A Comment About Comments

I've got a little sad news to share. It's just a little news and just a little sad.

For the past several years, I've used HaloScan to host the comments on this page. They've recently changed their service and introduced what they call Echo. They also introduced a price tag. Albeit a somewhat small price tag, I'm not real sure I want to jump onboard with the Echo comment service. And HaloScan is discontinuing any other comment hosting. So, I'm switching comments back over to the Blogger. Now, two things about this...

One, HaloScan has provided a way to export all the old comments and I'll have those in my very own .xml file. And that's nice enough of them to offer it, really, but it's sort of like giving a two year old keys to a car. I can't really use it for much right now, but maybe someday.

Two, the down side is that Blogger doesn't have a way to import comments, which means the old comments won't show up here. Thus, the little bit sad part.

All that to say, the option to comment on here may seem a little fuzzy for a bit. During the next few days while this is being switched over, if I miss your comment or you can't get it to work or your RSS feed to the comments is messed up... well, there you go. And, if for some reason you're hoping to go back and read old comments, they'll probably be gone until Blogger kindly offers a way to import comments. Thanks guys!

Technorati tags: haloscan, blogger, comments

A Tale of Two Blog Posts

I was catching up on some reading and came across two posts I wanted to share with people, unrelated in topic but related by author.

The first one caught my attention as a follow-up to my recent thoughts on meetings.

There are only three kinds of classic meetings:

1. Information. This is a meeting where attendees are informed about what is happening (with or without their blessing). While there may be a facade of conversation, it's primarily designed to inform.
2. Discussion. This is a meeting where the leader actually wants feedback or direction or connections. You can use this meeting to come up with an action plan, or develop a new idea, for example.
3. Permission. This is a meeting where the other side is supposed to say yes but has the power to say no.

PLEASE don't confuse them.

Read the rest here.

The other post I thought was an important reminder when it comes to public speaking, something that seems to be a standard part of most ministry styles today - for better or for worse. He points out two of the most basic and important elements for a speaker: respect and love. He sums it up best with his bottom line:

And then, as the talk (pitch/presentation/interview) begins, don't focus your energy or concern on yourself. It's not about you. It's about them. The presenter who loves his audience the most, wins.

Read the rest here

Then again, maybe they are related if you're the one leading the meeting...

Technorati tags: seth godin, meetings, public speaking

Back from Blogging Break

Well, I've finally returned from my blogging break. The end of '07 and beginning of '08 have been busy in many ways, so I told myself to take a break from posting through January. Guess the polite thing would have been to give anybody that checks this somewhat regularly a little heads-up on that, huh? Sorry. I'll explain more of my break later.

I didn't totally abandon the blog. I've been working on the look. There was too much on the page before, and I wanted to cut some of it out. I changed the layout to one of the blogger templates and just tweaked it a bit. I updated the subscribe options, moved the categories into a drop-down menu, and cleaned up the blog post format and the links I listed in the sidebar. You can still check my facebook, flickr, youtube, amazon wish-list, and librarything from the sidebar. I still want to tweak a few other little things (blockquotes and there's a header picture that I can't get to work yet), but overall, it's much simpler now. That's probably more than enough about the stuff that I care about more than any of you all, so we'll leave it at that and say the one thing you might would care about.

Thoughts will be posted here much more often now.

Son, have I got a little story for you...

Alright, so somebody's been pretty sorry about this bloggy-blog thing lately. Kirk's posted three times since my last update. KIRK! THREE TIMES! Really, I just checked. So here's the straight-to-it update just to let everybody know I'm still alive...

Noah:
He and mommy are doing great. It's all true, what they say about not getting much sleep with a newborn, it's true. Granted Shannon gets up with him more than I do, many (maybe most, but definitely many) times I'm up with him. We've agreed that if it's time to feed him, Shannon handles it (because I don't have all the necessary equipment to do that right now), but if he's fussy during the night between feedings, then I get him. That way, Shannon knows she's going to have to get up, but she knows when. I may or may not have to get up, but if I do, it's get-up-and-go time. He's holding his head up in little bits at a time and he's starting to smile at us (which is really cool in an "awww" sort of way).

