Teens have a frightening task as they near the end of High School. They are to decide, as soon as possible, what they want to do for the rest of their lives.  A lot of them are pressured to choose the logical path.  Many choose the wrong path.

75% of college students will never hold a job that requires the degree they earn.  That’s thousands of dollars they didn’t need to spend. 75% of college students work jobs that don’t even require above a high school education or GED.

Homeschoolers know that there is more to life than simply passing tests and getting grades.  There are goals, passions, and life-purpose that take precedent over the status quo of the job market.  Homeschoolers realize that the biggest mistake one entering to college can make, is to base a college degree choice on the current job market.  Everything can change in 4 years.

For lasting contentment, purpose, and ambition, students need to choose career fields based on their passions in life.  It’s the only way to do what you love and love what you do.  You have to know what you’re passionate about, and then you have to know how to reach the end goal of doing it for a living.

SPARKON is a new web app that does just that.  It takes teenagers, helps them to discover their passion, and then gives them a detailed report on their personality type, and how their passions and personality can join together to find the careers they would be perfect for.  Teenagers can then use SPARKON, and its thousands of videos, to build their future.

SPARKON is helping young people to visualize their future and to learn how to build it.  Teen accounts are always free but, to take advantage of all the features and to get the 20-30 page Sparkmap report, parents must create a family account.

You can try out the family account free for 30 days by going here.

Check out SPARKON today.  SPARKON is helping young people to see who they want to be and showing them how to become that person.  What could be better?

I have been lucky enough to be a part of some church events that have been a slam-dunk success.  I have also been lucky enough to be a part of church events that were a flop.

You’ve probably heard the old question, “if a tree falls in an uninhabited forest, does it make any noise?”

My question is, if you have a great event that no one knows about; did you have an event at all?

It’s really simple church marketing but a lot of people who plan events forget what is most important.  You have to let people know what is going on.  You have to know how get the word out about your event.

What are some awesome church event advertising methods?  Well, I don’t know how awesome these are but here is a list of things you can do to market your next church event.

How To Market A Church Event

Newspaper Advertisement

I know you’re thinking this a no-brainer but a lot of people overlook this.  Newspaper ads can be expensive so make sure you weigh the other options first.

Think outside the box too.  There are a lot of local publications besides a newspaper, usually.

Flier Blitzes

You can blitz your community with fliers about your event. Your fliers need to look professional and not made with Microsoft Word Art.  Trust me, it makes a huge difference.  We can design quality fliers for you for $35 a design if you need help. 

There are several ways to blitz with fliers:

You can have a competition with your youth group called 5 minute blitz where they go to a neighborhood, split into teams and see how many fliers they can pass out, hang on doors, put on bulletin boards, and the like within five minutes

You can put them in all public notification areas around town.  Grocery stores usually have huge bulletin boards for this sort of thing.

Sometimes the best advertisement is to just pass them out person to person.

Putting fliers on cars is illegal in a lot of places.  Don’t do anything to hurt your reputation.

Radio Advertisement

Local radio stations are usually very easy to work with.  Especially when it’s churches in the community that are wanting to get the word out.

If your community has the call in listing shows, a LOT of people listen to those.  Just call in and give information about your event.  Try doing it every day for the weeks leading up to the event.

Just a hint: Try to sound happy when you call in.  :)

Guerilla Advertising

Bumper stickers, car magnates, and any other thing that gets the public’s attention.

For one Easter drama we had everyone in costume walking the streets of our city with signs and banners.   We got free Newspaper advertising for that.

Church Parking Lot Displays

Don’t just put a sign in the parking lot.  Put something that catches people’s attention.  Make a parade float and park it.  Make a stage and have dummies costumed up in a special scene.

Go big and outlandish.  It pays off.

Social Media Marketing

Facebook allows you to narrow your advertising campaign to just your area.  It’s cost-effective and works!

Twitter, LinkedIn and several others have potential to get the word out in your community.

