's post if you are just jumping in and don't understand what I am talking about.

I am at a men's retreat with my former church, Sunset Presbyterian. It's early in the morning, and breakfast will start soon. Before it does, more than half of my cabin mates are gathered in the one area that has wi-fi on this massive campus, and we are typing, smiling, reading, commenting and generally going nuts on our laptops. Most of us have music players (iTouch, Zune) going while we work. I noticed an older gentleman walk by a few minutes ago and chuckle in a can't-you-live-for-one-day-without-your-electronics kind of way. I just smiled.

I think that many people think of the constant barrage of MP3 music as a distraction. In fact, I know this to be the case. Several people have shared with me that they think it's "too bad" that people cannot enjoy the silence, that they have to have music. I have a different reason for listening to music this morning, and most mornings or settings like this: it's to filter out the noise around me, not create more.

Today the world is noisy. Very noisy. It is such a challenge to find a place that is quiet enough to spend time with God without interruption. This morning I put in some very mellow music, turned it up to a point that wasn't distracting, and read my Bible. Today I was reading the last chapter of the book of Luke where those around Jesus couldn't (or wouldn't?) recognize Him after his resurrection. Finally in 24:31 we see that their eyes were opened. I then spent time praying to God, asking him to open my eyes so that I could see. What a wonderful time with God this morning! All the while, I had my ear buds in, listening to Steve Fee slowly drift in and out of musical conversation with God.

To those walking by, I'm sure it looked as if I couldn't get away from the noise. What was really happening was that I finally did, and it was beautiful. Oh, if you are wondering, I love the silence too. Later today I will hike to the top of Heartbreak Hill, a small mountain with a vertical climb that would make a deer think twice before trying to ascend. I will get to the top, look at the valley around me, read, pray and praise God for His creation. I won't bring my Zune with me to listen to music , I don't think there will be too many noise makers at the top. J

New Name, New Feel (Part 2 of 2)

What we call irony, God calls timing. It's so easy to look at the intersections of the bizarre happenings of life, the coming-together of seemingly unrelated events, and think, "how ironic". I have no doubt that God patiently smiles as He replies, "no child, not ironic…".

The second reason for the new name and new feel of this slice of internet goodness is related to my physical well being. Many years ago I thought I injured myself while going through some MMA practice exercises. While I was repetitively working on a move, I hit the training floor hard, landing on my right side. The pain was immediate, I felt the sharp stab of injury leave my hips and move throughout my spine and legs. By all observations I had dislocated my hip. Believe me, it was even more painful than it sounds. The physical therapist working with me put me on a steady diet of pain killers, cox 2 inhibiters and exercises for rehabilitation. Over several months it never seemed to get better. After a lot of doctor visits, blood tests, MRIs and bone scans we discovered that I was being affected by an auto-immune disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis. Yep, that's a mouthful, so we just call it AS. You can Google the disease if you want more detail, but I think the bottom line info that would be helpful to know is that it is incredibly painful, my bones are fusing together, and there is no cure.

I suppose that I could write an entire book about the journey of pain, discovery, healing and acceptance that I have gone through over the last six years, but that will be saved for another time, this is just a simple blog post. Let me give you the highlights. For several years I walked with the assistance of canes, and the pain was so bad at times that I could only lay in bed and cry. I begged God to take this from me. Then I came to a point of acceptance, and I made a deal with God: I would stop complaining and begging, and I would NEVER ask him for healing again, but during my prayer time I would instead pray for those around me..my friends, my family, those in my small group, coworkers, bosses, subordinates and neighbors. I felt that it was time for me to quite lamenting my own struggles and instead turn my focus to the struggles of others, lifting them up to God is prayer and thanksgiving.

In my new prayer life I found a great amount of freedom; mostly emotional freedom however, the pain was still there. But I wasn't captive to it anymore. Instead I found myself focusing on others, lifting them up to God. My attitude in life changed a lot, and the pain, although blinding at times, was no longer my greatest focus. God became my greatest focus again, and it felt good.

Now let's really race through something, leaving out a lot of details but getting to the point…after a few months of this, I was at a men's retreat with my former church, Sunset Presbyterian, in Oregon. I skipped an early morning Bible study because I felt the need to pray. So I went into a field by myself and was praying for the men in my small group. God healed me right then and there, and I wasn't asking for it. Yes, it's a longer story than that, but again…it could fill a book.

