Somewhere we know that without silence, words lose their meaning, that without listening, speaking no longer heals, that without distance, closeness cannot cure.– Henri Nouwen
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After dropping my kids off at daycare this morning I decided to take a quick walk around my block just to get a little fresh air and spend some quiet time before I dove into my day. As I walked I began praying, which is not something I feel I’m very good at or do nearly enough.
My prayer this morning was something like this:
God, thank you for your perfect love and for the love and life of your son Jesus. Thank you for what you have done for your name’s sake to redeem this world, defeating sin, and restoring us to your holiness.
Father, transform my heart. May the truth of your love wash over me and change me.
...Yesterday, I received an email from leader in the mission field with some feedback about the value of trying to define a standard of excellence for ministries’ online activities. What he described was a reluctance among mission (and probably all non-profit) organizations to embrace standards because doing so would mean committing to doing what it takes to live up to those standards. As he put it:
We have not had much traction in finding groups looking to set more standards that they would then have to adopt/invest effort to measure up to. It is a particularly challenging time for mission organizations trying to do as much as they can, as well as they can with shrinking resources.
(more…)...
Jesus Christ is on Facebook
I personally am a huge proponent of Christians leveraging the power of the Internet to advance the Kingdom and to give glory to God. I recognize that the web is changing the way people live their lives, I see it in my own family. My nigh-two year old is already comfortable with video calls and would rather look at pictures of her mother and brother on the computer than look at them in person. It is apparent to me that Internet will be a integral aspect of the lives of future generations of Christians.
...Gabe Taviano, founder of DigitalDisciples.net and all around good dude, recently posted a few things about his struggles with leadership. I can appreciate where he’s coming from and recommend you check him out. His posts (here and here) have agitated something that’s been brewing inside of me for awhile and instead of hijacking his blog, I thought I’d address it here.
I personally have never been comfortable when people (especially Christians) emphasize leadership and focus on the discipline of leadership.
...Holy crap. Jon Acuff and the Stuff Christians Like blog community totally hijacked my day. Here’s the recap:
Which brings us to today. This morning ...
I’ve often thought that if you compare Christian culture to a high school, then the Christian blogosphere is the hallways of that high school. It’s where you congregate with your friends. You get to see who likes who. People goof off, talk about inane things. The jocks beat up on the nerds. The nerds talk in secret about how when Jesus comes back those jocks will get theirs.
For me, high school was the first time I ever witnessed a fight. I’d seen fights on TV and in movies but in high school I actually experienced a number of fights close up. I remember vividly how I felt every time I witnessed a fight. I felt scared. I felt kind of sick. I’ve talked before how violence is unnatural and it affects us profoundly whenever we are exposed to it. That is what I experienced those times I was around when a fight would break out.
...I met Jon Acuff at the Christian Web Conference earlier this year. I got to talk to him a bit, primarily about the tremendous responsibility that comes with being funny (I think that’s what we talked about, it’s all a blur now). I saw him again at the Cultivate conference in Chicago and got to spend a little more time with him. Jon Acuff is a good guy.
...Update: The project has officially been named the Excellence in Online Ministry project. You can follow the progress of the research at the State of Ministry Online website. The results will be presented later this year at the Christian Leadership Alliance’s Ministry Internet and Technology Summit and later at the NRB’s ...
At this point, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Is Kevin really this awesome in real life?"
The answer is no. But people never believe me when I tell them. So feel free to find out for yourself:
I do Strategy Work. I help people, businesses and non-profits do what they do better. The reason why your organization exists... that core thing you do... I help you to do it better. That's what I do.
I do a lot of things. Here's what I do best:
