Some advice I gave a student about to graduate that is looking to work for a church. Most of these apply to graduates across the board in any creative or media field. (and a shout out for @TheCraigMcLeod he is about to graduate and looking for a position to tie student ministry and video production together so if you’re looking or know someone who is looking let me, or him know!)
and now the blog.
craft
[kraft, krahft]
1. an art, trade, or occupation requiring special skill,especially manual skill: the craft of a mason.
2. skill; dexterity: The silversmith worked with great craft.“This changes everything. The Industry is dead. There has never been a better time to be an artist” – Seth Godin
A guest post I did over on churchblogideas.com I talked about how everyone leads out in worship in a church congregation, whether it is a worship leader, an usher, a tech person or an attender.
name (n
m)
n.
1. A word or words by which an entity is designated and distinguished from others.2. A word or group of words used to describe or evaluate, often disparagingly.3. Representation or repute, as opposed to reality: a democracy in name, a police state in fact.4.
a. A reputation: has a bad name.b. A distinguished reputation: made a name for himself as a drummer.5. An illustrious or outstanding person:
To Be, or not To Be.
Shakespeare penned this over a century ago and yet it holds true to everything we do, copy, instigate or imitate as a church. Are we to be like everyone else? Are we to be on the cutting edge? Are we to desire to be better? Are we to be?
IMAG is short for Image Magnification or making things larger on a projection screen so you can see what’s going on far away like in a football stadium for a game or a concert.
Alright there are a ton of projects just sitting out there right now I’m working on either in concept or totality, and I’m gonna dump them on here.
I just got confirmation of lumber from a fence being pulled down for part of the ministry fair. I’m building a board walk and need some old looking lumber, and free trumps anything else I could come up with!
Personally I’ve got a few projects i want to get started on my own. I want to create some wall art, painting etc. I also want to build a unique coffee table out of reclaimed barn wood. I’ll be posting pictures of all of these projects before to long.
I just moved back in with my parents. They came down to Houston after I did and when my lease came up they offered to let me move in with them for a while to save some money for a potential new car purchase etc. So that rocks but it’s gonna be an adjustment. i’m used to having a ton of space! But I’ll have a garage which is why I’m gonna be working on some projects for myself.
I bought the new Adele album 21 – Adele good stuff. Love her rich voice.
What are you working on?
I think Rework might be a book a lot of people would overlook simply because it was written by a small company that writes web based apps for other businesses. Who wants to read about ideas centered around web based apps or small business? Coding for me would be extremely boring, I’m not running my own business and even then wouldn’t I want to grow a big business?
Cover to cover it’s an extremely easy read because it is written in short format blog post style blips. So you can pick it up read a page or two, and when you put it down you’ve gathered one complete thought from the book.
Now on to content, it isn’t a tech book or a business leaders book, this isn’t John Maxwell you’re going to be reading here. This book was written with anyone that has a brain and is a working part of society in mind. Sure there are trade tips on how to run a small business but it’s also applicable to you who manage a couple people in any scenario. It speaks to creatives, those in customer service, marketing, communications, business executives and the list goes on.
I think what is most incredible about this book is that it totally blows up traditional concepts that most industry is built on. If you’re looking for a game changer in the way that you view work, your industry, how you approach leading people or running a business pick it up. Another game changer is Linch Pin by Seth Godin. Yeah these books are geared towards the business and were not written specifically with churches in mind but 9.9 times out of 10 the way you manage people and run a church is the way you run a business and leadership practices and structure ideals are something we should be reading too.
Pick it up, it’s not expensive and if you don’t have time it’s a great read in short bursts!
I think to many times we run around dealing with emergencies and looking out for number one that many times we come across as self-righteous jerks that really don’t give a crap. If you have a tendency to treat people like that you’re going to loose friends, clients and relationships. It isn’t that hard to figure out and fix. If people give you the cold shoulder or your finding it increasingly difficult to communicate (or you don’t communicate) this may be your sign.
“You can’t apologize your way out of being an a$$” – Rework (censored for those faint of heart please use your imagination)
Since you can not apologize your way out of it move on but try harder next time.
You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks but you can identify behavior and begin to try and catch yourself at less than ideal moments, or keep your mouth shut.
I bring this up because I have had several dealings with Guitar Center where I should have received genuine apologies and simple rectifications that would cost them nothing. Instead I’ve been given a bad taste locally and corporately.
It seems that whether you go into the store or deal with them online they really don’t care about giving you a good experience, instead of a genuine I’m sorry it ends up being a ‘we’re sorry for any inconvenience you may have experienced’ which negates their fault and I still don’t have a fix.
I will now go out of my way to avoid them everywhere.
It’s 7am on a plane over who knows where so I’ll dump a little bit on what I thought of Superbowl commercials last night. (As I wrote this a concoction of antibiotics, vitamins, aleve and espresso hit my stomach as well as turbulence and for the first time I thought I might loose everything on an airplane)
As someone who is a consumer of media and products, but also an evangelist for what I believe in I think most of what was shown last night was absolute rubbish.
I made the statement last night that commercials at one point meant something, and here is what I meant by that. When companies got together and marketed their products they not only said hey what is going to make our product sexy and stand above the rest, but they also looked at their targeted consumer and connected with them in some way. There was heart behind what they said, and an advert is your voice to the masses when you are watching something like the Superbowl.
So every company that paid an exuberant amount for ad space (regardless if they paid for their ad or had a fan create it) put a million arrows in their quiver and then shot them all at once.
I’ve been reading Rework by Jason Fried and David Hansson and they hit this nail on the head (as well as many others). “You’re aiming for a long term relationship, not a one night stand” This was in response to adverts that go out making some incredulous claims of product miracles. Frankly after watching most of the commercials last night your products have herpes or some other sexually transmitted disease and I’m probably not going to touch them for fear of feeling like I was with a two-bit hooker.
Another comment I made last night was, where were the humanitarian commercials at? There is usually at least one spot that is dedicated to some kind of aid effort either global or local and usually it involves one or both of the Superbowl teams and under privileged children. Last night, I saw none of those (and maybe I missed them in my admitted frenzy of tweeting). What happened to helping the people in Haiti, Africa, Australia or Egypt? There have been plenty of world crisis’ in the past year but apparently no one wanted to help out during one of the most watched US events of the year.
No, an ad asking for support might be to pricey for some small organization like charity water to pay for, but if a huge entity like Coca-Cola came along side and said “we’ll support you” they could. The next time I thought about who I’d spend dollars on to buy a drink I’d more heavily consider coke, because they cared.
I’d get pumped for a collaborative effort to support relief in other countries wouldn’t you?
Sometimes a global view can earn you more respect with your audience than a World of War Craft train-wreck or a Kim Kardashian Catastrophe.