Mailers

Be careful with your mail-out campaign.  It’s expensive and a lot of people just chunk their mail-outs.

Instead of doing a mass mailer, think about just sending your ads to those addresses you have accumulated with visitor information cards.  Over time you should have plenty of addresses to send information to.  That targeted list is more important than a bunch of random mailing addresses.

You can also send ads to the e-mail list you’ve built as well.

Have any other ideas?  Let us hear about them!  Leave a comment!

So you’ve spent a good deal of time purchasing a great, new church website.  It looks great but nobody is visiting.  As a matter of fact, you’re not getting many hits at all.  What’s wrong?  Well, a lot of companies don’t optimize your website the way they should.  They simply build some eye candy and give it to you without doing much homework to make sure the site operates correctly.

The bones of a website are just as important as the pretty skin on the outside.

You want people searching for churches in your community to find yours first, right?

Optimize Your Church Website

1. Get a list of keywords your church website needs to leverage.

Church keywords are going to include the city, county, state and words like church, worship, and christians.  You want to guess what people are going to enter into google when they are searching for a church to attend in your city.

Where Does Your Church Rank On Searching Your City?

For instance, if my church was called Lighthouse Tabernacle, and we were located in Lufkin, Texas I would use a keyword list like this:

• church
• Lufkin, Texas
• Lufkin
• Angelina County
• Lighthouse Tabernacle
• Worship
• Service
• Christian Fellowship
• Believers
• Lufkin Churches
• Churches in Lufkin
• Friendly Church in Lufkin, Texas

You should keep a list of 18-20 keywords that have a lot of searches in your area.  You can check how many searches on certain keywords and key phrases by going to Googles Keyword Tool.

Use the Correct Link Structure

Once you know the keywords people are using to find churches and church websites in your area, the next thing you need to do is get your website ranked for those keywords.

How you do this is called Search Engine Optimization. You should read this post on learning how to link correctly .

The secret to the correct link structure is simple: Use the right keywords, make the keywords or key phrases your anchor text.

For instance, in the paragraph above I said to check out the post on learning to link.  I could have said read the post here, and put the link on the word, “here.”  But that isn’t any of the keywords used by that blog.  That post is going to be ranked with the keywords link, learn, and correctly.  When someone searches google for the phrase, “learning how to link correctly,” Google needs to know if that post is valuable information.

Using the correct anchor text in the link to the post will help google understand it better.

Look at it like this:  When your church members are linking to your church, if they keep using the words “my church” as their anchor text, google is going to think your church website should show up when someone searches for “my church.”  If they would link using the anchor text, “my church in Lufkin, Texas,” Google will see where your church is located.

Then, when someone searches for churches in Lufkin, Texas, Google will realize they are looking for something your website may provide.

Sometimes ranking the top in Google is as simple as having more incoming links with the anchor text of the searched keywords than anyone else.  It’s simple and powerful.

Use Your Keywords In Your Copy

Don’t just write stuff on your website to take up space.  On all of your content, keep those keywords on the list in mind.  Use them as much as you can without ruining the quality of your post.  The more times the keyword you are trying to rank well for is used in your site, the more Google likes to send people there.

Homework Assignment

Check your churches website stats.  If you’ve never checked them ask your web designer or techie person to check the host to learn how to check your stats. Mark how many hits you are getting and how much is coming from search engines.

Then start utilizing your keywords in links, text, copy, and even on social media when discussing your church website.  Try focusing on keyword building and link structure with those keywords for two months and then check your stats again.

Let us know how much improvement you see.

In the event that you do not follow me on Twitter, I spent the majority of last week with my Brother-In-Law, changing out the motor in my Nissan Xterra.  I had allowed the timing belt to break on the original engine and had to replace it with an engine from another vehicle.  It took a few days, and a few do-overs but we finally got it to start and now it runs great!