The Gathering Place:
Sunday nights have been trips to St.Simons Island for the Gathering Place (the WHAT?!?). The Main Event at Gathering Place -for those who don't know- is a large youth worship service that meets every SunPM during June and July at Epworth by the Sea on SSI. Highlights for me this year have been: fun drive time conversations with the kids, speakers Jerod Herd, David Nasser, and Stuart Hall, Mac Powell leading worship one night, and the chocolate Oreo Sundae milk shakes at BK for no other reason that the huge blue straws they give you (if you haven't had one before, get one soon, just for the straw. the Oreo's good, but the straw makes it great!).

Youth Mission Trip:
We participated in the River of Life Mission project hosted by PittmanParkUMC in S'boro. We stayed in on of the dorms at GSU (for those of you keeping score at home, it was Brannen - old one in the corner behind the baseball field). The group I helped lead built two wheelchair ramps, and they weren't too shabby, if I do say so myself. It was a great experience for our teens to be able to help people with legitimate needs as near to home as S'boro; I think it helps to open their eyes to the immediate world around them. And we were in areas of Bulloch County the kids aren't usually in, so they felt like they were far away from home. Since it was this youth ministry's first real mission trip, I thought it was helpful to stay nearer to home. It was also nice not to have to drive all the way from Kentucky or somewhere far off.

Youth Camping/Ski trip:
We took a trip up to Clark Hill -big honkin' lake up near Augusta- and stayed at Petersburg campground, camped one night, water skied, went tubing, and rode the jet ski. It was a fun trip, for sure, but I really felt the devotional times we had were something special. That night we talked about Peter stepping out of the boat to Jesus when He was walking on the water, and they really seemed to understand their challenge of stepping out in faith to follow Jesus as it related to them prepping to go back to school. The next morning, we all met and sat down on the beach and talked about how, after Peter had denied Jesus, Jesus met the disciples on the beach and asked Peter "do you love me?" three times as if to forgive him for the three denials. It was experiential for them, being on the beach, looking out over the water, being able to clearly imagine the boat, there was a little fire ring of rocks right next to us (Jesus had been cooking fish for breakfast)... it was just a couple of really good devotional times. The only real downside of the whole trip was getting sunburned. REAL sunburned. Since my hair has gotten so thin on top, it burned and peeled and looked like the worse case of dandruff ever. So, yeah, that's the downside.

Youth Week:
We're just wrapping up our youth week. Sun we went to the GP. Mon thru Wed we had four members of the Epworth leadership team -summer camp counselors from Epworth by the Sea- come to be with us. We did big games and worship time Mon and Tues pm. Some of the LT guys shared their faith stories, and we watched a couple of the Nooma videos. Wed we had Messy Games day: bobbing for gummy worms in chocolate pudding, shaving cream statues (and ensuing shvgcrm war), egg toss, and super-duper slip-n-slide (which finished up with chocolate syrup on the slip-n-slide). Tonight we had a family cookout and softball game. Officially, it ends with the last GP trip Sun, but I feel like we're on the downhill side of things. There's some enthusiasm heading back into the school year.

Fantasy:
No, no pictures of CZJ (I'll leave that to Luke), but I've held a firm grasp on fourth in our fantasy baseball league this summer. I haven't stayed on top of things like I have in past seasons, but babies and families change certain priorities. Besides, I think I'd kind of like to head into the post season in fourth just so I can put Dan out of the playoffs in the first round. Oh yeah, and it's time to start lining up the fantasy football leagues for this fall (note to self: don't take Vick). Looks like I may be going three: old college buddies, young adult Sunday school class, and one with some of the youth guys (but that one's iffy). FFB isn't as demanding b/c it's a shorter season and you just have to check the line up like once (maybe twice) a week.

Shannon:
I love her more and more all the time.

On the Horizon:
Tomorrow Shannon goes to the spa to redeem the gift certificate she got for mother's day. I think she's planning on a footmassage, pedicure, and full-body Swedish massage. Yeah, I think she's excited about it. Sat we're going Augusta for a family lunch with lots of extended family. Mon I'm helping my brother move out of ATL. He's going to Scotland!

I'll say something about all this and more later on, but for now, this was just an update on me and my world. Basically, as the title indicated to all the Eddie Vedder fans, this was just to let you'll know i'm still alive. Oh, yes, I... I'm still alive... yeah... I.. .. ...

Technorati tags: gp, ebts, bk, rol, clark hill, czj, fantasy sports, day spa

Prepping for Pathways

In August, the SouGaConf will host a training called "Pathways to a Healthy Church", which will be a day of training seminars covering a variety of ministry topics. I have the privilege of team-teaching a workshop on youth leadership with Jim Morrow. Specifically (or generally) the one sentence summary is "Youth who are emerging as leaders in your local church youth group will be taught some of the basics of spiritual leadership." It will be one of the 'all-day' workshops, which means it's three (I'm guessing about an hour+15min long) sessions.

As we prep for the event, Jim and I are going to open the discussion here to gain insight from the masses. We talked the other day and decided to go with the 'puke on the page' approach, so realize much of this will be brainstorming. Feel free to chime in on any of the ideas thrown out here and know that you get to help shape the workshops.

Pathways Prep 1
Pathways Prep 2
Pathways Prep 3
Pathways Wrap-Up

Technorati tags: youth, leadership, pathways event, jim morrow

What's in a name?

What's in a name? that which we call a blog
By any other name would smell as sweet;

This weblog began as a place to record my questions and musings. It's grown and changed as I've figured out just why I want to do this and what this is for me. It's headed in a different direction for a little bit already. While it will still serve in that original capacity, a great number of the posts will not be that specific or narrow in scope. Thus, I felt a name change was needed and appropriate. After quite a bit of thought, I settled on "the lid". "the lid" will simply be an open forum for the thoughts that float through my head, where I open up and let you see what's on my mind - like it or not, questions or thoughts or just what I've been up too.

Just for a little fun, can anyone id where the new name came from? It's not too tough (maybe), but thought I'd just see who'd recognize it first.

So, there's the update... Now, back to your regularly scheduled program.

Technorati tags: new blog name

: ( ==> : )

Two weeks between blogging. That makes me sad. I've thought of several things to write about, but haven't had convenient time to write lately. That's what having a glut of activity will do for you. I'll update a couple of things throughout the rest of the week... so, in the infamous words of Wet Willie, "keep on smiling!"



(ps- I don't know if that's THE Wet Willie, but it's close enough to bring back memories.)

Technorati tags: blogging, wet willie

Back in the Saddle Again...

You can just imagine the Aerosmith lyrics screaming in the background as I slowly and brazenly stride through the door announcing my return. It's 2007. It's a new year. It's a new swing at connecting with this wide world around me through the miraculous technology that is blogging.

I've been stewing and brewing, cooking up some thoughts and news to share. I've got a few ideas on just how I can keep pace with posting and letting it all out. It may come in bursts for a few days, may come once a week, but it will come. No apologies for delays, but it will come along.

Technorati tags: blogging

I'm calling to report abuse...

For the handful of you that ever see this, let me go on the record as having identified a new type of abuse. It's a form of neglect and has something to do with irregular blog posting. I've given this blog the cold shoulder as of late, not intentionally, but the cold shoulder non-the-less. I've been out of control swamped lately. There are several things that have been simmering for a while, and I hope to write about some things that have been rattling around in my head and sharing some recent news. One day, I'll keep working on that "Seven Practices" review and well... Just letting you all know I'll be moving back into this space soon. For now, just remember I'm the guy who abuses his friends.

Technorati tags: abuse, blogging, neglect

A Loud Silence

It's been quiet on this blog for too long. It's because of all the noise in my life right now. So much going on all at once. It's getting better and I've got a couple things to share this week. More soon. But for now, as Colin is apt to say, "Thanks for making us a part of your day!"

Technorati tags: too busy, colin cowherd

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday [dangerous wonder]. Happy birthday.
See where it all began.

Technorati tags: blog birthday

Introducing Ben

I would like to introduce you to Ben. I don't know Ben. In fact, I know very little about Ben, but I do know I stumbled across his blog earlier today and he's had some interesting things to say. I wrote a little before about the church and web2.0 and Ben has a whole series on some of the things I was thinking about (but his thoughts are certainly more developed).

Technorati tags: church 2.0, ben sternke

Am I playing hard to get?

What a terrible tease I am!

I had full plans to begin a series on a great little book, but, instead, haven't posted at all this whole week! My apologies. We moved into our new house over the weekend (thanks to everyone who helped - you did a great jorb!) and we don't have the 'net hooked up there, yet. On top of that, we had a lightning storm here in town and it kicked the dsl at the church all out of whack, so I've been disconnected all week.

I'm finally back on today with a log jam in the e-mail inbox, piles of reading I want to do in my Bloglines account, and I'm trailing 11-3 in the first round of our fantasy baseball playoffs because my line-up has been frozen - AAHHH!

But life is much better today, now that I'm back online.

Technorati tags: offline

Basic Update

So the transition of moving and a new job has provided me with yet another set of excuses for avoiding a regular posting schedule. I don't have much routine in my life yet. I have, however, several times over the last few weeks, thought to myself, "I want to write about this." Unfortunately, I haven't done well carving out the time to think things through and write out my thoughts. I hope for this to be a forum for journaling my thoughts and spiritual journey as well as keeping in touch with distant friendships. For now, here's a basic update with post to follow over the next few days.

The big news: We've found a house! We meet with the bank tomorrow and should close by the end of this month. Details coming soon. (Told you it was a basic update.)

Technorati tags: blogging

Hello. Is my blog there?

Ever have one of those friends you haven't talked to in a while because of being busy or headed in different directions or stuff like that, and then one day you think you'd like to talk again, but then there's the awkward feeling about you changing and them being different and you wonder if you should call or not, and you figure you may as well not bother, but then you think maybe you should?

So, it's been nearly two months since posting here. Well, think of this as me calling that old friend after too much silence.

I could give you many excuses about not writing and call them reasons and make it sound like it's not may fault having not written, but... well, they're good reasons.

The news is that I'll be moving to Brooklet, Georgia, May 27. I'll share a little about this transition in the next few weeks, but for a while it was difficult for me to post stuff, because I wasn't sure how much I could share in an open format like this, and it really cramped my writing. (Luke tells me this wouldn't be a problem if I didn't try writing stuff with meaning.) That and the busy-ness of getting ready to move, transitioning ministry positions, and all that jazz.

Technorati tags: blogging, moving

I'm back, baby!

-a la Mr. Costanza-

Well, I'm finally back after a brief blogging hiatus. I know I've probably lost all of my regular readers, so I wish the two of them would come back. Anyhow, I've been swamped by a number of things lately. Busy. The Christmas holidays were a killer on my reading and blogging. We've moved back into our house after the house fire last August (no, I haven't posted much - er...anything - about it, but I will), so that's been time consuming. Let's just call it the epitome of procrastination and say I waited until February to make my 'be more consistant' resolution. Everyone else can do that stuff in January if they want.

I've also been cooking up the new look. I really wanted a three-column layout, so I played around with some stuff and came up with this. What do you think? I'm still working out a few kinks with the right column jumping down and tagging posts (and I'm not sure how it looks across different browsers - right now I'm on IE6), but hopefully it'll function well and look nice.

We should do some catching up together. Soon.

um... happy new year?

I'm sorry I've been missing in action for so long. Things will improve soon. Too much happening lately and problems with web access and stuff... sorry.

Just for the record…

I don’t think there are necessarily any particular ground rules for web-logs other than what a particular writer imposes on themselves, so some of this might seem ridiculous to anybody reading. But I’m feeling new to this. (My virgin blogging experiences happened over this past summer when I was introduced to the nexus of the universe, and then somehow stumbled into rhett smith’s site a short while later.)

So I want to say some things and get some stuff off my chest:

I’m not real good at writing as I think. I am much more comfortable with thinking out loud, which I do often as I sit alone in front of my computer screen, but it’s tough recording those thoughts by typing as fast as I tend to talk. I thought of recording myself and then typing it, but that would be too much work and I’m lazy. In fact, I had one of those hand held voice recorders, but it was recently lost in a house fire (yeah, that’s a post I’ve been putting off writing about). And I have seen there’s a way to ‘audio-blog’, but it looks like long distance phone charges apply and I’m cheap. This new way of thinking through my thoughts, writing rather than just talking, is tough for me sometimes and leads to short, empty posts, but is something that helps me really nail down what I’m thinking and so is probably a good area of growth for me.

This is site a dumping ground for things I’m thinking about and wondering about, so I may seem back and forth in some opinions or may seem way out in left field with some of the things I write about sometimes. If you don’t like it, just write a little comment and tell me where I’m screwed up or quit reading.

