"Techmology -- What is it?"

Okay...the title is a quote from Ali G -- before Sacha Baron Cohen got all famous and stuff.

Anyway, I want to start my post by saying clearly, that I love my church. However, it often lives in the backwaters of technology, and when I read a post like this, I struggle hard with jealousy.

So here's a leadership question -- how do you "lead up" when it comes to technology? Technology always comes with a price tag, and if the people who make the money decisions aren't "techy" -- it's a long hill to climb -- they never can quite understand why you need the tools you do.

If I had my way -- I would have one of these, and one of these. (I think that these are tools comparable to a desk, telephone, chair & business cards 20 years ago.)

edited: got the name of the guy right now!

This Desert Life

It's noon on Wednesday. I'm still wearing my pajama pants and the sweatshirt that I put on immediately after getting out of bed at 6:45am. I'm unshaven, my hair is disheveled, and I'm sure that my breath isn't great either after drinking almost an entire pot of coffee this morning by myself. Jennifer and the boys are gone, and it's just me in my house. And it's quiet.

We call it a desert day.

One of the perks of Northwoods is that we get one day a month to get out of the office, pray, read, think, slow down a little. (Other churches give Sabbaticals once every five-seven years...I think this way is better...just my opinion, although if there were Sabbaticals to take, I take one!)

Here's some of what I did today...I was a bit abbreviated because I had a meeting tonight at church that I needed to prep for and attend...but anyway.

• I completed my January Bible readings in Genesis, Acts, Psalms & Matthew. So far, so good this year.

• I started reading Chazown by Craig Groeschel. I'm really excited to take this book slowly -- doing the journalling excercises and sucking the marrow out of this book.
• I listened to a Rob Bell message.
• I prayed.

• I read Flashbang: How I Got Over Myself. I read the whole book. It took just over four hours or so. We're basing our Nexus teaching and the house group discussions for February on this book so I wanted to get it into my head again. I read it in 2005, and it cracked me up, but at the same time challenged me...it was probably better the second time, because I've gotten older, more mature, and I think I have a greater awareness of my infatuation with myself.
• I moved slowly...drank a lot of coffee...paused when I read something good...listened to Charlie Hall...then Counting Crows.

yes, this Desert Life was an album title for the Counting Crows...I'm apparently lacking in blog title originality these days.

The Elders

Last night I met with the elder board here at NW, to talk about the future of LifeBridge. I have to say, that I have such high regard for our elders. It's good to be part of an organization where you trust and admire the leadership. In other contexts I've been in, this wasn't necessarily the case...and it's not fun.

Vision Night

It's a long-standing tradition at Northwoods that on the second Wednesday night in January, Cal (our senior pastor) talks about the vision fofr the church for the upcoming year. We call it Vision Night. Here's a couple highlights from last night:

• unlike most years, we didn't spend a ton of time looking back -- there was a short video, but usually Cal devotes a good portion of his talk to looking back and celebrating, but not so much this year (I kinda missed it...but that's okay.)
• Cal then basically peeled by the cover on his life for the last 3 or 4 years as he has struggled with whether or not to stay at Northwoods or move on.
• He then talked about his vision for church that he believes was given to him by God on July 13th of this year, and his journey of affirmation as he's consulted with the elders.
• Which leads us to the E4 church which stands for the "empowered" church, based on Ephesians 4:11-13. There are four components to this "model" -- to help people encounter God, be established in their faith, and then to be equipped to minister in power in order to engage the world.
• Probably the biggest news, and frankly the most controversial, is Cal's public statement, that at Northwoods we will welcome all the spiritual gifts. Call us charasmatic if you must, but Cal made a big point, that we're not becoming a "charasmatic church," but that we're becoming a church where different "streams" of Christian expression are converging.

One last note...with the beginning of 2007 my job changed from the full-time "young adult director," to half-time "young adults director" and half-time "E4 Development Team." So I'll be on the team that is writing, strategizing and developing discipleship tools for this new model.

If you're really interested in what's happening at Northwoods, come to New Community the next three weeks, as Cal we be talking about the four E's

Christmas Party

Last night we had our Northwoods Leadership Christmas Party which consists of the Elders, Board of Directors, staff, spouses & significant others. (In all, there are about 150 of us). A couple thoughts:

• I know people love to bash "mega-churches," but it is such a privelege to serve with these people who love God and want other people to know him to. You can criticize all you want, but at the core of it all, is these amazing people.
• The entertainment wasn't so great. It usually isn't. What is fun, is sitting next to JD and laughing AT the entertainment. We usually have great fun. Last night was no exception.
• The food -- AMAZING! They really go all out for this thing every year.
• The longer I'm at Northwoods, the more I enjoy the recognition of staff that has been onboard for 5 & 10 years. When I was first at Northwoods, it didn't mean much, but now I recognize the quality of the people on our staff and it's just fun to applaud them and celebrate them. Last night we celebrated the 5-year mark for Penny Miller (children's ministry assistant), Karen Woo (care dept. assistant), Melanie Gray (facilities coordinator), Dawn Henderson (creative arts director), Steve Wilmert (amazing musical talent & music director) & Kerry Redshaw (my boss -- at least for a few more weeks).

I've said it before, but I feel so priveleged to work at Northwoods!