As I looked back over the few days it took to accomplish that task, a few highlights stuck out that are transferrable to the field of ministry.  Some of these principles are actually transferrable to any occupation, especially if you want to be successful and meet your goals.

Here are the five things I learned about ministry by changing my Xterra’s motor.

1. You have to be willing to get your hands dirty.

I struggled with this in the early stages.  It just felt nasty to grab a piece of rubber or metal that had oily grime all over it.  I tried for the first little while to keep my hands clean as much as possible.  By the end of the project, I didn’t care a bit about my hands.  As a matter of fact I was covered in grease, oil, and many other things from head to toe.

In ministry, you will never be successful sitting in a clean office away from the dirt and grime of life.  You will never meet the needs of anyone from the ivory tower.  You will never make a difference if you hold the dirty things at arms length.  You will never be the hands of Jesus if you’re unwilling to touch the unclean.

Jesus ate with sinners.  He walked around the pool of Bethesda; which had to be a nasty, nasty place.  He touched those with withered hands and even put a spit ball into someone’s eyes.

He was the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords yet, he got his hands dirty by reaching out to the lowest of the low. As soon as we start thinking anyone or anything is below us in our office of ministry, we are no longer of any value to the Kingdom of God.

2. You have to be determined to get it right.

We had the motor back together completely but it wouldn’t start.  It wouldn’t even act like it wanted to start.  We looked on the internet. We thought and thought.  We got aggravated and started wondering if it would ever work.  I started fantasizing about scrapping the whole car and buying a new, shiny one. But there was a determination to get it done.

We were just about out of ideas when we realized we had messed up putting the timing belt on.  We had followed directions to the letter.  We had systematically counted the teeth on the timing belt to make sure the timing was right.  We counted on the left side, just like the instructions said.  But, the left side when working on a car is always the drivers side, not the left hand.  So we got it backwards.

It was about 9pm the night before my family had to leave and drive back to Oklahoma.  We realized it was going to take a few hours to pull everything back out to access the timing belt again.  We wondered if we should even try because that still might not make it work.  But we went back to work.

About 3am, we were driving it around town, finally done.

In ministry, you have to be ready to correct your mistakes no matter how much work it’s going to take and no matter how tired you think you are.

There is always a choice to give up.  You can always walk away and hope the mistake works itself out.  But you will never advance beyond the last mistake left unfixed.

In ministry, you can’t be too afraid of mistakes to try.  You just have to be willing to tear everything apart again and fix the mistakes you made.

You are going to make mistakes.  You are going to realize in hindsight things you should have done differently.  You are going to make choices you shouldn’t make and say things you shouldn’t say.  But there is one way to guarantee you will be successful and that is to make up your mind to always fix the mistakes.  No matter how far back, hidden, and out of place they are; fix them.

3. When you stand for something, you will get stabbed in the back.

We had just put the new motor in, and the old motor was sitting on the pavement a few feet away from the Xterra.  I bent down to hand my Brother-in-Law a tool and, as I tried to stand, a bracket from the old motor caught me in the back.  I was already in the standing motion and the momentum picked up one whole side of the motor.  It knocked my breath out and hurt so bad I wanted to cry.

A few minutes later I was able to laugh about it as the pain faded away.  But, because I am a genius in disguise, 10 minutes later I did the same thing again.  This time I felt like I was going to die.   This time, it cut a huge gash into my lower back.  As I’m writing this, I can still feel it.

I was simply trying to do what it takes to fix a motor and I got stabbed in the back.

There’s an old country song that says, “You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.”  That line is so true.  In ministry, you are unable to enjoy the luxury of not taking a stand.  You have to stand for doctrine, for truth, for righteousness, and for the will of God.

You don’t have the right to go with the flow.  As a minister you are obligated to stand for the things God’s word says to stand for.

These things are not always popular.  Usually the necessity to take a stand is brought about by someone, or some spirit, trying to force your hand.

The trick is being willing to take a stand when you know you are probably going to be stabbed in the back.  Nobody likes being stabbed in the back.  It hurts.  I know how bad it hurts.

But as bad as it hurt, I still needed to fix the engine.  I bandaged the wound and went back to work.  Through the pain and the stupidity of the whole situation, when the day was over, my new motor was running fine, and the broken down, backstabbing motor was on a trailer being hauled off to a far away location.

Don’t allow the fear of pain, confrontation, or the frustration of the stupidity over certain situations, cause you to give up.  There is still a job to be done.  There are still things that need to be fixed.  Broken things that need to be repaired. The pain might hurt for a while but, if you keep on, soon the broken will be healed and the back stabbing will be gone.

Nope, I haven’t gone into hiding.  I have spent the last week with my brother-in-law putting a new motor in my Nissan Xterra.  It was a lot of work but I really enjoyed it.  If anyone ever has any engine problems with a Nissan Xterra, I can fix it for you.   But I won’t.

More posts scheduled soon.

First things first.  We know that nobody is going to come to God unless the Spirit draws him. We also know that no matter how much we plant and water God is the only one that actually gives the increase.

But for those churches that have an increase in crops and just struggle to get them into the barn, here are some practical things you can do to help your church grow.

Church Growth for the Long Term

A lot of churches make the mistake of putting all their eggs in one basket and pushing one, special service.  They spend hours and dollars trying to focus all outreach on one, single event.

This might work every now and then but, if this is where you find your church marketing effort going, you aren’t going to be growing much.

The church was never designed to grow with get rich quick schemes.  In other words, filling the pews overnight is probably going to give you a lot of disappointment rather than people.

Church growth was never meant to be the focus.  People were.  Remember the church is not the reason for church marketing, people are the reason for church marketing. People are reached by people.  Friendships are built by friends.  And churches grow by relationships, friendships, and meeting people’s needs.

Solid, continual church growth happens when the people get the burden to reach other people.  The church’s responsibility is to make sure that when visitors do come that they are escorted into the presence of God, and not into a frustrating, embarrassing experience.

After that, it’s the church’s responsibility to give the visitor every reason in the world to visit a second time. Eventually, ,the hope is that God will transform them, draw them, and give the increase.  But until that time, all the church can do is make it harder on the sinner to escape church rather than driving them away.

Practical Plans To Make Church Welcoming

Take Away The Excuses

People make excuses when they are uncomfortable.  You may hear, “I have nothing to wear.”  If your church makes it awkward for people to come as they are there needs to be a paradigm shift.  People shouldn’t be able to use that as an excuse in your church.

“Church people are rude.” Your church should be the friendliest place in town.  As a matter of fact I know a missionary that named their church, “The Friendliest Church In Town.”

“They may judge me.” If your church is giving off any kind of vibe other than love, something is wrong.  That doesn’t mean you ignore sin.  The trick is capturing Jesus’ ability to speak boldly, and strongly, about sin while still loving the people.  Nobody could say he didn’t love them but they still couldn’t say he condoned them either.

The common excuses you hear why people aren’t coming to your church, take those away.

Make Your Church Accessible

Keep clear signage. Let people know where they are expected to go, where the bathrooms are, where they can drop their kids off for Sunday School, and what door to the sanctuary they should use.

If you want an awkward moment with a visitor, don’t mark the doorways and let them stumble onto the platform  trying to find the back pew. (I’ve actually walked out onto a platform before thinking I was going into the sanctuary.)

Market Your Church

• Make a Facebook account
• Get a good website built. (keyword: good)
• Create a Twitter account
• Keep your branding uniform and don’t be corny on design.

This part might take money paying a web designer or graphic designer but it’s worth it in the long run.  The last thing you need is Microsoft Word Art and a website that looks like it was made in 1988.

Also, make sure you have current content flowing over the social media accounts regularly.  If your social marketing is a wasteland with tumbleweeds blowing by, it’s not very inviting or enticing.

Follow Up With Your Visitors

A pastor told me one time that the best customers are the ones in your store.  Those who have made the effort and taken the time to visit your church did so for a reason.  They might hide that reason behind a facade but they did have a reason for coming.  Don’t let their reluctance to show the real reason deter you from reaching out to them.

Make sure you create an e-mail marketing campaign.  Get their e-mail address and send them useful information.

Call them to see how they are doing.

Don’t just send them the same form letters or advertisements over and over.

They are people.  They are real people.  Talk to them.  Build relationships with them.  Love them.

Love takes a little more work than printing that old form letter out and sticking in the envelope.

Have Good, Exciting Church

Nobody wants to be bored.  The great thing about being a Christian is that God moves in amazing ways.  Church services, even academic lessons, shouldn’t be boring all the time.

Find ways to make your service interesting and allow God to move on the hearts of the people.

The only sermon I can remember from a church where I attended for over a year is where the pastor moved the pulpit and got rid of the cordless microphone for a lapel mic.  He then put on a ball cap and brought out a baseball bat.  He started talking about Mickey Mantle and preached a message titled, “Swing Away.”

It was unique. It was different. And it made an impact.

What are some of the practical things you do to make church an attraction point for sinners?

Photo Credit: BBaltimore

(Part of the Things That Cai Larsen Taught Me series.)

These posts don’t have anything to do with church marketing. But they are in the line of good church leadership.  The principle for this post is putting God’s will before any burden or desires you may have. This is something I struggle with constantly; realizing my desires may not necessarily be what God wants, even when it’s to do something for Him.

I first met Cai sitting in a desk in room 9 at JCM. He was teaching mainly upperclassmen this year so I didn’t have him as a teacher in any of my freshman classes.  But on this day, our instructor was unavailable and Cai stepped in to fill the void.

His Danish accent was hilarious to me.  He was teaching about keeping a budget.  Apparently that’s a lesson I never learned but maybe I will in the future and then I’ll write about it here.  But in that very first class I learned a lot about my substitute instructor.

Cai was working full-time at JCM and the pay was… let’s just say I eventually found out that the pay was just enough to feed a family of ants for a week or two.  So to make ends meet Cai also worked at the Mississippi School for the Blind at night; which was also a full-time job.

Cai wasn’t just an instructor by day and a teacher by night, he had more energy than anyone else and he threw it into the college outside of the classroom.  He would get us up sometimes in the middle of the night to go out to the football field and play capture the flag.  He spent hours in the gym fixing up sets for our comedy plays.  He provided the entertainment for just about anything that happened on campus.  He was a class advisor.  He started J-Cafe, which took a lot of time and planning.  And he also engineered the all-school outing.  Oh yeah, and he was the Dean of Christian Education.

I honestly don’t know when the guy slept but I do know sometimes he would take a 2 hour nap instead of a full-nights sleep because of the deadlines hanging over him.

Why would someone put all that effort and passion into something that wasn’t even paying his bills?  Why would he dedicate every part of himself to a small college with a bunch of wacko students that didn’t appreciate it until much later?

I think it’s because he did have a true burden for the school and its mission.  And I think it’s because he knew God had called him there.

But JCM wasn’t Cai’s number one passion.  Those of you who knew him already know where I’m going with this post.

Cai’s heart yearned for Denmark.  For someone who had his emotions completely under control; when he talked about reaching Denmark the passion and emotion would flow out of him.

I remember him talking to me one day about Denmark and saying, almost sadly, that God just wasn’t ready yet.  He wanted more than anything to go back to his home country and reach the people with the gospel.  He would lament the fact that there was only one person filled with the Holy Ghost in the country.  And he did as much as he could from the US to help establish a church in Denmark.

When JCM closed down, he realized God still wanted him involved in Bible College ministry.  He moved to Texas.  One day when he was driving between Mississippi and Texas he stopped in Natchez where I was living.  He called me while I was at the mall and wanted to see me.