I work in the church in youth ministry, so some of the stuff may only be interesting to you if that sort of stuff is interesting to you.

I’m interested in playing around with the look of this webpage, as I don’t want is to look stupid or cheesy (do people still use the phrase “cheesy”?). I’ve spent some time doing this lately (on a separate experimental site – and, no, that one isn’t suppose to look good) which is why I haven’t posted here this week. By the way, notice the cool new archives menu! I hope you won’t ever find animated clipart or hyper-color backgrounds on here. If you do, please, please, make me stop! I don’t care if it looks ‘hip’ or ‘edge-y’, but I hope it looks like a place I would want to look at and read sometimes.

I started with asking questions all the time. This will still happen often (maybe. hopefully.), but I’m going to wonder in statement titles sometimes, too. (Meanwhile, keep going, Luke. Stick to your guns with the song titles. You’re the man!)

Anyhow… I don’t think this was necessary for anyone except me, but hopefully I’ll be able to write a little more freely.

ps. This was too funny not to pass on. Take a look.

Where have you been?

It has been a fairly busy few days, and posting regularly is still a dream of mine. In the mean time, here are a few random thoughts:

-I've done it. I bit the bullet and dove in head first. I've cleaned my office. Still putting the finishing touches in place, but the filing system has been revamped, the trash is gone, the stacks are gone, the piles are gone... Before / After photos to come soon.

-Interesting article about DIALOGUE from a Chuck Smith Jr. from Relevant Magazine courtesy of Mike Devries.

-Heard a bit of the new CrowderBand CD from a friend and am anxious to make that purchase. I'm still blown away by that crew.

-I'm all signed up and paid up for the NYWC in Nashville this November. Let me know if you're going to be there and perhaps we can connect.

-There is some interesting conversation going on about Rob Bell's new book, Velvet Elvis, through one of Barnes & Noble's discussion groups. I'll continue to share in the coming days.

Blogging again soon.

Technorati tags: mike devries, dc*b, nywc, velvet elvis

Where do I start?

***UPDATE***
This weblog began as a place to record my questions and musings. While it will still serve in that capacity, a great number of the posts will not be that specific or narrow in scope. Thus, the name change. The Lid will simply be an open forum for the thoughts that float through my head, where I open up and let you see what's on my mind - like it or not, questions or thoughts or just what I've been up too. So, there's the update... Now, back to your regularly scheduled program.
***UPDATE***

I’m borrowing the title from a good book by Michael Yaconelli, “Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith”. In the book where he explores some ideas of how we are called to live out our faith in Jesus, he says this:

"There are no “wrong” questions. When people are hungry for God, every question is ‘right.’ Curiosity is the unknown fruit of the Spirit, the stealthy expression of God’s presence. Faith opens our eyes and brings us face-to-face with a new reality – a reality rich with new vistas of knowing. Thomas was willing to defy a roomful of disciples with his bold curiosity. Daring and unafraid, he stood up to his peers and refused to base his relationship with Jesus on the displeasure of others. What stopped Thomas in his tracks was the willingness of Jesus to honor his risky curiosity. Jesus had already appeared to the disciples once, but He came back a week later and spoke directly to Thomas and told Thomas to touch Him so Thomas’s questioning could stop and his believing could begin. Curiosity is welcome in the presence of Jesus even when it is not welcome anywhere else."

He also makes the comment that “the greatest enemy of Christianity may be people who say they believe in Jesus but who are no longer astonished and amazed.”

Rob Bell writing about questions in his book Velvet Elvis put it this way:

“Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God. Not beligerent, arrogant questions that have no respect for our maker, but naked, honest, vulnerable, raw questions, arising out of the awe that comes from engaging the living God. … The great Abraham Joshua Heschel once said, ‘I did not ask for success, I asked for wonder.’ … The very nature of orthodox Christian faith is that we never come to the end. It begs for more. More discussion, more inquiry, more debate, more questions.”

I am valuing more and more the importance of wonder, curiosity, and questions … I hope this space will allow me to think out loud about some stuff, and I invite you to jump in and come along. Respond or not, but take the thoughts with you and wonder for yourself.

Technorati tags: questions, wonder, Dangerous Wonder, Velvet Elvis