I don’t do this a lot, and just because I’ve never recommended “your” blog doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s good…however
I seriously want to point you toward Kevin Lloyd. Kevin is the NextGen Pastor at Stevens Creek Community Church in Augusta, GA. As luck would have it I followed Kevin at a church in Mobile when he moved to Augusta back in 2003. He left to help plant a church and returned after getting it up and running. I’ve followed him from a distance for several years, but found his blog a few months ago.
He has some great, practical thoughts on leadership, student and family ministry, personal struggles, and more.
He doesn’t know I’m doing this, definitely didn’t ask me too, and he might pick up 0 readers, but I encourage you to go read and subscribe to his blog. You’ll be glad you did!
I write occasionally over at ForwardLeadership with my dad, brother, and a few leaders that we’ve invited to help “challenge the process” of leadership. Most of our topics are ministry related, and a good number of them, though not all, deal with issues specific to the denomination we minister in.
We are in the process of unveiling what has been called, by some, a “revolutionary” idea. Videocoaching.org will unite leaders and learners through web-based video. It will help ease the burden of learning for the budget restrained leader who can’t make some of the conferences, and allow some forward thinking leaders the opportunity to share. We already have an incredible lineup of coaches preparing videos on a number of practical leadership topics for the local church, and the list is literally growing daily.
We are anticipating an early March ’09 launch, but you can visit the site now to sign up for email updates as the development process moves forward. This will include some prelaunch videos, beta testing, coach unveilings, information gathering (who do want to hear from, what do you want to discuss, etc), and more.
Since the majority of my readers are involved in Student Ministry on some level, what are some topics that you would like to see included through VideoCoaching.org?
I give my brother Jason a lot of grief, after all he’s my younger brother. But today I watched a clip of his message, on his blog, from this last Sunday at Rivercity Worship Center in Louisville, KY. Jason serves at Rivercity as their Teaching Pastor, and he is a dynamic communicator of The Gospel.
Sunday he spoke about worry and fear, using a passage from Matthew 6. I encourage you to watch this clip, and be encouraged and challenged. It’s more than likely the best use of the next 9:38…I guarantee it!
For those of you who have been to Catalyst, Orange Conference, BigStuf or other conferences with ties to Northpoint you know Lanny Donoho. Lanny can be extremely funny, very creative, a little annoying, and a great source of timely interruptions. He is however a great part of their “productions”. He has recently started blogging, and I have been following for several weeks now. Some of his stuff is extremely touching, and some of it gives you a glimpse into his psyche. Here is a video from NPCC on a July 4th several years ago.
The last 2 days Steven Furtick has written exceptional posts.
Yesterday he wrote about the creative process and allowing even your unfinished ideas to be included in the conversation.
So I’d just put it out there: “I have an idea for the next line. Not this, but something like (insert clumsy line).” This is where a good co-writing partner will jump in and see it from a different angle, providing a different perspective, and, over 50% of the time, refining your mediocre idea until it’s actually a feasible line. This phrase has helped me solicit help for sermon illustrations. I’ll tell my team: “Hey guys, I have this idea for an illustration for tithing using piggy banks. This isn’t exactly it, but something like (describe idea). How do you think we could make this work?”
Today he builds on a quote from Stephen King about sermon prep. He talks about his inability to talk about sermon prep as writing a sermon. He’s not writing something new. He is trying to unearth nuggets of wisdom that are already present.
“I’m approaching the living Word of God to uncover a Word from God from the Word of God.
This is my personal blog. Most of what is written is my opinion, observation, original thought, or things I find interesting somewhere else. While I am employed by Mt. Paran North, the things expressed here are not endorsed or necessarily accepted by Mt. Paran North or it's leadership. So don't go sue the church because you don't agree with something I write. Just post a comment and tell me I'm an idiot. It'll just be better for all of us.