We stood in the men’s department at JC Penny’s in Natchez and he asked me, “do you think you’re done with Bible College ministry?”  I knew I wasn’t.  But the thing that surprised me is he was throwing just as much energy at Texas Bible College as he had at JCM.

After I moved to TBC I still heard his passion for Denmark all the time.   He taught his kids the Danish language.  He took them on trips. He wanted nothing more than to see a church started in that country.  But every day he was putting all of his sweat and energy into a college in Texas.

Cai was never able to return to his home country.  He was killed a year after I joined the staff at TBC. There is still a need for a church in Denmark.  There is still a lot of people there that need the Gospel.  But Cai will never be involved if one is started.

Why?  It seems so backwards.  Why would someone have such a deep burden and God never allow them to go where they want to do what they want for the Kingdom of God?

That may be a mystery but it’s a lesson that Cai taught me; you don’t control God’s will and you don’t know what He knows.  The only way to be guaranteed success in your life is to keep yourself in His will at all times.

You may yearn for something.  You may weep for something.  You may want something so bad you can taste it.  But if God’s not directing you to do it, you’re not going to do any good anyway.

I face the same problem today.  I have walked the streets of Seattle alone asking God what He wants me to do.  I see the people going about their lives.  I see the homeless sleeping in their boxes.  I want to start a church there so bad.

This has been going on for several years but I have never felt like God was saying go.  I struggle with the thought that it’s God that put this burden in me, and maybe it is.  But I know from Cai’s example, you can’t force God’s hand.

Saul did that with the offering and look where he ended up.  David was anointed king but look how long he had to wait to take the throne and what he had to go through.

The problem we face is not the desire to do something for God.  It’s the desire to do the thing God wants us to do.  Often times that’s laying down our selfish desires and going where, and doing what, we don’t necessarily choose.

The great thing about it is, we often find our contentment in doing the thing we thought we would never want to do.  The dreams we lay down are often brought full circle in a way we never thought possible.

For instance:

I had no desire for ministry.  I wanted to have a career in computer science.  I sacrificed and gave up my life dreams to follow God’s will into the ministry.  It led me to JCM where I didn’t even want to go. It took me through a lot of tough times.  But as time went on, my dreams and desires changed.  I wanted ministry.  4 years later I was working at the college full-time.  I was doing the ministry I loved.

But guess what my value was to the college.  It was my skills with computers and networking.  That’s the reason they hired me in the first place and it opened the door to what God wanted me to do.

The funny thing was, the computer stuff started getting me aggravated.  I had no desire to do it anymore. I had changed my desires.  It was those computer skills that also made me valuable at TBC.  But it was God using what I gave up for His will to take me where he wanted me to go.

The moral of the story

Don’t fight the will of God, even when it hurts you.  I don’t know why God never allowed Cai to go back to Denmark as a missionary.  But it could be that someone much more effective, as hard as it is to imagine, is called there already.  It could be that Cai’s influence was better served pouring in his burden to young ministers.  Perhaps one of these days one of those students will find themselves walking the streets of Copenhagen struggling with the call to be a missionary to Denmark.

The thing we have to do is be willing to sacrifice and give God our talents, our dreams, and our abilities.  We have to let go of them and accept His calling.  When we do that He is free to use our dreams, talents, likes, dislikes, quirks, and personalities to put us where we can be most effective.

Usually the thing God asks you to give up for Him will be used by Him in the thing he’s called you to do.

So no matter how you feel.  No matter your personal burden.  Be willing to stay away from the thing you would love in order for God to do with you what He wants.  That’s the only success.

Even Carman is getting involved with Faithfunder.  I’m sure everyone remembers the 80′s Christian star Carman.  Well, he’s back and ready to record a new album.  He is using Crowd Funding to get his new project financed.

Websites like Kickstarter and Gofundme are popping up all over the internet.  We’ve even discussed what your church can do with Crowd Funding on this blog. But there was never a good place for churches and faith-based organizations to fit in.  Until now.