That was two years ago this weekend. And again this weekend I will be going to the men's retreat with Sunset. Ironically, last weekend I had a terrible flare up of AS for the first time in many months, maybe even the worst since my healing. I was forced to hobble around my house on canes, at least for some of the time. I find this ironic (heheh) because it's just days after I registered the domain name LeadingWithALimp.com. It was a good reminder to me that no matter where I go, no matter what I do, no matter what position of control, power or prestige I may or may not have, I still limp. Sometimes it is physically, sometimes it is emotionally. And I still lead. God has instilled this in me, this unique ability to lead despite my bumps, bruises and limps.

And so my friends, that is why this blog is now called "Leading with a Limp". Grace and peace to you.

New Name, New Feel (Part 1 of 2)

Leading with a limp...

Let me explain the title.  It has to do with my philosophy of management as well as ministry, and it has a personal connection to me on a very deep level. For my RSS readers you should pop over to my blog and see the change so you know what I'm talking about.

First the management and ministry stuff.  I have interacted with leaders of all calibers, backgrounds, statures and vocations in my jobs at church as well as with my previous two companies.  There are as many leadership styles as there are leaders, and if you ask any of them the best way to manage people, they always have an opinion.  Welcome to my little corner of the internet, this is my opinion.

I believe that management, when integrated with ministry, should produce fantastic, excellent and wildly transparent leaders.  This goes against many management styles of the latter part of last century which would tell you that you must appear invincible and somewhat removed from your workers.  But of course, since you are reading a blog (something that has not even existed until very recently), you know that the world has changed since this style was born.  In a world of incredible information and reach, transparency is the new invincibility.  Gone are the days of steadfast separation from the staff and instead we live in times where  management must have a new and intimate awareness of the staff which they serve.  Yes, I said that correctly...the staff which they serve.

I believe that with the Next Generation and with the New Media comes an acute awareness between what is genuine and what stinks.  I am not in this generation, I'm afraid I'm too old now, but those that come behind me are amazing with the ability to sense genuine relationships and intentions.

Which brings us to my philosophy of management: I believe that with this acuteness comes acceptance as well.  Although many are quick to separate the wheat from the chaff, when they do determine that somebody (a person or an organization) is true to what they say, not just in word but in action, they will accept a great amount of variation from the traditional leadership role.  In other words, they will not only accept but actually expect vulnerability in their leaders.  Paradoxically, this usually creates a greater sense of loyalty and faithfulness.

That is not to say that leaders should be faulty or incompetent.  No!  Quite the opposite...leaders should be held to very high standards, and should be excellent and what they do.  It would be a big mistake to confuse vulnerability and transparency with incompetence and ineptitude.  This is where many leaders fail to make the leap, they equate sharing their struggles with their staff to weakness.

I'm proud to say that I work for a man that is not afraid to share himself with his staff or his congregation.  The result is a passion for his vision that people want to carry out, they want to be a part of it!  I believe that as we move through these days of social networking, 24/7 information and sometimes scary intrusion by the New Media, we must change the way we interact.  The rules of society and work are quickly changing, and we must be the leaders that carve the path to great things through transparency, brokenness and inspiration.

In part 2 I will discuss why "leading with a limp" means so much to me personally, and describe briefly the pain associated with this phrase.  So for those of you that like to see me in pain, come back soon. ;)

Domain Changes

It's time.  I'm going to do some other development work with www.MattSingley.com pretty soon, so it's time for me to do some spring cleaning in this little corner of the blogosphere.

Over the next couple of weeks (Easter is upon us, so no guaranteed time lines), I will change the look and feel of this blog.  I've come up with a clever name, too.  Everybody wants a clever domain name, don't they?

Are you excited?  I'm sure the blogosphere is buzzing with anticipation. LOL...see you soon.

Best of the Best: Alltop Aggregator

Guy Kawasaki has been developing a site that I am finding myself going to more and more, it's called Alltop.com.  The premise...take the feeds from the top internet syndicating sites and put them into a category all in one place.  I know, you have no idea what I'm talking about.  Let me explain.

One of the categories on Alltop is "religion" so can go to religion.alltop.com and look at the top feeds from sites all around the world.  Politics?  No problem, politics.alltop.com has everything from the Daily Kos to the Washington Post.

I just sent a note over to Guy letting him know that he accidentally left me off of the top Twitter feeds.  He has a good sense of humor, he replied right away and politely said, "I didn't forget". Ha ha! He also outed himself last year (or the year before?) on his blog as a Christian.  You gotta love that.

Go check out Alltop.com and see what you think.