I wrote a guest post over here .
I am also brewing a review on Chamsys MagicQ lighting software which most of you may not care about.
DennyWeinman.com
musings and mishapse of a technical creative
Tagged with leadership …
Stand Out
In today’s market you have to do some really stand out things to get noticed.
It doesn’t matter what your job is, or what you know. Paper goes through a shredder, so the only thing that travels is word of mouth.
I’ve been asked before why I’m so easy to work with. I’ve been commanded a couple things, to live humbly and to show the grace that I’ve been given. If you can live by those two simple rules then you can work with anyone (almost, there are ALWAYS exceptions). This also goes to how you stand out.
Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Whatever project, meeting, conference, situation, etc that you are finding yourself in that person is the most important person in the world, no matter how much it pains you.
That is the word that travels about you. That is what make people stand up and take notice of you. Not that you have worked in the industry 12 years (or the required 5 years), that you’ve got a list of ink below your name that would make a college freshman blush or that you’re awesome, or can talk like you’re awesome.
Talk is cheap and a lot of people do it better than you. So walk it out, live it. Take a few simple rules in the Bible to heart, whether you believe it as truth or a good moral book those are principles anyone can live by.
99% of the people that do what you do are either on level or better than you.
It’s time to stand out.
Two-Fifty Tuesday
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.
Two-Fifty Tuesday, on Wednesday
I figured since I didn’t post this yesterday I’d back track a day and do a two-fifty post.
This verse is constantly tumbling around in my head. Something I adopted as “my verse” years ago.
“Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
That entire chapter is crucial on living the Christian life, on being a church, a staff, a community. What irks me is that so many times within the structure of what we consider God ordained we have people who insist on ignoring being like minding with Christ. People who thrive on rivalry, conceit and placing themselves before others.
I think we could all use a healthy dose of humility in our lives to bring us back down to earth. This applies to every Christian, especially lay leadership and more notably paid leadership. It isn’t our ministry, it isn’t our church, it isn’t our congregation, it isn’t our messages, it isn’t our worship, it isn’t our technology.
That is why in persecuted countries Christ prevails. They have no room for conceitedness. In America we’re lazy physically as well as mentally. Because this well oiled machine we built as church just works, we’re allowed to sit on auto pilot and receive the glory for it. I think maybe we should rethink the modern church structure and start over. The gospel does not change but we certainly need to, the goal is to to become like Christ.
It is not about you.
White Space
I wrote this for Outspoken a while back and after re-reading it am realizing lately I am struggling with this thought of white space right now. How is your white space, is it all colored in?
Take a second and think about your schedule. If you work in a church you are probably thinking about all of the meetings you have yet to attend, the projects left undone and the ministry hanging out there on the fringes. While the meetings have to happen, the projects have to get completed and ministry above all must be done, you have an obligation to your self. I like to call this obligation, creative white space.
White space should not be considered merely ‘blank’ space — it is an important element of design which enables the objects in it to exist at all, the balance between positive (or non-white) and the use of negative spaces is key to aesthetic composition. – Wikipedia
It’s not all that difficult to see a need for balance. Burn out happens in churches too. If you’re not taking a moment out of your week to feed yourself intellectually or spiritually then how are you going to be able to continue to produce at high levels?
Scripture talks about white space in Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God.” God has many attributes, God is omnipotent, God is healer, God is father but more relative to us here, God is creative and God is communicator. Now read that verse again, Be still and know that I am creative, or communicator (speaking of God). God desires for us to take a break out of our busy schedules and have some breathing room to create and communicate effectively. That looks different for each person, whether that is 10 minutes in a day or an entire day to remove yourself from meetings, distractions etc. and free yourself up to be inspired.
That healthy white space comes from setting yourself apart with God as well. We’re not going to be effective at our job as creator and communicator if we’re not communicating with the one who started it all. So what in your schedule needs deleted, shifted or boiled down so that you can begin to let yourself doodle, scribble, write, engage, read, observe or listen? Can you put it in a consistent spot or will it have to change each week as the dynamic and flexibility of your passion dictates where a white space will land?
Bypass Surgery
Proverbs 29:18 (kjv) Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
This verse popped into my head today and unfortunately it was in relation to the state of the church today. I started reading Mad Church Disease and it has really started me thinking, analyzing and inspecting my own life and the church. There is a lot of death both inside and outside of the church.
Out side of the church people are dying without the grace of God. They’re being damned to an eternal life separated from God. There is no vision, no work of God and so they are perishing. The church is supposed to be light and life in this dying world but at second glance there is as much death and decay inside as there is out. I’m not talking about eternal separation from God, that is covered, I’m talking about confusion, lack of direction, apathy, ignorance, pain and suffering. God isn’t the author of any of that, so the enemy is at work to destroy the church from the inside out.
Proverbs 29:18(msg)
If people can’t see what God is doing,
they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,
they are most blessed.
I love the way the message puts this verse. If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves. What the heck are we doing to cause people not to see what God is doing?! God doesn’t stop working so that must mean we are impeding the vision of His people. The church should get vision from the leadership, so if you do not have a clearly defined vision, or are not explaining what work is going on locally and globally how can we expect passion and vision to spread.
Maybe the church needs an emergency bypass surgery.
If We Don’t Love
After a week off to relax and recharge I came back to more than I bargained for! God decided that I need shown how much I love people. Which isn’t much.
I was challenged by volunteers with a heart to serve but a passion that might outweigh their ability. I was challenged to love them regardless. That’s hard. They are there freely giving of their time to serve God. They’re not there working for a paycheck so sometimes things have to slide.
You also have to realize that while they are there working they’ve got things they’re dealing with and inadvertently that affects their disposition. You know there are things that happen in your life that can affect your mood or the way you respond to things. Why would anyone else be any different.
Something I am learning as I deal with volunteers on a regular basis is while they’re there to serve and worship in a capacity, you’re also their outlet and their shoulder if they need it. It may not always manifest itself in an outpouring of tears or confessions. You’ve got to be prepped for anything. You have automatically stepped into the role of counselor without know it and you have to be able to read your team.
Are you a bunch of noise? Are the words coming out of your mouth not matching up with how you love? Mine aren’t. God’s forcing me to try my best though.
This isn’t just with how you handle volunteers either. It happens in dealing with other church staff. How you respond and how you love them in whatever they’re dealing with is crucial. I’ve forced myself to stop and pray for someone when I see them struggling instead of mentally cussing them out for doing something I don’t agree with (yes I do it…don’t lie to yourself you do it too).
How’s your love?