Check out Faithfunder

Faithfunder is the new way for financial donors to support the faith based creative community and noble causes. It is our desire to help artists, inventors, innovators,entrepreneurs and all kinds of dreamers fulfill their visions.

We’re with King David! In Psalm 133 it tells us that where there is unity God commands a blessing. We believe that uniting the faith and family community together on Faithfunder will bring a blessing to every participator. Remember, it is more blessed to give than receive! (But receiving is kinda fun too!)

Faithfunder is a collaborative community that helps creators and causes not only raise funding, but also to build a fan base. We believe inside of every one of us there is greatness put there by a great God. However, sometimes it takes a little bit of cash to bring those great dreams to life.

We believe that our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Those rewards create almost as many problems as they solve. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will at least be a little bit different for our having passed through it. -Harold Kushner

I'm BORED!

I struggled today.  I struggled in a big way.

I sat at my computer for over an hour wishing for something to blog about and nothing was happening.  I checked my blog post ideas list, but there was nothing there that interested me.  I checked some of my favorite blogs to read, but there was nothing there that inspired me.

As the minutes clicked by my eyes started getting heavy.  Before long I was yawning and my eyes were watering.  I was sleepy.  Still, there were no ideas for a new blog post.

It’s in these times that my frustrated mind turns on me.  It starts reminding me that I used to be pretty creative.  There was a time when ideas were swirling around me.  After all, as I’ve said over and over again, creativity is a choice. But that post seemed like hogwash today.

I had made the choice to be creative and I was boring myself to sleep.  I asked my wife to turn out the light so I could take a nap.  She reminded me it’s 10pm and a horrible time to try to take a nap.  Thinking I was going to outsmart her, I wrapped a neck tie around my eyes, turned on some music, and leaned back in my chair.

Someone Broke My Idea Bulb!

Then it hit me.  I was trying to force it.  My mind was locked up tight with one thing message, “I can’t do it.”  Instead of releasing creativity, my brain cells were being used to try to remember how to be creative.  All of my Mind Juice was being gulped by the despairing thought that I am losing the ability I once had.  I was giving myself excuses like being too old or too tired.

As I decided to stop trying to think of something to write, my mind began to kick into gear. I got out of my chair and let our little Yorkie outside to take care of his “business.”  I made myself a cup of coffee.  I sat back down at the computer and stopped thinking about what to write and just decided to write what was coming to me.

Creativity is a choice.  It’s just one you have to make as you take the leash off of your mind.  As long as you have yourself locked into this tiny, little box you won’t find creativity.  It’s found outside of the box, always.

I remember as a little kid, I didn’t need anything but a small stick in my hand to make my mind rush off to an exotic place.  In that place the stick in my hand was the coolest gun ever invented.  And the bad guys couldn’t dodge it, ever.

• My swing set became a stagecoach.
• The trees in my yard became my jungle.
• A water hose tied between two trees became a rope that was my last chance of escape.  (Too bad my little imaginary Rambo self was too weak to hand over hand it from tree to tree.  As I decided to give up the try, someone always shot me or something so I could fall to the ground and allow my arms some rest.)
• Our sofa became my cop car.
• A football tee tied to my face with shoe strings became my fighter pilot oxygen mask.

The thing missing in my childhood self and my grown-up, blogging self was the lack of my brain standing behind me with a whip.

When you fear the lack of creativity too much it can literally destroy and chance at creativity.

I Overcame the Mental Block!

I Stopped Trying So Hard!

Do yourself a favor and take a break.  Don’t take the kind of break that is going to put your mind to sleep like: watching Mr. Bean YouTube clips, reading the funny papers, or eating junk food.  Take a productive break.

Get up and move around.  Get a little exercise.  Learn the things that relax you and spur creativity and do those over and over.

Read a book.

Read a blog. ( recommend my personal blog. Don’t judge, it’s new!

Turn on some music. (which is what I did)

Hang a picture frame for your wife. (Okay, this might not always help but she asked me to while i was taking a break… I thought I would mention it.  It might have been just what unleashed my brain.)

Try daydreaming your way to creativity.

Guess what, I took a break.  I let my mind relax.  I got my blood pumping and I let myself daydream a little.

I wrote this blog post and now have the idea for 2-3 more!

I’m not frustrated.

I’m not sleepy.

I haven’t even drank half of my coffee because it got cold while I was typing.

You Know What It’s Like!

I know you do or you wouldn’t be reading this post.  Try it out.  Take a break and allow your mind to relax.  Can you think of any other ways to spawn creativity?  Let us know!

Photo Credits: Creative Commons

How is your church being a service to your community? Is it simply being another place of worship or is it putting forth an effort to minister to the lives of those within reach? Does your church serve your community?

I’ve been blessed to be a part of a church whose pastor is genuinely concerned with the community we live in.  It takes time and sometimes interrupts his schedule but our pastor has been involved in the city chaplaincy program for the last few years.

During that time he has not only been serving our city police department but has also become a high-ranking member in the national chaplain community.  He travels across the country training other chaplains and was recently flown to Jamaica to teach a chaplaincy course.  This is a shameless plug for him but he has also developed a course on how to prepare a church for crisis situations and steps you can take to help prevent them.  You can check out his course, When Crisis Comes to Church on his website.

Here is one way our church has become involved, with the chaplains of our city, to provide a valuable service:

Every year, we have provided a venue, and hosted, the city police departments yearly banquet.  The chaplain program sponsors the event that is focused on showing the police officers of our community how much we appreciate their sacrifice in keeping us safe.

For the past two years I have been able to be involved in this event and it has shown me two effects it is having on our community:

It Shows We Care

There is an old saying that tells us people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  The saying is most definitely true. Telling your community how much you care for them really doesn’t make an impact unless they see the fruits of the concern.

Hosting this event has given us an opportunity to show the many officers, and their families, that our church desires to be there for them when they need us. It shows them that we don’t exist simply to convert but we exist to serve.

Do you think Jesus would have been invited in for dinner if all he did at the sinners’ houses was tell them how they need to change?   That’s not what he did.  Jesus showed he cared for them and what impacted their lives.

Hosting this event has shown many families that our church, and our ministry, has an open door to be there for them.  It has shown them that we care about their well-being and not just where they pay their tithes.

It Builds Relationship

Just as those officers and families learn that our church cares, this event is also building relationships.

Relationship is a powerful thing. Without any relationship, there really is no exchange of information and very little communication.

Why do you think Ice Breakers are such a big deal at events?  When there is no relationship between two entities, there is no exchange of information.

Suppose a family member of one of the officers desperately wants to find a real, caring church.  Do you think they will feel comfortable in a place that takes an isolation stance in their community?

These officers and their families have, over time, learned that we are normal people. We like to laugh and have fun.  They know we want to be a part of their lives, even if they aren’t necessarily members of our church.  They know our names, our faces, and kind of what we believe.

They feel comfortable in our facilities and fellowship with our membership.  They have built friendships.

Jesus didn’t eat at sinners’ homes just to get some cheap food.  He didn’t eat there trying to directly convert the sinner.  He did it to build a relationship with someone who, before that, was a complete stranger.

When he was hanging on the cross, I wonder how many people stood silently in the crowd reminiscing about the man who visited with them over their dinner table.  The man they knew personally was not worthy of death.

I would almost bet you that a lot of those people were the first to join the church in the book of Acts.  Who knows, they may have all been in the upper room.

Other Events

Our church has also hosted events for companies in our community to have their christmas and yearly banquets.  I have been the worlds worst magician for a lot of the kids in the community.

There is an endless opportunity to interact with your community.  It just takes effort and a genuine love for the people around you.

What are some of the ways your church is reaching out to its community?

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